ly^ilii^iiiiHffili^SSii^i^^^ilii^^ ^i'^i-. 5- ^ "^ -x"^ .,^ -^ri. '^J- V O^" '■>J- ->> •tl" -:^ ^^ ^n\ ■\#^ "^ '' >, . "" ^' -0' .0- -q^, "*«,A-^' ,#' ^V . : .s^^'^ oV c- / -,*e.; V y > % .#' ^/> 'A V ,0o vO^ ^v o_^..;V'--,.o^^.-v. -■.,,% '''-^;^\.o ^^.X-- ^y- V^ v\^^ '^^^ \ ,0' \^J^S J 0-^ "^ V> ,^\^ ^^.^ xV ./>„ ,0 o \^ CO' \' X'- V-- x^-' '^^ -Js- ^ ^ ,: :~. » -p " ■- 0' -H * 8 , \ .. /%/v ^^:''^,^ .xV ., aV >0 o^ CO V- ^ >• V V -<^ A'' "- ~^ v'^'J-— ' T S * <■■ V. ^ .^. A*- - -T^ '>' ..\^' ^ <^ . ^b- -, ^f ■%. ^ '•^ , ^ <) a \ ■* v\ '"^'^ ' '. .#' V '' "^ ■■ ,; ^'';- "^.- v^ ,\ '. -^o^- \°°.. ■^ :^ "^ o- -b ^ <> fi "^'';- y ' ' '" ■^^^ ^ '^ ^ , ^ ' '^ / c» V' . ^ ,-, '- %. / •s^ "% * , iQ •o- , • ■.: ^ " n -^^ O *^' .-^ ., .--K? -, V <.- ■"o 0^- ~ " ^ "^ v^ ,^^ -c> xO o^ ^>- ... r A *?. A / American ]l^imvml ^eriesi GENERAL EDITOR CHARLES H. HASKINS Pfofessor of History in Harvard University if EUROPE SINCE 1815 BY CHARLES DOWNER HAZEN PR0FE6S0R OP HISTORY IN SMITH COLLEGE WITH FOURTEEN COLORED MAPS NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1910 '9 Copyright, 1910, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY ©CIA285779 PREFACE The purpose of this book is the presentation of the history of Europe since the downfall of Napoleon. Needless to say, only the broader lines of the evolution of so crowded a cen- tury can be traced in a single volume. I have, moreover, omitted many subjects, frequently described, in order to give a fuller treatment to those which, in my opinion, are more important. I have endeavored to explain the internal development of the various nations, and their external rela- tions in so far as these have been vital or deeply formative. I have also attempted to preserve a reasonable balance be- tween the different periods of the century and to avoid the danger of over-emphasis. The great tendencies of the century, the transference of power from oligarchies to democracies, the building up of nations like Germany and Italy and the Balkan states which was the product of long trains of causes, of sharp, decisive events, and of the potent activity of commanding person- alities, tlie gradual expansion of Europe and its insistent and growing pressure upon the world outside, shown in so many ways and so strikingly in this age of imperialism and world-politics, the increasing consciousness in our day of the urgency of economic and social problems, all these and other tendencies will, I trust, emerge from the following pages, with clearness and in just proportion. The problem of arranging material covering so many dif- ferent countries and presenting such varieties of circumstance and condition is one of the greatest difficulty. It arises from the fact that Europe is only a geographical expression. The author is not writing the history of a single people but of a dozen different peoples, which, having much in common, are vi PREFACE nevertheless very dissimilar in character, in problems, in stages of development, and in mental outlook. If he adopts the chronological order (and events certainly occurred in chronological sequence), if he attempts to keep the histories of a dozen different countries moving along together as they did in fact, he must pass continually from one to the other and his narrative inevitably becomes jerky, spasmodic, and confused. If on the other hand he takes each nation in turn, recounting its history from starting point to point of conclusion, he gains the great advantage of continuity, which begets understanding, but he writes a dozen histories, not one. He therefore compromises, perforce, with his intractable problem and works out a method of presentation of whose vulnerability he is probably quite as acutely conscious as any reader could be. My method has been to bring down more or less together the histories of those countries which have so intimately and significantly interacted upon each other, Austria, Prussia, France, and Italy, that the evolution of one cannot be, even approximately, understood apart from a knowledge of the current evolution of the others. I then return to my starting point, 1815, and trace the histories of England, Russia, Turkey and the lesser states separately, gaining the advantage of being able to show their continuous development. I hope that this method has at least the merit of rendering clearness of exposition possible. My narrative is based to some extent upon an examination of the sources, although, considering the vast extent of the original material available, this has been necessarily com- paratively limited. It is based chiefly, as probably any synthetic work covering so large a field must be, on the elaborate general histories of different periods or countries, on biographies, and on the special monographic literature. These are indicated in the bibliography at the end of the volum.e which I have attempted to make critical and descrip- tive rather than extensive. It has been impossible for me to employ footnotes freely and consequently I am restricted to PREFACE vii a general recognition of my great and constant indebtedness to the authorities used, a recognition which I wish to make as explicit and as grateful as it must be brief and comprehensive. C. D. H. NOKTHAMPTOX, MASSACHUSETTS, December 31, 1909. CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE The Overthrow of Napoleon — The Great Coalition — The Problem of the Government of France^Treaty of Paris — Congress of Vienna — The Great Powers — The Division of the Spoils — Prin- ciple of Legitimacy — Demands of Russia — Demands of Prussia — The Fate of Poland and Saxony — Russian Acquisitions — Austrian Acquisitions — English Acquisitions — The Future of Italy — Italy a " Geographical Expression " — Criticism of the Congress — The Indignation of the Germans — Defiance of the Principle of Nationalitv — Denunciation of the Slave Trade — The " Hundred Days "—Second Treaty of Paris— The Holy Alli- ance — The Allies Promise Aid to Each Other — Unusual Charac- ter of the Alliance — Quadruple Alliance — Precautions Against France — The Concert of Powers — Quadruple Alliance and Met- ternich — Alexander I — Francis I of Austria — Metternich — His Diplomatic Skill — His Self-esteem — His Historical Importance — Doctrine of Immobility CHAPTER II REACTION IN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY Lack of Unity in the Austrian Empire — Racial Differences — Not a German Empire — Policy of Francis I and Metternich — Austria a Land of the Old Regime — Local Government — The Police System— The System of Espionage — AppUcation of the Met- ternich System in Other Countries — Germany a Loose Confedera- tion — Varieties of States — The Diet — Its Powers not Defined — Germany not a Nation — The International Character of the Con- federation — Dissatisfaction of the Germans with This System- Why the Problem of German Unity was so Difficult— The States- right Feeling — Dualism the Outcome of German Evolution — The Demand for Constitutional Government — Metternich's Suc- cessful Opposition — Various Forms of Government in the Dif- ferent German States — Popular Sovereignty Nowhere Recog- nized — Constitutions Granted in Certain States — The King of Prussia Becomes Reactionary — Indignation of the Liberals — Ferment in the Universities — The Wartburg Festival — The Mur- der of Kotzebue — The Holy Alliance Converted into an Engine of Oppression — The Carlsbad Decrees — Provision Concerning Constitutional Government — Control of the Universities — Pro- hibition of Student Societies — The Censorship of the Press — Reaction the Order of the Day in Germany — The Persecution of Liberals — Prussia a Docile Follower of Austria .... 23 X CONTENTS CHAPTER III FAGB REACTION AND REVOLUTION IN SPAIN AND ITALY Spain — Spanish Constitution of 1812 — Ferdinand VII, Abolition of the Constitution — Persecution of Liberals — Inefficiency of the Government — Disintegration of the Spanish Empire — Neglect of the Army and the Navy— Revolution of 1820-1823— Italy- Napoleon on Italian Unity — Significance of Napoleon's Activity in Italy — The Awakening of Italy — The Decision of the Congress of Vienna — The Ten Italian States — The Dominance of Austria — The Lombardo- Venetian Kingdom — The Kingdom of Sardinia — The States of the Church— The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies— Uni- versal Reaction — The Carbonari — The Revolution of 1820 in Naples — The Powers Prepare to Suppress These Revolutions — The Doctrine of the Right of Intervention — The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1818— The Congress of Troppau, 1820— The Congress of Laibach, 1821 — The Revolution in Piedmont — Reasons for the Failure of the Movements of 1820 — The Congress of Verona, 1822 — Reaction in Spain — The Triumph of the Holy Alliance — The Monroe Doctrine — The " Metternich System " Checked 45 CHAPTER IV FRANCE UNDER THE RESTORATION The Profound EflFects of the French Revolution — The Restoration of the Bourbons not a Restoration of the Old Regime — The Constitutional Charter — The Form of Government — The Re- stricted Suffrage — Provisions Concerning Civil Rights — Recog- nition of the Work of the Revolution— Louis XVIII— The Diffi- culties of His Situation— The Ultras— The Center Parties— The White Terror— Louis XVIII Checks the Ultras— A Period of Moderate Liberalism — The Liberation of the Territory — Re- organization of the Army — The Electoral System — The Press Law of 1819 — Activity of the Ultras — Election of Gregoire — Murder of the Duke of Berry— Electoral Law of 1820 — The Double Vote — The Censorship Restored — French Invasion of Spain— Triumph of the Ultras— Death of Louis XVIII— Charles X — Policy of the New King — The Nobles Indemnified for Property Confiscated During the RevoJiition — Method of Paying the Indemnity — The Law Against Sacrilege — Clerical Reaction — Attempt to Re-establish the Principle of Primogeniture — Attempt to Destroy the Freedom of the Press — Disbandment of the National Guard — Attempt to Stamp Out the Opposition in Parliament — The Martignac Ministry — The Polignac Ministry — Widespread Opposition to the Ministry — Conflict Between Charles X and the Chamber of Deputies— The Ordinances of July — Charles X's Interpretation of the Charter —The King's Mistaken Judgment — The Opposition of the Liberal Editors of Paris — The July Revolution — The Character of the Fighting — The Ordinances Withdrawn — The Candidacy of Louis Philippe — Abdication of Charles X — Louis Philippe King — The End of the Restoration 66 CONTENTS xi CHAPTER V PAGE REVOLUTIONS BEYOND FRANCE Wide-spread Influence of the July Revolution — Powerlessness of the Holy Alliance — The Congress of Vienna and the Kingdom of the Netherlands — A Union of Two Fundamentally Dissimilar Peoples — The Spirit of Nationality Awakened Among the Bel- gians — DiflBculties in the Drafting of the Constitution — Friction Between the Belgians and the Dutch — The Influence of the July Revolution — The Belgians Declare Their Independence — Inter- vention of the Holy Allies Prevented by Events in Poland — Recognition of the Kingdom of Belgium — The Restoration of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815 — Alexander I Grants a Constitu- tion to Poland — Friction Between the Poles and the Russians — Influence of the July Revolution — The Polish Expectation of Foreign Aid Disappointed — The Failure of the Insurrection — Italy After the Revolutions of 1820 — Revolutionary Movements in 1831 — The Italians Receive No Help from France — Austrian Intervention — The Results of the Insurrections — Revolution in Germany — New Measures of Repression — Metternich Supreme in Germany . 100 CHAPTER VI THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE The Career of Louis Philippe — His Liberalism — His Legal Title to the Throne — The Constitution Revised — The Franchise Lowered— The Character of the July Monarchy — Insecurity of the New Regime — A Period of Storm and Stress — -The Progressive Party — The Conservative Party — Popular Unrest — Casimir- Perier and the Policy of the Conservatives — Foreign Policy — Op- position Parties — The Legitimists — The Duchess of Berry — Re- publican Insurrections — Vigorous Measures of the Government — The Prosecution of Journalists — Attempts upon the Life of Louis Philippe — The September Laws, 1835 — The Press Law — The Bonapartists — Louis Philippe and the Napoleonic Legend — Louis Napoleon Bonaparte — The Second Funeral of Napoleon I — The Boulogne Fiasco — Ministerial Instability — Rivalry of Thiers and Guizot — Louis Philippe Intends to Rule — Personal Government — Thiers and the Eastern Question — Resignation of Thiers — Guizot, Prime Minister — Guizot's Political Principles — The Government Scrupulously Parliamentary — How the Gov- ernment Obtained Its Majorities — The Manipulation of the Voters — The Manipulation of the Deputies— The Servility of Parliament — Demand for Electoral and Parliamentary Re- form — Rigid Opposition of the Guizot Ministry — Rise of Radi- calism — Economic Distress — Introduction of the Factory System — Condition of the Working Classes — Growth of Socialism — Louis Blanc — Wide-spread Opposition to the Policy of the Gov- ernment — Fusion of the Opposing Parties — The " Reform Banquets " — Emergence of Lamartine — The People Support the Demand for Reform — The Revolution of February, 1848 — Resignation of Guizot — The Overthrow of Louis Philippe — The Rise of the Second Republic 114 xii CONTENTS CHAPTER VII CENTRAL EUROPE BETWEEN TWO REVOLUTIONS ^^^^ The February Revolution a Signal for Other Revolutions — The General Character of the Period between 1830 and 1848 — Evolu- tion of Prussia — Great Intellectual Activity — The Achievement of Prussian Unity Imperative — Revision of the System of Tax- ation—The Question of the Tariff— The ZoUverein— The Ad- vantages of the ZoUverein — Death of Frederick William III — Frederick William IV — The Demand for a Parliament — The Let- ter Patent of February 3, 1847 — Popular Dissatisfaction — Con- flict Between Frederick William IV and the United Landtag — Austria not a Homogeneous State — Political Stagnation — The In- dustrial Revolution — The Development of Nationalities Within the Empire — Bohemia — Hungary — The Hungarian Constitution — The Importance of the Nobility — The Prevalence of Feudalism — Szechenyi and Reform — The Policy of the Diet — The Language Question — Rise of a Radical Party— ^Louis Kossuth — The De- mands of the Hungarians in 1847 — Italy After 1831 — Importance of a Group of Writers — Joseph Mazzini — His Intense Patriotism — His Imprisonment — Founder of " Young Italy " — The Methods of the Society — The Aims of the Society — Unity, a Practicable Ideal — Mazzini as a Conspirator — Gioberti — D'Azeglio — Balbo — The Risorgimento— Pius IX, Pope, 1846-1878— Charles Albert, King of Piedmont — Italy on the Brink of Revolution . . . 145 CHAPTER VIII CENTRAL EUROPE IN REVOLT The Great Mid-century Uprising — Vienna the Storm-center — The Decisive Intervention of Hungary — The Overthrow of Metter- nich — The March Laws — Hungary Practically Independent — Revolution in Bohemia — Revolution in the Austrian Provinces — Revolution in Lombardy-Venetia — Italy renounces Austrian Control — Revolution in Germany — The National Movement — The Parliament of Frankfort — The March Revolutions Everywhere Triumphant — Austria Begins the Work of Restoration — Bohemia Conquered — Italy Partially Conquered — Civil Dissension Within Hungary — The Croatians Rise Against the Magyars — Austria Exploits the Situation — Radical Party in Hungary Seizes Control — Abdication of the Emperor of Austria — Accession of Francis Joseph I — Hungary Declares Francis Joseph a Usurper — War Between Austria and Hungary — Hungarian Declaration of In- dependence, April 14, 1849 — Hungary "Conquered— The Conquest of Italy Completed — Abdication of Charles Albert — Overthrow of the Roman Republic — Fall of Venice — The Parliament of Frankfort — Leadership in Germany Offered to the King of Prussia — Rejection of the Work of the Frankfort Parliament — The "Humiliation of Olmiitz " — Results of the Revolutions of 1848 169 CHAPTER IX THE SECOND REPUBLIC AND THE FOUNDING OF THE SECOND EMPIRE The French Revolution of 1848 — Stages in the History of the Second Republic — Two Elements in the Provisional Government — CONTENTS xiii PAGE The Republicans — The Socialists — Louis Blanc's Theories — Achievements of the Provisional Government — The Question of the Flag— The Labor Commission — Its Impotence — The National Workshops — Their Rapid Growth— The National Constituent As- sembly — The Assembly Hostile to the Socialists — Abolition of the National Workshops — The June Days — A Military Dictator- ship — Growing Opposition to the Republic — An Unpopular Fi- nancial Measure — The Framing of the Constitution — The Powers of the Executive — Discussion Concerning the Presidency — The President to be Chosen by Universal Suifrage — The Voters to be Untrammeled in Their Choice — Louis Napoleon Bonaparte's Opportunity — His Previous Career — A Member of the Constit- uent Assembly — A Candidate for the Presidency — Causes of His Triumph — Louis Napoleon Elected President, Dec. 10, 1848 — The Legislative Assembly — President and Assembly Opposed to the Constitution — They Combine to Crush the Republicans — The Franchise Law of 1850 — President Demands the Revision of the Constitution — The Coup d'Etat— Events of December 2d — The "Massacre of the Boulevards" — The Plebiscite — Napoleon III, Emperor, Dec. 2, 1852 — The Programme of the New Emperor — The Political Institutions of the Empire — Parliament Carefully Muffled — Its Legislative Power Limited — The Senate — The Coun- cil of State — The Emperor — The Press Shackled — The Empire Both Repressive and Progressive — The Emperor's Activities — Economic Development — Paris Beautified — General Prosperity — The Congress of Paris, 1856 — The Emperor's Policy of Peace —The Italian War of 1859 187 CHAPTER X CAVOUR AND THE CREATION OF THE KINGDOM OF ITALY Reaction in Italy After 1848 — Victor Emmanuel II — Piedmont a Constitutional State — Count Cavour — His Interest in Political and Economic Questions — Becomes an Editor — Cavour Prime Minister, 1852 — Policy of Economic Development — Cavour Seeks a Military Ally — Why Piedmont Participated in the Crimean War — Cavour at the Congress of Paris — Discussion of the Italian Question — Moral Victory for Cavour — Army Strengthened — Founding of the National Society — Cavour and Napoleon — The Interview of Plombieres — A Conspiracy to Bring About a War — The Conditions Agreed upon — Difficulties and Dangers of Cavour's Position — Cavour's Diplomacy — The Austro-Sardinian War — The Campaign of 1859 — The Preliminaries of Villafranca — Reasons for Napoleon's Action — Austria Eager for Peace — Resignation of Cavour — Piedmont Acquires Lombardy — Central Italy — Impossibility of Restoring the Old Order — England's Par- ticipation in Affairs — Cavour Returns to Office — Annexations to Piedmont — Cession of Savoy and Nice by the Treaty of Turin, March 24, 1860 — Effect upon Napoleon III — The Sicilian Insur- rection — Giuseppe Garibaldi — The Defense of Rome— Leader of " The Hunters of the Alps" — Determines to go to Sicily — Cavour's Dilemma — The Expedition of " The Thousand " — Conquest of the Kingdom of Naples — Garibaldi Plans to Attack Rome — Inter- xiv CONTENTS PAGE vention of Piedmont — The Annexation of the Kingdom of Naples and of Umbria and the Marches — Siege of Gaeta — The Kingdom of Italy Proclaimed — The Kingdom Still Incomplete — The Question of Rome — Death of Cavour 215 CHAPTER XI BISMARCK AND GERMAN UNITY Reaction in Germany After 1849 — Prussia a Constitutional but not a Parliamentary State — The Police System — Control of the Press — The Privileged Class — Economic Transformation — Indus- trial Development — Rise of a Wealthy Middle Class — Intellec- tual Activity — Influence of Events in Italy upon German Thought — The National Union — William I — The Prussian Army — The Obligatory Service not Enforced — Army Reform — Op- position of the Chamber — Determination of William I — Otto von Bismarck-Schonhausen — Bismarck's Previous Career — Bismarck's Political Opinions — His Attitude Toward Parliamentary Institu- tions—His Hatred of Democracy— Bismarck in the Diet — The Period of Conflict — Army Reform Carried Through — " Blood and Iron " Policy — Prussia's Three Wars — The Schleswig- Holstein Question — Action of Denmark Concerning Schlesvv^ig — Bismarck's Handling of the Question — Prussia and Austria at War with Denmark— Treaty of Vienna, Oct. 1864— The Future of the Duchies — Friction Between Prussia and Aus- tria — Prussia Acquires Lauenburg by Purchase — The Meeting at Biarritz — Treaty of Alliance with Italy — Bismarck Pre- pares for a War with Austria — Bismarck Proposes a Reform of the Confederation — Prussia Withdraws from the Confedera- tion — The Austro-Prussian War — Hellmuth von Moltke — Prussia Conquers North Germany — The Battle of Koniggratz or Sadowa — Causes of Austria's Defeat — Results of the Austro-Prussian War — Annexations to Prussia — The North German Confedera- tion, 1867-1871— The Bundesrath— The Reichstag— Alliance with South German States — Consolidating the New System . . . 