Classr^Mj^L Bookxjd/i (7 (- )% PRESENTED RY '? t- t J - I ELEMENTS OF GENERAL HISTORY, ANOXENT AND MODERN. BY ALEXANDER FRASER TYTLER, F. R. S. E. Professor of History in the University of Edinburgh. WITH A CONTINUATION, TERMINATING AT THE DEMISE OF KING GEORGE III., 1,820. BY REV. EDWARD NARES, D. D. 'Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford : TO WHICH ARE ADDED, A SUCCINCT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES ; WITH ADDITIONS AND ALTERATIONS- BY AN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN. SUPPLYING IMPORTANT OMISSIONS, BRINGING DOWN THE NARRATIOH ' OF EVENTS TO THE BEGINNING OF THE PRESENT YEAR, AND CORRECTING MANY PASSAGES RELATING TO THE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY. WITH AN IMPROVED TABLE OF CHRONOLOGY j A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF ANCIENT AND MODERN GEOGRAPHY; AND QUESTIONS ON EACH SECTION. Adapted for the use of schools and academies, by an experienced teacher. CONCORD, N. H. PUBLISHED BY JOHN F. BROWN. BOSTON— MILLIARD, GRAY & CO.. AND BENJAMIN B. MUSSEY. NEW- YORK— COLLINS, KEESE & CO.; N. & J. WHITE ; ROBINSON, PRATT & CO.; AND LEAVITT, LORD & CO. PHILADELPHIA— DESIL- VER, THOMAS & CO.; WM. MARSHALL & CO.; AND GRIGG & ELLIOT. PORTLAND— WM. HYDE, 1837. DISTRICT OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE, to wit . Distvict Clerk's offica. BE IT REMEMBERED, tkat on the sixth day of November, A. D 1,824, and in the forty-ninth year of the Independence of the United State* of America, ISAAC HILL, of the said District, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof lie claims as proprietor, in the words fol- lowing, to wit : — " Elements of General History, ancient and modern. By Alexander Fra- ser Tytler, F. R S. E. Professor of History in the University of Edinburgh. With a continuation, terminating at the demise of King George III., 1,820. By Rev. Edward Nares, D. D. Professor of Modern History in the Univer- sity of Oxford. To which are added, a succinct History of the United States ; with additions and alterations, by an American gentleman. Supply- ing important omissions, bringing down the narration of events to the begin- ning of the present year, and correcting many passages relating to the history of this country. With an improved Table of Chronology; a comparative view of Ancient and Modern Geography ; and Questions on each section. Adapted for the use of Schools and Academies, by an experienced Teacher." v In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, " An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned ;" and also an act, entitled, " An act supplementa- ry to an act, entitled an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing me copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits there- of to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other Drmts.' WILLIAM CLAGGjSTT, Clerk of the District of New- Hampshire. A true copy of Record. Attest ...WILLIAM CLAGGETT Clerk. and Mrs. isaac R v Mttt July 3, 1933 PREFACE. —♦»►•©•<«*- THE following work contains the Outlines of a Course of Lectures on General History, delivered for many years in the University of Edin- burgh, and r&ceived with a portion of the public approbation amply sufficient to compensate the labours of the author. He began to compose these Elements principally with the view of furnishing an aid to students attending his Lectures ; but soon conceived, that, by giving a little more amplitude to their composition, he might render the work of more general utility. As now given to the public, he would willingly flatter himselt' that it may be not only serviceable to youth, in furnishing a regular plan for the prosecution of this important study, but useful even to those who have acquired a competent knowledge of general history from the peru- sal of the works of detached historians, and who wish to methodize that knowledge, or even to refresh their memory on material facts and the order of events. In the composition of these Elements the author has endearoured to unite with the detail of facts, so much of reflection as to aid the mind in the formation of rational views of the causes and consequences ot events, as well as of the policy of the actors ; but he has anxiously guarded against that speculative refinement which has sometimes entered into works of this nature. Such works profess to exhibit the philosophy or the spirit of history, but are more adapted to display the writer's ingenuity as a theorist, or talents as a rhetorician, than to instruct the reader in the more useful knowledge of historical facts. As the progress of the human mind forms a capital object in the study of history, the state of the arts and sciences, the religion, laws, govern- ment, and manners of nations, are material parts, even in an elementary work of this nature. The history of literature is a most important arti- cle in this study. The author ha3 therefore endeavoured to give to each of these topics its due share of attention ; and in that view they are sepa- rately treated, in distinct se ^tions, at particular periods of time. ALEX. FKASER TYTLER. Edinburgh* •April 1801. ADVERTISEMENT. fr reparing this edition, the original text of Tytler and £!&*$• ^as been carefully revised and corrected. Part IV., wH4 &mtains the History of South America, New Spain, and th«* West Indies, has been added. These countries are scarcely noticed in former editions ; but they have acquired a rank and importance which make their history equally important to the plan of this work, and equally interesting, with that of most countries in Europe. Additions have also been made to many chapters in Part III., by which the history is continued to the commencement of 1,824. The Questions for Examination in the edition of 1,823, have been corrected, and new Questions are added, adapted to the additions made to the text. The publisher has been at considerable expense in obtaining these improvements, but he trusts that they make this edition decidedly superior to any that has been hitherto published. CONTENTS. -»»►•••«**- INTRODUCTION. Advantages arising from the Study of History, and moro particularly from prosecuting it according to a regular-Plan - - - - 11 Plan of the course - - - - - - .. . U PART FIRST ANCIENT HISTORY. Sect. 1. Earliest authentic Accounts of the History of the World It Sect. 2. Considerations on the Nature of the First Governments, and on the Laws, Customs, Arts, and Sciences of the first Ages - - - ■ . * - - - - . 18 Sect. 3. Of the. Egyptians 20 Sect. 4. Of the Phoenicians - - - - ""> - • 22 Sect. 5. The History of Greece ----.. ibu Sect. 6. Reflections on the first and rudest Periods of the Grecian History - - - - - - - - - 23 Sect. 7. Early period of Grecian History. Argonautic Expedition. Wars of Thebes and Troy ..... 24 Sect. 8. Establishment of the Greek Colonies ... 25 Sect. 9. The Republic of Sparta ...... 26 Sect. 10. The Republic of Athens - 28 Sect. 11. Of the state of the Persian Empire, and its History down to the War with Greece .---.- 29 Sect. 12. The War between Greece and Fersia - - - - 31 Sect. 13. Age of Pericles - - - - - ... 33 Sect. 14. The Republic of Thebes - 35 Sect. 15. Philip of Macedon ---.-.. ft. Sect. 16. Alexander the Great -----. • 36 Sect. 17. Successors of Alexander ...... 33 Sect. 18. Fall and conquest of Greece ... - 39 Sect 19. Political Reflections arising from the History of the States of Greece ..---.... 40 Sect 20 State of the Arts in Greece ...... 41 Sect. 21 Of the Greek Poets - 43 Sect. 22. Of the Greek Historians - - - - - - K 45 Sect. 23. Of the Greek Philosophers <• - - - 47 Seet. 24. The History of Rome - . ..." 40 Reflections on the Government and State of Rome under the Kings - - 68 A 2 w jfttssasf-: - '& ~> S IS Sect. 26. The Law of Volm® - - J - - 56 Sect, 27. The Decemvirate - «. - - , - & ■=■ ST Sect. 28. Increase of popular Power ------ 58 Sect. 29. Conquest of Italy by the Romans 59 Seot. 30. History of Carthage • 60 Sect. 31. History of Sicily - - - - - - - - 61 Sect. 32. The Punic Wars 62 Sect. 33. The Gracchi, and the Corruption of the Commonwealth 64 Sect 34. Progress of the Civil Wars. Second Triumvirate, and fall of the Republic - - - - - - . - - 67 Sect. 35. Considerations on such particulars as mark the Genius and national Character of the Romans - 70 System of Roman Education - - - - - - ib. Sect, 36. Of the Progress of Literature among the Romans - 71 Sect. 37. State of Philosophy among the Romans - - - 75 Sect. 38. Of the Public and Private Manners of the Romans - -76 Sect. 39. Of the Art of War among the Romans . - 77 Sect. 40. Reflections arising from a View of the Roman History during the Commonwealth ------ 79 Sect. 41. Rome under the Emperors ------ 81 Sect. 42. The same subject continued ...-.- 84 Sect. 43. Age of the Antonines, &c. ------ 87 Sect. 44. State of the Roman Empire at the time of Constantine. His Successors -------- 90 Sect. 45. Progress of the Christian Religion from its Institution to the Extinction of Paganism in the Reign of Theodosius - 93 Sect. 46. Extinction of the Roman Empire in the West - 95 Sect. 47. Of the Origin, Manners, and Character of the Gothic Nations before their establishment in the Roman Empire - 97 Sect. 48. Of the Manners, Laws, and Government of the Gothic Na- tions after their establishment in the Roman Empire 99 Sect, 49. Method of studying Ancient History - - - - 102 PART SECOND. MODERN HISTORY. Sect. 1. Of Arabia and the Empire of the Saracens - - 106 Sect. 2. Monarchy of the Pranks ... - - 108 Sect. 3. Reflections on the State of France during the Meiovingian race of its Kings .--._,-. 109 Sect. 4. Charlemagne. The new Empire of the West - - 112 Sect. 5. Manners, Governments, and Customs of the Age of Char- lemagne - -- - - - - - - 113 Sect. 6. Retrospective View of the Affairs of the Church before the Age of Charlemagne ------ 115 Sect. 7. Empire of the West under the Successors of Charlemagne 116 Sect. 8. Empire of the East during the Eighth and Ninth Centuries 118 Sect. 9. State of the Church in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries - 119 Sect 10. Of the Saracens in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries - 12 Sect. 11. Empire of the West and Italy in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries --------- 121 Sect. 12, History of Britain from its earliest Period down to the Nor- man Conquest 123 Sect 13 Ofthe Government Laws and Manners of the Anglo-Saxons 127 CONTENTS. ? Page. Sect. 14. State of Europe during the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Centuries 128 Sect. 15. History of England in the Eleventh, Twelfth, and part of the Thirteenth Centuries ..... 'J.30 Sect. 16. State of Germany and Italy in the Thirteenth Century 134 Sect. 17. The Crusades or Holy Wars 135 Sect. 18. Of Chivalry and Romance - 138 Sect. 19. State of Europe in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries 140 Sect. 20. Revolution in Switzerland ...... 141 Sect. 21. State of Europe continued in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and part of the Fifteenth Centuries - - - 142 Sect. 22. History of England in the Thirteenth Cenhvy - - 143 Sect. 23. History of ScotJand from the Eleventh to th« Fourteenth Century 144 Sect. 24. History of England in the Fourteenth Century - - 146 Sect. 25. England and France in the Fifteenth Century. State of Manners - - -- - - - - - 147 Sect. 26. Decline and Fall of the Greek Empire ... 149 Sect. 27. Government and Policy of the Turkish Empire - - 150 Sect. 28. France and Italy in the End of the Fifteenth Century 151 Sect. 29. History of Spain in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries 152 Sect. 30. France, Spain, and Italy, in the End of the Fifteenth and Be- ginning of the Sixteenth Century .... 153 Sect. 31. History of England from the Middle of the Fifteenth to the- Beginning of the Sixteenth Century. Civil Wars of York and Lancaster - - - - - - - -154 Sect. 32. History of Scotland from the Middle of the Fourteenth Cen- tury to the End of the Reign of James V. - 156 Sect. 33. Of the Ancient Constitution of the Scottish Government 159 Sect. 34. A view of the Progress of Literature and Science in Europe from the Revival of Letters to the End of the Fifteenth Century ... 160 Sect. 35. View of the Progress of Commerce in Europe before the Portuguese Discoveries - - - - - - 163 Sect 36. Discoveries of the Portuguese in the Fifteenth Century, and their effects on the Commerce of Europe - - - 165 Sect. 37. Germany and France in the Reigns of Charles V. and Fran- cis I. - - - 167 Sect. 38. Observations on the Constitution of the German Empire 170 Sect. 39. Of the Reformation in Germany and Switzerland, and the Revolution in Denmark and Sweden - - -'•."- 171 Sect. 40. Of the Reformation in .England under Henry VIII. and hi 3 Successors - - ... . . . 174 Sect. 41. Of the Discovery and Conquest of America by the Spaniards 175 Sect. 42. Possessions of the other European Nations in America 177 Sect. 43 Of the State of the Fine Arts in Europe, in the Age of Leo X. 180 Sect. 44. Of the Ottoman Power in the Sixteenth Century - - 182 Sect. 45. State of Persia, and the other Asiatic Kingdoms, in the Six- teenth and Seventeenth Centuries - - - - 183 Sect. 46. History of India - - - 184 Sect. 47. Ancient State of India; Manners, Laws, Arts, and Sciences, and Religion, of the Hindoos - 186 Sect. 48. Of China and Japan - - 188 Sect. 49. Of the Antiquity of the Empire of China. State of the Arts and Sciences, Manners, Government, Laws - - 189 Sect. 50. Mr. Bailly's Theory of the Origin of the Sciences among the Nations of Asia. - - - - - - . 192 Sect. 51 Reign of Philip II. of Spain. Revolution of the Netherlands, and Establishment of the Republic of Holland - 194 Sect. 52 Of the Constitution and Government of the United Provinces 196 Sect. 53 Reign of Philio II. continued 197 CONTENTS. Page State of France in the End of the Sixteenth Century, under Henry II., Francis II., Charles IX., Henry III., and Henry IV. - - ' - - - - - - 197 History of England and Scotland in the Reigns of Elizabeth andMary Queen of Scots - - - - 199 History of Great Britain in the Reigns of James I. and Charles I. - - - - 203 The Commonwealth of England ..... 207 Reigns of Charles II. and James II. - - • • 209 On the British Constitution - - - - - - 211 Of the Public Revenue of Great Britain • - - 214 History of France under Lewis XIII. - - - - 216 Spain under Philip III, and Philip IV. Constitution of Por- tugal and Spain - - - - - - -""-'■- 217 Affairs of Germany from the Abdication of Charles V. to the Peace of Westphalia ... . 218 France under Lewis XIV. - ... 219 Of the Constitution of France under the Monarchy - 223 Of Peter the Great, Czar of Muscovy, and Charles XII., King of Sweden - - - * - . . . 224 A View of the Progress of Science and Literature in Europe, from the End of the Fifteenth to the End of the Sixteenth Century - - - ... . . .227 APPENDIX. THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 1. A General View of the History of Mankind in the Primeval Ages - - - - - - - . - * - 231 2. Summary View of Jewish History .... 232 3. The Antiquity of the Scriptures 233 4. The Subject of the Books, and Characters of the Writers 235 5. Of the Antediluvian World 240 6. First Ages after the Deluge - - - - - - 241 7. Of the Jews ifc 8. The History of the Hebrews during the Government of the Judges _.-.----. 244 9. Retrospect of the Government of the Hebrews - • 245 10. Regal Government of the Hebrews .... 246 11. Restoration of the Jews to their Liberty and Couutry • 249 12. The State of Learning and Commerce among the Jews 252 Conclusion -- - - - - - .. . . - 253 PART THIRD. MODERN HISTORY, Sect. 1. France, from the death of Lewis XIV., 1,715, to the Peace of Vienna, 1,738 257 \ CONTENTS. * Sect 2. England, from the Accession of the House of Hanover, 1,714, to the end of the Reign of George the First, 1,727 -&g Sect. 3. Austria, (and Germany,) from the Peace of Rastadt, 1,714, tothePeaceof Aix-la-Chapelle, 1,748 - - - ,268 Sect. 4. England, from the Accession of George II. to the Throne, 1,727, to his death, 1,760 ...... 273 Sect. 5. State of Europe at the Conclusion of the Peace of Aix-la- Chapelle, 1,748 278 Sect. 6. Of the Seven Years' War, 1.755—1,762 ... 281 Sect. 7. From the Accession of George III., 1,760, to the Commence- ment of the Disputes with America, 1,764 - - 288 ect 8. Disputes between Great Britain and her American Colonies, 1,764—1,783 291 Sect. 9. France, from the Peace of Paris, 1,763, to the Opening of the Assembly of the States General, 1,7 39 ... 297 Sect. 10. Austria, from the conclusion of the Seven Years' War, to the death of Maria Theresa, 1,763— 1,780 ... 30? Sect. 11. Reigns of Joseph II., Leopold II., &c, from 1,765 to 1,800 309 Sect. 12. France, from the Opening of the Assembly of the States General, 1,789, to the deaths of the King and Queen, 1,793 31 1 Sect. 13. Great Britain, from the conclusion of the American War, 1,783, to the Peace of Amiens, 1,802 - - - 32!* Sect. 14. France, from the death of the King and Queen, and Over- throw of the Girondist or Brissotine Party, 1,793, to the Establishment of the Directory, 1,795 ... 331. Sect. 15. France, from the Establishment of the Directory, 1,795, to the Peace of Amiens - - - - - - 337 Sect. 16. France, from the Peace of Amiens to the Treaty of Tilsit, 1,807 - 347 Sect. 17. Spain and Portugal, from 1,788 to 1,-814 ... 353 Sect. 18. France, from the Peace of Tilsit, to the Abdication of Na- poleon. 1,814 359 Sect. 19. Poland, from the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century, to the Treaty of Vienna, 1,815 ..... 363 Sect. 20. Great Britain, from the Peace of Amiens, 1,802, to the death of George III., 1,820 369 Sect. 21. France, from the Entrance of the Allies into Paris, March, 1,814, to the final Evacuation of it by the Foreign Troops, 1,818 - - - -375 Sect. 22. Northern States of Europe, from the Close of the Seven- teenth Century ... .... 379 Sect. 23. Southern States of Europe, from the Close of the Seventeenth Century - 38? Sect. 24. Of India, or Hindoostan 391 State of Arts, Sciences, Religion, Laws, Government, &c. - • 393 Botany -,--..._ - - - 402 Electricity - - - - - .. . . 405 Mineralogy and Geology • --.... 407 Geography --«•.... 409 Discoveries and Inventions - . 419 Religion -----.. 420 History, Polite Literature, Fine Arts, &c . 42'2 Treaty of Vienna, 1,815 - - - 423 % INTRODUCTION. 6. There are many difficulties which attend the attempt of forming a proper plan of study, and giving- an instructive view of general history. Utility is to be^reconciled with amusement, prejudices are to be encoun- tered, variety of taste to be consulted, political opinions balanced, judg ment and decision exercised on topics keenly controverted. The proposer of such a plan ought therefore to be possessed equally of firmness of mind and moderation of sentiment. In many cases he must abandon popularity for the calm approbation of his own conscience. Disregarding every partial and inferior consideration, he must direct his view solely to the proper end of all education, the forming of good men, and of good citizens. 7. The object and general purpose of the following course, is to exhibit a progressive view of the state of mankind, from the earliest ages of which we have any authentic accounts, down to the close of the 17th century ; to delineate the origin of states and of empires^ the great outlines of their history, the revolutions which they have undergone, the causes which have contributed to their rise and grandeur, and operated to their decline and extinction. For these purposes it is necessary to bestow particular attention on the manners of nations, their laws, the nature of their govern- ments, their religion, their intellectual improvements, and their progress in the arts and sciences. PLAN OF THE COURSE. TWO opposite methods have been followed in giving: academical lectures •m the study of history : one exhibiting- a strict chronological arrangement #f events, upon the plan of Turselline's Epitome ; the other, a series of dis- quisitions on the various heads or titles of public law, and the doctrines of politics ; illustrated by examples drawn from ancient and modern history. Objections occur to both these methods : the former furnishes only a dry chronicle of events, which nothing connects together but the order of time ; the .latter is insufficient for the most important purposes of history, the tracing of events to their causes, the detection of the springs of hu- man actions, the display of the progress of society, and of the rise and fall cf states and empires ; finally, by confining history to the exemplification of the doctrines of politics, we lose its effect as a school of morals. In the following lectures we hold a middle course between these ex- tremes, and endeavour, by remedying the imperfection of each, to unite, :f possible, the advantages of both. While so much regard is had to chronology as is necessary for showing 1 the progress of mankind in society, and communicating just ideas cf the state of the world in all the different ages to which authentic history ex « tends, we shall, in the delineation of the rise and fall of empires and their revolutions, pay more attention to the connexion of subject than that of time. In this view we must reject the common method of arranging general history according to epochs, or a?ras. When the world is viewed at any period either of ancient or of modern history, we generally observe one nation or empire predominant, to whom all the rest bear, as it were, an under part, and to whose history we find that the principal events in the annals of other nations may be referred from some natural connexion. This predominant empire or state it is pro- posed to exhibit to view as the principal object, whose history therefore is to be more fully delineated, while the rest are only incidentally touch- ed when they come to have a natural connexion with the principal. The Jewish history, belonging to a different department of academical education, enters not into the plan of these lectures ; though we often re- sort to the sacred writings for detached facts illustrative of the manner* of ancient nations. See Appendix. ■ In the ancient world, among the profane nations, the Greeks are the earliest people who make a distinguished figure, and whose history is at the same time authentic. The Greeks owed their civilization to the Egyptians and Phoenicians. The Grecian history is therefore properly introduced by a short account of these nations, and of the Assyrians, their rivals, conquered at one time by the Egyptians, and conquerors afterwards of them in their turn. Rise of the independent states of Greece, and singular constitution of the two great republics of Sparta and Athens. 14 PLAN OF THE COURSE. The Grecian history is pursued through all the revolutions of the na- tion, till Greece becomes a province of the Roman empire. Political reflections applicable to the history of the states of Greece. — Progress of the Greeks in the arts. — Of the Greek poets, — historians,— philosophers. Rome, after the conquest of Greece, becomes the leading object of at- tention. Origin of the Romans. — Nature of their government under the kings.— Easy substitution of the consular for the regal dignity. — Subsequent changes in the constitution. — Progress to a democracy. — Extension of the Rinnan arms. — Conquest of Italy. — Wars -with foreign nations. The Punic wars open a collateral view to the history of Carthage and of Sicily. Success of the Roman arms in Asia, Macedonia, and Greece. — Opu- lence of the republic from her conquests, and corruption of her manners. — The civil wars, and ruin of the commonwealth. Particulars which mark the genius and national spirit of the Romans : — education, — laws, — literary character, — art of war, — public and private manners. Rome under the emperors, — Artful policy by which the first emperors disguised their absolute authority. — Decline of the ambitious character of the Romans. — Easy submission to the loss of civil liberty. — The military spirit purposely abased by the emperors.— The empire divided becomes a languid body, without internal vigour. — The Gothic nation^ pour down from the north.— Italy conquered successively by the Heruli, Ostrogoths, and Lombards. — Extinction of the western empire. The manners, genius, laws, and government of the Gothic nations, form an important object of inquiry, from their influence on the manners and policy of the modern European kingdoms. In the delineation of modern history the leading objects of attention are more various ; the scene is oftener changed : nations, which for a while occupy the chief attention, become for a time subordinate, and afterwards re-assume their rank as principal ; yet the same plan is pursued as in the department of ancient history : the picture is occupied only by one great object at a time, to which all the resf hold an inferior rank, and are taken notice of only when connected with the principal. Upon the fall of the western empire, the Saracens are the first who dis- tinguish themselves by the extension of their conquests, and the splen- dour of their dominion. While the Saracens extend their arms in the east and in Africa, a new empire of the west is founded by Charlemagne. — The rise and progress of the monarchy of the Franks. — The origin of the feudal system. — State of the European manners in the age of Charlemagne. — Government, arts and sciences, literature. As collateral objects of attention, we survey the remains of the Roman empire in the east ; the conquests and settlements of the Normans ; the foundation and progress of the temporal dominion of the church of Rome ; the conquest of Spain by the Saracens. The conquest of England by the Normans solicits our attention to the history of Britain. Retrospective view of the British history, from its ear- liest period to the end of the Anglo-Saxon government in England. — Ob- servations on the government, laws, and manners, of the Anglo-Saxons. Collateral view of the state of the continental kingdoms of Europe, during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries.-^-France under the Ca petian race of monarchs. — Conquests of the Normans in Italy and Sicily. — State of the northern kingdoms of Europe. Th§ eastern empire.— Empire of Germany. — Disputes of supremacy between the popes and tne emperors* PLAN OF THE COURSE. J5 The history •! Britain still the principal object of attention.— England Wider the kings of the Norman line, and the first princes of the Plantagc- net branch. — The conquest of Ireland, under Henry II. , introduces an an- ticipated progressive view of the political connexion between England and Ireland down to the present time. As we proceed in the delineation of the British history, we note particularly those circumstances which mark the growth of the English constitution. . At this period all the kingdoms of Europe join in the crusades. — A briei account is given of those enterprises. — Moral and political effects of the crusades on the nations of. Europe —Origin of chivalry, and rise of roman- tic fiction. Short connected sketch of the state of the European nations alter the crusades. — Rise of the house of Austria. — Decline of the feudal govern- ment in France. — Establishment of the Swiss republics. — Disorders in the popedom. — Council of Constance. The history of Britain resumed. — England under Henry III. and Ed- ward L— The conquest of Wales. — The history of Scotland at this period intimately connected with that of England. — View of the Scottish history from Malcolm Canmore to Robert Bruce.— State of both kingdoms during the reigns of Edward II. and III. — The history of France connected with that of Britain. — France itself won by Henry V. The state of the east at this period affords the most interesting object of attention. — The progress of the Ottoman arms retarded for a while by the conquests of Tamerlane and of Scanderbeg. — The Turks prosecute their victories under Mahomet the great, to the total extinction of the Constant tinopolitan empire. — The constitution and policy of the Turkish empire. France, in this age, emancipates herself from the feudal servitude ; and Spain, from the union of Arragon and Castile, and the fall of the kingdom of the Moors, becomes one monarchy under Ferdinand and Isabella. The history of Britain is resumed. — Sketch of the history of England down to the reign of Henry VIII. ; of Scotland, during the reigns of the five Jameses,— -Delineation of the ancient constitution of the Scottish gov- ernment. The end of the fifteenth century is a remarkable aera in the history of Europe. Learning and the sciences underwent at that time a very rapid improvement ; and, after ages of darkness, shone out at once with sur- prising lustre. — A connected view is presented of the progress of literature kn Europe, from its revival down to this period. — In the same age the ad- vancement of navigation, and the course to - India by the Cape of Good Hope, explored by the Portuguese, affect the commerce of all the Europe an kingdoms. The age of Charles V. unites in one connected view the affairs of Ger- many, of Spain, of France, of England, and of Italy. The discovery of the new world, the reformation in Germany and England, and the splen- dour of the fine arts under the pontificate of Leo X., render this period one of the most interesting in the annals of mankind. The pacification of Europe, by the treaty of Catteau Cambresis, allows us for a while to turn our attention to the state of Asia. A short sketch is given of the modern history of Persia, and the state of the other kingdoms of Asia, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; the history of India ; the manners, laws, arts, and sciences, and religion of the Hindoos ; the history of China and Japan ; the antiquity of the Chinese empire, its manners, laws, government, and attainments in the arts and sciences. Returning to Europe, the attention is directed to the state of the conti- nental kingdoms in the age of Philip II. Spain, the Netherlands, France, and England, present a various and animated picture. England under Elizabeth. The progress of the reformation in Scot- laud.— The distracted reign of Mary, queen of Scots.— The history of 16 PLAN OF THE COURSE. Britain pursued without interruption down to the revolution, and here cloa ed by a sketch of the progress of the English constitution, and an exam ination of its nature at this period, when it became fixed and determined. The history of the southern continental kingdoms is brought down to the end of the reign of Louis XIV. ; of the northern, to the conclusion of the reigns of Charles XII. of Sweden, and of Peter the great, czar of Mus- covy. We finish this view of universal history, oy a survey of the state of the arts and sciences, and of the progress of literature in Europe, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Tlie chronology observed in this View of Universal History is that of archbishop Usher, which is founded on the Hebrew text of the Sacred Writ' ings. A short Tahlt of Chronology is subjoined to these heads, for the ease of the student PART FIRST. ANCIENT HISTORY. SECTION I. EARLIEST AUTHENTIC ACCOUNTS OF THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. It is a difficult task to delineate the state of mankind in the ear liest ages of the world. We want information sufficient to give U3 positive ideas on the subject ; but as man advances in civilization, and in proportion as history becomes useful and important, its cer- tainty increases, and its materials are more abundant. Various notions have been formed with respect to the population of the antediluvian world and its physical appearance; but as these are rather matters of theory than of fact, they scarcely fall with- in the province of history ; and they are of the less consequence, because we are certain that the state of those antediluvian ages could have had no material influence on the times which succeeded them. The books of Moses afford the earliest authentic history of the ages immediately following the deluge. About 150 years after that event, Nimrod (the Belus of profane historians) built Babylon, and Assur built Nineveh, which became the capital of the Assyrian empire. Ntnus the son of Belus, and his queen Semiramis, are said to have raised the empire of Assyria to a higher degree of splendour. From the death of Ninias the son of Ninus, down to the revolt of the Medes under Sardanapalus, a period of 800 years, there is a chasm in the history of Assyria andTBabylon. This is to be supplied only from conjecture. The earliest periods of the Egyptian history are equally uncer tain with those of the Assyrian. " Menes is supposed the first king ol Egypt ; probably the Misraim of the Holy Scriptures, the grandson of Noah, or, as others conjecture, the Oziris of Egypt, the inventor of arts, and the civilizer of a great part of the eastern world. After Menes or Oziris, Egypt appears to have been divided iiito four dynasties, Thebes, Thin, - Memphis, and Tanis ; and the people to have attained a considerable degree of civilization : but a period of barbarism succeeded under the shepherd-kings, subsisting for the space of some centuries, down to the age of Sesostris (1650 A. C), who united the separate principalities into one kingdom, regulated its policy with admirable skill, and distinguished himself equally by his foreign conquests, and by his domestic administration. B 2 3 18 ANCIENT HISTORY. SECTION II. CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATURE OF THE FIRST GOVERN MENTS, AND ON THE LAWS, CUSTOMS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES OF THE EARLY AGES. § 1 . The earliest government is the patriarchal, which subsists in the rudest periods of society. This has an easy progress to the monarchical. The first monarchies must have been very weak, and their terri- tory extremely limited. The idea of security precedes that oi conquest. In forming our notions of the extent of the first monar- chies, we are deceived by the word king, which according to modern ideas, is connected with an extent of territory, and a proportional power. The kings in scripture are no more than the chiefs of tribes. There were five kings in the vale of Sodom. J oshua defeated in his wars thirty-one kings, "and Adonizedec threescore and ten. When families grew into nations, the transition from patriarchal to regal government, was easy; the kingly office, probably passed by descent from father to son, and the sovereign ruled his tribe or na tion, as the patriarch his family, by the right of birth. iLhe first ideas of conquest must have proceeded from a people in the state of shepherds, who, necessarily changing their pastures, would probably make incursions on the appropriated territory of their neighbours. Such were the Arabian or Phoenician invaders, who, under the name of shepherd-kings, conquered Egypt. But kingdoms so founded could have little duration. Laws and good policy, essential to the stability of kingdoms, are the fruit of intellec- tual refinement, and arise only in a state of society considerably ad- vanced in civilization. The progress from barbarism to civilization is slow, because every ■ step in the progress is the result of necessity, after the experience of an error, or the strong feeling of a want. § 2. Origin of Laws. Certain political writers have supposed that in the infancy of society penal laws must have been extremely mild. We presume the contrary to have been rather the case, as the more barbarous the people, the stronger must be the bonds to restrain them : and history confirms the supposition in the ancient laws of the Jews, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Gauls. Among the earliest laws of all states are those regarding marriage for the institution of marriage is coeval with the formation of society The first sovereigns of all states are said to have instituted marriage , and the earliest laws provided encouragements to matrimony. Among the ancient nations the husband purchased his wife by money, or personal services. Among the Assyrians the marriageable women were put up at auction, and the price obtained for the more beautiful was assigned as a dowry to the more homely. The laws of succession are next in order to those of marriage. The father had the absolute power in the division of his estate. But primogeniture was understood to confer certain rights. Laws arise necessarily and imperceptibly from the condition of society ; and each particular law may be traced from the state oi manners, c -r the political emergency which gave it birth. Hence we perceive the intimate connexion between nistory and jurispru- ANCIENT HISTORY 19 denee, and the light which they must necessarily throw upon each other. The laws of a country are best interpreted from its history ; and its uncertain history is best elucidated by its ancient laws. § 3. Earliest Methods of authenticating Contracts. Before the inven- tion of writing, contracts, testaments, sales, marriages, and the like, were transacted in public. The Jewish and the Grecian histories fur- nish examples. Some barbarous nations authenticate their bargains by exchanging symbols or tallies. — The Peruvians accomplished most of the purposes of writing by knotted cords of various colours, termed quipos. The Mexicans communicated intelligence to a distance by painting. Other nations used an abridged mode of painting, or hi- eroglyphics. Before writing the Egyptians used hieroglyphics for transmitting and recording knowledge : after writing, they employ, ed it for veiling or concealing knowledge from the vulgar. § 4. Methods for recording Historical Facts, and publishing Laws. Poetry and song were the first vehicles of history, and the earliest mode of promulgating laws. The songs of the bards record a great deal of ancient history ; and the laws of many of the ancient nations were composed in verse. Stones, rude and sculptured, tumuli and mounds of earth, are the monuments of history among a barbarous people ; and columns, tri- umphal arches, coins, and medals, among a more reiined. These likewise illustrate the progress of manners and of the arts. § 5. Religious Institutions. Among the earliest institutions of all nations, are those which regard religious worship. The sentimeni of religion is deeply rooted in the human mind. An uninstructed savage will infer the existence of a God, and his attributes, from the general order and mechanism of nature ; and even the temporary irregularities of nature lead to religious veneration of the unknown power which conducts it Before conceiving the idea* of a Being utterly imperceptible to his senses, a savage would naturally seek that Being in the most striking objects of sense to which he owed his most apparent benefits. The sun, extending his beneficial influence over all nature, was among the earliest objects of worship. The fire presented a symbol of the sun. The other celestial bodies naturally attracted their share oi veneration.* The symbolical mode of writing led to many peculiarities of the idolatrous worship of the ancient nations. Animals, symbolical of the attributes of deity, became gods themselves. The same God, repre- sented by different animals, was supposed to have changed himself into different forms. The gratitude and veneration for men whose lives had been eminently useful, joined to the belief of the soul's im- mortality, led to the apotheosis of heroes. Many excellent reflections on idolatry and polytheism are found in the book called The Wisdom of Solomon. Thu priesthood was anciently exercised by the chief or monarch; * It is a theory, supported "by many facts, that in the beginning-, all reli- gious truth was made known to man by direct revelation. In succeed- ing- ages, intellectual perception was gradually clouded by the sensual and gross nature of man, until his mind cculd not contemplate Deity, but through the veil of His works. Thus the heavenly were perhaps, at first worshipped as representative of their maker, but gradually became object9 of direct adoration, and finally every element was peopled with deities ; and mountains, forests, streams, and animals, were consecrated and wor- shipped. ANCIENT HISTORY. but as an empire became extensive, the monarch exercised this office by his delegates; and hence an additional source of veneration for the priesthood. The priests were the framers and the administrators of the laws. § 6 - A rts af $ Sciences of tlw Ancient Nations. The useful arts are [he offspring of necessity ;, the sciences are the fruit of ease and leisure. The construction of huts, of weapons of war, and of hunt mg, are the earliest arts. Agriculture is not practised till the tribe becomes stationary, and property is denned and secured. The sciences arise in a cultivated society, where individuals enjoy that leisure which invites to study and speculation. The priests maintained in that condition by the monarch were the earliest cul- tivators of science. The Egyptian science was confined to the priests. Astronomy, which is among the earliest of the sciences, owed its origin probably to superstition. Medicine was among the early sciences. All rude nations have a pharmacy of their own, equal in general to their wants. Luxury, creating new and more complex diseases, requires a profounder knowledge of medicine, and of the animal economy. SECTION 111 ■ A OF THE EGYPTIANS. 1 . A great portion of the knowledge and attainments of the ancient nations, and by consequence of those of the moderns, is to be traced to Kgypt- The Egyptians instructed the Greeks ; the Greeks perform- ed the same office to the Romans ; and the latter have transmitted much of that knowledge to the w r orld, of which we are in possession at this day.* 2. The antiquity of this empire, though we give no credit to the chronicles of Manetho, must be allowed to be very great. The Mo- saic writings represent Egypt, about 430 years after the flood, as a nourishing and well regulated kingdom. The nature of the country itself affords a presumption of the great antiquity of the empire, and its early civilization. From the fertilizing effects of the waters of the Nile, it is probable that agriculture would be more early prac- tised there, than in regions less favoured by nature. The periodical inundations of the Nile are perhaps owing to the vapours of the Mediterranean condensed on the mountains of Ethiopia. 3. The government of Egypt was a hereditary monarchy. The powers of the monarch were limited by constitutional laws ; yet in many respects his authority was extremely despotical. The func- tions of the sovereign were partly civil and partly religious. — The king had the chief regulation of all that regarded the worship of the gods ; and the priests, considered as his deputies, rilled all the of- fices of state. They were both the legislators and the civil judges; they imposed and levied the taxes, and regulated weights and meas- ures. The great national tribunal was composed of thirty judges, chosen from the three principal departments of the empire. The administration of justice was defrayed by the sovereign, and, as par- ties were their own advocates, was no burden upon the people. The penal laws of Egypt were uncommonly severe. Female chas* * For the supposed origin of Egyptian science, see Part II. Sect. 50 ANCJENT HISTORY. 21 tHy was most rigidly protected. Funeral rites were not conferred till after a scrutiny into the life of the deceased, and by a judicial decree approving his character. _ The characters even of the sove reigns were subjected to this inquiry. There was an extraordinary regulation in Egypt regarding the borrowing of money. The borrower gave in pledge the body of his father, and it was deprived of funeral rites if he failed to re- deem it. * Population was encouraged by law ; and every man was bound to maintain and educate the children born to him of his slaves. 4. The manners of the Egyptians were very early formed. They had a singular attachment to ancient usages ; a dislike to innovation; a jealousy and abhorrence of strangers. 5. They preceded most of the ancient nations in the knowledge of the useful arts, and in the cultivation of the sciences. Architecture was early brought to great perfection. Their buildings, the pyra- mids, obelisks, &c, have, from the mildness of the climate, suffered little injury from time. Pliny describes the contrivance for trans- porting the obelisks. The whole country abounds with the remains of ancient magnificence. Thebes, in Upper Egypt, was one of the most splendid cities in the world. The pyramids are supposed by some writers to have been erected about 900 years A. C. They were probably the sepulchral monu- ments of the sovereigns. The Egyptians believed that death did not separate the soul from the body ; and hence their extreme care to preserve the body entire, by embalming, concealing it in caves and catacombs, and guarding it by such stupendous structures. Mr. Bruce supposes the pyramids to be rocks hewn into a pyramidal form, and encrusted, where necessary, with mason-work* The remains of art in Egypt, though venerable for their great an- tiquity, are extremely deficient in beauty and elegance. The Egyp- tians, were ignorant of the construction of an arch. The remains of painting and sculpture evince but a slender proficiency in those arts. 6. The Egyptians possessed considerable knowledge of geometry, mechanics, and astronomy. They had divided the zodiac into twelve signs ; they calculated eclipses ; and seem to have had an idea of the motion of the earth. 7. The morality taught by the priests was pure and refined ; but it had little influence on the manners of the people. 8. So likewise the theology and secret doctrines of the priests were rational and sublime ; but the worship of the people was de- based by the most absurd and contemptible superstition. 9. Notwithstanding the early civilization and the great attainments of this people, their national character was extremely low and des- picable among the contemporary nations of antiquity. The reason of this is, they were a people who chose to sequester themselves from the rest of mankind ; they were not known to other nations by their conquests ; they had little connexion with them by commerce ; and they had an antipathy to the persons and manners of strangers. 10. There were likewise many circumstances of their own man- ners which tended to degrade them in the opinion of other nations. All professions were hereditary in Egypt, and the rank of each was scrupulously settled; the objects of the religious worship were dif- ferent in different parts of the kingdom, a fertile source of division * Recent travellers have almost demonstrated this supposition. 22 ANCIENT HISTORY. and controversy ; their peculiar superstitions were of the most ab- surd and debasing nature ; and the manners of the people were ex- tremely loose and profligate. SECTION IV. OF THE PHOENICIANS. 1, The Phoenicians were among the most early civilized nations of the east. We are indebted to them for the invention of writing, and for the first attempts at commercial navigation. The fragments of Sanchoniatho are the most ancient monuments of writing after the books of Moses. Sanchoniatho was contemporary with Joshua, about 1440 A. C. and 500 before the cities of Attica were united by Theseus. 2. The Phoenicians, (the Canaanites of scripture), were a com- mercial people in the clays of Abraham. In the time of the Hebrew judges they had begun to colonize. Their first settlements were Cyprus and Rhodes ; thence they passed into Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain ; and formed establishments likewise on the western coast of Africa. The Sidonians carried on an extensive commerce at the time of the Trojan war. SECTION V. THE HISTORY OF GREECE. 1 . Greece being indebted for the first rudiments of civilization to the Egyptians and Phoenicians, its history is properly introduced by an account of those more ancient nations. 2. The early antiquities of this country are disguised by fable ; but from the time when it becomes important, it has been treated ot by eminent writers. 3. The ancient inhabitants of Greece, the Pelasgi, Hiantes, Lele- ges, were extremely barbarous ; but a dawning of civilization arose under the Titans, a Phoenician or Egyptian colony, who settled in the country about the time of Moses. The Titans gave the Greeks the first ideas of religion, and introduced the worship of their own gods, Saturn, Jupiter, Ceres, &c. Succeeding ages confounded those Titans themselves with the gods, and hence sprung numberless fables. 4. Inachus, the last of the Titans, founded the kingdom of Argos, 1 856 A. C. ; and Egialtes, one of his sons, the kingdom of Sicyon. 5. In the following century happened the deluge of Ogyges, 1796 A. C Then followed a period of barbarism for above 200 years. 6 Cecrops, the leader of another colony from Egypt, landed in Attica, 1582 A. C. ; and, connecting himself with the last king, suc- ceeded, on his death, to the sovereignty. He built twelve cities, and was eminent, both as a lawgiver and politician. 7. The Grecian history derives some authenticity at this period from the Chronicle of Paros$ preserved among the Arundelian mar- bles at Oxford. The authority of this chronicle has been questioned of late, and many arguments adduced presumptive of its being a forgery ; but, on a review of the whole controversy, we judge the ar- guments for its authenticity to preponderate. It fixes the dates oi the ANCIENT HISTORY. 23- most remarkable events in the history of Greece, from the time of Cecrops down to the age of Alexander the great. 8. Cranaus succeeded Cecrops, in whose time happened two re- markable events recorded in the Chronicle of Paros : the judgment of the areopagus between Mars and Neptune, two princes of Thessa- ly ; and the deluge of Deucalion. The court of areopagus, at Athens, was instituted by Cecrops. The number of its judges varied at differ- ent periods, from nine to fifty-one. The deluge ofDeucalion, magni- fied and disguised by the poets, was probably only a partial inundation. 9. Amphyction, the contemporary of Cranaus, if the founder of the amphyctionic council, must have possessed extensive views of policy. This council, from a league of twelve cities, became a representative assembly of the states of Greece, and had the most admirable political effects in uniting the nation, and giving it a com- mon interest. 10. Cadmus, about 1519, A. C, introduced alphabetic writing into Greece, from Phoenicia. The alphabet then had only sixteen letters ; and the mode of writing (termed bomtrophedon), was alternately from right to left and left to right. From this period the Greeks made rapid advances in civilization. SECTION VI REFLECTIONS ON THE FIRST AND RUDEST PERIODS OF THE GRECIAN HISTORY. 1. The country of Greece presents a large, irregular peninsula, intersected by many chains of mountains, separating its different districts, and opposing natural impediments to general intercourse, and therefore to rapid civilization. The extreme barbarism of the Pelasgi^ who are said to have been cannibals, and ignorant of the use of fire, has its parallel in modern barbarous nations. There were many circumstances that retarded the progress of the Greeks to refinement. The introduction of a national religion was best fit- ted to remove those obstacles. Receiving this new system of theolo- gy from strangers, and entertaining at first very confused ideas of it, they would naturally blend its doctrines and worship with the notions of religion which they formerly possessed ; and hence we observe only partial coincidences of the Grecian with the Egyptian and Phoenician mythologies. It has been a vain and wearisome labour of modern mythological writers, to attempt to trace all the fables of anti- quity, and the various systems of pagan theology, up to one common source. The difficulty of this is best shown, by comparing the differ- ent and most contradictory solutions of the same fable given by differ- ent mycologists ; as, for example, lord Bacon and the abbe Banier. Some authors, with much indiscretion, have attempted to deduce all the Pagan mythologies from the holy scriptures. Such researches are unprofitable, sometimes mischievous. 2. Superstition, in the early periods, was a predominant charac- teristic of the Greeks. To this age, and to this character of the people, we refer the origin of the Grecian oracles, and the institu- tion of the public games in honour of the gods. The desire of penetrating into futurity, and the superstition com- mon to rude nations, gave rise to the omcles of Delphi, Dodona, &c i. he resort of Strangers to these oracles on particular occasions,' led to the celebration of a festival, and to public games. 24 ANCIENT HISTORY. The four solemn games of the Greeks, particularly termed iepot. were. the Olympic, the Pythian, the Nemean, and the Isthmian. They consisted principally in contests of skill in all the athletic ex ercises, and the prizes were chiefly honorary marks of distinction. Archbishop Potter, in his Jlrchcebgia Grceca, fully details their par- ticular nature. These games had excellent political effects, in pro- moting national union, in diffusing the love of glory, and training the youth to martial exercises. They cherished at once a heroical and superstitious spirit, which led to the formation of extraordinary and hazardous enterprises. SECTION VII. EARLY PERIOD OF THE GRECIAN HISTORY. THE ARGO- NAUTIC EXPEDITION. WARS OF THEBES AND OF TROY. 1. The history of Greece, for a period of 300 .years preceding the Trojan war, is intermixed with fables ; but contains, at the same time, many facts entitled to credit, as authentic. Erectheus, or Erich- thonius, either a Greek who had visited Egypt, or the leader of a new Egyptian colony, cultivated the plains of Eleusis, and instituted the Eleusinian mysteries, in imitation of the Egyptian games of Isis. These mysteries were of a religious and moral nature, conveying the doctrines of the unity of God, the immortality of the soul, and a future state of reward and punishment. Cicero speaks of them with high encomium. But the ceremonies connected with them seem to be childish and ridiculous. 2. Theseus laid the foundation of the grandeur of Attica, by unit- ing its twelve cities, and giving them a common constitution, 1257 A. C. 3. The first great enterprise of the Greeks was the Argonautic '.xpedition, 1263 A. C. (Usher), and 937 A. C. (sir I. Newton}. This is supposed to have been both a military and a mercantile ad- \ enture, and was singularly bold for the times in which it was under- taken. The object was, to open the commerce of the Euxine sea, and to secure some establishments on its coasts. The astronomer Chiron directed the plan of the voyage, and formed, for the use of the mariners, a scheme of the constellations, fixing with accuracy the solstitial and equinoctial points. Sir Isaac Newton has founded his emendation of the ancient chronology on a calculation of the regular procession of the equinoxes from this period to the present, as well as on an estimate of the medium length of human genera- tions. - 4. The state of the military art at this time in Greece may be estimated from an account of the sieges of Thebes and Troy. Jn these enterprises the arts of attack and defence were very rude tnd imperfect. The siege was entirely of the nature of blockade, and therefore necessarily of long duration. A dispute for the divided sovereignty of Thebes between the brothers Eteocles and Polynices, gave rise to the war, which was terminated by single combat, in which both were killed. 5. The sons of the commanders slain in this war renewed the. quarrel of their fathers, and occasioned the war of the Epigonoi, subject on which Homer is said to have written a poem, now lost,, equal to the Iliad and Odyssey* AJN CIENT HISTORY. £b 6. The detail of the war of Troy rests chiefly on the authority of Homer, and ought not, in spite of modern scepticism to he retus« ed, in its principal facts, the credit of a true history. After a block- ade of ten years Troy was taken, either b\ storm or surprise, 1184 A, C, and being set on fire in the night, was burnt to the ground ? not a vestige of its ruins existing at the present day. The empire fell from that moment. The Greeks settled a colony near the spot, and the rest of the kingdom was occupied by the Lydians. 7. Military expeditions at this time were carried on only in the spring and summer. In a tedious siege the winter was a season of armisiice. The science of military tactics was then utterly unknown, every battle being a multitude of single combats. The soldier had no pay but his share of the booty, divided by the chiefs. The weapons of war were the sword, the bow, the javelin, the club, the hatchet, and the sling. A helmet of brass, an enormous shield, a cuirass, and buskins, we're the weapons of defence. SECTION VIII. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE GREEK COLONIES. 1. About eighty years after the taking of Troy, began the war oi the Heraclidas. Hercules, the son of Amphitryon, sovereign oi Mycenae, was banished from his country with all his family, while the crown was possessed by a usurper. His descendants, after the period of a century, returned to reloponnesus, and subduing all their enemies, took possession of the states of Mycense, Argos, an-d Lacedasmon. 2. A long period of civil war and bloodshed succeeded, and Greece, divided^ among a number of petty tyrants, suffered equally the mis- eries of oppression and anarchy. Codrus, king of Athens, showed a singular example of patriotism, in devoting himself to death for his country; yet the Athenians, weary of monarchy, determined to make the experiment of a popu- lar constitution. J Medon, the son of Codrus, was elected chief magis- trate, with the title of archon. This is the commeucement of the Athenian republic, about 1068 A. C. 3. It was at this time that the Greeks began to colonize. The oppression which they suffered at home forced many of them to abandon their country, and seek refuge in other lands. A large body of J^olians from Peloponnesus founded twelve cities in the Lesser Asia, of which Smyrna was the most considerable. A troop of onian exiles built Ephesus, Colophon, Clazomene, and other towns ; giving to their new settlements the name of their native country, Ionia. The Dorians sent oft colonies to Italy and Sicily, founding, in the former, Tarentum and Locri, and in the latter, Syracuse and Arigentum. The mother country considered its colonies as eman- cipated children. These speedily attained to eminence and splen- dour, rivalling and surpassing their parent states: and the example* of their prosperity, which was attributed to the freedom of their governments, incited the states of Greece, oppressed by a number of -petty despots, to put an end to the regal government, and try tb® experiment oi a popular constitution. Athens and Thebes gave the first examples, which were soon followed by all the rest. 4. These infant republics demanded new laws ; and it was neces- 26 ANCIENT HiSlORY. iary that some enlightened citizen should arise, who had discernment to perceive what system of legislation was most adapted to the char- acter of his native state ; who had abilities to compile such a system, and sufficient authority with his countrymen to recommend and en- force it. Such men were the Spartan Lycurgus and the Athenian Solon. SECTION IX. THE REPUBLIC OF SPARTA. 1. The origin of this political system has given rise to much inge- nious disquisition among the moderns, and affords a remarkable in- stance of the passion for systematizing. It is a prevailing propensity with modern philosophers to reduce every thing to general princi- ples. Man, say they, is always the same animal, and, when placed in similar situations, will always exhibit a similar appearance. His manners, his improvements, the government and laws under which he lives, arise necessarily from the situation in which we hnd him ; and all is the result of a few general laws of nature, which operate universally on the human species. But in the ardour of this passion for generalizing, these philosophers often forget, that it is the knowl- edge of facts which can alone lead to the discovery of general laws: a knowledge not limited to the history of a single age or nation, but extended to that of the whole species in every age and climate. Antecedently to such knowledge, all historical system is mere ro- mance. 2. Of this nature is a late theory of the constitution of Sparta, first started by Mr. Browne, in his Essay on Civil Liberty ; and from him adopted by later writers. It thus accounts for the origin of the Spar- tan constitution.* u The army of the Heraclidae, when they came to recover the dominion of their ancestors, was composed of Dorians from Thessaly, the most barbarous of all the Greek tribes. The Achaeans, the ancient inhabitants of Laconia, were compelled to seek new habitations, while the barbarians of Thessaly took possession of their country. Of all the nations which are the subject of historical record, this people bore the nearest resemblance to the rude Ameri- cans. An American tribe where a chief presides, where the council of the aged deliberate, and the assembly of the people gives their voice, is on the eve of such a political establishment as the Spartan constitution." The Dorians or Thessaiians settled in Lacedaemon, manifested, it is said, the same manners with all other nations in a barbarous state. Lycurgus did no more than arrest them in that state, by forming their usages Into laws. He checked them at once in the first stage of their improvement. " He put forth a bold hand to that spring which is in society, and stopt its motion." 3. This theory, however ingenious, is confuted by facts. All an- cient authors agree, that Lycurgus operated a total change on the Spartan manners, and on the constitution of his country ; while the moderns have discovered that he mad? no change on either. The most striking features of the manners and constitution of Sparta had not the smallest resemblance to those of any rude nations with which we are acquainted. The communion of slaves and of many other •pedes of property, the right of the state in the children of all the * Logaa'a Philosophy of History, &c. AJNUlENT HISTORY. 27 citizens, their common education, the public tables, the equal divi- sion of lands, the oath of government between the kings and people, have no parallel in the history of any barbarous nation. 4. The real history of Sparta and its constitution is therefore not to be found in. modem theory, but in the writings of the Greek his- torians, and these are our sole authorities worthy of credit. After the return of the Heraclidse, Sparta was divided between the two sons of Aristodemus, Eurysthenes, and Procles, who jointly reigned ; and this double monarchy, transmitted to the descendants of each, continued in the separate branches for near 900 years. A radical principle of disunion, and consequent anarchy, made the want of constitutional laws be severely felt. Lycurgus, brother of Poly- dectes, one of the kings of Sparta, a man distinguished alike by his abilities and virtues, was invested, by the concurring voice of the sovereigns and people, with the important duty of reforming and new* modelling the constitution of his country, 884 A. C. 5. Lycurgus instituted a senate, elective, of twenty-eight mem- bers ; whose office was to preserve a just balance between the pow- er of the kings and that of the people. Nothing could come before the assembly of the people which had not received the previous con- sent of the senate ; and, on the other hand, no judgment of the sen- ate w T as effectual without the sanction of the people. The kings pre' sided in the senate ; they were the generals of the republic : but they could plan no enterprise without the consent of a council of the citizens. 6. Lycurgus bent his attention most particularly to the regulation of manners ; and one great principle pervaded his whole system . Luxury is the bane of society. He divided the territory ot the republic into 39,000 equal portions, among the whole of its free citizens. He substituted iron money for gold and silver, prohibited the prac- tice of commerce, abolished all useless arts, and allowed even those necessary to life to be practised only by the slaves. The whole citizens made their principal repast at the public ta- bles. ' The meals were coarse and parsimonious ; the conversation was fitted to improve the youth in virtue, and cultivate the patriotic spirit. The Spartan education rejected all embellishments of the under- standing. It nourished only the severer virtues. It taught the du- ties of religion, obedience to the laws, respect for parents, reverence for old age, inflexible honour, undaunted courage, contempt of dan- ger and of death ; above all, the love of glory and of their country 7. But the general excellence of the institutions of Lycurgus was impaired by many blemishes. The manners of the Lacedaemonian women were shamefully loose. They frequented the baths, and fought naked in tbe palaestra promiscuously with the men. Theft was a part of Spartan education. The youth were taught to subdue the feelings of humanity ; the slaves were treated with the most bar- barous rigour, and often massacred for spoil The institutions eople claimed the sovereign power, and they received it ; the rich demanded offices and dignities : the system of Solon accommodated them to the utmost of their wishes. \ He divided the citizens into four classes, according to the measure of their wealth. To the three first, the richer citizens, belonged all the offices of the commonwealth. The fourth, the poorer class, more numerous than all the other three, had an equal right of suffrage with them in the public assembly, where all laws were framed, and measures of state decreed. Consequently the weight of the latter decided every ques- tion. 5. To regulate in some degree the proceedings of those assem- blies, and balance the weight of the popular interest, Solon instituted a senate of 400 members (afterwards enlarged to 500 and 600), with whom it was necessary that every measure should originate, before it became the subject of discussion in the assembly of the people. . . . 6. To the court of areopagus he commuted the guardianship ot the laws, and the power of enforcing them; with the supreme administration of justice. To this tribunal belonged likewise the custody of the treasures of the state, the care of religion, and a tutorial power over all the youth of the republic. The number of its judges was various at different periods, and the most immaculate purity of character was essential to that high office. 7. The authority of the senate and areopagus imposed some check on the popular assemblies; but as these possessed the ultimate right of decision, it was always in the power of ambitious demagogues to sway them to the worst of purposes. Continual factions divided the people, and corruption pervaded every department of the state. The public measures, the result of the interested schemes of indi- viduals, were often equally absurd as they were profligate. Athens often saw her best patriots, the wisest and most virtuous of her citi- zens, shamefully sacrificed to the most depraved and most abandoned. "ANCIENT HISTORY. 21 8 The particular laws of the Athenian state are more deserving d encomium than its form of government. The laws relating to debt- ors were mild and equitable, as were those which regulated th« treatment of slaves. But the vassalage of women, or their abso- lute subjection to the control of their nearest relations, approached too near to a state of servitude. The proposer of a law found on experience impolitic was liable to punishment; an enactment ap- parently rigorous, but probably necessary in a popular government 9. One most iniquitous and absurd peculiarity of the Athenian, and ome other governments of Greece, was the practice of the ostra- cism, a ballot ^of all the citizens, in which each wrote down the name of the person in his opinion most obnoxious to censure ; and he who was thus marked out by the greatest number of voices, though un- impeached of any crime, was banished for ten years from his coun try. This barbarous and disgraceful institution, ever capable of the Grossest abuse, and generally^ subservient to the worst of purposes, as stained the character of Athens with many flagrant instances of public ingratitude. 10. The manners of the Athenians formed the most striking con- trast to those of the Lacedaemonians. At Athens the arts were in the highest esteem. The Lacedaemonians despised the arts, and all who cultivated them. At Athens peace was the natural state of the republic, and the refined enjoyment ot life the aim of all its subjects. Sparta was entirely a military establishment ; and her subjects, when unengaged in war, were totally unoccupied. Luxury was the char- acter of the Athenian, as frugality of the Spartan. They were equally jealous of their liberty, and equally brave in war. The courage of the Spartans sprang from constitutional ferocity, that oi the Athenian from the principle of honour. 1 1 . The Spartan government had acquired solidity, while all the rest of Greece was torn by domestic dissensions. Athens, a prey to faction and civil disorder, surrendered her liberties to Pisistratus, 550 A. C. ; who, after various turns of fortune, established himself firm- ly in the sovereignty, exercised a splendid and munificent dominion, completely gained the affections of the people, and transmitted a peaceable crown to his sons Hippias and Hipparchus. 12. Hermodias and Aristogiton undertook to restore the democra- cy ; and succeeded in the attempt. Hipparchus was put to death , and Hippia3, dethroned, solicited a foreign aid to replace him in the sovereignty. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, meditated at this time the conquest of Greece. Hippias took advantage of the views oJ an enemy against his native country, and Greece was now involved in a war with Persia. SECTION XI. OF THE STATE OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE, AND4TS HISTOR\ DOWN TO THE WAR WITH GREECE. 1. The first empire of the Assyrian? ended under Sardanapalus, ano three monarchies arose upon its ruins, Nineveh, Babylon, and tht kingdom of the Medcs. 2. The history of Babylon and of Nineveh is very imperfectly known. The Medes, hitherto independent tribes, were united under a monarchy by Dejoces. His son Phraortes conquered Persia, but w*§ C 2 30 ANCIENT HISTORY. himself vanquished by Nabuchodonosor 1., king of Assyria, and pu to death. Nabuchodonosor II. led the Jews into captivity, took Je- rusalem and Tyre, and subdued Egypt. 3. The history of Cyrus is involved in great uncertainty ; nor is it possible to reconcile or apply to one man the different accounts given of him by Herodotus, Ctesias, and Xenophon. Succeeding his father Cambyses in the throne of Persia, and his uncle Cyaxares in the sovereignty of the Medes, he united these empires, vanquish- ed the Babylonians and Lydians, subjected the greatest part of the Lesser Asia, and made himself master of Syria and Arabia. 4. He was succeeded by his son Cambyses, distinguished only-a9 a tyrant and a madman. 5. After the death of Cambyses, Darius, the son of Iiystaspes. rvas elected sovereign of Persia, a prince of great enterprise and ambition. Unfortunate in a Tash expedition against the Scythians, he projected and achieved the conquest of India. Inflated with suc- cess, he now meditated an invasion of Greece, and cordially entered into the views of Hippias, who sought by his means to regain the sovereignty of Athens. 6. Government, Manners, Laws, &,>c. of the Ancient Pe sians. The government of Persia was an absolute monarchy ; the will of the sov- ereign being subject to no control, and liis person revered as sacred: yet the education bestowed by those monarchs on their children was calculated to inspire every valuable quality of a sovereign. The ancient Persians in general bestowed the utmost attention on the education of youth. Children at the age of five were committed to the care of the magi, for the improvement of their mind and morals. They were trained at the same time to every manly exercise. The sacred books of the Zendavesta promised to every worthy parent the imputed merit and reward of all the good actions of his chil- dren. 7. Luxurious as they were in after times, the early Persians were distinguished for their temperance, bravery, and virtuous simplicity of manners. They were ail trained to the use of amis, and display- ed great intrepidity in war. The custom of the women following their armies to the field, erroneously attributed to effeminacy, was a remnant of barbarous manners. 8. The kingdom of Persia was divided into several provinces, each under a governor or satrap, who was accountable to .the sovereign for the whole of his conduct. The prince, at stated times, visited his provinces in person, correcting all abuses, easing the burdens of the oppressed, and encouraging agriculture and the practice of the useful arts.. The .laws of Persia were mild and equitable, and the utmost purity was observed in the administration of justice. 9. The religion of the ancient Persians is of great antiquity. It is conjectured that there were two-Zoroasters ; the first, the founder of this ancient religion, and of whom are recorded miracles and prophecies ; the second, a reformer of that religion, contemporary with Darius the son of Hystaspes. The Zendavesta, or sacred book, compiled by the former, was improved and purified by the latter. It has been lately translated into French by M. Anquetil, and appears to contain, amidst a mass of absurdity, some sublime truths, and ex- cellent precepts of morality. The theology of the Zendavesta is founded on the doctrine of two opposite principles, a good and an evil, Ormusd and Ahriman, eternal beings, who divide between them the government of the universe, and whose warfare must endure till AJNC1ENT HISTORY. 31 the end of \ 2,000 years, when the good will finally prevail over the evil. A separation will ensue of the votaries of each : the just shall be admitted to the immediate enjoyment of Paradise ; the wicked, after a limited purification by fire, snail ultimately be allowed to par- take in the blessings of eternity. Ormusd is to be adored through the medium of his greatest works, the sun, moon, and stars. The fire, the symbol of the sun, the air, the earth, the water, have their subordinate worship. The morality of the Zendavesia is best known from its abridg- ment, the Sadder, complied about three centuries ago by the modern Guebres. It inculcates a chastened species of epicurism; allowing a free indulgence of the passions, while consistent with the welfare of society. It prohibits equally intemperance and ascetic mortifica- tion. It recommends, as precepts of religion, the cultivation of the earth, the planting of fruit-trees, the destruction of noxious animals, the bringing water to a barren land. 10. Such were the ancient Persians. But their character had un- dergone a great change before the period of the war with Greece At this time they were a degenerate and corrupted people. Athens had recently thrown off the yoke of the Pisistratidae, and highly val- ued her new liberty. Sparta, in the ardour of patriotism, forgot all jealousy of her rival state, and cordially united in the aefence of their common country. Tne Persians, in this contest, had no other advantage than that of numbers, an unequal match for superior hero- ism and military skill. SECTION XII. THE WAR BETWEEN GREECE AND PERSIA. 1 . The ambition of Darius, the son of Hystaspes, heightened by the passion of revenge, gave rise to the project of that monarch for the invasion of Greece. The Athenians nad aided the people of Ionia in an attempt to throw off the yoke of Persia, and burnt and ravaged Sardis, the capital of Lydia. Darius speedily reduced the lonians to submission, and then turned his arms against the Greeks, their allies; the exik; fiippias eagerly prompting the expedition. 2. After an insolent demand of submission, which the Greeks scorn- fully refused, Darius began a hostile attack both by sea and land. The first Persian fleet was wrecked in doubling the promontory of Athos ; a second, of 600 sail, ravaged the Grecian islands ; while an immense army landing in Euboea, poured down with impetuosity on Attica. The Athenians^ met them on the plain of Marathon, and, headed by Miltiades, defeated them with prodigious slaughter, 490 A. C. The loss of the Persians in this battle was*6,300, and that of the Athenians 190. 3. The merit of Miltiades, signally displayed in this great battle. was repaid by his country with the most shocking ingratitude. Ac- cused of treason for an unsuccessful attack on the isle of Paros, his sentence of death was commuted into a fine of fifty talents; which being unable to pay he was thrown into prison, and , there died of his wounds. 4. The giory of ungrateful Athens was yet nobly sustained in the Persian war by Themistocles and Aristides. Darius dying was suc- ceeded by his son Xerxes, the heir of his father's ambition, but not o 32 • ANCIENT HISTORY. his abilities. He armed, as is said, five millions of men, for the con quest of Greece; 1,200 ships of war, and 3,000 ships of burden Landing in Thessaly he proceeded, by rapid marches, to Thermop ylae, a narrow defile on the Sinus Maliacus. The Athenians and Spartans, aided only by the Thespians, Plataeans, and Eginetes, de termined.to withstand the invader. Leonidas, king of Sparta, was chosen to defend this important pass with 6,000 men. Xerxes, aftei a weak attempt to corrupt him, imperiously summoned him to lay down his arms. Let him come, said Leonidas, and take them. For two days the Persians in vain strove to force their way, and were repeat- edly repulsed with great slaughter. An unguarded track being at length discovered, the defence of the pass became a fruitless attempt on the part of the Greeks. Leonidas, foreseeing certain destruction, commanded all to retire but 300 of his countrymen. His motive was to give the Persians a just idea of the spirit of that foe whom they had to encounter. He, with his brave Spartans, were all cut off to a man, 480 A. 0. A monument, erected on the spot, bore this noble inscription, written by Simonides : O stranger! tell it at Lacedcernon, tfmt we died here in obedience to her laws. 5. The Persians poured down upon Attica. The inhabitants of Athens, after conveying their women and children to the islands for security, betook themselves to their fleet, abandoning the city, which the Persians pillaged and burnt. The fleet of the Greeks, consisting of 380 sail, was attacked in the straits of Salamis by that of the Per- sians, amounting to 1,200 ships. Xerxes himself beheld from an em- inence on the coast the total discomfiture of his squadron. He then fled with precipitation across the Hellespont. A second overthrow awaited his army by land : for Mardonius, at the head of 300,000 Persians, was totally defeated at Platcea by the combined army of the Athenians and Lacedaemonians, 479 A. C. On the same day the Greeks engaged and destroyed the remains of the Persian fleet at Mycale. From that day the ambitious schemes of Xerxes were at an end ; and his inglorious life was soon after terminated by assassina- tion. He was succeeded in the throne of Persia by his son Artaxerxes Longimanus, 464 A. C. 6. At this time the national character of the Greeks was at its highest elevation. The common danger had annihilated all partial jealousies between the states, and given them union as a nation. But with the cessation of danger those jealousies recommenced. Sparta meanly opposed the rebuilding of deserted Athens. Athens, rising again into splendour, saw with pleasure the depopulation of Sparta by an earth quake, and hesitated to give her aid in that juncture of calamity against a rebellion of her slaves. 7. Cimon, the son of Miltiades, after expelling the Persians from Thrace, attacked and destroyed their fleet on the coast of Pamphylia, and, landing his troops, gained a signal victory over their army the same day. Supplanted in the public favour by the arts of his rival Pericles, he suffered a temporary exile, to return only with higher popularity, and to signalize himself still more in the service of his ungrateful country. He attacked and totally destroyed the Persian fleet of 300 sail, and, landing in Cilicia, completed his triumph, by defeating 300,000 Persians under Megabyzes, 460 A. C. Artaxerxes now had the prudence to sue for peace, which was granted by the Greeks, on terms most honourable to the nation. They stipulated for the freedom of all the Grecian cities of Asia, and that the fleets oj Peiaia should not aparn^-^ their coasts from the Euxine to the ei ANCIENT HiSTOKV. 3S treme ooundary of Pamphylia. The last fifty years were the period of the highest glory of the Greeks ; and they owed their prosperity entirely to their union. The peace with Persia, dissolving that con nexion, brought back the jealousies between the predominant states, the intestine disorders of each, and the national weakness. 8. The martial and the patriotic spirit began visibly to decline in Afcens. An acquaintance with Asia, and an importation of her wealth, introduced a relish for Asiatic manners and luxuries. With the Athenians, however, this luxurious spirit was under the guidance of taste and genius. It led to the cultivation of the finer arts; and the age of Pericles, though the national glory was in its wane, is the aera of the highest internal splendour and magnificence of Greece. SECTION XM. AGE OF PERICLES. 1. Republics, equally with monarchies, are generally regulated by a single will : only, in the former there is a more frequent change of masters. Pericles ruled Athens with little less than arbitrary sway ; and Athens pretended at this time to the command of Greece She held the allied states in the most absolute subjection, and lavished their subsidies, bestowed for the national defence, in magnificent buildings, games, and festivals, for her own citizens. The tributary states loudly complained, but durst not call this domineering republic to account ; and the war of Peloponnesus, dividing the nation into two great parties, bound the less cities to the strictest subordination on the predominantpowers. 2. The state of Corinth had been included in the last treaty be- tween Athens and Sparta. The Corinthians waging war with the people of Corey ra, an ancient colony of their own, both parties so licited the aid of Athens, which took part with the latter: a measure which the Corinthians complained of, not only as an infractioh of the treaty with Sparta, but as a breach of a general rule of the national policy, that no foreign power should interfere in the disputes between a colony and its parent state. War was proclaimed on this ground between Athens and Lacedaemon, each supported by its respective allies. The detail of the war, which continued for twenty-eight years, with various and alternate success, is to be found in Tfoucyd- ides. Pericles died before its termination ; a splendid ornament of his country, but a corrupter of its manners. Alcibiades ran a similar career, with equal talents, equal ambition, and still less purity ot moral principle. In the interval of a truce with Sparta he incohsid erately projected the conquest of Sicily ; and, failing in the attempt, was, on his return to Athens, condemned to death for treason. He hesitated not to wreak his vengeance against his country, by selling his services, first to Sparta, and afterwards to Persia. Finally, he purchased his peace with his country, by betraying the power which protected him, and returned to Athens the idol of a populace as versatile as worthless. 3. A fatal -defeat of the Athenian fleet at -"^Egos Potamos, by Lv- sander, reduced Athens to the last extremity ; and the Lacedaemonians blockaded the city by land and sea. The war was ended by the absolute submission of the Athenians, who agreed to demolish their port, to limit their fleet to twelve ships, and undertake for the futur* 34 ANCIENT HISTORY. no military enterprise* but under command of the Lacedaemonians, 405 A. C. 4. To the same Lysander, who terminated the Peloponnesian war so gloriously for Lacedaemon, history ascribes the first great breach of the constitution of his country, by the introduction of gold into that republic. Lysander, after the reduction of Athens, abolished the popular government in that state, and suostituted in its place thirty tyrants, whose power was aDSolu'e The most eminent of the citizens fled from their country . tiut a Dand of patriots, headed by Thrasybulus, attacked, vanquished, and expelled the usurpers, and once more re-established the democracy 5. One event, which happened at this time, reflected more disgrace on the Athenian name than their national humiliation : this was the per- secution and death of Socrates, a philosopher who was himself the pattern oi every virtue which he taught. The sophists, whose futile logic he derided and exposed, represented him as an enemy to the religion of his country, because, without regard to the popular su- perstitions, he led the mind to the knowledge of a Supreme Being, the creator and ruler of the universe, and to the" belief of a future state of retribution. He made his defence with the manly fortitude of conscious innocence ; but in vain : his judges were his personal ene- mies, and he was condemned to die by poison, 397 A. C. (See Sec- tion XXIII, § 5.) 6. On the death of Darius Nothus, his eldest son Artaxerxes Mne- mon succeeded to the empire of Persia. His younger brother Cyrus formed the project of dethroning him, and with the aid of 13,000 Greeks engaged him near Babylon, but was defeated and slain ; a just reward. ot his most culpable enterprise. The remainder of the Grecian army, to the amount of 10,000, under the command of Xen- ophon, made a most amazing retreat, traversing n hostile country of 1,600 miles in extent, from Babylon to the banks of the Euxine Xen- ophon has beautifully written the history of this expedition ; but has- painted the character of Cyrus in too flattering colours, and without the smallest censure of his criminal ambition. 7. The Greek cities of Asia had taken part with Cyrus. Sparta was engaged to defend her countrymen, and consequently was in volved in a war with Persia. Had Athens added her strength, the Greeks might have once more defied the power of Asia ; but jealousy kept the states divided, and even hostile to each other ; and the gold of Artaxerxes excited a general league in Greece against Lacedae- mon. Agesilaus, king of Sparta, sustained for a time the honour of his country, and won some important battles in Asia; but others were lost in Greece ; and a naval defeat near Cnidos utterly destroyed the Lacedaemonian fleet. Finally, to escape total destruction, the Spartans suet! for peace, and obtained it by the sacrifice to Persia of all the Asiatic colonies, 387 A. C. Artaxerxes further demanded, and obtain- ed for his allies the Athenians, the islands of Scyros, Lemnos, and Im- oroa : a disgraceful treaty; a mortifying picture of the humiliation of the- Greeks. ANCIENT HISTORY SECTION XIV. THE REPUBLIC OF THEBES. 1. While Athens and Sparta were thus visibly tending to decline, the Theban republic emerged from obscurity /and rose lor a time to a degree of splendour eclipsing all its contemporary states. The republic was divided by faction, one party supporting its ancient de- mocracy, and the other aiming at the establishment of an oligarchy. The latter courted the aid of the Spartans, who embraced that occa- sion to take possession of the citadel. Four hundred of the exiled Thebans fled for protectipn to Athens. Among these was Pelopidas, who planned and accomplished the deliveran*; i of his country. Dis- guising himself and twelve of his friends a* peasants, he entered Thebes in the evening, and joining a patriotic party of the citizens, they surprised the heads of the usurpation ami i the tumult of a feast, and put them all to death. Epaminondas, tha fiiend of Pelopidas, shared with him in the glory of this enterprise and attacking, with the aid of 5,000 Athenians, the Lacedaemonian garrison, drove them entirely out of the Theban territory. 2. A war necessarily ensued between Thebes le of Delphos excited the sacred war, in which almost all the repub- ics took a part Philip's aid being courted by the Thebans ana Thessalians, he began hostilities by invading Phocis, the key to the territory of Attica. iEschines. the orator, bribed to his interest, at tempted to quiet the alarms cf the Athenians, by ascribing to Philip a design only of punishing sacrilege, and vindicating the cause o Apollo. Demosthenes, with true patriotism, exposed the artful de signs of the invader, and with the most animated eloquence rousec his countrymen, to a vigorous effort for the preservation of their nat ural liberties. But t\ie event was unsuccessful. The battle of Che ronasa, fought 337 A. C, decided the fate of Greece, and subjected al the states to the dominion of the king of Macedon. But it was no his policy to treat them as a conquered people. They retained theii separate and independent governments, while he controlled and direct ed all the national measures. Convoking ageneral council of the states Philip was appointed commander in chief of the forces of the nation and he laid before them his project for the conquest of Persia, ap pointing each republic to furnish its proportional subsidies. On' the eve of this great enterprise Philip was assassinated by Pausanias, a captain of his guards, in revenge ot a private injury, 336 A. C. The Athenians, on the death of Philip, meanly expressed the most tumul tuous joy, in the hope of a recovery of their liberty; but this vision ary prospect was never realized. The spirit of the nation was gone ; and in their subsequent revolutions they only changed their masters SECTION XVI. ALEXANDER THE GREAT. t. Alexander, the son of Philip, succeeded at the age of twenty to the throne of Macedon, and, after a few successful battles against tb^. revolted states, to the command of Greece. Assembling the deputies of the nation at Corinth, he communicated to them his resolution of prosecuting the designs. of his father for the conquest of Persia. . 2. With an army of 30,000 foot, and 5,000 horse, the sum of 70 tal- ents, and provisions only for a single month, he crossed the Hellespont, and in traversing Phryg'a visited the tomb of Achilles. Darius Co- domanus, resolved to crush at once this inconsiderate youth, met him on the banks of the Granicus with 100,000 foot and 10,000 horse: The Greeks swam the river, their king leading the van, and, attack- ing the astonished Persians-left 20,000 dead upon the field, and put to flight their whole army. Drawing from his first success a presage of continued victory, Alexander now sent home his fleet, leaving to his army the sole alternative, that they must subdue Asia or perish Prosecuting their course for some time without resistance, the Greeks were attacked by the Persians in a narrow valley of Cilicia, near the town of Issus. The Persian host amounted to 400,000 ; but their sit uation was such that only a small part could come into action, ana (hey were defeated with prodigious slaughter. The Joss of the Pel eiana in this battle was 1 10,000 ; that of the Greeks (uccC r diu£ to i£ Curtius) only 450, AN ClfcNT HISTOKY. 37 3. The history of Alexander by Quintus Curtius, though a most elegant composition, is extremely suspicious on the score of authen tic information. Arrian is the best authority. 4. The generosity of Alexander was displayed after the battle o» Issus, in his attention to his noble prisoners, the mother, the wife, and family of Darius. To the credit of Alexander it must be ownea that humanity, however overpowered, and at times extinguished by his passions, certainly formed a part of his natural character. 5. The consequence of the battle of issus was the submission of all Syria. Damascus, where Darius had deposited his chief treasures, was betrayed and given up by its governor. The Phoenicians were E leased to see themselves thus avenged for the oppression which thej ad sufFered under the yoke of Persia. 6. Alexander had hitherto borne his good fortune with moderation Felix, says Curtius, si hac coriiiiicntia ad ultimum vitce perseverare pot uisset ; sed nondum Fortuna se animo ejus infuderat* He directed hi;> course towards Tyre, and desired admittance to perform a sacrifice to Hercules. The Tyrians shut their gates, and maintained for seven months a ncble defence. The city was at length taken by storm, and the victor glutted his revenge by the inhuman massacre of 8,000 of the inhabitants. The fate of Gaza, gloriously defended by Be J :is, was equally deplorable to its citizens, and more disgraceful to the con- queror. Ten thousand of the former were sold into slavery, and its brave defender dragged at the wheels of the victor's chariot : Gloria ante rege, AchiUern, a quo genus ipse deduceret* imitatum se esse, poena in hosiem capienda.] Curtius. 7. The taking of Gaza opened Egypt to Alexander, and the whole country submitted without opposition. The course he now pursued demonstrated that in his conquests he followed no determined plan. Amidst the most incredible fatigues, he led his army through the deserts of Lybia, to visit the temple of his father, Jupiter Ammon. On his return he built Alexandria, at the mouth of the Nile, afterwards the capital of the Lower Egypt, and one of the most nourishing cities in the world. Twenty other cities of the same name were reared by him in the course of his conquests. It is such works as these that justly entitle the Macedonian to the epithet of Great. By rearing in the midst of deserts those nurseries of population and of industry he repaired the waste and havoc of his conquests. Except for those monuments of his glory, he would have merited no other epithet than that assigned him by the brahmins of India, The Mighty Murderer. 8 Returning from Egypt, Alexander traversed Assyria, and was met at Arbela by Darius, at tbe head of 700,000 men. The Persian had proffered peace, consenting to yield the whole country from the Euphrates to the Hellespont, to give Alexander his daughter in mar- riage, and the immense sum of 10,000 talents. But" these terms were haughtily rejected, and peace offered only upon the unqualified submission of his' enemy. The Persians were defeated at Arbela, with the loss of 300,000 men. Daiius fled from province to province. At length betrayed by Bessus, one of his own satraps, he was cruelly murdered; and the Persian empire, which had subsisted for 206 years from the time of Cyrus the great, submitted to the conqueror. 330 A. C. * ' * Happy if he could have persevered in this temperance to the end of his life, but Fortune had not yet poisoned his mind. t The kiug boasting that he imitated Achilles, from whom he supposed hi2us&i' descended, in the infliction of this punishment upon his enemy. ^ 33 ANCIENT HISTOKV. 9. Alexander now projected the conquest of India, hrmly persuad- ed that the gods had decreed him the sovereignty ol the whole hab- itable globe. He penetrated to the Ganges, and would have pro- ceeded to the eastern ocean, if the spirit of his army had kept pace with his ambition. But his troops, seeing no end to their toils, refus- ed to proceed. He returned to the Indus, whence sending round his fleet to the Persian gulf under Nearchus, he marched his army across the desert to Persepolis. 10. Indignant that he had found a limit to his conquests, he abandoned himself to every excess of luxury and debauchery. The arrogance of his nature, and the ardour of his passions, heightened by continual intemperance, broke out into the most outrageous excesses of cruelty, for which, in the iew intervals of sober reflection, his ingenuous mind suffered the keenest remorse. From Persepolis he returned to Babylon, and there died in a fit of debauch, in the thirty-third year of his age, and thirteenth of his reign, 324 A. C. 11. Of the character of Alexander the most opposite and contra- dictory estimates have been formed. While by some he is esteemed nothing better than a fortunate madman, he is by others celebrated for the grandeur, wisdom, and solidity of his political views. Truth is rare iy to be found in extreme censure or applause.* We may al- low to Alexander the spirit and the talents of a great military genius, without combining with these the sober plans of a profound politician. In a moral view of his character, w T e see an excellent and ingenuous nature corrupted at length by an unvarying current of success, and a striking example of the fatal violence of the passions, when eminence of fortune removes all restraint, and flattery stimulates to their un- controlled indulgence. SECTION )fViI. SUCCESSORS OF ALEXANDER. 1. Alexander, on his death-bed, named no successor, but gave his ring to Perdiccas, one of his officers.") When his courtiers asked him to whom he wished the empire to devolve upon his death, he replied, 4 To the most worthy ;" and he is said to have added, that he fore- saw this legacy would prepare for him very extraordinary funeral rites ; a prediction which was fully verified. 2. Perdiccas, sensible that his pretensions would not justify a di- rect assumption of the government of this vast empire, brought about a division of the whole among thirty-three of the principal officers ; and trusting to their inevitable dissensions, he proposed by that means to reduce all of them under his own authority. Hence arose a series of wars and intrigues, of which the detail is barren both of amuse- ment and useful information. , It is sufficient to say, that their conse- quence was a total extirpation of the family of Alexander, and a new partition of the empire into four great monarchies, the shares of Ptolemy, Lysimachus, Cassander, and Seleucus. Of these the most powerful were that of Syria under Seleucus and his descendants, and that of Egypt the Ptolemies. "We cannot (says Condiiiac) fix our attention on the history of the successors of Alexander, though a great theatre is opened to our view, a variety of scenes, and multiplied catastrophes. A picture is often displeasing from the very circumstance of its greatness. We ANCJENT HISTORY. 39 lose the connexion of its parts, because the eye cannot take them in at once. Still less will a large picture give us pleasure, if every part of it presents a different scene, each unconnected with the other.'' Such is the historv of the successors of Alexander. SECTION XVIIL FALL AND CONQUEST OF GREECE. 1. Nor is the history of Greece from the period of the death of Al- exander any longer an interesting or pleasing object of contemplation. Demosthenes once more made a noble attempt to vindicate the nation- al freedom, and to rouse his countrymen, the Athenians, to shake off the yoke of Macedon. But it was too late. The pacific counsels of Phocion suited better the languid spirit of this once illustrious people. 2. The history of the different republics present from this time nothing but a disgusting series of uninteresting revolutions; with the exception only of that last effort made by the Achaean states to re- vive the expiring liberty of their country. The republic of Achaia was a league of a few oi the smaller states to vindicate their freedom against the domineering spirit of the greater. They committed the government of the league to,Aratus of Sicyon, with the title of pras tor, a young mi.n of high ambition, who immediately conceived the more extensive project of rescuing the whole of Greece from the dominion of Macedon. But the jealousy of the greater states render- ed this scheme abortive. Sparta refused to arrange itself under the guidance of the praetor of Achaia : and Aratus, forgetting his patriotic designs, sought only now 'to wreak his vengeance against the Lace- daemonians. For this purpose, with the most inconsistent policy, he courted the aid even of the Macedonians : the very tyrants who had enslaved his country. 3. The period was now come for the intervention of a foreign power, which was to reduce all under its wide-spreading dominion. The Romans were at this time the most powerful of all the contem- porary nations. The people of Etolia, attacked by the Macedonians, with a rash policy besought the aid of the Romans, who, eager to add to their dominion this devoted country, cheerfully obeyed the summons, and speedily accomplished the reduction of Macedonia. Perseus, its last sovereign, was led captive to Rome, and graced the triumph of Paulus iEmilius, 167 A. C. From that period the Ro- mans were hastily advancing to the dominion of all Greece ; a prog- ress in which their art was more conspicuous than their virtue. They gained their end by fostering dissensions between the states, which they directed to their own advantage, corrupting their princi pal citizens, and using, in fine, every art of the most insidious policy. A pretext was only wanting to unsheath the sword, and this was furnished bv the Achssan states, who insulted the deputies of imperi- al Rome. This drew on them at once the resentment of the Romans. Metellus marched his legions into Greece, gave them battle, and enr tirely defeated them. Mummius the consul terminated the work,, and made an easy conquest of the whole of Greece, which from that period became a Roman province, under the name of Achaia, 146 A. C : 4. Rome had acquired from her conquests a flood of wealth, and began now to manifest a taste for luxury, and a spirit of refinement- 40 ANCIENT HISTORY. In these points Greece was to its conquerors an instructer and a model : Graecia capta ferum vietorem cepit, et artea Intulit agrfcdti Latio.* ■ Hence, even though vanquished, it was regarded with a species of respect by its ruder masters. SECTION XIX. POLITICAL REFLECTIONS ARISING FROM THE HISTORY OF THE STATES OF GREECE. 1 . The revolutions which the states of Greece underwent, and the situations into which they were thrown by their connexion and differ- ences with each other, and their wars with foreign nations, were so various, that their history is a school of instruction in political science. The surest test of the truth or falsehood of abstract principles of pd itics, is their application to actual experience and to the history of nations. 2. The oppression which the states of Greece suffered under their ancient despots, who were subject- to no constitutional control, was a most justifiable motive for their establishing a new form of govern- ment, which promised them the enjoyment of great? r political free- dom. We believe too that those new forms of government were fram- ed by their virtuous legislators in the true spirit of patriotism. But as to the real merits of those political fabrics, it is certain that they were very far from corresponding in practice with what was expect- ed from them in theory. We seek in vain, either in the history of Athens or Lacedaemon, For the beautiful idea of a well-ordered common- wealth. The revolutions of government which they were ever ex- periencing, the eternal factions with which they were embroiled, plainly demonstrate that there was a radical defect in the structure of the machine, which precluded the possibility of regular motion. The condition of the people under those governments was such as par- took more of servitude and oppression, than that of the subjects of the most despotic monarchies. "\ The slaves formed the actual majority of the inhabitants in all the states of Greece. To these the free citi- zens were rigorous bond-masters. Bondage being a consequence of the contraction of debts even by freemen, a great proportion of these was subject to the tyrannical control of their fellow-citizens. Nor were the richer classes in the actual enjoyment of independence. They were perpetually divided into factions, which servilely ranked themselves under the banners of the contending chiefs of the repub- lic. Those parties were kept together solely by corruption. The whole was therefore. a system of servility and debasement of spirit, which left nothing of a free or ingenuous nature in the condition of in- dividuals, nor any thing that could furnish encomium to a real advo- cate for the dignity of human nature. Such was the condition of the chief republics of antiquity. Their governments promised in theory, what they never conferred in prac- tice, the political happiness of the citizens. * For conquered Greece subdued her conquering foe, And taught rude Rome, the arts of peace to know. AxNCIENT HISTORY. 4a 3. tt In democracy (says Dr. Fergusson) men must love equality r they must respect the rights of their fellow-citizens ; they must be satisfied with tnat degree of consideration which they can procure by their abilities fairly measured against those of an opponent ; they must labour for the public without hope of profit ; they must reject every attempt to create a personal dependance." This is the picture of a republic in theory. If we reverse this picture in every single particular, and take its direct opposite, we shall have the true por- trait of a republican government in practice. 4. It is the fundamental theory of Montesquieu's Spirit of Law*, that the three distinct forms of. government, the monarchical, despot - ical, and republican, are influenced by the three separate principles of honour, fear, and virtue ; and this theory is the foundation on which the author builds a great part of his political doctrines. That each of these principles is exclusively essential to its respective form of government, but unnecessary and even prejudicial in the others, is a position contrary both to reason and to truth. No form of govern ment can subsist where every one of those principles has not its operation. The admission of such a theory leads to the most mis- chievous conclusions ; as, for example, that in monarchies the state dispenses with virtue in its officers and magistrates; that public employments ought to be venal; and that crimes, if kept secret, are of no consequence. 5. It is only in the infant periods of tne Grecian history that we^, are to look for those splendid examples of patriotism and heroic vir- tue, which the. ardent mind of uncorrupted youth will ever delight to contemplate. The most remarkable circumstance which strikes lis on comparing the latter w t ^ the more early periods of the his- tory of the Greeks,| is the total change in the genius and spirit of the | people.) The ardour of patriotism, the thirst of military glory, the enthusiasm of liberty, decline with the rising grandeur and opulence of the nation, and an enthusiasm of another species, and far less worthy in its aim, succeeds : an admiration of the tine arts, a violent passion for the objects of taste, and for the refinements of luxury. This leads us to consider Greece in the light in which, after the loss of its liberty, it still continued to attract the admiration of other na tious. SECTION XX. STATE OF THE ARTS IN GREECE. 1. It is not among the Greeks that we are to look for the greatest mprovements in the useful and necessary arts of life. In agricul- ure, manufactures, commerce, they never were greatly distinguish- ed. But- in those which are termed the fine arts, Greece surpassed all the contemporary nations.") The monuments of those which yet remain are the models of imitation, and the confessed standard of excellence, in the judgment of the most polished nations of modern times. 2. After the defeat of Xerxes the active spirit of the Athenians, which would have otherwise languished for want of an object, taking a new direction from luxury, displayed itself signally in all the works of taste in the fine arts, t The administration of Pericles r/as the tera of luxury and splendour. ; The arts broke out at once with surpris- ing lustre ; and architecture, sculpture, and painting, were carried D2 6 42 ANCIENT HISTORY to the summit of perfection. This golden age of the arts in Greece. endured for about a century, till after the death of Alexander the great. 3. The Greeks were the parents of that system of architecture which is universally allowed to be the most perfect. The Greek architecture consisted of three distinct orders : the Doric, the Ionic, and Corinthian. The Doric has a masculine grandeur, and a superior air of strength to both the others. It is therefore best adapted to works of great magnitude, and of a sublime character. The character of sublimity is essentially connected with chasteness and simplicity. Of this or- der is the temple of Theseus at Athens, built ten years after the bat- tle of Marathon, and at this day almost entire. The Ionic order is light and elegant. The former has a masculine grandeur; the latter a feminine elegance. The Ionic is likewise simple : for simplicity is an essential requisite in true beauty. Of tiiis order were the temple of Apollo at Miletus, the temple of the Delphic oracle, and the temple of Diana at Ephesus. The Corinthian marks an age of luxury and magnificence, when pomp and splendour had become the predominant passion, but had not yet extinguished the taste for the sublime and beautiful. It attempts therefore a union of all these characters, but satisfies not the chasten- ed judgment, and pleases only a corrupted taste. - u First unadorned, " And nobly plain, the manly Doric rose ; *' The Ionic then, with decent matron grace, u Her airy pillar heav'd ; luxuriant last u The rich Corinthian spread her wanton wreath. 1 ' Thompson's Liberty, Part 2. 4.( The Tuscan and the Composite orders are of Italian origin. The Etruscan architecture appears to have been nearly allied to the Grecian, but to have possessed an inferior degree of elegance. The Trajan column at Rome is of this order; less remarkble for the beauty of its proportions than for the admirable sculpture which decorates it. The Composite order is what its name implies ; it shows that the Greeks had in the three original orders exhausted all the principles of grandeur and beauty ; and that it was not possible to frame a fourth, except by combining the former. 5. The Gothic architecture offers no contradiction to these obser- vations. The effect which it produces cannot be altogether account- ed for from the rules of symmetry or harmony in the proportions be- tween the several parts: but depends on a certain idea of vastness, gloominess, and solemnity, which are powerful ingredients in the sublime. 6i Sculpture was brought by the Greeks to as high perfection as architecture. The remains of Grecian sculpture are at this day the most perfect models of the art ; and the modern artists have no means of attaining to excellence so certain, as the study of those great mas ter-pieces. 7. The excellence of the Greeks in sculpture may perhaps be accounted for chiefly from their having the human figure often before their eyes quite naked, and in all its various attitudes, both in the palestra, and in the public games. The antique statues have there- fore a grandeur united with perfect simplicity, because the attitude w ANCIRNT HISTORY. 43 not the result of an artificial disposition of the figure, as in the mod- ern academies, but is nature unconstrained. Thus, in the Dying Gladiator, when we observe the relaxation of the muscles, and the visible failure of strength and life, we cannot doubt that nature was the sculptor's immediate model of imitation * 8, And this nature was in reality superior to what we now see in the ordinary race of men. 'The constant practice of gymnastic ex- ercises gave a finer conformation of body than what is now to be found in the vitiated pupils of modern effeminacy, the artificial children of modern fashion. 9. A secondary cause of the eminence of the Greeks in the arts of design, was their theology, which furnished an ample exercise for the genius of the sculptor and painter. 10. We must speak with more diffidence of the ability of the Greeks in painting, than we do of their superiority in sculpture ; be- cause the existing specimens of the former are extremely rare, and the pieces which are preserved are probably not the most excellent. But in the want of actual evidence we have every presumption that the Greeks had attained to equal perfection in the art of painting and in sculpture ; for if we find the judgment given by ancient writers of their excellence in sculpture confirmed by the universal assent of the best critics among the moderns, we have every reason to presume an equal rectitude in the judgment which the same ancient writers have pronounced upon their paintings. If Pliny is right in his opinion of the merits of those statues which yet remain, the Venus of Praxiteles and the Laocoonof Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus, we have no reasonto suppose his taste to be less just when he celebrates the merits, and critically characterizes the different manners of Zeuxis, Apelles, Parrhasius, Protogenes, and Timanthes, whose works have perished. 11. The paintings found in Hercuianeum, Pompeii, the Sepul- chrum ISTasonianum at Home, were probably the work of Greek artists ; for the Romans were never eminent in any of the arts de pendent on design. These paintings exhibit great knowledge ol proportions, and of the chiaro-oscuro ; but betray an ignorance of the rules of perspective. 12. The music of the ancients appears to have been very greatly inferior to that of the moderns. 13. The peculiar genius of the Greeks in the fine arts extended its effects to the revolutions of their states, and influenced their fate as a nation. SECTION XXI. OF THE GREEK POETS. 1. The Greeks were the first who reduced the athletic exercises to a system, and considered them as an object of general attention and importance. The Panathenaean, and afterwards the Olympic, the Pythian, jSTemsean, and Isthmian games, were under the regulation of the laws. They contributed essentially to the improvement of the nation ; and, while they cherished martial ardour, and promoted har- * Cresilas rulneratum deficieniem ftcit, ex quo possit intelligi quantum restet' animi. Pirn, lib. 36. Cresilas has represented a wounded man fainting-, from which we may perceive how much life still remains. 44 ANCIENT HISTORY. diness and agility of body, they cultivated likewise, urbanity and po- liteness. 2. The games of Greece were not confined to gymnastic or athlet- ic exercises. They encouraged competitions in genius and learning. They were the resort of the poets, the historians, and the philosophers. 3. In all nations, poetry is of greater antiquity than prose composi- tion. The earliest prose writers in Greece, Pherecydes of Scyros, and Cadmus of Miletus, were 3'50 years posterior to Homer. Any remains of the more ancient poets, as Linus, Orpheus, &c, are ex- tremely suspicious, i Homer is generally supposed to have flourished about 907 A. C. ; to have followed the occupation of i. wandering minstrel, and to have composed his poems in detached fragments, and separate ballads, and episodes. ) Pisistratus.^ about 540 A. C, em- ployed some learned men to collect and methodize these fragments ; and to this we owe the complete poems of the Iliad and Odyssey. The distinguishing merits of Homer are, his profound knowledge of human nature, his faithful and minute description of ancient man- ners, his genius for the sublime and beautiful, and the harmony of his poetical numbers. His fidelity as a historian has been questioned ; but the great outlines of his narrative are probably authentic. 4. Hesiod was nearly contemporary with Homer: we should be little sensible of his merits, if they were not seen through the medi- um of an immense antiquity. The poem of the Works and Days contains some judicious precepts of agriculture. The Theogony is an obscure history of the origin of the. gods, and the formation of the universe. 5. About two centuries after Homer and Hesiod, flourished Archi- lochus, the inventor of Iambic verse ; Terpander, equally .eminent as a poet and a musician ; ■ Sappho, of whose composition we have two exquisite odes ; Alcaeus and Simonides, of whom there are some fine fragments; and Pindar and Anacicon, who have left enough to allow an accurate estimate of their merits. 6. Pindar was esteemed by the ancients the chief of the lyric poets. He possesses unbounded fancy, and great sublimity of imagery ; but his digressions are so rapid and so frequent, that we cannot discover the chain of thought ; and his expression is allowed, even by Longinus, to be often obscure and unintelligible. 7 Anacreon is a great contrast to p indar. Plis fancy suggests only familiar and luxurious pictures. He has no comprehension of the sublime, but contents himself with the easy, the graceful, and the wanton. His morality is loose, and his sentiments -little else than the effusions of a voluptuary. 8. The collection termed Anthologies which consists chiefly of an- cient epigrams, contains many valuable specimens of the taste and poetical fancy of the Greeks, and contributes materially to the illus- tration of their manners. The best of the modern epigrams may be traced to this source. 9. The aera of the origin of dramatic composition among the Greeks is about 590 A. C. Thespis was contemporary with Solon. Within little more than a century, the Greek drama was carried to its high- est perfection, for JEschyius died 456 A. C. iEschylus wrote sixty- six tragedies ; for thirteen of which he gained the first prize of dra- matic poetry at the Olympic games. Like Shakspeare, his genius is sublime, and his imagination unbounded. He disdained regularity of {)lan, and all artificial restriction; but unfortunately he disdained ikewise the restraints of decency and of good morals. ANCIENT HISTORY. 46 10. Euripides and Sophocles flourished about fifty years after jEschylus. Euripides is most masterly in painting the passion of love, both in its tenderest emotions and in its most violent paroxysms : yet the characters of his women demonstrate that he had no great opinion of the virtues of the sex. Longinus does not rate high his talent for the sublime. But he possessed a much superior excellence : his verses, with great eloquence and harmony, breathe the most admirable mo- lality. There remain twenty tragedies of Euripides ; and of these, the Medea is deemed the best. 11. Sophocles shared with Euripides the palm of dramatic poetry ; and is judged to have surpassed hini in the grand and the sublime. Of 1 20 tragedies which he composed, only seven remain. They display great knowledge of the human heart, and a general chastity ancl simplicity of expression, which gave the greater force to the occasional strokes of the sublime. The Oedipus of Sophocles is esteemed the most perfect production of the Greek stage. 12. The Greek comedy is divided into the ancient, the middle, and the new. The first was a licentious satire and mimicry of real per sonages, exhibited by name upon the stage. The laws repressed this extreme license, and gave birtii to the middle comedy, which continued the satirical delineation of real persons, but under fictitious names The last improvement consisted in banishing all personal satire, and confining comedy to a delineation of manners. This was the new comedy. Of the first species, the ancient, we have no remains. The dramas of Aristophanes are an example of the second or middle comedy. The grossness of his raillery, and the malevolence which frequently inspired it, are a reproach to the morals of that people which could tolerate it. Yet his works have their value, as throwing light upon ancient manners. 13. Of the new comedy, Menander was the bright example ; pos- sessing a vein of the most delicate wit, with the utmost purity oi moral sentiment. Unfortunately we have nothing of him remaining but a few fragments preserved by Athenseus. We see a great deal oi his merits, however, in his copyist and translator, Terence. 14. The actors, both in the Greek and Roman theatres, wore masks, of which the features were strongly painted, and the mouth so con- structed as to increase the power of the voice. It is probable that the tragedy and Comedy of the Greeks and Romans were set to music, and sung, like the recitative in the Italian opera. Sometimes one person was employed to recite or sing the part, and another to per form the corresponding action or gesticulation. 15. The mimes were burlesque parodies on the serious tragedy and comedy. The pantomimes consisted solely of gesticulation, and were earned to great perfection. SECTION XXII. OF THE GREEK HISTORIANS. 1. The most eminent of the Greek historians were contempora- ries. Herodotus died 413 A. C. ; Thucydides 391 A. G; and Xeno- phon was about twenty years younger than Thucydides, Herodotus writes the ioint history of the Greeks and Persians, from the time of Cyrus, to the battles of Plataea and Mycale. He treats incidentally likewise of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Medes, and Lydians. His vera- city is to be depended on in all matters that fell under his own obser- 46 ANCIENT HISTORY. vation ; but he admits too easily the reports of others, and is in gen- eral fond of the marvellous. His style is pure, and he has a copious elocution. 3. Thucydides, himself an able general, has written, with great abil- ity, the history of the first twenty-one years of the Peloponnesian war ; introducing it with a short narrative of the preceding periods of the history of Greece. He is justly esteemed for his fidelity and candour. His style is a contrast to the full and flowing period of Herodotus, possessing at sententious brevity, which is at once lively and energetic. The history of the remaining six years of the war of Peloponnesus was written by Theopompus and Xenophon. 3. Xenophon commanded the Greek army in the service of Cyrus the younger, in his culpable enterprise against his brother Artaxerx- es. (See Sect. XIII, § 6.) After the failure of this enterprise, Xeno- phon directed that astonishing retreat from Babylon to the Euxine, of which he has given a splendid and faithful narrative. He wrote likewise the Cyropedia, or the history of the elder Cyrus, which is belived to be rather an imaginary delineation of an accomplished prince^ than a real narration. He continued the history of Thucyd ides, and Jias left two excellent political tracts on the constitutions of Lacedaemon and Athens. His style is simple and energetic ; but the brevity of his sentences sometimes obscures his meaning. 4. Greece, in its decline, produced some historians of great em inence. Poiyb.ius, a native of Megalopolis, wrote forty books of the Roman and G&ek history during his own age ; that is, from the be- ginning of the second Punic war to the reduction of Macedonia into a Roman province ; but of this great work, only the first five books are entire, with an epitome of the following twelve. He merits less the praise of eloquence than of authentic information, and most judi- cious reflection. 3. Diodorus Siculus flourished in the time of Augustus, and compos- ed, in forty books, a general history of the world, under the title of Bibliotheca Historica. No more remain than fifteen books ; of which the first five treat of the fabulous periods, and the history of the Egyp- tians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, &c. prior to the Trojan war. 'l^ne next five are wanting. The remainder brings down the history from the expedition of Xerxes into Greece till after the death of Alexander the great. He is taxed with chronological inaccuracy in the earlier parts of his work; but the authenticity and correctness of the later periods are unimpeached. 6. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, eminent both as a historian and rhet- orician, flourished in the age of Augustus. His Roman Antiquities contain much valuable information, though his work is too much tinctured with the spirit of systematizing. 7. Plutarch, a native of Cheronea, in Bceotia, flourished in the reign of Nero. His Lives of Illustrious Men is one of the most val- uable of the literary works of the ancients ; introducing us to an acquaintance with the private character and manners of those eminent persons whose public achievements are recorded by professed his- torians. His morality is excellent ; and his style, though unpolished, is clear and energetic. 8 Arrian wrote, in the reign of Adrian, seven books of the wars of Alexander, with great judgment and fidelity; his narrative being composed on the authority of Aristobulus and Ptolemy, two of Alexander's principal officers. His style is unadorned, but chaste, perspicuous, and manly. AJNUIENT HISXOivi. 47 SECTION XXIII. OF THE GREEK PHILOSOPHERS. 1 After the time of Homer and Hesiod, the increasing relish fo j poetical composition gave rise to a set of men termed rhapsodists whose employment was to recite at the games and festivals the com positions of the older poets, and to comment on their merits and ex plain their doctrines. Some of these, founding schools of instruction, were dignified by their pupils with the epithet of Sophists, or teach- ers of wisdom. 2. The most ancient school of philosophy was that founded by T hales, 640 A. C, and termed, the Ionic. Thales is celebrated for his knowledge of geometry and astronomy. His metaphysical doc- trines are imperfectly known. He taught the belief of a first cause, and an over-ruling providence ; but supposed the Divinity to animate the universe, as the soul does the body. The moral doctrines of the Ionic school \\ r ere pure and rational. The most eminent of the dis- ciples of Thales were Anaximander and Anaxagoras. 3. Soon after the Ionic, arose the Italian sect, founded by Pythag- oras, who was born about 536 A. C. He is supposed to have derived much of his knowledge from Egypt; and he had, like the Egyptian priests, a public doctrine for the people, and a private for his disci- ples ; the former a good system of morals, the latter probably unin telligible mystery. His notions of the Divinity were akin to those oi Thales ; but he believed in the eternity of the universe, and its co- existence with the Deity. He taught the transmigration of the soul through different bodies. His disciples lived in common ; abstained rigorously from the iiesh of animals; and held music in high estima- tion, as a corrective of the passions. Pythagoras believed the earth to be a sphere, the planets to be inhabited, and the fixed stars to be the suns and centres of other systems, His most eminent followers were Empedocies, Epicharmus, Ocellus Lucanus, Timseus, Archytas. 4= The Eleatic sect was founded by Xenophanes, about 500 A. C. Its chief supporters were Parmenides, Zeno, and L«eucippus, citizens of Elea. The metaphysical notions of this sect were utterly unintel- ligible. They maintained that things had neither beginning, end, nor any change; and that all the cHanges we perceive are in, our own senses. Yet Leucippus taught the doctrine of atoms, whence he supposed all material substances to be formed. Of this^ect were Democritus and Heraclitus. 5. The Socratic school arose from the Ionic. Socrates died 401 A. C. the wisest, the most virtuous ol the Greeks. He exploded the futile logic of the Sophists, which consisted of a set of general argu- ments, applicable to all manner of questions, and by which they could, with an appearance of plausibility, maintain either side of any prop- osition. Socrates always brought his antagonist to particulars ; be- ginning with a simple and undeniable position, which being granted, another followed equally undeniable, till the disputant was conduct ed step by step, by his own concessions, to that side of the question on which lay the truth. His rivals lost all credit as philosophers, but had influence to procure the destruction of the man who had expos- ed them. The doctrines of Socrates are to be learned from Plato ' aad Xenophon. Fie taught the belief of a first cause, whose benefi- 46 ANCIENT HISTuKY. cence is equal to his power, the Creator and Ruler of the universe He inculcated the moral agency of man, the immortality of the soul, and a future state of reward and punishment. He exploded the polytheistic superstitions of his country, and thence became the victim of an accusation of impiety. (See Section XIII, § 5.) 6. The morality of Socrates was successfully cultivated by the Cyrenaic sect, but was pushed to extravagance by the Cynics. Vir- tue, in their opinion, consisted in renouncing all the conveniences of life. They clothed themselves in rags, slept and ate in the streets, or wandered about the country with a stick and a knapsack. They condemned all knowledge as useless. They associated impudence with ignorance, and indulged themselves in scurrility and invective without restraint. 7. TheMegarian sect was the happy inventor of logical syllogism, or the art of quibbling. 8. Plato was the founder of the Academic sect: a philosopher, whose doctrines have had a more extensive empire over the minds of mankind, than those of any other among the ancients. This is in part owing to their intrinsic merit, and in part to the eloquence with which they have been propounded. Plato had the most sublime ideas of the Divinity and his attributes. He taught that the human soul was a portion of the Divinity, and that this alliance with the eternal mind might be improved into actual intercourse with the Supreme Being, by abstracting the soul from all the corruptions which it derives from the body : a doctrine highly flattering to the pride of man, and generating that mystical enthusiasm which has the most powerful empire over- a warm imagination. 9. The Platonic philosophy found its chief opponents in four re- markable sects, the Peripatetic, the Sceptic, the Stoic, and the Epi- curean. 10. Aristotle, the founder of the Peripatetic sect, was the tutor of Alexander the great, and established his school in the Lyceum at Athens: a philosopher whose tenets have found more zealous parti zans and more rancorous opponents, than those of any other. His Metaphysics, from the sententious brevity of his expression, are ex- tremely obscure, and have given rise to numberless commentaries. The best analysis of his doctrines is given by Dr. Reid, in Lord Karnes's Sketches of the History of Man. His physical works are the result of great observation and acquaintance with nature ; and his critical writings, as his Poetics and Art of Rhetoric, display both taste and judgment. The peculiar passion of Aristotle was that of classi- fying, arranging, and combining the objects of his knowledge, so as to reduce all to a few principles : a very dangerous propensity in phi- losophy, and repressive of improvement in science. 11. The Sceptical sect wasxounded by Pyrrho. They formed no systems of their own, but endeavoured to weaken the foundations of those of all others. They inculcated universal doubt, as the only true wisdom. There was, in their opinion, no essential difference be- tween vice and virtue, further than as human compact had discrim- inated them. Tranquillity of mind they supposed to be the state of the greatest happiness, and this was to be attained by absolute indif- ference to all dogmas or opinions. \% The Stoics, proposing to themselves the same end, tranquillity of mind, took a nobler path to arrive at it They endeavoured to raise themselves above all the passions and feelings of humanity They believed all nature, and God himself, the soul of the universe, ANCIENT HISTORY 49 60 be regulated by iixed and immutable laws. The human soul be- ing a portion of the Divinity, man cannot complain of being actuated by that necessity which actuates the Divinity himself. His pains and his pleasures are 'determined by the same laws which determine his existence. Virtue consists in accommodating the disposition of the mind to the immutable laws of nature ; vice in opposing those laws . vice therefore is folly, and virtue the only true wisdom. A beautiful picture of the Stoical philosophy is found in the Meditations of M. Aurelius Antoninus, (fclee Madan's Translation.) 13. Epicurus taught that man's supreme happiness consisted in pleasure. He limited the term, so as to make it mean only the prac- tice of virtue. But if pleasure is allowed to be the object, every man will draw it from those sources which he finds can best supply it. It might have been the pleasure of Epicurus to be chaste and temperate. We are told that it was so. But others find their pleas- ure in intemperance and luxury, and such was the taste of his princi- pal followers. Epicurus held that the Deity was indifferent to all the dctions of man. His followers therefore had no other counsellor than their own conscience, and no other guide than the instinctive desire of their own happiness. 14. The Greek philosophy, on the whole, affords little more than a picture of the imbecility and caprice of the human mind. Its teachers, instead of experiment and observation, satisfied themselves with constructing theories ; and these wanting fact for their basis, have only served to perplex the understanding, and retard equally the advancement of sound morality and the progress of useful knowl- edge. SECTION XXIV. THE HISTORY OF ROME. 1. In the delineation of ancient history, Rome, after the conquest of Greece, becomes the leading object of attention. The history of this empire, in its progress to universal dominion, and afterwards in its decline and fall, involves a collateral account of ail the other na- tions of antiquity, which in those periods are deserving of our con- sideration. 2. Though we cannot determine the aera when Italy was first peo- pled, yet we have every reason to believe that it was inhabited by a refined and cultivated nation, many ages before the Roman name was known. These were^ the Etruscans, of whom there exist at this day monuments in the fine arts, which prove them to have been a splendid, luxurious, and highly polished people.— Their alphabet, resembling the Phoenician, disposes us to believe them of eastern origin. The Roman historians mention them as a powerful and opu- lent nation long before the origin of Rome;>id Dionysius of HaJi- camassus deduces most of the religious rites of the Romans from Etruria. -• 3. The rest of Italy was divided among a number of independent tribes or nations, comparatively in a rude and uncultivated state , Umbrians, Ligurians, Sabines, Veientes, Latins, /Equi, Volsci, &c Latium, a territory of fifty miles in length and sixteen in breadth, contained forty-seven independent cities or states. 4. The origin of the city and state of Rome is involved in greai uncertainty. Dionysius supposes two cities of that name to have 60 ANCIENT HISTORY. existed, and to have perished before the foundation of the city built by Romulus. The vulgar account of the latter is, that it was founded 752 A. C. by a troop of shepherds or banditti, who peo- pled their new city by carrying off the wives and daughters of their neighbours, the Sabines. 5. The great outlines of the first constitution of the Roman govern- ment, though generally attributed to the political abilities of Romu- lus, seem to have a natural foundation in the usages of barbarous nations. Other institutions bear the traces of political skill and posi- tive enactment. 6. Romulus is said to have divided his people into three tribes, and each tribe into ten curice. The lands he distributed into three por- tions ; one for the support of the government, another for the main- tenance of religion, and the third for the use of the Roman citizens, which he divided into equal portions of two acres to each citizen. He instituted a senate of 100 members (afterwards increased to 200,) who deliberated on and prepared all public measures for the assembly of the people, in whom was vested the right of determination. The partrician families were the descendants of those centum patres {hun- dredfathers). • .. 7. The king had the nomination of the senators, the privilege of assembling the people, and a right of appeal in all questions of im- portance. He had the command of the army, and the office of pwi~ tifex maxhnus {high priest). He had, as a guard, twelve lictors, and a troop of horsemen named celeres, or equites, afterwards the distinct order of Roman knights. These regulations are of positive institu- tion : others arose naturally from the state of society. 8. The patria potestas {paternal authority) is of the latter nature, be- ing common to all barbarous tribes. The limitation of all arts to the slaves arose from the constant employment of the citizens in warfare or in agriculture. 9. The connexion of patron and client was an admirable institu- tion, which at once united the citizens, and maintained a useful sub- ordination. 10. The Sabines were the most formidable enemy of the early Romans ; and a wise policy united for a while the two nations into one state. After the death of Romulus, who reigned thirty-seven years, Numa, a Sabine, was elected king.- Bis disposition was pious and pacific, and he endeavoured to give his people the same charac- ter. He pretended to divine inspiration, to give the greater authori- ty to his laws, which in themselves were excellent. He multiplied the national gods, built temples, and instituted different classes of priests, Jlamines, salii, &c., and a variety of religious ceremonies. The famines officiated each in the service of a particular deity ; the salii guarded the sacred bucklers ; the vestals cherished the sacred fire ; the augurs and aruspices divined future events from the flight of birds, and the entrails/of victims. The temple of Janus was open in war. and shut during peace. Numa reformed the calendar, regu- lating the year at twelve lunar months, and distinguished the days for civil occupation {.fasti) from those dedicated to religious rest inefasti). Agriculture was lawful on the latter, as a duty of religion, riiuma reigned forty-three years. 11. Tullus Hostilius, the third king of Rome, of" warlike disposi- ANCIENT HISTORY. 5 J 2. Ancus Martius, the grandson of Numa, waa elected king on tue death of Tullus. He inherited the piety and virtues of his grand- father, and joined to these the talents of a warrior. He increased the population of Rome, by naturalizing some of the conquered states ; enlarged and fortified the city, and built the port of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber. He reigned gloriously twenty-four years. 13. Tarquinius Priscus, a citizen of Corinth, popular from his wealth and liberality, was elected to the vacant throne. He enlarg- ed the senate by 100 new members from the plebeian families, palret minorum gentium [the fathers of the less families). This body consisted now of 300, at which number it remained for some centuries. Tar- quin was victorious in his wars, and adorned and improved the cily with works of utility and magnificence. Such were the circus or hippodrome, the wails of hewn stone ; the capitol ; the cloacae, those immense common sewers, which lead to the belief that the new Rome had been built on the ruins of an ancient city of greater mag- nitude. Tarquinius was assassinated in the thirty-eighth year of his reign. 14. Servius Tullius, who had married the daughter of Tarquinius, secured, by his cwn address and the intrigues of his mother-in-law, his election to the vacant throne. He courted popularity by acts of munificence ; discharging the debts of the poor, dividing among the citizens his patrimonial lands, improving the city with useful edihces, and extending its boundaries. The new arrangement which he in- troduced in the division of the Roman citizens is a proof of much po- litical ability, and merits attention, as on it depended many of the revolutions of the republic. 1 5. From the time that the Romans had admitted the Albans and Sabines to the rights of citizens, the urban and rustic tribes were composed of those three nations.- Each tribe being divided into ten curke } and every curia having an equal vote in the comitia, as each individual had in his tribe, all questions were decided by the majority of suffrages. There was no pre-eminence between the curia, and the order in which they gave their votes was determined by lot. This was a reasonable constitution, so long as the fortune's of the citizens were nearly on a par ; but, when riches came to be une- qually divided, it was obvious that much inconvenience must have arisen from this equal partition of power, as the rich could easily, by bribery, command the suffrages of the poor. Besides, all the taxe"s had hitherto been levied by the head, without any regard to the in- equality of fortunes. These obvious defects furnished to Servius a just pretext for an entire change of system. His plan was, to remove the poorer citizens from all share" of the government, while the burdens attending its support should fall solely on the rich. 16. All the citizens were required, under a heavy penalty, to de- clare upon oath their names, dwellings, number of their children, and amount of their fortune. After this numeration or census, Ser- vius divided the whole citizens, without distinction, into four tribes, named, from the quarters where they dwelt, the Palatine, Suburran, Collatine, and Esquiline. Beside this local division, Servius distribut- ed the whole people into six classes, and each class into several centuries or portions of citizens so called, not as actually consisting of a hundred, but as being obliged to furnish and maintain 100 men in time of war. In the first class, which consisted of the richest citi- zens, or those who were worth at least 100 minas (about 300/. ster- ling), there were no less than ninety-eight centuries. In the second 52 ANCIENT HISTORY. class (those worth 75 mince) there were twenty-two centuries. In the third (those worth 50 mince) were twenty centuries, in the fourth (those worth 25 mince) twenty-two centuries. In the fifth (those worth 12 mines) thirty centuries. The sixth, the most nu- merous of the whole, comprehending all the poorer citizens, furnish- ed only one century. Thus the whole Roman people were divided into 193 centuries, or portions of citizens, so called, as furnishing each a hundred soldiers. The sixth class was declared exempt from taxes. The other classes, according to the number cf centuries of which they consisted, were rated for the public burdens at so much for each century. 17. The poor had r:o reason to complain of this arrangement; but something was wanting to compensate the rich for the burdens to which they were subjected. For this purpose Servius enacted, that henceforth the cornitia should give their votes by centuries ; the first class, consisting of ninety-eight centuries, always voting first. Thus, though the whole people were called to the cornitia, and all seemed to have an equal suffrage, yet in reality the richer classes determin- ed every question, the suffrage of the poor being merely nominal ; for as the whole people formed 193 centuries, and the first and second classes contained 120 of these, if they were unanimous, which gen- erally happened in questions of importance, a majority was secured. Thus, in the cornitia centuriata {assemblies in which the people voted by centuries), in which the chief magistrates were elected, peace and war decreed, and all other important business discussed, the richer classes of the citizens had the sole authority, the votes of the poor being of no avail. And such was the ingenuity of this policy, that all were pleased with it : the rich paid their taxes with cheerfulness, as the price of theirpower; and the poor gladly exchanged authority for immunities. The census, performed every five years, was closed by a lustrum, or expiatory sacrifice ; and hence that period of time was called a lustrum. 18. Servius was assassinated, after a reign of forty-four years, by his infamous daughter Tullia, married to Tarquinius, the grandson of Priscus, who thus paved the way for his own elevation to the throne. The government of Tarquin, surnamed the proud, was sys- tematically tyrannical. He ingratiated himself with the lower orders, to abase by their means the power of the higher ; but, insolent, ra- pacious, and cruel, he finally disgusted all ranks of his subjects. A rape committed by his son Sextus on Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, who, unable to survive her dishonour, stabbed herself in presence of her husband and kindred, roused their vengeance, and procured, by their influence with their countrymen, the expulsion of the tyrant, and the utter abolition of the regal dignity at Rome, 509 A. C. Reflections on the Government and State of Rome during the period of the kings. 19. The whole structure of the. constitution of the Romans under the monarchy has been by most authors erroneously attributed ex- clusively to the abilities of Romulus, a youth of eighteen, the leader of a L:oop of shepherds or banditti. This chimerical idea we owe to Dionysius of Haiicarnassus. The truth is, the Roman government, nice almost every other, was the gradual result of circumstances ; the fruit of time, and of political emergency. 20. The constitution of the Roman senate has occasioned consider- ANCIENT HISTORY. 53 able research, and is not free from obscurity. It is probable that the kings had the sole right of naming the senators, that the consuls suc- ceeded them in this right, and afterwards, when these magistrates found too much occupation from the frequent wars in which the state was engaged, that privilege devolved on the censors. The senators were at first always chosen from the body of the patricians, but after- wards the plebeians acquired an equal title to that dignity. In the early periods of the republic the people coujd not be assembled but by the senate's authority ; nor were the plebiscite: {decrees of the peo- ple) of any weight till confirmed by their decree. Hence the early constitution of the republic was rather aristocratical than democrat- ical. From this extensive power of the senate the first diminution was made by the creation of the tribunes of the people ; and other retrenchments successively took place, till the people acquired at length the predominant power in the state. Yet the senate, even after every usurpation on their authority, continued to have, in many points, a supremacy. They regulated all matters regarding religion; had the custody of the public treasure ; superintended the conduct of all magistrates ; gave audience to ambassadors ; decided on the fate of vanquished nations ; disposed of the governments of the provinces ; and took cognizance, by appeal, in all crimes against the state. In great emergencies they appointed a dictator, with absolute authority. 21. At the period of the abolition of the regal government the ter- ritory of the Romans was extremely limited. The only use which they made of their victories was to naturalize the inhabitants ol some of the conquered states, and so increase their population. Thus, their strength being always superior to their enterprise, they laid a solid foundation for the future extension of their empire. 22. In the accounts given by historians of the strength of the ar- mies, both of the Romans in those early times, and of the neighbour- ing states, their enemies, we have every reason to believe there is much exaggeration. The territories from which those armies were furnished were incapable of supplying them. 23. In the continual wars in which the republic was engaged the Romans \\ ere most commonly the^ aggressors. The causes of this seem to ha, r e been the ambition of the consuls to distinguish their short admmisfration by some splendid enterprise, and the wish of the senate to give the people occupation, to prevent intestine disquiets. 24. The regal government subsisted 244 years, and in that time only seven kings reigned, several of whom died a violent death. These circumstances throw doubt on the authenticity of this period of the Roman history. It is allowed that there were no historians for the five first centuries after the building of Rome. The first is Fabius Pictor. who lived during the second Punic war. Livy says that almost all the ancient records were destroyed when Rome was taken by the Gauls. SECTION XXV. ROME UNDER THE CONSULS. 1 . The regal government being abolished, it was agreed to commit the supreme authority to two magistrates, who should be annually elected by the people from' the patrician order. To these they gave the names of consules ; " a modest title 9 (says Vertot), which gave to E2 54 ' ANCIENT HISTORi. understand that they were rather the counsellors of the republic than its sovereigns; and that the only point which they ought to have in view was its preservation and glory." But, in fact, their authority differed scarcely in any thing from that of the kings. They had the supreme administration of justice, the disposal of the public money, the power of convoking the senate and assembling the peo- ple, raising armies, naming all the officers, and the right of making peace and war. The only difference was, that their authority was limited to a year. 2. The first consuls were Brutus and Collatinus (the husband of Lucretia). Tarquin was at this time in Etruria, where he got two of the most powerful cities, Veil and Tarquinii, to espouse his cause. He had likewise his partisans at Rome, and a plot was formed to open the gates to receive him. It was detected, and Brutus had the mortification to find his two sons in the number of the conspira- tors. He condemned them to be beheaded in his presence. Exuit patrem at consulem agerei ; orbusque vivere, quarn publico* vindiclce deesse •maluit. Val. Max. He ceased to be a father, that he might execute the duties of a consul ; and chose to live childless railier than to neglect the public punishment of a crime. 3. The consul Valerius, successful in an engagement with the ex iled Tarquin, was the first Roman who enjoyed the splendid reward of a triumph. Arrogant from his recent -honours, his popularity be- gan to decline ; and, in a view of recovering it, he proposed the law, termed from him the Valerian, which " permitted any citizen who * had been condemned to death by a magistrate, or even to banish- ment or scourging, to appeal to the people, and required their con- sent previously to the execution of the sentence.'" This law gave the first blow to the aristocracy in the constitution of the Roman re- public. 4. For thirteen years after the expulsion of Tarquin, the Romans were involved in continual wars on his account. Of these the most remarkable was the war with the Etrurians, under Porsena ; a war fertile m exploits of romantic heroism. ■ 5. Soon after this period began those domestic disorders, which continued long to embroil the republic. Great complaints had arisen among the poorer classes of the citizens, both on account of the ine- quality of property, from the partial distribution of the conquered lands, which the higher ranks generally contrived to engross to them- selves, and from the harsh policy by which it was in the power of creditors to reduce to a state of slavery their insolvent debtors. As there was no legal restraint on usury, the poor, when once reduced to the necessity °of contracting debts, were left entirely at the mercy of their creditors. These grievances, felt in common by a large pro- portion of the citizens, excited much discontent, which, from com- plaints long ' disregarded, grew at length into a spirit of determined resistance. The wars required new levies, and the plebeians posi- tively refused to enrol their names, unless the senate should put an end to their oppression, by decreeing at once an abolition of all the debts due by the poor to the rich. The emergency was critical, as the enemy was at the gates of Rome. The consuls found their au- thority of no avail 5 for the Valerian law had given any citizen con- demned by them a right of appeal to the people. An extraordinary measure was necessary, and a dictator was created for the first time j a magistrate who, for the period of six months, was invested with absolute and unlimited authority. Lartius, nominated to this high ANCIENT HISTORY. bb office, armed the twenty-four lictora with axes, summoned the whole oeople to the comitia, and calling over the names, under the penalty of death to any citizen who should dare to murmur, enrolled all such as he judged most fit for the service of their country. This expedi- ent became henceforward a frequent and certain resource in all sea- sons of public danger. 6. The death of Tarquin removed one check against the tyranny of the higher over the lower orders ; for the latter had hitherto kept alive a salutary apprehension, that, in case of extreme oppression, they would be under the necessity of calling back their king. Whee this fear was at an end, the domineering spirit of the patricians, ex- ceeding every bound both of good policy and humanity, drove the people at length to deeds of mutiny and rebellion. An alarm from the enemy gave full weight to their power, and made the chief magis- trates of the state solemnly engage their honour to procure , a re- dress of their grievances, as soon as the public danger was at an end. The promise, either from a failure of will or of power, was not ful- filled, and this violation of faith drove the people at length to ex- tremities. Bound by their military oath not to desert their standards, they carried them along with them ; and the whole army, in military array, withdrew from Rome, and deliberately encamped on the Mons Sacer, at three miles distance from the city ; and here they were soon joined by the greater part of the people. This resolute procedure had its desired effect. The senate deputed ten persons, the most re- spectable of their order, with plenary powers; and these, seeing no medium of compromise, granted to the people all their demands. The debts were solemnly abolished ; and, for the security of their privileges in future, they were allowed the right of choosing magis- trates of their own order, who should have the power of opposing with effect every measure which they should judge prejudicial to their interests. These were the tribunes of the people, chosen annu- ally ; at first five in number, and afterwards increased to ten. With- out guards or tribunal, and having no seat in the senate-house, they had yet the power, by a single veto, to suspend or annul the decrees of the senate and the sentences of the consuls. Their persons were declared sacred, but their authority was confined to the limits of a mile from the city. The tribunes demanded and obtained two magis- trates to assist them, who were termed eediles, from the charge com- mitted to them of the buildings of the city. 7. From this aera (260 years from the foundation of Rome) we date the commencement of the popular constitution of the Roman repub- lic : a change operated by the unwise policy of the patricians them- selves, who, by yielding to just complaints, and humanely redressing flagrant abuses, might have easily anticipated every ground of dis- satisfaction. The first wish of the people was not power, but relief from tyranny and oppression ; and if this had been readily granted them by abolishing the debts, or at least by repressing enormous usury, and putting an end to the inhuman right of corporal punish- ment and the bondage of debtors, the people would have cheerfully returned to order and submission, and the Roman constitution would have long remained aristocratical, as we have seen it was at the com- mencement of the consular government. But the plebeians having now obtained magistrates of their own order with those high powers, we shall see it become the object of those magistrates to increase their authority by continual demands and bold encroachments. The people, regarclinor them as the champions of their rights, are deiipht- oO ANCIENT HISTORY. ed to llnd themselves gradually approaching to a level with the higher order; and, no longer bounding their desires to ease and se- curity , are soon equally influenced by ambition* as their superiors. While this people, borne down by injustice, seek no more than the redress of real grievances, we sympathize with their leelings, and applaud their spirited exertions. But when they had at length com- passed the end which they wished, obtained ease and security, nay, power which they had neither sought nor expected ; when we see them, after this, increasing in their demands, assuming that arrogance which they justly blamed in their superiors, goaded on by the am- bition of "their leaders to tyrannize in their turn ; we view with proper discrimination the love of liberty and its extreme licentious- ness ; and treat with just detestation the authors of those pernicious measures, which embroiled the state in endless faction, and paved the way for the total loss of that liberty, of which this deluded people knew not the value when they actually possessed it. SECTION XXVI. THE LAW OF VOLERO. 1. The disorders of the commonwealth, appeased by the creation of the tribunes, were but for a time suspended. It was necessary that the popular magistrates should make an experiment of their powers. In an assembly of the people one of the consuls, interrupt- ed by a tribune, rashly said, that if the tribunes had called that assem- bly, he would not have interrupted them. This was a concession on the part of the consuls, that the tribunes had the power of assem- bling the comitia, which, from tnat moment, they assumed as their acknowledged right. It was a consequence of this right, that the affairs of the commonwealth should be agitated in those meetings, equally as in the assemblies held in virtue of a consular summons, or senatorial decree, and thus there were, in a manner, two distinct legislative powers established in the republic. 2. The trial of Conolanus for inconsiderately proposing the aboli- tion of the tribunate, an offence interpreted to be treason against the state, threw an additional weight into the scale of the people. The proposal of an agrarian law, for the division of the lands acquired by recent conquests, resumed at intervals, though never carried into execution, inflamed the passions of the rival orders. 3. Publius Volero, formerly a centurion, and a man distinguished for his military services, had, in the new levies, been ranked as a common soldier. Complaining of this unmerited degradation, he re- fused his services in that capacity ; and the consuls having con- demned him to corporal punishment, he appealed from their sen- tence to the people. The contest lasted till the annual term of elec- tions, when Voiero himself was chosen a tribune of the people. He had an ample revenge, by procuring the enactment of a most impor- tant law. The comitia by centuries and by curias could be called only in virtue of a decree of the senate, after consulting the auspices; and" in those comitia the tribunes had hitherto been elected, and the most important public affairs discussed. It was decreed by the law of Volero, that the election of the tribunes should be made, and the chief public business henceforward discussed, in the comitia held by tribe? which were unfettered by any of those restraints. From this ANCIENT HISTORY. 57 period the supreme authority in the Roman republic may be consid- ered as having passed completely from the higher order into the hands of the people. The Roman constitution was now plainly a democracy, 471 A. C. SECTION XXVII. THE DECEMVIRATE. 1. The Romans had, till thi3 period, no body of civil laws. — Under the regal government the kings alone administered justice; the consuls succeeded them in this high prerogative, and thus possessed without control the absolute command of the fortunes and civil rights of all the citizens. To remedy this great defect, Terentilius, a tri- bune, proposed the nomination of ten commissioners, to frame and digest a code of laws for the explanation and security of the rights of ail orders of the state. Anieasure so equitable ought to have met with no opposition. It was, however, strenuously opposed by the patricians, who, by a fruitless contest, only exposed their own weak- ness. The decemviri were chosen ; but the election being made in the comitia by centuries, the consul Appius Claudius, with his col- league, were at the head of this important commission. The laws were framed, those celebrated statutes known by the name of the Twelve Tables, which are the basis of the great structure of the Roman jurisprudence, 451 A. C. 2. An acquaintance with these ancient laws is therefore of impor- tance. Even in the most flourishing times of the republic they con- tinued to be of the highest authority. They have the encomium of Cicero himself; and we learn from him, that to commit these laws to memory was an essential part of a liberal education. From the twelve tables the jurisconsuiti composed a system of judicial forms, for the regulation of the different tribunals. The number of the laws was likewise from time to time increased by the senatusconsuUa and plebiscites,. 3. The decemvirs were invested with all the powers of govern- ment, for the consulate had ceased on their creation. Each decem- vir by turn presided for a day, and had the sovereign authority, with its insignia, the fasces. The nine others officiated solely as judges in the determination of lawsuits, and the correction of abuses. An abuse, however, of the most flagrant nature, committed by the chief of their own number, was destined speedily to bring their office to its termination. 4. Appius Claudius, inflamed by lawless passion for the young Virginia, the betrothed spouse of Icilius, formerly a tribune of the people, employed a profligate dependant' to claim the maiden as his own property, on the false pretence of her being the daughter of one of his female isiaves. The claim was made to the d'ecemvir himself in judgment, who pronounced an infamous decree, which tore from her family this helpless victim, and put her into the hands of his own minion. Her father, to save the honour of his child, plunged a dagger into her breast ; and the people, witnesses of this shocking scene, would have massacred Appius on the spot^ if he had not found means to escape amidst the tumult. Their vengeance, however, was satiated by the instant abolition of this hated magis- tracy, and by the death of Appius, who chose by his own hand to 8 - 58 ANCIENT HISTORY. prevent the stroke of the executioner. The decenwirate had sub* ' sisted for three years. The consuls were now' restored, together with the tribunes of the people, 449 A. C. SECTION XXVIII. INCREASE OF THE POPULAR POWER. 1 . The scale of the people was daily acquiring weight, at the ex- pense of that of the highest, order. Two barriers, however, still separated the patricians and plebeians : one, a law which prevented their intermarriage, and the other, the constitutional limitation of all the higher offices to the order of the patricians. It was only neces- sary to remove these^ restrictions, and the patricians and plebeians were on a footing of perfect equality. The first, after a long but fruitless contest, was at length agreed to by. the senate ; and this concession had its usual effect of stimulating tne people to inflexible perseverance in their struggle for the latter. On an emergence oi war the customary device was practised, of refusing to enter the rolls, unless upon the immediate enactment of a law, which should admit their capacity of holding all the offices of the republic. The senate sought a palliative, by the creation of six military tribunes ip lieu of the consuls, three oi whom should be patricians, and three plebeians. This measure satisfied the people for a time : the consuls however, were soon restored. 2. The disorders of the republic, and frequent wars, had inter rupted the regular survey of the citizens. This was remedied., bj the creation of a new magistracy. Two officers, under the title oi censors, were appointed (437 A. C), whose duty was not only 1o make the census every five years, out to inspect the morals, and regulate the duties of all the citizens : an office of dignity equal to its importance, exercised, in the latter times of the republic, only by consular persons, and afterwards annexed to the supreme functions of the emperors. 3. The dissensions between the orders continued, with little varia- tion either in their causes or effects. The people generally, as the last resource, refused to enrol themselves, till overawed by the supreme authority of a dictator. To obviate the frequent necessity of this measure, which enforced at best an unwilling and compelled obedience, the senate had recourse to a wise, expedient : this was, to give a regular pay to the troops. To defray this expense a mod- erate tax was imposed in proportion to the fortunes of the citizens. From this period the Roman system of war assumed a new aspect. The senate alw T ays found soldiers at command ; the army w r as under its control; the enterprises of the republic were more extensive, and its successes more signal and important. Veii, the proud rival of Rome, and its equal in extent and population, was taken by Camil- lus, after a siege of ten years, A. t). C. 396. The art of war was in; .proved, as it now r became a profession, instead of an occasional occupation. The Romans were, from this circumstance, an over- match for all their neighbours. Their dominion, hitherto confined to the territory of a (ew miles, was now rapidly extended. It was impossible but that the detached states of Italy must have given way before a people who were always in arms, and, by a perseverance alike resolute raid judicious, were equal to every attempt in which they engaged. ANCIENT H1S1 GUY. 5i5 4. The taking of Veii was succeeded by a war with the Gauls This people, a branch of the great nation of the Celtae, had opened to themselves a passage through the Alps at four different periods, and were at this time established in the country between those mountains and the Appenines. Under the command of Brennus they laid siege to the Etruscan Clusium j and the people, of no warlike turn themselves, solicited the aid of the Romans. The circumstan- ces recorded of this war with the Gauls throw over it a cloud of table arid romance. The formidable power of Rome is said to have been, in a single campaign, so utterly exhausted, that the Gauls en- tered the city without resistance, and burnt it to the ground, 385 A. C. Though thus overpowered, the Romans, in a single engagement, retrieve ail their losses, and m one day's time there is not a Gaul left remaining within the Roman territory. To the burning of the city by the Gauls, the Roman writers attri- bute the loss of ail the records and monuments of their early history. 5. It is singular, that most of the Roman revolutions should have owed their origin to women. From this cause we have seen spring the abolition of the. regal office and the decemvirate. From this cause arose the change of the constitution, by which the plebeians became capable of holding the highest offices of the commonwealth. The younger daughter of Fabius Ambustus, married to a plebeian, envious of the honours of her elder sister, the wife of a patrician, stimulated her father to rouse, the iow 7 er order to a resolute purpose of asserting their equal right with the patricians to all the offices and dignities of the state. After much turbulence and contest the final issue "vv as the admission of the plebeians, first to the consulate, and afterwards to the censorship, the prsetorship, and priesthood (A. U. C. 454, and A. C. 300) . a change beneficial in the main, as consoli- dating the strength of the republic, and cutting oft' the principal source of intestine disorder. The factions of the state had hitherto confined the growth of its power, its splendour, and prosperity ; for no state can at once be prosperous and anarchical. We shall now mark the rapid elevation of the Roman name and empire. SECTION XXIX. CONQUEST OF ITALY BY THE ROMANS. 1. The war with the Samnites now began, and was of long contin- uance ; but its successful termination was speedily followed by the reduction of all the states of Italy. In the course of this important war the Tarentines, the allies of the Samnites, sought the aid of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, one of the greatest generals of his age. Pyrr- hus landed in Italy with 30,000 men and a train of elephants, 280 A. C. He was at first successful, but no longer so than till a short ex- perience reconciled the Romans to a lie w mode of war. Sensible at length of the difficulties of his enterprise, and dreading a fatal issue, he embraced an invitation from the Sicilians to aid them in a w r ar with Carthage. On this pretest, which at least was not dishonours' ble, Pyrrhus withdrew his troops from Italy. . In this interval the Romans reduced to extremity the Samnites, the Tarentines, and the other allied states. Pyrrhus returned, and made a last effort near Beneventum. Be was totally defeated, lost 26,000 men, and aban- doning at once, all further views to Italy, returned with precipitation i 60 ANCIENT HISTORY. to his own dominions, 274 A. C. The hostile states submitted to the victorious power; and Rome, 480 years from the foundation of the ci ty, was now mistress of all Italy. 2. The policy observed by the Romans, with respect to the con- quered nations, was wise and judicious. They removed to Rome all the leading men of the principal conquered cities, admitting them into the ancient urban and rustic tribes, and thus soothing the pride of the vanquished, by giving them an apparent share in their own do- mestic government; while, in arranging the constitution of the cities, they filled their magistracies with illustrious Romans, whose abilities and influence were fitted to maintain those new provinces in alle- giance to the Roman government. 3. Sicily had long been considered the granary of Italy. The Carthaginians at this time possessed considerable settlements in the island, and were ambitious of acquiring its entire dominion. An ob- vious policy fed the Romans to dispute with them this important ac- quisition, and gave rise to the Punic wars. This leads, by a natural connexion, to a short view of the history of Carthage and of Sicily. SECTION XXX. HISTORY OF CARTHAGE. 1. Carthage, according to the most probable accounts, was founded by a colony of Tyrians, about seventy years before the building of Rome. The colony had the same language, the same or nearly similar laws and constitution, the same national character, with the parent state. The city of Carthage was, at the period of the Punic wars, one of the most splendid in the world, and had under its domin- ion 300 of the smaller cities of Africa bordering on the Mediterranean sea. 2. The constitution of the republic is celebrated by Aristotle as one Of the most perfect of the governments of antiquity ; but we know little more than its general nature from ancient writers. Two magistrates, named suffetes, annually chosen, seem to have possessed powers akin to those of the Roman consuls ; and the Carthaginian senate to those of the senate of Rome ; with this remarkable differ- ence, that, in the former, unanimity of opinion was requisite in all measures of importance. A divided senate transmitted the business to the assembly of the people. A tribunal of 104 judges took cog- nizance of military operations, and of the conduct of their generals. A superior council of five seems to have controled the decisions of the larger tribunal. Two peculiarities of the Carthaginian policy »ave been censured by Aristotle. One peculiarity was, that the same person might hold several employments or offices in the state ; the other that the poor were debarred from all offices of trust or import- ance. But the former of these is frequently both expedient and necessary, and the latter seems agreeable to the soundest policy ; for in offices of trust poverty offers too powerful an incitement to devia- tion from duty. 3. The first settlements made by the Carthaginians were entirely in the way of commerce. Trading to the coast of Spain for gold, they built Carthagena and Gades : and coasting along the western shore of Africa, they had establishments for the same purpose as far as the 25th degree of north latitude. The Periplus of Hanno affords ANCIENT HISTORY. 61 a proof of ardent enterprise and policy. Desirous of extending a limited territory they armed against the Mauritanians, Numidians, and all the neighbouring nations; employing mercenary troops, which they levied, 'not only in Africa, but in Spain, the two Gauls, and Greece. 4. The annals of the Carthaginian state are little known till their wars with the Romans. The first of their wars mentioned in history is that with the Greek colonies of Sicily. Darius courted their alli- ance when he meditated the conquest of Greece ; and Xerxes re- newed that treaty when he followed out the designs of his father. SECTION XXXI. HISTORY OF SICILY. 1. The early periods of the history of Sicily are as little known as tnose of Carthage. The Phoenicians had sent colonies to Sicily be~ fore the Trojan war. The Greeks, in after times, made considerable settlements in the island. The Corinthians founded Syracuse, which became the most illustrious of the Greek cities of Sicily; and from Syracuse arose afterwards Agrigentum, Acra, Casmene, Camarene, and several other Sicilian towns. 2. The government of Syracuse was monarchical, and might have long remained so, if all its sovereigns had inherited the abilities and virtues of Gelon. But his successors, exercising the worst of tyran- ny, compelled their subjects at length to abolish the regal govern- ment ; and their example was speedily followed by all the Grecian states of Sicily. 3. The monarchy of Syracuse, however, was revived about sixty years after in the person of Dionysius, a man of obscure origin, but of signal ability. Twice expelled for a tyrannical exercise of domin • ion, he as often founl means to overpower his enemies, and re-estab* lish himself in the throne. At his death the crown passed, without opposition, to his son, Dionysius the younger, a weak and capricious tyrant,, whom his subjects judging unworthy to reign, dethroned and banished, 357 A. C. The crown was conferred on Dion, his brother-* in-law, whose amiable character rendered him the delight of his people. But after a short reign this prince fell a victim to treason. Aided 'by the distractions of Syracuse consequent on this event, Dio- nysius remounted the throne ten years after his expulsion ; but his tyrannical disposition, heightened by his misfortunes, became at length so intolerable, that he was expelled a second time, and [•y owed equally its liberty and its subsequent happiness and prosperity, 343 A. C, The signal opposition of national character between the Romans and the Carthaginians may be easily explained, when we attend to the effects of a commercial life on the genius and manners of a nation. The vices of a commercial people are selfishness, cunning, avarice, with an absence of every heroic and patriotic virtue. The favoura- Dle effects of commerce are industry, frugality, general courtesy of manners, improvement in the useful arts. Attending to these conse- 62 ANCIENT HISTORY. qences < principa Roman. qences of the prevalence of the commercial spirit, we shall see the principal features of the Carthaginian character opposed to the SECTION XXXII. THE PUNIC WARS. 1. The triumph which the Romans had obtained over Pyrrhus seemed to give assurance of success in any enterprise in which they should engage. The Mamertines, a people of Campania, obtained aid from the Romans in an unjustifiable attempt which they made to seize Messina, a Sicilian town allied to Syracuse. The Syracusans, at first assisted by the Carthaginians, opposed this invasion ; but the former, more alarmed by the ambitious encroachments of the Car- thaginians on Sicily, soon repented of this rash alliance, and joined the Romans in the purpose of expelling the Carthaginians entirely from the island. In fact the Sicilians seem to have had only the des- perate choice of final submission either to Rome or Carthage. They chose the former, as the alternative least dishonourable. The Romans had ever been their friends, the Carthaginians their enemies. 2. Agrigentum, possessed by the Carthaginians, was taken, after a long siege, by the joint forces of Rome a?nd Syracuse. A Roman fleet, the first which they ever had, was equipped in a few weeks, and gained a complete victory over that of Carthage, at. this time the greatest maritime power in the world, 260 A. C. These successes were followed by the reduction of Corsica and Sardinia. In a second naval engagement the Romans took from the Carthaginians sixty of their ships of war, and now resolutely prepared for the invasion of (Africa. The consul Regulus commanded the expedition. He ad- vanced to the gates of Carthage ; and such was the general conster- nation that the enemy proposed a capitulation. Inspirited, however, by a timely aid of Greek troops under Xantippus, the Carthaginians made a desperate effort, and, defeating the Roman army, made Regu- lus their prisoner. But, repeatedly defeated in Sicily, they were at length seriously desirous of a peace ; and the Roman general was sent with their ambassadors to Rome to aid the negotiation, under a solemn oath to return to Carthage as a prisoner, if the treaty should fail. It was rejected at the urgent desire of Regulus, who -thus sac- rificed his life to what he judged the interest of his country. 3. Lilybceum, the strongest of the Sicilian towns belonging to Cartilage, was taken after a siege of nine years After some alter- nate successes two naval battles won by the Romans terminated the war, and Carthage at last obtained a peace on the humiliating terms of abandoning to the Romans all her possessions in Sicily, the pay- ment of 3,200 talents of silver, the restitution of all prisoners without ransom, and a solemn engagement never to make war against Syra- cuse or her allies. The island of Sicily was now declared a Roman province, though Syracuse maintained its independent government, A.U. C. 511, and A. C. 241. ' 4. The peace between Rome and Carthage was of twenty-three yeare' duration. The latter power was recruiting its strength, and meditated to revenge its losses and disgrace. The second Punic war began on the part of the Carthaginians, who besieged Saguntum, a city of Spain, in alliance with the Romans The young HannibaJ ANCIENT HISTORY. 63 took Saguntuin after a siege of seven months ; the desperate inhabi tants setting fire to the town, and perishing amidst the names. Han nibal now formed the bold design of carrying the war i nto Italy. He Erovided against every difficulty, gained to his interest a part of the railic tribes, passed the Pyrenees, and finally the Alps,* in a toil- some march of five months and a half from his leaving Carthagena; and arrived in Italy with 20,000 foot and 6,000 horse. 5 In the first engagement the Romans were defeated. They also lost two other important battles at Trebia, and the lake Thrasyme nus. In the latter of these the consul Flaminius was killed, and his army cut to pieces. Hannibal advanced to Carman in Apulia, where the Romans opposed him with their whole force. A memorable defeat ensued, in which 40,000 Romans were left dead upon the field, and among these the consul iEmilius, and almost the whole body of the knights. If Hannibal had taken advantage of this great victory, by instantly attacking Rome, the fate of the republic was inevitable; but he deliberated, and the occasion was lost. The Romans concentrated all their strength. Even the slaves armed in the common cause, and victory ouce more attended the standards of the republic. Philip, king of Macedon, joined his forces to the Carthaginians, but, defeated Dy Levinus, speedily withdrew his as- sistance. Hannibal retreated before the brave Marcellus. Syracuse had now taken part with Carthage, and thus paved the way ibr the loss of its own liberty. Marcellus besieged the city, which was long defended by the inventive genius of Archimedes; but was taken in the third year by escalade in the night. This event put an end to the kingdom of Syracuse, which now became a part of the Roman province of Sicily, A. U. C. 542, A. C. 212. 6. While the- war in Italy was prosperously conducted by the great Fabius, who, by constantly avoiding a general engagement, tound the true method of weakening his enemy, the younger Scipio accomplished the entire reduction of Spain. Asdrubal was sent into Italy to the aid of his brother Hannibal, but was defeated by the consul Claudius, and slain in battle. Scipio, triumphant in Spain, passed over into Africa, and carried havoc and devastation to the gates of Carthage. Alarmed for the fate of their empire- the Car- thaginians hastily recalled Hannibal from Italy. The battle of Zenaa decided the fate of the war, by the utter defeat of the Cartha- ginians. They entreated a peace, which the Romans gave on these conditions : that the Carthaginians should abandon Spain, Sicily, and all the islands; surrender all their prisoners, give up the whole of th^ir fleet except ten gall'es, pay 10,000 talents, and, in future, undertake no war without consent of the Romans, A. U. C. 552, A. C. 202. 7. Every thing now concurred to swell the pride of the conquer- ors, and to extend their dominion. A war with Philip of Macedon was terminated by his defeat ; and his son Demetrius was sent to Rome as a hostage for the payment of a heavy tribute imposed on the vanquished. A war with Antiochus, king of Syria, ended in his ceding to the Romans the whoie of the Lesser Asia. But these splendid conquests, while they enlarged the empire, were fatal to its * The passage of Hannibal over the Alps has been lately illustrated, in a most learned and ingenious essay, by Mr. Whitaker (the celebrated historian of Manchester, and vindicator of Queen Mary), who has, with great acuteness, traced every step of the Carthaginian general, from hi* crossing the Rhone to his final arrival in Italy. 64 > ANCIENT HISTORY. virtues, and subversive of the pure and venerable simplicity oi ancient times. 8. The third Punic war began A. U. C. 605, A. C. 149, and ended in the ruin of Carthage. An unsuccessful war with the Numidian9 had reduced the Carthaginians to great weakness, and the Romans meanly laid hold of that opportunity to invade Africa. Conscious oi their utter inability to resist this formidable power, the Carthaginians offered every submission, and consented even to acknowledge them- selves the subjects of Rome. The Romans demanded 300 hostages, for the strict performance of every condition that should be enjoined by the senate. The hostages were given, and the condition requir ed was, that Carthage itself should be razed to its foundation. Des- pair gave courage to this miserable people, and they determined to die in the defence of their native city. But the noble effort was in vain. Carthage was taken bv storm, its inhabitants massacred, and the city burnt to the ground, A. U. C. 607, A. C. 146. 9. r Ihe same year was signalized by the entire reduction of Greece under the dominion of the Romans. This was the aera of the dawn of luxury and taste at Rome, the natural fruit of foreign wealth, and an acquaintance with foreign manners. In the unequal distribution of this imported wealth, the vices to which it gave rise, the corruption and venality of which it became the instrument, we see the remoter causes of those fatal disorders to which the republic owed its dissolution. SECTION XXXIII. THE GRACCHI, AND THE CORRUPTION OF THE COMMON- WEALTH. 1. At this period arose Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, two noble vouths, whose zeal to reform the growing corruptions of the state, precipitated them at length into measures destructive of all govern- ment and social order. Tiberius, the elder of the brothers, urged the people to assert by force tho revival of an ancient law, for limit- ing property in land, and thus abridging the overgrown estates of the patricians. A tumult was the consequence, in which Tiberius, with 300 of his friends, were killed in the forum. This fatal example did not deter his brother, Caius Gracchus, from pursuing a similar career of zeal or of ambition. After some successful experiments of his pow er, while in the office of tribune, he directed his scrutiny into the cor- ruptions of the senate, and prevailed in depriving that body of its con stitutional control over all the inferior magistrates of the state. Em- Eloying, like his brother, the dangerous engine of tumultuary force, e fell a victim to it himself, with 3,000 of his partisans, who were slaughtered in the streets of Rome. The tumults attending the se- dition of the Gracchi were the prelude to those civil disorders which now followed in quick succession to the end of the commonwealth. 2. The circumstances attending the war with .Jugurtha gave deci- sive proof of the corruption of the Roman manners. Jugurtha, grandson of Masinissa, sought to usurp the crown of Numidia by destroying his cousins, Hiempsal and Adherbal, the sons of the last king. He murdered the elder of the brothers; and the younger applying for aid to Rome, Jugurtha bribed the senate, who declared him innocent of all culpable act or design, and decreed to him the ANCIENT HISTORY 6S sovereignty of half the kingdom. This operated only as an incentive to his criminal ambition. He declared open war against his cousin, besieged him in his capital of Cirta, and finally put him to death. To avert a threatened war Jugurtha went in person to Rome, pleaded his own cause in the senate, and once more by bribery secured his acquittal from all charge of criminality. A perseverance, however, in a similar train of conduct finally drew on him the ven- geance of the Romans ; and being betrayed into their hands by his own father-in-law, he was brought in chains to Rome, to grace the triumph of the consul Marius, confined to a dungeon, and starved to death, A. U. C. 651, A. C. 103. • . , 3. The ambition .of the allied states of Italy to attain the rights of citizenship produced the social war, which ended m a conces- sion of those rights to such of the confederates as should return peaceably to their allegiance. This war with the allies was a pre- lude to that which followed between Rome and her own citizens. Sylla and Marius, rivals, and thence enemies, were at this time the leaders of the republic. Sylla, commanding in a war against Mithn- dates, was superseded, and recalled from Asia. He refused to obey the mandate, and found his army well disposed to support him. " Let us march to Rome," said they, with cue voice ; " lead us on to avenge the cause of oppressed liberty." Sylla accordingly led them on, and they entered Rome sword in hand. Marius and his partizans fled with precipitation from the city, and Sylla ruled for a while triumphant. But the fiction of his rival soon recovered strength. Marius returning to Italy, and joining his forces to those of Cinna, his zealous partizan, laid siege to Rome, and, while Sylla was. engaged in the Mithridatic war, compelled the city to absolute submission. After a horrible massacre of all whom they esteemed iheir enemies, Marius and Cinna proclaimed themselves consuls, without the formality of an election ; but Blarius died a few days after in a fit of debauch. 4. After a victorious campaign in Asia, Sylla returned to Italy, and, joined by Cethegus, Verres, and the young Pompey, gave battle to the, party of his enemies, and. entirely defeated them. His entry into Rome was signalized by a dreadful massacre, and a proscription, which had for its object the extermination of every enemy whom he had in Italy. Elected dictator for an unlimited period, he was now without a rival in authority, and absolute master of the government, which, of course, was no longer .a republic. In the exercise of his dominion he deserved more praise than m the means of acquiring it. He restored the senate to its judicial authority, regulated the election to all the important offices of state, and enacted many excellent laws against oppression and the abuse of power. Finally, he gave demonstration, if not of a pure conscience, at least of a magnanimous intrepidity of character, by voluntarily resigning all command, retiring to the condition of a private citizen, and offering publicly to give ah account of his con- duct. He died within a short time after his resignation. He was certainly a man of great strength of mind, and had some of the qual- ities of a heroic character ; but he lived in evil times, when it was impossible at once to be. great and to be virtuous. 5. The death of Sylla renewed the civil war. Lepidus, a man of no abilities, aspired to succeed him in power ; and Pompey, with superior talents, cherished the same ambition. While the latter was employed in the reduction of the revolted provinces of Asia, the F2 9 66 ANCIENT HISTORY. conspiracy of Catiline threatened the entire destruction of Rome. It was extinguished by 'the provident zeal and active patriotism of the consul Cicero. Catiline and his chief accomplices were attacked in the field, and defeated by Antonius. The traitor made a desperate defence, and died a better death than his crimes had merited. 6. Julius Caesar now rose into public notice. Sylla dreaded his abilities and ambition, and had numbered him among the proscribed. u There is many a Marius," said he, wC in the person of that young man." He had learned prudence from the danger of his situation, and tacitly courted popularity, without that show of enterprise which gives alarm to a rival. While Pornpey and Crassus contended for the command of the republic, Caesar, who knew that, by attach- ing himself to either rival, he infallibly made the other his eqemy, showed the reach of his talents by" reconciling them, and thus acquiring the friendship of both. From favour to their mutual friend they agreed to a partition of power ; and thus was formed the first triumvirate. Caesar was elected consul. He increased his popularity by a division of lands among the poorer citizens, and strengthened his interest with Pornpey by giving him his daughter in marriage. He had the command of four legions, and the government of trans- alpine Gaul and Illyria. 7. The military glory of the republic, and the reputation of Caesar, were nobly sustained in Gaul. In the first year of his govern- ment he subdued the Helvetii, who, leaving their own country, had attempted to settle themselves in the better regions of the Roman province. He totally defeated the Germans under Ariovistus, who had attempted a similar invasion. The Belgae, the Nervii, the Celtic Gauls, the Suevi, Menapii, and other warlike nations, were all successively brought under subjection. In the ibuiih year of his government he transported his army into Britain. Landing at Deal, lie was opposed by the natives with equal courage and military skill. He gained, however, 'several advantages, and, binding the Britons to submission, withdrew into Gaul on the approach of winter. He returned in the following summer with a greater force, and, prose- cuting his victories, reduced a considerable portion of the island under the Roman dominion, A. C. 54. But the pressure of affairs in Italy suspended for a time the progress of the Roman arms in Britain. 8. Caesar dreaded the abilities of Cicero, who had opposed him in his views of ambition. By the machinations of his partizans, while he was absent in Gaul, he procured the banishment of Cicero, and the confiscation of his estates, on the pretence of illegal meas- ures pursued in the suppression of the conspiracy of Catiline. During an exile, of sixteen months in Greece, Cicero gave way to a despondency of mind utterly unworthy of the philosopher. Porn- pey had abandoned him, and this ungrateful desertion bore most heavily upon his mind. In the wane of his reputation Pornpey soon became desirous to prop his own sinking fortunes by the abilities of Cicero, and eagerly promoted his recal from exile. The death of Crassus^ in an expedition against the Parthians, now dissolved the triumvirate ; and Caesar and Pornpey, whose union had no other bond than interest, began each to conceive separately the view of undivid- ed Domini Dn. _ ANCIENT HISTORY 61 SECTION XXXIV. PROGRESS OF THE CIVIL WARS. SECOND TRIUMVIRATE. FALL OF THE REPUBLIC. 1. The ambition of Caesar and of Pompey had now evidently the same object ; and it seemed to be the only question, in those degen- erate times, to which of these aspiring leaders the republic should surrender its liberties. The term of Caesar's government was near expiring. To secure himself against a deprivation of power, he procured a proposal to be made in the senate by one of his partizans, which wore the appearance of great moderation, namely, that Caesar and Pompey should either both continue in their govern- meats, or both be deprived of them, as they were equally capable of" endangering the public liberty by an abuse of power. The mo- tion passed, and Caesar immediately offered to resign, on condition that his rival should do so ; but Pompey rejected the accommodation. The term of his government had yet several years' duration, and he suspected the proposal to be a snare laid for him by Caesar. He resolved to maintain his right by force of arms, and a civil Avar was the necessary consequence. The consuls and a great part of the senate were the friends of Pompey. Caesar had on his side a victo- rious army, consisting of ten legions, and the body of the Roman cit izens, whom he had won by his liberalitv. Mark Antony and Cas- sius, at that time tribunes of t v " people, left Rome, and repaired to Caesar's camp. 2. The senate, apprehensive of his designs, pronounced a decree, branding with the crime of parricide any commander who should dare to pass the Piubicon (the boundary between Italy and the Gauls) with a single cohort, without their permission. Caesar infringed, the prohibition, and marched straight to Rome. — Pompey to whom the senate committed the defence of the state, had no army. He quitted Rome, followed by the consuls and a part of the senate, and endeavoured hastily to levy troops over all Italy and Greece ; while Caesar triumphantly entered the city amidst the acclamations of the people, seized the public treasury, and possessed himself of the supreme authority without opposition. Having se- cured the capital of the empire, he set out to take the field against her enemies. The lieutenants of Pompey had possession of Spain. Caesar marched thither, and subdued the whole country in the space of forty days. He returned victorious to Rome, where, in his absence, he had been nominated dictator. In the succeeding elec- tion of magistrates he was chosen consul, and was thus invested, by a double title, with the right of acting in the name of the republic. Pompey had by this time raised a numerous army, and Caesar was anxious to bring him to a decisive engagement. The two armies met in Illyria, and the first conflict was of doubtful issue. Caesar led his army into Macedonia, where he found a large reinforcement He gave battle to Pompey in the field of Pharsalia, and entirely defeated him. Fifteen thousand of Pompey's army were slain, and 24,000 surrendered themselves prisoners to the victor, A. U. C. 705, A. C. 49. 