240 CHAPTER XII THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE SECOND EMPIRE Disastrous Efi'ect of the Italian War upon Napoleon III — The War Approved only by the Democratic Party — Napoleon's Va- cillation — England Offended — Treaty of Commerce Offends Protectionists — Napoleon Turns to the Liberals — Powers of Par- liament Increased — Revival of Interest in Politics — Rise of a Republican Party — The Mexican Expedition — Napoleon's Pur- poses — Napoleon Overthrows the Mexican Republic — Disastrous Outcome of this Adventure — Intervention of the United States — Discomfiture of Napoleon III — Additional Concessions to Liberal- ism — The Right of Interpellation Granted — Dramatic Emergence of Leon Gambetta — Bitter Attacks upon Napoleon III — The Third Party— The Transformation of the Empire Completed — Popular Approval— The Plebiscite of May, 1870— Sudden Col- lapse of the Empire 272 CONTENTS XV CHAPTER XIII PAGE THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR Napoleon's Unwise Adherence to His Doctrine of Nationalities — The Meeting at Biarritz — Napoleon's Failure to Use His Oppor- tunity in 1866— The Year 1866 a Turning Point in Modern His- tory — " Revenge for Sadowa "—Failure of Napoleon's Diplo- macy — Bismarck Regards a War with France as Inevitable — The Spanish Candidacy of Leopold of Hohenzollern — The Candidacy Withdrawn^ — Folly of the Duke of Gramont — The Ems Despatch — The War Party in Paris — France Declares War upon Prussia — South German States Join Prussia — France Isolated — The French Army — The Numerical Inferiority of the French — The Germans Invade France — The Battle of Sedan — The Fall of the Empire — The Government of National Defense — The Fall of Metz — The Siege of Paris — Election of a National Assembly — Thiers Chosen Chief of the Executive— Treaty of Frankfort- Fall of the Temporal Power — Completion of Italian Unification — Completion of German Unification 285 CHAPTER XIV THE GERMAN EMPIRE Growth of National Feeling in Germany Since 1815 — Constitution of the New German Empire — ^The Emperor— The Bundesrath — The Reichstag — A Confederation of Monarchical States — Reign of Emperor William I — Bismarck's Commanding Position — A Religious Conflict — Causes of the Kulturkampf — Formation of the Center Party — Dogma of Papal Infallibility — The Old Catholics— The Falk Laws— Conflict of Church and State— Bis- marck's Retreat — Financial and Industrial Questions — Adoption of the Policy of Protection — Its Advantage Proved by the His- tory of Other Nations — Germany Should Imitate the United States — The System Gradually Applied — The Growth of Social- ism—Alarm of the Ruling Classes — Attempts upon the Life of the Emperor — Severe Measures Against the Socialists — Their Failure — Continued Growth of the Socialist Party — The Imperial Government Undertakes Social Reform — Various Forms of In- surance Proposed — State Socialism— The Measures Carried — Bis- marck a Pioneer — Not Supported by the Socialists — The Begin- ning of a Colonial Empire — A Result of the Adoption of the Policy of Protection — Energetic Intervention in Africa — The German Colonies — -The Triple Alliance — Isolation of France — Austro-German Treaty of 1879 — Entrance of Italy into the Alliance — Death of William I — Accession of William II— The Resignation of Bismarck — The Anti-Socialist Policy Abandoned — Remarkable Expansion of German Industry — Germany a Naval Power — Continued Growth of Socialism — The Social Democratic Party Numerically the Largest — The Demand for Electoral Reform — The Demand for Parliamentary Reform — The Demand for Ministerial Responsibility — The Present Situa- tion 303 xvi CONTENTS CHAPTER XV PAGE FRANCE UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC The National Assembly — Paris and the Assembly Mutually Sus- picious — Versailles Declared the Capital — Distress of the Work- ing Classes — Revolutionary Elements — The Idea of the Commune — The National Guard — The Government of the Commune — The Commune and the National Assembly Clash — The Second Siege of Paris — The " Bloody Week " — The Government's Revenge — France at Peace — The Government of Thiers — The Rivet Law — The Cost of the " Terrible Year "—The Liberation of the Terri- tory — Reform in Local Government — Army Reform — The Ques- tion of the Permanent Form of Government — Thiers and the Republic — The Monarchist Parties— Resignation of Thiers — The Count of Chambord — Establishment of the Septennate — Assembly Reluctant to Frame a Constitution — The Assembly Active Against Republicans — Growth of the Republican Party — The Constitution of 1875— The Senate— The President— The Ministry — France a Parliamentary Republic — Dissolution of the National Assembly — The Republic and the Church — MacMahon's Con- ception of the Presidency — Victory of the Republicans — Resigna- tion of MacMahon— Grevy Chosen President — Republican Legis- lation — Creation of a National System of Education — Public Works — Revision of the Constitution — Colonial Policy — Increase of the National Debt — Death of Gambetta — Discontent with the Republic — Boulanger — The Republic Weathers the Crisis — The Dual Alliance— The Dreyfus Case — Dreyfus Degraded and Im- prisoned — Picquart — Zola Attempts to Reopen the Case — Speech of Cavaignac, Minister of War — Court of Cassation Orders a Re- trial of Dreyfus — Dreyfus Again Declared Guilty— Dreyfus Pardoned— Dreyfus Vindicated — Significance of the Case — Formation of the " Bloc " — Question of Church and State- Growth of Religious Orders — The Law of Associations — Reli- gious Orders Forbidden to Engage in Teaching — The Concordat of 1801 — Anti-clerical Legislation — The Clergy in the Dreyfus Affair — The Abrogation of the Concordat — Associations of Wor- ship — Opposition of Pius X — Law of Jan. 2, 1907 — Separa- tion of Church and State — The French Colonial Empire — Algeria — Other African Conquests — Cochin-China — Expansion Under the the Third Republic — Western Africa — Madagascar .... 329 CHAPTER XVI THE KINGDOM OF ITALY Difficulties Confronting the New Kingdom — Piedmont Alone Ac- customed to Constitutional Government — The Constitution — The Question of the Papacy — The Law of Papal Guarantees — The Curia Romana — The " Prisoner of the Vatican " — Death of Vic- tor Emmanuel II — The Educational Problem — Extension of the Suffrage — The Triple Alliance — Francesco Crispi — Ambitious Military and Colonial Policy — The Resultant Distress — Policy of Repression — War with Abyssinia — Assassination of Humbert I — Victor Emmanuel III — Industrial Expansion — Advent of the Age of Electricity — Increase of the Population — Problem of Emigration — Italia Rediviva! 376 CONTENTS xvii CHAPTER XVII PAGE AUSTRIA-HUNGARY SINCE 1849 Austria's Punishment of Hungary — Failure of the War in Italy — Francis Joseph Reverses His Policy — Federalism or Centraliza- tion? — Austria Becomes a Constitutional State — Hungary Re- fuses to Co-operate — Reasons for Her Refusal— The Hungarians Assert Their " Historic Rights " — And Demand tlie Restoration of Their Constitution — A Deadlock — Francis Joseph Yields — The Compromise of 1867 — The Dual Monarchy— The Delega- tions — The Compromise Satisfactory Only to the Dominant Races — Constitution of Austria — Constitution of Hungary — The Dominant Races — Divisive Effect of the Principle of Nationality in Austria-Hungary — Austria Since 1867 — Liberal Legislation — Demands of the Czechs — The Em- peror Prepares to Concede Them — Opposition of Germans and Magyars — Triumph of Dualism — Electoral Reform — The Taaffe Ministry — The Slavs Favored — Growth of Radical Parties — Division Among the Czechs — Electoral Reform — Universal Suffrage — Hungary Since 1867 — The Magyars — The Croatians — The Policy of Magyarization — Race Questions — Struggle over the Question of Language — Territorial Gains and Losses . . . 388 CHAPTER XVIII ENGLAND TO THE REFORM BILL OF 1832 England in 1815 — The Industrial Revolution — A New Motive Force — The Steam Engine — The Industrial Primacy of Great Britain- Advantages Derived from the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars — The Renown of Parliament — England a Land of the Old Regime — Commanding Position of the Nobility — The House of Commons — The System of Representation — The County Suffrage — Scotland — The Suffrage in Boroughs — Nomination Boroughs — Rotten Boroughs — Unrepresented Cities— Bribery — The Estab- lished Church— Dissenters — Abuses Within the Church — The People Neglected — Adam Smith — Jeremy Bentham — Effect of The French Revolution upon England — Economic Distress After 1815 — Lack of Employment — The Demand for Reform — William Cobbett — Parliamentary Reform — Popular Disturbances — Suspen- sion of Habeas Corpus — The Massacre of Peterloo — The Six Acts — Death of George HI — The Dawn of an Era of Reform — De- fiance of the Holy Alliance — Economic Reforms — Tlie Penal Code — Reformed by Sir Robert Peel — Religious Inequality — The Religious Disabilities of Dissenters — Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts — Catholic Disabilities— Catholic Emancipation — Daniel O'Connell — O'Connell Elected to Parliament — Emanci- pation Carried — The Restriction of the Suffrage in Ireland — Tory Opposition to the Reform of Parliament — Influence of the French Revolution of 1830 — The Duke of Wellington on Reform —Fall of the Tory Ministry— The First Reform Bill— Provisions — Lord John Russell's Speech — Sir Robert Inglis's Speech — Rep- resentation Never Better — Hunt's Speech — Sir Robert Peel's Criticism — Macaulay on the Bill— Ministry Defeated, Parliament Dissolved — Second Reform Bill — Defeated by the House of Lords xviii CONTENTS PAGH —Third Reform Bill— The Bill Passed— Redistribution of Seats — The County Franchise — The Borough Franchise — Not a Demo- cratic Reform 406 CHAPTER XIX ENGLAND BETWEEN TWO GREAT REFORMS (1832-1867) An Era of Whig Government — Slavery in the Colonies — Abolition of Slavery — Child Labor — Previous Attacks Upon the System — The System Defended— The Factory Act, 1833— The Decay of Local Self-government — The Necessity for Reform — Municipal Governments Notoriously Corrupt — The Reform of Municipal Government — Accession of Queen Victoria — Her Political Edu- cation — Hanover — The Radicals and the Reform Bill — The Radi- cals Agitate for Further Reform— The People's Charter — Char- acter of the Chartist Agitation — The Lack of Able Leadership — The Petition of 1848— The Significance of the Movement— Eng- land's Policy of Protection — The Corn Laws — Huskisson's Re- forms — Sir Robert Peel's Ministry — The Anti-Corn-Law League — The Arguments for Free Trade — The Irish Famine — Repeal of the Corn Laws — Remaining Protective Duties Gradually Removed — Labor Legislation — Regulation of Labor in Mines — Factory Laws — Morley on the Labor Code — Growth of Trades-Unions — The Growth of Collectivism — Jews Admitted to the House of Commons — Gladstone Chancellor of the Exchequer — Postal Sav- ings Banks — State Insurance — Industrial and Scientific Progress — The Demand for a Wider Suffrage — Effect of the Civil War — Gladstone Introduces a Reform Bill — The Bill Defeated — Re- form Carried by Disraeli — Provisions of the Bill — Redistribution of Seats 439 CHAPTER XX ENGLAND UNDER GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI The Great Ministry — William Ewart Gladstone — Entrance into Parliament — Leader of the Liberal Party — Gladstone's First Ministry, 1868-1874 — Dominance of Irish Questions — Ireland a Conquered Country— The Agrarian Question — The Reli- gious Question — The Political Question — Catholic Emancipation — The Repeal Movement — The Irish Famine — Decline of the Population — The Fenian Movement — The Irish Church — The Tithe War — Disestablishment of the Irish Church — System of Land Tenure — The Land Owned by a Few — Tenants-at-will — No Compensation for Improvements — Industry and Thrift Penalized — Misery of the Peasantry — Deeds of Violence —The Ulster System— Land Act of 1870— The Bright Clauses— The Bill Denounced as Revolutionary — The Land Act a Disap- pointment — Its Principles Important — Educational Reform — Church Schools — The System Inadequate — The Question Becomes Urgent— The Forster Education Act of 1870— Church Schools In- corporated in the System — Board Schools Established — The Ques- tion of Religious Instruction — The Conscience Clause — The Cowper-Temple Amendment — Education Neither Free, nor Com- CONTENTS xix PAGE pulsory, nor Secular — Army Reform — Introduction of Short Service — Abolition of the Purchase System — Civil Service Reform — The Universities Thrown Open — Introduction of the Ballot — Reasons for Secret Voting — Gladstone's Waning Popularity — The Irish University Bill — The Religious Difliculty — General Dissatisfaction with the Bill — Unpopularity of Gladstone's For- eign Policy— The Alabama Award — The Elections of 1874 — The Disraeli Ministry — Imperialism — Importance of the Colonies Emphasized — Purchase of the Suez Canal Shares — The Queen Proclaimed Empress of India — Re-opening of the Eastern Ques- tion — Fall of the Disraeli Ministry — The Second Gladstone Min- istry, 1880-1885— Failure of Land Act of 1870— The Land Act of 1881 — Rents to be Judicially Determined — Denounced as Con- fiscation of Property— The Reform Bill of 1884--The County Franchise Widened — Redistribution of Seats — Single Member Districts — Various Qualifications for Voting 465 CHAPTER XXI ENGLAND SINCE 1886 The First Salisbury Administration — The Home Rule Movement — Charles Stuart Parnell — Adoption of the Policy of Obstruction — Gladstone Unable to Pacify Ireland — The Third Gladstone Ministry — The Home Rulers Hold the Balance of Power — Home Rule or Coercion? — Introduction of the Home Rule Bill— Shall the Irish Sit in Westminster? — Land Purchase Bill — Opposition to the Bills — The Union in Danger! — English Dislike of the Irish — John Bright's Opposition— Disruption of the Liberal Party — The Bill Defeated — The Conservatives Returned to Power —The Second Salisbury Ministry, 1886-1892— The Policy of Coercion — Land Purchase Act— County Government Reformed — Social Legislation — Increase of the Navy — The Fourth Glad- stone Ministry, 1892-1894— The Second Home Rule Bill— Funda- mental Objections — Bitterness of the Opposition — Passed by the Commons, Defeated by the Lords — Parish Councils Bill — Resig- nation of Gladstone— The Rosebery Ministry — The Conservatives Returned to Power — The Third Salisbury Ministry — War in South Africa — Irish Local Government Act — Death of Queen Victoria — Education Act of 1902 — The Abolition of the School Boards — Decline of Illiteracy— The liberal Party in Power — Old Age Pensions Law — An Irish University 497 CHAPTER XXII THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY The Expansion of Europe — The Growth of Colonial Empires — Vast Growth of the British Empire Since 1815 — Overthrow of the Mahratta Confederacy — Annexation of the Punjab — The Indian Mutiny — Change in the Government of India — The Vast Popula- tion of India — The Population not Homogeneous — Annexation of Burma and Baluchistan — American Colonies — Upper and Lower Canada — Constitutional Difficulties in Upper Canada — In Lower Canada — The Colonists Desire Self-government — The Rebellion XX CONTENTS PAGE of 1837 — Lord Durham's Report — The Executive Irresponsible — Durham Proposes Ministerial Responsibility — Durham Favors Federation — Ministerial Responsibility Finally Introduced — Founding of Dominion of Canada, 1867 — British North America Act — The Dominion Parliament — Growth of the Dominion — The Canadian Pacific Railway — Australia — Early Explorations — The Voyages of Captain Cook — A Convict Colony — Abandoment of this System — The Discovery of Gold — The Six Australian Colonies — Reasons for Their Federation — Creation of the Aus- tralian Commonwealth — The Federal Parliament — New Zealand — Advanced Social Legislation — System of Taxation — Old Age Pensions — Africa — England Acquires Cape Colony — Friction with the Boers — The Great Trek — Founding of the Transvaal — The Transvaal Annexed to Great Britain — Majuba Hill — Policy of the Gladstone Administration — The Pretoria Convention — The London Convention — The Boers Desire Unqualified Independence — The Boers — The Uitlanders — The Jameson Raid — Sir Alfred Milner's Reports— The South African War — Victory of the English — Annexation of the Transvaal and the Orange Free Stat^-The Union of South Africa, 1909— The Far Flung British Empire— The Problem of Imperial Federation — The Increasing Importance of the Question — The DifiBculties in the Way — The Problem of Government — Commercial Union — Colonial Con- ferences — Confederations Within the Empire 518 CHAPTER XXIII THE PARTITION OF AFRICA The Period of Discovery — Situation in 1815 — The French Conquest of Algeria — The Sources of the Nile — David Livingstone — Stanley — Stanley's Explorations of the Congo — Africa Appropriated by Europe — The Congo Free State — Its International Origin — The Berlin Conference — Leopold II and the Congo Free State — Criticism of Leopold's Administration — The Congo Free State Made a Colony of Belgium— Egypt — Meheraet Ali Founds a Semi-royal House — Ismail and the Rapid Growth of the Egyp- tian Debt — Intervention of England and France — Revolt of Arabi Pasha — English Expedition Crushes the Insurrec- tion — England Assumes the Position of " Adviser " — The English " Occupation " — Loss of the Soudan — Death of Gordon — Recovery of the Soudan 550 CHAPTER XXIV SPAIN AND PORTUGAL SINCE 1823 Spain — Revenge of Ferdinand VII after 1823 — " Subversive " Cries — Loss of the American Colonies— The Question of the Succession — The Pragmatic Sanction — Isabella Proclaimed Queen — The Carlist War— The Royal Statute, 1834— Disturbed Political Life —The Constitution of 1837— Isabella II Declared of Age— The Mexican Expedition — The Overthrow of Isabella II — The Regency of Marshal Serrano — Amadeo of Savoy Chosen King — Abdication of Amadeo — The Establishment of the Republic — The CONTENTS Causes of Its Fall — Alfonso XII Recognized as King — The Constitution of 1876— Death of Alfonso XII— The Spanish- American War — Loss of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines — Alfonso XIII Assumes Power — Portugal — Flight of the Royal Family to Brazil, 1807 — Portuguese Revolution of 1820 — Loss of Brazil — Donna Maria da Gloria — Death of Maria — Recent Events in Portugal 564 CHAPTER XXV HOLLAND AND BELGIUM SINCE 1830 Holland— The Fundamental Law of 1815— The Constitution of 1848 — Extension of the Franchise — The Dutch Colonies — Belgium — The Reign of Leopold I— The Reign of Leopold II— The Suf- frage — Education 579 CHAPTER XXVI SWITZERLAND The Constitution of 1815 — The Importance of the Cantons — The " Era of Regeneration " — The Sonderbund — The Constitution of 1848 — The Federal Government — Powers of the Federal and Cantonal Government — The Chief Significance of Switzerland — Important Contributions to Democratic Government — The Landesgemeinde Cantons — The Referendum — The Initiative — Spread of the Referendum and the Initiative — -Proportional Representation — The Population of Switzerland — The Neu- trality of Switzerland 584 CHAPTER XXVII THE SCANDINAVIAN STATES Denmark Loses Norway — Consultative Assemblies — Constitution Granted — Schleswig-Holstein — Treaty of Vienna— Revision of the Constitution — Growth of Radicalism — Denmark's Colonies — Sweden and Norway — The Constitution of Eidsvold — Sweden and Norway Separate Nations Under tlie Same King — The Reign of Charles XIII— The Constitution of 1866— Friction Between