3 The fate of Pompey was miserable in the extreme. With his «wife Cornelia, the companion of his misfortunes, he fled to Egypt id 68 ANCIENT HISTORY. a single ship, trusting to the protection of Ptolemy, whose father had owed to him his settlement on the throne. But the ministers of this young prince, dreading the power of Caesar, basely courted his favour by the murder of his rival. Pompey was brought ashore in a small boat by the guards of the king ; and a Roman centurion, who had fought under his banners, stabbed him, even in the sight of Cornelia, and cutting off his head, threw the body naked on the sands. Caesar pursued Pompey to Alexandria, where the head cf that unhappy man, presented as a grateful ottering, gave him the first intelligence of his fate. He wept, and turned with horror from the sight. He caused every honour to be paid to his memory, and from that time showed the utmost beneficence to the partizans of his unfortunate rival. 4. The sovereignty of Egypt Was in dispute between Ptolemy and his sister Cleopatra. The latter, though married to her brother, and joint heir by her father's will, was ambitious of undivided author- ity ; and Caesar, captivated by her charms, decided the contest in favour of the beauteous queen. A war ensued, in which Ptolemy was killed, and Egypt subdued by the Roman arms. In this war the famous library of Alexandria was burnt to ashes, A. C. 48. A revolt of the Asiatic provinces, undor Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, was signally chastised ; and the report was conveyed by Caesar to the Roman senate in three words, Feni, vidi, vici. The conqueror returned to Rome, which needed his presence ; for Italy was divid- ed, and the partizans of Pompey were yet extremely formidable. His two sons, with Cato and Scipio, were in arms in Africa. Caesar pursued them thither, and proceeding with caution till secure of his advantage, defeated them in a decisive engagement at Thapsus. Scipio perished in his passage to Spain. Cato, shutting himself up in Utica, meditated a brave resistance ; but seeing no hope of suc- cess, he finally determined not to survive the liberties of his country, and fell deliberately by his own hand. Mauritania was now added to the number of the Roman provinces ; and Caesar returned to Rome, absolute master of the empire. 5. From that moment his attention was directed solely to the prosperity and happiness of the Roman people. He remembered no longer that there had been opposite parties ; beneficent alike to the friends of Pompey as to his own. He laboured to reform every species of abuse or grievance. He introduced order into every de- partment of the state, defining the separate rights of all its magistrates, and extending his care to the regulation cf its most distant provinces.^ The reformation of the kalendar, the draining of the marshes of Italy, the navigation of the Tiber, the embellishment of Rome, the complete survey and delineation of the empire, alternately em- ployed his liberal and capacious mind. Returning from the final overthrow of Pompey's party in Spain, he was hailed the father of his country, was created consul for ten years, and perpetual dic- tator. His person was declared sacred, his title Henceforth imperator, A. U. C. 709, A. C. 45. 6. The Roman republic had thus finally resigned its liberties, by its. own acts. They were not extinguished, as Montesquieu has "well remarked, by the ambition of a Pompey or of a Caesar. If the sentiments of Caesar and Pompey bad been the same with those of Cato, others would have had the same ambitious thoughts ; and, since the commonwealth was fated to fall, there never would have been wanting a hand to drag it to destruction. Yet Csesar had b\ ANCIENT HISTORY. 69 force subdued his country ; and therefore was a usurper. If it had oeen possible to restore the liberties of the republic, and with these its happiness, by the suppression of his usurpation, the attempt would have merited the praise at least of good design. Perhaps so thought his murderers ; and thus, however weak their policy, how- ever base and treacherous their act, they will ever find apologists. They expected an impossible issue, as the event demonstrated.. 7. A conspiracy was formed by sixty of the senators, at the head of whom were Brutus and Cassius ; the former a man beloved of Caesar, who had saved his life, and heaped upon him numberless benefits. It was rumoured that the dictator wished to add to his numerous titles that of king, and that the ides of March was fixed on for investing him with the diadem. On that day, when taking his seat in the senate-house, he was suddenly assailed by the con- spirators. He defended himself for some time against their daggers, till, seeing Brutus among the number, he faintly exclaimed, " And you, too, my son !" and covering his face with his robe, resigned himself to his fate. He fell, pierced by twenty-three wounds, A. U. 0. 711, and A. C. 43. . 8. The Roman people were struck with horror at the deed. They loved Caesar, master as he was of their lives and liberties. Mark Antony and Lepidus, ambitious of succeeding to the power oi the dictator, resolved to pave the way by avenging his death. Caesar, by his testament, had bequeathed a great part of his fortune to the people ; and they were penetrated with gratitude to his memory. A public harangue by Antony over the bleeding body, ex- posed in the forum, inflamed them with the utmost indignation against his murderers, who must have met with instant destruction if they had not escaped with precipitation from the city. Antony profited by these dispositions ; and the avenger of Caesar, of course he favourite of the people, was in the immediate prospect of attain- ing a similar height of dominion. In this, however, he found a for- midable competitor in Octavius, the grand-nephew and the adopted heir of Caesar, who, at this critical moment, arrived in Rome, Availing himself of these titles, Octavius gained tne senate to his inter- est, and divided with Antony the favour of the people. The rivals soon perceived that it was their wisest plan to unite their interests ; and they admitted Lepidus into their association, whose power, as governor of Gaul, and immense riches, gave him a title to a share of authority. Thus was formed the second triumvirate, the effects of whose union were beyond measure dreadful to the republic. The triumviri divided among themselves the provinces, and cement- ed their union By a deliberate sacrifice made by each of his best friends to the vengeance of his associates. Antony consigned to death his uncle Lucius ; Lepidus his brother Paulus ; and Octavius his guardian Toranius and his friend Cicero. In this horrible pro- scription 300 senators and 3,000 knights were put to death. 9. Octavius and Antony now marched against the conspirators, who had a formidable army in the field in Thrace, commanded by Brutus and Cassius. An engagement ensued at Philippi, which decided the fate of the empire. Antony obtained the victory, for Octavius had no military talents. He was destitute even of personal bravery, and his conduct after the victory was stained with that cruelty which is ever the attendant of cowardice. Brutus and Cassius escaped the vengeance of their enemies by a voluntary death. Antony now sought- a recompense for his troops by the plunder of the east 70 ANCIENT HISTORY. While in Cilicia, he summoned Cleopatra to answer for her conduct in dethroning an infant brother, and in openly favouring the party of Brutus and Cassius. The queen came to Tarsus, and made a com- plete conquest of the triumvir. Immersed in luxury, and intoxicated with love, he forgot glory, ambition, fame, and every thing, for Cleopatra. Octavius saw this phrensy with delight, as the prepara- tive of his rivafs ruin. He had nothing to dread from Lepidus, whose insignificant character first drew on him the contempt of his partizans ; and whose folly, in attempting an invasion of the province of his colleague, was punished by his deposition and banishment. 10. Antony had in his madness lavished the provinces of the em pire in gifts to his paramour and ner children, The Roman people were justly indignant at these enormities; and the divorce of his wife Octavia, the sister of his colleague, was at length the signal of declared hostility between them. An immense armament, chiefly naval, came at length to a decisive conflict near Actium, on the coast of Epirus. Cleopatra, who attended her lover, deserted him with her galleys in the heat of the engagement ; and such was the infatuation of Antony, that he abandoned his fleet, and followed her. After a contest of some hours, they yielded to the squadron of Octavius, A. U. C. 723, A. C. 31. The victor pursued the fugitives to Egypt ; and the base Cleopatra proffered terms to Octavius, including the surrender of her kingdom, and the abandonment of Antony. After an unsuccessful attempt at resistance, Antony anticipated his fate by falling on his sword. Cleopatra soon after, either from remorse, or more probably from mortified ambition, as she found it was Qcta- vius's design to lead her in chains to Rome to grace his triumph, had courage to follow the example of her lover, and put herself to death by the poison of an asp. Octavius returned to Rome sole master oi the Roman empire, A. U. C. 727, A. C. 27, SECTION XXXV. CONSIDERATIONS OF SUCH PARTICULARS AS MARK THE GENIUS AND NATIONAL CHARACTER OF THE ROMANS. SYSTEM OF ROMAN EDUCATION. 1. A virtuous but rigid severity of manners was the characteristic of the Romans under their kings, and in the first ages of the repub- lic. The private life of the citizens, frugal, temperate, and labori- ous, had its influence on their public character. The {patria potestas) paternal authority gave to every head of a family a sovereign author- ity over all the members that coiaposed it* and this power, felt as a right of natuv"°- ; T ym never ao'i^ed V ! starch has remarked, as a defect in the Roman laws, fnat tney did not prescribe, as those of Lacedae- tnon, a system and rules for the education of youth. But the truth is, the -manners of the people supplied this want. The utmost at- tention was bestowed in the early formation of the mind and charac- ter. The excellent author of the dialogue De Oratoribus {concerning orators) presents a valuable picture of the Roman education in the early ages of the commonwealth, contrasted with the less virtuous practice of the more refined ages. The Roman matrons did not abandon their infants to mercenary nurses. They regarded the careful nurture of their offspring, the rudiments of theii education, ANCIENT HISTORY. TJ and the necessary occupations of their household, as the highest points of female merit. Next to the care bestowed in the instilment of virtuous morals, a remarkable degree of attention seems to have been given to the' language of children, and to the attainment of a correctness and purity of expression. Cicero informs us that the Gracchi, the sons of Cornelia, were educated, non tarn in graemio quam in scrmone mains, in the speech more than in the bosom of their mother, That urbanity which characterized the Roman citizens showed itself particularly in their speech and gesture. 2. The attention to the language of the youth had another source It was by eloquence, more than by any other talent, that the young Roman could rise to the highest offices and dignities of the state. The studia forensia {forensic studies) were, therefore, a principal ob- ject of the Roman education. Plutarch informs us, that among the sports of the children at Rome, one was pleading causes before a mock tribunal, and accusing and defending a criminal in the usual forms of judicial procedure. 3. The exercises of the body were likewise particularly attended to ; whatever might harden the temperament, and confer strength and agility. These exercises were daily practised by the youth, under the eye of their elders, in the Campus Martins. 4. At seventeen the youth assumed the manly robe. He was consigned to the care of a master of rhetoric, whom he attended constantly to the forum, or to the courts of justice; for, to be an accomplished gentleman, it was necessary for a Roman to be an ac- complished orator. The pains bestowed on the attainment of this character, and the best instructions for its acquisition, we learn from the writings of C»cero, Quintilian, and the younger Pliny. SECTION XXXVI OF THE PROGRESS :>F LITERATURE AMONG THE ROMANS. 1. Before the intercourse with Greece, which took place after the Punic wars, the Roman people was utterly rude and illiterate. As among all nations the first appearance of the literary spirit is shown in poetical composition, the Roman warrior had probably, like the Indian or the Celtic, his war songs, which celebrated his triumphs in battle. Religion likewise employs the earliest poetry of most nations ; and if a people subsist by agriculture, a plentiful harvest is celebrated in the rustic song of the husbandman. The versus fescennini {.fescennine verses), mentioned by Livy, were proba- bly of the nature of a poetical dialogue, or alternate verses sung by the labourers, in a strain of coarse merriment and raillery. This shows a dawning of the drama. 2. About the 390th year of Rome, on occasion of a pestilence, ludwnes (drolls or stage dancers) were brought from Etruria, qux ad libicinis modos saltanies, fiaud indecoros motus more Tusco dabant , who danced to the tunes of a musician, and, in the Tuscan fashion, exhi- bited motions that were not ungraceful. Livy tells us that the Romat youth imitated these performances, and added to them rude and joc- ular verses, probably the fescennine dialogues. The regular drams was introduced at Rome from Greece by Livius Andronicus, A. U C 72 ANCIENT HISTORY. 514. The earliest Roman plays were therefore, we may presume, translations from the Greek. Et post punica bella quietus qusrere coepit, Quid Sophocles, et Thespis, et JEschylus utile ferrent. Hot. Epist. Lib. II, i. And beino- at peace after tbe Punic wars, the Romans began to inquire what advantages might be derived from the writings of Sophocles, Thespis, and iEschylus. 3. Of the early Roman drama, Ennius was a great ornament, and from his time the art made rapid advancement. The comedies of Plautus, the contemporary of Ennius, with great strength and spirit of dialogue, display a considerable knowledge of human nature, and are read at this day with pleasure. 4. Cascilius improved so much on the comedy of Plautus, that he is mentioned by Cicero as perhaps the best of the Roman comic writers. Of his compositions we have no remains. His patronage fostered the rising genius of Terence, whose first comedy, the An- dria, was performed A. U. C. 587. The merit of the comedies of Terence lies in that nature and simplicity which are observable in the structure of his fables, and in the delineation of his characters. They are deficient, however, in comic energy; and are not calcu- lated to excite ludicrous emotions. They are chiefly borrowed from the Greek of Menander and Apollodorus. 5. The Roman comedy was of four different species : the comedia toguta or prcetextata., the cmnedia tabernaria^ the aUellancE, and the mimi. The first admitted serious scenes and personages, and was of the nature of the modern sentimental comedy. The second was a representation of ordinary life and manners. The attellaniz were pieces where the dialogue was not committed to writing, but the subject of the scene was prescribed, and the dialogue filled ud by the talents of the actors. The mimi were pieces of comedy ol the lowest species; farces, or entertainments of buffoonery; though sometimes admitting the serious, and even the pathetic. 6. The Roman tragedy kept pace in its advancement with the comedy. The best of the Roman tragic poets were Actius and Pacuvius, of whom we have no remains. The tragedies published under the name of Seneca are generally esteemed the work of dif- ferent hands. They are none of them of superlative merit. 7. Velleius Paterculus remarks, that the sera of the perfection of Roman literature was the age of Cicero, comprehending all the literary men of the preceding times whom Cicero might have seen, and all those of the succeeding who might have seen him. Cicero, Quintilian, and Pliny celebrate, in high terms, the writings of the elder Cato, whose principal works were historical, r.nd have entirely perished. We have his fragments, de Re Rustica {on agriculture), in which he was imitated, by Varro, one of the earliest of the good writers among the Romans, and a man of universal erudition. Of the variety of his talents we may judge, not only from the splendid euiogium of Cicero, but from the circumstance of Pliny having re- course to his authority in every book of his Natural History. 8. Sallust, in order of time, comes next to Varro. This writer introduced an inportant improvement on history, as treated by the 3reek historians, by applying (as Dionysius of Halicarnassus says) ANCIENT HISTORY. 75 the science of philosophy to the study of facts. Sallust is therefore to be considered as the father of philosophic history ; a species of writing which has been so successfully cultivated in modern times. He is an admirable writer for the matter of his compositions, which evince great judgment and knowledge of human nature, but by no means commendable for his style and manner of writing. He affects singularity of expression, an antiquated phraseology, and a petulant brevity and sententiousness, which has nothing of the dignity of the historical style. 9. Csesar has much more purity of style, and more correctness and simplicity o£ expression; but his Commentaries, wanting that amplitude of diction and fulness of illustration which is essential to history, are rather of the nature of annals. . 10. In all the requisites of a historian, Livy stands unrivalled among^ the Romans; possessing consummate judgment in the selec- tion of facts, perspicuity of arrangement, sagacious reflection, sound views of policy, with the most copious, pure, and eloquent expres- sion. It has Deen objected, that his speeches derogate from the truth of history : but this was a prevalent taste with the ancient writers ; and as those speeches are always known to be the compo- sition of the historian, the reader is not misled. As to the style of Livy, though in general excellent, we sometimes perceive in it, and most commonly in the speeches, an affectation of the pointed sen- tences (the vibrantes sentcntiolce) and obscurity of the declaimers, which evinces the pernicious influence acquired by those teachers at Rome since the time of Cicero and Sallust. 11. In the decline of Roman literature Tacitus is a historian of no common merit. He successfully cultivated the method pointed out by Sallust, of applying philosophy to history. In this he dis plays great knowledge of human nature, and penetrates, with sin- gular acuteness, into the secret springs of policy, and the motives of actions. Rut his fault is, that he is too much of a politician, drawing his characters after the model of his own mind ; ever as- signing actions and events to preconceived scheme and design, and allowing too little for the operation of accidental causes, which often have the greatest influence on human affairs. Tacitus, in his style, professedly imitated that of Sallust ; adopting all the ancient phra- seology, as well as the new idioms introduced into the Roman lan- guage by that writer. To his brevity and abruptness he added most of the faults, of the declaiming school. His expression, therefore, though extremely forcible, is often enigmatically obscure; the worst property that style can possess. 12. Among the eminent Roman poets (after the dramatic) Lucre- tius deserves first to be noticed. He has great inequality, being at some times verbose, rugged, and perplexed, and at others displaying all the elegance as well as the fire of poetry. This may be in great part attributed to his subject. Philosophical disquisition is unsuitable to poetry. It demands a dry precision of thought and expression, rejecting all excursive fancy and ornament of diction. That luxuri- ance of imagery, w r hich is the soul of poetry, is raving and imper- tinence when applied to philosophy. 13. Catullus, the contemporary of Lucretius, is the earliest of tm Roman lyric poets. His Epigrams are pointed and satirical, but tx> licentious ; his Idylla tender, natural, and picturesque. He flourished in the age of Julius Cassar. 14. In the succeeding age of Augustus, poetry attainei to its high *4 ANCIENT HISTORY. est elevation among the Romans. Virgil, Horace, Ovid, aed Tibttl» his, were all contemporaries. Virgil is allowed the same rank among the Roman poets, as Homer among the Greek. If Homer excel Virgil in the sublime, the latter surpasses the former in the tender and elegant. The transcendent merits of Homer are sullied by oc- casional defects. Virgil is the model of a correct taste. The dif- ference of manner in the Bucolics, the Georgic^ and the iEneid, shows that Virgil was capable of excelling in various departments or poetry; and such is the opinion of Martial, who affirms that he could have surpassed Horace in lyric poetry, and Varius in tragedy. 15. Horace excels as a lyric poet, a satirist, an/1 a critic. In his odes there is more variety than in those of either Anacreon or Pindar. -He can alternately display the sublimity of the latter, and the jocose vein of , the former. His Satires have that characteristic slyness and obliquity of censure, associated with humour and pleas- antry, which strongly distinguish them from the stern and cutting sarcasm of Juvenal. As a critic, his rules are taken chiefly from Aristotle ; but they contain the elements of a just taste in poetical composition, and therefore do not admit of variation. The Satires of Juvenal, compared with those of Horace, are deficient in lace- tiousness and urbanity ; but they are superior in acuteness of thought^ and in manly vigor of sentiment. 16. In variety of talent, without supreme excellence,, and in ease and elegance of- numbers, no Roman poet has exceeded Ovid. Ifs his Metamorphoses, particularly, with great fancy, we have speci- mens of the pathetic, the descriptive, the eloquent, and even the sublime. His Elegies have more of nature and of real passion, Zhan those of either Tibullus or Propertius. His amatory verses have much tenderness, but are too frequently loose, and even grossly licentious. 17. There is nothing more elegant than the compositions of Ti- bullus, nothing more delicate than the turn of his expression ; but it is not the language of passion. The sentiments are tender, but their power of affecting the heart is weakened by the visible care and solicitude of the poet for refined phraseology and polished num- bers ; nor is there either much fancy or variety of thought. A sin- gle elegy exhibits the sentiments of the whole. 1 8. Martial is the last of the Roman poets who can be mentioned with high approbation. His Epigrams, independent of their art and ingenuity, are valuable, as throwing light upon the Roman manners. He possesses, above every other poet, a naivete of expression, which is chiefly observable in his serious epigrams. He is well char- acterized by the: younger Pliny. Ingeniosus* acer, et qui in scribendo et sahs haberet etfellis^ nee candoris minus. Epist. 3. 21. His writings are ingenious and acute ; they possess humour and satire, and no less candem . 19. Luxuriance of ornament, and the fondness for points, and bril- liancy of thought and expression, are certain indications of the de- cline of good taste. These characters strongly mark the Latin poets of the succeeding ages. Luca'n "has some scattered examples of genuine poetic imagery, and Persius some happy strokes of ani- mated satire ; but they scarcely compensate the affected obscurity of one, and the bombast of the other. The succeeding poets, Statius, Silius Italicus, and Valerius Flaccus, in their attempts at the most difficult of all species of poetry, the epic, have only more signally displayed the inferiority of their genius, and the manifest decay of the art ANCIENT HISTORY. *S SECTION XXXVII. STATE OF PHILOSOPHY AMONG- THE ROMANS. , 1. The Romans, in the earlier periods of the republic, had little leisure to bestow on the cultivation of the sciences, and had no idea of philosophical speculation. It was not till the end of the sixth century from the building of the city, and in the interval between the war with Perseus and the third Punic war, that philosophy made its first appearance at Rome. A few learned Achaeans, banished from their country, had settled in various parts of Italy, and apply- ing themselves to the cultivation of literature and the education of youth, diffused a taste for those studies hitherto unknown to the Romans. The elder citizens regarded those pursuits with an unfa- vourable eye. Jealous of th6 introduction of foreign manners with foreign studies, the senate banished the Greek philosophers from Rome. But an Athenian embassy, arriving soon after, brought thither Carneades and Critolaus, who revived the taste for the Greek philosophy, and left behind them many able disciples, who publicly taught their doctrines. 2. It was natural that those systems should be most generally adopted which were most suitable to the national character. While the manners of the Romans had a tincture of ancient severity, the stoical system prevailed. Scipio, Laelius, and the younger Cato rank among its chief partisans. 3. The philosophy of Aristotle was little known in Rome till the age of Cicero. At that time Cratippus and Tyranninn taught his system with great reputation. Yet Cicero complains that the peri- patetic philosophy was little understood at Rome ; and therefore, he sent his son to study its doctrines in the schools of Athens. 4. Lucullus, whose stay in Greece gave him an opportunity oJ being acquainted with all the different sects, disseminated, on his return to Rome, a very general taste for philosophy. His patronage of learned men, and his liberality in allowing his library to be open for the public use, contributed greatly to the promotion of litera- ture. 5. The Old and New Academy had each its partisans. Of the former, which may be termed the Stoico-Platonic, the most illus- trious disciples were Marcus Brutus and Terentius Varro. To the philosophical talents of Brutus, and the universal erudition of Varro, the writings of Cicero bear ample testimony. Cicero himself must be deemed the most eminent ot all the Roman philosophers. Pie is classed among the principal supporters of the New Academy ; though it seems to nave been his purpose to elucidate the Greek philosophy in general, rather than to rank himself among the disci- ples of any particular sect. ' 6. The cultivation of physics, or natural philosophy, seems to have been little attended to either by the Greeks or Romans. Un- less agriculture should be classed under this description, we know of no Roman authors, except Varro and the elder Pliny, who seem to have bestowed much attention on the operations of nature. The works of Varro have perished, except a few fragments.. The Nat- ural History of Pliny is a most valuable store-house of the knowl- edge of the ancients in physics, economics, and the arts and sciences. 76 ANCIENT HISTORY. It is to be regretted that the style is unsuitable to the matter, being too frequently florid, declamatory, and obscure. 7. The philosophy of Epicurus was unknown in the early ages of the Roman commonwealth. It was introduced with luxury, and kept pace in its advancement with the corruption of manners. Gin- neas having discoursed on the tenets of Epicurus at the table of Pyrrhus, Fabricius exclaimed, "May the enemies of Rome ever entertain such principles ! 7 ' Yet these principles were, in a short time from that period, too current among the citizens of Rome. SECTION XXXVIII. OF THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE MANNERS OF THE ROMANS. 1. The manners of the Romans in the early ages of the republic were so different from those of the latter times, that one should be led to suppose some very extraordinary causes to have co-operated to produce so remarkable a change ; yet the transition is easy to be accounted for. A spirit of temperance, of frugality, and probity, is the characteristic of every infant establishment. A virtuous simpli- city of manners, and a rigour of military discipline, paved the way for the extension of the Roman arms, and for their prodigious con- quests. These conquest introduced wealth, luxury, and corruption. 2. In the early times of the republic the patricians, when in the country, forgot the distinction of ranks, and laboured in the cultiva- tion of their fields, like the meanest plebeians. We have the exam- ples of Cincinnatus, Curius, the elder Cato, and Scipio Africanus. The town was visited only every ninth day, which was the market day. In those times of virtuous simplicity, says Sallust, Domi mili- tiazque boni mores colebantur. Duabus artibus, audacia in bello, ubi pax evenerat, ozquitate, seque remque publicum curabant. Good 'manners were cultivated both in peace and war. By two means, valour in war, and equity in peace, they supported themselves and the commonwealth. But when the Romans had extended their dominion, in consequence of this very discipline and these manners, they imported with the wealth of the conquered nations their tastes, their manners, and their vices. 3. The Romans had no natural taste in the fine arts. On the con- quest of Greece an immense field opened at once to their eyes, and me master-pieces of art poured in upon them in abundance. But they could not appreciate their excellences. The Roman luxury, as far as the arts were concerned, was in general displayed in an awkward, heavy, and tasteless magnificence. 4. The public and private life of the Romans will be best eluci- dated by a short account of the manner in which the 'day was pass- ed at Rome^ both, by the higher and lower ranks of the people. By a part of the citizens the morning hours were spent in visiting the temples, by others in attending the levees of the great. The zlientes (clients) waited on their paironi (patrons) ; the patricians visited one another, or paid their compliments to the leaders of the republic. Popularity was always the first object of ambition at Rome, as paving the way to all advancement. From the levee they proceeded to the forum, either to assist in the public business, or for amusement. There the time was spent till noon, which was ths hour of dinner among the Romans. This was chiefly a very light repast, of which it was not customary to invite any guests to partake. ANCIENT HISTORY. * ?- After dinner the youth repaired to the Campus Martius, where they occupied themselves in athletic exercises and sports till sunset. The elder class retired for an hour to repose, and then passed the after- noon in their porticoes, galleries or libraries, where they enjoyed the conversation of their friends, or heard recitations of literary works ; others repaired to the theatres, or to the shows of the circus and amphitheatre. 5. Combats of gladiators were introduced for the first time about the 400th year of the city. These and combats with wild beasts soon became a favourite amusement among the Romans. The spirit of luxury, which in general is not unfavourable to humanity, showed its progress among the Romans by an increasing ferocity and inhumanity of tbe public spectacles. Theatrical entertainments were in high request. (Sect. XXXVI, § 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.) The taste for pantomime came to such a height, that the art was taught in public schools, and the nobility and people were divided into parties in favour of the rival performers ; an abuse which called at length for the interposi- tion of the laws. \ 6. From the porticoes, or from the theatre and amphitheatre, it was customary to go to the baths, of which there were many for the use of the public. The rich had baths in their own houses, vying with each other in this as in every other article of luxury or magnificence From the bath they went immediately to supper, generally about the ninth or tenth hour, counting from sunrise. At table they reclined on couches. The luxury of the Roman suppers far exceeded every thing known among the moderns. An anteccenium of pickles and spices was presented to prepare and sharpen the appetite. Cook- ery became a science. The number and costliness of the dishes were incredible. The entertainment was heightened by every thing gratifying to the senses; by male and female dancers, musicians, pantomimes, and even shows of gladiators. 7. In the end of the republic pleasure and amusement were the darling object of all ranks of the citizens : they sought no more than partem et circenses (bread and games in the circus). SECTION XXXIX. OF THE ART OF WAR AMONG THE ROMANS. 1 . From the prodigious success which attended the arms of the Romans, and the dominion which they acquired over the greater part of the known world, it seems a natural inference that they must nave excelled all the contemporary nations in the military art. Vege- tius expressly assigns their extensive conquests to that cause alone. It is the discipline of an army that makes a multitude act as one-man. It likewise increases the courage of troops ; for each individual con fides in the steady co-operation of his fellows. 2. From the constant practice of athletic exercises, the Romans were inured from infancy to hardiness and fatigue, and bred to that species of life, which a soldier leads in the most active campaign in the field. 3. The levies were made annually, by the tribes called out, and divided into their respective number of centuries; each century pre- senting by rotation, as many soldiers as there were legions intended -, .w--^.; **g +bp. tribunes of the several legions taking their tura -8 ' ANCIENT HISTORY. by rotation m the selection of the men presented by the centuries. (Sect. XXIV, § 16.) The number of soldiers in the legion was vari- ous at diiferent periods, from 3,000 to 10,000 and 11,000. 4. Among the ancient nations there were usually two different arrangements of the troops in order of battle. One the phalanx, or close arrangement in a rectangular form, intersected only by great divisions ; a disposition commonly used by the Greeks, and by most of the barbarous nations. The other the quincunx or chequer, consisting of small companies or platoons, disposed in three straight lines, with alternate spaces between the companies equal to the space occupied by each company. In the tirst line were the hastati, in the second the principes, and in the third the triarii. On the flanks of the first line were the cavalry, in detached companies; and in front of the line were the velites, or light-armed troops, whc usually began with a skirmishing attack, and then were withdrawn, to make way for the main body to come into action. The advantages of this arrangement were, that the line of battle could be three times formed with fresh troops, and that it was more adapted than any other for rapid changes of movement. In the Roman legion, the arms of the Jiastati and principes were the jnlum or heavy jave- lin, and the sword and buckler ; and of the triarii, the long spear, with the sword and buckler. 5. Notwithstanding these advantages the quincunx went into disuse toward the end of the republic, and from that time various arrange- ments of the legion were used according to circumstances. The Roman tactics are supposed to have been at their greatest pitch of excellence during the Funic wars. Hannibal was -a great master of the science of tactics ; and the Romans profited by the experience of his ability. The battle of Cannae, as described by Polybius, affords signal evidence of the great talents of the Carthaginian gen- eral. The description of that battle has been misrepresented by Folard ; but it is accurately explained in the Memoir es Militaires of M. Guischardt. If the quincunx disposition had been kept by the Roman army in that engagement, the event might have been very different ; for it would have disappointed the effect of an artful manoeuvre planned by Hannibal, on observing his enemy's army arranged in the unusual order of the phalanx. 6. The art of intrenchment was carried to perfection by the Ro- mans, particularly by Julius Caesar. ■ With 60,000 men he defended himself in his intrenchments before Alexia, while the lines of cir- cumvallation were attacked by 240,000 Gauls, and the lines of counter- vallation by N 80,000, without effect. These intrenchments consisted of a ditch irom nine to fifteen feet in depth and width, fenced on the inside by the mound of excavated earth, and on the outside by strong stakes with pointed branches. 7. In besieging a town several camps were formed round the place, pined to one another by lines of circumvallation and coun- tervallation. A mound of earth (agger) was raised, beginning by a gentle slope from one of the camps, and gradually rising in elevation as it approached the city. The front, where the workmen were employed, was defended by a curtain of hides fixed on strong posts. On this mound the engines of attack, catapultce and bcdis*^ were advanced, till they played on the very spot which the besiegers wish- ed to assail. The catapultm discharged heavy stones, the balistas arrows. The same machines were used by the besieged for annoy- ing the enemy. When the engines on the terrace had driven the ' AJSCIENT HISTORY. TJ besieged from the walls, the battering-ram (aries) was then brought up under a pent-house [testudo) ; and, if it once reached the wall, was generally decisive of the fate of the town. The main object of the besieged, was therefore to prevent its approach by every power of annoyance. Stones, darts, and combustible matters were continually launched upon the assailants ; and sometimes a mine was dug from the city to scooj) away the terrace and all its engines. These arts of attack and defence of fortified places were in general use among the nations of antiquity, and continued down to modern times, till the invention of gunpowder. 8. The naval military art was utterly unknown among the Ro- mans till the first Punic war. A Carthaginian galley was the first model of a vessel of war. In the space of two months they equipped a fleet of 100 gallies of five banks of oars, and 20 of three banks. The structure of those gallies, and the mode of arranging the row- ers, may be learned from the ancient sculptures end medals. The combatants at sea assailed at a distance with javelins, missile com- bustibles, and sometimes with catapultce and balistce; but the serious attack was made in boarding, when the vessels were grappled by means of a crane let down from the prow. 1 9. In the times of the empire, the Romans maintained their distant conquests, not only by their armies, out by their fleets. The ships were moored in the large rivers and bays ; and both the legions and the fleets generally preserved a fixed station. SECTION XL. REFLECTIONS ARISING FROM A VIEW OF THE ROMAN HIS TORY DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 1. The history of all nations evinces, that there is an inseparable connexion between the morals of a people and their political pros- perity. But we have no stronger demonstration of this truth than the annals of the Roman commonwealth. To limit to republics alone the necessity of virtue as a principle, is a chimerical notion, fraught with dangerous consequences. Quid leges sine moribus vance pivjici- unt ? {laws without morals avail not/iing) is a sentiment equally appli- cable to all governments ; and no political system, however excellent its fabric, can possess any measure of duration, without that power- ful cement, virtue, in the principles and manners of the people. (Sect. XIX, 6 4.) 2. The love of our country, and the desire for its rational liberty, are noble and virtuous feelings ; and their prevalence is ever a test of the integrity of the national morals. But no term has been more prostituted than the word liberty. In a corrupted people the cry for liberty is heard the loudest among the most profligate of the commu- nity. With these its meaning has no relation to patriotism ; it im- ports no more than the aversion to restraint ; and the personal char- acter of the demagogue, and the private morals of his disciples, are always sufficient to unmask the counterfeit. The spirit of patriot- ism and a general corruption of manners cannot possibly be coexis- tent in the same age and nation. 3. On the other hand, while the morals of a people are pure, no public misfortune is irretrievable, nor any political situation so des- perate, that hope may not remain of a favourable change. In sucfc situations the soirit of patriotism pervading all ranks of the state will 80 ANCIENT HISTORY. soon recover the national prosperity. The history oi the Roman pe» pie, and that of the Grecian states, in various crises, both of honour and of disgrace, affords proofs alike of this position and of its converse. 4. The national character of the Romans seems to have under- fone its most remarkable change for the worse from the time of the estruction of their rival, Carthage. Sallust assigns the cause. Ante Carthaginem dtletam, metus hostilis in bonis artibus civitaiem retinebat. Sect ubi illaformido mentibus decessit, scilicet ca quce secundce res amant, lascivia atque superbia invasere. Before the destruction of Carthage, the fear of their enemy kept the people in the practice of virtue ; but when the restraint of fear ceased to influence their conduct, they abandoned themr selves to profligacy and arrogance, the usual concomitants of prosperity. 5. In the last ages of the commonwealth, avarice and ambition, unrestrained by moral principle, were the chief motives of the Ro- man conquests. It was sufficient reason for going to war, that a country offered a tempting object to the rapacity and ambition of the military leaders. The conquest of Italy paved the way for the reduction of foreign nations. Hence the Romans imported, with their wealth, the manners, the luxuries, and the vices of the nations which they subdued. The generals returned not as formerly, after a suc- cessful war, to the labours of the field, and to a life of temperance and industry. They were now the governors of kingdoms and prov- inces ; and at the period of their command abroad, disdaining the restraints of a subject, they could be satisfied with nothing less than sovereignty at home. The armies, debauched by the plunder of Kingdoms, were completely disposed to support them in all their schemes of ambition ; and the populace, won by corruption, always took part with the chief who best could pay for their favour and support. Force or bribery overruled every election ; and the in- habitants of distant states, now holding the right of citizens, were brought to Rome, at the command of the demagogue, to influence any popular contest, and turn the scale in his favour ; In a govern- ment thus irretrievably destroyed by the decay of those springs which supported it, it was of little consequence by what particular tyrant, usurper, or demagogue, its ruin was finally accomplished. 6. From a consideration of the rise and fall of the principal states of antiquity, it has been a commonly received opinion, that the con- stitution of empires has, like the human body, a period of growth maturity, decline, and extinction. But arguments from analogy are extremely deceitful, and particularly so when the analogy is from physical to moral truths. The human body is, from its fabric, natu- rally subject to decay, and is perpetually undergoing a change from time. Its organs, at first weak, attain gradually their perfect strength, and .thence, by a similar gradation, proceed to decay and dissolution. This is an immutable law of its nature. But the springs of the body politic do not necessarily undergo a perpetual change from time, it is not regularly progressive from weakness to strength, and thence to, decay and dissolution ; nor is it under the influence of any principle of corruption which may not be checked, and even eradicated, by wholesome laws. Thus the beginning of the cor- ruption of Sparta is attributed to Lysander's breach of the institu- tions of Lycurgus, in introducing gold into the treasury of the state instead of its iron money. But was this a necessary, or an unavoid- able measure ? Perhaps a single vote in the senate decreed its adop- tion, and therefore another suffrage might have prevented, or long postponed, the downfal of the commonwealth. The Roman repub- ANCIENT HISTORY 81 lie owed its dissolution to the extension of its dominions. If it had been a capital crime for any Roman citizen to have proposed to carry the arms of the republic beyond the limits of Italy, its consti tution might have been preserved for many ages beyond the period of its actual duration. "Accustom your mmd," said Phocion to Aristias, " to discern, in the fate of nations, that recompense which the great Author of nature has annexed to the practice of virtue. No state ever ceased to be prosperous, but in consequence of having departed from those institutions to which she owed her prosperity. History indeed has shown that all states and empires have had their Eeriod of duration ; but history, instructing us in the causes which ave produced their decline and fall, inculcates also this salutary lesson, that nations are in general the masters of their own destiny, and that they may, and most certainly ought to, aspire at immortality. 7. It was a great desideratum in ancient politics, that a government should possess within itself the power of periodical reformation ; a capacity of checking any overgrowth of authority in any of its branches, and of winding up the machine, or bringing back the con- stitution to its first principles. To the want of such a power in the states of antiquity (which they ineffectually endeavoured to supply by such partial contrivances as the ostracism and petalism) we may certainly ascribe, in no small degree, the decay of those states ; for in their governments, when the balance was once destroyed, the evil grew worse from day to day, and admitted no remedy but a revolution, or entire change of the system. The British constitu- tion possesses this inestimable advantage over all the governments both of ancient and modern times, with the single exception of the government of the United States of America. Besides the perpetual ]30wer of reform vested in parliament, the constitution may be puri- fied of every abuse, and brought back to its first principles, at the commencement of every reign. But of this we shall afterwards treat in its proper place. SECTION XLI. ROME UNDER THE EMPERORS. 1. The battle of Actium decided the fate of the commonwealth, and Octavius, now named Augustus, was master of the Roman empire. He possessed completely the sagacity of discerning what character was best fitted for gaining the affections of the people whom he governed, and the versatility of temper and genius to as- sume it. His virtues, though the result of policy, not of nature, were certainly favourable to the happiness, and even to the liberties of bis subjects. The fate of Caesar warned him of the insecurity of a usurped dominion; and therefore, while he studiously imitated the engaging manners and clemency of his great predecessor, he affect- ed a much higher degree of moderation, and respect for the rights of „"e people. 2. The temple of Janus was shut, which nad been open for 188 years, since the beginning of the second Punic war ; an event pro- ductive of universal joy. " The Romans (says Condillac) now be- heved themselves a tree people, since they had no longer to fight for fneir liberty." The sovereign kent up this delusion, by maintaining 1 fte ancient forms of the republican constitution, in the election oi 11 M ANCiEN T HISTORY. magistrates, &,c, though they were nothing more than forms. He even pretended to consider his own function as merely a temporary administration for the public benefit. Invested with the consulate and censorship, he went through the regular forms of periodical election to those offices, and at the end of the seventh year of his government actually announced to the senate his resignation of all authority. The consequence was a general supplication of the sen- ate and people, lhat he would not abandon the republic, which he had saved from destruction. " Since St must be so," said he, " I accept the empire for ten years , unless the public tranquillity shall, before the expiration of that time, permvt me t: enjoy retirement^ which i passionately long for." He repeated the same mockery five times in the course of his government, accepting the administration some- times for ten, and sometimes only for live years. 3. It was much to the credit of Augustus, that in the government of the empire he reposed .unlimited confidence in Mecasnas, a most able minister, who had sincerely at heart the interest and happiness of the people. By his excellent counsels all public affairs were con- ducted, and the most salutary laws enacted for the remedy of public grievances, and even the correction of the morals of the people. Tj his patronage literature and the arts owed their encouragement and advancement. By his influence and wise instructions Augustus assumed those virtues to which his heart was a stranger, and which, in their tendency to the happiness of his subjects, were equally effectual as if they had been the genuine fruits of his nature. 4. Cm the death of Marceilus, the nephew and son-in-law of Au- gustus, and a prince of great hopes, 23 A. C, the emperor bestowed his chief favour on Marcus Agrippa, giving him his daughter Julia, the widow of Marceilus, in marriage. Agrippa had considerable military talents, and was successful in accomplishing the reduction of Spain, and subduing the revolted provinces of Asia. Augustus as- sociated Agrippa with himself in the office of censor, and would prob- ably have given him a share of the empire, if his death had not occasioned a new arrangement. Julia now took for her third husband Tiberius, who became the son-in-law of the emperor by a double tie, for Augustus had previously married his mother Livia. This artful woman, removing ail of the imperial family who stood betwixt her and the object of her ambition, thus made room for the succes- sion of her son Tiberius, who, on his part, bent all his attention to gain the favour and confidence of Augustus. On the return of Tiberius from a successful campaign against the Germans, the people were made to solicit the emperor to^ confer on him the government of the provinces and the command of the armies. Augustus now gradually withdrew himself from the cares of empire. He died soon after at Nola, in Campania, in the 76th year of his age, and the 44th of his imperial reign, A. U. C. 767, and A. D. 14. 5. A considerable part of the lustre thrown on the reign of Augus- tus is owing to the splendid colouring bestowed on his character by the poets and other authors who adorned his court, and repaid his favours by their adulation. Other sovereigns of much higher merits have been less fortunate in obtaining the applause of posterity. , 111 aery mab ile s Urguentur, ignotique, longa Nocte, carent quia vate sacro. Hop.. Car. Lib. IV, 9. Unlamented and unknown they sink into oblivion, because they have no inspired bard to celebrate their uraise. AiNUlENT HISTORY. 83 One great event distinguished the reign of Augustus, the birth o! our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which, according to the best authorities, happened A. U. C. 754, and four years before the vulgar date of the christian sera.* 5. Augustus had named Tiberius his heir, together with his moih er Livia ; and had substituted to them Drusus, the son of Tiberius and Germanicus. Tiberius was . vicious, debauched, and cruel ; ye' the very dread of his character operated in securing an easy suc- cession to the empire. An embassy from the senate entreated him to accept the government, which he modestly affected to decline, but suffered himself to be won by their supplications. Notwithstand ing these symptoms of moderation, it soon appeared that the power enjoyed by his predecessor was too limited for the ambition of Ti berius. It was not enough that the substance of the republic was gone ; the very appearance of it was now to be demolished. The people were no longer assembled, and the magistrates of the state were supplied by the imperial will. 6. Germanicus, the nephew of Tiberius, became the object of his jealousy, from the glory which he had acquired by his military ex- ploits in Germany, and the high favour in which he stood with the Roman people, ile was recalled in the midst of his successes, and despatched to the oriental provinces, where he soon after died ; and it was generally believed that he was poisoned by the emperor's com- mand. 7. iElius Sejanus, prefect of the prastorian guards, the favourite counsellor of Tiberius, and the obsequious minister of his tyranny and crimes, conceived the daring project of a revolution, which should place himself on the throne, by the extermination of the whole imperial family. Drusus, the son of the emperor, was destroyed by poison. Agrippina, the widow of Germanicus, with her elder son, was banished ; and the younger son was confined in prison. Tibe- rius was persuaded by Sejanus, under the pretence oi the discovery of plots for his assassination, to retire from Rome to the Isle of Caprese, and devolve the government upon his faithful minister. But while Sejanus, thus far successful, meditated the last step to the accomplishment of his wishes, by the murder of his sovereign, his treason was detected ; and the emperor despatched his mandate to the senate, which was follow,ed by his immediate sentence and execution. The public indignation was not satisfied with his death . the populace tore his body to pieces, and flung it into the Tiber. 8. Tiberius now became utterly negligent of the cares of govern ment, and the imperial power was displayed only in public execu- tions, confiscations, and scenes of cruelty and rapine. At length the tyrant falling sick was strangled in his bed by Macro, the praefect of the praetorian guards, in the 78th year of his age, and the 23d of his reign. 9. In the 18th year of Tiberius, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the divine author of our religion, suffered death upon the cross, a sacrifice and propitiation for the sins of mankind, A. D. 33. 10. Tiberius had nominated for his heir, Caligula the son of Ger- manicus, his grandson by adoption; and had joined with him Tibe- rius the son of Drusus, his grandson by blood. The former enjoyed,, on his fathers account, the favour of the people ; and the senate, to * See Dr. Playfaira System of Chronology, p. 49, 50, a work of gr©M research and accuracy, and by far the best on that subject. I 84 ANCIENT HIST0R1 ratify them, set aside the right of his colleague, and conferred on im the empire undivided. The commencement of his reign was signalized by a few acts of clemency, and even good policy. He restored the privileges of the comitia, and abolished arbitrary prose- cutions for crimes of state. But, tyrannical and cruel by nature, he substituted military execution for legal punishment. The provinces were loaded with the most oppressive taxes, and daily confiscations filled the imperial coffers. The follies and absurdities of Caligula were equal to his vices^ and it is hard to say whether he was most the object of hatred or ot contempt to his subjects. He perished by assassination in the fourth year of his reign, the twenty-ninth of his age, A.U. C. 794,-A. D. 42. 11. Claudius, the uncle of Caligula, was saluted emperor by the praetorian guards, who had been the murderers of his nephew. He was the son of Octavia, the sister of Augustus ; a man of weak in- tellects, and of no education. His short reign was marked by an enterprise of importance. He undertook the reduction of Britain, and after visiting the island in person, left his generals, Plautius and Vespasian, to prosecute a war which was carried on for several years with various success. The Silures or inhabitants of South Wales, under their king Caractacus (Caradoc), made a brave resistance, but were finally defeated; and Caractacus was led captive to Rome, where the magnanimity of his demeanour procured him respect and admiration. 12. The civil administration of Claudius was weak and contempt- ible. He was the slave even of his domestics, and the dupe of his in- famous wives Messalina and Agrippina. The former, abandoned to the most shameful profligacv, was at length but to death on suspi- cion of treasonable designs. The latter, who was the daughter of Germanicus, bent her utmost endeavours to secure the succession to the empire to her son Domitins Oenobardus, and employed every engine of vice and inhumnnity to remove the obstacles to the accom- plishment of her wishes. Having at length prevailed on Claudius to adopt her son, and confer on him the title of Caesar, to the exclusion ofhisownson Britannicus, she now made room for the immediate elevation of Domitius, by poisoning her husband. Claudius was put to death in the 15th year of his reign, and the 63d of his age. SECTION XLII. 1 The son of Agrippina assumed the title of Nero Claudius. He had enjoyed the beneht of a good education under the philosopher heneca, but reaped from his instructions no other fruit than a pedan- tic affectation of taste and learning, with no real pretension to either. While controled by his tutor Seneca, and by Burrhus, captain of the praetorian ■ guards, a man of worth and ability, Nero maintained for a short time a decency of public conduct j but the restraint was intolerable, and nature soon broke out. His real character was a compound of every thing that is base and inhuman. In the murder of nls mother Agrippina he revenged the crime which she had committed in raising him to the throne ; he rewarded the fidelity o* Burrhus, by poisoning him ; and as a last kindness to his tutor Seneca he allowed him to choose the mode of his death. It was his darling' amusement to exhibit oa the stage and amphitheatre as an ANCIENT HISTORY. 85 actor, musician, or gladiatoi At length, become the object of universal hatred and contempt, a rebellion of his subjects, headed by Vindex, an illustrious Gaul, hurled this monster from the throne. He had not courage to attempt resistance; and a slave, at his own request, despatched him with a dagger. Nero perished in the 30th year of his age, after a reign of fourteen years, A. D. 69. 2. Galba, the successor of Nero, was of an ancient and illustrious family. He was in the 73d year of his age when the senate, ratify- ing the choice of the praetorian bands, proclaimed him emperor. But an impolitic rigour of discipline soon disgusted the army ; the avarice of his disposition, grudging the populace their favourite games and spectacles, deprived him of their affections; and some iniquitous prosecutions and confiscations excited general discontent and mutiny. Galba, 1 adopted and designed for his successor the able and virtuous Piso; a measure which excited the jealousy of Otho^ his former favourite, and led him to form the daring plan of raising himself to the throne by the destruction of both. He found the praetorians apt to his purpose. Tiiey proclaimed him emperor, and presented him, as a grateful offering, the heads of Galba and riso, who were slain in quelling the insurrection. Galba had reigned seven months. Major privato visus, dum privatus fuit, et omnium con- sensu capax imperii^ nisi impera-sset. Tacitus. He appeared to be greater than a private man, while he was in a- private station ; and by the consent fall was capaole of governing, if he Iiad not governed. 3. Otho had a formidable rival in Vitellius, who haJ been pro- maimed emperor by his army in Germany. It is hard to say which A the competitors was, in point of abilities, the more despicable, or :n character the more infamous. A decisive battle was fought at Bedriacum, near Mantua, where Otb A ; w r as defeated, and in a fit of despair ended his life by his own ban.' 1 af:er a reign of three months, A. D. 70. 4. The reign of Vitellius was o' eight months' duration. Ho is said to have proposed Nero for lis model, and it was just that he should resemble him in his fate. Vespasian had obtained from Nero the charge of the war again^ the Jews, which he had conducted with ability and success, a^d was proclaimed emperor by his troops in the east. A great par* of Italy submitted to Vespasian's generals ; and Vitellius meanly rapitula^ed to save his life, by a resignation of the empire. The people, indignant at his dastardly spirit, compelled him to an efort ot resistance ; but the attempt was fruitless. Priscus, one of *be & enerals of Vespasian, took possession of Rome ; and Vit^J'ins w».s massacred, and his body flung into the Tiber. K Vespasian, though of mea^ descent, was worthy of the empire, and reigned with high popularity for ten years. He possessed great clemency of disposition. His manners were affable and engaging, and his mode of life was characterized by simplicity and frugality. He respected the ancient forms of the constitution, restored the sen- ate to its deliberative rights, and acted by its authority in the admin- istration of all public affairs. The only blemish in his character was a tincture of avarice, and even that "is greatly extenuated bv the laudable and patriotic use which he made of his revenues. Under his reign, and by the arms of his son Titus, was terminated the war against the Jews. They had been brought under the yoke of Rome by Pompey, who took Jerusalem. They were governed for some time by Herod, as viceroy under Augustus. The tyranny of his son Archelaus was the cause of his banishment, and of the reduction ot H m ANCIENT. HISTORY. .tadaroi into the ordinary condition of a Roman province. The Jews rebelled on every slight occasion, and Nero had sent Vespasian to reduce them to order. He had just prepared for the siege of Jeru- salem, when he was called to Rome to assume the government of the empire. Titus wished to spare the city, and tried every means to prevail on the Jews to surrender ; but in vain. Their ruin was decreed by Heaven. After an obstinate blockade of six months Jerusalem was taken by storm, the temple burnt to ashes, and the city buried in ruins. The Roman empire was now in profound peace. ^ Vespasian associated Titus in 'the imperial dignity, and soon after died, universally lamented, at the age of sixty-nine, A. D. 79. . ■ . 6. The character of Titus was humane, munificent, dignified, and splendid. His short reign was a period of great happiness and prosperity to the empire, and his government a constant example of virtue, justice, and beneficence. In his time happened that dreadful eruption of Vesuvius, which overwhelmed the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The public losses from these calamities he repaired by the sacrifice of his fortune and revenues. He died in the third year of his reign, and fortieth of his age ; ever to be remembered by that most exalted epithet, delidx ktmani geneiis {the delight of mankind). 7. Domitian, the brother of Titus, was suspected of murdering him by poison, and succeeded to the empire, A'. D. 81. He was a vicious raid inhuman tyrant. A rebellion in Germany gave him occasion to signalize the barbarity of his disposition; and its consequences were 'ong felt in the sanguinary punishments inflicted under the pretence i>f justice. The prodigal and voluptuous spirit of this reign was a lingular contrast to its tyranny and inhumanity. The people were loaded with insupportable taxes to furnish spectacles and games for their amusement. The successes of Agricola in Britain threw a lustre on the Roman arms, no part of which reflected on the emperor, for he treated this eminent commander with the basest ingratitude. After fifteen tedious years this monster fell at last the victim of assas- sination, the empress herself conducting the plot for his murder, A D. 96. 8. Cocceius Nerva^ a Cretan by birth, was chosen emperor by the senate, from respect to the probity and virtues of his character. He was too old for the burden of government, and of a temper too placid for the restraint of rooted corruptions and enormities. His reign was weak, inefficient, and contemptible. His only act of real merit as a sovereign, was the adoption of the virtuous Trajan as his successor. Nerva died after a reign of sixteen months, A. D. 98. 9. Uipius Trajanus possessed every talent and every virtue that 'can adorn a sovereign. Of great military abilities, and an indefatiga ble spirit of enterprise, he raised the Roman arms to their ancient splendour, and greatly enlarged the boundaries of the empire. He subdued' the Dacians, conquered the Parthians, and brought unde*- subjection Assyria, Mesopotamia, and Arabia Felix. Nor was he less eminent in promoting the happiness of his subjects, and the internal prosperity of the empire. His largesses were humane and munifi- cent. He was the friend and support of the virtuous indigent, and the liberal patron of every useful art and talent. His bounties were applied by well judged economy in his private fortune, and a wise administration of the public finances. In his own life he was a man of simple manners, modest, affable, fond of the familiar intercourse ANCIENT HISTORY, S7 ef his friends, and sensible to all the social and benevolent affections. He merited the surname universally bestowed on him, Trajanw Optimus. He died at the age of sixty-three, after a glorious reign of nineteen years, A. D. 118. 1 0. iEiius Adrianus, nephew of Trajan, and worthy to lill his ph.ce. was chosen emperor by the army in the east, and his title was jicknowledged by all orders of the state. He adopted a poncy differ- ent from that of his predecessor. Judging the limits of the empire too extensive, he abandoned all the conquests of Trajan bounding the eastern provinces by the Euphrates. He visited in person all the provinces of the empire, reforming in his progress all abuses, reliev- ing his subjects of every oppressive burden, rebuilding the ruined cities, and establishing every where a regular and mild adnunistra tion, under magistrates of approved probity and humanity. He gave a discharge to the indigent debtors of the state, and appointed liberal institutions for the education of the children of the poor. To the talents of an able politician he joined an excellent taste in the liberal arts. His reign, which was of twenty-two years' duration, wa i an oera both of public happiness and splendour. In the last year of his life he bequeathed to the empire a double legacy, in adopting for his immediate successor Titus Aurelius Antoninus, and substituting An- nius Verus to succeed upon his death. These were the Amonines, who during forty years ruled the Roman empire with consummate wisdom, ability, and virtue. Adrian died A. D. 138, at the age ol sixty-two. SECTION XLIII, AGE OF THE ANTONINES, &c. 1. The happiest reigns furnish the fewest events ibr the pen of history. Antoninus was the father of his people. He preferred peace to the ambition of conquest; yet in every necessary war the Roman arms had their wonted renown. The British province was enlarged by the c'nquests of Urbicus, and some formidable rebellions were subdued in Germany, Dixia, and the east. The domestic administration of the sovereign was dignified, splendid, and humane. With all the virtues of Numa, his love of religion, peace, and justice, he had the superior advantage of diffusing these blessings over a great portion of the world. He died at the age of seventy four, after a reign of twenty-two years, A. D. 161. 2. Annius Verus assumed, at his accession, the name of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and bestowed on his brother Lucius Verus a joint administration of the empire. The former was as eminent for the worth and virtues of his character, as the latter was remarkable for profligacy, meanness, and vice. Marcus Aurelius was attached both by nature and education to the Stoical philosophy, which he has ad- mirably taught and illustrated in his Meditations. H'is own life was the best commentary on his precepts. The Parthians were repulsed in an attack upon the empire, and a rebellion of the Germans was subdued. In these wars the mean and worthless, Verus brought dis- grace upon the Roman name in every region where he commanded : but fortunately relieved the empire of its fears by an early death. The residue of the reign of Marcus Aurelius was a continued bless- ing to his subjects. He reformed the internal policy of the state, regulated the government of the provinces, and visited him^if, for 88 ANCIENT HISTORY the purposes of beneficence, the most distant quarters of his domin- ions. "He appeared,'* says an ancient author, "like some benevo- lent deity, diffusing around him universal peace and happiness." He died in rannonia, in the 59th year of his age, and 19th of his reign, A. D, 130. 3. Commodus, his . most unworthy son. succeeded to the empire on his death. He resembled in character his mother Faustina - , a woman infamous for all manner of vice. Her profligacy was known to all but her husband Marcus, by whom she was regarded as a para- xon of virtue. Commodus had an aversion to every rational and liberal pursuit, and a fond attachment to the sports of the circus and amphitheatre, the hunting of wild beasts, and the combats of boxers and gladiators. The measures of this reign were as unimportant as the character of the sovereign was contemptible. His concubine and some of his chief officers prevented their own destruction by assas- sinating the tyrant, in the 32d year of his age, and 13th of his reign, A. D. 193. 4. The praetorian guards gave the empire to Publius Helvius Pertinax, a man of mean birth, who had risen to esteem by his vir- tues and military talents. He applied himself with zeal to the cor- rection of abuses; but the austerity of his government deprived him of the affections of a corrupted people. He had disappointed the army of a promised reward, and, after a reign of eighty-six days, was murdered in the imperial palace by the same hands which had placed him on the throne. 5. The empire was now put up to auction by the praetorians, and was purchased by Didius Julianus ; while Pescenius Niger in Asia, Olodius Albinus in Britain, and Septimius Severus in Illyria, were each chosen emperor by the troops which they commanded. Se verus marched to Rome, and, on his approach, the praetorians aban doned Didius, who had failed to pay the stipulated price for his ele- vation : and the senate formally deposed to put him to death. Seve- rus being now master of Rome, prepared to reduce the provinces which had acknowledged the sovereignty of Niger and Albinus These two rivals were successively subdued. Niger was slain in battle, and Albinus fell by his own hands. The administration of Se- verus' was wise and equitable, but tinctured with despotic rigour, [t was his purpose to erect the fabric of absolute monarchy, and all his institutions operated with able policy to that end. He possessed eminent military talents. He gloriously boasted, that, having re- ceived the empire oppressed with foreign and domestic wars, he left it in profound, universal, and honourable peace. He carried with him into Britain his two sons, Caracalla and Geta, whose unpromis- ing dispositions clouded his latter days. In this war the Caledonians under Fingal are said to have defeated, on the banks of the Carron, Caracul, the son of the king of the world. Severus died at York, in ihe 66th year of his age, after a reign of eighteen years, A. D. 21 1. 6. The mutual hatred of Caracalla and Geta was increased by their association in the empire ; and the former, with brutal inhu- manity, caused his brother to be oj>enly murdered in the arms of his mother. His reign, which was of six years' duration, and one con- tinued series of atrocities, was at length terminated by assassination, 4.D. 217. 7. Those disorders in the empire which began with Commodus continued for about a century, till the accession of Diocletian. That interval was filled by the reigns of Heiiogabalus, Alexander Severus ANCIENT HISTORY. OS) Maximim Gordian, Decius, Gallus, Valerianus, Gallienus, Claudius, Aurelianus, Tacitus, Probus, and Carus ; a period of which the an- nals furnish neither amusement nor useful information. The single exception is the reign of Alexander Severus, a mild, beneficent, and enlightened prince, whose character shines the more from the con- trast of those who preceded and followed him. 8. Diocletian began his reign A. D. 284, and introduced a new system of administration, dividing the empire into four governments, under as many princes. Maximian shared with him the title of Augustus, and Galerius an.lConstantius were declared Caesars. Each had his separate department or province, all nominally supreme, but in reality under the direction of the superior talents and authority of Diocletian : an unwise policy, which depended for its efficacy on individual ability alone. Diocletian and Maximian, trusting to the continuance of that order in the empire which their vigour had established, retired from sovereignty, and left the government in the hands of the Caesars; but Constantius died soon after in Britain, and his son Constantine was proclaimed emperor at York, though Gale- rius did not acknowledge his title. Maximian, however, having once more resumed the purple, bestowed on Constantine his daughter in marriage, and thus invested him with a double title to empire. On the death of Maximian and Galerius, Constantine had no other com- petitor but Maxentius, the son of the former, and the contest between them was decided by the sword. Maxentius fell in battle, and Con- stantine remained sole master of the empire. 9. The administration of Constantine was, in the beginning of his reign, mild, equitable, and politic. Though zealously attached to the christian faith, he made no violent innovations on the religion oi the state. He introduced order and economy into the civil govern- ment, and repressed every species of oppression and corruption. But his natural temper was severe and cruel, and the latter part of his reign was as much deformed by intolerant zeal and sanguinary rigour, as the former had been remarkable for equity and benignity. From this unfavourable change of character he lost the affections of his subjects ; and, from a feeling probably of reciprocal disgust, he removed the seat of the Roman empire to Byzantium, now termed Constantinople. The court followed the sovereign; the opulent proprietors were attended by their slaves and retainers. Rome was in a few years greatly depopulated, and the new capital swelled at once to enormous magnitude. It was characterized by eastern splendour, luxury, and voluptuousness; and the cities of Greece were despoiled for its embellishments. Of the internal policy of the empire we shall treat in the next section, m an expedition against the Persians, Constantine died at Nicomedia, in the 30th year of his reign, and 63d of his age, A. D. 337. In the time of Constantine the Goths had made several irruptions on the empire, and, though repulsed and beaten, began gradually to encroach ou the provinces. H2 12 ANCIENT HISTORY SECTION XLIV. I TATE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE AT THE TIME OF CON- STANTINE. HIS SUCCESSORS. 1. In lieu of the ancient republican distinctions, which were founded chiefly on personal merit, a rigid subordination of rank and office now went through all the orders of the state. The magis- trates were divided into three classes, distinguished by the unmean- ing titles' of, l,the illustrious; 2, the respectable; 3, the clarissimi. The epithet of illustrious was bestowed on, 1, the consuls and patri- cians,* 2, the praetorian prefects of Rome and Constantinople ; 3, the masters-general of the cavalry and infantry ; 4, the seven ministers of the palace. The consuls were created by the sole authority of the empercr : their dignity was inefficient ; they had no appropriate function in the state, and their names served only to give the legal date to the year. The dignity of patrician was not, as in ancient times, a hereditary distinction, but was bestowed, as a title of honour, by the emperor on his favourites. From the time of the abolition of the praetorian bands by Constantine, the dignity of praetorian pre- fect was conferred on the civil governors of the four departments of the empire. These were, the East, Illyria, Italy, and the Gauls. They had the supreme administration of justice and of the finances,. he power of supplying all the inferior magistracies in their district,, and an appellative jurisdiction from all its tribunals. Independent of their authority, Rome and Constantinople had each its own prae- ject, who was the chief magistrate of the city. In the second class the respectable, were the proconsuls of Asia, Achaia, and Africa,, and the military comites and duces, generals of the imperial armies. The third class, clarissimi, comprehended the inferior governors and magistrates of the provinces, responsible to the prasfects and their deputies. 2. The intercourse between the court and provinces was main- tained by the construction of roads, and the institution of regular posts or couriers ; under which denomination were ranked the num- berless spies of government, whose duty was to convey all sort of intelligence from the remotest quarter of the empire to its chief seat. Every institution was calculated to support the fabric of des- potism. Torture was employed for the discovery of crimes. Taxes and impositions of every nature were prescribed and levied by the sole authority of the emperor. The quantity and rate were fixed by a census made over all the provinces, and part was generally paid in money, part in the produce of the lands; a burden frequently found so grievous as to prompt to the neglect of agriculture.. Every ob- ject of merchandise and manufacture was likewise highly taxed. Subsidies, moreover, were exacted from all the cities, under tine name of free gifts, on various occasions of public concerns ; as the accession of an emperor, his consulate, the birth of a prince, a victory over the barbarians, or any other event of similar importance. 3. An impolitic distinction was made between the troops stationed in the distant provinces and those in the heart of the empire. The latter, termed palatines, enjoyed a higher pay and more peculiar favour, and, having less employment, spent their time in idleness and luxury while the former, termed the borderers, who, in fact, had the ANCIENT HISTORY 91 care of the empire, and were exposed to perpetual hard service, had, with an inferior reward, the mortification of feeling themselves re- garded as of meaner rank than their fellow-soldiers. Constantine like- wise, from a timid policy of guarding against mutinies of the troops, reduced *he legion from its ancient complement of 5,000, 6,000, 7,000, and 8,000, to 1,000 or 1,500; and debased the body of the army by the intermixture of Scythians, Goths, and Germans. 4. This immense mass of heterogeneous parts, which internally laboured with the seeds of dissolution and corruption, was kept to- gether for some time by the vigorous exertion of despotic author ty. The fabric was splendid and august ;, but it wanted both that energy of constitution and that real dignity, which, in former times, it derived from the exercise of heroic and patriotic virtues. 5. Constantine, with a destructive policy, had divided the empire among five princes, three of them his sons, and two nephews ; but Constantius, the youngest of the sons, finally got rid of all his com- petitors, and ruled the empire alone with a weak and impotent scep- tre. A variety of domestic broils, and mutinies of the troops against their generals, had left the western frontier to xhe mercy of the bar- barian nations. The Franks, Saxons, Alemanni, and Sarmatians, laid waste all the fine countries watered by the Rhine, and the Persians made dreadful incursions on the provinces of the east. Constantiu? indolently wasted his time in theological controversies, but was pre vailed on to adopt one prudent measure, the appointment of his cousin Julian to the dignity of Caesar. 6. Julian possessed many heroic qualities, and his mind was formea by nature for the sovereignty of a great people ; but, educated at Athens, in the schools of the Platonic philosophy, he had unfortunately conceived a rooted antipathy to the doctrines of Christianity. With every talent of a general, and possessing the confidence and affec- tion of his troops, he once more restored the glory of the Roman arms, and successfully repressed the invasions of the barbarians. His victories excited the jealousy of Constantius, who meanly re- solved to remove from his command the better part of his troops. The consequence was a declaration of the army, that it was their choice that Julian should be their emperor. Constantius escaped the igno- miny that awaited him by dying at this critical juncture, and Julian was immediately acknowledged sovereign of the Roman empire. 7. The reformation of civil abuses formed the first object of his attention, which he next turned to the reformation, as he thought, of religion, by the suppression of Christianity. He began by reform- ing the pagan {neology, and sought to raise the character of its priests, by inculcating purity of life and sanctity of morals; thus bearing involuntary testimony to the superior excellence, in those respects, of that religion which he laboured to abolish. Without persecuting he attacked the christians by the more dangerous policy of treating them with contempt, and removing them, as visionaries, from all employments of public trust. He refused them the benefit of the laws to decide their differences, because their religion forbade all dissensions ; and they were debarred the studies of literature and philosophy, which they could not learn but from pagan authors. He was himself, as a pagan, the slave of the most bigoted superstition, believing in omens and auguries, and fancying himself favoured with an actual intercourse with the gods and goddesses. To avenge the injuries which the empire had sustained from the Persians, Julian marched into the heart of Asia, and was for some time in the traiii n ANCIENT HISTORY. of conquest, when, in a fatal engagement, though crowned with victory, he was slain, at the age of thirty-one, after a reign of three years, A. D. 363. 8. The Roman army was dispirited by the death of its commander. They chose for their emperor Jovian, a captain of the domestic guards, and purchased a free retreat from the dominions of Persia by the ignominious surrender of five provinces, which had been ceded by a former sovereign to Galerius. The short reign of Jovian, a period of seven months, was mild and equitable. He favoured Chris- tianity, and restored its votaries to all their privileges as subjects. He died suddenly at the age of thirty-three. 9. Valentinian was chosen emperor by the army on the death ot Jovian ; a man of obscure birth and severe manners, but of consider- able military talents. He associated with himself in the empire his brother Valens, to whom he gave the dominion of the eastern prov- inces, reserving to himself the western. The Persians, under Sapor, were making inroads on the former, and the latter was subject to continual invasion from the northern barbarians. They were suc- cessfully repelled bv Valentinian in many battles ; and his domestic administration was wise, equitable, and politic. The christian reli gion was favoured by the emperor, though not promoted by the persecution of its adversaries; a contrast to the conduct of his brother Valens, who, intemperately supporting the Arian heresy, set the whole provinces in a flame, and drew a swarm of invaders upon the empire in the guise of friends and allies, who in the end entirely- subverted it. These were the Goths, who, migrating from Scandi- navia, had, in the second century, settled on the banks of the Palus Mceotis, and thence gradually extended their territory. In the reign of Valens they took possession of Dacia, and were known by the disjtinct appellation of Ostrogoths and Visigoths, or eastern and western Goths ; a remarkable people, whose manners, customs,- government, and laws, are afterwards to be particularly noted. 10. Valentinian died on an expedition against the Alemanni, and was succeeded in the emoire of the west by Gratian, his eldest son r a boy of sixteen years of age, A. D, 367. Valens, in the east, was the scourge of his people. The Huns, a new race of barbarians, of Tartar or Siberian origin, now poured down on the provinces both of the west and east. The Goths, comparatively a civilized people, fled before them. The Visigoths, who were first attacked, requested protection from the empire, and Valens imprudently gave them a settlement in Thrace. The Ostrogoths made the same request, and, on refusal, forced their way into the same province. Valens gave them battle at Adrianople. His army was defeated, and he was slam m the engagement. The Goths, unresisted, ravaged Achaia and Pan- 1 1 .' Gratian, a youth of great worth, but. of little energy of char- acter, assumed Theodosius as his colleague. On the early death of Gralian, and the minority of his son Valentinian II, Theodosius governed, with great ability, both the eastern and western empire. The character of Theodosius, deservedly surnamed the great, was worthy of the best ages of the Roman state. He successfully repell- ed the encroachments of the barbarians, and secured, by wholesome laws, the prosperity of his people. He died, after a reign of eighteen years, assigning to his sons, Arcadius and Hononus, the separate sovereignties of east and west, A. D. 395. ANCIENT HISTORY 93 SECTION XLV. PROGRESS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, FROM ITS INSTI TUTION TO THE EXTINCTION OF PAGANISM IN THfc » REIGN OF THEODOSIUS. i. The reign of Theodosius was signalized by the downfal of the pagan superstition, and the full establishment of the christian religior in the Roman empire. This great revolution of opinions is highly worthy of attention, and naturally induces a retrospect to the condi tion ol the christian church from its institution down to this period. It has been frequently remarked (because it is an obvious truth), that at the time of our Saviour's birtn a divine revelation seemed to be more peculiarly needed ; and that, from a concurrence of circum- stances, the state of the world was then uncommonly favourable for the extensive dissemination of the doctrines which it conveyed. The union of so many nations under one power, and the extension of civ- ilization, were favourable to the progress of a religion which pre- scribed universal charity and benevolence. The gross superstitions of paganism, and its tendency to corrupt instead of purifying the morals, contributed to explode its influence with every thinking mind. Even the prevalent philosophy of the times, epicurism, more easily understood than the refinements of the Platonists, and more grateful than the severities of the Stoics, tended to degrade human nature to the level of the brute creation. The christian religion, thus neces- sary for the reformation of the world, found its chief partisans in those who were the friends of virtue, and its enemies among the votaries of vice. 2. The persecution which the christians suffered from the Romans has been deemed an exception to that spirit of toleration which they showed to the religions of other nations ; but they were toler- ant only to those whose theologies were not hostile to their own. The religion of the Romans was interwoven with their political con- stitution. The zeal of the christians, aiming at the suppression of all idolatry, was naturally regarded as dangerous to the state ; and hence they were the object of hatred and persecution. In the first century the christian church suffered deeply under Nero and Domitian; yet those persecutions had no tendency to check the progress of its doctrines. 3. It ' is matter of question what was the form of the primitive church, and the nature of its government ; and on this head much difference of opinion obtains, not only between the catholics and prot- estants, but between the different classes of the latter, as the Luthei- ans and Calvinists. It is moreover an opinion, that our Saviour and his apostles, confining their precepts to the pure doctrines of religion, have left all christian societies to regulate their frame and govern ment in the manner best suited to the civil constitutions of the coun- tries in which they are established. 4. In the second century the books of the New Testament were collected into a volume by the elder fathers of the church, and re- ceived as a canon of faith. The Old Testament had been transit- ed from the Hebrew into Greek, by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 284 years before Christ. The early church suffered much from an absurd endeavour of the more learned of its votaries to reconcile its 91 ANCIENT HISTORY. doctrines to the tenets of the pagan philosophers . hence the sects of the Gnostics and Ammonians, and the Platonising christians. In the second century the Greek churches hegan to form provincial associ- ations, and to establish general rules of government and discipline. Assemblies were held, termed synodoi and concilia, over which a me- tropolitan presided. A short time after arose the superior order of patriarch, presiding over a large district of the christian world ; and a subordination taking place even among these, the bishop of Rome was acknowledged the chief of the patriarchs. Persecution still at- tended the early church, even under those excellent princes. Trajan^ Adrian, and the, Antonines ; and, in the reign of Severus, all the prov- inces of the empire were stained with the blood of the martyrs. 5. The third century was more favourable to the progress of Chris- tianity and the tranquillity of its disciples. In those times it suffered less from the civil arm than from the pens of the pagan philcsopers, Porphyry, Philostratus, &,c. ; but these attacks called forth the zeal and talents of many able defenders, as Origen, Dionysms, and Cy- prian. A part of the Gauls, Germany, and Britain, received the light of the gospel in this century. 6. In the fourth century the christian church was alternately per- secuted *and cherished by the Roman emperors- Among its oppres- sors we rank Diocletian, Galerius, and Julian ; among its favourers, Constantine and his sons, Valentinian, Valens, Gratian, and the excel- lent. Theodosius, in whose reign the pagan superstition came to its final period. 7. From the age of Numa to the reign of Gratian the Romans preserved the regular succession of the several sacerdotal colleges, he pontiffs, augurs, vestals, Jlamines, saliL &c, whose authority, though weakened in the latter ages ? was still protected by the laws. Even the christian emperors held, like their pagan predecessors, the office of pontifex maximw. Gratian was the first who refused that ancient dignity as a profanation. In the time of Theodosius the cause of Christianity and of paganism was solemnly debated in the Roman senate between Ambrose, archbishop of Milan, the champion of the former, and Symmachus, the defender of the latter. The - cause of Christianity was triumphant, and the senate issued its de- cree for the abolition of paganism, whose downfal in the capital was soon followed by its extinction in the provinces. Theodosius, with able policy, permitted no persecution of the ancient religion, which perished with more rapidity, because its fall was gentle and un- resisted: 8. But the christian church exhibited a superstition in some re- spects little less irrational than polytheism, in the worship of saints and relics; and many novel tenets, unfounded in the piecepts oi our Saviour and his apostles, were manifestly borrowed from the Eagan schools. The doctrines of the Platonic philosophy seem to ave led to the notions of an intermediate state of purification, ce- libacy of the priests, ascetic mortifications, penances, and monastic seclusion. ANCIENT HISTGKi" 9* SECTION XLVI. EXTINCTION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 1. In the reigns of Arcadius and Honorius, the sons and successors of Theodosius, the barbarian nations established themselves in the frontier provinces both of the east and west. Theodosius had com- mitted the government to Rufinus and Stiiicho during the nonage oJ his sons ; and their fatal dissensions gave every advantage to the enemies of the empire. The Huns, actually invited by Rufinus, overspread Armenia, Cappadocia, ana 1 Syria. The Goths, under Alaric, ravaged to the borders of Italy, and laid waste Achaia to the Peloponnesus. Stiiicho, an able general, made a noble stand against these invaders ; but his plans were frustrated by the machinations of his rivals, and the weakness of Arcadius, who purchased an ignominious peace, by ceding to Alaric the whole of Greece. 2. Alaric, now styled king of the Visigoths, prepared to add Italy to his new dominions. He passed the Alps, and was carrying all before him, when, amused by the politic Stiiicho with the prospect of a new cession of territory, he was attacked unawares, and defeated by that general, then commanding the armies of Honorius. The emperor triumphantly celebrated, on that occasion, the eternal defeat of the Gothic nation; an eternity bounded by the lapse of a few months. In this interval, a torrent of the Goths breaking down upon Germany forced the nations whom they dispossessed, the Suevi, Alani, and Vandals, to precipitate themselves upon Italy. They joined their arms to those of Alaric, who, thus re inibrced, determined to overwhelm Rome. The policy of Stiiicho made him change his purpose, on the promise of 4,000 pounds weight of gold ; a promise repeatedly broken by Honorius, and its violation finally revenged bv Alaric, by the sack and plunder of the city, A. D. 410. With gene- rous magnanimity he spared the lives of the vanquished, and, with singular liberality of spirit, was anxious. to preserve every ancient edifice from destruction. 3. Alaric, preparing now for the conquest of Sicily and Africa, died at this sera of his highest glory; and Honorius, instead of profit- ing by this event to recover his lost provinces, made a treaty with his successor Ataulfus, gave him in marriage his sister Piacidia, and secured his friendship by ceding to him a portion of Spain, while a great part of what remained had before been occupied by the Van- dais. He allowed soon after to the Burgundians a just title to their conquests in Gaul. Thus the western empire was passing by de- grees from the dominion of its ancient masters. 4. The mean and dissolute Arcadius died in the year 408, leaving the eastern empire to his infant son Theodosius II. Theodosius was a weak prince, and his sister Puicheria governed the empire, with prudence and ability, for the space of forty years. Honorius died in the year 42p. The laws of Arcadius and Honorius are, with a few exceptions, remarkable for their wisdom and equity; which is a singular circumstance, considering the personal character of those princes, and evinces at least that they employed some able ministers. 5. The Vandals, under Genseric, subdued the Roman province in Africa. The Huns, in the east, extended their conquests from the borders of China to the Baltic sea. Under Attila they laid waste 9£ ANCIENT HIS10RY. Moesia and Thrace ; and Theodosius, after a mean attempt to mur- der the barbarian general, ingloriously submitted to pay him an an- nual tribute. It was in this crisis of universal decay that the Brilout implored the Romans tc defend them against the Picts and Scots, but received for answer, that they had nothing to bestow on them b:X compassion. The Britons, in despair, sought aid from the Saxons and Angles, who seized, as their property, the country which they were invited to protect, and founded, in the fifth and sixth centuries, the kingdoms of the Saxon heptarchy. (See Part II, Sect. XII, § 5.) 6. Attila, 'with an army of 500,000 men, threatened the total de- struction of the empire. "He was ably opposed by iEtius, general of VaJentinian III., now emperor of the west. Vaientinian was shut up in Rome by the arms of the barbarian, and at length compelled to purchase a peace. On the death of Attila his dominions were dis- membered by his sons, whose dissensions gave temporary relief to the tailing empire of Rome. 7. After Vaientinian III. we have in the west a succession, of princes, or rather names, for the events of their reigns merit no detail. In the reign of Romulus, surnamed Augustuius, the son ot Orestes, the empire of the west came to a final period. Odoacer, prince of the Heruli, subdued Italy, and spared the life of Augustuius, on condition of his resigning the throne, A. D. 476. _ From the build- ing of Rome to the extinction of the western empire, A. D. 476, is a period of 1224 years. 8. We may reduce to one ultimate cause the various circum- stances that produced the decline and fall of this once magnificent fabric. The ruin of the Roman empire was the inevitable conse- quence of its greatness. The extension of its dominion relaxed the vigour of its frame ; the vices of the conquered nations infected the victorious legions, and foreign luxuries corrupted their command- er's ; selfish interest supplanted the patriotic affection ; the martial spirit was purposely debased by the emperors, who dreaded its effects on their own power ; and the whole mass, thus weakened and enervated, fell an easy prey to the torrent of barbarians which overwhelmed it. .. 9. The Herulian dominion in Italy was of short duration. Theo- doric, prince of the Ostrogoths (afterwards deservedly surnamed ike %reat\ obtained permission of Zeno, emperor of the east, to at-, tempt the recovery of Italy, and a promise of its sovereignty as the reward of his success. The whole nation of the Ostrogoths attend- ed the standard of Theodoric, who was victorious in repeated en- gagements, and at length compelled Odoacer to surrender all Italy to the conqueror. The Romans had tasted happiness under the govern- ment of Odoacer; but their happiness was increased under the do- minion of Theodoric, who possessed every talent and virtue of a sdv- ereign. His equity and clemency rendered him a blessing to his subjects. He allied himself with all the surrounding nations, the Franks, Visigoths, Burgundians, and Vandals. ' He left a peaceable sceptre to his grandson Athaiaric, during whose infancy his mother Amalasonte governed with each admirable wisdom and moderation, a* left her subjects no real cause of regret for the loss of her father. 10. While such was the state of Gothic Italy, the empire of the east was under the government of Justinian, a prince of mean ability, vain, capricious, and tyrannical. Yet the Roman name rose for a while from its abasement by the merit of his generals. Belisarius was the support of his throne yet Justinian treated him with the most ANCIENT HISTORY. 9 1 shocking ingratitude. The Persians were at this time the most for- midable enemies of" the empire, under their sovereigns Cabades and Cosrhoes ; and from the latter, a most able prince, Justinian meanly purchased a peace, by a cession of territory, and an enormous trib- ute in gold. The civil factions of Constantinople, arising from the most contemptible of causes, the disputes of the performers in the circus and amphitheatre, threatened to hurl Justinian from the throne, but were fortunately composed by the arms and the policy of Belisarius. This great general overwhelmed the Vandal sovereignty of Africa, and recovered that province to the empire. He wrested taly from its Gothic sovereign, and once more restored it for a short time to the dominion of its ancient masters. 11. Italy was recovered to the Goths by the heroic Totila, who besieged and took the city of Rome, but forebore to destroy it at the request of Belisarius. The fortunes of Belisarius were now in the wane. He was compelled to evacuate Italy, and, on his return to Constantinople, his long services were repaid with disgrace. He was superseded in the command of the armies by the eunuch Narses, who defeated Totila in a decisive engagement, in which the Gothic prince was slain. Narses governed Italy with great ability for thir- teen years, when he was ungratefully recalled by Justin H. the suc- cessor of Justinian. He invited the Lombards to avenge his injuries ; and this new tribe of invaders overran and conquered the country, A. D. 568. , SECTION XL VII. OF THE ORIGIN, MANNERS, AND CHARACTER OF THE GOTHIC NATIONS, BEFORE THEIR ESTABLISHMENT IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 1. The history and manners of the Gothic nations are curious objects of inquiry, from their influence on the constitutions and na- tional character of most of the modern kingdoms of Europe. As the present inhabitants of these kingdoms are a mixed race, compounder! of the Goths and of the nations whom they subdued, the laws, man- ners, and institutions of the modern kingdoms are the result of this conjunction ; and in so far as these are different from the usages prev- alent before this intermixture, they are, in ail probability, to be traced" from the ancient manners and institutions of those northern tribes. We purpose to consider the original character of the Gothic nations, and the change of their manners on their establish- ment in the Roman empire. 2. The Scandinavian chronicles attribute to the ancient inhabitant:* of that country an Asiatic origin, and inform us that the Goths were a colony of Scythians, who migrated thither from the banks of the Black sea and the Caspian : but these chronicles do not fix the period of this migration, which some later writers suppose to have been 1 ,000 years, and others only 70, before the christian sera. Odin, the chief deity of the Scandinavians, was the god of the Scythians. Sigga, a Scythian prince, is said to have undertaken a distant expedi- tion, and, after he had subdued several of the Sarmatian tribes, to have penetrated into the northern parts of Germany, and thence into Scandinavia. He assumed the honours of divinity, and the title of Odin, his national 50a 4 . He conquered Denmark, Sweden, ant- I 13 1?8 ANCIENT HISTORY. Norway, and gave wise and salutary laws to the nations which h«j had subdued by his arms. 3. The agreement in manners between the Scythians and the ancient Scandinavian nations, corroborates the accounts given in the northern chronicles of the identity of their origin. The description of the manners of the Germans by Tacitus (though this people was probably not of Scythian, but of Celtic origin) may, in many partic- ulars, be applied to the ancient nations of Scandinavia ; and the same description coincides remarkably with the account given by Herodotus of the manners of the Scythians. Their life was spent in hunting, pasturage*, and predatory war. Their dress, their weap- ons, their food, their respect for their womeo^ their religious wor- ship, were the same. They despised learning, and had no other records for many ages than the songs of their bards. 4. The theology of the Scandinavians was most intimately con- nected with their manners. They held three great principles or fundamental doctrines of religion: "To serve the Supreme Being with prayer and sacrifice ; to clo no wrong or unjust action ; and to be intrepid in fight." These principles are the key to the Edda, or sacred book of the Scandinavians, which, though it contains the sub- stance of a very ancient religion, is not a work of high antiquity, being compiled in the thirteenth century by Snorro Sturleson, supreme judge of Iceland. Odin, characterized as the terrible and severe god, the father of carnage, the avenger, is the principal deity of the Scandinavians ; from whose union with Frea, the heavenly mother, sprung various subordinate divinities ; as Thor, who per- petually wars against Loke and his evil giants, who envy the power of Odin, and seek to destroy his works. Among the inferior deities are the virgins of the Valhalla, whose office is to minister to the he- roes in paradise. The favourites of Odin are all who die in battle, or, what is equally meritorious, by their own hand. The timid wretch, who allows himself to perish by disease or age, is unworthy of the joys of paradise. These joys are, fighting, ceaseless slaughter, and drinking beer out of the skulls of their enemies, with a renovation of life, to furnish a perpetuity of the same pleasures. 5. As the Scandinavians believed this world to be the work of some superior intelligences, so they held all nature to be constantly under tne regulation of an almighty Will and power, and subject to a fixed and unalterable destiny. These notions had a wonderful effect on the national manners, and on the conduct of individuals. The Scandinavian -placed his sole delight in war : he entertained an vibsolute. contempt of danger and of death, and his glory w r as estimat- ed by the number which he had slain in battle. The death-song of Regner Lodbrok, who comforts himself in his last agonies by recount ing all the acts of carnage which he had committed in his life-time, is a faithful picture of the Scandinavian character. 6. We have remarked the great similarity of the manners of the Scandinavians and the ancient Germans. These nations seem, how- ever, to have. had a different origin. The Germans, as well as the Gauls, were branches of that great original nation termed Celtce, who inhabited most of the countries of Europe south of the Baltic, before they were invaded by the northern tribes from Scandinavia. The Celtae were all of the druidical religion, a system different from the belief and worship of the Scandinavians, but founded nearly on the same principles ; and the Goths, in their progress, intermixing with the Germans, could not fail to adopt, in part, the notions of a kindred ANCIENT HISTORY. 99 religion. Druidism acknowledged a god who delighted in blood shed, taught the immortality of the soul, and inculcated the contempt of danger and of death. Tacitus remarks that the ancient Germans had neither temples nor idols. The open air was the temple of the divinity, and a consecrated grove the appropriated place for prayer and sacritice, which none but the priests were allowed to enter. The chief sacrifices were human victims, most probably^ the prison' ers taken in war. The druids heightened the sanctity of their char- acter by concealing the mysteries of their worship. They had the highest influence over the minds of the people, and thus found it easy to conjoin a civil authority with the sacerdotal; a policy whicij in the end led to the destruction of the druidical system,- for the Komans found no other way of securing their conquests over any oi the Celtic nations, but by exterminating the druids. 7. Whatever difference of manners there may have been among the various nations or tribes of Gothic origin, the great features oi their character appear to have been the same. Nature, education, ;iad prevailing habits, all concurred to form them for an intrepid and conquering people. Their bodily frame *vas invigorated by the climate which they inhabited ; they were inured to danger and fatigue ; war was their habitual occupation ; they believed in an un- alterable destiny, and were taught by their religion that a heroic sacrifice of life gave certain assurance of eternal happiness. How could a race of men so characterized fail to be the conquerors of the world ? SECTION XLVI1I. OF THE MANNERS, LAWS, AND GOVERNMENT OF TH1. GOTHIC NATIONS, AFTER THEIR ESTABLISHMENT IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 1. It has been erroneously supposed that the same ferocity of manners, Avhich distinguished the Goths in their original seats, at- tended their successors in their new establishments in the provinces of the Roman empire. Modern authors have" given a currency to this false supposition. Voltaire, in describing the middle ages, paints the Goths in all the characters of horror; as "a troop of hungry wolves, foxes, and tigers, driving before them the scattered timid herds, and involving all in ruin and desolation." The accounts of historians most worthy of credit will dissipate this injurious preju- dice, and show those northern nations in a more favourable point of view, as not unworthy to be the successors of the Romans. 2. Before their settlement in the southern provinces of Europe, the Goths were no longer idolaters, but christians; and their mo- rality was suitable to the religion which they professed. Salvianus, oishop of Marseilles, in the fifth century, draws a parallel between the manners of the Goths and of the Romans, highly to the credit oi the former. Grotius, in his publication of Procopius and Jornandes, remarks, as a strong testimony to their honourable character as a nation, that no province once subdued by the Goths ever voluntarily withdrew itselt from their government. 3. It is not possible to produce a more beautiful picture of an excellent administration than that of the Gothic monarchy in Italy under Theodoric the great Though master of the country hv 100 ANCIENT HISTORY. conques* , yet he was regarded by his subjects with the affection of a native sovereign. He retained the Roman laws, and, as nearly as possib >g, the ancient political regulations. In supplying all civil offices of state he preferred the native Romans. It was his care to preserve every monument of the ancient grandeur of the empire, and to embellish the cities by -new works of beauty and utility. In the imposition and levying ot taxes he. showed the most humane in- dulgence on every occasion of scarcity or calamity. His laws were dictated by the most enlightened prudence and benevolence, and framed on that principle wnich he nobly inculcated in his instructions to the Roman senate, " Benigni principis est, non iam delicta velle pu- nire, qnam toVereP It is the duty of a benign prince to be disposed to prevent rather than to punish offences. The historians of the times delight in recounting the examples of his munificence and humanity. Partial as he was to the Arian heresy, many even of the catholic fathers have done the most ample justice to his merits, acknowledging that, under his reign, the church enjoyed a high measure of pros- perity. Such was Theodoric the great, who is justly termed by Si- donius Apollinaris, Romance decus columenque gentis {the glory and the support of the Roman nation). 4. But a single example could not warrant a general inference with regard to the merits of a whole people. The example of Theodoric is not single. If it does not rind a complete parallel, it is at least nearly approached to in the similar characters of Alaric, Amalasonte, and Totila. Alaric, compelled by his enemy's breach of faith to revenge himself by the sack of Rome, showed even in that revenge a noble example of humanity. No blood was shed without necessity ; the churches were inviolable asylums ; the hon- our of the women was preserved ; the treasures of the city were saved from plunder. Amalasonte, the daughter of Theodoric. repaired to her subjects the loss of her father, by the equity and wisdom of her administration. She trained her son to the study of literature and of every polite accomplishment, as the best means of reforming and enlightening his people. Totila, twice master of Rome, which he won by his arms after an obstinate resistance, imi- tated the example of Alaric in his clemency to the vanquished, and in his care to preserve every remnant of ancient magnificence from destruction. He restored the senate to its authority, adorned Rome with useful edifices, regulated its internal policy, and took a noble pride in reviving the splendour and dignity of the empire. Habitayit cum. Romanis, says a contemporary author, tanquam pater cum Jiliis. He lived with the Romans as a father with his children. 5. The stem of the Gothic nation divided itself into two great oranches, the Ostrogoths, who remained in Pannonia, and the West- rogoths or Visigoths, so termed from their migrating thence to the west 'of Europe. Italy was possessed by the latter under Alaric, and oy the former under Theodoric. The Visigoths, after the death of Alaric, withdrew into Gaul, and obtained from Honorius the province of Aquitaine, of which Thoulouse was the capital. When expelled from that province by the Franks, they crossed the Pyrenees, and, settling in Spain, made Toledo the capital of their kingdom. The race of the Visigoth princes was termed the Baltic that of the Ostrogoths the Amali. The Ostrogoths enforced in their dominions the observance of the Roman laws ; the Visigoths adhered to a code compiled by their own sovereigns, and founded on the ancient man- ners and usages of th<% nations. From this code, therefore, we may ANCIENT HISTORY. 103 derive much information relative to the genius and character of this ancient people. 6. It is enacted by the laws of the Visigoths that no judge shall decide in any lawsuit, unless he lind in that book a law applicable to the case. All causes that fall not under this description are reserved for the decision of the sovereign. The penal laws are severe, but tempered with great equity. No punishment can affect the heirs of the criminal : Omnia crimina suos sequantur auctores, — et ille solus judi cetur culpabilis qui culpanda commiserit, et crimen cum illo quifecerii moriatur. All crimes shall attach to their authors, — and he alone shall be fudged culpable, who hath committed offences, and the crime shall die with him who liath committed it. Death was the punishment of the murder of a freeman, and perpetual infamy of the murder of a slave. Pe cuniary fines were enacted for various subordinate offences, accord ing to their measure of criminality. An adulterer was delivered in bondage to the injured husband ; and the free woman who had com- mitted adultery with a married man, became the slave of his wife. No physician was allowed to visit a female patient, except in the presence of her nearest kindred. The lex talionis (the law ofretalia' tion) was in great observance for such injuries as admitted it. It was even carried so far, that the incendiary of a house was burnt alive. The trials by judicial combat, by ordeal, and by the judgment oi God, which were in frequent use among the Franks and Normans, had no place among the Visigoths. Montesquieu has erroneously asserted, that in all the Gothic nations it was usual to judge the litigants by the law of their own country ; the Roman by the Roman law, the Frank by the law of the Franks, the Aieman by the law of the Alemans. On the contrary, the Visigoth code prohibits the laws of all other nations within their territories. jYolumus sive Ro- manis legibus, sive alienis institutionibus, amplius convexari. We will not be controlled by the Roman laws, nor by foreign institutions. The laws of the Franks and Lombards are remarkable for their wisdom and judicious policy. 7. The government of the Goths, after their settlement in the Roman provinces, was monarchical. It was at first elective, and afterwards became hereditary. The sovereign on his death-bed appointed his successor, with the advice or consent of his grandees. Illegitimacy did not disqualify from succession or nomination to the throne. 3. The dukes and counts were the chief officers under the Gothic government. The duke (dux exercitus) was the commander in chiet of the troops of the province ; the count (comes) was the highest civil magistrate. But these offices frequently intermixed their tunc tions, the count being empowered, on sudden emergencies, to assume a military command, and the duke, on some occasions, warranted to exercise judicial authority. In general, however, their departments were distinct. Of comiies there were various orders, with distinct offi- cial powers ; as, comes, cubiculi, chamberlain, comes stabidi, constable, &c. These various officers were the procercs or grandees of the kingdom, by whose advice the sovereign conducted himself in important mat- ters of government, or in the nomination of his successor; but we do not find that they had a voice in the framing of laws, or in the im- position of taxes ; and the prince himself had the sole nomination to all offices of government, magistracies, and dignities. 12 ,02 ANCIENT HISTORY. SECTION XLIX. METHOD OF STUDYING ANCIENT HISTORY. 1. A general and concise view of ancient history may be acquired by the perusal of a very few books ; as that part of the Cours d' Etude of the Abbe Condillac which regards the history of the nations of antiquity,- the Elements of General History by the Abbe Millot, part 1st; the Epitome of Turselline, with the notes of L'Agueau, part 1st; or the excellent Compendium Hisiorice Universalis, by professor Offerhaus of Groningen. The two first of these works have the merit of uniting a spirit of reflection with a judicious selection of events. The notes of L'Agneau to the Epitome of Turselline. con- tain a great store of geographical and biographical information. The work of Offerhaus is peculiarly valuable, as uniting sacred with profane history, and containing most ample references to the ancient authors. The Discours sur PHistoire Universellc, by the bishop of Meaux, is a work of high merit, but is not adapted to convey in- formation to the uninstructed. It is more useful to those who have already studied history in detail, for uniting in the mind the great current of events, and recalling to the memory their order and con- nexion. But the student who wishes to derive the most complete advan- tage from history, must not confine himself to such general or com- pendious views ; he must resort to the original historians of ancient times, and to the modern writers who have treated with amplitude of particular periods. It may be useful to such students to point out the order in which those historians may be most profitably perused. 2. Next to the historical books of the Old Testament, the most ancient history worthy of perusal is that of Herodotus, which com- prehends the annals of Lydia, Ionia, Lycia, Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Macedonia, during above 230 years preceding 479 A. C. Book 1. History of JLydia from Gyges to Crcesus. Ancient Ionia. Manners of the Persians, Babylonians, &x. History of Cyrus the Elder. B. 2. History of Egypt, and Manners of the Egyptians. E. 3. History of Cambyses. Persian Monarchy under Darius Hystaspes. B. 4. History of Scythia. B. 5. Persian Embassy to Macedon. Athens, Lacedasmon, Corinth, at the same period. B 6. Kings of Laceda?,mon. War of Persia against Greece, to the battle of Marathon. B. 7. The same War, to the battle of Thermopylae. B. 8. The Naval Battle of Salamis. B. 9. The Defeat and Expulsion of the Persians from Greece. (The merits of Herodotus are shortly characterized in Sect XXII, § 1.) 3. A more particular account of the periods treated by Herodotus may be found in Justin, lib. 1, 2, 3, and 7 ; in the Cyropedia of Xeno- phon ; in the Lives of Aristides, Themistocles, Cimon, Miltiades, and Pausanias, written by Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos; and in the lives of Anaximander, Zeno, Empedocles, Iieraclitus, and Democri- tus, by Diogenes Laertius. ANCIENT HISTORY 03 4. The Grecian history is taken up by Thucydides from the period where Herodotus ends, and is continued for seventy years, to the twenty-first of the Peloponnesian war. (This work characterized. Sect. XXII, §2.) This period is more amply illustrated by perusing the 11th and 12th books of Diodorus Siculus; the Lives of Alcibia des, Chabrias, Thrasybulus, and Lysias, by Plutarch andNepos; the 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th books of Justin; and the 14th and 15th chapters of the 1st book of Orosius. 5. Next to Thucydides the student ought to peruse the 1st and 2d books of Xenophon's History of Greece, which comprehends the narrative of the Peloponnesian war, with the contemporary history of the Medes and Persians ; then the expedition of Cyrus {Anabasis), and the continuation of the history to its conclusion with the ba'tle of Mantinea. (Xenophon characterized, Sect. XXII, § 3.) For illustrat- ing this period we have the Lives of Lysander, Agesilaus, Artaxerxes, Conon, and Datames, by Plutarch and Nepos ; the 4th, 5th, and 6th books of Justin ; and the 13th and 16th books of Diodorus Siculus. 6. After Xenophon let the student read the 15th and 16th books of Diodorus, which contain the history of Greece and Persia, from the battle of Mantinea to the reign of Alexander the great. (Diodorus characterized, Sect. XXII, § 5.) To complete this period let him read the Lives -of Dion, Iphicrates, Timotheus, Phocion, and Timo- leon, by Nepos. 7. For the history of Alexander the great we have the admirable works of Arrian and Quintus Curtius. (Arrian characterized, Sect. XXII, § 8.) Curtius possesses great judgment in the selection of facts, with much elegance and perspicuity of diction. He is a good moralist and a good patriot; but his passion for embellishment derogates from the purity of history, and renders his authority sus- picious. 8. For the continuation of the history of Greece from the death of Alexander, we have the 18th, 19th, and 20th books of Diodorus; the history or Justin from the 13th book to the end; and the Lives of the principal personages written by Plutarch. The history oi Justin is a judicious abridgment of a much larger work by Trogua Pompehis, which is lost. Justin excels in the delineation of charac- ters, and in purity of style. 9. I have mentioned the Lives of Plutarch and Cornelius Nepos as the best supplement to the account of particular periods of ancieni history. It is the highest praise of Plutarch that his writings are admirable for their morality, and furnish instructive lessons of active virtue. He makes us familiarly acquainted with the great men ot antiquity, and chiefly delights in painting their private character and manners. The short Lives written by Nepos show great judgment, and a happy selection of such facts as display the genius and charac ter of his heroes. They are written with purity and elegance. 10. For the Roman history in its early periods we have the An- tiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, which bring down the his- tory of Rome to 412 A. U. C. They are chiefly valuaoie, as illus trating the manners and customs, the rites civil and religious, and the , laws of the Roman state.' But the writer is too apt to frame hypoth eses, and to give views instead of narratives. We expect these in the modern writers who treat of ancient times, but cannot tolerate them in the sources of history. 11. The work of Livy is far more valuable than that of Dio- nysms. It is a perfect model of history both as to matter and compo* 104 ANCIENT HISTORY. sition. (Characterized, Sect. XXXVI, § 10.) Of 132 books only 35 remain, and those are interrupted by a considerable chasm. The first decade (or ten books') treats of a period of 460 years ; the sec- ond decade, containing seventy-live years, is lost ; the third contains the second Punic war, including eighteen years ; the fourth contains the war against Philip of Macedon, and the Asiatic war against Anti- ochus, a space of twenty-three years. Of the fifth decade there are only five books ; and the remainder, which reaches to the death of Drusus. 746. A. U. C. together with the second decade, have been supplied by Freinshemius. To supply the chasm of the second de- cade the student ought to read, together with the epitome of those iost books, the first and second books of Polybius ; the 17th, 18th, 22d, and 23d books of Justin ; • the lives of Marcellus and Fabius Maximus by Plutarch ; and the Punic and Illyrian wars by Appian. 12. The history of Polybius demands a separate and attentive perusal, as an admirable compendium of political and military in- struction. Of forty books of general history we have only five en tire, and excerpts of the following twelve. Polybius treats of, the history of the Romans, and of the nations with whom they were at war, from the beginning of the second Punic ivar to the beginning of the war with Macedonia, comprising in all a period of aoout fifty years. Of the high estimation in which Polybius was held by the authors of antiquity we have sufficient proof in the encomiums be- stowed on him by Cicero, Strabo, Josephus, and Plutarch ; and in the use which Livy has made of his history, in adopting his narratives by a translation nearly literal. IS. The work of Appian, which originally consisted of twenty books, from the earliest period of the Roman history down to the Hge of Adrian, is greatly mutilated ; and there remains only his account of the Syrian, Parthian, Mithridatic, Spanish, Punic, and Illyrian wars. His narrative of each of these wars is remarkably distinct and judicious ; and his composition, on the whole, is chaste •md perspicuous. After the history of Appian the student should re- sume Livy, from the beginning of the third decade, or 21st book, to the end. Then he may peruse with advantage the Lives of Hanni- bal, Scipio Africanus, Flaminius, Paulus iEmilius, the elder Cato, the Gracchi, Marius, Sylla, the younger Cato, Sertorius, Luruilus, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Pompey, and Brutus, by Plutarch. 14. Sallust's histories of the Jugurthine war and of the conspiracy of Catiline come next in order, (^allust characterized, Sect. XXXVI, § 8.) . Then follow the Commentaries of Caesar, remarkable for perspicuity of narration, and a happy union of brevity with elegant simplicity of style. (Sect. XXXIV, § 9.) The epitomes of Florus and of Veleius Paterculus may be perused with advantage at this period of the course. The latter is a model for abridgment of history, in the opinion of the president Henault. 15. For the history of Rome under the first emperors we have Suetonius and Tacitus ; and for the subsequent reigns, the series of the minor historians, termed Hislorice Augustce Scriptores {writers of august history), and the Byzantine writers. Suetonius gives us a series of detached characters, illustrated by an artful selection of tacts and anecdotes, rather than a regular history. His work is chiefly valuable as descriptive of Roman manners. His genius has too much of the caustic humour of a satirist. Tacitus, with greater powers and deeper penetration, has drawn a picture of the times in stern and gloomy colours. (Sect. XXXVI, §11.) From neither of these his ANCIENT HISTORY 105 torians will the ingenuous mind of youth receive moral improvement, or pleasing and benevolent impressions ; yet we cannot deny their hign utility to the student of politics. 16. If we except Herodian, who wrote with taste and judgment, it is doubtful whether any of the subsequent writers of the Roman history deserve a minute perusal. It is therefore advisable for the student to derive his knowledge of the history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire from modern authors, resorting to the original writers only for occasional information on detached points of* importance. For this purpose, the General History by Dr. Howel is a work of great utility, being written entirely on the basis of the original historians, whose narrative he generally translates, referring constantly to his authorities in the margin. In this work the student will find a valuable mass of historical information. 17. The reader having thus founded his knowledge of general his- tory on the original writers, will now peruse with great advantage the modern histories of ancient Greece and Rome byJMitford, Gillies, Gast, Hooke, Gibbon, and Furgusson ; and will find himself qualified to form a just estimate of their merits, on which it is presumptuous to decide without such preparatory knowledge. 18. The greatest magazine of historical information, which has ever been collected into one body, is the English Universal History ; a most useful work, from the amplitude of its matter, its general accuracy, and constant reference to the original authors. We may occasionally consult it with great advantage on points where deep research is necessary ; but we cannot read it with pleasure as a con tinued work, from its tedious details and harshness of style, its abrupt transitions, and the injudicious arrangement of many of its parts. 1 9. Geography and chronology have been justly termed the lights of history. We cannot peruse with advantage the historical annals of any country without a competent knowledge of its geographical situation, and even of its particular topography. In reading the de- scription of any event the mind necessarily forms a picture of the scene of action ; and it is surely better to draw the picture with truth from nature and reality, than falsely from imagination. Many actions and events are likewise intimately connected with the geography and local circumstances of a country, and are unintelligible without a knowledge of them. 20. The use of chronological tables is very great, both for the purpose of uniting in one view the contemporary events in different nations, which often have an influence on one another, and for re- calling to the memory, the order and series of events, and renewing the impressions of the objects of former study. It is extremely use- ful, after perusing the history of a nation in detail or that of a certain age orperiod, to run over briefly the principal occurrences in a table of chronology. The most perfect works of this kind are the chro- nological tables of Dr. Playfair, which unite history and biography , the tables of Dr. Blair ; or the older tables by Tallent.* END OF PART FIRST. * A list of the best translations of the principal books above mentioned* Herodotus, translated by Beloe, 4 vols. 8vo. Xenophon's Cycropedia by Cooper, 8vo. Xenophon's Anabasis, by Spehnan, 2 vols. 8vo. Xenophon's History of Greece, by Smith, 4to« 14 PART SECOND. MODERN HISTORY, SECTION I. OF ARABIA, AND THE EMPIRE OF THE SARACENS. The fall of the western empire of the Romans, and the final sub jugation of Italy by the Lombards, is the sera from which we date tho commencement of Modern History. The eastern empire of the Romans continued to exist for many ages after this period, still magnificent, though in a state of compar- ative weakness and degeneracy. Towards the end of the sixth, cen- tury a new dominion arose in the east, which was destined to produce a wonderful change on a great portion of the globe. The Arabians, at this time a rude nation, living chiefly in indepen- dent tribes, who traced their descent from the patriarch Abraham, professed a mixed religion, compounded of Judaism and idolatry. Mecca, their holy city, rose to eminence from the donations of pil- grims to its temple, in which was deposited a black stone, an object of high veneration. Mahomet was born at Mecca, A. D. 571. Of mean descent, and no education, but of great natural talents, he sought to raise himself to celebrity, by feigning a divine mission to propagate a new religion for the salvation of mankind. He retired to the des- ert, and pretended to hold conferences with the angel Gabriel, who delivered to him, from time to time, portions of a sacred book or Co- ran, containing revelations of the will of the Supreme Being, and of the doctrines which he required his prophet to communicate to the world. " 2. This religion, while it adopted in part the morality of Christian- ity, retained many of the rites of Judaism, and some of the Arabian superstitions, as the pilgrimage to Mecca ; but owed to a certain spirit Plutarch, by Langhorne, 6 vols. 8vo., or 6 vols. 12mo. Wrangham'a edition. Thucydides, by Smith, 2 vols. 8vo- Dionysius Halicarnassus, by Spelman, 4 vols. 4to. PolybiUs, by Hampton, 4 vols. 8vo. Livy, by Haker, 6 vols. 8vo . Sallust, by Murphy, 8vo. ; b> Stuart, 2 vols. 4to. ; by R,ose, 8ro. Tacitus, by Murphy, 8 vols. 8vo. ; Irish edition, 4 vols. 8yo Suetonius, by Thompson, 8vo. Diodorus Siculus, by Booth, folio. Arrian, by Rook, 2 vols. 8vo. Q. Curtius, by Digby, 2 vols. 12m©. ' , Justin, by Turnbull, 12mo. MODERN HISTORY. !:d particularly of the Franks. By this warlike, barbarous people, revenge was esteemed honourable and meritorious. The high-spirited warrior chastised or vindicated with his own hand the injuries which he had received or inflicted. The magistrate interfered, not to punish, but to reconcile, and was satisfied if he could persuade the aggressor to pay, and the injured party to accept, the moderate fine which was imposed. as the price of blood, and of which the measure was estimated according to the rank, the sex, and the country of the person slain. But increasing civilization abolished those barbarous distinctions. We have remarked the equal severity of the laws of the Visigoths, in the crimes of murder and robbery; and even among the Franks, in the age of Charlemagne, deliberate murder was punished with death. 7. By their ancient laws, a party accused of any crime was al- lowed to produce compurgators, or a certain number of witnesses, according to the measure of the offence ; and if these declared upon oath their belief of his innocence, it was held a sufficient excul pation. Seventy-two compurgators were required to acquit a mur- derer or an incendiary. The flagrant perjuries occasioned by this MODERN HISTORY. lib absurd practice probably gave rise to the trial by ordeal, which was termed, as it was believed to be, the judgment of God The crhm- nal was ordered, at the option of the judge, to prove his innocence or guilt, by the ordeal of cold water, of boiling water, or red hot iron. He was tied hand and foot, and thrown into a pool, to sink or swim ; he was made to fetch a ring from the bottom of a vessel oi boiling water, or to walk barefooted over burning ploughshares. His- tory records examples of those wonderful experiments having been made without injury or pain. 8. Another peculiarity of the laws and manners of the northern nations was judicial combat. Both in civil suits and in the trial of crimes, the party destitute of legal proofs might challenge his antag- onist to mortal combat, and rest the cause upon its issue. This san- guinary and most iniquitous custom, which may be traced to this day in the practice of duelling, had the authority of law in the court of the constable and marshal, even in the last century, in France and England. SECTION VI. RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF THE AFFAIRS OF THE CHURCH BEFORE THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE. 1. The Arian and Pelagian heresies divided the christian church for many ages, in the fourth century, Arius, a presbyter of Alexan- dria, maintained the separate and inferior nature of "the second per- son of the trinity, regarding Christ as the noblest of created beings, through whose agency the Creator had formed the universe. His doctrine was condemned in the council of Nice, held by Constantine A. D. 325, who afterwards became a convert to it. lor many cen- turies il had an extensive influence, and produced the sects of the Eunomians, Semi-Arians, Eusebians, &c. 2. In the beginning of the fifth century Pelagius and Cselestius, the former a native of Britain, the latter of Ireland, denied the doc- trine of original sin, and the necessity of divine grace to enlighten the understanding, and purify the heart ; and maintained the suffi- ciency of man's natural powers for the attainment of the highest degrees of piety and virtue. These tenets were ably combated by St. Augustine, and condemned b} r an ecclesiastical council, but have ever continued to find many supporters. 3." The most obstinate source of controversy in those ages was the worship of images ; a practice which was at first opposed by the clergy, Lat was afterwards, from interested motives, countenanced and vindicated by them. It was, however, long a subject of division in the church. The emperor Leo the Isaurian, A. D. 727, attempted to suppress this idolatry, by the destruction of every statute and pic- ture found in the churches, and by punishment of their worshippers, but this intemperate zeal rather increased than repressed the super- stition. His son Constantine Copronymus, with wiser policy, pro- cured its condemnation by the church. 4. From the doctrines of the Platonic and Stoic philosophy, which recommended the purification of the soul, by redeeming it from its subjection to the senses, arose the system of penances, mor- tification, religious sequestration^ and monachism. After Constantine had put an end to the persecution of the christians, many conceived 1 1 a MODERN HISTORY. t a duty to procure for themselves voluntary grievances and sufiei* ings. They retired into caves and hermitages, and there practised the most rigorous mortifications of the flesh, by fasting, scourging, vigils, &c. This phrensy first showed itself in £gypt in the fourth century, whence it spread over all the east, a great part of Africa, and within the limits of the bishopric of Rome. In the time of The- odosius these devotees began to form communities or cceiwbia, each associate binding himself by oath to observe the rules of his order. St. Benedict introduced monachism into Italy, under the reign of Totila ; and his order, the Benedictine, soon became extremely nu- merous and opulent. Many rich donations were made by the devout and charitable, who believed that they profited by the prayers of the monks. Benedict sent colonies into Sicily and France, whence they soon spread over all Europe. 5. In the east, the monachi solitarii (solitarv monks) were first incor- porated into camobia by St. Basil, bishop of Caesarea, in the middle ot the fourth century ; and some time before that period the first monasr teries for women were founded in Egypt by the sister of St. Pacomo. From these, in the following age, sprung a variety jof orders, under different rules. The rule of the canons regular was framed after the model of the apostolic life. To chastity, obedience, and poverty, the mendicants added the obligation of begging alms. The military reli- gious orders were unknown till the age of the holy wars. (Sect. XVII, § 3.) The monastic fraternities owed their reputation chiefly to the little literary knowledge which, in those ages of ignorance, they ex- clusively possessed. (For the origin of monachism, see Varieties of Literature.) 6. In the fifth century arose a set of fanatics termed stylites, or pil- lar-saints, who passed their lives on the tops of pillars of various height. Simeon of Syria lived thirty-seven years, and died on a pillar sixty feet high. This phrensy prevailed in the east for many centuries. (For a curious account of the fanaticism of the Hindoos, see Tennant's Indian Ptecreations.) 7. Auricular confession, which had been abolished in the east in the fourth century, began to be in use in the west in the age of Char- lemagne, and has ever since prevailed in the Romish church. The canonization of saints was, for near twelve centuries, practised by ev- ery bishop. Pope Alexander III, one of the most vicious of men, first claimed and assumed this right, as the exclusive privilege of the successor of St. Peter. 8. The conquests of Charlemagne spread Christianity in the north of Europe ; but all beyond the limits of his conquests was idolatrous. Britain and Ireland had received the light of Christianity at an earlier period ; but it was afterwards extinguished, and again revived under the Saxon heptarchy. SECTION VII. EMPIRE OF THE WEST UNDER THE SUCCESSORS OF CHAR- .LEMAGNE. 1. The empire of Charlemagne, raised and supported solely by his abilities, fell to pieces under his weak posterity. Lewis {le debonnaire)* the only survivor of his lawful sons, was consecrated emperor and kiog of the Franks at Aix la Chapelle, A. D. 816. Among the first MODERN HISTORY 117 acts of his reign was the partition of his dominions among his children. To Pepin, his second son, he gave Aquitaine, a third part of the south of France ; to Lewis, the youngest, Bavaria ; and he associated his eldest son Lotharius with himself in the government of the rest. The three princes quarrelled amonp themselves, agreeing in nothing but in hostility against their father. They made open war against him, supported by pope Gregory 1V\ The pretence was, that the emper or having a younger son, Charles, born after this partition of his states, wanted to give him likewise a share, which could not be done but at the expense of his elder brothers. Lewis was compelled to surrender himself a prisoner to his rebellious sons. They confined him for a year to a monastery, till, on a new quarrel between Lewis the younger and Pepin, Lotharius once more restored his father to the throne : but his spirits were broken, his health decayed, and lie finished, soon after, an inglorious and turbulent reign, A. £). 840. 2. The dissensions of the brothers still continued. Lotharius, now emperor, and Pepin his brother's son, having taken up arms against the two other sons of Lewis le ■ debonnaire, Lewis of Bavaria and Charles the bald, Were defeated by them in the battle of Fontenai, where 100,000 are said to have fallen in the field. The church in those times was a prime organ of the civil policy. A council of bisli- ops immediately assembled, and solemnly deposed Lotharius. At the same time they assumed an equal authority over his conquerors, whom they permitted to reign, on the express condition of submissive obedience to the supreme spiritual authority. Yet Lotharius, though excommunicated and deposed, found means to accommodate matters with his brothers, who agreed to a new partition of the empire. By the treaty of Verdun, A. D. 843, the western part of France, termed Neustria and Aquitaine, was assigned to Charles the bald ; Lotharius, with the title of emperor, had the nominal sovereignty of Italy, and the real territory of Lorraine, Franche Compte, Provence, and the Lyonnois ; the share of Lewis was the kingdom of Germany. 3. Thus was Germany finally separated from the empire of the Franks. On the death of Lotharius, Charles the bald assumed the empire, or, as is said, purchased it from pope John VIII, on the con- dition of holding it as a vassal to the holy see. This prince, after a weak and inglorious reign, died by poison, A. D. 877. He was the first of the French monarchs who made dignities and titles hereditary. Uno'er the distracted reigns of. the Carlovingian kings, the nobles at- tained great power, and commanded a formidable vassalage. They strengthened themselves in their castles and fortresses, and bid defi- ance to the arm of government, while the country was ravaged and desolated by their feuds. 4. In the reign of Charles the bald, France was plundered by the Normans, a new race of Goths from Scandinavia, who had begun their depredations even in the time of Charlemagne, and were only checked in their progress by the terror of his arms. A. D. 843 they sailed up the Seine, and plundered Rouen ; while another fleet enter ed the Loire, and laid waste the country and its vicinity, carrying;, together with its spoils, men, women, and children, into captivity In the following year they attacked the coasts of England, France, and Spain, but were repelled from the last by the good conduct and courage of its Mahometan rulers. In 845 they entered the Elbe, plundered Hamburgh, and penetrated far into Germany. Eric, king of Denmark, who commanded these Normans, sent once more a fleet into the Seine, which advanced to Paris. Its inhabitants fled, and the U3 MODERN HISTORY. city was burnt. Another fleet, with little resistance, pillaged Bour deaux. To avert the arms of these ravagers, Charles the bald bribed them with money, and his successor, Charles the gross, yielded them a part of his Flemish dominions. These were only incentives to fresh depredation. Paris was attacked a second time, but gallantly defended by count Odo or Eudes, and the venerable bishop Goslin. A truce was a second time concluded ; but the barbarians only chang- ed the scene of their attack : they besieged Sens, and plundered Burgundy. An assembly of the states held at Mentz deposed the unworthy Charles, and conferred the crown on the more deserving Euoes : who, during a reign often years, bravely withstood the Nor- mans. A great part of the states of France, however, refused his title to the crown, and gave their allegiance to Charles surnamed the simple. 5. Rollo, the Norman, in 912, compelled the king of France to yield him a large portion of the territory of Neustria, and to give him his daughter in marriage. The new kingdom was now called Normandy, of which Rouen was the capital. SECTION VIII. EMPIRE OF THE* EAST DURING THE EIGHTH AND NINTH CENTURIES. i. While the new empire of the west was thus rapidly tending to dissolution, the empire of Constantinople still retained a vestige of its ancient grandeur. It had lost its African and Syrian dependencies, and was plundered by the Saracens on the eastern frontier, and rav- aged on the north and west by the Abari and Bulgarians. The capi- tal, though splendid and refined, was a constant scene of rebellions and conspiracies ; and the imperial family itself exhibited a series of the most horrid crimes and atrocities. One emperor was put to death in revenge of murder and incest ; another was poisoned by his queen ; a third was assassinated in the bath by his own domestics ; a fourth tore out the eyes of his brother ; the empress Irene, respecta- ble for her talents, was infamous for the murder of her only son. Of such complexion was that series of princes who swayed the scep- tre of the east nearly 200 years. 2. In the latter part of this period a most violent controversy was maintained respecting the worship of images, which were alternately destroyed and replaced according to the humour of the sovereign. The female sex was their most zealous supporter. This was not the only subject of division in the christian church ; the doctrines of Man- tches were then extremely prevalent, and the sword was frequent- ly employed to support and propagate their tenets. 3. The misfortunes of the empire were increased by an invasion of the Russians from the Palus Moeotis and Euxine. In the reign of Leo, named the philosopher, the Turks, a new race of barbarians, of Scythian or Tartarian breed, began to make effectual inroads on its territories. About the same time its domestic calamities were aggra- vated by the separation of the Greek from the Latin church, of which we shall treat under the following section. MODERN HISTOKi' 119 SECTION IX STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTH AND NINTH CENTURIES. 1. The popes had begun to acquire a temporal authority under Pepin le bref and Charlemagne, from the donations of territory made by those princes, and they were now gradually extending a spriritual jurisdiction over all tlie christian kingdoms. Nicholas 1. proclaimed to the whole world his paramount judgment in appeal From the sentences of all spiritual judicatories; his power of as- sembling councils of the church, and of regulating it by the canons of those councils ; the right of exercising his authority by legates in all the kingdoms of Europe, and the control of the pope over all princes and governors. Literary imposture gave its support to these pretences. Certain spurious epistles were written in the name of Isidorus, with the design of proving the justice of the claims of the pope , and the forgery of those epistles was not completely exposed till the sixteenth century. Among the prerogatives of the popes was the regulation of the marriages of all the crowned heads, by the extreme extension of the prohibitions of the canon law, with which they alone had the power of dispensing. 2. One extraordinary event (if true) afforded, in the ninth cen- tury, a ludicrous interruption to the boasted succession of regular bishops from the days of St. Peter, the election of a female pope, who is said to have ably governed the church for three years, ti!5 detected by the birth of a child. Till the reformation by Luther ' this event was not regarded by the catholics as incredible, nor dis- graceful to the church : since that time its truth or falsehood has been the subject of keen controversy between the protestants and catholics ; and the evidence for its falsehood seems to preponderate. 3. The church Was thus gradually extending its influence, and its head arrogating the control over sovereign princes, who, by a singular interchange of character, seem, in those ages, to have fixed their chief attention on spiritual concerns. Kings, dukes, and counts, neglecting their temporal duties, shut themselves up in clois- ters, and spent their lives in prayers and penances. Ecclesiastics were employed in all the departments of secular government ; and they alone conducted all public measures and state negotiations, which of course they directed to the great objects of advancing the interests of the church, and establishing the paramount authority of the holy see. 4. At this period, however, when the popedom seemed to have attained its highest ascendancy, it suftered a severe wound in that remarkable schism which separated the patriarchates of Rome and Constantinople, or the Greek and Latin churches. The Roman pon- tiff had hitherto claimed the right of nominating the patriarch of Constantinople. The emperor Michael III. denied this right, and de- posing the pope's patriarch, Ignatius, appointed the celebrated Photius in his stead. Pope Nicholas 1. resented this affront with a high spirit, and deposed and excommunicated Photius, A. D. 863, who, in his turn, pronounced a similar sentence against the pope. The church was divided, each patriarch being supported by many bishops and heir dependent clergy. The Greek and Latin bishops had long 20 MODERN HISTORY. differed in many points of practice and discipline, as the celibacy of the clergy, the shaving of their beards, &c. ; but in reality the prime source of division was the ambition of the rival pontiffs, and the jeal ousy of the Greek emperors, unwilling to admit the control of Rome, and obstinately asserting every prerogative which they con- ceived to be annexed to the capital of the Roman empire. As nei ther party would yield in its pretensions, the division of the Greek and Latin churches became from this time permanent. 5. Amid those ambitious contests for ecclesiastical power and pre eminence, the christian religion itself was disgraced, both by the practice and by the principles of its teachers. Worldly ambition gross voluptuousness, and grosser ignorance, characterized all rank? of the clergv ; and the open sale of benefices placed them often ii the hands of the basest and most profligate of men. Yet the charac ter of Phbtius forms an illustrious exception. Though bred a states man and a soldier, and in both these respects of great reputation, h«» attained, by his singular abilities, learning, and worth, the high'.s< dignity of the church. His Bibliotheca is a monument of the m ;S< various knowledge, erudition, and critical judgment. SECTION X. OF THE SARACENS IN THE EIGHTH AND NINTH CENTURIES. 1. In the beginning of the eighth century the Saracens subverted (he monarchy of the Visigoths in Spain, and easily overran the coun- try. They had lately founded in Africa the empire of Morocco, which was" governed by Muza, viceroy of the caliph Valid Almanzor Muza sent his general Tariph into Spain, who, in one memorable battle, fought A. D. 713, stripped the Gothic king Rodrigo of his crown and life. The conquerors, satisfied with the sovereignty of the country, left the vanquished Goths in possession of their proper- ty, laws, and religion. Abdallah the Moor married the widow of Rodrigo, and the two nations formed a perfect union. One small part "of the rocky country of Asturia alone adhered to its christian prince, Pelagius 9 who maintained his little sovereignty, and transmit- ted it inviolate to his successors. 2. The Moors pushed their conquests beyond the Pyrenees ; but division arising among their emirs, and civil wars ensuing, Lewis k debonncdre took advantage of the turbulent state of the country, and invaded and seized Barcelona. The Moorish sovereignty in the north of Spain was weakened by throwing off its dependence on the caliphs ; and in this juncture the christian sovereignty of the Asturias, under Alphonso the chaste, began to make vigorous en- croachments on the territory of the Moors. Navarre and Arragon, roused by this example, chose each a christian king, atad boldly as- serted their liberty and independence. 3. While the Moors of Spain were thus losing ground in the north, they were highly flourishing in the southern parts of the kingdom, iibdalrahman, the last heir of the family of the Ommiades (the Ac&ssidae now enjoying the caliphate), was recognized as the true representative of the ancient line by the southern Moors. He fixed the seat of his government at Cordova, which, for two centuries from that time, was the capital of a splendid monarchy. This period h\>m the middle of the eighth to the middle of the tenth century ' MODERN HISTORY. 121 h the most brilliant cera of Arabian magnificence. Whilst Haroun Alraschid made Bagdat illustrious by the splendour of the arts and sciences, the Moors of Cordova vied with their brethern of Asia in the same honourable pursuits, and were undoubtedly at this period the most enlightened of the states of Europe. Under a series oi able princes they gained the highest reputation, both in arts and arms, of all the nations of the west. 4. The Saracens were at this time extending their conquests in almost every quarter of the world. The Mahometan religion was professed over a great part of India, and all along the eastern and Mediterranean coast of Africa. The African Saracens invaded Sicily, and projected the conquest of Italy. They actually laid siege to Rome, which was nobly defended by pope Leo IV'. They were repulsed, their ships were dispersed by a storm, and their army- was cut to pieces, A. D. 848. . • 5. The Saracens might have raised an immense emphe, if they had acknowledged only one head ; but their states were always dis- united. Egypt, Morocco, Spain, and India, had all their separate sovereigns, who continued to respeci. the caliph of Bagdat as the successor of the prophet, but acknowledged no temporal subjection to his government. SECTION XI. EMPIRE OF THE WEST AND ITALY IN THE TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES. 1. The empire founded by Charlemagne now subsisted only m name. Arnold, a bastard son of Carlornan, possessed Germany. Italy was divided between Guy duke of Spoletto and Berengarius duke of Priuli, who had received these duchies from Charles the bald/ France, though claimed by Arnold, was governed by Eudes. Thus the empire in reality consisted only of a* part of Germany, while France, Spain, Italy, Burgundy, and the countries between the Maes and Rhine, were ail subject to different powers. The emper- ors were at this time elected by the bishops and grandees, all oi whom claimed a voice. In this manner Lewis the son of Arnold, •the last of the blood of Charlemagne, was chosen emperor after the death of his father. On his demise Otho duke of Saxony, by his •credit with his brother grandees, conferred the empire on Conrad duke of Franconia, at whose death Henry surnarned the fowler, son of the same duke Otho, was elected emperor, A. 1). 918. 2. Henry I. (the fonder), a prince of- great abilities, introduced order and good government into the empire. He united the gran dees, *md curbed their usurpations; built, embellished, and ibrtiried the cities; and enforced with great rigour the execution of the laws in the repression of all enormities. He had been consecrated by his own bishops, and maintained no correspondence with the see of Rome. 3. His son Otho (the great), A. I). 938, again united Italy to the . empire, and kept the popedom in complete subjection. He made Denmark tributary to the imperial crown, annexed the crown of Bo- hemia to his own dominions, and seemed to aim at a paramount authority over all the sovereigns of Europe. L (22 MODERN HISTORY 4. Otho owed his ascendancy in Italy to the disorders of the pa- pacy. Formosus, twice excommunicated by pope John VIIL, had arrived at the triple crown. On his deatn his rival, pope Stephen VII., caused his body to be dug out of the grave, and, after trial for his crimes, condemned it to be flung into the Tiber. The friends of Formosus had interest to procure the deposition of Stephen, who was strangled in prison. They sought and found his body, and buried it. A succeeding pope, Sergius III., again dug up this ill-fated carcase, and threw it into the Tiber. Two infamous women, Marozia and Theodora, managed for many years the popedom, and tilled the chair of Si. Peter with their own gallants, or their adulterous off- spring. Such was the state of the hoiy see, when Berengarius duke of Priuli disputed the sovereignty of Italy with Hugh of Aries. The Italian states and pope John XII., who took part against Beren- garius, invited Otho to compose the disorders of the country. He entered Italy, defeated Berengarius, and was consecrated emperor by the pope, with the titles of Caesar and Augustus ; in return for which honours he confirmed the donations made to the holy see by his predecessors, Pepin, Charlemagne, and Lewis the debonnaiie, A. V. 962. 5. But John XII. was false to his new ally. He made his peace with Berengarius, and both turned their arms against the emperor. Otho flew back to Rome, and revenged himself by the trial and deposition of the pope ; but he had scarcely left the city, when John, by the aid of his party, displaced his rival Leo Vlli. Otho once more returned, and took exemplary vengeance on his enemies, by hanging one half of the senate. Calling together the lateral! council, he created a new pope, and obtained from the assembled bishops a solemn acknowledgment of the absolute right of the em- peror to elect to the papacy, to give the investiture of the crown of Italy, and to nominate to all vacant bishoprics ; concessions observed no longer than while the emperor was present to enforce them. 6. Such was the state of Rome and Italy under Otho the great - x and it continued to be much the same under his successors for a cen- tury. The emperors asserted their sovereignty over Italy and the popedom, though with a constant resistance on the part of the Romans, and a general repugnance of the pope, when once establish- ed. h\ those ages of ecclesiastical profligacy it was not unusual to put up the popedom to sale. Benedict VU1. and John XIX., two brothers, publicly bought the chair of St. Peter, one alter the other ; and, to keep it in their family, it was purchased afterwards by their friends for Benedict IX., a child of twelve years of age. Three popes, each pretending regular election and equal right, agreed first to divide the revenues between them, and afterwards sold all their shares to a fourth. 7. The emperor Henry III., a prince of great ability, strenuously vindicated his right to supply the pontitical chair, and created three successive popes withoi t opposition. MODERN HISTORY 123 SECTION XII. HISTORY OF URITAIN FROM ITS EARLILST PERIOD DOWN TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 1. The history of Britain has been postponed to this time, that it may be considered in one connected view from its earliest period to the end of the Anglo-Saxon government. We strive not to pierce through that mist of obscurity which veils the original population of the British isles ; remarking only, as a mat- ter of high probability, that they derived their first inhabitants from the Celtae of Gaul. Their authentic history commences with the first Roman invasion; and we learn from Caesar and Tacitus, that the country was at that period in a state very remote from barbarism. It was divided into a number of small independent sovereignties, each prince having a regular army and a fixed revenue. The manners, language, and religion of the people, were the same as those of the Gallic Celtae. The religion was the druidical system, whose in- fluence pervaded every department of the government, and, by its power over the minds of the people, supplied the imperfection of laws. 2. Julius Caesar, after the conquest of Gaul, turned his eyes towards Britain. He landed on the southern coast of the island, 55 A. C. ; and meeting with most obstinate resistance, though on the whole gaining some advantage, he found himself obliged, after a short campaign, to withdraw for the winter into Gaul. He returned in the following summer with a great increase of force, an army of' 20,000 foot, a competent body of horse, and a fleet of 800 sail. The independent chiefs of the Britons united their forces under Cassibe- lanus king of the Trinobantes, and encountering the legions with great resolution, displayed all the ability of practised warriors. But the contest was vain. Caesar advanced into the country, burnt Veru- .amium, the capital of Cassibelanus, and, after forcing the Britons mto articles of submission, returned to Gaul. 3-. The domestic disorders of Italy gave tranquillity to the Britons for near a century ; but, in the reign of Claudius, the conquest of the island was determined. The emperor landed in Britain and com- pelled the submission of the south-eastern provinces. Ostorius Scapula defeated Caractacus, who was sent prisoner to Rome. Suetonius Paulinus, the general of Nero, destroyed Mona (Anglesey, or as others think, Irian), the centre of the druidical superstition. The Iceni (inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk), under their queen Boadicea, attacked several of the Roman settlements. London, with its Roman garrison, was burnt to ashes. But a decisive battle ensued, in which 80,000 of the Britons fell in the field, A. D. 61. Thirty years after, in the reign of Titus, the reduction of the island was completed by the Roman general, Julius Agricola. He secured the Roman prov- ince against invasion from the Caledonians, by walls and garrisons ; and reconciled the southern inhabitants to the government of their conquerors, by the introduction of Roman arts and improvements. Under Severus the Roman province was extended far into the north of Scotland. 4. With the decline of the Roman power in the west, the southern Britons recovered their liberty, but it was only to become 124 MODERN HISTORY. £he object of incessant predatory invasion from their brethren of the north. The Romans, after rebuilding the wall of Severus, finally bid adieu to Britain, A. D. 448. The Picts and Caledonians now broke down upon the south, ravaging and desolating the country, without a purpose of conquest, and merely, as it appears, for the supply of their temporary wants. After repeated application for aid from Rome without success, the Britons meanly solicited the Saxons for succour and. protection. 5 The Saxons received the embassy with great satisfaction. Brit- ain had been long known to them in their piratical voyages to its- coasts. They landed to the amount of 1,600, under the command o» If engisi and Horsa, A. D. 450 ; and joining the South Britons, soon, compelled the Scots to retire to their mountains. They next turned their thoughts to the entire reduction of the Britons, and received, ■large reinforcements of their countrymen. After an obstinate contest of near 150 years, they reduced the whole of England under the Sax- mi government. Seven distinct provinces became as many indepen- dent kingdoms. 6. The history of the Saxon heptarchy is uninteresting, from its ■obscurity and confusion. It is sufficient to mark the duration of the several kingdoms, till their union under Egbert. Kent began in 455,. ( .*md lasted, under seventeen princes, till 827, when it was subdued by the West Saxons. Under Ethelbert, one of its kings, the Saxon* „vvere converted to Christianity by the monk Augustine. Northumber ttind began in 597, and lasted, under twenty-three kings, till 792. East Anglia began in 575, and ended in 793. Mercia subsisted from* ,082 to 827. Essex had fourteen princes, from 527 to 747. Sussex Irad five kings before its reduction under the dominion of the West Saxons, about 600. Wessex (the country of the West Saxons) begat* in 519^and had not subsisted above eighty years, when Cadwaiia king ot Wessex, conquered Sussex, and annexed it to his dominions.. As there was no fixed rule of succession, it was the policy of the Sax on princes to put to death all the rivals of iheir intended successor From this cause, and from the passion for celibacy, the royal families- were nearly extinguished in the kingdoms of the heptarchy; and Eg- bert, prince of the West Saxons, remained the sole surviving descendant of the Saxon conquerors of Britain. This circumstance, so favourable to his ambition, prompted him to attempt the conquest of the heptar- chy; and he succeeded in the enterprise. By his victorious arms and judicious policy all the separate states were uuitedinto one great kingdom, A. D. 827, near 400 years after the first arrival of the Sax- ons in Britain. 7. England, thus united, was far from enjoying tranquillity. The piratical Normans or Danes had for fifty years desolated her coasts, and continued, for some centuries after this period, to be a perpetual scourge to the country. Under Alfred (the great), grandson of Eg- bert, the kingdom was from this cause reduced to extreme vvretched- n ess. The heroic Alfred in one year defeated the Danes in eight bat- ties; but a new irruption of their countrymen forced him to solicit a peace, which these pirates constantly interrupted by new hostilities. Alfred w as compelled to seek his safety for many months in an obscure quarter of the country, till the disorders of the Danish army offered a fair opportunity of attacking them, which he improved to the entire defeat of his enemies, lie might have destroyed them all, but chose TAtherto spare and to incorporate them with his English subjects. This clemency did not restrain their countrymen from attempting a MODERN HISTORY. 126 new invasion. They were again defeated with immense loss; and the extreme severity which it was necessary to exercise against the vanquished, had the effect of suspending the Danish depredations for severa. wars. 8. Alfred, whether considered in his public or private character, deserves to be reckoned among the best and greatest of princes. He united the most enterprising and heroic spirit with consummate pru dence and moderation, the utmost vigour of authority with the most engaging gentleness of manner, the most exemplary justice with the greatest lenity, the talents of the statesman and the man of letters with the intrepid resolution and conduct of the general. He found the kingdom in the most miserable condition to which anarchy, do- mestic barbarism, and foreign hostility, could reduce it': he brought it to a pitch of eminence surpassing, in many respects, the situation of its contemporary nations. 9. Alfred divided England into counties, with their subdivisions ©* hundreds and tithings. The tithing or decennary consisted of ten families, over wnich presided a tithing-man or borg-holder ; and ten of these composed the hundred. Every house-holder was answerable for his family, and the tithing-man for all within his tithing. In the decision of differences the tithing-man had the assistance of the rest of his decennary. An appeal lay from the decennary to the court of the hundred, which was assembled every four weeks ; and the cause was tried by a jury of twelve freeholders, sworn to do impartial jus- tice. An annual meeting of the hundred was held for the regulation of the police of the district. The county-court, superior to that of the hundred, and consisting of all the freeholders, met twice a year, after Michaelmas and Easter, to determine appeals from the hundreds, and settle disputes between the inhabitants of different hundreds. The ultimate appeal from all these courts lay to the king in council ; and the frequency of these appeals prompted Alfred to extreme cir- cumspection in the appointmentof his judges. He composed for the regulation of these courts, and of his kingdom, a body of laws, the basis of the common law of England. 10. Alfred gave every encouragement to the cultivation of letters, as the best means of eradicating barbarism. He invited, from every quarter of Europe, the learned to reside in his dominions, established schools, and is said to have founded the university of Oxford. He was himself a most accomplished scholar for the age in which he lived, as appears from the works which he composed : poetical apo- logues, the translation of the histories of Bede and Orosius ; and of Bo- ethius on the consolation of philosophy. In every view of his char- acter we must regard Alfred the great as one of the best and wisest men that ever occupied the regal seat. He died at the age of fifty- three, A. D. 901, after a glorious reign of twenty-nine years and a naif. 11. The admirable institutions of Alfred were partially and feebly enforced under his successors ; and England, still a prey to the rava ges of the Danes and intestine disorder, relapsed into confusion and barbarism. The reigns of Edward the elder, the son of Alfred, and of his successors, Athelstan, Edmund, and Edred, were tumultuous and anarchical. The clergy began to extend their authority over the dirone, and a series of succeeding princes were the obsequious slaves of their tyranny and ambition. In the reign of Ethelred, A. D. 981, the Danes seriously projected the conquest of England; and led by Sweyn king of Denmark, anl Olaus king of Norway, made a more 125 MODERN HISTORY. formidable descent, won several important battles, and were restrain- ed from the destruction of London only by a dastardly submission, and a promise of tribute to be paid by the inglorious Ethelred. The English, nobility were ashamed of their prince, and, seeing no other relief to the kingdom, made a tender of the crown to the Danish monarch. On the death of Sweyn, Ethelred attempted to regain his kingdom, but found in Canute, the son of Sweyn, a prince determined to support his claims. On the death of Ethelred, his son Edmun u Ironside gallantly but ineffectually opposed Canute. At length a partition of the kingdom was made between Canute and Edmund, which, after a few months, the Danes annulled by the murder of Edmund, thus securing to their monarch Canute the throne of ail England, A. D. 1,017. Edmund left two children, Edgar Atheling, find Margaret, afterwards wife to Malcolm Canmore, king of Scot- land. 12. Canute, the most powerful monarch of his time, sovereign of Denmark, Norway, and England, swayed, for seventeen years, the sceptre of England with a firm and vigorous hand. He was severe in the beginning of his reign, while his government was insecure ; but mild and equitable when possessed of a settled dominion He left, A. D. 1,036, three sons, Sweyn, who was crowned king of Nor way, Harold, who succeeded to the throne of England, and Hardj ■Canute, sovereign of Denmark. Harold, a merciless tyrant, died in the fourth year of his reign, and was succeeded by Hardicanute, who, after a violent administration of two years, died in a fit of de bauch. The English seized this opportunity of shaking off the Danish yoke, and conferred the crown* on Edward, a younger son of Ethelred, rejecting the preferable right of Edgar Atheling, the son of Edmund, who, unfortunately for his pretensions, was, at this time abroad in Hungary. Edward, surnamed the confessor, A. D. 1,041, reigned weakly and ingloriously for twenty-five years. The rebel- lious attempts of Godwin, earl of Wessex, aimed at nothing less than a usurpation of the crown ; and on his death, his son Harold, cherish- ing secretly the same views of ambition, had the address to secure to his interest a very formidable party in the kingdom. Edward, to de- feat these views, bequeathed the crown to William duke of Norman- dy, a prince whose great abilities and personal prowess had rendered his name illustrious over Europe. 13. On the death of Edward the confessor, 1,066, the usurper Harold took possession of the throne, which the intrepid Norman determined immediately to reclaim as his inheritance of right. He made the most formidable preparations, aided, in this age of roman- tic enterprise, by many of the sovereign princes, and a vast body of the nobility, from the different continental kingdoms. A Norwegian fleet of 300 sail entered the Humber (a river on the eastern coast of England). The troops were disembarked, and, after cine success- ful engagement, were defeated by the English army In the interest of Harold. William landed his army on the coast of Sussex, to the amount of 60,000 ; and the English, under Harold, flushed with their recent success, hastily advanced to meet him, being imprudently re solved to venture all on one decisive battle. The total rout and dis- comfiture of the English army in the field of Hastings, on the 14th day of October, 1,066, and the death.of Harold, after some fruitless attempts of further resistance, put William duke of Normandy in possession of the throne of Lngland. MODERN HISTORY IS* SECTION XIII. OF THE GOVERNMENT, LAWS, AND MANNERS OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 1. The government, laws, and manners of the Anglo-Saxons have become a subject of inquiry to modern writers, as being supposed to have had influence in the formation of the British constitution. The government of the Saxons was the same as that of all the an- cient Germanic nations, and they naturally retained, in their new settlement in Britain, a policy similar to their accustomed usages. Their subordination was chiefly military, the king having no more authority than what belonged to the general, or military leader. There was no strict rule of succession to the throne ; for though the king was generally chosen from the family of the last prince, yet the choice usually fell on the person of the best capacity for govern- ment. In some instances the destination of the last sovereign regu- lated the choice. We know very little of the nature of the Anglo- Saxon government, or of the distinct rights of the sovereign and people. 2. One institution common to all the kingdoms of the heptarchy was the wittenagemot, or assembly of the wise men, whose consent was requisite for enacting laws, and ratifying the chief acts of public ad- ministration. The bishops and abbots formed a part of this assem- bly ; also the aldermen, or earls, and governors of counties. The wites, or wise men, are discriminated from the prelates and nobility, and have by some been supposed to have been the representatives of the commons. But we hear nothing of election or representation in those periods, and we must therefore presume that they were merely landholders, or men of considerable estate, who, from their weight and consequence in the country, were held entitled, without any election, to take a share in the public deliberations. 3. The Anglo-Saxon government was extremely aristocratical the regal authority being very limited, the rights of the people little known or regarded, and the nobility possessing much uncontrolled and lawless rule over their dependents. The offices of government were hereditary in their families, and they commanded the whole military force of their respective provinces, So strict was the clien- tela between these nobles and their vassals, that the murder of a vas sal was compensated by a fine paid to his lord. 4. There were three ranks of the people, the nobles, the free, and the slaves. The nobles were either the king's thanes, who held their lands directly from the sovereign, or less thanes, who held land'? from the former. One law of Athelstan declared, that a merchant who had made three voyages on his own account was entitled to the dignity of thane ; another decreed the same rank to a ceorle, or hus- bandman, who was able to purchase five hides of land, and had a 'ihapel, a kitchen, a hall, and a bell. The ceorles, or freemen of the lower rank, occupied the farms of the thanes, for which they paid rent ; and they were removable at the pleasure of their lord. The slaves or villains were either employed in domestic purposes, or in cultivating the lands. A master was fined for the murder of hist slave , and if he mutilated him, the slave recovered his freedom. 5. Under this aristocratical government there were some traces of 129 MODERN HISTORY. the ancient Germanic democracy. The courts of the decennary, the hundred, and tne county, were a considerable restraint on the pow- er of the nobles. In the county-courts the freeholders met twice a year to determine appeals by the majority of suffrages. The alderman presided in those courts, but had no vote : he received a third of the lines, the remaining two-thirds devolving to the king, which was a great part of the royal revenue. Pecuniary fines were the ordinary atonement for every species of crime, and the modes of proof were the ordeal by fire or water, or by compurgators.. (Part 1L. Sect. V., § 7.) 6. As to the military force, the expense of defending the state lay equally on all the land, every five hides or ploughs being iaxed to furnish a soldier. There were 243,600 hides in England, conse- quently the ordinary military force consisted of 48,720 men. 7. The king's revenue, besides the fines imposed by tne courts, consisted partly of his demesnes or property-lands, which were ex- tensive, and partly in imposts on boroughs and sea-ports. The Dane- gelt was a tax imposed by the states, either for payment of tribute exacted by the Danes, or for defending the kingdom against them. By the custom of gavelkind, the land was divided equally among all the male children of the deceased proprietor. Lands held by the tenure of Borough-English, on the death of the tenant, went to the youngest son, instead of the eldest. Book-land was that which was held by charter, and folk-land what was held by tenants removable at pleasure. 8. The Anglo-Saxons were behind the Normans in every point of civilization ; and the conquest was therefore to them a real advan- tage, as it led to material improvement in arts, science, government, and laws. SECTION XIV. STATE OF EUROPE DURING THE TENTH, ELEVENTH, AND TWELFTH CENTURIES. 1 . France, from the extent and splendour of its dominion under Charlemagne, had dwindled to a shadow under his weak posterity. At the end of the Carlovingian period France comprehended neither Normandy, Dauphine, nor Provence. On the death of Lewis V. (Faineant), the crown ought to have devolved on his uncle, Charles of Brabant, as the last male of the race of Charlemagne ; but Hugh Capet, lord of Picardy and Champagne, the most powerful of the French nobles, was elected sovereign by the voice of his brothei peers, A. D. 987. The kingdom, torn by parties, suffered much domestic misery under the reign of Hugh, and that of his successoi Robert , the victim of papal tyranny, for daring to marry a distant cousin without the dispensation of the church. 2. The prevailing passion of the times was pilgrimage and chiv alrous enterprise. In this career of adventure the Normans most remarkably distinguished themselves. In 983 they relieved the prince of Salerno, by expelling the Saracens from his territory. They did a similar service to pope Benedict VIII., and the uuke of Capua ; while another band of their countrymen fought first against the Greeks, and afterwards against the popes, always selling their sex vices to those who best rewarded them. William Fierabras, and his orothers, Humphrey, Robert, and Richard, kept the pope a prisoner MODERN HISTORY. »2$ for a year at Benevento, and forced the ccurt of Rome to yield Capua to Richard, and Apulia and Calabria to Robert, with the" investiture of Sicily, if he should gain the country from the Saracens. In 1,101 Rogero the Norman completed the conquest of Sicily, of which the popes continued to be the" lords paramount. 3. The north of Europe was in those periods extremely barba- rous. Russia received the christian religion in the eighth century. Sweden, after its conversion in the ninth century, relapsed into idola- try, as did Hungary and Bohemia. The Constantinopolitan empire defended its frontiers with difficulty against the Bulgarians on the west, and against the Turks and Arabians on the east and north. 4. In Italy, excepting the territory of the popedom, the principali- ties of the independent nobles, and the states of Venice and Genoa, the greater part of the country was now in the possession of the Nor- mans. Venice and Genoa were rising gradually to great opulence from commerce. Venice was for some ages tributary to the emperors oi Germany. In the tenth century its doge assumed the title of duke of Dalmatia, of which the republic had acquired the property by conquest, as well as of Istria, Spalatro, Ragusa, and Narenza. 5. Spain was chiefly possessed by the Moors ; the christians retain- ing only about a fourth of the kingdom, namely, Asturia, part of Castile and Catalonia, Navarre,'and Arragon. Portugal was likewise occu- pied by the Moors. Their capital was Cordova, the seat of luxury and magnificence. In the tenth century the Moorish dominions were split among a number of petty sovereigns, who were constantly at wrwith one another. Such, unfortunately^ was likewise the situa- tion of the christian part of the kingdom ; and it was no uncommon policy for the christian princes to form alliances with the Moors against one another. Besides these the country abounded with inde pendent lords, who made war their profession, and performed the office of champions in deciding the quarrels of princes, or enlisted themselves in their service with all their vassals and attendants. Oi these, termed cavalleros andantes, or knights-errant, the most dis- tinguished was Rodrigo the cid, who undertook for his sovereign, Alphonso king of Old Castile, to conquer the kingdom of New Cas- tile, and achieved it with success, obtaining the government of Va lencia as the reward of his services. 6. The contentions between the imperial and papal powers made a distinguished figure in those ages. Henry III. vindicated the im perial right to fill the chair of St. Peter, and nominated three suc- cessive popes, without the intervention of a council of the church. But in the minority of his son Henry IV., this right was frequently inter- rupted, and Alexander II. kept his seat, though the emperor named another in his place. It was the lot of this emperor to experience the utmost extent of papal insolence and tyranny. After a spirited contest with Gregory VII., in which the pope was twice his prisoner, and the emperor as often excommunicated and deposed, Henry fell at length the victim of ecclesiastical vengeance. Urban II., a succes sor of Gregory, prompted the two sons of Henry to rebel against their father; and his misfortunes were terminated by imprisonment and death in 1,106. The same contests went on under a succession ol popes and emperors, but ended commonly in favour of the former, Frederick I. (Barbarossa), a prince of high spirit, after an indignant denial of the supremacy of Alexander III., and a refusal of the cus- tomary homage, was at length compelled to kiss his feet, and appease his holiness by a large cession of territory. Pope Celestinus kicked 17 130 MODERN HISTORY off the imperial ciown of Henry VI., while doing homage on his knees, but made amends for this insolence by time gift of Naples and Sicily, from which Henry had expelled the Normans. These terri tories now became an appanage of the empire, 1,194. The sue ceeding popes rose on the pretensions of their predecessors, till a* length innocent III., in the beginning of the thirteenth century, estab- lished the power of the popedom on a settled basis, and obtained a positive acknowledgment of the papal supremacy, or the right prim cipaliter ct Jinaliter [principally and finally) to confer the imperial crown. It was the same pope Innocent whom we shall presently see the disposer of the crown of England in the reign of the tyrant J ohn. SECTION XV HISTORY OF ENGLAND IN THE ELEVENTH, TWELFTH, AND PART OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURIES. 1. The consequence of the battle of Hastings was the submission of all England to William the conqueror. The character of this prince was spirited, haughty, and tyrannical, yet not without a por lion of the generous affections. He disgusted his English subjects by the strong partiality which he showed to his Norman followers, preferring them to all offices of trust and dignity. A conspiracy arose from these discontents, which William defeated, and avenged with signal rigour and cruelty. He determined henceforward to treat the English as a conquered , people, a policy that involved his reign in perpetual commotions, which, while they robbed him of all peace of mmd, aggravated the tyranny of his disposition. To his own children he owed the severest of his troubles. His eldest son Robert rose in rebellion, to wrest from him the sovereignty ot Maine ; and his foreign subjects took part with the rebel. William led against them an army of the English, and was on the point of perishing in fight by his son's hand. Philip I. of France had aided this rebellion, which was avenged by William, who carried havoc and devastation into the heart of his kingdom, but was killed in the en- terprise by a fall from his horse, 1,087. He bequeathed England to William his second son ; to Robert he left Normandy ; and to Henry, his youngest son, the property of his mother Matilda. 2. William the conqueror introduced into England the feudal law, dividing the whole kingdom, except the royal demesnes, into baron- ies, and bestowing the most of these, under the tenuie of military service, on his Norman followers. By the forest laws he reserved to himself the exclusive privilege of killing game over all the kingdom; a restriction resented by his subjects above every other mark of servitude. Preparatory to the introduction of the feudal tenures, he planned and accomplished a general survey of all the lands in the kingdom, with a distinct specification of their extent, na ture, value, names of their proprietors, and an enumeration of every class of inhabitants who lived on them. This most valuable record, called Doomsday-book, is preserved in the English exchequer, and i? now printed. 3. William II. (Rufus) inherited the vices, without any ol ^ the virtues, of his father. His reign is distinguished by no event of im- portance, and, after the defeat of one conspiracy in its outset, pre MODERN HISTORY. 131 sents nothing but a dull career of unresisted despotism. After a reign of thirteen years he was killed when hunting by the random shot oi an arrow, 1,100. The crown of England would have devolved on his elder brother Robert ; but his absence on a crusade in Palestine made way for the unopposed succession of his younger brother Henry, who, by his marriage with Matilda, the niece of Edgar Atheling, unit- ed the last remnant of the Saxon with the Norman line. With most criminal ambition, he now invaded his brothers dominions of Norman- dy; and Robert, on his return, was defeated in battle, and detained for life a prisoner in England. The crimes of Henry were expiated bv his misfortunes. His only son was drowned in his passage from Normandy. His daughter Matilda, married tirst to the emperor Hen ry V., and afterwards to Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou, was destined to be his successor ; but the popularity of "his nephew Stephen, son of the count of Blois, defeated these intentions. Henry I. died in Nor- mandy, after a reign of thirty-rive years, A. 1). 1,135; and, in spite of his destination to Matilda, Stephen seized the vacant throne. The party of Matilda, headed by her natural brother, the earl of Glouces- • ter, engaged, defeated, and made Stephen prisoner. Matilda in her turn mounted the throne; but, unpopular from the tyranny of her disposition, she was solemnly deposed by the prevailing party of her rival ; and Stephen was once more restored. He found, however, in Henry Plantagenet, the son of Matilda, a more formidable competitor. Of a noble and intrepid spirit, he resolved, while yet a boy, to reclaim his hereditary crown ; and, landing in England, won by his prowess, and the favour of a just cause, a great part of the kingdom to his in- terest. By treaty with Stephen, who was allowed to reign for life- he secured the succession at his death, which soon after ensued, 1,154. 4. Henry II., a prince in every sense deserving of the throne, began his reign with the reformation of all the abuses of the government ot his predecessors ; revoking all impolitic grants, abolishing partial im munities, regulating the administration of justice, and establishing the freedom of the towns by charters, which are at this day the basis ot the national liberty. Happy in the affections of his people, and pow- erful in the vast extent of additional territory which he enjoyed on *he continent in right of his' father and of his wife, the heiress of a great portion of France, his reign had every promise of prosperity and happiness; but from one fatal source these pleasing prospects were all destroyed. Thomas Becket was raised by Henry from ob- scurity to the office of chancellor of England. On the vacancy of the see ,of Canterbury the king, desirous of his aid in the correction of ecclesiastical abuses, conferred the primacy on his favourite ; and the arrogant Becket availed himself of that authority to abase the prero,? ative of his sovereign, and exalt the spiritual power above the crown'. It w r as disputed, whether a priest could be tried for a murder, and pun ished by the civil court. It was determined in the affirmative by the council of Clarendon, against the opinion of Becket. Pope Alexander III. annulldd the decree of the council; and Becket, who took parr with the pope, was deprived by Henry of all his dignities and estates He avenged himself by the excommunication of the king's ministers : and Henry, in return, prohibited all intercourse with the see of Rome At length both parties found it their interest to come to a good under- standing. Becket was restored to favour, and reinstated in his primacy, when the increasing insolence of his demeanour drew from the king some hasty expressions of indignation, which his servants interpreted 132 MODERN HISTORY. into a sentence of proscription, and, trusting that the deed would be grateful to their master, murdered the prelate while in the act ot celebrating vespers at the altar. For this shocking action Henry- expressed the regret which he sincerely felt, and the^ pope indulgent- ly granted his pardon, on the assurance of his dutiful obedience to the holy church. 5. The most important event of the reign of Henry II. was the conquest of Ireland. The Irish, an early civilized people, and among the first of the nations of the west who embraced tne christian reli- gion, were, by frequent invasions of the Danes, and their own domes- tic commotions, replunged into barbarism for many ages. In the twelfth century the kingdom consisted of live separate sovereignties, Lister, Leinster, Minister, Heath/ and Connaught; but these were subdivided among an infinite number of petty chiefs, owing a very weak allegiance to their respective sovereigns. Dermot Macmor- rog-h, expelled from his kingdom of Leinster for a rape on the daugh- ter of the king of Meath, sought protection from Henry, and engaged to become his feudatory, if he should recover his kingdom by the aid of the English. Henry empowered his subjects to invade Ireland, and, while Strongbow earl of Pembroke and his followers were lay ing waste the country, landed in the island in 1,172, and received the submission of many of* the independent chiefs. Roderick O'Connor, prince of Connaught, whom the Irish elected nominal sovereign of all the provinces, resisted for three years the arms of Henry, hut finally acknowledged his dominion by a solemn embassy to the king at Windsor. The terms of the submission were, an annual tribute of every tenth hide of land, to be applied for the support of government, and an obligation of allegiance to the crown of England; on which conditions the Irish should retain their possessions, and Roderick his kingdom; except the territory of the Pale, or that part which the English barons had subdued before the arrival of Henry. 6. Henry divided Ireland into counties, appointed sheriffs in each, and introduced the laws of England into the territory of the Pale.. The rest of the kingdom was regulated by their ancient laws, till the reign of Edward I., when, at the request of the nation, the English laws we're extended to the whole kingdom. In the first Irish parlia ment, which was held in the same reign, sir John Wogan presided as deputy of the sovereign. From that lime there was little intercourse between the. two kingdoms for some centuries ; nor 'was the island considered as fully subdued till the reign of Elizabeth and of her suc- cessor James I. 7. The letter part of the reign of Henry II. was clouded by domes- tic misfortunes. His children, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, and John, instigated by their unnatural mother, rose in rebellion, and, with the aid of Louis VII., king of France, prepared to dethrone their father While opposing them with spirit on the continent, his kingdom was invaded by the Scots under William (the lion). He hastened'back to England, defeated the Scots, and made their king his prisoner. Two of his sons, Henry and Geoffrey, expiated their offences by an early death ; but Richard, once reconciled, was again seduced from his al- legiance, and, in league with the king of France, plundered his fa- ther's continental dominions. The spirit of Henry was unequal to his domestic misfortunes, and he died o I a broken heart in the 58th year of his age, 1,189, an ornament to the English throne, and a prince sur- passing all his contemporaries in the valuable qualities of a sovereign. MODERN HISTORY 133 To hinl England owed her first permanent improvement in arts, in laws, in government, and in civil liberty. 