Sweden and Norway — Abolition of Norwegian Nobility — Dis- solution of the Union — Treaty of Carlstad — Death of Oscar II — Suffrage in Norway 592 CHAPTER XXVIII THE DISRUPTION OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND THE RISE OF THE BALKAN STATES Decay of the Ottoman Empire — Turkey in Process of Dismember- ment — The Ruling Class — The Eastern Question — Treatment of Subject Peoples — The Revolt of the Servians — The Condition of the Greeks — Intellectual Revival— The Hetairia Philike — The Greek War of Independence — The Ferocity of the Conflict — Fac- xxii CONTENTS PAGE tional Quarrels Among the Greeks — Foreign Intervention — Why England Intervened — Why Russia Intervened — Why France Intervened — Treaty of London — The Battle of Navarino — War Between Russia and Turkey — Creation of the Kingdom of Greece — The Principalities — Ambitions of Nicholas I — The Holy Places — War Between Russia and Turkey — Coalition Against Russia — Piedmont Joins the Coalition — Invasion of the Crimea — The Siege of Sebastopol — Fall of Sebastopol — Treaty of Paris — Turkey Admitted to the European Concert — Results of the Crimean War — Moldavia-Wallachia — The Roumanians and the Crimean War — The Union of the Principalities — Couza — Charles I of Roumania — Reopening of the Eastern Question — The Insurrection of Herzegovina — Accession of Abdul Hamid II — The Bulgarian Atrocities — Gladstone's Denunciation of the Turks — Servia and Montenegro Declare War — Russia Declares War — The Siege of Plevna— Treaty of San Stefano — Opposition to the Treaty — England Demands Its Revision — The Congress of Berlin — Independence of Montenegro, Servia, and Roumania — Union of the Two Bulgarias — Macedonia— Bulgaria since 1878 — Alexander of Battenberg — Friction Between the Bulgarians and the Russians — Breach of the Treaty of Berlin— Servia Attacks Bulgaria, Nov. 1885 — Abdication of Prince Alexander — Ferdi- nand of Saxe-Coburg — Dictatorship of Stambuloff — Murder of Stambuloff — Roumania and Servia since 1878 — Roumania Pro- claimed a Kingdom — Agrarian Disturbances — Greece since 1833 — Reign of Otto I — Overthrow of Otto— The Ionian Islands — Annexation of Thessaly^Aspirations of the Balkan States — Revolution in Turkey— The Young Turks — Revolution of July, 1908 — Restoration of the Constitution — Apparent Unanimity of this Movement — A Modernized Turkey — Attitude of Foreign Powers — Austria-Hungary Annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina — Bulgaria Declares Her Independence — The Powers Do Not Prevent These Breaches of the Berlin Treaty — Servia — Opening of the Turkish Parliament — The Counter-revolution of April, 1909 — The Young Turks Regain Control — Deposition of Abdul Hamid II — Accession of Mohammed V 601 CHAPTER XXIX RUSSIA TO THE WAR WITH JAPAN The Reign of Alexander I — Russian Conquests — The Nobility — The Peasantry — Alexander I — The Corruption of the Government — Poland— Alexander's Progressive Domestic Policy — Liberal For- eign Policy — Alexander Becomes Reactionary — Friction with the Poles — Death of Alexander I — The Reign of Nicholas I — Sys- tematic Repression — The Police System — The Censorship — Safe- guards Against the Ideas of Western Europe — A Brilliant Native Literature — Religious Persecution — The Evil of Serfdom — The Foreign Policy of Nicholas I — The Crimean War — The Humiliation of Russia — The Reign of Alexander II — Prevailing System of Land Tenure — The Mir — The Serfs — Serfdom Con- demned — The Crown Serfs — The Edict of Emancipation — The Land Problem — Division of the Land — State Aid — Disappoint- ment of the Peasantry — The Land Question not Solved — Establishment of the Zemstvos — Duties of the Zemstvos — Work CONTENTS xxiii PAGE Accomplished by the Zemstvos — Reform of the Judicial System — Educational Reform — End of the Era of Reform — The Polish Insurrection of 1863— The Aims of the Poles — The Poles Receive no Foreign Aid — The Deep-seated Divisions of the Poles — Russia Resolves to Crush the Polish Nobility— A Policy of Russification — EflFect of Polish Insurrection upon Alex- ander II — Alexander's Policy Becomes Retrogressive — Wide- spread Disillusionment — Rise of Nihilism — Persecution of the Nihilists — Bakounine — Nihilist Propaganda — A Policy of Terror- ism — Activity of the Police — Attempts upon the Emperor's Life — Alexander II and Loris Melikoff — Assassination of Alex- ander II — The Reign of Alexander III — Rigorous Policy of Re- action — Influence of Pobyedonostseff — Opposition to the Ideas of Western Europe — The Terrorists Hunted Down — Persecution of the Jews — Great Jewish Emigration — Progressive Features of the Reign of Alexander III — The Industrial Revolution — Sergius de Witte, Minister of Finance — Witte's Industrial Policy — Ex- tensive Railway Construction — Rise of Labor Problems — Rise of a Rich Bourgeoisie — The System of Privilege Menaced— Acces- sion of Nicholas II — Continuance of Autocratic Government — Increasing Disaffection — Wretched Condition of the Peasantry — Persecution of the " Intellectuals " — Attack upon the Finns — Abrogation of the Finnish Constitution — Despair of the Finns — Rise of the Far Eastern Question 645 CHAPTER XXX THE FAR EAST England, France, and Russia, in Asia — Russian Expansion — Russia Seeks Access to the Sea — Conquest of Turkestan — China — The Civilization of China — The Government of China — Isolation of China — The Opium War — The Treaty Ports — Entrance of Various Powers into Commercial Relations — Treaties of Tien- tsin — Russia Annexes the Maritime Province — Japan — Descrip- tion of Japan — Japanese Civilization — The Mikado — The Shogun — The Daimios, the Samurai — Advent of Europeans — Japan Adopts a Policy of Isolation — Commodore Perry — Policy of Iso- lation Breaks Down — Overthrow of the Shogunate — The Mikado Recovers Power — Rapid Transformation of Japan — Abolition of the Old Regime — Adoption of European Institutions — Reform in Education — Japan Becomes a Constitutional State — Wars with China and Russia— Cause of the War with China — Treaty of Shimonoseki — Intervention of Russia, France, and Germany — Japan Relinquishes Port Arthur — Russian Entrance into Man- churia — German Aggression — Russia Secures Port Arthur — The " Boxer " Movement — Rescue of the Legations — Japan Indignant and Apprehensive — Russian Activity in Manchuria — Diplomatic Negotiations Concerning Manchuria^ — The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1902 — Japan Makes War upon Russia — Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905— Siege of Port Arthur— Mukden Captured by the Japanese — Destruction of the Russian Fleet, May 27th, 1905 — The Treaty of Portsmouth — Reaction of These Events upon China — China in Process of Transformation — China Promised a Constitution 681 xxiv CONTENTS CHAPTER XXXI PAGE RUSSIA SINCE THE WAR WITH JAPAN Unpopularity in Russia of the War witli Japan — Open Expression of the Popular Discontent — Von Plehve's Iron Regime — Assassi- nation of Von Plehve — A Russian Defense of Assassination — Nicholas II Enters upon a More Liberal Path — Demands of the Liberals — Not Granted by the Tsar — Widespread Disorder — The Tsar Announces His Intentions — Popular Dissatisfaction and Continuance of Disorder — The Manifesto of August 19, 1905 — The Resort to the General Strike — The Manifesto of October, 1905 — The Popular Demand for a Constituent Assembly Refused — The Government Makes Concessions to Finland — The Council of the Empire — The " Organic Laws " — Opening of the Duma, May 10, 1906 — Demands of the Duma — The Impotence of the Duma — The Duma Dissolved^Stolypin Appointed Chief Minister —The Viborg Manifesto— The Second Duma— The Tsar Alters the Electoral System — The Third Duma — The Autocracy Asserts Its Supreme Authority — The Transformation of the Mir — The Restoration of the Liberties of Finland — The Finnish Parlia- ment Altered — Renewed Troubles in Finland 706 CHAPTER XXXII CERTAIN FEATURES OF MODERN PROGRESS Literature — Music — Science — The Age of Steam — Rise of the Fac- tory System — Steam Navigation— The Invention of the Railroad — Importance of Railroads — Electricity — Standard of Living — Popular Discontent — Spread of Militarism — Cost of Modern Instruments of War — Nicholas II and the Limitation of Armaments — The First Peace Conference at the Hague — Ad- dress of M. de Staal — Address of General von Schwarzhoff — Address of M. Bourgeois — Establishment of a Permanent Court of Arbitration— The Twentieth Century Opens with Wars— The Second Peace Conference at the Hague — Work of the Con- ference — Cost of the Policy of Blood and Iron — Significance of the Peace Conferences — Arbitration 719 BlBUOGRAPHY '^37 Index ''^^S LIST OF MAPS PAGE Europe in 1815 Frontispiece DiSTRIBUTIOK OF RaCES IN AuSTEIA-HtJNGARY 25 The German Confederation, 1815-1866 31 Italy, 1815-1859 53 The Unification of Italy 237 The Growth of Prussia Since 1815 267 The German Empire 305 Colonial Possessions of the European Powers in 1815 . . . 523 Africa. European Possessions in 1884 555 Africa at the Present Time 561 The Rise of the Balkan States 625 Asia 703 Contemporary Europe 721 Colonial Possessions of the European Powers at the Present Time .............. 733 CHAPTER I THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE In March 1814, the enemies of Napoleon entered his cap- ital and bivouacked in triumph in the streets. The long struggle was over which had forced the Emperor back step by step from the plains of Russia through Germany, and was now sweeping him from France. Slowly the states of Europe had come to see that Napoleonic domination could be ended only by a generous and unswerving co- operation. Reading this useful lesson in the defeats of many fields, they had built up the Great Coalition, and finally the political system, fashioned with such a varied display of talent by the Emperor of the French, had given way beneath the impact of a united and resolute Europe. But the overthrow of Napoleon brought with it one of The over= the most complicated and difficult problems ever presented ^^^^'^ ^^ to statesmen and diplomatists. As all the nations of Europe had been profoundly affected by his enterprises, so all were profoundly affected by his fall. For nearly a quarter of a century the Continent had been harried by war, involving, directly or indirectly, all the powers, great and small. During that period boundaries had been changed and changed again with bewildering rapidity, old states had been destroyed, or cut up, or re-fashioned arbitrarily, several historic dynasties had been swept from their thrones, new legal and social systems had been established, largely after French models, and now the power that had led in this vast transformation had been humbled, its sovereign forced to strike arms. The destruction of the Napoleonic regime must be followed by the reconstruction of Europe, and it is with this difficult work that this history begins. % THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE This reconstruction was foreshadowed more or less clearly The Great in the treaties concluded with each other by the various Coalition. states as they entered the Great Coalition. Particularly important, however, were the Treaties of Paris and Vienna, to the making of which the powers now directed their attention. The first step, naturally, was to determine the future status of France. What should be done with this arch- enemy of Europe, now that the decision no longer lay with her but with her conquerors? What should be her future government, how large her territory, how severe her punishment.'' The problem The question of the government was the first to arise, ^ 5 r aiifi had agitated the Allies for weeks before they entered ernment of , ^ ^ ^ •' Prance. Paris. There were several possible solutions. One was the continuance of Napoleon in power^ but only after having given sufficient guarantees for good behavior,^ Such an out- come was possible up to the middle of March, -^hen the conditions were presented him for the last time*. After he rejected them the Allies determined to have done with him forever^ There were the alternatives of a Regency for the little King of Rome, Napoleon's son, or of a successful French general as the new monarch, such as Bernadotte, now patronized by the Tsar. Some proposed to leave the whole matter to the French people, others to the determina- tion of the legislative chambers sitting in Paris. But as the discussion went on it gradually became clearer and clearer that it must be either Napoleon or Louis XVIII, the founder of the new royal family or the representative of the old. Bernadotte upon the throne would mean an undue influence of Russia in the affairs of France ; a Regencj^, an undue influence of Austria. An appeal to the French people, it was said, would let loose the Revolution once more, the very thing to which it was proposed to administer a definite and complete quietus. Gradually the cry of the French royalists in favor of Louis XVIII, " the legitimate king is TREATY OF PARIS 3 there," to restore liim is imperatively necessary, " all else is intrigue," carried all before it, and the first step in the reconstruction of Europe was taken by the restoration of the Bourbons to the throne from which they had been ab- sent twenty-two years. On May 30, 1814, the Treaty of Paris was concluded Treaty of between the Allies on the one hand, and France, under Louis ^^^"s. XVIII, on the other. The boundaries of France were to be those of January 1, 1792, with slight additions to- ward the southeast in Savoy and in the north and north- east. On the other hand she was to relinquish all her con- quests beyond that line, which meant the extensive territories of the Netherlands, Italy, and parts of Germany, contain- ing in all a population of about thirty-two millions. The distribution of these territories was to be determined later, but it was already decided in principle, and so stated in the treaty, that the Netherlands should form a single state by the addition of the Belgian provinces to Holland, that Lombardy and Venetia should go to Austria, that the Re- public of Genoa should be incorporated in Sardinia, that the states of Germany should be united in a federation, that England should keep Malta and certain French colonies, returning others, that the German territories on the left bank of the Rhine, united to France since 1792, should be used for the enlargement of Holland, and as compensation to Prussia and other German states, and that Italy, out- side those regions that were to go to Austria, should be " composed of sovereign states." The definite elaboration of these intentions of the Allies was to be the work of a general international congress to be held, later in the year, in Vienna. The Congress of Vienna (September 1814- June 1815) was Congress of one of the most important diplomatic gatherings in the ^^^^^* history of Europe, by reason of the number, variety, and gravity of the questions presented and settled. The worldly brilliancy of its membership was remarkable even 4 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE for an age accustomed to the theatrical diplomacy of Napoleon. There had rarely been seen before such an assem- blage as gathered in Vienna in the autumn of 1814. There were the emperors of Austria and Russia, the kings of Prussia, Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, Denmark, a multitude of lesser princes, and all the diplomats of Europe, of whom Metternich and Talleyrand were the most conspicuous. All the powers were represented except Turkey. So brilliant an array merited consideration, and partly because men needed relaxation after the tense and desperate years through which they had just passed, and partly to oil the wheels of diplo- macy, the court of Austria was most profuse and ingenious in its entertainment. Gaiety was the order of the day. It has been estimated that this Congress cost Austria about sixteen million dollars, spent for pageantry and amusement, and this when the state was virtually bankrupt. Slowly the work for which these men had come together was accomplished. The Congress of Vienna was not a con- gress in the ordinary meaning of the word. There was never any formal opening nor any general exchange of creden- tials. The representatives of the powers did not assemble day after day and deliberate upon the many problems press- ing for solution. There were no general sessions of all the powers. A large number of treaties were made between the various states and these were brought together in their es- sential features in the so-called Final Act of June 9, 1815, a kind of codification of the work of the Congress. Every- thing was arranged outside in special committees, and in the intimate interviews of sovereigns and diplomats. The Great Particularly important were the agreements of the Great Powers. Powers with each other, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Eng- land, the Allies who had conquered Napoleon, for their de- cisions were the main work of the Congress, and were forced upon the lesser states, which were simply expected to ac- cept what they could not themselves arrange. The dramatic interest of the Congress lies in the fact that these Great CONGRESS OF VIENNA 5 Powers were not in harmony with each other, that their interests at times were so divergent, their ambitions so in- tense and conflicting, that at one moment war seemed likely to be the outcome of this meeting called to give peace to Europe. By the first Treaty of Paris of May 30, 1814, France The division had renounced all rights of sovereignty and protection over°^ . spoils, thirty-two millions of people. The diplomats of Vienna re- served the right to distribute these millions as they saw fit. This was the main work of the Congress as it was also the one which occasioned the greatest discord. The division of the spoils was a troublesome affair. The territories which France had renounced were widely scattered. They included what are now Belgium, certain Swiss cantons, large parts of Italy, extensive regions of Germany on both sides of the Rhine, and the Duchy of Warsaw, a creation of Napoleon out of former Poland. In addition to these. Saxony, an independent kingdom, which had remained faithful to Napoleon when the other German states had turned against him, and the Kingdom of Naples, of which Napoleon's brother-in-law, Murat, was still sovereign, were also con- sidered properly at the disposal of the powers, by reason of their connection with the fallen star. Certain questions had been decided in principle in the first Treaty of Paris, and needed now but to be carried out. The King of Piedmont, a refugee in his island of Sardinia during Napoleon's reign, was restored to his throne, and Genoa was given him that thus the state which borders France on the southeast might be the stronger to resist French aggression. Belgium, hitherto an Austrian posses- sion, was annexed to Holland and to th(i House of Orange, now restored, that this state might be a barrier in the north. It was understood that, in general, the doctrine of Principle legitimacy should be followed in determining the re-arrange- °^ legit- ment of Europe, that is, the principle that princes deprived ^°^^''^" of their thrones and driven from their states by Napoleon 6 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE should receive them back again at the hands of collective Europe, though this principle was ignored whenever it so suited the interests of the Great Powers. Thus many of the German and Italian princes recovered their authority. But in the determination of the legitimacy of a govern- ment great elasticity prevailed. In general, those states which in Germany had been destroyed before 1803, and in Italy before 1798, were not restored. This alone meant that the map of Europe was far more simple than at the outbreak of the French Revolution. Demands of The Allies who had, after immense effort and sacrifice, Russia. overthrown Napoleon, felt that they should have their re- ward. The most powerful monarch at Vienna was Alex- ander I, Emperor of Russia, who, ever since Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, had loomed large as a lib- erator of Europe. He now demanded that the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, whose government fell with Napoleon, be given to him. This state had been created out of Polish terri- tories which Prussia and