8. Richard I. (coeur de lion) immediately on his accession embark ed for the Holy Land, on a crusade against the infidels, after plunder- ing his subjects of an immense sum of money to defray the charges of the enterprise. Forming a league with Philip Augustus of Frwnce, the two monarchs joined their forces, and acting for some time in concert, were successful in the taking of Acraor Ptolemais; but Phil ip, jealous of his rival's glory, soon returned to France, while Richard had the honour of defeating the heroic Saladin in the battle of Asca Ion, with prodigious slaughter of his enemies. He prepared now foi the siege of Jerusalem; but, finding his army wasted with famine and fatigue, he was compelled to end the war by a truce with Saladin, in which he obtained -a free passage to the Holy Land for every chris- tian pilgrim. Wrecked in his voyage homeward, and travelling in disguise through Germany, Richard was seized, and detained in pris- on, by command of the emperor Henry VI. The king of France un- generously opposed his release, as did his unnatural brother John, from selfish ambition ; but he was at length ransomed by his subjects for the sum of 150,000 merks, and, after an absence of nine years, re- turned to his dominions. His traitorous brother was pardoned after some submission ; and Richard employed the short residue of his reign in a spirited revenge against his rival Philip. A truce, howev- er, was concluded bv the mediation of Rome; and Richard was soon after killed, while storming the castle of one of his rebellious vassals in the Limosin. He died in the tenth year of his reign, and forty- second of his age, 1,199. 9. John (lack-land) succeeded to the throne on the death of his brother, but fcund a competitor in his nephew Arthur, the son of Geoffrey, supported by Philip of France. War was of course renew- ed with that' country. Arthur, with fatal confidence, throwing, him- self into the hands of his uncle, was removed by poison or the sword ~ a deed which, joined to the known tyranny of his character, rendered John the detestation of his subjects. He was stripped by Philip of his ►continental dominions, and tie made the pope his enemy by an ava- ricious attack on the treasures of the church. After an ineffectual menace of vengeance, Innocent III. pronounced a sentence of interdict against the kingdom, which put a stop to all the ordinances of religion, to baptism, and the burial of the dead. He next excommunicated John, and absolved his subjects from their allegiance ; and he finally deposed him, and made a gift of the kingdom to Philip. John, intimi- dated into submission, declared himself the pope's vassal, swore alle- giance on his knees to the papal legate, and agreed to hold his king dom tributary to the holy see. On these conditions, which ensured he universal hatred and contempt of his people, he made his peace with the church. It was natural that his subjects, thus trampled upon and sold, should vindicate their rights. The barons of the king- dom assembled, and, binding themselves by oath to a union of meas- ures, resolutely demanded from the king a ratification of a charter ol privileges granted by Henry I. John appealed to the pope, who, in support of his vassal, prohibited the confederacy of the barons as re- bellious. The barons were only the more resolute in their purpose* and the sword was their last resource. At length John was compelled to yield to their demands, and signed at Runymede, on the 19th day of June, 1,215, that solemn charter, which is the foundation and oufwark of English liberty, Magna Charia {the great charter). M 134 MODERN HISTORY* 10. By this great charter, 1, the freedom of election to benefices was secured to the clergy ; 2, the tines to the overlord on the suc- cession of vassals were regulated; 3, no aids or subsidies were allow- ed to be levied from the subject, without the consent of the great council, unless in a few special cases ; 4, the crown shall not seize the lands of' a baron for. a debt, while he has personal property sufficient to discharge it ; 5, all the privileges granted by the king to his vassals shall be communicated by them to their inferior vassals ; 6, one weight and one measure shall be used throughout the king- dom; 7, all men shall pass from and return to the realm at their pleasure: 8, all cities and boroughs shall preserve their ancient liberties ; 9, the estate of every freeman shall be regulated by his will, and, if he die intestate, by the law; 10, the king's court shall be stationary, and open to all ; 1 1 , every freeman shall be fined only in proportion to his offence, and no tine shall be imposed to his utter niin; 12, no peasant shall, by a fine, be deprived or his instruments of husbandry; 13, no person shall be tried on suspicion alone, but on the evidence of lawful witnesses; 14, no person shall be tried or punished unless by the judgment of his peers and the law of the land. . • , 11. John granted at the same time the Charta dc Foresla {the char- >cr concerning forests), which abolished the royal privilege of killing game over all the kingdom, and restored to the lawful proprietors their woods and forests, which they were now allowed to enclose and use at their pleasure. As compulsion alone had extorted these concessions, John was determined to disregard them, and a foreign force was brought into the kingdom to reduce the barons to submis- sion. The barons applied for aid to France, and Philip sent his son Lewis to England with an army ; and such was the people's hatred of their sovereign, that they swore allegiance to this foreigner. At this critical period John died at Newark, in 1,216, and an instant change ensued. His son Henry III., a boy of nine years of age, was crowned at Bristol ; and his uncle, the earl of Pembroke, was appoint- ed protector of the realm. The disaffected barons returned to their allegiance ; the people hailed their sovereign ; and Lewis with his army, after an ineffectual struggle, made peace with the protector, and evacuated the kingdom. SECTION XVI. STATE OF GERMANY AND ITALY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 1 Frederick II., son of Henry VI., was elected emperor on the resignation of Otho IV., in 1,212. At this period Naples, Sicily, and Lombardy, were ail appanages of the empire ; and the contentions between the imperial and papal powers divided the states of Italy into factions, known. by the name of Guelphs and Ghibellines, the former maintaining the supremacy of the pope, the latter that of the emperor. The opposition of Frederick to four successive popes was avenged by excommunication and deposition ; yet he kept posses- sion of his throne, and vindicated his authority with great spirit. Frequent attempts were made against his life, by assassination and poison, which he openly attributed to papal resentment. On his death, in 1 ,250, the splendour of the empire was for many years ob- MODERN HISTORY. 136 scurecL It was a prey to incessant factions and zivW war, the fruit of contested claims of sovereignty. Yet the popes gained nothing by its disorders, for the troubles of Italy were equally hostile to their ambition. We have seen the turbulent state of England. France was equally weak and anarchical ; and Spain was ravaged by the contests of the Moors and christians. Yet, distract -;d as appears the situation of Europe, one great project gave a species of union to this discordant mass, of which we now proceed to give an account. SECTION XVII. THE CRUSADES, OR HOLY WARS. 1. The Turks or Turcomans, a race of Tartars from the regions of Mount Taurus and Imaus, invaded the dominions of Moscovy in the eleventh century, and came down upon the banks of the Caspian. The caliphs employed Turkish mercenaries, and they acquired the reputation of able soldiers in the wars that took place on occasion of the contested caliphate. The caliphs of Bagdat, the Abassidae, were deprived of Syria, Egypt, and Africa, by their rival csdfrhs of the race of Omar ; and the Turks stripped of their do- minions both the AbassidaB and Ommiades. Bagdat was taken by the Turks, and the empire of the caliphs overthrown in 1,055 ; and these princes, from temporal monarchs, became now the supreme pontiffs of the Mahometan faith, as the popes of the christian. At the time of the first crusade, in the end of the eleventh century, Arabia was governed by a Turkish sultan, as were Persia and the greater por- tion of Lesser Asia. — The eastern empire was thus abridged of its Asiatic territory, and had lost a great part of its dominions in Europe. It retained, however, Greece, Macedonia, Thrace, and Illyria ; and Constantinople itself was populous, opulent, and luxurious. Palestine was in the possession of the Turks ; and its capital Jerusalem, fallen from its ancient consequence and splendour, was yet held in re- spect by its conquerors as a holy city, and constantly attracted the re- sort of Mahometans to the mosque of Omar, as of christian pilgrims to the sepulchre of our Saviour. 2. Peter the hermit, a native of Amiens, on his return from this pilgrimage, complained in loud terms of the grievances which the christians suffered from the Turks ; and Urban II. pitched on this enthusiast as a fit person to commence the execution of a grand de- sign which the popes had long entertained, of arming all christen dom, and exterminating the infidels from the Holy Land. The project was opened in two general councils held at Placentia and Clermont, The French possessed more ardour than the* Italians ; and an im- mense multitude of ambitious and disorderly nobles, with all their dependents, eager for enterprise and plunder, and assured of eternal salvation, immediately took the cross. Peter the hermit led 80,000 under his banners, and they began their march towards the east in 1,095. Their progress was marked by rapine and hostility in every christian country through which they passed ; and the army of the hermit, on its arrival at Constantinople, was wasted down to 20,000. The emperor Alexius Comnenus, to whom the crusaders behaved with the most provoking insolence and folly, conducted himself with admirable moderation and good sense. He hastened to get rid of this disorderly multitude, by furnishing them with every aid which 136 MODERN HISTORY. they required, and cheerfully lent his ships to transport them across the Bosphorus. The sultan Solyman met them in the plain of JNicea, and destroyed the army of the hermit. A new host in the mean time arrived at Constantinople, led by more illustrious com manders; b^ Godfrey of Bouillon duke of Brabant, Raymond count of Thoulouse, Robert of Normandy, son of William king of Eng- land, Bohemond, son of Robert Guiscanl, the conqueror of Sicily, and other princes of high reputation. To these, who amounted to some hundred thousands, Alexius manifested the same prudent con- duct, to accelerate their departure. The. Turks, overpowered by numbers, were twice defeated ; and the :rusaders, pursuing their suc- cesses, penetrated at length to Jerusalem, which after a siege of six , weeks, they took by storm, and with savage fury massacred the whole of its Mahometan and Jewish inhabitants, A. D. 1,099. Godfrey was hailed king of Jerusalem, but was obliged soon after to cede his kingdom to the pope's legate. The crusaders divided Syria, and Palestine, and formed four separate states, which weakened their power. The Turks began to recover strength ; and the christians of Asia soon found it necessary to solicit aid from Europe. 3. The second crusade set out from the west in 1,146, to the amount of 200,000 French, Germans, and Italians, led by Hugh, brother of Philip I. of France. These met with the same fate which attended the army of Peter the hermit. The garrison of Jerusalem was at this time so weak, that it became necessary to embody and arm the monks for its defence ; and hence arose the military orders of the knights templars and hospitallers, and soon after the Teutonic, from the German pilgrims. Meantime pope. Eugenius III. employed St. Bernard to preach a new crusade in France, which was headed by its sovereign Lewis VII., (the young), who, in conjunction with Conrad III., emperor of Germany, mus- tered jointly 300,000 men. The Germans were extirpated by the sultan of Iconium ; the French were totally defeated near Laodicea ; and the two monarchs, after much disaster, returned with shame to their dominions. -x. The illustrious^ Saladin, nephew of the sultan of Egypt, formed the design of recovering Palestine from the christians ; and besieging Jerusalem, he took the city, and made prisoner its sovereign, Guy of Lusignan. Pope Clement III., alarmed at the successes of the infidels, began to stir up a new crusade from France, England, and Germany ; and the armies of each country were headed by their respective sovereigns, Philip Augustus, Richard I., and Frederick Barbarossa. In this third crusade the emperor Frederick died in Asia, and his army, by repeated defeats, mouldered to nothing. The' English and French were more successful: they besieged and took Ptoiemais ; but Richard and Philip quarrelled from jealousy of each other's glory, and the French monarch returned in disgust to his country. Richard nobly sustained the contest with Saladin, whom he defeated near Ascaton ; but his army was reduced by fam- ine and fatigue. He concluded a treaty, at least not dishonourable, with his enemy, and was forced at length to escape from Palestine with a single ship. (See Sect. XV., § 8.) Saladin, revered even by the christians, died in 1,195. 5. A fourth crusade was fitted out in 1,202, under Baldwin count of Flanders, of which the object was not the extirpation of the infi- dels, but the destruction of the empire of the east. Constantinople, embroiled by civil war and revolution from disputed claims to the MODERN HISTORY. 137 sovereignty, was besieged and taken by the crusaders ; and Baldwin, their chief, was elected emperor, to be within a few months dethron ed and murdered. The imperial dominions were shared among the principal leaders ; and the Venetians, who had lent their ships for the expedition, got the isle of Candia (anciently Crete) for iheir reward. ,, Alexius, of the imperial family of the Commeni, founded a new sove- reignty in Asia, which he termed the empire of Trebizond. The ob- ject of a fifth crusade was to lay waste Egypt, in revenge for an attack on Palestine, by its sultan Saphadin. Partial success and ulti mate ruin was the issue of this expedition, as of all the preceding. 6. At this period, 1,227, a great revolution took place in Asia. Gengiskan with his Tartars broke down from the north upon Persia and Syria, and massacred indiscriminately Turks, Jews, and Chris- tians, who opposed them. The christian knights, templars, hospital- lers, and Teutonic, made a desperate but ineffectual resistance ; and Palestine must have been abandoned to these invaders, if its fate had not been for a while retarded by the last crusade under Lewis IX. oi France. This prince, summoned by Heaven, as he believed, after four years' preparation, set out for the Holy Land, with his queen, his three brothers, and all the knights of France. His army began their enterprise by an attack on Egypt, where, after some consider- able successes, they were at length utterly defeated; and the French monarch, with two of his brothers, fell into the hands of the enemy. He purchased his liberty at an immense ransom, and, return- ing to France, reigned prosperously and wisely for thirteen years. But the same phrensy again assailing him, he embarked on a crusade against the Moors in Africa, where he and his army were destroyed by a pestilence, 1,270. It is computed that, in the whole of the crusades to Palestine, two millions of Europeans were buried in the east. 7. Effects of the crusades. One consequence of the holy wars is supposed to have been the improvement of European manners ; but the times immediately succeeding the crusades exhibit no such actual improvement. Two centuries of barbarism and darkness , elapsed between the termination of those enterprises and the fall of the Greek empire in 1,453, the aera of the revival of letters, and the commencement of civilization. A certain consequence of the cru- sades was the change of territorial property in all the feudal king- doms, the sale of the estates of the nobles, and their division among a number of smaller proprietors. Hence the feudal aristocracy was weakened, and the lower classes began to acquire weight, and a spirit of independence. The towns hitherto bound by a sort of vassal- age to the nobles, began to purchase their immunity, acquired the right of electing their own magistrates, and were governed by their own municipal laws. The church in some respects gained, and in others lost by those enterprises. The popes gained a more extend- ed jurisdiction ; but the fatal issue of those expeditions opened the eyes of the world to the selfish and interested motives which had prompted them, and weakened the sway of superstition. Many of the religious orders acquired an increase of wealth; but this was bal- anced by the taxes imposed on the clergy. The coin was altered and debased in most of the kingdoms of Europe, from . the scarcity of specie. Tne Jews were supposed to have hoarded and concealed it, and hence they became the victims, of general persecution. , The most substantial gainers by the crusades were the Italian states of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice, from the increased trade to the Levant M2 *8 38 MODERN HISTORY. for the suppiy of those immense armies. Venice, as we have seen, took an active concern, and obtained her share of the conquerea territory. The age of the crusades brought chivalry to its perfection and gave *ise to romantic fiction. See Kett's Elements of General Knowledge, vol. I. SECTION XVIII. OF CHIVALRY AND ROMANCE. 1. Chivalry arose naturally from the condition of society in those ages in which it prevailed. Among the Germanic nations the profes- sion of arms was esteemed the sole employment that deserved the name of manly or honourable. The initiation of the youth to this pro- fession was attended with peculiar solemnity and appropriate cere- monies. The chief of the tribe bestowed the sword and armour on his vassal, as a symbol of their devotion to his service. In the prog- ress of the feudal system these vassals, in imitation of their chief, as- sumed the power of conferring arms on their sub-vassals, with a similar form of mysterious and pompous ceremonial. ' The candidate for knighthood underwent his preparatory fasts and vigils, and re- ceived on his knees the accollade and benediction of his chief. Arm- ed and caparisoned, he sallied forth in quest of adventure, which, whether just or not in its purpose, was ever esteemed honourable in proportion as it was perilous. 2. The esteem of the female sex is characteristic of the Gothic manners. In those ages of barbarism the castles of the greater bar- ons were the courts of sovereigns in miniature. The society of the ladies, who found only in such fortresses a security from outrage, pol- ished the manners; and to protect the chastity and honour of the fair was the best employ and the highest merit of an accomplished knight. Romantic exploit therefore haoT always a tincture -of gallantry. It hath been through all ages ever seen, That with the praise of arms and chivalry The prize of beauty still hath joined been, And that- for reasons special privity : For either doth on other much rely ; For he, me seems, most fit the fair to serve, That can her best defend from villany ; • And she most fit his service doth deserve That fairest is, and from her faith will never swerve. Spenser's Fairy Queen. 3. To the passion for adventure and romantic love was added a nigh regard for morality and religion ; but as the latter were ever subordinate to the former, we may presume more in favour of the refinement than of the purity of the knights. It. was the pride of a knight to redress wrongs and injuries ; but in that honourable employ- ment he made small account of those which he committed. It was easy to expiate the greatest offences by a penance oi- a pilgrimage, which furnished only a new opportunity for adventurous exploit. 4. Chivalry, whether it began with the Moors or Normans, attain- ed its perfection at the period of the crusades, which presented a no- MODERN HISTORY. 1S> bie object of adventure, and a boundless field for military glory Few indeed returned from those desperate enterprises , but those had a high reward in the admiration of their countrymen. The bards and romancers sung their praises, and recorded their exploits, with a thousand circumstances of fabulous embellishment. 5. The earliest of the old romances (so termed from the Romance language, a mixture of the Frank and Latin, in which they were written) appeared about the middle of the twelfth century, the period of the second crusade. But those more ancient compositions did not record contemporary events, whose known truth would have preclud- ed all liberty of fiction or exaggerat ; on. Geoffrey of Monmouth, ana the author who assumed the name of archbishop Turpin, had free scope to their fancy, by celebrating the deeds of Arthur and the knights of the round table, and the exploits of Charlemagne and his twelve peers. From the fruitful stock*bf those first romances sprung a numerous offspring equally wild and extravagant. 6. Philosophers have analyzed the pleasure arising from works of fiction, and have endeavoured, by various hypotheses, to account for the interest which we take in the description of an event or scene which is known to be utterly impossible, The fact may be simply explained as follows. Every narration is in some degree attended with a dramatic deception. We enter for the time into the situation of the persons concerned ; and, adopting the,ir passions and feelings, we lose all sense of the absurdity of their cause, while we see the agents themselves hold it for reasonable and adequate. The most in- credulous sceptic may sympathize strongly with the feelings of Ham- let at the sight of his father's spectre. 7. Thus powerfully affected as we are by sympathy, even against the conviction of our reason, how much greater must have been the effect of such works of the imagination in those days, when popular superstition gave full credit to the reality, or at least the possibility, of all that they described ! And hence we must censure, as both un- necessary and improbable, the theory of Dr. Hurd, which accounts for all the wildness of the old romances, on the supposition that their fictions were entirely allegorical ; which explains the giants and sav- ages into the oppressive feudal lords and their barbarous dependents; as M. Mallet construes the serpents and dragons which guarded the enchanted castles, into their winding walls, fosses, and battlements. It were sufficient to say, that many of those old romances are inex- plicable by allegory. They were received by the popular belief as truths ; and even their contrivers believed in the possibility of the scenes and actions which they described. In latter ages, and in the wane of superstition, yet while it still retained a powerful influence, the poets adopted allegory as a vehicle of moral ins-truction : and to this period belong those political romances which bear an allegorical explanation ; as the Fairy Qw^n of Spenser, the Orlando of Ariosto, and the Gierusakmme Liberaia of Tasso. 8. In more modern times the taste for romantic composition declin- ed with popular credulity ; and the fastidiousness of philosophy affect- ed to treat all supernatural fiction with contempt. But it was at length perceived that this refinement had cut off a source of very high mental enjoyment. The public taste now took a new turn ; and this moral revolution is at present lending to its extreme. We are gone back to the nursery to listen to tales of hobgoblins ; a change which we may safely prognosticate can be of no duration. 140 MODERN HISTORY. SECTION XIX. STATE OF EUROPE IN THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES. 1, Constantinople, taken in 1,202 by the crusaders, was possessed only for a short time by its conquerors. It was governed by French emperors for the space of sixty years, and was retaken by the Greeks in 1,131, under Michael Pakeologus, who, by imprisoning and putting out the eyes of his pupil Theodore Lascaris, secured to him- self the sovereignty. 2., In the beginning of the thirteenth century Germany was governed by Frederick II., who paid homage to the pope for the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, which was possessed by his son Con- rad, and afterwards by his brother Manfred, who usurped the crown in violation of the right.of his nephew Conradin. Pope Clement IV., jealous of the dominion of the imperial family, gave the investiture of Naples and Sicily to Charles of Anjou, brother of Lewis IX. ot France, who defeated and put to death his competitors. The Sicil- ians revenged this act of usurpation and cruelty by the murder, in one night, of every Frenchman in the island. This shocking massa- cre, termed the Sicilian vespers, happened on Easter Sunday, 1,282* It was followed by every evil that comes in the train of civil war and revolution. 3. The beginning of the thirteenth century had been signalized by a new species of crusade. The Albigenses, inhabitants of Alby in the Pays de Vaud, were bold enough to dispute many of the tenets of the catholic church, judging them contrary to the doctrines of scripture. Innocent III. established a holy commission at Thoulouse, with power to try and punish those heretics. The count of Thou louse opposed this persecution, and was, for the punishment of his offence, compelled by the pope to assist in a crusade against his own vassals, Simon de Monfort was the leader of this pious enterprise, which was marked by the most atrocious cruelties. The benefits of the holy commission were judged by the popes to be so great, that it became from that time a permanent establishment, known by the name of the inquisition. 4. The rise of the house of Austria may be dated from 1,274, when Rodolphus of Hapsbourg, a Swiss baron, was elected emperor of Germany. He owed his elevation to the jealousies of the elec- toral princes, who could not agree in the choice of any one of them- selves. The king of Bohemia, to whom Rodolphus had been stew- ard of the household, could ill brook the supremacy of his former de- pendent ; and refusing him the customary homage for his Germanic possessions, Rodolphus stripped him of Austria, which has ever since remained in the family of its conqueror. 5. The Italian states of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, were at this time flourishing and opulent, while most of the kingdoms of Europe (if we except England under Edward I.,) were exhausted, feeble, and disorderly. A dawning of civil liberty began to appear in France under Philip IV. (le bel). who summoned the third estate to the national assemblies, which had hitherto consisted of the nobility and clergy, 1,303. Philip established perpetual courts of judicature in France, under the name of parliaments. Over these the parliament MODERN HISTORY. 141 of Paris possessed a jurisdiction by appeai ; but it was not till later times that.it assumed any authority in matters of State. 6. The parliament of England had before this era begun to assume its present constitution. The commons, or the representatives o' counties and boroughs, were first called to parliament by Henry III. Before that time this^ assembly consisted only of the greater barons and clergy. But of the rise and progress of the constitution of England we shall afterwards treat more paticularly in a separate section. 7. The spirit of the popedom, zealous in the maintenance and ex- tension of its prerogatives, continued much the same in the thirteenth and fourteenth, as we have seen it in the three preceding centuries Philip the fair had subjected his clergy to bear their share of the public taxes, and prohibited all contributions to be levied by the pope in his dominions. This double offence was highly resented by Boni- face VIII., who expressed his indignation by a sentence of excom munication and interdict, and. a solemn transference of the kingdom of France to the emperor Albert. Philip, in revenge, sent his gen- eral Nogaret to R.ome, who threw the pope into prison. The French, however, were overpowered by the papal troops ; and the death of Boniface put an end to the quarrel. 8. It is less easy to justify the conduct of Philip the fair to the knights templars than his behaviour to pope Boniface. The whole of this order had incurred his resentment, from suspicion of harbour- ing treasonable designs. He had influence with Clement V. to pro cure a papal b\«ll warranting their extirpation from all the christian kingdoms: and this infamous proscription was carried into effed over all Europe. Those unfortunate men were solemnly tried, not for their real offence, but for protended impieties and idolatrous prac- tices, and committed to the flames 1,309 — 1,312. SECTION XX. REVOLUTION OF SWITZERLAND. 1. The beginning of the fourteenth century was distinguished by the revolution of Switzerland, and the rise of the Helvetic republic. The emperor Rodolphus of Hppsbourg was hereditary sovereign of several of the Swiss cantons, and governed his states with much equity and moderation. His successor Albert, a tyrannical prince, formed the design of annexing the whole of the provinces to his dominion, and of erecting them into a principality for one of his sons. The cantons of Schweitz, Ury, and Underwald, which had always resisted the authority of Austria, combined to assert their freedom ; and a small army of 400 or 500 men defeated an immense host of the Austrians in the pass of Morgate, 1,315. The rest of the cantons by degrees joined the association. With invincible persever- ance the united cantons won and secured their dear-bought liberty, after sixty pitched battles with their enemies. . 2. Constitution of Switzerland. The thirteen cantons were united by a solemn treaty, which stipulated the proportional succours to be furnished by each in the case of foreign hostility, and the measures to be followed for securing the union of the states, and accommodat- ing domestic differences. With respect to its internal government ^nd economy each canton was independent. Of some the constitution 142 MODERN HISTORY. was monarchical, and of others republican. All matters touching the general league were transacted either by letters sent to Zurich, and thence officially circulated to all the cantons, or by conferences. The general diet, where two deputies attended from each canton, was held once a year, the first deputy of Zurich presiding. The catholic and protestani cantons likewise held their separate diets on occasional emergencies. 3. The Swiss, when at peace, employed their troops for hire in foreign service, judging it a wise policy to keep alive the military spirit of the nation; and the armies thus employed have been equally distinguished for their courage and fidelity. The industry and economy of the Swiss are proverbial ; and their country supports an abundant population, from the zealous promotion of agriculture and manufactures. SECTION XXI, STATE OF EUROPE IN THE THIRTEENTH, FOURTEENTH, AND PART OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. 1. The rival claims of superiority between the popes and em- perors still continued. Henry VII., the successor of Albert, vindicat- ed his right by the sword, triumphantly fought his way to Rome., where he was solemnly crowned, and imposed a tribute on all the. states of Italy. His sudden death was suspected to be the consequence of papal resentment. In his time the seat of the popedom was trans- ferred by Clement V. from Rome to Avignon, 1,309, where it re- mained till 1,377. The factions of Italy were the cause of this re- moval. Lewis of Bavaria, the successor of Henry, deposed and ex- communicated by John XXII., revenged himself by deposing the pope. This pontiff, who had originally been a cobbler, surpassed most of his predecessors in pride and tyranny. He kept nis seat on the papal chair, and left at his death an immense treasure accumu- lated by the sale of benefices ; while his rival the emperor died in Indigence. 2. His successor in the empire, Charles IV., published, in 1,355, the imperial constitution, termed the golden bull, the fundamental law of the Germanic body, which reduced the number of electors to seven, and settled on them all the hereditary offices of state. The electors exemplified their new rights by deposing his son Wenceslaus for incapacity, 1,400. Three separate factions of the Fiench and Italian cardinals having elected three separate popes, the emperor Sigismund judged this division of the church to be a fit opportunity for his interference to reconcile all differences, and establish his own supremacy. He summoned a general council at Constance in 1,414, and ended the dispute by degrading all the three pontiffs, and naming a fourth, Martin Colonna. This division of the papacy is termed the great schism of the zvest. 3. The spiritual business of the council of Constance was no less important than its temporal. John Huss, a disciple of Wickliff, was tried for heresy, in denying the hierarchy, and satirizing the im- moralities of the pones and bishops He did not deny the charge, and, refusing to" confess his errors, was burnt alive. A similar fate was the portion of his friend and disciple, Jerom of Prague, wh» MODERN HISTORY 143 displayed at his execution the eloquence of an apostle, and the con* stancy of a martyr, 1,416. Sigismund felt the consequence of these horrible proceedings ; for the Bohemians opposed his succession to their vacant crown, and it cost him a war of sixteen years to attain it. 4. Whatever was the imperial power at this time, it derived but small consequence from its actuat revenues. The wealth of the Germanic states was exclusively possessed by iheir separate sove- reigns, and the emperor had little more than what he drew from Bohemia and Hungary. The sovereignty of Italy was an empty title. The interest of the emperor in that country furnished only a source of faction to its princes, and embroiled the states in perpetual quarrels. A series of conspiracies and civil tumults form the annals of the principal cities for above 200 years. Naples and Sicily were ruined by the weak and disorderly government of the two Joannas. A passion which the younger of these conceived for a soldier of the name of Sforza raised him to the sovereignty of Milan ; and her adoption, first of Alphonzo of Arragon, and afterwards of Lewis ol Anjou, laid the foundation of those contests between Spain and France for the sovereignty of the two Sicilies, which afterwards agitated all Europe. SECTION XXII. HISTORY OF ENGLAND IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 1. On the death of John, his son Henry III. succeeded to the crown of England at nine years of age. He was a prince of ami- able dispositions, but of weak understanding. His preference of foreign favourites disgusted his nobles ; and the want of economy in his government, and oppressive exactions, deprived him of the affection of his people. Montfort earl of Leicester, son of the leader of the crusade against the Albigenses, and brother-in-law of the king, con- ceived a plan for usurping the government. He formed a league with the barons, on the pretext of reforming abuses, and compelled Henry to delegate all the regal power into the hands of twenty-four of their number. These divided among themselves the offices of government, and new-modelled the parliament, by summoning a cer- tain number of knights chosen from each county. This measure was fatal to their own power; for these knights or representatives of the people, indignant at Leicester's usurpation, determined to restore the royal authority ; and called on prince Edward, a youth of intrepid spirit, to avenge his father's wrongs and save the king- dom. 2. Leicester raised a formidable force, and defeated the royal army at Lewes^ in Sussex, 1,264, and made both the king and prince Edward his prisoners. He now compelled the impotent Henry to ratify his authority by a solemn treaty. He assumed the character of regent, and called a parliament, summoning two knights from each of the counties, and deputies from the principal boroughs, the first regular plan of the English house of commons. This assembly exercising its just rights, and asserting with firmness the re-establish- ment of the ancient government of the kingdom, Leicester judged it prudent to release the prince from his confinement. Edward was no sooner at liberty than he took the field against the usurper, who was defeated and slain in the battle of EvesfLin, on the 4th day of 144 MODERN HISTORY. August, 1 ,265. Henry was now restored to his throne by the arms of his gallant son, who, after establishing domestic tranquillity, em- barked in the last crusade with Lewis IX., and signalized his prowess by many valorous exploits in Palestine. He had the honour of con- cluding an advantageous truce for ten years with the sultan of BaDy- lon. and was on his return to England when he received intelligence of nis accession to the crown by the death of his father, 1,272. 3. Edward I. projected the conquest of Wales.' in the beginning of his reign. The Welsh, the descendants of the ancient Britons who had escaped the Roman and Saxon conquests, preserved their liberty, laws, manners, and language. Their prince, Lewellyn, refused his customary homage to the king of England. Edward in- vaded Wales, and, surrounding the army of the prince, who retreated ' to the mountains, cut off all his supplies, and compelled him to an unqualified submission. The terms demanded were, the surrender of a part of the country, a large sum of money, and an obligation of perpetual fealty to the crown of England. The Welsh infringed this treaty, and Edward marched his army into the heart of the country, where the troops of Lewellyn made a most desperate but in- effectual resistance. In a decisive engagement, in 1,283, the prince was slain. His brother David, betrayed into the hands of the con- queror, was inhumanly executed on a gibbet ; and W T ales, complete- ly subdued, was annexed to the crown of England. With a policy equally absurd and cruel, Edward ordered the W r elsh hards to be put to death wherever found ; thereby ensuring the perpetuation of their heroic songs, and increasing the abhorrence of the vanquished people for their barbarous conqueror. 4. The conquest of Wales inflamed the ambition of Edward, and inspired him with the design of extending his dominion to the ex- tremity of the island. The designs of this enterprising monarch oo the kingdom of Scotland invite our attention to that quarter. SECTION XXIII. HISTORY OF SCOTLAND FROM THE ELEVENTH TO THK FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 1. The history of Scotland before the reign of Malcolm III., sur- named Canmore, is obscure and fabulous. This prince succeeded to the throne in 1,057 by the defeat of Macbeth, the murderer of his father Duncan. Espousing the cause of Edgar Atheling, heir of the Saxon kings of England, whose sister he married, he thus provoked a war with William the conqueror, which was equally prejudicial to both kingdoms. In an expedition of Malcolm into England it is alleged, that, after concluding a truce, he was compelled by William to do homage for his kingdom. The truth is, that this homage was done for the territories in Cumberland and Northumberland won by the Scots, and held in vassalage of the English crown ; though this homage was afterwards absurdly made the pretext of a claim of feudal sovereignty over all Scotland. In a reign of twenty-seven years Malcolm supported a spirited contest with England, both under William I. and his son Rufus ; and to the virtues of his queen Mar- garet, his kingdom, in its domestic policy, owed a degree of civiliza lion remarkable in those ages of barbarism MODERN HISTORY. 146 2. Alexander I., his son and successor, defended, with equal spirit and good policy, the independence of his kingdom, and hte son David I., celebrated even by the democratic Buchanan as an honour to his country and to monarchy, won from Stephen, and annexed to his crown, the whole earldom of JN orthumberland. In those reigns we hear of no claim of the feudal subjection of ^Scotland to the crown of England ; though the accidental fortune of war afterwards furnished a ground for it. William L, (the lion), taken prisoner at Alnwick by Henry 1L, was compelled, as the price of his release, to ■ do homage for his whole kingdom ; an obligation which his succes- sor Richard voluntarily discharged, deeming it to have been unjustly extorted. o. On the death of Alexander III. without male issue, in 1,235, Bruce and Baliol, descendants of David 1. by the female line, were competitors for the crown, ?.nd the pretensions of each were support- ed by a formidable party in the kingdom. Edward L of England, chosen umpire of the contest, arrogated to himself, in that character, the feudal sovereignty of the kingdom, compelling all the barons to swear allegiance to him, and taking actual possession of the country by his troops. He then adjudged the crown to Baliol, en the expres*s condition of his swearing fealty to him as lord paramount Baliol, however, soon after renouncing his ajlegiance, the indignant Edward invaded Scotland with an immense ibrce, and compelled the weak prince to abdicate the throne, and resign the kingdom into his hands 4. William Wallace, one of the greatest heroes whom history re- cords, restored the fallen honours of his country. Joined by a few patriots, his first successes in-attacking the English garrisons brought numbers to his patriotic standard. Their successes were signal arid conspicuous. Victory followed upon victory. While Edward wa engaged on the continent, his troops were utterly defeated in a des perate engagement at Stirling, and forced to evacuate the kingdom. Wallace, the deliverer of his country, now assumed the title of gov- ernor of Scotland under Baliol, who was Edward's prisoner; a dis- tinction which was followed by the envy and disaffection of many ot the' nobles, and the consequent diminution of his army. The Scots were defeated at Falkirk. . Edward returned with a vast accession ol force. After a fruitless resistance the Scottish barons finally obtained peace by a capitulation, from which the brave Wallace was excepted bv name. A fugitive for some time,. he was betrayed into the hands ot Edward, who put him to death, with every circumstance of cruelty that barbarous revenge could dictate, 1,304. 5. Scotland found a second champion and deliverer in Robert Bru3e, the grandson of the competitor with Baliol; who, deeply re- senting the humiliation of his country, once more set up the standard of war, and gave defiance tv? the English monarch, to whom his father and grandfather had meanly sworn allegiance. Under this in- trepid leader the spirit of the nation was roused at once. The .Eng- lish were attacked in every quarter, and once more entirely driven out of the kingdom. Robert Bruce was crowned king at Scone ? 1,306. Edward was advancing with an immense army, and died at Carlisle on the 7th day of July, 1,307. He enjoined it with his last breath to his son, Edward II., to prosecute the war with the Scots to the entire reduction of the country. N 19 U6 MODERN HISIOK*. SECTION XXIV. HISTORY OF ENGLAND IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 1 In the reign of Edward 1. we observe the constitution of Eng- land gradually advancing. The commons had been admitted to par- liament in the latter period of his father Henry III. A statute was passed by Edward, which declared, that no tax or impost should be levied without the consent of lords and commons. Edward ratified the Magna Charta no less than eleven times in the course of his reign ; and henceforward this fundamental law began to be regarded as sa- cred and unalterable. 2. Edward II. was in character the very opposite of his father t weak, indolent, and capricious ; but of humane and benevolent affec- tions.' He disgusted his nobles by Us attachment to mean and unde- serving favourites, whom he raised to the highest dignities of the state, and honoured with his exclusive confidence. Piers Gaveston., a vicious and trifling minion, whom the king appointed regent when on a journey to Paris to marry Isabella, daughter of Philip the fair, disgusted the barons to such a pitch, that they compelled the king to delegate all the authority of government to certain commissioners, and to abandon his favourite to their resentment. He was doomed to perpetual imprisonment, and, on attempt to escape, was seized and beheaded. 3; Edward, in obedience to his father's will, invaded Scotland with an army of 100,000 men. King Robert Bruce met this immense force with 30,000 men at Bannockburn, and defeated them with pro- digious slaughter. This important victory secured the independence of Scotland. Edward escaped by sea to his own dominions. A new favourite, Spenser, supplied the place of Gaveston ; but his.undeserv- ed elevation and overbearing character completed the disaffection of the nobles to their sovereign. The queen, a vicious adulteress, join- ed the malcontents, and, passing over to France, obtained from her brother Charles IV. an army to invade England, and dethrone her husband. Her enterprise was successful. Spenser and his father were betrayed into the hands of their enemies, and perished on a /scaffold. The king was taken prisoner, tried by parliament, and sol- emnly deposed ; and being confined to prison, was soon after put to death in a manner shocking to humanity, 1,327. 4. Edward III., crowned at fourteen years of age, could not submit to the regency of a mother stained with the foulest of crimes. His father's death was revenged by the perpetual imprisonment of Isabel- la, and the public execution of her paramour Mortimer. Bent on tiie conquest of Scotland, Edward marched to the north with a prodigious army, vanquished the Scots in the battle of Halidoun-hill, and placed on the throne Edward Baliol, his vassal and tributary. But the king- dom was as repugnant as ever to the rule of England, and a favoura- ble opportunity was taken for the renewal of hostilities, on the depart- ure of Edward for a foreign enterprise, which gave full scope to his ambition. ^ 5. On the death of Charles IV. without male issue, the crown of France was claimed by Edward III. of England, in right of his moth er, the sister of Charles, while, in the mean time, the throne was oc- cupied by the male heir, Philip of Valois. Edward fitted out an im MODERN HISTORY- 147 mense armament by sea and land, and, obtaining a signal victory over the French fleet, landed on the coast of Normandy, and with his son the black prince, ran a career of the most glorious exploits. Philip., with 100,000 men, met the English with 30,000, and was entirely de-' feated in the field of Cressy, August 26, 1,348. Calais was taken by the English, and remained in their possession 210 years. The En- glish are said to have first used artillery in the battle of Cressy. Fire arms were then but a recent invention (1,340), and have much con- tributed to lessen both the slaughter and the frequency of wars. Mr. Hume well observes that war is now reduced nearly to a matter o-i calculation. A nation knows its power, and, when overmatched, either yields to its enemies, or secures itself by alliance. - 6. The Scots in the mean time invaded England, and were defeated In the battle of Durham by Philippa, the heroic queen of Edward III. ; and their sovereign David II. was led prisoner to London, A truce concluded between Edward and Philip was dissolved by the death of the latter. Philip was succeeded by his son John, who took the field with 60,000 men against the black prince, and was defeated by him with a far inferior number in the signal battle of Poictiers, September 19, 1,356. John king of France was led in triumph to London, the fellovv-prisc*ier of David king of Scotland. But England derived from those victories nothing but honour. The French continued the war with great vigour during the captivity of their sovereign, who died in London in 1,364. They obtained a peace by the cession to the English of Poitou, St. Onge, Perigord and other provinces ; and Ed- ward consented to renounce his claim to the crown of France. The death of the black prince, a most heroic and virtuous man, plunged the nation in grief, and broke the spirits of his father, who did not long survive him. 7. Richard II. succeeded his grandfather, in 1,377, at the age of eleven. Charles VI. soon after became king of France at the age of twelve. Both kingdoms suffered from the distractions attending a regal minority. In England the contests for power between the king's uncles, Lancaster, York, and Gloucester, embroiled all public measures; and the consequent disorders required a stronger hand to compose them than that of the weak and facile Richard. Taking advantage .2 of the king's absence, then engaged in quelling an insur- rection in Ireland, Henry of Lancaster rose in open rebellion, and compelled Richard, at his return, to resign the crown. The parlia- ment confirmed his deposition, and he was soon after privately assas- sinated. Thus began the contentions between the houses of York and Lancaster. SECTION XXV. ENGLAND AND FRANCE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. STATE OF MANNERS. 1 . Henry IV. ascended the throne on the deposition of Richard II., 1,399 ; and had immediately to combat a rebellion raised by the earl of Northumberland, for placing Mortimer, the heir of the house of York, on the throne. The Scots and Welsh took part with the rebels but their united forces were defeated at Shrewsbury, and their lead- er, young Percy (Hotspur), killed on the field. A second rebellion *48 MODERN HISTORY. headed by the archbishop of York, was quelled by the capital punish- ment of its author. The secular arm was rigorously extended against the followers of Wickliff, and this reign saw the first detestable examples of religious persecution. The life of Henry was imbitter ed by the youthful disorders of his son the prince of Wales, who afterwards- nobly redeemed his character. Henry IV. died in 1,413, at the age of forty-six. 2. Henry V. took advantage of the disorders of France, from the temporary^ insanity of its sovereign Charles VI., and the factious struggles for power between the dukes of Burgundy and Orleans, to invade the kingdom with a large army, which a contagious dis- temper wasted down to a fifth of its numbers ; yet with this handful of resolute and hardy troops, he defeated the French army of 60,000,, under the constable D'Albert, in the iamous battle of Agincourt, in which 10,000 of the enemy were slain, and 14,000 made prisoners, October 24, 1,415. Returning to England to recruit his forces, he landed again with an army of 25,000, and fought his way to Paris. The insane monarch, with his court, fled to Troye, and Henry pur- suing, terminated the war by a treaty with the queen-mother of the duke of Burgundy, by which it was agreed that he should marry the daughter of Charles VI., and receive the kingdom of France as. ber dowry, which, till the death of her father, he should govern a& regent. 3. Mean time the return of Henry to England gave the dauphin hopes of the recovery of his kingdom. He was victorious in an engagement with the English under the duke of Clarence ; but his success was of no longer duration than the absence of the English sovereign, who was himself hastening to the period of his triumphs. Seized with a mortal distemper, Henry died in the 34th year of his age, 1,422, one of the most heroic princes that ever swayed the sceptre of England. His brother, the duke of Bedford, was declared regent of France, and Henry VI., an infant nine months old, was pro- claimed king at Paris and at London, 1,422. 4. Charles VII. recovered France by slow degrees. With the aid of a young female enthusiast, the maiu of Orleans, whom the credu- lity of the age supposed to be inspired by Heaven, he gained several important advantages over the English, which the latter inhumanly revenged, by burning this heroine as a sorceress. Her death was of equal advantage to the French as her life had been. The govern- ment of the English was universally detested. After a struggle of many years, they were at length, in 1,450, deprived of all that they had ever possessed in France, except Calais and Guignes. Charles, when he had restored his kingdom to peace, governed it with admi- rable wisdom and moderation. 5. The state of England and of France, the tvyo most polished kingdoms in Europe, furnishes a good criterion of the condition o. society in those ages of which we have been treating. Even in the large cities the houses were roofed with thatch, and had no chimnies. Glass windows were extremely rare, and the floors were covered with straw. In England Avine was sold only in the shops of the apothecaries. Paper made from linen rags was first manufactured in the beginning of the fifteenth century ; and the us« of linen for shirts was at that time a very rare piece of luxury. Yet even before that age the progress of luxury had excited a se- rious alarm, for the parliament under Edward III. found it necessary vo prohibit the use of gold and silver in apparel to all who had not MODERN HISTORY 149 a nundred pounds a year ; and Charles VI. of France ordained, that none should presume to entertain with more than two dishes and a mess of soup. Before the reign of Edward I. the whole country of England was plundered by robbers in great bands, who laid waste entire villages ; and some of the household officers of Henry III. excused themselves for robbing on the highway, because the king allowed them no wages. In 1,303 the abbot and monks of Westmin- ster were indicted for robbing the king's exchequer, but acquitted. The admirable laws of Edward I., which acquired him the title of the English Justinian, give strong testimony of the miserable policy and barbarism of the preceding times. SECTION XXVI. DECLINE AND FALL OF THE GREEK EMPIRE. 1. In the fourteenth century the Turks were proceeding by de- grees to encroach on the frontiers of the Greek empire. The sul- tan Ottoman had fixed the seat of his government at Byrsa in Bi- thynia ; and his son Orcan extended his sovereignty to the Propontis, and obtained in marriage the daughter of the emperor John Canta- cuzenos. About the middle of the century the Turks crossed over into Europe, and took Adrianople. The emperor John Palaeologus, after meanly soliciting aid from the pope, concluded a humiliating treaty with sultan Ammrat, and gave his son as a hostage to serve in the Turkish army. 2. Bajazet, the successor of Amurat, compelled the emperor to destroy his fort of Galata, and to admit a Turkish judge into the city. He prepared now to besiege Constantinople in form, when he was • forced to change his purpose, and defend himself against the victorious Tamerlane. 3. Timur-bek or Tamerlane, a prince of the Usbek Tartars, and descended from Gengiskan, after the conquest of Persia, a great part of India and Syria, was invited by the Asiatic princes, enemies ol Bajazet, to protect them against the Ottoman power, which threaten- edto overwhelm them. Tamerlane, flattered by this request, im- periously summoned the Turk to renounce his conquests ; but the message was answered with a proud defiance. The armies met near Angoria (Ancyra) m Phrygia, and Bajazet was totally defeated and made prisoner by Tamerlane, 1,402. The conqueror made Samar- cand the capital of his empire, and there received the homage of all the princes of the east. Tamerlane was illiterate, but yet was solici- tious for the cultivation of literature and science in his dominions. Samarcand became for a while the seat of learning, politeness, and the arts ; but was destined to relapse, after a short period, into its ancient barbarism. 4. The Turks, after the death of Tamerlane, resumed their pur- pose of destroying the empire of the east. Amurat II., a prince- of singular character, had, on the faith of a solemn treaty with the king of Poland, devoted his days to retirement and study. A viola- tion of the treaty, by an attack from the Poles on his dominions, made him quit his solitude. He engaged and destroyed the Polish army, with their perfidious sovereign, and then calmly returned to his re- treat, till a similar crisis of public expediency once more brought him into active life. He left his dominions to his son Mahomet II.. N2 150 MODERN HISTORY surnamed the great, who resumed the project for the destruction of Constantinople ; but its tall was a second time retarded by the neces- sity in which the Turks were unexpectedly placed, of defending their own dominions against a powerful invader. 5. Scanderbeg (John Castriot) prince of Albania, whose territories had been seized by Amurat II., was educated by the sultan as his own child, and when of age, intrusted with the command 0/ an army, which he employed in wresting from Amurat his paternal kingdom, 1,443. By great talents and military skill he maintained his independent sovereignty against the whole force of the Turkish empire. 6. Mahomet II., son of the philosophic Amurat, a youth of twen- ty-one years of age, resumed the plan of extinguishing the empire of the Greeks, and making Constantinople the capital of the Otto- man power. Its indolent inhabitants made but 7 a feeble preparation for defence, and the powers of Europe looked on with supine indif- ference. The Turks assailed the city both by land and sea ; and, battering down its walls with their cannon, entered sword in hand, and massacred all who opposed them. The emperor Constantine was slain; the city surrendered; and thus was finally extinguished the eastern empire of the Romans, A. D. 1,453, which, from the building of its capital by Constantine tne great, had subsisted 1,123 years. The imperial ediiices were preserved from destruction. The churches were converted into mosques; but the exercise of their religion was allowed to all the christians. From that time the Greek christians have regularly chosen their own patriarch, whom the sultan instals ; though his authority continues to be disputed by the Latin patriarch, who is chosen by the pope. Mahomet the great liberally patronized the arts and sciences ; and, to compensate for the migration of those learned Greeks, who, on the fall of the empire, spread themselves over the countries of Europe, invited both artists and men of letters to his capital from other kingdoms. 7. The taking of Constantinople was followed by the conquest of Greece and Epirus. Italy might probably have met a similar fate, but by means of their fleet the Venetians opposed the arms of Mahomet with considerable success, and even attacked him in Greece. The contending powers soon after .put an end to hostilities by a treaty, dahomet the great died at the age of fifty-one, 1,481. SECTION XXVII. GOVERNMENT AND POLICY OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE. 1 The government of Turkey is an absolute monarchy, the whole legislative and executive authority of the state centering in the sultan, whose power is subject to no constitutional control. It is, however, limited in some degree by religious opinion; the precepts of the Coran inculcating certain duties on the sovereign, winch it would be held an impiety to transgress. It is yet more strongly limit- ed by the fear of deposition and assassination. Under these restraints the prince can seldom venture on an extreme abuse of power. 2. The spirit of the people is fitted for a subjection bordering on slavery. Concubinage being agreeable to the law of Mahomet, the grand seignior, the viziers, are Jborn of female slaves : and there is eearcsly a subject of the empire of ingenuous blood by both parents. ODERN HISTORY. 151 It is a funaamental maxim of the Turkish policy, that all the officers of state should be such as the sultan can entirely command, and at any time destroy, without danger to himself. 3. The grand vizier is usually entrusted with the whole functions of government, and of course subjected to the sole responsibility for all public measures. Subordinate to him are six viziers of the bench, who are his counsel and assessors in cases of law, of which he is supreme judge. The power of the grand vizier is absolut?. over all the subjects of the empire ; but he cannot put to death a begler- beg or a bashaw without the imperial signature ; nor punish a jani- zary, unless through the medium of his military commanoer. Tn*» beglerbegs are the governors of several provinces, the bashaws ot a single province. All dignities in the Tukish empire are personal, and dependent on the sovereign's pleasure. 4. The revenues of the grand seignior arise from taxes and cus- toms laid on the subject, annual tributes paid by the Tartars, stated gifts from the governors of the provinces, and, above all, the confis- cations of estates, from the viziers and bashaws downwards to the lowest subjects of the empire. The certain and fixed revenues ot the sovereign are small in comparison of those which are arbitrary. His absolute power enables him to execute great projects at a small expense. SECTION XXVIli. FRANCE AND ITALY IN THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 1. Scarcely any vestige of the ancient feudal government now remained in France. The onlv subsisting fiefs were Burgundy and Brittany. Charles the bold, duke of Burgundy, who sought to in- crease his territories by the conquest of Switzerland and Lorraine, was defeated by the Swiss, and killed in battle. He left no son, and Lewis XL of France took possession of Burgundy as a male fief, 1,447. The duke's daughter married Maximilian, son of the empe- ror Frederick III., who, by this marriage, acquired the sovereignty of the Netherlands. 2. The acquisition of Burgundy and of Provence, which was be- queathed to France by the count de la Marche, increased very great ly the power of the crown. Lewis XL, an odious compound of vice, cruelty, and superstition, and a tyrant to his people, was the author of many wise and excellent regulations of public policy. The bar- barity of the public executions m his reign is beyond all belief; yet the wisdom of his laws, the encouragement which he gave to com merce, the restraints which he imposed on the oppressions of the nobility, and the attention which he bestowed in regulating the courts ot justice, must ever be mentioned to his honour. 3. The count de la Marche, beside the bequest of Provence to Lewis XL, left him his empty title of sovereign of the Two Sicilies. Lewis was satisfied with the substantial gift; but his son Charles VIII. was dazzled with the shadow. In the beginning of his reign he projected the conquest of Naples, and embarked in the enterprise with the most improvident precipitancy. 4. The dismembered state of Italv was favourable to his views. 152 MODERN HISTORY The popedom, during the transference of its seat to Avignon, had lost many of its territories. Mantua, Modena, and Ferrara, had their independent sovereigns. Piedmont belonged to the duke of Savoy Genoa and Milan to the family of Sforza. Florence, under the Medi- ci, had attained a very high pitch of splendour. Cosmo, the founder 01 that family, employed a vast fortune, acquired by commerce, in the improvement of his country, in acts of public munificence, and in the cultivation of the sciences and elegant arts. His high reputation obtained for himself and his posterity the chief authority in his native state. Peter de Medici, his great grandson, ruled in Florence at the period of the expedition of Charles VIII. into Italy. 5. The papacy was enjoyed at this time by Alexander VI., a mon- ster of wickedness. The pope and the duke of Milan, who had invited Charles to this enterprise, immediately betrayed him, and joined the interest of the king of JNaples. Charles, after besieging the pope in Rome, and forcing him to submission, devoutly kissed his feet. He now marched against Naples, while its timid prince Alphonso fled to Sicily, and his son to the isle of Ischia, after absolving his subjects from their allegiance. Charles entered Naples in triumph, and was hailed emperor and Augustus : but he lost his new kingdom in almost as short a time as he had gained it. A league was formed against France between the pope, the emperor Maximilian, Ferdinand of Ar- ragon, Isabella of Castile, and the Venetians ; and on the return of Charles to France, the troops which he had left to guard his conquest were entirely driven out of Italy. 6. It has been remarked that, from the decisive effect of this con- federacy against Charles VIII., the sovereigns of Europe derived a useful lesson of policy, and first adopted the idea of preserving a bal- ance of power, by that tacit league which is understood to be always subsisting, for the prevention of the inordinate aggrandizement of any particular state. 7. Charles VIII. died at the age of twenty-eight, 1,498 ; and, leav- ing no children, the duke of Orleans succeeded to the throne of France by the title of Lewis XII. SECTION XXIX. HISTORY OF SPAIN IN THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. 1. We go back a little to the middle of the fourteenth century, to trace the history of Spain. Peter of Castile, surnamed the cruel, for no other reason but that he employed severe means to support his just rights, had to contend against a bastard brother, Henry of Trans- tamarre, who, with the aid of a French banditti, called Malandrins, led by Bertrand du Guesclin, strove to dispossess him of his kingdom. Peter was aided by Edward the black prince, then sovereign of Gui- enne, who defeated Transtamarre, and took Bertrand prisoner ; but, on the return of the prince to England, Peter was attacked by his former enemies, and entirely defeated. Unable to restrain his rage in the first view with Transtamarre, the latter put him to death with his own hand, 1,368 ; and ttyis this usurper secured foi himself and his posterity the throne of Castile. 2. The weakness and debauchery of one of his descendants, Hen- ry IV of Castile, occasioned a revolution in the kingdom. The mfc» MODERN HISTORY. 1S3 jority of the nation rose in rebellion , the assembly of the nobles sol- emnly deposed their king, and, on the alleged ground of his daughter Joanna being a bastard, compelled him to settle the crown on his sis ter Isabella. They next brought about a marriage between Isabella and Ferdinand of Arragon, which united the monarchies of Arragon and Castile. After a ruinous civil war the revolution was at length completed by the death of the deposed sovereign, 1,474, and the re- tirement of his daughter Joanna to a monastery, 1,479. 3. At the accession of Ferdinand and Isabella to the thrones of Ar- ragon and Castile, Spain was in a state of great disorder, from the lawless depredations of the nobles and their vassals. It was the first object of the new sovereigns to repress these enormities, by subject ing the offenders to the utmost rigour of law, enforced by the sword. The holy brotherhood was instituted Tor the discovery and punishment of crimes; and the inquisition (Sect. XIX, & 3), under the pretext ot extirpating heresy and impiety, afforded the most detestable exam- ples of sanguinary persecution. 4. The Moorish kingdom of Granada, a most splendid monarchy, but at that time weakened by faction, and a prey to civil war, offered a tempting object to the ambition of Ferdinand and Isabella. Alboa- cen was at war With his nephew Aboabdeli, who wanted to dethrone him ; and Ferdinand aided Aboabdeli, in the view of ruining both ; for no sooner was the latter in possession of the crown by the death of Alboacen, than Ferdinand invaded his ally with the whole force of Arragon and Castile. Granada was besieged in 1,491, and, after a blockade of eight months, surrendered to the victor. Aboabdeli, by a mean capitulation, saved his life, and purchased a retreat for his countrymen to a mountainous part of the kingdom, where they were suffered to enjoy unmolested their laws and their religion. Thus ended the dominion of the Moors in Spain, which had subsisted for 800 years. 5. Ferdinand, from that period, took the title of king of Spain. In 1,492 he expelled all the Jews from his dominions, on the absurd ground, that they kept in their hands the commerce of the kingdom ; and Spain thus lost above 150,000 of the most industrious of her in- habitants. The exiles spread themselves over the other kingdoms of Europe, and were often the victims of a persecution equally inhuman. It would appear that Spain has felt, even to the present times, the ef- fects of this folly, in the slow progress of the arts, and that deplora- ble inactivity which is the characteristic of her people. Even the discovery of the new world, which happened at this very period, and which stimulated the spirit of enterprise and industry in all the neigh- bouring kingdoms, produced but a feeble impression on that nation, which might in a great degree have monopolized its benefits. Oi that great discovery we shall afterwards treat in a separate section SECTION XXX. FRANCE, SPAIN, AND ITALY, IN THE END OF THE F1F TEENTH AND BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 1. Lewis XII., eagerly bent on vindicating his right to Naples, courted the interest of pope Alexander VI., who promised his aid on condition that his natural son, Caesar Borgia, should receive from Lewis the duchy of Valentinois, with the king of Navarre's sister in 20 164 MODERN HISTORY marriage. Lewis crossed the Alps, and in the space of a few days was master of Milan and Genoa. Sforza duke of Milan became his prisoner for life. Afraid of the power of Ferdinand of Spain, Lewis joined with him in the conquest of Naples, and agreed to divide with him the conquered dominions, the pope making no scruple to sanction the partition. But the compromise was of no duration; for Alexander VI., and Ferdinand, judging it a better policy to share Italy between themselves, united their interest to deprive Lewis of his new territories. The Spaniards, under Gonsalvo de Cordova, defeated the French, under the duke de Nemours and the chevalier Bayard ; and Lewis irrecoverably lost his share of the kingdom of Naples. 2. History relates with horror the crimes of pope Alexander V., and his son Caasar Borgia; their murders, robberies, profanations, incests. They compassed their ends in attaining every object of their ambition, but with the universal abhorrence of mankind, and finally met with an ample retribution for their crimes. The pope died by poison, prepared, as was alleged, by himself for an enemy ; and Borgia, stripped of all his possessions by pope Julius II., and sent prisoner to Spain by Gonsalvo de Cordova, perished in miserable obscurity. 3. Julius II., the successor of Alexander, projected the formidable league of Cambray, 1,508, with the emperor, the kings of France and Spain, the duke of Savoy, and king of Hungary, for the destruc- tion of Venice, and the division of her territories among the. confed- erates. They accomplished in part their design, and Venice was on the verge of annihilation, when the pope changed his politics. Having made the French subservient to his views of plundering the Venetians, he now formed a new league with the Venetians, Ger- mans, and Spaniards, to expel the French from Italy, and appropriate all their conquests. The Swiss and the English oo-operated in this design. The French made a brave resistance under their generals Bayard and Gaston de Foix, but were finally overpowered. Lewis was compelled to evacuate Italy ; Ferdinand, with the aid of Henry VIII. of England, stripped him of Navarre, and forced him to pur- chase a peace. He died in 1,515. Though unfortunate in his milita- ry enterprises, from the superior abilities of his rivals pope Julius and Ferdinand, yet he was justly esteemed by his subjects for the wisdom and equity of his government. SECTION XXXI. HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH TO THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. CIVIL WARS OF YORK AND LANCASTER. 1. We have seen France recovered from the English in the early part of the reign of Henry VI., by the talents and prowess of Charles VIII. During the minority of Henry, who was a prince of no capa- city, England was embroiled by the factious contention for power between his uncles, the duke of Gloucester and the cardinal of Win- chester. The latter, to promote his own views of ambition, married Henry to Margaret of Anjou, daughter of Regner the titular king ot Naples, a woman of great mental endowments and singular heroism MODERN HISTORY. 155 of character, but whose severity in the persecution of her enemies alienated a great part of the nobles from their allegiance, and in- creased the partisans of a rival claimant of the crown. 2. This was Richard duke of York, descended by his mother from Lionel, second son of Edward III., and elder brother to John of Gaunt, the progenitor of Henry VI. The white rose distinguished the fac- tion of York, and the red rose that of Lancaster. The party of York gained much strength from the incapacity of Henry, who was subject to periodical madness ; and Richard was appointed lieutenant and protector of the kingdom. The authority of Henry was now annihilated; but Margaret roused her husband, in an interval oi sanity, to assert his right; and the nation was divided in arms be- tween the rival parties. In the battle of St. Albans 5,000 of the Lancastrians were slain, and the king was taken prisoner by the duke of York, on the 22d day of May, 1,455. Yet the parliament, while it confirmed the authority of the protector, maintained its allegiance to the king. 3. The spirit of the queen reanimated the royal party ; and the Lancastrians gained such advantage, that the duke of York fled to Ireland, while his cause was secretly maintained in England by Guy earl of Warwick. In the battle of Northampton the party of York again prevailed, and Henry once more was brought prisoner to Lon- don ; while his dauntless queen still nobly exerted herself to retrieve his fortunes. York now claimed the crown in open parliament, but prevailed only to have his right of succession ascertained on Henry's death, to the exclusion of the royal issue. 4. In the next battle the duke of York was slain, and his party de- feated ; but his successor Edward, supported by Warwick, avenged this disaster by a signal victory near Touton, in Yorkshire, in which 40,000 of the Lancastrians were slain. York was proclaimed king by the title of Edward IV., while Margaret, with her dethroned husband and infant son, lied into Flanders. 5. Edward, who owed his crown to Warwick, vvas ungrateful to his benefactor; and the imprudence and injustice of his conduct forced that nobleman at length to take part with the faction of Lan- caster. The consequence was, that, after some struggles, Edward was deposed, and Henry VI. once more restored to the throne by the hands of Warwick, now known by the epithet of the king-maker But this change w?as of no duration. The party of York ultimately prevailed. The Lancastrians were defeated in the battle of Barnet, and the brave Warwick w r as slain in the engagement, 1,472. 6. The intrepid Margaret, whose spirit w r as superior to every change of fortune, prepared to strike a last blow for the crown of England in the battle of Tewksbury. The event was fatal to her hopes : victory declared for Edward. Margaret was sent prisoner to the tower of London ; and the prince her son, a youth of high spirit, when brought into the presence of his conqueror, having nobly dared to justify his enterprise to the face of his rival, was barbarously mur dered by the dukes of Gloucester and Clarence. Henry VI. w T as soon after privately put to death in the Tower. The heroic Margaret, ransomed by Lewis XL, died in Fiance, 1,482. 7. Edward IV., thus secured on the throne by the death of all his competitors, abandoned himself without reserve to the indulgence of a vicious and tyrannical nature. He put to death, on the most frivo- lous pretence, his brother Clarence. Preparing to gratify his subjects bj a war with France, he died suddenly in the forty-second year oi IS6 MODERN HISTORY. his age, poisoned, as was suspected, by his brother Richard duke of Gloucester, 1,483. 8. Edward left two sons, the elder, Edward V., a boy of thirteen years of age. Richard duke of Gloucester, named protector in the minority of his nephew, hired, by means of Buckingham, a mob of the dregs of the populace to declare their wish tor his assumption of the crown. He yielded, with affecto-d reluctance, to this voice of the nation, and was proclaimed king by the title of Richard III., 1,483. Edward \ ., after a reign of two months, with his brother the duke of York, were, by command of the usurper, smothered while asleep, »nd privately ouried in the Tower. 9. These atrocious crimes found an avenger in Henry earl of Richmond, the surviving heir of the house of Lancaster, who, aided by Charles VIII. of Erance, landed in England, and revived the spirits of a party almost extinguished in the kingdom. He gave battle to Richard in the field of Bosworth, and entirely defeated the army of tne usurper, who was slain while fighting with the most desperate courage, August 22, 1,485. The crown which he wore in the en^a^e merit was immediately placed on the head of the conqueror. This auspicious day put an end to the civil wars of York and Lancaster. Henry VII. united the rights of both families by his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV. 10. The reign of Henry VII. was of twenty-four years' duration; and under his wise and politic government the kingdom recovered ail the wounds which it had sustained in those unhappy contests. Industry, good order, and perfect subordination, were the fruit of the excellent laws passed in this reign ; though the temper of the sove- reign was despotic, and his avarice, in the latter part of his reign, prompted to the most oppressive exactions. 11. The government of Henry was disturbed by two very singular enterprises ; the attempt of Lambert Simnel, the son of a baker, to counterfeit the person of the earl of Warwick, son of the duke of Clarence; and the similar attempt of Perkin Warbeck, son of a flemish Jew, to counterfeit the duke of York, who had been smother- ed in the Tower by Richard III. Both impostors found considerable support, but were" finally defeated. Simnel, after being crowned king of England and Ireland at Dublin, ended his days in a menial office of Henry's household. Perkin supported his cause by force of arms for five years, and was aided by a great proportion of the English nobilitv. Overpowered at length he surrendered to Henry, who condemned him to perpetual imprisonment; but his ambitious spirit meditated a new insurrection, and he was put to death as a traitor. Henry VII. died in 1,509, in the fifty-third year of his age, and the twenty-fourth of his reign. SECTION XXXII. HISTORY OF SCOTLAND FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF JAMES V ' 1. In no country of Europe had the feudal aristocracy attained to a greater height" than in Scotland. The power of the greater barons, while" it rendered them independent, and often the rival* MODERN HISTORY ir, of their sovereign, was a perpetual source of turbulence and dis order in the kingdom. It was therefore a constant policy of thf> Scottish kings to numbie the nobles, and break their factious com- binations. Robert I. attempted to retrench the vast territorial pos- sessions of his barons, by requiring every landholder to produce the titles of his estate ; but was resolutely answered, that the sword was their charter of possession. 2. On the death of Robert in 1,329, and during^ the minority of his son David, Edward Baliol, the son of John formerly king oi Scotland, with the aid of Edward III. of England, and ol many oi the factious barons, invaded the kingdom, and was crowned at Scone ; while the young David, was conveyed for security to France. The mean dependence of Baliol on the English monarch deprived him o?- the affections of the people. Robert, the steward of Scotland, Ran- dolph, and Douglas, supported the Brucian interest, and, assisted by the French, restored David to his throne. This prince was destined to sustain many reverses of fortune ; for, in a subsequent invasion oi the English territory by the Scots, he was taken prisoner in the bat- tle of Durham, and conveyed to London. He remained eleven years in captivity, and witnessed a similar fate of a. brother monarch, John king of France, taken prisoner by the black prince in the battle of Poictiers. David was ransomed by his subjects, and restored to his kingdom in 1,357 ; and ended a turbulent reign in 1,370-1. The crov/n passed at his demise to his nephew Robert, the high steward of Scotland, in virtue of a destination made by Robert 1. 3. The reign of Robert II., which was of twenty years' 'duration, was spent in a series of hostilities between the Scots and English, productive of no material consequence to either kingdom. The weak and indolent disposition of his successor Robert III., who found himself unequal to the contest with his factious nobles, prompted him to resign the government, to his brother, the duke of Albany. This ambitious man formed the design of usurping the throne by the murder of his nephews, the sons of Robert. The elder, Rothsay, a prince of high spirit, was imprisoned on pretence of treasonable de- signs, and starved to death. ^ The younger, James, escaped a similar fate which was intended for him ; but on , his passage to France, whither he was sent for safety by his father, he was taken by an Eng- lish ship of war, and brought prisoner to London. The weak Robert sunk under these misfortunes, and died, 1,405, after a reign of fifteen years. 4. James 1., a prince of great natural endowments, profited by a captivity of eighteen years at the court of England, in adorning' his mind with every valuable accomplishment. At his return to his kingdom, which in his absence had been weakly governed bv the regent Albany, and suffered under ail the disorders of anarchy, he bent his whole attention to the improvement and civilization of his people, by the enactment of many excellent laws, enforced with a resolute authority. The factions of the nobles, their dangerous corn- binationsj and their domineering tyranny over their dependents, tl>e great sources of the people's miseries, were firmly restrained, and most severely punished. But these wholesome innovations, while they procured to James the affections of the nation at large, excited the odium of the nobility, and gave birth to a conspiracy, headed by the earl of Athole, the king's uncle, which terminated in the murder of this excellent prince, in the 44th year of his age, A. D, 1,437. O 158 MCDEUIN iUSTORW 5. His son James II. inherited a considerable portion of the talents of his father ; and, in the like purpose of restraining the inordinate power of his nobles, pursued the same maxims of government, which an impetuous temper prompted him, in some instances, to carry to the most blameable excess. The earl of Douglas, trusting to a pow- erful vassalage, had assumed an authority above the laws, and a state and splendour rival to those of his sovereign. He was seized, and beheaded without accusation or trial. His successor imprudently running the same career, and boldly justifying, in a conference, his rebellious practices, was put to death by the king's own hand. Thus were the factions of the nobles quelled by^ a barbarous rigour 01 authority To his people James was beneticent and humane, and his laws contributed materially to their civilization and prosperity. He was killed, in the 30th yeai of his age, by the bursting of -a can- non, m besieging the castle of Roxburgh, A. D. 1,460. 6. His son James III., without the talents of his predecessors, affected to tread in the same steps. To humble his nobles he be- stowed his confidence on mean favourites, an insult which the for- mer avenged by rebellion. His brothers Albany and Mar, aided by Edward IV. of England, attempted a revolution in the kingdom, which was frustrated only by the death of Edward. In a second re bellion the confederate nobles forced the prince of Rothsay, eldest son of James, to appear in arms against his father. In an engagement near JBannockburn the rebels were successful, and the king was slain In the 35th near of his age, 1,488. 7. J ames IV., a great and most accomplished prince, whose talents were equalled by his virtues, while his measures of government were dictated by a true spirit of patriotism, won by a well-placed confi- dence the affections of his nobility. In his marriage with Margaret, the daughter of Henry VII. of England, both sovereigns wisely sought a bond of amity between the kingdoms ; but this purpose was frustrated in the succeeding reign of Henry VIII. The high spirit of the rival monarchs was easily inflamed by trifling causes of offence ; and France, then at war with England, courted the aid of her an- cient ally. James invaded England with a powerful army, which he wished io lead to immediate action ; but the prudent delays of Surrey, the English general, wasted and weakened his force. In the fatal battle of Flodden the Scots were defeated with prodigious slaughter. The gallant James perished in the fight, and with him almost the whole of the Scottish nobles, A. D. 1,513. 8. Under the long minority of his son James V., an infant at the time of his father's death, the kingdom was feebly ruled by his uncle Albany. The aristocracy began to resume its ancient spirit of inde- pendence, which was ill-brooked by a prince of a proud and un- controlaole mind, who felt the keenest jealousy of a high preroga- tive. With a systematic policy he employed the church to abuse the nobility, conferring all the offices of state on able ecclesiastics. The cardinal Beaton co-operated with great zeal in the designs of his master, and under him ruled the kingdom. 9. Henry VIII., embroiled with the papacy, sought an alliance with the king of Scots; but the ecclesiastical counsellors of the lat- ter defeated this beneficial purpose. A war was thus provoked, and James was reluctantly compelled to court those nobles whom it had hitherto been his darling object to humiliate. They now determined on a disgraceful revenge. In an attack on the Scottish border the English Vere repelled, and an opportunity offered to the Scots of MODERN HISTORY. m cutting off their retreat The king gave his orders to that end, but his barons obstinately refused to advance beyond the frontier. One measure more was wanting to drive their sovereign to despair. In a subsequent engagement with the English 10,000 of the Sects deliber- ately surrendered themselves prisoners to 500 of the enemy The high spirit of James sunk under his contending passions, and he died ol a broken heart in the 33d year of his age, A. D 1,542, a few days after the birth of a daughter, yet more unfortunate than her Hither Mary queen of Scots. SECTION XXXIII. OF THE ANCIENT CONSTITUTION OF THE SCOTTISH GOVERN- MENT. 1. "We have seen that it was a constant policy of the Scottish kings to abase the power of their nobles ; and that the struggle for power was the source of much misery and bloodshed. But this policy was"' necessary, from the dangerous ambition and lawless tyranny of those nobles, who frequently aimed at overturning the throne, and exercis ed the severest oppression on all their dependents. The interests, therefore, of the people, no less than the security of the prince, de- manded the repression of this overweening and destructive power. The aristocracy was, however, preserved, no less by its own strength than by the concurrence of circumstances, and chiefly by the violent and unhappy fate of the sovereigns. Meantime, though the me as ures which the kings pursued were not successful, yet their conse- quences were beneficial. They restrained, if they did not destroy, the spirit of feudal oppression, and gave birth to order!j wise laws. and a more tranquil administration of government. 2. The legislative power, though nominally resident in the parlia- ment, was virtually in the king, who, by his influence, entirely con- troied its proceedings. The parliament consisted of three estates, the nobles, the dignified clergy, and the less barons, who were the representatives of the towns and shires % The disposal of benefices, gave the crown the enure command of the churchmen, vvho were equal to the nobles in number; and at least a majority of the com- mons were the dependents of the sovereign. A committee, termed the lords of the articles, prepared every measure that was to corae before the parliament. By the mode oi* its election this committee was in effect nominated by the4jng. It is to the credit of the Scot- tish princes, that there are few instances of their abusing an authority so extensive as that which they constitutionally enjoyed 3. The king had anciently the supreme jurisdiction in all causes, civil and criminal, which he generally exercised through the inedim. of his privy council ; but in 1,425 James 1. instituted the court of scis- sions, consisting of the chancellor and certain judges chosen from the three estates. This court was new-modelled by James 'i., and its jurisdiction limited to civil causes, the cognizance of crimes being committed to the justiciary. The chancellor was the highest officer of the crown, and president of the parliament To the chamberlain belonged the care of the finances and the public police ; to the high steward the charge of the king's household ; the constable regulated all matters of military arrangsment; and the marshal was the king's lieutenant, and master of the horse. too MODERN HISTORY. 4. The revenue of the sovereign consisted of his domain, which was extensive, of the feudal casualties and forfeitures, the profits of the wardships of his vassals, the rents of vacant benefices, the pecu- niary fines for offences, and the aids or presents occasionally given by the subject; a revenue at all times sufficient for the purposes of government, and the support of the dignity of the crown. 5. The political principles which regulated the conduct of the Scots toward other nations were obvious and simple. It had ever been an object of ambition to England to acquire the sovereignty of Scotland, which was constantly on its guard against this design of its more potent neighbour. It was the wisest policy for Scotland to attach itself to France, the natural enemy of England ; an alliance reciprocally court- ed from similar motives: In those days this attachment was justly deemed patriotic while the Scots, who were the partisans of Eng- land, were with equal justice regarded as traitors to their country. In the period of which we now treat, it was a settled policy of the English sovereigns to have a secret faction in their pay in Scotland, ibr the purpose of dividing and thus enslaving the nation; and to this, source all the subsequent disorders of the latter kingdom are to be attributed. SECTION XXXIV A VIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF LITERATURE AND SCIENCE IN EUROPE, FROM THE 'REVIVAL OF LETTERS TO THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. i.i The first restorers of learning in Europe were the Arabians. wW in the course of their Asiatic conquests, becoming acquainted with some of the ancient Greek authors, discovered and justly appre- ciated the knowledge and improvement to be derived from them. Th£ caliphs procured from the eastern emperors copies of the an- cient manuscripts, and had them carefully translated into Arabic ; es- teeming principally those which treated of mathematics, physics, and metaphysics. They disseminated their knowledge in the course ol their conquests, and founded schools and colleges in all the countries which they subdued. 1. The western kingdoms of Europe became first acquainted with llii learning of the ancients through the medium of those Arabian translations. Charlemagne caused Latin translations to be made from ih< Arabiat), and founded, after the example of the caliphs, the uni- versities of Bononia, Pavia, Osnaburg, and Paris. ' Alfred wth a simi- lar spirit, dnd by similar means, introduced a. taste for literature in Ergland ; but the subsequent disorders of the kingdom replunged it into barbarism. The Normans, however, brought from the continent sone tincture of ancient learning, which was kept alive in the monas- te ies, where the monks were meritoriously employed in transcrib- ing a few of the ancient authors, along with the legendary lives of ih? saints. 3. In thi4 dawn of literature in England appeared Henry of Hunting- lm and Geoffrey of Monmouth, names distinguished in the earliest "'li- the ;to- MODERN HISTORY. 16 ry, theology, ant? poetry; Joseph of Exeter, author of two Latin epic poems on the Troian war, and the war of Antioch, or the crusade, which are read \wth pleasure even in the present day. 4. But this era of a good taste in letters was of short duration. The taste for classical composition and historical information yielded to the barbarous subtleties of scholastic divinity taught by Lombard and Abelard, and to the abstruse doctrines of the Roman law, which began to engage the general attention from the recent discovery of the pandects at Amalphi, 1,137. The amusements of the vulgar in those periods were metrical and prose romances, unintelligible prophecies, and fables of giants and enchanters. 5. In the middle of the thirteenth century appeared a distinguish- ed genius, Roger Bacon, an English friar, whose comprehensive mind was filled with all the stores of ancient learning ; who possessed a discriminating judgment to separate the precious ore from the dross, and a power of invention fitted to advance in every science which was the object of his study. He saw the insufficiency of the school phi- losophy, and first recommended the prosecution of knowledge by ex- periment and the observation of nature. He made discoveries of importance in astronomy, optics, chemistry, medicine, and mechanics. He reformed the kalendar, discovered the construction of telescopic glasses forgotten after his time, and revived by Galileo, and has lett a ?lain intimation of his knowledge of the composition of gun-powder, et this superior genius believed in the possibility of discovering an elixir for the prolongation of life, in the transmutation of metals into gold, and in judicial astrology. 6. A general taste prevailed for poetical composition in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The troubadours of Provence wrote son- nets, madrigals, and satirical ballads ; and excelled in extempore dia- logues on fche subject of love, which they treated in a metaphysical and Platonic strain. They contended for the prize of poetry at sol- emn meetings, where p r 'nces, nobles, and the most illustrious ladies attended to decide between the rival bards ; and some of those prin- ces, as Richard 1. of England, Frederick I. emperor of Germany, are celebrated as troubadours of eminence. Many fragments yet remain of their compositions. 7. The transference of the papal seat to Avignon, in the fourteenth century, familiarized the Italian poets with the songs of the trouba- dours, and gave a tincture of the Provencal style to their compo- sitions, which is very observable in the poetry of Petrarch and of Dante. The Divina Comedia of Dante first introduced the machine- ry of angels and devils in the room of the pagan mythology, and is a work containing many examples of the terrible sublime. The Son- nets and Canzoni of Petrarch are highly tender and pathetic, though vitiated with a quaintness and conceit, which is a prevalent featm'e of the Italian poetry. The Decamerone of Boccacio, a work of the same age, is a master-piece for invention, ingenious narrative, and acquaintance with human nature. These authors have fixed the standard of the Italian language. 8. Contemporary with them, and of rival merit, was the English Chaucer, who displays all the talents of Boccacio, through the me- dium of excellent poetry. The works of Chaucer discover an exten- sive knowledge of the sciences, an acquaintance both with ancient and modern learning, particularly the literature of France and Italy v and above all, a most acute discernment of life and manners. 9. Of similar character are the poems of Gower, but of a grave* 02 21 162 MODERN HISTORY. cast, and a more chastened morality. Equa. 10 these eminent men in every species of literary merit was the accomplished James I. of Scotland, of which his remaining writings bear convincing testimony The doubtful Rowley of Bristol is said to have adorned the fifteenth century. 10. Spain at this period began to emerge from ignorance and bar- barism, and to produce a few of those works which are enumerated with approbation in the whimsical but judicious criticism of Cervan- tes. (Don Quixote, b, 1, c. 6.) 11. Though poetry attained 'in those ages a considerable degree of splendour, yet there was little advancement in general literature and science. History was disgraced by the intermixture of miracle and fable ; yet we find much curious information in the writings of Matthew of Westminster, of Walsingham, Everard, Duysburg, and the Chronicles of Froissart and Monstrelet. Philip de Commines happily describes the reigns of Lewis XI. and Charles VIII. of France. Villani and Platina are valuable recorders of the afiairs of Italy. 12. A taste for classical learning in the fifteenth century led to the discovery of many of the ancient authors. Poggio discovered the writings of Quintilian and several of the compositions of Cicero, which stimulated to farther research, and to the recovery of many valuable remains of Greek and Roman literature. But this taste was not generally diffused. France and England were extremely barba- rous. The library at Oxford contained only 600 volumes, and there were but four classics in the royal library at Paris. But a brighter period was approaching. On the fall of the eastern empire, in the end of the fifteenth century, the dispersion of the Greeks diffused a taste for polite literature over all the west of Europe. A succession of popes, endowed with a liberal and enlightened spirit, gave every encouragement to learning and the sciences; and, above all, the noble discovery of the art of printing contributed to their rapid ad- vancement and dissemination, and gave a certain assurance of the perpetuation of every valuable art, and the progressive improvement of human knowledge. 13. The rise of dramatic composition among the moderns is to be traced to the absurd and ludicrous representation, in the churches, of the scripture histories, called in England mysteries, miracles, and moralities. These were first exhibited in the twelfth century, and continued to the sixteenth, when they were prohibited by law in England. Of these we have amusing specimens in Warton's His- tory of English Poetry. Profane dramas were substituted in their place ; and a mixture of the sacred and profane appears to have been known in France as early as 1,300. In Spain the farcical mys- teries keep their ground to ine present day, and no regular compo- sition for the stage was known till the end of the sixteenth century The Italians are allowed by their own writers to have borrowed their theatre from the French and English. See Kett's Elements of General Knowledge, vol. I. MODERN HISTORY 163 SECTION XXXV. VIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF COMMERCE IN EUROPE BEFORE THE PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES. 1. Before we give an account of the discoveries of the Portu- guese in the fifteenth century, in exploring a new route to India, we shall present a short view of the progress of commerce in Europe down to that period. The boldest naval enterprise of the ancients was the Periplus ot Hanno, who sailed from Carthage to the coast of Guinea, within four or five degrees of the equator, A. C. 570. The ancients did not know that Africa was almost circumnavigable. They had a very limited knowledge of the habitable earth s Thev believed that both the torrid and frigid zones were uninhabitable ; and they were very imperfectly acquainted with a great part of Europe, Asia, and Af- rica. Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, Poland, and the greater pari oi Russia, were unknown to them. In Ptolemy's description of the globe, the 63d degree of latitude is the limit of the earth to the north, and the equator to the south. 2. Lritain was circumnavigated in the time of Domitian. The Romans frequented it for the purposes of commerce ; and Tacitus mentions London as a celebrated resort of merchants. The com- merce of the ancients was, however, chiefly confined to the Mediter- ranean. In the flourishing periods of the eastern empire the mer- chandise of India was imported from Alexandria; but, after the conr quest of Egypt by the Arabians, it was carried up the Indus, and thence by land to the Oxus, which then ran directly into the Caspian sea; tnence it was brought up the Wolga, and again carried overland to the Don, whence it descended into the Euxine. 3. After the fall of the western empire commerce was long at a stand in Europe. When Attila was ravaging Italy the Veneti took refuge in the small islands at the northern extremity of the Adriatic, and there founded Venice, A. D. 452, which began very early to equip small fleets, and trade to the coasts of Egypt and the Levant, for spices and other merchandise of Arabia and India. Genoa, Flor- ence, and Pisa, imitated this example, and began to acquire consider- able wealth.; but Venice retained her superiority over these rival states, and gained considerable territory on the opposite coast of lllyr- icum and Dalmatia. 4. The maritime cities of Italy profited by the crusades, in furnish- ing the armies with supplies, and bringing home the produce of the east. The Italian merchants established manufactures similar tt> those of Constantinople. Rogero king of Sicily brought artisans from Athens, and established a silk manufacture at Palermo in 1,130. The sugarcane was planted in Sicily in the twelfth century, and thence carried to Madeira, and finally made its way to the West Indies. 5. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Italians were the only commercial people of Europe. Venice set the first example ©fa national bank in 1,157, which has maintained its credit to the present times. The only trade of France, Spain, and Germany, at this time, was carried on at stated fairs and markets, to which traders resorted from all quarters, paying a tax to the sovereigns or the lords 164 MODERN HISTORY. of the territory. The more enterprising bought a privilege ol ex emption, by paying at once a large sum, and were thence called free traders. 6. In the middle ages the Italian merchants, usually called Lom- bards, were the factors of all the European nations, and were en- ticed, by privileges granted by the sovereigns, to settle in France, Spain, Germany, and England. They were not only traders in com- modities, but bankers, or money dealers. In this last business they found a severe restraint from the canon law prohibiting the taking of interest ; and hence, from the necessary privacy of their bargains, there were no bounds io exorbitant usury. The Jews, too, wh& were the chief dealers in money, brought disrepute on the trade of banking, and frequently suffered, on that account, the most intoler- able persecution and confiscation of their fortunes. To guard against these injuries they invented bills of exchange. 7. The Lombard merchants . excited a spirit of commerce, and gave birth to manufactures, which were generally encouraged by the sovereigns in the different kingdoms of Europe. Among the chief encouragements was the institution of corporations or monop- olies, the earliest of which are traced up to the eleventh century ; a policy beneficial, and perhaps necessary, where the spirit of indus- try is low, and manufactures are in their infancy ; but of hurtful con- sequence where trade and manufactures are flourishing. .8. Commerce began to spread toward the north of Europe about the end of the twelfth century. The sea-potts on the Baltic traded with France and Britain, and with the Mediterranean by the staple of the isle of Oleron, near the mouth of the Garonne, then possessed by the English. The commercial laws df Oleron and Wisbuy (on the Baltic) regulated for many ages the trade of Europe. To pro- ect their trade from piracy, Lubec, Hamburgh, and most of the north- ern sea-ports, joined in a confederacy, under certain general regula- tions, termed the league of the hanse-towns ; a union so beneficial in its nature, and so formidable in point of strength, that its alliance was courted by the predominant powers of Europe. 9. For the trade of the hanse-towns with the southern kingdoms, Bruges, on the coast of Flanders, was found a convenient entrepot, and thither the Mediterranean merchants brought the commodities of India and the Levant to exchange with the produce and manufac- tures of the north. The Flemings now began to encourage trade and manufactures, which thence spread to the Brabanters : but their growth being checked by the impolitic sovereigns of those prov- inces, they found a more favourable field in England, which was des- tined to derive from them the great source of its national opulence. 10. The Britons had very early seen the importance of commerce. Bede relates that London was frequented by foreigners for the pur- pose of trade in 614; and William of Malmesbury speaks of it, in 1,041, as a most populous and wealthy city. The cinque ports. Dover, Hastings, Hy the, Romney, and Sandwich, obtained in that age their privileges and immunities, on condition of furnishing each five ships of war. These ports are now eight in number, and send their members to parliament. 11. The woollen manufacture of England was considerable in the twelfth century. Henry II.' incorporated the weavers of London, and gave them various privileges. By a law passed in his reign, all cloth made of foreign wool was condemned to be burnt. Scotland at this time seems to have possessed a considerable source of wealth, MODERN HISTORY. as is evident from the payment of the ransom of William the lion, which was 10,000 merks, equal to 100,0001. sterling of present money. ' The English found it difficult to raise double that sum for the ransom of Richard I., and the Scots contributed a proportion of it. The English sovereigns at first drew a considerable revenue from the custom on wool exported to be manufactured abroad; but becom- ing soon sensible of the benefit of encouraging its home manufacture, they invited, for that purpose, the foreign artisans and merchants to reside in England, and gave them valuable immunities. Edward III. was peculiarly attentive to trade and manufactures, as appears by the laws passed in his reign ; and he was bountiful in the encouragement of foreign artisans. The succeeding reigns were not so favourable. During the civil wars of York and Lancaster the spirit of trade and manufactures greatly declined ; nor did they begin to revive and flourish tiil the accession of Henry VII. In that interval of their de- cay in England commerce and the arts were encouraged in Scotland by James I. and his successors, as much as the comparatively rude and turbulent state of the kingdom would permit. The herring fisn- ery then began to be vigorously promoted ; and the duties laid on the exportation of woollen cloth show that this manufacture was then considerable among the Scots. Glasgow began to acquire wealth by the fisheries in 1,420, but had little or no foreign trade till after the discovery of America and the West Indies. 12. Henry VII. gave the most liberalencouragement to trade and manufactures, particularly the woollen, by inviting foreign artisans, and establishing them at Leeds, Wakefield, Halifax, and other places. The navigation acts were passed in his reign, and commercial treaties formed with the continental kingdoms for the protection of the merchant-shipping. Such was the state of commerce at the time when the Portuguese made those great discoveries which open- ed a new route to India, and gave a circulation to their wealth over most of the nations of Europe. SECTION XXXVI. DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY, AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE COMMERCE OF EUROPE. 1. The polarity of the magnet had been known in Europe as early as the thirteenth century ; but the compass was not used in sailing till the middle of the fourteenth; and another century had elapsed from that period, while yet the European mariners scarcely ventured out of the sight of their coasts. The eastern ocean was little known ; and the Atlantic was supposed to be a boundless ex- panse of sea, extending probably to the eastern shores of Asia. In the belief that the torrid zone was uninhabitable, a promontory on the African coast, in the 29th degree of north latitude, was termed Cape JN oh, as forming an impassable limit. 2. In the beginning of the fifteenth century John king of Por- tugal sent a few vessels to explore the African coast; and these doubling Cape Non proceeded to Cape Boyador, within two de- grees of the northern tropic. Prince Henry, the son of John, equip- ped a single ship, which, being driven out to sea, landed on the island 166 MODERN HISTORY. of Porto Santo. This involuntary experiment emboldened the mariners to abandon their timid mode of coasting, and launch into the open sea. In 1,420 the Portuguese discovered Madeira, where they established a colony, and planted the Cyprus vine, and the sugar cane. 3. The spirit of- enterprise being thus awakened, prince Henry obtained from Eugene IV. a bull granting to the Portuguese the property of all the countries which they^ . might discover between Cape Non and India. Under John II. of Portugal the Cape Verd islands were discovered and colonized; and the fleets, advancing to the coast of Guinea, brought home gold dust, gums, and ivory. Hav- ing passed the equator, the Portuguese entered a new hemisphere, and boldly proceeded to the extremity of the continent. In 1,479 a fleet under Vasco de Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and, sailing onwards beyond the mouths of the Arabian and Persian gulfs, arrived at Calicut, on the. Malabar coast, after a voyage of 1,500 leagues, performed in thirteen months. 4. De Gama entered into an alliance -with the rajah of Calicut, a tributary of the Mogul empire, and returned to Lisbon with speci- mens of the wealth and produce of the country, A succeeding fleet formed settlements, and, vanquishing the opposition of the native princes, soon achieved the conquest of all the coast of Malabar. The city of Goa, taken by storm, became the residence of a Portu- guese viceroy and the capital of their Indian settlements. 5. The Venetians, who had hitherto engrossed the Indian trade by Alexandria, now lost it for ever. After an ineffectual project of cutting through the isthmus of Suez, they attempted to intercept the Porlugue.se by their fleets stationed at the mouth of the Red sea and Persian gulf, but were every where encountered by a superior force. The Portuguese made settlements in both the guifs, and vigorously prosecuted their conquests on the Indian coast and sea. The rich island of Ceylon, the kingdoms of Pegu, Siam, and Malac- ca, were speedily subdued, and a settlement -established in Bengal. They proceeded onward to China,' hitherto scarcely known to the Eu- ropeans but by the account of a single Venetian traveller, Marco Paolo, in the thirteenth century ; and they obtained the emperor's permis- sion to form a settlement at Macao, thus opening a commerce with that immense empire, and the neighbouring islands of Japan. In the space of fifty years the Portuguese were masters of the whole trade of the Indian ocean, and sovereigns of a large extent of Asiatic territory. 6. These discoveries produced a wonderful effect on the com- merce of Europe. The produce of the spice islands was computed to be worth annually 200,000 ducats to Lisbon. The Venetians, •after every effort to destroy the trade of the Portuguese, offered to become sole purchasers of all the spice brought to Europe, but were refused. Commercial industry was roused in every quarter, and manufactures made a rapid progress. Lyons, Tours, Abbeville, Mar- seilles, Bordeaux, acquired immense wealth. Antwerp and Amster- dam became the great marts of the north. The former owed its splendour to the decline of Bruges, which was ruined by civil com- motions; and the Portuguese made Antwerp their entrepot for the supply of the northern kingdoms. It continued highly flourishing till the revolt of the Netherlands, in the end of the sixteenth century, when it was taken by the Spaniards, and its port destroyed by block- ing up the Scheld. " The trade of Holland rose on the fall ot Antwerp. Amsterdam MODERN HISTORY , 161 became considerable after the decline of the hanseatic confederacy in 1,428, but rose into splendour and high commercial opulence from the destruction of Antwerp. The United Provinces, dependent on industry alone for their support, became a model of commercial ac tivity to all nations. 8. Britain felt the effect of that general stimulus which the Por- tuguese discoveries gave to the trade of Europe ; but other causes had a more sensible operation to that end in England. The reforma- tion, by suppressing the convents, and restoring many thousands to society, and the cutting off the papal exactions, which drained the kingdom of its wealth, the politic laws passed in the reign of Henry VIII., and the active patriotism of Elizabeth, were vigorous incentives to national industry. 9. From the time of Henry VIII. to the present, the commerce and manufactures of England have been uniformly progressive. The rental of England in lands and houses did not then exceed five millions per annum ; it is now above eighteen millions. The unman- ufactured wool of one years growth is supposed to be worth two millions; when manufactured, "as it now is, by British hands, it is worth eight millions. Above a million and a half of hands are em- ployed in that manufacture alone ; half a million are employed in the manufactures of iron, steel, copper, brass, lead ; the linen man- ufactures of England, Scotland, and Ireland, occupy nearly a million ; and a number not much inferior is employed in the fisheries. It is presumable, on the whole, that nearly a fourth of the population of the united kingdoms is actually employed in commerce and manufactures. 10. The vast increase of the national wealth of Britain appears chiefly, 1, from the increase of population, which is supposed to be nearly five to one (at least in the large cities) since the reign of Elizabeth; 2, from the great addition made to the* cultivated lands of the kingdom, and the high improvement of agriculture since that period, whence mere than quadruple the quantity of food is produced ; 3, from the increase of the commercial shipping, at least sixfold within the same time ; 4, from the comparative low rate of interest, which is demonstrative of the increase of wealth. The consequences of the diffusion of the commercial spirit are most im- portant to the national welfare. From general industry arises afflu- ence, joined to a spirit of independence ; and on this spirit rests the freedom of the British constitution, and all the blessings which are oajoyed under its protection. SECTION XXXVII. GERMANY AND FRANCE IN THE REIGNS OF CHARLES V. AND FRANCIS I. 1. We resume the detail of the history of Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century, previously remarking, that the "Germanic empire continued for above fifty years in a state of languid tranquilli- ty, from the time of Albert II., the successor of Sigismund, during the long reign of Frederick III., whose son Maximilian acquired, by his marriage with Mary, duchess of Burgundy, the sovereignty of the Netherlands. Maximilian was elected Emperor in 1,493; and, by establishing a perpetual peace between the separate Germanic states! laid the foundation of the subsequent grandeur of the empire. 168 MODERN HISTORY. 2. Philip archduke of Austria, son of Maximilian, man ied Jane, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella ; and of that marriage the elde&t son was Charles V., who succeeded to the throne of Spain in 1,516, and, on the death of his grandfather Maximilian, preferred his claim to the vacant imperial throne. He had for his competitor Francis I. of France, who had distinguished himself by the conquest of the Mil- anese., and the adjustment of the contending interests of the Italian states. The German electors, afraid of the exorbitant power both of Charles and of Francis, would have rejected both, and conferred the imperial crown on Frederick duke of Saxony ; but this extraordinary man declined the proffered dignity, and his council determined the election in favour of Charles of Austria, 1,519. 3. Charles V. and Francis I. were now declared enemies, and their mutual claims on each other's dominions were the subject of perpet- ual hostility. The emperor claimed Artois as part of the Nether- lands. Francis prepared to make good his right to the Two Sicilies. Charles had to defend Milan, and to support his title to Navarre, which had been wrested from France by his grandfather Ferdinand. Henry VIII. of England was courted by the rival monarchs, as the weight of England was sufficient to turn the scale, where the power of each was nearly balanced. 4. The first hostile attack was made by Francis on the kingdom of Navarre, which he won and lost in the course of a few months. The emperor attacked Picardy, and his troops at the same, time drove the French out of the Milanese. On the death of Leo X., Charles placed cardinal Adrian on the papal throne, 1,521 ; and by the promise of elevating Wolsey, the minister of Henry VIII., to that dignity, on the death of Adrian, gained the alliance of the English monarch in his war against France. 5. At this critical time Francis imprudently quarrelled with his best general, the constable of Bourbon, who, in revenge, deserted the emperor, and was by him invested with the chief command of his armies. The imperial generals were far superior in abilities to their opponents. The French were defeated at Biagrassa, and Charles was carrying every thing before him in Italy, wnen Francis entered the Milanese, and retook the capital ; but, in the subsequent battle of Pavia, his troops were entirely defeated, and the French monarch became the constable of Bourbon's prisoner, 1,525. 6. The emperor made no advantage of his good fortune. By the treaty of Madrid, Francis regained his liberty, on yielding to Charles the duchy of Burgundy, and the superiority of Flanders and Artois. He gave his two sons as hostages for the fulfilment of these conditions ; but the states refused to ratify them, and the failure was compromised for a sum of money. 7. On the renewal of the war, Henry VIII. took part with France, and Charles lost an opportunity of obtaining the sovereignty of Italy. The papal army in the French interest was defeated by the consta- ble of Bourbon, and the pope himself made prisoner ; but Bourbon was killed in the siege of Rome, and Charles allowed the pope to purchase his release. 8. After the conclusion of the peace of Cambray, 1,529, Charles visited Italy, and received the imperial diadem from pope Clement VII. The Turks having invaded Hungary, the emperor mardiew against them in person, and compelled the sultan Solyman, with a:~j army of 300,000 men, to evacuate the country. He soon after em barked for Africa, to replace the dethroned Muley Hassan in the MODERN HISTORY. 169 sovereignty of Tunis and Algiers, which had been usurped by Hay- radin Barbarossa ; and he achieved the enterprise with honour. His reputation at this period exceeded that of all the sovereigns of Eu- rope, for political ability, real power, and the extent and opulence of his dominions. 9. Francis was glad to ally himself even with the Turks to cope with the imperialists, and Barbarossa invaded Italy ; but the troops of Charles prevented the co-operation of the French, and separately defeated and dispersed the allied powers, while another army of the imperialists ravaged Champagne and Picardy. 10. In the interval of a truce, which was concluded at Nice, for ten years between the rival monarchs, Charles passed through France to the Netherlands, and was entertained by Francis with the most magnificent hospitality. He had promised to grant to the French king his favourite desire, the investiture of Milan ; but failing to keep his word, the war was renewed with double animosity. The French and Turkish fleets attacked Nice, but were dispersed by the Ge- noese admiral, Andrea Doria. In Italy the French were victori- ous in the battle of Cerizoles, but drew no benefit from this partial advantage. The imperialists, on the whole, had a decided superior- ity, and France must havabeen undone, if the disorders 6f Germany, from the contending interests of the catholics and protestants, had not forced the emperor to conclude the treaty of Crepi with Francis, 1,544. At the same time Francis purchased a peace with Henry VIII., who had again taken part with his rival. Francis died soon after, in 1,547 ; a prince of great spirit and abilities, and of a gener- ous and noble mind, unfortunate only from the necessity of strug gling against a power which overmatched him both in policy and in resources. 11. A short time before this period, was founded the order of the jesuits by Ignatius Loyola, 1,535. The principle of the order was implicit obedience and submission to the pope. The brethren were not confined to their cloisters, but allowed to mix with the world ; and thus, by gaining the confidence of princes and statesmen, they were enabled to direct the policy of nations to the great end of estab- lishing the supreme authority of the holy see. The wealth which they accumulated, the extent of their power, and the supposed con- sequences of their intrigues to the peace of nations, excited at length a general hostility to their order; and the institution has recently been abolished in all the kingdoms of Europe. 12. If Charles V. aimed at universal empire, he was ever at a dis tance from the object of his wishes. The formidable confederacy of the protestants to preserve their liberties and their religion, gave him perpetual disquiet in Germany. He never could form his do- minions into a well connected body, from the separate national inter- ests of the Spaniards, Flemish, and Germans ; and even the imperial states were divided by their jealousies, political and religious. The hostilities of foreign powers gave him continual annoyance. He found in Henry II., the successor of Francis, an antagonist as formidable as his father. His cares and difficulties increased as he advanced in life, and at length entirely broke the vigour of his mind. In a state of melancholy despondency he retired from the world at the age of fifty- six, resigning first the kingdom of Spain to his son Philip II., 1,5^'3, and afterwards the imperial crown in favour of his brother Ferdinand, who was elected eraneror on the 24th day of February, 1*$5S V <2% 171) MODERN HISTORY. SECTION XXXVIII. OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE. 1. Previously to the reign of Maximilian I., the Germanic empire was subject to all the disorders of the feudal governments. The general diets of the state were tumultuous and indecisive, and their constant wars with one another kept the whole in anarchy and bar- barism. Wenceslaus, in 1,383, endeavoured to, remedy those evils by the enactment of a general peace ; but no effectual measures were taken for securing it. Albert II. attempted to accomplish She same end, and had some success. He divided Germany into six "ircles, each regulated by its own diet ; but the jealousies of the states tempted them constantly to hostilities, which, there was no superior ■ r .«oWer sufficient to restrain. £. At length Maximilian I. procured, in 1,500, that solemn enact- ment which established a perpetual peace among the Germanic fe'rafes, under the cogent penalty of the aggressor being treated as a comifio» enemy. He established the imperial chamber for the settle- ment of &)1 differences. The empire was divided anew into ten cir- cles, each circle sending its representatives to the imperial chamber, and bound to enforce the public laws through its own territory. A regency was appointed to subsist in the intervals of the diet, composed of twenty meaibers, over whom the emperor presided. 3. These regulations, however wise, would probably have failed of their end, if ihe influence of the house of Austria, which has for three centuries (Continued to occupy the imperial throne, had not enforced obedience to them. The ambition and policy of Charles V. would have been dangerous to the freedom of the German prin- ces, if the new system of preserving a balance of power in Europe had not made these princes find allies and protectors sufficient to traverse the emperor's schemes of absolute dominion. He attained, however, an authority far beyond that of any of his predecessors. The succeeding emperors imitated his policy ; but, as they did not possess equal talents, they found yet stronger obstacles to their en- croachments on the freedom of the states. 4. The Germanic liberties were settled for the last time by the treaty of Westphalia, in 1,648, which fixed the emperor's preroga- tives, and the privileges of the states. The constitution of the em- pire is not framed for the ordinary ends of government, the prosper- ity and happiness of the people. It regards not the rights of the subjects, but only the independence of the several princes ; and its sole object is to maintain each in the enjoyment of his sovereignty, and prevent usurpations and encroachments on one another's terri- tories. It has no relation to the particular government of the states, each of which has its own laws and -constitution, some more free, and others more despotic. 5. The general diet has the power of enacting the public laws of the empire. It consists of three colleges, the electors, the princes, and the free cities. All such public laws, and all general measures, are the subject of the separate deliberation of the electoral college and that of the princes. When jointly approved by them, the resolu- MODERN HISTORY. 171 tion is canvassed by the college of the free cities, and, if agreed to, becomes a placitum of the empire. If approved finally by the em- peror, it is a conclusion, or general law. If disapproved, the resolu- tion is of no effect. Moreover, the emperor must be the proposer of all general laws. Still farther, no complaint or request can be made by any of the princes to the diet without the approbation of the elector archbishop of Mentz, who may refuse it at his pleasure. These constitutional defects are the more hurtful in their conse- quences, from the separate and often contending interests of the prin- ces, who have all the rights of sovereignty, the power of contracting foreign alliances, and are frequently possessed of foreign dominions of far greater value than their imperial territories. 6. The Germanic constitution has, however, in some respects, its advantages. The particular diets of each circle tend to unite those princes in all matters of national concern, whatever may be the dis- cordance of their individual interests. The regulations made in those diets compensate the want of a general legislative power. Be- side the circular diets, the electors, the princas, the free cities, the catholics, and the protestants, hold their particular diets, when their common interests require it; and these powers balance one another. Considered, therefore, solely in the light of a league of several inde- pendent princes and states, associating for their common benefit, the Germanic constitution has many advantages; in promoting general harmony, securing the rights of its members, and preventing the weak from being oppressed by the strong. SECTION XXXIX. OF THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY AND SWITZERLAND, AND THE REVOLUTION IN DENMARK AND SWEDEN. 1. The age of Charles V". is the era of the reformation of reli- gion, of the discovery of the new world, and of the highest splen- dour of the fine arts in^ Italy and the south of Europe. We shall treat in order of each of these great objects ; and, first, of the refor- mation. The voluptuous taste and the splendid projects of pope Leo X. lemanding large supplies of money, he instituted through all Jthe ihristian kingdoms a sale of indulgences, or remittances from the pains of purgatory. This traffic being abused to the most shocking purposes, Martin Luther, an Augustine friar, ventured to preach against it, and to inveigh with acrimony against the power which authorized it. He found many willing hearers, particularly in the electorate of Saxony, of which the prince Frederick was his friend and protector. Leo X. condemned his tenets by a papal bull, which oriy increased the zeal and indignation of the preacher. In a book which he published, entitled tjhe Babylonish Captivity, he applied all the scriptural attributes of the whore of Babylon to the papal hierarchy, and attacked with equal force and virulence the doctrines of trans ubstantiation, purgatory, the celibacy of the priests, and the refusal of wine to the people in the communion. The book being condemned to the flames, Luther burned the pope's bull and the decretals at Wittemberg, 1,520. 2. One of the first champions, who took up the pen against Lu 172 MODERN HISTORY: ther, was Henry VIII. of England ; whose book, presented to pope Leo, procured him the title now annexed to his crown, of defender of the faith. The rest of Europe seemed to pay little attention to these rising controversies. Charles V., studious of the friendship of the pope, took part against Luther, and summoned him to answer for his doctrines in the diet of Worms. The reformer defended himself with great spirit, and, aided by his friend the elector, made a safe escape into Saxony, where the mass was now universally abolished, the images destroyed, and the convents shut up. The friars and nuns returned to the world, and Luther took a nun for his wife. Nor did these secularized priests abuse their new freedom, for their manners were decent, and their life exemplary. 3. Erasmus has justly censured the impolicy of the catholic clergy m their modes of resisting and suppressing the new doctrines. They allowed them to be discussed in sermons before the people, and em- ployed for that purpose furious and bigoted declaimers, who only increased and widened differences. They would not yield in the most insignificant trihe, nor acknowledge a single fault ; and they persecuted with the utmost cruelty all whose opinions were not agreeable to their own standard of faith. How wise is the counsel of lord Bacon ! " There is no better way to stop the rise of new sects' and schisms, than to reform abuses, compound the lesser differences, proceed mildly from the first, refrain from sanguinary persecutions, and rather to soften and win the principal leaders, by gracing and advancing them, than to enrage them by violence and bitterness-' Bac. Mor. Ess. Sect. 1. Ess. 12. 4. Switzerland followed in the path of reformation. Zuinglius of Zurich preached the new tenets with such zeal and effect, that the whole canton was converted, and the senate publicly abolished the mass, and purified the churches. Berne took the same measures with greater solemnity, after a discussion in the senate which lasted two months. Basle imitated the same example. Other cantons armed in defence of their faith ; and in a desperate engagement, in which the protestants were defeated, Zuinglius was slain, 1,531. 5. Lutheranism vyas now making its progress towards the north of Europe. Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, were at this time gov- erned by Christiern II., the Nero of the north. The Swedes, re- luctantly submitting to the yoke, were kept in awe by Troll, arch- bishop of Upsal, a faithful minister of the tyrant in all his schemes of oppression and cruelty. On intelligence of a revolt, the king and his primate, armed with a bull from pope Leo X., massacred the whole body of the nobles and senators, amidst the festivity of a oanquet. Gustavus Vasa, grand nephew of Charles Canutson, formerly king of Sweden, escaped from this carnage, and concealed himself in the mines of Dalecarlia. By degrees assembling a small army, he defeated the generals of Christiern, whose cruelties at length determined the united nations to vindicate their rights, by a solemn sentence of deposition. The tyrant fled to Flanders, and Frederick duke of Holstein was elected sovereign of the three kingdoms ; but Sweden, adhering to her heroic deliverer, and the heir of her ancient kings, acknowledged alone the sovereignty of Gustavus Vasa, 1,521. The bull of Leo X., and its bloody conse- quences, were sufficient to convert Sweden and Denmark to the tenets of the reformed religion. Gustavus enjoyed his sceptre many years in peace, and contributed greatly to the happiness and pros* perity of his kingdom. MODERN HISTORY. 173 6. As early as 1,525, the states of Saxony, Brunswick, Hesse Cas- sel, and the cities of Strasburgh and Frankfort, had embraced the doctrines of the reformation. Luther had now a species of spiritual control, which he exercised by means of a synod of six reformers. His successful example gave rise to reformers of different kinds, whose doctrines were less consonant to reason or good policy. Two fanatics of Saxony, Storck and Muncer, condemned infant baptism, and therefore were termed anabaptists. They preached universal equality and freedom of religious opinion, but, with singular inconsis- tency, attempted to propagate their Joctrines by the sword. They were defeated at Mulhausen, and Muncer died on a scaffold ; but the party seemed to acquire new courage. They surprised Munster, expelled the bishop, and anointed for their king a tailor named Jack of Leyden, who defended the city with the most desperate courage, but fell at length, with his party under the superior force of regular troops. The anabaptists, thus sanguinary in their original tenets and practices, have iong ago become peaceable and harmless sub- jects. 7. The united power of the pope and emperor found it impossi- ble to check the progress of the reformation. The diet of Spires proposed articles of accommodation between the Lutherans and catholics. Fourteen cities of Germany, and several of the electors, protested formally against those articles; and hence the Lutheran party acquired the name of protestants. They presented to the assembly at Augsburg a confession of their faith, which is the stand- ard of the protestant doctrines. 8. The virtuous lives and conduct of the protestant leaders, com- pared with those of the higher clergy among the catholics, formed a contrast very favourable to the progress of the reformation. The solemn manner in which the states of Switzerland, and particularly Geneva, had proceeded, in calmly discussing every point of contro- versy, and yielding only to the force of rational conviction, attracted the respect of all Europe. John Calvin, a Frenchman, becoming a zealous convert to the new doctrines, was the first who gave them a \ systematic form by his Institutions, and enforced their authority by the establishment of synods, consistories, and deacons. The magis- tracy of Geneva gave these ordinances the authority of law ; and they were adopted by six of the Swiss cantons, by the protestants ot France, and the presbyterians of Scotland and England. The ablest advocates of Calvin will find it difficult to vindicate him from the charge of intolerance and the spirit of persecution; but these, which are vices or defects of the individual, attach not in the least to the doctrines of the reformation, which are subject to the test of reason, and can derive no blemish or dishonour from the men who propagat- ed them, or even from the motives which might influence some oi their earliest supporters. This observation applies more particularly to the subject of the ensuing section. See Kelt's Elements of General Knowledge, Vol. I. P2 174 MODERN HISTORY. SECTION XL. OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND UNDER HENRY VIII., AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 1 . Wickliff, in the middle of the fourteenth century, by an at- tack on the doctrines of transubstantiation, indulgences, and auricular confession, and still more by a translation of the scriptures into the vernacular tongue, had prepared the minds of the people of England for a revolution in religious opinions ; but his professed followers were not numerous. The intemperate passions of Henry VIII. were ^ the immediate cause of the reformation in England, lie had been "married eighteen years to Catharine of Spain, aunt of Charles V., by whom he had three children, one of them, Mary, afterwards queen of England ; when, falling in love with Anna Bullen, he solicited Clement Vll. for a divorce from Catharine, on the score of her for- mer marriage to his elder brother Arthur. The pope found himself in the painful dilemma of either affronting the emperor, or mortally offending the king of England. In hope that the king's passion might cool, he protracted the time by preliminaries and negotiations, but to no purpose. Henry was resolutely bent on accomplishing his wishes. The Sorbonne and other French universities gave an opinion in his favour. Armed with this sanction, he caused Cranmer archbishop of Canterbury to annul his marriage. The repudiated queen gave ' place to Anna Bullen. On this occasion VVolsey, the minister of Henry, lost the favour of his master, by opposing, as was believed, his darling measure. C Clement VII., from this specimen of the wayward temper of Henry, resolved to keep well with the emperor, and issued his bull, condemnatory of the sentence of the archbishop of Canterbury. Henry immediately proclaimed himself head of the church of Eng- land ; the parliament ratified his title, and the pope's authority was instantly suppressed in all his dominions, 1,534. He proceeded to abolish the monasteries, and confiscate their treasures and revenues, electing out of the latter six new bishoprics and a college. The immoralities of the monks were sedulously exposed, the forgery of relics, false miracles, &c. held up to the popular scorn. 3. Yet Henry, though a reformer, and pope in his own kingdom, had not renounced the religion of Rome : he was equally an enemy to the tenets of Luther and Calvin as to the pope's jurisdiction in England. Inconstant in his affections, and a stranger to all humanity, he removed Anna Bullen from the throne to the scaffold, to gratify a new passion for Jane Seymour, a maid of honour, who happily died about a year after. To her succeeded Anne of Cleves, whom he divorced in nine months, to make way for Catharine Howard. She underwent the same fate with Anna Bullen, on a similar suspicion of infidelity to his bed. His sixth wife, Catharine Parr, with difficulty retained her hazardous elevation, but had the good fortune to sur- vive the tyrant. 4. On the death of Henry VIII., 1,547, and the accession of his son Edward VI., the protestant religion prevailed in England, and was favoured by the sovereign; but he died at the early age of fifteen; 1 ,553 ; and the sceptre passed to the hands of his sister Mary, an in*. MODERN HISTORY. 175 tolerant catholic, and most cruel persecutor oi' the protestants. la her reign, which was of five years' duration, above 800 miserable victims were burnt at a stake, martyrs to their religious opinions. Mary inherited a congenial spirit with her husband, Philip II. of Spain, whose intolerance cost him the loss of a third part of his dominions. 5. Mary was succeeded in 1,558 by her sister Elizabeth, the daugh- ter of Anna Builen, a protestant, the more zealous from an abhor- rence of the character of her predecessor. In her reign the religion of England became stationary. The hierarchy was established in its present form, by archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons, the king being by law the head of the church. The liturgy had been settled in the reign of Edward VI. The canons are agreeable chieriy to the Lutheran tenets. Of the reformation in Scotland we shall afterwards treat under a separate section. SECTION XLI. OF THE DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST OF AMERICA BY" THfc SPANIARDS. 1. Among those great events which distinguished the age of Charles V. was the conquest of Mexico by Fernando Cortez, and of Peru by the two brothers, Francis and Gonzalo Pizarro. The discovery ol America preceded the first of these events about twenty-seven years ,* But the account of it has been postponed, that the whole may be shortly treated in connexion. Christopher Columbus, a Genoese, a man of an enterprising spirit, having in vain solicited encouragement from his native state, from Portugal, and from England, to attempt discoveries in the western ocean, applied to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spaing Under the patron- age of Isabella, as queen of Castile, he was furnished with three small ships, ninety men, and a few thousand ducats for the expense of his voyage. After thirty-three days' sail from the Canaries he dis- covered San Salvador, September, 1,492; and soon after the island! of Cuba and Hispaniola. He returned to Spain, and brought a few of the natives, some presents of gold, and curiosities of the country He was treated by the Spaniards with the highest honours, and soon supplied with a suitable armament for the prosecution of his discove- ries. In his second voyage he discovered the Caribbees and Jamaica. In a third voyage he descried the continent of America, within ten degrees of the equator, toward the isthmus of Panama. The next year the geographer Americus followed the track of Columbus, and had the undeserved honour of giving his name to this continent. 2. The inhabitants of America and its islands were a race of men quite new to the Europeans. They are of the colour of copper, in some quarters, as in Mexico and Peru, the Spaniards are said to have found a flourishing empire, and a people polished, refined, and luxu- rious ; in others, man was a naked savage, the member of a wander^ ing tribe, whose sole occupation was hunting or war. The savages of the continent were characterized by their cruelty to their enemies, their contempt of death, and their generous affection for their friends. The inhabitants of the islands were a milder race, of gentler manners, and less hardy conformation of body and mind. The larger animals, as the horse, the cow, were unknown in America. 17b MODERN HISTORY. 3. Those newly-discovered countries were believed to contain in exhaustible treasures. The Spaniards, under the pretence of reli gion and policy, treated the inhabitants with the most shocking inhu- manity. The rack, the scourge, the faggot, were employed to con- vert them to Christianity. They were hunted like wild beasts, or burnt alive in their thickets and fastnesses. Hispaniola, containing three millions of inhabitants, and Cuba, containing above 600,000, were absolutely depopulated in a few years. ") It was now resolved to explore the continent ; and Fernando Cortez, with eleven ships and 617 men, sailed ibr that purpose from Cuba in 1,519. Landing at Tabasco, he advanced, though with a brave opposition from the na- tives, into the interior of the country. The state of Tlascala, after ineffectual resistance, became the ally of the Spaniards. On the ap- proach of the Spaniards to Mexico, the terror of their name had pav- ed tbe, way for an easy conquest. 4. The Mexican empire, though founded little more than a century before this period, had arisen to great splendour^ Its sovereign, Mon- tezuma, received the invaders with the reverence due to superior beings. But a short acquaintance opened the eyes of the Mexicans. Finding nothing in the Spaniards beyond what was human, they were daring enough to attack and put to death a few of them. The in- trepid Cortez immediately marched to the palace with fifty men, and putting the emperor in irons, carried him off prisoner to his camp ; where he afterwards persuaded him to acknowledge himself a vassal of the king of Castile, to hold his crown of the king as his superior, and to subject his dominions to the payment of an annual tribute. 5. Velasquez, governor of Cuba, jealous of Cortez, attempted to supersede him, by despatching a superior army to the continent; but Cortez defeated his troops, and compelled them to join his own ban- ners. 'In an attack by the Mexicans ibr the rescue of their sovereign, Montezuma, having offered to mediate between them and their ene- mies, was indignantly put to death by his own subjects. The whole empire, under its new sovereign, Guatimozin, was now armed against the Spaniards ; and 'while the plains were covered with their archers and spearmen, the lake of Mexico was filled with armed canoes. To oppose the latter the Spaniards built a few vessels under the walls of their city, and soon evinced their superiority to their feeble foe on both elements. The monarch was taken prisoner by the officers of . Cortez, and was stretched naked on burning coals, because he refus- ed to discover his treasures.'} Soon after a ■ conspiracy against the Spaniards was discovered, and" the wretched Guatimozin, with all the princes of his blood, were executed on a gibbet. This was the last blow to the power of the Mexicans; and Cortez was now absolute master of the whole empire, 1,525. 6. In the year 1,531 Diego D'Almagro and Francis Pizarro, with 250 foot, 60 horse, and 12 small pieces of cannon, landed in. Peru, a large and flourishing empire, governed by an ancient race of mon- archs named Incas. The Inca Atabalipa receiving the Spaniards with reverence, they immediately required him to embrace the christian faith, and surrender all his dominions to the emperor Charles V., who had obtained a gift of them from the pope. The proposal being mis- understood, or received with hesitation, Pizarro seized the monarch as his prisoner* while his troops massacred 5,000 of the Peruvians on the spot. The empire was now plundered of prodigious treasures in gold ana* precious stones • and Atabalipa, being suspected of conceal- MODERN HISTORY. 177 iug a part from his insatiable invaders, was solemnly tried as a crimi nal, and strangled at a stake. 7. The courage of the Spaniards surpassed even their inhumanity JD'Almagro marched 500 leagues, through continual opposition, to Cusco, and penetrated across the Cordilleras into Chili, two degrees beyond the southern tropic. He was slain in a civil war between him and his associate Francis Pizarro, who was soon after assassinated by the party of his rival. > A few years after the Spaniards discover ed the inexhaustible silver mines of Potosi^ which they compelled the Peruvians to Work for their advantage. They are now wrought by the negroes of Africa. The native Peruvians, who are a weakly race of men, were soon almost exterminated by cruelty and intoler able labour. The humane bishop of Chiapa remonstrated with sue cess to Charles V. on this subject ; and the residue of this miserable people have been since treated with more indulgence. 8. The Spanish acquisitions in America belong to the crown, and not to the state : they are the absolute property of the sovereign and regulated solely by his will. They consist of three provinces Mexico, Peru, and Terra Firma ; and are governed by three vice roys, who exercise supreme civil and military authority over their respective provinces. There are eleven courts of audience for the administration of justice, with whose judicial proceedings the vice roys cannot interfere ; and their judgments are subject to appeal to the royal council of the Indies, wnose jurisdiction extends to every department, ecclesiastical, civil, military, and commercial. A tribu- nal in Spain, called Casa de la Contratacion, regulates the departure of the fleets, and their destination and equipment, under the contro of the council of the Indies. 9.v^The gold and silver of Spanish America, though the exclusive property of the crown of Spain, has, by means of war, marriages of princes, and extension of commerce, come into general circulation and has greatly increased the quantity of specie, and diminished the value of money over all Europe. SECTION XLII. POSSESSIONS OF THE OTHER EUROPEAN NATIONS IN AMER- ICA. THE UNITED STATES. 1. The example of the Spaniards excited a desire in the other nations of Europe to participate with them in the riches of the new world. The French, in 1,557, attempted to form a settlement on the coast of Brazil, where the Portuguese had already established themselves from the beginning of the century. The colony was divided by faction, and was soon utterly destroyed by the Portu- guese, It is one of the richest of the American settlements, both from the produce of its soil, and its mines of gold and precious atones. 2. The Spaniards were in possession of Florida when the French attempted to colonize it in 1,564. without success. The Freud; established a settlement" in Acadie in 1,604, and founded Quebec in' Canada in 1,608. But these settlements were perpetually subject to attack from the English. In 1,629 the French had not a foot of territory in America. Canada has been repeatedly taken by *he married the earl of Bothwell, a man openly stigmatized as one of the murderers of her husband. He had, it is true, been absolved on trial for that crime, and had by force made himself master of her person. The plans of Murray and his associates, successful to the utmost of their wishes, were now ripe for consummation. On the Eretext of the queen's guilt of murder and adultery, she was confined y Murray in the castle of Lochleven, and there compelled to resign her crown into the hands of her unnatural brother, who was to govern the kingdom as regent during the minority of her infant son, now proclaimed king by the title of James VI., 1,567. Bothwell escaped beyond sea,, and died in Denmark. 3. A great part of the nation reprobated those infamous proceed- ings. Mary escaped from her confinement, and at the head of an army gave battle to the rebels at Langside ; but, being defeated, she fled for shelter to the north of England. Elizabeth, who had secretly encouraged all the machinations of her enemies, had now gained a great object of her ambition ; she had in her hands a hated rival, and, by her support of Murray and his party, the absolute command oi the kingdom of Scotland. Yet policy required some show of friendship and humanity to the queen of Scots, who claimed, as a suppliant, her protection and aid. She professed her desire to do her justice, but first required that she should clear herself of the crimes alleged against her. To this Mary agreed, with the intrepid- ity of conscious innocence. In a conference held for that purpose, Murray openly stood forth as the accuser of his sister and queen, appealing to certain letters said to have been written by her to Both- well, plainly intimating her guilt. Copies of these letters were pro- duced. Mary demanded the originals, boldly declaring them to be the forgeries of her enemies ; but they were never produced. She r^tnr+pH on Murray and Morton the ;harge of Darnley's murdei , 202 MODERN HISTORY. and the conference was broken off at the command ol the queen of England, who detained Mary in close imprisonment. 9. The ungenerous policy of Elizabeth was condemned by her own subjects. The duke of Norfolk, the first of her nobility, and, though a protestant, favoured by the catholic party in England, secretly projected to marry the queen of Scots. The discovery of his views having given alarm to Elizabeth, brought that ill-fated nobleman to the block, and hastened the doom of the unfortunate Mary. Worn out with the miseries of her confinement, she private- ly solicited the aid of foreign princes' for her deliverance. Her cause was espoused by all the catholics of England ; and some of the most intemperate of these had formed a plot to deliver her from captivity, and to place her on the throne, by the murder of Eliza- beth. This dangerous conspiracy was discovered, and its authors deservedly suffered death. The schemes of Mary for her own de- liverance were held presumptive of her acquiescence in the whole of the plot. Though an independent sovereign, she was brought to trial before a foreign tribunal which had already decreed her fate ; and, being condemned to suffer death, she was beheaded at Fother- ingay castle, 1,587, in the forty-fifth year of her age, and the nine- teenth of her captivity in England. Previously to this event, Murray had fallen the victim of the private revenge of a gentleman whom he had injured ; Lethington poisoned himself in prison, to escape the sentence of his enemies ; and Morton, some time regent of the king- dom, was afterwards tried and suffered death for his concern in the murder of Darnley. 10. We have mentioned the formidable preparations of Philip II. for the invasion of England, and their disastrous issue in the total destruction of the invincible armada. The English, in their turn, made descents on the Spanish coasts ; and the glory of the nation was nobly sustained by those great admirals, Raleigh, Howard, Drake, Cavendish, and Hawkins. The earl of Essex distinguished himself in those expeditions, and won the favour of Elizabeth, both by his prowess and personal accomplishments. The death of Lei- cester, her former favourite, and of her minister Burleigh left Essex unrivalled in her affections, and of chief authority in the direction of her councils. Haughty, and impatient of control, he disgusted the nobles ; and his failure in quelling a rebellion in Ireland gaye them ground to undermine him in the favour of his sovereign. In the mad- ness of inordinate ambition, he proposed to possess himself of the person of the queen, and compel her to remove his enemies, and acquiesce in all his measures. This treasonable enterprise brought him to the scaffold, 1,600. 1 1 . From that time Elizabeth fell Into profound melancholy, and soon after died in the seventieth year of her age, 1,603, having named for her successor James VI. of Scotland. Her talents were great, and the firmness of her mind was unequalled ; but her private char- acter was tarnished by crueltjr, hypocrisy, and an insatiable desire of admiration. Her maxims of government were despotic, and she had little regard for the liberties of her people, or the privileges of her parliaments, to whom she never allowed the liberty of disputing her commands. The actual government of England in those days was. little different from an absolute monarchy. MODERN HISTORY. £0b SECTION LVI. HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN IN THE REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 1. James VI. of Scotland succeeded by hereditary right to the throne of England, thus uniting the two crowns ; a prince of consid- ) erable learning and talents, but of little vigour of mind or political energy. He became unpopular from his notions of an uncontrollable prerogative, to which unwisely proclaiming his title, he provoked his subjects to question it. The current .of public opinion was now strongly turned to an extension of the rights of the subject, and to a retrenchment of the powers of the crown ; and during this reign the seeds were sown of that spirit of resistance on the part of the peo- ple, which was destined in the next to overturn the constitution. 2. Domestic events were such as chiefly distinguished the reign of James I. A conspiracy was discovered in 1,603 for subverting the government, and placing the king's cousin, Arabella Stuart, on - the throne, in which the lords Cobham and Grey, and- Sir Walter Ra- leigh were principally concerned. The two former were pardoned, and Raleigh was condemned, but reprieved. On the ground of his infringement of the peace with Spain, by unwarrantably attacking one of her American settlements, he was beheaded on his former sentence, after an interval of fifteen years. 3. Another conspiracy followed, of a still more dangerous nature, the gunpowder treason ; a plot of the catholics to destroy at one blow the king and the whole body of the parliament, 1,604. It was discovered from a circumstance of private friendship, on the .very eve of its accomplishment; and the principal conspirators suffered capital punishment. The public indignation now raged against the catholics ; and the humanity of James, which sought to mitigate this fury, was as ungenerously as absurdly construed into a favour which he entertained for their religious principles. 4. It was a peculiar weakness of the king to attach himself to undeserving favourites. Such was Carre earl" of Somerset, who had no other recommendation but a handsome person, and who, after several years' exercise of all the insolence of power, fell into dis- grace, on conviction of his concern in an infamous murder. His place was supplied by Villiers, afterwards duke of Buckingham, a man devoid of every talent of a minister and odious to all ranks of the state. He planned a journey of Charles prince of Wales into Spain to court the infanta, and by his folly and insolence frustrated the treaty on the brink of its conclusion. 5. Elizabeth, the daughter of James, was married to the protestant elector Palatine, who was dispossessed of his electorate by the empe- ror Ferdinand II., for imprudently accepting the crown of Bohemia, till then an appanage of the empire. James was urged 03% parlia- ment to a war in defence of his son-in-law, which touched the nation both as a point of honour and as the cause of the protestant interest He sent a feeble armament, which was of no service, the only mili- tary enterprise of his reign. His favourite project was a complete union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland ; a measure which, however beneficial, the mutual prejudices of the two nations were as 204 MODERN HISTORY. yet too violent to bear. As a preparatory step, trie episcopal hie rarchy was introduced into Scotland ; but this served only as the in- centive of future commotions. James I. died in 1625, in the 59tb year of his age, and the 22d of his reign over England. 6. On an impartial estimate of the character, of the succeedin| monarch, Charles I., it may be allowed, that this unfortunate prince would have reigned with high popularity, if the nation in his reigr had entertained the same opinions of the regal prerogative, of the powers of parliament, and of the liberty of the subject, which had prevailed for the two preceding centuries. But it was his lot to mount the throne at that critical period when the public opinion had undergone an entire revolution on those topics; and, with many ex- cellent endowments both of head and heart, he wanted that political prudence which should have taught him to yield to the necessity of the timf.s. — 7. Charles was offended with his first parliament, on their refusal of adequate supplies for the war in support of his brother-in-law, the elector Palatine. Engaged to his allies, the king, dissolving the- par- liament, issued warrants for borrowing money of the subject. A new parliament was found equally uncomplying, and evinced its jealousy of the king by the impeachment of his minister, Buckingham. Charles avenged the insult by imprisoning two members of the house of com- mons. A dissension thus begun was continually aggravated by new causes of offence. The levying of money from the subject was en- forced by billeting soldiers on those who refused to lend to the crown ; and some were even imprisoned on that account' A war was under- taken against France, by Buckingham's instigation, a sufficient cause of its unpopularity ; and it ended in a fruitless attempt on Rochelle. The king again dissolved his parliament, 1,626. 8. A new parliament exhibited a spirit of determined reformation. A Petition of Right was passed by both houses, which declared the illegality ot raising money without their sanction, or of enforcing loans from the subject, annulled all taxes imposed without the consent of parliament, and abolished the exercise of the martial law ; and Charles was obliged, with much reluctance, to give his assent to this great retrenchment of prerogatives, sanctioned by the usage of the most poDular.of his predecessors. £. The taxes of tonnage and poundage had usually beeji continued from one reign to another. On this ground the king, conceived that he was warranted to levy them without a new grant ; and a member of the house of commons was imprisoned on refusal to pay them. This arbitrary measure excited an outrageous ferment in that assem- bly, and the consequence was a new dissolution of the parliament, 1.629. ' • • 10. It .was now a measure of necessity to make peace with France and Spain. The king persevered in levying the tonnage., poundage, and ship-money; and high fines were imposed for various offences, without trial, by authority of the star-chamber. The legality of the tax of ship-money was disputed by John Hampden, who was con- demned by the court of exchequer, contrary, as was generally thought, to justice and the laws of the realm. 11? Those discontents were increased by religious enthusiasm. Charles, by the advice of Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, had relax- ed the penalties against catholics, and countenanced some innova- tions in the ceremonials of church worship, preludes, as they were termed, to the popish idolatries. He had likewise imprudently at- MODERN HISTORY 20b tempted to introduce the liturgy oi the church of England among the Scots:' These measures excited in Scotland very general discontent, and produced the most violent commotion. A bond, termed the Na- tional Covenant, containing an oath of resistance to all religious inno- vations, was subscribed in Scotland by all ranks and conditions ; and in a general assembly at Glasgow the episcopal hierarchy was sol emnly abolished, 1,638. To maintain this violent procedure the Scots reformers took up arms, and, after seizing "and fortifying the most important places of strength in the kingdom, boldly marched into the heart of England. 12. It was now absolutely necessary to assemble a parliament, and the king at length saw that the torrent was irresistible, and resolved, though too late, to yield to it. A bill passed for "ibolishing the ton- nage and poundage without consent of parliament, and received the royal assent. Monopolies of every kind were abolished. A parlia- ment was agreed to be summoned every third year.. Unsatisfied with these concessions; the commons impeached the earl of Strafford, the king's first minister, of high treason, together with Laud, arch- bishop of Canterbury, who were charged, as the chief counsellors of the crown, with a design of subverting the laws and constitution of the realm.' The fate of Strafford, whose trial by his peers would have terminated in his acquittal, was secured by a bill of "attainder, to which the king was, with the greatest reluctance, forced to give his assent. The" commons seized that moment of anguish to ob- tain his consent to a decisive measure, a bill which rendered the parliament perpetual, by declaring that it should not be dissolved nor adjourned except by its own decree, 1,641. Strafford and Laud were both beheaded. 13. This last measure of the commons evinced a determined pur- pose to overturn the constitution. Their proceedings hitherto had the show of justice, and most of them might be vindicated on the principles of true patriotism. But from this period their conduct was treason to their country and its government. The last bill de- stroyed the equal balance of the constitution of England, and every subsequent measure was a step towards its annihilation. 14. The Irish catholics took advantage of those disorders, and, with the purpose of assuming the entire command of that kingdom, and shaking off its dependence on England, attempted, in one day to massacre all the protestants in Ireland. To extinguish this horrible rebellion Charles consigned to the parliament the charge of the war, which they interpreted into a transference to them of the whole mil- itary powers of the crown. Under this authority a great force was levied, and supplied with arms from the royal magazines. 1 5. The bishops having complained that their lives were in danger from the populace, and having protested against the proceedings of the lords in their absence, were impeached of treason by the com- mons, and committed to the Tower. The patience of Charles was exhausted. He caused five of the commons to be impeached, and Went in person to the house to seize them ; a breach of the privilege of parliament, for which he found it necessary to atone by a humili- ating message. 16. A new bill of the commons, naming the commanders of all the fortified places, who should be responsible to parliament alone, was understood to be a declaration of war. The next step was to assume the whole legislative power, by declaring it a breach of privilege to dispute the law of the land promulged by the lords and commons. £06 MODERN HISTORY. But the lords were merely a name, being entirely under the control of the commons. 17. The sword was now to decide the contest. The royal cause was supported by a great proportion of the landed interest, all the friends of the established church, and all the catholics in the king- dom. On the side of the parliament were the city of London and most of the greater towns, with all the dissenters and sectaries. The first campaign was favourable to the royalists, who defeated the par- liamentary forces at Worcester and Edgehill, but lost the battle of Newbury. 18. The parliament now entered into a strict confederacy with the Scots, both in the articles of politics and religion; and the Solemn League and CoveneiU a new bond more specific in its objects than the ibrmer, and more treasonable in its purpose, was framed at Edin- burgh*, for the purification of both churches, the reformation of both kingdoms, the maintenance of the privileges of king and parlia- ment, and bringing to ,i slice all malignants. In consequence of this confederacy, 20,000 Sr.«»is took the field toco-operate with the forces of the parliament. 19. At this time Oliver Cromwell commanded a regiment of horse under Fairfax, general of the parliament ; but in reality direct- ed all the measures of the army. In Scotland the royal cause was gallantly sustained by the marquis of Montrose; but all was lost in England by the defeat at Naseby, in 1,645. The troops of the roy- alists being entirely dispersed, the king threw himself into the hands of the Scots, who basely delivered him up to the commissioners of parliament, from wffiom he was taken by Cromwell's orders, and con- ducted to the army, which was now master of the kingdom. Crom- well entering London assumed an absolute control over the parlia- ment, and imprisoned all who disputed his authority. Charles, escap- ing from his confinement, fled to the isle of Wight ; but was there de- tained a prisoner in Carisbrook castle. 20. The parliament, suffering under this military usurpation, were no.v sincerely desirous of -terminating a miserable anarchy by a treaty with the king, and, after a long negotiation, all terms were finally adjusted. Charles agreed to resign to parliament the military power, the disposal of all the offices of state, and the right of creat- ing peers without the consent of parliament : he agreed to abolish the episcopal hierarchy, and to establish the presbyterian discipline. These concessions the parliament accepted by a majority of suffra- ges, and declared them to be a sufficient- basis for the settlement of the kingdom. Cromwell instantly surrounded the house of commons, and, excluding all but his own partisans (about sixty in number), a second vote was passed, rescinding the ibrmer, and declaring it treason in a king to levy war against his parliament. A court of justice was then appointed to try the king for this act of treason. The house of lords, having unanimously rejected this decree, were immediately voted, by this junto of independents, to be a useless branch of the constitution. 21. Charles was brought to trial, and, refusing to acknowledge the authority of his judges, was condemned to suffer death. He was beheaded on the 30th of January, 1,649. T^he arbitrary proceedings ot this monarch in the beginning of his reign were certainly suffi- cient to justify that resistance on the part of the people which at length produced its effect, in confining the regal authority within its just bounds, and securing the rational liberties of the subject. But MODERN HISTORY. 207 from the period when this end was attained, resistance ceased to be ,'awful. Its further operations were criminal in the extreme. The subsequent usurpations of the commons can no more be justified on any constitutional principle, than the murder rf the king can be de- fended on the score of legality, justice, or humanity. SECTION LVII. THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND. 1. The parliament of Scotland' had taken no part in these lattei scenes, and had formally protested against the trial of the king. On his death they proclaimed Charles II. their sovereign, but on the ex- press condition of his signing the covenant, and ratifying their con- fession of faith. Ireland recognised him without any conditions. The heroic marquis of Montrose landed in the north of Scotland with a few foreign troops, and attempted to reduce the party of the cove- nanters, and to establish the legal authority of the king, independent of the servile restrictions with which they had fettered it. Being attacked by a much superior force, he was defeated, and betrayed into the power of his enemies, who put him to death by the hands of the executioner, 1,650 ; displaying in the circumstances of his punishment all the insolence of cruelty w T hich distinguishes revenge in the meanest of souls. Charles retired to Scotland, and was obliged, however reluctantly, to acquiesce in all the terms that were imposed on him. 2. Cromwell, with 16,000 men, marched into Scotland against the royalist covenanters, whom he defeated in the battle of Dunbar. He then followed the royal army, which retreated into England, and destroyed it in the decisive battle of Worcester, September 3, 1,651. Charles fled in disguise through the western and southern counties, till he found an opportunity of escaping to France ; and Cromwell returned in triumph to London. 3. The republican parliament formed and executed great designs. A war with Holland was most ably maintained on both sides by three great naval commanders, Blake, the British admiral, and Van Tromp and de Ruyter, the Dutch admirals ; but the advantage was greatly in favour of the English, who took above 1 ,600 Dutch ships. The parliament, elated by these successes, justly conceived that, while the nation was thus powerful at sea, the army was an unnecessary bur- den, and determined to reduce it. To prevent this measure, Crom- well framed a remonstrance of the army, demanding the electiDn of anew parliament. This remonstrance being disregarded, he entered the house pf commons, which he Lad surrounded with his troops, and declaring the parliament dissolved by his authority, forcibly turned the members out of doors. The republic of England, which had subsisted four years and three months, was thus annihilated in one moment, April 20, 1,653. 4. It was necessary, however, that there should be the appearance of a parliament. A few mean persons, of fanatical character, were chosen by Cromwell's partisans, from the different counties of Eng- land, with five from Scotland, and six from Ireland, to hold their fic- tion for fifteeen months. This assembly, termed Barcbone's parlia- ment, from its leading member, a leather-seller, became the scorn of the public, and was dissolved, by its own vote, after five months. 208 MODERN HISTORY 5. The government was now vested in the council of officers, who nominated Oliver Cromwell lord protector of the three king- doms, invested him with the power of making peace, war, and alli- ance, and authorized a standing army of 30,000 men to be kept up for the support of government. His administration was despotic, vigorous, and spirited. He maintained the honour of the nation in the war with the Dutch, compelling them to yield the -honour of the flag, and to compensate to the India company all its losses. He was successful likewise in his negotiations with France and Spain. But in his domestic government he was traversed by his parliaments, whom it cost him a continual struggle, and even violence, to keep in order. One parliament, properly prepared, voted him the regal title, which, by the council of his best friends, he was forced, mos-. unwillingly, to refuse. In recompense of this self-denial, the parlia- ment confirmed his title of protector, with a fixed revenue, and de- Greed his right of appointing a successor. He was king in all but the name. 6. By consent of parliament Cromwell appointed a house of lords; but all the ancient peers declined the proffered honour. He was forced to choose peers from the commons ; and thus he lost the ma- jority in the lower house. His temper soured with disappointment, a prey to chagrin / .md in continual fear of assassination, he fell at length into a mortal disease, and died in the fifty-ninth year of his age, September 3, 1,658. 7. Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver, succeeded to the protectorate by his father's appointment. He was a man of weak understanding and facile temper, utterly unfit for his hazardous situation, which accordingly he maintained only for a few months, resigning his office on the 22d of April, 1,659. His brother Henry, viceroy of Ireland immediately followed his example. The family of the Cromwells, which the talents of one man had elevated above the sovereigns of vheir country, returned to its original obscurity. 8. The remains of that nominal parliament which had put the king o death, termed, in derision, the Turnip, was now dissolved by the council of officers. Of these every aspiring individual had his own separate views of ambition. Intrigue, cabal, and anarchy, were univer- sal; and the nation, looking forward with horror to a series of calam- ities, began earnestly to desire the restitution of its ancient govern- ment. George Monk, commander of the army in Scotland, judged those symptoms favourable for restoring the exiled monarch to the throne of his ancestors. Prlarching his army into England, he declar- ed his resolution to bring about the election of a free parliament, which all men knew to be synonymous with the restoration of the king. It was of course violently opposed by the republican party, who even attempted to excite a new civil war; but they were forced at length to acquiesce in the measure. A free parliament was assem- bled, and a message was presented from Charles, offering a full in- demnity, complete liberty of conscience, and payment of all arrears to the army. The message was received with transports of joy, and Charles II, was proclaimed king nn the 29th day of May, 1,660, MODERN HISTORY. 209 SECTION LVIll. 'I HE REIGNS OF CHARLES II. AND JAMES II. 1. The nation, without imposing any terms on their new .sove- reign, trusted implicitly to his good dispositions. Charles was humane and complacent, but indolent, luxurious, and prodigal ; and therefore was neither able to support the national honour abroad, nor to com- mand obedience and respect to his domestic government. The sale of Dunkirk was a measure offensive to the pride of the nation. A war with Holland, supported at a vast expense, and maintained in many desperate but indecisive engagements, was attended finally with no material benefit. By the treaty of Breda, concluded in 1,667, New York was secured to the English, the isle of Polerone to the Dutch, and Acadia in North America to the French. 2. The sale of Dunkirk, and the unsuccessful issue of the war, attributed to the counsel of the earl of Clarendon, procured the dis grace and banishment of that illustrious man, 1,667. The peace was scarcely concluded with Holland, when England joined with her and Sweden in a triple alliance, to oppose the progress of the arms of Lewis XIV. in the Low Countries; and that object being attained .by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1,668, the French monarch gained the English over to his interest in a new war against the Dutch, which brought their republic to the brink of destruction. 3. The domestic administration of Charles was embroiled from vn rious causes, originating in the personal character and disposi .tions of the sovereign. He trusted to profligate and worthless counsellors. His arbitrary notions of government, and the partiality which he showed to the catholics, gave perpetual alarm and uneasiness to a great proportion of his subjects. Complaints resounded from every quarter; and the parliament required a test-oath, abjuring popery from all persons in public employment. On refusal to take this oath the king's brother, James duke of York, was deprived of his office of high admiral. 4. Titus Oates, a worthless impostor, pretended to have discov- ered a plot of the catholics for assassinating the king, burning Lon- don, massacring the protestants, and placing the duke of York on the throne. Another villain, named Bedloe, joined his evidence to that of Oates; and on their perjured testimony, afterward fully exposed, a few miserable priests suffered death. A new test was imposed, which excluded ali papists from both houses of parliament. The treasurer Danby was impeached for advising the last peace with France, though it was proved that he had acted by his sovereign's orders ; and a bill passed the house of commons, excluding the duke of York from the successicn to the crown. A more important bill for the general liberty, the act of habeas corpus was the work of the same session of parliament. (Sect. L1X., § 14.) 5. The distinguishing epithets of' whig: and tory were now first known ; the former, the opposers of the crown, against the latter, its partisans; and each party, as in all factions, carried its principles to an extreme. The whig*, predominant in the next parliament, raged with fury against the catholics, and insisted on the king's assent *o the bill for the exclusion of his brother. His only expedient was o dissolve the parliament, but lie found their successors equally vie - S£ ■ 27 210 MODERN HISTORY. lent. After various fruitless attempts to conciliate their favour to his measures, a dissolution of this parliament ensued, the last which Charles assembled. 6. But the great cause of dissatisfaction remained. The duke of York was at the bottom of all the measures of government. A con- spiracy was formed by Shaftesbury, Russel, Sydney, and the duke of Monmouth, natural son of the king, on the pretence of vindicating the national liberties. It was discovered by one of the associates, and Russel and Sydney suffered capital punishment. The detection of this conspiracy strengthened the authority of the sovereign. The duke of York was restored to his office of high admiral, and tacitly acknowledged as the successor to the crown. Charles II. died on the 6th of February, 1,635, in the 55th year of his age, and the 25th of his reign. 7. The duke of York succeeded to the throne by the title of James II. His reign was short and ingjorious. He was the instru- ment of his own misfortunes, and ran headlong to destruction. The catholics at this time were not the hundredth part of the nation, yet James was weak enough to make the desperate attempt of sub- stituting the popish faith in room of the protestant. Discarding the nobility from his' councils, he was directed solely by Romish priests. In the very outset of his reign he expressed his contempt of the au- thority of parliament, and a iirm purpose to exercise an unlimited despotism. 8. The duke of Monmouth, having excited a new rebellion, was defeated, made prisoner, and beheaded ; and the most inhuman rigour was exercised in the punishment of all his partisans. The parliament was in general submissive to the king's will, which for a while met with no opposition nor control. A declaration was pub- lished, establishing full liberty of conscience in matters of religion; and several bishops, who refused to publish it in their diocesses, were committed to prison. A catholic president was appointed to one of the colleges at Oxford. An ambassador was sent to the pope, and a papal nuncio received in London. The catholics openly boast- ed that theirs would soon be the religion of the state. 6. James had three children ; Mary, the wife of the stadtholder William prince of Orange ; Anne, married to prince George of Den- mark ; and James, an infant. The stadtholder had considered his right to the crown of England as certain before the birth of this intant, and, after that event, projected still to gain it by arms or in- trigue ; the infatuation of the king and the general discontent of the people giving him the most flattering invitation. James was inform- ed of those views of his son-in-law, but would give them no credit, till actually apprized of his landing with an army, November 15th 1,683. 10. The principal nobility and officers immediately joined the standard of the prince of Orange; and James was at once abandoned by his people, ministers, favourites, and his own children. Leaving London in disguise, he was discovered and brought back by the pop- ulace , but the prince of Orange wisely favoured his escape, and he found means a few days after, to convey himself to France. 11. The throne being declared vacant, it was proposed in a con- vention-parliament, that the crown should be settled on the princess Mary and her issue, her husband governing as regent, whom failing, on the princess Anne. The stadtholder declining the office of regent, it was finally resolved to confer the crown on the prince and pria* MODERN HISTORY. £li cess of Orange, the former to have the sole administration of the government. 1 2. To this settlement was added a declaration fixing the rights of the subject and the royal prerogative. Of this the most important articles are the following. The king cannot suspend the laws, nor their execution ; he cannot levy money without consent of parlia-r ment ; the subjects have right to petition the crown ; a standing army cannot be kept up in time of peace but by consent of parlia- ment; elections and parliamentary debate must be free, and parlia- ments must be frequently assembled, &c. Such was the final settle ment of the British government at the great era of the revolution, At this period, when the constitution became fixed and determined, we finish the sketch of the history of our own country. SECTION LI& ON THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 1. The rudiments of the constitution of England may be traced as far back as the Norman conquest. William distributed a great pro- portion of the lands among his Norman followers, subjecting these, as well as the Anglo-Saxons who retained their property to the feu dal tenures, and thus extinguishing at once the arxient liberties of the people. England was divided into 60,215 military fiefs, all held of the crown, under the obligation of the vassal's taking arms for his sovereign whenever required. In the continental kingdoms of Europe, as in France, the feudal system arose by slow degrees, nor was there of consequence the same union of the fabric as in England. The feudal lords were independent of one another, ever at variance from their mutual pretensions, and often owning but a very slender allegiance to the crown. Their vassals suffered from oppression, and often struggled for their freedom ; but those efforts being partial produced no consequence favourable to the liberty of the nation. In England all were oppressed by the enormous weight of the crown ; it was a common grievance, and produced at times a violent effort for the general liberties of the people. 2. The forest-laws imposed by the conqueror (Sect. XV., § 2, 11.) were a grievance felt by the whole nation, as rendering every man's property precarious, and subject to the arbitrary encroachments of the crown. It was no wonder that the barons and their vassals should cordially unite to rid themselves of so intolerable a hardship. Henry I. found it necessary to conciliate his subjects, by mitigating the most rigorous of the feudal laws. A greater advance was made under Henry II., by the institution of the trial by jury. But John impru- dently resisting this natural progress toward a rational freedom, was soon compelled into those important concessions, the Cliarta de Foresta and Magna Cliarta. From that time the constitution of England was that of a limited monarchy, whatever we may judge of the actual government, which was often most arbitrary and despotical. 3. The next memorable era in the progress of the English consti- tution was the reign of that weak prince Henry III., when the par- liament received a new form, by the admission of the representatives of the people, the deputies of the counties and boroughs. (Sect XXII., § 2.) His successor Edward I. acknowledged their authority in obtaining all his subsidies, and ratified a new law, which declared. 212 MODERN HISTORY that no tax should be levied without the consent of lords and com- mons. The Magna Cfiarta was confirmed no less than eleven times in the course of this reign. 4. Thus the constitution continued advancing till its progress was suspended by the civil wars of York and Lancaster. The rights of both prince and people seemed then to be entirely forgotten; and the race of Tudor found no resistance from parliament to their vigor- ous and despotic sway. The talents of Elizabeth, and the high character which her government sustained with foreign powers, ex- tinguished all domestic disquiets, while the predominant feeling was the maintenance of the power and dignity of the crown. 5. But under the succeeding prince, when his power and dignity were abased by his own weakness, the nation began to awake from its lethargy ; and that spirit of opposition, which in this reign con- fined itselt to complaints, in the next broke forth with alarming vio- lence. Charles I., endowed with superior energy of character, acted, as he conceived, on a principle of duty, which obliged him to main- tain the prerogative of his predecessors, and to transmit it unimpaired to his posterity ; but he. was imprudent in exerting with rigour an authority which he wanted ultimate resources to support. He was compelled to sign the Petition of Rights, a grant more favourable to liberty than Magna Charta. The ^true patriots were satisfied with this concession, which conferred the most ample constitutional free- dom. But the popular leaders made patriotism the cloak of insatia- ble ambition; and advanced in their demands with every new com- pliance. The last appeal was made to the sword, and the contest ended in the destruction of the constitution. 6. The despotism which succeeded, and the fluctuation of power from the long parliament to the protector, and finally to the leaders of a standing army, afforded demonstrative evidence how vain was the project of a republic, under which the demagogues had masked their designs. Weary of anarchy, the nation returned with high satisfaction to its' former constitution, a limited monarchy. ~7. New encroachments under Charles II. produced new limita- tions; and the act of Habeas Carpus gave the utmost possible security to personal liberty. The violent and frantic invasion of the consti- tution by James II., banished himself and his posterity from the throne, and produced a new and solemn contract between the king and the people. Regarding, therefore, the revolution as the final settlement of the English constitution, we shall endeavour briefly to delineate the chief features of that great political structure. 8. The constitution of Great Britain may be viewed under two distinct heads, the legislative power, and the executive power ; the last comprehending the prerogative of the crown. The power of legislation belongs to parliament, whose constituent parts are, the king, lords, and commons. The house of lords con- sists of the temporal peers of England, and of the spiritual, or the two archbishops and twenty-four bishops. To these, since the unions with Scotland and Ireland, are added sixteen delegates from the peerage of the former kingdom, and thirty-two from 1 " the latter. The house of commons consists of the deputies or representatives of the counties and principal towns and boroughs of England, and the two universities, amounting in all to 513 members; to whom, since the unions, are added 45 from Scotland and ICO from Ireland. These deputies are chosen by the freeholders who possess a prop- erty yielding a certain yearly rent. The chancellor generally pre- MODERN HISTORY *1S side9 in the house of lords ; the speaker is president in the house of commons. 9. The king is the most essential component part of parliament, because he alone has the power. to convoke, prorogue, and dissolve it. He has likewise a negative on all its acts, which are invalid without his approbation ; and each house has a negative on the MODERN HISTORY. $16 church-benefices, tho rents of vacant bishoprics and abbeys, the prof- its of military tenures, fines imposed in courts of justice, forfeitures, &c. From alienations made by the sovereigns, and retrenchments of their prerogative, the property of the crown. is now become so in- considerable, that the king may be regarded as entirely dependent on the people for the support of his dignity, and the means of carry- ing on the business oi the state. The public revenue, destined for these two purposes, arises now from the subsidies granted by the people. The supplies are voted by the commons, and the means of furnishing them, by taxes proposed by the chancellor of the exchequer, must receive their sanction. 2. Of these taxes some are annual, as the land tax and malt tax ; others are perpetual, as the customs, excise, salt duty, post-office duty, stamps, house and window tax, duties on servants, hackney coaches, pensions, &c. The customs are a tax paid by the merchant on all imported and exported commodities ; the excise is an inland imposition, laid sometimes on the consumer, and sometimes on the retail seller. 2. The produce of these taxes is, in the first place, destined to the payment of the interest of the national debt, and afterward to the ordinary support of government. The national debt arose soon after the revolution, when it was thought hazardous to impose annual taxes equal to the annual ex- pense of government, and more expedient to borrow large sums for the immediate service of the state, raising annually no more than to pay the interest of that debt. The same system has been since persevered in ; so that the national debt, which a century ago was 1 6 millons, is now above 300 millions. To pay the interest of this enormous sum the produce of the taxes (excepting the malt and land tax) are primarily destined ; and as somewhat more is annually raised than the interest of the debt and the maintenance of govern- ment demand, the surplus constitutes a sinking fund for paying off the principal of the debt. 4. The produce of the taxes, originally separate funds, is now thrown into two or three capital funds; one of which is mortgaged by parliament for the maintenance of the king's household and the civil list, namely, the salaries of officers of state, judges, and ambas- sadors, private expenses, pensions, &c, 5. Notwithstanding the little prospect of an extinction of the national debt, government maintains its credit, and will always find lenders, because the terms granted are beneficial, and the security is transferable ; so that a lender can thus always obtain payment of his principal sum, and frequently make gain by the transference. The •value of stock rises and falls from various occasional causes, as na- tional prosperity, or the reverse, plenty or scarcity of money, quan- tity of public debt. On this variation is founded the practice oi stock-jobbing, that is, either buying and selling actual property in the public funds, which is a lawful speculation, or gaming and wagering on the price of stock, which is an illicit but common practice. The practice of stock-jobbing, even by the transference of actual proper- ty, and far more by gaming on that which is fictitious, is prejudicial to commerce and manufactures, by engrossing a great part of the national wealth, repressing industry, encouraging fraud, and often tempting to the most treacherous and dangerous devices for raising and sinking the funds. 116 MODERN HlbTOKY. SECTION LXI HISTORY OF FRANCE UNDER LEWIS Xill. 1 France, which under Henry IV. had risen from a state of miser- Able anarchy to high prosperity and splendour, sunk, upon hts death, into weakness, faction, and disorder. Mary of Medici, regent in the minority of her son Lewis XIII., a weak woman^ and of restless am- oition, disgusted the nobiiity by her partiality for her Italian courtiers. Concini, her first minister, created marshal d'Ancre, became so uni- versally odious, that he was openly murdered in the Louvre, and his body torn to pieces. The queen was removed from Paris, ar?d kept for two years a prisoner at Blois, till relieved by the d d'JEpernon, to serve his own purposes of ambition. The queen's party was at war with that of her son. and the whole kingdom in a state of anarchy. 2. The genius of cardinal Richelieu, who was now brought irfry power by Mary of Medici, soon effected a wonderful chuDge. He reconciled the mother and her son, soothed the contending factions, and, on the king's assuming the government, directed every public measure to the complete re-establishment of the power and dignity of the monarchy. The party of the Calvinists, alienated by perse- cution, attempted to throw off their allegiance, and to establish an in- dependent state, of which Rochelle was to be the capital. Richelieu bargained with the Dutch to furnish a fleet for subduing their prot- estant brethren, and the Dutch now fought as keenly for the catho- lic religion as they had lately fought for the prctcsfant The Eng- lish sent a fleet to the aid of the people of Rochelle, who for a year maintained a most obstinate siege against the French troops, com- manded by the cardinal in person. They were at length forced to surrender. Rochelle and all the other protectant cities of France were stripped of their privileg-es, and their fortifications were de- stroyed. Thus Calvinism was for ever crushed io France. 3. Lewis XIII., though a weak prince, saw his advantage in en tering into all the great designs of his minister. Richelieu intiu enced the politics of all Europe ; and the power of Austria was attacked in Germany, Fianders, Spain, and Italy. His talents were equally displayed in active war, in foreign negotiation, and in his domestic arrangements. Yet at this very time a formidable cabal was undermining him. Mary of Medici was Jealous of the man whom she had raised : and the duke of Orleans, the king's brother, sought to supplant him in power. Richelieu, with astonishing r pidity of mind, repressed this conspiracy. Foriiiied hy the king's authority he seized the marshal de Mariiiac, one of his most danger- ous enemies, at the head of his army : and Lied and put him to death by a lawless stretch of power. Orleans, apprehensive of a similar fate, fled from the kingdom ; and Mary of Medici, arrest*. :d and removed from court, ended hex career of ambition in voluntary exile at Brussels. Orleans, supported by the duke de Montmorenci, attempted a rebellion ; but their army was defeated, and Montmo- rer-ci executed for treason. The queen had taken part with the enemies of the cardinal, who imprisoned her confessor, and seized and examined her papers. Anne of Austria was very near sharing the late of Marv of Medici MODERN HISTORY, 217 4 Amidst all this turbulence of foreign war aixl state cabal, Riche- lieu cultivated literature, encouraged the sciences, instituted the French academy^ and composed pieces for the theatre. The admin- istration of Richelieu, though turbulent from faction and civil war, was, on the whole, extremely glorious for France ; and sowed the seeds of its splendour in the succeeding reign of Lewis XIV. The death of this great minister, in 1,642, was soon after followed by the death of h-is sovereign Lewis XI II, , in 1,843. SECTION LX1I. SPAIN UNDER PHILIP III. AND PHILIP IV. CONSTITUTION OF PORTUGAL AND OF SPAIN. 1. From the death of Philip II. Spain declined in power, and, not- withstanding its great sources of wealth, the national finances were in the utmost disorder. Philip ill. was forced to conclude a peace with the Dutch, and to restore to the house of Nassau its confiscated estates. With a weak and despicable policy he expelled from his kingdom all the Moors, who were the most industrious of its inhabi- tants, 1,610. This depopulation, with that already produced by its American colonies, rendered Spain a lifeless and enervated mass. Philip was entirely under the influence of his minister the duke of Lernra. 2. The national weakness and disorders increased under Philip IV., who, equally spiritless as his father, was implicitly ruled by his min- ister Olivarez. Mis reign was a continued series of miscarriages and defeats. The Dutch seized Brazil; the French invaded Artois; Catalonia revolted to Fiance; and Portugal shook off ils yoke, and became an independent kingdom. •3. No revolution was ever effected with such ease and celerity as that of Portugal. The people were disgusted with the rigorous and impolilic administration of Olivarez. The duke of Braganza, descended from the ancient kings of Portugal, had the command of the army. Instigated by the ambition of the duchess, and seeing the spirit of the nation favourable to his views, he caused himself -to be proclaimed king at Lisbon. The Spanish guards were attacked and routed, and the chief partisans of the government put to death by the populace. All the principal towns followed the example of the capital, and soon after all the foreign settlements. From that era, 1,640, Portugal became an independent sovereignty, alter having been sixty years an appanage of the kingdom of Spain. 4. The government of Portugal approaches to an absolute mon- archy. The consent of the states or coHc,^ consisting of clergy, nobility, and commons, was formerly necessary to the imposition of taxes, and the settlement of the succession to the crown. But this assembly, convoked only by the royal mandate, has for a long time ceased to meet. The ordinary business of government is transacted by the king and his council of state, which is appointed by himself. Tine revenue of the crown arises from its domains, including the family estates of Braganza; from the duties on exports and import^ from the taxes, and from a stated proportion of the gold brought from Brazil. The stale of the commerce and manufactures of Portugal is extremely low. Though the soil and climate are favourable to cultivation, yet the agriculture of the kingdom i* much neglected. 218 MODERN HISTORY. 5. The reigns of Philip III. and IV. of Spain, though an era of national humiliation, derived some tame from the state of literature. Dramatic composition, poetry, romance, and even history, were cultivated with great success. But these pursuits are in some sort the amusements of indolence, which was the predominant character of the people. This character may -have arisen from two sources. The torrent of wealth poured in from America retarded, in the lower classe*, domestic industry and manufactures, while it increased the pride of the gentry, and made them disdain all occupation ; and the despotism of the government slrongly repressed all enterprise and activity in the people. -6. The constitution of Spain, of which the sovereignty was in an- cient times elective, is now that of ah absolute monarchy. The crown is hereditary; though at different times, as in 1,619 and 1,713, there has been a new limitation of the succession made by the mon- arch. The Cortes, or states of the kingdom, limited in former times the power of the sovereign ; but Charles V. annihilated their author- ity, by depriving the nobility and clergy of their seat in those as- semblies. The remaining members, the deputies of the towns, are entirely under the control of the monarch. The king's council, or Consejo Real, is the organ of government ; but no department of the state has any constitutional power to regulate the will of the prince. SECTION LXin. AFFAIRS OF GERMANY FROM THE ABDICATION OF CHARLES V. TO THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 1. To preserve the connexion of the affairs of Germany 'with those of the other kingdoms of Europe, we must return to the period of the abdication of Charles V., when the empire was distracted by the political factions and quarrels of its independent princes, and by the contending sects, of the catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists. Ferdinand vainly attempted to reconcile those^factions, and to unite the three religions. Maximilian IL had still less power to effect this object than his predecessor ; . nor was the state of affairs changed during the succeeding reigns of Rodolphus II. and Matthias. A civil war of thirty years' duration reduced the empire to extremity. Under Ferdinand II. , a zealous catholic, the protestant states of Bo- hemia, which had suffered under the government of Matthias, con- ferred their crown on the elector Palatine. Ferdinand, in revenge, deprived him both of his crown and electorate. 2. The protestant cause was declining fast in Germany, and every thing seemed to indicate success to the schemes of Ferdinand for its entire annihilation, when it received new vigour froni the interven- tion of Gustavus Adolphus king of Sweden. This great prince de- feated the imperial generals, and carried the protestant banners trium- phantly through Germany. The emperor was completely humbled, and the elector Palatine was on the eve of restoration to his domin- ions, when the heroic Gustavus was slain in- the battle of Lutzen, 1,63-2. The war was successfully prosecuted by the Swedish gener afs, while cardinal Richelieu harassed the house of Austria both in Germany and Spain. X In the succeeding reign of Ferdinand 111., the protectants of MODERN HISTORY. 219 Germany found Ihe most active support both from the Swedes and the French. The emperor was forced to conclude the peace oi Westphalia in 1,648 ; and these powers dictated the terms. By this celebrated treaty all disputes were settled between the contending princes of the empire, and also between the contending religions ; the Swedes were indemnified for the charges of the war, and ac-~ quired Pomerania, Stettin, Wismar, and other provinces, and their sovereign the dignity of prince of the empire ; its chief posses- sions were restored to the Palatine family ; the king of France was made landgrave of Alsace ; and an equal establishment of the three religions was decreed. This salutary peace laid the foundation of the future greatness and prosperity of the German empire. SECTION LX1V. FRANCE UNDER LEWIS XIV. 1. On the death of Lewis XIII. in 1,633, his son Lewis XIV. sue - ceeded to the throne in the fifth year of his age. Europe, as we have seen, w r as in a most turbulent state ; and France, under the ad- ministration of Richelieu, acted a conspicuous part in exciting those general commotions. The queen mother Anne of Austria, appointed regent by the states, chose for her minister the cardinal xMazarin, an Italian, and from that circumstance odious to the people. The Span- iards, taking advantage of the king's minority and the popular dis- contents, made an attack on Champagne; but were defeated in -a series of engagements by the great Conde. The marshal de Tu- renne shared with him the palm of glory. The peace of Westpha- lia composed those differences. 2. At this very time the commotions of the Fronde broke out in Paris. The jealousy of Mazarin's power, felt by the nobility, the unpopularity of his measures, the disorder of the finances, and the oppression of new taxes, inflamed the nation; and the intrigues of the coadjutor, afterwards cardinal de Retz, blew the flame into a civil war. The parliament of Paris took part with the rebels, who were headed by the prince of Conti, the dukes of Longueville and Bouillon, and the chief nobility. The queen and the Royal family removed to St Germain's, and the ministerial party besieged Paris. Turenne, who at first supported them, was gained over by the rebels. The women, who are always concerned in the disturbances of France, acted a conspicuous part in those of the Fronde. A short pacification ensued ; but the imprudent violence of Mazarin soon re- newed the disorders. At length the parliament of Paris assumed the right of banishing this unpopular minister, who retired to the imperial dominions , but his influence continued to regulate the measures of state. 3. A change ensued on the king's coming of age, 1,652. De Retz and Orleans, the- chief promoters of the rebellion, were ban- ished, and Mazarin resumed his station as minister. Conde had joined the Spaniards in an attack on the French Netherlands, but was overmatched by Turenne, who revenged this insult by the taking of Dunkirk and several fortified towns under the Spanish govern- ment. By convention with Cromwell, Dunkirk had been ceded to the English, -and afterwards sold to France by Charles II., as has bemi related. S W MODERN HISTORY. 4. The war with Spain ended in 1,659, by the peace of the Py renees. Many cessions were made on both sides, but France kepi Roussillon and part of Artois. It was stipulated that Lewis XI VV should marry the infanta, daughter of Philip IV., but should renounce all right which might thence open to the crown of Spain. 5. The treaty of the Pyrenees gave peace to the south of Europe, The wars in the north between Sweden, Poland, and Denmark, which arose after the abdication of Christina of Sweden, were termi- nated in the year following by the treaty of Oliva. Christina, a sin- gular, but not a great woman, held the sceptre of Sweden for twen- ty-two years after the death of her father, Gustavus Adolphus. At length, tired of the cares of government, and affecting a passion for literature and philosophy, she resigned the crown to her cousin, Charles X., in 1,654. Soon after this event Casimer king of Poland was induced by age and sickness to abdicate the throne, after an hon* ourable reign. 6. Mazarin died in 1,661, and Lewis XIV. entered on a vigorous and splendid career. The finances, which from the time of Henry IV ftad been in extreme disorder, were admirably regulated by Colbert; and the commerce and manufactures of the kingdom, wisely en- -couraged by government, were soon in the most flourishing situation. The canal of Languedoc joined the bay of Biscay and the Med- iterranean ; the principal sea-ports were enlarged and fortified ; and the internal police of the kingdom was regularly and strictly enforc- ed. At the same time the arms of France aided England against the Dutch* Germany against the Turks, and Portugal against Spain. 7.' On the death of Philip IV., Lewis, pretending that Spain had failed in payment of the dowry of his queen, besieged and took Lisle* with several other fortified towns of Flanders-; and in the next cam- Eaign made himself master of Franehe-Comte. Lewis marched with is armies, but the glory of these conquests was owing to Turenne and Vauban. The triple alliance formed by England, Holland, and . Sweden, checked this career, and brought about the treaty of Aix- ia-Chapelle, 1,668, by which Lewis, though $e retained Flanders* restored Franche-Comte, and confirmed the peace of the Pyrenees. 8. The strength and prosperity of the kingdom continued to> increase under the able administration of Colbert and Louvois. The civil factions of Holland between the stadtholder and the party of the De Wits, tempted Lewis to undertake, the conquest of that coun- try. England, Germany, and Sweden, favoured his views. He overran the provinces of Utrecht, Overyssel, and Guelderland, and advanced almost to the gates of Amsterdam, when the Dutch inun- dated the country by letting in the sea, and the French were forced to retreat. 9. The confederate powers now became jealous of the ascendan- cy of Fiance; and the prince of Orange had sufficient influence with England, and both branches of the house of Austria, to obtain their alliance in aid of the republic. The arms of Lewis, however* continued to be successful, and the peace concluded at Nimeguen* in 1,678, was much to the honour of France. Franche-Comte was assured as a part of her dominions, and Spain allowed her right by conquest t» a great proportion of the Netherlands. 1Q. Notwithstanding the peace, Lewis, with the most culpable insincerity, seized Strasburg, and secretly assisted the Hungarians t and Turks in their attack on the imperial dominions. Vienna must have ialLen into the hands of the Turks, if it had not been seasonably MODERN HISTORY. 221 relieved by the victorious arms of John Sobieski king of Poland, in 1,683. 11. One of the weakest and most impolitic measures of Lewis XIV., was the revocation of the edict of Nantes, granted by Henry IV. for the toleration of the protestants. While their worship was suppressed, their churches demolished, and their ministers banished, the protectant laity were forbidden, under the most rigorous penal- ties, to quit the kingdom, 1,685. France, however, by this measure, lost above 500,000 of her most industrious and useful subjects ; and the name of Lewis XIV. was execrated over a great part of Europe. Not long after this time a similar excess of intolerant bigotry pre- cipitated James II. from the throne of Britain, and forced him to seek an asylum from the monarch of France. 12. William. prince of Orange, the inveterate enemy of Lewis, brought about the league of Augsburg, 1,686; and the war was renewed with France by Germany, Spain, England, and Holland. The French f.rms were still successful. Luxemburg def< ated William in the battles of Steenkirk and Nerwinden ; Noailles was victorious in Spain j and an army of 100,000 French ravaged the* Palatinate, and took many of the most important towns on the Rhine. This was the crises of the glory of Lewis, whose fortunes were to sustain the most mortifying reverse. 13. Those various and- most extensive military enterprises, how- ever flattering to the pride of the monarch, had been attended with enormous expense, and no solid advantage to the nation. The finances had fallen into disorder after the death of Colbert, and a peace was absolutely necessary. By the treaty of Ryswick, concluded in 1 ,697, Lewis restored to Spain all the conquests made in the two last wars, several towns to the emperor, the duchy of Lorraine to its duke, and acknowledged the right of William to the crown of Eng- land. 14. The succession of the kingdom of Spain, on the expected death of Charles II., without issue, was now the object of political intrigue. The emperor and the king of France had the only natural right of succession ; but William III., of England, from the dread of such an increase of power to either, proposed a treaty of partition of the Spanish dominions, at home and abroad, between the elector of Bavaria, the dauphin, and the emperor's second son. Charles II. chose rather to make his own destination, and appointed by will that the duke of Anjou, second son of the dauphin, should inherit Spain ; on whose death without issue, it should devolve on the archduke Charles, youngest son of the emperor. 15. On the death of Charles the duke of Anjou succeeded to the throne of Spain, in virtue of this settlement. The emperor, the king of England, and the Dutch, proposed to separate from his crown the Spanish dominions in Italy. In this enterprise prince Eugene, son of the count de Soissons, commanded the imperial troops, an illustrious renegado from France, of great prowess and military skill. 16. James II. of England died in 1,701 at St. Germain^, and Lewis gave mortal offence to the government of that country by acknowl- edging the title of his son. On the death of king William in the year following war was declared by England, Holland, and the em- pire, against France and ^S pain. Lewis XIV. was now in the decline of life. He had lost the ablest of his ministers and his greatest gen- erals. The finances of the kingdom were exhausted. The armie* T 2 I&i MODERN HISTORY of his enemies were commanded by Eugene and the duke of Marl- borough, the ablest generals of the age, and supported by the treas- ures oi the united powers. Savoy and Portugal joined this formidable confederacy, to overwhelm both branches of the house of Bourbon, and place the emperor's son on the tiirone of Spain. 17. Marlborough took Venlo, Rurerhonde, and Liege. Eugene and Marlborough defeated Tallard and Marsin, with the elector ot Bavaria, in the signal battle of Blenheim, 1,704. England and Ho'- knd attacked Spain by sea and land. Catalonia and Valencia were: subdued in six weeks: Gibralter was taken by the English, and has ever since remained in their possession. In the battle of Rami iies, Marlborough defeated Villeroy,and left 20,000 dead on the field The contest, at first doubtful in Italy, ended alike disastrously for the abuse of Bourbon. The archduke Charles was in the mean time proclaimed king at Madrid j and Philip V. had serious thoughts of abandoning Spain, and establishing his dominion in America. Bui the successes of the duke of Berwick, natural son of James II., recov- ered for a while his desponding spirit, and even prompted his grand- father Lewis to avenge himself on England, by aiding the IWd but desperate enterprise of establishing the pretended James on the throne of Britain. J 8. But France and Spain were daily losing ground. The pope had acknowledged the title of the archduke Charles ; the English seized the Mediterranean islands ; and Lewis, fallen from all his proud pretensions, humbly entreated a peace, which was refused^ unless on the condition of dethroning his grandson with his own arms, lie maintained for a while this unequal contest, and was at length forced to propose terms equally humiliating ; the cession of all his con- quests in the Netherlands and on the Rhine ; the acknowledgment of the archduke's title to the crown of Spain ; and a promise to give no aid to his grandson. But these terms were refused, and the inhuman condition still insisted on, that he should assist in dethroning his grandson. A last exertion was made in Spain under the duke of Vendome, at the head ^of a prodigious army; and the victory ob- tained by the French at Villa-vitiosa restored Philip V. to the throne of Spain. His competitor, the archduke, soon after became em- peror, on the death of his elder brother. 19. The intrigues of the cabinet of queen Anne, and the coming in of a tory ministry, changed the politics of Europe. It was re- eolved to make peace with France and Spain, and the treaty was concluded at Utrecht in 1,713. It was stipulated that Philip king of Spain should renounce all eventual right to the crown of France, and his brother to the crown of Spain. The Dutch obtained, an, ex- tension of frontier, and the emperor a great part of Spanish Flanders The English gained from Spain, Gibraltar and Minorca, and fron France, Acadia, Newfoundland, and Hudson's Bay, with the demolition §f the harbor of Dunkirk. In the following year, a peace was con- cluded at Rastadt between France and the empire. 20. The conclusion of this peace after an honourable war, was the. most memorable event in the reign of queen Anne, if we except the union of the two kingdoms of England and Scotland, in 1,706, which was brought about by the negotiation of commissioners mutually chosen,, to secure the rights of each kingdom in the best manner for their mutual benefit. It was stipulated that both should be represent- ed by one parliament (Sect. LiX., § 8), that they should have the same privileges with respect to commerce, and that each kingdom MODERN HISTORY. 223 should retain its own laws and established religion. The succession to the crown was limited to the house of Hanover. Queen Anne died on the 30th of July, 1.714. Lewis XIV. died on the 1st oi September, 1,715, in the 78th year of his age. He was a prince ot great vigour of mind, of good talents, though unimproved by educa tion, of dignified yet amiable manners. His greatest fault was inor dinate ambition, to which he sacrificed the real interests of his people- ft was his highest honour, that he discerned and recompensed every species of merit. France was in his time equally illustrious by the great military talents of her generals, and by the splendour of liter ature and of the arts and sciences. SECTION LXV OF THE CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE UNDER THE MONAtf CHY. - 1. It is necessary for understanding the history of France, that we should have some acquaintance with its former monarchical Poland was destined to receive a more humiliating chastise- ment Charles reduced Co^zr." r.r.:: Lilnuauirt, penetrated into the 29 226 MODERN HISTORY. heart of the kingdom, and subdued thecapitals of Warsaw and Cra- cow. He then assembled the states, declared king Augustus de- posed, and signified his pleasure that Stanislaus, his own dependant, should be elected sovereign of Poland, The factions of the king- dom aided this revolution, and the will of Charles was complied with. The deposed king retired to his electoral dominions of Saxony. 7. A negotiation begun with the czar was abruptly terminated by Charles, who declared that he would negotiate only at Moscow. Entering the Russian dominions with 45,000 men, he was in the way of executing his threat, when he was induced, by a treacherous promise of aid from the Cossacks, to march through the Ukraine in the depth of winter. His army was wasted by fatigue and famine, when he was encountered by the czar at Pultpwa ; and the fate of Russia, Sweden, and Poland, hung upon that battle. Charles was entirely defeated : 9,000 Swedes fell in the field, and 14,000 were taken prisoners, 1,709. Augustus was restored to the throne of Poland, and the czar took possession of Finland and Livonia. 8. With the wreck of his army, reduced to 1,800 men, Charles retreated into the Turkish dominions, and formed a camp near Ben- der. He endeavoured to prevail upon the grand seignior to avm against the czar, and succeeded after a long negotiation. Two hun- dred thousand Turks took the field, and the czar's army, far inferior in number, was surrounded, and, after ineffectual resistance, forced to capitulate to the grand vizier. The news of this capitulation de- stroyed all the hopes of Charles ; and his subsequent conduct seems the result of frenzy. The grand seignior having intimated his de- sire that the Swedes should quit his territories, Charles fortified his camp, and declared that he would defend it to the last extremity. After every means ineffectually tried to make him alter this resolu- tion, he was attacked by the Turkish army, and taken fighting sword in hand amidst a massacre of his troops. 9. In the mean time the czar and the king of Denmark were rav- aging Sweden. Charles returned in disguise with two of his officers, to his own dominions, and immediately conceived the design of wresting Norway from Denmark. Failing in the outset of this enter- prise, he was persuaded by Gortz, his prime minister, to attempt to dethrone George II., to seize a part of his continental dominions, and to place the pretender James on the throne of England. This project was consorted between Gortz and Alberoni, prime minister of Philip V. The czar joined in the scheme, and made peace with Sweden ; but an unforeseen event broke all their measures. In be- sieging the Norwegian fortress of Frederickshali, Charles was killed by a canron-ball, on the 1 1th of December, 1,718. 10. Sweden gained by the death of Charles a reformation of her government, and a salutary limitation of the arbitrary power of the sovereign. His sister Ulrica succeeded to the throne, and raised to it her husband, Frederick landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. The states made peace with all the hostile powers. The czar was now engaged in a war with Persia, in the view of obtaining the command and commerce of the Caspian. This object he accomplished, and gained, by cession from the sophi, three provinces of the Persian empire. Pefer the gregt died January 28, 1,725, and. was succeeded by the czarina Catherine, formely a Livonian captive, who possessed merit equal to her elevated station. His only son, Alexis Petrowitz, had been condemned to lose hw life for treason, and the mode of bis MODERN HISTORY. «P death, which immediately followed his condemnation, is unknown Russia owes to Peter the great all those beneficial improvements which have raised her, within the period of a century, from barba- rism and obscurity, to the highest rank among the powers of Europe SECTION LXVII. A VIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE AND LITERATURE IN EUROPE, FROM THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH TO THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 1. We have seen how much literature and the sciences were in- debted to the art of printing for their advancement and dissemination toward the end of the fifteenth century. (Sect. XXXIV., § 12.} From that period classical learning, criticism, poetry, and history made a rapid progress in most of the kingdoms of Europe. Philos- ophy did not. keep pace with literature. The dogmas of Aristotle had kept possession of the schools till the seventeenth century, and had engrafted themselves even on the doctrines of theology. It required a superior genius to dissipate the mist of error, and to break the fetters on all advancement in useful science. Such was the great Bacon lord Verulam, the most profound philosopher, and perhaps the mest universal genius, that any age has produced. We find in his works an estimate of the actual attainments in all the .sciences, a catalogue of the desiderata in each department, and a detail of the methods best suited to prosecute improvement and new discoveries. In fine, we owe to Bacon the sure method of advanc ing in knowledge, by experiment and the observation of nature, instead of system and conjecture. 2. The philosophy of Bacon produced its effect only by slow de- grees. Gassendi, though he exposed the doctrines of Aristotle, was still a theorist, and attempted to revive the atomic system of Epicu rus. Des Cartes followed in the same track, and reared a whimsical theory of the universe, produced, as he supposed, by the fortuitous combination of uloms, moving in vortices through the immensity ot space ; a theory recommended by the ingenuity with which it was supported, and its apparently solving many ot the phenomena ol nature. A century before Copernicus had published his system of the planets, which, though condemned by the church, was received by Des Cartes and the best philosophers. 3. Galileo, in 1,60P, constructed telescopes (Sect. XXXIV., § 5), and discovered the satellites of the larger planets, Jupiter and Saturn, and their motions, for which he was rewarded by imprisonment, as a supporter of the Copernican heresy. Kepler investigated the laws which regulated the motions of the planets, and the analogy between their distances from the sun and periodical revolutions. 1 he discov eries in astronomy led to improvements in navigation, and a great ad- vancement of geometry in all its branches. Napier, in 1,614, abridg- ed calculation by the invention of logarithms. The Toricellian ex Eeriments determined the weight of the atmosphere. In 1,.61S Iarvey discovered the circulation of the blood. 4. The Royal Society, which originated from private meetings ol the English philosophers, was incorporated by Charles II., in 1,662, and has greatly contributed to the advancement of the sciences and 228' MODERJM HISTORY. useful arts. The Royal Academy of Sciences was instituted m 1,666 by Lewis XIV. Similar institutions were founded in most of the coun- tries of Europe ; among which there is a communication of science, and a laudable emulation excited by the publication of their transac- tions. ft. In the end of the seventeenth century arose the immortal N ewton, who, by exhausting the most important discoveries of the laws of na- ture, has rendered it impossible for posterity to eclipse his fame. He had disco\ered, before the age of twenty-four, the theory of universal gravitation, a principle which solves the chief phenomena of nature, 4iid connects and regulates the whole machine of the universe. His theory of light and colours is the foundation of the whole science of optics, and his Principia the basis and elements of all philosophy. 6. Locke, the contemporary of Newton, successfully applied lord Bacon's mode of investigation to the study of the human mind ; and, utterly rejecting the systems of the old philosophers, examined the soul by attending to its operations. From the simple fact that all knowledge is progressive, and that an infant gains its ideas gradually through the medium of its senses, he drew the general conclusion, that there are no innate ideas in the mind, but that all are either im- mediate perceptions conveyed by the senses, or acts of the mind re- flecting on those perceptions ; a conclusion which has been obstinate- ly controverted, chiefly by drawing from it false consequences, but which has never yet -been shaken. 7. The progress of literature in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was equally remarkable with that of science* and philoso- phy. Trissino 'was the first of the moderns who composed an epic poem in the language of his country, U Italia liberata da Goli, and the first Italian who wrote a regular" tragedy, Sophonisba. Of merit much superior to the epic poem of Trissino is the Liisiad of the Portuguese Camoens, a work abounding with passages of high poetic beauty, and displaying a sublime imagination. In the end of the six- teenth century Spain produced the Araucana of Erciila, an epic poem of great inequality of merit, but frequently exhibiting novelty of figures and bold conceptions. The subject is a revolt of the Peru- vians against the Spaniards. 8. But the principal epic poems of this age are the Orlando Fu- ric-so of Ariosto, and the Gierusalemme Liberata of Tasso: the former a work most irregular in its plan, most unconnected and desultory in its conduct, most extravagant and absurd in the characters of its per- sons, but displaying alternately every excellence of poetry in the various departments of the descriptive, comic, satiric, moral, and •sublime. The Gierusalmune of Tasso, of a regular plan and perfect poiish in its structure, has been frequently brought in comparison with the equally highly finished poem of the JLneid; nor does tlie Itajian suffer much in the comparison. There is a romantic charm both in the incidents and characters of his poem, which must ever ren- der it a favourite with all readers of genuine taste. 9. From the time of Tasso the genius of epic poetry lay dormant for a century, till the days of Milton; for the Fairy Queen of Spenser is rather a romantic allegory than an epic poem. The Paradise Lost. compared with the great poems of antiquity, is more irregular and less perfect as a whole than the Iliad, Mneid, and Odyssey ; but ex- hibits, in detached parts, more of the sublime and beautiful than any of them. It has been well remarked, that the inequality of this poem prises in a^reat measure from the nature of the subject of which . MODERN HISTORY. 229 some parts are the most lofty which can enter iito the human mind, and otners could only have been supported by a laborious elegance and polish, which the author's genius could not stoop to bestow. 10. Lyric poetry was cultivated in the sixteenth century, in Italy, France, and England, but with, no great success. The less poems of Ariosto and Tasso have no tincture of the genius displayed in their greater works. Chiabrera is perhaps the only lyric poet of this period that merits distinction. In France, Ronsard and Bellay imi tated Petrarch with all his false wit, but without his passion. Marot however, in the naivete and- easy vein of his ■» humour, is justly ac counted the master of La Fontaine. In the beginning of the seven teenth century French versification received a considerable polish from the compositions of Racan, and yet more from those of Mal- herbe ; and toward the end of that century lyric poetry was cultivat- ed with high success by La Farre, Chapelle, and Bachaumont, Chau- lieu and Gresset. 11. The English lyric poetry of the sixteenth century, of Spenser, Surrey, Harrington, Sydney, and even Shakespeare, is harsh and unharmonious ; nor is much improvement discernible till the time of Cowley and Waller. The merit of Cowley as a lyric poet was too highly prized in -his own age, and is underrated in ours. With all his false wit, pedantry, and obscurity, he is often both sublime and pathetic in no moderate degree. The lyric ode in the third book of the Davideis has few parallels in the English language. As a prose writer, Cowley shines in that age with superior excellence. Waller is more polished and harmonious than any of the preceding or con- temporary poets, but his wit is quaint, and his elevation too frequent- ly bombast. 12. Dry den, in the end of the seventeenth century, carried lyric {joetry to perfection. His Ode on St Cecilia's day surpasses all the yric compositions both of ancient and modern times. He shines conspicuously as a satirist, possessing the keen and caustic wit, with- out the indelicacy, of Juvenal or Horace. His versions from Chau- cer and Boccacio are easy and spirited, and display a happy taient for poetical narrative. His numerous dramatic pieces, though exhib- iting both invention and poetic beauty, are deficient in true passion, and in the just delineation of character. 13. At the end of the sixteenth century the drama in Europe be- gan to furnish a rational entertainment/ At that period, Lope de Vega and Calderona in Spain, and Shakespeare in England, produced those pieces, which,*4hough irregular and stained with blemishes, are at this day the admiration of their countrymen. The Spanish plays of that age have been a rich mine for succeeding dramatists, both among the French, Italians, and English. The merits of Shakes- peare are familiar to every person of taste. Ignorant of the rules of his art, he is the pure child of nature, and thus exhibits often her caprices and absurdities ; but these are redeemed by the most trans- cendent beauties. The old English drama is, with all its irregular- ities, incomparably superior to the modern, both in touching the pas- sions and in displaying just views of human character. The persons are more discriminated by various and appropriate features, and the nicer shades of nearly resembling characters are thus more distinctly marked. The mixture of the comic and tragic in the same plot, though condemned by modern practice, is a great source of pleasure in the pieces of Shakespeare and his contemporaries ; nor is there any thing in such a mixture but what is consonant to nature. To a per U 230 MODERN HISTORY son of true taste it will be found often to heighten, by contrast, the capital emotion to be excited. 14. The compositions for the French stage, in the end of the seventeenth century, are strictly conformable to dramatic rules* and many of those pieces are models of a correct and polished taste. The morality of the French drama of that age and the next is in gen- eral purei than ours • but their pieces are deficient in the nice delin- eation of character, and in the power of exciting the passions. Corneille and Racine brought the French tragedy to its highest ele- vation ; as Moliere the comedy. Corneille has more grandeur and sublimity than his rival, who excels him in the tender and pathetic. The comedies of Moliere, highly amusing in the present time, were more particularly valuable in the age when they were" written, and had a sensible enect in correcting its prevailing follies ; the pedantry of the ladies, the ignorance and quackery of the physicians, and the pride and arrogance of the French noblesse. The last of the emi- nent dramatists who adorned France in the seventeenth century was the el'der Crebillon, who drew many sublime and impassioned scenes from the source of terror ; and who, in all his works, was as emi- nently the friend of virtue as his worthless son has been the pander of vice. 15. The most eminent historians of the sixteenth century are, De Thou, Davila, and Machiavel. De Thou has written the annals of his own time, from 1,545 to 1,607, with great judgment, and in most elegant Latin composition. The history of Davila, the annals of the civil wars of France in the time of the league, though the work of a partisan, is composed with no common degree of candour and impartiality. In the beginning of the sixteenth century Machia- vel wrote his History of Florence, of which the style is classical and the matter well arranged, but -too much interrupted by reflections and political discussions. In the seventeenth century Bentivoglio com- posed his History of the Civil Wars of Flanders, with the most ac- curate-knowledge of his subject, perspicuity of narrative, and ele- gance of style. Among the English historians in the beginning of that period Raleigh is the most distinguished ; though his History of the World is, in point of style, inferior to the judgment shown in the arrangement of the matter. In the latter part of the seventeenth century, Clarendon's History of the Rebellion is a work of the high- est merit, whether we consider the authenticity of the facts, the deep knowledge of human nature displayed in the delineation of the characters, or the grave and manly eloquence of the style. If, in the opposition of political opinions, he has been deemed too partial in defence of his sovereign, even his adversaries have, admitted his perfect integrity, and entire convrtion ?f the rectitude >f the ca*aie which he supports. HISTORY OF THE JEWS. SECTION I. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF MANKIND IN Til* PRIMEVAL AGES. 1. In contemplating those great outlines of history, the memorable and important events which have determined the condition of man- kind, and rendered the aspect of the moral and intellectual world such as we now view it, we shall find abundant subjects for observa- tion and reflection. In many cases we shall be obliged to have re- course to conjecture, founded on different degrees of probability ; and some of those probabilities may be so corroborated by general existing circumstances as to amount almost to certainty. 2. Of the primeval state of mankind we know little "from historical information, and can form an opinion of it only from conjecture founded on the nature of things. From the extremely slow progress ol civilization it is reasonable to suppose that men must have existed a long time before they began to write the history of such transactions and events as they deemed most important. All their care and atten tion would at first be employed in providing the means of supplying their physical wants, and of rendering their existence tolerable. Ii that state of simple nature they would not think of transmitting an ac count of their actions to posterity, and could hardly have any oc currences worth recording. Here our knowledge of human nature and of human wants will supply the deficiency of history. From the experience of our own wants, and of the means of supplying them, we may infer almost with certainty, that habitations would be built as a shelter from the inclemency ot the weather : and in fact we find this to be the case in an" those countries which are at present occupied by savages. In process of time some attention would be given to the cultivation ol the soil, to make the earth produce such vegetables as were fit for the food of man. The arts most essential to the com- fortable existence of the human species would be invented before the use of letters. 3. From all these circumstances we may reasonably suppose that the first rude sketch of history would be the traditionary tales de- livered from father to son through successive generations ; and these in reality constitute the basis of the first historical records. Such are the fabulous relations of the first historians among the Greeks. It appears that the Greeks had adopted the historical legends of the Egyptian priests, who were accustomed to cover their religion and learning with the mystical veil of allegory ; and that in many cases they mistook the Egyptian mode of allegorizing the early periods of history, and have presented to posterity an absurd and monstrous tissue of fabulous narrative of kings who never reigned, and of heroes of celestial descent 232 MODERN HISTORY. 4. Superstition being natural to man before the mind is enhgntened by philosophy, it is no wonder that the writings of the first historians contain many relations of the communication of gods and demi-gods with mankind, and of the frequent interference of supernatural agents in human affairs. The vivid imaginations of the early Greek authors, heated with superstition, and unrestrained by philosophy, expanded into wild exuberance, and fabricated the most absurd and ridiculous tales. Hence the period of time which elapsed between the establishment of political and civil society in Greece, and the Trojan war may be justly denominated the fabulous age ; and indeed most part of what is related concerning that war, has evident marks of fiction stamped upon it ; for all the historical accounts of it are originally- founded on the poems of Homer. No writings can claim the title of an authentic history of Grecian affairs before the Per- sian wars. The histories of all other heathen nations were not less fabulous and absurd than those of the Greeks^ and indeed all that we know concerning them has been transmitted to us through the medium of Greek writers. 5. When we consider the general state of the world in the early ages, with respect to political, commercial, and literary communica- tion, however we may amuse ourselves with perusing the accounts transmitted to us of the transactions of remote antiquity, reason tells us that they are nothing but fiction or historical romance. Until the Greeks (who were the inventors, or at least the improvers of arts and sciences) had attained a considerable degree of civilization and opulence, and had begun to cultivate the arts of conveniency, luxury, and elegance, little credit is due to profane history. This period cannot be fixed long before the first Persian war, which hap- pened about 503 years before the birth of Christ. -For information relative to the state of mankind, and the events which occurred before that period, we must have recourse to the writings of the Jews. 6. This consideration naturally leads us to turn our attention to those ancient records of the Jews, which have always been deemed sacred by them, and of which the authenticity has been acknowl- edged by the generality of mankind, who have perused them with due attention. The Jewish annals are the most ancient of all that nave been transmitted to us, and the most intrinsically rational and probable. They likewise contain a series of transactions and events equally curious and interesting. In them we find the only rational account of the creation of the world, and the beginning of things , of the dispersion of mankind, and the origin of ancient nations. SECTION II. SUMMARY VIEW OF JEWISH HISTORY. 1. The Israelites, or ancient Jews, were those distinguished peo- ple, who were favoured by the immediate care of the Almighty, and conducted by his especial guidance to Judea, a place of resi- dence promised to their remote ancestors. In consequence of their obstinacy, idolatry, and wickedness, and more particularly for the rejection of their Messiah, they were subdued by the Romans, after sustaining a siege ir their metropolis, Jerusalem, unparalleled in the MODERN HISTORY. 235 annals of history for its distresses, calamities, and slaughter. Jerusa- lem was reduced to ruins, the Jewish government was totally sub- verted, and the surviving people were dispersed over most parts of the world. Their descendants still remain unmixed with the rest of mankind, and are marked by their original features of national peculiarity : they adhere with the most zealous attachment to the religion of their forefathers, and cherish the hopes of restoration to their former prosperity and country by means of a glorious and tri- umphant Deliverer. 2. They preserve, with the most watchful care, the sacred books of their ancient writers. And astonishing, very astonishing it is to observe, lliat in the prophetical parts of these sacred books are contained all the events before mentioned of their extraordinary history. Their particular conduct, and the vicissitudes of their national affairs, were predicted by their prophets, and more especially by Moses, their great law-giver, in the infancy of the world, at the vast distance cf thirty-three centuries from the present times. The accomplishment of these predictions bears the fullest and most striking evidence to the truth and inspiration of their prophets, and illustrates the dis- pensations of Providence to his chosen people. 3. These sacred books contain likewise predictions the most exact of the character, office, and actions of the Messiah of the Jews, the great Law-giver of the christians, the appointed Saviour of the worH 4. Such interesting circumstances as these, in addition to the pe- culiar nature of the Jewish polity, considered as a divine institution, the curious manners and customs, and the memorable actions of the descendants of Abraham, the most ancient people of whom we hav e any authentic accounts, combine to place these books first in ordf t of importance, as in order of time. If we consider the great antiqwr ty, the subjects, and the characters cf the writers, of these books, and the place which they occupy in the order of general history, particular- ly as they stand connected with the christian revelation, they will b{ improbable ever to take place, and when no human foresight, and no calculation of chances, could guide them to the discovery of the particular affairs, which fulfilled their pre- dictions. Moses, in a long and most interesting detail of threats and promises, foretold the exact manner in which his people were ordain- ed to be happy or miserable, according as they followed or disobeyed the divine laws. At a subsequent period, when Jerusalem was laid in ruins, and the Jews were groaning under the sorrows of the Baby- lonish captivity, Isaiah solemnly addressed Cyrus by his name, more than a hundred years before his birth, as the deliverer of Israel, and the new founder of the Holy City* When Babylon was shining in the meridian of its glory, and its monarchs ruled over all the nations of the east with the most despotic sway, the same prophet predicted the total subversion of their empire, and the complete desolation of thfeir vast metropolis. That all these and numerous other predictions were exactly verified by the events, are truths confirmed by the evi- dence of profane as well as sacred history. 4. The same inspired prophets had a much more grand and im- portant object in view, than to declare the future dispensations of r rovidence to one nation in particular ; for they announced, in terms at first dark and mysterious, but progressively more clear and cir- cumstantial, the future birth of a Messiah, a glorious king, a divine legislator, who was to abolish the sacrifices and religious institutions of the Jews, and to proclaim and establish a general law for the observance and happiness of all mankind. Here the evangelists con- tribute their aid to illustrate the declarations of the prophets, and unite the history of the Old with that of the New Testament, in tfie most close and indissoluble bonds of union. * Isaiah, B. C. 757. Cyrus, B. C. 589. Rett's Interpreter of Prophecy, vol i, p. 130. MODERN HISTORY. 237 5. The historical books of scripture, considered from the time of the giving of the law to Moses to the reformation in the worship and government by Nehemiah, after the Babylonish captivity, contain a summary account of the Jewish affairs for a period of eleven centu- ries.* They were evidently not intended to give a complete detail of national transactions, as their writers had a more sublime and im- portant end in view. To illustrate the prophecies, by relating cir- cumstances which existed at the time when they were uttered, and to show their accomplishment ; to record various revelations of the divine will, and to describe the state of religion among the Hebrews, and the various dispensations of Providence, in public as well as in private occurrences, seem to have been their chief objects. Hence it is that the chain of history is sometimes broken into detached parts, and its detail is interrupted by a recital of private transactions. The books of scripture occasionally assume the form, and comprise the beauties of a very interesting kind of biography. Of this nature are the several accounts of Job, Ruth, and Esther ; but they are far from being unconnected with the principal design of the sacked writers ; inasmuch as they show that the same divine Providence which presid- ed over the nation at large, extended its particular care to individ- uals, and that the examples of private virtue were inseparable from the great interests of public welfare and happiness. 6. The Israelites, for many ages separated from the rest of man- kind by their peculiar institutions, were little acquainted with com- merce, and made small advances in those arts, wiiich, with a refine ment, and a' diversity of employments, introduce luxury and corrup- tion of manners. They were governed by equal laws, and possessed nearly equal property. They admitted no hereditary distinction of rank, except in favour of the regal tribe of Judah, and the sacer- dotal family of Levi. Their .occupations from the earliest times were of the most simple kind, and consisted in pasturage and agriculture. To guide the plough, and tend the flock, were employments which, recommended by the innocence of primeval manners, and dignified by length of time, were exercised by kings, prophets, and generals. Moses was called from feeding his flock, to conduct the Israelites to the promised land ; Elisha forsook the plough, to be invested with the mantle of prophecy ; and Gideon left the threshing-floor, to lead the army of his country to battle. 7. The country of Judea presented a scene diversified by fruit- ful valliss, barren rocks, and lofty mountains, and was watered by numerous streams. It produced the palm-tree, the balsam, the vine, the olive, the fig, and all the fruits which abound in the more tem- perate regions of Asia. From the labours of the field, and from cul- tivating the vine, the attention of the Israelites was regularly called by religious worship, which was intimately blended with the civil constitution of the state. The splendour of their public services, the pomp and magnificence of their rites and ceremonies, the stated re- currence of their various festivals and sacrifices, the sabbath, the passover, the celebration of the sabbatical year, and the jubilee ; and, more than all, the constant experience of divine interposition, filled their minds with the most awful and grand ideas, and gave them the deepest impressions of the majesty, power, goodness, and justice oS God. * Mosea. B. C. 1,571. Nehemiah. B. C. 546. Gray's Ke> to the Old Testament, p. 124. 238 JEWISH HISTORY 8. Ihese were the circumstances which, combining to form their national manners, had the greatest influence upon their writings. The historical style is marked by the purest simplicity of ideas, oc casionally raised to a tone of elevation. In the works of Moses there is a majesty of thought, which is most strikingly expressed in plain and energetic language. In the prophetical writings the greatest splendour and sublimity of composition are conspicuous. They are enriched by those glowing images, and raised by that grandeur ot diction, which charm the classical reader in the most admired pro- ductions of Greece and Rome. The royal psalmist is eloquent, dig- nified, and pathetic. All the beauties of composition unite in Isaiah, such is the majesty of his ideas, the propriety, beauty, and fertility of his imagery, and the elegance of his language, employed upon the noblest subjects which could possibly engage our attention. Jere- miah excels in those expressions of tenderness, which excite, with the most pleasing enthusiasm, the feelings of compassion. 9. By such peculiar beauties of composition are recommended the most interesting details of events, and the most faithful deline- ations of characters. The great Creator calls all things into ex- istence with his omnipotent word. The first parents of mankind, innocent and happy, are blessed with his immediate converse, and enjoy the "blooming groves of Paradise. Joseph, the pious, the chaste, and the wise, after having undergone great afflictions, and rising by his extraordinary merit to an office of the highest honour in the court of Pharaoh, discovers himself in a manner the most pathetic to his repentant brethren, and is restored to his agea and affectionate father, whom he invites into Egypt to share his pros- perity. The children of Israel, guided by the divine Power, which veils its glory in a cloud, pass safely through the Red Sea, in which the host of the impious Pharaoh are overwhelmed. Upon the sum- mit of Mount Sinai Moses receives the two tables of the command ments, amid the thunder, lightning, clouds, and darkness, which obscure the great Jehovah from his eyes. The royal psalmist sings the wonders of creation, the powers of his God, and his own de- . feats and triumphs. The peaceful and prosperous Solomon, whose renown was extended over all the east, rears the structure of the magnificent temple ; and amid the multitudes of his adoring sub- jects consecrates it to the service of the one true God, in a prayer which equally attests his wisdom and his piety. In the visions of futurity Isaiah beholds the deliverance of the chosen people ; the complete destruction of the great empire of Babylon, by which they were enslaved ; and the promised Messiah, the Saviour of mankind, sometimes depressed by want and sorrow, and sometimes arrayed in the emblems of divine majesty and power. He predicts the final recal of the Jews to their native land, and the wide diffu- sion of the christian faith. Jeremiah sinks a weeping mourner over the ruins of his native city, deplores its calamities, and consoles his countrymen by expressly declaring, that they should never cease to be a nation to the end of the world. Daniel explains to Bel- shazzar the mystic characters inscribed upon the walls of his palace, and views, in his^wide prospect of future times, the fates of the four great empires of the world. Cyrus, long before announced by Isaiah, as the great subverter of the Babylonish empire, and the restorer of the glory of Jerusalem, publishes his decree for the restoration of the captive Jews ; and the holy city and temple rise from their ruins with new grandeur and magnificence. The JEWISH HISTORY. 239 Jews are settled and reformed by the pious care of Nehemiah, and the canon of the scriptures is closed by Malachi. This last of the prophets enjoins the strict observance of the law of Moses, till the great Precursor should appear, in the spirit of Elias, to announce the approach of the Messiah, who was to establish a new and an everlasting covenant* 10. Such are a few of the interesting circumstances contained in the books of the Old Testament, which engage our attention, charm our imagination, and gratify our curiosity, while they confirm oui belief in. the great evidences of revelation. In all these works we may remark the bright truths of religious instruction, shining forth amid the venerable simplicity of the most ancient history ; a history unrivaljed for the grandeur of the ideas which it conveys the liveliness of its descriptions, and the number of its beautiful and sublime images. 11. In these books of sacred history there is an impartiality oi* narrative, which is an undoubted characteristic of truth. If we read the Lives of Plutarch, or the History of Livy, we soon dis- cover that these writers composed their works under the influence of many prejudices in favour of their respectives countries. A veil is thrown over the defects of their heroes, but their virtues are placed in a strong light, and painted in vivid colours. In the scrip- tures, on the contrary, both of the Old and the New Testament, the strictest impartiality prevails. The vices of David, Solomon, and their successors, are neither concealed nor palliated. There is no ostentation of vanity, no parade of panegyric ; virtue charms with her native beauty, and vice requires no disguise to conceal her de- formity. The characters of persons are sketched, and the effects of the passions are represented without reserve or concealment; and the moral to be drawn from each description is so obvious, as to ac- count for the frequent omission of remarks and applications. The abject condition of the Jews, when prohibited the use of weapons of war by the victorious Philistines ; their relapses into idolatry, their perverseness of disposition, and their various defeats and captivities, with every circumstance of private as well as public disgrace, are recorded without palliation or reser¥e. Always rising superior to the motives which induce other authors to violate the purity and de- grade the majesty of truth, these writers keep one great and most important end constantly in view, and show the various methods by which the providence of God effected his gracious designs ; how he produced good from evil, and employed the sins and follies of man- kind as the instruments of his gracious purposes 12. An acquaintance with the affairs of the Jewish nation forms the first link in the chain of ancient records. Thus we may observe the connexion which subsists between the branches of sacred and profane history. We place the works of pagan writers in their f>roper situation, and give them additional value, by making them subservient to the cause of religion, and instrumental in the illustra- tion of revealed truth. If the student is not called upo.n by profes- sional inducements to read the scriptures in their original languages, he may rest contented with translations ; and it seems to be a well # For these very impiessive passages of the Bible, see Gen. i, ii, xliv xlv ; Exod..xiv, xx ; the Psalms ; 1 Kings viii ; Isaiah ii, vi, ix, x, xi, xiv xxviii, xxxii, xl, xliii, lx, lxi, lxiii, lxv, and more particularly liii ; La ment. i, &c. ; Daniel v, vii ; Ezra vii ; Nehem. xiii ; Malachi iii, iv. 240 JEWISH HISTORY. founded opinion among the learned, that he may rely with confidence upon the general fidelity of our English version. SECTION V. OF THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD. 1. An authentic account of the creation of the world, and of the primitive state of mankind is to be found only in the bible. There we are informed by Moses, the most ancient of all historians, that in the beginning God created the earth, the celestial bodies, and all things both animate and inanimate ; that he created one man and one woman, named Adam and Eve, and placed them in a garden or para- dise, situated in the land of Eden. According to the best chronolo gers the creation of the world was accomplished in the year 4,004 A. C. Adam and Eve soon transgressed the commands of God, and were therefore expelled from their delightful abode. 2. Adam and Eve had two sons, whose names were Cain and Abel. Cain, the elder, was a husbandman, and Abel was a shepherd. Cain was of a vicious, Abel of a virtuous disposition. Hence the worship of Abel was more acceptable to the Lord than that of Cain. Insti- gated by envy and n.alice, Cain killed his brother when they were together in the field. For this atrocious crime he was severely pun- ished by the Lord, and became " a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth." 3. After the murder of Abel, another son, named Seth, was born to Adam. From this time the descendants of Adam multiplied rapid- ly, and at length spread over Lie face of the earth. 4. One of the most remarkaole circumstances of the former world is the longevity of the people. Adam lived 930 years, Seth 912 years, Jared 962 years,- Methuselah 969 years, Noah 950 years. 5. In process of time mankind became so wicked that the Lord was resolved to destroy them by a deluge. Amid the general cor- ruption and depravity of the human race one virtuous man was found. JN oah, the son of Lamech, zealous for the reformation of men, be- came a preacher of righteousness to the degenerate and vicious people among whom he lived, and employed both his council and au- thority to reclaim them ; but in vain. And God commanded Noah to build a great ship, called an ark^ and to put in it his wife, his three sons and tbeir wives, and also a few males and females of every spe- cies of living things, that they might be saved from the general del- uge which would shortly overwhelm the whole earth, and extirpate ail creatures. The flood continued 150 days, and then gradually sub- sided. Noah and his family, and all the animals, went out of the ark (2,343 A. C.) ; and in process of time they multiplied and spread over the surface of the earth, as we now see them. 6. Of the literary and scientific attainments of the antediluvians we know very little. From the Mosaic account they do not appear to have been great. Moses has briefly informed us what was the oiigin of various customs and arts, and has recorded the names of their inventors. Lamech the son of Cain gave the first example of polygamy. Cain built, the first city, and introduced the use of weights and measures. One of Cain's grandsons "was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle." Jubal invented music ; Tubal Cain the arts of forging iron, and of casting brass ; •ind * woman called Naamah the arts of spinning aud weaving JEWISH HISTORY, 24 Their religious rites were few and simple. They worshipped God »y prayer, and sacrifices of certain animals. SECTION VI. FIRST AGES AFTER THE DELUGE. i. The remembrance of the three sons of Noah, the first foun- ders of the nations of the earth after the deluge, has been preserved among the several nations descended from them. Japhet peopled the greater part of the west, and continued long famous under the name of Japetus. Ham was reverenced as a deity by the Egyptians, under the title of Jupiter Hammon. The memory of Shem has always been venerated by his descendants, the Hebrews, who de- rived their name from his son Heber. 2. Except the building of the tower of Babel no event of impor- tance occurs in the history of Moses during the space of nearly 1,100 years from the deluge to the call of Abraham. About 100 years after the deluge the descendants of Noah were become nu- merous at the foot of Mount Ararat, and in the plain of Shinaar, ex tending along the banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris. They found that the country was not extensive enough to contain them much longer, and therefore that they must separate. They agreed to build a very high tower, which might be a signal of union, it they should ever desire to return to their native country. When they hacl raised the tower to a certain height, the workmen suddenly perceiv- ed that they did not understand the. words of one another, and that all spoke different languages. Consequently it was impossible to continue the work, and the people dispersed in different directions. Hence the origin of different languages, and the dispersion of the' human race over the habitable globe. 3. Soon after this memorable event, Nimrod, a violent and impe- rious man, built the city of Babel, or Babylon, and laid the founda- tion of the first great empire, called the Babylonian, which was afterwards so famous in the history of the Jews. SECTION VII. OF THE JEWS. 1. The Jews derived their origin from Abraham, the son of Terah^ the tenth in lineal descent from Shem the son of Noah. The de- scendants of Shem spread from Armenia, where the ark is supposed to have rested after the deluge, to Mesopotamia, and thence into Chaldea, where Abraham was born. As Abraham was appointed to he the progenitor of a great and distinguished nation, God separated him from the other descendants of Shem, by causing Terah to re- move from Chaldea into the country of Haram, near the borders of Mesopotamia, where he died. Abraham intended to settle in Haram, but in obedience to the will of God, he removed into the land of Canaan, which was appointed to be the inheritance of his posterity. From this period commences a long series of events, which are re- corded hi the book of Genesis, and are represented as immediately directed by the Lord.* 2 After Abraham arrived in Canaan, his hr? t carp giM to erect hd 242 TKW1SH HISTORY. altar for the worship of God, who appeared to him, and confirmed the promise which he had before made to him, to give the country to his children. When he had lived some time in Canaan, a fam- ine compelled him to remove his family into Egypt, (1,916 A. C), where, he resided till the famine ceased, and then -returned. His wife Sarah, when she was advanced in years, brought him a son, who was called Isaac. When Isaac grew to man's estate he married Rebecca, who was afterward the mother of Jacob. In process of time Jacob had ten sons, who were the fathers of ten tribes. By the command of the Lord, Jacob took the name of Israel, and hence his posterity were called Israelites, or the children of Israel. 3. Joseph, the ninth son, was the favourite of his father, which excited the jealousy and hatred of his eider brothers, who sold him to some merchants, and told Jacob that he had been devoured by wild beasts. The merchants carried their slave into Egypt, and sold him to Potiphar, an officer of king Pharaoh's guard, 1,724 A. C. Joseph served Potiphar with such diligence and fidelity, that he soon committed to him the care of his domestic ^affairs. The wife of Potiphar repeatedly attempted to seduce Joseph into the gratification of her amorous propensities ; but her immodest ad- vances being rejected with disdain, she was incensed, and malicious- ly accused him of an attempt to violate her chastity. On this false accusation he was immediately thrown into prison, but was soon liberated by the king. Such is, in all ages and in all countries, the vindictive disposition of a lascivious woman, whose allurements have been neglected or resisted. The disappointed wanton prosecutes, with everlasting enmity, the innocent object of her carnal desires ! 4. Joseph, being skilful in the interpretation of dreams, was intro- duced to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who was perplexed by two dreams which he could not explain. Joseph interpreted his dreams, which predicted abundant products of the earth for seven years, and after- ward a dreadful famine for seven years. He was released from pris- on, and appointed to conduct the affairs of Egypt under Pharaoh. 5. In consequence of the famine with which Canaan was afflicted (;?.5 it had been foretold), Jacob and his family removed into Egypt, ! ,702 A. C. Joseph assigned them a residence in the land of Goshen, a fertile country fit for pasturage, situated between the Nile and the Red Sea. In this happy country the descendants of Jacob increased and tlourished, and became so numerous and prosperous that at iength the envy and fears of the Egyptians began to be excited against them. To check their prosperity rigorous measures were pursued by the rulers of Egypt. Their lives were imbittered by hard service, and all their male children were ordered to be drowned at their birth. G. Till the time of their residence in the land of Goshen, the He- brews had led a pastoral life, and had not been subject to any regular form of government. Children were, obedient to their parents, and servants to their masters. Religion appeared in its most simple and amiable form. One God, the Creator and Governor of the world, was worshipped without images, and without an established priest- hood. Equal purity in faith and worship, in principle and practice, prevailed among the people. But in proportion as wealth and •uxury increased, the religion of the Hebrews became more sensual. Like all eastern nations they were prone to the worship of the heav- enly bodies. Priestcraft employed images, and- the delusive artifices of superstition to attract the devotion of the people. JEWISH HISTORY. 243 ". The history of the Hebrews, during the patriarchal ages, is' related in the first book of Moses, with simplicity, minuteness, and apparent fidelity. There we read a description of ancient customs and manners in the lives of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The story of Joseph and his brethren has been always admired for the simplicity of the language, and the affecting cir- cumstances which it exhibits. As the numerous facts and incidents in the early periods of the history of the Hebrews are familiar to every reader, and are besides of little importance in the political annals of the nation, it seems superfluous to enter into a detail of them. We shall therefore next present a compendious view of the history of the Hebrews from the period of their departure out of Egypt, 1,487 A. C. * 4 8. After much oppression and suffering, God raised up a deliverei of- his chosen people, who rescued them from a state of cruel servi- tude, and brought them out of the land of bondage. This deliverer was Moses, the most distinguished personage of ancient times, born 1,567 A. C. In consequence of Pharaoh's inhuman decree, Moses was exposed" by his mother on the banks of the Nile, and was found by the king's daughter, who compassionately adopted him, and thus saved his life. Before their departure from Egypt, and in their long and tedious journey of forty years through the wilderness, many extraordinary and supernatural events are recorded in the Bible, and ascribed to the miraculous interposition of the Lord in behalf of his people. During their wanderings in the desert, they received from their illustrious guide, with many other signal proofs of divine favour a system of religion and laws, under the sanction of God. 9. The Mosaic code, though the most ancient that has been trans mitted to posterity, contains the best maxims of legislative wisdom. It is an admirable summary of our various duties to God and man ; and it enforces the observance of those duties by the powerful mo rives of gratitude, hope, and fear. It directs our adoration to one God, the author of all blessings ; commands us to reverence his holy name; and denounces dreadful vengeance against those who shall transfer to idols, or to the creature, that worship which is due only to the Creator. To prevent the neglect of those sacred obligations, it ordains a Sabbath every week, to be set apart for rest, and for pious meditation on the works and the beneficence of God. Four of the statutes of the Mosaic code comprehend the principles of universal jurisprudence. 1. Thou shalt not kill. 2. Thou shall not commit adul- tery. 3. Thou shalt not steal. 4. Thou shalt not bear false witness. They have formed the basis of criminal law in all civilized nations, and are essential to the good order of society. They conclude with an dmonition against avarice, the incentive to the commission of all offences. 10. While Moses lived m Egyp. ne must have remarked the bane ful effects of the .abuse of unlimited power entrusted to priests. He therefore wisely separated the sacerdotal jurisdiction from the civil The ministers of religion were not allowed to interfere in seculai affairs. Their duties were confined to the worship of God ; ano their civil authority extended no farther than to take cognizance of such offences or trespasses as wlere immediately connected with re ligious worship. The care and direction of all secular concerns were, committed to the elders of the people, who administered justice un- der the control of a supreme magistrate, emphatically styled a jitdge. In the judge was vested all power civil and military. It ap- ?44 JEWISH HISTORY. . . pears however that the high priest at length invaded the military prerogative of the judge. 11. Sensible of the ignorance and perverseness of the people under his care, Moses omitted no precepts nor instructions which ne thought might tend to inform their minds, to regulate their con- duct, to correct their vicious propensities, and to promote their wel- fare and security.' He prescribed rules for their diet, for f he preser- vation of their health, and for the treatment and cure of those diseases to which they were most liable. Having conducted the Israelites through many dangers and difficulties within sight of the promised land, and appointed Joshua his successor, Moses died in \44-~ A. C. SECTION VIII. THE HISTORY OF THE HEBREWS DURING THE GOVERNMENT OF THE JUDGES. This period is extremely turbulent and sanguinary ; a period of barbarism, ignorance, and anarchy. We know not certainly how tne judges were chosen, nor what was the extent of their power They appear to have been military chiefs, for they commanded armies, and some of them acquired fame by successful expeditions against the enemiss of their country. 2. The chiefs or rulers of the Syrian kingdoms, principalities, or townships, had chosen no common leader, or generalissimo, not digested any regular plan of defence against the Hebrews, who had been long hovering on the frontiers of Syria, and betrayed hostile intentions ; consequently many of these petty states on both sides of the river Jordan w«re subdued, and the inhabitants massacred, before any league was formed for their mutual defence. At lengtfcu they became apprehensive of utter destruction from their fierce and cruel invaders, and a general alliance was concerted among the remaining kings and chiefs of the country between the Jordan and the Mediterranean sea. Joshua twice attacked the combined army unexpectedly, and defeated it with great slaughter. Most of the in- habitants, except those who resided in impregnable cities on the sea coast, were put to the sword, or compelled to flee from the ven- geance of their enemy. Their possessions were divided among the tribes of Israel ; and thus the victorious Hebrews conquered and occupied the southern parts of Syria, called Judea or Canaan, and still known by the name of Palestine. Joshua having on man}? occasions received miraculous assistance in the perilous conquest of Canaan, and in the execution of the arduous and important offices of a government of incessant activity and energy, died in 1,439 A. C. leaving the Israelites in the quiet enjoyment of the country which the Lord had formerly promised to Abraham and his posterity. 3. After the conquest of Canaan the Hebrews did not continue long to observe and obey the institutions of Moses. They fell into apostacy and confusion. They were alternately harassed by intestine commotions, and reduced to temporary bondage by the nations which they had before conquered. When relieved from the miseries of a foreign yoke, they commonly became subject to the more grievous oppressions of domestic fyrann . But in the various changes of their JEWISH HISTORY. 245 manners and fortunes, it is remarkable that some of their gross- est idolatries, and severest afflictions, happened when the civil power and the authority of the priesthood were exercised by the same person. 4. After the death of Joshua the Israelites were governed by elders about 20 years. Then followed an anarchy of about 18 years, during which they were engaged in many successful and unsuccessful wars, and were often reduced to servitude. After the government of the Hebrews had continued with little interruption, about 295 years, under twelve successive judges, in the form prescribed by Moses, Eli, the high-priest united inhis person those pow r ers and functions which, before his accession to the supreme magistracy, had been kept distinct. Eli appears to have been equally incapable of discharging the civil, the military, and the religious duties of his high offices. The people fell into idolatry, and were subjugated by an ancient nation called the Philistines. In a great battle with the Philistines the army of the Hebrews was routed with dreadful slaughter, and the two profligate sons of Eli were killed. The news of this disaster put an end to the life of Eli, after he had governed the Israelites forty years. 5. The next and last judge of the Hebrews was Samuel the prophet, 1,1 12 A. C. He brought back the people to a sense of then duty, and soon restored the departed glory of Israel by a great vic- tory over the Philistines. They now recovered their liberty, and the cities which had been taken from them in former wars. Samuel was indefatigable in the administration of justice. When age had rendered him incapable of executing his laborious duties, he united his two sons with him in the administration of the government. But their evil conduct offended the people, who complained to Sam- uel that his sons were not worthy to succeed him as judges. They demanded a king to govern them. • Samuel therefore assembled the people, and explained to them the extreme danger of changing their ancient form of government to that of a monarchy ; but in vain. T ( iey persisted in their resolution, and a man named Saul was ap- pf inted the first king of the tjebrews, after the government by judges had subsisted, with some intermission, about 356 years, from J jshua to Saul. SECTION IX. RETROSPECT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE HEBREWS. 1. The advancement of Saul to the regal dignity was the second change made in the constitution given by Moses. The common- wealth was originally a theocracy; and the people acknowledged uo other king but God. They paid respect to the priests, as the superintendents of his worship ; and they obeyed the judges, a« the interpreters of his laws, and the delegates of his power. The succession to the priesthood was fixed, being made hereditary in the family of Aaron. The office of ruler, or judge, being apparent ly left to the appointment of God, and determinable neither by the choice of the people, nor by lineal descent, gam access to disturbance, violence, and intrigue. Moses prevented any public commotion by naming and consecrating a successor to himself. X2 $46 JEWISH HISTORY 2. After the death of Joshua intestine divisions, or rather a spirit of licentiousness and rapine, threw the nation intc i state of anarciiy and confusion. As this disunion and civil disorder exposed them to the invasions of the adjacent states, military talents and success were regarded as infallible proofs of divine favour, and conferred upon any person so distinguished, the title and authority of judge. Gideon obtained many signal victories over the Philistines, the invetente enemies of the Hebrews, and enriched his soldiers with plunder. Out of gratitude for his services, the people offered to make him and his posterity their rulers. Though he declined Hip name of judge, yet he retained the power, and appropriated to himself the most valuable part of the spoils of his enemies. His natural son Abimelech succeeded to the office of judge by force and violence. Sacred history does not inform us how the next two judges obtained their dignity. After them the supreme power was committed to cne of Gilead's illegitimate issue, on account of his valour and military talents. Thus the office of judge continued to fluctuate till it was annexed to the high priesthood in the person cf Eli, as has been re- lated. The death of his two vicious sons interrupted the successioR in his line. The office was lastly conferred on Samuel, whose un- just and rapacious sons were thought unworthy to succeed him. The people having received no permanent benefits from the administra- tion either of judges or of priests, resolved to appoint a king to govern them. This political innovation was the result of levity and impa- tience rather than of mature deliberation. It neither gave stability to the new government nor prevented the evils of the old. SECTION X. REGAL GOVERNMENT OF THE HEBREWS. 1. The reign of Saul began about 1,091 A. C. He was a shep- herd of lofty stature. The beginning of his reign was auspicious, and distinguished by a complete victory gained over the Ammonites, which made him popular among his subjects. But he incurred the displeasure of Samuel, the prophet, and his whole reign of 40 years, was a continued scene of foreign or domestic troubles. Being de- feated in a battle with the Philistines in 1,051 A. C, he killed him- self. 2. Two candidates preferred their claim to the vacant throne Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, founded his pretensions on the right of im- mediate descent, and was supported by many of the tribes. David, a young shepherd, was famous for killing, with a stone thrown from a sling, a Philistine named Goliath, a man of gigantic ; size and strength. He had likewise been privately anointed by Samuel before the death of Saul; and his title, as of divine appointment, was therefore acknowledged by the powerful tribe of Judah. A civil war ensued, which lasted above seven years, and was terminat- ed by the assassination of Ish-bosheth/ All the tribes now submit- ted to David, and the kingdom became hereditary -in -his family though the right of succession was still unsettled, and was transfer- able from one branch to another at the will of the reigning sover- eign. This appears from Solomon's succession to the throne in preference to his elder brother. 3. The reign of David is illustrious and interesting. He enlarged JEWISH HISTORY. 24 the bounds of Palest ne by conquest, took Jerusalem, which he made the capital of his dominions, and enriched himself and his subjects with the spoils of his enemies. He revived among the people an attachment to religion by the institution of solemn ceremonies : an J he introduced a taste for the arts, by inviting into the country able mechanics and artists for the completion of the grand editices which he erected. 4. The latter part of David's reign was unfortunate. The king .Join was ravaged by pestilence, famine, and disastrous wars. His mind was harassed by domestic misfortunes. Some of his sons weie disobedient and wicked. His favourite son Absalom raised a rebel- lion with a design to dethrone his father; but was defeated and slain- David caused his son Solomon to be crowned in 1,01 1 A. C, and diea in 1,010 A. C, having reigned seven years and a half over Judah, and 33 years over all Israel. 5. The reign of Solomon presents a splendid view of the kingdom of Israel in the height of its prosperity, felicity, and glory, enjoying all the .blessings of tranquillity in such a manner, and tor such a length of time, as it never experienced in any former or subsequent period. It directed the councils of all the petty states between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean ; and held the balance of power between the two great monarchies of Egypt and Assyria. Com- merce flourished in a degree whicb,~at that early period of the world, must appear extraordinary. The fleets of Israel, under the direc- tion of Tyrian mariners, traded to the land of Ophir, which some suppose to be a district in Ethiopia, on the eastern coast of Africa. To this country they probably went by the Red Sea. By their lu- crative voyages they augmented the wealth of the nation, which David had already enriched by the spoils of war.' But this agreea- ble and prosperous condition did not continue long. Solomon, elated by uniform prosperity, set no'bounds to his magnificence and luxury and laid heavy taxes on the people to enable him to support his pro- fuse expenditure. These burdensome imposts created disaffection in the minds of his subjects, and toward the end of his reign gave rise to a powerful faction, at the head of which was a haughty and impetuous young man called Jeroboam. 6. The most remarkable event in the reign of Solomon is the building of a magnificent temple at Jerusalem, which was completed in about seven years. The plan had been formed by David, and materials, workmen, and money, provided for its execution. This was probably the most superb and costly fabric that has been erected in ancient times. * The wisdom of Solomon is proverbial. The books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are ascribed to- him, either as the author or col- lector; and abound with precepts and maxims that are applicable to every condition of life. But notwithstanding the superior knowl- edge for which Solomon was so justly celebrated, he appears to have been immersed in sensual pleasures. He had 700 wives of different countries and religions., beside 300 concubines ! The allurements of those voluptuous women led him into effeminacy, and the excess- ive indulgence of the animal passions, and into the neglect of his important duties to God and his people ; and their influence and su- perstitions at length drew him into idolatry. This illustrious and renowned monarch reigned 40 years, and died in 971 A. C, without leaving any memorial of his power. 7. With Solomon expired the grandeur and the tranquillity of the 243 .JEWISH HISTORY, Hebrews. Upon the accession of his son Rehoboam to the. throne the faction of Jeroboam broke out into open rebellion, and terminat- ed in the revolt of the ten tribes from their allegiance to-the house of David. The tribes of .Judah and Benjamin continued loyal to their lawful sovereign. The revolted tribes elected Jeroboam for their king, *md the monarchy was split into the two separate king doms of Israel and Judah, 971 A. C. 8. The policy of .Jeroboam produced a religious as well as a po- litical separation. While the kings of Judah held the temple where the sacrifices were offered, and whither all the people were obliged to resort at stated times, they would always have an ascendancy over the kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam therefore thought it neces- sary to adopt some measures to prevent the frequent visits of his subjects to Jerusalem, the metropolis of the kingdom of' Judah. The priests, the Levites, and all who were concerned in the.ministry of religion, were firmly attached to the house of David ; and Jero- boam supposed that they would naturally exert the influence which religion gave them over the minds of the people, to alienate their affection from his governments and to bring them back to their alle- giance to their lawful sovereign. To prevent the obvious conse- quences of the continuance of his. subjects in religious communion with the house of David and kingdom of Judah, Jeroboam sacrificed the interest of religion to his political motives. He built a new temple, and instituted a new priesthood ; and thus produced a new schism 'among the followers of the Mosaical laws, which was neve* extinguished. Soon after this separation, the religion of the ten tribes under Jeroboam, deviating more and more from the original institutions of Moses, became a mixture of J udaism and Pagan idol- atry. 9. After this memorable epoch in the history of the Israelites we find little more in their annals than such transactions and events as constitute the ordinary subjects of political records. The kingdom of Judah adhered with inflexible attachment to princes of the house of David ; but usurpations in the kingdom of Israel were common. The history of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah during a period of almost 400 years, till the burning of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnez- zar, may, with the exception of a few intervals, be called the an- nals of disunion, vice, wars, massacres, servitude, famine, and prsti- lence. In this long period of general wickedness and misery, one of the most remarkable events is a great battle fought between Jeroboam and Abijam the successor of Rehoboam. The army of the former consisted of eight hundred thousand men, that of the latter of four hundred thousand. Jeroboam was defeated, and rive hundred thousand of his men were killed in the battle.* 10. At last the kingdom of the ten tribes was extinguished. The people were transported into Assyria, and dispersed into different parts of the country, whence they never returned. The common people who were left in Canaan were intermixed with strangers and from that mixture of different nations sprung the motley race, which were afterward known by^ the name of Samaritans. The sad catastrophe of the- kingdom of Israel is described by the proph- ets in very pathetic terms. The infants and pregnant women were murdered with horrid barbarity. The men, who had not been slain m battle, nor had not escaped by flight, were dragged into bondage. * The limits of this work do not admit a particular history of the gene- rally uninteresting reigns from this period to the Babylonish captivity. JEWISH HISTORY. 240 ai A their country was divided among the colonies of the conquerors. This event happened about 720 A. C., after the kingdom had sub- sisted about 254 years. 11. The tottering kingdom of Judah st/ll continued to enjoy a precarious existence ; invaded at different times by the Babylonians, rendered tributary, and finally subjugated ; its metropolis and temple razed to their foundations by that mighty conqueror Nebuchadnez- zar, 584 A. C. ; and all the principal persons, and the must skilful artists of every kind, removed to Babylon. Thus ends the kingdom of J ud ea, after it had subsisted 468 years from the beginning of the reign of David, and 388 years from the separation ot Judah and the ten tribes. SECTION XI. RESTORATION OF THE JEWS TO THEIR LIBERTY AND COUNTRY. 1 . The privation of liberty, and the miseries of bondage seem to have brought the people of Israel and Judah to a sense of their past transgressions. Unable to resist the power of man, they now placed their sole confidence in the goodness and mercy of God, Neither promises nor threats could induce them to abandon their duty, and worship the idols of the heathens. 2. After they had been in captivity 70 years, Cyrus, king of Persia, naving conquered Babylon, set them at liberty, and issued a decree, by which they were permitted to return to their own country, and to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, 543 A. C. He restored to them all the sacred utensils which Nebuchadnezzar had taken away . from the temple. He laid down a plan of the new temple, and ordered that the expense of erecting it should be paid out of the royal treasury. All who desired it were allowed to remain in their present places of residence, and to contribute as much as they pleas- ed to the holy edifice. It may be proper to observe in this place, that the Israelites who returned from the captivity of Babylon were then and ever after ward called Jews, because the tribe of Judah was the most power- ful of all the tribes of Israel, and indeed almost the only one which was considerable after their restoration to their liberty and country. 3. Many of the Israelites chose to remain at Babylon. Those who returned to Palestine began the work of the temple with alac- rity and vigour. Its progress suffered a temporary obstruction through the intrigues of their enemies, and the caprice of Cyrus's immediate successors. But in the beginning of the reign of Darius, the decree of Cyrus in favour of the Jews was ratified, and many new clauses were added for their effectual assistance and security A particular charge was given to the governors of Syria and Sama ria, not only to prevent any further obstruction of the work, but also to furnish supplies out of the tribute of those provinces for carrying it on with greater expedition ; and it was declared that all persons who should act contrary to these instructions would be punished with death. 4. Darius continued to manifest his favour for the Jews, during the remainder of his long reign. Their privileges were confirmed*" to them by his son Xerxes. Their interest was still greater with 32 250 JEWISH HISTORY. Artaxerxfc3, the Ahasuerus of scripture, tliroug.li the influence -* his queen Esther, a Jewess, and also through the service of her uncle lYlordecai, who had discovered and frustrated a conspiracy against the King's life. From Artaxerxes, Ezra obtained very liberal donations, to be applied to the service of the temple ; and full powers to gov- ern the Jews as the divine will should direct. The like commission was also granted to Nehemiah, who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, and reformed many abuses both civil and religious. AfL*r these two we find no more governors of Judea, which prob- ably became subject to the governor of Syria, from whom the high- priests might immediately derive their authority. In this prosperous state were the Jews about 420 years before the christian era. 5. From this time we may ascribe most of the misfortunes which befel the Jewish nation to men who aspired at the sacerdotal dignity through ambition and avarice more than zeal for religion.^ For whole centuries the office of high-priest was the chief object of men's ambition. The candidates purchased the office from the Syrian gov- ernors, and retained it by means of money. Hence they oppressed the people with taxes that they might fulfil their pecuniary engage^ ments. There was no energy among this degraded people, no dig- nity among the great, no foresight, no thought of pursuing proper measures against foreign invasion. " 6. About 328 A. C. Alexander the great besieged Tyre, and was incensed against the Jews, because they had refused to supply his army with provisions during the siege. After the capture of Tyre he marched to Jerusalem with the intention of punishing the Jews for their disobedience of his orders. Jaddua the high-priest was ordered in a dream to meet the threatening conqueror in his pontifi- cal robes, at the head of all the priests in their proper habits, and attended by the rest 'of the people dressed in white garments. Alexander was struck with this religious pomp, and approaching the high-priest with awful respect,, embraced him with a religious kind of veneration. He told his attendants, who expressed surprise at his submissive behaviour, that he did not pay this profound respect to the high-priest, but to the God whose minister he was. Alexander then went to Jerusalem, and offered sacrifice in the. temple to the Gfod of the Jews. Upon his departure he granted to the Jews the freedom of their country, laws, and religion, and exempted them from paying tribute every seventh year. During his whole reign ihey enjoyed great tranquillity ; but with him expired the prosperous tstate of their country. Judea was successively invaded and subdued by the Syrians and Egyptians, and the people were reduced to bon- dage. 7. The Jews kept their sabbath so rigidly that they would, not fight on that day, nor even defend themselves although attacked by an enemy. Ptolemy king of Egypt, having invaded Judea, took ad- vantage of this religious impediment. He entered Jerusalem on the sabbath-day without resistance, and carried away to Egypt a hundred thousand captives, 316 A. C. After this time the Jews became the victims of foreign and, domes lie wars, and of horrid massacres. 8. About 198 A. C. Antiochus the great, king of Syria, took Jerusalem, plundered the temple, sold 40,000 Jews to the neigh- bouring nations, and established paganism throughout J udea. The sacrifices ceased^ and there scarcely existed any external signs &£ religion. JEWISH HISTORY. 25 This persecution roused the resentment and provoked the resist atice of a priest named Mattathias, and his five sons surnamed Mac cabeus. They all retired into the wilderness, and were soon joined by a great number of Jews who wished to avoid idolatry and religious persecution. An army was raised, of which the command was given to the eldest son of Mattathias, named Judas Maccabeus. The deliverance of the Jews from the tyranny and oppression of the Greeks, by the uncommon talents, bravery, and patriotism of Judas Maccabeus, is an achievement as glorious perhaps as any per formed by the most illustrious heroes of Greece and Rome. Having gained many signal victories, and delivered his country from bondage and idolatry, he was at last slain in battle, 157 A. G. 9. The brothers of Judas, pursuing their advantages with perse verance and exertion, established the independence of their country and changed its republican government to a vigorous and flourishing monarchy. 10. John Hyrcanus, son of Simon Maccabeus, uniting in his person the offices of high-priest and generalissimo of the army, and possess- ing all the talents requisite for the pontifical, the military, and the regal offices, vanquished the enemies of his country, and firmly estab- lished his government His sons assumed the title as well as the power of kings ; and the high-priesthood remained in his family, though not in the person of the monarch. The descendants of Hyr- canus are distinguished, in thehistory of the Jewish nation, by the appellation of the Asinoncan dynasty, which continued about 126 years. 11. The unlucky dissensions of this family terminated ultimately in the conquest of Judea and the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey the great, and -the subjection of the Jewish .nation to the Romans. 59 A. C. 12- After this event the Jewish monarchy was re-established by the favour and under the protection of the Romans, who placed Herod the great, the son of Antipater, on the throne of David. This prince demolished the old temple of Jerusalem, and rebuilt it in a very magnificent manner. He reigned with great splendour, but with singular despotism and tyranny. He possessed great abili- ties, but was cruel and unjust both in his public and private transac- tions. His public life exhibits a continued scene of battles, massa- cres, and violence. He died in the first year of the birth of Christ, or the fourth of the vulgar era. The reign of Herod was distinguished by a memorable event, which has proved more important in its consequences than any that has occurred since the creation of the world, the birtliqf Jesus Christ, (he author of the christian religion. 13. Soon afler the death of Herod, Judea was in reality reduced to a Roman province, and the governors were appointed by the emperors of Rome. In this, condition it remained till the final ex- tinction of the Jewish nation in the year of Christ 75, or of the vul gar era 72, The rapine and cruelty ot Florus, governor of Judea, caused a rebellion of the Jews, in which 150,000 persons are said to have perished, 69 of Christ, or A. D. 6G. The violent and sanguinary factions among the Jews destroyed in- credible numbers of people of all ranks. 14. At length the Jewish nation was extinguished by the Romans, and its metropolis reduced to ashes by Titus the Roman general «52 JEWISH HISTORY The last siege of Jerusalem was attended with scenes of carnage, famine, disease, and desperation, far more horrible than any to be found in the annals of human wickedness and misery. During the calamitous progress of the siege,^ Titus displayed many instances of humanity toward the sufferings of the besieged, and of his solicitude for the preservation of the city and temple ; but in vain. Their doom was predestinated by the irrevocable degree of the Almighty. The magnificent temple of the Jews perished in the general wreck of the nation, and not one stone was left upon another, 75 of Christ, or A. D. 72. According to a moderate calculation the number of persons who perished by violent deaths during the last war in Judea amounted to more than one million four hundred thousand, besides many who died of grief and famine, Since that time the descendants of those who survived the dissolu- tion of the Jewish nation have been wandering about the wcrld, the objects of hatred and contempt rather than of kindness and com- miseration. In all countries where they have been permitted to reside, they have been excluded from the participation of certain political privileges which the people of those countries enjoy. SECTION XII. THE STATE OF LEARNING AND COMMERCE AMONGf THE JEWS. 1. Of all the interesting prospects which history opens (o our view, the progressive advancement of the human mind, in the im- provement of its faculties, is the most agreeable, and the most worthy of our attention and regard. The brilliant and destructive exploits of conquerors may dazzle for a while; but the silent labours of the student and the artist, of the architect and the husbandman, which embellish the earth and convert it into a paradise, confer per- manent benefits on mankind, and promote their prosperity and hap- piness. The arts and sciences distinguish the civilized man from the savage ; and the investigation of their origin and progress would constitute the noblest attribute of history. How unfortunate it is, that the ancient historians have almost neglected so interesting and pleasing a subject. All the knowledge which we can obtain concern- ing the origin and progress of learning must be gleaned from uncon- nected fragments and scattered notices, laboriously collected from a multifarious and confused mass of trivial particulars. 2. The period of the scriptural history includes the whole spaed of time from the creation of the world to the subversion of the Babylonian monarchy, or about 3,457 years. During this long suc- cession of ages a great variety of political, civil, and religious m* stitutions had been invented ; the human mind had been much im- proved in some countries ; agriculture had been skilfully practised ; the surface of the earth had been adorned with large cities and stately edifices. Of these interesting subjects, few particulars have been faithfully transmitted to posterity, except such as relate to Jew- ish laws and institutions, some scattered hints respecting ancient commerce, and some excellent specimens of writing in the Prophets and Psalms. In those venerable monuments of antiquity, the sacred writings, we trace the Israelites from the patriarchal ages, through Jie turbulent times oi barbaric ignorance, to a considerable degree JEWISH HISTORY. 253 of civilization and refinement. Of their civil and religious institu- tions we have a clear and explicit account ; of their knowledge of the arts and sciences we possess little information. The Jews do not seem to have been a scientific or philosophical nation in any period of their history. They appear to have been sufficiently skilful in the arts of necessity and conveniency ; but not to have made much proficiency in those of luxury and ornament Some admirable sped- ' mens of literature are presented in the scriptures, especially in the writings of the Prophets, and in the Psalms. In the historical books we observe plainness of style and conciseness of narrative, and un» common perspicuity in the didactical pieces. The writings of the prophets are chiefly poetical^ very different, and all originals. Most of them display sublime sentiments, expressed with energy of diction, and decorated with oriental imagery. 3. In the patriarchal ages commerce was £0 far known and exer cised that gold and silver were used as the medium by which it was regulated. In the tumultuous times which succeeded the patriarchal we obtain very little information concerning the state of commerce. We have no reason to think that commerce was ever in a flourishing state among the Jews. In times of remote antiquity the mechanic arts and various kinds of manufactures had made considerable prog- ress in some countries. This is manifest from the curious and rich materials of the tabernacle and of the high-priest's garments. The Israelites, no doubt, brought from Egypt much of their knowledge of arts, sciences, and literature ; for the Egyptians had, irom time immemorial, been gradually advancing in learning a:.d civilization; and, during the greater part of the period now under contemplation, were famous for the excellence of their civil policy, the extent and population of their cities, the magnificence of their public edi- fices^ and the flourishing state of agriculture. In all these respects the Egyptians were distinguished above all the contemporary nations of antiquity. CONCLUSION. 1. In taking a retrospective view of the various nations which have successively appeared and flourished upon the grand theatre of this world, and have at length vanished and sunk into oblivion, their rise, progress, and decline, arrest our attention, and excite our curiosity and compassion. The ignorance, avarice, wickedness, and ambition of mankind may be assigned as the general causes of the dissolution of nations. Many of those kingdoms and states once so great and flourishing have not only disappeared, but even their names and all remembrance of them must have perished, if they had not been preserved and perpetuated in the historical records of scrip- ture, In them, however, we behold the transitory and fading splen- dour of all human glory, and a diminutive picture of every thing which the world calls great ; as eminence of genius and learning, military honour ahd fame, extent of power and dominion, political wisdom, the faculty of eloquence. Finally, we draw this sad conclu sion, that history is little more than a dismal record of the crimes and the calamities of the human race I* * For a very copious and useful chronological table of the history of the Bible see Calmet's. Dictionary of the Bible, vol. II. This table is an epitome of the history of the Jews, and will be particularly useful to theological students. ELEMENTS or GENERAL HISTORY, ANCIENT AND MODERN ; BEING A CONTINUATION, TBKMIH ATXNO AT TOM DEMISE OF HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE III, 1,820. BY THE REV. EDWARD NARES, D. D. Rtglns Professor of Modern History in the University of OxfoidL CONCORD, N. H. PUBLISHED BY JOHN F. BROWN. 1887. ADVERTISEMENT. —»»►•••«««- As the learned author of the Elements of General History, pro- fessor Tytler, (Dy courtesy lord Woodhouselee,) lived until the year 1,813, it is much to be regretted that he did not bring his history down to a later period. In the present volume nothing further has been attempted than to continue the history from the point at which the professor left it, in the same concise style, and with as much attention to the original method and design, as could be rendered consistent with the extraor :iinary nature of the facts and incidents to be recorded. To this end it has been found necessary to carry on the history ot Great Britain and Ireland from the period of the death of queen Anne ; That of the Southern Continental States of Europe, from the end of the reign of Louis XIV ; And that of the Northern States from the death of Charles XII of Sweden, and Peter the First of Russia. FART THIRD. MODERN HISTORY. SECTION 1. FRANCE FROM THE DEATH OF LEWIS XIV. 1,715, TO TH£ PEACE OF VIENNA, 1,738. 1. The last years of the very long and splendid reign of Lewis XIV. were clouded by many severe domestic misfortunes, and a great change in the sentiments and manners of the sovereign and his court. A mystical religion became the vogue, accompanied with a gravity of demeanour approaching to prudery. The amiable Fene- lon fell into these errors, which were countenanced by madame de Maintenon, who had been privately married to the king, and seems to have possessed his confidence in a high degree. 2. On the king's demise (see Sect. LXIV.) the crown descended to his grandson, Lewis XV., an infant, only five years old. In a very short space of time, losses had occurred in the royal family, so strange and unexpected, as to afford ground for suspicion, greatly to the prejudice of the duke of Orleans, nephew of Lewis XIV. Three heirs to the crown, the Dauphin, his son the duke of Bur- gundy, and his grandson the duke of Bretagne, had all died within the short space of eleven months, during the years 1,711, 1,712, leaving, to intercept the claims and pretensions of the duke of Or- leans, only the duke of Berry and one infant, apparently of a feeble and delicate constitution, ana" whose own life had also been in dan ger. The king of Spain had been previously compelled, according to the spirit of the celebrated treaty of the Pyrenees, formally to renounce his claims to the succession, notwithstanding his near rela- tionship to the crown of France. Lastly, the duke of Berry died, May 1,714, at the early age of 18. 3. Fortunately for the reputation of the duke of Orleans, (who, though of loose morals, seems to have possessed too generous a heart for such base deeds), the infant dauphin not only lived to be- come king, hut to survive the duke himself, many years. Nor were the suspicions which had been raised by the sudden deaths of so many heirs to the crown, strong enough to prevent the nation repos- ing the highest confidence in the duke, by suffering the kingly power to pass into his hands, as sole regent, during the minority ; though contrary to the express appointment of the late king, who is said to have wisely observed, when for form's sake he executed his will, that it would have but little weight with the people, or the parlia- jnent. as soon as his eyes were closed. The nation willingly acceded Y2 33 258 MODERN HISTORY. to the disposition of the parliament, in setting aside the claims of the illegitimate princes, whom the will of Lewis XlV. favoured; and the duke of Orleans was careful to fix that body in his interest, by promising to restore to it its full power of remonstrance, which had been greatly restrained during the preceding reign. 4. Lewis XIV. had left his kingdom so incumbered with debt, and so surrounded by mortified, jealous, and exasperated neighbours, eager to recover what had been taken from them during the trium- phant wars of that monarch, that it became an object of the highest importance to the regent, for the nation's sake, as well as his own, to maintain peace as far as he could with ibreign states. To this end, (Lough contrary to any former course of things, he prudently endea- voured to form alliances with the courts of St. James's and Vienna. In the former case the advantages were similar and mutual.- By the treaty of Utrecht, England stood engaged to secure the French crown to the regent, in case Lewis X V . should die without issue ; and to keep her steady to this engagement, it was easy for the duke to comply with the wishes of the whig government of England, in withholding all encouragement from the pretender. 5. However pacific the views of the regent might be, Spain seemed to present an obstacle to the repose and tranquillity of Eu- rope. There a minister of a very different disposition had obtained the chief management of affairs, who appeared bent upon disturbing both the French and English governments, in order to recover what had been taken from Spain by the treaty of Utrecht, especially in Italy ; to deprive the duke of Orleans of the regency, in favour of the king his master, and to seai the pretender on the throne of Great Britain, with the aid of- Russia and Sweden. Such were the plans of the celebrated Mberoni ; originally the son of a gardener; afterwards in the lowest stations in the church of Placentia, but who had raised himself, by an extraordinary display of genius and talent, to the high- est degree of credit and influence at the court of Philip V., with the exalted rank of cardinal. 6. These movements indeed on the part of Spain, were not in themselves altogether unfavourable to the views of the regent ; in better securing to him the good will of England and Austria, always prepared to be jealous of too close an intimacy between the courts of Paris and Madrid. Some historians have even gone so far as to suppose it to have been a settled contrivance to impose on the former two courts, but certainly without sufficient grounds. 7. It seems to have been a great oversight in the negotiations at Uirecht, not to have endeavoured more effectually to reconcile the courts of Austria and Spain. The former, after the treaty, remained jealous of the occupation of the Spanish throne by Philip; while the latter could not fail to be aggrieved and offended at being made to contribute to the indemnification of Charles VI, by a very consid- erable dismemberment of its dominions, without any suitable or adequate remuneration. 8. To counteract the. projects of Aiberoni, the regent entered into an alliance with England and the United States ; entirely sacrificing to the former the interests of the pretender, who was to be sent out of France. But the Spanish minister was not to be deterred by this triple alliance and confederacy against him. Having watched his op- portunity of a war between the, emperor of Germany and the Porte, he suddenly commenced hostilities; and, with no small degree of treachery, in the course of the years 1717 and 1718 succeeded ia MODERN HISTORY. 2W wresting from Austria the island of Sardinia, and from the duke of Savoy that of Sicily, thus violating, ; n the most direct and glaring manner, the solemn treaty of Rastadt, so lately concluded. In con- sequence of these, proceedings, and in order to remedy, as it would seem, the defects and omissions of the original convention, Austria was admitted a party to the alliance between France, England, and Holland, with a view to bring about a reconciliation between the emperor and Spain, upon the basis of the following arrangement : that the former should renounce all claims to the Spanish throne in favour of Philip, while the latter should surrender to the emperor the Netherlands, the duchy of Milan, and the kingdom of Naples, as- signed to him by the treaty of Utrecht and the quadruple alliance. That the duke of Savoy should yield Sicily to Austria, receiving in exchange the island of Sardinia from Spain ; and that the eldest son of Philip by his second marriage, don Carlos, should be secured in the reversion of the duchies oi Parma and Placentia, and the grand duchy of Florence, to be holden as male fiefs under the emperor, and on no occasion whatever to be united to the crown of Spain. 9. There never was a period perhaps in which it would have been more difficult to unravel the policy of these several courts. It was certainly a strange thing for the emperor to agree, in any man- ner, to admit the Spaniards into Italy, of which he had so much reason to be distrustful ; much more to assist in doing so. While those very terms, which were undoubtedly introduced to gratify the Spanish minister, in this particular respect, so far from securing the ready consent of the court of Madrid, only induced it to make fresh efforts. The predominance of France and England, however, soon became so conspicuous, as to compel Philip to subscribe to the articles of the alliance, and even to dismiss his favourite minister, the cause of all the grievances of which the allied powers had to complain. In 1,720 Austria took possession of Sicily, and Victor Amadeus II. trans ferred the seat of his government to the island of Sardinia. 10. In the month of December, 1,723, in the 50th year of his age v the regent duke of Orleans died very suddenly in a lit of apoplexy. He was a prince of shining talents, and of great taste and spirit ; but dissolute in his habits of life to a most disgraceful pitch of extrava- gance. He did not indeed suffer his pleasures and licentious connex- ions to interfere greatly with the discharge of his public duties, but they tarnished his fame, and in all likelihood shortened his life. He had the misfortune in his youth to be put into the hands of a most ■jriprincipled tutor, the Abbe Dubois, who continued with him to the last year of his life, dying only four months before him, a cardi- nal of Rome, and prime minister of ""France ! The elevation of this profligate man to such high stations in the church and state, did more mischief to the cause of religion and morality, than the person- al vices of the regent, who, amidst a thousand foibles, had some great and brilliant qualities. Neither Austria nor Spain were satisfied with what had been done tor them, and strong remonstrances were prepared on the part of the dukes of Parma and Placentia, the grand duke of Tuscany, and the pope, against the grants in reversion to the Infant of Spain. At tempts were made to reconcile the two courts more effectually by a congress, summoned to meet at Cambray, in the year 1,724, under the joint mediation of France and England, but ineffectually : in 1,729 another, but more private attempt, had better success ; it was undertaken by a very singular and eccentric character, the baron, or 26C MODERN HISTORY. duke, de Ripperda, .Dutch minister at the court of Madrid, who sue ceeded so far, through his own intrigues, and the venality of the im- perial court, as to give umbrage to the governments of France and England ; the latter soon saw the necessity of guarding, by a coun ter-treaty, framed at Hanover, against the effects of Ripperda's in- terposition. 11. Secret articles were said to be signed and executed, to recov er for Spain the fortress of Gibraltar and the island of Minorca, to seat the pretender on the throne of Great Britain, to forward the emperors views with regard to the Ostend East India Company, and to cement the alliance by marriages which would have laid a foundation for the reunion of the Austrian and Spanish dominions under one sovereign. Ripperda himself is said to have communicat ed these secret articles to the English government : he was made to pay dear for his treachery. As the empress of Russia had acceded to the treaty of Vienna, concluded by Ripperda, and France and England had taken steps to secure Holland and Prussia on their side, Europe seemed to be threatened with another general war, but the timely death of the empress, in 1,727, and the defection of Prussia, gave a turn to affairs, and left room for the renewal of the congress of Cambray, transferred in the year 1,728, to Soissons, where fresh endeavours were made to establish a solid and permanent peace. As the emperor, however, insisted on the accession of all the contracting powers, to the Prag- matic Sanction, which was to secure to his heirs general the undi- vided succession to all his territories and dominions, the other courts withdrew; and in November, 1,729, concluded at Seville in Spain a separate treaty, in which it was agreed, between France, England, and Spain, to support the pretensions of the Infant to the duchies of Parma, Placentia, and Tuscany. To this treaty Holland was soon after brought to accede, on the condition that her rights should be protected against the new East India Company, established by the emperor at Ostend, which was considered as contrary to the treaty of Westphalia, and manifestly injurious both to England and the United States. The treaty of Seville was settled so totally without the concurrence of the emperor, that his name was not even men- tioned in it ; which, as might be reasonably expected, gave great offence. In the year 1,731, however, England, and in 1,732 Holland, acceded to the wishes of the emperor, in regard to the Pragmatic Sanction, on condition that the archduchess, who should succeed to the empire, should not marry any Bourbon, or other prince or po- tentate, capable of disturbing the peace of Europe. The Ostend ' Company was given up ; the Infant don Carlos took possession of the duchies of Parma and Placentia on the death of the last of the Far- nese family, and the grand duke of Tuscany acknowledged him as his heir. A treaty between England, Holland, and the empire, call-' ed the second treaty of Vienna, was signed and executed at the lattei place, which may be said to have terminated all the differences aris- ing out of the Spanish succession, by which the greater part of Eu- rope had been kept in a state of agitation for the space of thirty years. While these things were in agitation, Victor Amadeus, embarrass ed, as i». is said, with the counter engagements he had entered into with Austria and Spain, thought fit to resign his crown to his son, Charles Emmanuel, but soon repenting of what he had done, pre pared to reascend his abdicated throne ; this rash and injudicious step MODERN HISTORY. 261 was the cause of his imprisonment, and probably of his death, which happened in November, 1,732. 12. In 1,733, France became involved again in a war, both the origin and end of which had something remarkable in them. The throne of the elective kingdom of Poland becoming vacant by the demise of Augustus of Saxony, two competitors appeared on the stage ; the son of the deceased king, and Stanislaus Lescinsky, who nad with great credit previously occupied it through the interposi- tion of Charles XII. of Sweden," (see Sect. LXVl.),and whose daugh- ter was married to Lewis XV. The emperor of Germany, the Czarina, and the king of Prussia, espoused the cause of the former, France supported the latter, and commenced hostilities against the emperor, by detaching the king of Sardinia from his interests, and occupying Lorrain, whose duke was engaged to marry the emperors daughter. But the principal seat of war was in Italy, where the French, Spanish, and Sardinian combined troops obtained many ad- vantages, and ultimately succeeded in seating don Carlos, duke ot Parma, &c, on the throne of the Two Sicilies, to which he had been particularly invited by the Neapolitans. The Austrian court had been very supine, in not guarding better against the manifest de- signs of the quean of Spain, mother of don Carlos. He was crown- ed king by the title of Charles the third, July 3, 1,735. Naples was subdued in 1 ,734, and Sicily m the year following. During this contest, the celebrated prince Eugene, though then past seventy years of age, had the command of the imperial army on the Rhine ; but he had great cause to be offended with the situation in which he was placed ; the French being strongei ; England not to be roused to assist him, through the pacific views of the minister Walpole ; and having, both at court and in the army, many rivals and secret ene- mies. His only consolation was, the extreme and enthusiastic at- tachment of the soldiers, the very remembrance of which, as he feelingly acknowledges in his own memoirs, often afterwards drew tears from his eyes. 13. Matters were brought to an accommodation, through the medi- ation of the maritime powers, (who, undoubtedly, appear in this case to have been guilty of misleading the emperor,) by a conven- tion signed at Vienna," in November, 1,738. By this treaty some very extraordinary appointments took place. Stanislaus, the depos- ed king of Poland, father-in-law to the king of France, obtained, keeping his kingly title, tne duchies of Lorrain and Bar, to revert to France after his death, which did not take place till the year 1 ,766. In exchange for what was thus bestowed upon Stanislaus, the duke of Lorrain obtained the grand duchy of Tuscany, the reversion of which had been guaranteed to the Infant don Carlos, but who was, by the same treaty, acknowledged king of the Two Sicilies, surren- dering in his turn to theemperor, his two dwchies of Parma and Pla- centia ; Vigevano and IN ovaro were given to the king of Sardinia ; and to the emperor, the Milanese, the Mantuan, and Parma. On the conclusion of the peace, France acceded to the Pragmatic Sanction. The kings of Spain and Sardinia showed some reluctance to agree to the terms of the treaty, but were induced to sign it in the course of the year 1,729. It is certainly very remarkable, that, in consequence of a dispute about the crown of Poland, not only the emperor should have lost almost all his possessions in Italy, but France should have been able to recover a province of which she had been deprived for the space of nearly a thousand years, and so 262 MODERN HISTORY situated as to render it one of the most splendid and gratifying acqui sit ions she coufe? possibly have contemplated. SECTION IL ENGLAND FROM THE ACCESSION OF THE HOUSE OF HAN- OVER, 1,714, TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE THE FIRST, 1,727. 1 Queen Anne was no sooner dead, [Part II. Sect. LXIV. § 20. j than steps were taken for the immediate acknowledgment of her suc- cessor, George Lewis, elector of Brunswick Luneburg, pursuant to the several acts of parliament, for securing the protestant succession, m exclusion of the pretender, the house of Savoy, and, in fact, every catholic branch of the royal family of England ; many of whom were more directly in the line of inheritance than the protestant descendants of James the first, in whom the crown was now vested ; not, however, without due regard to that hereditary line which may be said to have occupied the throne from the time of Egbert. The late union with Scotland, 1,706, [see as above] was calculated to sup- press any general desire, on the part of the people there, to place themselves again under a distinct sovereign. 2. The accession of George I., to judge from the addresses of the two houses of parliament, and the general tranquillity manifested in all parts of the three kingdoms, at the time of his proclamation, would seem to have been acceptable to the nation at large. Nor was the French king long before he openly acknowledged his right and title to the crown of Great Britain, though the sincerity of his declarations in favour of a protestant succession, and the exclusion of the house of Stuart, was not too confidently relied upon. The states of Holland were, probably, entirely cordial, both in their ex- pressions of congratulation, and promises of support, according to existing engagements to that effect, as guarantees of the Hanoverian succession. From the king of Prussia^ and various other princes and states of Germany, his majesty also received the strongest assuran- ces of support ; yet so little are these courtesies to be trusted, that it is more than probable, from circumstances since come to light, that at this very moment, with regard to the continental states in general, he had more enemies than friends. 3. His entrance into his new dominions, however, September 1,714, was hailed in a manner that could not foil to be extremely gratifying to the king, though i.fc soon became manliest, and coulu not well have been otherwise, that there were many secret heart-burn- ings and disappointed hopes, to prevent that perfect unanimity which was most desirable on an occasion so important. The tories, some of- whom had evidently been tampering with the pretender, during the last years of the queen's reign, were greatly discomfited, ana in a very marked manner discountenanced by the king himself. The whigs enjoyed a triumph. The pretender's friends in general stood confounded, not only by the low estate of his cause, but by the per- plexity of their own feelings, with regard to Jiis more direct heredi tary claims to the crown. In this dilemma, it is not to be wondered that several- should refuse to take the oaths of allegiance and abju- ration. Scotland also, in part at least, bewailed its lost independency MODERN HISTORY. 26S by the act of union, which some were forward to have dissolved again ; and the papists, being very numerous in Ireland, rendered the peace of that kingdom constantly precarious. 4. The person, manners, and deportment of the new sovereign, were not such as immediately to conciliate his British subjects ; but he was by no means destitute of kingly virtues and accomplishments of a more solid and important description. Having delivered the .ministerial government of the realm into the hands of the whigs, it was not long before serious proceedings were entered into, by the new administration, against the authors and advisers of the late peace and treaty of Utrecht ; and articles of impeachment for high treason ex- hibited against the earl of Oxford, viscount Bolingbroke, the duke ot Ormond, earl of Strafford, and others. The duke of Ormond, and lord Bolingbroke, absconded ; the earl of Oxford, with greater mag- nanimity, stood upon his defence, and though imprisoned for a con- siderable time, was finally acquitted. Under a pretence of the church being in danger, which seems to have been adopted as a sort of watch-word by the tory party and Jacobites, (for so the adherents of the pretender were called,) riots and tumults took place h> many parts of the kingdom ; in consequence of which, the king was em- powered by parliament (1,715,) to raise fresh forces, and the habeas corpus act was suspended, for the more speedy apprehension and de- tention of suspected persons. 5. In Scotland, however, notwithstanding great precautions to the contrary, a rebellion actually broke out in the month of August, 1,715, headed by the earl of Mar, late secretary of state for that kingdom ; and in September, the pretender's standard was erected at a place called Brae Mar, though the pretender himself did not ar- rive in Scotland tiil the December following ; before which time a severe action had taken place at Dunblain, between the contending armies, commanded on the side of tne English by the duke of Argyle; and on the side of the Scotch by the earl of Mar. The pretender, on reaching the shores of Scotland, was received with regal honours, and addresses were presented to him from many cor- porate bodies ; even his coronation was fixed to take place on the 23d day of January. But during the course of these transactions, the chief officers of his army, as soon after appeared, were but too well convinced of their perfect inability to terminate the contest successfully, many things having fallen out to the disappointment, of their hopes ; particularly the death of Lewis XIV., who, notwith- standing his protestations in favour of the house of Hanover, had secretly favoured their cause. The English army, besides, since the battle of Dunblain, had been considerably reinforced, by Dutch as well as English troops. This being the case, as we learn from an ac- count given by the earl of Mar himself, they felt compelled to abandon their enterprise for the present ; and in order to check the pm^iit of the enemy, eager to seize the person of the pretender, thev per- suaded the latter to leave the kingdom again, and return to France ; the earl of Mar himself accompanying him. They were followed, afterwards, by many leaders of the rebels, who, in a most extraordi- nary manner, escaped the English vessels stationed to intercept their Eassage ; but some of those, who had previously fallen into the ands of the English, as the earl of Derwentwater, and others, were impeached, and pleading guilty, executed. Many escaped by an act of grace. Thus was the rebellion, in a great measure, subdued ; congratulatory addresses poured in upon the sovereign, and a day of 204 MODERN HISTORY. public thanksgiving was appointed to be observed throughout the kingdom. 6. The whigs, however, apprehending that their opponents, in a new parliament, might regain their ascendancy, and be able to carry into execution their projects against the existing government, brought in a bill, (since called the septennial bill,) for enlarging the continu- ance of parliament, whereby the term was extended from three to seven years, unless sooner dissolved by the king, and to begin with the parliament then chosen and assembled ; a most important meas- ure, and accidentally originating with a party more friendly in repute to the rights and liberty of the people than the step itself would seem to imply. Abstracted from all temporary or party considera- tions, it may justly be regarded as a very delicate and important point in politics, to determine either a maximum or minimum, with regard to the duration of such elective assemblies as the English house of commons. Frequent elections being essentially necessary to preserve the people from any gross neglect of their interests by their representatives, or any unconstitutional encroachment on their liberty, as well as to remedy abuses ; but too frequent elections, hav- ing evidently the ill effect of keeping up party divisions, feuds, and animosities, interrupting business, and lessening the confidence of foreign states in the measures of government. Too frequent elec- tions, besides, by bringing independent candidates so much the oftener into a contest with the treasury, (for government must have, and will always endeavour to exert, a powerful influence,) may in time deter such persons from a conflict so disadvantageous; unless, in short, government influence in elections should be entirely done away, the more frequently they recur, the more they will harass and weaken private independence. (See Burke's works.) It was undoubtedly a bold step for any parliament, chosen under the popu- lar triennial act of king William, to enlarge its own continuance ; nor was it ill urged by a member of the house of peers, as an argument against the bill, that, " if the existing house of commons continued themselves beyond the time for which they were chosen, they were no more the representatives of the people, but a house of their own making.*' The whigs, however, had this excuse, that the proposed measure was calculated to suppress a rebellion, or prevent the re- newal of one ; not raised, like other rebellions, under a pretence of liberty, but, in their eyes, clearly tending towards slavery, in the establishment of a catholic prince, and the destruction of the prot- estant interests, both in church and state. It was well that they as- signed any limit to their continuance, since a mere repeal of the triennial act would have left the term undefined. The bill was final- ly passed, after much opposition in the lower house, and a strong protest on the part of many lords in the upper, by a majority in the commons of 284 to 121 ; and it has continued the law of parliament ever since. 7. In the year 1,717, an unpleasant dispute occurred, affecting the church, and which seems to have terminated the sittings of convo- cation. Dr. Hoadley, bishop of Bangor, gave occasion to it, by a sermon preached before the king, March 31, on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ," and by a publication entitled, " a Preserva- tive against the Principles and the Practices of the Non-jurors." The bishop had been a warm friend to the revolution, and many of the principles he asserted were undoubtedly directed rather against popery than our own establishment ; while s in opposition to the jure MODERN HISTORY. 26b divino pretence of the tories, he declaimed violently against every abuse of authority, at the hazard of impairing all church discipline derogating from the regal supremacy in " causes ecclesiastical, 1 ' and annulling the force of ail civil sanctions whatsoever in matters of religion ; on these grounds the convocation took the matter up, but without much pffeci. It was dissolved in the midst of the controver- sy, and has never sat to do business since. Those who chiefly at- tacked the bishop in print, were Dr. Snape of Eton, dean Sherlock, Dr. Cannon, (who undertook to vindicate the proceedings of convo- cation,) Dr. Potter, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, ^ and Mr. William Law. Perhaps no antagonist entered the lists, with more decorum of manners, or integrity of disposition, than the latter, who, in several letters addressed to the bishop, plainly proved that, how- ever innocent his intentions might be, his arguments and expressions plainly tended to the subversion of all church authority, and the en^ couragement of a most fatal indifference to every particular form of worship and belief. Which, considering the high situation he held in the church, and the duties attached to that station, could not bu*. appear in the light of an abandonment of those principles, which alone could have placed him there. Such, however, was the state of parties at the time, that the bishop was advanced to a higher post: In the church, and some of the most forward of his opponents dis missed from their employments about the court. 8. In 1,718 George the first became a party to the celebrated quadruple alliance, formed to counteract the plans and projects of the, Spanish minister Alberoni, (Sect. I. § 8.) who, while his views werfe chiefly directed towards his native country, Italy, managed to involve almost the whole of Europe in contests and jealousies, exceedingly perplexing, and inimical to the peace and tranquillity of many states, Distant as Sweden was, geographically, from the seat and object ol his manoeuvres, yet, in order to prevent any interruption from Eng land, he had nearly instigated the celebrated Charles XII. to invade the latter country, for the purpose of restoring the pretender to the throne of his ancestors. His agents and accomplices, however, were fortunately detected in time to prevent the rupture Detween the two courts. George I. was no favourite, either with the Swedish monarch, or his celebrated competitor, the czar of Muscovy. 9. The chief object of the quadruple alliance, as has been before hinted, was to reconcile and adjust the rival claims and pretensions of the courts of Vienna and Madrid. Alberoni had endeavoured, during the war between the emperor and the Turks, to get posses- sion of Sardinia, Sicily, and other places, for the sons of the queen of Spain, a princess of Parma, his native country. He had proposed, in short, to recover for Spain all that had been conceded and surren- dered by the treaty of Utrecht. (Part II. Sect. LX1V.) The intei- ference of England, in sending a fleet to the Mediterranean, to sup- port the rights of the emperor, according to treaty, at the very mo- ment when the Spanish forces were prepared to invade Sicily and the kingdom of Naples, exceedingly exasperated the cardinal min- ister, and induced him to heap reproaches on the British govern ment for their precipitate proceedings, pretending that the Spaniards had in every instance manifested a favourable disposition towards England ; though nothing was more notorious than that her mer- chants had been scandalously ill-treated by them, and her minister at Madrid overwhelmed with complaints to that effect. The latter, indeed, stated afterwards in the house of commons, that he had pre Z 34 26B MODERJN HISTORY. sented, at the least, five-and-twenty memorials to the court of Spain upon the subject, without redress ; and notwithstanding all these in- dignities, and to evince the desire of his government not too precipi- tately to commence hostilities, had communicated to the Spanish min- ister the numbers and force of the English fleet before it sailed, in order to convince him of its superiority, and deter him from the measures he had in view. The defeat of the Spanish fleet, off Sicily, by admiral Byng, August 1,718, ruined all the projects of Alberoni, he soon after fell into disgrace, and was precipitated from the exalted station he had attained to by the strength of his genius ; which, what- ever his enemies might allege, certainly bespoke a keen and vigi- , iant statesman, and an able minister, as far as regarded the interests of the country he served, both foreign and domestic. 10. Though so severe an action had taken place in the Mediter ranean, between the English and Spanish fleets in the monl^h Of August, war was not formally declared at London till the close of the year 1,718, (Dec. 29.) between which period and the final dis- grace and retirement of the Spanish minister, he had attempted two measures of deep revenge, one on the power and person of the duke of Orleans, regent of France, and the other on the govern- ment of George I. of England, by an invasion of his dominions in favour of the pretender, and under the direction of the expatriated duke of Ormond. It is remarkable that these projects were severally detected by the French regent and British monarch, in time to admit of their warning each other of the danger in which they were re- spectively placed, and of offering the assistance which the cases re- quired. 11. The war so suddenly and unexpectedly excited between Great Britain and Spain, was in no long course of time brought to an issue very honourable and glorious to the former ; admiral Byng, with his fleet in the Mediterranean, having so managed matters as fully to accomplish all the purposes of his mission, putting the em- peror into possession of Sicily, and the duke of Savoy of Sardinia, under circumstances of peculiar difficulty and embarrassment, owing to the obstinacy, backed by the bravery of the Spaniards, the hin- drances arising from a succession of governors at Naples, and the loss of time in the necessary communications with his own couri and that of Vienna. No man, perhaps, ever discharged so delicate and arduous a commission, with more applause on the part of his own country and her allies, or with fewer complaints and less obloquy on the part of his opponents. The latter indeed, in this case, rather joined in the commendations so liberally bestowed on him by his em ployers, at the termination of the short but vigorous contest. When he waited on the king at Hanover, his majesty is said, very justly, to have observed to him, that he had found out the secret of obliging his enemies as well as his friends ; alluding to the very honourable terms in which the Spaniards had expressed themselves concerning him, both as an officer and negotiator. He was most deservedly ad- vanced to the peerage, by the title of viscount Torrington, and had other appropriate honours bestowed upon him. Towards the close of the year 1,719, the king of Spain acceded to the terms of the quadruple alliance : his minister, on the urgent and joint demands of the king of England, the emperor, and regent of France, having been previously dismissed, and banished the kingdom of Spain. 12. In the course of the year 1,719, a bill was brought into par- liament by the ministry, for limiting the number of the peers. It MODERN HISTORY. 267 originated with Lord Sunderland, who is said to have had in view to restrain the power of the prince oi Wales, whom he had offended, when he should succeed to the throne. After much debate, and it is supposed almost entirely through the influence of Sir Robert Wal- poie, it was rejected by a large majority, 269 to 177. 13. In 1,720 the king was much occupied in affording protection and support to the protestant interests abroad, and in endeavouring to restore peace and tranquillity amongst the northern states. Swe den, Denmark, Prussia, and Poland, reaped the fruits of his media- tion ; but the czar resisted his proposals, and, for some time, contin- ued to act against Sweden, in defiance of the combined operations of that country and England. He at last, however, consented to accept the mediation of France, and peace was established between Russia and Sweden, by the treaty of Nystadt, 1,721. 1 4. Nothing occurred in this reign more disastrous in its conse- quences, or more strange and extravagant in its origin and progress, than the celebrated South Sea scheme, whereby, though immense for- tunes were rapidly made by some, many individuals were ruined, and public credit alarmingly shaken. 'Fhe details of this curious speculation and bubble (as it has been but too justly denominated,) it would be exceedingly uninteresting to enter into, in a work like the present, and they are easily to be found elsewhere ; but such an instance of public infatuation, illusion, and credulity, was only to be matched by the Mississippi scheme, projected by juaw, during the regency in France, which had a similar effect, and which was most probably the model from which Sir John Blunt, the projector of the South Sea scheme, took the hint. The French system has been sup- posed to have- had something more substantial in it, with respect to the exclusive trade to Louisiana. But the South Sea scheme had certainly commercial advantages attached to it. The two schemes, it must be admitted, supply the most useful lesson to all wise states, not to tamper with the public credit, or countenance such suspicious projects ; for though both these adventures set out with very plau- sible pretences of public benefit, and a certainty of relieving, rather than distressing, the credit of the nation, their course and progress soon became such as to excite the most lively apprehensions in ail considerate minds, of the consequences which actually ensued ; es- v pecially in England. 15. The politics of Europe were in a very perplexed state, to- wards the close of the reign of George L, owing to two treaties, o{ which some account has been given in another place, but which were very important to the English nation. These were the trea- ties of Vienna and Hanover, the former of which took place in April, and the latter in September, 1,725. By the former, the em- peror and Spain were supposed secretly to have bound themselves to procure the restitution of Gibraltar and Port Mahon, to the latter power ; to aid the pretender, and to further the interests of the Os- tend East India Company, which had given umbrage to Enghnd, Holland, and France. By the latter treaty, England was able to secure on her side, against the projects of Austria and Spain, the kings of Prussia and Sweden, and the states of Holland; but as this aid was very slowly and reluctantly promised, and, in one instance, soon abandoned, the state of affairs would have been very alarming, but for the encouragement given by parliament, which was so effec- tual, that though considerable preparations for war took place on the part of almost oJA the nations concerned, articles of peace, through 268 - MODERN HISTORY". the mediation of France, were agreed upon in May. 1,727, and ac- cepted by the imperial court and Spain ; by these the charter of tl>e Ostend company was suspended ibr a certain period, and the siege of Gibraltar, which had actually commenced, and been carried on for four months, raised and abandoned. 16. George 1. died at Osnaburgh, on his way to his electoral do- minions, June 11, 1,727, with the reputation of an honest and generous prince. He was brave in the field, and wise in council ; having had many arduous negotiations on his hands, which he commonly con- ducted to a favourable issue ; not often? however, without large sub- sidies. His own measures were generally defensive and preventa- tive. He was fortunate in the state of things, at the period of Queen Anne's death, and in the removal of Lewis XIV., and Charles XII. of Sweden, both of whom were personally unfriendly to him, and cer- tainly had projects on foot for the restoration of the Stuart family. King George constantly manifested a disposition to govern according to the laws and constitution of the kingdom. And it has been observ- ed to his credit, that the nation not only improved in wealth and credit during his reign, but enjoyed a greater degree of tranquillity at home, and a longer duration of peace abroad, than during any period since the time of Queen Elizabeth. At the time of his death he was in the sixty-eighth year of his age. SECTION III. AUSTRIA (AND GERMANY) FROM THE PEACE OF RASTADT, 1,714, TO THE PEACE OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, 1,748. 1. The affairs of Austria, as incidentally connected with those of France, Spain, England, Italy, and Prussia, from the year 1,713 to 1,738, have been already treated of in the preceding sections. It may be necessary, however, to take a brief view of matters, from the commencement of the reign of Charles VI., to the dealh of that mon- arch ; which event, as we shall have to show, greatly disturbed the whole of Europe, and occasioned the war which was terminated by the peace of Aix-la-Chapclle, in 1,748. 2. Charles VI., who had borne a conspicuous part in the succession war, as a competitor for the Spanish throne, (Part II. Sect. LX1V.) became emperor in the year 1,711, on the demise of his elder brother, Joseph I. Though he had declined becoming a party to the treaty of Utrecht, in 1,713, it was not long before he perceived his error, being left alone to support an expensive war. In the fol- lowing year, therefore, he received the proposals made to him by the court of Versailles, consented to the opening of conferences, in the month of November, 1,713, and, in the March following, 1,714, signed the treaty of Rastadt, by which he obtained possession of the Spanish Netherlands, (except the barrier towns ceded to Holland,) Naples, Sardinia, Milan, Frieburg, and Kehl. 3. But he was very soon disturbed in a part of these acquisitions, by the restlessness and jealousy of Spain, already noticed. Great de- signs were formed against his Italian territories; Sardinia actually taken from him, in 1,717 ; Sicily, in 1,718, and. further encroachments projected, but for the timely interposition of the English, under admiral Byttg, in the Mediterranean, (Sect. II. § 9, 11.) who soon MODERN HISTORY. 2&J Drought matters to a favourable issue for Austria, with infinite credit to himself, both as an officer and a negotiator. 4. Spain had eagerly caught at the opportunity which preserve.? itself of making these attacks upon Austria, while the latter power was engaged in war with Turkey, in aid of the Venetians. The Turks, (instigated, it has been said, by the Spanish minister, to engage the attention of Austria,) in violation of the treaty of Car lovvitz, had taken the Morea from the Venetians, before Austria came to their aid, in the year 1,716; nor, though from that time so powerfully assisted, were they able to recover that peninsula Charles VI., however, was not long at variance with the Porte upon ^ this occasion. As early as the year 1,718, through the extraordinary skill and valour of prince Eugene, the Austrian commander, things were brought to an issue, and a peace concluded, through the me (iiation of England and Holland, at Passarowitz, by which the Turks were allowed to retain the Morea, en ceding to the Venetians some frontier towns in'Aibania and Dalmatia, while Austria obtained Bel grade, the Bannat of Temeswar and Wallachia, as far as the Ahita she was also able to establish a free commerce in all the harbours of the Black Sea, and of the Danube, as well as with the Persians. The early termination of this war, together with the successes of the English on the shores of Sicily, checked the operations of the Span iards, and disposed them to agree to the terms of the quadruple al- liance. Spain and Austria, however, were not effectually reconciled till the year 1,725, at which period the emperor was induced to re nounce his pretensions upon Spain and the Indies. 5. Charles VI. was for a long time deeply occupied in endeavour- ing to preserve his own dominions from such difficulties as Spain hac Deen involved in, at the beginning of this century, owing to the dis- puted succession to the Spanish throne, on the demise of Charles II*, and in which he had himself been so greatly concerned. He propos- ed, for this end, by a " Pragmatic Sanction," to make it a law, that if he should, at the time of his death, have either sons or daugh- ters, the hereditary dominions and crowns belonging to the house of Austria, should remain united. In failure of such issue, male or fe- male, the daughters of his deceased brother, Joseph, were to succeed and if they died without heirs, the inheritance was to'pass to his sis- ters, and their descendants. When this act was proposed, at the diet of Ratisbon, it was violently resisted by the electors of Saxony and Bavaria, as well as the elector Palatine, but by the treaty of Vien na, 1,731, as well as by previous negotiations at the different courts of Europe, almosjt every power, except France, was brought to consent to the proposed regulations ; England and Holland, in particular, having been gained over by the emperor's agreement to suppress the new East India Company which ne had endeavoured to establish at Ostend. The guarantee of France was not obtained till six years after, in recompense of the transfer of the duchies of Lonaine ana Bar to the latter power,' on the demise of Stanislaus, king of Poland, who obtained the government of those countries by the treaty of 1.733. 6. Charles VI. had scarcely' succeeded in his great objeci of the pragmatic sanction, before he was engaged in a fresh war with the Turks, in virtue of a treaty concluded with Russia, who had com- menced hostilities against the Porte, in 1,736. The war on the part of Austria, however, was of very short duration. She hac 1 tost the support of her famous general, prince Eugene ; and hei Z2 HO MODERN HISTORY. armies, on the present occasion, appear to have been ill conducted. Jealousies and disagreements amongst the superior officers, and a great want of resources, baffled all their operations. In 1,739, the emperor was compelled to submit to the terms of the treaty of Belgrade, which was highly advantageous to Turkey. Austria surrendered Servia, with the fortresses of Belgrade and Szabatch; and Austrian Wallachia, with the fortress of Orsova. By the treaty of Belgrade, the Porte also obtained advantages over Russia; but it is now known, that this convention was very artfully conducted fry an agent of the French court, who was instructed not only to prevent the dismemberment of Turkey, by the combined forces of Austria and Russia, but to resist the aggrandizement of the former, and separate her, if possible, from her northern ally. 7. In the year immediately following that in which the treaty of Belgrade had restored harmony between the two courts of Vienna and Constantinople, so much to the advantage of the latter, Charles VI. died, the last heir-male of the Austrian line of princes. Notwith- standing all the care he had taken to secure to his daughter the entire hereditary dominions of his family ; and though almost the whole of Europe had guaranteed the indivisibility of his dominions, according to his wishes, he was no sooner dead than numerous claims were set up, and a war kindled, which may be said to have, in its progress, involved every European state. The archduchess, Maria Theresa, consort of Francis, duke of Tuscany, according to ■Ihe terms of the Pragmatic Sanction, (which, however, had been ill drawn up,) succeeded, on the death of her father, to the following kingdoms, states, and territories : Hungary and Bohemia, Silesia and Austrian Suabia, Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Burgau, Brisgau, the Low-Countries, Friuli, Tyrol, the Mantuan, and the Duchies of Milan, Parma, and Placentia. 8. Unfortunately for the archduchess, Charles VI. had left his army in a bad 'condition, his finances embarrassed, and, at the time of his death, a scarcity almost approaching to famine, prevailed in many parts of his dominions. All these circumstances combined, were calculated to rais^ up competitors for different portions of his estates. Nor were they at all tardy in advancing their claims. The elector of Bavaria pretended to be the proper heir to the kingdom of Bohemia. Augustus II., elector of Saxony and king of Poland, having married the eldest daughter of Joseph 1., elder brother of Charles VI., claimed the whole Austrian succession. The king of Spain did the same, though upon a more remote title, and entirely through females. The king of Sardinia made pretensions to the duchy of Milan, and Frederic II., of Prussia, to the province of Sile- sia. 9. Many of these several claimants had formally agreed to the terms of the pragmatic sanction, and even at first professed the most favourable dispositions towards the archduchess, who had taken quiet possession of all that had descended to her ; but the times, and the peculiar circumstances of the empire, encouraged them to break through their engagements ; not, however, altogether without some pretence of honour and justice ; as was the case with France. The king of France had, as well as the kings of Poland and Spain, pre- tended to have derived a right from two princesses, married to Lew- is XIII. and XIV., to the whole succession ; but choosing, rather than to depend upon these titles, to take the part of the elector of Bava- ria, he insisted that, in his guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanction, by the MODERN HISTORY. 271 clause u sine prcejudicio tertii," he was fairly left at liberty to espouse any claims that should appear to him more just than those of the archduchess, queen of Hungary. This clause had, indeed, been in troduced into some of the acts of guarantee, though not into all. 10. The most forward and active of the queen's opponents was a prince little known till then, Frederic king of Prussia, at that time about twenty-eight years of age. He had succeeded, through the prudence of his father, to an army and a treasury of no inconsider- able importance; both of which he had himself also found time to improve. His movements were sudden, and quite unexpected by the court of Vienna ; and he soon made known what his demands were, proposing that if they should be granted, he would support Austria against other enemies, and assist the queen in placing her husband on the imperial throne. He pretended, indeed, at first, to be only desirous of occupying Silesia, as a friend to the queen ; but the mask was soon laid aside, and his fixed determination to become master of Lower Silesia rendered visible to all the world. 11. The queen would consent to the surrender of no part of her inheritance, though possibly her refusal in this instance, occasioned the alliance soon afterwards formed between the court of Versailles and Frederic, from which she suffered so much. England, it is said, counselled submission in the point of Silesia, foreseeing the conse- quences ; but worse consequences, perhaps, were to be apprehend- ed, had she complied. It would, in all likelihood, have disposed others to urge their claims with greater importunity. 12. Aided by France and Saxony, the elector of Bavaria, towards the middle of the year 1,741, acquired possession of the kingdom of Bohemia, and was proclaimed king, and inaugurated with great solemnity; and, on the 12th of February, 1,742, he had the imperial dignity conferred on him by the diet of Frankfort, under the title of Charles VII., having been chosen, however, when some of the elec- tors were disqualified from voting. 13. Never was there a greater prospect of a total dismemberment of the Austrian dominions than at this time. Different parts were regularly assigned to the several claimants, and nothing left for the daughter of Charles VI. but the kingdom of Hungary, the province of Lower Austria, the Belgian states, and the duchies of Carinthia, Styria, and Carniola. Precautions had even been taken to prevent her deriving any aid from Russia, by exciting Sweden to declare wax against the latter power. But the spirit of this surprising woman was not to be broken by the powerful combination against her. She had, at the very commencement of her reign, in a singular and ex traordinary manner, and with consummate wisdom, particularly by taking the ancient oath of king Andrew II., attached to her interests the brave Hungarians. Repairing to them with her infant son, she threw herself entirely upon their protection, and, in the most public manner, addressing them in the Latin language, at a special assembly of the states, presented her child to them in terms the most pathetic. Supported by their valour, and with the help of English and Dutch money, she baffled all her enemies, and finally dissipated the storm that so rudely threatened her. It was not, indeed, until Walpole was removed from the English ministry that the queen received any ac- tive assistance from the king of England ; but afterwards, both in Flanders and Italy, he was a powerful ally. She also derived some succours from the king of Sardinia, not, however, very creditably purchased with regard to Genoa. 272 MODERN HISTORY. 14 Had the numerous powers first armed against Maria Theresa, or intimidated into a state of neutrality, agreed amongst themselves, it would have been impossible for the queen to have withstood their attacks ; but, fortunately for her, many stood so directly in a state of rivalship towards each other, and France was such an object of sus j)icion and alarm to almost all the other confederates, that their very first movements produced jealousies and divisions amongst them ; and, what is very remarkable, the earliest who showed a disposition to treat with the queen was the king of Prussia, in consequence of the successes of the elector of Bavaria in Bohemia. 15. The interference of England, in behalf of the queen, did at first, indeed, only exasperate France, and the other allies of Charles VII., and excite them to a more vigorous opposition. But the death of the emperor, in the year 1,745, who had derived no happiness, but, indeed, a great deal of misery, from his short exaltation, and his son's prudent and wise abandonment of such high dignities, in order to .secure his quiet possession of his paternal dominions, left the queen at liberty to procure for her husband, Francis, grand duke of .Tuscany, the imperial crown; his election to which took place in the month of September of the same year ; the queen agreeing to admit the young elector of Bavaria to the full possession of his he- reditary dominions, and to acknowledge his father, Charles VII., to have been duly invested with the imperial dignity. After some signal successes, the queen's great adversary, the king of Frussia, also came into her terms, having agreed, in a treaty concluded at Dresden, to acknowledge the validity of Francis's election, on being put in possession of Silesia and the county of Glatz, the chief objects For which he had been contending. The elector Palatine was like- wise included in this treaty. 16. The French continued the war in the Netherlands, as well as in Italy, and "with considerable success; but the queen being a good deal disembarrassed by the peace she had been able to con- clude with Prussia, had it soon in her power to recover all that the French and Spaniards had acquired in Italy, while the French conquests in Flanders and Holland led to the re-establishment of the stadtholdership, and thereby baffled all their hopes of future advantages in those parts. The interference of the empress of Russia, subsidized by England, and, above all, the peculiar situation of the king of France, whose finances were almost exhausted, and who had suffered severe losses by sea, tended to bring matters to an issue. A congress was opened at Aix-la-Chapelle, which, though rather slow in its operations, at last terminated in a peace, concluded October 7, 1,748, exactly a hundred years after the famous treaty of Westphalia, which served for a basis of the negotiations entered into upon this occasion. By this convention, as in most other instances o the same nature, there was so general a restitution of conquests, as plainly to mark the folly and injustice of having continued the war so long. During this contest, in the year 1,743, died the cardinal de Fieury, first minister of France, at the very advanced age of ninety. He did not assume the reins of government till he was ^venty- three. He had many virtues, but was much more admirer by his countrymen for his integrity and disinterestedness, than for energy of character, or public spirit. 17. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle bringing us, as nearly as can be, to the middle of the eighteenth century, it may be well to take a MODERN HISTORY. 273 view of Europe at this particular period, aud as connected witn this celebrated treaty ; but this must be reserved for a future section SECTION IV. ENGLAND FROM THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE II. TO THE THRONE, 1,727, TO HIS DEATH, 1,760- , 1. The accession of George II., who came to the throne 1,727, in the 44th year of his age, and in a time of profound peace, was not at- tended with such changes ar 5 many had expected. Even the minis- ter himself, sir Robert Walpole, is said to have been surprised at the reception he met with from his majesty, on the demise of the late king, and at the continuance of the power in his hands. But this is now known to have been owing to the wise and prudent care of queen Caroline, who, ai" this moment, was found to possess an influ ence over her royal consort, whicn had been by many little suspect ed, but which her extreme good sense, and discreet conduct, seemefl fully to justify. The whigs might justly be considered as the truest friends of the house of Hanover and the protestant church ; and their continuance in power at the commencement of a new reign, though very grating to the adverse party, seemed to be extremely favourable to the quiet of the nation. 2. The good-will which had sprung up, and been encouraged dur ing the regency, between the rival courts of Versailles and London, was not materially disturbed during the whole administration of Walpole, and his pacific contemporary, cardinal Fleury ; the queen being also friendly to peace. But as it is not easy for any peaceable government long to escape the encroachments of other states, Spain, apparently presuming on the forbearance or apathy of the British ministry, committed great" depredations, for a series of years, upon the trade of England with America and the West-Indies, committing many acts of most atrocious cruelty, in addition to their other deeds of insult and plunder. Some steps were at length taken to remedy these evils, but the conduct of Spain was so generally resented by the nation, as to render even the convention, by which the disputes were referred to arbitration, extremely unpopular. It being thought, by many of all descriptions, not only that the grievances complained of had been too long submitted to and endured, and the measures hitherto taken to redress them been too tame and submissive, but that nothing less than a war could restore the lost consequence of the state, or bring such offenders to reason. 3. The Spaniards, indeed, had defended their conduct in many memorials, pretending that the English were the aggressors, in car- rying on a contraband and unlawful trade with their' colonies ; but had this been capable of proof to the extent the Spaniards pretend- ed, which was certainly not the case, there is no doubt but that they suffered themselves to be hurried into most unjustifiable excesses in their measures of reprisal, and exceedingly ill-treated both the mer- chants and sailors of England. They insisted upon a general right of search, on the open seas, and condemned -the ships and cargoes, upon such frivolous pretences as could not fail to be extremely in- jurious and oppressive, and quite contrary to existing treaties. In one instance, a whole fleet of English merchant-ships, at the island of 35 274 MODERN HISTORY. Torfugas, was attacked by Spaniards, as it the two nations had been at open war. 4. It would be scarcely possible, perhaps, to justify entirely the extraordinary forbearance of the British government, for nearly twenty years, during which not only these indignities had been con- tinuidiy repeated, but express engagements, and promises to redress and abstain from such aggressions in future, notoriously violated. This had been remarkably the case with respect to the stipulations of the treaty of Seville, concluded in the year 1,729. There were very warm debates in parliament on the subject, and the ministry weie hard pressed to defend themselves from the charge of supine- ness, gross indifference to the sufferings of the merchants, and the honour of the crown, and, in some instances, even of criminal conniv- ance. And, indeed, their opponents obtained, at length, this triumph over them, that the very convention which was to be the prelimina- ry of a perfect adjustment of differences, and a surety for the indem- nification of the merchants for all their losses, was, like every pre- ceding treaty and compact, disregarded by Spain, and war obliged to be declared before the year was out, to compel her to more just and equitable measures. The war, however, was not so success- ful as to render it clear that the pacific and wary proceedings of the British minister were otherwise than most prudent and wise, consid- ering the general circumstances, of Europe. " Omnia prius expe- riri verbis quam armis sapientem decety" is a maxim which has been applied to the conduct of sir Robert Walpole, by an author, not backward to admit that, on some points, in regard to continental - politics, the pacific system was carried too far. The period during which it prevailed will, certainly, for ever be a remarkable era in English history, especially as the reigning sovereign was notorious- ly a soldier, and by no means personally disposed to adopt so inactive a line of conduct. 5. Though the people had been clamorous for the war with Spain, they were soon dissatisfied with the conduct of it, and that to so great a degree, as to compel the minister, sir Robert Walpole, though with considerable reluctance, to resign his appointments ; which took place in February, 1,742; the approbation of his sove- reign being manifested in his elevation to the peerage, by the title of earl of Oxford, lie was succeeded by lord Carteret. Sir Kbbert Walpole had been an able, intelligent, and prudent minister ; a con- stant lover of peace, in the w T ay of defence and prevention ; and upon this he prided himself : he was of the Ayhig party, which ex posed hiin much to the rancour, not only of those- whose political opinions were different, but of many disappointed persons who thought with him. By these he was stigmatized as having reduced corruption to a system ; but by others, this charge was as confidently repelled ; nor would it be difficult to prove that, though he often spoke - as if he knew every man's price^ he governed, not by corruption, but by party attachments, as his friends and admirers have alleged. \Jp3n two great occasions his plans were thwarted by some who lived to see and correct their errors, as was the case, particularly, with Mr. Pitt, in regard to the excise bill, first proposed to the house < of commons in the year 1,732. There was never, perhaps, a case in which party, faction, and ignorance, prevailed more over truth, and justice, and prudence. The bill was calculated o check and control the most gross and pernicious frauds upon the revenues ; to f-Kvour and encourage, in every possible manner, the fair deafer, MODERN HISTORY. . 21b fand through nini the public in general,) and by the savings pro- duced in the treasury, materially to lighten the public burthens . yet such a clamour was raised against the measure, from its first sugges- tion, as to oblige the minister to abandon it. 6. The other measure, which brought great odium on this able minister of finance, was his trespass on the sinking fund, first estab- lished in 1,727, and which he made no scruple to alienate for public purposes, as occasion seemed to require. The very name of this fund is not equally applicable to all times. At first it arose entirely from savings, and its perpetual or uninterrupted operation under such circumstances, would appear to have been an indispensable part of its character. It had been calculated as proceeding upon the basis of compound interest; while new loans and debts, contracted for pressing emergencies, were held to burthen the public in the way of simple interest only. But in these days, the whole state of the question is changed. The modern sinking fund is not a sinking fund of surpluses or savings, but in itself a borrowed fund : of great power and great utility, occasionally, but plainly at the command of the fmblic, whenever the current expenses cannot be provided for at a ess cost; and, indeed, often beneficially to be applied to such puiv Eoses, in greater or less proportions, to the avoidance of many eavy charges of management, hi^h premiums, and new taxes. The alienation of the original sinking lund, by sir Robert Walpole, how- ever, has been very ably defended since, though opposed and resist- ed, at the time, with a virulence and animosity exceedingly distress- ing to that minister. 7. The new administration, which came into power on the resig- nation of Walpole, so little answered the expectations of their friends, deviated so soon from the principles they had avowed, while in opposition, and seemed so much more disposed to espouse the cause of Hanover, at the expense, and to the loss, of England, in useless subsidies and foreign war's, than to attend to the domestic difficulties under which she was supposed to be labouring, that they became, in a very short time, quite as unpopular as their predeces- sors, and in 1,745, the very year in which Walpole died, the rebel- lion broke out in Scotland. 8. This attempt against the house of Hanover, undertaken by the heir of the Stuart family, in person, was, undoubtedly, an ill-con- ducted, as it was ultimately an unsuccessful, enterprise ; though to call it altogether a weak one, would be contrary to historical truth. Its commencement, indeed, had all the appearance of the most ro- mantic infatuation, but in its progress it became so formidable, as even to threaten the capital of England, and the protestant success- ion ; nor was it subdued without great efforts and exertions on the part of the king's forces, so unavailing and disheartening at first, as to render the issue of the contest extremely problematical. It was, in fact, at the beginning, despised and neglected, by the lords of the , regency, in the absence of the king, wHo was then at Hanover, so that time was given for such an accession of friends and adherents to the cause of the pretender, while the English army was left without any adequate reinforcements, that the rebels not only got possession of Edinburgh, after a very severe but most successful action with the English, at Preston Pans, but were able to march, unmolested, far into England, and even to retreat, in the face of a powerful army under circumstances peculiarly creditable to the prowess, humanity >d military skill of the Scottish commander. 276 MODERN HISTORY. 9. Had the young prince met with the encouragement he expect- ed on his march to the south, he might have possessed himself of the English, as he had done of the Scotch, capital.; but his hopes of aid were, considering all things, strangely and cruelly disappointed. Not a soul joined him, of any importance, though he had advanced nearly to the very centre of the kingdom ,* while the French failed to fulfil their engagement of invading the southern parts of the island, in order to divide and occupy the English army, so that his retreat became a point of prudence perfectly, inevitable, however mortifying and grating to the gallant spirit of Charles, who un- doubtedly manifested a strong disposition to proceed against all obsta :les. 10. The conflict between the two nations, on this occasion, was greatly affected by the religious tenets and principles of the oppos- ing parties. Had Scotland been entirely catholic, the hopes of the Stuart family would hav r e been extremely reasonable ; but it was. it this period, divided between the presbyterians and the catholics; the Lowlanders being of the former sect, and the Highlanders, gen- erally speaking, of the latter. The presbyterians, who had gained great advantages, in the way of toleration, by the revolution, having become whigs in principle, naturally adhered to the house of Han- over, while the catholic Highlanders were quite as fully and as nat- urally inclined to support their native prince. Nothing could be wise t, perhaps, under these circumstances, than the sending a prince uf the blood to command the British forces, and, as it happened, no officer of the British army could be more popular than the duke ol Cud iberland^ at this very period. Flis royal highness joined the arm f at Edinburgh, not long after the -battle of Falkirk, in which the English, under general Havvley, had recently sustained a cheek. Thi ; duke, indeed, had been expressly recalled from Flanders, to suppress the rebellion, which was, in no small degree, detrimental and injurious to the cause of the allies. 1 i The conduct of the son of the pretender was certainly that of a brave but inconsiderate young man. Sanguine in his expecta-^ tiors, beyond what any circumstances of the case would completely |usl ify, he, in more instances than one, committed himself too tar, and at t Lie very last exposed himself to a defeat, which might, at least, haii e been suspended or mitigated, if not totally avoided. He made a stand against the king's forces at Culloden, while his troops were in a bad condition for fighting, and when it would obviously have been better policy to have acted on the defensive ; to have retired beiore his adversary, till he had led him into the more impractica- ble parts of the < highlands, where all his military means would have been crippled, and a retreat, perhaps, at least, have been rendered indispensably necessary ; but by risking the battle of Cullo- den, (April 16, 1,746) he lost every thing. The duke of Cumber land gained a mjst decisive victory ; and so completely subdued the hopes and spirits of his young opponent, that he never afterwards joined his friends, though solicited, and indeed engaged, so to do ; but wandering about the country for a considerable time, with a price of £30,000 set on his head, after enduring incredible hardships and difficulties, embarked for France ; and thus terminated for ever the struggles of that exiled and deposed family to recover its ancient dominions. The very remarkable instances of attachment, fidelity, and pure hospitality, by which, after the battle of Culloden, the unfortunate fugitive was preserved from the hands of his pursuer*, MODERN HISTORY. g77 surpass any thing of the kind recorded in history, and reflect indelible credit on the high and disinterested feelings and principles of those who assisted him in his escape. 12. The most melancholy circumstance attending this rash un- dertaking, was the necessity that arose for making examples of those who had abetted it, in order more securely to fix on the throne oi Great Britain the reigning family; who, having acquired that right in the most constitutional manner, could not be dispossessed of it, but by an unpardonable violation of the law. Of the excesses committed by the English troops after the battle of Culloden, it is to be hoped, as indeed it has been asserted, that the accounts are exaggerated but in the common course of justice, many persons, and some of the highest rank, underwent the sentence of death for high treason, whose crime, through a melancholy infatuation, must in their own eyes have appeared the very reverse, and whose loyalty and attach- ment, under different circumstances, and with the law and constitution on their side, would have deserved the highest praise. Though many of the adherents of the pretender suffered, many of them made their escape beyond sea, and arrived safely at the different ports of the continent. No attempts have since been made by any oi the catholic descendants of the royal family of Great Britain to dis- turb the protestant succession in the house of Brunswick. 13. This illustrious house sustained a very unexpected and mel ancholy loss, in the year 1,750, by the death of his royal highness the prince of Wales, father of his late majesty ; who, in consequence of a cold caught in his gardens at Kew, died of a pleuritic disorder, on the twentieth day of March, in tha forty-fifth year of his age. He was a prince endowed with many amiable qualities ; a munificent patron of the arts, a friend to merit/and sincerely attached to the in- terests of Great Britain. 14. In the course of the year 1,751, a remarkable act was passed in parliament, for correcting the calendar, according to the Gregori- an computation. It was enacted, that the new year should begin on the first of January, and that eleven days between the second and fourteenth days of September, 1 ,752, should for that time be omitted, so that the day succeeding the second, should be called the fourteenth of that month. This change was on many accounts exceedingly im- portant, but to persons wholly unacquainted with astronomy, it ap- peared a strangely arbitrary interference with the currency and set- tled distinctions of time. 15. Though the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1,748, maybe said to have restored peace to Europe, the English and French came to no good understanding with regard to their remote settlements. The war in those parts involved the interests of the natives or set- ters, as well as of the two courts, and scarcely seems to have fallen under the consideration of the negotiating ministers. In the east and m the west many disputes and jealousies were raised, whicn though referred to special commissioners to adjust, in no long course of time involved bo^n countries in a fresh war, the particulars of which will be found elsewhere: a war which extended to all parts of the globe, and continued beyond the reign of George II., who died suddenly at Kensington, in 1,760, in the 77th year of his age, and 34th of h» reign. 16. George 11. was a prince of high integrity, honour, and vera- city, but of a warm and irritable temper, of a warlike dicposiiitw, and though for a long time restrained by his pacific minister, sir Aa m MODERN HISTORY Robert Walpole, from taking any active part in the disputes of the continent, yet constantly inclined to do so, from an attachment, very natural, though unpopular amongst his British subjects, to his Ger man dominions. He was greatly under the influence of his queen, while she lived, "whose mild, prudent and conciliating manners,"' to use the words of a very impartial and judicious biographer, " were more congenial to the character of the English nation.'' Queen Caroline had indeed many great and splendid virtues ; though of most amiable and domestic habits, she was well versed in the politics of Europe, and had considerable literary attainments, which disposed her to be a friend to learned persons, particularly to many members of the church, of which several striking and remarkable instances have been recorded. It is sufficient to mention the names of Herring, Clarke, Hoadley, Butler, Sherlock, Hare, Seeker, and^ Pearce. She was the daughter of John Frederick, margrave of Brandenburgh Anspach, and was born in the year 1,683. She was married to his majesty in 1,705, and had issue two sons and five daughters. Her death, which occassioned great grief to her royal consort and family, took place on the 20th of November, 1,733, when she was in the 55th year of her age. SECTION V. STATE OF EUROPE AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE PEACE OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, 1,748. 1. By the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle the house of Hanover was effectually established on the throne of Great Britain, to the entire exclusion of the Stuart family. Though the peace was not popular in England, and she was supposed by many to have made too great, and in some instances ignominious concessions, yet it was certainly fortunate for her that the continental powers confined their views to a 'balance which did not extend to the sea ; and thereby left in her hands a force, beyond calculation superior to that of the other countries of Europe, and amounting almost to a monopoly of com- merce, credit, and wealth, so as to render her, as it were, the chief agent or principal, in all political movements, for the time to come. Her prosperity, indeed, had been on the increase, in no common de gree, from the accession of the Brunswick family. 2. Austria lost, by the treaty; of 1,748, Silesia and Glatz,, the duchies of Parma, Placentia, and Guastalia, and some places in the Milanese : but she succeeded, and chiefly at the expense of her allies, in the article of the succession. All former treaties were formally recognised, which involved indeed other losses to the em- pire, if compared with the time of Charles V r ; but the dominions of the latter were certainly too extensive, and too detached, to form a great and stable empire. This, indeed, may be said to have been the case with regard even to the reduced domains of Charles VI. ; but his high-spirited daughter, Maria Theresa, was to the last indig- nant at the losses she had sustained. She corrected the error into which she had fallen with regard to Genoa, and which occasioned great commotions there, by consenting to let the marquisate of Final revert to that republic, which had been very arbitrarily given, in the course of the war, as a bribe to the king of Sardinia, and made a free port, to the evident disadvantage of the Genoese, who had MODERN HISTORY. 219 originally purchased it for a valuable consideration, under the guar antee of Great Britain. 3. Prussia gained, by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Silesia, and the county of Glatz, which were guaranteed to her by all the con- tracting powers ; and by this accession of territory she was raised into the condition of a power capable of entering into the field ol action, as a rival of Austria ; which might have been foreseen, when Leopold erected it into a kingdom, for the express purpose of coun- terbalancing the power of France. As it was, the unity of the em- pire seemed to be dissolved, and a door set open to future revolutions in the Germanic body. The. character and subsequent achievements of Frederick II. contributed greatly to the aggrandizement of his do- minions. He was active, bold, fond of glory, and indefatigable. He was brave in the field, and wise in the cabinet. Desirous of shining in all that he undertook, he was indefatigable in keeping his army constantly ready for all emergencies, and in repairing the damages to which his dominions had been subjected by his ambition. He drew to him many eminent, persons of ail countries, of whose society he pretended to be fond ; but he oftentimes showed himself to be a most merciless tyrant, a blunderer in political economy, and, if not quite an atheist, very lax in his principles of religion. 4. Holland lost much by the peace, and gained nothing. Some, indeed, doubted whether she did not greatly endanger her indepen- dence, by consenting to make the stadtholdership hereditary in the house of Orange, and that in favour of the female as well as male heirs of the family : but others conceived that this approach to mo narchical government greatly strengthened the republic ; and it would indeed seem that it had declined much in power and consequence from the very period when that office was abolished, in the preced ing century. One precaution was adopted with regard to the female heirs to the Stadtholdership : they were precluded from marrying anv king, or elector of the empire ; a precaution which there were, vb the history of Europe, sufficient reasons to justify. 5. Spain obtained, for two branches of her royal family, the king- dom of Naples, and the duchies of Parma, Placentia, and Guastafia the latter to revert to Austria, that is, Parma and Guastalla, and Pla- centia to Sardinia, should the new duke, don Philip, die without issue, or succeed to either of the kingdoms of Spain or Naples. But the power of Spain was not much increased, either by land or sea. On the latter, indeed, the English had an overwhelming superiority; and, on land, though her armies were brave, they were generally ill conducted, and her government too bad to render her respectable in. the eyes of Europe. Ferdinand VI., indeed, the successor of Philip, who came to the throne just before the conclusion of the treaty, applied himself, with no small degree of credit, to retrieve the character of the nation. 6. Austria, by seeking an alliance with Russia, had introduced the latter power into the southern states of Europe, and given her consid- erable weight and consequence, as a counterbalance to her great rival, France. Scarcely known at the commencement of the century, the movement impressed upon this mighty empire by the extraor- dinary genius anu vigour of Peter the first, had carried her forward, with a rapid progression ; so that, by the middle of the century, she might justly be regarded as amongst the most considerable powers oi Europe Her armies were, perhaps, more than semi-barbarous; but they were brave, indefatigable, hardy, and supported by the reli 280 MODERN HISTORY gious principle cf predestination; the foundation oi a desperate kind of hardihood, seldom to be resisted. Her internal resources were not at all considerable, but they were daily improving. When Peter the first came to the crown, her revenues amounted to six millions of roubles; in 1,748 they were nearly quadrupled. Thus rapidly advancing, with one arm reaching to the Baltic, and the other to the Black sea, it was very obvious to discern that when, by good management, her gigantic body should be duly invigorated, she had every chance of becoming a ,most formidable power. Already had she shown herself such, to a great degree, in the influ- ence she had acquired in Sweden, Denmark, and Poland ; in her commercial treaties with England, her alliance with Austria, and her wars with the Turks. Her resources and means of improvement were great ; rivers not only navigable during the summer, but during the winter also, affording, by means of sledges, every opportunity of a quick and easy transport of all sorts of commercial goods ; the greater part of her southern provinces fertile, and requiring little culture ; mines of gold, iron, and copper; great quantities of timber, pitch, tar, and hemp. She had not yet learned to manufacture her own productions, or to export them in her own ships, and conse- quently to make the most of them : but she was in the way to learn such arts, and when once attained, she had the fairest prospects of acquiring a decided superiority, not only in the Baltic, and White sea, but on the Black sea and Caspian. 7. Turkey, at the middle of the eighteenth century, was compar- atively a gainer by the wars in which she had been engaged. She had taken the Morea from the Venetians, recovered from Austria Belgrade, Servia, and some provinces of Transylvania and Wallachia, and had hitherto baffled the attempts of Russia, to get absolute pos- session of the Crimea, and of the mouths of the Danube. 8. France obtained little in point of extent by the treaty of Aix- la-Chapelle, but that little was of extreme importance. The posses- sion of Lorraine, in addition to Alsace, and several strong forts on the Rhine, strengthened and completed, in the most perfect manner, her eastern frontier, and placed her in a most commanding attitude with regard to the German states. During the administration of cardinal Fleury, which lasted till the year 1,743, her marine had been de- plorably neglected, while the English had been able to enrich them- selves at the expense of the French, particularly by intercepting many valuable convoys, and capturing many ships of her reduced navy. 9. An author of reputation has proposed to throw the different European states, at the conclusion of the peace of 1,748, into the four following classes : — 1. Those that having armies, fleets, money, and territorial resour- ces, could make war without foreign alliances.' Such were England and France. 2 Those that with considerable and powerful armies, were de pendent on foreign resources. Austria, Prussia, and Russia. 3. Those that could not engage ki war, but in league with other states, subsidized by them, and always regarded in the light of sec- ondary powers by the large ones. Portugal, Sardinia, Sweden, Denmark. 4. Such as were interested in maintaining themselves in the same condition, and free from the encroachment of others. Switzerland Genoa, Venice, and the German states. Holland, Spain, and Naples, being omitted in the above account MODERN HISTORY. 