Austria had seized in the partitions of that country at the close of the eighteenth century. Alexander wished to unite them with a part of Poland that had fallen to Russia, thus largely to restore the old Polish kingdom and nationality to which he intended to give a parliament and a constitution. There was to be no incor- poration of the restored kingdom in Russia, but the Russian emperor should be king of Poland. The union was to be merely personal. Bemands of Prussia was willing to give up her Polish provinces if Prussia. ^j^j^ gj^g could be indemnified elsewhere. She therefoi . fixed her attention upon the rich Kingdom of Saxony to the south, with the important cities of Dresden and Leipsic, as her compensation. To be sure there was a King of Saxony, and the doctrine of legitimacy would seem clearly to apply to him. But he had been faithful to his treaty obligations with Napoleon down to the battle of Leipsic, and thus, said Prussia, he had been a traitor to Germany, THE CLAIMS OF RUSSIA AND PRUSSIA 7 and his state was lawful prize. Prussia preferred to re- ceive her increase of territory in Saxony rather than in the west along the Rhine, because Saxony was contiguous. She would thus consolidate and become more compact, whereas any possession she might acquire along the Rhine would be cut oiF from the rest of the kingdom by inter- vening states, and would only render more straggling and exposed her boundaries, already unsatisfactory. Moreover, she wished no common boundary with France, feeling that she would always be weak along the Rhine. Russia and Prussia supported each other's claims, the The fate of one to the Duchy of Warsaw, the other to the Kingdom of ^°^^"* ^^^ •nil r 1 Saxony. Saxony. But Austria and England were opposed to the demands of the northern courts, Austria not only because she was reluctant to give up her own Polish territory, her own part of the Duchy of Warsaw, but because she feared the power of Russia, and the growth of Prussia in north- ern and central Germany, England because she desired to prevent Russia from increasing in strength, and Prussia from threatening Hanover. The Polish and Saxon ques- tions, thus closely connected with each other, formed the most thorny subject before the Congress, the very pivot on which everything turned. So heated did the discussion become that Talleyrand, utilizing the opposition of the Great Powers to each other, succeeded in forming a secret al- liance between England, Austria, and France, to resist these pretentions by arms if necessary (January 1815). The situation into which the powers had come over this Polish-Saxon question was manifestly so full of danger for all concerned that they began to recede from their extreme positions. This prepared the way for concessions, but the concessions were forced largely from Prussia. The oppo- sition to Russia was much less vehement, owing to her great military power. With three hundred thousand men ready for action she spoke with emphasis, and moreover, in the general state of exhaustion, Europe had no desire to go 8 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE to war on account of Poland. The final decision was that Russia should receive the lion's share of the Duchy of War- ♦ saw, Prussia retaining only the province of Posen, and Cracow being erected into a free city ; that the King of Saxony should be restored to his throne; that he should retain the important cities of Dresden and Leipsic, but should cede to Prussia about two-fifths of his kingdom ; that, as further compensation, Prussia should receive ex- tensive territories on both banks of the Rhine. Prussia also acquired Pomerania from Sweden, thus rounding out her coast line on the Baltic. Hussian ac- Russia emerged from the Congress with a goodly number of additions. She retained Finland, conquered from Sweden during the late wars, and Bessarabia, snatched from the Turks ; also Turkish territories in the southeast. But, most important of all, she had now succeeded in gaining most of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Russia now extended farther westward into Europe than ever, and could henceforth speak with greater weight in European affairs. Austrian ac- As Vienna was honored by being chosen the seat of the ^uisitions. great Congress the House of Hapsburg profited greatly by the arrangements concluded there. Austria refused to take back her former possessions in southern Germany and Belgium, considering them too distant and too difficult to defend, and preferring to consolidate her power in south- ern and central Europe. She recovered her Polish posses- sions and received, as compensation for the Netherlands, northern Italy, to be henceforth known as the Lombardo- Venetian Kingdom, comprising the larger and richer part of the Po valley. The Illyrian provinces along the eastern coast of the Adriatic were erected into a kingdom and given to her. This enlargement of her coast line increased her importance as a maritime power. She also extended west- ward into the Tyrol and Salzburg, planting herself firmly upon the Alps. Thus, after twenty years of war, almost ARRANGEMENTS CONCERNING ITALY 9 uninterruptedly disastrous, she emerged with considerable accessions of strength, and with a population larger by four or five millions than she had possessed in 1792. She had obtained, in lieu of remote and unprofitable possessions, territories which augmented her power in central Europe, the immediate annexation of a part of Italy, and indirect control over the other Italian states. The policy followed by Austria in the negotiations was indicated by Metter- nich, who said, " We wished to establish our empire with- out there being any direct contact with France." This was accomplished. England, the most persistent enemy of Napoleon, the English ac- builder of repeated coalitions, the pay-mistress of the Allies I'^^isitions. for many years, found her compensation in additions to her colonial empire. She retained much that she had con- quered from France or from the allies or dependencies of France, particularly Holland. She occupied Heligoland in the North Sea, Malta and the Ionian Islands in the Mediter- ranean; Cape Colony in South Africa; Ceylon, Isle of France, Demerara, St. Lucia, Tobago, and Trinidad. It was partially in view of her colonial losses that Holland was indemnified by the annexation of Belgium on the Con- tinent, as already stated. Another question of great importance, decided at Vienna, The future was the disposition of Italy. The general principle of ac- °^ Italy- tion had already been laid down in the Treaty of Paris, that Austria should receive compensation here for the Nether- lands, and that the old dynasties should be restored. Aus- trian interests determined the territorial arrangements. Austria took possession, as has been said, of the richest and, in a military sense, the strongest provinces, Lombardy and Venetia, from which position she could easily dominate the peninsula, especially as the Duchy of Parma was given to Marie Louise, wife of Napoleon, and as princes con- nected with the Austrian imperial family were restored to their thrones in Modena and Tuscany. The Papal States 10 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE were also re-established. Austrian influence was henceforth substituted for French throughout the peninsula. Italy a No union or federation of these states was eff'ected, as in " ffsograph- Germany, largely because Austria feared that she would sion." ^^^ ^^ allowed the presidency of two confederations. It was Metternich's desire that Italy should simply be a col- lection of independent states, should be only a " geographical expression." The doctrine of legitimacy, appealed to for the restoration of dynasties, was ignored by this congress of princes in the case of republics. " Republics are no longer fashionable," said the Tsar to a Genoese deputation which came to protest against this arrangement. Genoa and Venice were handed over to others. Romilly mentioned in the English House of Commons that the Corinthian horses which Napoleon had brought from St. Marks to Paris were restored to the Venetians, but that it was certainly a strange act of justice " to give them back their statues, but not to restore to them those far more valuable posses- sions, their territory and their republic," which had been wrested from them at the same time. Other changes in the map of Europe, now made or ratified, were these: Norway was taken from Denmark and joined with Sweden: Switzerland was increased by the addition of three cantons which had recently been incorporated in France, thus making twenty-two cantons in all. The fron- tiers of Spain and Portugal were left untouched. Such were the territorial re-adjustments decreed by the Congress of Vienna, and which were destined to endure, with slight changes, for nearly fifty years. It is impossible to dis- cover in these negotiations the operation of any lofty prin- ciple. Self-interest is the key to this welter of bargains and agreements. Not that these titled brokers neglected to attempt to convince Europe of the nobility of their endeavors. Great phrases, such as " the reconstruction of the social order," " the regeneration of the political sys- tem of Europe," a " durable peace based upon a just di- Criticism of the Congress. THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE GERMANS 11 vision of power," were used by the diplomats of Vienna in order to reassure the peoples of Europe, and to lend an air of dignity and elevation to this august assembly, but the peoples were not deceived. They saw the unedifying scramble of the conquerors for the spoils of victory. No ignominy was spared the people of Germany. The dip- lomats quarreled over the question whether some of the subjects of certain princes, who were not to be restored (the mediatized princes), subjects who paid small taxes, were to be reckoned as " whole souls," or " half souls." Germans were indignant as they saw themselves considered The indig- merely as numbers and articles of taxation. A German "^ ^°^ ° . . . the editor denounced this " heartless system of statistics," and Germans. glorious Bliicher grimly compared this congress to the an- nual cattle fair. The doctrine of legitimacy was one of the rhetorical shibboleths, but, as already said, it was ap- plied only capriciously as suited the Great Powers. Re- publics need not invoke it, and even kings were curtly ex- cluded from its benefits. Gustavus IV, of Sweden, de- throned, claimed in vain his restoration. The King of , Denmark was forced to acquiesce in the grievous dismem- berment of his kingdom. For years the monarchs of \ Europe had denounced Napoleon for respecting neither the rights of princes nor those of peoples. They now paid him i the flattery of hearty imitation. They ignored as cavalierly as he had done the prescriptive rights of rulers, whenever it seemed to them advantageous to do so. The principle of nationality which Napoleon had contemned to his own un- doing, they treated with similar disdain. It was in de- Defiance fiance of this principle that Austria was given a command- • Ti T .1 . T^T ^ ^ ■, n principle mg position m Italy, that Norway was handed from ^^ nation- Denmark, whose language she spoke, to Sweden, as com- ality. pensation for Finland, which the latter was forced to re- nounce to Russia, and for Pomerania, which she was forced to cede to Prussia, that the Belgians were united with the Dutch. la THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE Europe generally acquiesced willingly in the work of this Congress, ardently desirous as it was after the long, sickening wars, for peace at almost any price, and that work proved reasonably durable. Yet the settlement of Vienna had pronounced enemies from the start, anxious to overthrow it. Among the disaffected were the French, who saw what they regarded as their natural boundary taken from them. They alone, among the important nations, came forth from this international liquidation with no accessions of territory. Prussia, Russia, Austria, and England, all received additions and important ones. But not so France, and thus relatively to the others France was weakened. For Frenchmen these treaties of 1815 were " odious," and to be torn up when the propitious time should come. Multitudes, also, of Ger- mans and Italians were embittered as they saw their hopes of unity and liberal government turn to ashes. The Bel- gians resented being handed about without even being con- sulted. They rose in revolt in 1830, and destroyed this artifice of 1815. The arrangements concerning Germany and Italy were demolished in the great decade of 1860 to 1870. Demincia- Though the division of territories and the determination tion of the ^f ^}jg map of Europe constituted the main work of the ' Congress of Vienna, other subjects were passed upon as well. Though it did not abolish the slave trade, it con- demned it in a solemn utterance " as contrary to the prin- ciples of civilization and human right." It was something to have the traffic thus officially branded. The Congress also established a federal form of government for Germany, which will be described in a succeeding chapter. It adopted certain articles concerning the future organization of Switzerland. The Final Act, codifying the work of the Congress during its many months of activity, was signed June 9, 1815, a few days only before the battle of W^aterloo. All the governments of Europe accepted its provisions, except Spain and the Papacy, whose SECOND TREATY OF PARIS 13 opposition was treated by the others with easy-going indifference. While the Congress of Vienna was slowly elaborating the The "Hun- system that should succeed the Napoleonic on the basis of ^"^ ^^y^" a certain balance of power, Napoleon escaped from Elba, made straight for Paris, seized the government of France from the hands of the fleeing Louis XVIII, and entered upon a reign of a " Hundred Days." The Allies once more forgot their wranglings, indignantly gathered themselves together to end this menace once for all, and Waterloo was their reward. The sudden flash had, however, proved the necessity of legislation supplementary to that of the Congress before peace could be considered secure. The first Treaty of Paris had not proved a solid basis for a reconstructed Europe. A restored Bourbon had not been able to keep his throne. Now France must give sufficient bonds that in the future she would not disturb the tranquillity of the Continent. The result was the second Treaty of Paris (November 20, 1815), Second concluded, like the first, between Louis XVIII, restored once . more, and the Allies, but unlike the first, imposing heavy and humiliating burdens upon France. Her territory was reduced, involving a loss of about half of a million in- habitants, though it was still larger than at the outbreak of the Revolution. She was forced to cede a number of strategic posts on her northern and eastern frontier. She was to pay a war indemnity of 700,000,000 francs and eighteen fortresses were to be occupied by 150,000 troops of the Allies for a maximum of five years, a minimum of three, these troops to be supported by the French. It has been estimated that the total cost of the " Hundred Days " to France, resulting from these stipulations and certain addi- tional claims of the Allies, amounted in the end to 1,570,000,- 000 francs, the equivalent In purchasing power of about 6,000,000,000 francs to-day. Before quitting Paris in the fall of this eventful year of 1815, the Allies signed two more documents of great 14* THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE significance in the future history of Europe, that estabhsh- The Holy ing the so-called Holy Alliance, and that establishing the Alliance. Quadruple Alliance. The former proceeded from the in- itiative of Alexander I, of Russia, whose mood was now deeply religious under the influence of the tremendous events of recent years and the fall of Napoleon, which to his mind seemed the swift verdict of a higher power in human destinies. He himself had been freely praised as the White Angel, in contrast to the fallen Black Angel, and he had been called the Universal Saviour. He now submitted a document to his immediate allies, Prussia and Austria, which was famous for a generation, and which gave the popular name to the system of repression which was for many years followed by the powers that had conquered in the late campaign, a document unique in the history of diplomacy. Invoking the name of " the very holy and indivisible Trinity," these three monarchs, " in view of the great events which the last three years have brought to pass in Europe, and in view, especially, of the benefits which it has pleased Divine Providence to confer upon those states whose governments have placed their confidence and their hope in Him alone," having reached the profound convic- tion that the policy of the powers, in their mutual relations, ought to be guided by the " sublime truths taught by the eternal religion of God our Saviour " solemnly declare " their unchangeable determination to adopt no other rule of conduct, either in the government of their respective countries, or in their political relations with other govern- ments than the precepts of that holy religion, the precepts of justice, charity, and peace"; solemnly declare, also, that those principles " far from being applicable exclusively to private life, ought on the contrary to control the resolutions of princes, and to guide their steps as the sole means of establishing human institutions, and of remedying their im- perfections." Henceforth, accordingly, " conformably to the words of Holy Scripture " the three monarchs will con- THE HOLY ALLIANCE 15 sider themselves as brothers and fellow citizens, " united by The Allies the bonds of a true and indissoluble fraternity," and will P^^"J^^^ •^ . aid to lend " aid and assistance to each other on all occasions and e^gji other, in all places, regarding themselves, in their relations to their subjects and to their armies, as fathers of families." Hence, their " sole principle of conduct " shall be that " of rendering mutual service and testifying by unceasing good will the mutual affection with which they should be animated. Considering themselves all as members of one great Chris- tian nation, the three allied princes look upon themselves as delegates of Providence called upon to govern three branches of the same family," namely, Austria, Prussia, and Russia. " Their majesties recommend, therefore, to their peoples, as the sole means of enjoying that peace which springs from a good conscience and is alone enduring, to fortify themselves each day in the principles and practice of those duties which the Divine Saviour has taught to men." " All those powers who wish solemnly to make avowal " of these " sacred principles shall be received into this Holy Alliance with as much cordiality as affection." ^ This document, born of the religious emotionalism of the Unusual Tsar, has no parallel. Written in the form of a treaty, it ^ ^, ... -^ of the imposes none of the practical obligations of a treaty, but Alliance. is rather a confession of faith and purpose. Diplomatists were amazed at its unworldly character. Ultimately, nearly all the powers of Europe signed it, more out of com- pliment to the Tsar than from any intellectual sympathy. Metternlch pronounced it a " sonorous nothing," a " philan- thropic aspiration clothed in a religious garb," an " overflow of the pietistic feelings of the Emperor Alexander " ; Castlereagh, a " piece of sublime mysticism and nonsense " ; Gentz, a bit of " stage decoration." Yet for a generation this Holy Alliance or " diplomatic apocalypse " stood In the mind of the world as the synonym for the regime of ' Extracts from University of Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints, Vol. I, No. 3. Edited by J. H. Robinson. 16 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE absolutism and repression which prevailed in Europe. But that regime was not the outcome of the treaty of the Holy Alliance, but rather that of the treaty of the Quadruple Alliance concluded in the same year. The former was a dead letter from the moment of issue, and did not influence the policy, either domestic or foreign, of any state. Its author, Alexander I, was, moreover, in 1815 a liberal in politics who had been largely instrumental in forcing the restored Bourbon, Louis XVIII, to grant a constitution to France, and who was himself about to grant one to Poland. He was certainly at this moment far from thinking of inaugurating a system of repression. But the latter, the treaty of the Quadruple Alliance, became under the manipu- lation of Mettemich a stern and forbidding reality, as we shall see. The liberal newspapers of the Continent confused the two treaties, naturally enough, as Russia, Austria, and Prussia were signatories of both, and they came to speak with hatred of the Holy Alliance. The name excepted, however, the Holy Alliance is much less important than the ftuadruple Quadruple Alliance concluded November 20, 1815. Napoleon had been overthrown only by collective Europe, bound together in a great coalition. The episode of the " Hundred Days," occurring while the Congress of Vienna was laying the foundations of the new Europe, proved the necessity of the prolongation of that union. Hence, there appeared the " Concert of Powers," which for the next few years is the central fact in the international affairs of Europe. In the eyes of the victorious mcr.archs there were two dangers menacing the system they were resolved to re- store : France as a military power ; and " French ideas," the ideas of the Revolution, of the rights of peoples and individuals which, operating upon the masses of the differ- ent states, might lead them to attempt to remold the dif- ferent governments along French lines. Against the first danger ample precautions had been taken. France was now surrounded by a ring of states sufficiently strong in Alliance. THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE IT a military sense to hold her in check temporarily, and to prevent any such invasions of the French as had occurred during the previous years. Moreover, many of her fron- tier fortresses had been taken from her, leaving weak spots in her line of defense, particularly toward Germany. She had also been forced to consent to the occupation of her territory for several years by a large army under the com- mand of the powers that had just humbled her. As if this were not enough, she was herself to pay for the support of those troops, and also to pay a large indemnity. It was believed that all this would be sufficient to compel her to keep the peace, that she would have domestic problems severe and exacting enough to absorb her entire attention. The control or extinction of the so-called " French Precautions ideas " was a more baffling and subtle problem, but one ^^^^^^ which the Allies felt it necessary to attack. For this pur- pose they, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and England, signed a Treaty of Alliance on November 20, 1815, engaging to employ all their means to prevent the general tranquillity from being again disturbed, binding themselves " to main- tain in full vigor, and should it be necessary, with the whole of their forces," the permanent exclusion of Napoleon and his family from the throne of France, promising to con- cert necessary measures " in case the same Revolutionary Principles, which upheld the last criminal usurpation," should again, " under other forms, convulse France." Ex- pressing themselves as " uniformly disposed to adopt every salutary measure calculated to secure the tranquillity of Europe by maintaining the order of things re-established in France," they agreed, in order " to consolidate the con- The Concert nections, which at the present moment so closely unite the °* Powers, four Sovereigns for the happiness of the world," to renew their meetings " at fixed periods, either under the im- mediate auspices of the sovereigns themselves or by their respective ministers, for the purpose of consulting upon their interests, or for the consideration of the measures which. 18 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE at each of these periods, shall be considered the most salu- tary for the repose and prosperity of Nations and for the maintenance of the Peace of Europe." ^ This was virtually an assertion that the four Great Powers would henceforth control Europe in the interests of the ideas they represented. The Alliance, whose object had been to overthrow Napoleon, was to be projected into the time of peace. There was thus started that series of con- gresses which, for the next eight years, exercised a rigid inquisition into the political movements of Europe, and a pitiless repression of such as appeared dangerous. This alliance was contracted with a view particularly to keeping France harmless. The important provision is that con- cerning future congresses, and it was the manipulation of these congresses in the interest of reaction, the conversion of this alliance into an engine of universal repression, largely Alliance by the adroit diplomacy of Metternich, that made the three . powers which consistently co-operated, and had first signed the Treaty of the Holy Alliance, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, so odious to the Liberals of the Continent. In 1815 this Quadruple Alliance appeared as a warning only to France, but the first congress held under the agreement disclosed a compact union of the three eastern states against the spirit of reform everywhere. England's policy rapidly diverged, as we shall see, from that of her allies. The fate of Europe in the period after 1815 was largely controlled by the powers that had thus proclaimed the prin- ciples of the Christian religion their favorite rule of conduct, yet the probable character of their policy could be more accurately foretold by a study of the character of their rulers rather than of the biblical principles to which they were amiably inclined to append their signatures. Each was an absolute monarch, recognizing no trammels ' Quotations are from Treaty of Alliance and Friendship. Signed Paris, November 20, 1815. Hertslet, Map of Europe by Treaty, I, 372-375. THE MEMBERS OF THE HOLY ALLIANCE 19 upon his power, save such as he himself might be willing to concede. To each the fundamental idea of the Revolu- tion, the sovereignty of the people, was incomprehensible and loathsome. Each had suffered repeatedly and griev- ously from that Revolution. Each was sure to be its enemy, should it break forth again. Yet there were variations. The Emperor of Russia, Alexander I, appeared, in 1815, the Alexander I, most powerful monarch of Europe. Young, imaginative, 1777-1825. impressionable, he had received in his early education a tincture of western liberalism which, in the years immediately after Waterloo, seemed likely to deepen. This at first made Metternich regard him as little less than a Jacobin, all the more dangerous because crowned. Yet he was known as changeable, as egoistic, as influenced by fear. Frederick William III, King of Prussia, slow, timid, conceiving gov- ernment in a parental, patriarchal sense, was a weak ruler, but a ruler whose views were those of the eighteenth century, who did not see the change that had come over the world, who was disposed to plod along contentedly in the tradi- tional path of the absolute Prussian monarchy, distrusting innovations, deferential toward Austria. The other member of the Holy Alliance was Francis I, of Austria, the most Francis I narrow-minded, illiberal of the three. He, too, had learned °^ Austria, 1768-1835. nothing from the suggestive vicissitudes of his career. His mind was commonplace, barren, even mean. The spirit of his rule is mirrored in certain well-known utterances : " The whole world is mad and wants new constitutions." " Keep yourselves," he said to a group of professors in 1821, " to what is old, for that is good ; if our ancestors have proved it to be good why should not we do as they did? New ideas are now coming forward of which I do not nor ever shall approve. Mistrust these ideas and keep to the positive. I have no need of learned men. I want faithful subjects. Be such : that is your duty. He who would serve me must do what I command. He who cannot do this, or who comes full of new ideas, may go his way. If he does not I shall send him." 20 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE Mettemich, 1773-1859. His diplomatic skill. Though Francis I was a commonplace character he pos- sessed in his chief minister, Prince Metternich, a man far out of the ordinary, a man who appeared to the generation that lived between 1815 and 1848 as the most commanding personality of Europe, whose importance is shown in the phrases, " era of Metternich," " system of Metternich." He was the central figure not only in Austrian and German politics, but in European diplomacy, dominating his age as Napoleon had dominated his, though by a very different process. Metternich was the most famous statesman Austria produced in the nineteenth century. A man of high rank, wealthy, polished, he was the prince of diplomatists " with- out a peer in his age or in his style," says a French his- torian and critic, " who deserved to govern Europe as long as Europe deserved to be governed by diplomacy. In this respect everything about him is interesting. . . . Met- ternich remains by exterior grace, by the excellence of tone, the perfection of attitude, and the subtle knowledge of the proprieties, an incomparable master. The great comedy of the world, the high intriguing of the European stage, has never had so fertile an author, an actor so consum- mate," ^ Metternich's reputation was based on his long and tortuous diplomatic duel with Napoleon. Claiming to have correctly read that bewildering personality from his earliest observa- tion of him, and to have lured him slowly yet inevitably to his doom by playing skilfully upon his weaknesses, Metter- nich considered himself the conqueror of the conqueror. An achievement so notable imposed upon many, nor did Met- ternich do aught to dim the brilliancy of the exploit. His imperturbability, his prescience, his diplomatic dexterity were everywhere praised. He came to be considered the one great oracle, whose every word was full of meaning, if only you could get it. Diplomats bowed like acolytes be- fore this master of their craft, and rulers also made their ^ Sorel, Essais d'Histoire et de Critique, 21-22. PRINCE METTERNICH 21 obeisance, though somewhat more slowly, as obviously be- fitted those who ruled by nothing less than divine right. A few years after 1815, Alexander I, of Russia, whose liberal vagaries had sorely tried this infallible high priest, made his penance. " You are not altered," he said, " I am. You have nothing to regret, but I have." Metternich played this lofty role with becoming gravity and grandeur. His cynicism, so corroding for his contem- poraries, never turned upon himself. Humility is hardly a proper weakness for a primate. No adulation could equal his own self-appreciation. He speaks of himself as being His born " to prop up the decaying structure " of European self-esteem, society. He feels the world resting on his shoulders. " My position has this peculiarity," he says, " that all eyes, all expectations are directed to precisely that point where I happen to be." He asks the question : " Why, among so many million men, must I be the one to think when others do not think, to act when others do not act, and to write because others know not how." Traveling in Italy in 1817, he records : " My presence in Italy produces an incalculable effect." Traveling in Germany in 1818, he notes: "I came to Frankfort like the Messiah." Elsewhere he says : " Happy is he who can say of himself that he has never strayed from the path of eternal law. Such testimony, my conscience cannot refuse me." This superb presumption stood the test of all experience. Even in 1848, after the revolutions of Italy and Germany, the abdication of his emperor, and his own overthrow and flight to London, he said : " My mind has never entertained error." As an historical figure Metternich's importance consists His in his execration of the French Revolution. His life-long liistorical role was that of incessant, lynx-eyed opposition to every- thing comprehended in the word. He lavished upon it a wealth of metaphorical denunciation. It was " the disease which must be cured, the volcano which must be extin- guished, the gangrene which must be burned out with the 22 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE hot iron, the hydra with jaws open to swallow up the social order." He was the sworn enemy of the Revolution. He had a horror of parliaments and representative regimes. " France and England," he said, " may be considered as countries without a government." He defined himself as the man of the status quo. His was a doctrine of pure immobility. The new ideas ought never to have come into the world, but the past could not be helped. Prevention of the further spread of these new ideas was, he felt, the im- perative requirement of European politics. He was the minister of European conservatism. His strength lay in the fact that repose was the passionate desire of the men of 1815. Nothing seemed more fearful to Europe than a recurrence of war. Only it was safe to say that a Europe, invigorated, electrified as this had been, however exhausted, Doctrine of however desirous of rest for the time, would not be willing "^ ^ to be forever quiescent. The ideal of immobility as a permanent thing is the paralysis of thought. Mettemich failed in the end, though for a while Europe was blinded by his success, because, while he could imprison revolution- ists, he could not imprison ideas. He failed to understand the impalpable forces of his age. Considering the work of the Congress of Vienna as largely his, his concrete task was, henceforth, to consolidate that work, to repel all attacks upon it. He saw only one side of the Revolution, the destructive. The constructive side he never understood. This, however, was for the future the more important. A comprehension of it was most essential for a statesman who felt the world resting on his shoulders. How Mettemich worked out his system will be seen in succeeding chapters. His lever was Austria. Austria's legal rights and commanding authority in Germany and Italy, and his own remarkable powers of persuasion, sug- gestion, and intimidation were the instruments used in the erection of the international fabric which took its name from him. CHAPTER II REACTION IN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY Austria emerged from the Napoleonic wars stronger, larger, and more populous than ever. She had been re- peatedly shattered, her boundaries repeatedly redefined during the last twenty years, yet the result was favorable. She had relinquished her possessions in the Netherlands (mod- ern Belgium) and some of her southwest German lands, but had been indemnified by lands in Germany and Italy, which were contiguous and more advantageous. At the very moment that her great German rival, Prussia, was becoming more straggling and loosely extended, Austria was attaining a territorial compactness she had never known. Planted firmly upon the Alps and the Carpathians, and with an extensive coast line along the Adriatic, she was admirably situated for an assertive role in European politics. The Austrian Empire, however, presented to the eye cer- lack of tain peculiarities, offered by no other state in Europe, a ^i^ity i^ t^6 knowledge of which is essential to an understanding of her j-j^^jij-g history in the nineteenth century. The empire was con- spicuously lacking in unity, political, racial, or social. It was not a single nation like France but was composed of many nations. To the west were the Austrian duchies, chiefly German, the ancient possessions of the House of Hapsburg ; to the north Bohemia, an ancient kingdom ac- quired by the Hapsburgs in 1526; to the east the Kingdom of Hungary, occupying the immense plain of the middle Danube; to the south the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, purely Italian. None of these even was a unit but each was I composed of several parts. Bohemia included, beside Bohemia proper, Moravia and Silesia; Hungary included far to the 23 M REACTION IN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY Racial differences. Not a German Empire. east the principality of Transylvania, and to the southwest the Kingdom of Croatia. Many of these constituent elements preserved special privileges, thus rendering the government confused and unequal. More important still was the fact that this empire was in- habited by many peoples which differed greatly in origin, in language, in history, in customs and institutions. At best these racial and linguistic differences rendered difficult, if not impossible, the growth of a national consciousness, a com- mon patriotism ; at the worst they might become mutually antagonistic and tend to disrupt the empire. The two lead- ing races were the Germans, forming the body of the popu- lation in the Austrian duchies, and the Magyars, originally an Asiatic folk, encamped in the Danube valley since the ninth century, and forming the dominant people in Hun- gary. Yet also in the eastern part of Hungary were Rou- manians, reputed descendants of early Roman colonists and speaking a language of Latin origin, and there were Slavic peoples north and south of the Germans and Magyars in both Austria and Hungary. In this medley of states, races, and languages there lay numberless possible causes of di- vision and contention. They had almost nothing in common save allegiance to the emperor and, for most of them, to the Roman Catholic Church. If the desire for a separate na- tional life should spring up among these various peoples, the Empire might be disrupted, would at any rate be trans- formed. In 1815, however, there was not the rivalry in nationality and language that has since become so acute. This empire was not a German empire, though it had the appearance of so being. The Germans were the most influen- tial element, the ruling house was German, Vienna, the capi- tal, was a German city, the German language was used for official intercourse. An attempt had been made in the eighteenth century, under Joseph II, thoroughly to German- ize the empire, but it had completely and quickly failed and it was not likely to be made again in the nineteenth century, DISTRIBUTION OF RACE S AUSTRIA-HUNGARY EnglLsh AlUes POLICY OF FRANCIS I 25 as the balance between the German and the non-German elements had been altered since, considerably in favor of the latter. The Germans were in a decided numerical minority, but by reason of their greater wealth, intelligence, and general advancement they remained the leading element in the state. But the nineteenth century was to see their leadership contested and gradually weakened by the rise of strong national and race movements in Hungary and Bo- hemia. The Slavs formed the majority of the population of the entire empire, but they were not homogeneous, were geographically scattered, were in civilization inferior, and were for the time quiescent. To rule so conglomerate a realm of twenty-eight or Policy of twenty-nine million people was a task of great difficulty, -"^^^cis This was the first problem of Francis I (1792-1835) and jietternich. Metternich. Their policy in the main was to keep things as they were. To innovate was to enter a lane that might know no turning. They made no attempt to reform the government. They allowed the various parts of the political machine to continue, lacking as it was in symmetry and in efficiency. This machinery was both chaotic and unscien- tific. There was no central, coherent cabinet, or group of ministers. There were, of course, various departments, but some had jurisdiction over the whole empire, some only over parts. In any case the boundaries were not carefully de- fined. Government was exceedingly slow, cumbrous, dis- jointed, inefficient. Austria was now the classic land of the old regime. Her Austria a boundaries had been repeatedly changed at the hands of ° . ^ . ^ •' ^ Old Regime. Napoleon, but the mternal structure of the state and of society had remained unaltered. The people were sharply divided into classes, each resting on a different legal basis. Of these the nobility occupied a highly privileged position. They enjoyed freedom from compulsory military service, large exemptions from taxation, a practical monopoly of the Ibest offices in the state. They possessed a large part of the 26 REACTION IN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY land, from which in many cases they drew enormous