2Hl might reasonably be thrown into a fifth class, as countries generally so connected with England, France, and Austria, as to be constantly involved in every war affecting either of those countries. SECTION VI. OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR, 1,775—1,762. 1. Though for some short time after the conclusion of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1,748, England and France seemed to enjoy, in no common degree, the blessings of peace, and to be upon a foot- ing of perfect amity Avith each other, yet it would appear that the seeds of a future war were sown in the very circumstances of that convention. England was left in possession of such a preponderating force at sea, while the French marine, through the parsimony or in- attention of cardinal Fleury, had fallen into so low a state of depres- sion, that it is not to be wondered that all who were interested about the latter, should have, their minds filled with jealousy and resentment. This was soon manifested, not only by the vigorous attempts made at this time to restore the marine of France, but in the projects formed lor dispossessing the English of their principal settlements in the East Indies and America ; a blow which might have been far more fatal to the English ration, than any leagues or confederacies in favour of the pretender. To secure the co-operation and support of Spain in these designs, France had endeavoured, in the year 1,753, to draw the lat- ter into a family compact, which, though afterwards brought about, was at this time successfully frustrated, by the extraordinary care and vigilance of the British minister at Madrid. 2. The peace established in Europe in 1,748, can scarcely be said to have ever been effectually extended to Asia and America. The conquests on each side indeed had been relinquished and surrendered by that treaty, but in a most negligent manner with respect to limits and boundaries ; and in each of those distant settlements, France at that time happened to have able and enterprising servants, who thought they saw, in their respective governments, such means of aggrandizing themselves and their country, and of thwarting the British interest, as were not to be overlooked or neglected. In the East Indies very extraordinary attempts were made to reduce the whole peninsula of India Proper, in sliort, the whole Mogul empire under the dominion of France, by an artful interference °in the ai> pointment of the governors of kingdoms and provinces, the Soubah- dars. Nabobs, and Rajahs. The po wer of the mogul had been irrevoca- bly shaken by Kouli-Khan, in 1,733, from which time the vicerrys and other subordinate governors had slighted his authority, and, in a greater or less degree, become independent. The interference of the French was calculated to throw things into confusion, by dispos- sessing those who were adverse to them of their governments and territories, and thus compelling them, as it were, to seek succour from the English ; which ultimately brought the two rival nations of Eu- rope into a state of hostility, not as avowed principals, but as the auxiliaries of the different native princes or nabobs. In no long course of time, things took a turn entirely in favour of the English and their allies; the French were baffled in all their projects, every place they possessed taken from them, a suspension of arms agreed upon, in 1,754, and the French governor, Dupleix, the ambitious and Aa 2 3G 282 MODERN HISTORY. enterprising author and fomenter of all the troubles, but who had been ill-supported by his government at home, recalled from India. 3. It was at this period that the celebrated Mr. Clive, after -vrfftia lord Clive, first distinguished himself, who had not only disoe< %<« cut enough to see through and detect all the artifices an.d(h«i»«'.: (f Dupleix, but, though not brought up to the military profession -on displayed such skill and courage in conducting the operations of the army, as speedily established his fame, and laid the foundation for his future elevation and glory. 4. In America, the boundaries of the ceded provinces not having been justly defined in the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the French had formed a design of connecting, by a chain of forts, their two distant colonies of Canada and Louisiana, and to confine the English entirely within that tract of country which lies between the Alleghany and Apalachian mountains and the sea. No part of this design could be carried on without manifest encroachment on territories previously, either by agreement^ settlement, or implication, appropriated to others ! Where the boundaries were not precisely defined, all that was not English or French, belonged to the native tribes, and the only policy that the European colonists had to observe, was to conciliate the friendship, or resist the attacks of these ferocious neighbours. But the scheme the French had in agitation threatened to be extremely injurious to the English colonists ; giving them, in case of war, a fron- tier of fifteen hundred miles to defend, not merely against a race of savages, as heretofore, but against savages supported by disciplined troops, and Conducted by French officers. 5. It was not possible for England long to contemplate these ag- gressions and projects without interfering ; but her means of resisting them were not equal to those by which the French were enabled to carry them into execution. The English colonies were notoriously divided by distinct views and interests ; had many disagreements and differences among themselves, which seemed, for some time at least, totally to prevent their acting in concert, however necessary to their best interests. The French depended on no such precarious support, but were united both in their object and operations. Hos- tilities, however, did not actually commence till the year 1,755, from which period the contest in North America was carried on with various success, between the French and English, severally assisted by different tribes of Indians ; in the course ol which, it is more than probable, that sad acts of cruelty may have been perpetrated, and both nations have been to blame in some particulars ; but it is cer- tainly remarkable, that each party stands charged exclusively with such atrocities by the historians of the adverse side ; and while the English writers attribute the whole war to the intrigues and en- croachments of the French, the latter as confidently ascribe it to the cupidity and aggressions of the English. It is very certain, however, that, before the war actually commenced, the French court made such strong but insincere professions of amity, and a desire of peace, as to deceive its own minister at the court of St, James's, M. de Mirepoix, who felt himself so ill-treated in being made the tool of such duplicity and dissimulation, as to cause him to repair to Paris, to remonstrate with the administration who had so cajoled him. It is necessary to mention these things, where historical truth is the great object in view. 6. At the commencement of this contest between France and England, the former seems to have been most successful on land : MODERN HISTORY. 283 but the latter, and to a much greater degree, at sea. Before the end of the first year of the war, no less than three hundred French merchant vessels, some of them extremely rich, with eight thousand sailors, being brought into the English ports ; and while the rate of insurance in the latter country continued as usual, in France it quickly rose to 30 per cent., a pretty strong indication of the com- parative inferiority of the latter, as far as regarded her marine, and the safety of her navigation. 7. But it was soon found expedient by one, if not by both parties, to divert the attention from colonial to continental objects ; a meas- ure whkh, as in a former instance, the French writers ascribe entirely to England, and the English writers as confidently to France ; bat it is sufficiently clear that the latter first Entertained views upon the electorate of Hanover, which gave that turn to the war in gen- eral. Considering what had passed in the preceding struggle upon the continent, nothing could be more strange than the conduct of the different states of Europe on this particular occasion. Instead of receiving assistance from the empress queen, whose cause England had so long and so magnanimously supported, and who was bound by treaty to contribute her aid in case of attack, Maria Theresa evaded the applications made to her by the court of St. Jaines\> (perhaps in rather too high and peremptory a tone,) on the pretence that the war between France and England had begun in America ; and she applied herself with peculiar assiduity to recover, through the aid of Russia, the provinces of Silesia and Glatz, which had been ceded to the Prussian monarch. 8. It has been conjectured that her imperial majesty had been greatly offended at the preliminaries of peace, in 1,748, having been signed by England without her approbation, and that she was capable of carrying her resentment so far as voluntarily to throw herself into the arms of France, without further consideration ; while the French king, whose strange course of life had been too openly ridiculed by the king of Prussia, foolishly suffered himself to be cajoled into an alliance with Austria, after three hundred years of warfare, against his former active and powerful ally ; thereby break ing through the wise system of Richelieu, and helping to raise the very power, of whose greatness France had the most reason to be jealous ; but Maria Theresa, and her minister, prince Kaunitz, to produce this great change in the policy of France, had stooped tc (latter and conciliate the king's mistress, the marchioness of Pom pad our. 9. Fortunately for England, however, the conduct of these two courts quickly determined the king of Prussia to form an alliance with the elector of Hanover; to stifle and forget all former differ- ences and animosities, and peremptorily to resist the entrance of for- eign troops into Germany ; a measure which, though first directed against Russia, subsidized by England, equally applied' to France. An alliance between the kings of Great Britain and Prussia had long been contemplated by some of the ablest statesmen of the former country, as the most natural and wisest connexion that could be formed to counteract the projects and power of France. Hitherto strong personal jealousies and ill-will on the part of the two sove- reigns had prevented any such union, and now it was brought about by accident ; much more, however, to the advantage of Prussia than of Great Britain. It had been proposed in England, to subsidize Russia, but the negotiations of the former with the king of Prussia, m MODERN HISTORY. whom the czarina personally disliked, produced a close but unex- pected union of Russia, Austria, and France ; not so much against England, perhaps, as against Prussia, nor yet so much against the kingdom of Prussia as against the king himself, 10.. Such was the commencement of what has been termed the seven years' war. It seemed soon to be forgotten that it was origin- ally a maritime or colonial war. The whole vengeance of France and Austria, in 1,757, was directed against the king of Prussia, and electorate of Hanover. The Prussian monarch, relying on his well- organized army and abundant treasury, despised the powerful com- bination against him, and commenced the war in a most imposing though precipitate manner, by dispossessing, at the very outset, the king of Poland, elector of Saxony, in alliance with Austria, of his capital, of his whole army, and of his electoral dominions, in a way littie creditable to his character, notwithstanding the strong political motives alleged in his subsequent manifestoes. The situation of France, by this sudden manoeuvre, was certainly rendered most ex- traordinary. At the commencement of the former war, she had done her utmost to dethrone Augustus, king of Poland, in favour ot Stanislaus, whose daughter had married the French king ; and she had now just as strong and urgent a reason to assist in restoring Au- gustus to his hereditary dominions, the daughter of the latter being married to the dauphin, and the life of the dauph'^ess having been endangered by the intelligence received of the rigorous treatment of her royal parents. 1 1 . it was during the seven years' war, that Frederic of Prussia acquired that glory in the field which has rendered his reign so conspicuous and remarkable.' The intended victim, as he had great reason to suppose, of an overwhelming confederacy of crowned heads, he lest no time in defending himself against their attacks, by occupying the territories of those who threatened him, so suddenly and arbitrarily indeed, with regard to Saxony, as to give olfence to the greater part of Europe; but generally contending with surprising success against superior armies, though incessantly summoned from one tie id of battle to another, by the numerous and divided attacks of his opponents : nor was there one of all the powers that menaced him,, whom he did not find means to humble, and in some instances punish most severely, at first, with an impetuosity bordering upon rashness, afterwards, by more wary and circumspect proceedings. In Silesia, Saxony, Brandenbourg, Hanover, and Westphalia, he had to contend with the armies of the empire, Austria, Russia, Sweden, France, and Saxony : 200,000 men are supposed to have fallen annually in these campaigns. Though often worsted, (as must be the case, where no consideration of superior numbers is allowed to operate as a check,) his great genius was never more manifested, than in the quick reparation of such reverses. Often did his situation appear perfectly desperate, both to friends and enemies, yet as often did he suddenly succeed in some new effort, and in extricating himself from disasters which threatened entirely to overwhelm him; being all the while under the ban of the empire, in virtue of a decree of the auiic council, which bound every German circle, in obedience to the imperial orders, to assist in depriving him of his possessions, dignities, and prerogatives. The rapidity of his motions was beyond all example ; neither danger nor misfortune could dishearten him ; and had his moderation been but equal to his courage, had he, in all cases, been as humane as he was brave, his military character would have MODERN HISTORY Mb stood higher, perhaps, than that of any other commander, ancient or modern. 12. The army, it must be acknowledged, for some time afforded but little assistance to, if it did not actually embarrass, the operations of Frederic. A formidable force of 33,000 Hanoverian, Hessian, and other troops, under the command of the duke of Cumberland, had, in a most extraordinary manner, been reduced, though neither beaten nor actually disarmed, to a state of inactivity, and the king's- German dominions abandoned to the enemy, by a convention the most singular upon the records of history ; and if actually necessary, only rendered so by the impolitic movements of the commander-in chief, who, instead of endeavouring to join the Prussians, after a sharp contest, in which the French had the advantage, retreated in a totally different direction, merely to keep up, as it has been supposed, a communication with the place to which the archives and most valuable effects of Hanover had been removed. 13. This convention, indeed, signed at Closter-seven, September 8, 1,757, was said to have been concluded against the wishes of the royal commanderhimself, and entirely at the instance and requisition of the regency of Hanover. Be this, however, as it may, it whs un- doubtedly almost fatal to the king of Prussia, and exceedingly humiliating to England, though ultimately attended with this good effect, that it seems to have roused and stimulated both the people and government to greater exertions. Unfortunately much of this good spirit and renewed activity was wasted in fruitless attempts on the coast of France, which cost the nation much money, and, as it turned out contributed little or nothing to her glory and advantage ; the demolition of the works at Cherburg, and capture of Belle Isle, 1,761, which was of use afterwards, as an exchange for Minorca, being all she had to boast of. To her great and indefatigable ally, the king of Prussia, these expeditions to the French coast could be of no use, except in diverting a part at least of the French forces, which might otherwise have been opposed to him ; but they had scarcely this effect, and though that great minister, Mr. Pitt, after- wards lord Chatham, appears to have . been the chief promoter of these measures, in opposition to many members of the British cabinet, the policy of them, even .had they been more successful, has been pretty generally questioned. Her soldiers, many thought, were principally wanting in Germany, the grand theatre, of military opera- tions, to strengthen and give effect to the judicious and bold measures of prince Ferdinand, who, being, by the advice, it is said, of the Prussian monarch, on the retirement of the duke of Cumberland, after the convention spoken vof, placed at the head of the aijied army, had succeeded in compelling the French to evacuate Hanover, Brunswick, and Bremen. England indeed had been liberal in her subsidies, even to a degree that some thought unwise and extrava- gant, and she had been successful in America, Asia, Africa, and gen- erally on the ocean. The French navy indeed, was almost annihilat- ed ; and her colonies, both in the east and west, had fallen a prey to the English armies ; even Canada, the source and focus, as it were, ot the transatlantic disputes between England anr 1 France, was complete- ly subdued by the armies under the command of Wolfe, Townshend, Monckton, Murray, and Amherst, who displayed such zeal, valour, and abilities, in the capture of the towns of Quebec and Montreal, as tiave never been exceeded. 14. Though prince Ferdinand had driven the French back, it was 206 MODERN HISTORY. doubted whether the forces under his command would be sufficient to maintain these advantages; apprehensions, indeed, were entertain- ed, that he might be reduced to lorm another convention as humiliat- ing as that of Closter-seven. But the genius and valour of this great prince surmounted the difficulties in which he, seemed to be placed, by most judiciously, and with no small art 3 compelling the French to come to an engagement, under circumstances peculiarly favourable to the allied army ; and the battle of Mind en, which took place August 1, 1,759, though the subject afterwards of much jealousy amongst the allies, effectually relieved the electorate of Hano'ver, and the greater part of Westphalia, from the presence of the French. 15. It was at this period, August 10, 1,759, that Ferdinand VI., of Spain, died, and was succeeded by his brother, don Carlos, king ot the two Sicilies, under the title of Charles III., in consequence of which succession, and, according to the terms of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, don Philip should have surrendered the duchies of Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla to Austria and Sardinia, and remov- ed to In aples, (see Sect. V. § 5 ;) but as Charles III. had never acced- ed to that treaty, he left the crown of the two Sicilies to his third son, Ferdinand, and don Philip agreed, and was allowed by Austria, to retain the three duchies ; the courts of France and Spain having managed to qui3t the alarms of Sardinia, in regard to the reversion of Placentia. 16. The removal of don Carlos to Spain, at a time when so many advantages had been gained ever the French by the English, at sea and in America, justly alarmed the new monarch for his own colonies and settlements in those parts ; and these apprehensions soon became a. reason for his entering into a family compact with France, which had been attempted before, but frustrated by the care and vigilance of the British minister. It was in fact entirely arranged and con- cluded in the month of August, 1,781, and extended to all the Bour- bon princes ; it was a treaty of mutual and reciprocal naturalization, and equality of rights, to the subjects of all the Bourbon states, France, Spain, the two Sicilies, Parma, and Placentia, with a general guarantee of each others dominions, under all possible circumstances except one, which was, that Spain should be excused from interfering in any quarrels of France, arising out of the treaty of Westphalia, unless some maritime power should take part in such disputes, or France be invaded. 17. The above clause in the treaty was judged to be so evidently aimed at England, as to justify an immediate declaration of war against Spain on the part of the former, which accordingly took place early in the year 1,762 ; nor was Spain backward in following the example against England, in resentment, as it was alleged, of the supercilious and arbitrary manner, in which the latter had interfered with regard to the family compact. 18. The first fruits of this extraordinary confederacy were a gro^s attempt upon the independency of Portugal, as an ally of England, by France and Spain ; an attenipt the most appalling to Portugal, had not her brave and honourable sovereign resolved rather to per- ish than to submit to the terms dictated to him by the combined mon- archs. England was in every way bound to give aid and support to her ancient and faithful ally, on so trying an occasion ; and, fortunately, her help came so opportunely and so promptly, as to enable the king of Portugal to repel the Spaniards, who had not only passed the frontiers, but actually taken several towns. Thus was that monarch BIOxJERN HISTORY. 28: and nis dominions saved from the effects of as wicked and arbitrary a design as was ever entertained against an independent or neutral potentate, and that on the sole ground of his connexion with Eng- land at the moment ; to whose resentment he would of course have been exposed, had he tamely submitted to the tyrannical demands of France and Spain. In either case, he seemed to be threatened with ruin and destruction, had things taken a different turn, from what actually came to pass. 1 9. The hostilities into which Great Britain was driven by this unprovoked attack upon Portugal, as well as by the threatening aspect and spirit of the family compact, which seemed to undo alt that had been accomplished by the succession war, were in every instance crowned with success ; so that in both hemispheres, her arms may be said to have been victorious, and her triumph complete ; and Spain had great cause to rue her short concern in the war, into which she had been cajoled by France, and which operated as fully to the disappointment of the latter power. In the mean while, the king of Prussia, who had been brought to the very verge of ruin, according to his own statement, and confession, was most unexpect- edly relieved by surprising changes in the Russian councils, through the demise of Elizabeth, and accession of Peter III., whose reign in- deed was too short to enable him to render any real assistance to the king of Prussia, in the field, which might have been expected from the enthusiastic admiration with which his actions were beheld by the Russian monarch. But this weak, though benign prince, in consequence of his too extensive plans of reform, and a difference with his empress, was soon removed ; and though his successor and consort, Catherine the second, did not by any means pay the same court to Frederic, yet- her opposition to him was very slight, and soon terminated by a treaty of peace, in which she was followed by Sweden. 20. All these, things evidently tended towards a general peace, it England, who had certainly been the most successful of all the pow- ers concerned, could be brought to consent to be stopped in her career of victory and triumph. A change of ministry had, however, laid the foundation for such measures. Mr. Pitt, who was for the continuance of the war, on some private information, as it has been thought, of the progress and terms of the family compact, had re^ signed soon after the demise of the king, George II. ; and lord Bute, who owed his place and power as minister, much more to the per- sonal good-will and attachment of the new king, than to the voice and favour of the people, foreseeing that it might be difficult tor him to raise either money or men for the prosecution of the war. (bounties for recruits, in particular, having risen to an unexampled height,) and having against him many important individuals of both parties, entered freely into negotiations with France, which were brought to an issue by the peace of Paris, (or Fontainebleau,) 1.763. 21. This treaty was not popular in England, though, undoubtedly, she reaped the benefit of many remarkable concessions, particularly m America, where she acquired, not only the whole province of Canada, but part of Louisiana ; the junction of which two distant French settlements, to the embarrassment, and possibly, total subjec tion of the English colonies, had been the express occasion of* the •war ; but by many persons it was thought, and perhaps with great reason, that England had surrendered too much, considering the high situation in which she stood, and the a4vantages that might £SS * MODERN HISTORY. nave been reaped by a little longer continuance ot the war ; an** m what she both surrendered and retained, an ill and impolitic selec- tion, it was alleged, had been made of posts and settlements. The treaty of Hubertsburg, by which the war was terminated between Austria and Prussia in the same year, 1,763, restored matters, in re- gard to those two powers, exactly to their former state, after seven most destructive and expensive campaigns ! Nothing of territory was lost and nothing gained by either party. England, undoubtedly was left in the highest state of prosperity at the conclusion of these two treaties. Her navy unimpared, or rather augmented at the ex- pense of the navy of France ; her commerce extending from one extremity of the globe to the other, with an accession of important settlements ceded to her bv France in Asia, Africa, and America SECTION VII. FROM THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE III. 1,760, TO THE COM- MENCEMENT OF THE DISPUTES WITH AMERICA, 1,764. 1. Though a new enemy, for a very short time, was added to the list of those who were contending with England and her allies, when George the second died, by the accession of Spain to the family compact, and continental confederacy, in 1,761, yet the seven years'" war, through the exhaustion of the allies . of Austria, par- ticularly the Saxons, Poles, and French, may be said to have been drawing to a conclusion^ when George III. ascended the throne of Great Britain, on the demise of his grandfather, October 25, 1,760. For the termination of that war, see Sect. VI. 2. Much notice was taken of a passage in the king's first speech to his parliament, in which he expressed the glory he felt in having been born and educated in Britain ; and though some have pretended to see in it, a reflection on his royal predecessors, yet it was surely wise in the first sovereign of the house of Hanover, who stood clear of foreign manners, and foreign partialities, so to bespeak the love and attachment of his subjects. It is true, indeed, that England had prospered in no common degree from the first accession of that illustrious family, but it cannot be denied, that a distaste of foreign manners^ as well as a jealousy of foreign partialities, had occasionally interrupted the proceedings of government, asd were at all events calculated to keep up, in the minds of the disaffected, a remembrance of the breach that had been made in the succession to the throne- Fourteen years having passed since any attempt had been made to restore the Stuart family, and the condition of that family having become such, as to render any further endeavours to that effect, ex- tremely improbable, nothing more seemed wanting to remove all remaining prejudices against the Brunswick line of princes, than that the sovereign should be a native of the land he ruled. 3. In addition to this tie upon his subjects, every thing seemed to conspire, as far as regarded the Character, manners, and dispositio.. of the young king, to secure to him the attachment of his people ~ 7 and to give hopes of a quiet and tranquil reign. One of the very first acts of which was calculated to impress the idea of his being a true friend to the liberty of the subject, by rendering the judge® independent of the crown. His majesty was married, soon after nis accession, to the princess Charlotte of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, with MODERN HISTORY. 2ffB whom he was crowned at Westminster, on the 22d day of Septera ber, 1,761. 4. However promising the appearances hoth of external and in ternal tranquillity might be, at the commencement of the new reign, it was not long before the nation became agitated by party disputes and differences, of no small importance. In 1,762, a ques- tion arose, which though it led to very distressing tumults, terminat ed in the relief of the subject from an arbitrary process, exceedingly repugnant to -the spirit of the constitution, and the great Charter of British liberty. General warrants, and the seizure of private papers without sufficient necessity, the legality of which had been disputed, in the case of Mr. Wilkes, member for Ailesbury, during which that gentlemen displayed considerable fortitude, though certainly with great failure of respect towards the crown, were declared" to be illegal by a solemn decree of parliament, 1,765, nor has any attempt been since made to reinvest the government with so dangerous and formidable a power. The question of general warrants, however, was- not the only one in which Mr. Wilkes appeared as the champion of the people's liberties. Being elected for Middlesex, after having been expelled the houses he claimed his seat, in defiance of the res- olutions of parliament, but was not allowed to sit. Five years after- wards, he was permitted again to enter the house of commons ; but in this instance the parliament maintained its power of declaring a particular individual disqualified, against the decision of a majority of electors ;■ a curious point as affecting the constitution, and the elective franchise. 5. Though the courts of Vienna, France, and Prussia, had cause to be tired of the war, in which they had been engaged since the year 1,755, it is certain that England was in a state to continue it, especial- ly by sea, when the treaty of Paris, or Fontainebleau, was concluded, in 1,763. As long as Mr. Pitt continued a member of administration, the war had been carried on vigorously, and had become exceeding- ly popular, so that on the resignation of that great minister, in 1,761, and the appointment of lord Bute, whose distrust of his own abilities to continue it, disposed him to listen to the overtures of France,, great discontents arose. The minister was suspected of harbouring in his breast the most despotic principles, and of having inculcated the same into the mind of his sovereign, while yet a youth. He was supposed to possess too exclusive an influence in that quarter , and though, in private life, a most respectable nobleman, of great worth and probity, learning, and talents, his public measures were the continual theme of obloquy and abuse. Had Mr. Pitt continued in office, it is more than probable that the allies might have gained greater advantages on the continent, and the Spaniards been more severely punished for their interference ; so that the pacific meas- ures of the new minister, drew upon him the displeasure, if not the contempt, as well of his own countrymen, as of the king of Prussia also ; who in his writings has inveighed greatly against the prevail ing influence of the noble earl at this period, in the cabinet and coun cils of Great Britain. 6. The riots and tumults excited by the proceedings against Mr Wilkes, and the extreme unpopularity of lord Bute, contributed to render the first years of the reign of George III. exceedingly unqui- et, and to involve his majesty in many unpleasant difficulties, from the addresses, petitions, and remonstrances, which flowed in upon him, often couched in such language as it was impossible not to re» Bb ■ ;-■ • 37 t90 MODERN HISTORY. sent, and as often insinuating what, perhaps, was not founded on truth : for it has never* yet been clearly ascertained that the public actually suffered from any improper secret influence, or that the measures of lord Bute, with regard to the peace of Paris, all things considered, were impolitic or unwise. The worst feature in this peace, with regard to England, seems to have been, the failure to guard against the effects, in future, of the family compact, which was left in full force. Mr. Pitt had his eye constantly upon this, and, had he continued in power, would, no doubt, have continued the war with spirit and perseverance : this great minister had retired undisgraced; he received a pension indeed for himself, and a peer- age for his lady. His politics, to the day of his death, continued widely different from those of lord Bute, and were constantly more popular: but the great fault of the latter seems to have been, that he engaged in public business, contrary to the bent of his own dispo- sition, and was too sensible of his unpopularity, to undertake any measure that required much public_ support. All he did^ therefore, seemed to be managed in the way of private influence, cabal, and intrigue. 7. In addition to the addresses and remonstrances alluded to in the foregoing section, the popular fervour and agitation received consid- erable encouragement frorn^ the letters of an anonymous writer, never yet discovered, — a writer who displayed such an extraordi- nary knowledge of the proceedings of the court and cabinet, and had the power of expressing himself in a style so vigorous, striking, and keenly satirical, as to demand the attention of all parties, and confound the majority of those Whom he personally attacked. But the extreme severity of a concealed^and unknown accuser, and the gross personalities in which he often indulged, not sparing majesty itself, threw a cloud over his writings, which can never be done away, to the satisfaction of any candid or liberal mind. Though the mention of these celebrated letters' is rather anticipated in this place, as they did not publicly appear till the year 1,769, yet, as they par- ticularly relate to the foregoing transactions, and state of affairs in ♦he early years of the reign of George III., and long preceded the actual commencement of the war with America, the tirst authors of which he seemed disposed to screen, a better opportunity of intro- ducing the subject might scarcely be found. The many fruitless, but very curious attempts that have been made, at various times, to dis- cover the real author, have contributed, in addition to the extraordi- nary character of the work itself, and the political questions discuss- ed in it, to prevent its ever sinking into oblivion. The letters of Junius, with all their blemishes, will probably never fail to find a place in the libraries of the British scholar, and British statesman. 8. In the prosecution of this work, it should also be noticed, that a great constitutional point came under discussion, namely, whether, in cases of libel, the jury were judges of the law, as well as of the fact. In most other cases, no such difficulty seemed to occur. In cases of murder, not only the act of killing, but the murderous in- tent, was submitted to the decision of the jury ; and in trials for felony of every description, the course was the same. Lord Mansfield, in this case, insisted that the jury had only to decide on the fact of publication, and that the court was to determine upon the law of libel. This has generally been disputed by juries ; and they have found ways of evading the difficulty, by either themselves referring the law to the judge, by a special verdict, or by pronouncing a gen- MODERN HISTORY. 191 eral acquittal. Unfortunately, libels are of that description as con- stantly to excite those jealousies and suspicions, from which every court of justice should be free. They affect;, also, two of the highr est privileges of Englishmen, — the right of private judgment, and the liberty of the press. In the case of Junius, the point in dispute was by no means so settled as to obviate future differences. 9. The year 1,764 is memorable for the commencement of the dispute between Great Britain and her American colonies ; but as the history of this contest involves many curious questions of policy; as its results, in regard not only to England and America, but to the world in general, were very important ; and its termination led to a total separation of the colonies from the mother country, thereby establishing a distinct state and government of European settlers in the western hemisphere, the details of it will be reserved for another section. SECTION VIII. DISPUTES BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND HER AMERICAN COLONIES. 1,764—1,783. 1. The seven years 1 war, terminated by the peace of Paris, or Fon- tainebleau, in 1,763, had been begun in America, as has been shown." (Sect. VI.) Great Britain, at considerable expense of men and money, had resisted the encroachments of France on the British colonies, and thereby afforded to the latter, protection, perhaps be yond what any commercial benefits, under the colonial system, could be said fully to compensate. A question therefore arose, whether the colonies might not be called upon to contribute, by di- rect taxation, to the relief of the general expenses and burthens ot the mother country. The national debt, it was argued by the British government, was the debt of every individual in the whole empire, whether in Asia, America, or nearer home. 2. The question, however, was no sooner started than decided try administration ; chiefly through the influence and on the sugges- tion of Mr. George Grenville, then prime-minister, who, in the very year succeeding the peace of Paris, procured the stamp-act to be passed, by which the Americans were directly subjected tofaa tax imposed by the British parliament, without their own consent, not immediately applicable to their own wants or necessities, and contrary to every former mode of raising money for such purposes. This was certainly sufficient to excite alarm, and lead to questions of pol- icy and prudence ; of power and right ; of legislation and represen- tation ; never yet so thoroughly discussed or investigated. Hitherto, without questioning the power, government had forborne from taxing them as a matter of policy and propriety; and thus, as it was well said at the time, those two very difficult points, superiority in the presiding state, and freedom in the subordinate, had been prac- tically reconciled. 3. The situation of America rendered these questions the more important and alarming to the mother country, in case of opposition, as having been originally peopled from Europe, in a great measure. by refugees, exiles^ and persons adverse to the governments, which fhey had left, both in church and state, and well inclined, probably, to £!» MODERN HISTORY. assert a republican independence. Their legislative assemblies were already of the popular cast, and their feelings and spirits accordant. It must also be admitted, that upon the very ground of pecuniary or other aids, they had much to allege in respect of. their beneficial returns to England, in taking her manufactures, and having assisted her In the conquest of Canada. Most unfortunately, the very grants which had been made by their assemblies, in aid of England, during the last war, were alleged as an argument (a most irritating one, un- doubtedly,) of their ability to pay any imposts the parliament might choose to lay upon them. 4. As the ministry had decided hastily upon the general question they seem also to have suffered themselves to be precipitated into some of the worst measures they could have adopted to render their novel demands palatable. Their „very first tax, imposed by the stamp act of 1,764, though simple in its principle, was ill-suited to the state of America. The mere distribution of the stamps, through such a variety of different states, involved in it a thousand difficulties ; and there were provisions in the act itselfj which might, if at all abused or neglected, have subjected the people to unheard of vexa- tions and oppressions. It is scarcely, therefore, to be wondered that, on its first promulgation in America, the act should have been re- ceived with the greatest indignation, and even with defiance. 5. In the mean time, the cause of the Americans was espoused by a strong party at home, a party, so far from being contemptible* as to include some of the first persons of the nation, both in rank and importance. The debates in both houses were violent, but the topics discussed, in every point of view, interesting. The friends of the Americans, if it may be proper now to call them so, obtained and swayed, for a very short period, the helm of government. In June, 1,765, the Grenville administration was dismissed, and a new one, at the head of which was placed the marquis of Rockingham, came into power, through the mediation of the duke of Cumberland. They continued in office, however, for little more than one year; but in that short space of time, the stamp-act, which had been so ill received in America, Avas formally repealed. 6. But the grand question relating to the right of taxation was by no means determined by this measure : a declaratory act was particularly passed at the same time, for maintaining the constitu tional authority of Great Britian, in a all cases whatsoever ;" and though there was certainly no design, in those who promoted the repeal, to act upon this authority, by establishing any other tax of a similar kind, yet the colonists were prepared, as much as ever to dispute the principle, as iar as it regarded taxation ; and their courage and confidence at this time stood high, in consequence of the importance which had been given to them in the last war, and their emancipation from all dread of the French and Spaniards, by the cession of Canada and the Floridas. In the colony of Virginia the right of taxation was voted to rest entirely in the king, or his representative, and the general assembly of the colony. This was, undoubtedly, the usual course of things ; and in this way subsidies to a considerable amount had been granted to the crown. This prece- dent was soon followed by others of the legislative bodies, antl adopted in the general congress of New York, 1,765. 7. It was not pretended that the Americans paid ho taxes.; but a distinction was now set up, which there Lad been no occasion to insist upon before. To external taxation, through the operation of MODERN HISTORY. laws of trade and navigation, enacted in the mother country, they were willing to yield submission ; they had constantly done so, nor were they now disposed to resist such enactments; but all inter nal duties for raising a revenue, or supporting establishments, were held to be very differently circumstanced. Taxes of this nature were considered as being, in the very language of parliament itself, gifts, and grants. None, therefore, it was urged, could give the money of America but the people of America themselves. If they chose to make such grants, they might receive aiegislative sanction, as in England ; but legislation and taxation were distinct things. Tax- ation, according to the spirit of the English constitution, implying consent, direct or by representation, could not otherwise be rendered either legal or just. Local circumstances would render the repre- sentation of America, in the British parliament, impracticable and a supposed virtual representation was no less than mockery The representatives of England, in taxing others, taxed themselves also ; but this could not be the case in regard to American imposts. 8. Such were some of the strongest reasons urged against the measure in general ; but, as the right of taxation had not been ex- pressly given up by.any part in England, but rather insisted upon in the declaratory act, no concession short of this seemed likely to do good. The stamp-act had caused an irritation, which no qualified repeal could allay : internal taxation was not only resisted as an encroachment on established rights and usages, but, in resentment of such wrongs, attempts Were made to hinder the further operation even of exter nal taxation. Non-importation, and non-consumption agreements were soon entered into, and associations formed to methodise and consolidate the opposition to government. A resolution had been passed when lord North was minister, promising to desist from all taxation, except commercial imposts, whenever any one of the colonial assemblies should vote a reasonable sum, asa revenue, to be appropriated by parliament ; but this had no good e'ffect. 9. In so embarrassed a state of things, it is not very surprising that the ministry at home should have entertained wrong measures, and miscalculated the effects of the plans they were pursuing. The truth of history tends to show that, however they might be embarrassed by an active opposition in parliament, that opposition fairly forewarned them of the consequences of their meditated pro ceedings, which came to pass exactly as they had been foretold. But after this demand had once provoked the question of right, and that question had divided the people of both countries into two strong parties, things soon fell into that state* in which it became impossible to restore affairs to their original condition, either by perseverance or concession. Every effort of coercion was resented -as an illegal encroachment; every conciliatory proposition received as a proof of alarm and timidity, and as a pledge of victory and success to fu ture opposition.. 10. It has been questioned whether independence was not in the view of the Americans fiom the very first stirring of the question* or even previously ; but had this been the case, they would have been more prepared ; their addresses to the king and parliament, on various occasions, after the commencement of the dispute, must have been fallacious to the highest pitch of dissimulation, if they had de- termined against all compromise from the very beginning ; but, in- deed, the remonstrances and complaints of General Washington, on tiie ill state of his army, and total want of many essential requisites, B b2 W4 MODERN HISTORY. on first taking the command, seem clearly to prove that they were driven to assert their independence by the course of things ; a large portion of their fellow-subjects and countrymen on both sides of the Atlantic, judged them to be oppressed, and thus gave a character to Iheir opposition which could not very creditably be forfeited. Upon the whole it may be considered probable that some of the most prominent and active leaders of the revolution had very early con- ceived the design of establishing the independence of their country ; but that the mass of the people in the colonies, had no such inten- tion until after their first successes. 11. Hostilities did not actually commence till the year 1,775, ten years from the first passing of the stamp-act. In a short time after the passing of that act, it was repealed, as has been stated ; but in 1,767 the project of taxing America was revived by Mr. Charles Townshend, and from that period to the commencement of the war, both countries were in a state of the greatest agitation. Debates ran high at home, and in America their gravest proceedings were ac companied with such threats of defiance, and such indignant resent- ment of all innovations, as almost necessarily to bring them under the strong hand of power. But government underrated their means of resistance; when brought into a state of union, by the congress, their force was no longer to be despised ; all temporizing expedients were at an end, a circumstance ill understood by the ministry a home, who lost much time in endeavouring to retrieve matters, by fruitless attempts, sometimes in the way of conciliation, and at others, Of inefficient resistance. Thus, when in 1,770 many com- mercial duties were taken off, which the mother country nad an un- doubted right to impose, the concession was ill received, in conse- quence of the single exception of tea, which was continued in order to assert the rights and supremacy of Great Britain ; but this was done in a manner too imperious, and without sufficient force to subdue the resentment it was calculated to excite, at such a moment. At the very breaking out of the war, ministers appear to have been by far too confident of speedily suppressing so formidable an insurrec- tion ; an insurrection which had had time allowed it to organize itself, and which had drawn upon it the attention of the whole civ- ilized world. 12. The war may be said to have actually commenced cnly on the 14th of April, 1,775, though some English regiments had been sent to Boston so early as the year 1,768. In an affair at Lexington, amounting to no more than a skirmish, the English were' completely worsted, -a circumstance calculated to give spirits to the Americans, at a most awful and momentous period. General Washington, who had distinguished himself in the war against the French, and bore a most irreproachable character, was appointed to take the command of the American army ; a post of the utmost responsibility, and re- quiring talents, temper, and discretion, of no common description. 13. The sword being drawn, and no hopes remaining of an amica- ble adjustment of differences between the crown and its transatlantic subjects, now in a state of open revolt ; and the success of the first hostilities having animated the military ardour of the Americans, they proceeded, by a solemn declaration of the general congress at Philadelphia, July 4, 1,776, to declare the thirteen provinces inde- f>endent ; by which act America may be said to have been divided rom the mother countrv, 294 years after the discovery of that coun- try by Columbus ; 166 from the first settlement of Virginia; and 156 MODERN HISTORY. 29& from the settlement of Plymouth in Massachusetts Bay. The Amei ican Congress exercised its important functions with great energy and dignity, and the campaign of 1,776 turned out favourably for the Americans, and highly to the credit of their very able and brave commander. 14. Whether it were owing to the low opinion entertained by the government at home, of the resistance likely to be offered by the Americans, or to a dislike of the cause in which they were engaged on the part of the British commanders, it is exceedingly certain, that the English army did not obtain the advantages it was supposed it might have done, or proceed as if it were able speedily to crush the rebellion that had been raised. The American troops were every day improving, and every day deriving encouragement, either from unexpected successes, or the inactivity' of the armies opposed to them. On the other hand, the English were either indulging in pleasure, when they should have been in action, or disheartened by sudden surprises or repulses, which redounded greatly to the credit o£» their Jess disciplined, and less organized opponents. In a short time, however, the war became more complicated, and opened a scene, which not only involved the continent of Europe in the con- flict of the day, but probably led to changes and convulsions, as ex traordinary and as extensive as ever the world experienced. 15. In the month of November, 1,776, the celebrated Dr. Franklin and Silas Deane had been despatched by congress, to solicit, at the court of Versailles, the aid and assistance of French troops. Accord- ing to the former course of things, nothing could be more strange than such an application, at such a court ; an application from rebel- lious subjects, from the assertors of republican' independence, to a court celebrated for the most refined despotism, and ruling a people, heretofore the grossest admirers and flatterers of regal power; an application from persons of the simplest habits ; frugal, temperate, industrious, and little advanced in civilization, to a court immersed in pleasure, gay, and dissipated, profligate und corrupt, civilized to the highest pitch of courtly refinement, of polished' manners, and of splendid luxury : lastly, an application from a people who had car- ried their dissent from the church of Rome farther than any protes- tants in Europe, to a court still subject to the papal see, a cherished branch of the catholic church; , 16. Extraordinary, however, in all respects, as this American mis- sion seems to have been, it met with a cordial and favourable recep- tion. Even the queen of France was found to espouse the cause of the revolted subjects of Great Britain, little foreseeing the handle she was giving to many keen observers of her own courtly extrava- gance and thoughtless dissipation. The die was soon cast ; a formal treaty was entered into, acknowledging the independency of Amer- ica ; succour and support to a large extent promised, and officers ap- pointed to conduct the French forces, likely, it would seem, above all others, to imbibe the spirit of freedom, which animated the Americans, and to espouse their cause upon principle. They were all noble, indeed ; but in America they were sure to be taught how vain were such distinctions, if not supported by public opinion. 17. The English government was not formerly apprised of this unexpected alliance, till the year 1,778, when it received a very curious and insulting notification of it from the French ambassador. It does not appear that the aid thus obtained by the American mis- sion, was altogether grateful to the Americans themselves, though it §9(5 MODERN HISTORY. had the full effect of raising up new and powerful enemies against the mother country, and involving Europe in their cause ; for, through the French influence, in the year 1,779, Spain joined the confederacy against England, and, in 1,780, Holland. In the mean while commissioners had been sent from England to America, to treat for peace,' but the Americans, insisting on the previous ac knowledgment of their independency, rendered their attempts fruit- less. 18. Whatever loss of fame, reputation, and territory Great Britain mcurred in America^ her arms never shone with greater ijstre than on some occasions in which she was engaged during this war, with the confederate powers of Europe ; in Asia particularly, she was acquiring an empire ten times greater in wealth and population, than all she had to lose in the west.: but of all her achievements at this period, none, perhaps, was so conspicuous, none so glorious, as the defence of Gibraltar under General Elliot, afterwards lord Heath- field, against the combined forces of Spain and France. The prepa- rations made to recover that important fortress for Spain, exceeded every thing before known. The ultimate success of the attempt was calculated upon as so certain, that -some of the French princes of the blood, repaired to the Spanish camp merely to witness its sur- render. But the heroism of the troops in garrison baffled all their designs, and the timely arrival of the British fleet completed the triumph, in October, 1,782. The siege (begun in 1,779) was entire- ly abandoned, with the loss of all the Spanish floating batteries, and the defeat of the combined fleets of France and Spain, by lord Howe. This action took place on the 20th of October; in th2 following month provisional articles of peace were signed at Paris, by British and American commissioners, and early in the ensuing year a treaty concluded at Versailles, between Great Britain, France, and Spain, to which, in February, Holland also acceded. 19. Towards the close of the war, many important discussions in parliament took place on the American affairs, in which it was found, that those who had most espoused her cause, on the question of internal taxation, and most objected to the measures of administra- tion in the conduct of the war, differed, at the last, from each other, on the question of American independence ; a difference rendered peculiarly memorable, as being the subject of the last speech and appearance in parliament of that illustrious statesman, the earl of Chatham. On Apnl 7, 1,778, though labouring under a severe fit of illness, he appeared in his place, in the house of lords, and delivered a most animated and energetic speech, in which he strongly protest- ed against the surrender of the sovereignty of Great Britain over her colonies ; soon after, rising to reply to the Duke of Richmond, he fell back- on the seat in a fainting fit, and in a few days expired, at his seat in Kent. In four years from this event, Great Britain was compelled, to yield upon this great point, and, by the peace of Ver- sailles, ratified and concluded September 3, 1,783, the thirteen United Colonies of America were admitted to be "Free, Sovereign ) and indep&fr dent Slate? " MODERN HISTORY. 207 SECTION IX. FRANCE, FROM THE PEACE OF PARIS, 1,703, TO THE OPENING OF THE ASSEMBLY OF THE STATES GENERAL, 1,789. 1. For the affairs of France, from the death of Lewib XIV., lo the peace of Vienna, 1,738, (see Sect. 1.) In the year of 1,740, owing to the death of the emperor, Charles VI., Europe was again agitated, and France, in espousing the cause of the elector of Bava- ria, against the house of Austria, became involved in the war, which was terminated by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1,748, (see Sect III.) From the conclusion of the" above treaty, to the commence- ment of the seven years' war, she enjoyed a state of external peace and tranquillity. But though this short interval of repose from war, was applied to the improvement of the kingdom, in no common de gree, both in the capital and provinces, by the establishment of schools and hospitals, the erection of public edifices, the building of bridges, digging canals, and repairing roads ; in the cultivation and improvement of many arts, the extension of commerce, and encour agement of manufactures ; of silk, of porcelain, and tapestry, in par ticular ; yet amidst all these improvements she enjoyed little of inter nai tranquillity. Religious disputes greatly occupied the attention of all ranks of persons, and involved the clergy, the court, the par- liaments, and the people, in incessant contests, exceedingly disgrace- ful, and, considering the temper of the times, the advancement of human knowledge, and the progress of ideas, extremely injudicious. 2. During the reign of Lewis XIV., a fierce contention had arisen between the Jesuits and Jansenists, on certain obscure points in theology, which, after much fruitless argument, much raillery and abuse on both sides, through the influence of the Jesuits with the king, were referred to the decision of the Roman pontiff. One hun- dred and one propositions, out of one hundred and three, which were said to favour the Jansenists, in a book written by the Pere Quesnel, were, in the year 1,713, declared by the holy office to be heretical, and consequently condemned in form* The interposition of his ho liness had little effect, in regard to the restoration of peace and tran- quillity. The public instrument, by which the sentence was passed on the Jansenist party, (in the ianguage of Rome commonly called the bull " UnigenitusJ 1 from the first word with which it begins,) became the signal for fresh animosities, murmurs, and complaints. The people, the parliament, many prelates, and others of the clergy, violently exclaimed against it, as an infringement of the rights of the Gallican church, contrary to the laws, and a violation of the freedom of opinion in matters of religion. But the king, actiDg under the same influence as had induced him to forward the appeal, ordered it to be received, and in a short time afterwards died. The regent duke of Orleans found means to keep things tolerably quiet during * The king's confessor, the P. le Tellier, happened to hare told the king that this book contained more than a hundrul censurable proposition*. To save the credit of the confessor, the pope condemned a hundred and one, and stated the above reason for what he had done, in exjiress terms, to the French ambassador at Rome. S98 MODERN HISTORY. his administration of affairs, ncr did the flame burst out again till the year 1 .750, when, through the bigotry of the then archbishop of Paris, the clergy were encouraged to refuse extreme unction to all who should not produce confessional notes, signed by persons who adhered to the bull. 3. It is easy to guess the confusion and deep distress, indeed, which so singular and intolerant a measure was likely to produce. The ca'ise of the recusants and people in general, was, upon this occasion, strongly supported by the parliament of Paris, and other parliaments; and as in the preceding struggles the Jansenists had been thrown into prison, in this the magistrates made no scruple o committing all who refused to administer the sacrament to persons in their last moments. The Jesuits had again recourse to the king. 4. The common course of proceeding, in all disputes and con- tentions between the king and his parliaments, had hitherto borne the stamp of the most perfect despotism. However bold, or how- ever respectful the remonstrances might be on the part of the -lat- ter, they were not allowed to have the least effect against the de- termination of the court. If these judicial bodies became too re- . ractory, banishment ensued of course, and not the slightest regard was paid to any arguments they might allege, nor any resistance they might offer, in support of the liberties of tneir fellow subjects. 5. Things came to the usual crisis on the present occasion. All the chambers of parliament refused to register the letters patent by which they were commanded to suspend the prosecutions relative to the refusal of the sacraments. In the year 1,753, they were Danished, and much inconvenience arose from the interruption of business, and suspension of justice ; while the clergy, attached to the bull, made great boast of the victory they had obtained, and endeavoured continually to strengthen themselves more and more against their adversaries. The king often wavered, but was as often brought back by the interposition of the pope and obstinate perseverance of the Jesuits; in 1,754, however, seizing the opportu- nity of the birth of a second son to the dauphin, (the, duke of Ber- ry, afterwards Lewis XVI.,) he recalled the parliament, but with- out effecting peace. The members had been received at Paris with loud acclamations, and every demonstration of joy ; their conduct had rendered them popular to an extraordinary degree, so that when commanded ..afresh to register the king's edicts, they again refused. This bold act of disobedience subjected them to the last extremity of kingly authority. The sovereign repaired himself to the hall of parliament, November, 1,756, and in a bed of justice (the term by which such assemblies were peculiarly desig- nated,) finally ordered them to register the edicts in his name, which they could no longer, as the constitution then stood, refuse. Many, however, resigned their appointments, and much discontent prevailed amongst the people. It should be observed, that by this time the depositaries of the laws and advocates had begun to depart from their usual routine of technical formalities, and, animated by the ex- amples set them, to enter largely into the general questions of law and liberty, rights and obligations, duty and privilege ; they began, in short, systematically to take the part of the oppressed ; they were prepared, not only to remonstrate, but to argue, debate, and openly to protest against the violation of the rights of the people. 6 The hand of a fanatic, in the year 1,757, appeared to have the effect of altering the kjig's mind once more. As his majesty MODERN HISTORY. £)9 was stepping into his carriage, he was stabbed by an assassin of the name of Damiens, his object being, according to his own confes- sion, not to kill, but to alarm his majesty, with a view of producing some change in the king's sentiments, that might dispose him to en- join the administration of the sacraments to dying persons, without the confessional notes insisted upon ; but little reliance is to be placed on any declarations of this nature. In this instance they seemed not to agree with the conduct of the assassin. That Lewis acted as he did soon afterwards, with regard to the points in dispute, in conse quence of this attempt on his life, is by no means certain ; but in a short time matters were accommodated with the parliament, and the archbishop of Paris, the chief fomenter of the disturbances on tne part of the clergy, banished. 7. It may not be unreasonable, perhaps, to date the commence ment of the revolution that broke out nearly thirty years after wards, from this period. Scarcely any thing could have contributeo more to encourage the revolutionary principles already at work, than disputes which indicated such inveterate superstition and big otry ; such determined opposition to all freedom of thought ; such sophistry and intrigue ; such submission to the court of Rome ; such contempt of the public opinion, as expressed, for want of any better constituted organ, in the remonstrances of the French parliament such a disposition on the part of the court and clergy to uphold the arbitrary powers of the sovereign, and this at a moment when the private life of the monarch himself was in the highest degree profli- gate and abandoned, and the whole system of government a system of venality, favouritism, and public plunder. These imprudent and unwise proceedings, at such a time, gave a handle to the philosophers, or literati^ of the day, to take the reform of matters into their own hands, and by supplying them with such ample materials for the exercise of their wits, as well as their courage, laid the foundation for a revolution which (so extensive were the abuses of government) - almost necessarily threw every thing into confusion, and in the end far outstepped the bounds of all sober and discreet reform. Bred up by the Jesuits themselves, and instructed in all the branches o* worldly and polite knowledge, they were amply prepared to expose the weakness or wickedness of their masters, when once the veil that shrouded their deceptions was by any accident removed. They stood ready to avail themselves of any circumstances that might tend to render manifest the pride and obstinacy, hypocrisy and deceit, of an overbearing sect, who by their influence with the king, might at any time trample upon the liberties of the people. 8. These philosophers, (for so they have been with too little dis- crimination called,) thus raised in the estimation of an oppressed people into the rank of champions of public freedom, were unfortu- nately, but probably through the artful designs of their instructed, little acquainted with the true principles of religion, however fa- miliar^ they might be with its abuses. In directing their attacks, therefore, against the Jesuits, they were rather anxious that their shatts should reach all the regular clergy, or monastic orders in general; nor were they at all careful how much religion itself might suffer m the overthrow of its ministers. The enemies of the Jesuits in China, Portugal, Spain, and America, had been the Dominicans and Cordeliers. It was the aim of. the philosophers, in crushing the Jesuits, to crush their rivals also ; they were there- fore as severe against the Dominicans as against the Jesuits: the 300 MODERN HISTORY parliament only attacked the latter. However attached Lewis XV might be to the Jesuits, as the defenders of the catholic religion, and kingly authority, he appears to have entertained a jealousy of them, as censors of his immoral course of life, and as more at- tached to his son the dauphin than to himself. He therefore be- came indifferent to the attacks making upon them ; while his mis- tress, the marchioness of Pompadour, and his minister, the duke de Choiseul, in order to keep the king wholly in their own power, were ready to take part against the dauphin, the queen, the royal family., and the Jesuits themselves, of whom they were, for the reasons above stated, justly suspicious. The duke de Choiseul himself, in- deed, is said to have given the following account of his enmity to the order ; that being on an embassy at Rome, the general of the order frankly told him, that he knew, before he came, every thing that he had said about the society at Paris, and so convinced him that what he said was true, that he could not doubt but that, through some means or other, they were able to learn all that passed, not only in the cabinets of princes, but the interior of private houses, and that so dangerous a society ought not to subsist. It is proper to state this, in order to exonerate the duke from any suspicion of Having sacrified them to the philosophers, whose irreligious princi pies he is known latterly not to have approved. 9. In the year 1,759 the Jesuits had been expelled from Portugal, on a charge of countenancing an attack on the king's life. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that the enemies of the order at Paris should attempt to fix on them the charge of the late attack on Lewis XY\, and to attribute to them regicide principles. Damiens nimself seemed to have taken pains to leave the matter in extreme doubt. They already were sufficiently branded in the eyes of the public, as the friends and assertors of arbitrary power, and enemies to liberty. To relieve the sovereigns of Europe from -Hie thraldom of a S2Ct so powerful, so artful and dangerous, became a principle ot action, which t^e public were well enough disposed to countenance. and an opportunity only was wanting to accomplish their ruin. 10. This opportunity the Jesuits themselves provided for their enemies. Having endeavoured to escape from a demand made on them in consequence of some mercantile proceedings, in which one of their society was deeply involved, the tribunals to which the case was referred, having a handle given them by the pleadings of the Jesuits- very properly required to see the articles of their institution, hitnerto, that is. for more than two centuries, kept se ccet from all the world. The times were well fitted for such b discovery: All men of wit and understanding, however unprinci- pled themselves, were well prepared io delect and expose the vul nerable parts of their great charter or institute, (for so it was ;allc ourt of Rome, which had supported and abetted them in every at s 5Ript to uphold the papal and royal authority, and to stifle the com £ laints of the people. The tyranny thus inveighed against and at- tacked, had incited an opposition, much more likely to promote licentiousness than assist the cause of real and genuine liberty. The errors of Catholicism, upheld by a bigoted and infatuated clergy, at variance with the only assemblies in the nation capal le of any con- stitutional remonstrance, however ineffectual, naturally hurried the wits and freethinkers of that lively nation into extremes which every sober minded man could not fail to lament; in a very short course of time, from railing at the regular clergy, they proceeded to rail at religion, and even atheism was propagated in a way that bespoke a dreadful disregard of all principles of religion, common honesty, and honour in works purporting to have been written by very respect able persons, deceased, who had holden, when alive, opinions diamet- rically opposite to those that were thus stamped with their names. These were among some of the most dreadful forerunners of a rev- olution, which, had it been properly managed, had it fallen into the nands of persons better prepared to act upon the true, principles of religion and orderly government, considering the progress of knowl- edge and the powerful impulse which the human mind had received, was not unseasonable in point of time and circumstances. 17. It would be absurd, however, to deny the abilities of many of the persons who now stood forward to stem the torrent of abuses, m\<\ vindirate the rights of the people; several of them had wit, MODERN HISTORY. 303 and learning, and science, at command, to the highest degree ; some cf them had a lively sense of liberty, but they had been ill-taught on the subjects of religion and morality ; they had read Locke, with- out imbibing Locke's best principles ; they had confounded the abuses of Christianity with Christianity itself; they were witty and ingenious, but not comparable in wisdom and conduct with their con- temporaries in Scotland, or in England ; the latter were the truest friends to liberty, the best philosophers, and the best politicians, as their writings show. The celebrated Encyclopaedia, which first ap- peared in 1,751, had supplied an opportunity for all the literati of France to express their most private sentiments on government, political economy, and the management of the finances. Amongst these the economists bore a conspicuous part; their whole system, when rightly understood, being one of liberty, whether it regarded personal rights, the free application of industry, or the exportation of corn. The author to the Introduction to the Encyclopaedia, M. d'Alembert, was a man of considerable talents, but a deist in principle ; his coadjutor, Diderot, an atheist. 18. The ministry of Turgot, while it lasted, was rather calculated to give encouragement to the French reformers ; his own views were undoubtedly liberal and patriotic, and he had a master sincere- ly disposed, in all likelihood, to further any practicable plan of reform, but the course of the minister was too precipitate ; his views extended to too many objects, and were such as admitted not of any speedy accomplishment ; they were too mighty for the grasp of any one man ; they only excited the animosity of the privileged orders, and drove them into measures of defence, more calculated to work their own overthrow than conciliate their enemies. The advocates of ancient abuses and unreasonable customs, they treated their op- ponents with an ill-judged contempt, and by resisting all amelioration of the present order of things, laid the foundation for a thousand impracticable systems and extravagant theories, new constitutions and schemes of government, which being severally proposed, tried, and rejected, in rapid succession, at last involved every thing in con- fusion, anarchy, and ruin. 19. While the seeds of revolution, if not of republicanism, plen tifully sown, were beginning to germinate in Prance, in x\merica the people were already acting upon the very principle of resistance tc an alleged tyranny. It required only to bring the two countries, by some means or other, into contact, to spread the contagion, and revolutionize both nations as the different circumstances and charac- ters of the people should severally determine. At the beginning of the year 1 ,778, a formal alliance was negotiated between the court of Versailles and the revolutionary government of America; but ong before that, in the year 1,774, the American declaration of rights, on which their opposition to the English government rested, was received in France, as a kind of practical application of the theoretical schemes of the French philosophers, and might reasona bly have alarmed all the courts of Europe ; though the contrary was the fact. France and Spain sent help, and Prussia approved the -American proceedings, not so much out of friendship towards the Americans, as of blind hostility to Great Britain. The king of France is said to have foreseen the Ml consequences of such a war, but to have weakly given way to contrary advice. 20. The speeches of opposition, in the mean time, in the two Eng- lish houses of parliament, greatly interested the people on the confi 304 MODERN HISTORY. nent ; the crowned heads, indeed, took little notice of the warning whilst the subjects were listening attentively to the lessons of liberty promulgated by Chatham, Fox, and Burke. "Unfortunately, the court of Versailles, at this very time, with the exception of the king, who was inclined to economy, fell into the utmost extravagancies of luxury, gayety, and dissipation ; drew largely, and without any con- sideration, on the public treasury, though the finances were in a most depressed state ; invented all kinds of novelties, and seemed bent upon exchanging the forms and etiquette of a court for trifling, though expensive amusements, not omitting such as promoted and encouraged the spirit of gambling. 21. While these things were going on at court, and too much countenanced, it is to be feared, by the queen, she received a visit from her eccentric brother, the emperor Joseph the second, which had, or appeared to have, an extraordinary effect on the Parisians ; being so timed as to fall in with the new notions that had been adopted, of manly simplicity, and a republican severity of manners. The incognito he preserved, he carried so far as to dismiss, in a very striking manner, all the glare and pomp of royalty ; the frankness of his manners, unostentatious and frugal mode of lite, led the French more particularly to notice, and to condemn more severely, the thoughtless luxury and dissipation of their own court and princes. 22. The king had a hard and cruel task upon his hands ; he found it impossible to check a course of extravagance and levity in his own family, which he could not, and, in fact, did not approve ; in his choice of ministers,, he was sure to offend one party or the other ; thus, when in 1,776, on the dismission of M. Turgot, he first appoint- ed the celebrated M. Necker, of Geneva, to the high office of su- preme director of the finances, the privileged orders took the alarm ; they thought they saw in the citizen of a republic, and a protestant, a decided friend to the liberal ideas that were afloat to their prejudice, and the enemy and corrector of all abuses of power and place. When, on the removal of M. Necker, the management of the finances was delivered into other hands, the people complain- ed that their friend and favourite had been sacrificed, to intrigue and cabal, and that he had been checked and supplanted, at a moment when he was chalking out a system of reform, highly beneficial to the state, and favourable to their best interests. 23. In 1,783, M. de Calonne undertook to restore order to the finances, and his measures were exactly such as were calculated to oring matters to a crisis, and hasten the revolution which had for a long time been impending. Inclined to favour the luxury and prod- igality of the court, and at the same time to provide for the deficien- cies in the revenue, he boldly attacked the privileged orders, by proposing, as the best impost he could devise, a general land tax fairly adjusted, and from which there should be no exemption. To carry this great point into execution, being no favourite with the parliament, he recommended the convocation of the assembly of the notables ; (a name given to a former meeting of select and distin- guished persons, in the year 1,626.) To this advice the king assent* •ed, doubtless with the best intentions, though many about the court pretended, even at that time, to foresee in this measure the downfal of the monarchy, and the ruin of the minister who had proposed it The king gave bis consent, December 1,788, and in February 1,787 this extraordinary assembly met. The minister had undoubtedly act- ed constitutionally in calling it, however rashly in regard to his own MODERN HISTORY. 3U* interests, and the king has been supposed to have imbibed from iiis father a strong inclination to consult such public and national councils. In thisinstance, however, both the crown and the minister were de- ceived ; the latter, who expected to be allowed to lay his plans before them in the way of commands to be obeyed, was soon dis- placed, on the remonstrances and demand of the very assembly he had ventured to call together ; and though it did some good in the way of regulation and reform, during the short period of its sitting, which wa 3 only till the 25th of May, 1,787, it was far from answer- ing the purposes for which it had been convoked. The members of it^however, had acquired information hitherto withheld from the public, and imbibed principles friendly to liberty. 24. On the dismission of M. de Calonne, his successor, the archbishop of Thculouse, by an arbitrary and inconsiderate be haviour, involved his sovereign in another unpleasant contest with the parliament, who, in a moment of irritation, called for a meet- ing of the states-general. The credit and power of the parliaments had hitherto been chiefly owing to the disuse of these national councils, so that if it had been proposed with any sincere desire of redressing grievances, and resisting oppression, the members with whom it originated would have deserved the credit of patriotism ; but probably they were swayed by motives less pure. The king, however, consented to their convocation in 1,792, but in the mean time had mapy unpleasant altercations with the' parliament, and on one occasion was treated with so little ceremony, or rather such indignity, as it was theught, by the due d'Orleans, as to occasion his banishment. 25. The minister, in order to break or reduce the power of par- liament, thus openly at variance with him, and to get rid of the younger members, whose refractory spirit was but too apparent, projected the appointment of a cour plenure, consisting of persons selected by the king from the principal nobility, professions and officers of state. The court was formed, and sat long enough to enforce the ministerial decrees, but amidst such murmuring and confusion, such violent remonstrances and objections, attended with popular commotions in the capital and provinces, that in a short time the scheme was abandoned, and the minister announced to the public the king's intention of convoking the states-general in the year ensuing ; he was then dismissed from his high office, and, to the great joy of the parliament and people, M. Necker was recall* d. 26. The royal word had been pledge for the summoning the states-general in 1,789; and it was soon found to be a promise, which, though the chief management of the finances had passed into other and more popular hands, could not easily be abandoned. They had not been assembled since the year 1,614, and difficulties therefore were started as to the best mode of arranging them ; the king even Condescended to refer the matter to the decision of all the corporate and learned bodies of the realm ; an extraordinary step to take, but favoured by the minister, who had it in view to give con- sequence to the third estate, or commonalty, in order to counter- balance the too great influence of the privileged orders. 27. This popular design of the minister, besides alarming the clergy and nobility, did not meet with the ready concurrence of the parliament ; and it was even proposed, by M. d'Espresmesnil, a member who had incurred both banishment and imprisonment in the course of his opposition to the court, to adopt nt once the plan ei C c 2 39 •W MODERN HISTORY. 1-614; a proposal to which the parliament acceded; but it had the effect oi rendering them immediately as unpopular as the privi- leged orders. The claims of tne third estate met with the support of a large majority of the people, as might naturally have been expected at such a moment ; the commons of 1 ,788 were very dif- ferent from those' who were first summoned to meet in 1,302, upon apian which had continued to 1,614. It was reasonable to adopt new forms; and it was therefore strongly insisted that they should, upon this occasion, in order to be upon a par with the otner orders, have a double representation, and deliberate together. Had the pi;:n of the states-general of 1,614 been adopted, the parliament would have appeared there with much greater eclat than in any new ar- rangement ; this may account for the part they took upon this occa- sion. They entirely expected, in demanding the convocation of the states, that they should have the chief place in that assembly, and :ontinue to enjoy the confidence of the people. 28. Such was the state of things at this memorable period; an infatuation the most surprising seemed to hurry on the privileged orders to their ruin and destruction, and with them the monarchy. Instead of bending in any manner to the force of popular opinion, or acknowledging the justice of the claims made on them, as a fa- voured class, they more strongly than ever stood upon their privi- leges, and appeared to treat with contempt that powerful and now enlightened majority that was opposed to them"; they insisted more than ever upon their feudal rights, after the whole system had been virtually abolished. Conduct of this kind could not fail to stimulate rhe other party to deeds of violence and retaliation, in which the authority of the established laws and customs came soon to be to- tally disregarded, and every thing seemed to tend to ruin and dev- astation; when the election of the states-general was appointed to take place, both sides exerted themselves with the utmost zeal and anxiety, but the result was found to be highly favourable to the democratic party. 29. Great changes had already taken place in the character and manners of the Parisians. Since the American war, a strong dispo- sition had been shown tcr imitate the English, in dress, manners, amusements, and freedom of speech ; the respect which had former- ly prevailed for high birth and rank was every day diminishing ; persons of all classes were beginning to be raised to situations of dis- tinction and confidence ; and some of the great themselves, instead of maintaining the distance preserved by their ancestors, made ap- proaches towards the lower ranks, by intermarriages, and the open and general encouragement of literature, trade, commerce, and agriculture ; even the females began to discuss questions of state, to express a lively and sentimental concern for all oppressed persons or nations, and to wish that all the young men who could speak elo- quently upon these subjects in their private assemblies, should have, as in England, a field opened to them for the more public display of their talents and abilities. It is not to be wondered that, under these circumstances, every eye should be fixed on the meeting of that great national council, whose powers had not been called into action k>i the long space of nearly two centuries. MODERN HISTORY. 307 SECTION X. AUSTRIA, FROM THE CONCLUSION OF THE SEVEN YEARS WAR TO THE DEATH OF MARIA THERESA, 1,763—1,780 1. With regard to Austria, the seven years' war terminated with the peace of Hubertsburg, which was signed on the 5th of Febru- ary, 1,763, (see Sect. VI.) and on the 27th of May, 1,764, as the fruits of that peace, the empress was gratified with the election of her son Joseph to the dignity of king of the Romans * a point of great importance to her, considering the circumstances that had re- tarded the elevation of her roval consort to the imperial throne. The election was most opportune, for the emperor Francis survived it but a very short time, being struck with a fit of apoplexy in the month of August of the same year, while attending the nuptials ot his second son at Inspruck, in the Tyrol. Francis had borne his fac- ulties meekly, resigning to his imperial consort the cares, as well as the state and parade of government, which, indeed, more regularly appertained to her than to himself; he obviously withdrew from the authority that seemed to have devolved to him ; and if he occu- pied himself at all with the affairs of government, it was rather to supply its pecuniary demands from his Tuscan treasury, than for any other purposes; not so much in the way of gain, as of regular busi- ness and prudential management. Of the high estimation in which he was held by the empress there can be little doubt ; her afiectioh for him had a romantic cast, and seemed founded on what so seldom occurs, or can be expected to occur in royal marriages, an early, fixed, and solid attachment 2. Her majesty employed herself, from the conclusion of the treaty of Hubertsburg, in ameliorating in every way possible the condition of her country ; in founding philosophical academies, re forming the schools, encouraging by premiums the manafactures, and in restraining several feudal abuses: she had the opportunity afforded her of contributing to the introduction of the variolous inocu- lation into her dominions. She interfered, and in a very judicious manner, in the regulations regarding monasteries and nunneries,- abol- ished the dangerous privilege of asylum, the horrible excesses of the inquisition, and the inhuman judicial process of torture. She also suppressed the society of Jesuits. 3. Considering the extreme repugnance Maria Theresa had shown to the dismemberment of her own domains on the aeath of her father, it must seem greatly to redound to her discredit that she could have become a party to the partition of Poland : but it may very fairly be inferred that she was driven into it. Being unable to serve the cause of Saxony she had no other alternative against the combination of Russia, Prussia, and the Porte, than to claim a part : though it is almost proved that she was drawn in by Prussia to par- take ot the plunder, that she might also share the odium excited by it. After the partition indeed began to have effect, and was sanction- ed by the Polish delegates nominated for that purpose, Maria Theresa appears to have had no. scruples in extending her encroach- ments, and supporting Prussia in the same attempts, to such a degree even as to provoke the interposition of Russia. It was not till the 303 m MODERN HISTORY. year 1 ,777 that all the three parties were satisfied, and brought to an agreement in regard to limits; the portion assigned to Austria being decidedly the greatest in extent. In the same year the em- press queen, by a convention, signed on the 5th day of February, obtained possession of the Buccovina, ceded to her by the. Porte. Her situation was at this period particularly flourishing, her army numerous and well disciplined, her finances in good order, and her alliance with France cemented by many marriages with the Bourbon princes; but after the partition of Poland, and the connexion the empress queen seemed thus to have formed with Russia and Prussia, an anti-Austrian party sprang up at the court of Versailles, who persuaded the king to renew his connexions with Prussia, in order to secure some check against the augmentation of the power of Austria ; this, however, was done without violating subsisting trea- ties, or breaking friendship with Maria Theresa. Lewis XVI, was much more jealous of the son than of the mother, and not without reason ; the views of the former being evidently ambitious and en- croaching, and highly anti-gallican, 4. In December, 1,777, on the death of the elector of Bavaria, oqth the emperor and empress queen laid claim to his dominions as fiefs or allodials, properly descending or reverting to one or other of them, having previously taken steps to arrange matters with their more immediate competitor, the elector Palatine ; and relying strongly on the support of France, as well ason the age and infirmi- ties of the king of Prussia : but the latter found means to interpose by stimulating the duke of Deux Ponts, presumptive heir to the elector Palatine, to appeal to himself and the king of France against the dismemberment of the Bavarian territories, referring, in conlir mation of his rights, to the treaty of Pavia, confirmed by the Golden Bull, and the treaty of Westphalia ; all these authorities were disput- ed on the part of the emperor and empress, who insisted on the validity and legality of the arrangements made with the elector Palatine. The emperor in the mean while offered to submit his own claims to the judgment of the diet, and to mediate between his mother and the other claimants : preparations, nevertheless, were made for deciding the matter by arms, and both the emperor and king of Prussia took the field at the head of their respective forces : but the empress queen, fearing for her son, made many overtures of peace, sought the mediation of Russia and France, and, though con- tinually thwarted by the emperor, who was inclined to war, and un- willing to suomit to the dictates of foreign powers, succeeded in re- storing tranquillity, by the treaty of Teschen, 1,779. By this treaty many arrangements were entered into to satisfy the king of Prussia, the elector Palatine, the duke of Deux Ponts, and the elector of Saxony. And Austria acquired territory, though of no great extent, very important in point of situation. She obtained from Bavaria the circle of Burghausen, which opened a passage to the Tyrol, and was not compelled absolutely to renounce any of her claims, though she found means to forego with credit the further prosecution of them. France had done enough during these disputes about Bavaria, to give umbrage to the court of Vienna; she had secretly opposed the dismemberment of the electorate, she had notjsupplied the succours she was required to do according to the treaty of Versailles, and she had manifested a distrust of the emperor, bordering upon contempt This conduct had the effect of throwing the latter into the arms ot MODERN HISTORY. 309 England and Russia ; in the contest with America, J qseph espoused the cause of England, pronounced it to be the cause of all sovereigns, and prohibited all intercourse between the subjects of the empire and the revolted colonies. With regard to Russia he took a more active part; he visited Catherine on her celebrated journey to the Crimea, and at Petersburg ingratiated himself with her to an ex- traordinary degree, alienated her from the old king of Prussia, and in so doing procured her assistance in promoting the advancement of his brother the archduke Maximilian to the coadjutorship of Cologne and Munster, the last wish of Maria Theresa, who had thus, in an extraordinary manner, found the means to provide, before her death, for all her numerous family. But her end was approaching : in November, 1,780, she was seized with an illness, which terminated her existence ; her last days were passed in acts of devotion and atten- tions to her son, the emperor, and others of her family, particularly striking and grand. She displayed at this awful moment a powerful mind, a warm heart, and a truly christian fortitude : she died No- vember 29, 1,780, in the 64th year of her age, and 41st of her reign. She was not exempt from weaknesses, but her virtues, both public and private, greatly preponderated ; the former were of the most splendid cast, the latter altogether as amiable. Nine out of ixteen children survived her. Joseph, who succeeded her ; Leopold, great duke of Tuscany ; Ferdinand, governor of Austrian Lombardy and duke of Modena by reversion ; Maximilian, coadjutor of Cologne and Munster ; Mary Anne, abbess of Prague ; Mary Christina, wife of Albert, duke of Saxony ; Maria Elizabeth, abbess of Inspruck ; Maria Amelia, duchess of Parma ; Caroline, queen of Naples ; Maria Antoinetta, queen of France. SECTION XL • REIGNS OF JOSEPH II., LEOPOLD II., &c, FROM 1,765 TO 1,800. 1. On the demise of his father, Francis I., Joseph, who had been elected king of the Romans in 1,764, ascended the imperial throne, at the age of twenty-four, in the year 1,765, his mother being still living. It was soon apparent that he projected great changes, and the reformation of many abuses, but in pursuing these purposes he was undoubtedly too precipitate and too adventurous ; his educa- tion had not been such as to fit him for such high attempts. It was impossible to unite in the way he proposed such scattered domin- ions ; it was impossible to carry into execution all the schemes he had invented for the consolidation and improvement of the empire In the Belgic provinces, in particular, he rendered himself extreme- ly unpopular by the violence of his proceedings, but this was not till after his mother's death ; as long as she lived she sedulously en- deavoured to restrain the impetuosity and warlike disposition of her son, apprehending that he had many enemies at hand, and that not- withstanding the pretended courtesy of the king of Prussia, mani- fested in private interviews as well as public negotiations, he could not have much chance of success in coping with so able, powerful, and experienced an opponent; in this, perhaps, she showed some sense, though it- has been doubted whether she "did not too much control the ardent spirit of her son. The empress queen dying in 310 MODERN HISTORY. the year 1,780, Joseph was left to the pursuit of nis own whims and frojects, in many instances most extravagant, in almost all oppressive, or though there was an appearance of liberality, and much show of good, he evidently seemed to consult nothing but his own arbitrary will. 2. Had his education been such as to enable him to form a right judgment of things, had not his genius been cramped, and his rea- son perverted, by a choice of tutors and preceptors peculiarly ill qualified to fit him for the arduous and conspicuous station to which ne . had been elevated by the circumstances of his birth and con- nexions, he might certainly have done great good, and actually ameliorated the condition of a large and most interesting portion of the human race, for his manners were such as to have led him to a just knowledge of their wants, and a proper sense of their claims upon society. He travelled tnrough Europe, as if he were bent on seeing the real condition of his fellow-creatures, in all ranks and situations of lite ; discarding all pomp and parade, he sought the society and conversation of persons far below him, and encouraged every one to give him information upon subjects most nearly touch- ing their interests. Since Peter I. of Russia, no monarch had taken such pains to procure information, and survey every thing with his own eyes. 3. The whole extent of his dominions was supposed to contain a population of 24,000,000, distinguished however by a great va- riety of laws, customs, religious opinions, and language ; the lower orders subject to many restrictions, attaching to the state of vas- salage in which they were still held by their feudal lord and su- periors. The Roman catholic religion chiefly prevailed ; the cler- gy were wealthy, and possessed great influence. Maria Theresa had perceived what was wrong, and had shown an excellent dis- position to amend matters, but had partly been compelled by cir- cumstances, and swayed by prudence, to proceed moderately and gradually. Joseph was more impetuous ; he was so eager to break down all distinctions, that, among other regulations, he insisted on having but one language for the whole empire, though no less than ten principal languages were spoken at that time, and in common use. Within the confines of his dominions, all his other projects were of the same description, whether good or bad, ex- ceedingly too hasty ; he broke up old systems before he was well prepared to establish new ones, and in the interval, necessarily occasioned such confusion, disgust, and trouble, as to hinder every good effect, and thwart his own purposes ; in all his regulations he seemed bent upon upholding his own imperial power, not only by omitting to introduce any new checks upon it, but even abolishing old ones ; he particularly displeased his Hungarian subjects, those faithful adherents of his mother, by interfering with their laws and customs, and offending some of their fondest prejudices. 4. Though attached to the Roman catholic religion, he showed great disregard of the papal authority, by subjecting the monas- teries to episcopal jurisdiction, suppressing many, and reducing the eumbers, both of monks and nuns, in all that were permitted to continue, with great want of feeling ; he omitted to make any pro- vision for those who were discharged j he broke through many su- perstitions, not rightly judging how deeply they were interwoven with the religious feelings of the people, and how much the latter Sherefora were likely to be affected by such violence and haste j MODERN HISTORY. 3H he abolished the privileges of primogeniture, declared marriage (heretofore regarded as a sacrament) to be only a civil contract, and rendered bastards capable of inheriting. The wisest and most truly liberal of all his innovations was that which, by a public edict, dated October 31, 1,781, established a general toleration for all the " Acatholici" or dissenters from the Romish religion. This and other measures of interference with ecclesiastical matters so disturbed and alarmed pope Pius VI., as to induce him to take a journey to Vienna, personally to remonstrate with the emperor. His plan was opposed at Rome, and entirely discouraged by the Austrian ministry ; but his holiness persisted, and, after a visit of much form and ceremony, re turned in about a month, without effecting any change in the senti- ments or proceedings of Joseph. 5. In the same precipitate manner, as in other instances, he sud- denly abolished feudal vassalage, without any suitable arrangements for the relief of those who must evidently suffer by such an impor- tant change of tenure ; and while he prided himself upon putting an end to slavery, he subjected the emancipated to such arbitrary im posts of his own invention, as plainly to convince them that they had not in reality recovered their freedom. To countervail these errors in legislation and government, he certainly showed great merit in the encouragement he gave to arts, letters, trade, and manufactures; in founding numerous schools and universities, public libraries, labor- atories and observatories • in improving the public roads, making canals, and establishing free ports. In 1 ,784, he obtained permission from the Porte to navigate the Turkish seas, which seemed to afford excellent means to his Hungarian subjects, who were otherwise ill situated for trade, to carry on an extensive commerce by way of the Danube ; war, however, soon interrupted this accommodation ; in 1,787 it came to an end. 6. In 1,781, Joseph, having concerted his plans with France, who had altered her measures towards him, probably for the very pur- pose, determined to break through the barrier treaty* imposed upon Austria when the Netherlands were transferred to Charles VI., and which, though undoubtedly affording security to Austria itself against the French, must be allowed to have constantly carried in it something galling to the feelings of the imperial court, as entirely dictated by the maritime powers. The fortifications of the barrier towns had now fallen into decay, and the connexion which had for some time subsisted between the courts of Versailles and Vien- na, seemed to afford the emperor plausible grounds for declining to pay for the military protection of a frontier no longer likely to be disturbed. He therefore directed all the fortifications in the Nether lands to be done away, except those of Luxemburgh, Ostend, Namur, and Antwerp ; while the Dutch, who had been desired to withdraw their garrisons, as no longer necessary, or entitled to pay, judged it wise to comply. 7. This violation of the barrier treaty, complied with in the last instance so easily by the united provinces, was quickly followed by fresh demands on the latter power, under pretence of mord ac- curately adjusting the boundaries of the Dutch and Austrian Neth- erlands. The cession of the city of Maestricht and the contigu- ous district of Outer Meuse being among other things insisted upon. At length, however, and about the year 1 ,784, these claims * bee Coxe iv. 152, f53, &c. 312 MODERN HISTORY. all seemed to merge in one sweeping demand, to hare the full and free navigation of the river Scheld, tor the purposes of establishing, in favour of his Flemish subjects, a direct trade with the East In . dies, and of restoring the city oi Antwerp, once the emporium ot Europe, to its proper degree of splendour and importance ; a proj- ect, which, if it could have been accomplished without interfering with so many foreign interests, and the manifest violation of sub- sisting treaties, may be said to have reflected no disgrace on the policy, wisdom, or paternal care of the emperor ; but it was impos- sible to expect that such changes should be allowed to proceed without great opposition. It was soon .discovered that both France and Prussia were prepared to support the Dutch against him, and though the empress of Russia had endeavoured to deter the latter from aiding the Hollanders, the project was laid aside, and J oseph, instead of his views on the Scheld, resumed some of his former de- mands. In the end, however, every thing was compromised by money, through the mediation of the French king, or rather in con- formity to the dictates of the French minister. 8. Another object which the emperor attempted almost at the same time, but equally without enect, was the exchange of the Netherlands for Bavaria. He had taught his mother to covet the latter country, and its acquisition would undoubtedly have render ed his dominions more compact»and given him a continued line of territory, from the frontier of Turkey to the Mediterranean sea, while it might have relieved, him from the charge of a more distant portion of his dominions, held by a very uncertain and troublesome tenure-. Joseph had calculated upon overcoming all the difficul- ties that might arise from foreign powers; had secured the consent of Russia,^ and even negotiated the proposed exchange with the elector of Bavaria, (who, if it took place, was to be made king of Austrasia or Burgundy.) But Frederic II., at the age of seventy- tour, again interposed : and, by forming with the several princes and states of the empire what was called the Germanic union, for main- taining the integrity and indivisibility of the Germanic body in gen- eral, eifectually prevented the exchange so much desired. The principal parties to the union, which was settled and confirmed, July 1,785, were, besides the king of Prussia, the electors of Hanover, Saxony, and Mentz, the margrave of Anspach, and the duke of Deux Fonts. The whole scheme, indeed, was found to be so im- practicable, that the emperor and elector judged it prudent to deny that any convention to that effect had taken place between them. 9. In 1,788, Joseph incurred considerable disgrace, by his attacks upon Turkey. He had projected, in conjunction with the empress of Russia, whom he had flattered by a visit to the Crimea, the total dismemberment of that empire ; but blunder upon blunder defeated his purposes, and he retired from the contest blamed by all parties. In 1,789, however, hostilities were renewed, and in the battle of Rimnik, which took place in the month of September, the combined forces of Russia and Austria gained an important victory over the Turks, under the command of the grand vizier. The capture of Belgrade soon after, by the army of Loudon, completed their triumphs ; but their success occasioned jealousies, which eifectually interrupted the career of victory. England, Holland, and Prussia, began to be alarmed at the increasing power of Russia and Austria , and, by fomenting the troubles in the Netherlands, drew the atten- tion oi Joseph from his intended encroachments on Turkey. MODERN HIS'JLORY. 31i 10. In no part of his dominions were his attempts at. reformation worse received, or worse managed, than in the Netherlands. Di- vided into many provinces, and each province governed by distinct laws, customs, and regulations; some secured by charter, in the enjoyment of important privileges and immunities, nothing could possibly have been thought of more vexatious than that of redu- cing them all under one system of administration, commencing with the sudden and violent abolition of many convents, and the sup- pression of many institutions, forms, and ceremonies, by long usage become Utile less than sacred in the eyes of the people. The courts of law, the universities and schools, were subjected to sim- ilar changes, nor did the imperial decrees spare any order of men, or any public establishment, however respectable in other respects, from undergoing this severe ordeal, and revolutionary process. Nothing could exceed the consternation and disgust with which these new regulations were received by all ranks of persons, from the lowest to the highest ; for even the governors-general sided with the refractory party, and were averse from carrying into execution a system so exceedingly repugnant to the feelings of the people in general, but especially of the principal persons amongst the cler- gy, laity, and magistrates. Riots and disturbances took place, as might have been expected, in many parts, and France was applied to for assistance, as guarantee of their liberties. The whole au- thority of government seemed to be vested in the minister plenipo- tentiary of the emperor, count Belgioso, who had to contend alone against the formidable opposition that had sprung up ; for not only the governors-general, as has been before intimated, were on the side of the people, but even the imperial minister, prince Kaunitz, who greatly' disapproved the violent proceedings of his master. 11. Joseph at first assumed an appearance of rigour and inflexibili- ty, in the pursuit of his new measures, little suitable to the actual situation of affairs. He had not foreseen so formidable a resistance, and when it occurred, he depended too much on his means for sup- pressing it; embarrassed as he was at the time by the war with Turkey. After much threatening, therefore, and strong marks of displeasure against the Belgic states, he found it advisable to com promise matters, for a time at least : or rather to offer to relinquish all the objectionable parts of his new system ; to re-establish the ancient constitution, confirm the celebrated charter, called La joy- cuse Entree, and submit to have the case referred to delegates on both sides. In this, however, he was not sincere, and his duplicity and arbitrary disposition becoming every day more manifest, it was impossible to prevent things coming to extremity. The example of France was contagious ; the whole population became divided into two parties of patriots and royalists, and the former were soon found to be the strongest. In JNovember, 1,789, the states de clared their independence, in consequence of a meeting held at Ghent; the soldiery began to take part with the people. On the 26th of December, the states of Brabant assumed the sovereign pow- er, in which they were soon followed by the states of the other provinces , a federal union was formed, under the title of the United Belgic States, and a congress of deputies to administer the new gov- ernment, appointed to assemble on the 11th of January, 1,790. 12. Thus were the low countries sacrificed to the injudicious and hasty measures of the emperor, who was too late rendered sensible of his errors, when he found them perfectly irreparable, either in Da 40 314 MODERN HISTORY the way of conciliation or force. He lived to see nis offers of peace and reconciliation rejected with scorn and contempt, while he totally failed in his endeavours to procure the aid of foreign states to reduce his revolted subjects to obedience. In other parts of his dominions, Earticularly in Hungary, the same spirit of opposition to his plans ad been exGited, and kept up by similar measures of irritation and defiance, till the time of his decease drew near. He would then willingly have retraced his steps, and did, indeed, fake some meas- ures to conciliate the offended Hungarians; but the termination of his life was* fast approaching, hastened no doubt by the opposition and ill fortune which had attended almost the whole of his political career. He had weakened his constitution in all probability by the restless life he had led, and the hardships and fatigues to which he had ex- posed himself in the field ; but he suffered severely in his mind from the course things had taken in the Netherlands, and though he exhib- ited in his last moments the fortitude, resignation, and composure of a true christian, yet it is truly melancholy to think that his whole reign was passed in rendering himself and others wretched. He expired on the 20th of February, .1,790, in the forty-ninth year of his age ; and leaving no issue, was succeeded in his hereditary do- minions by his brother Leopold, who was also chosen emperor before the end of the year in which his brother died. 13. The reign of the emperor Leopold II. was very short, and far from a happy one. His brother had left his dominions in a wretched state of discontent and confusion ; diminished, in some most important instances, and pretty generally exposed to the attacks of formidable, and designing enemies. Leopold had been able to do some good amongst his Tuscan subjects before he ascended the rcyal and imperial thrones, but his genius and talents were judged to be unequal to the government of a mighty empire. He soon gave satisfaction however, to the aching minds of his new subjects, by restoring to many their ancient privileges, and revoking the in- judicious and irritating innovations of his deceased brother. Nor did he manage his foreign negotiations ill, which, had they failed, might have involved him in inextricable difficulties. By flattering the Eng- lish, and appearing to enter into their views in regard to Turkey and the Netherlands, he deterred the king of Prussia from prosecut- ing his designs upon Gallicia, which he wished to procure for Po- land, in exchange for Dantzic and Thorn. Afterwards, by fomenting that monarch's resentment against England, who appeared to have abandoned him, he managed to form a union with the very court which at the commencement of his reign had manifested the great- est symptoms of rivalry and opposition. This accommodation with the king of Prussia greatly facilitated his accession to the imperial crown, which was conferred upon him, October 9, 1,790. 14. By very firm, but conciliatory behaviour towards the Hun- garians, who seem.lo have imbibed at this time many of the demo- cratic principles of the French, he not only effectually ingratiated himself with the leading persons of the kingdom, but regained the affections of the people at large, which had been sadly alienated through his brother's unwise interference with their most favourite customa and established rights. 15. Leopold did not so easily settle his disputes with the Nether- lands. The mediation of England, Holland, and Prussia, had been offered^ but he rather inclined to rely on his own strength, and his connexions with France, which were every hour becoming more MODERN HISTORY 315 uncertain and precarious. He had recourse therefore to force, and succeeded indeed in re-establishing the imperial authority, but total- ly detached from any cordial returns of loyalty on the part of the Belgians, which became but too apparent, when his subsequent dis- putes with the revolutionary government of France exposed those parts of the Austrian dominions to fresh troubles and disturbances. 16. The situation of the emperor Leopold, it must be granted, Avas vei y embarrassing in the first years of the French revolution The constraint put upon the royal family of France, to which he stood so nearly allied, and the threats denounced so openly against the queen his sister, in particular, must have greatly affected his private feelings, while many of the German states, whose rights, ecclesiastical and territorial, guarantied by the peace of West- phalia, had been invaded in Alsace, Franche Compte, and Lorraine, by the decree of the national assembly, for abolishing the feudal Erivileges, publicly called upon' him to interpose in their behalf, as ead ot the empire ; as he stood bound to do indeed by his capitula- tion with the diet, on receiving the imperial crown. In regard to the royal family of France, his first plans, in conjunction with the king of Prussia, were clearly injudicious, and injurious to the cause he took in hand. The French revolutionists were not in a state to be intimidated by angry manifestoes or threats of foreign interfe- rence. The emperor himself, indeed, did often appear cautious of embroiling his country in a war with France, but was at length prob- ably provoked into it, by the violence of the Jacobinical faction at Paris, ratner than persuaded by the representations of the emigrant princes, or royal family at Paris, as was so strongly alleged. Beyond the alliance with Prussia, however, concluded on the 19th of Febru- ary, 1 ,792, the emperor Leopold can scarcely be said to have had any share in the war with France; for, on the 27th of that very month, he was seized with an illness, which in three days terminated his life, at the early age of forty-four, leaving his dominions in a state of more serious danger than when he began his reign. 17. The emperor Leopold was succeeded in his hereditary states by his eldest son Francis, born in 1 ,768, who became emperor in the July following his father's death, and still reigns. This mon arch had to begin those hostilities with France which his predeces sor seems to have contemplated with considerable distrust, and he became a party to the too hasty proceedings of his Prussian ally and the duke of Brunswick, who increased the irritation and pro- voked the resistance of the French, by menaces extremely impo- litic, considering the actual state of things. They endeavoured, in- deed, to throw the blame on the emigrant princes, who, it was alleged, had misled them by false representations of the good dispo- sition of the people in the interior of France. They expected to find a large majority ready to co-operate with them in the overthrow of the ruling faction 18. The emperor soon found himself in a very awkward situa- tion. Instead of invading France with any effect, he haa the mor- tification to see his own dominions invaded by the French, undei a general (Dumourier), who had boasted that he would subdue the Austrian Netherlands before the end of the year ; an engage- ment which he in a great measure fulfilled, through the disaffectio* of the Belgians, who were ready enough to throw off the Austria" yoke, heedless that they were in the way of having another imme- diately imposed upon them still more galling and vexatious. In the 316 MODERN HISTORY month of November, 1,792, all subjection to the impeiial authority was openly renounced in the very capital of the Netherlands, and the French allowed to enter the city in triumph. While these things were going on in Flanders, Germany itself was invaded by the French general, Custine, Mentz taken, and heavy contributions levied in the towns of Worms and Frankfort. 19. Early in the year 1,793, the Austrians under general Clair- fait and the prince of Saxe Coburg, obtained advantages over the French, at Aix-la-Chapelle, which were followed by the capture - of the towns of Valenciennes and Conde, in conjunction with the British army under the command of the duke of York. A separa tion of the two armies afterwards took place, which was attended cvith unpleasant circumstances, and seems to have happened very contrary to the desire and wishes of the Austrian commanders. The troops under the duke laid siege to Dunkirk, but were unsuc- cessful in their attempts against the place, being obliged to abandon the undertaking with the loss of the greatest part of their artillery and stores. 20. In the year 1,794, the allied armies again acted in conjunction against the French under general Pichegru, the emperor himself having joined the camp, but the overwhelming power of the French baffled all their attempts to defend the Netherlands, which fell en- tirely into the hands or the enemy. 21. The share which the emperor Francis II. had in the final dismemberment of Poland, 1,795, will be shewn in the history of that unhappy country. The king of Prussia having gained great advantages by this transaction, declined any longer assisting the allies against France, and in open violation of his engagements with Eng- land, made a peace with the French government,. April 5, 1,795, to the great disgust of the confederates. 22. The contests between the armies of Germany and France in the years 1,796, 1,797, were carried on with the greatest vigour, skill, and bravery, on the Rhine, in Suabia, in the Tyrol, and in Italy. In 1,796, the archduke Charles, brother of the emperor, acquired great glory by checking the progress of the two celebrat- ed French generals, Jourdan and Moreau: and, though compelled to retire betbre Buonaparte, in 1,797, and to subscribe to the peace of Campo-Formio, as will be related elsewhere, his credit with the army remained undiminished, and his reputation as a general unim- paired. On the renewal of the war in 1,799, at the instigation of the Neapolitan court, the Austrians were assisted by the Russians, and at the close of the eighteenth century, the tide of affairs seemed to be turning greatly against the French, when a new revolution in the fluctuating government of that disturbed people, suddenly chang- ed the face of things, as will be shewn in our continuation of the history of France. SECTION XII. FRANCE, FROM THE OPENING OF THE ASSEMBLY OF THE STATES-GENERAL, 1,789, TO THE DEATHS OF THE KING AND QUEEN, 1,793. 1 The states-general met, May 5, 1,789. The king's speech has bf-en much admired, as the address of an upright, humane, and MODERN HISTORY. 317 patriotic prince, to a respectable assemblage of his subjects, by whose political and legislative exertions he hoped to improve the state of the nation! The nobles and clergy had expressed a willing- ness to forego their pecuniary privileges, but there were othei grounds upon which they* seemed likely to be at variance with the third estate. The latter were for obliterating all traces of distinc- tion in their legislative capacity ; while the former were so impru- dent as to take some steps, not only indicative of an invincible attach ment to such distinctions, but bearing an air of arrogance and defi- ance in them, ill suited to the times. The very costume adopted on the occasion was calculated to render the representatives of the commonalty almost ridiculous in the eyes of their countrymen. The nobles and clergy were distinguished by robes peculiarly rich and brilliant; but the whole of the third estate were directed to appear in the common and antiquated black dress of the members of the law, though of various callings and professions. As soon, how ever, as the commons had verified their powers and were prepared to act, without waiting for the concurrence of the other two orders, it was proposed by a M. Le Grand, and seconded by the Abbe Sieyes, to call their meeting the ' w National Assembly" as forming a national representation one and indivisible. This was eagerly adopted by a majoriiy of the members, but objected to by the king; at length, however, some of the clergy and nobles having joined the third estate, the king himself condescended to approve and sanction the union, a matter of great triumph to. the popular party, and which, in fact, made them the arbiters of the destiny of France. 2. On the 11th of July, 1,789, the king thought it necessary to dismiss M. Necker; many tumults and insurrections were the con- sequence of this unpopular proceeding ; the Bastile state prison, once crowded with the victims of arbitrary power, but at this mo- ment, and under the mild reign of Lewis XVI., almost empty, was besieged by the mob, taken, and razed to the ground. After many tumults of this kind, the king judged it expedient to comply with the wishes of his people, and to recall the discarded minister; he was also induced by circumstances, to yield to another demand of more importance, namely, the dismissal of all his troops from the environs of Paris and Versailles. In the meanwhile, the marquis de la Fayette, who had been engaged in America, and there imbibed a spirit of liberty, was fixed upon to take the command of the new militia or city guard. Alarmed at the appearance of things at this period, many nobles, and even one of the king' ; s brothers, left the kingdom. This had undoubtedly a bad effect ; it not only, left the king more exposed to the violence of faction, but seemed to betoken disregard of the liberties of their country, and a settled purpose of invoking foreign aid. 3. The national assembly soon divided itself into two parties ; the aristocrats, or such as not only favoured royalty, but to a cer- tain extent, the privileged orders, nobles, and clergy; and the democrats, or advocates of freedom ; the swore enemies of all op- pressive and distinct privileges ; they were also distinguished into royalists and patriots. Among the former we may reckon the mod- erates, whose speeches in the assembly are justly to be admired, for their extreme good sense and rational politics. Of the nobles, it should be observed, that the most obnoxious were those who had purchased their nobility, amounting to many thousands. Of the ancient, and hereditary nohility there were, it was comput- Dd2 318 MODERN HISTORY, ed, not more than two hundred families in the whole kingdom when the revolution began, nor were their privileges and exemp- tions by any means so great as was pretended. It was soon seen which party was the most powerful ; on the 4th of August, 1,789, decrees were passed, as if with the full consent of the whole as- sembly, for the abolition of the privileges of the nobles and clergy, provinces and towns ; while persons of every rank and description were pronounced to be eligible to all civil, military, and ecclesi- astical appointments. - The royal family were exposed to horrible insults and indignities at Versailles, and at length almost forcibly conveyed to Paris; in consequence of which removal, the assem- bly also adjourned its sittings to tHie capital, a fatal step to take, as it could not but expose them to the tyranny of a faction, and the fury of the Parisian mob. Among the measures adopted at this period, the mo*:.t important were those which placed all church property at the disposal of the nation, dissolved all monas- tic establishments, feudal privileges and rights, and suppressed the provincial parliaments and assemblies, by artfully dividing the king- dom into 83 departments, the work of the Abbe Sieyes ; by this act the very name of province was obliterated from the French vocabu- lary, and with it all pecular rights, laws, and jurisdictions ; all pro- vincial governors, commandants, sub-delegates, presidents, and tri- bunals of election ; mayors, echevins, jurats, courts of aid, chambers of accounts, &c. Every thing was at this time transacted in the way of violence and destruction ; every law voted by acclamation, with little patience and less judgment ; thus, when it was proposed to abolish all titles and hereditary distinctions, armorial bearings, live- ries, &c. the democrats would scarcely suffer the question to be de- bated, and it was carried by a large majority, though so many mem- bers of the assembly must have been deeply affected by it. 4. The national assembly was slow in preparing a constitutional code, particularly in deciding upon the three following questions. Whether such assemblies should be permanent or periodical? com- posed of one or two chambers ? and whether the king's veto should be absolute or suspensive ? While these things were in agitation, the king had attempted to rescue himself from the trammels imposed upon him, by a timely escape from Paris ; but he was stopped on his journey, and compelled to return. At length the assembly terminat- ed its labours ; a constitutional act was prepared and presented to the king, of which, after an interval of ten days, he declared his ac- ceptance. Had he been free, it is impossible -that he could have given his sanction to a measure which subjected the monarch to the will of a domineering assembly^and was ill-calculated to repress the efforts and designs of a licentious and restless faction. The assembly, however, having thus completed its task, was dissolved by the king on the 30th day of September, 1,791, being succeeded by another convention, denominated " the legislative assembly," whose delibera- tion? were confined to the space only of one year; none of the members of the former assembly being eligible to the latter. 5. In the year 1,792, Austria and Prussia, in consequence of a declaration and agreement (according to all accounts imprudent) determined upon at Pilnitz, in the preceding year, began to inter- fere in behalf of the king and royal family, but so far from alarm- ing the revolutionary party in France, their interposition seemed only to have the effect of instigating it to acts of greater violence and more determined courage. War was without scruple declared MODERN HISTORY. 319 against the king of Hungary and Bohemia, in the month ol April and every preparation made to resist all counter revolutionary projects. " Sweden and Russia had shewn a strong disposition also to interfere; but the assassination of the Swedish monarch, Gustavus III., in 1,792, and the distance of Russia from France, prevented both those countries engaging in actual hostilities. In the mean time, Paris became a scene of dreadful confusion; every day some new faction seemed to arise to baffle the attempts of those who had yet wisdom or temperance enough to prevent things coming to an extremity. The legislature was at the mercy of the Parisian clubs* and of the mobs, too freely admitted into the galleries of the assem- bly, ^he king was insulted in the grossest manner for having ven tured to interpose his suspensive negative to the passing of two severe decrees ; one against those who had emigrated, and the other against the clergy who declined taking the civic oath. M. la Fayette, who had been appointed to take the command of the army, wrote from his camp to admonish the national representatives to res- cue the country and the king from the factious designs of the enrag- ed jacobins ; but in vain ; it served only to exasperate still more the anti-royalists, and to bring fresh troubles on the royal family. The design of the factious seems to have been, either to intimidate the king to a degree of abject submission, or to provoke him to act against the constitution in a manner that might render him liable to the ven- geance of the people. The march of the Prussian army, and a threatening manifesto issued by its commander, the duke of Bruns- wick, irritated the violent party into a frantic determination to abolish royalty. The king was supposed, or represented, to be confederate with the enemy, and deeply engaged in a plot with his emigrant brothers and relatives, to counteract the revolution. 6. A dreadful attack was made on the palace in the month of August, the particulars of which are too disgusting to dwell upon, but it completed the triumph of the demagogues ; for in compelling the king^s guards to act on their defence, they had it in their power to charge the king himself with having made war upon his people. Nothing was now heard but the cry of "liberty and equality." The "chief of the executive power," as they chose to -denominate his maj- esty, was formally suspended from his functions, and, under the pre- tence of guardianship, committed with his ^ueen and family to the temple. 7. The assembly appeared from this moment to be as much in the power of the faction as the king. The period has been too justly distinguished by the appropriate title of " the reign of terror." The execrable Robespierre was in reality at the head of affairs, and "t would be impossible adequately to describe the atrocities of his merciless career. It would exceed the limits of this work to enter far into particular details. La Fayette abandoned the army, as unwilling to serve under such masters ; his conduct has been ar- raigned, as reiiecting at once upon his loyalty, his patriotism, and his courage ; it was thought that with the army so much at his disposal as it seemed to be, had his principles been such as he pre- tended, he would have marched back to Paris, and saved his coun try and his king from the ruin with which they were threatened- In the meanwhile the combined troops of Austria and Prussia were approaching the frontiers ; differences subsisted in the army ; OCT was general Dumourier, who had succeeded to the command roi the retirement of La Fayette, generally confided in, either by i >& 320 MODERN HISTORY. army or the faction. To lessen the number of aristocrats, many suspected of belonging to that party were hurried to prison, where . without scruple, and with such barbarity as is not to be paralleled in the records of history, they were almost all assassinated, to the amount, as it has been estimated, of not less than five thousand. This happening on the second of September, all who were con- cerned in it, as principals or abettors, were denominated Septem- brizera. 8. These were but preludes to a catastrophe, if possible, still more shocking ; a murder perpetrated with a studied deliberation, and with all the mockery of legal forms and ceremonies. However hastened by the hostile approach of the confederate powers, and the injudicious threats they threw out in case any violence should be offered to the king's person, nothing could possibly excuse the perversion of justice, and gross inhumanity which marked the trials of the king and queen; nothing exceed the melancholy circumstan- ces of their imprisonment and execution! On the 11th of Decem- ber, 1 ,792, the king appeared before the convention, to hear the charges preferred against him. Ci You are accused," said the president, " by the French nation, of having committed a multitude of crimes, for the purpose of re-establishing your tyranny by the destruction of liberty." He then entered into a few particulars. The king, with great dignity, replied, " No existing laws prohibit- ed me from doing as 1 did ; I had no wish to injure my subjects, no intention of shedding their blood." Further accusations were pressed upon him, from which he defended himself with the same firmness and simplicity of language, the same coolness and intre- pidity of mind. He declared boldly,' that his conscience fuhy ac- quitted him of the things laid to his charge, and appealed to the whole % course of his behaviour and carriage towards them as king to exonerate himself from the horrid imputation of having been eager and ready to shed the bloop! of his people. This charge, in- deed, rested solely on the events of the 10th of August, when the rabble broke into the palace of the Tuilleries, and not only men- aced the lives of the king and his family, but are allowed to have. begun the sanguinary part of the conflict, by the murder of five of his Swiss guards. It was not till after this event that the rest of these faithful adherents tired upon the aggressors, and drew upon themselves the vengeance that terminated so fatally, for they were all destroyed. 9. It having been resolved that the judgment and decision of the case should rest with the national representatives, the convention met on the 15th of January, 1,793, to discuss the question of the king's guilt, upon the charges so loosely and so maliciously brought against him, when it appeared that only thirty-seven were disposed to think favourably of his conduct. Six hundred and eighty-three members, with little or no hesitation, some, indeed, with the most cruel eagerness and exultation, pronounced him guilty. An attempt was made to procure a reference of this matter to the people ; but it was over-ruled by a majority of one hundred and thirty-nine. 10. Having determined the question of his guilt, that of his pun- ishment became the next subject of discussion. It was proposed to decide between detention, banishment, and death. After a de- bate, in which the amiable monarch seemed to be regarded by many as despotism personified, no less than three hundred and sixty-one ®r, according to some accounts, three hundred and sixtv-six members, MODERN HISTORY. 321 voted peremptorily fur death ; and on a further question, whether the execution of the sentence should be suspended or take place immediately, the votes for the latter amounted to three hundred and eighty against three hundred and ten. The king was to be informed of the result of their proceedings, and to suffer death in twenty-four hours afterwards. The advocates for the king were allowed to address the assembly, and to move an appeal to the people, but with out effect. On the motion of Robespierre, the decree was pro nounced irrevocable, and the king's defenders debarred from any further hearing. 11. On the 21st of January his majesty, having previously taken leave of his family, and performed the services of devotion, was conveyed to the place of execution; nothing could exceed the pious resignation with which he submitted to the cruel and unjust sentence which doomed him to death, and during his passage to the square of the revolution, where the guillotine was erected, he be- trayed no symptoms of fear or anger. On the scaffold, he manifest- ed a strong desire to address the crowd ; but the drums were made to sound louder, and he was rudely bidden to be silent ; in a moment after, his head was severed from his body, and shewn to the people as the head of a tyrant and a traitor ! 12. History, both public and private, has borne ample testimony to the falsehood of the charges brought against him ; every nation in Europe concurred in condemning the conduct of the French regi cides ; and though, in exciting the resentment of fresh enemies England and Spain particularly, it threatened the ruin of the new republic ; it appeared by no means to have satisfied the blood-thirsty vengeance of the ruling faction. The democratic, or republican party, had long been split into two divisions, and their opposition to each other seemed at this time to be at the height. Brissot, who headed the Girondists, (so called from the department of Gironde, which some of that side represented,) was still alive ; Robespierre, Danton, and Marat, directed the movements of the opposite faction; for some time previously called the Mountain, from the elevated seats they occupied in the hall of the convention. 13. It seemed sow to be a question which of these turbulent par- ties should obtain the ascendancy ; and a contest of this nature was not likely to be decided without a much larger effusion of blood, "The reign of terror 1 ' still continued, and many more victims Were preparing for the stroke of that fatal instrument, which seemed to nave been timely invented for the quick and incessant course of decapitation and destruction now adopted. Had any thing been capa ble of producing domestic union, it might have been expected, from the formidable confederacy of foreign powers, armed against the na tion ; for, in addition to Austria and Prussia, England, Spain, and Portugal, were at open war with France ; while a royalist party had arisen within its own confines, of rather a formidable description, considering the strength of the enemies without, and the distracted state of the government. 14. Though such was the situation of the country, with regard to foreign powers, and royalists at home, the struggle between the Girondists and Robespierrean faction was carried on at Paris with the utmost violence and precipitation ; but the Mountain prevailed The leaders of the JBrissotines were arrested and confined in the month of May. and on the 31st of October following, all executed Brissot himselt saw sixteen of his party guillotined before k came to 41 3m MODERN HISTORY.. his turn, and four were beheaded afterwards, Many oi them were persons of considerable talents, and not destitute of pnva?e virtues, had they lived in less turbulent and trying times. 15. Horrible as this execution must have been, one still more appalling had engaged the attention of the people, on the same spot, only fifteen days before. Loaded with insults, and deprived of every possible comfort or consolation, " the widow of Lewis Capet," as they chose to call their queen, (a princess of Austria, and daughter of the high-minded Maria Theresa,) had not been suffered to enjoy one moment of repose from the day of the king's execution ; prep- arations were soon after made for her own trial, which, if possible, was conducted in a manner still more revolting to every feeling aiind, than that which had been adopted in the case of her unhappy consort. Her guilt and her punishment were as soon decided upon ; but even after this sad act of vengeance and injustice, shocking circum- stances of ignominy, degradation, and persecution took place, scarce- ly to be credited as the acts of any portion of a people at all advanced in civilization ; she was cast into a dungeon, and delivered into the custody of a gaoler seemingly selected on purpose to insult over her misfortunes, and aggravate her sufferings. On the dreadful day of her execution, she was conveyed to the scaffold in a common cart, with her hands tied behind her, amid the brutal shouts of an infuriat- ed populace. Thus died, in the 38th year of her age, the queen of one of the greatest kingdoms of the earth ; a princess, who, ihough not entirely free from faults, had,' till this fatal revolution, lived in all the splendour and luxury of a court, the marked object, not only of admiration and adulation, but of homage so profound, and, in some instances so servile and ensnaring, as to palliate and account for all the errors of her short, but eventful life . SECTION XIII. GREAT BRITAIN, FROM THE CONCLUSION OF THE AMERI- CAN WAR, 1,783, TO THE PEACE OF AMIENS, 1,802. 1. From the peace of Versailles, in 1,783, to the commencement of the year 1,793, Great Britain kept free from war, though not without some disputes with foreign powers, and occasional calls upon her to interpose, as an ally or mediatrix, in the affairs of other states, Holland particularly. Soon after the termination of the American war, extraordinary changes in the administration took place. The ministry that negotiated the peace, at the head of which was the earl of Shelburne, was displaced, and succeeded by what was called the coalition ministry, from the extrn ordinary cir cumstance of Mr. Fox and lord North becoming joint secretaries of state, after an opposition peculiarly animated, and a positive declara- tion on the part of the former, that they differed so in principle as to render such an union for ever impracticable. 2. The unpopularity of such an apparent dereliction of principle, as might reasonably be expected, rendered their continuance in power extremely precarious, and it was not long before their re- moval was effected, in consequence of a bill brought into parlia- ment by Mr. Fox, to regulate the affairs of India. The measure was judged to be fraught with danger to the constitution, by throw- ing too much power into the hands of a board of commissioners, to MODERN HISTORY. S2J be chosen oy parliament, and though it passed the commons, it wai thrown out by the lords, and ttie ministry dismissed. 3. Mr. Pitt, a younger son of the great lord Chatham, now came into power, not in any subordinate situation, but as premier, though at the early age of twenty-four, and under circumstances peculiarly embarrassing, for he had long to contend against a majority of the house of commons, who threatened to stop the supplies, and effect his removal, as not enjoying the confidence of the people. This being judged too great an interference with the prerogative, and many addresses being presented to the king to retain him in his service, the parliament was at length dissolved, and the issue turned out to be extremely favourable to the choice of his majesty. 4. The affairs of India manifestly requiring the interposition of government, Mr. Pitt, as soon as possible, procured a bill to that effect to be passed, according to which a board of control was to be appointed, not by parliament, but by the crown. Though this in- creased in some degree the influence of the latter, it was judged to be far less hazardous than the proposal of Mr. Fox, which threatened to throw such a power into the hands of the minister and his friends, as might enable them to overawe the sovereign, and render their removal almost impracticable. Mr. Pitt's bill, also, was found to in- terfere far less with the chartered rights of the company. It passed the lords, August 9, 1,784. 5. Another measure of considerable importance occupied the at- tention of the minister, during the year 1,786, which was expected to contribute greatly to the support of public credit. This was the establishment of a new sinking fund, by appropriating the annual sum of one million, to be invariably applied to the liquidation of the public debt. At a subsequent period, a sinking fund of still greater importance was established, by which every future loan was to carry with it its own sinking fund. This was proposed to the house in 1792, and readily adopted; it consisted in raising one per cent., besides the dividends upon every new stock created, to be applied by the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt, in the same manner, and under the same regulations as the original mil- lion.* 6. From the commencement of the year 1,786, to 'the year 1,795, the attention of the British parliament was in a very extraordinary manner occupied with the charges brought against Mr. Hastings, governor-general of Bengal, in February, 1,786. Mr. Burke, whose mind had been long affected by the abuses practised in India, by the servants of the company, had appeared for some time to have fixed his eye upon Mr. Hastings, as a tit object of prosecution : and he now moved for papers to substantiate the charges upon which he meant to impeach him. These charges being discussed in par- liament, during the session of 1,787, and referred to a committee, were confirmed by the house of commons, on the 9th of May, and the articles of impeachment exhibited to the house of lords, on the 14th ; in consequence of which Mr. Hastings was taken into cus- tody, but, on the motion of the lord chancellor, admitted to bail. The trial did not commence till February 15, 1,788, was continued not only through the whole of that parliament, though very slowly, but after much debate, determined to be pending on the commence- * By this provision every loan would have its own fund, which would operate at compound interest, and discharge the debt in forty seven year* at the- longest, from the time it was first incurred. 324 MODERN HISTORY. merit of the new parliament, 1,790, and not brought to a conclusion till the month 01 April, 1,795. 7. The question whether the impeachment abated on the dis solution of parliament, appearing to involve a constitutional point of the highest importance, was discussed with singular attention, and a large display of legal and parliamentary knowledge. The law members of both houses were never perhaps so divided in their opinions; but the numerous precedents cited by Mr. Pitt seemed clearly to decide the question as follows : that though legislative processes are abated by prorogation or dissolution, it is not so with regard to judicial proceedings, ifappoared to be a nice and curious question, and, as affecting the responsibility of ministers, its decision may be regarded as singularly important. 8. Though in the course of the proceedings and prosecution of the various charges against Mr. Hastings, the eloquence of the managers exceeded all that could have been expected, yet nevei perhaps were so great talents employed with less success ; a trial of such seeming importance, so strangely protracted ; or a case of impeachment brought to an issue so little answerable to the expec- tations thai had been excited. It would be impossible to deny that flagrant and enormous abuses had been committed in India during the period in question, yet, the very length of the trial made it ap- pear to most persons in the light of a persecution, and that of an in- dividual to whom the company and the nation stood highly indebted for many eminent services. As it ended in the acquittal of Mr. Has- tings, that gentleman may be presumed innocent. One good, how- ever, seems to have arisen from the investigation ; all succeeding governors-general have certainly been more circumspect and correct in their proceedings. 9. In the course of the year 1,787, great disturbances having taken place in the united provinces, fomented by the French, and threatening the dissolution of the stadtholderate, an alliance was formed between the courts of St. James's and Berlin, to protect the rights of the prince of Orange, and resist the interference of the French. Preparations for war took place, but the Prussian army decided matters without any active co-operation on the part of Great Britain. The alarming state of things in France, appeared to deter the court of Versailles from rendering that assistance to the malecontents of Holland, which the latter had been taught to expect 10. Puring the session of 1,788, the attention of the house of commons was first called to the horrible, circumstances attending the African slave-trade. It is quite surprising that such a traffic should have been so long carried on, without exciting the resent- ment of every sensible mind, and disgusting the feelings of a civil ized people ; unfortunately, when first noticed, it was found to be so deeply interwoven with the interests of our settlements in the West Indies, and to depend so much on foreign states, as well as our own, as to render it almost necessary to proceed slowly and cautiously, though it was impossible not to be horror-struck with the information laid before the house, particularly in regard to what was called the middle-passage, or transportation of the unhap- py Africans, from their native shores to the several islands. As it would be inconsistent with the nature of such a work as the present, to enter into the detail of the proceedings upon this very interesting subject, which took up a long time, ant 1 can scarcely now be said to MODERN HISTORY. 32* be terminated, it may be sufficient to note, that, after continual re- newals of the subject in the two houses of parliament, yet, owing to many untoward circumstances, it was not finally abolished till the year 1,806, nor has it even yet been in the power of any ministry, or any of our diplomatists, effectually to prevent the trade, as car- ried on by foreign states, though every person of humane feelings must devoutly wish and desire that it should be so. It must, how- ever, always redound to the credit of our own country, that the voice of compassion and mercy was first heard amongst us, and that the first arm stretched out to save and to rescue a large proportion of our fellow-creatures from the most abject slavery and cruel tor- tures that ever were inllicted, was the arm of a Briton 11. The parliament being prorogued on the 1 Hh of July, 1,738, to the 20th of November, was compelled to meet on the day ap- pointed, by circumstances of a most distressing land. His majesty, probably through excess of business, to which he was known to devote more time and labour than could well be consistent with his health, was seized with an illness which totally incapacitated him from discharging the functions of his high and exalted station. It must appear strange, that by the laws and constitution of the realm, so little provision had been made for a catastrophe by no means out of the line of probability, that it became a question into what hands the suspended executive had devolved, and this led, as might be expected, to very warm and important debates in parlia- ment. Though the prince of Wales, being of full age, did not person- ally claim the regency as matter of right, his party did. The min- ister, Mr. Pitt, contended that it belonged to parliament to supply he deficiency; and this question being stated, it was judged expe- lient to debate it, and settle it by vote. The decision upon this occasion was entirely in favour of the power of parliament to appoint the regent, none doubting, however, that the heir apparent was the fit object of such appointment. Other questions were agitated at the same time, of equal importance ; particularly how far restrictions could be imposed by parliament, in regard to the ex- ercise of prerogatives, the wkoh of which were reasonably enough supposed to be essential to the government of the country. This question also was decided in favour of the minister, who had proposed restrictions, with an understanding, however, that they could only apply to a temporary suspension of the kingly power. In this case also, the care of the king's person was assigned not to the regent, but to the queen. One great difficulty remained after all the discussions upon the regency. It was doubted how the lord chancellor could be empowered to put the great seal to a commission for opening the sessions of parliament, so as to restore " the efficacy of legislation :'* it was decided that he might be directed to do it in the name of the king, by authority of the two houses. 12. Fortunately for the public, this first illness of his majesty was of so short duration, as to render unnecessary all the changes that had been contemplated. Early in the year 1,789, the lord chancellor was able to announce to the houses of parliament, the perfect recovery of the king. Nothing could exceed the transports of joy with which this intelligence was received throughout the whole kingdom. A national thanksgiving was appointed, and his majesty went himself in great Mate to St. Paul's, to offer up his grateful devotions on the event. The illuminations on the occasion were so general, that it is probable, from the accounts given of 328 MODERN HISTORY. them, that scarcely a cottage in the most remote parts oi the island was without its show of loyally and affection. The appearance oi the metropolis, in particular, was most extraordinary, and notwith- standing the immense concourse of people that continued almost the whole night in the streets^ and the crowded throng of carriages and horses..so si rong a disposition was shown by all ranks and descriptions of persons to conduct things peaceably, that fewer accidents occurred than were ever known before in similar cases. 13. It should be noted, as a matter of general history, that had not his majesty recovered so opportunely, difficulties of an extraor- dinary nature might have ensued, from the different proceedings of the two legislatures of Great Britain and Ireland. While in the former it was decided that the prince could not assume the regency, as matter of right, and that the parliament had a power to impose restrictions, in Ireland, his right appeared to be acknowledged by the two houses agreeing to address him, to take upon him immediately the government of that kingdom, during the king's incapacity, and with the usual powers of royalty. 14. In the year 1,789, the proceedings in France began to occupy the attention of Europe, and of England in particular. A struggle for freedom seemed to be so congenial to the spirit of the people of the latter country, that it is not to be wondered that the commencement of so extraordinary a revolution should excite the strongest sensa- tions. Unfortunately the abuses in the French government were so many", and some of them so entirely contrary to every principle of reason and equity, that it soon became apparent that nothing less than a radical change, and revolution of every existing institution and establishment, would satisfy the disturbed minds of that volatile people ; minds unhappily prepared not merely to resist oppression^ but to throw off every restraint of religion and morality. Such an example, therefore, required to be watched and guarded against, id a country whose free constitution supplied its own means of refor- -mation in every case of necessity, and where tumultuary proceedings could only lead to ends the most fatal and deplorable. Mr. Pitt seemed aware of this, and though his measures of precaution were supposed occasionally to press too hardly on the liberty of the su In- ject, it must be admitted that a very improper intercourse was at times carried on between the several popular associations in England and Ireland, and the national assembly of France. The object of the latter, in its replies to the addresses presented to it, being, accord- ing to all reasonable interpretation of the terms used, to invite and encourage the discontented of all countries to follow their example, which was every day becoming more violent and anarchical This was not all ; emissaries were employed to propagate theii principles in other countries, many of whom came to England, and met with an encouragement not to be overlooked by a government properly sensible of the dangers to be incurred by any adoption LK such sentiments and principles, in a country so very differently situ ated from that of France. England had long ago done for herself what France was now attempting ; and though no such changes and revolutions can be expected to take place without some violence, yet England had passed through this ordeal, and accomplished her point a whole century before France began to assert her liberties. It vras Httle less than an insult to every true Englishman, therefore, to attempt to stir him up to such violent proceedings as had already been countenanced and sanctioned by the French revolutionists: but MODERN HISTORY. 327 that s ich attempts were making, could not but be too obvious. On the 19th of November, 1,792, the national assembly passed a decree, that they would grant fraternity and assistance to all who might wi^h to recover their liberty. This was two months after they had pro- claimed the eternal abolition of royalty, and imprisoned the king,- after they had declared hereditary nobility to be incompatible with a free state ; and thus, by implication, declared that England and moit of the other states of Europe were not free. It was afterwards proved, by their own acknowledgment, that before any declaration of war. more than a million sterling had been sent to England from the national treasury of France, for purposes strictly revolutionary No country was free from these political disturbers ; even general Washington, as president of the United States of America, was obliged to publish letters patent, to withdraw his countenance from the accredited French ministers in that country, who had grossly insulted him as head of the executive government. 15. In the year 1/790, an unpleasant dispute arose between the courts of St. James's and Madrid, which had nearly involved the two countries in a war. It related to a settlement on the north western coast of America, which had been attempted by some sub jects of Great Britain, at Nootka Sound, for the carrying on a fu trade with China. The Spaniards, conceiving this to be an icvasjo of their rights, under a claim to these distant regions the most ex travagant and absurd, with great precipitation attacked the Englis settled there, took the fort which had been erected with the consen of the Indians, and seized upon the vessels. It was not possible to pass over so great an outrage ; but by the vigorous and timely prep arations made to procure reparation, and the little hope ot assist ance to be derived from France, in case things should come to ex tremities, the Spanish court was brought to terms before the expira tion of the year; and not only every point in dispute ceded to thf English, but many advantages granted with regard to the navigatior of the Pacific ocean. 16. In the course of the same year, the British court interfered successfully to restore peace between Austria and Turkey, and was further instrumental, though not without some hindrances, in reducing the revolted Netherlands to the dominion and authority of the former power. Her attempts to mediate between Russia and the Porte, were by no means so successful, and had nearly, in deed, involved the nation in war, for an object of very little im- portance in the eyes of the public at large, though the minister seemed to think otherwise. In consequence, however, of the op- position he met with, he was induced to forego the plan he had ir view, of preventing Russia getting possession of the town of Ocza- kow, and a peace was concluded with that power at Yassi, January 1,792. 17. Towards the close of the same year, after the king of France and his family were in a state of confinement, many attempts were made by the national assembly to ascertain the views of England with regard to the confederacy formed against her, and the question of peace or war seemed nearly brought to an issue, before the horrible execution of the king, in the month of January, 1,793. That event being followed by the dismissal of the French minister at London, appeared so totally to dissolve all friendly communications between the two countries, as to induce the French government, by a decree of the assembly February 3, 1,793, to declare war against the king 3S8 MODERN HISTORY qf Great Britain and the stadtholder of Holland ; in which decree, there was evidently an attempt in the very wording of it to separate the people of the two countries from their respective sovereigns. 18. By this time, indeed, the encroaching disposition of the French revolutionists was manifested in their annexation of Savoy to France forever, as soon as they had gained any advantages over it; and in their conduct in the Netherlands, by declaring the navi- gation of the Scheld free, contrary to all subsisting treaties with the Dutch. The same spirit was apparent in their refusal to ex- empt Alsace and Lorraine from the operation of the decrees for the abolition of feudal rights, and in their forcible seizure of Avignon and the comtat Venaissin, which had belonged to the Roman see for many centuries. It is true, the indiscreet manifestoes of the combined armies were sufficient to stimulate a people, already in a high degree of irritation, to acts of severe reprisal, in all cases of success ; but it was very manifest that they had already violated their own principle of not acting on a system of aggrandizement, of which they made such boast at the beginning, of the revolution. Their glaring abandonment of this principle, and the injury done to me Dutch by opening the Scheld, were the ostensible grounds of ne war on the part of England. The declaration of France, in some degree, saved the minister from the responsibility of having actually commenced hostilities, however, in the opinion of opposi- tion, he might be said to have provoked them ; but it should still be observed, that there was a treaty subsisting between the two countries^ affirming that the recal or dismission of public ministers should be considered tantamount to a declaration of war. If so, and the treaty was not invalidated by the change of things at Paris, as many asserted, the tirst 'declaration of war proceeded from the English government, who, on the suspension of the kingiy authority, had recalled lord Gower from Paris, (many other courts, however, having done the same,) and on the death of the king, abruptly dismissed the French minister, M. Chauvelin, from England. 19. The exact objects of the hostile interference of England were never formally explained in parliament, though in the king's declaration they were regarded as too notorious ; every thing con- duced to render it apparent, that they had in view as much to op- pose the propagation of anarchical principles, as the violence of territorial aggressions ; that previously to the declaration of war on either part, the English government had shown a disposition not to interfere with the internal affairs of France, seems manifest from many circumstances. 20. It is not necessary to enter into the details of the war that took place after England joined the confederacy. The extraor- dinary progress and success of the French appertains to the history of that country, and may therefore be found elsewhere. Though the British troops fought with their accustomed bravery, and ob- tained in their tirst campaign some signal advantages, yet, owing in some measure to the want of harmony and cordiality between the confederates, but still more to the overwhelming force of France, now risen en masse, they ultimately met with great reverses, and were compelled to abandon the country they had undertaken to defend ; but though unsuccessful by land, on the ccean England maintained her wonted superiority. Many of the French West In- dia islands fell into her power in the summer of 1 ,794, and a most decisive victory was gained by lord Howe, over the Brest fleet, on MODERN HISTORY. 329 the 1st of June. The island of Corsica also was subdued, and by the anti-gallican party, with the celebrated Paschal Paoli at their head, erected into a monarchy, the kingly power and prerogatives being freely conferred on his "majesty George 111 In the month of October, however, 1,796, the French party recovered the ascenden cy, and the island being evacuated by the English, was re-annexed to France. 21. At the conclusion of the year 1,794, though France had on the continent made surprising acquisitions, the spirits of the English were far from being shaken, and the utmost efforts were cheerfully made for continuing the contest on the ocean; and in all the colonies of the enemy, the advantages were clearly on the side of the British, during the years 1,795, 1,796, and 1,797, when negotiations for peace took place, but without being brought to any favourable issue. At the close of 1,797, his majesty, attended by the two houses of parliament, and the great officers of state, went to St. Paul's, to offer up a public and national thanksgiving for the naval victories obtained in all parts of the world ; upon which occasion, many flags and colours taken from the French, Spaniards, and Dutch, were borne in ■solemn pomp to the cathedral, and deposited on the altar. Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm with which the British nation at tiiis period appeared disposed to resist the threats of the enemy. The national militia having offered to transfer their services to Ireland, to suppress a rebellion which had broken out there, volunteer corps were formed in all parts of the kingdom to supply their place, and the people were readily induced to submit to a measure of finance, then tirst adopted, namely, of raising, by a triple assessment, (after- wards converted into an income and property tax,) a large propor- tion of the supplies wanted for carrying on the war within the year , so much, in short, of the loan, as should exceed the sum discharged by the operation of the sinking fund, so that no addition should be made to the permanent debt. 22. In .the year 1,798, the affairs of Ireland occasioned great dif Acuities. A regularly organized rebellion, the leaders of which were in constant communication with the enemy, threatened to- tally to dissolve the connexion subsisting between" that country and Great Britain, and to invite the aid and co-operation of France, at the manifest hazard of rendering Ireland a dependency of the latter power, as ha* already been the case with Savoy, Belgium, Lombardy, and Venice. Ireland had but lately obtained concessions from England of no inconsiderable importance, a free trade, and the recognition of her political independence ; but the catholics were dis- satisfied with the national representation, to the defects in which they attributed Lie continuance of the penal statutes still directed against them. The French revolution led to the formation of the society of United Irishmen, in 1,791, which had many reforms and changes in view, though short perhaps of an entire revolution. In 1,795, from representations made to it of the oppressed state of Ire- land, the French government regularly proffered its assistance to subvert the monarchy, and separate Ireland from Britain. Fortunate iy the plans of the traitors were timely discovered, and though it was not possible to prevent a recourse to arms, which afflicted many parts of the kingdom between April and October, yet the principal ringleaders were for the most part seized, executed, or compelled to fly, and under the able government of lord Cornwallis, tranquillity Ee2 49 330 MODERN HISTORY. was happily restored, with less difficulty and damage than had been : 23. The situation of affairs in Ireland during 1,798, led in the fol- lowing year to the project of an union between the two countries, which Mr. Pitt submitted to the British parliament in the form of a message from the king, January 22, 1,799. The Irish legislature having been declared independent in 1,782, it was obvious that no such measure could be carried into execution without the free con- sent and acquiescence of the Irish parliament. Many circumstan- ces seemed to conduce to render the proposed union desirable and beneficial to both nations, and at this particular moment, to recen cile most people to it. The catholics of Ireland had become dis- satisfied with the parliament of that country, while the protestants, who were greatly outnumbered by the catholics, though they pos- sessed four fifths of the property of the kingdom, had good reason to suppose their interests and ascendency would be best secured in one^ united and imperial parliament, than in a distinct legisla- ture, in a country where the catholics had already obtained their elective franchise, and composed the bulk of the population. They might also reasonably apprehend the consequences of the overtures that had been made to France, and the alarming progress of revolu- tionary principles. In the case of the regency, the dangers incident to two distinct legislatures, had been rendered sufficiently apparent, On all these accounts, though the measure was at first very coldly entertained, and even rejected by the Irish house of commons ; the minister was greatly encouraged to proceed, by the strong support he received in both countries, from persons of all ranks and parties. A series of resolutions was proposed to the house, to be laid before his majesty, recommendatory of the proposed union, which, after some opposition, was sent to a committee by a majority of 140 to 1 5. In the lords, the address passed without a division ; a protest, however,, being entered on the books, signed by three lords, Hol- land, Thanet, and King % 24. The last year of the eighteenth century was distinguished by the most important events in India, where the English, under the government of the earl of Mornington, totally defeated the most insidious, and powerful enemy, the forces in that remote country ever had to contend with ; Tippoo Saib, the sultan of Mysore, son of the celebrated Hyder Ally Khan, who had usTTrped those domin- ions in 1,761. In the years 1,784, and 1,792, treaties of peace had been concluded between the sultan and the English, which, however had had very little effect on the former, who had slrown himselt Constantly attached to the French interests ; and having been com- pelled by the last treaty to cede one half of his dominions to the conquerors, and to deliver two of his sons as hostages into the hand of lord Cornwallis, the governor-general, appears to have harboured the most inveterate hatred against the English from that moment, and to have meditated, by the aid of the French, and certain of the native powers, nothing less than their total extirpation. It would be impossible, perhaps, to find in history stronger instances of duplicity and treacherv, than were practised by this celebrated potentate against the British interests, during the years 1 ,797 and 1 ,798, in the spring of the latter of which, lord Mornington arrived in India. With "the French directory, with the French colonial government in Mauritius, with the king of Candahar, with the courts of Poonah And Hyderabad, with Buonaparte in Egypt, and even with the Otto- MODERN HISTORY. 331 man Forte, at the same time, the wily sultan managed to carry on secret negotiations, amidst the strongest professions of amity and attachment towards the English government. It has been conjectur- ed, that had he obtained effectual aid from the French, in extirpating the English, he would as wiliingly have turned against his European abettors ; the purport of all his negotiations with the native powers, being to stir them up to a general combination against the injideh and enemies of the prophet, without any distinction of the two nations. 25. By the extreme vigilance and cautious proceedings of the new governor-general, the intrigues of the sultan, notwithstanding his reiterated assurances of fidelity, were so amply discovered and exposed, as to vindicate, in the fullest manner, the declaration of war which took place in February, 1,799, and which was speedily followed up by the most vigorous proceedings on the part of the army, terminating in the capture of Seringapatam, the capital ol the Mysorean dominions, May 4, and the death of the sul-tan, whose body was found, after the action, covered with heaps of dead, .his immense territories were divided amongst the allied powers^ the remains of his family provided for in the Carnatic, and a boy ot five years old, the surviving representative of the Hindoo dynasty, restor- ed to the throne of his ancestors. 26. In the first year of the new century, the projected union and incorporation of the two legislatures and kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, was brought to a conclusion. Doubts were expressed in the Irish house of commons, and supported by great strength of argument, whether, as a delegated body, and without a fresh ap- peal to their constituents, they could formally consent to their own annihilation. Strong suspicions also were thrown out, that the plan had no other object in view than that of recovering to England the domination she had surrendered in 1,782, when the independency cf the Irish legislature had been fully, and, as it was alleged, finally acknowledged and established; but these objections were over- ruled. It was no surrender, it was urged, of their legislative rights, to consent to be incorporated with the parliament of Great Britain, but a consolidation of them ; and their consent would acquire a character from the regulations of 1,782, highly honourable to the nation; she could now treat as an independent state, and upon a footing of equality, instead of being in any respect compelled, as might otherwise have been the case, to an union of subjection. Early in the year 1,800, the assent of the two houses of parliament, in Ireland, was signified in addresses to his majesty, transmitted through the lord lieutenant, which being submitted to the British parliament, after much discussion and debate on the bill in gen- eral, as well as its several provisions, the union of the two king doms was finally arranged to take place from the first of January, 1,801. 27. The act of incorporation contained eight articles : the first three decreed the union of the two kingdoms, the maintenance of the protestant succession, and consolidation of the parliament, By the fourth, it was settled that four prelates should sit alternately in each session, and twenty-eight lay peers be elected for life, while two members for each county, (thirty-two in all) and thirty-six citi- zens and burgesses, should represent the commons. The fifth article united the churches of England and Ireland ; the sixth and seventh provided for the commercial an \ financial arrangements of the rw» 332 MODERN HISTORY. countries, and the eighth for the maintenance of laws then in force, and continuance of the courts of judicature. 28* On the first of January, 1,801, a royal declaration was issued, regulating the style and titles appertaining to the imperial crown of Great Britain and Ireland, with the arms, flags, and ensigns thereof. In these arrangements, the opportunity was judiciously taken of laying aside the title of king of France, and the French arms ; the title in English was confined to Great Britain and Ireland ; in Latin, " Britanniarum Rex," and the quartering of the "Jleurs de lis," omit- ted in the blazonry. ^ 29- A fresh revolution in the government of France, about this time, having thrown the executive power, in a great measure, into the hands of a supreme magistrate, the first consul, and over- tures for peace having been made by Buonaparte in that capacity, much discussion upon the subject took place between the ministers of the two countries, but without effect- The Austrians having sustained a defeat in Italy, had solicited and obtained a suspension of hostilities, and entered upon some negotiations for peace, to which JEngland was invited to become a party, upon consenting \o a naval armistice, but her maritime power stood so high, that while Malta continued subject to France, and the French army unsubdued in Egypt, she could not reasonably be expected to forego such advan- tages, and to place herself upon a footing with her continental ally, whose situation was so different. Her determination to continue the war, was soon followed by the surrender of Malta, on the 5th of Sep« ember, 1,800, and in the course of the next year, the French troops were compelled finally to abandon Egypt ; thus terminating an ex- E edition, in a great degree mysterious, but which, no doubt, might ave led to the disturbance of our power in India, had it not been for he interruption it met with on its way thither, and the overthrow of Tippoo Saib. 30. In the course of the year 1,800, the enemies of England were greatly increased by the revival amongst the. northern powers, of the armed neutrality, originally devised and adopted in 1,780. As this dispute involved a very curious point of international law, it would have been well, if it could have been brought to such an issue as might have settled the question for ever ; but, after much negotiation, and some very unpleasant conflicts at sea, (particularly with the Danes,) seizures and embargoes, the matter terminated rather in an uncertain compromise, than any positive adjustment. The right of search by belligerents, however inconvenientjo neu- trals, seemed to have been acknowledged for many centuries, as a principle of maritime law; upon the system of the armed neutrality, it was contended that ships under convoy should pass free, the flag of the neutral power being sufficient pledge and security that the cargoes were not contraband of wnr. The claim in this case being evidently directed against England, then, and at all times mistress of the sea, rendered it a point of extreme importance ; one which she could not surrender without a contest, or armed negotiation; otherwise, and if it had not been decidedly in favour of her oppo- nents, the countenance given to the new system by so many states of Ei.rope, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, Naples, France, Spain, H jlland, Austria, Portugal, Venice, and Tuscany, (for by some steps or other they all seemed disposed to adopt the spiiit of it,) might have bf-en expected to amount to a formal recognition of its principle, as a proper law of nations ; the dispute, however, upon this occasion, MODERN HISTORY. 333 was settled at Petersburg, by negotiation, after the accession of the emperor Alexander, and attended with concessions on the part of the Baltic powers, of singular importance, though less complete than chey might have been, owing to the counter concessions of Britain. Thus, though it wa« decided that enemy's property embarked on board neutral ships, should be liable to confiscation, and that the right of searching merchant ships, even under convoy of a ship of war, should be recognized, yet, it was at the same time determined that arms and ammunition only should be considered as contraband, and that the right of searching merchant ships under convoy should appertain exclusively to vessels belonging to the royal navy. If not entirely decisive, however, the stipulations of this celebrated con- vention highly deserve to be looked up to as a proper standard of the rights of neutrality. 31. During the contest that arose with England, out of this con federacy of the nothern powers, the king of Prussia, one of the con- tracting parties, saw fit to take possession of the king of Great Brit- ain's electoral states of Hanover, but on the change of affairs in Russia, was speedily induced to restore them. 32. By the treaty of peace concluded at Luneville, between the emperor of Germany and France, February 9, 1801, England was left Without an ally, and a change of ministry having taken place about the same time, may be said to have laid the foundation for more serious negotiations for peace, on the part of England and France, than had hitherto taken place since the commencement of the revolution. Nothing, however, seemed to hasten it so much as the defeat of the French army in Egypt, and the settlement of the differences between England and the Baltic powers, which enabled her to negotiate- with more advantage, and greatly lower- ed the spirit of the French government. Preliminaries were signed on the first of October, 1,801, and a definitive treaty concluded at Amiens, between Great Britain and the French republic, Spain and Holland, on the 25th of March, 1,802. By this treaty, England obtained Ceylon from the Dutch, and Trinidad from the' Spaniards, relinquishing all her other conquests ; Malta being given back to the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, under the guarantee of the principal powers of Europe. SECTION XIV. FRANCE, FROM THE DEATH OF THE KING AND QUEEN, AND OVERTHROW OF THE GIRONDIST OR BRISSOTINE PARTY, 1,793, TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DIREC- TORY, 1,795. 1. The situation of France, towards the close of the year 1,793, was deplorable in the extreme. It lay at the mercy of a faction, not merely blood-thirsty, but which nothing but blood would satis- fy • The jacobins, or Robespierrean party, determined to root out every thing that could, by the remotest implication, be denounced as adverse to their plans, procured a decree to be passed, exceed- ing every thing that can be conceived in atrocity. Such was the 14 Loi sur les suspects^ passed in September, by which their agents 334 MOJDERJS HISTORY. in all parts of the country were empowered to arrest, imprison, and thereby doom to destruction, whomsoever suspicion in any manner attached to. not merely as principals, but as connected with principals, however unavoidably, naturally, or accidentally. One article alone will explain the rest, The following are the persons denounced in the 5th :— All of the ancient class of nobility ; all hus- bands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, or daughters, brothers, sisters, or agents of emigrants, who shall not have constantly manifested an attachment' to the revolution. The queen, the twenty-two victims of the Girondist party, and general Custine, may be considered as among the earliest and most distinguished persons that fell under the power of this horrible faction. The due d'Orleans, though not belonging to the Girondist party, was denounced by Robespierre himself, as connected with them, and publicly executed on the 6th of November ; but his life and conduct, both public and private, had been such, that he fell totally unregretted. It would be vain to attempt to relate the many dreadful events which marked this bloody period. It is to be hoped history will never again have to record such complicated cruelties and miseries, such premeditated murders, such studied torments, mental and bodily. 2. On the 17th of November, of this memorable year, the cath- olic religion, (at the instance of an archbishop of Paris, Gobet !) was publicly abjured by the convention, and decrees past, amidst the most tumultuous acclamations, for substituting a religion of reason in its room. The churches were quickly despoiled of their ornaments, the altars destroyed, civic feasts instituted instead of religious festi vals, and Liberty, Equality, &c. consecrated as objects of worship. These revolutionary and anti-catholic decrees were moreover ordered to be translated into Italian, on purpose that they might bt transmitted in that most intelligible, and therefore most offensive shape, to the pope. The calendar underwent also a correction. A new republican form and era being adopted and established, to com- mence from the 22d of September, 1,792, the day on which the na- tional convention began its sittings, and royalty was abolished. The year was divided into twelve parts, of thirty days each, distinguished according to the prevalent seasons, Vendemiaire, September and Oc- tober ; Brumaire, October and November ; Frimaire, November and December ; JVivose, December and January ; Pluviose, January and February ; Pentose, February and March ; Germinal, March and April; lloreal, April and May; Prairial, May and June; Messidor. June and July ; Thermidor, July and August ; Fmctidor, August and September. The Sabbath was abolished, and five complimentary days added, all commemorative of the revolution. Each month was divided into three decades, and a respite from labour allowed on every tenth day. 3. It was not possible to suppose that those- who ruled during this dark " reign of terror" could long be suffered to .retain their Eower and station in the republic. Fortunately for the good of uman society, their very crimes rendered them jealous and sus- picious of each other, so that before many months had passed, after the execution of the queen and the Brissotines, the earth was rid of such monsters, proscribed and driven to the scaffold by their own friends and associates in wickedness ; Robespierre, from whom the faction chiefly took its denomination, being at length accused, Condemned, and executed, in the course of a few hours in the month of July, 1,794, to the satisfaction of the whole civilized world Be- MODERN HISTORY 335 /ore this grout day of retribution, however, one more victim of roy- alty was brought to the scaffold, whose sole offence must have been the heroic display she had made, in her constant attendance upon the king, her brother, and his most unhappy family, of every amia- ble virtue that could adorn a woman. The princess Elizabeth, who had continued in the temple, with the two childrer. of the unhappy ministered help to the wounded in the conflict with the guards ;" and of " having encouraged her infant nephew, Lewis XV II., to en tertain hopes of ascending the throne of his father;" and upon these charges sentenced to die, May 10, 1,794, and executed without pity or remorse. 4. It was during the year 1,793, that Napoleon Buonaparte, a na- tive of Corsica, had first an opportunity of distinguishing himself in the French army, being emploved in the direction of the artillery at the siege of Toulon, which had fallen for a short time into the hands of the English'. Hitherto the war against the powers in opposition to France, had been carried on in a most desultory and extraordinary manner, with more success certainly on the part of the French than could have been expected, from the extraordinary condition and cir- cumstances of their armies, and the strange state of responsibility in which their commanders were placed by their rulers at home. Some of their generals were compelled to desert, many were pro- scribed, and many, after displaying the utmost valour in the field, were actually brought to the scaffold. Nevertheless, the impulse given to the revolutionary army, by the circumstances of their coun- try, aided by mistakes and Jealousies on the part of their opponents, enabled it to combat effectually against much better organized troops, and to resist the attacks that were made upon it in all quar- ters ; for in addition to the Austrians and Prussians^ Sardinians, Eng- lish and Spanish, in La V^endee and other departments, a x:ivii war prevailed, where many acts of heroism, indeed, were displayed by a brave, but unsuccessful band of royalists, who ultimately paid dear for their revolt, by the most horrid and disgraceful punish- ments. 5. The French revolution had now attained that pitch of extrav- agance and disorder, which left no hopes of any check or termi- nation, but that which actually ensued, namely, a military despo tism. According to the remarks of one of the ablest members of the lirst national assembly, one who was sacrificed at the period we haVe been -treating of, in a way the most treacherous and revolting to every feeling mind, the French revolution being undertaken not for the sake of men, but for the sake of opinion, had no distinct leader, no Cromwell or Fairfax. All were leaders, all institutors, all equally interested in the course of affairs. Such a revolution, he observes, must be commenced by all, but he was sagacious enough to foresee that it would probably be terminated by one. All, however, for a certain time, being leaders and institutors, nothing could ensue from such a state of things, but continual struggles to be uppermost ; continual denunciations and proscriptions of rival parties , md a strange succession of new constitutions, and new forms of gov- ?rnment, as any opening seemed to occur for bringing things to a settlement. 6. The death of H-obespierre, and of many of his accomplices, 336 MODERN R1STOKK. clearly afforded such an opening, if not for settling, at least tor ameliorating things ; but for some time the convention and the na tion seemed to be in too great a surprise and consternation to pro- ceed with any method to so desirable an end. The former having had its origin in the days of anarchy and confusion, seemed little prepared to defend or support its own dignity, but the cry of hu- manity began again to be raised, and to be heard, and in no long course of time after the defeat of Robespierre, the jacobin club, from which had emanated all the previous acts and decrees, so disgraceful to France, was abolished and dissolved, by a decree of the convention. The reformation of the laws and government gave greater trouble. The pain of death had been decreed against any who should propose to set aside the constitution of 1,793, and with this sentence hanging over them, all the people had sworn to uphold and maintain it. Tired, however, of the absolute and un- controllable power they had exercised, many members, even of the convention, sincerely wished for more limited authority. A com- mittee was appointed to prepare a new code of laws, and, in the mean time, processes were carried against some of the most violent of the abettors of the late tumults and disorders, particularly the commissioners, who had sanctioned the most dreadful proceedings at Lyons, Nantes, Orange, and Arras. The execrable law under which they had acted, " Loi des suspects," was repealed, and a just vengeance directed against those who had been most forward to car- ry it into execution. 7. At length a new constitution was framed, presented to the convention, and approved. Two legislative councils-^ one of five hundred members, and the other of two hundred and fifty, .were to enact the laws ; the lormer to propose, the latter to sanction or reject them. The executive government was committed to five directors, chosen by the legislature, but whose responsibility was ill-defined, and their connexion with the legislative bodies not sulh ciently provided for, either as a balance, or controlling power. It was not without other faults and blemishes, but it may undoubtedly be regarded as making a much nearer approach to order and reg nlarity, than the one which it was intended to supersede. It was formally accepted and proclaimed, September 23, 1,795.* 8. This may be considered as the third constitution established since the first meeting of the states-general, in 1,789; great objec- tions were made to one article, which secured the return of a very large proportion of the members of the convention, to serve in the new legislature. Tumults were raised in the sections of Paris, and on attack made upon the convention, which, however, was at last rescued from the violence of the mob. Buonaparte, who was then at Paris, was appointed to act upon this "occasion in defence of the assembly. 9. Externally, the affairs of France may be said to have been at this moment in a high and extraordinary degree of prosperity. The campaigns of 1,794 and 1,795, committed to the charge of very able generals, Pichegru, Souham, Jourdan, Kleber, Moreau, and Du- gommief, had hitherto succeeded beyond their utmost expectations. The Belgian slates, and the united provinces, had not only been * The directors being Reubel, Letoumeur, Lareveillere-Lepaux, Bar- ras, and Sieyes ; I ut the latter declining the honour, Carnot supplied hw place. MODERN HISTORY. 337 ivrested from the bands of their defenders, the Austrians, Prussians, and British, but associated with the French republic in a close con- federacy. The stadtholdership was again abolished, and the stadt- holder and his family obliged to take refuge in England. In the mean time, peace had been concluded with many of the belligerent powers, highly advantageous to France; with Prussia, Spain, the landgrave of Hesse, the grand duke of Tuscany, and others ; while the navigation of the rivers Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt, had been rendered free, in all their courses and branches, to the people of France. These proceedings, with regard to the Belgian states and Holland, were the commencement of a system pursued from that time on all the frontiers of the new republic. By a decree of the national assembly, the French generals were directed to proclaim every where the sovereignty of the people, to suppress all authorities and privileges, to repeal all taxes, and establish provisional govern- ments on democratic principles. By this system of *' 'fraternization" as it was called, the subdued countries being formed into republics, w republiques satellites" as they, were significantly denominated by the French themselves, were associated with France as subordinate states. Of the states first revolutionized in this manner, the Batavian republic took the lead, surrendering to France, without hesitation, the chief of her fortresses, and thus extending, and at the same time protecting her frontier. The mistake she made in thus welcoming the French, was but too soon discovered. The French levied heavy contributions ; the English took from them many of their foreign settlements, and particularly the cape of Good Hope, and the island of Ceylon. 