revenues. Upon their estates they exercised many of the same feudal rights as had their ancestors, such as those of the police power and of administering justice through their own courts. They exacted the corvee and other services from the peasants. The condition of the peasants, indeed, who formed the immense mass of the population, was deplorable. It has been stated that in Bohemia, for instance, they owed half of their time and two-thirds of their crops to the lords, and in certain parts it was not uncommon for human beings and cattle to be sheltered by the same roof. The peasants had indeed been refused the right to purchase release from their heaviest burdens. These were the two classes into which Austrian society was divided, for the bourgeoisie, or middle class, was only slightly developed and of little importance. Industry was in a backward state, hampered at every point by official regulations, local There were throughout the empire various local bodies government, called estates, which, however, constituted no real check upon the absolutism of the central government. They in no sense constituted local self-government. They were com- posed almost entirely of nobles, and their powers were slight. Their sessions were brief, perfunctory, and furnished no political training. Hungary occupied a somewhat special position. She had a central diet or parliament and long- established county governments. They, however, were no great barrier to the working of the central government, which, indeed, for thirteen years, from 1812 to 1825, re- fused in spite of the law to call the Diet together. Moreover, these Hungarian assemblies did not represent the Hungarian people but merely the privileged classes. Absolutism in gov- ernment, feudalism in society, special privileges for the favored few, oppression and misery for the masses, such was the condition of Austria in 1815. The police It was the fixed purpose of the Grovemment to maintain system. things as they were and it succeeded largely for thirty-three THE GERMAN CONFEDERATION 31 was no king or emperor of Germany. There was no German flag. No one was, properly speaking, a German citizen. He Germany was a Prussian, or Austrian, or Bavarian citizen, as the ^o*^ case might be. The federal government had no diplomatic representatives in the other countries of Europe, but each state had, or could have, its own diplomatic corps. The German as German had no legal standing abroad, — only as a citizen of a separate state that might, but generally did not, command respect. Each state had the right to make alhances of every kind with the others or with non-German states. The only serious obligation they assumed toward each other was that they should enter into no engagement that should be directed against the safety of the Confedera- tion or that of any individual state within the union ; that they should not make war upon each other upon any pretext, but should submit their contentions to the Diet ; that if the Confederation should declare war, all the states should sup- port it, and that none should negotiate separately with the enemy or alone make peace. Such was the constitution given to Germany by the Con- gress of Vienna. It created a government in which obstruc- tion was easy, positive action very difficult. Each state possessed powers of delaying decisions of the Diet inter- minably, even, in many cases, of rendering them impossible. Moreover this government, weak as it was, was not even purely German. Three rulers of foreign states were mem- bers of it and could influence its deliberations, particularly in those cases where an individual veto would prove decisive, that is, in all the most fundamental and organic matters. The king of England was represented for Hanover, a pos- session of the English royal family, the king of Denmark for Holstein, the king of the Netherlands for Luxemburg. Prus- The inter- sia and Austria too might be influenced to look upon the Con- national federation in the light of their international position and in- ^^^^^^^^^ terests, Austria particularly, as only one-third of the Aus- Confeder- trian Empire was within the bounds of the Confederation, ation. 32 REACTION IN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY The other two-thirds, mainly non-German, were not included, yet their interests might dictate the policy of the Austrian delegates. Thus Hungarians, Poles, and Italians might in- directly influence the determination of purely German ques- tions in the German Diet. The international rather than national character of this Confederation was further mani- fested in the fact that the chief articles of the Federal Act establishing it were inserted in the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna, and as such were under the collective guaranty of the powers and therefore presumably not to be altered with- out their consent. It is clear that a Germany so organized was not a nation but only a loose confederation of states expressly declared to be independent and sovereign, a confederation designed simply for mutual protection, and poorly adapted even for that. " Judged by the requirements of a practical political organization," says von Sybel, " this German Act of Con- federation, produced with so much effort, possessed about all the faults that can render a constitution utterly useless." He adds that it " was received by the German nation at large, partly with cold indifference, and partly with patriotic indignation," Bissatisfac- This indignation was vehemently felt by the Liberals, who, tion of the under the influence of the tremendous struggles with Napo- with this ^eon, had come passionately to demand a close and firm union system. of all Germans that thus they might realize in their institu- tions and in the face of all the world the greatness which they felt was in them. The exaltation of the final struggle with Napoleon had only heightened the demand of the more pro- gressive spirits for national unity, that thus Germany might never henceforth be subjected to the humiliations of the past at the hands of foreigners. This longing for unity and strength, which in the patriotic atmosphere of the late wars had seemed so near realization, was now seen to be a hope deferred. German unity was, according to Metternich, an " infamous object," and the views of the diplomats at Vienna THE PROBLEM OF GERMAN UNITY 33 were more those of Mettemich than of the Liberals. The latter were indignant at what thej called the great deception of Vienna, and their bitterness was to be a factor in the later development of Germany. That they were from the very force of circumstances, the "^^y t^^ very nature of existing conditions, inevitably destined to ^ disappointment we can see more clearly than did they, swept unity was along as they were by the strong patriotic current of the so difficult, hour, little appreciating the bewildering, baffling complexity of their problem. The object they aimed at was one of su- preme difficulty. German unity was not simply a matter of sentiment, however fine and just, but was a hard, practical question only to be answered, if at all, by ripe political sense and wisdom. It involved the adjustment of many conflicting and perhaps irreconcilable interests. Traditions, centuries old, must be overcome. Mere inertia was a powerful ob- stacle. And another was the fact that the future of Ger- many was not left for the Germans to work out alone. It was a part of the work of the Congress of Vienna, of the general settlement of Europe. This brought it about that the Act of Federation was hastily framed and that, too, partially by powers careless of German interests or hostile to them. It was no desire of neighboring states to have a strong and united Germany. But the main obstacle lay in one of the oldest, most persistent facts of German political life and history, the strong states-rights or particularist feeling. No effective union could be established unless the various members would surrender some of their authority. Not one of the German princes was willing to pay the price. Austria, more non-German than German, could not for that very reason hope to be the supreme power in a really united Germany, therefore she favored a loose union wherein she might, by playing upon rival passions, enjoy a lesser leader- ship. Prussia could not be given the leadership in a new empire, as Austria would not consent and the lesser states would be alarmed. Obviously, none of the smaller states 34 REACTION IN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY The states- right feeling. Dualism the out- come of German evolution. could hope to exercise a power they would not grant to either of the greater. Moreover, they believed that any sacrifice of sovereignty would only leave them exposed to the aggrandiz- ing passions of the great. At first these lesser states, indeed, wished to be entirely independent, to have no union at all, even that of a loose confederation. The conclusive argu- ment against this was that Germany must at least be strong enough so that no second series of events like that of the Napoleonic invasions and conquests should again occur. Thus it is seen that the radical evil of the German situ- ation was the particularism or excessive individualism of the states. This was nothing new, but had been for centuries the most powerful fact. This feeling was now even more pronounced than ever, for the reason that the lesser states had latterly grown stronger by their absorption of their neighbors in the period just elapsed. National unity had been wrecked by it. It could only be restored, says Sybel, by the further extreme development of this spirit — till one state should become so large that it would overshadow all the rest and force them to recognize its ascendency — then the selfishness of one would end in the unity of all. Now the unity of England and France had been brought about in precisely this way, by the absorption by one state of all its rivals, but the outcome of German evolution had been peculiar, in that it had seen the rise of two great powers, not one, Prussia and Austria, neither able to con- quer or push the other aside, and each most jealous of any increase of the other's power. Such was the play of am- bition and interest, baffling the ingenuity and ability of those who desired a real and fruitful union of all Germans. A Prussian field marshal, Clausewitz, wrote at about this time: " Germany can achieve political unity only in one way, by the sword; by one of its states subjugating all the others," a thought put later into a more resounding phrase by Bis- marck, and expressing approximately the method by which unity was finally acliieved. But so hard a doctrine lay be- THE DESIRE FOR CONSTITUTIONS 35 yond the range of understanding of the early nineteenth century. The Liberals of Germany, eager for national unity, thus The demand suffered a severe defeat at Vienna. They were given a con- consti- f. ^ TT 1 n -i-i • 1 tutional federation, looser than that of the Holy Roman Empire, and government Avith none of the glory and luster of the latter, a union only nominal, inefficient, and prosaic, containing no vital force. The Liberals were also eager for reforms within the states, for constitutional government, for parliaments with real powers, for the end of absolutism. Here again they were disappointed. They had hoped to get a mandatory pro- vision in the Federal Act establishing representative legis- latures in each one of the states of Germany. In appealing to his people to rally around him in the war against Napo- leon, the King of Prussia had very recently promised his people a constitution and had urged at the Congress of Vienna that the Federal Act should require every mem- ber of the Confederation to grant a representative con- stitution to his subjects within a year. Metternich, even Metter- more opposed to free political institutions than to a strong "^^h's suc- 1 1 • 1 ■ • 1 1 y 1. cessf ul cp- central government, succeeded in thwarting the reformers at position this point also, by having this explicit and mandatory decla- ration made vague and lifeless. Thus the famous Article XIII of the Federal Act was made to read : " A constitution based upon the system of estates will be estabished in all the states of the union." The character of the new constitu- tions was not sketched ; and the time limit was omitted. A journalist was justified in saying that all that was guaran- teed to the German people was an " unlimited right of expec- tation." The future was to show the vanity even of expecta- tion, the hollowness of even so mild a promise. The Liberals had desired something more substantial than hope. Austria and Prussia, the two leading states, governing the great mass of the German people, never executed this provision. Nor did many of the smaller states. Germany, then, in 1815, consisted of thirty-eight loosely 36 REACTION IN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY connected states. Some of these were very large, some ex- ceedingly small. Prussia and Austria ranked with the greatest powers of Europe. Some of them were old, had their individual history, traditions, and prestige. Others were new, or had recently undergone such sweeping changes as to be practically new. Their future was highly problem- atical. Their boundaries were intertwined and complicated. Some were what are called enclaves, that is, were entirely surrounded by another state, having no egress to the out- side world save through the neighbor's territory. Economic life could not flourish owing to the tariffs and change of coinage that met merchant and trader at every border, and owing also to the wretched means of communication and transportation. These states presented many varieties of Various governments. There were some where absolutism prevailed, forms of where the prince was the law-giver, the executor, and the governmen iy^jgg ruling; without the aid of any assembly, without out- in the dif- *^. ^ . * *^ ■^ . . ferent Ger- ®^^^ restraints. Such were the two greatest, Austria and man states. Prussia, and such were several of the smaller. There were others where the prince was assisted in his work by assemblies, bodies which the people had no right to claim, but which the ruler in his condescension saw fit to call about him, in no sense popular bodies, chosen by the people, but composed mainly of nobles. These exercised little control over the acts of the prince, but were at least in a position to present grievances. Most of the states of Germany, as Hanover, Mecklenburg, and Saxony, were of this kind. There were other states where the prince granted a written constitution, somewhat after the French model, providing for an elective assembly to which was given some power over the government's pro- posals for taxes and laws. Such an assembly was not to con- trol the Government, as did the English Parliament, by forc- ing the ruler to choose his ministers from persons satisfac- tory to it. The prince was the government in every instance but he preferred to ask the co-operation of his people up to a certain point, and he granted them rights, such as free- CONSTITUTIONS IN THE MINOR STATES 37 dom of the press and of speech, which were coming to be more and more demanded by Europeans generally. Saxe- Weimar was the most prominent state of this class. Its prince received the sincere laudation of the Liberals and the sincere aversion of Metternich. In none of these systems was the principle of popular Popular sovereignty recognized. Germany was thoroughly monarch- ical. The only question was whether monarchy should recognized, undergo a change of nature more or less extensive, or should assert its old prerogatives in all their fulness. After the disappointments of the Vienna Congress the Liberals of Ger- many pinned their hope to the increase of states of the Saxe- Weimar class. It was clear that Germans were not to have unity. Might they not have political and civil liberty? There seemed some ground for optimism. Constitutions were Constitu- eranted in the states of southern Germany in the next "°"^ ... granted m few years, in Bavaria and Baden in 1818, m Wiirtemberg in certain 1819, and in Hesse-Darmstadt in 1820. It matters not states. whether the princes granted these for selfish reasons in order to gain popular support for a struggle which they felt was imminent with their more powerful colleagues, Prussia and Austria, for the advantage to their peoples remained the same. But it soon became evident after 1815 that while there were signs of progress there were more signs of a menacing reaction. Austria having set her house in order, having put a Chinese wall about her empire, marked innovation in the neighboring lands for special hostility when the favorable moment should arrive. Metternich's programme was stated in one of his confidential reports to his Emperor : " We must lead Germany to adopt our principles without our appearing to impose those principles upon her." This could not be done abruptly and harshly. Two personages were too powerful to be treated summarily, Alexander I of Russia and Frederick William HI of Prussia. The former was in 1815 (nothing less than a " Jacobin " in Metternich's opinion, as 38 REACTION IN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY he was himself granting a constitution to Poland and favor- ing constitutionalism in Germany and Italy and elsewhere. Reaction could not be successful unless he should come to see The King the error of his ways. The King of Prussia had promised of Prussia g^ constitution to his country as exphcitly as a man could. .. Metternich was pre-eminently a man who knew how to bide his time, and who knew how, when the proper moment arrived, to strike hard. His time was not long in coming. Fred- erick William III was both procrastinating and timid. Moreover, the reactionary party shortly after 1815 won ascendency at his court. Two years went by before he ap- pointed the special committee to undertake the preparation of the promised constitution. Its report after a long and slow investigation was unfavorable to the project, which was finally allowed to drop. The Prussian Government slipped back easily into the old familiar autocratic grooves. Ac- cording to Metternich the king's chief mental trait was " the repressive," and this gradually reasserted itself. More im- portant was the change in Alexander I, who by 1818, for reasons that are somewhat obscure, had gone over to con- servatism. With the rulers of Russia and Prussia in this state of mind Metternich's course was made easy. He was able to use certain current events to render himself incon- testably the dominant personality in Europe, and to secure the prevalence of the Austrian principles of government far beyond the confines of Austria itself. Indignation The years immediately succeeding 1815 were years of rest- of the lessness and uncertainty. The German Liberals were, as we have seen, indignant at the " great deception " of Vienna. But they hoped that at least the various states of Germany might be reformed along constitutional lines. Article XIII of the Federal Act rendered this possible, though it did not, to their great regret, ensure it. Here again was hope de- ferred, for as the years went by the signs that little had been gained in the direction of larger liberty multiplied. Only a few states entered the new path. The large ones stood aloof. THE BURSCHENSCHAFT 39 and in many of the small ones the old regime was restored in its entirety by the returning princes and with a lamentable lack of humor. The disappointment of Liberals was intense, their criticism trenchant. The chief seat of disaffection was found in the universities and in newspapers edited by uni- versity men. As the subjection of these centers of agitation was to be the main object of Metternich's German policy, it is well to describe their activity. The students of Jena had during the Napoleonic wars Ferment founded a society called the Burschenschaft, whose purpose ^^ *^^ ^^^' was the inculcation of an intense national patriotism, the constant exaltation of the ideal of a common fatherland. Societies were nothing new in German universities, but the previous ones, the Corps, had included in their membersliip only those coming from the same state or province. They thus preserved that sense of localism which was the bane of German life. The Burschenschaft was based on the opposite principle of membership derived