10. In the month of June, 1,795, Louis XVIL, the unfortunate son of Louis XVI., died in the temple, under circumstances extremely suspicious, and very deplorable, having been some time in the cus- tody of a low-born drunken wretch, who did every thing he could to insult and torment him, and undermine his health. He was in the eleventh year of his age at the time of his death. His sister, the princess royal, (the present duchess of Angouleme) was soon after wards most happily released from her miserable prison, whence a father, mother, and aunt, had been successively led. to execution, and where an only brother had died a victim to cruelty, and perhaps poison. Her royal highness was exchanged for certain members of the late convention, who had been delivered up to the allies, by the generals who had incurred the displeasure of their rulers at Paris, or had fallen into the hands of the enemy by other accidents, SECTION XV. FRANCE, FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DIRECTORY, 1,795, TO THE PEACE OF AMIENS. 1. The appointment of the five directors, was an act of policy on the part of the ruling members of the convention, who thought it better to hazard such a division of the executive power, than to give umbrage to the people, by the renewal of a first magistrate, though an elective one. As these new officers, however, owed their nomination to the influence of those members of the late con vention who were chosen to form a part of the legislative body; a Ff * 43 338 MODERN HISTORY. close union was soon found to subsist between tne directors and the majority of the council. 2. The council of ancients, consisting of two hundred and fifty members, at first appeared to form the bulwark of the new consti- tution ; having no share in the framing of the laws, they were able to interpose with the greater dignity in pronouncing their judgment upon such as were referred to them, and often exercised the re- stored privilege of the veto beneficially for the public. The judi- cial murders of the reign of terror were terminated, and the gov- ernment displayed, in many instances, a return to moderation and humanity, extremely desirable and praiseworthy, but in the south- ern department, a system of reaction and retaliation prevailed, which it was beyond their power to control. An organized body of assassins kept all those parts of the nation in a state o? incessant alarm. The metropolis was in some degree restored to its wonted gayety, but every thing bespoke, as might reasonably be expected, a most de- moralized state of society. The stage became intolerably licentious, and the public amusements were disgraced, by a freedom of man- ners, and indelicacy of dress on the part of the females, beyond mea- sure offensive. Those whose nearest connexions had been doomed to the scaffold, could find no better mode of commemorating their loss, than by festive meetings, called " Beds a la Victime" to which no one could be admitted but such as had lost a father, a mother, a husband, a wife, a brother, or a sister, by the guillotine ! 3. Hitherto the prowess of the French armies had been mani- fested much more in the north, and on the Rhine, than in the southern parts of the continent; towards Italy,, the Austrians and Fiedmontese seemed to hoid the French in check. Dugommier had indeed invaded Spain with effect; and by his attacks contributed to bring about a peace with that country ; but now a new scene was about to open, leading to such a succession of victories and revolutions as it would be impossible fully to describe in such a work as the. present. 4, Early in the year 1,796, general Buonaparte obtained (being then twenty-six years of age,) the chief command of the army of Italy, as it was called. His eagerness to commence operations drew upon him some remonstrances. It was suggested to him that many things were wanting in bis army necessary to the ^campaign. "I have enough," said he, "if 1 conquer, and too many if I should be beaten." The Austrian army in those parts was commanded by general Beaulieu, an officer peculiarly active and enterprising. Gf mval Buonaparte took the command of the French army on the 30--1 of March, and between the 12th and 15th of April, beat the Austrian troops in tliree distinct engagements, at Montenotte, Mil- lesjrio (or Montelezino,) >and :Dego. In the space of four days, it has bsen computed, that the Austrian army was diminished to the amouat of 15,000 men, being separated at the same time from their riedroontese allies. After the battle of Dego, Buonaparte advanced rapidly into Piedmont, nor did he stop till he had arrived at the very gates of Turin. There he agreed to an armistice solicited "by the king, who was ignominiously compelled to submit to his occu- pying with French troops all the principal fortresses of his coun cry Happy to be allowed to retain the capital, he was also obliged to cede Savoy, Nice, Tende, and Beuil. From Turin, Buona- parte pursued his course into Lombaic'y, and by the celebrated MODERN HISTORY. 339 battle of Lodi, 3n the 10th of May, obtained complete possession of the Milanese. 5. Unwilling to enter immediately into the narrow parts of Italy in this stage of his proceedings, he satisfied himself with threaten- ing the pope and the king of Naples, till he brought them to terms of peace ; the former surrendering to the French republic, Bologna, Ferrara, and the coasts ol the Adriatic, from the mouths of the Po, to Ancona ; and the latter consenting to contribute largely to the maintenance of the French army, and to close his ports against the enemies of France. The dukes of Parma and Moden?, made submission in time to save their countries. The grand duke of Tuscany had previously acknowledged the French republic, but was bidden very peremptorily to exclude the English from the port of Leghorn. The submission of all these princes and states to the overwhelming force of the army under the command of Buo- naparte, was but part of the victory he obtained over them. In every step he took, he was careful, by new laws, treaties, and po- litical arrangements, to u revolutionize' 1 '* the countries over which he obtained an ascendency by arms, and to incorporate them with the French republic. Savoy., Nice, and the Milanese, were thus brought under his dominion, and ultimately greeted into distinct, though subordinate republics. ■ 6. It was at the very commencement of the military career of this extraordinary man, that he adopted a system of plunder, which, for a long time, engaged the attention of the whole civilized world. In all the treaties concluded with the Italian princes, he stipulated that French artists should be admitted into their public galleries, museums, and palaces, to select as many as they might choose, of the choicest performances of the celebrated painters and sculptors of all ages, and cause them to be conveyed to Paris. French sentiment has dwelt upon the circumstance of the immortal Raphael, Titian, and Domenichino, having thus had it in their power, and in such critical moments, to pay the ransom of their native countries, over- looking the sad violation of sentiment occasioned by the removal oi these precious pledges of their stupendous talenls from the hands which had so long preserved them, and from places of which they had been so justly regarded as the choicest and most valuable ornaments. 7. The siege of Mantua was attended with many severe conflicts. On the reduction of that important place, Buonaparte is stated to have thus addressed his soldiers : " The capture of Mantua termi- nates a campaign which has justly entitled you to the everlasting gratitude of your country. You have triumphed over the enemy in three pitched battles, and seventy inferior engagements ; you have taken a hundred thousand prisoners, fifty field-pieces, two thousand battering cannons. The country you have subdued has nourished, maintained, and paid the army during the whole campaign, and you have remitted thirty millions to the minister of finance, in aid of the public treasury. You have enriched the museum at Paris, with more than three hundred of the choicest and most valuable works of art, both of ancient and modern Italy, and which it had taken thirty ages to produce." 8. Though we know from subsequent accounts of French victo- ries, that they are not always to be depended upon, yet there can be no doubt, that the above address does pretty fairly describe the extraordinary rapidity and extent of Buonaparte's first operations 340 * MODERN HISTORY. in the field. The years 1,796 and 1,797, were indeed marked by such surprising instances of this nature, that they deserve a place in history, though the prudence and good generalship of such pre- cipitate steps has been reasonably questioned. Mantua capitulated on the 2d of February, 1,797, and Buonaparte pursued his course in the direction of the Austrian capital, leaving Ijaly behind him, with a view of penetrating to Vienna. Though obliged to fight his way, he succeeded, March 2, 1,797, in taking possession of Gradis- ca, which laid open to him the provinces of Goritz, Carniola. and Carinthia* 9. The Austrian grand army was commanded by the emperor's brother, the archduke Charles, an able general, a great favourite with the soldiers, and who had combated the French on the Rhine with signal success. He was not, however, strong enough to await the approach of the French, who soon reached Leoben, only thirty miles from Vienna, where great consternation was excited, and the imperial family compelled to retire. As both armies, however, were brought into a very critical position, negotiations were en- tered into at this place, an armistice concluded on the 8th of April, and preliminaries of peace signed on the 15th of the same month, 1,797. 10. Before we notice the celebrated treaty of Campo-Formio, by which the peace was settled and confirmed, it may be fit to con- sider the state of those countries which Buonaparte had left behind on his march upon Vienna. He had made peace on his own terms (most advantageous ones for France) with Parma, Modena, Rome, and Naples. He had overrun Savoy, obtained possession of tfee Milanese, and reduced Mantua. He had erected Genoa into the Ligurian republic, and the Milanese he converted into the Cisalpine republic, after having first given it the name of Transpadane, in reference to the river Po, and in contradistinction to the Cispadane republic, consisting of Modena, Bologna, Reggio, and Ferrara, con- federated in 1,796. He had passed Venice on his way to Trieste, of which he took possession on the 3d of April, 1,797. The Venetians had afforded an asylum to.Lewis XVIII., and wavered greatly in taking part either with the Austrians or the French, not being able to calculate upon the issue of the contest. They had also fallen into domestic broils and dissensions, which gave the Fsench command ■• er the opportunity he always sought, of introducing a French army to allay their differences. The consequences were, that they im- mediately seized upon the fleet, the Ionian islands, and, in fact, all the Venetian states, which enabled Buonaparte greatly to improve the peace he was making with the Austrians. Albania and the Ioni- an islands he kept to himself; to the Cisalpine republic he assigned the western dependencies of Venice, reserving for Austria, the capi- tal, Istria, Dalmatia, and the island of the Adriatic, in exchange for the Netherlands and the duchy of Luxemburg. He had profess- ed to enter upon the Venetian states, merely to rescue them from the hands of Austria, but by this extraordinary manoeuvre, he not only delivered them over to the very power from whom he under- took to save them, but he obtained from Austria the very object for the sake of which her English allies had refused to make peace in 1 ,796. Such appears to have been the chief foundation of the cele- brated treaty of Campo-Formio, concluded between the emperor and the French republic, 'October, 17, 1^797. 11. Previously to the conclusion ^f the treaty of Campo-Formio, MODERN HISTORY. 341 the allies had lost three of their ;onfederates, the dukes of VVir temburg and Bavaria, and the Margrave of Baden, all of whom had found it necessary to purchase peace of the directory by heavy contributions. Such great advantages in its external relations we're, however, far from contributing to the internal tranquillity of the republic. The first five directors, as might naturally have been expected, were by no means accordant in their views, or of equal talents and abilities; and provision seemed to have been made for fresh revolutions, by the continual recurrence of new elections, both in the legislative assemblies and directory. One of the five directors was annually to go out, and one third of each of the le- gislative bodies to be renewed. The first event of this kind, as might be expected, revived all the jealousies of rival parlies, and produced an explosion almost as violent as any that had yet occur- red ; the explosion of the 18th of Fructidor, as marked in the short- lived republican calendar. Le Tourneur quitted the directory by lot, and was succeeded by Barthelemi, who soon appeared inclined to join Carnot against Reubel, Barras, and Larevilliere-Lepaux. The three latter were for assuming a despotic power ; their oppo- nents were divided, some inclined to the restoration of royalty, others to the emancipation of the councils from the sway of the directors, Reubel and his two associates ; but as they formed a mi- nority, and their enemies were prompt in their measures of revenge, and had moreover the command of the military, it was not long be- fore the latter obtained the victory they sought. On the 4th of September, 1,797, the legislative assemblies were surrounded with troops, and at the instance of the three ruling directors, two of their colleagues, (Carnot and Barthelemi) several members of the two councils, many public ministers, and many men of letters, declared guilty of anti-republican measures and principles, arrested and impri- soned ; and, on the 5th, sentenced to deportation to the unhealthy and remote settlement of Guiana, in South America. The authors, editors, directors, and proprietors, of no less than forty-two public journals were included in the sentence. Some of the proscribed members found means to escape ; but those who were conveyed to Guiana, suffered dreadfully from the voyage ; many died from the unwholesomeness of the place, some found means to return to Europe, particularly general Pichegru and the ex-director, Barthelemi, who were conveyed to England from the Dutch settlement of Surinam. 12. Buonaparte returned to Paris not long after these disturban- ces, and was received with peculiar honours. The people began to. look up to him for deliverance from the tyranny of three direct- ors ; and the latter were as eager to remove him from the metropo- lis. In the midst of the honours paid to him, on account of his vic- tories in Italy and Germany, Barras, with great emphasis, nominal ed him as the hero destined to place the tri-coloured flag on the tower of London. Troops were actually assembled on the coasts of Flanders and Normandy for the purpose ; but Buonaparte him- self, seeing the impracticablility of such an attempt, meditated a more distant expedition. 13. In the course of the year 1,798, the system, began so suc- cessfully in Flanders and Holland, of revolutionizing the countries into which the French armies should penetrate, was carried to a great extent. Watchful to seize upon every opportunity afforded them by internal dissensions, the French this year obtained posses- sion of Rome, Switzerland, the Pays de Vaud. the Grisons, and Ff2 34S MODERN HISTOKI Geneva, under circumstances peculiarly distressing to the existing governments, and commonly attended with heavy exactions, and the plunder of their churches, palaces, and museums. The pope was driven from Rome, partly by his own subjects, and partly through an overweening confidence in his own power and influ- ence. The Roman republic was proclaimed February 15, 1,798; ant 1 the finances being found in a bad state, the Vatican and other public buildings stripped of their contents. The Pays de Vaud, whither the French had been invited, to protect them against the aristocratic despotism of the Bernese, was formed into the Leman$ and Switzerland, after many cruel sacrifices, into the Helvetic re- public, or rather into three republics, for that was ultimately the arrangement adopted; provisional governments being in all places appointed, conformably, in a great degree, to the principles of the French constitution. No remonstrances on the part of the. free can- tons could save them from the directorial decrees. An address to this effect, peculiarly pathetic and eloquent, from the cantons of Sebwitz, Uri, Appenzel, Claris, Zug, and Underwaiden, had no etfect whatever in preserving them from a change of constitution, forced upon them by democratic France. The degenerate Ramans had appeared to pride themselves upon emulating their heroic an- cestors, in re-establishing the republic, under the auspices of Gallic invaders. But the brave Swiss resisted to the utmost the rude dis- turbers of their ancient freedom. The modern republicans of Rome chanted a Te Deum, to hallow their deliverance. The Swiss sung their antiquated songs of patriotism and freedom, till the most dire necessity compelled them to surrender their established constitution to the dictates of a French directory. 14. On the 5th of May, Buonaparte left Paris for Toulon, to take the command of an expedition, the real object of which has scarce- ly been ascertained to this day, though it appears most probable, that he designed to join Tippoo Saib in India, and to subvert the British empire there. He was accompanied by many artists, natu- ralists, and antiquarians, and a large proportion of the army which had served under him in Italy. Malta lying in his way to Egypt, he failed not to take possession of it, partly by force, and partiy by intrigue, subjecting that island and its dependencies, Goza and Cumi- no, to the French republic, June 12, 1,798. Its conquest had for some time previously been meditated, but it had lately been put under the protection of the emperor of Russia, Paul I. : it was treated by the French as ill as other places, notwithstanding the utmost assurances to the contrary. The knights were driven from the island, many of the people compelled to join the French army, and new laws imposed under the authority of the directory. In the month of July, this year, 1798, a triumphant entry into Paris, of all the works of art collected in the several places subdued by the French aims, took place amid the acclamations of the people. The French fleet had narrowly escaped at Malta the pursuit of ar Eng- lish one, under the command of Nelson; and after the subduction of the island, it was able to proceed, still undiscovered, to Egypt, where the English had already been to look for them in vain. On the 2d of July, Buonaparte took possession of Alexandria, mooring his fleet in the bay of Aboukir. In less than three weeks from his landing, and after a severe action with the Mamelukes, called the battle of the pyramids, Cairo, and the whole of the Delta fell into his power; but his triumph was lessened by the loss of his fleet, op MODERN HISTORY. 313 the 1st of August, which, being attacked in the bay I y Nelsop, was almost totally destroyed or taken, the French admiral Bruey^ being killed and his ship burnt ; four ships onlv, two of them frigates) were all that escaped. When Buonaparte 'eft Toulon, his fleet consisted of 400 sail, including thirteen ships of the line, and it was lVuher increased than otherwise by his enterprise at Malta. 15. The victory of Nelson gave a new turn to the war against the French. On his quitting Egypt, he carried his fleet to Naples, where the utmost joy was manifested by the court at the blow which had been given to the French preponderance. The queen invoked the Austrians to renew the war against France ; and the expedition to Egypt and attack upon Malta having excited the czar, and even the grand seignior, to resist aggressions so unprovoked, and alarming, Francis II. was not insensible to the call made upon him, England was not backward to encourage and aid such movements, in every part of Europe. The king of Sardinia, and the grand duke of Tus- cany showed themselves willing to join the new confederacy; but the king of Prussia was not to be prevailed on to abandon his neu- trality. 16. The Neapolitan court, which had been the foremost to ex- cite this new war, were the first sufferers from it. Having invaded the territories of the church, and even obtained possession of Rome, they were suddenly driven back by the French, the capital taken, and the royal family compelled to retire to Palermo, in Sicily. Na- ples was not taken possession of without a formidable insurrection of that extraordinary portion of its population, the Lazzaronx,, with whom the king, whose amusements were often unbecoming his high rank, happened to be popular. This resistance provoked reprisals exceedingly distressing to the inhabitants, and almost ruinous to the city; the tumult, however, was at length appeased, and the kingdom of Naples converted into the Parthenopecui, or Neapolitan republic. 17. The king of Sardinia, and the grand duke of Tuscany were also made to pay dear for the renewal of hostilities, both being de- prived of their dominions, as allies of the Neapolitans, and com- pelled to abandon their capitals. The aged pope, w*io had indeed, by many unwise provocations, irritated the French, a refugee in the Tuscan territories, unwilling to accompany the deposed princes in their retreat from Florence, and too confidently relying on the reverence that would be paid to his years and station, was actually arrested in his monastic retirement, and conveyed to Valence, in Dauphiny, a prisoner, where he died broken hearted, August 29 1,799. On the establishment of the consular government, his body was honourably interred, and a monument erected over him. 18. But the directory, in the midst of these arbitrary seizures of states and kingdoms, acted with too little foresight, as to the effects of the formidable confederacy of Russia and Austria. The French armies were widely separated, and many of the most successful generals, through a pernicious jealousy, disgraced and removed from their command. This disheartened the soldiers; and reverses were preparing for them, both in Germany and Italy. The Russian army, under SouvarofF, entered the latter country early in the spring of the year 1,799, and on the 18th of April was at Verona. The character and manners of this northern general, made a great im- pression both upon the allied armies, and upon the inhabitants of the countries he invaded The French, under the celebrated MoreaUj 344 MODERN HISTORY. were obliged to fall back, leaving the Milanese exposed to the com- bined forces. After various actions, Milan was invested ; and, after a nineteen days' siege, taken May 24. Turin, Alessandria, Mantua, and Tortona, were reduced in the months of June and July; and in most of these places, as well as in other parts of Italy, Tuscany, Naples, and Rome, great indignation was manifested against the French, of whose tyranny they had all tasted, and of whose friend ship they were already become weary. In a short time the French retained, of all their conquests in those parts, only Genoa and Savoy. 19. While these things were going on, the councils at Paris be- gan to distrust the government of the directors, and to ask why Buonaparte w r as at such a distance. Inquiries of this kind were often put to his brother Lucien, who had a seat in the council of five hundred. A party was formed against the most obnoxious of the directors, and three found it necessary to retire. Another revo- lution in the government was evidently preparing. Buonaparte's absence and object seemed equally mysterious. It was supposed that he meant to open the old channel of trade between the East Indies and the Mediterranean. After the destruction of his fleet, as though banished from France, he appeared eager to establish a colony in Egypt, which, perhaps, was originally in his view, in carrying thither all that the arts and sciences of Europe could con- tribute of utility or beauty. All his works were superintended by persons of known celebrity for talent and knowledge of every de- scription ; but he was turned from this object by the jealousy of the Turks, who, after' the battle of Aboukir, (or of the Nile, as it is generally called in England,) were ready enough to join the English in attacking the French, confined, as it were, within their territories. Buonaparte, to be beforehand with them, marched into Syria, where the pacha of Acre, a man of most ferocious character, commanded. He succeeded in taking many fortresses, and for three months maintained a war in the very heart of the country, but his artillery having been intercepted by the English, who had also been admitted into Acre, his attempts upon the latter place were frustrated, and, being threatened on all sides, he resolved to return to Egypt ; there he received letters to inform him of the reverses in Italy, and the disorders at Paris, and to press his return ; but the Turks had landed at Aboukir, and taken possession of the fort, and it was judged necessary for his fame, that he should not quit Egypt without beating them. He hastened to attack them, and succeeded ; but not without many severe conflicts, and an eight days' siege of the fortress of Aboukir. Soon after this success, he embarked clandestinely for France, leaving the army under the com- mand of general Kleber, (who complained greatly of being so duped and abandoned,) and in a very extraordinary manner escaped all the English ships cruising in the Mediterranean. 20. Buonaparte arrived just in time to take advantage of the distracted state of the government. The legislature was a prey to faction ; the directors divided in opinion ; the jacobins and anarchists extremely troublesome, and not unlikely to recover their sway; while many departments were in a state of insurrection and civil war. Sieyes, the most wise and politic of all that had yet been in the directory, foresaw the necessity of a change, and wanted only some military genius to support his measures, and to whom he could confide his designs. Three other important characters ap- peared to rest their hopes on the interference of Buonaparte, MODERN HISTORY. 345 Fouche, minister of police ; Cambaceres, minister of justice ; and the ex-minister for foreign affairs, Talleyrand Perigord. 21. Within a month after the arrival of Buonaparte, a proposal was made in the council of ancients, to remove the legislative bod- ies to St. Cloud, and to confer on Buonaparte the command of the troops at Paris. At the moment the decree was passed, Buonaparte, accompanied by many of the generals who had distinguished them- selves under him, appeared at the bar, denouncing threats against all who should traverse the decree just passed. The council of five hundred, taken by surprise, made some show of resistance ; and Buo- naparte appearing amongst them, gave such offence, that he was in danger of assassination, amidst the cries of "Down with the tyrant !" "No dictator!" His brother Lucien, at that time president, was loudly called upon to pronounce a decree of outlawry against him, which he evaded by throwing aside his official dress, and renouncing his seat in the assembly; after which, Buonaparte, in some alarm, having joined his troops, the meeting was dissolved, and violently dis- persed by the soldiery. It was allowed however to assemble again under the former presidency, the Jacobinical members being excluded, when a new order of things, approved by the council of elders, was brought forward, decreed, and proclaimed. The directory was abol- ished, and three new chief magistrates appointed under the name oi consuls, while committees were formed to prepare a new constitu tion. Eighty persons were to compose a senate, one liundred a tribunate, and three hundred a legislative body. 22. The time seemed now to be arrived when the excesses of the revolutionary movement had prepared men's minds for a transition from a state of anarchy- to one of despotism. Popular liberty had fallen into disrepute, from the violences of the jacobins; and a strong executive government seemed indispensably necessary to re- store things to any degree of order and consistency. Though the Jive directors appeared to be exchanged for three consuls, there was, in the last instance, no correspondent division of power and authority. To the first consul were assigned functions and pre- rogatives exceedingly distinct from those of his colleagues. " Unity of thought and action was declared to be a fundamental quality in the executive power." So far they were evidently going back to the first and best principles of monarchy. Hitherto, however, an elective and limited consulate was all that was contemplated. Gen- eral Buonaparte was appointed first consul, Cambaceres the second, and Le Brun the third ; the first two for ten, the last for only five years; Buonaparte, to say the least, having all the power of a king, though not the name, assigned to him, — a power approaching too near to absolute and uncontrollable despotism. 23. In the first discharge of his new functions, however, he was careful to display a spirit of moderation, forbearance, and conciliation, in many popular acts at home, and overtures of peace to England. The latter were without effect, and a large subsidy being granted by the British parliament, to enable the emperor to continue the war, no time was lost by the French in endeavouring to recover their footing in Italy. In the month of May, 1,800, the first consul left Paris, to take the command of the army in those parts ; and after a most surprising passage through the mountainous parts of Switzer- land, and the capture of the town of Costa, with the celebrated fort of Bard, succeeded so far as to be able to enter Milan once more in triumph, the Austrians retiring before him, little expecting that he 44 346 MODERN HISTORY. could find a way into Lombardy by the road he had chosen. The Russian army had been withdrawn in disgust, after the proceedings in Switzerland, which had greatly offended the czar. Previously to the entrance of- the first consul into Milanj the French, under Masse- ■iia, had been compelled to evacuate Genoa : but the Austrians were doomed to suffer a reverse ; and though in the famous battle of filarengo, which took place on the 14th of June, they fought with die most desperate courage, and sustained an action of fourteen nours with great heroism, and the fairest prospects of success, the enemy received reinforcements at so critical a moment as to enable them to obtain a complete victory, which was soon followed by a sus- pension of hostilities^ solicited by the Austrian general. 24. Negotiations for peace were entered into at Paris, and the preliminaries were signed ; but, through the remonstrances of the English government, (as it is supposed,) the emperor refused his ratification, and the war was continued, both in Germany and Italy, till the 25th of December, 1,800, when another suspension of hostil- ities being agreed to, at Steyen, a town in Upper Austria, soon led to the treaty of Luneville, between the French republic and the empire, signed February 9, 1801 ; by which the Rhine was made the boun- dary of the French republic, leaving theseveral princes dispossessed, in. part or in whole, of their territories on the left side of the river, to be indemnified in the bosom of the empire ; the Adige, in the same manner, being fixed to be the boundary between the Austrian territories in Italy and the Cisalpine republic. The Grand duke ot Tuscany renounced his dukedom in favour of the infant duke 6t Parma, created king of Etruria ; and the independence of the Bata- vian, Helvetic, and Cisalpine republics, was recognised and guaran- tied by both parties. 25. The English government had refused to enter into a naval armistice, though in danger of being deserted by the emperors of Germany and Russia, and had declined every offer of peace upon such terms, while Malta and Egypt continued in the hands of France. But after the re-capture of the former, and the defeat of the French under Menou, at Alexandria, in September, 1,801, both parties seem- ed more disposed than before to enter into negotiation, with serious views of bringing things to an accommodation. On March 27th, 1,802, a definitive treaty was signed at Amiens, more favourable to France that to England, though nothing could exceed the joy ex- pressed in the latter country, on the termination of hostilities with the French republic. It was soon found to be no belter than a truce of very short duration. 26. The power of the French republic at this moment was enor- mously great In addition to the former possessions of France, it had gained the Netherlands, and a considerable portion of Germany ; Geneva, Piedmont, and Savoy had been incorporated with it ; Hol- land and Switzerland were rendered effectually dependent upon it. The Cisalpine republic, including the Milanese, the duchies of Mo- dena, Mantua, and Parma, and part of the Venetian and Roman ter- ritories, was placed under the presidency of the first consul, for a term of ten years. Genoa, or the Ligurian republic, had been re- covered by the treaty of Luneville ; Spain was entirely at the com- mand of P ranee, as well as Tuscany, under its new possessor, the vassal king of Etruria. It had recovered alsoits West Indian settle* ments, and acquired, a considerable footing in South America. MODERN HISTORY 34T SECTION XVI. FRANCE, FROM THE PEACE OF AMIENS TO THE TREATY OF TILSIT, 1,807. 1. It has already been observed, that the first steps of the con- sulate were of a conciliatory nature. Endeavours were made to pacify the rebellious departments ; the law of hostage, which had been in its operation extremely vexatious, was repealed ; and the list of emigrants closed. On the first change of the government, measures were taken to repress the violence of the jacobins, and awe the factious ; but the sentences passed on the most obnoxious were afterwards mitigated. 2. Soon after the conclusion of the peace of Amiens, the first consul gave great satisfaction to the bulk of the nation, by restoring the catholic religion. On Easter-day, 1,802, the peace was ratified in the metropolitan church, with all the sanctions of the ancient religious forms, and a large attendance of new prelates. The basis of the convention with the pope had been settled and arranged in the preceding year, upon the following principles : — That a new Jivision of the French dioceses should be made, suited to the re- publican division of the country ; and that the first consul should nominate the new archbishops and bishops, leaving it to the pope, as a matter of course, to confer canonical institutions. The bishops to appoint the parish priests, subject to the approbation of govern- ment. The pope to procure the ancient bishops to resign, and to engage not to disturb the alienated property of the church. No bull, rescript, &c, from the court of Rome, no decrees of synods, or general councils, to be received, or promulgated, without the consent of government. No national or diocesan meeting to take place with- out the same authority ; or any nuncio, legate, or vicar, to be allow- ed to exercise his functions. 3. Such were some of the principal articles of the concordatum of 1,801. The pope seemed to be glad to make any concessions that might recover France from the depths of infidelity ; while the articles themselves plainly show that the first consul, in restoring Catholicism, had no intention to subject the nation, as heretofore, to t dominion of the Roman see, even in spiritual matters; A still stro er proof, however, of which, appears in the liberty afforded, at same time, to the Lutherans and Calvinists, who were placed nea upon the same footing with the catholics ; and were even allowed have three seminaries of education ; two in the eastern parts of Fran for the Lutherans, and one at Geneva, for the Calvinists. Provisi was also made in the new concordatum for the supposed case of protestant being chosen chief magistrate of the republic. 4. On the second of August, 1,802, by an extraordinary expres- sion of the public will, the consulate, the term of which, in the case of Buonaparte and Cambaceres, had been limited to ten years, was conferred on the former for life. The original proposal had been only to extend the term ; but the people in the different communes being called upon to give their opinion, voted, almost unanimous- ly, for its being continued to the first consul for life, which was readily sanctioned by the senate 348 MODERN HISTORY 5. This appjintment was soon followed by a new form of con- stitution, calculated to throw greater power into the hands of the first magistrate, who was permitted, not only to nominate his col- leagues, but to make war, form alliances, conclude peace, pardon criminals, and virtually to choose the members of the legislative body, by means of the senate, which was almost entirely under his influence. He was careful, at the same time, to put the govern- ments of the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics, and oilier newly ac- quired states, upon a similar footing, reserving to himself, in ail cases, the supreme power as first magistrate. All these steps were so art- fully taken, as to appear to be the regular result of popular choice and deliberation. Liberty, equality of civil rights, and national representation, were proiessed to be the objects in view ; but care was taken to render each dependent on the domineering influence and directions of the first consul. It was at this period that the Cisal- pine was converted into the Icalian republic. C. Switzerland was not so easily to be brought under the French yoke, though its struggles for liberty and independence were finally unavailing. Many of the cantons displayed an almost invincible at- tachment to their ancient constitution, and resisted, in every way they could, the menaced invasion of their rights and privileges ; but the more they were divided amongst themselves, which unhappily proved to be the case to a high degree, the greater opportunity was afforded to the despotic ruler of France to interpose his offices to restore peace, nominally as a mediator, but really and effectually to the subjugation of the country, which, when reduced, was in mocker} declared to be free and independent. Remonstrances on the part of the English court, are supposed to have had some ehect in mitigating the rigour of his exactions, and rendering the new constitution pre- pared for them, more congenial to their feelings than might other- wise have been the case. 7. In 1,502, by the death of the duke of Parma, and in virtue of * previous convention with Spain, the first consul, in the name of the French republic, took possession of the duchies of Parma, Piacentia, and Guastalla, and incorporated them soon after with France. The only son of the deceased duke of Parma, by a Spanish princess, having assigned to him by the treaty of Luneviile, the Tuscan states, under the title of the kingdom of Etruria. 8. Though, by the above treaty, the indemnification of those princes, whose rights and property had suffered from the progress of the French, seemed to be left chiefly to the decision of the diet of the empire, Buonaparte found means to interfere to his own ad- vantage, favouring those most from whom he had the most to fear, or who were most likely to be subservient to his views. For the duke of YYirtemburgh, the landgrave of Hesse Cassel, and the margrave of Baden, he secured the electoral dignity ; while the indemnifica- tions were provided for by the secularization of many ecclesiastical states on the right side of the Rhine. 9. It was soon found that, by the peace of Amiens, little cordiality was produced between the two nations. The first consul professed" to be bound by that treaty only to particular specified points, and appeared through his agents, secret or avowed, to be preparing for a renewal of hostilities. He. had some reason, it must be confessed, to be offended with the liberties taken with him in some of the pub- lic journals of England at this time ; and though it can scarcely be supposed that peace could be his object, yet he appears to nave MODERN HISTORY. 349 been provoked and irritated by the distrust of* the British govern ment and nation. So early as the month of May, 1,803, the two countries may be said to have been again in a state of war with each other. 10. On this quick renewal of hostilities, the first consul had re- course to a most extraordinary measure, in detaining all the Eng- lish who happened to have come over to France during the peace, for business or pleasure, a« a sort of hostages for the future conduct of their country. He also projected a powerful invasion of Eng land, which had only the effect of rousing the latter country to such vigorous and patriotic exertions as entirely to frustrate all his schemes and intentions. A levy en masse was proposed, subject to the regulations of parliament. As another act of vengeance against England, an army was sent to occupy Kanover, though the king, in his electoral capacity, had determined to remain neuter. 11. The first consul had now, for some time, exercised not only kingly, but almost despotic power, and artfully placed himself in such a situation of control and influence, with regard to all the public bodies, assemblies, and councils of the nation, that it is not to be wondered that he should have aspired to, and obtained, the highest dignities it is in the power of a nation to bestow ; though, had he acted with less prudence and policy, nothing certainly could have occurred more surprising than the undisturbed elevation of a •Corsican adventurer to one of the most splendid thrones of Europe. By an organic senatus consultum of the 18th of May 1,804, Buona- parte was declared Emperor of the French. The title to be he- reditary, as to his immediate descendants, and, in case of failure of male issue, granting him a further power to adopt the children, or grand-children, of his brothers. All laws were to originate with the sovereign, or to be proposed in his name ; and due care was taken, by rendering the . legislative body and tribunate dependent on the senate, in the appointment of which the emperor was to have almost the whole power, to prevent the passing of any laws contrary to his will. . The imperial title thus conferred on him, was acknowl- edged by most of the states of Europe, though not by Epgland, 12. This assumption of the imperial title, by Napoleon Buona- parte, and the subsequent confederation of the Rhine, led the em- peror of Germany, Francis II., to abdicate the Germanic empire, and to change his title to that of emperor of Austria, thereby securing the same hereditary honour to the house of Hapsburg, and at the same time, not entirely resigning his political relationship to the states and empire of Germany. 13. On the 2d of December, 1,804, Napoleon was crowned^ in the church of Notre Dame, with extraordinary pomp and splendour, having previously invited, or rather compelled the humbled pontiff of Rome to be present at the ceremony, and to anoint him. His empress, Josephine Beauharnois, to whom he had been some time married, was crowned at the same time. 14. One of the first acts of the new emperor was to change the name of the Code civil des Francais, introduced under the consular government, for that of the Code Napoleon. His two. brothers, Joseph and Lewis, and his two colleagues, Le Brun and Cambaccies, were declared grand elector, constable, arch-chancellor, and arch-treas- urer, of the empire ; and the dignity of mareschal was conferrsd oil the most distinguished of his generals. But, in order to give more stability to his throne, or intimidate his enemies, under pretence of a 350 MODERN HISTORY. ~oyahst conspiracy, he had many eminent persons brought to'trial among others, the two celebrated generals, Pichegru and Moreau The former was, soon after, found dead in his prison, under circum stances implying little less than a most deliberate murder ; the latter, an equal object of dread and alarm, and w T hose death was probably contemplated, was permitted, however, to retire to North America. It is scarcely credible, though it certainly appears upon record, that the French minister at Berlin was directed to move the king of Prus- sia to deliver up the unfortunate Lewis XVIIL, then at Warsaw, and to send him to France, to answer for the concern he was stated to have had in this conspiracy. 15. Having obtained the imperial dignity in France, Napoleon ap- E eared dissatisfied to be only president of a republic with regard to is Cisalpine conquests. Means were found to induce the constituted authorities of the new Italian republic to offer to him the crown of Italy, an offer he was quite prepared to accept, as though the whole of that devoted country had been already subdued. On the 26th of May, 1,805, he repaired to Milan, and taking the famous iron crown from the altar of the cathedral, placed it on his own'head, denouncing vengeance against all who should dispute his right to it. Having done this, he appointed the son of the empress Josephine, Beauhar nois, to be his viceroy, and agreed, that upon his death the two crowns should be separated. Soon after he seized upon Genoa, dis- possessed the doge and senators of their power,, and decreed, that henceforth the territories of the Ligurian republic, as it was called, should be annexed to France. These rapacious proceedings at length provoked a fresh confederacy against him, so that before the year was passed, not only England, but Russia, Prussia, and Austria, were in arms to resist his encroachments. Sweden had joined the confed- eracy, but retired in disgust. Such, however, was the dread of the power or vengeance of France, that several of the German princes, particularly the elector of Bavaria, sided with Napoleon, in opposi- tion to the emperor Francis. " 16. By sea, the power of the French and Spaniards combined failed of gaining any advantages over the allies. On the 21st of October, 1,805, in the battle of Trafalgar, a complete victory was obtained by the British fleet, under lord Nelson, who perished in the action. There was a disparity in the number of ships, in favour of the French and Spaniards, of thirty-three to twenty-seven. On the continent, the course of the war was very different. The king of Prussia was dilatory in his proceedings, and even treacherous. Sweden had withdrawn. The emperor Francis employed an inefficient com- mander, if not worse, (general Mack.) and the Russians, who^ were more in earnest, were baffled by the unsteady proceedings of their allies, and distressed by want of provisions, sickness, and fatigue After the battle of Austerlitz, in December, the emperor of Austria, whose capital had been in the hands of the enemy, solicited peace, submitting to surrender what had been allotted to him of the Venetian territories, together with the principalities of Lucca and Piombino ; and to acknowledge Buonaparte as king of Italy. Bavaria acquired a part of the Brisgaw and Tyrol. Such were the terms of the peace of Presbttrgh, October, 1,804. . 17. The succession of some of the German states from the empe- ror of Austria, had, in the mean time, produced changes that require to be noticed. The electors of Bavaria and Wirtemburgh were elevated to the rank of kings of their respective countries ; and MODERN HISTORY. 351 Eugene Beauharnois, viceroy of Italy, son of the French empress Josephine, obtained in marriage the daughter of the new king of Bavaria, though she had been previously betrothed to the prince of Baden. 18. The court of Naples, during this war, through the injudi cious, but natural, resentment of the queen, sister to the late un fortunate queen of France, had the misfortune to incur the high dis- pleasure of Napoleon, by admitting a British and Russian army to land on its territories. The French despot lost no time in pronounc- ing sentence on the rebellious neutral. He quickly made it known that the Bourbon dynasty had ceased to reign at Naples. The royal family was compelled to retire to Palermo, and in a short time after, Napoleon conferred the Neapolitan ^crown on his brother Joseph, much to the discontent, however, of the people, who for some time gave him great disturbance. Joseph was proclaimed king, March 30, 1,806. 19. The emperor of the French had another kingdom in view for his brother Lewis, constable of France. Holland had submitted to several forms of government, without obtaining that order and tran- quillity which was supposed to be in the contemplation of those who directed her affairs. It was suggested that a monarchy would remedy all the disorders to which she was exposed ; and it was hint- ed, too plainly to be misunderstood, that it would be agreeable to the emperor, if the leading persons of the state, not the community at large, would give countenance to such a change. So great was the infatuation, or timidity, of the persons to whom these suggestions were made, that they did not scruple to solicit the appointment of the emperor's brother, who declared himself king of Holland ac- cordingly, June 5, 1,806. To the credit of the new king, it should be observed, that he soon fell into disgrace with his imperial brother, by being too lenient to his subjects, and by ende wouring to mitigate the rigour of the French decrees. 20. In the year 1,806, Napoleon succeeded in subverting the constitution of the German empire, by detaching many of the prin- cipal states, chiefly of the western and southern divisions of Ger- many, to form what was denominated K The Confederation of the Rhine" by which the several princes consented to renounce the laws of the empire, to contract a federative alliance with the French emperor, and to supply him with troops whenever he should demand them. In consequence of this gross defection of so many members, the emperor, by a solemn edict, abdicated the govern- ment of the Germanic empire, absolving all the electors, princes, and states, from the obligations by which they stood bound to him, as their legitimate head ; thereby terminating, as it were, a gov ernment which had subsisted for a thousand years, and been un interruptedly confided to the house of Hapsburgh from the yeai 1,438. 21. It seemed as if every thing, at this time, was doomed to fall Defore the power of the Corsican. Prussia, which had hitherto acted a most unwise part, in neglecting to add its weight to the confederacy of 1,804, and even submitting to be cajoled into ar alliance wi + L France, became, in the course of the year 1,806, sen- sible of her error ; but to no good purpose. She now precipitately entered into a war for which she was ill-prepared ; with no sup- port but that of Saxony; and having put her army under the com- mand of the duke of Brunswick, sustained two signal and almost 362 MODERN HISTORY. fatal defeats, at Jena and Averstadt, laying the capi'.ai open to the advance of the enemy, Avho entered it in triumph ; and, being too well received and entertained by the people, did not fail, as in all other cases, to take due advantage of their willing submission. In the course of the contest, the Saxons were detached- from Prussia, and the duke of Brunswick being wounded, and obliged to quit his dominions on the advance of the French, died miserably at Altona: Napoleon, in resentment, meanly refusing to suffer his body to be buried amongst his ancestors. 22. It was during his sojournment in Berlin, November, 1,806, that the French emperor dictated that extraordinary decree,- de- claring the British islands to be in a state of blockade, though he had no naval force capable of interrupting their commerce in any . part of the world. By this decree, the whole trade of Britain wa« proscribed ; no intercourse of any sort was allowed to take place ; all British subjects on the continent were threatened with arrest and confiscation of property, and every port shut against English ves- sels, in Prussia, Denmark, the Hanse towns,' Holland, Flanders, France, Spain, Italy, &c. 23. The progress of the French, in the territories of the king of Prussia, occasioned fresh alarm to the emperor of Russia, and to the British government, and procured for Frederick that assistance which his former supineness and intrusion on the Hanoverian states might very reasonably have rendered hopeless. The king of Swe- den was also subsidized by England, to send an army into Pome- rania ; but all the efforts of the allies were insufficient to stop the career of the French. The Russians fought many severe battles, at Eylau, Friedland, &c, but were unable to prevent the French getting possession of Dantzic and Konigsberg ; losses so severely telt by the king of Prussia, as to compel him to conclude a separate peace, as a conquered enemy ; while Napoleon, with consummate art, not only persuaded Alexander to abandon the king of Prussia to his fate, but to form an alliance with himself, for the further spoliation of the Prussian dominions, and to concur in arrangements very adverse to the general interests of Europe, and serviceable only to his own family. By the treaty of Tilsit, July, 1,807, the emperor of Russia agreed to acknowledge the Rhenish confederacy, now consisting of many states, and Joseph and Letiuis .Buonaparte, as kings of Naples and Holland. He suffered the French emperor to confer on his youngest brother, Jerome, with the title of king of Westpha lia, the Prussian provinces between the Elbe and the Rhine, the states of Hanover, and the territories of the duke of Brunswick, and landgrave of Hesse Cassel, while the greater part of Prussian Poland was given to the elector (now king) of Saxony, with the title of duke of Warsaw ; and by secret articles, as it has been alleged, most of the usurpations of the French, in all parts of Europe, were sanc- tioned and confirmed. During the whole of the years 1,806 and 1,807, the German states were undergoing continual changes, through the overbearing tyranny of Napoleon. All the princes who joined the Rhenish confederation were rewarded with titles or ter- ritorial possessions; all who favoured the allies, dispossessed of their dominions, and declared enemies of France. To particularize all these revolutions, few of which were permanent, would exceed the limits of the present work. 24. Among other acquisitions resulting from the treaty ot Tilsit, Napoleon recovered the Ionian islands. These islands, subsequent MODERN HISTORY. 31 ^ to the treaty of Campo-Formio, had been greatly agitated and dis- turbed, and it seemed difficult to know what to'do with them. In March, 1,800, however, by a convention between Russia and the Porte, it was settled that Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, Ithaca, Cerigo, St. Mauro, and Paxo, should be formed into one state, under the guarantee of the contracting parties, by the name of the Ionian republic. By the treaty of" Amiens, 1,802, Napoleon engaged to acknowledge the Septinsular republic; but, by the -treaty of Tilsit, it was restored to him again by Russia. This treaty, in short, ap- peared to be dictated entirely by the despot of France. Prussia, abandoned by her Russian ally, suffered dreadfully. The king of Sweden refused to become a party to this memorable convention, and manifested a determination to resist, to the utmost, the en- croachments of the French ; but he had little judgment or prudence to direct him ; and he had not the means to contend against such an adversary as Buonaparte. After many ineffectual attempts to save Stralsund, and keep his army in Pomerania, he was at length compelled to retire, with the loss both of Stralsund and the isle of Rugen. SECTION XVII. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL FROM 1,788 TO 1,814. 1. These two countries are by nature so connected, that though their interests are, and generally have been, very different, and the people little disposed to friendly associations, vet, with regard to the affairs of Europe, they have very commonly been involved in the same troubles, and never long permitted to enjoy tranquillity, while the leading powers of the continent have been engaged in war. This has been already sufficiently manifested in the history of these two contiguous kingdoms, during the former part of the eighteenth century, but has been rendered still more conspicuous by the events of the subsequent years. 2. Charles IV. of Spain, came to the crown in December, 1,788. when the French revolution was just beginning ; and it was not till some few years after, and in the midst of the reign of terror, that his kingdom became involved in the disturbances of that great catas- trophe. The Spaniards, in the year 1,793, offended with the vio- lence offered to the royal family of France, had invaded the latter country, and 4;aken the town of Bellgarde, little foreseeing the speedy and severe reprisals to which they were exposing them- selves. Early in the year 1,794, the French, under general Dugom- mier, invaded Spain, and succeeded, not only in beating the Spanish army, but in securing the occupation of many places of importance These successes were liot only available to the restoration of peace with Spain, but procured for the French, by the treaty of 1,795, the Spanish portion of the valuable island of St. Domingo, in the West Indies, and, in 1,796, an alliance with the Spanish monarch against England, — an alliance fatal to Spain in many respects ; her fleet be- ing beaten by the English in battle, off the cape of St. Vincent, the island of Trinidad taken from her, and retained by Great Britain at the peace of Amiens, and her commerce crippled and impeded in all parts of the world, 3. Though she sought, by a large subsidy to France, to be per Gg2 . 45 564 MODERN HISTORY. mitted to remain neuter, after the renewal of the war in 1,803, ye< she was not long allowed to be at peace. In 1,804, the English, sus- picious of her close connexion with France, seized upon some of her treasure ships, coming from South America, with a suddenness judg- ed by many to be not strictly justifiable ; and, in 1,805, war was form- ally declared against Qreat Britain. But in tnis new war she was again doomed to siuTer misfortune, her fleet being totally beaten by lord Nelson, on the 1st of October, 1,805, in the celebrated battle off cape Trafalgar. (See Sect. XVI., § 16.) 4. During the year 1,806, Swain appeared disposed to break with France, had any misfortune befallen the latter power; but her suc- cesses in Prussia seem to have intimidated Spain, and to have in- duced her, in 1,807 ? through the manoeuvres of Godo} r , the Spanish minister, who had a view to the principality of Algarves, to enter into a regular treaty with France, tor the partition of Portugal. 5. Hitherto the latter country, since the elevation of Buonaparte to the chief magistracy, had been suffered to remain neuter. Ihe reigning queen having been declared insane, the power had devolved to the prince of Brazil, crown prince, in 1,79.9, who, in virtue of his purchased neutrality, had bee.n able to keep his commercial relations with England, unmolested by the French, till the treaty just mention- ed between the latter power and Spain. 6. France was not long in availing herself of the permission she had obtained to march an army through Spain, for the subjugation of Portugal. Having made demands on the regent of Portugal, with which he could not, in honour, comply, it was declared that the house of Braganza had ceased to reign ; and, shortly afterwards, the French army, under general Junot, passed the frontiers. In these extremi- ties, instigated by the English, the royal family determined to embark for America. They set sail on the 21st of November, 1,807; and, on the 30th, Junot, with his army entered Lisbon. 7. The state of Spain, at this period, was undoubtedly such as to encourage the most ambitious views of the French emperor. Nothing could exceed the weakness of the court of Madrid, or the confusion of the national affairs. At the very moment of the parti- tion treaty, the hereditary prince, Ferdinand, who had refused to marry the minister's sister-in-law, on the suggestion of the court, was arrested, imprisoned, and threatened with a criminal prosecution, for having secretly sought a matrimonial alliance with Buonaparte's family. This was followed by disturbances, and the imprisonment of the obnoxious minister, Godoy, duke of Alcudia, and, since the convention of 1,795, generally called the " prince of peace. ,, Charles IV., harassed and distressed by these tumults, was induced, on the 19th of March, 1,808, to resign his crown in favour of his son, now become Ferdinand VII. ; but he soon afterwards revoked his abdication, as forced upon him, and extorted by the dread of personal violence. Nothing could be more directly calculated to promote the views of Buonaparte than these divisions, whose con- stant poiicy it -was, in all case's of premeditated conquest, to promote dissension, in order to be called in as an arbitrator or mediator, which was the case in this instance. After Buonaparte had been baffled in his hopes of compelling the king and queen to emigrate, through the resistance of the people of Spain to such a measure, the whole royal family were invited to repair to Bayonne, to confer on the state of affairs ; an invitation the most insidious, but which had its effect. On the 14th of April Buonaparte arrived there; Fer MODERN HISTORY. 9T* Jinand on the 20th, and on the 1st of May, Charles IV and his queen, after the favourite, Godoy, had been released, on their application to Buonaparte. 8. The transactions at Bayonne exceeded almost every thing to be met with in any preceding history. The persons invited were exactly those whom Buonaparte would have been glad to have seen driven into his toils • in this case they were weak enough to go thither of their own accord. Having the two kings completely in his power and beyond the frontier of Spain, he compelled Charles to resume his authority, on purpose that he might resign it into the hands of the French, proposing, on the terms of an equivalent else- where, a similar act of renunciation on the part of Ferdinand; which the latter indignantly refusing, was at once declared- to be excluded from all he had, and all he might have had, and even threatened with the loss of liberty. This so intimidated the degrad- ed prince, that at length he unconditionally resigned his royal digni- ty/iirst into the hands of his father, and through him, into those of Buonaparte, who soon obtained, though in a manner the most extra- ordinary, the consent of most of the principal personages of the state, as well as of the constituted, authorities, to the appointment of his brother Joseph, then king of Naples, to the vacant Spanish throne, and to render it hereditary in the family of the usurper. In the mean while, Ferdinand was sent to Valancey, and afterwards to Fon- tainebleau, as a prisoner, and Charles and his queen to Compiegne : their joint abdication of the Spanish crown was publicly announced at Madrid on the 20th of May, to the. great disgust of the Spanish people in general, who soon resolved to be revenged for the horrid indignities they were made to undergo. 9. In the course of the very month in which all the transactions at Bayonne took place, and Joseph Buonaparte entered the capital of Spain as king, the national resentment was manifested by a gen- eral rising, and insurrection in all the principal provinces ; but it was first in Andalusia that any thing like an organized government was formed for the conduct of the war, on the part of the patriots ; there, a provincial junta, or council of magistrates, inhabitants, and constituted authorities, was formed, at Seville, which led to other conventions of the same nature, in places least molested by the French, and in all of these Ferdinand V 7 II. was proclaimed king, and war openly denounced against the Freiich, accompanied with proclamations and manifestoes, highly creditable to the good sense, spirit, ardour, and patriotism of the Spanish nation, and expressed in terms very different from the language to which the French ty- rant had been accustomed. Joseph Buonaparte entered Spain on the 9th of July, 1,808, escorted by four thousand Italian troops, and followed by upwards of one hundred carriages, conveying his suite and the members of the junta assembled at Bayonne, to assist at his inauguration. He was ill received, or rather sullenly treated by the inhabitants, on his passage to the capital. Joseph entered Madrid on the 20th of July ; at which very time the Spaniards obtained an important victory over a French army marching upon Cadiz, which were compelled to capitulate to the amount of fourteen thousand men, while the French fleet at Cadiz was seized by the vigilance and activity of don Thomas Morla. These successes on the part of the Spaniards, compelled the new king to retire from the capital to Burgos, after plundering the treasury and securing the crovro jewels. 356 MODERN H1STOR1 10. In the mean while, it was sjoon discovered that the aid of other powers would be wanted, in order to rescue the kingdom and peninsula from the grasp of Napoleon. Application was accordingly made to the court of London, to the Swedes, and to the Portuguese and Austrians The former paid a ready and willing attention to the call ; and the whole British nation evinced, in an extraordinary manner, the utmost desire to render effectual assistance to Spain, whose cause seemed to be justly interesting to every friend of freedom. 11. While these things were passing in Spain, a similar spirit had arisen in Portugal, against the tyranny and usurpations of the French ; and the arrival of a British army, in the month of August, under sir Arthur Wellesley, (afterwards duke of Wellington,) gave timely effect to these patriotic movements. The relief of Portugal was sooner accomplished than proved to be the case afterwards with Spain. On the 21st of August a decisive battle took place at Vimiera, between the French and combined armies of English and Portuguese ; in which the former were so entirely beaten as to be obliged to evacuate the country ; and which they were enabled to do, by a convention concluded at Cintra, under circumstances consid- ered far too favourable, by Europe in general, and which was re- sented by the people of England. 12. The evacuation of Portugal, however, at all events, set an army free for the use of Spain, which, at the latter end of the month of October, to the amount of twenty, thousand men, entered that country, under the command of sir John Moore ; the emperor Napoleon having quitted Paris just about the same time, to take the command of the French army there. Unfortunately, the state of Spain at the moment of this' first attempt 6n the part of England, to give aid to the patriots, was such as greatly to embarrass the British commander : he had been taught (or rather, the government at home had been so) to expect a strenuous co-operation on the part of the Spaniards; in which he was exceedingly disappointed, while he continually received advice of the augmentation of the French forces, to an amount far exceeding all his calculations : nor did he consider even his own army so well-appointed as to enable him to contend, in the heart of the kingdom, whither he was directed to proceed, with any. fair probability^ of success. He was evidently dispirited with the prospect before him; and though a perfectly brave officer, felt himself so ill-supported by the Spaniards, at least, oy those who directed the public affaire, (if not even deceived and betrayed,) and so embarrassed by want of money and other supplies, as to be compelled to retire. The retreat of his army, though un- happily disgraced by many irregularities and disorders amongst the soldiery, was conducted, in the face of the enemy, (Buonaparte him- self being sometimes present,) with singular courage and dexterity, till they reached Corunna, where, at last, the transports not being arrived, an action with the pursuing army took place, which terminated in favour of the English, though with the loss of the gal- lant, but unfortunate, commander, whose death was greatly lamented. After this action, on the arrival of the transports, the English troops embarked without molestation, and on the 1 8th of January, 1,809, set sail for England. 13. Before sir John Moore finally determined upon retiring, he had learned that Buonaparte had recovered possession of the capi- lalj, which, after the departure of Joseph, the patriots had endeav- wii^ed to fortify and defend ; but it was surrendered to the enemy MODERN liiSTQIlY. %bl early in the month of December, 1,808, by the temporary governor ^ Don Thomas Morla. Spain was far from being subdued at the close of the year 1,808^ though the aspect of things was alarming, and the French extremely confident of success. Joseph re-entered Madrid, in great pomp, in January, 1,809. ^ In the mean time, Napo- leon had decreed that the inquisition should be abolished, many mon- asteries suppressed, and the feudal privileges abrogated. 14. After the affair of Corunna,' the French army under general Soult, (duke of Dalmatia,) invaded Portugal again, and was able to get possession of Oporto ; while another army, under general Victor, threatened Lisbon. It was at this moment that fresh troops arrived from England, under the command of sir Arthur Wellesley, who quickly recovered Oporto, and then turning against Victor, once more relieved Portugal from the presence of the French. In June he entered Spain, and by the 20th of July was in a situation to threaten Madrid ; on the 27th and 28th, at Talavera del Reyna, he was attacked by the French under Joseph Buonaparte, assisted by four marshals ; but was able, in conjunction with the Spaniards, after a very hard fought battle, to repel them with great loss. Though this victory was not attended with any immediate advan- tages, and would appear to have been rather rashly hazarded, the British general, for his great skill and conduct during the action, was raised to the peerage by the title of viscount Wellington oi Talavera. 15. Though a central junta had been appointed in 1,808, to give consistency and strength to the proceedings of the patriots, they were still ill-prepared either to contend against the enemy alone, or conjointly with the British. In the battle of Talavera, and after- wards, their movements had rather embarrassed than assisted the operations of the latter. It would have been well if the Spaniards, from the first, could have been prevailed upon to appoint lord Wel- lington generalissimo of all the forces acting against the French. The latter, however, were much harassed by a sort of desultory war, carried on by guerilla parties, who intercepted their supplies, and without attempting any regular engagement, (for which, indeed, they were unfit,) were continually attacking them in the way of ambuscade and surprise ; for which their superior knowledge of the country evidently gave them great advantages. 16. It is not to be wondered that the extraordinary situation of Spain should occasion great embarrassment in the management of the war. In the place of the supreme central junta of 1,808, a regency had been appointed, and' the cortes assembled, but without sufficient effect. The Spanish armies acted without system, and the nation at large manifested a jealousy of their English allies, which prevented such a co-operation as might have brought the whole under one command- to the evident advantage of the cause, in which they must have been, though with different degrees of zeal and judgment, equally interested. Tnis distrust on the part of the Spaniards ex- posed them also, it is to be feared, to treatment far from conciliatory on the part of the English. The war which was renewed between France and Austria, in 1,809, drew the attention of Napoleon in some degree from Spain : but those differences being soon adjusted, early in the year 1.810, powerful reinforcements were sent from France to the Peninsula, to reconquer Portugal, and " drive the Eng- lish into the sea." What has been said of Spain is by no means ap- plicable to Portugal ; in the latter country, not only a better spiri/ 3bS - MODERN HISTORY. was manifested 1 , but the army being placed under British command and regularly organized, by general lord Beresford, was soon render ed capable of affording very effectual aid and assistance. •17. During the whole of the years 1,810 and 1,811, the contend ing armies were occupied in striving to gain advantages over each other, which called forth all the skill and judgment appertaining to the science of war. The detail, however, of the several actions which took place, of the investment and capture of the strong holds of the two portions of the Peninsula, do not belong to such a work as the present. It was not till the summer of 1 ,812, and after the victory gained by lord Wellington over the French under marshal Marmont. in the battle of Salamanca, that the total expulsion of the French, and overthrow of the throne of Joseph, became a matter of little doubt. The battle of Salamanca may be said to have opened the gates of Madrid once more to the patriots and allied army, and restored the Spanish crown to Ferdinand. The battle was fought on the 22d of July. On the 30th, lord Wellington entered Valladolid, the enemy retiring before him; and on the 12th of August, Madrid surrendered to the British arms. Joseph and his suite having pre- viously quitted it. Lord Wellington was received in the capital with the acclamations justly due to the liberator of Spain ; but had the Spaniards themselves used the exertions they might have done, (Napoleon being at this time engaged in Russia,) the Peninsula might probably have been sooner delivered from the French, after the recovery of the capital, than proved to be the case. 18. The latter made a stand at Burgos, which was invested by the English, but after a siege of more than a month, abandoned with considerable loss ; the British forces being once more obliged to re-- tire as far as Ciudad Rodrigo, on the frontiers of Portugal. The Spaniards, however, at length appeared to be roused to a proper sense of their situation, and wisely confided to lord Wellington the termination of this protracted war. In December, 1,812, he was appointed generalissimo, and distinguished by extraordinary powers* 19. It seemed now to be practicable to end, by a decisive ac- tion, the contest for the possession of Spain ; and lord Wellington lost no time in seeking the opportunity. He took tjie field in the middle of the month of May, 1,813, and on the 21st of June, brought the enemy to action on the plains of Vittoria. Never was a vic- tory more decisive than the one obtained at this time by the com- bined British, Portuguese, and Spanish armies. Joseph and his troops were compelled to quit the field with such extreme precipi- tation, as to leave behind them fifty pieces of artillery, two thousand carriages of different descriptions, stores, provisions, and an immense booty, consisting chiefly of the plunder of Madrid, fortunately rescued upon this occasion from the usurper, who was present, and very narrowly escaped. 20. After the battle of Vittoria, and the fall of the strong towns of St. Sebastian and Pampeluna, the British, Portuguese, and Span- ish troops crossed the Bidassoa, and entered France. Early in March, the city of Bordeaux freely opened her gates to general Beresford, in the name of Lewis XVIII., at the same time admitting the king's nephew, the duke of Angouleme. On the 10th of April, the British stormed the French entrenchments near Thoulouse. On the 12th, general Soult filed out of the town, under the muzzles of the British guns. On the 13th, news arrived of the abdication oi Buonaparte, and the entrance of the allied sovereigns into Paris, MODERN HISTORY. 359 it is conjectured that the French commander knew of these things before, but in the hope of gaining some advantage over the invaders of France, concealed it. 21. Before the allies reached Paris., Napoleon had released Fer- dinand V1J , whose return to Spain was, however, rendered very unacceptable to many who had espoused his cause in his absence, particularly the members of the regency and existing cortes, with whose proceedings, in regard to the new constitution proposed for his acceptance, he expressed himself extremely displeased ; they had previously refused to acknowledge a treaty concluded by Ferdi- nand with Buonaparte. He threw himself also into the hands of those who were friends to the ancient system, which, with extreme bigotry, he endeavoured to re-establish in its worst forms. From that time to the present the nation has been kept in a state of con- siderable ferment and confusion. By a revolution in March, 1,820 the cortes were restored, and the free constitution of 1,812 pro- claimed and sworn to by the king. The inquisition also was finally abolished : but the effects of these last movements remain to be proved. 22. The old king, Charles IV., died at Rome, in 1,819. The bat- tle of Vittoria, which relieved Spain from the presence of the French armies, restored Portugal to her former independence. On the 20th of March, 1,81.6, the queen, Maria Isabella, died ; and was succeeded by the present king, John VI., who had been regent since 1,799, the seat of government being still at Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. SECTION XVIII. FRANCE, FROM THE PEACE ©F TILSIT, TO THE ABDICATION OF NAPOLEON 1,814. 1. The treaty of Tilsit left Napoleon at liberty to pursue Ms career of vengeance and usurpation in other countries. He obtained by it such an influence over Russia, Austria, and Prussia, as to induce them to break with England, without any other reason ; and as soon as he had thus disposed of matters in those quarters, he turned his views to the Spanish peninsula, where a Bourbon dynasty still ex- isted. In three months after the signing of the treaty of Tilsit, he concluded the famous partition-treaty with Spain, already spoken of, * in virtue of which, French troops were to be allowed to pass into Portugal, for the sacrifice of that ancient kingdom ; and afterwards, no doubt, in the views and designs of the French emperor, of Spain itself. 2. Of his subsequent invasion and occupation of both countries, and of the war for several years carried on, before he could be compelled to renounce his usurped dominion in Spain, an account is given in the preceding section. On the 17th of December, 1,807. in the same spirit of resentment against Great Britain, which had dictated the celebrated decree of Berlin, declared the British isles to be in a state of blockade, the French emperor issued another decree, at Milan, (in consequence of the British retaliatory orders of council, November 21st,) by which every ship which should submit to be visited by the English, or consent to any pecuniary 380 fl&)DEKjN HISTOIU. exactions whatsoever, should be liable to confiscation as a lawful' prize; but his vengeance fell hardest upon Portugal, whose com- mercial and political relations with England so exasperated him, that, in an audience given to the foreign ministers at FontainebleauJ he openly declared, that if the regent of Portugal did not within two months conform to the continental system, and totally renounce his connexions with England, the house of Braganza should cease to reign. Such was the haughty language of this extraordinary man, in the face of Europe, after the convention at Tilsit ! 3. In a few days after this denunciation of the Portuguese dy- nasty, the regent closed his ports against English ships of ail descrip- tions, but not in time to stop the French armies, who pressed so closely upon him, that on the 29th' of November, (see the preceding section,) he was obliged to quit his European dominions for Rio Ja- neiro, in the Brazils, and on the very next day Lisbon was occupied by French troops under general Junot. 4. The short-lived kingdom of Etruria was brought to an end about this time; and the queen-regent, late duchess of Parma, with the king, her son, obliged to depart for Spain, her native country. 5. In March, 1,808, a decree was passed in France, ordaining the renewal of titles of honour, princes, dukes, counts, &c, and cre- ating a new order of hereditary nobility, as essential to an heredi- tary* monarch. About the same time, Joseph Buonaparte was re- moved from Naples, and made king of Spain ; and Joachim Murat, grand duke of Berg, married to the sister of Napoleon, was declared Ring of Naples. 6. The kingdoms of Naples and Italy being thus entirely in the hands of Buonaparte, in order to prevent their communication from being interrupted by any hostile power, he seized upon the pope's temporalities, for which Pius VI. ventured to excommunicate him. He had the audacity to remind the pope, in thus despoiling him that the kingdom of Christ was not of this world; though the only reason alleged for what he had done, was, that Pius had refused to declare war against England ; a friendly power, and one from which the pope declared he had never received the smallest injury. 7. On the 9th of April, 1,809, war was renewed with Austria, and so rapid was the progress of the French, that after three severe actions at Abensberg, Eckmuhl, and Ratisbon, Vienna was compelled to capitulate on the 12th of May. The Austrians, afterwards, under the archduke Charles, gained some advantages over Buonaparte ; but, before the autumn, was passed, a peace was concluded, at Vien- na, extremely humilitating to Francis II. To France he was obliged to cede the lllyrian provinces ; to Bavaria, Saltzburg ; to Saxony, the whole of West Gallicia ; and to Russia, East Gallicia ; he was, moreover, compelled to accede to the continental system against England, and to acknowledge Joseph Buonaparte as king of Spain. 8. But as if these concessions were not sufficient to mortify the Eride of the head of the empire, and representative of the house of Iapsburgh and Lorraine, the French emperor, to the surprise of Europe, demanded and obtained in marriage the daughter of Fran- cis II., the archduchess Maria Louisa, having previously been, with great form, divorced from the empress Josephine, with her own consent, for the express purpose ol forming a connexion of higher hopes, and affording a prospect of an heir to his newly acquired im- perial dominions. The marriage took place at Paris, April 2, 1,81(1 MODERN HISTORY. 36i 9. Intent upon providing for every branch of his family, the grand duchy of Tuscany was revived by Napoleon, in 1,809, and conferred on his sister Eliza, princess of Lucca and Piombino. The grand duchy of Berg, vacated by the removal of his brother- in-law, Joachim Murat, to the throne of Naples, was given to Louis, his nephew, son of the king of Holland ; and on the 17th of May the pope's temporalities were declared to be incorporated with the French dominions, and the title of king of Rome appropriated to the imperial prince, heir to the French empire. The situation of the papal territories, between the kingdoms of Italy and Naples, was such as in hostile hands might be made use of to intercept the com- munication between the two ; and therefore the pope, who appeared friendly to England, was of necessity to be despoiled of his domir ions, but to receive a revenue of two millions of francs. The new constitutional government was to be in full activity and force on the 1st of Japuary, 1,810. On the 14th of January, 1,810, the elector- ate of Hanover was annexed to the dominion of the emperors brother, Jerome, king of Westphalia ; and on the 20th of March, 1,811, Napoleon was gratified with the birth of a son, who, accord- ing to the arrangements already spoken of, was immediately digni- fied with the title of king of Rome. 10. In June, 1,812, Napoleon, offended with some parts of the conduct of the emperor of Russia, who had begun to appreciate more justly the character of the artful and ambitious Corsican, once more declared war against him, having influence, besides, to prevail upon Prussia and Austria to join him. His advance towards the Russian dominions was most rapid ; but, considering the distance to which he was carrying his army, and the inveterate hatred and indignation he had excited by his bold threats against his imperial adversary, his subjects, and his empire, extremely rash. His power it is true, was immense, 400,000, infantry, 60,000 cavalry, and 1,200 pieces of artillery : Germans, Polanders, Dutch, Swiss, Italians, Spaniards, and Portuguese, being numbered amongst his troops; but nothing could exceed the anger and resentment of the Rus* sians; IL On the 9th of May the French ruler left St. Cloud; on the 24th of June he crossed the Niemen, and on the 14th of September attained his grand object of entering the capital of the Muscovite dominions. But his reception was far from being such as he ex- pected, or such as he had met with in other capitals. The city was tired by order of the governor,, and by the hands of the enraged in- habitants; and the French had only ruins to occupy, in a latitude to which they were totally unaccustomed, and with all the horrors of Siberian winter before them, 12. On the 10th of October, after having solicited an armistice, and proposed peace, both of which were peremptorily refused, Buonaparte and his disappointed army began their dreary and perilous march back to France. Nothing could exceed the diffi- culties and distresses to which they were exposed, from the severi- ties of the weather and climate, and the attacks of the Russians, from Moscow to the capital of Lithuania, where they arrived on the ICth of December. On the 6th, the emperor Napoleon totally abandoned his harassed army to its fate, having quitted it at Smor- gonie in disguise ; destroyed the bridges by which he passed, regard- less of those he left behind ; and traversing Poland and Germany, made the best of his way to Paris, where he arrived at midnight, Hh 46 362 MODERN HISTORY. December 18, having lost, or rather sacrificed, upwards of 150,000 men, including prisoners, 167,600. 13. It was naturally expected that this total defeat of all his projects in regard to Russia, together with the miserable condition of his army when it reached the confines of France, would have termi- nated his giddy career of pride and ambition • but in this the world was deceived. In the following year, he eagerly resumed hostilities, \ ut manifestly to great disadvantage. Though he was readily fur- ;iished with a fresh army, amounting to 350,000 men, he had soon opposed to him not only Russia, but Austria, Prussia, and Sweden, subsidized by England. Several of the confederates of the Rhine ventured to abandon his cause ; and it became very apparent that the allied powers were more in earnest and more united now than, on any former occasion. Many battles were fought in the course of the summer, with doubtful success, till, at last, the great " Battle of Nations," as it has fitly enough been called, took place at Leipzig, in which the French sustained so signal a defeat, as seemed evidently to prognosticate the ruin and discomfiture of the great disturber of Europe. This Celebrated battle, or succession of engagements, took place on the 16th, 18th, and 19th days of October. Leipzig was taken only two hours after Buonaparte had effected his escape. The king of Saxony and all hi3 court were captured" by the allies; a French garrison of 30^000 men, besides 22,000 sick and wounded, with the French magazines, artillery, and stores. The emperor of Russia, the king of Prussia, and crown prince of Sweden, each at the head of their respective troops, made their entry into the town at different points, after the engagement of the 19th, and met in the great square, amidst the universal acclamations of the people. Just before the battle of Leipzig, the allies derived great advantage from the defection of the kings of Bavaria and Wirtemberg, and the grand duke of Baden, from the cause of France, and the consequent junction of 55,000 of the Bavarian troops ; and during the action of the 18th, a party of the Saxons, bringing with them 22 guns, desert- ed to the crown prince of Sweden, and desired to be led directly against the French. So much was the aspect of things changed with regard to the destinies of Buonaparte, who, on his return to Paris, had but too much reason to declare, (as he did in his speech to the senate on the 14th of November,) "All Europe was with us a year ago,— all Europe is now against us." "\ ' t 14. The immediate consequences of the victory at Leipzig were, the dissolution of the new-erected kingdom of Westphalia, and the grand duchies of Berg and Frankfort. The dukes of Brunswick and Hesse Cassel recovered their dominions, and the prince of Orange was not merely restored to his stadtbolderate in Holland^ but proclaimed sovereign of the United Netherlands. On the 2d o£ December, 1,813, the allies passed the Rhine; the southern frontier of the Pyrenees having been invaded by the British and Portuguese in October preceding. 15. Though four great armies of the allies were now within the territories of France, their work was not accomplished. The French generals, and Buonaparte himself, who, in a very affecting manner, quitted Paris on the 25th of January, 1,814, interrupted . the progress of the Russians, Prussians, and Austrians, endeavoured to prevent, in every way they could, their advance upon the capital; but all their exertions proved vain, though the attainment of that great object was deferred for some months. It was not till the 31st MODERN HISTORY. 363 day of March, that their triumph may be said to have been complet- ed : on that day the emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia, at the head of their respective armies, entered Paris in the most solemn and imposing manner. On the 2d of April, Buonaparte was formally deposed by the senate, and on the 1 1th he was permitted to abdicate, upon terms judged by many to be far too favourable. He was al- lowed to retire to Elba, (a residence of his own choice,) retaining his imperial titles, and having that island and its dependencies assigned to him as sovereign, with a revenue of two millions of francs. The duch- ies of Parma, Guastalla, and Placentia, were at the same time secured to the empress Maria Louisa, and her descendants, and provision made for all his other relations. Buonaparte, having previously had a guard appointed, set out on the 20th for the seat of his new and very reduced dominions, much exposed occasionally on his passage to popular resentment. 16. On the the entrance of the allies, they were careful in their manifestoes to distinguish between the French people, or nation at large, ancj the tyrant whom they had conspired to overthrow ; and evinced the strongest disposition to bury in oblivion, with becoming magnanimity and forbearance, the numberless insults and injuries they had received at the hands of the French, while under the do- minion of their now prostrate foe. They took no steps to force upon them the exiled family, but left the settlement of their government and constitution entirely to the senate and provisional administration. The Bourbons had been proclaimed in the south, and the counl d^Artois appeared at Paris on the 13th of April; but the recal of the king was the work of the French themselves, as we shall have occasion to observe in a subsequent section. ' SECTION XIX. POLAND, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE EIGH- TEENTH CENTURY TO THE TREATY OF VIENNA, 1,815. I. No country in Europe has suffered more from a faulty constitu tion than the kingdom of Poland. No country has afforded more convincing proofs of the mischiefs appertaining to an elective mon archy, the constant source not only of internal commotions, cabal, and intrigue, but the* occasion generally, upon every vacancy, of foreign interference. At no era did Poland suffer more, perhaps, from this combination of evils, tlin towards the commencement of the eighteenth century ; nor has she ever since been able to re- cover her independence. The arbitrary, though not unprovoked, proceedings of Charles XII. of Sweden, in 1,704, when he deposed Augustus, and insisted upon placing Stanislaus on the throne, in despite of Austria and Russia, plainly showed how little power a divided country possesses against the encroachments of an ambitious neigh- bour, and how naturally the interference of one such neighbour exposes the invaded country to similar measures on the part of others ; for Augustus himself had been previously forced upon the Poles by Russia. From the above period to the present day Poland has been exposed to a continual recurrence of such events ; and to promote the views of a combination of foreign potentates, kept in a state of internal disunion and distraction, constantly favourable to their ambitious designs. 364 MODERN HISTORY. 2. Augustus, elector of Saxony, who was deposed in 1,704, and compelled formally to abdicate the throne by the treaty of Alt Ranstadt, in 1,706, was restored by tne assistance of Russia, after the battle of rultawa in 1,709, and reigned for the space of twenty- four years, dying in 1,733. (Sect. I.) His reign was far from being an happy one : he offended the Poles by the introduction of Saxon troops, and by residing too much away from them in his electoral dominions : he lived in the midst of factions and conspiracies, being continually at war with the dissidents or anti-catholics, while he totally failed in his endeavours to render himself absolute, or the crown he- reditary in his family. 3. The war which arose upon the death of Augustus, has been already noticed. Had the Poles been wise enough to remedy that great defect in their constitution, which rendered the crown elec- tive, they could not have done better, perhaps, than to have made it hereditary in the person and family of Stanislaus Lescinsky, the principal competitor of the house of Saxony, he being a Pole by birth, and very amiable in his private character : but they were no longer their own masters; and they were divided amongst them- selves to such a degree as to render the interposition of some foreign power almost necessary to determine their choice. Upon this oc- casion the emperor of Germany, whose niece the young elector of Saxony had married, assisted by the Russians, overcame the French 'nfluence which had been exerted in favour of Stanislaus, and, by effectually removing the latter, procured the election to fall on the son of the late king, Augustus III. 4. This king of Poland, on the death of the emperor Charles VI., 1,740, laid claim to the whole Austrian succession ; and not altogether without reason, had not the Pragmatic Sanction stood in his way, his wife being the eldest daughter of the emperor Joseph, elder brother of Charles VI. ; the object of the Pragmatic Sanction being *o secure the inheritance to the females, in default of male issue ; *nd on the demise of Charles Vf., his daughter becoming his immedi- ate heir and representative, it certainly appeared hard that the daughter of the eider brother, who had been emperor, should be so entirely excluded. The hope of succeeding to some part, at least, of the late emperor's hereditary dominions, induced the king of Po- land to enter into a confederacy with Bavaria, Prussia, and France, against the house of Austria ; but he derived no advantage from the alliance : he afterwards changed sides, and at the commencement of the seven years' war, as has been before shown, (Sect. VI.) suffered most severely for having espoused the case of the empress queen, and entertained views against Prussia, which the wary sovereign of the latter country found means to detect, and cruelly to revenge. 5. It was not likely that a king who owed his election so entirely to the interference of foreign powers, should acquire any thing like independence, or authority at home or abroad. During the reign of Augustus III. great feuds and animosities prevailed among the Magnate, while the- king himself was entirely subject to the influence of Russia ; a circumstance so resented by his subjects as to induce them to avail themselves of the privilege of the Liberum Feto, to dissolve all the diets he convoked, and thus leave the king- dom almost without any government. Augustus III. died in the year U7G3, at a period when the Russian sceptre had passed into bands well Btted to promote, in every way possible, (just or unjust.) its aggrandizement and splendour. Catherine II. is supposedto nave MODERN HISTORY. 36* nad her eyes upon Poland before the demise of Augustus, and to have been prepared not only to set aside the son of the latter, but to advance to the vacant throne some creature of her own ; she paid no attention therefore to the solicitations of the house of Saxony, and was very shortly relieved, indeed, from all competition in that quarter, by the early death of the new elector. In conjunction with Prussia she succeeded, but not without a spirited opposition on the part of a few Polish patriots, in bestowing the crown of Poland on count Po- niatowski, one of her favourites, and a Pole by birth ; a man of talent, and amiable in his disposition, but likely to continue, as well as his predecessor, entirely under her control. 6. Nothing could be a greater mockery than the care which the. czarina and the king of Prussia pretended to take of the liberties ot Poland, at the very moment that they were forcing upon the nation a king of their own choice and nomination. So far from trying to amend their faulty constitution, and eradicate the seeds of future animosities, they particularly entered into an agreement to prevent the king rendering the crown- hereditary in his family, or becoming absolute ; that is, in fact, independent, or powerful ; for this was their great object. And when it was to be submitted to the diet to ap- prove their nominee, and declare count Poniatowski king, a Rus- sian army was sent to Warsaw, to support the freedom of the election. The choice of the diet of course was soon decided to be in favour of the Russian favourite, who became king accordingly, September 7, 1,764, under the name and title of Stanislaus Augustus. 7. From this period, the three neighbouring powers, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, the two former, however, most particularly, may be said to have been interested in the internal dissensions of that unhappy kingdom, which afforded them plausible grounds of interference, and which they could therefore have no sincere incli- nation to allay or adjust till they had effectually gained their own ends : the object of Russia probably was to maintain her own power and ascendancy over the whole country ; but Prussia meditated a parti- *:'j&j which might put her into possession of Polish or Western rrus ' ■trict of much importance in every point of view. o. Whatever may have been originally the distinct views of the several parties, it is very certain that they; derived peculiar advan- tages from the extremely unsettled state of the country, which was at this time torn to pieces by the contests and disputes between the catholics and dissidents, or dissenters from the established religion : the latter, who since the middle of the sixteenth century had ac- quired many privileges, were supported by several different foreign powers ; those of the Greek church by Russia, and the protestants of all persuasions by Prussia, Denmark,' and Great Britain, all of whom were called upon to interpose as guarantees of the famous treaty of Oliva, 1,660. The diet, instigated by the court of Rome and heads of the church, judged it right to uphold the established faith, and Stanislaus, though his principles were more tolerant ..and liberal, appeared to take the same side, being jealous also of the too great power of Russia, of which he could not fail to be continually reminded, not only by the open favour shown to tne dissidents by Catheiine, but by the insolent superiority assumed by her general, commanding in Poland, prince Repnin, and the extremely arbitrary and sanguinary manner in which the empress sought to maintain her preponderance. 9. In the mean while confederacies were forming in all parts of Hh2 366 MODERN HIbTORY. the kingdom to restore, if possible, the independence of their coun'jy. (such at least was the object of the catholics,) or to pro sure for the protestants all the rights and privileges to which they nid claim, and of some of which they had been unjustly deprived. The latter, under prince Radzivil, supported by Russian troops, compelled the diet of Warsaw, in the year 1,767, to accede to .heir demands ; this hastened the grand confederacy of the catho- ics at Bar, in Podolia, in 1,768, whose object was to throw off the Russian yoke, with the aid of Turkey, who had been induced by France to declare war against the Russians in that very year, upon the occasion of the latter having passed their frontier in pursuing a Polish party, and committed considerable depredations. 10. Though the confederate catholics had clearly the good of their country in view, yet such was the influence of Russia, that the king and senate were compelled by Catherine to declare war against the Porte, and so far to counteract, as much as possible, the efforts that were making to accomplish their own independence. In Austria, indeed, during this stage of the business, the confede- rates at Bar had a friend in Maria Theresa, who espoused the claims of the Saxon family, and who sent them both arms and money, to enable them to check, if possible, the domineering pro- ceedings of the czarina, of which indeed she had good cause to be jealous. But the time was approaching in which, notwithstanding the most striking and formal declarations to the contrary, Poland was to become a prey to her three more powerful neighbours, and when all other feelings were to give way to that of duly apportion- ing and dividing the spoils of that unhappy country. 11. It seems now to be pretty generally agreed, that the plan ot dismembering this unfortunate kingdom originated with the iiing of Prussia, or his brother, prince Henry ; and that it was owing to particular circumstances that they were able to bring the two other parties so readily to acquiesce in their measures of partition. Had Frederick himself been more rapacious, it would probably not have been so easily accomplished, but, in order to gain what he most coveted, for his own share, he appeared willing to allow the other two partitioning powers to acquire rather more than fell to his lot, both in extent of territory and amount of population. In admitting Austria to any share at all, he made no scruple to assert that his principal motive was, that she should bear her part in the blame that must attach to so arbitrary and rapacious an act. 12. Though the Polish king and nation were compelled to ac- quiesce in these proceedings of the three powers, they did not do so without remonstrating in terms the most striking and dignified ■ accompanying their remonstrances and manifestoes with an open appeal to the several states which had guarantied the integrity of Poland , but all in vain. They obtained no assistance from foreign states, no abatement of their demands on the part of the par- titioning powers, and were at length obliged, by a solemn diet, to sanction this gross dismemberment of their .country. . In two seve- ral discussions of the case, however, in the senate, and assembly of Nuncios, the minority on the division was most numerous and respectable. In the former, the question was carried by a major- ity of six only, in the latter by one. The motive alleged by the partitioning powers, for this extraordinary proceeding was, that; they were anxious to amend the constitution, to preserve the liberties of Poland, and to appease the disorders which had for so long a MODERN HISTORY. 367 space of time disturbed the country, but they fulfilled none of these Eretended purposes. They did nothing to amend the constitution, ut imposed a new one upon them, fraught with those very imperfections, of' which they might for ever continue to take ad- vantage They perpetuated the elective monarchy, abridged more than ever the authority of the king, and continued the libc~ rum veto, a sort of tribunitial privilege, exceedingly inimical to the peace of the country. So far from upholding, they trampled upon their liberties in every way they could, and promoted the dis- orders they pretended to remove, by encouraging, rather than checking, the licentious conduct of their soldiery. In fact, a greater act of atrocity, or a more barefaced mockery of national feelings, never perhaps took place, or was even attempted, than in the dismemberment of the kingdom of Poland. Austria i and Prus- sia did, indeed, make an attempt to vindicate their claims to the countries they took possession of; but Russia scarcely judged it necessary to make any declaration to that effect. The archives of Prussia and Hungary were ransacked, and titles revived and in sisted upon, which, to say the least, had been in abeyance for many centuries. How far this measure may justly be said to have affected the balance of power in Europe, is a distinct case. For a long series of years, if not of ages, Poland had been so ill governed, or so weak, as to have had little influence on that balance, though her situation seemed to point her out, and still appears to do so, as capable of ma- terially influencing or counteracting the operations of her many pow eriul and ambitious neighbours, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Turkey The worst consequence, however, arising from the confederacy against Poland, seems to have been the countenance thereby given to the partitioning system in general. 13. It was in the year 1,773 that the division was finally agreed to, and settled, and even sanctioned by the Polish diet. Of some- what more than thirteen thousand square German leagues of terri- tory, the partitioning powers took a good third, taking at the same time no measures to lessen the evils arising from the defective con- stitution of Poland, in the portion allotted to the natives. It must be acknowledged, that they bestowed great pains on the improve- ment of their respective shares ; but no benefits of this nature, con- ferred on particular parts of the country, could compensate for the unfeeling depredations committed upon the whole. 14. The following has been given as a fair representation of the parts allotted to the several powers, by the delegates appointed to adjust the respective claims. Other accounts, indeed, are extant, which it would be difficult to attempt to reconcile with the one we are about to give ; a very exact statement, however, may not be necessary. The Russian allotment consisted of Polish Livonia, parts of the palatinates of Witepsk, Polotsk, and Minsk, and the whole palatinate of Micislaw, containing a population of 1,500,000 souls. The king of Prussia obtained the district called Royal, or Western Prussia, excepting the towns of Dantzic and Thorn, with a population of 860,000 souls. Austria gained a large territory in the south of Poland, comprising Red Russia, Gallicia, and parts of .he palatinates of Cracow, Sandomir, Lublin, Bezk, Volhynia, and Podolia, containing a population of 2,500,000 souls, and the valuable salt-woks of Vielitzka, which produced an annual revenue of £90,000. This district was annexed to the Austrian territories, under the an- cient appellation of the kingdoms of Gallicia and Lodomeria. Sucb 3f>« MODERN HISTORY. were the results of what is now distinguished by the name of the first partition of Poland. 15. The little assistance Poland received to ward off the disgrace and misery of this first partition, the extraordinary apathy with which it seemed to be beheld by the other powers of Europe, left little hopes of her regeneration, or escape from the toils into which she had fallen ; nor indeed has she ever escaped from them, or recovered the smallest degree of independence. After the first partition, the object she had most to dread was some accidental disunion of the -partitioning powers, who would be sure to wreak their vengeance upon her ; and an event of this very nature seems to 4 have been the cause of what has been called the second parti- tion, in 1,793. Russia and Austria, in the years 1,787 and 1,788, by t oo close an alliance, having given umbrage to the king of Prussia, he insisted that the constitution formed for Poland, in 1,773, ;was void, and offered to assist the Poles in framing a new one. which was completed under his auspices, May 3, 1,791. Had this consti- tution been able to keep its ground, Poland, so much of it at least as remained to the natives, might have recovered some degree of credit and freedom; it was in a„,great measure the work of real patriots, enlightened and moderate reformers ; it abolished the Uberurn veto, and the elective monarchy, except in the case of the extinction of some hereditary dynasty; it rendered the person of the king inviolable, but gave him responsible ministers ; it provid- ed a representative senate, not much differing from the English house of commons. Unhappily, this good work found enemies amongst the ancient nobles, who did not like to give up their pre- tensions to royalty, and who had recourse to the old and ruinous expedient of inviting foreign help, always at hand to avail itself of the internal commotions of that devoted country. Russia was called in, by the confederates of Targovitz, and a renewal of losses and calamities ensued of course. The king of Prussia, so far from supporting the new constitution, the diet, or the king, as he seem- ed absolutely bound to do, by his own acts, eagerly seized upon the towns of Dantzic and Thorn, which had been specially excepted in the last partition, joined the czarina, in her efforts against the patriots, under the brave Kosciusko, and finally succeeded in pre- vailing over a country, which, from the enthusiasm and spirit dis- played on this occasion in her defence, deserved a better fate. By the second partition, in 1,793, Russia is said to have acquired 4,000 German square miles of territory, in Volhynia, > Lithuania, Podolia, and the Ukraine ; and Prussia, besides the towns of Dantzic and Thorn, 1,000 square miles in south Prussia, with all the Hanseatic towns. A third and last partition soon followed, in the year 1.795, between Russia, Prussia, and Austria, which may be said to nave put an end- to the kingdom and republic of Poland ; Stanislaus, its unhappy monarch, being removed to Russia, where he soon after died, February 12, 1,796. In this last partition, Cracow was given to Austria, and Warsaw to Prussia. From the resistance of the natives', who gained greater advantages in many engagements than could have been expected from the nature of their force, the slaugh- ter accompanying these latter revolutions was dreadful, and on the part of the Russians attended with circumstances of cruelty too much resembling what had taken place in 1,772. 16. It would be difficult to describe the state of Poland, from the period of the -last partition, in 1,795, to the treaty of Vienna, in MODERN HISTORY. 3C9 1,815. The injuries the natives had experienced at the hands of the three partitioning powers very naturally disposed them to ac- cept any offers from the enemies "of their oppressors ; and, as Buo- naparte had frequent opportunities of making such offers, it is not to be wondered that he should have obtained their assistance, and subjected them, more or less, to his government and control ; but as he was only at times in opposition to, and as often allied with one or other of the three powers, Russia, Austria, or Prussia, he was never able to propose their entire emancipation, even if he had desired it. Thus continually deceived and mortified, they derived no advantage from the aid they gave to France, if we except that ten- dency towards the recovery of a separate existence, (for it can scarcely be called more,) the creation of the grand duchy of War- saw, in 1,807, which, by the treaty of Tilsit, and with the consent of Buonaparte, was consigned to the king of Saxony ; the emperoi of Russia at the same time acquiring much of Poland from Prussia. In 1,812, the kingdom was declared by the diet of Warsaw to be re established; and by the treaty of Vienna, in 1,815, being formally delivered up by the king of Saxony, it became annexed to Russia, and was declared to be, " irrevocably attached to it by its constitution, to be possessed by his majesty the emperor of all the Russias, hw heirs and successors in perpetuity." The part assigned to Prussia took the name of the grand duchy of Posen. The salt-mines ot Vielitzka were confirmed to the emperor of Austria, and such dis- tricts as had been acquired by the treaty of Vienna, in 1,809. The town of Cracow was declared to be for ever a free, independent, and strictly neutral city, under the protection of Austria, Russia, and Prussia. The navigation of the rivers and canals, in all parts of an- cient Poland, (as it existed in the year 1,772,) was by particular treaties, between Russia, Austria, and Prussia, declared to be free, so as not to be interdicted to any inhabitant of the Polish provinces, belonging to either of the three powers. SECTION XX. • GREAT BRITAIN, FROM THE PEACE OF AMIENS, 1,802. TO THE DEATH OF GEORGE III., 1,820. 1. Before one year had passed from the conclusion of the peace of Amiens, circumstances took place which too plainly indicated a strong probability of the renewal of hostilities, and so early as the month of May, 1803, letters of marque and reprisal were again is- sued against the French, by the Britisn government, apparently with the full consent of the people at large, notwithstanding th'e enthusiastic joy which had been expressed on the termination oC the war in the year preceding. It was upon this occasion that the first consul had recourse to a measure, singular in its nature, and which exposed many persons and families to great inconvenience- He forcibly detained all the English who happened to be in France, not only for purposes of business, but of pleasure or curiosity ; nor, with very few exceptions, were any of them able to return to their native country, for the long space of ten or eleven years. Prepa- rations also were made for the invasion of England, which only ex cited a stronger disposition, on the part of the latter country, to pre 47 370 MODERN HISTORY. pare against such attempts, in a way well calculated to destroy at once all the enemy's hopes and prospects of success; in Ireland, indeed, a new conspiracy was set on foot, which was supposed to rest on some promised support from France ; but this was denied by the conspirators themselves, and the disturbance soon quelled, with- out spreading, in fact, beyond the capital. 2. Though the king of Great Britain had declared, that, with regard to his electoral states, he should remain neuter, Buonaparte did not neglect such an opportunity of wounding his feelings, by the speedy occupation of Hanover, under circumstances peculiarly aggravating to the people. Early in the month of June, 1,803, the Hanoverian troops were made to lay down their arms, and engage not to serve against the French without a previous exchange. 3. Holland was still too much under subjection to France, to be permitted to remain at peace ; letters of marque were, therefore, also issued against the Batavian republic, on its refusal to agree to a perfect neutrality. 4. In 1,804, a change of ministry in England brought Mr. Pitt again into power, at a moment when the affairs of the continent, and the increased power of the first consul, who, in the course of the same month, assumed the imperial dignity, demanded all his attention. Before the conclusion of the year, the aid which Spain was compelled to render to the French, together with certain ap pearances of hostile preparations in her ports, exposed her to an attack on the part of Great Britain, which soon drew from her a declaration of war, very fatal to her interests, though scarcely to be avoided, considering the circumstances in which she had been placed by the extraordinary proceedings and demands of the British government, which was supposed to have violated the strict rules of justice, if not of international law, by arbitrarily and prematurely seizing her treasure-ships, on their passage to her ports, in an action perfectly unforeseen and unexpected, and in which many lives were lost. 5. But if the character of the British nation or government suf- fered in any respect from errors or mistakes ia the commencement of the war, its naval power and credit were nighly advanced be- fore a year had passed, by the splendid victory obtained over the Spanish and French fleets combined, off cape Trafalgar, in Octo- ber, 1,805; a victory not achieved, ho wever, without a correspon- dent loss, as has been before stated, in the death of the very cele- brated lord Nelson, commander of the British squadron, who fell early in the action, and whose body, being afterwards brought to England, was buried with very unusual honours in the centre of St Paul's cathedral. S. In 1,806 died Mr. Pitt; a minister who^e extraordinary talents and integrity of life attached to him many friends and adherents, by whom he was ably supported through a very arduous contest; a contest which, though some thought it might have been avoided, others as confidently regarded as entirely just and necessary, and a timely security against the propagation of revolutionary princi- ples, more threatening and dangerous than any aggressions purely hostile. It is always easy to say, such and such events would not have happened, had a different course from the one actually adopted been pursued ; but this is at best mere matter of surmise. It is im- possible now to speak decisively of what might or might not have been the consequences of a longer forbearance from war • it is ex- MOJjEKN' BKTC 2TI - accooipfehment of all that Mr. Fitt had in view, and that the of the French emperor, instead of being che c ked, was ad <*\;;. rv:.: ?::-.: e- .. ^ :.:.i ::' jj'.vi'jt:^:*^ ;.- : ~.r :-.'---'. ion, when (be former was seized with that illness which ten„ nis life, in the r. n y-se veoth year of ms age. On ins death, a i c:^.:.--":-.:::. - -:.77~.. .'-'..-.: i '— ~ zz -.■■.'. '-'--'. ■--- '—-. ■--- T '-"-•'- nent Mr. Fox, who survived bim ior the shast space of only seven to record; that these two eminent statesmen, who had been lor a toog time so mach opposed to each other, bat whose abilities and •aooen- ty in an opposite line of pontics appear to have been duly acknoni* hilh'. *z-Y\'-'-'.~ :.-.:■:'_'■> '_ :>r.^::::^ ^:..; .: :i^.: : — :.'* '-'■ ' Daring the short true that Mr. Fox was a member f£ . i dm i n i r :~ ...1. iz'-. : .: r:.::; v.- ~ : :^ l ~: : :: .hrz^j-.-.h :l~ ■-.:. .7 z.-.\v:i~ tion, bat in vain. Though the French emperor wonld hare agreed id many cessions of importance, both to Great Britain and hex ally, the emperor of Bwaau it was mood impossible to detach from hit" z-tj-.'^.k \z\ ..-..--.:_ ..\.:-' v:.-. :: ..V: ::..-.. "z.7>.7\ ' 1 ng'to bis own we the resoorces of afl other < led me administration which succeeded that in which Mr. Fox a share, to set on mot an expedition which has been jodged by ~-w .1; :, . .•: ::' ;_--_i: ..-..: :. ::.;-- 7 .-_::-• .: v.. . — -.-:- - : — -:. .1 -.- .-; :___-- ::v - : .: : _ : . : 1 : : : - .7 •- • :~ : ; - :. '. : ~;. :■:::: - - .-..-.-. - '.; . - - - - . designed to occapy Hofetein, and convert to me pnrposes of an in* vi.. ;■-. -.: ^ ::!•: :'.:_•.. .-.. -'--. ±* - -i_t i zz.\ijz,~_ B was determmed, in order to prevent snch an accession to the - been both hoped and expected by the Brcish government, that the for a time a Jaeet thns devoted to the roan of & friendiv power r-.* :cr; : ::_~^: '.-.::: .-: :=j ..\: -~ _-: .". , .:_--! :W.:~: :l~ -—:.--_:.:-.: :. . . ^ - : ._.: .. -: -:i:'. ..--.7-.'. :^:-:.-.. r. :.~: :_^ : ;.-'.*-: zz-.-. .'.' z.zz - .:-•:: - : .-":■:: :': .1-.: :< : ... :.: 1?-? rarrf^fate till abont two thousand persons had lost their fives, and .- .".- " : ■. .-h ■. :--. v. : :::: .: -- V:'";' ■-.' 'i.:--.-.:-.:.-.'. -. -.- -'*-. zz strnction of me chj. The end. fa is true was accomplished, of get- -..-.2 --'. ' : " ". ".-: .: '-.--■: ?.-.=■--... ; „ :-.- I.-..-. ,i .-- -.: ' - *-£-> ^r^- v ..:-. ^ : -_■-: '_-_: --:■-.■-.'. :: l,:~\ \r.'. 'j±--- -v.z-a to be feared that it wm be knghemrethe irritation cansed by thk sodden and onexpected attack on a heave people, not at war with England, will be afiaved or forgotten. In Tiadicaiion "of the suspicions of the Britim minkiry. it was ~~7--.---. ::.--. Z.--.i.y.: - -.7 ^ -.: . , "■---..-. ■■■■-. : -. .. : ,:,-. 372 MODERN HISTORY cording to the judgment of the officers and seamen employed in tlifc expedition. The general designs of France seem, indeed, to have been decisively manifested, in the measures they now openly pur- sued, about the same time, of appropriating to themselves the fleet of Portugal, and for similar purposes, but which, fortunately without so melancholy a catastrophe, was rescued from the grasp of the French ruler, by its timely removal, under the protection of a British armament, to the ports of Brazil. The difference between the two cases seemed to be this , that in getting possession of the latter fleet we were actually assisting an ally; in the former, we were com- pelling a neutral to adopt a measure judged to be unnecessary on her part, and on suspicions, the grounds of which she disavowed ; but the state of Euro-pe, at that period, appears to have been such, especially with regard to the minor states, as to justify precautions against French power and French intrigue, seldom, if ever, resorted to in other instances : it may also be added, that Portugal unreservedly communicated to England the avowed designs of France ; Denmark. to say the least, acted with a reserve tar from friendly, and resisted all negotiation ; the consequences to the latter, however, were cer- tainly deplorable. 11. It was in the year 1,807, that the royal family of France, whose situation on the continent became every day more alarming and insecure, took refuge in England ; they fixed their residence at Hartwell, in Buckinghamshire, his majesty styling himself the count de Lisle, and modestly declining all honours and attentions, beyond such as might be due to a private nobleman 12. The vindictive measures adopted by the French government to ruin the trade and commerce of Great Britain, naturally drew from the latter retaliatory expedients, which were more or less ap- proved, as affecting neutral and friendly powers, but which could scarcely have been avoided, without surrendering her maritime rights, and submitting to a pretence of blockade on the part of a power, whose ships * had been fairly driven from the sea by the British fleets. Orders in council were issued in the months of Janua- ry and November, 1,307, not only prohibiting all trade between the ports of France and its allies, but ultimately compelling all neutrals, trading to France, to stop at a British port, and pay a duty in propor- tion to the value of the cargo. These embarrassments to trade in general could not fail to excite great uneasiness in all parts of the world ; but the commencement of them is justly to be imputed to the extraordinary decree, issued by the French ruler at Berlin, (the basis of the " continental system,") November, 1,806,' an account of which is given in Sect. XVI. : unfortunately the impossibility of satisfactorily exempting other states from the effect of these prohibitory and regulating decrees, on the part of the two rival countries, involved England in a very unpleasant dispute with the United States ol America. 13. Of the part England took in the affairs of Spain and Portugal, from 1 ,808 to 1,814, an account is to be found elsewhere (See Sect. XVII.) It may be sufficient to say, that, during the whole contest, the emancipation of those two ancient kingdoms from the power oi the French seemed to be contemplated by the whole mass of British subjects as their own -cause. The people of Great Britain and Ire- land^ on the first application for assistance from Spain, appeared neady to rise in a body. They hailed the dawn of liberty on the comment with the most enthusiastic feelings. The deputies from the -. MODERN HISTORY. 373 supreme junta of Seville, did not arrive in England, on their mission to the British government, till the 24th of July, 1,8U8 ; but long be- fore that, other deputies from the principality of Asturias had been received in London, with the most cordial tokens of esteem and friendship. They were splendidly entertained by the City of Lon don, the Bank, and other public 'bodies, as well as by individuals of the highest distinction. Subscriptions were opened in London, Liver- pool, Bristol, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, Cork, Waterford, and many other places, for supporting the cause of Spain ; and several military corps, militia, and volunteers, offered their services. Govern- ment supplied them immediately with three hundred thousand pounds n dollars, five thousand muskets, thirty thousand pikes, and an im- mense quantity of powder and balls, with promises of more effectual aid, which Were ultimately amply fulfilled. The spirit thus display- ed by the British public, on the first certain intelligence received of the anti-gallican insurrection in Spain, may be said to have continued unabated till, through the matchless skill and valour of the confede- rate armies under the duke of Wellington, the French were finally driven from the peninsula in 1,814, as related in our account oi Spain. 14. His majesty George 111., having, in the month of October 1,809, entered upon the 50th year of his reign, the event was cele- brated throughout the nation in a very striking manner, by services of thanksgiving in all the churches and chapels, with suitable dis- courses, illuminations, feasts, and other testimonies of joy, but parti- cularly by liberal benefactions to the poor. In the month of Novem ber in the following year, his majesty, much troubled and afflicted by the long illness and death of his daughter the princess Amelia, had an alarming return of his former complaint, which terminated in a second suspension of his regal functions, and from which he never so sufficiently recovered as to be able to transact any business of state, On the 20th of December, his royal highness the prince of Wales was appointed regent, subject for a period to restrictions similar to those which had been proposed in 1,788-9. This plan was violently opposed, as unconstitutional and impolitic, but finally carried in Feb- ruary, 1,811. The bill was completed and presented to his royal highness, who did not hesitate to accept the trust, though not without remonstrating against the limitations and restrictions imposed on him. Early in 1,812, however, these restrictions were to cease. Great changes in administration had been contemplated, and many negotia- tions were carried on to this effect, but without accomplishing that union and coalition of parties, which the regent himself seemed to desire. Not being disposed to withhold his confidence therefore from those who had so long served his royal father, most of them, on the termination of the restrictions, were continued in their places. A most melancholy catastrophe, which occurred in the month of May, 1,812, deprived the nation of the services of Mr. Percival, who was assassinated in the lobby of the house of commons, by a person of the name of BellinghamJ in revenge, as he himself stated, of a pri vate injury ; a denial of justice, as he called it, on the part of go rem ment It seemed to be accidental that the premier happened to be the individual first presented to his notice on that fatal day. [The paragraphs 15 and 16 of Dr. Nares' work, giving a very ehort account of the differences between the English and American governments in 1,812., 13, 14, and 15, are omitted. For a more par- ticular, and we trust more impartial account :f the war betweeo I i 374 xMODERN HISTORY. Great Britain and the United States, the reader is referred to Section VI. of Part Fourth, near the close of this volume.] 17. The year 1,814, will ever be memorable in the English histo- ry, for the very extraordinary influence of foreigners of the highest distinction, from the opposite shore, on the downfal of Buonaparte, and the conclusion of a war, which had agitated the whole of Eu- rope. The list of visitors invited to the grand civic feast given by the corporation of London, and all of whom were present, but a very few, whom illness kept away, may convey some idea of the splendid scenes that took place in different parts of the kingdom in honour of these illustrious guests. It was on the 18th of June, that the dinner was given to the following very exalted person- ages: The Prince Regent ; the Emperor of Russia ; his sister, the Grand Duchess of Oldenburgh., (afterwards Queen of Wirtemburg ;) the King of Prussia ; the Royal Dukes of England : the Prince Royal of Prussia ; Prince William of Prussia, son of the king ; Prince Freder- ick, nephew of the king ; Prince Henry , brother of the king; Prince William, brother of the king ; Prince Augustus, the king's cousin ; the Prince of Orange ; the Prince Royal of wirtemburg ; the Prince Royal of Bavaria ; the Prince of Oldenburg ; the Prince of Cobourg ; Prince Charles of Mecklenburgh; Duke of Saxe Weimar; Prince Gagarina ; Prince Czeretorinke ; Prince Radzivil ; Marshal Prince Blucher; Prince Hardenburg; Prince Metternich; Prince Lichten- stein ; Prince and Princess Volkouske ; his highness the Duke of Orleans. These illustrious foreigners were entertained, at great cost and ex- pense, during their stay, both by the court and public bodies : the prince regent accompanied them on a visit to the university of Ox- ford ; and to Portsmouth, where they had an opportunity of witness- ing a naval review. 18. In May, 1,816, the heiress to the British crown, princess Char- lotte, only child of the regent, was married to his serene highness Leopold treorge Frederic, prince of Cobourg. This. marriage was contemplated by the nation as an object of the highest hopes ; and tor several months the amiable and exemplary conduct of her royal highness cheered the people with the brightest prospects of future good; but a very sudden and unexpected disappointment took place in the month of November, 1817; the princess was delivered of a still-born male infant, and survived her delivery only a few hours. Nothing could exceed the concern manifested by the public on this melancholy and distressing occasion. In the month of November, in the following year, her majesty queen Charlotte died at Kew, after a long and painful illness ; and on the 29th of January, 1820, was followed by her royal consort king George III. His majesty died at the castle of Windsor, at a very advanced age, and in the sixtieth year of his reign ; greatly beloved by his subjects, and universally respected for his many amiable and royal virtues. MODERN HISTORY. S75 SECTION XXI. FRANCE, FROM THE ENTRANCE OF THE ALLIES INTO PAR. IS, MARCH, 1,814, TO THE FINAL EVACUATION OF IT BY THE FOREIGN TROOPS, 1,813. 1. Soon after Buonaparte departed for Eloa, Louis XVIII was freely recalled to the throne of his ancestors ; he had been resident in many places since his first emigration, and been driven? from almost ail, by the approach of republican troops, the dread of republican vengeance in those who afforded him a refuge, and not unseldom the fear of poison or assassination. England, at length, afforded him the asylum he sought in vain elsewhere : there he lived secure against French armies, French influence, and v as far as Englishmen could protect him, the poisonous drug, or the sword of the assassin. When the way was opened for him to return to his native country, and re- ceive the crown and the throne, which his people now offered him, but which had been so insulted and abused, it was characteristic of Englishmen to rejoice at his restoration, and at the great change pre- pared for him, from a state of banishment, outlawry, and dependence, to the recovery of one of the most brilliant thrones of Europe, and from which his unhappy brother had fallen in a way to excite the sympathy of every feeling and generous mind : his departure from England to France was accompanied with the acclamations and sin- cere gratulations of all ranks of people the prince regent personally escorted him not only to London, but from London to Dover; and took leave of him, in sight of the French coast, in a manner the most affecting and impressive. White flags were exhibited on almost ail the churches, near which he had to pass, and nothing could ex- ceed the joy expressed upon the overthrow of Buonaparte, and the restoration of the Bourbons, both in England and France. 2. In the latter country, however, it may be naturally supposed, the joy could not be general, nor much of what was expressed out- wardly, sincere : Louis XVIII. returned to France, not as it was when he left it, but revolutionized ; it had undergone great changes, and a large proportion of the population was deeply interested in those changes ; yet many, who returned with him, were quite as deeply interested, in absolutely reversing what had passed, restoring what had been abolished, reclaiming what had been alienated, if not even punishing and degrading those who had participated in or been ben- efited by such revolutions. - 3. In the mean while the exiled emperor was not quiet; he was too near to the French coast to be kept in ignorance of what was Eassing, and of the sentiments entertained towards him, by those who ad participated* in his many glorious and triumphant achievements, and who could ill brook the degradation to which they might be doomed by the restoration of the Bourbons ; the army, in particular, to whom indeed he had behaved not only ill, but cruelly, in Lis re- treat from Russia and Leipzig, had yet been raised by him to such a pitch of glory and pre-eminence, as might reasonably account for its feeling both disgust and resentment, at having been compelled to sub mit to the intrusion of strangers into their country and metropolis , strangers, whom they had previously been able not only to defy and resist, but in some instances, to triumph over in their own capitals. 376 MODERN HISTORY. 4. The situation of the king of France, therefore, on his return to his dominions, however acceptable to the greater part of Europe, could scarcely be such as he might himself wish or desire : it was impossible for him to return to the ancient state of things ; and he must have foreseen how difficult it would be to render any new con stitution agreeable or suitable to all parties. The senate, indeed, nad prepared a new constitution before his arrival ; one which bore a considerable analogy to that of England ; the legislative power be- ing placed in the hands of the king, the senate, and the representa lives of the nation at large ; and the amount, nature, and distribution of the public taxes, left exclusively to the decision of the latter- the deputies were to exercise their functions for the space of five years ; the dignity of senator to be hereditary, and to be conferred by the eung, though with a limitation as to numbers, which were not to ex- ceed 200; religious freedom, and the liberty of the press, were duly provided for : this constitution was to be presented to him, to be ac- cepted previously to his inauguration ; but on his arrival at Paris, he did not choose to bind himself, further than to promise his people 3uch a constitution as they would have no reason to disapprove : his first care was, to arrange matters with the foreign potentates who occupied his capital, so as to be able, as speedily as possible, to get rid of their numerous armies ; whose presence could not fail to be a subject of uneasiness to his own armies, as well as to the people in general : to the credit of the troops themselves, under such extraor* linary circumstances, it should be observed, that nothing could ex- ceed the order and forbearance with which they conducted them- selves, as victors, in a capital, which, in the way of simple retribu- tion, stood fairly exposed to plunder, exaction, and devastation. 5. Though it was soon settled to refer to a convention at Vienna the final adjustment of matters, and arrangement of peace ; yet France was quickly made to understand, that her boundaries must be greatly contracted, and that the independence of most of the newly annexed states and territories must be freely acknowledged ; to these terms both the king and his minister, prince Talleyrand, plainly saw the necessity of yielding, though the pride of the French was likely to be wounded by it. 6. On the 4th of June, the king presented to the senate and legis- lative body his own new constitution, which dhTered in several points from that submitted to him on his arrival ; it reserved to himself the right of proposing laws, and the assembly could only request to be permitted to discuss particular points; instead of an hereditary senate, peers, chosen by the king for life were to compose that body, without limitation of numbers ; the popular representatives were to consist of 262, not under 40 years of age : they were to be convoked every year, and were to have the power of impeaching the minis- ters tor treason or extortion ; the king was to appoint the judges, and trial by jury was to be continued : the press was placed under a cen- sorship, and an order was given for closing the theatres and shops on the sabbath ; an order not only extremely unpopular at the time, but, as it would seem, ineffectual. In nominating the senate, some of Buonaparte's courtiers and marshals were included, particularly Talleyrand, who became minister for foreign affairs. 7. The king, who from the first commencement of the revolution had displayed a disposition to favour the rights of the people, more than others of his family, or the chiefs of the emigrants, was little likely of himself tc deviate from the principles of the constitution. MODERN HISTORY. 371 or to disturb unnecessarily the existing state of things, in which so many interests were involved, but he was supposed to have around him persons still bigotted to the ancient system, and anxious to re- cover all that they had forfeited by the course of the revolution. These things, together with the dissatisfied state of the army, paved the way for the return of Buonaparte. 8. The probability of such an event seems to have been strangely overlooked by those who were most interested in preventing it : the popularity of the deposed emperor had been miscalculated. On the 1st of March, 1,815, he landed once more on the shores of France, with only 1,140 attendants; an attempt which many judged to be altogether hopeless, yet, to the utter surprise of those who thought so, his progress towards Paris, though not unmolested, afforded him every hour, from the defection of the troops sent against him, stronger hopes of recovering his authority. On the 20th of March the king was persuaded to retire from Paris; and on the evening of that very day Buonaparte entered it, being hailed by the populace, which had so lately saluted the return of the Bourbons in the same manner, with the loudest acclamations. 9. He was soon convinced, however, that he was not returned to his ancient power, and that he, quite as much as Louis XV11L, would now be expected to gratify the people with a free constitution ;. he speedily therefore, issued some popular decrees, establishing the freedom of the press; abolishing the slave-trade ; and regulating ibfe taxes which weighed most heavily on the people ; he also conde scended to offer to them the plan of a constitution, very different from the system of despotism upon which he had, before acted, and con taining many excellent regulations: he had, however, but little time to spare for legislative measures. A manifesto of expulsion and ex- termination had been issued against him by the congress at Vienna, signed by the plenipotentiaries of Austria, France, Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal, and it was indispensably necessary for him to prepare for war. To this manifesto on the part of the allied powers, Buonaparte was not slow in dictating and present ing to Europe a counter manifesto, asserting in the strongest terms the right of the French to adhere to the dynasty they had chosen on the expulsion of the Bourbons ; and declaring that the confederate princes had been the first to violate the treaty of Fontainebleau , out it is remarkable that, though Buonaparte so peremptorily assert- ed, in his manifesto, the right of the French freely to choose what dynasty they pleased to reign over them, he had inserted in his new constitution an article, totally, and for ever, to exclude the Bourbon family from the succession to the throne. 10. It was not till June that the several armies were prepared to take the field, and between the 15th and 19th of that month, the fate of Europe seemed once more to become dependent on the decision of the sword. The battle, of Waterloo, which took place on the 18th of June, and in which the British and Prussian armies, under the* duke of Wellington and marshal Blucher, totally defeated the French, effectually put an end to all the hopes and prospects of Buonaparte. On the 20th, he arrived at Paris, the first of his fugitive army ; and in a very few days after, was compelled a second time to resign his usurped dominions. On his retirement from Paris, his destination appeared to be a matter of extreme doubt, till on the 15th of July he put himself into the hands of the English by going on board the Bel Ferophon man of war, and surrendering himself and suit uncondition 378 MODERN HISTORY. ally to captain Maitland, the commander of that ship, wno sailed im mediately, to Torbay with his prisoners, none of whom were per- mitted to land. 1 1 . On the 3d of July, not however without a struggle on the part of the French army, Paris had formally surrendered to the duke of Wellington and prince Blucher, who took possession of it on the 7th, and on the 8th the king returned, greeted, as before, with the cheer- ing and acclamations of the fickle multitudes who thronged the roads by which he had to pass. By the terms of capitulation, the French troops under Davoust had been made to retire beyond the Loire, which they did with sullen indignation ; but on the arrival of the Austrians and Russians at Paris, came over to the king. It was very obvious, that, having Buonaparte once more in their power, the allies could not fail to provide all possible precautions against his return into any situation which might afford him the means of commu- nicating with his old adherents, and thereby resuming the station he aad occupied for so many years, to their extreme annoyance. The small, rocky, and totally detached island of St. Helena, in the Atlantic ocean, seemed the only secure place of abode to which he could be assigned. It was therefore agreed to send him thither, under the custody of the British government, but under the eye, also, of com- missioners appointed to reside there, on the part of the Austrian, Russian, and' French governments. On the 17th of October, 1,815, he arrived at his destined residence. 12. Amongst the measures adopted by the military commanders of the foreign troops at Paris, none seemed more to occupy the atten- tion of Europe than the determination they formed to restore to the places which had been robbed of them the valuable works of art, which the victories of the French armies had put into their posses- sion, not merely in the way of plunder, but upon a regular system of purloining every thing which could add to the splendour and great- ness of their own capital, however grating to the feelings of those from whom they were taken, and however severely it must have added to the mortifications they had been doomed to suffer from weakness or defeat. The justice of such a step could not be dis- puted, though nothing was more likely to excite the resentment and indignation of the French, in whose hands, it must be acknowledged, had they been properly acquired, they were likely enough to be preserved and exhibited to the world, in a manner the most condu- cive to the glory and immortality of the illustrious artists to whom they owed their origin; but, as an act of honourable restitution, in many instances, to persons and places whose claims would otherwise have been mocked and derided, the interposition of the two victori- ous chiefs upon this occasion may be justly admired. Prince Blucher, indeed, had a direct interest in reclaiming the spoils of Berlin and Potzdam, but the duke of Wellington, wnile he had nothing to re- cover for his own country, freely assisted those whose pretensions re- quired the support of such paramount authority. 13. By the second general pacification of Paris with the allies, November 20th, 1,815, it was agreed that an army of occupation, amounting to 150,000 men, and to be maintained in a great measure by France, should for the space of five years be put in possession of her frontier fortresses, while her boundary should be farther reduced than on the former occasion ; terms sufficiently mortifying, but justi- fied by the turbulent and unsettled principles of the French nation. Though the period of five years, however, had been specifically MODERN HISTORY. 379 agreed to, the state of things afterwards appearing such as to justify he allies in departing from the exact letter of the treaty, in the spring of the year 1,817 they consented to reduce the army of oc- cupation one fifth, and in the autumn of 1,818, it was wholly with- drawn from the French territories, and the fortresses on the frontier restored. SECTION XXII. NORTHERN STATES OF EUROPE, FROM THE CLOSE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 1 . Though much has been said of the northern courts in the pre • ceding sections, as bearing a part in the transactions on the continent. during the last and present centuries, yet as they have not been mentioned distinctly and particularly, some brief account of them may be necessary, to give a clearer view of the course of events during the period under consideration. 2. Peter the great, of Russia, who died in 1,725, (see Sect. LXVL § 2.) was succeeded by his widow, Catherine I., wno survived him only two years. It is remarkable, that though Peter had taken par ticular care to secure to the reigning monarch & power of naming his successor, he should himself neglect this precaution; and foi such an omission the law had made no provision. Catherine, how- ever, had little or no difficulty to take his place. She was a woman, if not of a superior, yet of rather an extraordinary character ; had attended Peter in his travels and campaigns ; been serviceable to him in his greatest extremities ; often checked the violence of his pas- sions ; and manifested a disposition, during her short reign, to encour age a spirit of liberty amongst her subjects, and to ]3romote, in every way she could, the progress of improvement and civilization. Her death was little expected, and excited some suspicions against the prince M&nzicoff, who had just negociated a treaty wkh Austria, and entered into a stipulation to raise the son of the unfortunate prince Alexis to the throne, upon the condition of his marrying his daughter 3. The empress died in 1,727, and was succeeded by Peter II., grandson of Peter I. Menzicon^ however, seemed to lake into hia own hands the reins of government, till he was supplanted by one of the Dolgorouki family, and banished to Siberia, with his wife and children. The new favourite designed to marry his sister to the emperor; but on January 29, 1,730, Peter died, of the small-pox. In him the male issue of the line becoming extinct, Anne, duchess oi Courland, was called to the throne through the influence of Dolgo rouki, contrary to the order of succession established by Peter I., and in prejudice of her elder sister, the duchess of Mecklenburg. They were both of them the daughters of Iwan, the eldest brother of Peter. 4. The reign of Anne was prosperous and glorious ; she showed great sagacity and firmness in resisting the intrigues, and balancing the credit of rival statesmen, counsellors, and generals, Russian and foreign ; maintaining her prerogatives against those who sought to invade them, to further their own ambition, particularly Dolgorouki, who, though he had placed her on the throne, was disgraced and Danished to Siberia. Anne died in 1,740, leaving the crown, by her will, to her grand-nephew Iwan son of her niece, Anne, princess of 380 MODERN HISTORY. Mecklenburg, married to the duke of Brunswick Bevern ; but she appointed her favourite, count Biren, whom she had brought with her from Courland, regent. 5. This last arrangement threw things into the utmost confusion. Biren was deservedly no favourite with the Russians, more than 20,000 of whom he is said to have sent into banishment ; he had, besides, a powerful rival in count Munich, the conqueror of Ocza- kow, a German, and a man of singular bravery and resolution ; the latter succeeded in dispossessing the regent of his authority in favour of the mother of the emperor. Biren was sent to Siberia; and ih.8 princess of Mecklenburg (duchess of Brunswick) assumed the reins of government ; but not attending sufficiently to the duties of her high station, and appearing to give too great encouragement to foreigners, a new revolution was set on foot, to place on the throne the youngest daughter of Peter the great, the princess Elizabeth. This party, supported by French gold, and headed by Lestocq, a physician, quickly becoming strong, seized upon the emperor Iwan and his parents, and proclaimed Elizabeth empress of all the Russias. The life of the infant Iwan was preserved by the clemency nnd ex- press interposition of Elizabeth ; but only to undergo a harder fate. (See below, § 8.) Munich was banished ; and other foreign generals, who had favoured the former government, either shared the same destiny, or contrived to escape from the Russian dominions. The people were well pleased to see the throne rescued from the hands of foreigners in favour of so direct a claimant as the daughter of Peter the great. This revolution took place in the month of No- vember, 1,741. 6. Russia flourished under the sway of Elizabeth, whose reign ex hibited an uninterrupted career of glory and success ; her alliance was courted by some of the greatest powers in Europe. Before her death, which happened in 1,762, she took care to restore the natural order of succession in her family, by declaring the duke of Holstein Gottorp, her heir, son of her eldest sister, and who became emperor, on her demise, by the title of Peter HI. , 7. This unfortunate prince was not suffered to reign long ; he had married a princess of Anhalt-Zerbst ; a woman of singular character, peculiarly fitted to avail herself of any opportunities that might offer in so unsettled a country, to gratify her ambition, and give scope to her abilities. The prince had not behaved well to her, and many things concurred to render him unpopular, if not hateful to his sub- jects ; particularly an enthusiastic attachment to the king of Prussia, then at war with the Russians, and projected innovations, well-meant but ill-timed, some particularly affecting the clergy. He proposed to circumscribe the power of the nobles, and seemed to. prefer the Holstein troops to his Russian guard. As these things rendered his removal probable, according to the ordinary course of proceedings in that semi-barbarous country, the sagacious Catherine willingly gave nerself up to a party who had conspired against her husband. It is generally conjectured that she connived, not only at the deposition, but at the death of Peter, who survived his elevation to the imperial dignity n? many months; while Catherine, by her superior address and intrepidity, not only succeeded in establishing herself upon the vacant throne, but in emancipating herself from the domination of the party to whom she stood indebted for it, (the Orloffs.) 8. One competitor still seemed to stand in her way, — the unfortu- nate Iwan, — wno had been deposed by Elizabeth, and now languished MODERN HISTORY. 381 In confinement, at the age of twenty-four. Soon after Catherine's accession he was slain in prison, on a pretence of his attempting to escape, but under circumstances so mysterious as to involve the em- press in suspicion. She reigned under the title of Catherine II. for the long space of upwards of thirty-four years, continually occupied in advancing the glory of her people, in augmenting her dominions, and rewarding merit. She obtained many signal advantages over the Turks, and succeeded (1,784) in wresting from them the whole dis- trict of the Crimea ; but her designs extended much farther, even to the expulsion of the Ottomans, and restoration of a Grecian empire, having for its capital Athens or Constantinople : she contemplated, in short, the complete triumph of the Cross over the Crescent. An ex pedition was even undertaken for the liberation of the Greeks, in the year 1,770 ; but it proved ineffectual, though it might have been otherwise, had the Russian commanders consented to follow the ad- vice of the Scotch admiral, Elphinstone, who commanded one of the divisions of the fleet. 9. Catherine bore a large share in the partition of Poland, and seems to have been restrained by no principles of justice, humanity, morality, or virtue, from furthering the purposes of her ambition and policy :- her prodigality was great, her largesses enormous, and her love of magnificence little proportioned to the smallness of the im- perial revenue: her abilities and her resolution were remarkable, and she may be considered as having contributed largely to the im- provement and glory of the country over which she was permitted so long to bear unlimited rule. Her domestic regulations savoured little of the despotism displayed in her foreign enterprises : she miti- gated the rigour of the penal laws, abolished torture and slavery, protected the arts and sciences, and endeavoured to elevate the mid- dle class to a proper degree of importance. 10. Catherine II. was succeeded in 1,796 by her son Paul I., a strange character, unsettled in his principles, dissolute in his manners, jealous, vindictive, and, in his last days, scarcely in' possession of his senses. On his first accession, however, he wisely endeavoured to provide against the evils arising from an unsettled inheritance, by enacting a law to secure the crown to his lineal and direct descen- dants, not absolutely excluding females, but admitting them only into the line of succession on a total failure of male heirs. 11. The emperor appeared to be extremely eager to secure an entrance into the Mediterranean*, and was highly gratified with being chosen patron of the order of Malta, which he consented to take under his protection in the year 1,798. He had been induced to take a part in the war against the French, and succeeded, in conjunction with the Turks, in getting possession, lor a short time, of the Ionian islands ; a Russian army was also sent to co-operate with the Austri- ans, under the command of the celebrated Souwarow, (or Souvaroff,) who, after having achieved great victories in Lornbardy, seems to have been cruelly abandoned in Swisserland, and to have unjustly in curred the displeasure of his capricious master. A misunderstanding between the English and Paul on the subject of Malta, entirely alienated the latter from the confederacy. In the mean while, his violent conduct had induced the great officers of state and the nobility to conspire to dethrone him. He was slain in defending himself, during a conflict, in his own chamber, March 24, 1,801 ; and, grealiy to the joy of his oppressed people, succeeded by his son Alexander 382 MODERN HISTORY. > the present emperor, of whose accession, and share in the continental war, an account has already been given. 12. Prussia, as a kingdom, is not older than the eighteenth century, and entirely belongs therefore to the period under discussion. Its history, as connected with the electorate of Brandenburgh, ascends as high, perhaps, as that of any sovereignty in Europe. Its present power may be said to have taken its rise from the wisdom, judgment, and good sense of the elector-Frederic-William, commonly called the great elector, who had Ducal Prussia confirmed to him in 1,657, and by the convention of Walau and Bromberg, rendered independent ot the crown of Poland, of which, till then, it had been a fief. • In the time of the great elector, advantage was taken of the unsettled state of Europe, to increase the population, and thereby advance the wealth and improvement of the country in every respect. The revocation of the edict of Nantes in France, 1,685, contributed large- ly to theso ends, the Prussian states being freely set open to the ref- ugees of all descriptions; an act of mere policy, as the elector him self, though tolerant, was extremely devout and careful of the privi leges, and even exemptions of the clergy. 13. The elector, Frederic- William, died in 1,688, and was succeed ed by his son Frederic, who, through the influence of the protestanl states, and the good-will of the emperor Leopold, to whom he had been of service in his contest with France, but who seems to have taken such a step with little judgment or consideration, became king in 1,701, and died in 1,713, at the very period when, by the treaty of Utrecht, his regal title was confirmed and generally acknowledged by the other states of Europe. Frederic I. was generous, but fickle, superstitious, and vain; he founded the University of Hall, the Royal Society of Berlin, and the Academy of Nobles, but without taking much interest in their concerns, and chiefly at the instigation of his more learned consort, the princess Charlotte of Hanover; he man- aged, however, to augment, by many acquisitions, purchases, and exchanges, the extent of his dominions. 14. His successor, Fre'deric-William II.,' is judged to have done much more to raise the credit and character of his new kingdom, by excessive prudence, and good management, and the utmost attention to his army ; whereby he not only repaired the losses occasioned by his father's extravagances, but amassed great treasures, and laid the foundation for those stupendous military achievements, which, in the next reign, advanced Prussia to that high state of glory and eminence which has given it such weight in the political scale of Europe, Frederic abolished, in 1,717, all the fiefs in his kingdom; he invited colonies from all parts to settle in his dominions. Like his great pred- ecessor and namesake, he established military schools and hospitals, put he was no. friend to literature ; unpolished in his manners, and implacable in his resentment. He added to the dominions of Prussia, Stettin and the greater part of Swedish Pomerania. 15. On the death of Fredeiic-William II., in 1,740, his son, (who is sometimes called Frederic II., to distinguish him from the Frederic- Williams, and sometimes Frederic III.,) came to the throne. Of this monarch so much is known, and so much has already been noticed and recorded in the other sections of this work, that we have lit&s to say here, but that he managed to raise a scattered, ill-sorted, dis- ' jointed kingdom into the first rank of power and renown ; that he applied himself incessantly to promote the welfare and improvement MODERN HISTORY. 383 r f his dominions, to augment the wealth and advance the civilization of his people, though, in many of his regulations and measures to this end, he erred occasionally as his predecessors had done, for want of a due knowledge of some of the first principles of political econ- omy, a science at that period little cultivated. Frederic died August, 1,786, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, and forty-seventh of his reign, more admired than esteemed ; more distinguished for bravery in the field, wisdom in the cabinet, and literary attainments, than for any virtues or qualities of a nobler nature. He has had the reputa- tion of being the author of two very important measures, the parti tion of Poland, and the armed neutrality. The credit of the fiisi may probably oe very fairly divided between himself and Catherine of Russia ; the second, as a matter of self-defence, and a jealous re card for the liberty of the seas, reflects no dishonour on his character It is a point that should be better settled than it seems to be, by the strict rules of international and maritime law. 16. Frederic was succeeded by his nephew Frederic-William. Of the part taken by this monarch in support of the house of Orange, in 1,787, of his opposition to the French, in 1,792, and of the share he had in the two last partitions of Poland, in 1,793 and 1,795, by which he gained the territories, first of South Prussia, and, secondly of South-eastern Prussia, an account has been given elsewhere. Frederic-William II. died in 1,797, aged fifty-three, leaving the crown to his son, the present king, Frederic 111., who, as he came to the throne at the moment that Buonaparte began his extraordinary c reer, in disturbance of the peace of the continent, was necessarily involved in all the difficulties and confusion of those times, as has been already shown : he joined the armed neutrality in 1,800, caused Hamburgh to be shut against the English, and occupied the states of Hanover, 1,801, which being annexed by France to Prussia, in 1,805. in exchange for a part of the duchy of Cleves, Anspach, Bareuth, Neufchatel, and Valengin, provoked the resentment of England and Sweden. In 1,806, the king rashly engaged in war with Fiance, and was nearly deprived of his kingdom : the losses he sustained by the treaty of Tilsit, have been mentioned. (Sect. XVI.) In 1,812, Fred- eric was compelled by France to furnish an auxiliary force against Russia, but was afterwards, on the retreat of the French from Mos- cow, able to break through this engagement, and conclude a treaty of neutrality with Russia. From this time to the abdication of Na- poleon, Prussia acted in close confederacy with the allies, the king being constantly with his army till their entrance into Paris, March, 1,814. On the return of Buonaparte, 1,815, the Prussians were the first to take the field, under their celebrated general, prince Blucher, and in the battle of Waterloo, reaped the splendid glories of that day in conjunction with the British. Since that time, Prussia has enjoyed a state of peace, though not undisturbed as to her internal concerns. 17. The crown of Sweden, on the de.mise of Charles XII., 1,718, (see Sect. LXVI. § 9. Part II.) was conferred on his youngest sister, Ulrica Eleanora, by the free election of the states. On the death of Charles, whose strange proceedings had greatly exhausted the king- dom, and occasioned the actual loss of many provinces, an opportuni- ty was taken, once more, to limit the kingly power, which had been rendered almost absolute in the reign of Charles XI., and to make the crown elective. The new queen, who was married to the hered itary prince of Hesse Cassel, and who had been offered the crown iii prejudice of the son and representative of her elder sister, the 384 MODERN HISTORY. duchess of Holsteiti Gottorp, readily submitted to tne conditions pro- posed by the states for limiting the royal authority, but soon after her accession resigned the government to her royal consort, who was crowned by the title of Frederic I., 1,720. 18. The new king ruled the nation with little dignity and less spil- th submitting to every thing imposed on him by the states, till the government became more republican than monarchical The Swe- dish territories were also much reduced during the early part of his feign. In the course of the years 1,719, 1,720, 1,721, Sweden ceded to Hanover, Bremen, and Verden ; to Prussia, the town oi Stettin and to Russia, Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, Wiburg, a part of Carelia, and several islands. 19. It was during this reign that the rival factions of the Hais and €ap$ had their origin, and which caused great trouble ; the former being generally under the influence of France, the latter of Russia. To deter the latter from assisting the queen of Hungary, in the war Chat took place on the death of Charles VI., France made use of its intluence with the Hats, to involve Sweden in hostilities with Russia, lor which she was ill-prepared, and from which she suffered consid- erably. Her losses were restored to her in some measure by the peace of Abo, 1 ,743, but upon the positive condition that Frederic should adopt as his heir and successor, at the instance of the czarina, Adolphus-Frederic, bishop of Lubec, uncle to the duke of Holstein Gottorp, presumptive heir to the throne of Russia, and nephew to the queen of Sweden, who would more willingly have had the latter for her successor. 20. Adolphus-Frederic came to the crown in 1,751. The same factions which had disturbed the former reign continued to give him trouble, and though he made some endeavours to get the better or foreign intluence, and recover his lost authority, all his efforts were vain. Nothing could exceed the anarchy and confusion that prevail- ed, encouraged and fomented both by Russia and France, to further their private ends. The king is supposed to have fallen a sacrifice to these disturbances, dying wholly dispirited h>the year 1,771. . 21. He was succeeded by his eldest son Gus&vus III., twenty-five years old at the time of his accession ; a Swede by birth^ and an ac- tive and spirited prince, who was bent upon recovering what his predecessors had too tamely surrendered of their rights and prerog atives ; in which, being supported by France, he had the good fortune to succeed. Having found means to conciliate the army, and to rec- oncile the people to an attack upon the aristocrats, who were betray- ing the interests of the country, he established a new constitution, 1,772, with such good management and address, that the public tran- quillity was scarcely for a moment disturbed. This new arrangement threw grsat power into the hands of the king, by leaving him the option of convening and dissolving the states, with the entire disposal ot the army, navy, and all public appointments, civil, military, and ecclesiastical ; some alterations were made in 1,789, but nothing could reconcile the party whom he had superseded ; at least it is probable that this was the occasion of the catastrophe which termi- nated the life of the unfortunate monarch. Towards the commence- ment of the French revolution, in the year 1,792, when he was pre- paring to assist Lewis XVL, (an unpopular undertaking,) he was assassinated at a masquerade by a person encouraged, if not directly employed, by the discontented party of 1,772 22, Gustavus III. was brave, polite, well-intormed, and of a re is said to have been elected contrary to the wishes and intentions of most of the members of the conclave, a circumstance not unlikely tc happen amidst such a contrariety of interests, and the complicate forms of proceeding. As he had thus risen to supreme power, hn acted afterwards more independently of the cardinals, than any of his predecessors. 9. He had taken the name of Pius VI., in acknowledged defianct of a prevailing superstition, expressed in the following verses, and applied to Alexander VI. particularly, if not to others. " Sextus Tarquinius, Sextus Nero, sextus et iste Semper sub sextis, perdita Roma fait." he is known to have, in his troubles, reflected on this rather sin- gular circumstance, with sorrow and dismay. Certainly no pope had greater indignities to sustain, nor could any have greater cause to 390 MODERN HISTORY app*y to themselves the ominous presages conveyed in the lines just cited; for in the year 1,798 his government was overthrown, and Kome lost. The French took possession of it and proclaimed the restoration of the Roman republic. 10. The pope's troubles began in 1,796, when he was compelled to cede to Buonaparte the cities of Bologna, Urbino, Ferrara, and Ancona, to pay twenty-one millions of francs, and deliver to the French commissioners, sent for the purposes, pictures, busts, statues, and vases, to a large amount. He afterwards endeavoured to raise an army to recover what he had lost ; but he had formed a very wrong estimate of the power of his opponent. He was soon com- pelled, February 12, 1,797, to sue for peace, and submit to further sacrifices at the will of Buonaparte, whom he had certainly very in- cautiously provoked. By the peace of Tolentino, he renounced all right to Avignon and the Vanaissin, Bologna, Ferrara, and the Romag- na. On the entrance of the French in 1,798, the Vatican and Quh> inal palaces, and private mansions of the obnoxious amongst the nobility, were stripped of all their ornaments and riches. The peo- ple who had invited the French, fancied themselves free, but had very little cause to thank their deliverers. The pope was forcibly removed from Rome, at the age of eighty, and, by order of the French directory, transferred from. place to place, as the course of events dictated, from Rome to Florence, from Florence to Bnancon, and from Briancon to Valence. Another removal to Dijon is said to have been in contemplation, had not the decline of his health become too visible to render it necessary. He died at the latter place on the 29th of August, 1,799, in the eightvrsecond year of his age, arid twenty-fourth of his pontificate. 1.1. Pius VI. was correct in his manners, and a patron of genius, particularly of the fine arts. He spent much money on buildings, notwithstanding the distressed state of the finances, and devoted large sums to the draining of the Pontirte marshes, in which almost im- practicable undertaking, he partly succeeded. He endeavoured to correct the abuses of sanctuary, which had been carried so far as to give impunity to hired assassins, much to the disgrace of those who protected them. It deserves to be recorded of him, that he display- ed great magnanimity, as well as pious resignation, when dragged from his dominions ; and though he felt severely the wrongs that had been committed against him by the French and the infatuated Ro- mans, he died tranquilly and serenely. 12. It is remarkable that he had scarcely been dead a month, when Rome was delivered from the hands of its oppressors, and given up to the British, whose fleet, under commodore Trowbridge, had block- ed up the port of Civita Vecchia. Those who had favoured the re- publican cause were permitted to retire, and the French garrison marched out with the honours of war. 13. In the month of A March, 1,800, a conclave of cardinals, under the protection of the emperor and other catholic powers, met at Venice to elect a successor to Pius VI., and was not long in fixing upon the cardinal Chiaremonte, bishop of Tivoli, the present pope Pius VII. In a few weeks after his election, he set out for his new- dominions, and arrived at Rome on the 9tn of July. In the month of September, 1,801, he had the satisfaction of concluding a concor- daium with the French republic, by which, under the auspices of Buonaparte, then first consul, the Roman catholic religion was re- established there. Not only heresy, but infidelity and atheism, had MODERN HISTORY. 391 been so openly encouraged and avowed by the French revolutionists, that Pius appears to have thought no concessions too great to ac complish this end ; for the terms of the agreement undoubtedly sub- jected the Gallican church entirely to the civil government, canoni- cal institution being almost the only privilege reserved to the pope, and every possible encouragement being, at the same time, given to the protestant churches, Lutheran and Calvinistic. 13. It was very soon discovered, that the new head of the Roman church, was to be made to bow as low to the authority of Buonaparte as his predecessor. In 1 ,804 Pius VII. was summoned to Paris to officiate at the coronation of the French emperor ; and though in the year following he declined attending a similar ceremony at Milan, as has been already shown, it seems only to have exposed him to greater sacrifices. In 1,808 he was deprived of Urbino, Ancqna. Macerata, and Camerino, and soon alter his temporal sovereignty was formally dissolved, and the papal territories annexed to France Rome was declared to be a free and imperial city • the court of in- quisition, the temporal jurisdiction of the clergy, the right of asylum, and other privileges were abolished, and the title of king of Rome ap- propriated to the heir of the French empire. Pius was conveyed first to Grenoble,* afterwards to Savona, and finally, in 1,812, to fon- tainebleau, where, for reasons unknown, he was once more acknowl- edged as a sovereign, till the advance ot the allies upon Paris, at last, Erocured him his liberty; and in 1,814 he was reinstated ; he made is solemn entrance into Rome on the 24thiof May ; and in 1,815, by the arrangements of the congress of Vienna, his forfeited estates were re-annexed to the papal dominions. His restoration of tbe order of Jesuits and of the court of inquisition, on his return, occa- sioned some concern to the greater part of Europe: but his hoLra. of these occasions, the great change that had taken place in the 394 MODERN HISTORY. state of things in India, induced the government at home to claim for the crown all revenues arising from any new acquisitions made by military force, and in order to repress the inordinate proceedings of the company's servants, of which the natives, the public at home, and the company itself, had but too much reason to complain, gov- ernment also insisted upon taking into its own hands the political jurisdiction of India. 1 1. These claims and regulations were first proposed in parliament; November, 1,772, and may be said "to have laid the foundation for that enlarged system of administration and control which has prevail- ed since, though under different modifications, from lord North's bill in 1,773 to Mr. Pitt's in 1,784. By this latter bill, a board of control, composed of certain commissioners of the rank of privy counsellors, was established, the members of which were to be appointed by the king, and removable at his pleasure. This board was authorized to check, superintend, and control the civil and military government and revenue of the company ; a high tribunal also, for the trial of Indian delinquents, was proposed at the same time. The manage- ment of their commercial concerns was left in the hands of the com- pany ; the political and civil authority only transferred to the crown. In 1,786, some alterations were made in the bill; the offices of com- mander-in-chief and governor-general were for the future to be unit- ed in the same person, and a power given to the governor-general to decide in opposition to the majority of the council. The presidencies of Madras and Bombay had been previously, by lord North's bill, placed under the superintendency of the governor and council of bengal, but by this bill that point aiso was confirmed. 12. When this bill was passed, it appeared from the preamble, tc be decidedly the opinion of parliament, of government, as well as of the court of directors, whose orders had for some time breathod the same spirit, that u to pursue schemes of conquest and extension of dominion in India, were measures repugnant to the wish, the honour, and the policy oi the nation." It had previously been resolved by the house, " that the maintenance of an inviolable character for moderation, good faith, and scrupulous regard to treaty, ought to have been the simple grounds on which the British government should have endeavoured to establish an influence superior to other Europeans, over the minds of the native powers in India ; and that the danger and discredit arising from the forfeiture of this pre-eminence, could not be compensated by the temporary success of any plan of violence and injustice." 13. Such was the tenor of the resolutions of the house of commons in 1,782, recognised as the principle of the bill of 1,784, and farther confirmed by an act passed in 1,793. In all we perceive an evident allusion to those mal-practices of the company's servants, which will for ever, it is to be feared, remain on record, to tarnish the lustre of our first victories and territorial acquisitions in India, and to detract from the reputation of persons, whose names might otherwise have justly stood high on the list of those, from whose pre-eminent talents and abilities, the nation has derived both glory and advantage. 14. The English system of jurisprudence had been extended to India by lord North's bill of 1,773, but under disadvantages extreme- ly embarrassing. The difference of manners, habits, customs • the difficulty, if not impossibility, of mingling two codefc, so very dissimi- lar as those of Britain and Hindoostan ; the forms and technicalities at the English law, totally unknown to the native courts ; the ap- MODERN HISTORY. 39,? parent injustice of subjecting a people to laws to which they were no parlies, and to which, of course, they had given no sanction-, these, and other difficulties have been acknowledged by those who have had to administer the laws under the new system, in India, as having prevented those happy effects taking place, which might otherwise have been expected from the introduction of the English jurisprudence. Since the passing of Mr. Pitt's bill, however, much benefit has certainly been derived from the resit ence and superin- tendence of noblemen of the highest rank and abilities, as governors general, and of judges the most enlightened, to preside in the Indian courts. The first reforms that were attempted under the new system, though not so successful as might be wished, proceeded from those two most amiable and highly respected personages, the marquis Cornwallis, and sir William Jone?. 15. From the conduct of lord Cornwallis, and his successors lord Teignmouth, and lord Mornington, now marquis Wellesley, it is ex- tremely evident that the system of neutrality and forbearance pre- scribed by the resolutions of parliament, and preamble of the act of 1,784, would have been scrupulously adhered to had it been possible, consistently with the security of our settlements; but towards the close of the eighteenth century, the English were compelled to de fend themselves from the most formidable designs of the celebrated Hyder Ally and his son Tippoo Saib, who unquestionablv had it m view to exterminate the British, and probably all other Europeans, from the peninsula of India. 16. The result of these conflicts, which took place in Mysore, and the Carnatic, was the total overthrow of a Mahomedan dynasty of only two sovereigns, commencing with a mere adventurer of most singular character, who having waded through crimes to his object, succeeded in placing himself and his son on one of the most brilliant thrones of the east, and in a condition to give very consfcxaraune trouble to the English government there. 17. Hyder Ally, the father of Tippoo, was born in 1,722, and died in 1,782. Tippoo was born in 1,753,' and lost his life in th^ celebrat- ed assault oi the capital of his new dominions, Seringapat?,«. in 1,799. They were very different men, having, been differea% educated. The former had strong natural powers, which compensated for his want of acquired knowledge ; the latter was vain of his scanty pro- ficiency in Persian literature, and a lew other attainments, to a degree of absurdity ; fancying himself the greatest philosopher of the age, the wisest, bravest, and handsomest of men. Hyder was tolerant in religious concerns to a degree of indifference ; Tippoo, a bigoted mussulman, to the utmost pitch of intolerance and persecution. The r ormer meddled little with religion. The latter contemplated changes m Islamism, as in every thing fclse, having, as a preliminary, substi- lted a new era in his coins, dating from the birth instead of the flight of Mahomet. Both father and son were devoid of principle, but the former was much the greatest man. 18. It was owing to the vigilance and prompt measures of lord Wellesley, that Tippoo was so opportunely overthrown ; though his proceedings were weak, they were carried on with much duplicity and deceit, and upon principles of alliance which in other circum- stances might have become very alarming. Under the most positive and repeated assurances of peace and amity, he had intrigued with France, Turkey, the king of Candahar, (a descendant of the cele lirated Affghan chief Abdallah,) the jNizam of the Deckan, and the 3U6 MODERN HISTORY. Mahrattas, for the express object of forming a strong confederacy to extirpate the English ; in his negotiations with the Courts of Canda- har and Constantinople, indeed, he had declared vengeance against the infidels generally, whence it has been reasonably concluded that his schemes of destruction embraced all the European powers, the French not excepted, had his projects but been successful. Fortu- nately, lord Wellesley detected all his plots, and when it became impossible to treat farther with him on any fair grounds, by the most decisive measures, and rapid movements, effectually avert- ed the blow that had been decidedly aimed at the British empire in India. 19. On the fall of Seringapatam, the Mysorean dominions were, by allotments to the allies, the British, the Nizam, and the Mahrattas, nearly reduced to the limits by which they were bounded before the usurpation of Hyder, and, a surviving representative of the Hindoo dynasty, a child only live years old, placed on the throne, with an acknowledged dependency on the British government. The de- scendants of Tippoo being, however, liberally provided for. and settled in the Carnatic, disturbances in the northern and north-western parts of the peninsula, among the Mahratta chieftains, occupied the attention of the English army, in the early part of the present cen- tury, when a fresh opportunity was afforded of triumphing over the intrigues of the French, who headed the adverse forces, and endeav- oured to procure for that government a cession of the districts in- trusted to their care; but the issue of the contest was entirely in favour of the British. From this time the ascendancy of the British in the peninsula has continued so decidedly established, as to render it needless to say any thing of the other European settlements. 20. The acquisition of territory in India, together with the new system of government and control, by rendering it necessary for per- sons of learning and talent to reside there, have had the effect of im- proving our knowledge of those remote countries, and opened to us a field of inquiry and research, peculiarly interesting and curious, Among those who may be considered as having most particularly contributed to these ends, we may reckon Mr. Wilkinsand sir Wiliiaui Jones: the former by having first, with any real success, pursued the study of the Sanscrit language, the root of all the vernacular dialects of the peninsula, and thereby opened to the Contemplation of the historian, the antiquarian, the" philosopher, and the poet, whatever is interesting in the literature oi all the nations east of the Indus; and the latter, by instituting the first philosophical society in those parts, and inviting the learned, in all quarters of the globe, to propose que- ries in every branch of Asiatic history, natural arid civil, on the phi- losophy, mathematics, antiquities^ and polite literature of Asia, and on eastern arts, both liberal and mechanic, as guides to the investiga- tions of the persons resident in the peninsula, qualified to pursue such inquiries on the spot, and communicate to the world in general the results of their discoveries. 21. To this learned society, first established in Bengal, under the presidency of sir William Jones, we are indebted for all those curious papers preserved in the several volumes of the Asiatic Researches and the Indian Annual Register, and which have so largely contrib- uted to enlarge the boundaries of oriental literature. To the names already mentioned, as having taken the lead in this curious branch of science, %e may add those of our countrymen, Halhed, Vansittart, Shore, (lord Teignmouth, the second president, on the death of sir MODERN HISTORY 397 William, 1,794,) Davie, Colebrook,Wilford,Rennell, Hunter, Fentley Marsden, Orme, Carey, Buchanan, Barlow, Harrington, Edmonstone Kirkpatrick, &c. 22. At the commencement of the present century, it became ob vious to the marquis of Wellesley, then governor-general, that the state of the British empire in India absolutely required, that the per sons sent out to discharge the important functions of magistrates, judges, ambassadors, and governors of provinces, should have some bettei means of qualifying themselves for such high stations and complicated duties, than were then in existence. His lordship's view of these matters, as recorded in the minute of council, dated August 18, 1,800, is highly deserving of consideration, and his plan for forming and en- dowing a college for these purposes at Calcutta, reflect the highest credit on his wisdom and discernment, though the latter has not been carried into execution in the way his lordship proposed, for want of funds. The East India College, since established in Hertfordshire, may be considered as entirely owing to the adoption by the company of the enlightened principles contained in the minute alluded to. A system of oriental education is now effectually established, which, though on a much more contracted scale, and in a great measure con- fined to England, bids fair,-"it is to be hoped, to accomplish most of the ends contemplated I >y his lordship in his original design of founding a college at Fort William, in Bengal, namely, " to perpetuate the im- mense advantages derived to the company from their possessions in India, and to establish the British empire in India on the solid founda- tions of ability, integrity, virtue, and religion." 23. Of the studies to be pursued, according to lord Wellesley's plan, a competent notion may be formed from the following list of professorships and lectures : — Arabic, Persian, Sanscrit, Hindostanee, Bengal, Telinga, Mahratta, Tamula, and Canara, languages ; Mahom- edan law : Hindoo law ; Ethics, civil jurisprudence, and the law of nations ; English law ; political economy, commercial institutions and interests of the East India Company, geography and mathematics , modern languages of Europe ; Greek, Latin, and English classics : general history, ancient and modern ; the history and antiquities of Hindoostan and the Deckan ; natural history ; botany, chemistry, and astronomy. 24. Though the company saw reason to withhold its countenance from the original institution, the studies above chalked out have been, in a great measure, adopted in the Hertfordshire college, and its gen- eral success hitherto has been pronounced answerable to the expecta- tions of those who were most, solicitous in effecting its establishment. The education of the young men, destined to fill the civil offices in India, is now therefore partly European and partly Asiatic ; for so much of the collegiate establishment in India may be said to remain, that there the students, who have been taught in England the elements of Asiatic languages, are enabled to advance to perfection, and to be- come masters of the several dialects prevailing through the peninsula. Though the original plan of the noble founder of the college of Fort W illiam has not yet been adopted by the East India Company, yet to apply the words of one of the most distinguished of our orientalists, *' Good has been done, which cannot be undone ; sources of useful knowledge, mora' instruction, and political utility, have been opened to the natives of India, which can never be closed." In 1,814, an ecclesiastical establishment, under the immediate auspices of govern ment, was formed for India, the ric-Iit reverend Dr Thomas Fansliai* LI 3M MODERN HISTORY. Middleton b-»ng consecrated at the archiepiscopaS palace, at Lambeth, the first bishop c£ Calcutta. It must surprise the English reader to be told, that the population of the British empire in India has been lately estimated at 90,000,000 ! STATE OF ARTS, SCIENCES, RELIGION, LAWS, GOVERN- ;,;! MENT* &c. 1. The historical events of the eighteenth century have, we must confess, been found to be of such magnitude and importance, as to occupy rather too large a space in a work professing to be merely elementary ; but we should be compelled in a still greater degree to exceed -the limits assigned to us, if we were to attempt to enter into the details of the very extraordinary progress that has taken place during the same period, in arts, sciences, and literature ; some changes, indeed, have occurred, and more been contemplated, in religion, laws, and government, but in regard to the former, almost all things have become new : we have new arts and new sciences ; and in literature such an overflowing of books upon every subject that could possibly occupy or .interest the mind of man, that the most diligent compiler of catalogues would fail in endeavouring barely to enumerate them. 2. It is somewhat extraordinary, indeed, that this great and rapid advancement of knowledge has after all been confined to only a small portion of the globe. The great continent of Africa, though better known than in past times; has made no advances in civilization. Asia, though many parts have been diligently explored during the last centu- ry, and a large portion of it actually occupied by Europeans, remains as to the natives, in its original state. The vast empire of China has made no progress at all. Japan has effectually shut the door against all .improvement. South America, indeed, though labouring under difficulties unfriendly to the progress of knowledge, is yet reported to be making no inconsiderable advances, particularly in Mexico, where both the arts and sciences are cultivated with credit and effect. In North America, also, the arts and sciences and literature may certainly be said to be in a progressive state, but under circumstances of rather slow and partial improvement.* . 3. Civilized Europe is the only part of. the world that can claim the credit of almost all that has been done towards the advancement of Knowledge since the commencement of the eighteenth century, and only a few parts after all of civilized Europe itself. Turkey has stood still, as well as, her Grecian dependencies, till very lately. Spain. Portugal, and even the greater part of Italy, have laboured under dif- ficulties and restrictions exceedingly inimical. to their advancement, and which have greatly arrested their progress in the career of letters and philosophy. The north and north-eastern parts of Europe have produced many learned men, have been diligently explored, and ma- terials at least collected for great improvements ; other parts are also upon the advance : but England, France, and Germany, are undoubl- [* The writer must be under a mistake. Is it not acknowledged through- out Europe, that the United States of North America are not only farther advanced, but faster advancing, in the discoveries of science, and that their progress in literature is more rapid, than any other nation of the n*t"v* worttl?] MODERN HISTORV. 3i)9 edly the principal countries to which we must look for the most strik- ing progress in every branch of human knowledge. In these three countries, in particular, discoveries have now certainly been made, and principles established, which can never be lost again, and which must, as far as they may extend, be constantly operating to the lasting inv provement of the world at large. . 4. It would be quite unnecessary to go back to the origin, or former state, either of the arts or sciences, now known and cultivated in Eu- rope. It is pretty generally understood, that, comparatively with the age of the world, they have been only very recently submitted to succ processes as bid fair to bring them to the highest state of perfection. One art has helped another, and new sciences been brought to light, that have greatly promoted the advancement of those before under- stood and cultivated. Galvanism has assisted electricity ; and gal- vanism and electricity together been exceedingly serviceable to chemistry ; chemistry to mineralogy, and so forth : new systems and arrangements, and new nomenclatures, have contributed greatly to render every step that has been taken more accurate and certain,: and (o place every object of attention or inquiry more exactly in the rank and order it should occupy in the general circle of arts and sciences : but the thing of most importance of all, in regard to the improvements that have taken, place since the beginning or middle of the eighteenth century, is, that every thing has been conducted exactly upon those principles, which the great lord Bacon so strongly recommended, and lias, therefore, been found conducive to all those great ends, the neg- lect of which, in his own and preceding ages, he so much deplored : every thing has had a tendency to augment the powers, diminish the pains, or increase the happiness of mankind. 5. Amongst the sciences so cultivated and advanced, since the sev- enteenth century, as justly to be regarded as new, we may rank chem~ istry, botany, electricity, galvanism, mineralogy, geology, and in many respects, geography : every one of these sciences has been placed on so viirj different a footing, by the recent manner of treating them, and by •new discoveries, that it is better, perhaps, at once to consider them as new sciences, than to advert to former systems, founded on totally er- roneous principles, and which have been, on that account, very rea- sonably exploded. 6. Chemistry, however, even in the course of the period before us, has undergone very essential changes ; it is now not only a very differ ent science from the chemistry that prevailed antecedent to the eigh- teenth century ; but the eighteenth century itself has witnessed a re- jriarkabie revolution in its leading principles : some, indeed, of the most important changes approach nearer to the nineteenth than the seventeenth century, if they do not actually belong to the former ; at all events, it was not till towards the close of the eighteenth century that chemical experiments had been pushed so far as to displace two of the elements of the old philosophy, and totally supersede the pre- vailing theory of heat, light, and. combustion ; a theory wnich was itself not much more than half a century old. Stahl, the celebrated disciple of Becher, born in 1,660, but who lived to 1,734, has the credit of being the author of the phlogistic system, which began to be attack- ed late in the last century, and seems now to be totally exploded. Whether the rival theory will ultimately maintain its ground in 4 all points, may, perhaps, appear still doubtful to some : the French claim to be the authors of the new theory ; but though the experiments they ve*y ably conducted were highly conducive to the establishment of it, 400 MODERN HISTORY , the way seems to have been more opened to thern by others than they are willing to acknowledge, particularly by EnglL'h observers. The phlogistic system was a plausible theory in certain respects, but in others totally indefensible ; and, perhaps, a better proof of the utility of repeated experiments could not be produced, than that which as- certained, that, instead of the extrication of a particular substance by combustion, something was undoubtedly added to, or imbibed by, the combustible body, in crder to the separation of its parts ; that, in fact, in the actual process of combustion, affinity produces a double decom- position, and that a certain portion of the atmosphere entering into union with the combustible body produces all those appearances, which, under the former system had been attributed to the ex- plication of an unknown principle of inflammability, denominated phlogiston. 7. The very curious experiments, made to confirm and establish the latter system, have been of the greatest importance in regard to othei matters, particularly to that branch of the new chemistry which has been denominated the pneumatic system. The discoveries in this line of experiment, which has the air for its subject, exceed, perhaps, all others in importance and interest : the analysis of the common atmos- phere has opened to our view a series of physical operations constant- ly going, on, the most wonderful and delicate that can possibly be con- ceived : the respiration of animals is of this description. The atmos- phere is now known to be a most curious compound of two sorts of air, or gases, (as they have been named of late,) the one capable of supporting life and flame, the other destructive of both : in combus- tion, calcination of metals, and respiration, the process is the same,- — a decomposition of the atmosphere : the pure part is imbibed, and the impure part left subject to further contamination, by what is given out by the combustible, calcining, or respiring bodies during the ope- ration ; for, as it was before said, the decomposition in all instances is a double one ; the proportion of the two parts of the atmosphere has been ascertained to be in a hundred, twenty-two of pure or vital, and seventy-eight of impure or azotic, gas. 8. The discovery of the vital air is acknowledged by M. Lavoisier to have been common to himself with two other eminent chemists, Dr. Priestly and the celebrated Scheele. Dr. Priestly discovered it in 1,774, Scheele in 1,777, M. Lavoisier in 1,775 : the former seems un- doubtedly to have the best claim to the discovery. M. Lavoisier, at first, called it " highly respirable air ;" afterwards, as entirely essen- tial to the support of life, " vital air :" Dr. Priestly, who lived and died an advocate for the phlogistic system, " dephlogisticated air :" and Scheele called it " empyreal air." It at last obtained another name, from its being supposed to be the cause of acidity, viz. " oxy- gen gas." 9. Who is justly to be accounted the father of the pneumatic chem- istry, it would, perhaps, be hazardous to say : Dr. Black of Edinburgh has had the credit of being so, from his experiments on the carbonic acid. It has been claimed for Dr. Priestley, Scheele, and M. Lavoi- sier : the discoveries in this line certainly constitute a grand era in chemistry. The many various kinds of gases that have been new discovered ; the very curious experiments made to ascertain their properties : the instruments invented to render such experiments cer- tain ; the new compounds that have been detected by their means and their operation and effects in almost every branch of physics, it would far exceed our limits to describe ; but it is impossible not to MODERN HISTORY. 401 notice the extiaordinary discovery of the decomposition of water, which belongs entirely to pneumatic chemistry. 10. Till within less than half a century ago, water was esteemed to be so certainly an elementary principle, that but few. ever dreamed of its being otherwise ; and it was almost by accident that it was at last found to be a compound. In the course of certain pneumatic experi- ments, it was ascertained by Mr. Cavendish, that water was produced by a combination of two particular gases : both analysis and synthesis were resorted to, to render this curious discoveiy more certain, and it was at length ascertained, not only that those two gases were constant- ly produced in certain proportions from the decomposition of water, but that water was as constantly the result of a judicious mixture of those two gases : the gases thus constituting the proper principles of water, were the vital and inflammable airs of the first chemical nomen- clature of modern days, better known now by the names of oxygen gas and hydrogen gas ; the latter evidently so called, from its im- portance, as a constituent base or radical of water ; we owe the dis- coveiy of it to our countryman, Mr. Cavendish. The proportion be- tween the two gases in these curious experiments has been found to be eighty-five of oxygen to fifteen of hydrogen ; both oxygen and hydro- gen being combustible, their combination for experimental purposes is brought about by inflammation, through the means of the electric spark. 11. Having given this short account of the leading discoveries in pneumatic chemistry ; discoveries which 'have opened to us totally new views, of certain physical operations of the first importance, and greatly extended our knowledge of chemicalsubstances and their prop- erties, simple and compound, visible and invisible, confineable and unconfineable : we shall be compelled to be much more brief in what further relates to modern chemistry. 12. Of late years almost all the substances in nature have been ex- amined ; and probably almost all the combinations of them exhausted : new metals to a large amount, new earths, and new acids have been discovered ; the fixed alkalis decomposed, and their nature ascertain- ed ; the whole range of chemical affinities and attractions nicely ar- ranged and determined, as far as experiment can reach ; and many elastic aeriform fluids brought to light, distinguished from each other by their different bases, which were totally unknown before to natural philosophers, under the forms in which they are now obtained ; and which have been thought deserving of being formed into & fourth class or kingdom, amongst the productions of nature : the proper distinction of these elastic fluids, or gases, as they have been denominated, (after a term adopted by V anhelmont,' signifying a spirit or incoercible vapour,) being that of some base, saturated with the cause of heat or expansion, called in the new nomenclature caloric ; by means of some of these gases, so combined with caloric, a power has been obtained of fusing the most refractory substances in nature. 13. To render the nice and delicate experiments necessary in this new branch of chemical science more accurate, numerous instruments have been invented, of very curious construction ; such as the eudiom- eter, to measure the purity of any given portion of air ; the gazometer, <.o measure the quantities, &c. of gases ; the calorimeter, for measures of heat ; to which we may add various descriptions of thermometers and pyrometers. ^particularly the differential thermometer, invented by Mr. Leslie, of Edinburgh, and its accompaniments ; the pyroscope, ©r measure of radiant heat ; the photometer, to ascertain the intensity Ll 2 5: *y; MODERN HISTORY. of light; veiy curious and delicate balances, some that are said to be capable of ascertaining a weight down to the seven millionth part, deserve to be mentioned, as extraordinary instances of skilful work- manship ; many different sorts of hygrometers also have been con- structed, particularly one by the same ingenious experimentalist already mentioned, Mr. Leslie, calculated to render more correct the examination of all processes dependant upon evaporation; but it would be endless to attempt to describe the many instruments and con- trivances rendered necessary by the extreme delicacy and minuteness of modern chemical and pneumato-chemical experiments ; it is sum cient to state, in a histoiy of the progress of arts and sciences, th.-t in all instances, invention appears to have kept pace with experiment; and that the world has been almost as much enriched by the new-in- vented means of discovery, as by the discoveries to which they have conduced ; while tfc skill and judgment requisite to construct the expensive and complicated instruments indispensably necessary for ascertaining the analysis and synthesis of bodies, with such exquisite precision, as to quantity and proportion, have conspired greatly to advance the several arts connected with such machinery, as well as to quicken the intelligence and ingenuity of the artists themselves ; in (his line, perhaps, nobody has acquhea greater celebrity than the late Mr. Ramsden, the maker of the balance of the Royal Society, whose extraordinary powers have been alluded to above. 14. Among those who have principally distinguished themselves in the improvement and advancement of chemical science, since the commencement of the eighteenth century, we may justly mention the names of Stahl, Fourcroy, Macquer, Lavoisier, Guytonmorveau. Berthollet, Klaproth, Vauquelin, Chaptal, Gay-Lussac, Kirwan, Ten- nant, Wollaston, Priestley, Cavendish, Black, Irwine, Crawford. Leslie, Hall, Thompson, Brande, and Davy. To the last of whom, our illustrious countryman, we stand indebted for some of the most remarkable discoveries, and most laborious analyses of compound substances, which have taken place under the new system ; nor has he been deficient in applying his scientific attainments to practical purposes, in his elements of chemical agriculture, and above all, the safety -lamp, whereby he may possibly, in combating the fatal effect? ot the fire damp in coal mines, have contributed to preserve the lives of thousands and thousands of his fellow creatures ; this discovery was the fruit of many most laborious, difficult, and even dangerous ex • periments. 15. When we consider the many uses of chemistry, and the im-> inense advantages to be derived from every improvement of it in a variety of manufactures, in medicine, in metallurgy, in the arts of dying, painting, brewing, distilling, tanning, making glass, enamels porcelain, and many others, we may easily conceive that the progres and advancement of this one branch of science alone, during the last and present century, must have contributed largely to the improve- ment of many thisgs, on which all the comforts and conveniences, the happiness, the security, the well-being, the prosperity, and even the lives of men, depend BOTANY 1, Botany is another of the sciences, which, from the changes H Ws i«ide*£one> and the great progress it has made since the MODERN HISTORY. 403 commencement of the eighteenth century, may justly be regarded ai new. 2. Already were the names of Ray, Rivinns, and Tournefort, wel known to the lovers of this interesting study, forming as it were a new era in the history of botany, and imparting a lustre to the close of the seventeenth century, for which it will ever be memorable. Their at- tempts at arrangement may be justly considered as the commencement of a career which was destined to acquire its full degree of develope ment during the eighteenth century, under the happy auspices of the most celebrated botanist the world ever saw ; the great and illustrious Linnaeus. 3. This extraordinary man was born at Rashult, in the province of Smaland, in Sweden, on the 24th of May, 1,707, and before he was twenty-one years of age, had made himself so thoroughly acquainted with the study of plants, as well as with the merits and defects of hia predecessors in that line, as to conceive the idea of remodelling the whole fabric of systematic botany, and of placing it on a new founda tion, namely, the sexuality of vegetables. This bold and enterprising undertaking he not only projected, but accomplished with a rapidity and success that excited the wonder and astonishment both of hi> friends and enemies. 4. His first work was published in 1,730, being a brief exposition of *:he new principle on which his system was to be founded ; and thfc method may be said to have been completed in 1,737, when he pub lished his Genera Pla?itarum, which contained a description and ar rangement of nearly one thousand genera, comprising upwards of eight thousand species, and constituting what has been since known by the name of the sexual system. i 5. At first it was either opposed as a fanciful innovation, or received with doubt and distrust ; but its fame soon began to spread, and tc bear -down before it all opposition, till it ultimately met with the almost universal reception of botanists in every country in Europe. 6. In 1,742, Linnaeus was chosen professor of botany at Upsal, and in 1,753 he published his Species Plantarum. His authority was now supreme, and the impulse he communicated to the study of vegetables unprecedented in the annals of botany ; hence the various voyages that were undertaken by his immediate disciples, Kalm, Laepling, Hasselquist, and others, or which have been since undertaken by their successors, aided by the munificence of princes, or the zeal of private individuals, as well as the various societies that were sooner or later instituted, with a view to the advancement of botanical knowledge ; amongst which the Linnaean society of London, founded in 1,788, stands pre-eminent, under the presidency of sir James Edward Smith, one of the most distinguished of the followers of Linnaeus, and the pos- sessor of his herbarium, library, and manuscripts. 7. The acquisitions thus made to the mass of botanical knowledge, are altogether astonishing. Botanists are now said to be acquainted with upwards of forty thousand species of plants ; and still there are regions of the earth unexplored, and flowers without a name, (" et sunt sine nomine /lores.") 8. We cannot, however, refuse to acknowledge that botany has also derived the most important advantages from such cultivators of the science as cannot be ranked amongst the disciples of Linnaeus, though *Jiey have equally contributed to the advancement of the knowledge of plants, at least in the department of the study of their natural amni - Uqs ; the grand and ultimate end ©f botany, which Linnaeus himseJf 404 . .' MODERN HISTORY. knew well how to appreciate, and even to improve, as may be seen in his prelections published by Giseke, and in his Fragments of a Natu- ral Method. But it was left for the illustrious Jussieu, the most ac- complished botanist of the present age, to give to that method the comparative perfection which it has actually obtained, and to erect the noble superstructure cf his Genera Plant-arum ; a work exhibiting the most philosophical arrangement of plants, as well as the most complete view of their natural affinities, that was ever presented to the contemplation of man. 9 This work was published at Paris in 1,789, and the natural method of Jussieu, which may be regarded as having at all times stood in opposition to the artificial method of Linnaeus, seems now to be advancing to a more direct rivalship than ever. Even in the works of such botanists as profess to be the disciples of Linnaeus, there seems to be a leaning to the method of Jussieu ; but whether the natural method of the latter will be suffered ultimately to prevail, or the artificial method of the former, time only can show. 10. Great, however, as the progress of systematic botany has un- doubtedly been, during the course of the last and beginning of the present century, the progress of physiological botany has perhaps been still greater. In proof of this, it will be sufficient to mention the names of Hales, Bonnet, Du Hamel, Hedwig, Spallanzani, Gaertner, Knight, Keith, and Mirbel ; each of whom has distinguished himself in the field of phytological investigation, and eminently contributed to ihe advancement of the science. Above all, we must not fail to men- tion the name of Priestley, as being the first who introduced into the study of phytology the aid of pneumatic chemistry, which, under the nappy auspices of Ingenhouz, Senebier, Saussure, Ellis, and Davy, and lastly of Gay-Lussac and Kenard, has done more to elucidate the phenomena of vegetation, than all other means of investigation, and has furnished as the foundation of the physiology of plants a body of the most curious and undoubted facts. 11. Before we dismiss this part of our subject, it is not unfit that we should notice the extraordinary progress that has been made at the same time in distinct branches of the science, as well as in the appli- cation of the arts of drawing, engraving, and colouring, for the pur- poses of illustration, and for exhibiting to the eye, at all times, in all places, and at all seasons, the beautiful and interesting productions of the vegetable kingdom, in such perfection, as, in seme degree, to su- persede the necessity of living specimens ; sometimes so rare and in- accessible as to be out of the reach of the most scientific. There is no branch of knowledge which has furnished more splendid and elabo- rate works of this nature, than that of botany, or in which the arts have been carried to a greater degree of perfection and delicacy ; and as a study so elegant and agreeable cannot well be rendered too general, it is pleasing to observe, that through the improvements that have thus taken place, and the facilities afforded to such publications, not a month passes in this kingdom without large additions being made to the general stock of botanical knowledge, in works of singular beauty and correctness ; though far from costly, considering the pains bestow- ed upon them. 12. The lovers of botany stand greatly indebted also, to those learned persons who have made it their particular business to collect, examine, and describe the plants of countries and districts, and f o supply them with distinct Flora, both foreign and domestic, as tb<» Flora Britannica of Smith, the Flora Anglica of Hudson, the Flora MODERN HISTORY. 40!> Scotica ot Lightfoot, the Flora Cantabrigiensis of Relhan, the Flora Oxoniensis of Sibthorpe, the Flora Londinensis of Curtis, the Flora Grseca, the Flora Peruviana, the Flora Banica, the Flore^ Francoise, and others much too numerous to mention ; in the same class may be reckoned those works which are still further confined to the descrip tion or illustration of particular genera of plants, as in our own country, the Carices, by Goodenough ; the Grasses, by Stillingfleet ; the Mentha? Britannicse, by Sole ; the Pines, by Lambert ; the Fuel, ly Turner ; and various others. ELECTRICITY. 1. Though the property of excitation existing in amber, (elekiron,) appears to have been known to Thales six hundred, and to Theophras- tus three hundred years before Christ, yet electricity (which takes its name from this circumstance) and galvanism, as it is still called, may decidedly be regarded as sciences which have sprung up during the period to which our present inquiries belong. It was not, indeed, till towards the middle of the eighteenth century that experiments in electricity Were pursued with any degree of ardour, success, or ad- vantage. Mr. Hawksbee wrote learnedly upon the subject in 1,709, but it was not till twenty years afterwards that Mr. Grey and M. du Faye at Paris, engaged in some experiments which contributed to throw light upon the subject. Mr. Grey, who resumed his experi- ments in 1,734, saw enough to lead him to suppose that the electric fluid andlightning were the same, which was not, however, effectually proved- till the year 1,752, when the celebrated. Dr. Franklin, of America, with great ingenuity, and no small degree of courage, ascer- tained the tact by decisive experiments ; a discovery which he soon applied to practical purposes, by the invention of metallic conductors for the security ol buildings, ships, &c, during storms. 2. As experiments could not be profitably undertaken till a suitable apparatus was provided, it is equally evident, that the improvement of such apparatus must greatly have depended on the progress of the science. The Leyden phial for the accumulation of the electrical power in glass, was invented about 1,745, and the general apparatus gradually improved by Van Marum, Cunseus, Dr. Nooth,.Mr. Nairne, Dr. Priestley, Messrs. Read, Lane, and Adams. To professor Volta, of Como, we stand indebted for two very useful and important electri- cal instruments, the electrophorus, and condenser of electricity. Many sorts of electrometers for measuring the quartity and quality of elec- tricity in an electrified body, have also been invented. 3. In 1,747 electricity began to be used for medical purposes, and was supposed to be of efficacy in cases of rheumatism, deafness, palsy, scrofula, cancers, abscesses, gout, &c. ; but the progress of medical electricity has not been great, while the want of an apparatus, and the knowledge and skill requisite to apply it properly, must always pie- vent its becoming any very common remedy. 4. Galvanism, which may be said to have been engrafted on elec- tricity in 1,791, was the discovery of the celebrated Galvani of Bologna ; it has been called animal electricity ; his first experiments having been made on animals, and tending manifestly to prove the identity of the nervous and electric fluids, though this was for some time doubted. M. Galvani discovered that, without any artificial electricity, and by merely presenting some conducting substance to 40b MODERN HISTORY different parts of the nerves or muscles of a dissected frog, violent motions were produced, exactly similar to those which were excited by a discharge of the electrical machine. 5. The aiscovery of M. Galvani has since led to very important ends, through the great care and attention of M. Volta, who, improv- ing uppn his discovery of the power of conductors, has been enabled to suppiy the philosophical world with an instrument of very extraor- dinary powers, especially for purposes of chemical decomposition. At first M. Volta was led to suppose that it required only a set of dif- ferent conductors, two metals and a fluid, to collect and distribute the electrical matter ; he considered that, upon these principles, he had produced an artificial imitation of the electrical powers exhibited by the torpedo, the gymnotus, silurus, and tetrodon electricus ; but further discoveries demonstrated that there was a chemical agency going for- ward all the time, a,nd that much depended on the action of the fluids on the metals, which are all naturally excellent conductors, but become non-conductors when oxy dated, some being more easily oxydattd than others. The voltaic pile is a simple galvanic combination ; a series ot them forms a battery. The most perfect galvanic combination is held to consist in such an arrangement of metals, exposed to tne action of an oxydating riuid, as are liable to very different changes ; the greatest and the least. In every simple galvanic combination, water is decomposed, the oxygen entering into union with the metal, and the hydrogen being evolved. 6. Since this discovery, many have engaged in electro-chemical re - searches, of the utmost importance, particularly our own countryman, sir Humphrey Davy. His experiments on the alkalis and earths, and discovery of their metallic nature, being in themselves sufficient to show how wide a range of inquiry is opened to the experimentalist, by this powerful agent ; it being reasonable to suppose, that there is scarcely any substance in nature, either above or below the surface of the earth, that is not subject, more or less, to the chemical agencies of electricity. Heretofore the observations of the philosopher were chiefly, if not entirely, confined to those sudden and violent changes which take place through any powerful concentration of the electric fluid. These new discoveries seem to afford him a fair chance and opportunity- of tracing some at least of those manifold changes which may be brought about in a more quiet, tranquil, and insensible man- ner ; and which, in all probability, are incessantly operating effects, hitherto little known and little suspected. It is obvious that medicine, chemistry, physiology, mineralogy, and geology, may all be greatly assisted by a more perfect knowledge of such curious and hitherto hidden processes of nature Before the galvanic method of exciting electricity had been discovered, many very curious experiments had been made, to prove the influence of electricity on tne atmosphere, magnetism, vegetation, muscular motion ; in earthquakes, volcanoes, and other natural appearances and operations ; all ot Avhich are likely to become better known, and further illustrated, by the application or the electro-chemical apparatus, which, since its first invention, has been already greatly improved. It may not be amiss to observe, that meteo- rology, as a particular branch of knowledge, has been greatly aided by all the improvements spoken of above in chemistry and electricity, and in the invention of many instruments, very simple, but chiefly to be referred to the eighteenth century ; as the barometer, the thermom- eter, the hydrometer, the pluviameter, or rain-gauge, the anemometer, and electrometer already mentioned. Amongst the most eminent of m MODERN HISTORY 40*3 those who have applied themselves to this study, we may reckoo Messrs, Bouguer, Saussure, De Luc, Gay-Lussac, Van-Marum, Fer guson, Cavallo, &c. ; Drs. Franklin, Blagden. and Priestley ; Messrs Canton and Beccaria MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY. 1. Mineralogy and geology are reasonably to be regarded as ?ica sciences since the close of the seventeenth century, having been cul- tivated from that time in a manner totally new, and greatly advanced by the progress made in other sciences, and the improvement of many arts. They are -both, however, still so much in their infancy, that a very brief account of what has taken place during the last and. present century is the utmost that we can attempt. 2. It was not till towards the middle of the last century, that the modern scientific arrangements of minerals began to occupy the atten- tion of naturalists. That indefatigable observer, Linnaeus, did not overlook this branch of natural history, but introduced into the twelfth , edition of his " Systema Naturae," published in 1,768, a systematic "view of " The negnum Lapideum," which he divided into three classes, petrue, vmierce, znd jbssilice, many orders, and fifty-four gene- ra. In 1,793, Gmelin republished the " Systema Naturae" of Lin- naeus, with alterations and improvements. 3. Linnaeus did not take the lead in such arrangements : in his own work he notices the preceding systems of Bromelius, who published in 1,730 • Wallerius, in 1,747 ; Woltersdorf, in 1,748 ; Curtheuser, in 1,775 ; Justi, in 1,757 ■ Cronstedt, in 1,758 ; and Vogel, in 1,762. Linnaeus, however, has the credit of having first reduced the science of mineralogy mj.o classes and orders, and Wallerius and himself un- dertook the arduous and hazardous task of fixing the specific characters of minerals. Wallerius's second system appeared in 1,772. In 1,781 , Veltheim published his system at Brunswick, and in 1,782, Berga- inan's made its first appearance- .at Leipsic. 4. Before this time the celebrated Werner, professor of mineralogy at Freyburg, in Saxony, had published a treatise on the classification of minerals, according to their external characters, which was more fully illustrated in his notes to a translation of Cronstedt, which ap- peared in 1,780. Werner has obtained a name amongst mineralogists and geologists, which stands deservedly high; though he seems only to have prepared the way for the observations and experiments of others, by an accumulation and description of facts and appearances, extremely curious and valuable The fundamental principle in Wer- ner's mineralogical arrangement, ,is the natural affinity of fossils, of which he enumerates three kinds : the chemical, the oryctognostica!, and the geognostic. Mr. Kirwin first introduced the Wemerian sys- tem into Britain^ in his treatise on mineralogy, 1,784. t>. In 1,773, the study of the regular or crystalline forms of minerals seemed to give a. new turn to mineralogy. The first work of eminence iii this line was the Crystallographie ofthe celebrated Rome de V Isle, which was made the basis ofthe system of Kauy, published in 1,801. All mineral bodies are supposed by this system to be reducible by mechanical division to an integrant molecule. From the form and component parts, it has been proposed to deduce the specific charac- ters. The forms of the integrant molecule are found to be three ; the tetrahedron, the triangular prism, and the parallelapiped. Muth 408 MODERN HISTORY. attention has been paid to this system, and it must be acknowledged that if the tes f s proposed were easily to be applied, and chemistry had proceeded so far as thoroughly to enable us to distinguish between the accidental and essential ingredients of minerals, as has been done in some remarkable instances with much effect, more direct means of distinguishing minerals could scarcely be devised : but as things stand at present, there seems to be too much geometry and chemistry ne- cessary to render such a system generally useful. In 1,808, however, M. Chevenix, in the Annales de Chymie, gave great support to the system of Hauy, to the disparagement of that of Werner, to whom, nevertheless, he is careful to give due praise. Crystallization will long remain, probably, a subject of most curious research and inquiry among geologists as well as mineralogists ; the appearances of it in primitive rocks, leading immediately to the grand question concerning tne operations of fire and water, which have divided the cultivators of this branch of study into the two parties of Platonists, who contend for the igneous origin of those rocks, and the Neptunists, who refer them to an aqueous origin : of the latter of which, was the celebrated Werner. 6, Many other systems, more or less connected with Werner's, have been made public, as Brochart's, Schmeisser's, 1,795 ; Babmgton's, 1,796 ; Brogniart's, (a very useful and valuable one,) Iiiddfs, 1,809 ; Clarke's, 1,811 ; one by Mr. Arthur Aikin ; and, lastly, that of Ber- zelius, a Swedish chemist, who has lately attempted to establish a pure scientific system of mineralogy, oy the application of the electro- chemical theory and the chemical proportions : as this system is closely connected with the latest discoveries and improvements that have been made in chemistry and electricity, we shall here close our remarks on mineralogy, as a science by no means perfected, but open to further experiments and observations, though very materially ad- vanced since the close of the seventeenth century. 7. Geology has arisen out of mineralogy; and though no new science as to name, is entirely so according to the principles upon which it is now conducted. Werner was for giving a new name at once to the new science, which was a judicious step to take; though it has not been generally adopted : he called it Geognosie : it is fit, in- deed, that it should be distinguished from the geology of old, which only engendered a parcel of fanciful theories of the earth, unfounded on facts. How the globe was formed, is a very different inquiry from that of " what has happened to it since it was formed :" modern geology is chiefly conversant with the latter ; to examine the interior of the earth, as far as it can be examined, in order to understand the course of the revolutions and changes that have taken place, and of_ which we perceive the most manifest proofs : already very extraordi- nary circumstances have been discovered, indicative of successive changes, both before and after any organic beings existed, and there fore both oefore as well as after the globe became strictly habitable , among the most curious effects plainly to be traced, may be reckoned the extensive operations of fire and water, the extinction of many species of vegetables and animals, and the very extraordinary preser- vation of some of the latter, bespeaking a state of congelation, at the moment of the catastrophe by which they appear to have been over- whelmed ; remains of animals in places where they no longer exist, ^nd the extraordinary absence of human reliquiae. The science of comparative anatomy has been of great use in these researches, in which nobody has distinguished himself bo much as M Cuvier secre- iary of the French Institute. MODERN HISTORY. 4UU 8. Many geological societies are forming-, or have been already formed, in different parts of Europe and in America, and professor- ships founded in our universities ; but it will be long, perhaps, before the several observations and discoveries making- in all parts of the world, can be so compared, classed, and methodized, as to bring out such results as may be admitted for certain and indisputable truths, in regard to the history of the earth and of man. In the mean while, we should consider that geologists have always a field to work in, abound- ing in materials so applicable to every useful art as to promise con- tinual accessions of knowledge, not merely scientific, but of rea. practical utility. We ought not, perhaps, to dismiss this part of our subject, without noticing the very curious geological map of England, published by our countryman, Mr. Smith, in 1,815, a work of great merit and originality GEOGRAPHY. 1. We have mentioned geography, also, as among those science*, which may be regarded as almost new, not only because it is since the middle of the last century that Ave have acquired a more correct knowl- edge of the figure of the earth, but from the extraordinary manner in which the whole terraqueous globe has been explored of late, and the additions consequently made to our former knowledge of its parts : the discoveries that have taken place since the close of the seventeenth century, have, according to the French geographers, presented to us two new quarters of the world, and which have been denominated Australasia and Polynesia. The following account may serve to ex- plain these additions to modern geography : 2. The former is held to contain, 1. New Holland, and all the islands between twenty degrees west, and between twenty and thirty degrees east of it. 2. New Guinea and the islands adjacent. 3. New Britain, New Ireland, and the Solomon Isles. 4. New Caledonia and the New Hebrides. 5. New Zealand. 6. Van Dieman's Land, which is separated from New Holland by Basse's strait or channel, and is about thirty leagues wide. 3. The division called Polynesia, consists of, 1. The Felew Islands. 2. The Ladrone or Marian Islands. 3. The Carolines. 4. The Sandwich Islands. 5. The Marquesas, which are very numerous. 6. The Society Islands, about sixty or seventy in number. 7. The Friendly Islands. 8. The Navigators' Islands. The largest island in this division is Owhyhee, one of the Sandwich Islands, and the place where the celebrated circumnavigator, Cook, lost his life. 4. The voyages and travels conducive to these discoveries are too generally known to be much dwelt upon in such a work as the present. It will be sufficient merely to mention the names of those who, since the years 1,735 and 1,736, (when the Spanish and French mathemati cians undertook their celebrated missions to measure a degree of the meridian under the pole and at the equator,) have been employed by the different powers of Europe on voyages of discovery. 5. Of the English we may enumerate : Byron, 1,764—1,766. Mr. Harrison's time-piece applied to the discovery of the longitude. Wall is and Carteret, 1,766. Sailed together, but soon separated Otaheite and other islands discovered. Mm 32 410 MODERN HISTORY Cook, three voyages : — First voyage, 1,768 — 1,771. The transit of Venus observed at Matavai, in Otaheite, June. 1,769. New Holland, and New Zealand explored. Second voyage, 1,772 — 1,775, in search of a southern continent. Third voyage, 1,776 — 1,780, to discover a lorthern passage ; fatal te» captain Cook, who was killed at Owhyhee. Fortloch and Dixon, 1,785 — 1,788 ; principally to establish the fur tride, at Nooika Sound. Vancouver, 1,790 — 1,795, to explore the northern passage. Unsuc- cessful. Phipps, (lord-Mulgrave,) north pole, 1,773. Lord Macartney, China, 1,792. , Lord Amnerst, ditto. 1,816, 1,817. Of the French we may reckon, Bougainville, 1,766—1,768. La Peyrouse, 1,785 — 1,788, supposed to have perished. D'Entricasteux, in search of La Peyrouse. Marchand, 1,790—1,792. , The Spaniards appear to have employed Malaspina, an Italian, t ,7/90, to explore distant seas and countries ; hut his voyage was not published. These were all of them voyages, not merely devoted to geographical discoveries, but in which competent persons, in almost £wy branch of science, were concerned, to take account of whatever should offer itself to their notice, or be likely to contribute, in any i manner whatsoever, to the general advancement of human knowledge ; astronomy, botany, zoology, meteorology, physiology, mineralogy, and geology. Trade and commerce, navigation and the arts, were constantly in the way of receiving illustration or improvement, during these bold attempts to advance the geography of the world, and solve ♦he difficulties which still seemed to hang about that interesting and unportant science. The names of Banks, Solander, Green, Sparrman, Forster, and Anderson, will descend to the remotest posterity, with that of Cook. 6. War often, indeed, interrupted- these pursuits, but the eighteenth century has the credit of affording the following strong marks of the progress of civilization and liberal ideas. It was during a continental war, that a combination of learned and scientific persons, English, .French, Russians, Danes, and Swedes, in the year 1,761, laying aside their animosities, undertook the arduous task of observing, for astro- nomical and geographical purposes, a transit of Venus over the sun. it was in the "midst of war, that France, in a very public and formal manner, suspended all hostilities that could in any manner affect the orogress or safe return of our English navigator, Cook ; and both the French and English, in the course of their voyages of discovery, are known to have evinced a spirit of philanthropy and humanity very opposite to what had passed on such occasions in former ages. The improvement of every barbarous and savage people they might visit was among the first thoughts of those who were engaged in these new adventures. Some remarkable directions to this effect, given by Louis XVI. himself to La Peyrouse, will for ever do honour to the memory of that benign but ill-fated monarch. The English circum navigators were not less attentive to these things, but continually sought the amelioration of the savage condition of the people they visited too often, however, quite in vain, or without any lasting effect. 7 It would be utterly out of our power to enter into any details of MODERN HISTORY. 411 the numerous researches that have been made in all parts of the globe, since the spirit of discovery was first excited, which has so remarkably distinguished the period of which we are treating. In the north and south, east and west, of both hemispheres, almost every region has been explored, and eveiy information obtained that can throw light on the histoiy either of the earth or of man. The two peninsulas of India, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, and Abyssinia, the northern and the southern, and, in some instances, the interior parts of Africa ; Syria. Greece, and Turkey ; Norway, Lapland, Siberia, and even the wilds of Tartary and Kamschatka ; New Spain ; the back settlements «>! North America, and North America itself; Iceland, Greenland;, &c. have all been visited by persons of science and learning, and are almnsl as well known now, as the most frequented and civilized parts of Eu- rope ; all that can be ascertained of their history ; all that the re- mains of antiquity could unfold to the eye of 'curiosity ; all the animals, plants, minerals, they produce ; have been so amply examined, de- scribed, classed, and methodized, that it may reasonably be supposed that in very many instances, all that can be known is known. Among the travels enumerated, the scholar, in particular, has been in no or- dinary degree gratified by the visits that have been recently paid to modern Greece, and by the able, classical, and scientific descriptions which have been given of that very interesting portion of the conti- nent, by lord Byron, Mr. Hobhouse, major Leake, Dr. HolJand, sir William Drummond, Dr. Clark, lord Aberdeen, sir William Gell, ?.nd others of our own countrymen ; and by M. Pouqueville, who having accompanied Buonaparte to Egypt, at the close of the last century was among the first to explore those celebrated regions. 8. The new means of inquiry and investigation, have so kept pace with the wide field lately opened to the world, that even individuals have been found competent to bring home with them from the most remote countries, ample information upon all the great points that can possibly interest the curiosity of man ; a greater instance of this, could not, perhaps, be produced, than in the case of a living traveller and author, the celebrated M. Humboldt, of Prussia, whose multifarious researches, at a very early age, in almost all parts of the globe, have added more to the general stock of knowledge in the compass of a very few years, than could have been attained by ages of inquiry in times at ail distant. In speaking of this very celebrated traveller, whose accounts of Spanish America in particular have lately excited so much attention, it is fit also to notice the removal of many restraints and im- pediments in the way of such researches, through the more libera! policy of the mother country ; so far from expressing, as would have been the case in former times, any jealousy of such a visit to her colo- nies, M. Humboldt obtained the express approbation and concurrence. of the Spanish court. The removal of the court of Portugal to the Brazils in the year 1,807, has also proved favourable in no small de- gree to the prosecution of such inquiries ; the king having, with con siderable liberality, patronised such undertakings. 9. The sovereigns of Russia, from the time of Peter the great through a natural desire of acquiring a correct knowledge of their very extended dominions, buried, at the close of the seventeenth, century in profound ignorance and obscurity, were careful to employ propel persons to make such discoveries, who so ably discharged their com missions, that before the end of the eighteenth century, a very cele b rated German professor declared that they had amassed such a quan tity of materials, entirely new, for the history of the three kingdoms 412 MODERN HISTORY. of nature, for the theory of the earth, for rural economy, and for an infinity of other objects relative to the arts and sciences, as would em- ploy many learned men for several years, in their proper arrangement and classification. The names of Beering and Spangberg, Pallas, Gmelin, Muller, Chappe D'Auteroche, Georgi, Lepechin, are well known, as among those who have most distinguished themselves in these northern and north-eastern expeditions. Among the improve ments connected with the science of geography, and its progress, wt should be glad if we could do justice to the very learned and eminent persons who have, in a manner unknown before, devoted their time to the more correct delineation of the face of the globe, in the construc- tion of maps and charts, which seem to be advancing rapidly to the highest degree of perfection. M. d'Anville, whose labours, in this way are so well known, may be justly considered perhaps as having given the first stimulus in this line of study, to the geographers ot modern times. 10. As the science of astronomy is in many instances connected with geography, we may here notice the changes that have taken place in regard to the former, during the last and present centuries ; which, however, being only in the way of addition upon the established prin- ciples of the Copernican and Newtonian systems, are not such as can be said to have altered the character of the science itself ; and, indeed, the additions that have been made are very easily enumerated, though they must have cost much pains, and are the results of very curious observations and intricate calculations, on the part of those to whom we stand indebted for them. 11. We have added five planets to those formerly known as belong- ing to our solar system. The Georgium Sidus, or Uranus, discovered by the celebrated sir W. Herschel, 1,781, and its satellites, 1,787 ; Ceres, by M. Piazzi, at Palermo, 1,801 ; Pallas, by Dr. Olbers, at Bremen, 1,802; Juno, by M. Harding of Lilienthal, in 1,804 ; and Vesta, by Dr. Olbers, 1,807. To the former of these celebrated ob- servers we owe a most enlarged knowledge of the celestial regions, particularly of the nebulous parts, from the application of his new telescopes of most extraordinary powers, which have enabled us to ascertain that the milky-way, and other similar appearances in the heavens, are a congeries of fixed stars, in strata, prodigiously numer- ous, and exhibiting very curious phenomena. Of the immense amount of these stars, which may still have beyond them an unfathomable and unexplorable abyss of the same kind, we may form some conjecture from the following statement of sir William himself, who found by his gauges, in the year 1,792, that in the small space of forty-one minutes, no less than 238,000 stars, in the via lactea, had passed through the field of view in his telescope. Sir William places our own system in the via lactea. He has discovered, besides many new stars, double and triple stars, and what he calls changing stars. 12. We have learned to correct our ideas concerning the substance of the body of the sun, heretofore considered as entirely of an igneous nature. Though its rays contribute largely to the production of heat on the earth's surface, many very obvious appearances ought sooner to have convinced us of what now seems clearly to be understood, that the sun is not a body of fire. 13. The science of astronomy has been much promoted during the time of which we have been treating, by the improvement or invention of many curious and necessary instruments, and the building and establishment of regular observatories ; and practical astronomy has MODERN HISTORY 412 been carried to a very high pitch, by the talents and ingenuity of many very' eminent persons in France, Britain, Germany, Italy, &c. ; as M Clairault, d'Alembert, De la Caille, La Place, La Grange, Bailly, De la Lande, &c. ; Bradley, Maskelyn, Herschel, Hutton, Robison, Ferguson, Vince, &.c. ; Euler, Mayer, Boda, Biancbini, Boscovich, Frisi, Piozzi, &c. 14. We have spoken elsewhere of the travels, expressly undertaken in 1,753, to measure in the northern and southern parts of the world, a degree of the meridian, by which the figure of the earth was ascertain- ed to be an oblate spheroid, according to the conjectures of sir Isaac Newton, and contrary to the assertions of the Cassinis and Bernouilli, who had for some time insisted that the polar diameter was longer than the equatorial : all the experiments seemed to concur in proving the reverse. The steps that were taken, in the years 1,761 and 1,769, to determine the parallax of the sun, by observing the transit of Venus, afford another strong proof of the extraordinary zeal and resolution with which science was cultivated during the period of which we have been treating. On the recommendation of Dr. Halley, who had ob- served a transit of Mercury at St. Helena, but who did not expect to live to see a' transit of Venus, and who in fact died in 1,742, mathema- ticians and astronomers were sent out in the years before mentioned, both from France and England. 15. Among the modern inventions appertaining to astronomy, be- sides the instruments absolutely necessary to correct observation^ we may reckon those curious and elegant machines, exhibiting the motions and phenomena of our solar system and its several parts ; our orreries, planetariums, tellurians, lunariums, &c*, all of which may be consider- ed as extremely interesting and ingenious contrivances. 1. It would be useless to attempt to give any circumstantial -account of the progress that has been made in other sciences,, during the period of which we have been treating, and vain to s^ek, by a mere enume- ration of names, to do justice to the many eminent and illustrious per- sons who have distinguished themselves in various parts of the world, in every branch of learning, useful and ornamental, since the com- mencement of the eighteenth century. The numerous biographical works, chronological charts, critical and philosophical journals, which have from time to time been published during tnis period, may supply information much more full and copious thanwould be at all consistent with the limits of this work,, already extended beyond their original design. As, however, the surprising burst of intellect, investigation and enterprise which has so marked and distinguished the last and present century, appears to have been in a great degree connected with the history oi Europe during the same period,' we shall take a brief view of the latter ; beginning with -England and France ; the two, countries which seem in several respects to have had the mosz considerable share in the changes that have taken place. 2. At the period of the deaths of queen Anne and Lewis XIV (see Sect. LXIV.) England and France appear to have stood in situa ions diametrically opposite. England had just obtained all that she wanted from a revolution ; France had scarcely begun to feel that she stood in need of one. England had succeeded in placing her civi and religious rights on a sure footing ; France was as yet but little sensible jat hers had been greatly violated. England was recovering from a Mm2 414 MODERN HISTORY. state c" misrule and licentiousness , France was declining more than ever into such a condition. In England, Newton had established his new system of philosophy, and Locke illustrated the principles of a free, government, ; in France, Descartes still held the minds of men in a state of fascination and enchantment, and the people knew not what it was to be free. 3. The French government, by too great severity in political and religious matters, had compelled many of her subjects to take refuge in foreign countries, where they were at liberty to make their own re- flections, to print and to publish their thoughts upon the comparative despotism of the country from which they had been driven, and the delusions to which the subjects of the latter were exposed. 4. Among those who had been thus banished, or compelled to retire, no one could have done more to unsettle the minds of his countrymen, in regard both to religion and politics, than the celebrated myle. His object appears, however, to have been merely to unsettle them ; for his whole work is a tissue of doubts and difficulties, which he had no disposition to resolve, but to leave to every man^ own judgment to determine, after having very impartially stated all the arguments and all the facts he could possibly collect, on both sides of every question. 5. The French had been so Jong used to submission, that merely to teach them to doubt was a grand step towards a revolution in their opinions ; but Bayle did not live to see the seeds he had been sowing come to any perfection. It was not. according to the account of the French themselves, till Voltaire, partly in a state of exile, had visited England, that they began to ripen. In England, Voltaire became ac- quainted with the philosophy of Newton and Locke, and saw some of the best political principles of the latter established and in action ; but being the guest of Bolingbroke, his deistical principles, which were very early made known by a passage in his tragedy of CEdipus, underwent no change, or were probably more deeply fixed and con- firmed. 6. Though Shaftesbury, Wolston, Collins, Toland, Tindal, and others, had attacked revelation, and either openly or insidiously sought to imbue the minds of the English with their deistical principles ; the public in general were little*, affected by their writings. Men of supe- rior talents, superior credit, and very superior learning, had lived, oi were living, capable of giving a different tone to ,the feelings of the people. Newton, Locke, Addison, Steele, Clarke, Swift, &c, were amply sufficient to support the cause of religion ; and not only to de- fend the very outworks of Christianity, but to avert the shafts of ridi cule, and set at naught the sarcasms of infidelity. In those admirable periodical papers, the Spectator, the Guardian, the Tattler, &c, we may trace a direct and most benevolent design of rescuing the rising generation from the contagion of bad examples, and the influence ot lalse principles. 7. In France it was otherwise : deism, though weak against the plain evidences of Christianity, was strong against the fanaticism of a bigoted, and the superstition of a corrupted church. The banter of Voltaire soon began to take effect, when aimed at things and persons so vulnerable as the monastic orders,- and the controverted points in dispute between the Jesuits and Jansenists. The defence of religion also, in consequence of these disgraceful and puerile conflicts, and the plausibility of the attacks that were made upon it, which struck hard at its abuses, fell into hands little capable of wielding the weapons so effectually employed in England. The dread of derision too soon MODERN HISTORY 415 damped the spirit of pulpit eloquence, which had cast such a lustre on the names of Saurin, Massillon, &c. ; and converted even the chris- tian preacher into a philosopher of the modern school. Among those who first appeared in defence of revealed religion against the deists, I he French themselves have particularly mentioned the younger Ra- cine, the cardinal de Polignac, and M. Le Franc de Pompignan. The first wrote a heavy poem, which few read ; the second a long philosophical poem in Latin, which not many could read ; and the last published some sacred odes, of which Voltaire found room to say, with his usual wit, " Sacres Us sont, car personne n'y louche." Though Voltaire might have imbibed his deism in part from Bolingbroke, it was plainly not a plant of English growth ; but it proved to be sadly congenial at that time to the soil of France. 8. The regency had wrought a great change in the principles and manners of that lively people. The profligate habits of the duke of Orleans opened a wide field to libertines and freethinkers, and natu- rally encouraged them to speak their minds more freely upon ail sub- jects than would otherwise have been consistent with the spirit of the government. Religion and morals, indeed, could not have received a greater blow than from the extraordinary elevation of the infamous- Dubois to the rank of cardinal, and to the archbishopric of Cambray, so lately filled by the amiable and virtuous Fenelon. 9. While the morals of the French were thus becoming daily more depraved, the manners of the English were evidently much improved. The grave and austere character of William III., the correct deport- ment of Mary, and her sister, queen Anne, had effectually checked the licentiousness of the two preceding reigns, and given encourage- ment to a'set of writers peculiarly capable of amending the age, ot inculcating true piety and sound morality, and giving a better tone to the amusements of the public. Instead of the gross indelicacies which had disgraced the writings and degraded the talents, of Vanburgh, Behn, Congreve, and even Dryden, the taste and manners of the nation derived great improvement and advantages from the more chaste and correct performances of Addison, Steele, Rowe, Prior, Pope, Thomson, Akenside, &c. The stage underwent a wholesome reformation, and in every department of literature there appeared a manifest leaning towards whatever could conduce to puiity of sentiment and delicacy of feeling. 10. Had Voltaire carried back with him from our shores, as he might have done, a purer form of Christianity, and a better system of morals, as well as a more correct philosophy, and sounder principles of government, he might have conferred a lasting benefit on his country ; a benefit the more timely and critical, as it would possibly have pre- vented some of the worst evils which befel that unhappy nation in her subsequent struggles for liberty. Bayle had taught the French to doubt ; Voltaire, having taken a near, though imperfect view of Eng- land, taught them to think and to inquire ; while a greater man than himself was contributing, though more slowly and quietly, to the same end. 11. Almost at the very time that Voltaire was in England, Montes- quieu visited the same country ; but appears principally to have con- fined his views to the great object of his researches, the spirit of her laws, and the leading principles of her admirable constitution. There he learned to admire, in its purest form, a limited monarchy, and a system of jurisprudence, equally adverse to tyranny and licentiousness; equally friendly to the wholesome authority of the magistrate, and ths 11G MODERN HISTORY. iust rights of tire people. Montesquieu, however, (though in his Per- sian Letters he had betrayed a leaning towards deism,j moved in a iine distinct from that generally taken by the philosophers of the day. While Voltaire very soon manifested a desire of taking the lead of all the wits and freethinkers, however different their talents, their charac- ters, or their principles, Montesquieu was not displeased to be left to himself, and to leave his great work to make its own impressions, how- ever slowly, on sensible and ingenuous minds. Its first effects of any importance may, perhaps, be traced in the remonstrances of the par- liaments, who began to take a higher tone after the publication of L'esprit des Lois, and to consider themselves more in the light of rep- resentatives of the people. 12. A number of very extraordinary men were beginning at the same time to draw upon themselves the attention of the world, and to employ their talents in different lines, and often upon very different principles, to enlighten the world, and emancipate it from the thral- dom of ancient prejudices and inveterate abuses. Among these, how- ever, none were more extravagantly eccentric than J. J. Rousseau. This extraordinary man was decidedly for new modelling the whole system of political society, and reducing it to principles which existed only in his own imagination. -Not having ever seen a race of savages, he fancied they must be the more perfect the nearer they were to a state of nature ; and being tormented with the restraints of civilized society, he concluded civilization itself to be an evil. These sophisms served to render him the idol of the equalizing and destroying dema- gogues of the revolution. It was impossible to resist the impressions made by the captivating pictures he drew ; but they seldom had any better effect than that of rendering his votaries as dissatisfied with the world as he himself was, and bewildering their imaginations with doubts and difficulties innumerable. He knew how to appreciate the sublime morality of the gospel, though he could not regulate his owr. actions, by it; and having found in the bible, as in all other cases, something that dissatisfied his restless and irritable mind, and reviling what lie could not approve, or did not sufficiently understand, he cer- tainly did as much mischief to the cause of revealed religion, calling himself a christian all the while, as the worst of his deistical contem- poraries. His opinions and his actions, as exhibited in his own writings, will for ever render him an object of admiration mingled with pity, if not in some instances with abhorrence ! 13. But it was, in no long course of time, discovered that the free opinions that were afloat, and which were as various as the persons who entertained them, and who had as yet no common bond 01 union, as Vollaire, Rousseau, Buffon, Diderot, D'Alembert, Duclos, Helve- tius, Marmontel, Condillac, Raynal, Volney, (to name but a few,) should by some means or other be embodied and consolidated, that the whole of their several thoughts and observations on different sub jects might be presented to the world in a mass. This was the origin of that great and voluminous undertaking, the Encyclopedic, spoken of before, planned by Diderot and D'Alembert ; and which, to say the least of it, seemed to be a treasure of universal science, far more comprehensive, at least, than any thing of the kind before attempted, being not confined to what might strictly be called the arts and sciences, but extending to every question of government, civil econo- my, and finance. 14. The Dictionnaire Encyclopedique, amidst many faults and ex- travagances, contained undoubtedly much important matter written in MODERN HISTOKY. 417 so agreeable a stjde, as to be admirably fitted to excite and promote a thirst after general knowledge, universal inquiry and investigation, a confidence in private judgment, and a prejudice against every thing that appeared to have no other support than custom and authority. Wheat might be torn up with the tares, and tares often sown instead of corn : but it must be acknowledged that we stand indebted to the projectors of this work for the detection and extirpation of many errors, and the powerful stimulus given by their movements to the spirit of free inquiry and useful research. 15. The persons engaged in it have been so generally called philos- ophers, and have been styled such in so many histories of the French revolution, that it is almost necessary to observe that the greater pan of them bore little resemblance to those who had heretofore been dig- nified with that title. The regent, duke of Orleans, though dissolute in his habits of life, was a man of taste, talent, and information ; so that the savans of France, who had heretofore been a retired order of men, became about this period the life of society, and the ornaments of the highest circles in the metropolis. Some few, indeed, still kep* at a distance from the court, but, generally speaking, sucu was the state ot things during the regency'; and afterwards, when Lewis XV. fell into that disgraceful course of life, which clouded his latter days, and subjected him 'and his mistresses to the censure of the clergy, even Voltaire, whom the king personally disliked, and the Encyclo- paedists, as enemies to the clergy, were taken into favour. They were often indeed dismissed again, but never entirely driven from court. 16. This change of public opinion, even in the highest circles, in- troduced the learned into places where they never appeared before, and gave them a new character. While the influence which the men of letters thus began to acquire in society, obliged the noblesse to change their habits- also, and to mingle with those who before formed a distinct class ; it obliged them also to cultivate learning themselves', and evan the females found it necessary to become more or less philosophical. 17. In the mean while some of these modern philosophers had other European courts set open to them, particularly in the northern parts of Europe, where a greater degree of liberty in the article of opinion already prevailed, very different from the bigoted and Machiavelian principles of Rome and Italy, which had hitherto borne sway. Cath- erine II. of Russia, and Frederic of Prussia, through a laudable desire probably of improving and enlightening their semi-barbarous domin- ions, invited thither some of the most busy of the French literati ; but with little judgment or discrimination. Frederic, besides Voltaire, D" AJembert, and Maupertius, gave free admission, and even encour- agement, to the atheist La Methrie, the marquis D'Argens, and the abbe de Prades ; and Catherine received, and greatly patronised in his latter years, the celebrated Diderot. Thus, with the knowledge and learning which the new^ philosophers really possessed, scepticism and infidelity were spread far and wide, and there was a sad mixture of darkness and illumination in all they taught. 18. The French revolution has been attributed to the literati, oi philosophers of those days ; but we should greatly err, if we were to suppose that they contemplated generally such a dissolution of thing* as afterwards took place ; many, indeed, were dead before the revo-/ lution commenced. Neither Voltaire nor Montesquieu were repub {scans • the former had a supreme contempt for the populace ; and 53 41« MODERN HISTORY. by his flattery of Catherine II. and the marchioness de Pompadour* would seem to have had little of the republican spirit in him. Indeed it has been asserted of him, that " he loved king's." Raynal is said to have shuddered when he saw his own violent imprecations on des- potism and tyranny brought into action. Some, however, undoubted- ly threw aside all restraints, openly declared themselves deists, atheists, &c, and # to their abominable blasphemy and infidelity we may rea- sonably impute many of the evils which marked those dreadful times : but, in truth, the history of opinions ceases to be connected after a short time with the French revolution. It very soon became a strug- gle of passions and private interests, and at length terminated in a catastrophe as fatal to the literati as to the throne and the altar. That fatal instrument, the guillotine, so much spoken of at that time, wa9 stained with the blood of some of those very persons who had con- tributed most to the advancement of knowledge, and the propagation of liberal ideas. 19. The impulse, however, was now given to two of the most curi- ous, ingenious, and inquisitive nations of Europe, and nothing could possibly exceed the rapidity with which every branch of science has since been cultivated ; in Britain, constantly with more steadiness, gravity, and judgment, than in France, though. not with more zeal and activity. The Germans, in the mean while, in the northern parts more particularly, seem to have devoted their time to studies of rather a different description, being known chiefly for works of in- tense research and most profound learning. Experimental philosophy, natural history, and chemistry, have indeed been also cultivated by them with considerable success ; but in works of fancy, wit, and humour, they have not acquired so much credit as their neighbours. A singular disposition to indulge in tales of wonder, chivalry, and knight-en-antry, has been manifested in most of their works of imagi- nation ; and in metaphysics, they have produced systems, which, while they betray an extraoidinary talent for the investigation of such ab- struse subjects, are certainly more to be admired for their ingenuity than their utility. 20. No country in Europe, perhaps, can have undergone greater improvements, during the period of which we have been treating, than Russia ; but her improvement has not been so much progressive as sudden. The mighty genius of Peter the great determined him to introduce his own extensive empire at once into the commonwealth of Europe ; and, instead of waiting to give his subjects a capacity for improving themselves, as other nations had done, he eagerly adopted all that had been discovered elsewhere, and converted his rude people into a civilized nation, just as far as such methods could reach. He taught them to adopt and imitate what they were as yet m no condi- tion to invent, or even improve, and left it to his successors to fill up the gaps that might remain unprovided for at the time of his death. His subjects, or rather slaves, obeyed his dictates, and have continued since to learn from their neighbours, till they have attained to such proficiency in the arts of life, as to be no longer regarded as a rude or ignorant people, though all the other countries of Europe had the start oi them till the very close of the seventeenth century. 21. Peter the great had, in a small compass of time, some very weak and some very wise successors. The former have not been suffered to stand long in the way of the latter, and though their re- moval has savoured little of the civilization and improvement of which we have been speaking, it cannot be denied that Russia has been pre- MODERN HISTORY. 419 vented by many singular occurrences from relapsing into her former state of rudeness and barbarity. The extremes ot magnificence and rudeness, indeed, are too often fcy&d to meet ; and the middle class has by no mean3 yet acquired tnat importance in society which is so essential to every well-regulated government. The state of things still exhibits too much of the old narrow line of distinction, ot lords and vassals ; nevertheless, Russia has obtained much, and advanced considerably. Where, little more than a centuiy ago, wolves' fed and sought their prey, an immense and magnificent city and metropolis now stands, thronged with inhabitants from all parts of the globe ; but perhaps it would be well if she would consent to step back and give a solid and more natural base to her acquirements. The system of adoption and imitation has brought her to a state rather of superficial than of real greatness. She has had her universities before her schools ; but it could not well be otherwise in so sudden an improve- ment : much remains to be done before the nation at large, in its sev- eral relations, social and political, can be said to be really and effectu- ally civilized. 22. Sweden, during the eighteenth century, produced many eminent men, and contributed largely to the advancement of science. It may be sufficient to mention, in proof of this, the names of Linnaeus, Wal- lerius, Cronstadt, Bergman, Scheele, Thunberg, and Sparrman. 23. The Danes have not been idle, but have encouraged in many ways the promotion of literature and philosophy ; mathematics and astronomy, zoology, botany, and other sciences, have been cultivated with good success ; and many splendid works are extant, that reflect great credit on the spirit and ardour of the government, as well as of individuals, and the learned societies instituted and established there. DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONS. 1. Many new discoveries and inventions of lasting benefit to man- kind, as well as many most essential improvements of old inventions and discoveries, have marked the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ; some of the most remarkable of which it will be sufficient merely to name, as they are already become too common and familiar to need explanation ; such as inoculation, and much more recently, vaccina- tion ; steam-engines and steam-boats : printing of linen and cotton cloths ; paper for rooms ; figured silks and carpets; spinning ma- chines ; stereotype printing, and lithographic engraving; musical types; porcelain and pottery:; particularly Welch and iron-stone china ; lightning conductors ; time-pieces ; pneumatic, electrical, and galvanic apparatus ; life-boats and hfe-preservers ; the speaking-trumpet, safe- ty-lamp, telegraphs, gas-hghts, panoramas, balloons, reflecting and achromatic telescopies, concave mirrors, with various other optical and astronomical instruments. 2. Laws and governments have been advancing towards a greatei degree of perfection, though in many countries veiy slowly, and manifestly under difficulties and impediments which time only can remove. The French revolution opened people's eyes to ancient abuse? ; but by inducing all the evils and horrors of anarchy, did by no m.ians accomplish so much for real liberty, as might have been wished and expected ; like other tumultuary revolutions, it terminated in a military despotism, . and its effects on the continent of Europe have b»°n h' fi3ito partial, and apparently of much less importance as 420 MODERN HISTORY. to the actual amelioration of things than many persons expected. Still we may justly enumerate among the changes conducive to the future benefit, comfort, and happiness of mankind, the steps taking in sev- eral states to restore or establish the representative system of govern- ment ; the dissolution of many monastic institutions, and feudal priv- ileges ; the check, that has been given to arbitrary imprisonment, torture, the horrors of the inquisition, and the African slave-trade ; the improvements that have ta^en place, principally through the in- terposition of our benevolent countryman, Mr. Howard, in the man- agement of prisons, and the extraordinary steps lately taken, especial- ly in the British dominions, for the better education of the poor and their instruction in religion. 3. It would be vain indeed to attempt to enumerate the astonishing additions that have been made within these few years, to the public establishments for the promotion of knowledge, the advancement ot professional skill, and the relief of the necessities of mankind. Phil- osophical societies of all descriptions have been formed in various parts, under the most favourable circumstances of support and encour- agement. The propagation of Christianity has been attended to, and promoted with extraordinary zeal, not only by individuals, but by missionary and Bible-societies, far too numerous to mention. Every description of medical, chirurgical, and other assistance, has been furnished to the poor^ by a most extraordinary increase of hospitals and infirmaries, dispensaries, asylums, and charity-schools. The naval and military professions have had the benefit conferred on them of new and distinct academies, including a charitable provision for the children of those who have perished in either service. The improved state of chemistry and mechanical skill, has advanced many arts to a very high degree of perfection, and much assisted both the manufac- turing and agricultural industry ; nor should we omit to mention, as among the improvements of latter years, by which our own country in particular has been benefited in the highest degree, the amendment of the public roads, the increased means and facilities of public con- i r eyance and communication, and the advancement of inland navigation. RELIGION. 1. In regard to religion, from' the close of the seventeenth century to the year 1,820, we may remark that paganism continues to prevail over the greater part of Asia, Africa, and the new discovered islands, as well as among the Indians of America, North and South, (in the settlements of the Spaniards and Portuguese, the Roman Catholic re ligion has been introduced of course.) Mahometanism prevails in some parts of India, in Persia, Arabia, Egypt, the States of Barbary Syria, and Turkey. The Jews continue dispersed over every part of the world, but in a state and condition far. better than was formerly the case ; in Europe they are no longer exposed to cruel and wanton acts of oppression and persecution, and in some countries they have obtained important privileges. In Abyssinia the majority of the people are said to be christians, and throughout the whole of tho Eu- ropean settlements of North America, Christianity is the received re- ligion, though under a variety of denominations, — Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Dutch reformed church, Episcopalians, ^Baptists, Qua- kers, Methodists, Roman Catholics, German Lutherans, German Cat- MODERN HISTORY. 4*1 vmists, Moravians Tunkers, Mennonisls, Universalists, Swedenboi gians, and Shakers 2. In regard to leligionor Christianity, on the continent of Europe, it has been already shown what rude attacks it had to sustain, during the course and progress of the French revolution. Deism ana even atheism were openly avowed in their national assemblies ; the im- mortality of the soul and resurrection of the body scouted at, and death pronounced to be an eternal sleep. Paganism was in some de- gree revived, the tree of liberty substituted for the cross, and the goddess of reason elevated above the God of Christians. During trie directorial and consular governments, however, Catholicism was re- tored, but under very altered circumstances ; without its accompani- ments of monasteries and nunneries, and very much detached isom .he sway and authority of the papal see. 3. The protestant churches, of all sects and denominations, Lave done much, as was before observed, by missions in every direction, to spread the knowledge of Christianity, but seldom with that cordiality and unanimity that might have been wished, and which could not have failed to have given greater effect to their exertions. Among those who have appeared most zealous, though not most discreet, we may reckon the Moravians and Methodists ; two sects or parties, whose most avowed object it has been to stem the torrent of vice and corruption, prevailing amongst professed christians. The methodists have generally called themselves of the church of England, though in many material respects they appear to have deviated from it, both in doctrine and discipline, and have for some time been divided amo*\gst themselves into two great parties, one espousing the Calvinistic, the other the Arminian, tenets. It is common to refer the origin of Methodism to the year 1,729, when the two brothers, John and Charles Wesley, took the lead of those who adhered to the Arminian doctrii^s, Mr. George Whitefield, who joined them in 1,735, became, in 1,7-41, the head of the Calvinistic division. 4. The modern Moravians take their date from the year 1,72^, when they first settled at Hernhut, in Upper Lusatia, on the estate of Nicholas Lewis, count of Zinzendorf, who, in 1,735, became their bishop. They profess to receive the Augsburg confession ; are meek and quiet in their habits and principles, but have at times adopted a strange phraseology, which was thought to affect their moral character, and procured them many enemies. As missionaries they have been extremely active, particularly in the West. Indies and America: they profess to be the remains of the Hussites. 5. The emperor Joseph II. relieved his protestant subjects of al| denominations from many galling restrictions, and greatly abridged the power of the pope. Many catholic princes, even the ecclesiasti cal states, followed his example in various particulars. In favouring, however, an unlimited freedom of opinion at such a moment, he open- ed the door to the introduction of deistical principles, and facilitated the formation of a sect of illuminati, which, during the course and progress of the French revolution, taught and disseminated doctrines adverse in the highest degree to the order of civil society, the rights of property, and the christian faith. 6. 1 he papal authority, during the latter years of the period under discussion, has been greatly abridged in all countries heretofore sub- ject to it ; even in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Sicily ; nor is it likely to be recovered, notwithstanding the attempts lately made to restore partially the order of Jesuits and the inquisition. Of the indignities 422 MODERN HISTORY. offered to the last and present pope by the French we have spoken elsewhere. At one time they so entirely took the reins of government at Rome into their own hands, that the pope and cardinals were obliged to take flight, in which situation Pius VI. died. His suc- cessor, Pius VII., since the final overthrow of Buonaparte, has lived in peace and quietness, in his capital, exercising, notwithstanding his recall of the Jesuits, a very tolerant and inoffensive sway. It is, how- ever, to be lamented, that, in the instance of the pope, as well as of the king of Naples, and others, their resentment of the French usur- pations on their return to their dominions has been carried so far as to abrogate every ordinance of the French Emperor, however wise or salutary, and even to undo what had been begun, manifestly tending to the improvement of their respective countries. HISTORY, POLITE LITERATURE, FINE ARTS, &c. 1. We feel ourselves rather at a loss to give any satisfactory account of the progress that has been made in the branches of knowledge pointed out by the title of this section : it would far exceed our limits to attempt to enumerate the many historical works that have been pub- lished during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, or to go into any regular discussion of the particular merits of the several poets, paint- ers, musicians, philosophers, philologists, &c. &c, who may be said to have distinguished themselves in the period of which we have been treating, lo do this with any degree of justice, we should be oblig- ed, perhaps, to divide them into many classes, and assign to the sev- eral individuals of the long list that might be produced, their respec- tive ranks and stations, from the highest degree of perfection to medi- ocrity, or lower ; we should have to draw a comparison between them and their predecessors, and consider, in various points of view, every advance they had made in their different callings, studies, and pur- suits : but such a discussion would be quite unsuitable to a work like the present. Many of those, indeed, who have contributed to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, have been already mentioned ; but there are still some names which almost demand our notice, before we entirely close this volume. It should, however, be observed, that many very eminent persons, who lived till long after the commencement of the eighteenth century, belong to a different period, having been the ornaments of what is called the age 01 Louis XIV. It may be best, perhaps, to arrange the few we feel bound to select from the great mass of au- thors, artists, &c, according to their countries. 2. In Germany the following may be said to have acquired a high reputation: Mascov, Mosheim, Pteffel, Herder, Muller, in History ; Schiller in History and Tragedy; Klopstock,' Gesner, Wieland, Kotzebue, Goethe, in Poetry and Dramatic writing; in Painting, Melius ; Ingenhouz in Chemistry, and Bode in Astronomy ; Handel, Gluck, Haydn, and Mozart, in Music ; Lavater in the fanciful science of Physiognomy. Even the names of Mesmer, Mainaduc, Gall, and Spurzheim, may require to be mentioned, as having for some time, in an extraordinary manner, amazed the ignorant, and deceived the credulous, by their strange systems of Animal Magnetism and Craniology. 3. In France, Camlet, Montfaucon, the Count cle Caylus, Rollm- Vertot, Rapin, Gognet, Millot, Raynal, Mably, and the Abbe Bar- MODERN HISTORY. 423 tlielemy, part cularly distinguished themselves in the line of History and Antiquities ; to whom we may now add, perhaps with reason and justice, Mad. de Stael, and M. La Cretelle M. Bailly, one of the victims of the Revolution, rendered himself conspicuous by his very curious History of Astronomy, and other works. Many of his con- temporaries, who applied themselves to other branches of science, have been already mentioned. Some ot them also fell by the hands of the public executioner, during the dreadful period of the Revolu- tion. Their most celebrated painter, however, David, escaped, but with more reputation as an artist than as a man ; for his own proceed- ings, a f ; a revolutionist, were base and sanguinary. 4. In Great Britain, we have to boast, in the line of History, of the names of Robertson, Watson, Hume, Gibbon. Lyttelton, Goldsmith, Roscoe, Russell, Gillies, Ferguson, Stuart, Mitford ; in Law, of Sir William Blackstone, whose Commentaries, for elegance and perspi- cuity of diction, stand unrivalled. Bolingbroke and Swift are justly held to have improved the English language, in the two main reticles of energy and beauty. The style of Dr. Johnson is less chaste, though, perhaps, equally forcible. The name of Adam Smith will probabfy descend to the latest posterity, for his masterly work on the wealth of nations, a subject in which he seems almost to have taken the lead, as an original writer. In Painting, the names of Hogarth, Reynolds, and West, stand high for originality, taste, conception, and expression ; in Metaphysics, Hume, Hartley, Berkeley, Reid, Baxter, and Priestley, have distinguished themselves. To the Poets already mentioned we must add Gay, Young, Shenstone, Collins, Gray, Ma- son, Cowper, Crabbe,- Scott, Byron ; as Novelists., Richardson, Smol- lett,^ Fielding, Burney, Edgeworth, &c. Garrick and Siddons have conferred immortal honour on the English Stage. 5. Italy, though labouring under great disadvantages, has been by no means deficient in learned and scientific persons, since the close of the seventeenth century. In history and antiquities, in poetry, dra- matic works, natural history, drawing, engraving, and sculpture, the following names richly deserve to be delivered down to posterity .: Baronius, Giannone, Muratori, Maffei, Metastasio, Goldoni, Algarotti, Gozzi, Tiraboschi,Beccaria, Spallanzani, Alfieri, Bartolozzi, Cipriani, Canova. France and Italy seem to have a joint claim to a living author of considerable fame, M. Simondes de Sismondi. TREATY OF VIENNA, 1,815. 1. As Europe, generally speaking, may be said to continue at this moment in the state in which it was left by the above treaty, we shall conclude with a brief sketch of the changes that took place at that memorable period. The duchy of Warsaw was given to the emperor of Russia, with permission to assume the titles" of czar and king of Poland, some parts, however, being secured to Prussia, under the title of grand Duchy of Posen. The town of Cracow, in Little Poland,, on the banks of the Vistula, was declared to be for ever a free, in- dependent, and strictly neutral city, under the protection of Austria, Russia, and Prussia. The king of Saxony was confirmed in his regal titles, but at the price of many important cessions to Prussia, princi- pally that of the duchy of Saxony. Prussia, besides, recovered Dantzic, Quedlinburg, and many other places : yielding, however, to the king of Great Britain, now become king of Hanover also, many 424 UNITED STATES lordship? and principalities, in other parts of Germany. A nev Ger- manic confederation was established, the members of which were declared to be equal in their rights, and bound to render to each other mutual assistance. Their affairs to be confided, first to a federative diet, amounting to seventeen votes ; and, 2dly, to a general assembly, forming sixty-nine votes ; who are to decide upon all regulations touching the fundamental laws of the confederation. The diet to assemble at Frankfort on the Maine, and Austria to preside. The three important fortresses of Landau, Mentz, and Luxembourg, being assigned over to the confederation. 2. The united provinces of the Netherlands, late the Belgic states, were formed into a kingdom, jointly with those of Holland, in favour of the house of Grange Nassau, late stadtholders ; and to the same sovereign was granted the duchy of Luxembourg, with the title of grand duke. 3. The integrity of the nineteen cantons of Switzerland was ac- knowledged, and guarantied ; and Geneva, for the first time, consti- tuted a canton of the Helvetic confederacy. The states of Genoa were annexed to the kingdom of Sardinia, in the place of many re- enunciations on the part of the latter power, principally in favour of Geneva. The grand duchy of Tuscany was settled on the archduke Ferdinand of Austria ; and king Ferdinand the IVth was restored to the sovereignty of the Two Sicilies. PART FOURTH. UNITED STATES. SECTION I. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 1. It was somewhat natural that the distinguished author of the Elements of Histoiy should almost . exclusively confine himself to the great events of the old world. It will be observed that the discovery of America by Columbus embraces only a short space, (see Section XLI.) and that North America, the first settlement of the United States, the revolution and severance of those states from the crown of Great Britain, and the more recent dispute of the States with Great Britain, are dismissed by both authors in a few words. (See Section XLII., and Sections VIII. and XX. of the Continuation.) This con- sideration will suggest the propriety of a more particular narration o! the events which relate to the United States, for wasse particular usv the present edition of this work is intended, UNITED STATES. 42b 2. The honour of accomplishing an exploit so sublime as that of the discovery of this western hemisphere, was gained by Christopher Columbus. This great man, a native of Genoa, descended from a respectable family, was well qualified by nature and education to be- come distinguished on the ocean. Ardently inclined towards that element, he went to sea at the age of fourteen. After a variety ot adventures serving to enlarge his knowledge more than to increase his fortune, he went to Lisbon. Here, having married the daughter of Perestrello, a Portuguese navigator of much celebrity, his favourite passion of making discoveries was rendered more irresistible by read- ing the journals of his father-in-law, which had fallen into his hands. 3. The attention of the Portuguese was at that time directed to the finding a passage by water to the East Indies ; and they intended to accomplish this pm-pose by passing to the south until they reached the southern extremity of Africa, and then taking an easterly course The spherical figure of the earth was then known, and its magnitude had been ascertained with some good degree of accuracy ; and the active mind of Columbus, after having attentively compared the observations of modern navigators with the conjectures of the ancients., at last came to the conclusion, that, by sailing directly to the west, new countries, which it was likely formed a part of the great continent of Asia, must be discovered. His opinion was strengthened by the discoveiy, after a long course of westerly wind, of pieces of carvea wood, trees, and canes, and dead bodies, the natives of another clime driven on the shores of the Madeira isles and the Azores. 4. Fully satisfied with the truth of his system, Columbus was im patient to bring it to the test of experiment. He first made applica- tion to the senate of Genoa for patronage, desirous that his native country should reap the fruits of his labour and ingenuity ; but here his proposals were rejected as the dream of a chimerical projector Not discouraged by tnis repulse, he laid his plans before John kin? of Portugal, who basely attempted a fraud on- him, by despatching a vessel in pursuit of the discovery, after drawing from Columbus all the information which treachery could devise. The pilot selected foi this purpose, being no less deficient in courage than were his em- ployers in dignity and justice, returned to Lisbon without making any discovery. 5. Disgusted with the treachery, Columbus instantly went to Spain, and laid his plan before Ferdinand and Isabella, at the samp time thai he sent his brother Bartholomew to England, for the purpose of nego- tiating for the patronage of Henry Vli , reported to be one of the most sagacious and opulent princes of the age. Accident deprived England of the renown of this discovery ; the brother of Columbus- -on his way being captured by pirates, and detained in cap ivity many years: although arriving in England in great indigence, Henry re- ceived the overtures of Columbus more favourably than any other monarch, and invited him Jo that country. But it was too late. The great discoverer, after combating many and sore disappointments, succeeded at length in securing the Spanish court, aided by two rich, generous, and vigilant patrons, Quintanella and Santangel. Ferdinand was still restrained by his characteristic caution and reserve ; but Isabella, alive to the glory which must accrue from the accomplish- ment of so grand an enterprise, declared her resolution to employ Jolumbus ; and, in the low state of her finances, consequent on a lon£ and serious contest with the Moors, who had then but just been ex- pelled from Spain, offered to pledge her jewels in order to complete rJ r*2 54 426 UNITED STATES. the preparations of the voyage : Santangel however relieved the diffi- culty, by advancing from his private purse the necessary sum. 6. April 17, 1,492, more than seven years after the date of his first application, an agreement with Columbus was concluded. The ex pedition was fitted out at Palos, a small town of the province of Andalusia ; but it was badly suited to the service for which it was intended. It consisted of three vessels, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nigna — the first of inconsiderable burthen commanded by Columbus as admiral ; and the two last, not superior in size to large boats, by two brothers, Martin and Vincent Pinzon : the whole pro vided with ninety men, and victualled for twelve months. 7. August 3, Columbus set sail. He touched at the Canary islands, where he refitted his crazy vessels, and departed from Gomera, Sept. 6. Here he took his course due west, leaving the track of all former navigators, and stretched boldly into seas unknown. Very soon his sailors, alarmed at the distance they had proceeded without finding the expected land, began to mutiny, and placed Columbus in a situation in which any other man would have yielded to their entreatie. to return. Fertile in expedients, possessing a thorough knowledge ot mankind, an insinuating address, and a happy talent at governing, he succeeded day after day in beguiling the discontented seamen far beyond their own determinations, until every succeeding hour present- ed stronger and stronger indications that land could be at no great distance. For some days the sounding line had reached the bottom ; the flocks of birds increased, and some of them of a kind supposed to fly not far from shore ; the clouds around the sun assumed a new appearance .; the air was more mild, and, during the night, the wind became unequal and variable* On the evening of Oct. 11, he ordered the ships to lie to, in the fear of running ashore. That night Colum- bus observed a light, which seemed to be carried about from place to place ; and a little after midnight, was heard from the Pinta the joyful cry of Land ! 8. When the morning dawned, an island was seen about two leagues to the north : its verdant fields were well stored with wood, presenting the aspect of a delightful country. All the boats were immediately manned and armed. The Spaniards rowed towards the shore with their colours displayed. As they approached the beach, they saw it covered with a multitude of people, whose attitudes and gestures dis- covered wonder and amazement. Columbus was the first who set foot on this new world which he had discovered. His men followed ; and all kneeling, kissed the ground that they had long desired, but never expected to behold : here he erected a crucifix, returned^ thanks to God, and with the usual formalities took possession of the country. To this island, called by the natives Guanahana, Columbus gave the name of St. Salvador : it is one cf the a?ge cluster called the Baha- mas, more than three thousand miles west, but only four degrees south of Gomera, the port of the Canaries which .he last left. 9. After discovering several other island^, amongst which Were Cuba and Hayti ; and using every precaution to secure the benefit of a first discovery, by erecting a fort and leaving a party of men on the island of Hayti ; on the 4th of January, 1,493, Columbus set sail for Europe. The shattered condition of his vessels would have rendered the voyage at any time unsafe ; but a succession of storms had well nigh committed to the bosom of the deep, and with it ths secret of his discovery, his little flotilla. The whole, however, arrived. 10. At first it wa«t generally supposed, from a similarity in tbe UNITED STATES. 427 productions, that the discovered country was a part of those vast re- gions of Asia, comprehended under the general name of India. The name of India wa.3 given to it by Feidinand and Isabella ; and, after the error which gave rise to the opinion was detected, the name ot West Indies has remained, and the aborigines are called Indians. 11. In 1,498, Columbus, on his third voyage, reached the continent, and landed in several places in the provinces of Paria and Cumana. But he was deprived of the honour of associating his name with this vast portion of the earth, being supplanted^ by Amerigo Vespucci, >Vemments of synods or presbyteries. They approved of a regular ministry. While the Brownists allowed promiscu- ously all ranks and orders of men to teach in public, the Independents le- quired a proper examination of the capacity and talents of their teachers. UNITED STATES. 433 4. They readily procured a tract of land from the Plymouth com- pany. One hundred and twenty persons sailed from 'Plymouth in 1.620, their destination being Hudson's river : by some treachery ot the Dutch, who then contemplated and afterwards effected a settlement at that place, they were carried to the north, and landed on cape Cod, 'he eleventh of November of that year. They chose for their resi- dence a place called by the Indians Patuxet, to which they gave the name of New Plymouth. Before spring, half their number were cut off by famine or disease. In a few days after they landed, captain Standish was engaged in skirmishing with the Indians ; and the many disasters which followed, together with the implacable hostility of the Indians, which arways has subsisted, are perhaps more owing to the imprudence of the first settlers, than to the bad disposition of the natives. 5. This colony, like that of Virginia, at first held their goods and property in common ; and their progress was retarded as well by this circumstance, as by the impulse of imaginary inspiration, which reg- ulated all their actions. At the end of ten years, these well meaning people, when they became incorporated with their more powerful neighbours of Massachusetts bay, did not exceed three hundred. 6. In the year 1,629, Mr. White!, a non-conformist minister at Dorchester, having formed an association, purchased from the Ply- mouth company a tract extending in length from three miles north of .Merrimack river to three miles south of Charles river, and in breadth from the Atlantic to the Southern ocean ; and obtained a charter from Charles, similar to that given to the two Virginian companies by James. Five ships were fitted out, onboard of which were embarked upward* of three hundred souls, amongst whom were several eminent non- conforming ministers. On their arrival, they found the remnant of a small party that had left England the preceding year, under the con- duct of Mr. Endicott, who had been appointed by his companions deputy governor. They were settled at a place called by the Indians Naumkaag, to which he had given the scripture name of Salem. The new colonists immediately formed a church, elected a pastor, teacher, and elder, disregarding the intentions of the king. They disencum- bered their public worship of every superfluous ceremony, and re duced it to the lowest standard of calvinistic simplicity. But much as we respect that noble spirit which enabled them to part with their native soil, we must condemn the persecuting spirit of the colonists themselves. Some of the colonists, retaining a high venera- tion for the ritual of the church of England, refused to join the colonial state establishment, and assembled separately to worship : Endicott called before him two of the principal offenders, expelled them from the colony, and sent them home in the first ships returning to England. 7. The government of the colony was soon transferred to America, and vested in those members of the company who should reside there, fohn Winthrop was appointed governor, and Thomas Dudley deputy governor, with eighteen assistants. In the course of the next year, 1,630, fifteen hundred persons arrived in Massachusetts from England, amongst whom were several distinguished families, some of them in easy, and others in affluent circumstances ; and Boston, Charlestown, Dorchester, Roxbury, and other towns, were settled. ^ 8. The first general court, held at Charlestown, ventured to deviate irom their charter in a matter of great moment : a law was passed, declaring that none should be freemen, or be entitled to any sha*e in the government, except those who had been received as members ot On 55 434 UNITED STATES. the church. The fanatica, spirit continued to increase. A minisiej of Salem, named Roger Williams, having conceived an aversion to the cross of St. George, a symbol in the English standard, declaimed against it with great vehemence, as a relic of superstition ; and Endi- cott, in a transport of zeal, cut out the cross from the ensign displayed before the governor's gate. This frivolous -matter divided the colony ; but the matter was at length compromised by retaining the cross in the ensigns of forts and vessels, and erasing it from the colours of the militia. 9. In 1,636, Williams was banished from Salem ; and, accompanied by many of his hearers, the exile went south, purchased a tract of land of the natives, to which he gave the name of Providence ; and a Mr. Coddington, with seventy -six others, exiled from Boston, bought a fertile island on Narraganset bay, that acquired the name of Rhode- Island. Mr. Coddington embraced the sentiments of the Quakers, or Friends ; he received a charter from the British parliament, in which it was ordered, that " none were ever to be molested for any difference of opinion in religious matters :'* yet, the very first assembly conven- ed under this authority, excluded Roman catholics from voting at elections, and from every office in the government ! 10. To similar causes the state of Connecticut is indebted for its origin. Mr. Hooker, a favourite minister of Massachusetts, with about one hundred families, after a fatiguing march*- settled On the western side of the river Connecticut, and laid the foundation of Hart- ford, Springfield, and Weathersfield. Their right to this territory was disputed by the Dutch, who had settled at the mouth of the Hudson, and by the lords Say-and-Seal and Brook, who had com* inenced the settlement called Say-Brook. The Dutch were soon ex- pelled ; and the others uniting With the colony, all were incorporated by a royal charter. „ ; 11. New-Hampshire was first settled in the spring of 1,623, under the patronage of sir Ferdinand© Gorges, captain John. Mason, and several others, who sent over David Thompson, a Scot, Edward and William Hilton, and a number of people, furnished with the requisite supplies. One company landed at a place called Little Harbour ; the others settled at Dover, Mr. Wheelwright, a clergyman banished from Massachusetts, founded Exeter, in 1,638. 12. Maine was not permanently settled until 1,638. Gorges ob- tained a grant of this territory, which remained underits own govern- ment until 1,652, when its soil and jurisdiction, as far as the middle of Casco bay, was claimed by Massachusetts. 13. The mutual hostility of the English and Indians commenced with the first settlement ; but it was not until the year 1,637, that a systematic warfare was begun. The Pequods, who brought into the field more than a thousand warriors, were exterminated in a few months by the combined troops of Massachusetts and Connecticut. In the night, the Pequods were attacked, near the head of Mistic, by the Connecticut troops and Narraganset Indians, commanded by cap- Item Mason : in a few moments, five or six hundred lay gasping m their blood, or were silent in the arms of death. " The darkness, of the forest," observes a New-England author, " the blaze of the dwellings, the ghastly looks of the dead, the groans of the dying, the shrieks of the women and children, the yells of the friendly savage:*, presented a scene of sublimity and terror indescribably dreadful. 14. In 1,643, an ailiauce for mutual defence was formed between the New-England colonies, excepting Rhode-Island, which Massachusetts * UNITED STATES. 43o was unwilling 'to admit. This alliance continued until the charters were annulled by James the second. 15. Up to 1,638, twenty-one thousand British subjects had settled in New-England ; and the country had begun to extend the fisheries, and to export corn and lumber to the West Indies. In 1,656, the per secution of the Quakers was at its height. A number of these inoffen- sive people having arrived in the Massachusetts colony, from England and JBarbadoes, and given offence to the clergy ot the established church by the novelty of their Teligion, were imprisoned, and by the first opportunity sent away. A law was passed, which prohibited masters of ships from bringing Quakers into Massachusetts, and them- selves from coming there, under a graduated penalty, rising, in case of a return from banishment, to death. In consequence, several were hanged ! These proceedings are still the more reprehensible and re- markable, when contrasted with a previous declaration of their govern- ment, which tendered " hospitality and succour to all christian strangers, flying from wars, famine, or the tyranny of persecution." The anabaptists were also persecuted ; many were disfranchised, and some were banished. 16. On the accession of James II. , several of the New-England colonies were deprived, of their charters ; but these, with various un- important modifications, were restored after the revolution. Sir William Phipps, a native of Maine, who rose to wealth and power in a manner the most extraordinary, was the first governor of Massachu- setts under the new charter. With a force of seven hundred men, he wrested from the French, L'Acadie, now called Nova Scotia. He afterwards made an unsuccessful attempt on Quebec, with the loss of one thousand men. The new charter, whilst it curtailed the liberties, extended the territory of Massachusetts ; to it were now annexed New Plymouth, Maine, and Nova Scotia, with all the country between the latter and the river St. Lawrence ; also Elizabeth islands, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. The people, however, had just reason to complain that they no longer chose their governor, under whose control was the militia, and who levied taxes without their consent, and tried capital offences. 17. About this time the pillars of society were shaken to the foun- dation, in and about Salem, by imaginary witchcraft. The delusion commenced at Salem village, now Danvers, in the family of Rev. Samuel Paris. Two young girls, one a daughter of Mr. Paris, aged 9 , the other a niece, aged 11, were affected with singular nervous dis- orders, which, as they baffled the skill of the physician, \yere thought to pioceed from an " evil hand." The children were believed oy the neighbours to be bewitched, and the belief, sanctioned by the opinion of the physician, became general throughout the vicinity. The more the girls were noticed and pitied, the more singular and extravagant was their conduct. Upon the advice of the neighbouring ministers, two or three private fasts were first kept ; afterwards a pub- lic one in the village and other congregations ; and finally, the general court appointed a fast through the colony. This course gave the occurrences a solemn aspect, and probably contributed to the public credulity, till the supposed witchcraft had extended throughout a great part of the county of Essex. The infatuation prevailed from March to October, 1,692, during which time twenty persons, men and women, were executed. It was then that suspicion roused from its lethargy ; condemnation ceased ; the accusers were silent ; those under sentence were reprieved, and afterwards pardoned 436 UNITED STATES. 18. In the years 1,627 and '38, '63 and '70, New-England expe- rienced violent earthquakes. In the year 1,638, Harvard college, near Boston, the oldest seminary of learning in the United States, was founded. Four hundred pounds were voted to it by the general court ; and this sum was nearly doubled by a bequest from Mr. John Harvard, a minister of Charlestown. This institution is now the most richly endowed of all the American colleges. Yale college, at New-Haven,, was founded in 1,701. ten years after that of William and Mary, in Virginia ; and Dartmouth college, in New-Hampshire, was founded in 1,769. The first printing press established in the British colonies was in 1,639, at Cambridge, superintended by Stephen Daye ; but erected chiefly at the expense of Mr. Glover, an English clergyman, who died on his passage to America. 19. Maryland, the first colony that, from its beginning, was directly governed as a province of the British empire, was founded by sir George Calvert, baron of Baltimore, in Ireland ; a Roman catholic nobleman, born in England. He first went to Virginia ; but meeting an unwelcome reception there, on account of his religion, he fixed his attention to the lands north of the Potomac, and obtained a grant of them from Charles 1. This country was called Maryland, in honoui of the queen, Henrietta Maria. The religious toleration established by the charter, the first draft of which is said to have been written by sir George himself, is honourable to his memory. The grant was given to his eldest son, Cecilius, who succeeded to his titles ; but Leonard Calvert, brother to Cecilius, was the first governor, and made the first stand, at an island in the Potomac, which he named St. Clements, in 1,633. He made several purchases of the Indians, with whom be cultivated a constant friendship, as well on the Potomac, as on both shores of the Chesapeake. Never did any people enjoy more happiness than the inhabitants of Maryland. Whilst Virginia harass- ed all who dissented from the English church, and the northern colonies all who dissented from the puritans, the Roman catholics of Maryland, a sect who in the old world never professed the doctrine of toleration, received and protected their brethren of every christian church, and its population was rapidly increased. 20. About the middle of the seventeenth century, some, emigrants, chiefly from Virginia, began a settlement in the county of Albemarle ; and soon afterwards, another establishment was commenced at cape Fear, by adventurers from Massachusetts. These were held together by the laws of nature, without any written code, for some time. But Charles II. compelled the colonists to become subservient to his rule, and granted to lord Clarendon and others the tract of land which now composes North and South Carolina : perfect freedom in religion was granted in the charter. The first settlement was placed under the command of sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia, who assigned his authority to Mr. Drummond. In 1,761, the proprietors extended tfieir settlements to the banks of Ashley and Cooper rivers, where Charleston now stands ; and eventually this became the separate state of South Carolina. The culture of cotton commenced here in 1,700, And that of indigo in 1 ,748. 21. New- York was first settled by the Dutch, and was by them held for about half a century. It was, howevej, claimed by England as the first discoverer. Peter Stuy vesant, the third and last Dutch ! governor, began his administration in 1,647, and was distinguished no ess tor his fidelity than his vigilance. In 1,664 the colony surrendeied to the English ; and the whole territory now comprising Nev.-Yw«rL» UNITED STATES 431 New-Jersey, together with Pennsylvania, Delaware, and a part ot Connecticut, was assigned by Charles II. to his brother the duke ot York. The Dutch inhabitants remained ; Stuyvesant retained his estate, and died in the colony. The country was governed by the duke's officers until 1,688 ; when representatives of the people were allowed a voice in the legislature. 22. In 1,664, the duke of York sold that part of his grant now call- ed New-Jersey to lord Berkeley and sir George Carteret. It had previously been settled by Hollanders, Swedes, and Danes. The county of Bergen was the first inhabited ; and very soon the towns of Elizabeth, Newark, Middleton, and Shrewsbury were settled. The college, originally established at Newark, was, in 1,748, finally fixed at Princeton : its chief benefactor was governor Belcher. Amon°; the governors of New-Jersey was the celebrated Barclay, author of the Apology for the Quakers, of which sect a large number had establish- ed themselves there. 23. Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn, son of a distin- guished admiral of the same name. From principle this excellent man joined the Quakers, then an obscure and persecuted sect. As one of the members, and a preacher. Penn was repeatedly imprisoned ; but he plead his own cause with great boldness, and procured his own acquittal from an independent jury, who with himself were imprisoned until an unjust penalty was paid. In 1,681, he purchased of Charles the tract now called Pennsylvania, for an acquittance o. sixte'en thou- sand pounds due to his father ; and soon after, he obtained from the duke of York a conveyance of the town of New-Castle, with the country which now forms the state of Delaware. The first colony, who were chiefly of his own sect, began their settlement above the confluence of the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers. In August, 1,682, this amiable man embarked, with about two thousand emigrants, and in October, arrived in the Delaware. Besides his own people, he was aided in the first settlement by Swedes, Dutch, Finlanders, and other English. The first legislative assembly was held at Chester, at that time called Upland. Among the first laws was one which de clared " that none, acknowledging one God, and living peaceably in society, should be molested for his opinions or his practice ; nor be compelled to frequent or maintain any ministry whatever." Philadel- phia was begun in 1,683 ; and in 1,699* it contained seven hundred houses, and about four thousand inhabitants. During the first seventy years of this settlement, no instance occurred of the Indians killing unarmed people. The wise and good man, Penn, made every exer- tion and sacrifice to promote the peace and prosperity of his favourite colony ; and between the persecution he had to encounter in England and the difficulties in Pennsylvania, his life was a continued scene of vexation — his private fortune was materially injured by the advances he made — he was harassed by his creditors, and obliged to undergo a temporary deprivation of his personal liberty. He died in London, in 1,718, leaving an inheritance to his children, ultimately of immense value, which they enjoyed until the revolution, when it was assigned to the commonwealth for an equitable sum of money. In the interval between 1,730 and the war of the revolution, in this state, there was a great influx of emigrants, principally from Germany and Ireland ; and these people early brought the useful arts and manufactures into Penn- sylvania. To the Germans, she is indebted for the spinning and weaving of linen and woollen cloths ; to the Irish, for various trad® indispensable to useful agriculture. UNITED STATED 24. Delaware was first settled in 1,627, by the Swedes and Fin- landers, and the colony bore the name of New-Sweden. It waa afterwards conquered by the Dutch from New- York, and remained subservient to that colony until it passed into the hands of the English. 25. Georgia was the last settled of the thirteen colonies that re- volted from Britain. It received its name from George II. In November, 1,732, one hundred and sixteen persons embarked at Gravesend, under general Oglethorpe ; and early in the ensuing year arrived at Charleston. From this port they proceeded to their destin- ed territory, and laid the foundation of Savannah. The Spaniards laid claim to this territory, and made extensive preparations to attack it. But through the finesse of Oglethorpe in practising an innocent deception, their plans were defeated. For many years, this settle- ment languished from a variety of causes. General Oglethorpe was distinguished as a soldier, a statesman, and a philanthropist. At the beginning of the American revolution, he was oilered the command of the British army in America, but this from principle he declined. After the contest was decided, he died at the age of ninety-seven years, being the oldest general in the British service. SECTION IV. WAR WITH FRANCE, AND CONQUEST OF CANADA. DIS- PUTES WITH GREAT BRITAIN, AND WAR OF THE REVO- LUTION. 1. Nearly coeval with the first English settlement at James Town, in Virginia, was the establishment of a French colony at Quebec, on the grsat river St. Lawrence. The question of boundary between England and France, had long been a subject of unavailing negotia- tion. France, beside having Canada in the north, had also discovered and settled on Mississippi in the south ; and in 1,753, she strove, by a military chain, the links of which were to be formed by outposts stretching along the Ohio and the lakes, to connect these two extrem- itieSj and thus restrain the British colonists to a small territory on the Atlantic ocean, if not entirely expel them from the country. The question of jurisdiction remained to be decided by the sword. Re- peated complaints of violence having come to the ears of the governor of Virginia, he determined to send a suitable person to the French commandant at fort Du Quesne, (now Pittsburgh,) demanding the reason of his hostile proceedings, and insisting that he should evacuate the fort which he had recently erected. For this arduous undertaking George Washington, a major of militia, then little more than twenty- one years of age, offered his services. The execution of this task seems to have been accomplished with all that prudence and courage which were so eminently displayed by this hero in after life. At imminent peril, being waylaid and fired at by Indians, he not only faithfully accomplished the errand on which he had been sent, but gained extensive information of the distances and bearings of places, and of the number, size, and strength of nearly all the enemy's fortresses. 2. The reply of the French commander brought matters to a crisis ; and in 1,754, the Virginian assembly organizeaa regiment, to support UNITED STATES. 4b*J the claims of the English over the territory in dispute : of this regi- ment a Mr. Fry was appointed colonel, and the young Washington lieutenant colonel. Colonel Fry dying, the command of the whole devolved on Washington. The Irench having been strongly rein- forced, Washington was obliged to fall back, was attacked in works which he had not time to complete, and, after a brave defence, waa obliged to capitulate ; the enemy allowing him to march out with th? honours of war, and to retire unmolested to the inhabited parts ot Virginia. 3. The next year, 1,755, general Braddock was sent from Europe to Virginia, with two regiments, where he was joined by as many provincials as made his force amount to twenty-two hundred. Brad- dock was a brave man, but lacked that courtesy which could conciliate the Americans, and that modesty which should profit from the knowl- edge of those who better knew the ground over which he was to pass, and the mode of French and Indian warfare, than himself. He push- ed on incautiously, until, within a few miles of fort Du Quesne, he fell into an ambush of French and Indians. In a short time, Washington, who acted as aid to Braddock, and whose duty called him to be on horseback, was the only person mounted who was left alive, or not wounded. The van of the army was forced back, and the whole thrown into confusion. The slaughter was dreadful. Braddock was mortally wounded. What was remarkable, the provincial troops pre- served their order, and covered the retreat under Washington ; while the regulars broke their ranks, and could not be rallied. 4. Three successive campaigns procured nothing but expense and disappointment to the English. With an inferior tbrce, the French had succeeded in every campaign ; and gloomy apprehensions were entertained as to the destiny of the British colonies. But in 1,756, a change of ministry in England took place. William Pitt was placed at the helm. To despair, succeeded hope ; and to hope, victory- Supplies were granted with liberality, and given without reluctance: soldiers enlisted freely, and fought with enthusiasm. In a short time, the French were dispossessed, not only of all the territories in dispute, but of Quebec, and her ancient province of Canada ; so that all which remained to her of her numerous settlements in North America, was New-Orleans, with a few plantations on the Mississippi. Full of youth and spirit, the gallant general Wolfe, who led the European and colonial troops to victory, fell before the walls of Quebec, in the moment of success. In 1,762, hostilities having raged nearly eight years, a general peace was concluded : France ceded Canada, and Spain relinquished, as the price of recovering Havana, which had been taken by the British, both the Floridas to^Great Britain. 5. Although the American colonies had principally contributed to the great extension of the i power of Great Britain, co-operating with the vigilance of more than four hundred cruisers on the sea, and furnishing more than twenty-four thousand soldiers ; yet the latter re- garded her plantations as mere instruments in her hands. On the contrary, the high sentiments of liberty and independence nurtured in the colonies from their local situation and habits, were increased by the removal of hostile neighbours. Ideas favourable to independence increased; and whilst combustible materials were collecting in the new world, a brand to enkindle them was preparing in the old. 6. In 1,765, under the auspices of the minister, George Grenville, the obnoxious stamp act passed in the British parliament ; by which tlie iaetruments of writing in daily use were to be null and void, unless 440 UNITED STATES, executed on paper or parchment stamped with a spccinc duty : law documents, leases, deeds, and indentures, newspapers and advertise- ments, almanacs and pamphlets, executed and printed in America- all must contribute to the British treasury. The bill did not pass without the decided opposition of patriots in the British legislature who foretold the result, and who declared that, the colonies being planted by British oppression, and having: assisted the mother country, that the mother had no claim on the child to derive from it a revenue The bill did not take effect until seven months after its passage ; thus giving the colonists an opportunity of leisurely examining and" viewing the subject on every side. They were struck with silent consterna- tion ; but the voice of opposition was first heard in Virginia. Patrick Henry, on the 20th of May, brought into the house of burgesses in that colony a number of resolutions, which were adopted, and which concluded with declaring, " That every individual, who, by speaking or acting, should assert or maintain, that any .person or body of men, except the general assembly of the province, had any right to impose taxation there, should be deemed an enemy to his majesty's colony." These resolutions were immediately disseminated through the other provinces ; the tongues and the pens of well-informed men laboured in the holy cause— the fire of liberty blazed forth from the press. The assembly of Massachusetts passed a resolution in favour of a continental congress, and fixed a day for its meeting at New- York, in October. The other colonies, with 'the exception of four, accepted this invita- tion, and assembled at the appointed place. Here they agreed on a declaration of their rights. There, was, however, a considerable de- gree of timidity evinced in this congress. The boldest and most im- pressive arguments were offered by James Otis of Massachusetts. 7. The time arrived for the act to take effect ; and the aversion to it was expressed instill stronger terms throughout the colonies. B^ a common consent, its provisions were . disregarded, and business was conducted, in defiance of the parliament, as if no stamp act was in existence : associations were formed against importing British manu- factures until the law should be repealed ; and lawyers were prohib- ited from instituting any action for money due to any inhabitant oi England. The spirited conduct of the colonists, affecting the interests of the British merchants, had the desired effect. Warm discussions took place in the British parliament , and the ablest speakers in both houses denied the justice of taxing the colonies. The opposition could not be withstood ; and in March, 1,766, the law was repealed. 8. Simultaneously, however, with repealing this act, the British parliament passed another, declaring that the'British parliament had a right, to make laws binding the colonies in all cases whatever ; and soon after another bill was passed, imposing in the colonies duties on glass, paper, painters' colours, and tea. The fire of opposition was now rekindled with additional ardour, by the same principle, exhibited in its new form. The best talents throughout the colonies were engaged, in the public prints and in pamphlets, to work up the public feeling against the arbitrary measures of the British parliament. New associations were formed to suspend the importation of British manu- factures. The Massachusetts assembly, having passed resolutions to this effect, drew forth the marked.displeasure of the crown ; and, on their, refusal to cancel their resolutions, were dissolved. 9. In 1,768, Mr. Hancock's sloop Liberty was seized at Boston, for fiot entering all the wines she had brought from Madeira : this inflamed be populace to a high degree of resentment. Soon afterwards, two UNITED STATES. 441 British regiments, and some armed vessels, were sent to Boston, to assist the revenue officers. The parliament, encouraged by the ex- pectation of quelling the refractory by their arms, continued to dis solve the opposing assemblies ; but the colonies remained firm in their purposes. 10. Lord North succeeded the duke of Grafton, as British premier in 1,770 ; and the act was repealed imposing a duty on glass, paper, and painters' colours ; but that on tea was retained. Some slight Srospect of allaying the difficulties succeeded. But on the second of larch an affray took place in Boston, between a private soldier and an inhabitant. This was succeeded, in a few days afterwards, by a mob meeting a party of British soldiers under arms, who were dared to fire, and who at length did fire, and killed five persons. The cap- tain who commanded, and the troops who fired, were afterwards tried for murder, and acquitted. 11. Things continued in this mode of partial irritation until 1,773, when the British East India company were authorized to export their tea to all places, free of duty. As this would enable them to sell that article cheaper in America, with the government exactions, than they had before sold it without them, it was confidently calculated that teas might be extensively disposed of in the colonies. Large consignments of tea were sent to various parts, and agents appointed for its disposal. The consignees, in several places, were compelled to relinquish their appointments. Popular vengeance prevented the landing at New- York or Philadelphia. In Boston it was otherwise. The tea for the supply of that port was consigned to the sons and particular friends of governor Hutchinson. The tea was landed by the strenuous exertions of the governor and consignees. But soon a party of men, dressed as Indians, boarded the tea ships, broke open the cargoes, and threw the contents into the sea. Enraged against the people of Boston, the par- liament resolved to take legislative vengeance on that devoted town. Disregarding the forms of the British constitution, by which none are to be punished without trial, they passed a bill, closing, in a commer- cial sense, its port : its custom house and trade were soon after re- moved to Salem. The charter of the colony was new modelled, so that the whole executive government was taken from the people, and the nomination to all important offices vested in the crown ; and it was enacted, that if any person was indicted for any capital offence com- mitted in aiding the magistrates, he might be sent to Great Britain or another colony for trial. Property, liberty, and life, were thus subject to ministerial caprice. The parliament went still further, and passed an act extending the boundaries of Canada, southward to the Ohio, westward, to the Mississippi, and northward, to the borders of the Hudson's bay company, assimilating its laws with the French, which dispensed with the trial by jury, and rendering the inhabitants passive agents in the hands of power. 12. The flame was now kindled in every breast ; and associations were formed, and committees of correspondence were established, which produced a unity of thought and action throughout the colonies. General Gage, the British commander-in-chief, arrived in Boston, hi 1,774, with more troops, with the avowed intention of dragooning the refractory Bostonians into compliance. A general sympathy was excited for the suffering inhabitants of Boston : addresses poured in from all quarters ; Marblehead offered to the Boston merchants the use of her wharves, and Salem refused to adopt the trade, the offer of which had been proffered as a temptation to her cupidity. Affair* 56 442 UNITED STATES rapidly approached a crisis. The preparations foi offence and defence, induced general Gage to fortify Boston, iud to seize on the powder lodged at the arsenatat Charlestown. 13. In September, deputies from most of the colonies met m con- gress, at Philadelphia. These delegates approved of the conduct of the people of Massachusetts ; wrote a letter to general Gage ; pub- lished a declaration of rights ; formed an association not to import or use British goods ; sent a petition to the king of Great Britain ; an address to the inhabitants of that kingdom ; another to the inhabitants ei Canada ; and another to the inhabitants of the colonies. In the beginning of the next year, (1,775,) was passed the fishery hill* by which the northern colonies were forbidden to fish on the banks ot Newfoundland for a certain time. This bore hard upon the commerce of these colonies, which was in a great measure supported by the fishery. 14. Soon after, another bill was passed, which restrained the trade of the middle and southern colonies to Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies, except under certain conditions. These repeated acts of oppression on the part of Great Britain, alienated the affections of * ^rica from her parent and sovereign, and produced a combined itrjh to the whole system of taxation. Preparations began to be n cO oppose by force the execution of these acts of parliament 1 \ie militia of the country were trained to the use of arms — great encouragement was given to the manufacture of gunpowder, and measures were taken to obtain all kinds of military stores. 15. In February, colonel Leslie was sent with a detachment of troops from Boston, to take possession of some cannon at Salem. But the people had intelligence of the design — took up the drawbridge in that town, and prevented the troops from passing, until the cannon were secured ; so that the expedition failed. In April, colonel Smith and major Pitcairn were sent with a body of troops, to destroy the military stores which had been collected at Concord, about twenty miles from Boston. At Lexington the militia were collected on a green, to oppose the incursion of the British forces. These were fired upon by the British troops, and eight men killed on the spot. ' 16. The militia were dispersed, and the troops proceeded to Con- cord ; where they destroyed a few stores. But on their return they were incessantly narassed by the Americans, who, inflamed with just resentment, fired upon them from houses and fences, and pursued them to Boston. Here was spilt the first blood in the war which severed America from the British empire. Lexington opened the first scene of the great drama, which, in its progress, exhibited the most illustri- ous characters and events, and closed with a revolution, equally glorious for the actors, and important m its consequences to the human race. Thrs battle roused all America. The militia collected from all quarters, and Boston was in a few days besieged by twenty thou- sand men. A stop was put to all intercourse between the town and country, and the inhabitants were reduced to great want of provisions. General Gage promised to let the people depart, if they would deliver up their arms. The people complied ; but when the general had obtained their arms, the perfidious wretch refused to let the people go. 17. In the mean time, a small number of men, under the command of colonel Allen and colonel Easton, without any public orders, sur- prised and took the British garrison at Ticonderoga, without the loss of a rnan. 18. In Jiaae following, our troops attempted to fortify Bunker's kill. UNITED STATES. 443 which lies in Charlestown, and but a mile and a half from Boston. They had, during the night, thrown up a small breastwork, which sheltered them irom the fire of the British cannon. But the next morning, the British army was sent to drive them from the hill ; and landing under cover of their cannon, they set fire to Charlestown, which was consumed, and marched to attack our troops in the entrenchments. A severe engagement ensued, in which the British suffered a 1 very great loss, both of officers and privates. They were repulsed at first, and thrown into disorder ; but they finally carried the fortification with the point of the bayonet. The Americans suffered a small loss compared with the British ; but the death of the brave general Warren, who fell in the action, a martyr to the cause of his country, was severe- ly felt and universally lamented. .19. About this time, the continental congress appointed Georgr Washington, Esq. to the chief command oi the continental arnr; This gentleman had been a distinguished and successful officer in the preceding war, and he seemed destined by Heaven to be the sav' of his country. He accepted the appointment with a diffidence which was a proof of his prudence and his greatness. He refused ar> for eight years' laborious and arduous service ; and by his m? skill, fortitude, and perseverance, conducted America, throur .nae- scribable difficulties, to independence and peace. While true i lerit is esteemed, or virtue honoured, mankind will never cease to revere the memory . of this hero ; and while gratitude remains in the human breast, the praises of Washington shall 'dwell oh every American tongue. 20. General Washington, with other officers appointed by congress* arrived at Cambridge, and took command of the American army in July. From this time, the affairs of America began to assume the appearance of a regular and general opposition to the forces of Great Britain. 21. In autumn, a body of troops, under the command of general Montgomery, besieged and took the garrison at St. John's, which commands "the entrance into Canada. The prisoners amounted to about seven hundred. General Montgomery pursued his success, and took Montreal, and designed to push his victories to Quebec. A body of troops, commanded by Arnold^ was ordered to march to Canada, by the river Kennebec, and through the wilderness. After suffering every hardship, and the most distressing hunger, they arrived in Canada, and were joined by general Montgomery, before Quebec This city, which was commanded by governor Carleton, was imme- diately besieged. But there being little hope of taking the town by a siege, it was determined to storm it. The attack was made on the last day of Decembei, but proved unsuccessful, and fatal to the brave general, who, with his aid, was killed in attempting to scale the walls. Of the three divisions which attacked the town, one only entered, and •that was compelled to surrender to superior force. Alter this defeat, Arnold, who now commanded the troops, continued some months before Quebec, although his troops suffered incredibly by cold and sickness. But the next spring the Americans were obliged to retreat from Canada. 22. About this time the large and flourishing town of Norfolk, in Virginia, was wantonly burnt by order of lord Dunmore, the royal governor. General Gage went to England in September, and was succeeded in command by general Howe. Falmouth, a considerable town in the province ot Maine, in Massachusetts, shared the fate of Norfolk ; being laid in ashes by order of the British admiral. 444 UNITED STATES. 23. The British king entered into treaties with seme of the German princes for about seventeen thousand men, who were to be sent to America the next year, to assist, in subduing- the colonies. The British parliament also passed an act, forbidding all intercourse with America; and white they repealed the Boston port and fishery bills, they declar- ed all American property on the high seas forfeited to the captors. This act induced congress to change the mode of carrying on the war ; and measures were taken to annoy the enemy in Boston. For this purpose, batteries were opened on several hills, from whence shot and bombs were thrown into the town. But the batteries which were opened on Dorchester point had the best effect, and soon obliged general Howe to abandon the town. hi March, 1,776, the British 'roops embarked for Halifax, and general Washington entered the wn in triumph. M. In the ensuing summer, a small squadron of ships, under the Yiand of sir Peter Parker, and a body of troops under the gene "linton and Cornwallis, attempted to take Charleston, the capital h Carolina. The ships made a violent attack upon the fort on £ s island, but were repulsed with great loss, and the expedition w.. loned. 2 J uly, congress published their declaration of independence, which tor ever separated America from Great Britain. This great event took place two hundred and eighty-four years after the first dis covery of America by Columbus — one hundred and seventy from the first effectual settlements in Virginia — and one hundred and fifty-six from the first settlement of Plymouth, in Massachusetts, which were the earliest English settlements in America. Just after this declara lion, general Howe, with a powerful force, arrived near New- York and landed the troops upon Staten Island/ General Washington was in New-York, with about thirteen thousand men, encamped either in the city, or in the neighbouring fortifications. 26. The operations of the British began by the action on Long Island, in the month of August. The Americans were defeated, and general Sullivan and lord Sterling, with a large body of men, were made prisoners. The night after the engagement, a retreat was ordered, and executed with such silence, that the Americans left the Island without alarming their enemies, and without loss. In Septem- ber, the city of New-lork was abandoned by the American army, and taken by the British. 27. In November, fort Washington, on York Island, was taken, and more than two thousand men made prisoners. Fort Lee, opposite to fori Washington, on the Jersey shore, "was soon after taken, but the garrison escaped. About the same time, general Clinton was sent, with a body of troops, to take possession of Rhode Island, and suc- ceeded. In addition to all these losses and defeats, the American army suffered by desertion, and more by sickness, which was epidemic, and rery mortal. 28 The northern army, at Ticonderoga, was in a disagreeable situation, particularly after the battle on lake Champlain, in which the American lurce, consisting of a few light vessels, under the command of Arnold and general Waterbury, was totally dispersed. But general Carieton, instead of pursuing his victory, landed at Crown Point, re- connoitered our posts at Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, and returned to winter quarters in Canada. 29. At the close of this year, the American army was dwindled to a handful of men ; and general Lee was taken prisoner in New-Jersey. UNITED STATES. 44f> Far fiom being discouraged at these losses, congress took measures to raise and establish an army. In this critical situation, general Wash- ington surprised and took a large body of Hessians, who were canton- ed at Trenton ; and soon after, another body of the British troops, ift Princeton. The address in planning and executing these enterprises, reflected the highest honour on the commander, and the success reviv- ed the desponding hopes of America. The loss of general Mercer, a gallant officer, at Princeton, was the principal circumstance that allay- ed the joy of victory. 30. The following year, (1,777,) was distinguished by very memo- rable events in favour of America. On the opening of the campaign, governor Tryon w T as sent, with a body of troops, to destroy the stores at Danbury, in Connecticut. This plan was executed, and the town mostly burnt. The enemy suffered ii>their retreat, and the Americans lost general Wooster, a brave and experienced officer. General Pres • cott was taken from his quarters on Rhode Island, by the address and enterprise of colonel Barton, and conveyed prisoner to the continent. General Burgoyne, who commanded the northern British army, took possession ofTiconderoga, which had been abandoned by the Ameri- cans. He pushed his successes, crossed lake George, and encamped upon the banks of the Hudson, near Saratoga. His progress was however checked by the defeat of colonel Baum, near Bennington, in which the undisciplined militia of Vermont, under general Stark, dis- played unexampled bravery, and captured almost the whole detach- ment. The militia assembled from all parts of New-England, 1o stop the progress of general Burgoyne. These, with the regular troops, formed a respectable army, commanded by general Gates. After two severe actions, in which the generals Lincoln and Arnold, behaved with uncommon gallantry, and were wounded, general Burgoyne found himself enclosed with brave troops, and was forced to surrender his whole army, amounting to seven thousand men, into the hands of tfoo Americans. This happened in October. This event diffused a uni- versal joy over America, and laid a foundation for the treaty with France. 31. But before these transactions, the main body of the British forces had embarked at New- York, sailed up the Chesapeake, and landed at the head of Elk river. The army soon began their march for Philadelphia. General Washington had determined to oppose them, and for this purpose made a stand upon the heights near Brandy- wine creek. Here the armies engaged, and the Americans were over- powered, and suffered great loss. The enemy soon pursued their march, and took possession of Philadelphia towards the close of Sep- tember. Not long after, the two armies were again engaged at Ger- mantown, and in the beginning of the action the Americans had the advantage ; but by some unlucky accident, the fortune of the day was turned in favour of the British. Both sides suffered considerable loss ; on the side of the Americans was general Nash. 32. In an attack upon the forts at Mud Island and Red Bank, the Hessians were unsuccessful, and their commander, colonel Donop, killed. The British also lost the Augusta, a ship, of the line. But the forts were afterwards- taken, and the navigation of the Delaware opened. General Washington was reinforced with part of the troops, which had composed the northern army, under general Gates : and both armies retired to winter quarters. 33. In October, the same moi/Ji in which general Burgoyne was taken at Saratoga, general Vaughan, with a small fleet, sailed up P p 446 UN TED STATES Hudson's river, and wantonly burnt Kingston, a beautiful Dutch settle- ment, on the west side of the river. 34. The beginning of the next year (1,778) was distinguished by a treaty of alliance between France and America ; by which we obtain- ed a powerful ally. When the English ministry were informed that this treaty vas on foot, they despatched commissioners to America, to^ahempt a reconciliation. But America would not now accept their offers.^ Early in the spring, count de Estaing, with a fleet of fifteen sail of the line, was sent by the court of France to assist America. 35. General Howe left the army, and returned to England ; the command then devolved upon sir Henry Clinton. In June, the British army left Philadelphia, and marched for New-York. On their march they were much annoyed by the Americans ; and at Monmouth a very regular action took place between part of the armies ; the enemy were repulsed with great loss ; and had general Lee obeyed his orders, a signal victory must have been obtained. General Lee, for his ill con- duct that day, was suspended, and was never afterwards permitted tc join the army. 36. In August, general Sullivan, with a large body of troops, at- tempted to take possession of Rhode Island, but did not succeed. Soon after, the stores and shipping at Bedford, in Massachusetts, were burnt by a party of British troops. The same year, Savannah, the capital of Georgia, was taken by the British, under the command of colonel Campbell.- In the following year, (1,779,) general Lincoln was appointed to the command of the southern army. Governor Tryon and sir George Collier made an incursion into Connecticut, and burnty with wanton barbarity, the towns of Fairfield and Norwalk 37. But' the American arms were crowned with success in a bold attack unon Stony Point, which was surprised and taken by general Wayne, in the night of the 15th of July. Five hundred men were made prisoners, with a small loss on either side. A party of British lorees attempted, this summer, to build a fort on Penobscot river, for the purpose of cutting timber in the neighbouring forests. A plan was .did, by Massachusetts, to dislodge them, and a considerable fleet col- lected for the purpose. But the plan failed of success, and the whole marine torce fell into the hands of the British, except some vessels, which were burnt by the Americans themselves. 38. In October, general Lincoln and count de Estaing made an assault upon Savannah ; but they were repulsed with considerable loss. In this action, the celebrated Polish count Polaski, who had ac- quired the reputation of a brave soldier, was mortally wounded. In tins summer, general Sullivan marched, with a body of troops, into the Indian country-, and burnt and destroyed all their provisions and -settlements that fell in his way. 39. On the opening of the campaign, the next year, (1,780,) the British troops left Rhode Island. An expedition under general Clin- ton and lord Cornwallis; was undertaken against Charleston, South Carolina, where general Lincoln commanded. This town, after a close •siege of about six weeks, was surrendered to the British commander ; and general Lincoln, and the whole American garrison, were made prisoners. 40. General Gates was appointed to the command in the southern •department, and another army collected. In August, lord Cornwallis attacked the American troops at Camden, in South Carolina, and rout- ■ed them with considerable loss. He afterwards marched through the •**v iksin states, and supposed them entirely subdued. The .same UNITED STATES 44 summer, tue British troops made frequent incursions from New-York into the Jerseys ; ravaging and plundering the country. In some ot these descents, the Rev. Mr. Caldwell, a respectable clergyman and warm patriot, and his lady, were inhumanly murdered by the savage soldiery. 41 In July, a French fleet, under Monsieur de Ternay, with a body of land forces, commanded by count de Rochambeau, arrived at Rhode Island, to the great joy of the Americans. 42. This year was also distinguished by the infamous treason of Arnold. General Washington having seme business to transact at Weathersfield, in Connecticut, left Arnold to command the important post of West Point, which guards a pass in Hudson's river, about sixty miles from *New-York. Arnold's conduct in the city of Philadelphia, the preceding winter, had been censured, and the treatment he receiv- ed in consequence had given him offence. He determined to have revenge ; and for this purpose he entered into a negotiation with sir Henry Clinton, to deliver West Point and : the army into the hands of the British. While general Washington was absent, he dismounted the cannon in some of the forts, and took other steps to render the taking of the post easy for the enemy. But by. a providential discov- ery, the whole plan was defeated. Major Andre, aid to general Clinton, a brave officer, who had been up the river as a spy, to con- cert the plan of operations with Arnold, was taken, condemned by a court-martial, and executed. Arnold made his escape by getting on board the Vulture, a British vessel which lay in the river. His cor> duct has stamped him with infamy, and, like all traitors, he is despised by all mankind. General Washington arrived in camp just after Arnold had made his escape, and restored order in the garrison. 43. After the defeat of general Gates, in Carolina, general Green was appointed to the command in the southern department. From this period, things in this quarter wore a more favourable aspect. Colonel Tarleton, the active commander of the British legion, was defeated by general Morgan, the intrepid commander of the riflemen. After a variety of movements, the two armies met at Guilford, in North Carolina. Here was one of the best fought actions during the war. General Greene and lord Cornwallis exerted themselves, at the head of their respective armies, and, although the Americans were obliged to retire irom the field of battle, yet the British army suffered an im- mense loss, and could not pursue the victory. This action happened on the 15th of March, Ij?81. 44. In the spring, Arnold, who was made a brigadier-general in the British service, with a small number of troops, sailed for Virginia, and plundered the country. This called the attention of the French fleet to that quarter, and a naval engagement took place, between the English and French, in which some of the English ships were much damaged, and one entirely disabled. 45. After the battle at Guilford, general Greene moved towards South Carolina, to drive the British from their posts in that state. Here lord Rawdon obtained an inconsiderable advantage over the Americans, near Camden. But general Greene more than recovered this disadvantage, by the brilliant and successful action at the Eutaw springs ; where general Marion distinguished himself, and the brave colonel Washington was wounded and taken prisoner. Lord Corn- wallis finding general Greene successful in Carolina, marched to Vir- ginia, collected his forces, and fortified himself in Yorktown. In the mean time, Arnold made an incursion into Connecticut, burnt a part *48 UNITED STATES. of New-London, look fort GriswoJd by storm, and put the garrison tc the sword. The garrison consisted chiefly of men suddenly collected from the little town of Groton, which, by the savage cruelty of the British officer who commanded the attack, lost, in one hour, almost all its heads of families. The brave colonel Ledyard, who command- ed the fort, was slain with his own sword, after he had surrendered. 46. The marquis de la Fayette, the brave and generous nobleman, whose services command the gratitude of every American, had been despatched from the main army to watch the motions of lord Corn- wallis, in Virginia. About the last of August, count de Grasse arrived with a large fleet in the Chesapeake, and blocked up the British troop9 at Yorktown. Admiral Greaves, with a British fleet, appeared off the Capes, and an action succeeded, but it was not decisive. General Washington had, before this time, moved the main body of his army, together with the French troops, to the southward ; and, as soon as he neard of the arrival of the French fleet in the Chesapeake, he made rapid marches to the head of the Elk, where embarking, the troops soon arrived at Yorktown. A close siege immediately commenced, and was carried on with such vigour by the combined forces of Amer- ica and France, that log-d Cornwallis was obliged to surrender. This glorious event, which took place on the 19th of October, 1,781, de- cided the contest in favour of America, and laid the foundation of a general peace. A few months after the surrender of Cornwallis, the British evacuated all their posts in South Carolina and Georgia, and retired to the main army in New- York. 47. The next spring (l,782) sir. Guy Carlton arrived in New-York, and took command of the British army in America. Immediately after his arrival, he acquainted general Washington and congress, that negotiations for a peace had been commenced at Paris. On the 30th of November, 1,782, the provisional articles of peace were signed at Paris, by which Great Britain acknowledged the independence and sovereignty of the United States of America. 48. Thus ended a long and arduous conflict, in which Great Britain expended near a hundred millions of money, with a hundred thousand lives, and won nothing. America endured eveiy cruelty and distress from her enemies ; lost many lives, and much treasure — but delivered herself from a foreign dominion, and gained a rank among the nations of the earth. SECTION V. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE AND NATIONAL GOVERN- MENTS. WARS WITH TRIPOLI AND THE INDIANS, &c. 1. The important revolution, as regarding the dependance of the colonies on Great Britain, required a corresponding: alteration in their governments. Conventions were assembled in the several states, which formed new constitutions, agreeably to the strictest principles of republicanism ; retaining whatever was desirable in the original institutions, and at the same time providing additional security against tyranny or corruption. The statute and common laws of England, tormerly observed in the provincial courts of justice, remain in prac- tice as before. The inestimable privilege, of British origin, a trial by jury ; the freedom of the press, with -the additional right, in case of prosecuting for a libel, cf giving the truth in evidence ; are de- UNITED STATES. 449 c ared to be fundamental principles. The governments resemble, in .heir principal organization, the frame of the new federal constitution they consist of three branches — a governor, a senate, and a lower nouse of representatives. The elections recur frequently, in which, in most of the states, every freeman has a right to participate. 2. As yet the general government was not established on a solid foundation. The articles of union, formed under the pressure of com- mon danger, were found inadequate to the efficient management of the same country in the selfish periods of peace and security. No efficient fund had been provided to pay the interest of the national debt, and the public securities fell to one tenth of their nominal value. An open resistance to the government was made in Massachusetts, headed by a person of the name of Shays. Danger increased, and the friends of rational liberty became alarmed. 3. The Virginia legislature, in 1,787, in accordance with a motion made by James Madison, made a proposal to the other states to meet in convention for the purpose of digesting a system of government equal to the exigencies of the union. The convention met at Phila- delphia, May 25, 1,787. and chose general Washington president ; and, after deliberating with closed doors until the 17th of September, agreed on a new plan of national government : this was afterwards ratified by the several states. This new constitution not only fixes the national government on a republican basis, but guaranties to each state of the family a republican form of government, and binds the whole to protect each against foreign invasion or domestic violence. Gen- eral Washington was unanimously chosen first president under the new constitution. . March 4, 1,789, the first congress under the new consti- tution assembled at New- York ; and, in 1,790, .duties were levied on imported merchandise, to replenish an empty treasury. The public debt incurred during the revolutionary war was funded, and brought at once to its par value. A national bank was established, not how- ever without opposition. An excise duty laid on domestic spirits, pro- duced an insurrection in the western part of Pennsylvania ; but the laws were executed, and on the intervention of an armed force, tran- quillity was restored without bloodshed. 4. Two new states were admitted into the confederacy, viz. : Ver- mont in 1,791, and Kentucky in 1,792. A war with the Creek Indians, whose fighting men amounted to about six hundred, some time existed on the frontier of Georgia : peace, however, was restored there in 1,790. A sanguinary warfare, with various success, was for some time kept up with the north-western Indians, in 1,791, general Harmar was defeated, in the Ohio country, with the loss of three hundred and sixty men killed. General St. Clair, at the head of two thousand militia and regulars, was subsequently worsted, near the Indian villages on the Miami, with the loss of thirty-eight officers, and nearly six hundred privates. St. Clair was succeeded by general Wayne, who completely routed the savage foe, and drove the Indians out of the country. In the year after, Wayne negotiated a satisfactory treaty of peace with the hostile Indians ; and at this lime commenced a humane system f or ameliorating their condition. 5. Whilst the United States were employed in quelling the refrac- tory, and restraining the inroads of a subtle enemy within their ow. bosom, new sources of difficulty discovered themselves in the grea convulsions of Europe. The French revolution had commenced, and that nation was under the wild misrule of its directory. Claims for assistance were made on the United States. Genet, the French envoy, P p 2 57 450 UNITED STATES having arrived at Charleston, undertook to authorize tne arming of tessels in that port, and the enlisting of men ; giving commissions, in the name of the French government, to cruise at sea, and commit hos- tilities on land, against nations with whom the United States were at peace. The British minister remonstrated. The president issued orders for defeating the unwarrantable interference of the French am- bassador. Genet threatened an appeal to the people, but was soon after recalled. Afterwards, the French directory authorized the in- discriminate capture of all vessels sailing under the flag of the United States ; and ordered the American envoys to leave France. Two severe actions occurred in the West Indies, between the American frigate Constellation, of thirty-eight guns, and the French frigate L'Insurgente, of forty, and the same frigate and the La Vengeance, of fifty guns, in which L'Insurgente was captured, and La Vengeance worsted. 6. In 1,797, John Adams was chosen president ; and in the year after, Washington was called to the head of the army, in the prospect of a protracted war with France. But speedily after the overthrow of the directory government, all the disputes between France and the United States were amicably arranged. 7. Although, since the definitive treaty of Paris, there occurred no open hostilities between England and the United States, yet they were far from being on terms of amity and conciliation. On various pre texts, the English retained possession of the forts on the south side ol the lakes, forming the northern boundary of the United States ; and irritation was continually excited by the English insisting on the right of searching American ships for enemy's property. Mr. Jay was de- puted envoy to London, and negotiated a treaty, in 1,795, which set- tled the differences between the two nations, but the terms of which were much opposed in the United States. 8. December 14, 1,799, died the illustrious Washington, of an in- flammatory sore throat and fever, contracted from a slight exposure to the wet weather, after an illness of only about twenty-four hours. 9. The seat of government had been removed from New- York to Philadelphia, both of which places being deemed inconvenient, pro- vision was made, at the second session after the formation of govern- ment, for the removal of the government to a district on the Potomac, which was ceded to the United States by Virginia and Maryland ; and, in 1,800, the public 1 offices were removed to the infant capital, on which magnificent buildings had been erected. This city bears the name of Washington, and the district that of Columbia. 10. The war with Tripoli commenced in 1,801, by an engagement of the Enterprise, captain Sterrett, with a Tripolitan corsair, off Malta, in which the American was victorious. Commodore Murray, the following year, in the frigate Constellation, was attacked, while cruis- ing off Tripoli, by a formidable number of gun boats, but obliged them to retire in confusion. In 1,803, the Philadelphia frigate, cap- lain Bainbridge/ran upon a rock, in the very jaws of the pirates ; was obliged to strike, and her officers and crew, amounting to three hun- dred, were made prisoners. This vessel was, however, recaptured and burnt, while lying in the harbour of Tripoli, February 16, 1,804, by captain Stephen Decatur, jr., and seventy men— one of the most daring and gallant exploits on record. From the 3d to the 29th of August following, commodore Preble made three general attacks upon the Tripolitan batteries. The barbarian enemy continued to treat the American prisoners with the most atrocious cruelty. Another UNITED STATES. 451 expedient was tried by the American government. General Eaton was despatched to co-operate with Hamet, who had been driven from the government of Tripoli by the usurpation of his brother. Travel- ling to Egypt, he found the exile, and proceeding fifty-two days ilirough a hideous desert, he arrived before Derne, a city in the regency of Tripoli, and carried the town at the point of the bayonet. Twice did the enemy attempt to retake the town ; but, against tearful odds, they were repulsed by Eaton. This brought the reigning bashaw to terms ; a peace was concluded by colonel Lear, and the prisoners long detained in captivity, were released. 11. Tennessee in 1,796, and Ohio in 1,800, were added to the states of the union. In 1,803, Louisiana was purchased from the French government, for the sum of fifteen millions of dollars ; and in 1,812, a portion of this extended territory was erected into a state by that name. By this cession, the United States have acquired a territory of vast magnitude, a 26. On Sunday, the 11th of September, admiral Cochrane appeared off Baltimore; with about fifty sail. " The larger vessels landed at North Point, ten miles from the city, about seven thousand troops under general Ross and admiral Cockburn. The next day, as they advanced towards the city, they were met by general Strieker with about three thousand militia, and a severe engagement took place, in which the British general was killed. The Americans were however repulsed by superior numbers ; and on Tuesday evening, the British advanced to within about two miles of the American entrenchments. But so strong was the American force, and so valiantly had they fought the preceding day, that the British retreated before morning, and hastily re-embarked A grand attack was made on Tuesday on fort M'Henry, on the other side of the city and commanding the water passage to it, from frigates, bomb, and rocket vessels, which lasted the whole day and a part of the night, doing but little damage. In the night about a thousand of the enemy landed between the fort and the city, but were »oon repulsed. The loss of t„ie Americans in killed. UNITED STATES. 457 wounded, and prisoners, was two hundred and thirteen : that of the British is not known. The enemy, thus discomfited, moved down the bay. 27. The governor-general of Canada, sir George Prevost, with from twelve to fourteen thousand men, made ar attack on Plattsburgh, September 11. At the same time a naval engagement, on lake Cham- plain, took place in sight of the land forces. The American fleet having eighty-six guns and eight hundred and twenty-six men, was commanded by captain M'Donough ; the British, consisting of ninety- five guns and one thousand and fifty men, was commanded by com- modore Downie. The action ended in the surrender of the British vessels, viz. one frigate, one brig, and two sloops of war. Some of their gallies were sunk ; others escaped. American loss, fifty-twG killed, fifty-eight wounded : British loss, eighty-four .killed, one hundred and ten wounded. At the same time that the fleets were engaged, governor Prevost attacked the forts at Plattsburgh with his land forces, throwing shells, balls, and rockets : he attempted to cross the Saranac, but was repulsed at three different places. So effectual was the fire of the Americans, that, before sunset, the batteries he had erected were all silenced; and at nine o':lock in the evening his whole army began a rapid retreat, leaving many wounded, and much ammunition, provision, and baggage. The American Joss this day 5 and in skirmishes previous on land, was thirty-nine killed, sixty-two wounded, and twenty missing: the loss of the British, in killed* wounded, arid deserters, besides those on board the fleet, was estimat- ed at two thousand five hundred. General Alexander Macomb com- manded the American land forces. 28. As on Erie and Champlain, so on the lake Ontario, each party strove for a naval ascendency. Several large ships were built by the Americans at Sackett's harbour, and b} r the British at Kingston. The American fleet Was commanded by captain Chauncey, and the British by commodore Yeo. As at no time, one side equalled the other in strength, so at all times one avoided as the other sought for an engage- ment. A partial action once took place ; but the British commander, at that time supposing his force inferior, took the advantage of cir- cumstances to make his port. One of the British vessels ready for sea at the close of the war manned nearly one hundred guns ; and two of the largest class of vessels in the world were at the same tim«> erecting at Sackett's harbour. ' 29. -In a sortie from fort Erie, under the command of general Brown, after a severe engagement, the British were defeated with the loss of nearly a thousand, in killed, wounded, and prisoners : the American loss exceeded five hundred. 30. The frigate President, commodore Decatur, sailed from New- York, January 14, 1,815, and was the next day pursued by four frigates and a brig of the enemy. An engagement took place between the foremost of the pursuing vessels, the Endymion and the President after a severe action of two hours, the Endymion was silenced and beaten off. The Pamone and Tenedos in one hour coming up, the President was obliged to surrender. 31. One of the most splendid events on the part of the Americans closed the late war : it was the discomfiture and repulse of the British at New-Orleans. A very large British force entered lake Pontchar- train, near New-Orleans, early in December, 1,814, defeating aftet an obstinate conflict the small American naval force stationed there. The British were commanded by general Packenham, one of Welling- 4&8 UNITED STATES. ton's invincibles who had conquered the great Napoleon : the Angeli- ca n army was led by general Andrew Jackson. Several skirmishes took place, in which the British were almost the exclusive sufferers. On Sunday morning early, January 8; a grand attack was made by the British on the American troops in their entrenchments. After an engagement of more than an hour, the enemy were cut fc> pieces to a degree almost beyond example, and fled in confusion, leaving on the field of battle their dead and wounded. The British loss was seven hundred killed, fourteen hundred wounded, and five hundred prisoners the generals Packenham and Kcane, were among the slain, and gen- eral Cobb w r as dangerously wounded. The American loss was said to be only seven killed and six wounded ! The attack was not renewed, and in a short time after, the British left the west. 32. Up to the close of 1,814, the British ministry, calculating to bring the Americans to their terms, had discovered an indisposition to treat with the commissioners of the United States ; but the defeat of the British before Plattsburgh, gave a new turn to the negotiation, and a treaty of peace was signed at Ghent, December 24, 1,814. Both nations agreed to appoint commissioners to settle disputed boundaries. No allusion was made in the treaty to the causes of the war. Security against their recurrence rests, however, on a much firmer basis than, the provisions of the most solemn treaty. Britain has been taught to appreciate the strength of the republic. By this war the public debt of the United States was increased a hundred millions of dollars. 33. It would too much extend this sketch of the history of the re- public, to trace to its source the Origin of parties which have divided the country into two great sections with different appellations. The distinction was unknown until subsequent to Mr. Jay's treaty with Great Britain in 1,795. George Washington was elected president in 1,788, and re elected in 1,792. He was succeeded by John Adams, elected in 1,796, between whom and Thomas Jefferson the parties divided in 1,800: the latter w T as chosen at that time, not however until he had been balloted for thirty-six times by the house of repre- sentatives in congress, the vote by states being at each balloting equally divided between Mr. Jefferson and Aaron Burr. In 1,804. Mr. Jefferson was re-elected. Declining an election in 1,808, Mr. Jefferson gave place to James Madison. The latter continuing eight vears, James Monroe was elected to the presidency in 1,816 ; and so Mineral was the satisfaction with the administration, that in 1,820, he had all the electoral votes save one for the same office. 34. Since the peace the attention of the country has been called te the propriety of augmenting the national defence. Congress having made appropriations for the purpose, extensive fortifications have been ,:,,ia continue to be erected for the security of the commercial towns*- One million of dollars annually is likewise appropriated for the grad^- ual augmentation of the navy, to which, independent of smaller vessels, nine ships of the line, twelve frigates, and three floating batte- ries are to be added. 35. By an act of congress in the year 1,818, a yearly pension, suffi- cient for their decent maintenance, having been granted to those officers pod privates who served more than nine months at any one time in the war of the revolution, more than thirty thousand individuals made ap- plication for relief. The sum required much exceeded general ex- Dectation ; and the following year an additional act was passed which viiicumscribed the applicants to a narrow space. Importations having lessened, the amount received into the treasury from duties became UNITED STAT ES. 459 Jess than the calculations ; and in 1,821, the standing militaiy force was reduced from ten to six thousand, and the building of ships of war was, in some degree, suspended. 3b. Since the admission of Louisiana in 1,812, six other states have been admitted into the Union — Indiana in 1,816, Mississippi in 1,817, Illinois in 1,818, Alabama in 1,819, Maine in 1,820, and Missouri in 1,821. Indiana and Illinois are sections of the same territory from which Ohio was made a state. Mississippi and Alabama belonged to Georgia and Louisiana : Maine was separated from Massachusetts, and Missouri from the vast tract ceded by the French, under the name of Louisiana. 37. A treaty was concluded at Washing-ton in 1,819, by which Spain ceded to the United States that portion of her territory, known by the name of Florida. Five millions of dollars was the price ; and the sum, m pursuance of the treaty, has been paid as indemnity to Amer- ican citizens for illegal seizures of their property in Spanish ports. 38. Besides the different state governments, territorial governments, with magistrates appointed by the president and senate, exist in Michigan, Arkansas, and Florida. 39. In the year 1,820, the fourth authorized census of the inhabitants was recorded. The progress of population has been rapid almost beyond a parallel. In 1,790, the population was three millions nine hundred and twenty-one thousand : in 1,800, five millions three hundred and twenty thousand : in 1,810, seven millions two hundred and forty thousand ; and in * ,820, nine millions six. hundred and thirty eight thousand. PART FIFTH. SECTION I. Aliiin ,i>NAL FACTS, BRINGING DOWN THE GENERAL HIS TORY TO THE PRESENT TIME. 1 In r,82u, some commotion was caused in France by the assassina- tion of the Duke of Berri ; nephew of Louis XVIII. and son of the present king. He was stabbed at the door of the opera house by au obscure person named Louvel. It appeared that the assassin was instigated to this horrid deed merely by a thirst tor revenging an al- leged injury, which he suffered many years previous. 2. Napoleon Bonaparte died at St. Helena, May 5th 1,821, aged 52. He was a man of talents which few other men are competent to esti- mate : of astonishing foresight and intrepidity : of insatiable ambition. His career was marked by the most splendid achievements. He was destined by Providence to humble the pride of the princes of the earth, to shake the foundations of arbitrary power, and then, to be himself humbled and debased. To France he gave a code of laws, the influence of which has been felt throughout Europe, and will ex- tend through the world. He gave to the lower classes of the commu- nity, an activity and importance, which they had never felt ; but which, having been once appreciated, they are not likely to surrender. His political maxims, however selfish in their ends, were utterly at vari- ance with that baser love of arbitrary dominion, which is regardless of the welfare of its subjects. He loved to govern ; but his ambition made him wish to govern an industrious, enlightened, and happy world ; and wherever he extended his conquests, he endeavoured to relieve the oppressed, and break the shackles under which humanity groaned. The efforts which are now making by the lower classes in almost every arbitrary government, to obtain free constitutions which shall elevate them from the rank of slaves to that of citizens, are to be ascribed, in a great measure, to the influence of his institutions, and his example. We can mark no limits to the blessings which, under Heaven, he dispensed while he lived, and bequeathed to posterity. If we judge him by the effects of his conquests, his institutions and his administration of government, he will appear one of the greatest bene- factors of mankind : but if as Christians, we estimate his character by the motives which he manifested throughout his career, Ave shall find ittle in it to applaud, but much to condemn. Although it was a part of his policy to ameliorate the condition of men, a wish to extend and to secure his own sovereignty over them appears to have been his ruling motive. An all-wise Providence converted his deeds into blessings, but they cannot entitle him to the praise of Christian virtue. If his rise and reign Avas all that men call glorious, his doAvnfall ex- hibited a reverse no less signal. Confined on one of the most barren and dismal islands in the Avorld, — guarded and controlled by gaolers, who exercised towards him a petty tyranny, which denied not unfre- quently the common civilities of life, — Avasted by a long and painful disease, — all the circumstances about him combined to mock his for- mer greatness, and to witness to an ambitious world, that he whs exalieth himself shall be abased. ADDITIONAL FACTS, &c. 461 3. In 1,823, France obtained permission from the Congress of Allied Sovereigns, held at Verona, to invade Spain, and re-establish the king in his former authority. It was expected thai the friends of the new constitution would have been able to make a powerful resistance to this invasion ; but the conquest proved easy ; and this revolution, like that of 1,820, was accomplished with very little bloodshed. On the 16th day of Sept. 1,824, Louis XVIII. died of the dropsy; his brother succeeded to the throne and took the title of Charles X. 4. A revolution Similar in its character to that in Spain took place in Portugal in 1,820. In 1,821, the Royal Family, with the exception of the Prince Royal, the king's son, returned from Brazil. The king swore to the free constitution, and the kingdom enjoyed a good de- gree of tranquillity until May 1,823, when a counter-revolution wa3 commenced, and on the 3d of June the king issued his proclamation announcing the restoration of the Ancient Monarchy. 5. In England, George IV. succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father George III. He had for many years been Prince Regent. The year was distinguished by domestic commotions, of which the disturbances among the labouring classes in Manchester and other manufacturing towns, were the most alarming. The al- leged cause of complaint was the low price of wages, which was declared to be quite disproportionate to their services. Large meet- ings Avere held in many places, and very riotous proceedings passed and the nation was much alarmed by the prospects of a civil war The malecontents found several able leaders, among whom Hunt and Thistlewood were prominent. The commotions were, however, quelled without their objects being obtained. Hunt suffered a long imprisonment ; Thistlewood and four others were executed, and five were transported. 6. But this year was principally memorable for the. trial of the Queen on a charge of adultery. This affair produced a remarkable degree of excitement not only throughout that kingdom, but also ok the continent and in America. 7. Since the •termination of these difficulties the nation has enjoyed tranquillity and a high degree of prosperity. 8. The summer of 1,821, was remarkable for the scantiness of the crops in Ireland. The following winter brought a most distressing famine, of which great numbers perished. 9. Since the establishment of peace in 1,815, the Northern States of Europe have enjoyed a good degree of tranquillity. Few events have orcarred, to serve as items of general history. By a decree of the Emperor of Russia in 1,811, the government of that empire was declared to be a constitutional monarchy. Little was done till after the peace to limit its despotic character, but since that period some constitutional privileges have been granted to the subjects. Similar improvements have been made, and are making, in the governments of most of these States. Prussia has established assemblies, which bear a representative character. 10. In 1,815, the Congress of Vienna, composed of the authorities of Austria, France, Great-Britain, Prussia, and Russia, made a solemn declaration of their resolution to put a stop to the African Slave Trade. This wicked traffic Avas not, however, diminished by this measure, be* cause France was totally unfaithful to her promise. At the Congress of Verona in 1,823, the same powers, with the exception of France, declared that this crime ought to be assimilated with that of piracy, and hence punishable with death. Qq2. 462 HISTORY OF NEW SPAIN. 11. In 1,816, the Jesuits were expelled from Moscow and Peters- burgh, and in 1|820, from the whole .Russian empire, and forbidden ever to return. 12. Pope Pius VII. died Aug. 20, 1,823, in the eighty-second year of bis age, and the twenty-fourth of his pontificate. He was succeed- ed by the Cardinal Delia Genga, who assumed the title of Leo XII. The present Pope, was born on the 2d of Aug. 1,760. He was Nun- cio fourteen years in the electorates of the Rhino. At the period of ye persecutions exercised by Bonaparte against the Catholic Church, ne was obliged to quit Rome with the other prelates and cardinals. At the restoration, he was the cardinal selected by Pius VII. to congratulate Louis XVIII. on his return. The commencement of his pontificate has been signalized by his refusal to restore the Inquisition in Spain, declaring it inconsistent with the liberal spirit of the age. \ 13. In the summer of 1,820, an insurrection broke out in Naples and Sicily, and so feeble was the established government, that the insurgents soon compelled the king to grant them a free constitution. The Allied Sovereigns of Europe at their session at Troppau, near the close of the same year, made a formal declaration of irreconcilable hostility to this new government. In 1,821, they decided at the Con- fress of Laybach, that a portion of the Austrian army should occupy Japles, to restore trie authority of the king. This was readily ac- complished, and with little opposition. The Spanish constitution ot 1,812, was granted to Naples and Sicily, and tranquillity was restored. Similar disturbances took place at the same period in some of the Sardinian States, but they were quieted by the result of those in Na- ples and Sicily , 14. Turkey has enjoyed little tranquillity for many years. The Greeks revolted from the Ottoman power in 1,821 ; and from that period to the present a bloody war has been carried on between them and the Turks. The latter have committed frequent and horrible massacres of the Christians in Constantinople, Scio, and other places ; and have endeavoured to reduce their revolted subjects by every act of cruelty and oppression. The Greeks have maintained their strug- gle for independence with much bravery and spirit, which has some- times become ferocity ; but they are neither sufficiently virtuous nor civilized to act in full concert in resisting oppression. It is impossible to judge how far they have been really successful, and what are their prospects of ultimate success, owing to the want of authentic channels of information ; but at this moment the existing probability is decid- edly in favour of their success. SECTION SECOND. HISTORY OF NEW SPAIN. COMPILED PRINCIPALLY FROM POINSETT'S NOTES ON MEXICO. 1. When this country was first visited by the Spaniards in 1,519, it had attained a high degree of civilization. Of this we may judge by the form, of its government, its laws, and its civil institutions. 2. The monarch was chosen from among the members of the reign- ing family by six electors, chosen from among the thirty princes of 4he first rank. The political system was feudal. The first class of sioJ as, consisting oi thirty families had each one hundred thousand HISTORY OF NEW SPAIN. 463. vassals. The second class consisted of more than three thousand families The lords exercised the right of life and death over their vassals. All the lands were divided into allodial, hereditary, and contingent estates, — the latter depending upon places in the gift of the crown. - ,3. The priests were charged with the education of youth ; and on their testimony of the merit of their scholars, depended their future rank. Under Montezuma, the emperor at this period, the government was despotic, but he was subject to the high priest. Each province was subject to a tribute; but certain nobles were excepted, who were compelled to take the field in case of a war, with a stated number ot followers. The tribute was paid in kind, and was fixed at one thir tieth part of the crop. The governors of provinces also vied with each other in the magnificence of their presents to the emperor. 4. Sacrilege, murder, and treason, were punished with death ; and the laws of the empire were generally as much respected as in the most civilized European nations of that age. The attention of the government was principally directed towards the internal commerce, so as to secure an abundant supply to the people. Posts were estab- lished between the capital and the remotest provinces. A court of ten magistrates determined the validity of contracts ; and officers were constantly employed to examine the measures and the quality of goods, exposed for sale. 5. Besides the empire of the Mexicans, of which we have been speaking, there were other powerful states, whose form of government was republican. The most powerful of these was Tlascala, the gov- ernment of which continued for some time after the conquest of Mexico. It was a thickly settled, fertile, and populous country, di- vided into districts, each under the authority of a chief. These chiefs administered justice, levied the tribute, and commanded the military forces, but their decrees were not valid, or of force, until confirmed by the senate of Tlascala, which was the true sovereign. A certain num- ber of citizens, chosen from the different districts by popular assem- blies, formed this legislative body. The senate elected its own chief. The laws were strictly and impartially executed ; and the people are represented as numerous, wealthy, and powerful. 6. The Mexicans possessed some knowledge of Astronomy, and their calendar was constructed with more exactness than that of the Greeks, the Romans, or the Egyptians. Their hieroglyphics, drawings, and maps — their cities and artificial roads, causeways, canals, and im- mense pyramids — their government and hierarchy, and administration of laws — their knowledge of the art of mining, and of preparing metals for ornament and use — their skill in carving images out of the hardest stone — in manufacturing and dying cloths, and the perfection of their agriculture, afford ample evidence of the high degree of civilization attained by the Mexicans. If we recollect that at this period, the art of printing was not used in Europe, — that the Reformation had not taken place, — that most of the great improvements in arts and science are of more modern date, we shall see no reason to call the Mexicans barbarous, compared with their proud invaders, or with other nations of that period. Their religion was disgraced by gross superstition ; and the sacrifice of human victims was not unfrequent. But, still, when compared with other nations, they were not deficient in practi- cal virtue. Indeed nothing in their character appears to have been half so gross and antichristian, as the merciless conduct of their inva deis. We cannot estimate them by the degraded sfhte of the remain 464 HISTORY OF NEW SPAIN. ing natives ; for when the country was conquered, its aits, and sciences^ and civil and religious institutions ceased, because those classes in the community by whom knowledge was possessed and transmitted, were utterly exterminated. 7. Shortly after the Spaniards under Cortez landed at Vera Cruz, he received messengers from Montezuma, bringing with them presents to a considerable amount, and entreating Cortez not to advance far- ther into the country. But the sight of this display of wealth stimu- lated the cupidity of the Spaniards, and confirmed their resolution to penetrate to the capital. In their route they had to contend against the republic of Tlascala, a nation continually at war with the empire of Mexico. Cortez vanquished them in two battles, and found no difficulty in enlisting them against Montezuma. Six thousand Tlasca- lans were added, as auxiliaries, to his European troops, and he con- tinued his march upon the capital of the empire under the guise of friendship. As he advanced, he continued to augment his forces by treaties with other nations and tribes which were inimical to Monte- zuma ; and with a European force of five hundred infantry and fifteen horsemen, and a large army of Indians, he reached the city of Tenoch- titlan on the 8th of Nov. 1,519. The emperor received him with a degree of magnificence that excited the astonishment of the Spaniards. The whole army was lodged and entertained sumptuously, and Cortez received presents to a great amount. 8. Montezuma soon found that by admitting an armed and power- ful friend into his capital, he had delivered himself and his people into the hands of a ferocious enemy. Cortez demanded that the Mexican general, Qualpopoca, who had committed some hostilities on the colony left at Vera Cruz, should be delivered up to him, bound hand and foot, and he caused him to be burnt alive. He next got possession of the person of the emperor and detained him prisoner. But the indignation of the people was most excited by the contempt with which their religious rites and idols were treated by the Spaniards. 9. Cortez was now compelled to leave the force at Tenochtitlan the capital, in the command of Alvarado, and march against Narvaez who had arrived on the coast to deprive him of his command. Having vanquished Narvaez and obtained a considerable accession of force, he returned to Tenochtitlan, and found that the Mexicanshad burnt the vessels which he had constructed on the Lake, and had just kid siege to the building in which the Spaniards were lodged. The siege was prosecuted with vigour by the natives, and the phce defended with obstinacy by the Spaniards. Montezuma having ascended a terrace was killed by a stone or arrow, and his brother Quet'avaca proclaimed his successor. This gave such vigour to the Mexicans, that the Span- iards were obliged to retreat with great loss. At Otumba, Cortez was obliged to turn and give them battle. He was victorious, and pro- ceeded to Tlascala without further trouble. To secure his ascenden- cy over this republic, he made frequent incursions into the territories of neighbouring nations, and with uniform success. 10. In December 1,521, he returned to the vale of Tezcuco, and from this place continued to carry on the w r ar against the Mexicans and their allies. He ordered to be constructed at Tlascala the frames of thirteen vessels, and they were brought by an immense number of Indians to the Lake Tezcuco. When these vessels were ready, he sent for his allies, amounting to fifty thousand troops, who soon arrived. After a siege of seventy-five days the city was captured,. Aug. 13tru \,521. The captured Mexicans were divided among the conqueror* HISTORY OF NEW SPAIN 466 — one iiftn being reserved for the king of Spain ; and they continued to be treated as slaves for centuries, notwithstanding the humane laws passed in Spain for their relief. This conquest was completed in the reign of Guatimozin son of Montezuma, who had succeeded to the throne after the death of Quetlavaca. 11. There is little interesting in the history of Mexico from this period till the commencement of the Revolution in 1,810. Almost the only bright spot in the page of its history during this period, is the administration of the viceroy Revillagigedo. Good roads, leading from the capital to different parts of the kingdom, were made by hfs orders ; the streets of -the principal cities were paved and lighted, and good police regulations established. An authentic statistical account of the country, was made, and almost every salutary law and regulation, now in existence, may be traced to his administration. 12. To understand the nature of the authority which Spain exer- cised ever her American Colonies, it is necessary to remark that all acquisitions in America were considered as belonging to the crown, rather than to the state. Pope Alexander Vl. first bestowed them as a free gift, upon Ferdinand and Isabella. They and their successors were to be held as the universal proprietors of the regions which had been, or should be discovered. All officers in the colonies, whether civil or ecclesiastic, were appointed by their authority, and remova- ble at their pleasure. The Spanish possessions were, at first, divided into two viceroyalties, New Spain and Peru ; but subsequently, a third was established at Santa Fe de Bogota, the jurisdiction of which extended over Terra Firma and the province ef Quito. 13. The authority of the viceroys was supreme In every depart- ment of government, civil, military, and criminal. To aid them in the administration of government in provinces remote from their residence, magistrates of various orders were appointed, subject to the viceroy ; and courts, called Audiences, were established, whose decisions were, in most cases, final. Upon the death of a viceroy without any pro- vision of a successor by the king; the supreme power was vested in the court of Audience resident in the capital of the viceroyalty, and the senior judge, assisted by his brethren, exercised all the functions of the viceroy, while the office continued vacant. 14. The supreme government of all the Spanish possessions in America was, however, vested in the Council of the Indies. This Council was first established by Ferdinand in 1,511. Its jurisdiction extended to every department, ecclesiastical, civil, military, and com- mercial. All laws and ordinances relative to the government and police of the colonies originated there, and must 6e approved by two thirds of the members, before being issued in the name of the king. To it each person employed in America, from the viceroy downwards, was accountable. Before it was laid all intelligence public or secret, received from the colonies, and every scheme of improving the ad- ministration, police, or commerce, was submitted to its considera- tion. ^ 15. Another tribunal was established aT Seville in 1,501, called Casa de la Contratacion, or the house of trade. It was designed to regulate such commercial affairs as required the immediate and per- sonal inspection of those appointed to superintend them. Such is an outline of the system of government which Spain established ir. hei American colonies. 