from all the different states, thus ignoring local lines, and teaching a larger duty, a larger devotion, a larger idea of association. Glowing pa- triotism was the characteristic of the new organization. It soon succeeded in establishing chapters in sixteen universities. It was decided to hold a meeting of representatives of all the chapters and to give it the character of a patriotic cele- The bration. The place chosen was the Wartburg;, a castle famous "^^^^tburg Festival as the shelter of Luther after his outlawry at the Diet of Worms, and the date chosen was October 18, 1817, famous as being the fourth anniversary of the battle of Leipsic, and ap- proximately the three hundredth of the posting of Luther's Theses. Several hundred students met. Their festival was religious as well as patriotic. They partook of the Lord's Supper together and listened to impassioned speeches com- memorating the great moments in German history, the libera- tion from Rome and the liberation from Napoleon. In the evening they built a bonfire and threw into it various symbols of the hated reaction, notably an illiberal pamphlet of which 40 REACTION IN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY the King of Prussia had expressed his approval. They then dispersed, but their deed hved after them. This student performance had unexpected consequences. What was ap- parently a harmless and exuberant jollification seemed to conservative rulers and statesmen evidence of an unhealthy and dangerous ferment of opinion, and the rumors that gained currency about this celebration made it famous. It enjoyed a reputation altogether out of proportion to its real importance, which was slight. Mettemich described it to the German rulers as a portent of far greater dangers sure to come. Shortly an event much more alarming occurred which The murder seemed to justify this prognostication, the murder of Kotze- of Kotzebue. b^g, a journalist and playwright, who was hated by the students as a spy of Russia in Germany. A divinity student, Karl Sand, went to his house in Mannheim and stabbed him in the heart, March 23, 1819. Later an attempt was made to assassinate an important official of the Government of Nassau. These and other occurrences played perfectly into the hands of Metternich, who was seeking the means of establishing reaction in Germany as it had been established in Austria. They gave him what he most needed, a weapon whereby to dissuade Alexander I and Frederick William III from all further toying with liberalism and to convert the Holy Alliance, hitherto a mere trumpet for biblical phrases, into an engine of oppression. Were not all of these occur- rences manifestations of the same anarchical spirit, the de- sire to overthrow monarchical institutions.? All were in- discriminately ascribed to the Burschenschaft, whereas it had only been responsible for the Wartburg festival. The steps now taken to combat liberalism, which was charged with such unequal misdeeds, form a landmark in German history. Metternich, having previously had an interview with Fred- erick William III, in which he was assured of the latter's sup- port in the policy to be outlined to silence the opposition, called the ministers of those German governments of which he felt sure to a series of conferences at Carlsbad. In these The Holy Alliance converted into an engine of oppression THE CARLSBAD DECREES 41 conferences was fashioned the triumph of reaction in Ger- many. By the decrees which were adopted Metternich became the conqueror of the Confederation. Only eight states were represented, those upon which Metternich could count. The The decrees there drawn up were then submitted to the Diet Carlsbad decrees at Frankfort, all the customary modes of procedure of that body were cast aside, and a vote with no preceding debate was forced, so that the representatives of the states who had not been at Carlsbad did not have time to ask instructions of their Governments. Thus the decrees, rushed by illegal and violent methods through the Diet, became the law of Ger- many, binding upon every state. They were the work of Austria, seconded by Prussia. The small states resented the indignity to which they had been subjected but could do nothing. Carlsbad signifies in German history the suppres- sion of liberty for a generation. As these decrees really determined the political system of Germany until 1848, they merit a full description. It was stated once for all that the famous Article XIII of Provision the act estabhshine: the German Confederation, namely, that concerning -n , constitu- " a constitution based upon the system of estates will be tional gov- established in all the states of the union " should not be inter- ernment. preted as meaning constitutions of a foreign pattern, but representation of estates such as had been customary in German states even earlier. It was the earnest desire of the Liberals to get away from such old and useless assemblies. The great forces active against the prevalence of Met- ternich's system were free parliaments, free speech, and a free press. It was hoped that the first of these was thus prevented. It was next provided that there should be at every uni- Control of versity in the land a special representative to watch both *^^ ^^^' versities. professors and students. The function of these agents should be " to see to the strictest enforcement of existing laws and disciplinary regulations ; to observe carefully the spirit which is shown by the instructors in the university in 42 REACTION IN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY their public lectures and regular courses, and, without di- rectly interfering in scientific matters, or in the methods of teaching, to give a salutary direction to the instruction, having in view the future attitude of the students." It was provided that all teachers who should " propagate harmful doctrines hostile to public order or subversive of existing governmental institutions," that is, all who should not hold absolutism, as Metternich understood it, to be the only legi- timate form of government, should be removed from their positions and that once so removed they should not be ap- pointed to positions in any other educational institution in Prohibition any state. Other provisions were directed against secret or . ^. unauthorized societies in the universities, particularly that societies. , . . . 5> " association established some years since under the name of the Burschenschaft, " since the very conception of the society implies the utterly unallowable plan of permanent fellowship and constant communication between the various universities." Furthermore "no student, who shall be ex- pelled from a university by a decision of the University Senate which was ratified or prompted by the agent of the government, or who shall have left the institution in order to escape such a decision, shall be received in any other university." ^ The By these provisions it was expected that the entire censorship academic community, professors and students, would be re- of the press, ^jy^g^ ^q silence. The universities had become the centers of political agitation. That agitation would now cease under compulsion. There was one other enemy, the press, and drastic provisions were adopted to smother its independence beneath a comprehensive censorship. Finally, a special commission was created to ferret out all secret revolutionary societies and conspiracies that might threaten the nation, and this commission was to have full powers to examine and arrest any German, no matter of what state he might ^ Quotations are from University of Pennsylvania Translations and Re- prints, Vol. I, No. 3. Edited by J. H. Robinson. THE PERSECUTION OF THE LIBERALS 43 be a citizen. It discovered very little, but it pursued for years a policy as vexatious as it was petty. The Carlsbad Conference is an important turning point Reaction in the history of central Europe. It signalized the domi- *^® oTier of nance of Mettemich in Germany as well as in Austria. Its Germany, most important feature is the surrender of Prussia to Austrian leadership. Down to 1819 there was ground for hope that Prussia might be a leader, though a cautious one, in the liberahzation of Germany. That hope now vanished. Reaction was henceforth the order of the day in this great state. Frederick William III. shortly abandoned definitely all idea of granting the constitution which he had promised in 1815. In the period of national humiliation from 1807 to 1813 a notably liberal spirit had characterized the actions of the Prussian Government. Many reforms had been ef- fected at the instigation of such men as Stein. But the period was too brief and the reforms remained incomplete. It was expected that they would be perfected after 1815, but now it was clear that they would not. Indeed, in some respects, though fortunately not in all, the liberal achievements of those years were curtailed. But after 1819 the period of full reaction came in. In many respects this period was more odious in Prussia than in any other state. The persecu- The tion of " demagogues " was a sorry spectacle, as it was persecution in reality largely a persecution of men who should have had all honor shown them as national heroes. Jahn, the founder of gymnastic societies, whch had been most effective in nerving the young men of Prussia to heroic action, was for five years subjected to the inquisition of the police and to severe imprisonment, only to be discharged because nothing could be found against him meriting punishment. Arndt, whose impassioned poems had intensified the national patriot- ism in the wars against Napoleon, was shamefully treated. His house was searched, his papers were ransacked. The charges against him show the triviality of this petty police inquisition. One official discovered revolution in the expres- 44 REACTION IN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY sion " that lies beyond my sphere." Sphere meant a ball, a ball a bullet. Was not that a summons to insurrection and murder .P Arndt indignantly protested that he hated " all secret intrigues like snakes of hell." Nevertheless he was removed from his professorship and for twenty years was pre- vented from pursuing his vocation. Private letters were sys- tematically opened by the police in the search for some trace of revolution. Even Gneisenau, despite his brilliant record as a soldier, had for years to experience this invasion of his private rights. Spies went to hear the sermons of the most popular preacher in Berlin, Schleiermacher, and re- ported it as a highly suspicious circumstance that he had said that we owe to Christ the liberation of all spiritual forces and that every true Christian must believe that the kingdom of truth will conquer the kingdom of darkness. A publisher was forbidden to bring out a new edition of Fichte's Address to the German Nation, which had so splendidly stirred the youth of Prussia in the years of Napoleon's supremacy. Prussia This was, in the opinion of all Liberals, the great treason a docile ^f Prussia, this abdication of independent judgment, this . , . docile surrender to the leadership of Austria. " Prussia," said Metternich to the Russian ambassador, " has left us the place which many Germans wished to give to her." The situation was much the same in the other German states. With Austria and Prussia hand in glove, there was little opportunity for the lesser states. The spirit of the Carlsbad Decrees hung heavily over all Germany. Made even stronger the following year by the Vienna Conference of 1820, this system remained in force until the decade beginning with 1840. The revolutions of 1830 brought forth additional decrees in 1832 and 1834 intensifying the persecution of the academic world and of politicians sus- pected of liberalism. Metternich had succeeded in extending his system over the German Confederation. We shall now see how other countries were affected by the same system, how its influence expanded still further. CHAPTER III REACTION AND REVOLUTION IN SPAIN AND ITALY SPAIN The fundamental purpose of the rulers of Europe after 1815, as we have seen, was to prevent the " revolution," as they called it, from again breaking out; in other words, to prevent democratic and constitutional ideas from once more becoming dominant. The precautions taken by these con- servatives passed in the political language of the time as the Metternich system. Sufficient precautions had been taken, as we have seen, in central Europe. France was powerless to disturb for a long while to come. England was stiffly loyal to her old regime. But just as order seemed sohdly re-established events occurred in the two southern peninsulas of Europe, Spain and Italy, which showed that a system of repression to be successful must be Argus-eyed and omnipresent. It is necessary, therefore, at this point to trace briefly the history of southern Europe that we may understand the events of 1820, the first real challenge of the Metternich system. In 1808 Napoleon had by an act of violence seized the Spanish crown of Spain, and until 1814 had kept the Spanish king, Constitution Ferdinand VII, virtually a prisoner in France, placing his own brother Joseph on the vacant throne. The Spaniards rose against the usurper and for years carried on a vigorous guerilla warfare, aided by the English, and ending finally in success. As their king was in the hands of the enemy they proceeded in his name to frame a government. Being liberally minded they drew up a constitution, the famous 45 46 REVOLUTION IN SPAIN AND ITALY Constitution of 1812, a document thoroughly saturated with the principles of the French Constitution of 1791. It asserted the sovereignty of the people, vesting the execu- tive power in the king, the legislative in the Cortes or Assem- bly, a body consisting of a single chamber and elected by indirect universal suffrage, the citizens of the colonies having the same right to vote as did those of the mother country. Some of the features of the French Constitution which had worked badly were nevertheless adopted. Deputies were to be chosen for two years and to be ineligible for re-election. Ministers might not be members of the chamber. Henceforth the Cortes were to be the central organ of government, the king being very subordinate. He might not leave the country without their consent, nor marry, nor might he dissolve or prorogue the Assembly, and in the intervals be- tween sessions a committee of the Cortes was to watch over the execution of the Constitution and the laws. The Consti- tution proclaimed the principles of liberty and equality before the law, thus abolishing the old regime. The extreme liberality of this Constitution is explained by the fact that it was the work of deputies coming in the main from the coast provinces, which were more democratic than the others. The classes hitherto dominant in Spain, the nobility and the clergy, for the time being lost their supremacy. The Con- stitution was the work of a small minority, was never sub- mitted to the people for ratification, and its durability was Ferdinand therefore problematical. Indeed, its doom was sealed by the ^^' reappearance in Spain, on the downfall of Napoleon, of the legitimate king, Ferdinand VII. This prince, now restored to his throne, was ill-fitted for rule, both by temperament and training. Cruel, suspicious, deceitful, unscrupulous, his character was odious, his intel- lect lacked all distinction. His education had been woe- fully neglected, nor had experience taught him anything of statesmanship. He had not used his leisure as Napoleon's prisoner for reading or the study of political questions. REACTION IN SPAIN 47 But, instead, he had embroidered with his own hands a robe of white silk with ornaments of gold for the Madonna of the altar in the church at Valen9ay, a fact which was made known to the Spanish people by his confessor. Indeed, the pamphlet which contained this edifying announcement went through seven editions in a short time, — a fact that not only paints the King but his people as well. There was every reason to expect that such a man would Abolition thrust aside the paper constitution that so greatly limited °^ *^^ his power, if he felt able to do so. The boundlessly enthusi- , . astic, even hysterical manner in which the Spaniards re- ceived him convinced him that he could go to any length. The Constitution of 1812 had the support of only a very small minority of the educated people. The nobility, the clergy, many of the leaders of the army, and the ignorant and fanatical populace wanted a king of the old type. The King, seeing the way made plain, promptly took action. Be- fore he reached his capital he declared the Constitution and the decrees of the Cortes null and void, " as if these things had never been done." By this stroke and the rapturous acquiescence of the people absolutism was restored. A furious reaction began, a wild hunt for everyone in any way connected with the recent history of Spain. Liberals Persecution and those who had adhered to Joseph, Napoleon's brother, I-iberals. were persecuted. The Inquisition was re-established; the Jesuits returned in triumph. The press was gagged once more. Liberal books were destroyed wherever found, and particularly all copies of the Constitution. Thousands of political prisoners were punished with varying severity. Ferdinand would probably have been forced into a re- actionary policy by his own people and by the other powers of Europe, even had his personal inclinations not prompted him to it. But this reaction was much too furious, lasted too long, and in the end weakened the King's position. . Inefficiency The Government of Ferdinand, vigorous in punishing Lib- ^^ ^^^ q^^. erals, was utterly incompetent and indolent in other matters, ernment. 48 REVOLUTION IN SPAIN AND ITALY Spain, a country of about eleven million people, was wretch- edly poor and ignorant. Agriculture was primitive. Com- merce and industry were shackled by monopolies and un- reasonable prohibitions upon exportation and importation. Industrial activity was further lesssened by the large num- ber of saints' days, which were carefully observed. What education there was was in the hands of ecclesiastics. The Government of Ferdinand made no attempt to improve these deplorable conditions. But in addition to all this it failed to discharge the most fundamental duty of any government, that is, to preserve the integrity of the empire. The vast Disintegra- transatlantic possessions of Spain had risen in revolt. The ion e pgg^gQj^g fQY ^-}^jg revolt, which presaged the downfall of the Spanish . . . , . . Empire. proud Spanish Empire, were: the contmued and varied mis- government of the home country which regarded the colonies as simply sources of wealth to be ingeniously exploited for the benefit of the home government, the taste of relative freedom they had enjoyed between 1810 and 1815 when the home government was otherwise occupied, the example of the United States and its successful war of independence, and the encouragement of England, seeking wider markets. Ferdinand could probably have kept his empire intact had he been willing to make the concessions demanded by the Americans, larger commercial liberty and considerable political autonomy. This he would not do. He would rule his empire as it had always been ruled, his colonies as he ruled the mother country. The result was revolution from Mexico to the southern tip of South America. Ferdinand's task was to reconquer this vast region by force. This force he did not have. He hoped for the support of the Holy Alliance, which, however, was not forthcoming. He, there- fore, was thrown upon his own resources. By 1819 he had collected an army of over twenty thousand men at Cadiz. Suddenly the army rose in revolt against the Government, and the first of those revolutions of southern Europe against the restored monarchs occurred. GROWTH OF THE REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT 49 With singular lack of perspicacity, the restored Bourbons Neglect of of Spain had neglected or insulted the anny, the very ® army 3.11(1 lIX6 weapon which reaction in the other countries of Europe navy, had taken every means to conciliate and win. Many of the ablest officers had been degraded ; poor rations, poor bar- racks, insufficient pay, in arrears at that, had created a feel- ing of deep irritation in the army, which became the breeding place of conspiracies, the real revolutionary element in the state. The navy, too, so essential for the preservation of a transoceanic colonial empire, had been allowed to fall into the most shameful decay until it consisted of but little else than the king's own pleasure yachts. The officers were utterly poor. The only relief the Government granted them was permission to support themselves by fishing. Under such conditions military outbreaks were natural. Insurrections occurred repeatedly, in 1814, 1815, 1816, 1817, 1818 and 1819. The failure in each case only increased the severity with which the Government pursued all those sus- pected of liberalism. In 1820 the army rose again, driven to desperation by the stories of horror told by soldiers re- turning from America, and believing that they were about to be sent to certain death. On January 1, 1820, Riego, a colonel in the army, pro- Revolution claimed the Constitution of 1812 and led a few troops °^ ^820. through the province of Andalusia, endeavoring to arouse the south of Spain. He was unsuccessful. His force grad- ually dwindled away, attracting no popular support. But it had served its purpose. As the revolution was dying out in the south it kindled in the opposite end of the peninsula, under the Pyrenees and along the Ebro. The Constitution of 1812 was proclaimed there and the flames spread eastward to the great cities of Saragossa and Barcelona. Shortly riots broke out in Madrid itself. The King, learning that he could not rely upon his soldiers even in his capital, and thoroughly frightened, yielded to the demands of the scat- tered and incoherent revolution, and on the evening of 50 REVOLUTION IN SPAIN AND ITALY March 7, 1820, proclaimed the Constitution of 1812, prom- ised to maintain it, and declared that he would harry out of the country those who would not support it. " Let us ad- vance frankly," he said, " myself leading the way, along the constitutional path." The text of the Constitution was posted in every city, and parish priests were ordered to expound it to their congregations. Thus revolution had triumphed again, and only five years after Waterloo. An absolute monarchy, based on divine right, had been changed into a constitutional monarchy based on the sovereignty of the people. Would the example be followed elsewhere.'' Would the Holy Alliance look on in silence .'