16. In 1,808, the viceroy of Mexico, Don Jose Iturrigaray, received such contradictory orders from the supreme authorities in Spain, a* 59 ** 111ST0KY OF NEW SPAIN. to render it necessary to call a Junta composed of a representative from each province. This measure excited the jealousy of the Eu- ropeans in the capital, as it was calculated to place the Creoles on an equal footing with themselves in the government. They therefore conspired against the viceroy, surprised him, and sent him and his family prisoners to Spain. Shortly after the arrival of the next vice- roy, Vanegas, the Creoles formed a conspiracy to overthrow his power. They collected a large force under Hidalgo a priest of some distinction, and for several months their success seemed almost cer- tain. But Hidalgo, by a most unaccountable mismanagement suffered his army to be defeated with great slaughter in Oct. 1,809, and their total defeat followed in January 1.811. " 17. Another attempt was soon made by the Creoles and Indians under Rayon, a lawyer of great influence, but the revolt was sup- pressed. A more formidable army was gathered by Morelos in 1,814 — 15, and the contest for independence again appeared more hopeful ; but he was defeated, taken prisoner, and executed. In Nov. 1,816, the Patriots were cheered by the arrival of General Mina with a small force from England. Uniting himself with the army already in ope- ration, he sustained the conflict with great bravery for one year, but was then defeated and executed. The Independent army was now too feeble for offensive operation, and little was done until the revo- lution of Spain in 1,821. The decrees of the Cortez confiscating the estates, and reducing and reforming some of the higher orders of the clergy, excited the indignation of the church in Mexico, and from that time, the priests used their influence in favour of a separation from Spain. Although their influence had been somewhat diminished, it was still sufficient to produce the adoption of almost any measure which they should recommend. They were aided by the wealthy Europeans who were anxious to preserve the country in the pureness of despotism, that it might serve as a refuge for the king of Spain from the persecutions of the Cortez, and from the new constitution. 18. Don Augustin Iturbide was fixed upon as a proper agent to carry their plans info effect. He had distinguished himself in the previous contests as an enemy to the patriots, and the clergy little an- ticipated that his love of tyranny would soon be exercised at the cost of their dearest plans. He at this time commanded a considerable army, and on receiving money to proceed into the southern provinces, / e united himself with Guerrero, one of the patriot chiefs, and offered pardon to all who would unite themselves to his standard. From the very energetic operations of the revolutionists in the capital, the whole nation was soon roused in favour of independence. The viceroy was deposed ; Iturbide was made admiral of the navy, generalissimo of the army, and president of the Regency which was established by the aew Junta. His ambitious designs now became manifest, and he found little difficulty in raising himself above the established authorities, and securing the reins of government. The Cortez were decidedly op- posed to him, but the soldiery were his friends, and they compelled the Cortez to declaim him emperor on the 19th of May 1,822. After having attained this object of his ambition, he sought by every means to render his authority absolute, and elevated the members of his own family to offices of state. Many of the clergy were far from being satisfied with the elevation of Iturbide. The archbishop of Mexico refused to crown him, and retired from the capital. 19. The emperor did not long enjoy his despotic reign. Samaria the governor of Vera Cruz could not brook the control of a supe HISTORY OF THE WEST INDIES. 46t rior. Enjoying an independent command, and possessing the confi- dence of a great part of the community, he found no difficulty in raising a formidable force. He was soon joined by Guadalupe Victoria, who had from the commencement of the revolution been a most faithful friend to the cause of liberty, but had been obliged, under the exist- ing despotism, to conceal himself in the mountains Santana found that the great popularity of Guadalupe Victoria made it necessary to yield to him the supreme command. This bein^ readily grantea, they possessed each others confidence, and the confidence of the em- pire. The army in all parts declared for the republican principles of Santana, and the commander in chief, and Iturbide found it neces- sary first to summon the Cortez which he had forcibly dissolved, and afterwards, oh the eighth of March 1,823, to abdicate the throne. He was permitted to leave the empire, and he sailed with his family for Leghorn on the 11th of May. He returned in the summer of 1,824, but was received by republicans who justly appreciated him. An order had been passed by the Congress for his immediate execution in case of his arrival ; and as soon as he was identified, he was im- prisoned, and, a few days after, was -brought forth by public order and shot. 20. Immediately after his abdication the nation declared for a re- publican government, and on the 2d of February 1,824, a federal constitution was adopted, amidst the shouts of the people ; and it is obviously the form of government best suited to the interests and wishes of a majority of the community. The principal defect in their con- stitution is the establishment of the Catholic religion. The nation cannot expect to enjoy the real freedom of republican institutions, while their minds are subjected under the real despotism of a national religion. In other respects the Constitution of this republic very near- ly resembles that of the United States. 21, The former Captain-Generalship of Guatimala, with the ex- ception of Chiapa, declared its independence at the same time with Mexico, but refused to unite with that government. It has establish- ed an independent, federa! government, under the title of the Confed- erated States of the Centre of America. The Roman Catholic religion is established here also, to the exclusion of all others ; and in most respects their constitution agrees with that of the Mexican Republic. SECTION THIRD. HISTORY OF THE WEST INDIES, \. The Bahamas were the first land discovered by Columbus,— Oc':. 12th 1,492. The first settlement was made at Nassau in New Providence by the English, 1,672. These islands soon after became the resort of pirates. Their leader was John Teach, called Black Beard, who for about ten years was the sovereign of these islands* and the terror of the North American coast. He was killed off the coast of N. Carolina in 1,718. During most of the remaining period the English have quietly possessed the Bahamas, but they have con- stantly served as lurking places for some pirates. These have multi- plied greatly in all the West Indies within the last ten years, and no effectual means have been devised for exterminating them. 2. When the Bahamas were discovered, the population was esti- mated at about 40,000, The inhabitants called themselves Lucayans 466 HISTORY OF THE WEST INDIES. They were mostly devoted to maritime life, and subsisted principal- ly upon fish. They were ignorant of the use of iron, but made some use of cotton and of gold. They were a kind, friendly people > averse to war. > Scarcely 20 years, however, had elapsed, before the rapacious Spaniards transported them all by force or artifice, to dig in the mines of Hispaniola. Being remarkably expert divers, some of them were afterwards transported to the coast of Cumana, and em- ployed in the pearl fishery. 3. The Greater Antilles when first discovered, were inhabited by a race called Arrowauks. They also possessed a great part of 1 rinidad. It appears that they were descended from the Arrowauks of Guiana. All of this name spoke one language, and had the same flistitutions. They believed in an invisible, omnipotent Creator aamed Jocahuna, but admitted a plurality of subordinate deities, and 806, it remained in quiet subjection to the mother country. 3. In 1,806, general Miranda, a native of Caraccas, placed himself at the head of an expedition, fitted out partly at St. Domingo, and part- ly at New- York, with the design of liberating this country from the Spanish yoke. Finding his force inadequate, he abandoned his men to the mercy of the provincial government. 4. In 1,811, the inhabitants revolted from the Spanish yoke, and declared themselves independent. The declaration bears date July 5th. 1,811, exactly 35 years and one day after that of the United States. This revolution, like that of the United Provinces, was caused by the disorders in Spain. This country and New-Granada, continued in a revolutionary state till 1,819, when they both achieved their independence under the renowned Bolivar. [ 5. On the 17th of Dec. 1,819, the congress of Venezuela, at St. Thomas of Angostura, made a declaration of the fundamental law of union of the Republic of Colombia. On the 17th of July 1,821, the ^representatives of New-Granada and Venezuela, in general congress at the city of Rosario de Cucuta, declared the following among others, fundamental laws of the union of the people of Colombia ; That the people of New-Granada and Venezuela be united in one body as a nation, under the name of the Republic of Colombia ; That the govern- ment be popular and representative ; The nation free, and indepen- dent of the Spanish monarchy, as well as of all other power* ; Inat 478 HIS TORY OF SOUTH AMERICA. the government consist of legislative, executive, and judiciary au- thorities ; That the territory be divided into six departments, having an administration dependent on the national government ; That wheu the state of the nation shall admit, a new city snail be founded, as the capital of the Republic, which shall bear the name of the liberator. Bolivar y the. site to be determined by congress ; That there be an annual festival of three days on the 25th, 26th, and 27th of Dec. The constitution resembles that of the United States. Since its adop- tion the country has been prosperous, and its independence seems to be firmly established, PERU. 1. A few tribes inhabiting this country had made considerable ad- vances in civilization when it was first visited by the Spaniards. Being destitute of the art of writing, the early history of the Ameri- can Indians exists only in tradition. There were indeed some records preserved by the Mexicans and Peruvians, but these were mostly destroyed by their conquerors, and the few that remained were not very intelligible to the Spaniards. Some credit however must be given to the tradition of the kingdom established at Cuzco, m order to account for its great superiority over others. 2. The story is as follows : — Peru was originally possessed by small independent tribes, all of which were strangers to almost every spe- cies of cultivation or regular industry, without any fixed residence, and roamed about naked in the forests. After they had struggled fop several ages with the hardships and calamities which are inevitable in such a state, and when no circumstance seemed to indicate the ap- proach of any uncommon effort towards improvement, there is said to have appeared on the banks of the lake Titicaca, a man and wo- man of majestic form, and clothed in decent garments. They de- clared "themselves children of the Sun, sent by their beneficent parent, who beheld with pity the miseries of the human race, to instruct and to reclaim them. The Peruvians worshipped the Sun ; and, there- fore, the commands of these strangers were regarded as heavenly in- junctions. Several of the dispersed savages united together, and followed their guides to Cuzco, where they settled and began to lay the foundation of a city. 3. Manco Capac and Mama Ocollo, for such were the names of those extraordinary personages, having thus united some wandering tribes, formed that social union, which by multiplying the desires, and uniting the efforts of the human species, excites industry, and leads to improvement. Manco Capac instructed the men in agricul- ture, and other useful arts ; Mama Ocollo taught the women to spin and weave. < The blessings of civilized life were gradually extended to neighbouring tribes, and the dominions of succeeding chiefs, called Incas, or Children of the Sun, comprised all the regions west of the Andes from Chili to Quito. 4. To preserve the succession of the Incas pure and unpolluted by mixture with less noble blood, the sons of Manco Capac married their own sisters. As these Incas assumed the rank not only of legis- lators, but messengers from Heaven, the whole system of civil policy was founded on religion. Their precepts were received as mandates of the Deity. Hence their authority was unlimited and absolute in the most extensive meaning of the words. All crimes were con- l.\d«red not onlv as violations of civil dufor, but as insults offered to HISTORY OF SOUTH AMERICA. 4W' the Deity ; and they were all punished capitally. But so great waf the veneration for the Incas, that the number of offender Was ex tremely small The genius of their religion was exceedingly mild, and as divine authority was ascribed to the Incas, the minds of tht people were not humbled and depressed by a forced subjection to the will of a superior ; and obedience implied no degradation. 5. Thus during twelve successive reigns this happy nation ad- vanced in knowledge and virtue, in wealth and power, and in all the essential arts of civilized life. Agriculture was in a state of high improvement ; architecture was advanced to a state fequal to their wants ; their roads, bridges, and manufactures ; their use of gold and silver for utensils a«nd works of ornament, all bear testimony that they had advanced far above the common state of savage life. But there was.no very distinct arrangement of professions ; no cities were es- tablished except Cuzco, to give activity to commerce ; they knew not the use of iron, and hence were little qualified to work in wood and stone ; they appear to have had no good method for lighting their houses, — to have been ignorant of the construction of arches, — ofeveiy convenient method of recording events, and of perpetuating the knowledge they possessed. 6. When the Spaniards first visited Peru in 1,526, Huana Capac the twelfth Inca, was seated on the throne. He is represented as eminent for his virtues, his knowledge, and his military talents. He had subjected the kingdom of Quito and added it to his dominions. He was fond of residing in the capital of that province ; and contrary to the fundamental law of the monarchy, he married the daughter of the vanquished monarch of Quito. She bore him a son named Ata- hualpa, whom at his death, whicn seems to have occured aoout the year 1,529, he appointed his successor toQui to, eavmgthe rest of his dominions to Huascar, his eldest son. This was no sooner known at Cuzco, than it excited general disgust. The Peruvians were shocked at this violation of a fundamental law, coeval with the empire, and founded on sacred authority. Huascar was hence encouraged to re- quire of his brother to renounce the government of Quito ; but Ata- hualpa had a large part of the Peruvian army under his control, and was little inclined to yield to the demand. Hence arose a civil war, which continued to rage until Pizarro with his cruel and per- fidious band, came among them in 1,532. 7. The Spaniards, availing themselves of the existing dissensions, found the conquest easily attainable. Both the Incas were put to death Under circumstances of most awful barbarity. No language can describe the detestable cruelties of these graceless invaders. A few, indeed, among them were found to protest against it, but in the heart of Pizarro, the common feelings of humanity had been absolute- ly annihilated by his avarice. Cuzco furnished more valuable spoil than was ever found in any other city. The whole countiy was soon subjected ; and its mines were seized in the name of the king of Spain. 8. Since 1,533, Peru has remained a Spanish province, subject to a viceroy. Fcr the form of government in all the Spanish provinces in America, see Sec. I. Part V. The country is now much smaller than when governed by the Incas. In 1,718, Quito on the north as far as the river Tumbez, was annexed to New-Granada ; and in 1,778, Potosi and other rich districts on the southeast were annexed to Bue- nos Ayres. 9. For several years Peru has been in a revolutionary state. The leader of the patriots is Jose San Martin. The capital has tevexal Erfc 60 414 HISTORY OF SOUTH AMERICA. times fallen into their hands, but has been retaken by the Toyalist?. Their prospect for independence is yearly increasing, and the. royal- ists now possess only a small part of Upper Peru. This is the only territory now possessed by the Spaniards on the continent of America. It cannot be many years before the New World which they discovered, and which has suffered so much from their rapacity and tyranny, will be completely wrested from their cruel despotism. CHILI. 1. We know nothing of the history of Chili previous to the middle of the fifteenth century. From the Peruvian annals it appears that Yupanqui, the tenth Inca, made an attempt to subject the Chilese. He met with little opposition till he aniv'ed as far as the river Repel. Beyond this was a formidable nation named Promaueians or free dan- cers. In a long battle they were successful, completely routed the Peruvians, and drove them from their territories. The Inca imposed an annual tribute of gold on the conquered tribes, but no innovation was attempted, either in their customs, manners, or government. 2. The country was invaded by the Spaniards under Almagro in 1,535. He left Cuzco with 570 Spaniards and 15,000 Peruvian aux- iliaries. Disregarding the remonstrances of his confederates, he preferred passing the Cordilleras, to the entrance, less dangerous at that season, by the desert of Atacama. Winter had commenced when they reached the Cordillera Nevada, and the snow fell in such abundance, and the cold was so intense, that not less than 10,000 Pe- ruvians and 150 Spaniards perished. In a second expedition Alma- gro found the natives exceedingly friendly. They looked up to the Spaniards as beings of a superior order, and were ready to yield sub- mission. But when they arrived among the Promaueians, they met with such powerful resistance, as determined them to abandon the enterprise. 3. Returning to Cuzco a contest ensued between Almagro and Pizarro, in which the former was slain. Pizarro, now sole master of Peru, determined on the conquest of Chili. He entrusted the expe- dition to Valdivia, one of the ablest generals among the Spanish ad- venturers. He met with very inveterate animosity from a!l the tribes, but their opposition was too feeble to arrest the progress of 2,000- Spaniards, under such a leader. Having overcome the Mapochinians who resided on the river Mapocho, he laid the foundation of St. Jago and erected a strong citadel for pgx)tection. The natives continued for six years their feeble attempts to regain their beautiful plain, but finding their object hopeless, the few that remained destroyed their crops, and retired to the mountains. Valdivia, having received a reinforcement from Peru, invaded and conquered the Promaueians, and established colonies in many places. Endeavouring to penetrate still farther southward, he encountered the most formidable enemy which the Spaniards ever met with in America. This was the na- tion of the Araucanians. He gained some victories over them, but was frequently repulsed, and at length was completely defeated, him- self taken prisoner, and his whole army slain, with the exception of two Promaucian auxiliaries. Villagran, the successor of Valdivia, made a desperate attempt to revenge the death of that favourite general, but was repulsed with great slaughter. He was, how- ever, successful in a very important subsequent engagement,, in which Lautaro, the Araucanian general, was slain. 4* Th« contest continued for several years with various success* HISTORY OF SOUTH AMERICA. 4?5 till the Araucanians were much enfeebled. They have not, however, been conquered, and they retain to this day a' considerable part of their ancient territories. They preserve their ancient customs and language in a considerable degree of purity. There are few lan- guages so regular in their structure, or so copious in their inflections, as the Araucanian. They had made considerable advancement in civilization, were remarkably active and energetic in their bodily and mental habits, generous and dignified in their disposition and deport- ment. Connected with the perfection of their language, was their habit of cultivating the art of oratory ; and we know very few civilized nations that have so faithfully observed the common duties of charity. 5. From the period of the conquest of Chili till its revolution in 1,810, few occurrences of much interest are recorded. At this time the Chilese, finding the same embarrassments which were suffered by other provinces on account of the disorders in Spain, took the govern- ment into their own hands, — still holding out the idea, however, of a reunion with the mother country when circumstances would permit. In 1,814, the royal troops from Peru invaded Chili, entirely defeated the patriots at Raneagua, and reconquered the country. A remnant of the patriot forces fled over the Andes, where, with other Chilian refugees and two regiments of negroes, and some officers, they were reorganized by general San Martin under the name of the United. Army of the Andes, in 1,817, they re-entered Chili, entirely vanquished the royal troops at Chacabuco, and restored independence to the country. The passage of this army over the Andes with its artillery, deserves to be ranked among the most celebrated achievements re- corded in history. It was effected with the loss of about 5,000 horses and mules, and a small number of men who perished with the cold. 6. On the 12th of February 1,818, the nation made a formal declara- tion of absolute independence. The royal troops who escaped from the battle of Chacabuco being reinforced by all the royal forces in Peru, about 5,000 in number, renewed the contest with the patriots ; but after a temporary success, they were finally defeated in the de- cisive battle of Maypo, April 5th, 1,818. This event is celebrated by the Chilese in their songs, festivals, and histories, with the most enthusiastic expressions of gratitude and admiration. ^ 7. The government established in Chili is republican. Education is making considerable progress, and every ray of light confirms the people more absolutely in the love of liberty. Their independence is acknowledged by other nations. They live in amity with the Araucanians, who have a minister at the capital. Were they exempt from the tyranny of the Catholic religion, we might regard them as destined to become a great and happy nation ; but while this exists, they will make slow progress in that real knowledge which can result only from the free use of the faculties, with which Heaven has en- dowed the children of men. 8. Too much can hardly be said in praise of the disinterestedness, prudence, bravery, and steady perseverance of Don Jose San Martin. in maintaining the cause of South American independence. Fond ot the retirement of private life, he has uniformly laid aside the high digni- ties with which the grateful patriots of Chili, Buenos Ayres, and Peru, have repeatedly invested him, whenever the good of their cause would permit it ; and, although in times of such public excitement, the best men are subject to suspicion, envy, and slander, we have good reason for ranking tais distinguished veteran among those, who regard not their own, but A he public good. 476 HISTORY OF SOUTH AMERICA. 9. Nor is that distinguished hero and statesman, Bolivar, entitled to less renown. To him the Republic of Colombia principally owe* its independence, and he has been one of its most efficient agents in organizing the new government. He is now President of foe Re- public ; and, his career not being closed, Ave cannot decide on the rank to which his whole life will entitle him ; but he has hitherto trod in the footsteps of the Leader of the first American Revolution, and if he persist in this course to the end, his name will be ranked by pos- terity with that of Washington. 1825. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, EXPLANATION OF THE TABLE OF CHRONOLOGY To give a distinct view of the succession of princes in the chief empires or kingdoms, without employing different columns, (which distracts the attention, and occupies too much space,) the series of the sovereigns of different nations is distinguished in this table by different typographical characters. By this method the succession of the sovereigns in the different kingdoms is immediately distinguishable, and also the duration of their reigns. In the intervals of time between every two successive reigns are recorded the remarkable events which occurred in those periods, in all parts of the world ; and thus the connexion of general history is preserved un- broken. The series of the kings and emperors of Rome is printed in a larger Ro- man type than the rest of the table : as, 1 4 Tiberius, Emperor of Rome. The series of the popes is distinguishable by this character U prefixed to each name; as, 1513T H Pope Leo X. The names of the emperors of Germany are printed in Italic capitals; as 887 ARNOLD, Emperor of Germany. The kings of England are designated by the black Saxon type ; as, 106G OTlUtam (the Conqueror) king of England. The kings of Scotland are denoted by a larger capital beginning tb« word ; as, 1390 Robert III., king of Scotland. The kings of Franca are distinguished by the Italic typo ; as, 1498 Lewis XII. , king of France. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. - 004 The Creation of the World, according to the Hebrew text of the Scriptures. According to the version of the Septuagint 5872. Acording to the Samaritan version 4700. 2348 The Universal Deluge. 2247 The Building of Babel; the Dispersion of Mankind; and the Confu sion of Languages. 2217 Nimrod supposed to have built Babylon, and founded the Babylon*' Monarchy ; and Assur to have built Nineveh, and founded Monarchy of Assyria. 2188 Menes (in Scripture" Misraim) founds the Monarchy of Egypt. 8084 The Shepherd Kings conquer Egypt. 6040 Moeris King of Thebes and Memphis in Egypt. 1996 The Birth of Abram. 1897 Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed by fire from Heaves. 1896 Isaac born. 1856 Inachus founds the Kingdom of Argos in Greece. 1836 Jacob and Esau born. 1825 The Shepherd Kings abandon Egypt. 1823 Death of Abraham. 1796 The Deluge of Ogyges in Attica. 1722 Sesostris or Rameses King of Egypt. 1635 Joseph dies in Egypt. 1582 The Chronology of the Arundelian Marbles Leglns with this yeai. 1571 Moses born in Egypt. 1556 Cecrops founds the kingdom of Athens. 1546 Scamander founds the Kingdom of Troy. 1532 Judgment of the Areopagus between Mars and Neptune, two prince* of Thessaly. 1529 The Deluge of Deucalion in Thessaly. 1522 The Council of the Amphictyons instituted. 1520 Corinth built. 1506 Erectheus or Erycthonius institutes the Panathensean Games. V493 Cadmus builds Thebes, and introduces Letters into Greece. 1491 Moses brings the Israelites out of Egypt. 1453 The first Olympic Games celebrated in Greece. 1452 The Pentateuch, or five Books of Moses, written. 1451 The Israelites led into the land of Canaan by Joshua 1438 Pandion King of Athens. 1406 Minos reigns in Crete, and gives laws to the Cretans. 1376 Sethos reigns in Egypt. 1322 Belus reigns in Babylon. 1267 Ninus reigns in Assyria. 1266 Oedipus marries his Mother Jocasta, and reigns in Thebes. 1263 The Argonautic Expedition. According to the Newtoniaa ChronoK ogy 937. W57 Theseus unites the Cities of Attica, 1252 Tyre, the capital of Phoenicia, built. 1985 Stag* of Thebes War between Eteocles and Poiyntee*. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 473 B. C. 1225 Eurysthenes and Procles Kings of Lacedsemon. 12 15 Second War of Thebes, or War of the Epigonoi. Semiramis supposed to have reigned at Babylon. 1207 Gideon Judge of lsi^el. 1202 Teucer built Salamis. 1193 The Trojan War begins. 1184 Troy taken and burnt by the Greeks. According to tho Aruudohan Marbles 1209. 1182 iEneas lands in Italy. 1155 Samson born. 1104 Return of the Heraclidee into Peloponnesus. 1099 Samuel delivers Israel. 1079 Saul King of Israel. 1070 Medon first Archon of Athens. 10G9 Codrus King of Athens devotes himself for his country. 1055 David King of Israel. 1004 Dedication of Solomon's Temple. 980 Rehoboam King of Israel. . 889 Athaliah, wife of Jehoram, usurps the throne of Judah. 886 Homer's Poems brought from Asia into Greece. 884 Lycurgus reforms the Constitution of Lacedaemon. 869 The city of Carthage built by Dido. 820 Nineveh taken by Arbaces and Belesis, which finishes that kingdom 776 The first Olympiad begins in this year. 769 Syracuse built by Archias of Corinth. 767 Safdanapalus King of Assyria. ~60 The Ephori, popular Magistrates, instituted at Lacedaemon. 757 Halyattes King of Lydia. 754 Decennial Archons elected at Athens. 752 The foundation of Rome by Romulus. - 748 Rape of the Sabine Women. 747 The Era of Nabonassar made use of by Ptolemy. 738 Candaules King of Lydia. 724 Hezekiah tenth King of Judah. 721 Salmanazar takes Samaria, and carries the Ten Tribes into captivity, wliich puts an end to the. Israelitish Kingdom. 715 "Numa FompillUS second King of Ro)me. / 711 Sennacherib, King of Assyria, invades Judea. 710 Dejoces King of Media. 708 Habakkuk prophesied. 703 Corcyra founded by the Corinthians. 696 Manasseh sixteenth King of Judah. 688 Judith kills Holofernes the Assyrian General. 684 Annual Archons elected at Athens. 681 Esarhaddon unites the Kingdoms of Babylon and Assyria. 672 Tullus Hostilius third King of Romer 670 Psammeticus King of Egypt. 667 The Combat between the Horatii and Curiatii. G58 Byzantium founded by Pausanias King of Sparta. —^ Phraortes King of Media. 640 Ancus Martius fourth King of Rome. 627 The Forty Years of Ezekiel began. 626 Periander Tyrant of Corinth. --— Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar, begins to reign at Babylon 624 Draco Archon and Legislator of Athens. 616 Tarquinius Priscus fifth King of Rome. 606 Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem, end carries the Jews into captivity, G(J1 Battle between the Medes and Lydians, who are separated by ajrreflt eclipse of the gun, predicted by Thaic* (Newton. Chr'u, 56*4 480 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE B.C. 601 End of the Assyrian Empire. Nineveh taken by Nebuchadnezzar* 600 Jeremiah prophesied. 599 Birth of Cyrus the Great. 594 Solon Archon and Legislator of Athens. 578 Servius Tullius sixth King of Rome. 572 Nebuchadnezzar subdues Egypt. 571 Phalaris Tyrant of Agrigentum. 562 Comedies first exhibited at Athens by Thespis. — - Croesus reigns in Lydia. 551 Confucius, the Chinese Philosopher, born. 550 Pisistratus Tyrant of Athens. 548 The Ancient Temple of Delphos burnt by the Pisistratidae. 538 Babylon taken by Cyrus. End of the Babylonian Empire. 536 Cyrus ascends the throne of Persia. He puts an end to the Jewish captivity, which had lasted seventy years. 534 Tarquinius Superbus seventh King of Rome. Daniel prophesied. 529 Death of Cyrus the Great. Cambysas King of Persia. Death of Pisistratus Tyrant of Athens. 522 Darius, son of Hystaspes, King of Persia. 520 The Jews begin to build the second Temple, which is finished in foui years. 510 The Pisistratidae expelled from Athens, and the Democracy restored. Statues erected at Athens to Harmodius and Aristogiton. 509 The Tarquins expelled from Rome and the Regal Government abol- ished. 508 The first Alliance between the Romans and Carthaginians. 504 Sardis taken and burnt by the Athenians. 498 The first Dictator created at Rome (Lartius.) 497 Institution of the Saturnalia at Rome 493 The port of Piraeus built by the Athenians. 490 The Battle of Marathon, in which Miltiades defeats the Persians. 488 The first Tribunes of the People created at Rome. According to Blair 493. Miltiades dies in prison. 486 Xerxes succeeds his father Darius in the kingdom of Persia. 485 Coriolanus banished from Rome. 483 Quaestors instituted at Rome. Aristides banished from Athens by the Ostracism. 480 The Spartans, under Leonidas, slain at Thermopylae. Naval Victory gained by the Greeks over the Persians at Salamrs. 479 Attica laid waste and Athens burnt by Mardonius. - Victories over the Persians at Platsea and Mycale. — — Xerxes leaves Greece. 477 300 Fabii killed by the Veientes. 476 Themistocles rebuilds Athens. - — Valerius triumphs over the Veientes and Sabines. The Roman Citizens numbered at 103,000. A great Eruption of JEtxrn. — - Hiero King of Syracuse. 471 Volero, the Roman Tribune, obtains a law for the ©lection of mag&s. trates in the comitia held by tribes. 470 Cimon, son of Miltiades, defeats the Persian army and fleet in on« day, at the mouth of the river Eurymedon 469 Capua founded by the Tuscans. 464 Artaxerxes (Longimanus) King of Persiai -^- Cimon banished by the Ostracism. 463 Egypt revolts from the Persians. 462 The Terentian Law proposed at Rome. 456 Cineinnatus Dictator at Rome CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. ~~ B.C. 456 The Ludi Saeculares first instituted at Rome. 455 Commencement of the Seventy Prophetical Weeks of Daniel 453 The number of the Tribunes of the people at Rome increased from Five to Ten. 452 The two Books of Chronicles supposed to have been written at this time by Ezra. 451 Creation of the Decemviri at Rome, and Compilation of the Laws of the Twelve Tables. 449 Peace between the Greeks and Persians concluded by Cimon, glorious for Greece. Death of Virginia, and Abolition of the Decemvirate. 445 The Law of Canuleius for the Intermarriage of the Patricians and Plebeians at Rome. Military Tribunes created. 437 The Censorship first instituted at Rome. 436 Pericles in high power at Athens. 432 Meton's Cycle of the Moon of nineteen years. 431 The Peloponnesian War begins, which lasted twenty-seven years. 430 The History of the Old Testament ends about this time. - Great Plague at Athens, eloquently described by Thucydides. Malachi the last of the Prophets. 428 Death of Pericles. 423 Darius Neth'is King of Persia. 418 Disturbances at Rome on account of the Agrarian Law. 414 The Athenians defeated before Syracuse. 413 Alcibiades, accused at Athens, flies to the Lacedaemonians. 412 A Council of 400 governs Athens. 405 Lysandei defeats the Athenians at JEgos Potamos. 404 Artaxerxes II. (Mnemon) King of Persia. End of the Peloponnesian War. 403 Lysandei takes Athens. Government of the Thirty Tyrants. 401 The younger Cyrus defeated by his brother Artaxerxes, and killed Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks. Persecution and Death of Socrates. Thrasybulus drives out the Thirty Tyrants, and delivers Athens. 399 A Lectisternium first celebrated at Rome. 397 The Lake of Alba drained by the Romans. 396 Syracuse unsuccessfully besieged by the Carthaginians. 391 IVlarcus Furius Camillus Dictator at Rome. Veii taken. 387 Dishonourable Peace of Antalcidas between the Spartans and Per sians. 385 Rome taken by the Gauls under Brennus. 382 Phaebidas, the Spartan, seizes the Citadel of Thebes. 380 Pelopidas and*Epaminondas deliver Thebes from the Lacedaemonians. 371 Battle of Leuctra, in which the Lacedaemonians are defeated by tlie Thebans under Epaminondas. 364 Pelopidas defeats the Tyrant of Phersea, but is killed in battle. 3C3 Battle of Matinea, in which Epaminondas is killed. 362 Curtius leaps into a Gulf in the Forum at Rome. 361 Darius Ochus (or Artaxerx 3s III.) King of Persia. According t« Blair, 358. 358 War of the Allies against Athens. Philip of Macedon takes Amphipolis, Pydna, and Potidea. 357 Dion overcomes the party of Dionysius at Syracuse. 356 Alexander the Great born at Pella in Macedonia. The Temple of Diana, at Ephesus, burnt by Erostratus. The Phocian or Sacred War begins in Greece. —7 Philip conquers the Thracians, Paeonians and Illyrians, 350 Darius Ochus subdues Egypt 343 Philip of Macedon takes Olymhus. S S et 482 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. R€. 343 End of the Sacred War. 347 Dionysius restored at Syracuse, after an exile of ten years. 346 Philip admitted a Member of the Amphictyonic Council. 343 Syracuse taken by Timoleon, and Dionysius the Tyrant finally ban- ished. The War between the Romans and Samnites, which led to the con- quest of all Italy. 340 The Carthaginians defeated near Agrigentum. P. Dccius devotes himself for his country. 338 Battle of Cheronaea gained by Philip over the Athenians and Thebans 337 Philip chosen Generalissimo of the Greeks. 330 Philip murdered by Pausanias. Alexander the Great King of Macedon. Alexander the Great destroys Thebes. 335 Darius III. (Codomannus) King of Persia.. Alexander chosen Generalissimo by the States of Greece. 334 Alexander defeats the Persians on the banks of the Granicus. 333 The Persians defeated by Alexander at Issus. 332 Alexander conquers Egypt, and takes Tyre. 331 Darius defeated by Alexander at Arbela. 330 Darius Codomannus killed. End of the Persian Empire. - AJexander takes possession of Susa, and sets fire to the Palace of Persepolis. 328 Alexander passes into Ivi'K, defeats Porus, founds several cities, penetrates to the Ganges The Voyage of Nearchus frc'H the Indus to the Euphrates. 325 Papirius Cursor, Dictatoi at Rome, triumphs over the Samnites. 324 Alexander the Great dies at Babylon, at the age of thirty-three. 321 The Samnites make the Roman Army pass under the yoke at Caudium. 320 Ptolemy carries 100,000 Jews captives into Egypt. 317 Agathocles Tyrant of Syracuse. 312 Era of the Selucidae. 311 Cassander, Lysimachus, and Ptolemy nclude a peace with Antig onus. 304 Demetrius besieges Rhodes. 303 Demetrius restores the Greek Cities ><. their liberty. 301. Battle of Ipsus in Phrygiaj in whic^ Antigonus is defeated and slain. Fabius Maximus and Valerius Cox* i s Dictators. 300 Seleucus founds Antioch, Edessa, md Laodicea. 208 Athens taken by Demetrius Polioicetes. 204 Seleucus resigns his Wife Stratonice to his son Antioehus. 236 Law of Hortensius, by which the decrees of the people were allowed the same force as those of the senate. 285 The Astronomical Era of Dionysius of Alexandria. 234 Ptolemy Philadelphus King of Egypt. 283 The Library of Alexandria founded. 231 Commencement of the Achaean League. 280 Pyrrhus invades Italy. Antioehus Soter King of Syria. 277 The Translation of the Septuagint made by order of Ptolemy Plnl*- delphus. Playfair, 285 Antigonus Gonatus reigned in Macedon thirty-six years. 275 Pyrrhus unsuccessful against the Carthaginians in Sicily. 274 Pyrrhus, totally defeated by the Romans near Beneventum, evacuates Italy. ., : , :;; ■;,■ 272 The Samnites finally subdued by the Romans. *«J66 Silvor Money is coined at Rome fbr the first time. 265 The Citizens of Rome numbered at 292,224. 264 The Mist Punic War begins. The Chronicle of Paros composed* CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. B.C. 260 Provincial Quaestors instituted at Rome. First Naval Victory obtained by the Romans under the Consul Duilius. 255 Regulus defeated and taken prisoner by the Carthaginians under Xantippus. 253 Manasseh chosen High Priest of the Jews. 251 Great Victory of Metellus over Asdrubal. 250 The Romans besiege Lilyboeum ; are defeated by Hamilcar. 241 End of the first Punic War. - — Attalus King of Pergamus succeeds Eumenes. 240 Comedies are first acted at Rome. 235 The Temple of Janus shut the first time since the reign of Numa. 223 Hamilcar killed in Spain. 225 Great Victory of the Romans over the Gauls. 219 Hannibal takes Saguntum. 218 The second Punic War begins. 217 Hannibal defeats the Romans under Flaminius. Fabius Maximus Dictator. 216 Battle of Cannae, in which the Romans are totally defeated by Han nibal. 212 Philip II. of Macedon defeats the iEtolians. Marcellus takes Syracuse, after a siege of two yenrs. 211 Capua surrenders to the Romans. Antiochus the Great conquers Judaea. 210 Asdrubal vanquished in Spain by the Scipios. Publius Scipio, sent into Spain, takes New-Carthage. 206 Philopcemen Praetor of the Achaeans. 203 The Carthaginians recall Hannibal to Africa. Sophonisba poisoned by Massinissa. 201 Syphax led in triumph to Rome by P. Scipio. 197 Philip defeated by the Romans at Cynocephale. 196 The Battle of Zama, and end of the second Punic War. 190 The Romans enter Asia, and defeat Antigonus at Magnesia. 183 The elder Cato Censor at Rome. - 173 War between the Romans and Perseus King of Macedon 172 Antiochus defeats the generals of Ptolemy in Egypt. 170 Antiochus Epiphanes takes and plunders Jerusalem. 169 Terence's Comedies performed at Rome. 167 Perseus defeated by Paulus ^Emilius, and brought prisoner to Roma End of the kingdom of Macedon. 1'66 Judas Maccabeus drives the Syrians out of Judea. 164 The Roman Citizens numbered at 327,032. 149 The third Punic War begins. 147 Metellus defeats the Achaeans. 146 Corinth taken by the Consul Mummius. — - Carthage taken and destroyed by the Romans. 137 The Romans shamefully defeated by the Numantines. 135 The History of the Apocrypha ends. Antiochus besieges Jerusalem. 133 Tiberius Gracchus put to death. — - Numantia taken. Pergamus becomes a Roman Province. 121 Caius Gracchus killed. 113 Carbo the Consul drives the Cimbri and Teutones out of Italy. Ill The Jugurthine War begins. 108 Manus defeats Jugurtha. # 103 Jugurtha starved to death at Rome. 102 Marius defeats the Teutones and Cimbri. 91 The War of the Allies against the Romans. 90 Sylla defeats the Marsi, Peligni, Samnites, &c. 89 The Mithridatic War begins. 88 Civil War between Marius and Sylla. Sylla takes possession of Rome. 484 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. B C. 86 Mithridates King of Pontus defeated by Sylla. 83 Sylla defeats Norbanus. The Capitol burnt. 82 Sylla perpetual Dictator. His horrible Proscription 80 Julius Caesar makes his first Campaign. 79 Cicero's first Oration for Roscius. 78 Sylla resigns all power, and dies. 77 The War of Sertorius. 72 Lucullus repeatedly defeats Mithridates, and reduces Pontus to a Roman province. 70 Crassus and Pompey chosen Consuls at Rome. 63 Victories of Pompey He takes Jerusalem, and restores Hyrcanus to the government of Judea. 62 Catiline's Conspiracy quelled at Rome by Cicero. 61 Pompey enters Rome in triumph. 59 The first Triumvirate ; Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar. — Caesar proposes a new Agrarian Law. 58 Clodius the Tribune procures the Banishment of Cicero. 57 Caesar defeats Ariovistus in Gaul. — Cicero brought back from Exile with high honour. 55 Caesar lands in Britain, and makes a short campaign. 54 Caesar invades Britain a second time, and conquers part of it. 53 Crassus killed in Mesopotamia. 52 Milo defended by Cicero for the slaughter of Clodius. 49 Caesar passes the Rubicon, and marches to Rome. — Commencement of the Era of Antioch, October, 49 A. C. 48 Battle of Pharsalia, in which Pompey is defeated. *-— Pompey slain in Egypt. — The Alexandrian Library of 400,000 volumes burnt. " 46 Cato besieged in Utica, kills himself. 45 The Kalendar reformed by Julius Caesar, by introducing the Solar Year instead of the Lunar. The first Julian Year began January 1, 45 A. C. 44 Julius Caesar killed in the Senate-House. — Octavius, grand-nephew and heir of Julius Caesar, comes to Rome, and is opposed at first by Antony. 43 Second Triumvirate ; Octavius, Mark Antony, and Lepidus. 42 Battle of Philippi, in which Brutus and Cassms are defeated. 40 Herod marries Mariamne, daughter of Hyrcanus, and obtains from the Romans the Government of Judaea. 34 Antony divides Armenia among the children of Cleopatra. 33 Mauritania reduced into a Roman Province. 32 War declared by the Senate against Antony and Cleopatra. 31 Battle of Actium and end of the Roman Commonwealth. — Octavius Emperor of Rome. 30 Death of Mai k Antony and Cleopatra. Alexandria taken by Octa- vius. Octavius receives the title of Augustus. 23 Death of Marcellus. Agrippa in Spain. 20 Porus King of India sends an Embassy to Augustus. 17 Agustus revives the Secular Games. 15 The Rhaeti and Vindelenci defeated by Drusus. 10 The Temple of Janus sliut by Augustus for a short time. 8 Augustus corrects an Error of the Roman Kalendar. - Death of Maecenas. 5 Augustus ordains a Census of all the people in the Roman Empire. 4 JESUS CHRIST is born four years before the commencement of Ihw vulgar era. A D. 9 The Roman Legions under Varus, destroyed in Germany. - Ovid the Poet banished to Tomos. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 4£S AD. 14 Tiberius Emperor of Rome. 19 Germanicus dies at Antioch. — Tiberius banishes tiie Jews from Rome. 26' John the Baptist preaches in Judaea the Coming of the Messiah. 27 Tiberius retires to the island of Caprese. — Pilate made Governor of Judaea. ' 31 Fejanus disgraced, and put to death by Tiberius. 33 IT St. Peter" first Pope. — JESUS CHRIST is crucified. 35 The Conversion of St. Paul. 21 Caligula Emperor of Rome. 39 St. Matthew writes hJ3 Gospel. 40 The name of Christians first given to the Disciples of Christ at An- tioch. 41 Claudius Emperor of Rome. — Herod persecutes the Christians, and imprisons Peter. 42 Sergius Paulus, proconsul, converted by St. Paul. 43 Expedition of Claudius into Britain. 44 St. Mark writes his Gospel. 45 Vespasian in Britain. 47 The Ludi Sceculares (secular games) performed at Rome. 48 Messalina put to death by Claudius, who marries Agrippina the mother of* Nero. 50 St. Paul preaches in the Areopagus at Athens. 51 Caractacus, the British King, is carried prisoner to Rome. 54 Nero Emperor of Rome. 55 Britannicus poisoned -by Nero. 59 Nero puts to death his mother Agrippina. 60 Suetonius Paulinus defeats the Britons. 61 The Britons, under Queen Boadicea, defeat the Romans. 64 The first Persecution of the Christians raised by Nero. — Rome set on fire by Nero. G6 Bareas Soranus and Thrasea Paetus put to death by Nero. — IT Pope Linus. 67 Massacre of the Jews by Florus, at C«sarea", Ptolemais, and Alex* andria. — St. Peter and St. Paul put to death. — Josephus, the Jewish historian, governor of Galilee. — IT Pope St. Clement. 68 Galba Emperor of Rome. 69 Otho Emperor of Rome. — VitelllUS Emperor of Rome. 70 Vespasian Emperor of Rome. — Jerusalem taken and destroyed by Titus. 77 IT Pope St. Cletus. 78 A great Pestilence at Rome, 10,000 dying in one day. 79 Titus Emperor of Rome. — Herculaneum and Pompeii destroyed by an Eruption of Vesuvius 80 Conquests of Agricola in Britain. 81 Domitian Emperor of Rome. 83 11 Pope Anacletus. 89 Apollonius of Tyanea defends himself before Domitian against an accusation of Treason. 95 Dreadful Persecution of the Christians at Rome, and in the piov- inces. — St. John writes hia Apocalypse, and his Gospel 486 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE AD. 96 1T Pope Evaristus. 98 Trajan Emperor of Rome. — Trajan forbids the Christian Assemblies. 100 103 The Dacians subdued by Trajan. 107 Trajan's Victories in Asia. 108 St. Ignatius devoured by wild Beasts at Rome. IT Pope Alexander I. 115 The Jews in Cyreno murder 200,000 Greeks and Romans. 117 IT Pope Sixtus I. 118 Adrian Emperor of Rome. Persecution of the Christians renewed by Adrian, but afterward suspended. J 20 Adrian's Wall built across Britain. 127 IT Pope Telesphorus. 131 Adrian visits Egypt and Syria. 132 Adrian publishes his perpetual Edict or Code of the Laws. 135 The Romans destroyed 580,000 Jews in Judaea. 137 Adrian rebuilds Jerusalem by the name of ^Elia Capitolina. 138 IT Pope Hyginus. Antonius Pius Emperor of Rome. 142 ff Pope Pius I. 150 ff Pope Anicetus. 154 Justin Martyr publishes his Apology for the Christians. 161 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Verus Emperors of Rome. 162 IT Pope Soter. 167 Polycarp and Pionices suffered Martyrdom in Asia. 169 War with the Marcomanni. £71 Death of Verus. Marcus Aurelius sole Emperor. IT Pope Eleutherius. 177 Persecution of the Christians at Lyons. 180 Commodus Emperor of Rome. 185 IT Pope Victor I. 189 The Saracens defeat the Romans. This people first mentioned in history. 193 Pertinax Emperor of Rome^ Didius Julianus purchases the Empire. Pescennius Niger declared Emperor in the East. Septimius Severus Emperor of Rome. 194 Niger defeated by Severus, and put to death. 195 Byzantium besieged, surrenders to Severus. 196 AlbillUS proclaimed Emperor in Britain. 197 Albinus, defeated by Severus, kills himself. IT Pope Zephyrinus. 200 202 The fifth Persecution against the Christians, principally in Egypt. 208 Severus, with his sons Caracalla and Geta, in Britain. Q09 The Caledonians repulsed, and a Wall built between the rivers Forth and Clyde. 211 Caracalla and Geta Emperors of Rome. 212 Caracalla murders Geta. 217 Caracalla put to death. — Macrinus Emperor of Rome. — - IT Pope Calixtus L 918 Helio^abahlS Emperor of Rome. w^ CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 487 A.D. 222 Alexander Severus Emperor of Rome. — A Tribute paid by the Romans to the Goths ~ Mi Pope Urban I. 226 The Persians totally defeated by Alexande Severus 230 -IT Pope Pontianus. 235 IT Pope Anterus. MaximiriUS assassinates Alexander Severus, and is proclaimed Eio* peror of Rome. 236 The sixth Persecution of the ChristiaES. - IT Pope Fabianus. 237 Maximinus defeats the Dacians and Sarmatians. 238 Maximus and Balbinus Emperors of Rome. Gordian Emperor of Rome. 242 Gordian defeats the Persians under Sapor. 244 Philip the Arabian Emperor of Rome. 248 The Secular Games celebrated at Rome. Pompey's Theatre burnt. St. Cyprian elected Bishop of Carthage. 249 DeClUS Emperor of Rome. 250 The seventh Persecution of the Christians under Decius. IT Pope St. Cornelius 251 Vibius Volusianus Emperor of Rome. GallllS Emperor of Rome. 252 IF Pope Lucius I. 253 The Goths, Burgundians, &c. make an Irruption intc Mceeia and Pannonia. 254 Valerianus Emperor of Rome. IT Pope Stephen I. 257 The eighth Persecution of the Christians IT Pope Sixtus II. 259 The Persians ravage Syria. IT Pope Dionysius. 260 Gallienus Emperor of Rome. The Temple of Diana at Ephesus burnt. 261 Sapor, the Persian, takes Antioch, Tarsus, and Coesarea. 267 The Heruli invade and ravage Greece. 268 Claudius II. Emperor of Rome. 269 The Goths and Heruli, to the number of 320,000, defeated by Claudius. - — IT Pope Felix I. 270 Aurelian Emperor of Rome. 271 The Alemanni and Marcomanni ravage the Empire. 272 The ninth Persecution of the Christians. 273 Zenobia Queen of Palmyra defeated by Aurelian at Edessa. 274 IT Pope Eutychianus. 275 Tacitus Emperor of Rome. 276 Florianus Emperor of Rome, 277 Probus Emperor of Rome. 28?, Carus Emperor of Rome defeats the Quadi and Sarmatiana. 282 Carinus, Numerianus, Emperors of Rome. 283 IT Pope Caius. Fingal King of Morven died. 284 Diocletian Emperor of Rome. 286 The Emp're attacked by the Northern Nations. - Carausius usurps the government of Britain, and reigns seven yean. 488 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A. D. 290 The Gregorian and Hermogenian Code* published. 292 Partition of the Empire by Diocletian between two Emperors and twjp Caesars. 295 IT Tope Marcellinus. Alexandria in Egypt taken by Diocletian. 300 302 The tenth Persecution of the Christians. 304 IT Pope Marcellus. Resignation of Diocletian and Maximian - Galerius and Constantius Emperors of Rome. 305 Maximinus Emperor of Rome. 306 Constantine the Great Emperor of Rome. He stops the Per- secution of the Christians. 310 IT Pope Eusebius. IT Pope Melchiades. 314 IT Pope Sylvester. 325 Constantine abolishes the Combats of Gladiators. He assembles the first General Council at Nice, where the Doctrines of Arius are condemned. 326 St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, introduces Monarchism in the Roman Empire. 329 Constantine removes the Seat of Empire to Constantinople. 336 IT Pope Marcus. 337 IT Pope Julius I. Death of Constantine. The Empire divided among his three Sons. - Constantine II., Constans, and Constantius, Emperors of Rome. 352 IT Pope Liberius. 356 IT Pope Felix I. 357 The Germans defeated by Julian at Strasburg. 358 IT Pope Felix II. 361 Julian Emperor of Rome. He abjures Christianity, is elected Pon tifex Maximus, and attempts fruitlessly to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. 363 Jovian Emperor of Rome. 364 Valentinian Emperor of the West. - Valens Emperer of the East. 366 IT Pope Damasus. 367 Gratian Emperor of the West. 375 Valentinian II. Emperor of the West. 376 Valens allows the Goths to settle in Thrace. , 378 The Goths advance to the Gates of Constantinople. Death of Valens. 379 Theodosius the Great Emperor of the East. 381 Second General Council held at Constantinople. 383 The Huns overrun Mesopotamia ; are defeated by the Goths. 384 Symmachus pleads the cause of Paganism against St. Ambrose in the Senate. 385 IT Pope Syricius. 392 Theodosius Emperor of the West and East. 395 Arcadius Emperor of the East, and HonoriUS of the We#L rs — The Huns invade the Eastern Provinces. 397 St. Chrysostom chosen Patriarch of Constantinople. 399 IT Pope Anastasius. — Gainas the Goth obtains Honours from Arcadius. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 409 AD 400 Alaric the Goth ravages Italy. 401 1T Pope Innocent I. 403 Stilicho, General of Honorius, defeats Alaric near Polleiitia. 404 Fergus I. King of Scotland, supposed to have begun his reign. 406 The Vandals, Alans, &c. invade France and Spain. 408 Theodosius II. Emperor of the East. 410 Rome sacked and burnt by Alaric. Death of Alaric 411 The Vandals settled in Spain. 416 The Secular Games celebrated at Rome. The- Pelagian Heresy condemned by the Bishops of Africa. 417 1T Pope Zozimus. 418 TT Pope Boniface I. 420 Pharamond first King of the Franks supposed to have begun hie reign. 422 IT Pope Cajlestinus. 424 Valentinian III. Emperor of the West. 426 The Romans withdraw finally from Britain. 423 ^Etius, the Roman General, defeats the Franks and Goths. 431 The third General Council held at Ephesus. 432 IT Pope Sixtus III. 435 The Theodosian Code published. 439 Generic the Vandal invades and plunders Italy. — Eudocia the Empress, wife of Theodosius, retires to Jerusalem. Carthage taken by the Vandals. Kingdom of the Vandals in Africa 440 tf Pope Leo the Great. 442 Theodosius forced to make a disgraceful Peace with Attila the Hun. Attila causes his brother Bleda to be murdered. 445 The Britons in vain solicit the Romans to assist them against the Picta and Scots. 445 Attila the Hun overruns Illyrium, Thrace, Dacia, Mcesia, and Scythia 448 The Romans engage to pay a heavy Tribute of Gold to Attila. 449 MerorxBus King of the Franks. 450 Martian Emperor of the East. — Attila ravages Germany and France. 151 Theodoric King of the Visigoths killed in battle. The Huns defeated by ^Etius. — The Saxons arrive in Britain under Hengist and Horsa. — The fourth General Council held at Chalcedon. t52 Foundation of the city of Venice. 155 PetTOmius Maximus Emperor of the West. — AvitUS Emperor of the West. Rome taken and plundered by Genseric the Vandal. 456 Childeric King of the Franks. 457 Leo the Great Emperor of the East. Majorianus Emperor of the West. 461 SeverilS Emperor of the West, raised by Ricimer. IT Pope Hilarius. 467 AnthemiUS Emperor of the West. 468 Eric King of the Visigoths drives the Romans out of Spain. IT Pope Simplicius. 470 iEHa the Saxon takes possession of the Kingdom of Sussex. 471 iElla defeats all the British Princes. 472 Great Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, seen from Constantinople. - Olyb'lUS Emperor of the West. 400 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A.D. 473 GlycerillS, Emperor of the West, degraded and stripped by 474 Julius NepoS Emperor of the West. Zero Emperor of the East. A'JgUStulus Romulus Emperor of the West, raised by his father Orestes, General of Nepos. 476 Orestes put to death by Odoacer King of the Heruli. Rome taken by Odoacer now king of Italy. - Extinction of the Western Empire of the Romans, 507 years from the battle of Actium, and 1224 from the building of Rome. 481 Clovis King of the Franks. - Zeno makes Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, his General, and creates him Consul. ■ 483 IT Pope Felix III. 485 Battle of Soissons gained by Clovis. 488 Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, entirely defeats Odoacer, and is acknowl- edged King of Italy by the .Emperor Zeno. 490 The Burgundians, under Gondebald, ravage Italy. — - Ireland, called the Isle of Saints, famous for its Schools. 491 Anastasius Emperor of the East. 493 Odoacer put to death by Theodoric. 496 IT Pope Anastasius II. 497 Clovis and the Franks converted to Christianity. 498 IT Pope Symmachus. 499 Alliance between Clovis and Theodoric the Great 500 - Gondebald, the Burgundian, becomes tributary to Clovis. 501 The Burgundian Laws published by Gondebald. 502 Cabades King of Persia ravages part of the Eastern Empire. 504 The Eastern Empire makes peace with Cabades. 507 Clovis defeats Alaric the Visigoth, and receives a congratulatory em- bassy, with a diadem, from Anastasius. 508 Theodoric the Great defeats Clovis in the battle of Aries, and then makes peace with him. 510 Clovis makes Paris the capital of the kingdom of the Franks. 511 Death of Clovis. Division of his kingdom among his four sons, Childebert, Thierry, Clotaire, and, Clodomir, Kings of the Franks. 512 The Heruli allowed by Anastasius to settle in Thrace. 514 IF Pope Hormisdas. 515 Arthur king of the Britons supposed to have begun his reign. 516 The Computation of Time by the Christian ^Era introduced by Dio- nysius the Monk. 517 The Getae ravage Illyrium, Macedonia, and Epirus. 518 Justin I. Emperor of the East raised from obscurity. 519 Justin restores the Orthodox Bishops, and condemns the Eutyehians. Cabades King of Persia proposes that Justin should adopt his son Cosroes, and makes war ou a refusal. 523 IT Pope John I. 525 The Arian Bishops deposed by Justin, and -this act highly resented by Theodoric. Antioch and many other cities almost destroyed by an earthquake, and rebuilt by Jastin, who adopts his nephew Justinian. 526 Theodoric puts to death Boethius and Symmachus. — IF Pope Felix IV. 527 Justinian I. Emperor of the Eat* 529 Belisarius, General of Justinian, deieats the Persians. The Books of the Civil Law published by Justinian. 530 If Pope Boniface II. ^ CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. ^ AD. 532 Justinian congratulates Cosroes on succeeding to the throne of Persia and concludes a perpetual peace with him. — — Great Insurrection at Constantinople quelled with prodigious slaughtei by Belisarius. 533 Athalaric King of the Ostrogotns dies, and is succeeded by his mothef Amalasonta. IT Pope John II. 534 Theodobert King of Metz. Belisarius defeats Celimer and the Vandals in Africa. 535 IT Pope Agapetus. 536 1T Pope Sylvester. 537 Belisarius subdues the Ostrogoths in Italy, and takes Rome. 538 IT Pope Vigilius. 540 Belisarius refuses to accept the crown of Italy. 543 Totila, the Goth, recovers Italy from the Romans. 547 Totila takes and plunders Rome. 548 Theobald King of Metz. 549 Rome retaken by Belisarius. 550 Commencement of the kingdom of Poland under Lechus. Rome recovered by Totila. 551 The manufacture of Silk introduced into Europe. 553 Totila defeated by Narses the Eunuch, and put to death. 555 If Pope Pelagius I. 558 The Huns, breaking into Thrace, are defeated by Belisarius. 559 Belisarius degraded, and ungratefully treated by Justinian. Clotaire sole King of France. 560 i Pope John III. Belisarius restored to his Honours and Command. 562 Caribert, Gontran Sigebert, and Chilperic, Kings of France. 565 Justin II. Emperor of Rome. 566 Narses, recalled from Italy, invites the Lombards to take possession of the country. 568 Italy conquered by the Lombards. 571 Birth of Mahomet the false -Prophet. 574 IT Pope Benedict I. 578 Tiberius II. Emperor of the East. tf Pope Pelagius II. 580 The Latin Tongue ceases to be spoken in Italy about this time. 582 Maurice Emperor of the East. 584 Clotaire II. King of Soissons. 590 Antioch again destroyed, with 30,000 inhabitants, by an Earthquake. H Pope Gregorj r the Great. 596 Thierry II. and Theodobert II. Kings of Paris and Austrasia, Augustine the Monk converts the Saxons to Christianity. 600 G02 Phocas Emperor of the East acknowledges the Supremacy of the Popes. 604 fl" Pope Sabinianus. 607 1T Pope Boniface IV. The Pantheon at Rome Dedicated to God, the Virgin, and Che Saints. 608 IT Pope Boniface IV. 669 The Jews of Antioch massacre the Christians. 611 Heraclius Emperor of the East. 613 The French Maires du Palais first introduced by Clotaire as Regent* 614 Clotaire II. sole King of France. — Queen Brunechilda, accused of numberless crimes, is put to deejb by Ctetaire II. 49Q CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A. D. 615 IT Pope Deusdedit. G16 Jerusalem taken by the Persians under Cosroes II. 618 IT Pope Boniface V. 622 Era of the Hegyra, or Flight of Mahomet from Mecca to Medina. 625 IT Pope Honorius I. The Persians under Cosroes II., with the Huns, Abari, and Sclavo- nians, besiege Constantinople. 628 Dagobert and Charibert Kings of France. 632 Death of Mahomet. Abubeker sjeceeds him as Caliph of the Sara- cens. 633 Abubeker dies, and is succeeded by Omar in the Caliphate. 636 Jerusalem taken by Omar and the Saracens, who keep possession of it 463 years. 638 Sigebert II. and Clovis II. Kings of France. 640 IT Pope Severmus. J Pope John IV. The Library of Alexandria, founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus, is burnt by the Saracens. 641 Constantine, Emperor of the East for a few months, poisoned by his step-mother. _1_ Heraclionas and Tiberius III. Emperors of the East. 642 Constans, son of Constantino, Emperor of the East. IT Pope Theodoras. 645 Otman succeeds Omar m the Caliphate. 648 Cyprus taken by the Saracens under Mawia. 649 II Pope Martin I. 653 The Saracens take Rhodes, and destroy the Colossus. 654 CUilderic II. King of Austrasia. IT Pope Eugenius I. 655 Ali Caliph of Arabia. Mawia Caliph of Egypt. 657 If Pope Vitalianus. 658 The Saracens obtain Peace of the Emperor Constans, and agree to pay a yearly tribute. G68 Constantius V. (Pogonatus) Emperor of the East. 069 Sicily ravaged by the Saracens. 672 TT Pope Adeodatus. - The Saracens ineffectually besiege Constantinople. Theirfleet de- stroyed by the Greek Fire used by Callihicus. 675 The Saracens attempt to land in Spain, but are repulsed by Wamba King of the Visgoths. 676 IT Pope Donus. 679 Thierry IV. King of all France. Tf Pope Agatho. 680 The sixth General or (Ecumenical Council of Constantinople. 682 IT Pope Leo II. 684 IT Pope Benedict II. 085 TT Pope John V. Justinian II. Emperor of the East. - The Lritons, totally subdued by the Saxons, retreat into Wales and Cornwall. 686 IT Pope Canon. 686 Ceadwalla King of Wessex subdues Sussex and Kent. 687 IT Pope Sergius. 090 Pepin Heristel, Maire du Palais, aefeats Thierry, and acquires th» chief power in France. ~ 692 Clovis III. King of France. 694 Jistinian II. dethroned, mutilated, and ban'shed toy Lesntius, &>o Qiiaedert III. King of France. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 493 A I>- 695 LeontillS Emperor of the East. Dethroned and mutilated by 697 Apsimar or Tiberius Empeior of the East. 699 The Saracens defeated by John the Patrician. 700 The Saracens again defeated with great slaughter by Heraclius, brother of Tiberius. 701 IT Pope John VI. 704 Justinian escapes from prison, defeats Tiberius, and is restored to the throne. 707 Justinian II. defeated by the Bulgarians. 708 IT Pope Sisinnius. — - IT Pope Constantine. 711 Philippicus Bardanes Emperor of the East. Dagobert HI. King of France. 713 AnastasiUS II. Emperor of the East. Spain conquered by the Saracens under Muca, the general of the Caliph Walid. 714 IT Pope Gregory II. Theodosius Emperor of the East. Charles Martel, Maire du Palais, governs all France for 26 years. 716 Child-eric II. King of France. . — Leo (the Isurian) Emperor of the East. 720 Omar II. besieges Constantinople without success, Thierry IV. King of France. 726 Leo forbids the Worship of Images, which occasions a great rebellion of his subjects. The Pope defends the practice. 728 Leo orders Pope Gregory to be seized and sent to Constantinople; but the order is frustrated, and Leo confiscates the Imperial Do- mains of Sicity and Calabria. 729 The Saracens ravage Gallia Narbonnensis. 731 IT Pope Gregory III. 732 Charles Martel defeats the Saracens between Tours and Poictiers. 736 Leo persecutes the Monks. 737 Death_of Pelagius, who preserved the Christian Monarchy in Asturia 740 The Duchy of Spoleto seized by the Normans. Recovered by the Pope. 741 IT Pope Zachary. 742 Childeric III. King of France Constantine (Copronymus) Emperor of the East. An enemy to images and saint worship. 743 He defeats and puts to death Artabazdus, who had seized Constan- tinople. 745 He destroys the fleet of the Saracens. 749 The Race of the Abassidae become Caliphs of the Saracens. 751 Pepin (le Bref) King of France, founder of the second or Carlovin' gian Race 752 f Pope Stephen III. 753 Astolphus King of the Lombards erects the Dukedom of Ravenna and claims from the Pope the Dukedom of Rome. 754 Pope Stephen requests the assistance of Pepin against the Lombard*. — • Pepin invades Italy, and strips Astolphus of his new possessions, con- ferring them on the Pope as a temporal sovereignty. — — Almanzor Caliph of the Saracens, a great encourager of learning. 756 Desiderius, or Dider, proclaimed King of the Lombards, with the Pope's consent. - Abdalrahman I. talces the title of King of Cordova, and is the founder of the splendid dominien of the Moors in Spain. Tt 494 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A.D 757 U Pope Paul I. renews the alliance with Desideriug. 759 1T*Pope Stephen III. quarrels with Desiderius. 762 Almanzor builds Bagdat, and makes it the seat of the Empire of th« Caliphs. 767 The Turks ravage Asia Minor. 768 Charles {the Great) and Carloman, Kings of France. IT Pope Stephen IV. 770 Constantine dissolves the Monasteries in the East. 772 Charlemagne sole Monarch of France. He makes war against the Saxons. IT Pope Adrian I. 774 Charlemagne defeats Desiderius, and puts an end to the kingdom of the Lombards, which had subsisted 206 years. 775 Leo IV. Emperor of the East. 778 Battle of Roncezvalles between the Christians and Moors in Spam, where Rolando is killed. 779 Charlemagne conquers Navarre and Sardinia. 781 Constantine (Porphyrogenitus) Emperor of the East. Irene, Empress, is Regent in her son's minority, and keeps him in entire subjection. She re-establishes the worship of images. 785 Charlemagne subdues the Saxons. Haroun Alraschid Caliph of the Saracens. He invades and ravages a part of the Empire. 786 Constantine assumes the government of the Empire, and imprisons his mother. 787 The Danes first land in England. - The seventh General Council, or second of Nice. 788 Irene puts to death her son Constantine, and is proclaimed sole Em- press. 793 Irene proposes to marry Charlemagne, which being disapproved by her subjects, she is dethroned, and confined to a monastery. - NicephorUS Emperor of the East. ^ 794 Charlemagne defeats and extirpates the Huns. IT Pope Leo III. 797 The Saracens ravage Cappadocia, Cyprus, Rhodes, &c. Nicephorus associates his son Saturacius in the Empire. 800 — ■• New Empire of the West. Charlemagne crowned Emperor at Rome. 807 Haroun Alraschid courts the alliance of Charlemagne. 811 Michael (Curopalates) Emperor of the East. 813 Leo (the Armenian) Emperor of the East. Almamon, Caliph of the Saracens, a great encourager of learning. 814 Lewis {le Dehonnaire) Emperor of France. 816 The Eastern Empire ravaged by Earthquakes, Famine, Conflagra- tions, &c. 816 IT Pope Stephen V. 817 H Pope Pascal I. Lewis (le Deb.) divides the Empire among his sons. 821 Michael (Balbus or the Stammerer) Emperor of the East. 824 H Pope Eugene II. 627 ISjtftttt unites the kingdoms of the Saxon Heptarchy, BegiflgSBg of the kingdom of England, — — f Pope Valentine 828 Gregory IV. $29 Theophilus Emperor of the East CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 40% AD 838 IStijCltoOlf King of England. — The Scots under Kenneth entirely subdue the PicU. 840 LOTHARIUS Emperor of Germany. Charles (the Bald) King of France. 841 Lotharius defeated by his two brothers in the battle of Fonteaai, and deposed. 842 LEWIS (of Bavaria) Emperor of Germany. Michael III. Emperor of the East. 843 The Normans plunder the city of Rouen. 844 II Pope Sergius III. 845 The Normans plunder Hamburgh, and penetrate into Germany. 847 ff Pope Leo IV. 848 The Venetian Fleet destroyed by the Saracens. 851 11 Pope Joan supposed to have filled the Papal chair for two years. BasilitlS associated Emperor of the East. 855 LEWIS II. Emperor of Germany. 857 fStfjelfcattr and IHtljtlfcttt Kings of England. 858 IT Pope Nicholas I. 866 lEtljelrttt King of England. 867 The Danes ravage England. Basilius sole Emperor of the East. IT Pope Adrian II. Potius, Patriarch of Constantinople, excommunicates Pope Adrian. 872 £111 tCtt- (the Great) King of England. IT Pope John VIII. 875 CHARLES (the Bald) Emperor of Germany. 877 LEWIS (the Stammerer) Emperor of Germany and King of Fran— 879 Lewis III. and Carloman, Kings of France. The kingdom of Aries begins. 880 CHARLES (the Gross) Emperor of Germany and King of Franc*. Ravagers of the Normans in France. 882 IT Pope Marinus. 884 IT Pope Adrian III. 886 Leo (the Philosopher) Emperor of the East. - The University of Oxford founded by Alfred, 887 ARNOLD, Emperor of Germany. The Normans besiege Paris, which is gallantly defended by Bishop Goselin and Count Eudes. 888 Eudes or do King of France. 890 Alfred the Great composes his Code of Laws, and divides England into Counties, Hundreds, and Tithings. 891 1T Pope Formosus. 896 1T Pope Stephen VII. 897 IT Pope John IX. 898 Charles III. (the Simple) King of France. 900 IT Pope Benedict IV. LEWIS IV. Emperor of Germany. 901 IHtttoartt (the Elder) succeeds Alfred as King of England. 904 IT Pope Leo V. 905 IT Pope Sergius III. 911 CONRAD I. Emperor of Germany. Constantine IX. Emperor of the East. 912 The Normans are established in Normandy under Rollo. 913 IT Pope Anastasius. 914 1T Pope Landon. 915 Constantine and Romanus Emperors of tba East. 496 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A. D. 915 IF Pope John X. The University of Cambridge founded by Edward the Elder. 920 HENRY (the Fowler) Emperor of Germany. 923 Rodolph King of France. 925 gftfjtiStatt King of England. 928 U Pope Leo VI. 929 IT Pope Stephen VIII. 931 1T Pope John XL 936 077/0' (the Sreat) Emperor of Germany. IF Pope Leo VII. Lewis IV. ( King fit Scotland. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. §01 AD. 1307 The Establishment of the Swiss Republic*. IStJtoJart* H. King of England. 1303 HENRY VII. Emperor of Germany. IT Pope Clement V. The seat of the Popes transferred to Avignon for seventy years. 1310 Rhodes taken by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. 1311 Pierce Gaveston, favourite of Edward II., put to death. 1312 The Knights Templars suppressed by Philip the Fair. 1314 The Scots under Robert Bruce defeat the English under Edward XL at Bannockburn. LEWIS V. (of Bavaria) Emperor of Germany. ' Lewis X. {Hutin) King of France. 1 315 John King of France. 1316 IT Pope John XXII:- Philip V. {the Long) King of France. 1320 AndronicilS II. (Paleeologus) Emperor of the East. 1321 Charles IV. {the Fair) King of France. 1327 IHtJtoattr HI. King of England. 132S Philip VI. {of Valois) King of France. 1329 David II. King of Scotland. Randolph Earl of Murray Regent. 1331 The Teutonic Knights settle in Prussia. 1332 Edward Baliol, assisted by Edward III. ? is crowned at Scone King ef Scots, but is soon driven out of the kingdom. 1333 Casimir III. (the Great) King of Poland. 1334 1T Pope Benedict XII. 1340 Gunpowder invented by Swartz, a Monk of Cologne. Oil Painting invented by John Van Eyke. 1341 John V. (Pakeologus) Emperor of the East. John Cantacuzenos, his governor, usurps the throne. 1342 IT Pope Clement VI. 1348 Battle of Crossy won by Edward III. and the Black Prince over ti*t French. Battle of Durham, in which David II. of Scotland is taken prisoner 1347 CHARLES IV. Emperor of Germany. Cola Rienzi assumes the Government of Rome. 1350 The Order of the Garter instituted by Edward III. Peter (the Cruel) King of Castile. 1351 John If. King of France. 3 352 1T Pope Innocent VI. The Turks first enter Europe i356 The Battle of Poictiers, in which John II. King of France is taken prisoner, and afterwards brought to London. 1362 1T Pope Urban V. The Law-pleadings in England changed from French to English. 1346 Charles V. King of France. 370 TT Pope Gregory XI. — Itobert II. King of Scotland. 3 377 The Seat c"f the Popes removed back from Avignon to Rome. — - ftCdjattt it." King of England. Wicklirle's Doctrines propagated in England. i378 The Schism of the double Popes at Rome and Avignon begins and continues thirty-eight years. M Pope Urban VI. of Rome IT Pope Clement VII. of Avignon. 1378 WENCESLJ1US Emperor of Germany, deposed in 1402 1380 Charles VI. King of France. — — Tamerlane invades and subdues Chorassar. 1381 Wat Tyler's and Jack Straw's Insurrection in England. 003 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. AD. 1381 Peace between Venice and Genoa. Bills of Exchange first used in England. 383 Cannon first used by the English in the defence of Calais. 384 Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, succeeds to the Earldom ©f Flanders. 386 Tamerlane subdues Georgia. 388 Battle of Otterburn between Percy (Hotspur) at i Douglas. 389 1F Pope Boniface IX. 390 Robert III. king of Scotland 391 Manuel II. (Palaeologus) Emperor of the East. 392 The Cape of Good Hope discovered by the Portuguese. i394 The Jews banished from France bv Charles VI. U Pope Benedict XIII. 395 Sigismund King of Hungary defeated by Bajazet I. 398 Tamerlane subdues part of Hindoostan, and takes Delhi. 399 p?eUt£ IV. King of England. - 400 402 Bajazet is taken prisoner by Tamerlane in the battle of Angoria. — — Battle of Halidoun Hill, in which the Scots are defeated. C403 Battle of Shrewsbury, in which Hotspur is killed. "404 IT Pope Innocent VII. 405 Death of Tamerlane. 406 *J ames I. King of Scotland. % Pope Gregory XII. 409 Council of Pisa, iyhere Pope Gregory is deposed. IT Pope Alexander V. 410 JOSSE (Marquis of Brandenburgh) Emperor of Germany. IT Pope John XXIII. 411 SIGISMUND Emperor of Germany. The University of St. Andrews in Scotland founded. 413 ©CUrg V. King of England. 414 Council of Constance, in which two Popes were deposed, and Pope- dom remained vacant near three years. 415 Henry V. defeats the French at Agincourt. — - John Huss condemned by the Council of Constance for Heresy and burnt. 416 Jerome of Prague condemned by the same Council, and burnt 417 IT Pope Martin V. Paper first made from linen rags. 420 The Island of Madeira discovered by the Portuguese, 421 John VI. (Palaeologus) Emperor of the East, 422 Amurath besieges Constantinople. l^ttlVS VI. King of England. ~— Charles VII. King of France. -—- James I. King of Scots liberated from captivity by the English. 425 The Court of Session in Scotland instituted by James I. 428 Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, compels the English to raise Um siege of that town. 431 IT Pope Eugene IV. - Rise of the Medici family at Florence. 436 Paris recovered by the French from the English. 437 James II. King of Scotland. 438 ALBERT II. Emperor of Germany. 1439 Reunion of the Greek and Latin Churches. The Pragmatic Sanction established in France. 1440 FREDERICK III. Emperor of Germany. ™- Invention of tr.e art of Printing by JobfTGutUmborg at Stvafebtuf. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. ft* A.D 1444 Ladislaus King of Hungary killed in battle with the Turk*. 1445 Constantine (Palseologus) Emperor of the East. 1446 Great Inundation of the sea in Holland. 1447 IT Pope Nicholas V. Rise of the Sforza Family at Milan. 1453 Constantinople taken by the Turks Extinction of the EiSTKltV Empire of the Romans. End of the English government in France. 1453 'IT Pope Calixtus III. Battle of St. Albans, where Henry VI. is taken prisoner by the Duke of York. 1458 IT Pope Pius II. (JSneas Sylvius.) 1459 The art of Engraving on copper invented. 1460 •} ames III. King of Scotland. Battle of Wakefield, in which the Duke of York is killed. 1461 lifrteartr IV. King of England. Lewis XI. King of France. 1470 Henry VI. restored to the throne of England. 1471 Batt'e of Barnct, where Warwick is killed. Battle of Tewksbury, where the Lancastrians are totally defeated. Edward IV. restored. Prince Edward of Lancaster basely murdered by Clarence and Gloucester. Death of Henry VI. tf Pope Sixtus IV. 1474 The Cape de Verd Islands discovered by the Portuguese. 1475 Edward IV. invades France. Peace of Pecquigni purchased by the French. 1479 Ferdinand and Isabella unite the kingdoms of Arragon and Castile. Russia freed from subjection to the Tartars by John Basilwitz. 1483 Charles VIII. King of France. IStt&atft V. King of England. Duke of Gloucester Protector. ' Edward V. and his brother murdered. iHitijartt'III. Ring of England. 1484 1T Pope Innocent VIII. 1485 Battle of Bos worth, in which Richard III. is killed. — flfeitrg VII. King of England, first of the house of Tudor. Union of the houses of York and Lancaster. 1488 •James IV. King of Scotland. 1491 Granada taken by Ferdinand and Isabella. End of the kingdom «C the Moors in Spain. 1492 TT Pope Alexander VI. (Borgia.) Hispaniola and Cuba discovered by Christopher Columbus. 1493 MAXIMILIAN I. Emperor of Germany. 1494 Expedition of Charles VIII. into Naples. - — Algebra first known in Europe. y—. — America discovered by Columbus. 1497 The Portuguese, under Vasco de Garca, double the Cape of G©#d Hope and sail to the East Indies. 1498 Lewis XII. king of France. Savanorala burnt by Pope Alexander VI. for preaching against #!• vices of the clergy. 1499 Lewis XII. takes possession of the Milanese. — — Sebastian Cabot lands in North America. 1500 — — • Brazil discovered by the Portuguese. — — Maximilian divides Germany into six Circles, End adds Ibiif ffltrttfn 1518. KM8 1 Pope Pius III. 504 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A.D. J 503 IT Pope Julius -II. — — Battle of Cerizoles, in which the French lose Naples 1504 Philip I. King of Spain. — 1506 Jane his Queen. 1507 Madagascar discovered by the Portuguese. 1508 League of Cambray against the Venetians. 1509 Htntrg VIII. King of England. Battle or Agnadello, May 14. 1511 Cuba conquered by the Spaniards. 1513 Battle of Flodden, fatal to the Scots — — *J ames V. King of Scotland. IT Pope Leo X. 1515 Francis I. King of France. 1516 Charles I. (Emperor Charles V.) King of Spain. Barbarossa seizes the Kingdom of Algiers. 1517 The Reformation in Germany begun by Luther. The Turks put an end to the reign of the Mamelukes- in Egypt 1518 Leo X. condemns Luther's Doctrines. 1519 CHARLES V. Emperor of Germany. — — Fernando Cortez engages in the conquest of Mexico. 1520 Sweden and Denmark united. . Massacre at Stockholm by Christiern II. and Archbishop TroIJo. 1521 IT Pope Adrian VI. - Gustsvus Vasa King of Sweden. — — Cortez completes the conquest of Mexico. 1522 The first Voyage round the World performed by a ship of Magellan's squadron. 1523 Solyman the Magnificent takes Belgrade. IT Pope Clement VII. 1524 Sweden and Denmark embrace the Protestant faith. 1525 Battle of Pavia, in which Francis I. is taken prisoner by Charles V. 1526 Treaty of Madrid between Charles V. and Francis I., when the latter is set at liberty, 1527 Rome taken and plundered by Charles V. Pizarro and Dalmagro invade the Empire of Peru 1528 Revolution of Genoa by Andrea Doria. Gustavus Eriscon crowned King of Sweden. 1529 Diet of Spires against the Huguenots, then first termed Protestants Peace of Cambray, August 5. A 1530 The League of Smalcald between the Protestants. 1531 Michael Servetus burnt for heresy at Geneva. 1532 The Treaty of Nuremberg, August 2. The Court of Session in Scotland new modeled by James V. 1534 The Reformation in England. II Pope Paul III. Barbarossa seizes the Kingdom of Tunis. Jack of Leyden heads the Anabaptists at Munster. 1535 The Society of the Jesuits instituted by Ignatius Loyola. Expedition of Charles V. against Tunis. 1538 Treaty of Nice between Charles V. and Francis I. 1540 Dissolution of the Monasteries in England by Henry VIIL 1542 iTXary Queen of Scotland. 1544 The French defeat the troops of Charles V. in the battle of Cerizoles, The treaty of Crepi. 1545 The Council of Trent begins, which continued eighteen years. 1546 Cardinal Beaton, of St. Andrew's, assassinated. 1547 Fiesco's Conspiracy at Genoa. - The Battle of Mulberg, in whi^h the Protestants are defeated, and (to Elector of Saxony taken prisoner. - S&toSftr VL King of England. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 505 A.1>. 1547 Henry II. King of France. 1548 The Interim granted by Charles V. to th« Protest ants. 1550 IT Pope Julius III. 1552 The Treaty of Passau between Charles V. and the Elector of £&ieafr f for the Establishment of Lutheranism 3553 J^arg Queen of England. • Lady Jane Grey beheaded. 1555 IT Pope Marcellus II. » IT Pope Paul IV. — — Many Bishops burnt in England by Maty-. 1556 FERDINAND I. Emperor of Germany. — — Philip II. King of Spain. 1557 Philip II. defeats the French at St. Qumtfe 1558 ISUfflfflltf) Queen of England. 1559 % Pope Pius IV. ■■ ■• ' ■ Francis II. King of France. * Treaty of Cattoasu-Cam'bresis. 1560 diaries IX. King of France. Conspiracy of Amboise formed by the party of Conde against that «4 Guise. Beginning of the Civil Wars in France. « The Reformation completed in Scotland by John Knox. 1561 Mary Queen of Scots arrives in Scotland from Franco. 1562 Brtttie of Dreux. Victory of the Guises over Condo. 3564 MAXIMILIAN II. Era.peror of Germany. 1566 IT Pope Pius VI. Revolt of the JVetberlands from Philip ML 1567 Tire Duke of Alva sent by Philip to the Netherlands. «J ames VI. King of Scotland. 1568 Mary Queen of Scots flees to England for protection. Philip II. puts to death bis son Don Carlos. 356*9 The Earl of Murray, Regent of Scotland, assassinated by Hatniftos. The battles of Jarnac and Moncontour in France, in which the PffO$> estants are defeated. 1571 Naval Victory at Lepanto, where the Turks are defeated by Don John of Austria, 1572 TT Pope Gregory XIII. ThoMassasre of St. Bartholomew, August 24. 1574 Henry HI. King of France. « Socinus propagates his opinions. Don Sebastian King of Portugal invades Africa. 1576 RODOLFHUS II. Emperor of Germany. The League in France formed against the Protestants. 1579 Commencement of the Republic of Holland, by the union of Utreciig. 1580 Philip II. takes possession of Portiigal, •■ The World circumnavigated by Sir Francis Drake. 1582 The New Style introduced into Italy by Pope Gregory XIII., tno 5cb of October being counted the 15th. 1584 William I. Prince of Orange murdered at Delft. Virginia discovered by Sir Walter Raleigh. 1585 IT Pope Sixtus V. 1587 Mary Queen of Scots beheaded at Fotheringay. 1588 Destruction of the Spanish Armada by the English. 1589 Henry III. of France murdered by Jaquez Clement. — — Henry IV. {the Great) King of France. 1590 The battle of Ivry, which ruins the league in Franco. IT Pope Urban VII. — — — IT Pope Gregory XIV. 1591 The University of Dublin erected. — — f Pope Innocent X. >*~ — CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A. D. 1592 Presbyterian Church Government established in Scotland, IT Pope Clement VIII. i594 The Bank of England incorporated. 1598 Edict of Nantes/toleratingthe Protestants in France. — — Peace of Verins concluded between France and Spain. Philip III. King of Spain. "■ . Tyrone's rebellion in Ireland. 1600 — — Gowrie's Conspiracy in Scotland. * — — Tho Earl of Essex beheaded. The English East India Company established. 1602 Decimal Arithmetic invented at Bruges. 1603 J5 flWini I- King of Great Britain. tTnion of the crowns of England and Scotland. 1605 The Gunpowder Plot discovered M Pope Paul V. 1698 Galileo discovers the Satellites of Jupiter. - Arminius propagates his opinions. 1610 Henry IV. of France murdered by Ravaillac. . i ■ ■■ Lewis III. King of France. — — The Moors expelled from Spain by Philip Hi. — — Hudson's Bay discovered. 1611 Baronets first created in England by James I. 1612 MATTHIAS Emperor of Germany. 1614 Logarithms invented by Napier. 1616 Settlement of Virginia by Sir Walter Raleigh. 1618 The Synod of Dort in Holland. 1619 Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood by Dr. Harvey. FERDINAND II. Emperor of Germany. Vanini burnt at Thoulouse for Atheism". 1620 The Battle of Prague, by which the Elector Palatine loses hig Elec- torate. —-*— The English make a settlement at Madras. "- ■' " '■■• Navarre united to France. 1621 Philip IV. King of Spain. *- — - Batavia, in the Island of Java, buiit and settled by the Dutch. — — ■ %, Pope Gregory XV. 1623 IT Pope Urban VIII. 1625 <£l)arleS I. King of Great Britain. • ■ The Island of Barbadoes the first English settlement in tire West Indies. 1626 League of the Protestant Princes against the Emperor. 1632 Gus'.avus Adolphus killed in the battle of Lutzen Christina Queen of Sweden. 1635 The French Academy instituted. 1637 FERDINAND III. Emperor of Germany 1638 Bagdat taken by the Turks. The Solemn League and Covenant established in Scotland. 1640 John Duke of Braganza recovers the kingdom of Portugal. 1641 The Irish Rebellion, and Massacre of the Protestants, Octobor 23. The Earl of Strafford beheaded. 1642 Beginning of the Civil; War in England. The battle of Edgehlli, October 23. 1643 Lewis XIV. King of Franc* — — Ann of Austria Regent of France. — — Archbishop Laud condemned by the Commons, and beheaded, 1644 IT Pope Innocent X. — — Revolution in China by the Tartars. 1C4R Chailes I. defeated in the battle of Naseby, CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE &jt AD. 1648 The Peace of Westphalia. The Civil War of iho Fronde at Pari§> 1649 Charles I. of England beheaded. -— — Commonwealth of England begins. J 050 The Marquis of Montrose put to death. Battle of Dunbar. Covenanters defeated by Cromwell. 1051 The battle of Worcester w.on by Cromwell. 1052 The first War between the English and Dutch. 1054 End of the Commonwealth of "England. Oliver Cromwell Lord Pre lector.' The English, under Admiral Penn, take possession of Jamaica. Christina Queen of Sweden resigns the Crown to Charles X. IT Pope Alexander VII. LEOPOLD I. Emperor of Germany. Richard Cromwell Lord Protector of England. 1059 The Peace of the Pyrenees between France and Spain. 1000 (H\)ilXXtH II* King of Great Britain. Restoration of Monarchy The Peace of Oiiva between Sweden. Denmark, and Poland. 1662 The Royal Society instituted in England. 1003 Charter of Carolina, and a colony settled soon after. The French Academy of Inscriptions instituted. T004 The second Dutch War begins. 1005 Charles II. King of Spain. r- Great Plague in London. > 1600 Great Fire in London. ' The Academy of Science instituted in France. ■ Sabatei Levi, in Turkey, pretends to be the Messiah. 1007 The Peace of Breda, which confirms to the English Pennsylvania New- York, and New-Jersey. IT Pope Clement IX. 1008 The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. 1009 The Island of Candia taken by the Turks. 1070 IT Pope Clement X. 1072 Lewis XIV. conquers great part of Holland. - — - The Do Witts put to death in Holland. 1674 John Sobieski King of Poland. 1070 Ti Pope Innocent XL 1078 The Peace of Nimeguen, July 31. The Habeas Corpus act passed in England. 1079 The Long Parliament of Charles II. dissolved. 1081 Peter the Great Czar of Muscovy. 1083 Execution of Lord Russel, July 21. — ; — Execution of Algernon Sydney, December 7. The Siege of Vienna by the Turks raised by John Sobieski, 1635 J{| aUtCJS II. King of Great Britain. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Lewis XIV. Duke of Monmouth beheaded. 1036 The Newtonian Philosophy first published In England. The League of Augsburg against France. 1688 Revolution in Britain. King James abdicates the throne, DeeaiS her 23. 1689 2KtUUCmK and J^tatg King and Queen of Great Britain. Episcopacy abolished in Scotland by King William. II Pope Alexander VIII. 1690 Battle of the Boyne, July 1. 1691 IT Pope Innocent XII. 1692 Battle g? La Hogue, May 19. The Massacre of Glencoe in Scotland, January 31. O. S. . Bat 'z :.' ^teedkirk. King William defeated by Luxemburg, iu\yx% . — Hn,. 1774 Lewis XVI. King of France. 1775 Battle of Bunker's Hill in North America, June 17. 1776 IT Pope Pius VI. The Americans declare their Independence, July 4.. 1777 Mary Queen of Portugal. Surrender of the British Army under Burgoyne at Saratoga, in \h» state ©f New- York, October 17. 1778 League between the French and Americans, October 30. 1779 Peace between the Imperialists and Prussians, May 13. Great Eruption of Vesuvius, August 8. Siege of Gibraltar by the Spaniards, July. Captain Cook killed in the Island of Owyhee. 1780 Great Riots in London on account of the Popish Bill, June 2l War declared between Great Britain and Holland, December 20. 1781 Surrender of the British Army under Corn wallis to the Americans and French at Yorktown in Virginia, October 18. 1782 Sir G. Rodney defeats the French fleet oft' Dominica, April 12. 1783 Peace between Great Britain, France, and Spain, and the Independ* ence of America declared, January 20. 1784 Peace between Great Britain and Holland, May 24. 1785 Treaty of Alliance between Austria, France, and Holland, Novem- ber 9. 1786 Frederick IV. King of Prussia. 1788 Defensive Alliance between England and Holland, April 25. 1789 Selim III. Grand Seignior, April. George Washington first President of the United States, April. — — The Bastille at Paris taken and destroyed, and the Governor massa- cred, July 14. 1790 Monastic Establishments suppressed in France, February 13. War commenced m India with Tippoo Sultan, May h LEOPOLD II. Emperor of Germany. 1792 FKJWCIS II. Emperor of Germany. - — Gustavus HI. King of Sweden assassinated by Ankerstrom, March 29. Gustavus IV. King of Sweden, Duke of Sudermania Regent in his minority. Th<* Thuilleries attacked. The King and Queen of France tak» refjge in the National Assembly. The Swiss guards massacred by the populace, August 10. - — The Royal Family of France imprisoned in the Temple, August 14, CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 5ii A.D. 1792 A dreadful massacre of the state-prisoners at Paris, September 2, 3. The National Convention is constituted, the King deposed, and Franca declared a Republic, September 21. — — Savoy incorporated with the French Republic, November 27. ■— — Lewis XVI. is brought to trial, and answers each article of accusation, December 14. 1793 Lewis XVI. condemned to death by a majority of five voices, Janua- ry 17, and beheaded, January 21. — — Russia declares war against France, January 31. ■ " The French Convention declares war against England and Holland February 1. - — Queen of France condemned to death and beheaded, October 15. 1794 Robespierre, with his chief partisans, guillotined, July 28. 1795 The Stadtholder takes refuge in England. Holland overrun by t\ < French, January. Lyons bombarded, laid in ruins, and all its loyal inhabitants massar^, May. Lewis XVII. died in prison at Paris, June 8. The Cape of Good Hope taken by the British, September 16. Belgium incorporated with the French Republic, September 30 Stanislaus II. resigns the Crown of Poland. The kingdom divided between Russia, Austria, and Prussia, November 25. 1796 The French overrun and plunder Italy. Death of Catharine II. Paut Emperor of Russia, November 17. 1797 John Adams President of the United States, March 4. The Dutch Fleet beaten and captured by Admiral Duncan, Octo- ber 11. 1798 The Papal Government suppressed by the French. The Pope quits Rome, February 26. — — Ireland in open rebellion, May, June, &c. Admiral Nelson destroys the French Fleet in the battle of the Nile, August 1. The Swiss finally defeated, and their Independence abolished, Sep- tember 19. 1799 Seringapatam taken bv General Harris, and Tippoo Sultan killed, May 4 Death of Fope Pius VI., September. A Revolution at Paris. Bonaparte declared First Consul, Decem- ber 25. 1800 Union of Britain and Ireland. Bonaparte defeats the Austrians in the battle of Marengo in Italy June 14. Armistice between the French and Austrians in Germany, July 15. The new Pope, Pius VII., restored to his government by the Emperor July 25. Malta taken by the British, September 5. 1801 First meeting of the Imperial Parliament of Britain and Ireland January. Thomas Jefferson President of the United States, March 4. Death of Paul. Alexander I. Emperor of Russia, March 23 Battle of Copenhagen, in which the Danes are defeated by Lord Nel- son, April 3. 1802 The Catholic Religion re-established in France, March. — — Treaty of peace between Britain and France. -e- — The King of Sardinia resigns his crown to his brother, July. Br.naparte declared Chief Consul for life, July. War between France, and Germany, and Russia, in which the French are successful. ' » 1803 War between Britain and France. 512 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE AD 1804 Emperor of Germany assumes the title of Emperor of Austria Au- gust 11. Bonaparle crmoncd Emperor of France, December 2. 1805 Bonaparte King of Italy, March. Lord Nelson defeats the combined fleets of France and Spain off" Cape Trafalgar, takes or destroys 19 ships of the line, and is killed in the battle, October 21. ". War between England and Spain. 1806 Louis Bonaparte crowned King of Holland, June. The British Parliament vote the Abolition of the Slave Trade, June 10 Francis II. resigns the office of Emperor of Germany, August 2. War between France and Prussia. Battle of Jena and total defeat of the Prussians, October 14. 1807 War between France and Russia, in which the French are successful. Copenhagen taken by the British, and the Danish fleet carried to Eng- land. ■ Treaty of Peace between France, and Russia, and Prussia. 1808 Abolition of the Slave Trade in the United States of America, Janua- ry 1. War between Russia and Sweden. Bonaparte seizes Portugal, and the Royal Family flee to Brazil. Bonaparte seizes the Royal Family of Spain. War between Franc* and Spain. 1809 Battle of Corunna, January 16. Fall of Saragossa, February 21. James Madison President of the United States, March 4. Gustavus IV. King of Sweden deposed, and Charles XIII. proclaimed) March 13. War between France and Austria, April 6. French enter Vienna, May 12. War be' ween Russia and Austria, May 22. ■ The Papal States united to France, June 1. Battle of Talavera, July 24. Peace of Vienna between Austria and France, Octobor 14. 1810 Bonaparte divorces the Empress Josephine, January 16. He marries the Arch-Duchess Maria Louisa of Austria, April 1. Louis Bonaparte abdicates the throne of Holland, July 1. Holland annexed to the French. Population of the United States, 7,239,903. 1811 Prince of Wales appointed Regent, February 8. Two hundred buildings and large quantities of goods burnt in New- buryport, Mass. Massacre in Cairo, when about 1,000 Mamelukes lost their lively March 1. - A Son born to Napoleon Bonaparte, styled King of Rome, March 20. Batavia captured by the English, August 8. An unusually" large comet appeared, September 1 Richmond Theatre burnt, December 26. 1812 Great Earthquake at Carraccas, March 26 Perceval, Prime Minister of England, assassinated, May 11. War against Great Britain declared by the United States, June 18. - General Hull and his army taken prisoners in Canada, August 10. Battle of Smolensko, August 17. Battle of Moskwa, September 7. — — The French army enter Moscow, 14th September. British Frigate'Guerriere captured, August 29. do. do. Macedonia captured, October 25. do. do. Java captured, December 29. 1813 Lewis XVIII. publishes an Address to the people of France, Feb- ruary 1. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 513 AD. 1813 Treaty between Great Britain and Sweden, March 3. ■ Sweden declares War against Fiance, March 3. The Russjan troops enter Hamburgh, March 18. Prussia joins Russia against France, March. — — Spanish Inquisition abolished by the Cortes, April. Battle of Vittoria, in Spain, June 2. Austria declares War against France, August 11 General Moreau killed, August 28. ■- Commodore Perry captures the British squadron, on lake Erie, Sep- tember 10. Battle of Leipsic, October 19. — — The Prince of Orange assumes the title of Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands, December 2. ' The Russians and their Allies enter France, December 23. 1814 The Pope released by Bonaparte, January 23. — — Lord Wellington took possession of Bordeaux, February 13. Paris capitulates to the Allies, March 30. The Allies enter Paris, April 1. Napoleon Bonaparte dethroned, April 4, and banished to the Island of Elba, for which he sails, April 28. Louis XVIII. , being called to the throne, of France f made his entry into Paris, May 3. . General Peace in Europe, May 30. The Allied Sovereigns visit London, June 8. Inquisition restored in Spain, July 18. — — Norway annexed to Sweden, August 14. City of Washington taken by the British, August 24. British Squadron on Lake Champlain captured by Commodore M'Don- ough, September 11. General Congress of Vienna, November 7. ■ Pensacola taken by General Jackson, November 7. Treaty of Peace between the United States and Great Britain signed at Ghent, December 24. The British repulsed at New-Orleans, December 28. 1815 The British completely defeated and General Packenham slain at New-Orleans, January 8. United States Frigate President taken by a British squadron, Janua- ry 15. Peace between Great Britain and the United States ratified Februa- ry24. Bonaparte sailed from Elba, February 26 — lands in France, March 1— enters Paris, March 20. Bonaparte left Paris to meet the Allies, May 2. Battle of Waterloo, June 17 and 18. Bonaparte surrenders himself to the British, July 15. Joachim Murat, King of Naples, shot for High Treason, October 13. Bonaparte landed at St. Helena, October 13. Marshal Ney shot for High Treason, December 7. 1816 Jesuits expelled from Petersburgh and Moscow, January 2. — — St. Johns, Newfoundland, destroyed by fire, February 18. Princess Charlotte of Wales married to Prince Leopold, May 2. — — Lord Cochrane tried for breaking out of Prison, August 17 — — He is released by a penny subscription, December 7. Indiana admitted into the Union as a State, December. 1817 United States Bank opened for business at Philadelphia, January 1. ■ American Colonization Society for free Blacks organized, January 1 James Monroe President of the United States, March 4. Pernambuco declared itself Independent, April 5. Portuguese authority established at Pernambuco, May 18. — Dey of Algiers assassinated, September. 65 14 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE A. 1) 1817 Death of Princess Caroline, November 6. ~ — Mississippi admitted into the Union as a State, December 1 1 1818 Queen of England dies. Charles XIII. of Sweden dies, and is succeeded by Prince Bernadotte France evacuated, by the Allies, October. Illinois admitted i>ito the Union as a State, December 4 Commercial Treaties concluded between the United States on one part and Great Britain and Sweden on the other. Alleghany College established. 1819 A Treaty for the cession of Florida to the United States signed at Washington, February 23. First Steam Ship sails for Europe, May. — — Commodore Perry dies in the West Indies, August 23. — — Alabama admitted into the Union as a State, December. 1820 George III., King of England, dies January 29. — — (3*tO£jJ£ IV. succeeds to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland. — — The Duke of Berry assassinated, February 14. Maine admitted into the Union as a State. ■ Queen Caroline of England prosecuted for Adultery. Anothej- Revolution, which gives a Free Constitution to the Span*»h nation. Population of the United States, 9,625,734. 1821 Missouri admitted into the Union as a State. An attempt to destroy the Royal Family of France, January 27. British Government issue a Manifesto respecting the Holy Alliance, February. Napoleon Bonaparte dies at St. Helena, May 5, 1821, aged 52. Queen Caroline of England dies, August 7, 1821. Elias Boudinot, President of the American Bible Society, dies. 1822 William Pinckney dies, February 26. Iturbide declared himself Emperor of Mexico. Columbian College established. Massacre of Greeks at Scio. Revolution in Portugal with a Cortes and Free Constitution. — — Don Pedro, son of the King of Portugal, declared Emperor of Brazils. 1823 Iturbide dethroned and banished to Italy. — — France declares War against Spain, and invades it with a large army* Counter Revolution in Portugal. — — Treaty of Peace between Spain and Buenos Ayres, July 4. COMPARATIVE VIEW OF ANCIENT AND OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY, In the following Tables the Countries unknown to Ancients, or of which the Names are uncertain, are left blank. The same numbers in the two adjacent columns on each page indicate the ancient and modern names of the same countries or places, MODERN EUROPE. GREENLAND, or the Arctic Conti- nent. SPITSBERGEN (Island.) ICELAND, (Island,) belonging to Norway. < NORWAY. 1. Wardhuis, or Norwegian Lap land. 2. Drontheim. 3. Bergen. 4. Aggerhuis, or Christiana. SWEDEN. 1. Lapland and West Bothnia. 2. Sweden Proper. 3. Gothland. 4. Finland. ANCIENT EUROPE. SCANDINAVIA, SCANDIA, vei BALTIA. 2. Nerigon. 3. Sitones. 1. Scritofinni. 2. Suiones. 3. Gutae et Hilleviones. 4 Finningia. 5. Islands of Gothland — Oeland, 5 Insuke Sinus Cedani. Aland, .Rugen. DENMARK, Jutland. C/tersonesus Cimbrica 1. Alburg. 1. Chrbri. 2. Wyburg. . tti6 COMPARATIVE VIEW OF MODERN EUROPE ANCIENT EUROPE. 3. Aarhusen. 4. Rypen. 5. Sleswick. Islands in th*. Buttic. 1. Zealand. 2. Funen. 3. Falster. 4. Longeland. 5. Laland. 6. Fcneren. 7. Alsen. 8. Moen. 9 BornhoJm. RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 1. Livonia and Estonia. 2. Ingria, or the Government of Petersburg. 3. Carelia, or the Government of Wiburg. 4. Novogrod. 5. Archangel, Samoiedia. (>. Moscow. 7. Nishnei Novogrod. 8. Smolensk!. 9. Kiew. 10. Bielgorod. 1 1 Woronesk. 12. Azoff. FRANCE 1. Picardy. 2. Isle of France. 3. Champagne. 4. Normandy 5. Bretany. 6. Orleannois. 7. Lionnois. 8. Provence. 9 Languedoc. 10. Guienne. 11. Gascoigne. 12. Dauphine. 13. Buvgundy and Franche-comte. M. Lorraine and Alsace. UNITED PROVINCES, OR KING- DOM OF HOLLAND 1. Holland. 2. Friesland. 3. Zealand. 4. Groningen. 5 Overyssel. 3. Harudes. 4. Phundusii, Sigulones. 5. Sabalingii. Insula Sinus Codani. 1, 2 Teutones. JsARMATIA EUROPiEA. 1. Hirri et iEstii vol Ostiones 4. Budini. 6. Basilici. 8. Cariones. 10 & 4. Budini. 11. Roxolani. 12. Iazyges. GALLIA. 1. Ambiani. 2. Bellovaci, Parisii, Suessones. 3. Remi, Catalauni, Tricasses, 13 Lingones. 4. Unelli vel Veneti, Saii, Lex-" ovii, Veliocasses. 5. Osismii, Veneti, Namnetes, Andes, Redones. 6. Aureliani, Carnutes, Seno- nes, Turones, Pictones, Bituriges. 7. iEdui, Segusiani 8. Salyes, Cavares. 9. Volcse, Arecomici, Helvii, To- losates. 10. Petrocorii, Bituriges, Cadurci, Ruteni. 11. Aquitani. 12. Allobroges, Centrones. 13. Lingones, JSdui, Sequani. 14. Leuci, Mediomatrici, Triboci, Nemetes. >% Q SAXONES. 1,2. Frisiu 4. Cauci vel Chauci. 5. Franci. ANCIENT AND MODERN GEOGRAPHY. Mr MODERN EUROPE. ANCIENT EUROPE. 6. Guclderland and Zutphen. 7. Utrecht. NETHERLANDS, BELONGING TO FRANCE AND HOLLAND. 1. Brabant. 2. Antwerp. 3. Mechlen or Malines. 4. Limburgh. 5. Luxemburgh. 6. Namur. 7. Hainault. 8. Cambresis. 9. Artois. 10. Flanders. GERMANY. 1. Upper Saxony. 2. Lower Saxony. 3. Westphalia. 4. Upper Rhine, 5. Lower Rhine. 6. Franconia. 7. Austria. 8. Bavaria. 9. Suabia. BOHEMIA. 1. Bohemia Proper. 2. Silesia. 3. Moravia. t POLAND. 1. Greater Poland. 2. Less Poland. 3 Prussia Royal. 4. Prussia Ducal. 5. Samogitia. 6. Courland. 7. Lithuania. 8. Warsovia. 9. Polachia 10. Polesia 11. Red Russia. 12. Podolia. 13. Volhinia. SPAIN 1. Gallicia. 2. Asturia. 3. Biscay. 4. Navarre. 5. Arragon. 6. Catalonia. 7. Valentia. 8. Murcia. 9. Granada. 10 Andalusia. ^ e r K 02 Xi 6. Bructeri, Catti, Sicambn 7. Batavi. BELGiE, &c 1. Menapii, Tungrii. 2. Toxandri. 4, 5. Alemanni. 6. Treveri. 7. Remi. 9. Atrebates, Veromandui. 10. Belgse, Morini. NATIONES GERMANICiE 1. Seuvi, Lings, &c. 2. Saxones, Longobardi, Gam- brivii. 3. Cherusci, CJhamavi, Gauchi, Germania Inferior. 4. Germania Superior. 5. Marci, Tincteri. 6. Marcomanni, Hermonduri. 7. Noricum. 8. Rhastia. 9. Vindelicia. 1. Boiohoemum. 2. Corconti. 3. Quadi. GERMANO-SARMATiE. 1. Peucini. 2. Lugii. 3. 4. Burgundiones, Rugii, t Gu- thones. 5. Ombroges. 6. Scyri. 7. 8. Germano-Sarmatia. 11, 12, 13. Bastarna?. HISPANIA, vel IBERIA. 1, 2, 3. Galloecia — Cantabri, As- tures, Varduli. 4, 5, 6. Tarraconensis — Vascones, Valetani. 7, 8. Carthaginensis- J 3Ech(an? > Contestani 9, 10. Baetica— B&stiani, Baatuli, Turdet.ini, &c 518 COMPARATIVE VIEW. OF MODERN EUROPE. ANCIENT EUROPE. 11. Old Castile. 12. New Castile. 13. Leon. 14 Estremadura. SPANISH ISLANDS. Ivica. Majorca. Minorca. POItTUGAL. Entre Minho e Douro. Tralos Montes. Beira. Estremadura. Entre Tajo. Alentajo. Algarva. SWITZERLAND. I. Bern. 2 Friburg. . 3. Basil or Bale 4. Lucern. 5. Soloturn. 0. Schaffhausen. 7. Zurick. 8 Appenzel. 9. Zug. 10. Schweitz. 11. Glaris. 12 Uri. 13 Underwald. 14 Geneva. (5. Grisons, &c 1. Savoy. ITALY 2. Piedmont. 3. Montferrat. 4. Milan. 5. Genoa. 6. Parma. 7. Modena. 8. Mantua. 9. Venice. 10. Trent. 11. The Popedom. 1'2. Tuscany. 13. Lucca. 14. San Marino. 15. Kingdom of Naples. ITALIAN ISLANDS 1. Sicily. 2. Sardinia. 3. Corsica. 4. Malta. 11. Galiaeciae pars — Aceaji, Arevaci. 12. Tarraconensis pars — Carpetani, Oretani 13. Galiaeciae pars — Vettones. 14. Lusitaniae pars — Bxturia. INSULA HISPANICiE. Ba'eares. LUSITANIA. Calliaci, Lusitani, Celtici. HELVETIA. 1, 2, 3, 4. Ambrones. C, 7, 8, 9, 10. Tigurini. 14. 15. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Nantuates. Veragri, Vallis Pennina, Le- pontii. ITALIA. Lepontii, Segusini, Tau-1 rini. Orobi. \ Insubres. Li^uria. .5 • so 6C 09 Anamani. Boii. Cenomani. Venetia. Tridentini. Lingones, Senones, Picnum, Ura- bna, Sabini, Pars Latii. Tuscia vel Etruria. Pars Tusciaa. Pars Umbrise Samnium, Pars Lath, Apulia,, Campania, Lucania, Bruttium. INSULA ITALICS. Sicilia, Sicania, vel Trinacria. Sardo, vel Sardinia. Cyrnus, vel Corsica. Melifa. ANCIENT AND MODERN GEOGRAPHY. M9 MODERN EUROPE. ANCIENT EUROPE. 5. Lipari Islands. 5. Lipariae Insula?. 6. Capri, Ischia, &c. 6. Caprcae, Ischia, &'c. HUNGARY. TRANSYLVANIA. DA CIA. SCLAVONIA. PANNONIA. CROATIA. ILLYRICUM. TURKEY IN EUROPE. I. Dalmatia. 1 Dalmatia. 2. J3osnia. 2. Maesia Superior 3. Servia. 3. Dacia Ripensis. 4. Wallachia. 4. Getoe. 5. Moldavia and Bessarabia. 5. Pars Dacia?. 6. Bulgaria. 6. Maesia Inferior. 7. Albania. 7. Epk-us. 8. Macedonia. 8. Macedonia. 9. Romania. ijjj 9. Thracia. 10. Livadia. "3 ' 10. Thessalia. 11. Morea. to ' 11. Peloponnesus. 12. Budziac Tartary or Bessarabia. o 12. Scythia et pars Daciae, 13. Little Tartary. 13. Parva Scythia, 14. Crimea. k 14. Taurica Chersonesirs. GREEK ISLANDS. INSULA MARIS IONII 1. Corfu. I. Corey ra. 2. Cephalonia. 2. Cephalenia. 3. Zante. 3. Zacynthus. 4. Ilhace, Thiace, &c. 4. Ithaca, &e. GREEK ISLANDS IN THE ARCHIPELAGO. INSULA MARIS JEG3 1. Candia. 1. Creta. 2. Negrrpont. 2. Euboea 3. Stalimene. 3. Lemnos. 4. Scyro, &c. 4. Scyros, &c. GREAT BRITAIN. SCOTLAND. '1. Edinburgh. 2. Haddington. 3. Berwick. 4. Roxburgh. 5. Selkirk. C. Dumfries.* 7. Kircudbright. 8. Peebles. 9. Wigton. 10. Lancrk. 11. Air. 12. Dumbarton. 13. Bute. 14. Renfrew. 15. Stirling. 16. Linlithgow. 17. Fife. 18. Clackmannan. 19. Kinross. 20. Perth. 21. Argyle. SCOTIA. A' > Damnii. 3. Ottodini. Selgova? Vecturic* 4 Novantes. Damnii. > Picti. Caledon 21. Epidii, Gaileni, Cerones ii. > Picti 620 COMPARATIVE VIEW OF MODERN EUROPE. 22. Kincardine. 23. Farfar. 24. Aberdeen. 25. Banff. 26. Elgin. 27. Nairn. 28. Inverness. 29. Ross. 30. Cromarty. 31. Southerland. 32. Caithness. 33. Orkney. 34. Shetland. ENGLAND. 1. Cornwall. 2. Devonshire. 3. Dorsetshire. 4. Hampshire. 5. Somersetshire. 6. Wiltshire. 7. Berkshire. 8. Oxfordshire. 9. Gloucestershire. . 0. Monmouthshire. 1 I. Herefordshire. I 2 Worcestershire. I l Staffordshire. 1 1. Shropshire. 15. Essex. 16. Hartfordshire. 17. Kent. 18 Surry. 19. Sussex. 20. Norfolk. 21. Suffolk. 22. Cambridgeshire. 23. Huntingdonshire, 24. Bedfordshire. 25. Buckinghamshire. 26. Lincolnshire. 27 Nottinghamshire. 28 Derbyshire. 29. Rutlandshire. 30 Leicestershire. 31 Warwickshire. 32 Northamptonshire 33 Northumberland. 34 Durham. 35 Vorkshire. 36 Lancashire. 37 Westmoreland. 38 Cumberland. 39 Cheshire. 40 Middlesex. ANCIENT EUROPE. 22. Vernieones. "\ 23. Horestae. 24. 25. >TaezaIi. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. Jfrertai. 33. Orcades. 34. Thule. Attacoti. Vacomagi. Cantae. I Scoti. ANGLIA. 2 i Damnomi. 3. Durotriges. 4 5. >- Belgce. 7. Attrebatii. g* } Dobuni. 10.' 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Trinobantes. 16. Catieuchlani. 17. Cantii. Silures. Cornavii. 18. 19. > Regni. Simeni, vel Ieeni. 20. 21. 22. 23. > Catieuchlani. 24. ; 25. Attrebatii. 26. y 27. / 28. > Coritant. 29. V 30. J 31. Cornavi. 32. Catieuchlani. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. dornavii. 40. Attrebates et Catieuchlani Otadeni. Brigantes. ANCIENT AND MODERN GEOGRAPHY. 521 MODERN EUROPE. ANCIENT EUROPE WALES. 1. Anglesey 2. Flintshire. 3. Montgomery. 4. Denbighshire. 5. Carnarvonshire. C. Merioneth. /. Cardiganshire. 8. Carmarthenshire. 9. Pembrokeshire. 10. Radnorshire. . 11. Brecknockshire. 12. Glamorganshire. IRELAND. 1. Louth. 2. Meath East. 3. Meath West. 4. Longford. 5. Dublin. 6. Kildare. 7. King's County. 8. Queen's County. 9. Wicklow. 10. Carlow. 11. Wexford. J2. Kilkenny. f 13. Donnegal or Tyr&onnel, 14. Londonderry. 15. Antrim. 16. Tyrone. 17. Fermanagh. 18. Armagh. 19. Down. 20. Monaghan. 21. Cavan. .5 '© -J ^ f22. Cork County. 23. Waterford. ) 24. Tipperpry. 25. Limerick. 26. Kerry. ^27. Clare. g T28. Gal way. 5f> 29. Roscommon. | Manapii. Coriondi. Vennicnii. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. \odise, l^crril 23 - > Q ,* S Brigantea 26 t Velabori. 27! \ > Gangani 28. ) 29. Auteri. 30. ) 31 . > Nagnataj. Oii. 1 INSULA BRITANNICvE. Thule. Ebudes Insula, Mona'da vdL Mona Mona. Vectis. 66 522 COMPARATIVE VtfftW OF MODERN ASIA. ANCIENT ASIA. TURKEY IN ASIA. ASIA MINOR. 1. Natolia. I. Mysia, Lydia, Caria, Phrwjia, Bithynia, Galatia, Papkiago- 2. Amasia or Siwas. ma. 2. Pontus. 3. Aladulia. 3. Armenia. 4. Caramania. 4. Cappadocia, Cilicia, &c. 5. Irak. 5. Babylonia, Chaldea. 6. Diarbock. 6. Mesopotamia. 7. Curdistan. 7. Assyria. 8. Turcomania. 9. Georgia. 10. Syria and Palestine. q" > Armenia Major. 10. Syria,'Palmyrene, Phoenicia, Ju daea. ARABIA. ARABIA. Arabia Petrcea. Arabia Petrsea. Arabia Deserta. Arabia Deserta. Arabia Felix. Arabia Felix. PERSIA. PERSIA. 1. Chorassan. 1. Pars Hyrcaniae et Sogdianre. 2. Balk, Sablustan, Candahar. 2. Bactrania. 3. Sigistan. 3. Drangiana. 4. Makeran. 4. 5. Kerman. 5. Gedrosia. 6. Farsistan. 6. Persis. 7. Chusestan. 7. Susiana. 8. Irak Agem. 8. Parthia. 9. Curdestan. 9. Pars Assyria?. 10. Aderbeitzen. 10. Media. 11. Georgia. 11. ) 12. Gangea. 12. > Iberia, Colchis, et Albania. 13. Dagestan. 13. ) 14. Mazanderam. 15. Gilan Taberistan. 15. Pars Hyreaniae. 16. Ghirvan. 16. Pars Albania. INDIA. INDIA. Mogol. India intra Gangem. L'eUri. Palibothra. Agra. Agora. Carabaia. Regna Pori et Taxilis. Bengal. . India within the Ganges. Decan. Dachanos. Golconda. Prasii vel Gangaridro. Bisnagar. Malabar. Male. Island of Ceylon. Taprobana Insula vtl Salice. India beyond the Ganges. India extra Gangem. Pegu Tonquin Cochinchina "^St Siam. Sinarum Regio. CHINA Niuch<». Corea. ANCIENT AND MODERN GEOGRAPHY. 623 MODERN ASIA. ANCIENT ASIA. Laotong. Pekin. Xansi. Xensi. Xantum. Nanking. Chekiam. Honan. Huquam. Kiamsi. Fokien. Canton. Suchuen. Quechsu. Yunam. Formosa. Ainan. Macao. Bashee Islands. Since. Serica. Cathrea. CHINESE ISLANDS. RUSSIA iN ASIA. 1. Astracun. 2. Orenburg. 3. Casan. 4. Siberia — Tobolsk, Jeniseia, Ir- kutsk, Kamschatka. 1. Sarmatia Asiatica. 2. / y Scythia intra Imaum INDEPENDENT TARTARY. 1. Great Bucharid. 2. Karasm. 1. 2. Bactriana, Sogdiana Aria. ALUTH TARTARS. 1. Little Bucharia. 2. Casgar. 3. Turkestan. 4. Kalmac Tartars. 5. Thibet. 6. Little Thibet. 1. 2. 3. 4. a. SCYTHIA extra 11 CHINESE TARTARY. Kalkas. Mongol Tartars. Mantchou Tartars. Corea. - 3iN;f$. ISLANDS OF CHINESE TAR- TARY. Sagalien-Ula-hata. Jedso. ISLANDS OF JAPAN. Japan or Niphon. Xicoco. Ximo. PHILIPPINE ISLES. Lucon or Manilla. Mindanao, &e. MARIAN OR LADRONE. ISLANDS. Tinian. 524 COMPARATIVE VIEW OF MODERN ASIA. ANCIENT ASIA. ISLES OF SUNDA. Borneo. Sumatra. Java, &c. MOLUCCA ISLES. Celebes. Amboyna. Cerara Timor. Florcs, &c. MALDIVA ISLES. MODERN AFRICA. ANCIENT AFRICA 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. BARBARY. Morocco. ■ Algiers. Tunis. Tripoli. Barea. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Mauritania Tingitana. Mauritania Caesariensis. Numidia, Africa Propria. Tripolitana. Cyrenaica, Libya Superior. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. r>. Egypt. BiLDULGBRlD. Zaara, or the Desert Negroi and. Guinea. Upper Ethiopia 1. 2. 3. 4. (5. iEGYPTUS. Libya Inferior, Gjetulia Solitudines. autololes. Mimovix et Libya part 9. 10. 11. 12. 13 14 15 Nubia, Abyssinia, Abex. Lower Ethiopia Lower Guinea- 7. ^Ethiopia par*. Loango, Congo, Angola, Ben- guela, Matanan. Ajan. Zanguebar. monomotapa MoNOEMUGI. SOFOLA. Terra de Natal. Cafraria, or country of the Hottontots. NORTH AMERICA. BRITISH AMERICA. 1. The countries on the east and west side of Baffin's and Hudson's Bays. 2. Labrador, or New Britain. 3. Canada. 4. Nova Scotia. Newfoundland, Cape Breton. Islands. British Island* in the West Indies. Bermudas, Bahama Islands, Jamaica, St. Christopher's, Nevis, Montsemt, Antigua, Dominica, St. Vineent, Tobago, Grenada, Barbados*, Ac* &«. ANCIENT AND MODERN GEOGRAPHY. 5»£ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. New England— Maine, New-Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connect- icut, and Rhode-Island. State of Now- York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Yir ginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana, Alabama. Missouri, Mississippi, Illinois. The district of Columbia, the territories of Michigan, Arkansas. SPANISH AMERICA. Mexico or New Spain, New Mexico. NORTH AMERICA. Spanish Islands in the West Indies, Cuba, Porto Rico, west part of St. Domingo, Trinidad, Margarita, Cuba- gua, &c. Dutch Islands in the West Indies. Part of St. Martin's Isle, EustatiuB, Aves, Ruenoa Ayres, Curacoa, Aruba. French Islands in the West Indies. Miquelon, St. Pierre, part of St. Martin's Isle, St. Bartholomew, Martinico, Guadaloupe, Desiada, Mariegalant, St. Lucia, part of St. Domingo. Danish Islands in the West Indies. St. Thomas, Santa Cruz. SOUTH AMERICA. FRENCH. Part of the Province of Guiana, Cayenne, &c. SPANISH. Terra Firma, Country of the Amazons, Peru, Chili, Terra Magellaniea, Paraguay, Tucuman. DUTCH. Part of Guiana, Surinam, &c. PORTUGUESE. Brazil, and many Islands on the coast, part of Guiana ANCIENT EMPIRES. The Empire of Assyria, under Ninus and Semiramis, about 2200 befor« J C, comprehended, Asia Minor, Colchis, Assyria, Media Chaldea, Egypt. 62C COMPARATIVE VIEW OF The Empire pi' Assyria, as divided about 820 before J. C. formed three Kingdoms, Media, Babylo-Chaldea, (Syria and Chaldea,) Lydia, (all Asia Minoi.) The Empire of the Persians, under Darius Hystaspes, 522 before J. C, comprehended, Persis, Susiana, Chaldea, Assyria, Media, Bactriana, Armenia, Asia, Parthia, Iberia, Albania, Colchis, Asia Minor, Egypt part of Ethiopia, part of Scythia. The Empire of Alexander the great, 330 before J, C, consisted of, 1, all Macedonia and Greece, except Peloponnesus; 2, all the Persian Empire, as above described ; 3, India to the banks of the Indus on the east, and the laxarles or Tanais on the north. The Empire of Alexander was thus divided, 306 before J. C, between Ptolemy Cassander, Lysimachus, and Seleucus Empire of Ptolemy. Lybia, Arabia, Coelosyria, Patestine. Empire of Cassander. Macedonia, Greece. Thrace, Bithynia, Empire of Lysimachus. Empire of Seleucus. Syria, and all the rest of Alexander's Empire. The Empire of the Parthians, 140 before J. C, comprehended Parthia, Hyrcania, Media, Persis, Bactriana, Babylonia, Mesopotamia, India to the Indus. The Roman Empire, under the Kings, was confined to the city of Rome, and a few miles round it. The Roman Empire, at the end of the Republic, comprehended all Italy, great part of Gaul, part of Britain, Africa Proper, great part of Spain, Illyria, Istria, Liburnia, Dalmatia, Achaia, Macedonia, Dardania, Mcesia, Thracia, Pontus, Armenia, Judaea, Cilicia, Syria, Egypt. Under the Emperors the following countries were reduced into Roman Provinces. All Spain, the Alpes Maritimas, Piedmont, &c. Rhtetia, Ncricum, Panno- nia, and Mcesia, Pontus, Armenia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt. Constantius Chlorus and Galerius divided the Empire into Eastern and Western ; and under Constantine each Empire had a distinct capital or seat of government The extent of each division was fluctuating from time to time ; but, in gen eial, the Wes-krn Empire comprehended Italy, Illyria, Africa, Spain, the Gauls, Britain. The Eastern Empire comprehended Asia Minor, Pontus, Armenia, Assyria, Media, &c Egypt, Thrace, Dacia, Macedonia. ANCIENT AND MODERN GEOGRAPHY. 527 Tho Empirb of Charlemagne, A. D. 800, comprehended France, Marca, Hispanica, (or Navarre and Catalonia,) Majorca, Minorca, and Ivica, Corsica, Italy as far south as Naples, Istria, Liburnia, Dalmatia Rhaetia, Vindelica, Noricum, Germany, from the Rhine to the Oder, and to the banks of the Baltic. France contained, 1, Neustria, comprehending Bretany, Normandy, Isle of France, Orleannois; 2, Austria, comprehending Picardy, and Cham- pagne ; 3, Aquitania, comprehending Guienne, and Gascony ; 4, Burgun- dia, comprehending Burgundy, Lionnois, Languedoc, Dauphine, Provence. NAMES OF THE PRINCIPAL RIVERS IN EUROPE. ANCIENT. 1. Rha. 3. Tanais. 3. Borystenes. 4. Tyras. 5. Danubius or Ister. 6. Padua. 7. Rhodanus. 8. Iberus. 9. Boetis. 10. Anas. 11. Tagus. Id. Durius. 13. Garumna. 14. Liger. 15. Sequana. 16. Samara. 17. Scaldis. 18. Mosa. 19. Rhenus 20. Visurgis. 21. Albis. 22. Viadrus. MODERN. 1. Wolga. 2. Don. 3. Nieper. 4. Niester. 5. Danube. 6. Po. 7. Rhone. 8. Ebro. 9. Guadalquiver. 10. Guadiana. 11. Tayo. 12. Douro. 13. Garonne. 14. Loire. 15. Seine. 16. Scrame. 17. Scheldt. 18. Maese. 19. Rhine. 20. Weser. 21. Elbe. 22. Oder. The Vistula, the Dwina at Riga, and the Dwina at Archangel- END. QUESTIONS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF SCHOLARS m TYTLER'S ELEMENTS Off OSSHBlfiAL XaSVOffiTt BY AN EXPERIENCED TEACHER. CONCOMl> 5 Sri Us PUBLISHED BY JOHN F. BROWN, 1837* DISTRICT OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE, to wit District Cleric's office BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the fourth day of September, A. D. 1,823, and in the forty-eighth year of the Independence of the United States of America, ISAAC HILL, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit — " Elements of Genernl History, ancient and modern. By Alexander Fraser Tytler, F. R. S E. Professor of History in the University of Edin- burgh. With a continuation, terminating at the demise of King George III., 1,820. By Rev. Edward Nares, D. D. Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford. To which are added, a succinct History of the Unit- ed States ; an improved Table of Chronology; a comparative view of Ancient and Modern Geography ; and Questions on each section. Adapted for the use of Schools and Academies. By an experienced Teacher." In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, " An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned ;"' and also an act, entitled, " An act supple- mentary to an act, entitled an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and pro- prietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." WILLIAM CLAGGETT, Clerk of the District of jYeio-Hampshire. A true copy of Record. Attest WILLIAM CLAGGETT, Clerk. QUESTIONS. PART FIRST. SECTION 1. 1. What books afford the earliest authentic history of the ages imme- diately following the deluge ? 2. When were Babylon and Nineveh built ? 3. By whom were they built ? 4. Who are said to have raised Assyria to a high degree of splendour ? 5. What is the condition of the early parts of Egyptian history ? 6. Who was the first king of Egypt? 7. How was Egypt divided ? SECTION II. 8. What is the earliest mode of government ? 9. Of what description were the first monarchies ? 10. What was the rank of the kings of Scripture ? 11. What was the character of the first penal laws in human society? 12. What were the earliest laws formed for the benefit of society ? 13; What singular usages prevailed among the ancient nations relating to matrimony ? 14. What laws next succeeded in order to those of marriage ? 15. What were the earliest methods of authenticating contracts? 16. What nation used hieroglyphics, and for what purpose were they used ? 17. What were the methods for recording historical facts, and publishing them among the ancients ? 18. What are among the earliest institutions that have existed ? 19. How was the priesthood anciently exercised ? 20. Of what are useful arts the offspring ? 21. Of what are some of the earliest of them? 22. What were the first sciences cultivated ? 9 SECTION III. 23. To what nation is mo.H of the knowledge of ^ancient nations to be traced ? 24. How did that knowledge descend to modern nations ? 25. What presumption does the country afford of the antiquity of the Egyptian empire ? 26. To what are the inundations of the river Nile owing ? 27. What was the government of Egypt? 28. What was the character of their penal laws ? 29. What was the manner of conferring funeral rites in Egypt :* 30. What regulation was there concerning the borrowing of money ? 31. In the knowledge and cultivation of" what useful arts and science* were the Egyptians distinguished ? 32. What samples of their architecture still remain 1 33. When were the pyramids built ? 34. For what were they probably built ? 4 QUESTIONS. 36. What was the national character of the Egyptians? 36. What circumstances served to debase them in the opinion of contem- porary nations ? SECTION IV. 37. By what name were the Phoenicians known in Scripture ? 38. For what ars we indebted to them? 39. What is said of them in the time of Abraham ? 40. What is the antiquity of their writings ? SECTION V. 41. To what early nations were the Grecians indebted for their first rudi- ments of civilization ? 42. Who were the ancient inhabitants of Greece ? 43. What colony settled in the country about the time of Moses ? 44. Who settled Attica and at what time ? 45. Who established the court of Areopagus ? 46. Who established the Amphictyonic Council ? 47. Who introduced into Greece, and at what time, alphabetic writing; ? 48. How many letters did the alphabet then contain ? 49. What was then the mode of writing ? SECTION VI. 50. What is said of the Pelasgi, of Ancient Greece ? 51. What was a predominant characteristic of the early Greeks? 52. What were the names of their four solemn Games, as they were termed ? 53. Of what did they consist ? 54. What good political effects did these games have ? Z SECTION VII. 55. Who instituted the Eleusinian mysteries ? 56. What was the nature of these mysteries V 67. Who laid the foundation of the grandeur of Attica ? 58. When and how did he do it ? 59. What was the object of the Argonautii expedition? 60. What was the character of the attack and defence in the sieges of Thebes and Troy ? 61. On whose authority rest* the detail of the war of Troy ? 62. What are the principal facts recorded of that war by Homer ? 63. How were military expeditions then conducted ? SECTION VIII. 64. When did the Greeks begin to colonize ? 65. Who was elected the first chief magistrate of the Athenian republic? 66. What caused the Greeks to seek refuge in other countries by estab- lishing colonies ? 67. What caused Greece to abolish the regal and establish a republican government ? 68. What distinguished civilians arose in Sparta and Athens at this time ? SECTION IX. 69. What period was Lycurgus invested with the power of reforming and new-modelling the constitution of his country ? \ 70. What was the government of Sparta as new-modelled by Lycurgus ? 71. To what did he particularly bend his attention ? 72. How did he divide the territory ? QUESTIONS. 5 73. What regulation did he make concerning the use of money ? 74. By whom were the necessary arts practised ? 75. VVhat was the course of Spartan education? 76. By what was the general excellence of the institutions of LycurgtM impaired ? 77. How were the slaves treated ? 78. What was the end of the institutions of Lycurgus ? SECTION X. 79. What was the nature of the change in the Athenian constitution when the regal office was abolished ? 80. What was the tenure by which the Archonship was held ? 81. Who attempted a reform in the constitution, 624 B. C. ? 82. When did Solon attain the Archonship ? 83. What was his character ? 84. Hew did he divide the citizens ? 85. How did he counterbalance the weight of the popular assemblies ? 86. How did the particular laws of Athens compare with her form oi government ? 87. What was the nature of the laws relating to debtors and slaves ? 88. What was the condition of women at this time in Athens ? 89. What was one of the most iniquitous and absurd peculiarities of the Athenian and some of the other Grecian governments ? 90. How were the arts viewed in Athens ? 91. How did the character of the Athenians compare with that of the Spartans ? 92. To whom were the liberties of Athens surrendered, 550 B. C. ? 93. Who afterwards restored the democracy ? SECTION XI. 94. Under whom did the first empire of the Assyrians terminate? 95. What three monarchies arose from its ruins ? 96. What king of Assyria, led the Jews into captivity, took Jerusalem and Tyre, and subdued Egypt? 97. Who was the successor of Cambyses in the throne of Persia ? 98. What countries did Cyrus annex to his empire ? 99. What was the government of Persia ? 100. To whose care was the children and youth of Persia committed for education ? 101. What was the nature of the laws in Persia ? 102. What was the religion of Persia? 103. What was the sacred book of the Persians called ? 104. On what is the theology of the Zendavesta founded t SECTION XII. 105. What king of Persia invaded Greece ? 106. Where was the Persian army defeated ? 107. Who commanded the Greeks in the battle of Marathon ? 108. What reAvard did Miltiades receive for his eminent services from the Athenians ? 109. Who were the successors of Miltiades in the war with the Persians ? 110. Who succeeded Darius in the command of the Persians? 111. With what force did Xerxes attempt the conquest of Greece ? 112. Who was Leonidas ? 113. With what force did Leonidas contend with the vast army of Xerxes ? 114. At what place was it 115. What wa9 the result _. 1* fn 7 QUESTIONS. ) 16. What was the success of Xerxes with his fleet at sea ? 1 17. Where were the Persians totally defeated on land, by the combined army of the Athenians and Lacedaemonians ? 118. What was the end of Xerxes? 119 What was the national character of the Greeks at this time ? SECTION XIII. 120. Who governed Athens after the Persian war ? 121. In what manner did he govern it? 122. What gave rise to the war during- the reign of Pericles between Athens and Lacedaemon ? 123. On what account was Alcibiades condemned to death for treason ? 124. By whom did the Lacedtemonians reduce the pjwer of the Athe- nians ? 125. W T hat eminent philosopher was then in Athens at this time ? 126. What was particularly disgraceful to the Athenians in regard to him? 127. What is the subject of the history written by Xenophon ? SECTION XIV. 128. On the decline of Athens and Sparta, what other Grecian Republic rose to a high degree of eminence among the contemporary states ? 129. What led to the war between Thebes and Sparta? 130. What two distinguished Generals did Thebes employ in conducting this w ar - ? 131. How did this war terminate ? SECTION XV. 132. Who at this time attempted to bring the whole of Greece under hi* dominion ? 133. What caused what was called the Sacred War of this period ? 134. What distinguished Grecian orator exposed the artful designs of Philip ? 135. In what battle was the fate of Greece, so that all her states became subject to Philip ? 136. What great enterprise did he attempt ? 137. Did he complete it ? •38. Why not? SECTION XVI. 139. Who was the successor of Philip? 140. At what age did Alexander ascend the throne of Macedon ? 141. How large was his army at this time ? 142. What was his first enterprise? 143. Who was king of Persia at this time ? 144. With what force did Darius meet Alexander ? *45. Where did they meet? 146. What was the result of the battle of Granicus? 147. What were the respective losses of the Greeks and Persians in the battle of Issus ? 148. What opportunity did Alexander have for the display of generosity after the battle of Issus ? 149. What was the Consequence of the battle of Issus ? 150. What caused Alexander to storm and subject the city of Tyre * 151. What was the fate of its inhabitants ? 152. What was disgraceful to Alexander in his capture of Gaza? 153. What opened Egypt to Alexander's victorious arms? 154. What city did he build in his return from Egypt ? QUESTIONS. ^ (55. Who met Alexander at Arbela with an army of 700,000 men? 156. What was the result of the battle at Arbela? 157. When was I'ersia conquered by Alexander ? 158. What project _d*d_h£ attemp^after the conquest of Persia? 159. What pretfenied hi^.conqu£j3t,of-4ndia ?- 160. What became of Alexander on finding a limit to his victories ? SECTION XVII 161. Wliat wish did Alexander express as to a successor? 162. What became of his family ? 163. Which were the most powerful monarchies formed from his vast empires ? SECTION XVIII. 164. What distinguished orator of Greece attempted to arouse his covin- trymen, to shake off the yoke of Macedon, on the death of Alexan- der ? 165. What empire arose in Europe on the decline of the Macedonian power ? 166. How was Greece added to the Roman empire ? f 67." Whsn was the conquest of Greece completed ? SECTION XIX. 168. What is said of the nature of the Republican government of Greece ? 169. What was the condition of the people under them ? 170. In what periods of the Grecian history are we to look for splendid examples of patriotism ? 171. What is the most remarkable circumstance that strikes us on com- paring the latter with the more early periods of the history of the Greeks? SECTION XX. 172. In what description of the arts did the Grecians excel ? 173. Which of the Fine Arts did they carry to the greatest degree of per- fection ? 174. In whose reign did the Fine Arts flourish most? 175. What were their three orders of architecture ? 176. What other orders of architecture are there ? 177. What was the state of sculpture in Greece? 178. How did the paintings and music of the Grecians compare with those of the modems ? SECTION XXI. 179. How does poetry compare with prose as to antiquity? 180. When did Homer flourish? 181. Who ave some of the other principal poets of ancient Greece ? 182. When was the origin of dramatic composition among the Greeks f SECTION XXII. 183. What eminent historians of Greece were contemporaries? 184. When did they flourish ? 185. Who were some of the latter distinguished historians of Greece f 186* What is said of Plutarch's Lives of Illustrious Men? SECTION XXIII. 187. What was the most ancient school of philosophy in Greece ? j QUESTIONS. 188. Who founded the Italian sect of philosophers m Greece ? 189. When did Socrates flourish ? 190. Who founded the Academic sect? 191. Who founded the Peripatetic sect? 192. Who are some of the other Greek philosophers ? 193. What is the effect of the Greek philosophy on morality an-J the preg ress of useful knowledge ? SECTION XXIV. 194. After the conquest of Greece what Power became an object of par- ticular importance ? 195. What was the character of the first inhabitants of Italy? 196. Who were thsy ? 197. What is the opinion of Dionysius concerning the origin of Rome? 198. What is the vulgar account of the origin of the city built by Rom- ulus ? At what time was it founded ? Who were the most formidable enemies of the early Romans ? Who was the second king of Rome ? Who added 100 Plebeians to the Roman Senate? Who removed the poorer citizens from all share in the government oi Rome ? 204. What became of Servius Tullius ? 205. Who succeeded him on the throne ? 206. What caused the expulsion of Tarquinius ? 207. What was the first retrenchment in the power of the Roman Sen- ate ? 208. What use did the early Romans make of their victories ? 209. How long did the regal government of Rome continue ? 210. How many kings were there ? 211. What is said of the wars in which Rome was almost continually en- gaged ? SECTION XXV. 212. What government succeeded the regal one in Rome ? 213. Who were the two first consuls ? 214. What law is mentioned that was made under the direction of Vale* rius ? 215. What gave rise to the office of Dictator ? 216. What was the power of the Dictator ? 217. What gave rise to the office of Tribune ; and what were the powers of that office ? SECTION XXVI. 218. What effect had the office of Tribune on the powers of the Senate 1 219. Under what circumstances was Valero made Tribune? 220. When did the Roman constitution become a complete democracy f SECTION XXVII. 221. For what purpose were the Decemviri chosen ? 222. What were the laws called, which they framed ? 223* At What time were they made ? 224. With what powers were the Decemviri invested ? 225. Who was at the head of the Decemvirate ? 226. What caused the abolition of this office ? S27 How long did it exist ? QUESTIONS. » SECTION XXVIII. 228. What two barriers separated the patricians and plebeians ? 229. What two offices were created, 437 B. C. ? 230. What successful expedient did the senate adopt for filling the Ro- man armies ? 231. What city was taken by Cy mill us ? 232. At what period and after how long a siege ? 233. To what event do the Roman writers attribute the loss of all the rec- ords and monuments of their early history ? 234. What is there singular in regard to most of the revolutions ia Rome ? SECTION XXIX. 235 n How long after the foundation of their city did Rome become mistress of all It." \y? 236. What was the policy observed by the Romans with respect to the nations they had conquered ? 237. What gave rise to the Punic wars ? SECTION XXX. 238. By whom and when was Carthage founded ? 239. How many smaller cities were under fne dominion of Carthage at the time of the Punic wars ? 240. What was the form of government ? 241. To what was the wealth and splendour of Carthage owing f SECTION XXXI. 242. Who founded Syracuse ? 243. What was the government of it ? SECTION XXXII. 244. Where did the war between Rome and Carthage commence f 245. What Roman consul was taken by the Carthaginians in the first Punic war ? 246. What patriotic act did Regulus perform when a prisoner to the Carthaginians ? - 247. How did the first Punic war terminate ? 248. How long did the peace between Rome and Carthage continue ? » 249. How did the second Punic war begin ? 250. Who was the Carthaginian general in this war ? 251. How did Hannibal conduct this war ? 252. Where did the Romans meet with complete defeat ? 253. How many were slain in the battle of Canae ? 254. What is supposed would have been the consequence had Hannibal improved this victory ? 255. In what way did the Romans compel the Carthaginians to sue for peace ? 256. What Roman general carried war to the gates of Carthage ? 257. At what time did the second Punic war close ? 258. When did the third commence ? 259. What was the issue of this war ? 260. When was Carthage destroyed ? 261. What other success attended the Romans this year? SECTION XXXIII. 262. What two persons, at this time, undertook to reform the oonruptioos of the Romans ? 1U QUESTIONS. 263. What circumstances attending the war of Jugurtha gave decisive proof of the corruption of the Roman manners? 264. What became of Jugurtha ? 265. Between what two rivals did a civil war now break out in Rome ? 266. What became of Marius ? 267. To what office was Sylla afterwards elected ? 268. What magnanimous act characterized the latter part of his life ? 269. Between whom was the civil war revived after the death of Sylla ? 270. What conspiracy, at this time, threatened the destruction oi Rome ? 271. By whose provident zeal and patriotism was it extinguished ? 272. What distinguished individual now rose into notice ? 273. Under what circumstances was the first Triumvirate formed ? 274. What Roman general invaded and conquered Britain, 54 B. C» 275. Who procured the banishment of Cicero ? 276. Who effected his recall from exile ? 277. What dissolved the Triumvirate ? SECTION XXXIV. 278. What proposition was made at this time by Ceesas ? 279. Did Pompey accede to it ? - 280. Did war ensue between them ? 281. What decree did the senate pronounce ? 282. Where was a decisive battie fought ? 283. What became of Pompey ? 284. In what war was the famous library of Alexandria burnt ? 285. What was the character of Caesar's administration of the gov era* ment, after the complete overthrow of Pompey's partisans? 286. To what offices was he appointed ? 287. What wa3 the end of Caesar ? 88. Under what circumstances was the second Triumvirate formed ? 89. For what did Antony summon Cleopatra to appear before him? 290. What caused the overthrow of Antony ? 291. What became of him ? 292. What induced Cleopatra to destroy herself? SECTION XXXV. 293. What power was given to every head of a family ? 294. What were reckoned the highest points of female merit f 295. What qualifications contributed most to elevate persons to the high- est offices and dignities of the state ? SECTION XXXVI. 296. What was the state of literature in the early ages of the Roman re- public ? 897 Who were the principal Roman historians ? 298. Who were the principal Roman poets ? SECTION XXXVII. 199. Was much attention paid to the study of philosophy in the early periods of Rome ? 300. At what time did philosophy become an object of attention with th« Romans ? 501. Who first diffused a taste for th> study of philosophy among th* Romans ? 302. Who may be reckoned their most >mineut philosopher? 289 UUEST10NS. II SECTION XXXVIII. 303. What were some of the most distinguishing traits of character in the early Romans ? 3G4. What contribute! chiefly to their change of character and man- ners ? 305. What were some of the amusements of the Romans ? SECTION XXXIX. 306. To what may be ascribed the extensive conquests of the Romaeti • 307 What was the number of soldiers in a Roman legion ? 308. When is it supposed that the tactic of the Romans was at its heigh' 1 of excellence ? 309. By whom was the art of entrenchment carried to great perfection ? 310. When was the naval military art first known among the Romans ? SECTION XL. 311. When did the most material change for the worse in the national character of the Romans take place ? 312. What were the morals of the Romans in the last ages of the com- monwealth ? 313 From what circumstances, did Roman virtue so rapidly decline > 314. T<; what did the Roman republic owe its dissolution ? SECTION XLI. 315. What battle decided the f^-te of the commonwealth ana made Octa vius master of Rome ? 316. By what name was he now called ? 317. What event said to be productive of universal joy distinguished his reign ? 318. What methods did he practice to keep himself in the favour of the pcopJe ? 319. When did Augustus die and at what age ? 320. How long did he reign ? 3.21. Who succeeded him ? 322. What was the character of Tiberius ? 323. In what manner was he related to Augustus ? 324. What was the end of Tiberius? 325. In what year of his reign was Jesus Christ crucified? 326. Who Was the successor of Tiberius ? . 327. What was his character ? 328. What became of him ? 329. Who succeeded Caligula ? SECTION XLII. * 330. By what acts of violence was the reign of Nero, the success* of Clau- dius, characterised ? 331. Who were the three next Roman emperors? 332. Under which of the emperors was Jerusalem taken ? 333. Who succeeded Vespasian ? 334. W T hat was the character of Titus ? 335. How was it suspected Titus came to his death ? 336. What three emperors next in order succeeded Domitian f 337. What was the character of Trajan and Adrian ? SECTION XLII tne did 339. What T=-as their character? 338. For what Iensfth of time did the Antonines reign ? a2 QUESTIONS 340. What length of time was there from the death of the Antonines to the accession of Diocletian ? 341. What was the character of the emperors that reigned in this period? 342. What change in the government did Diocletian introduce ? 343. Under whom was the seat of the Roman empire removed and when ? 344. What was his religion ? SECTION XLIV. 345. What was the general character of the government of Rome undei Constantine ? 346. In what way did he injure the army ? 347. What was the policy pursued by the emperor Julian towards Chris- tianity ? 348. Who were the three emperors that succeeded in order to Julian ? SECTION XLV. 349. In whose reign did Christianity become the established religion of the Roman empire ? 350. Why were the Romans less tolerant towards the Christian than they were towards the different pagan religions of other nations ? 351. When were the books of the New Testament collected into a vol- ume ? 352. When was the Old Testament translated into Greek from the origi- nal Hebrew ? 353. In what way did Christianity suffer in the third century ? 354. Did Christianity become more or less pure as it received favour from the civil powers ? * '~1* SECTION XLVI. 455. When and by whom was the city of Rome sacked and plundered ? 356. What is the length of time from the building of Rome to the extinc- tion of the empire ? 357. What may be considered the ultimate cause of the ruin of the«t 1 725. What was the authority of the chief magistrate ? \ QUESTIONS. 8* 726. Who almost annihilated the republic ? 727. When was the Stadtholdership made hereditary ? SECTION LIII. 728. How was the loss of the Netherlands compensated to Philip II.? 729. When did he take possession of Portugal ? 730. What naval enterprise engaged the attention of Philip ? 731. What was the result of it? 732. What is the character of Philip ? SECTION LIV. 733. What accelerated the progress of reformation in France ? 734. What two parties were engaged in a civil war in the latter part of the sixteenth century ? 735. When was the massacre of St. Bartholomew ? 736. What was the character of Charles IX. of France ? 737. Who were his two immediate successors ? 738. What became of them ? 739. What great project was Kenry IV. meditating, when assassinated ? SECTION LV. 740. When did Elizabeth come to the throne of England ? 741. What was the state of the kingdom during her reign ? 742. What fixed a stain on Elizabeth's character? 743. Under what pretence did Mary of Scots assume the arms and title of queen of England ? 744. What form of religion became established in Scotland, in the reign of Elizabeth ? 745. Who was a distinguished reformer in Scotland ? 746. Who were ths two husbands of Mary ? 747. How came Mary in the hands of Elizabeth ? 748. Under what pretence was Mary condemned and executed ? 749. How long was she a captive in England 1 ! 750. At what age and when did Elizabeth die ? SECTION LV1. 751. Who succeeded Elizabeth on the throne of England? 752. What rendered James unpopular with his subjects ? 753. What was the object of the gunpowder treason ? 754. By whom was the conspiracy formed ? 755. What was a favourite object with James ? 756. Who was his successor ? 7167. What were some of the principal subjects' of dispute between Charles and his parliaments ? 758. What caused the Scots to rebel and take up arms against the govern- ment of Charles ? 759. What two distinguished individuals at this time were impeached by the commons and beheaded ? 760. What important occurrence was there at this time in Ireland ? 761. When the civil war commenced, who were on the side of the king, and who on that of the parliament ? 762. Who directed the measures of the army of parliament ? 763. In what way was Cromwell able to procure the death of Cha»l«#? 764. When was he beheaded ? 765. How far were the proceedings of the commons justifiable? t4 QUESTIONS. SECTION LVII. 766. What part did the parliament of Scotland take in regard to the king? 767. On what condition was Charles II. proclaimed king of Scotland? 768. Who were the Covenanters of Scotland ? 769. What became of Charles II. when overcome by Cromwell? 770. What was the title of Cromwell ? 771. What was the character of his government? 772. At what age did he die, and who was his successor ? 773. What was the parliament called that put to death king Charles? 774. Under what circumstances and when was Charles II. restored ? SECTION LVHI. 775. What was the character of Charles II. ? 776. When were the epithets of Whig and Tory first known, and how were they applied? 777. Who was the successor of Charles II. ? 778. What made him unpopular with his subjects ? 779. By what means was Charles removed from the throne ? 780. On whom was the crown then settled ? 781. What became of James ? SECTION LIX. 782. To what period may the rudiments of the English constitution be traced? 783. In whose reign was instituted the trial by jury ? 784. In whose reign did the Magna Charla originate ? 785. In whose reign was the act of Habeas Corpus passed ? 786. Of what does the parliament of Great Britain consist ? 7S7. Of what does the house of lords consist ? 788. Of what does the house of commons consist ? 789. What is thn act of Habeas Corpus ? - SECTION LX. 790. How are the pecuniary supplies of the sovereign obtained ? 791. When did the English national debt arise? 792. What constitutes the Sinking Fund ? 793. Is it probable the debt will ever become extinct ? SECTION LXI. 794. To what minister was France indebted for much of her good success in the reign of Lewis XIII. ? 795. What was the character of Lewis XIII. ? 796. What became the condition of the Protestants in the reign of Lewis XI IT. ? 797. When did he die ? SECTION LXil. 798. What weak and despicable act did Philip III. commit? 799. When did Portugal become an independent sovereignty ? 800. Who became her first king ? 801. What is said of Spain in the reigns of Philip III. and IV»? SECTION XXIII. 802. What was the condition of Germany when Charles V. abdicated tlk<* throne? ".'- 80S. What was then and for a long period afterwards a subject ct cent*** tion in Germany ? QUESTIONS. *~— - - tt 804. What peace put a period to this contention? 805. When did the peace of Westphalia take place ? SECTION LXIV. 806. When did Lewis XIV. come to the throne of France? 807. At what age ? 808. What led to a civil war in the early part of his reign ? 809. When did Mazarin die? 810. What change took place in the affairs of France at this time ? 811. What was reckoned one of the weakest and most impolitic measures of Lewis Xi V. ? 812. What was the state of the finances of France in the latter part of the reign of Lewis XIV. ? 813. What character is given of Lewis XIV. ? 814. At what age and when did he die I SECTION LXV. 815. What change took place in the government of France, under the Capetian race of kings ? 816. What power arose to limit and check the royal prerogative, in and from the reign of Lewis XIII. 817. What made the powers of parliament a constant subject of dispute ? 818. In what way was the crown of France to descend ? 819. What was the established religion of France ? 820. What took place in the assembly of the Galilean church, in 1682 ? SECTION LXVI. 821. What two distinguished characters in the north of Europe were contemporary with Lewis XIV. ? 822. When is Russia said to have received Christianity ? 823. What sovereign first published a code of laws in Russia ? 824. When was Siberia added to the Russian empire ? 825. When and how did Peter become master of the Russian empire ? 826. How was the early part of his life spent ? 827. What method did he adopt to improve himself in the sciences and useful arts ? 828. When and at what age did Charles XII. come to the throne of Sweden ? 829. At what age and with what success was his first campaign made ? 830. What change did he effect in the government of Poland ? 831. By whom was he defeated ? 832. How many of his army remained to him after this defeat ? 833. To what means did Charles then resort to regain his lost power ? 834. What became of Charles XII. ? 835. When did Peter the Great die ? SECTION LXVII. 836. Who were the principal philosophers in the seventeenth century? 837. For what was Galileo imprisoned ? 838. What institutions were formed which contributed to the advance- ment of science and the arts ? 839. What work of Newton contains the elements of all philosophy ? 840. What was Locke's theory concerning the human mind ? $41. What are some of the most distinguished poetical productions of modern times ? 842. Who are some of the most eminent English Poete ? 843. Who were distinguished writers in history during the I6tfa and nth centuries? ft QUESTIONS.' APPENDIX HISTORY OF THE JEWS. SECTION I. 844. What constitutes the basis of the first historical records ? 84&. How can we account for the fabulous relations of the first histo- rians ? 846. From what period are the details in profane history to be received as facts ? 847. What historical records are the most ancient as well as the most ra- tional ? 8-18. What historical facts do they contain, not found in other history? SECTION II. 849. Who were the Israelites ? 850. Why were they suffered to be subdued by the Romans ? 861. In what condition do their descendants exist? 852. What circumstance illustrates the truth and inspiration of the pro- phetic writings ? SECTION III. 853. How long before Herodotus did Moses live ? 854. What acknowledgment did Porphyry make as to the antiquity of the writings of Moses ? 855. What pagan traditions confirm the truth of the Pentateuch ? 856. What is said of Zoroaster ? 857. What Jewish historian successfully xindicates the authority of the Jewish scriptures ? SECTION IV. 858. What are the principal facts recorded in the book of Genesis ? 859. What remarkable prophecy of Isaiah is there concernimg Cyrus ? 860. And what one concerning Babylon ? 861. What was the length of time from the giving of the law to Moses to the reformation in worship and government of the Jews by Nehe miah ? , 862. What hereditary distinction of rank existed among the Jews ? 863. What is said of Mose3, El:sha, and Gideon ? 864. What internal undoubted characteristic of truth is therein the scrip- tures ? SECTION V. 865. When was the creation of the world accomplished ? 866. W r hat was one of the most remarkable circumstances of the antedi- luvians ? 867. How long did some of the oldest of them live ? 868. Why did the Almighty destroy the world by a deluge of water ? $69. Who were saved from it and by what means ? $70. Who were some of the first inventers of the useful arts ? SECTION VI. tftt. What is said of the three sons of Noah ? QUESTIONS. r» 872. What is the most important event between th» delug* and tbe ««i/ of Abraham ? 873. Of what city was Babel the beginning ? SECTION VII. 874. From whom do the Jews derive theii origin ? 875. What relationship was there between Jacob and Abraham ? 876. How came Joseph, the son of Jacob, to be in Egypt ? 877. By what means was he made governor of Egypt ? 878. How came his father and brethren to remove thither? 879. How long did the Israelites remain in Egypt ? 880. What were some of the circumstances connected with their leaving it? 881. How long after leaving Egypt did Moses die ? SECTION VIII. 882. What caused a league to be formed between the Syrian chiefs ? 883. Who was the successor of Moses in the government of Israel ? 884. How were the Israelites governed after the death of Joshua? 885. Who were the two last Judges of Israel ? 886. What change took place in the government on the death of SamutJl ' ' SECTION IX. 887. What was the original government of Israel called ? 888. What moral and political change took place on the death of Joshua, in the condition of Israel ? 889. Why was the regal government introduced ? SECTION X. 890. How long did Saul reign over Israel? 891. By what means was David raised to the throne as his successor? 892. What prosperous events characterized the reign of David? 893. What adverse ones characterized it ? 894. How long did David reign, and who succeeded him ? 895. What is the most remarkable event in the reign of Solomon ? 896. What books are ascribed to him? 897. Under what circumstances was the kingdom divided ? 898. By what names were the two kingdoms subsequently to this division called ? 899. What became of the ten tribes who constituted the kingdom cf Is rael ? 900. Whence sprang the Samaritans ? 901. When and in what manner ended the kingdom of Judah? SECTION XI. 902. How long were the Jews held captive in Babylon ? 903. By whom were they released ? 904. From what time and circumstance were the Israelites called Jews-r. 905. What caused Alexander the great to march to Jerusalem with hos- tile intentions ? 906. By what means was he appeased ? 907. What favours did he then bestow on them ? 908. What advantage did Ptolemy take of the regard which the Jews paid to the Sabbath ? 909. In what manner did the five brothers named Maccabeus become dis- tinguished ? 010. Who was their father ? 911. When and by whom were the Jews subjected to tht Romans .' 9 12. Who was then placed on the throne of David under the protection of the Romans ? 913. By what memorable event was the reign of Herod distinguished ? 914. By whom and when was the Jewish nation extinguished ? 915. How many Jews are supposed to have perished in their last war with the Romans ? SECTION XII. 916. What is the period of scriptural history ? 917. Where is it supposed that the Jews obtained their knowledge of th« arts and sciences ? 918. What was the state of commerce among the Jews? 919. With what inference does Tytler conclude his work on history ? CONTINUATION, OR PART THIRD. SECTION i. 920. What was the age of Lewis XV. when the crown of France descend- ed to him ? 921. When and what heirs to the crown f France, died within a few months ? 922. What made it necessary for France « * the death of Lewis XIV. to preserve peace with foreign states ? 923. Who was regent of France during the minority of Lewis XV. ? 924. What distinguished minister was at the court of Spain, in this period ? 925. What was the character of the duk*> of Orleans, the regent of France ? 926. By what means were the duchies of Loa tin and Bar made to revert to France ? SECTION II. 927. Who succeeded queen Anne on the throne of Britain ? 928. What acts of parliament had passed connected with the accession of George I. concerning religion ? 929. When did he enter his new dominions ? 930. How did the rebellion of 1715 in Scotland, terminate? 931. By what name were the adherents to the Pretender called ? 932. By what name was the party called to which George I. committed the government of the realm ? 933. Who was king of Sweden at this time ? 934. For what purpose and by whom was he nearly instigated to invadt Britain ? 935. What ruined the prospects of Alberoni ? 933. In what way did he attempt obtaining leveuge? 937. Why did he not succeed ? 938. At what age and when did George I. die ? SECTION III. 939. When did Charles VI. become emperor cf Austria and Germany r 940. Who was the Au°trian commander in the first war of Charles VI. with the Tu.ks? QUESTIONS * 941. What arrangement did he make tor the descent of the Austrian crown ? 942. What was thi3 arrangement or his act in making it called *. 943. When did Charles VI. die, and who succeeded him ? 944. Was she permitted to enjoy unmolested the dominions descended to her ? 945. What circumstances were calculated to raise up competitors for dif- ferent parts of her estates ? 946. Who was the most forward and active of the queen's opponents? 947. What prevented the competitors of the queen from succeeding ia obtaining" their claims ? 948. Which one of them succeeded in. obtaining the imperial crown ii 1741 ? 949. How long after this did he live ? 950. On his death who obtained the imperial crown ? 951. When did the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle take place? SECTION IV. 952. At what time and age did George II. come to the throne of Eng- land ? 953. Who was his queen ? 954. Who was prime minister of England at this time ? 955. What caused him t6 resign ? 956. Upon what two occasions had his views been thwarted ? 957. When did he die ? 958. What interesting event occurred in Scotland the same year ? 959. What was the object of the insurrection in Scotland ? 960. In what battle were the hopes of the Stuart family for ever blasted ? 961. What became of the heir of this family after that battle ? 902. What is considered the most melancholy circumstance attending the Scottish rebellion ? 963. What singular act of parliament was passed in the year 1751 ? 964. When and at what age did George II. die ? SECTION V. 965. By what treaty was the house of Hanover effectually established on the British throne ? 966. How was the British naval force left by this treaty compared with the naval forces of other European nations ? 967. What did Austria lose by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ? 968. What did Prussia gain by it ? 969. How did it effect Holland ? 970. By what means was Russia introduced into the southern states oi Europe ? SECTION VI 971. What became a subject of jealousy and future warfare, after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, between France and England ? 972. In what respect did the peace of Europe, in 1748, extend to Asia and America ? 973. What French governor in the East Indies attempted to bring the Mogul empire under the dominion of France ? 974. In what way did the French in America gain an advantage over the English ? 975. When did the French war in America commence ? 976. What number of French merchant vessels was captured and ca*v ried into the English ports the first year of the war? SO QUESTIONS. 977. When the war was extended to Europe, what power* arranged themselves against each other ? 978. Who was king: of Prussia at this time ? 979. What is his character ? 980. What has this war been, termed ? 981. How many men have been supposed to have perished annually in the campaigns of it ? 982. What advantage did the English gain in America ( 983. What new ally did France obtain in the year of 1761 ? 984. What induced him to join the league against England ? 985. What advantages did England gain by this war ? 986. What change in the ministry of England contributed to the peace ? SECTION VII. 987. When did George III. succeed to the throne of Britain? 988. What was one of his first acts which showed him to be the friend of liberty ? 989. What gave rise to distressing tumults in the year 1762 ? 990. How did the measures of lord Bute differ from those of Mr. Pitt? 991. What contributed to make the first years of George III. unquiet? 992. What besides public addresses and remonstrances contributed to the popular fervour and agitation of public feeling at this period? 993. What constitutional question came under discussion at this time ? 994. For what is the year 1764 remarkable ? SECTION VIII. 995. What was the pretence for taxing the American colonies ? 996. What was the first instance of imposing direct taxes without, their consent ? 997. When was this imposed ? 998. When was it formally repealed ? 999. What reason is there for supposing that the Americans did not con- template independence when they first made opposition to the British government ? 1000. How long was it after the passing of the stamp act before the com- mencement of hostilities ? 1001. When and where was American independence declared? 1002. Who were sent to France, and when, to solicit aid for the Ameri- cans ? 1003. What other powers besides that of France, united against England ? 1004. When did Great Britain ratify the treaty which admitted the Amer- ican independence ? SECTION IX. 1005. Who laid the foundation for the French revolution ? 1006. Why were the Jesuits banished from Portugal in the year 1750 ? 1007. What charge was attempted to be fixed on them at Paris, subse- quent to this ? 1008. When was the order of Jesuits abolished in France ? 1009. From what other countries were they expelled, and when? 1010. Whom did the dauphin of France, afterwards Lewis XIV. marry? 1011. When did he come to the throne ? 1012. When was an alliance formed between the court of Versailles and America ? 1013. Who were the most eminent friends of liberty in the British parlia. ment ? 1014. What, at this time, produced an extraordinary effect on the Pari sians, against the extravagance of the French court? QUESTIONS. 31 1015. What particular difficulties had the king to encounter ? 1016 What, in the year 1733, tended to hasten the French revolution and bring matters to a crisis ? 1017. Who nrst called for the states-general ? 1018. Who was in the French ministry when the states-general was call- ed? SECTION X. 1019. What inconsistency was there in the conduct of Maria Theresa con- cerning Poland ? 1020. What led to a war between Austria and Prussia, in the year 1778 ? 1321. What part did Austria take in regard to the war for American in- dependence ? 1022. When and at what age did Maria Theresa die ? SECTION XI. 1023. How long before the death of his mother, Maria Theresa, did Jo- seph II. come to the imperial throne of Austria ? 1024. In what manner did he labour to acquire the information needful to his subjects ? 1025. What was the population of his dominr'ons ? 1026. What important edict was passed by him, October 31, 1781 ? 1027. When did the Netherlands declare themselves independent of Aus- tria? 1028. When did Joseph II. die, and by whom was he succeeded ? 1029. How long did Leopold reign ? 1030. Who succeeded him and when ? 1031. What evil did he experience trom taking part against the French revolutionists ? 1032. By whom were the Austrians assisted against the French in the war of 17^9 ? SECTION XII. 1033. When was the states-general assembled ? 1034. What was the French state prison called ? 1035. What became of it ? 1036. How many families were there at this time in France of the ancient hereditary nobility ? 1037. In what way did the king attempt to rescue himself from the re- straints imposed on hin ? 1033. When was the national assembly dissolved ? 1039. What prevented Sweden and Russia frcm engaging in hostilities against the French ? 1040. What furnished the demagogues with opportunity for charging the king with making war upon his people ? 1041. What has this period of the French history been called ? 1042. Who was at the head of affairs in France ? 1043. How many, suspected of being aristocrats, were assassinated on the second of September ? 1044. When was the king brought to trial ? 1045. When was he executed ? 1046. Into how many factions were the revolutionists divided, and what were they called ? 1047. Which one triumphed ? *04fl What became of the queen of France ? 32 aUESTIONS. SECTION XIII. 1049. What change tojk place in the ministry of Great Britain after the peace with America ? 1050. Who succeeded Mr. Fox in the British ministry? 1051. What is the Sinking" Fund of Great Britain? 1052. What important prosecution was undertaken at this time by the British parliament ? 1053. How long did it last, and what was its result ? 1054. When was the attention of the house of commons first called to the slave trade ? 1055. When was it 1 abolished ? 1056. What event compelled the British parliament to meet on the 20th of November, 1788? 1057. What occurrence arose to threaten war between England and Spain, in the year 1790 ? 1058. What led to the declaration of war against the king of Great Britain, by France, in the year 1793 ? 1059. With what success was the war prosecuted ? 1060. What important occurrence took place in Ireland, 1798 ? 1061. What important event to Ireland succeeded the suppression of the rebellion ? 1062. What took place in India during the last year of the eighteenth century ? 1063. What led to the peace of Amiens, between France and England, October 1st, 1801 ? SECTION XIV. 1064. What was the situation of France towards the close of the jear 1793 ? 1065. What took place on the 17th of November, 1793? 1066. What alteration was there made in the calends ? 1067. When and where d«id Napoleon Bonaparte first distinguish himself? 1068. What became of Robespierre ? 1069. What was the government of France, established and proclaimed in 1795 ? 1070. What were the affairs of France externally at this time ? 1071. Who were some of her most distinguished generals ? 1072. What territories were added to the French republic ? 1073. What became of Lewis XVII. ? SECTION XV. 1074. When did Bonaparte receive the chief con.mand of the French army in Italy? 1075. What was his age at that time ? ' 10 #6. On the reduction of Mantua, what did he state to his soldiers had been their success ? 1077. Why were the Venetians unwilling to take part either with the Austrians or French ? 1078. Of what dishonourable conduct was Bonaparte guilty, in relation to the Venetians ? 1079. What took place on the 4th and 5th of September, 1797 ? 1080. Upon what expedition did Bonaparte enter, in the year 1798 ? 1081. What success did he have in this expedition ? 1082. What lessened his triumph and gave a new turn to the war ? 1083. What change took place in the French government on Bonaparte 1 * return from Egypt ? QUESTIONS.- 33 .084. When, by whom and with what result was the battle of Marenfe fought ? 1085. When and between whom was the treaty of Luneville signed f 1086. When and between whom was the treaty of Amiens signed ? 1087. What was the French power, and what were her possessions at this time ? SECTION XVI. 1088. What regulation did Bonaparte make for religion in France ? 1089 What took place on the 2d of August, 1802 ? 1090. What led to a renewal of hostilities between France and England. 1803? 1091. On the renewal of hostilities, what security did Bonaparte take for the future good conduct of England ? 1092. What military enterprise did he project ? 1093. What took place on the 18th of May, and the 2d of December, 1804 ? 1094. Why did general Moreau come to America ? 1095. What induced Russia, Prussia, and Austria, to unite in hostilities against Napoleon ? 1096. What took place on the 21st of October, 1805 ? 1097. After what battle did the emperor of Austria solicit peace ? 1098. What appeared to lead to the exaltation of Joseph Bonaparte to the throne of Naples ? 1099. What change took place in the government of Holland, in 1806 ? 1100. What change took place, in the same year, in the political condition of Germany ? 1101. How came Bonaparte to be in Berlin, in November, of this year? 1102. What extraordinary decree did he dictate, while there? 1103. What concessions did the emperor of Russia make to the French emperor in the treaty of Tilsit ? SECTION XVII. 1104. When did Charles XV. come to the throne of France ? 1105. What caused the Spaniards, in 1793, to invade France? 1106. What was the consequence of this invasion to Spain? 1107. By what means did St. Domingo fall into the hands of the French ? 1108. What led to the war between England and Spain in 1805 ? 1109. Why did the royal family of Portugal remove to America, and when ? 1110. On what account was Ferdinand arrested and imprisoned by the Spanish authorities ? 1111. By what means was the Spanish throne declared vacant and Joseph Bonaparte proclaimed king of Spain ? 1 112. What foreign power aided Spain and Portugal, against the French? 1113. In what battle were the French beaten and compelled to evacuate Portugal ? 11 14. When and under whom did the British army enter Spain ? 1115. What became of Sir John Moore ? 1116. When did Sir Arthur Wellesley, with fresh troops from England* enter Spain ? 1117. For what service was he raised to a peerage ? 1118. What battle caused the gates of Madrid to be thrown open to the Spanish patriots in 1812 ? 1119. When was th« battle of Vittoria fought ? U20. What were the consequences of it to the French ? SECTION XVIII 1181. What was the partition treaty between France and Spain ? SA QUESTIONS; ll'%5£. What was the Milan decree? 1123. Who was created king of Naples when Joseph Bonaparte removed to Spain ? 1124. How long did the war of Austria last, which commenced in 1809 ? 1125. On what condition was Austria able to obtain peace ? 1126. When did Bonaparte's second marriage take place ? 1127. When was the war renewed with Russia ? 1128. With how large an army did Bonaparte invade Russia, in 1812 ? 1129. What was the success of this expedition ? 1130. With what force did he commence hostilities in 1813? 1131. What battle completely discomfited the French emperor? 1132. When did the allies pass the Rhine ? 1133. When did they reach Paris ? 1134. On what conditions was Bonaparte permitted to abdicate the French throne ? , 1135. When did the Bourbons return to Paris? SECTION XIX. 1136. From what cause had Poland suffered much ? 1 137. What change did Charles XII. make in the state of Poland ? 1 138. By the aid of whose power was the family of Augustus kept upon the throne of Poland during the first half of the eighteenth cen- tury ? 1139. Who succeeded Augustus III. and when ? 1 140. What internal dispute greatly distracted Poland at this time ? 1141. With whom did the plan of dismembering Poland, originate ? 1142. W 7 hat reasons were given by the partitioning powers for the dis- memberment of Poland ? 1143. Did the Poles willingly acquiesce in the measure? 1144. When was the division actually agreed upon and sanctioned by the Polish diet? 1 145. When did a second partition take place, and when a third ? 1 146. What became of Stanislaus, the last king of Poland ? 1 147. When and by whom was the kingdom declared re-established ? 1 148. What is the present political condition of it ? , SECTION XX. 1 149. When were hostilities renewed by England against France ? 1 160. What caused Spain also to be involved with Great Britain ? 1161. How did the English violate the rules of justice in regard to Spain? What splendid victory did the English obtain over the French and Spanish, in 1805 ? 1 162. Of what act of injustice were the English judged guilty towards the Danes ? 1153. What caused the royal familv of France to take refuge in England, in 1807? 1 154. What were the English orders in council issued in January and No- vember, 1807? . 1 155. When was the prince of Wales appointed regent of Great Britain ? 1156. Why was he appointed? 1 157. What distinguished personage was assassinated in the month of May, 1812? 1158. What interesting event took place in England, in May, 1816 ? ' 1 159. By what melancholy event was it succeeded in November of th* following year ? 1 160. When did Geor-e III. die ? QUESTIONS 3b SECTION XX r. 1161. How did the French army feel toward the emperor Napoleon, after he was exiled ? t 1162. When did Bonaparte land in France, on his return from Elba? 116a When did he enter Paris? i!64. When was the battle of Waterloo fought, which for ever terminat- ed his prospects ? 1165. When did he arrive at St. Helena, to which lie was banished? 1166. What resolution was adopted by the allied military commanders in relation to the works of art, which the French had collected iaa former victories ? 1167. What precaution did the allies adopt to prevent future revolutions in that country ? SECTION XXII. 1168. Who were the three immediate successors of Peter I. upon the throne of Russia ? 1169. How long after the death of her father did the princess Elizabeth come to the throne ? 1170. How long did she reign, and who succeeded her ? 1171. What became of Peter III. ? 1172. What was the character of Catharine II. his widow, who succeed ed? 1173. When did Alexander, the present emperor of Russia, come to tin throne ? ° 1174. What became of his predecessor? 1175. How long has Prussia existed as a kingdom ? 1176. How many kings have reigned over it? 1177. Which of them did most toward raising the kingdom to the first degree of power and renown ? 1178. What two factions were there in Sweden in the reign of Frederick? 1179. How long did Gustavus III. reigri ? 1 180. How did he come by his death ? 1181. Why did Gustavus IV. abdicate the throne ? 1 182. Who is the present king of Sweden ? 1183. When did he come to the throne ? 1184. How many kings have reigned in Denmark since the close of tha seventeenth century ? 1185. In what war was Christian VII. connected with George III. of Eng- land? 8 1186. Why did his queen, Caroline Matilda, retire to, and end her days in Germany ? 1187. Who is the present king of Denmark ? SECTION XXIII. 1188. In what disputes was Switzerland involved during the first part c4 the 18th century ? 1189. Which of the popes of Rome suppressed the order of Jesuits? 1 1 90. Who was rasied to the papal chair in 1775 ? 1191. At what age, when, and where did he die ? 1192. How came he at Valence ? 1193. When was his successor chosen, and by what name is he called ■? 1194. When did he aid in establishing the catholic religion in France? 1 1 95. What injury did he afterwards receive from France ? SECTION XXIV. 1196. Who was the reigning prince of India in the beginning' of t&e tfSVk century ? m QUESTIONS. 1197. To -vhat age did he live? 1198. In what manner did he come to the throne ? 1199. What singular fact is mentioned as evidence of the contentions common for the throne, with that semi-barbarous people ? 1200. What chartered privilege has the English East India Company with this people ? 1201. When did thfc Company receive this privilege i ' 1202. What description of this people is called Sepoys ? 1203. Who is regarded as the founder of the British empire in India ? 1204. When did the British parliament make provision to prevent abuses of power in India ? 1205. What distinguished individuals were instrumental in the first re- forms under the new system T 1206. What is the reason why this system was not scrupulously adhered to? 1207. What was the object of Tippoo in regard to the English ? 1208. For what object was the East India College established ? 1209. What is the population of British India? STATE OF ARTS, SCIENCES, RELIGION, LAWS, GOVERN- MENT, &c. 1210. What countries have been particularly distinguished in literature, arts, and science, in the 18th century ? 1211. Which of the sciences in particular have been much cultivated and advanced in that time ? 1212. In what particulars has chemistry undergone important changes in the fetter part of the 18th century ? 1213. Who claim to be the authors of the new theory of chemistry? 1214. What is now ascertained to be the nature of atmospheric air ? 1215. By whom was the discovery of vital air, or oxygen gas, made ? 1216. To what branch of chemistry is the discovery of the decomposition of water owing ? 1217. Who discovered the constituent parts or principles of water? 1218. What are they called ? 1219. Who are some of the most distinguished chemists of the 18th cen- tury ? BOTANY. 1220. Where and when was Linnaeus born ? 12£1 . What is the foundation of his systematic botany ? 1222. With how many species of plants are botanists now said to be ac- quainted ? 1223. What French botanist has done much for the benefit of the science ? 1224. What is the difference between the system of Linnaeus and that oi Jussieu ? ELECTRICITY. 1225. Who were some of the persons who first wrote learnedly on the subject of electricity? 1226. Who proved that the electric fluid and lightning are the same thing? 1227. To what practical purposes did he apply this ? 1228. Of whom was Galvanism the discovery ? 1229. What is Galvanism called ? 1230. What English philosopher has become mjtytfe celebrated for his eleO tro-cheniical researches ? QUESTIONS. » MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY 1331. When did the modern scientific arrar. gements of minerals begin to occupy the attention of naturalists ? 1232. Who has the credit of reducing the science into classes and orders % 1233. From wbit did geology arise ? 1234. What is geology *M GEOGRAPHY. 1235. What two new quarters of the world have been presented to us, m the last century, according to the French geographers ? 1236. What does Australasia include ? 1237. What does Polynesia include ? 1238. What took place in 1761, in evidence of the improvements in civili- zation ? 1239. What eminent Prussian traveller has contributed to the perfection of geographical knowledge ? 1240. From what period have the Russian sovereigns made laudable e£ forts to obtain correct geographical information ? 1241. Has the science of astronomy undergone as great changes as the other sciences nam 3d during the last century? 1242. How many planets have been discovered in that time ? 1243. What fact is stated from which we can form some conjecture of th« number of fixed stars ? 1244. What French writer did much to unsettle the minds of his country- men on religion and politics ? 1245. From whom has it been supposed that Voltaire imbibed his deistica) sentiments ? 1246. Who were the principal deistical writers of England ? 1247. What counteracted the tendency of their writings ? 1248. What other eminent French philosopher visited England, besides Voltaire, about the same time ? 1249. To what did he" principally confine his viewa ? 1250. What were the political opinions of Rousseau ? 1251. What was the origin of the French Encyclopedia ? 1252. W T hat courts of Europe were thrown open to the French philoso- phers ? 1253. Is it to be supposed that the French philosophers, to whom the rer- olution has been imputed, contemplated the awful catastrophe of that event? 1254. Who was chiefly instrumental in introducing the improvements of the 18th century into Russia ? DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONS. 1255. What are the principal discoveries and inventions of modern times ? 1256. What effect had the French revolution on the people of other coun- tries? 1257. What moral improvements have taken place in the condition of va- rious civilized nations ? RELIGION. < 1258. In what countries does paganism prevail ? 1259. What is the present condition of the Jew«£ 1260. Where does Mahometanism prevail ? I2Gf . What are the principal sects of the Christian religion f '$ 1962. What sects hare been mott active as missionaries i 4 - 38 QUESTIONS. 1263. What change has the papal authority experienced In the time un- der consideration ? HISTORY, POLITE LITERATURE, FINE ARTS, &c. 1264. What Germans have been distinguished in literature, and the fine arts ? 1265. Who in France ? 1266. Who in Great Britain ? 1267. Who in Italy ? TREATY OF VIENNA, 1815? 1268. What addition of territory was given to Russia, and what new tt» tie to the Czar ? 1269. What is to be the condition of Cracow ? 1270. How did this treaty aflect Saxony ? 1271 . How did it affect Prussia ? 1272. What change took place in the Netherlands ? PART FOURTH. UNITED STATES. SECTION I. 1273. When and by whom was America discovered ? 1274. Under whose patronage was it discovered ? 1275. What part of it was discovered first? 1276. Why were the islands first discovered called the West Indies ? 1277. "Why was the continent called America? 1278. How long time after Columbus sailed from the Canaries before he reached St. Salvador ? 1279. To what governments did he apply for patronage without success? SECTION II. 1280. By whom and when was the continent of North America discover- ed? 1281. On what account did Virginia derive its name? 1282. Who made the first attempt to colonize this part of the continent? 1283. To whom did Sir Walter Raleigh afterward assign his interest in the country ? 1.284. F»-om what did James river take its name ? 1285. On what account did capt. John Smith obtain his first release from the Indians ? 1286. Who effected his second release from them ? 1287. On what account was the cultivation of the soil neglected by the first colonists ? 1288. What is the history of Pocahontas subsequent to saving the life of capt. Smith ? 1289. Who first brought the African negroes into this part of the country? 1290. What part did the Virginians take in relation to the revolution of the mother country under Cromwell ? 1291. What was the population of Virginia, in 1686? . '» QUESTIONS. m SECTION III. 1292. What was the origin of the Flymouth colony .' 1293. When was the settlement made ? 1294. Of how many persons did the colony at first consist? 1295. Of how many did it consist ten years afterwards ? 1296. How many emigrants came to Massachusetts, in the year 1630? 1297. What led to the first settlement of Rhode Island and Providence plantations ? 1298. Who laid the foundation of Hartford, Springfield, and Weathers* field ? 1299. When and by whom was New-Hampshire first settled ? 1300. When did a systematic warfare commence between the English and Indians ? 1301. What number of British subjects had settled in New-England, up to 1638 ? 1302. What instances of religious persecution took place in Massachusetts about the middle of the 1.7th century ? 1303. When and what were the particulars of the Salem witchcraft ? 1304. When was Harvard college founded? 1305. From whom did Maryland derive its name, and by whom was it first settled? 1306. By whom was New- York first settled ? 1307. When was it surrendered to the English ? 1308. By whom and under what circumstances was Pennsylvania settled? 1309. When and by whom was Georgia settled ? SECTION IV. 1310. What settlements had the French in America ? 1311. In what way did France endeavour to confine the English withia narrow limits, or to drive them from the continent? 1312. When, and what method did the Virginia assembly adopt to sup- port the English claims, over the disputed territory ? 1313. When and with what force was general Braddock sent over to sup- port these claims ? 1314. What was the success of Braddock's expedition ? 1315. How many campaigns were attended only with expense and disap- pointment to the English ? 1316. What led to a change in English prospects ? 1317. What celebrated English general was killed in the capture of Quebec ? 1318. How many soldiers did the colonies furnish in the French* war? 1319. When was the British stamp act passed ? 1320. Where in the colonies was it first opposed ? 1321. Which of the colonies proposed a continental congre.99 to be holdes at New- York ? . 1322. When was the law repealed ? 1323. What bill was passed on the repeal of this ? 1324. What disturbances took place at Boston, in 1763 ? 1325. What change took place on the elevation of Lord North ? 1326. What disturbances took place in Boston, in March 1770 ? 1327. What took place in 1773 ? 1328. What resistance was made, 1773, in Boston, to the British govern* ment in relation to tea ? 1329. Who was the British commander-in-chief in Boston, at this time ? 1330. What took place at the congress of 1774, holden in Philadelphia ? 1331. Where and under what circumstances was spilt the first blood of the revolutionary war ? 1332. What led to the burning of Charlestown ? 4© QUESTIONS. 1333. Who headed an expedition into Canada ? i334. With what success was it made ? 1335. By whom was general Gage superseded ? 1336. When did the British evacuate Boston? 1337. When was published the declaration of American Independence f 1338. What tended much to raise the despondang hopes of America iu the latter part of 1776 ? 1339. What splendid advantages did the Americans gain in 1777 ? 1340. When was a treaty of alliance formed between the French and Americans f 1341. W 7 ho took the command of the English army on the return of gen- eral Howe ? 1342. Whv was general Lee suspended? 1343. What toot place on the 15th July, 1779 ? 1344. Where, and under what circumstances was count Polaski mortally wounded ? 1345. What prevented West Point from falling into the possession of the English? 1346. What distinguished French military and naval commanders were sent to the aid of America ? 347. What event is reckoned to have decided the contest between Eng- land and America ? 348. How much money did England expend, and how many livet did she sacrifice in this war ? SECTION V. 349. When did the convention meet to form a new constitution? 1350. When and where did the first congress meet under the new consti* tution ? 1351. What produced an insurrection in the western part of Pennsylva- nia? 1352. What was the state of affairs between the United States and France* during the revolution in the latter ? 1 353. When did congress first meet in the city of Washington ? 1354. What are the principal particulars of the war with Tripoli? 1355. When and for how much was Louisiana purchased ? SECTION VI. 1356. What were the particulars that led to the suspension of commodore Barron ? 1357. What led to the declaration of war on the 18th of June, 1812, be- tween the United States and Great Britain ? 1358. What were some of the principal disasters on land, which the Americans experienced during the war ? 1359. What were their principal and most brilliant successes on land? 1360. What naval victories did they obtain ? 1361. W 7 hat naval losses did they experience? 1362. What American officers were killed during the war ? 1363. What British officers were killed during it ? 1364. When and where was a treaty of peace signed ? 1365. Who were the commissioners ? 1366. What states, since the admission of Louisiana in 1812, have bee* admitted into the union ? 1367. What accession of territory did the United States receive In 1810 ? 1368. What was the population of the United States in 18*0 > iilTrfTiONS PART FIFTH. SECTION I. . 156*9. What circumstance agitated France in 1820? 1370. When did Bonaparte die, and at what age "* 1371. What is said of him ? 1372. What war occurred in 1823, and what were its effects ? 1373. When did Louis XVIII. die, and who succeeded him? 1374. What circumstances occurred in Portugal in 1820, in 1821, and in 1823 ? 1375. Who succeeded George III. ? 1376. What remarkable events occurred in England in 1820 ? 1377. For what was the Summer of 1821 remarkable, and what were Lit consequences ? 1378. What important decree was issued by the Emperor of Russia in 1811 ? 1379. What change has since taken place in the constitution of that Empire ? 1380. W hat was the declaration of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, with regard to the slave trade ? 1381. How far were their purposes in this respect carried into effect? 1382. What circumstances occurred with regard to the Jesuits in 1816 and in 1820 ? 1383. When did Pope Pius VII. die, and who succeeded him ? 1384. What were the principal events in the life of the present pope, pre- vious to his elevation to the papal throne ? 1385. What occurred in Naples and Sicily in 1820 and 1821. 1386. When did the Greeks revolt against the Turks ? 1387. What is said of this war ? SECTION II. 1388. From what must we estimate the degree of civilization to which the ancient Mexicans had attained ? 1389. What is said of the political system ? 1390. What of the ecclesiastical ? 1391. What crimes were made capital ? 1392. To what was tLe attention of government principally directed ? 1393. What is said of the other governments in the country ? 1394. What of the arts and sciences known to them ? 1395. Do they appear to have been less civilized than European nations of the same period ? 1396. What occurred when the Spaniards first landed, and how were they affected by it ? 1397. What occurred in their route to Tenochtitlan or Mexico ? 1398. When did they arrive at the capital ? 1399. What force had Cortez at this time ? J 400. How were they received ? 1401. What was the first act of aggression ? 1402. What most excited the indignation of the Mexicans -^ 1403. On what account did Cortez leave the city? 1404. In what state did he find things on hie return? 1405. How was Montezuma killed ? 1 406. Who was his successor ? 4* 42 QUESTIONS 1407. Where did the first battle occur, and what was its result f 1408. What measures did Cortez adopt to strengthen his force? 1409. When did he return to the neighbourhood of Tenochtitlan, and what measures did ho pursue to conquer the city ? 1410. What number of allies did he receive ? 1411. When was the city conquered r, 1412. How did Cortez dispose of his captives? 1413. In whose reign did the conquest occur ? 1414. What is said of the history of New Spain from thu period till th» revolution ? 1415. Whoso property wore these colonies? 1416. How were they divided? 1417. What was the authority of the viceroy? 1418. What aids had the viceroys in the administration of government ? 1419. On whom did the supreme authority devolve when a viceroy died? 1420. When was the Council of the Indies established, and what were ita functions ? 1421. What other tribunal was there? 1422. What occurred in 1808? 1423. How did this affect the European part of the population, and what did they do ? 1424. Who was the next viceroy ? 1425. What conspiracy was formed, and how did it terminate 1 1426. What other revolts are mentioned ? 1427. When did general Mina arrive ? 1428. When was he defeated ? 1429. When, and from what cause, did the last revolt from the authority of Spain occur ? 1430. Who now united their influence in favour of a revolution ? 1431. Who was selected to execute their plans ? 1432. What pleasures did he adopt to raise himself to the supreme au- thority ? 1433. Who were his friends, and who his opponents ? 1434. When was he declared emperor ? 1435. How were the clergy affected ? 1436. Who now arose to produce a new revolution, and what ware hi* measures ? 1437. By whom was Santana assisted ? 1438. When was this revolution completed ? 1439. What became of Iturbide ? 1440. What form of government w.is established* 1441. When was their constitution adopted? 1442. What is its principal defect? 1443. What other federal government was formed at the same period f 1444. What title does it assume? 1445. What religion is established ? SECTION III. 1446. When were the Bahamas discovered ? 1447. When was the first settlement made ? 1448. By whom were they soon after possessed 1449. Who was their leader ? 1450. Who have since possessed the Bahamas ? 1451. What is said of the pirates ? 1452. What is said of the Aborigines ? 1453. What of the Arrowauks ? 1454. How were the Great Antilles divided? 1455. What was the authority of the caciquea? 1456. How populous were these islands ? QUESTIONS. 43 1457 What became of the inhabitants f 1458 What fact is worthy of record in favour of the Spaniards i 1459 Who were the Buccaniers ? L460. Whence their name ? 1461. Give tho rest of their history ? SECTION IV. 1462. When was this country discovered and settled r 1463. Character of its history till 1778 ? . 1464. What events followed ? 1465. When was the country invaded ; by whom; and with what www t 146G. Where did the revolution commence, and what was .its caused 1467. What is the date of its declaration of Independence ? 1468. By whom was it afterwards invaded ? 1469. What is its present stato ? 1470. What is the early history of Brazil ? 1471. When did the roya! family arrive, and how long remain f 1472. How was the government then left ? 1403. What circumstances followed ? 1474. Who is the Emperor of Brazil ? 1475. What is said of the history of Guiana? 1476. What is the principal tribe of Indians in Guiana? 1^77. Of what was New-Granada originally a part? 1473. What changes have taken place in the, audiences and viceroy alUst? 1479. What occurred in 1811 ? 1480. History of Venezuela from 1498 to 1806 ? 1481. What is said of Miranda's expedition ' 1482. What occurred in 1811 ? 1483. When were Venezuela andNew-Gianada united? 1484. W T hat fundamental laws of the Republic are mentioned ' 1485. What is said of the constitution ? 1486. Why is the early history of Peru uncertain ? 1487. Former state of the Peruvian tribes ' 1488. Who appeared among them, and with what pretentions f 1489. What city was founded ? 1490. What did tliese extraordinary persons teach ? 1491. How extensive were their dominions ? 1492. What were they called ? 1493. How was the succession of Incas preserved pure ? 1494. What is said of their religion and civil policy ? 1495. How many Incas were there ? 1496. How far did they advance in civilization ? 1497. When did the Spaniards first visit Peru ? 1498. What is the history of Huana Capac ? 1499. What is the history of Huascar and Atahualpa f 1500. What is said of the Spanish invaders ? 1501. What were their measures ? 1502. What is the subsequent history of Peru ? 1503. What is its present condition ? 1504. What possessions on the American continent do the Spaniards a! hold ? 1505. What is the history of Chili before the invasion ? 1506. Describe the first expedition and its result ? 1507. Describe the second expedition ? 1508. What occurred on the return of Almagro to Pern ? 1509. Who was entrusted with the third expedition t 1510. What is said of the subsequent contests ? 1511. Give an account of the Araucanians ? 1512. What occurred in 1810 f 44 QUESTIONS 1513. What in 1814 and in 1817 ? 1514. How was the patriot army re-organised i 1515. What is said of then- passage over the Andes ? 151C. What were the events of 1818 ? 1517. What government is established ? 1518. Why will their progress in real knowledge be iiow ? 1519. What is said of Don Jose San Martin ? 153a What is said of Bolivar ? saa. ,■> r EP — I a >- Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 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