^ Had the revolutionary spirit been so carefully smothered in Austria, Germany, and France, only to blaze forth in outlying sections of Europe? Answers to these questions were quickly forthcoming. ITALY Napoleon on In the leisure of St. Helena, Napoleon I wrote, concern- ^^^^ ing Italy : " Italy is surrounded by the Alps and the sea. Her natural limits are defined with as much exactitude as if she were an island. Italy is only united to the continent by one hundred and fifty leagues of frontier and these one hundred and fifty leagues are fortified by the highest barrier that can be opposed to man. Italy, isolated between her natural limits, is destined to form a great and powerful nation. Italy is one nation ; unity of language, customs and literature, must, within a period more or less distant, unite her inhabitants under one sole government. And Rome will, without the slightest doubt, be chosen by the Italians as their capital." ^ Napoleon was now in a position where he was powerless to aid in this achievement, even had he been so disposed. But the time was very fresh in men's minds when they believed that the great commander was to use his talent and oppor- ^ Cesaresco, The Liberation of Italy, 3. NAPOLEON'S INFLUENCE UPON ITALY 51 tunity to give them unity and freedom. He had not done so. Yet in a very real sense modern Italy began under his empire. He took the country a long step forward toward its ideal. Napoleon's activity in Italy had been most revolutionary. Significance He had driven all the native princes from the peninsula. ° ^^°* , , . . . , 7 Icon's Only the kings of Naples and Piedmont still retained some activity in semblance of authority, for each fortunately had an island Italy, to which he could flee, whence the French could not drive him, as the British controlled the sea. The former spent several years in Sicily, the latter in the island of Sardinia. Napoleon did not formally unite all Italy, but he annexed a part directly to the French Empire, a part he made into the Kingdom of Italy, with himself as King and his step-son, Eugene Beauharnais, as Viceroy, and the remainder consti- tuted the Kingdom of Naples, over which Murat, brother-in- law of Napoleon, ruled. Thus, though there was not unity, there were only three states where formerly there had been a dozen. Yet, in an important sense, there was unity, for it was the directingmind of the French Emperor that permeated and largely controlled the policy of all three. The French did much for the regeneration of Italy. They abolished feudalism, they gave uniform and enlightened laws, they opened careers The to talent, they stimulated industry. New ideas, political and a"«^3,kening social, penetrated the peninsula with them. Italians hence- forth would never be the same as they had been. Barriers, physical, material, intellectual, had been thrown down, and could never be permanently set up again. Of course there was the reverse. The burdens imposed in the place of those removed were heavy. Napoleon made the Italians a part of his general European system and forced them to give freely of their money and their men for purposes that con- cerned them only slightly, if at all. Sixty thousand Italians perished in his wars in Spain and Russia. His shameless robbery of their works of art gave deep offense. His treat- ment of the Pope wounded many in their religious sensibilities, and he ignored the national sentiment whenever he chose. 52 REVOLUTION IN SPAIN AND ITALY Yet the later achievement of unity and liberty was made much easier because Napoleon had passed that way. He shook the country out of its century-old somnolence. Serv- ice in his armies increased the strenuousness of the Italians and taught them the art of war. The very fact that they had witnessed and participated in great events imparted an unknown energy to these easy-going sons of the south. Napoleon had exiled every one of the Italian princes. They might be restored, but their prestige was irrevocably gone. He had even driven the Pope from his states, and had abolished the temporal power. What had been done once might perhaps be done again. There had been for a few years a state bearing the name Kingdom of Italy. The memory of that fact could not be uprooted by all the mon- archs of Christendom. It was an augury full of hope, a beacon pointing the sure and steadfast way. The decision Of all this the Allies, at their famous Congress of Vienna, took no note. They were playing the short politics of the hour. They paid no attention to the impalpable forces of the human spirit. They looked upon the future of Italy as a matter quite at their disposal and they reconstructed the peninsula without asking its opinion or consent. A people numbering more than seventeen million had nothing to say about its own fate. The mighty men of Europe sitting in Vienna considered that their affair. And they arranged it by returning Italy to the state of a geograph- ical expression. They did not give it even as much unity as they gave Germany, not even that of a loose confedera- tion. They made short shrift of all such suggestions and restored most of the old states. There were henceforth ten of them : Piedmont, Lombardy-Venetia, Parma, Modena, Lucca, Tuscany, the Papal States, Naples, Monaco, and San Marino. Genoa and Venice, until recently independent re- publics, were not restored, as republics were not " fashion- able." The one was given to Piedmont, the other to Austria. These states were too small to be self-sufficient, and as of the Congress of Vienna. The ten Italian states. XMhanl Pass jq I Lonffi/ufftr £ast j2 from i Scale of EiigUsh MUis 20 'M 60 SO ICO ICffa ofSardmia Akxiena Zuccay Ikscarfyy K'g'd efffie TwuSi^Uies. Favigiian Mcrsa AUSTRIA DOMINATES ITALY 53 a result Italy was for nearly fifty years the sport of for- eign powers, dependent, henceforth, not upon France but upon Austria. This is the cardinal fact in the situation and is an evidence, as it is a partial cause, of the commanding position of the Austrian monarchy after the fall of Napo- The domi- leon. Austria was given outright the richest part of the Po ^ance of valley as a Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. Austrian princes or princesses ruled over Modena, Parma, and Tuscany, and were easily brought into the Austrian system. Thus was Austria the master of northern Italy; master of southern Italy, too, for Ferdinand, King of Naples, made an offensive and defensive treaty with Austria, pledging himself to make no separate alliances and to grant no liberties to his subjects beyond those which obtained in Lombardy and Venetia. Naples was thus but a satellite in the great Austrian system. The King of Piedmont and the Pope were the only Italian princes at all likely to be intractable. And Austria's strength in comparison with theirs was that of a giant compared with that of a pigmy. Thus the restoration was accomplished. Italy became again a collection of small states, largely under the domi- nance of Austria. Each of the restored princes was an absolute monarch. In none of the states was there a parlia- ment. Italy had neither unity nor constitutional forms, nor any semblance of popular participation in the govern- ment. The use which the princes made of their unfettered liberty of action was significant. Of these several states the four most important were: the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, the Kingdom of Sardinia or Piedmont, the Papal States, and the Kingdom of Naples. The first was ruled by a viceroy, who carried out orders The received from Vienna. It paid into the Austrian treasury I'ombardo- taxes far out of proportion to its population or its extent. „. , Here French laws were largely abrogated, and an attempt was made to make the people forget that they were Italians, and to consider themselves Austrians. Children were taught 54 REVOLUTION IN SPAIN AND ITALY in their text-books of geography that Lombardy and Venetia were geographically a part of Austria. Industries were repressed in favor of Austrian manufacturers. Austrians were appointed to the university professorships, and they and their students, as well as other persons, were watched by numerous and proficient spies. It was even considered nec- essary to edit Dante that he might be read with safety. ^^® The King of Piedmont, Victor Emmanuel I, had been for Sard' • many years an exile in the island of Sardinia, and his states had been annexed by Napoleon to France. He returned to Turin enraged against the author of all his woes. Say- ing jokingly that he had slept fifteen years, he resolved that Piedmont should regard the interval as a dream. Most of the laws and institutions introduced by France were abol- ished by a stroke of the pen, almost the only ones retained being those which the Piedmontese would gladly have seen go, the heaviest taxes and the police system. Most of those connected with the government and the army during the French period were removed from their positions, thus con- stituting at the outset a disaffected class. Religious liberty was narrowly circumscribed; political liberty did not exist, nor did liberty of education. The universities were shortly placed under the control of the Jesuits, and professors and students were spied upon. Some of the deeds of reaction were so absurd as to become classical illustrations of the stupidity of the restored princes. Gas illumination of the Turin theater was abandoned because it had been introduced by the French. French plants in the Botanic Gardens of Turin were torn up, French furniture in the royal palaces destroyed, and a certain custom house official would let no merchandise be brought over the new Napoleonic road over the Mont Cenis pass, lest revolutionary ideas might thus be smuggled in. But, however unwise and retrogressive this government might be, it followed in foreign aifairs a policy of independence of Austrian influence as far as this was possible. Piedmont was a military state, having an army THE PAPAL STATES 55 altogether disproportionate to its size. Indeed, three-fourths of the revenues of the state went to the support of the army and navy. The Papal States were peculiar among the governments The States of Europe. The Pope was their ruler. The Government °^ *^® was in the hands of the priests. Over each of the provinces and legations was a prelate. All the higher officials were of the clergy. The laity were admitted only to the lower positions. Taxes were high, yet papal finances were badly disorganized, and the Government had difficulty in meeting running expenses. An important source of income of this Christian, priestly state was the lottery, which was adminis- tered with religious ceremonies, and was even kept running Sundays. The Government could not even assure the per- sonal safety of its citizens. Brigandage was rife, and the Pope was forced finally to make a formal treaty with the brigands, by which they were to give themselves up as prisoners for a year, after which they were to be pensioned. Though bigoted and corrupt, the Government had a keen scent for the evils of the French regime. It repealed most of the French laws, and even forbade vaccination and gas illumina- tion, as odious reminders of that people. The police were numerous and vexatious, paying particular attention to what one of their documents characterized as " the class called thinkers." The Inquisition was restored and judicial torture revived. Education was controlled by the clergy. Even in the universities most of the professors were ecclesiastics and the curriculum was carefully purged of all that might be dangerous. This excluded, among other subjects, modern literature and political economy. Niebuhr, the German his- torian, thus recorded his impression of that state: " No land of Italy, perhaps of Europe, excepting Turkey, is ruled as is this ecclesiastical state." Rome was called " a city of ruins, both material and moral." Kingdom of In the south, covering three-eighths of the peninsula, the Two was the Kingdom of Naples, or the Two Sicilies. The king, Sicilies. 56 REVOLUTION IN SPAIN AND ITALY Universal reaction. The Carbonari. Ferdinand I, was of the Spanish Bourbon line. IJe was incredibly ignorant, and in character detestable. Return- ing from Sicily, however, he did not imitate his contempo- raries by aboHshing everything French. " Civil institu- tions," says a recent historian, " had advanced four cen- turies in the nine years of French rule." ^ But while in theory much of the work of those years was allowed to remain, in practice the Government was hopelessly corrupt. The King's treatment of the army was such as to raise up in it many enemies to his power. Many who had served under Murat were casliiered. Whipping was restored, which angered the common soldier. Thus there grew up rapidly a military faction ripe for revolt. Obviously the policy of the various princes, as just de- scribed, made many enemies : all the progressive elements of the population who believed in freedom in education, in relig- ion, in business, and who saw special privileges restored, obsolete commercial regulations revived, arbitrary and igno- rant government substituted for the freer and more intelH- gent administration of the French; and all those thrown out of employment in the civil service or the army. The malcon- tents joined the Carbonari, a secret society which first rose in the Kingdom of Naples, spreading thence over Italy and to other European countries. Their weapons were con- spiracy and insurrection. In a country where no parlia- ments, no political parties, no public agitation for political ends were permitted, such activity was necessarily driven into secret channels. The Carbonari had an elaborate but loose and ineffective organization. Their rules and forms were frequently childish and absurd. Their purposes were not clear or definite. They were a vast liberal organiza- tion much better adapted for spasmodic movements of de- struction than for the construction of new institutions. Into this society poured the dissatisfied of every class. It was a revolutionary leaven working in Italian society, spread- '■ King, History of Italian Unity, I, 87. REVOLUTION IN NAPLES 57 ing abroad a hatred of the restored princes, a desire for change. Among a people living under such depressing conditions ^^^ the news of the successful and bloodless Spanish Revolution of 1820 spread quickly. It was the spark to the tinder, in Naples. In Naples a military insurrection broke out, of such apparent strength that the King yielded at once. The revolutionists demanded the Spanish Constitution of 1812, not because they knew much about it save that it was very democratic but be- cause it possessed the advantage of being ready-made. The King conceded the demand, saying that he would have been glad to have granted a constitution before had he only known there was a general desire for one. He was appar- ently as enthusiastic as were the revolutionists. He went out of his way to show this in a most extraordinary fashion. On July 13, 1820, having heard mass in the royal chapel, he approached the altar, took the oath, and then, fixing his eyes upon the cross, he added of his own accord, " Omni- potent God, who with infinite penetration lookest into the heart and into the future, if I lie, or if I should one day be faithless to my oath, do Thou at this instant annihilate me." It seemed as if the era of constitutional government had come for more than a third of Italy. THE CONGRESSES Thus in 1820 the Revolution, so hateful to the diplomats of 1815, had resumed the offensive. Spain and Naples had overthrown the regime that had been in force five years, and had adopted constitutions that were thoroughly saturated with the principles and mechanism of Revolutionary France. There had likewise been a revolution against the established regime in Portugal. There was shortly to be one in Pied- mont. A matter of greater importance than the attitude of these peoples toward their governments was that of the governments toward the peoples. The powers had united 58 REVOLUTION IN SPAIN AND ITALY The powers prepare to suppress these revo- lutions. The doctrine of the right of inter- vention. to put down Napoleon. They had then taken every precau- tion to check the activity of so-called French principles. They had been in the main successful, but now those principles were asserting themselves triumphantly in outlying parts of Europe. It had been thought that future trouble would come from France ; but, instead, it was coming from Spain and Italy. Metternich, the most influential personage in Europe, had very clear views of the requirements of the situation. " The malady," as he called it, the unrest of the times, was not local or peculiar to one part of Europe, to any single country. To suppress this malady the Great Coalition had been built up which, after endless suffering and sacrifice, had overcome it, though it had not extirpated it. What it had cost so much to check, must be kept in check. The vitality of these subversive revolutionary principles was evi- dent to all. Energetic measures were necessary and, to be successful, they must be applied everywhere and at all times. If a monarch in one state yielded to revolution the effects were not limited to that state or that monarch, but the revolutionary parties everywhere were encouraged and the stability of every throne, of the established order everywhere, was threatened. This was conspicuously shown by the recent events. A revolution in Spain encourages a revolution in Naples. The movement may spread northward sympa- thetically, may reach the Italian possessions of Austria, may reach Austria itself, France, and the other countries, and the world, supposed to have been quieted at Vienna, will riot once more in anarchy. Metternich thus showed that no state can in the modern age lead an isolated life. The life of Europe henceforth must be collective and anything that threatens its peace is a very proper subject for the dis- cussion of Europe, collected in congresses. Metternich in this way developed the doctrine of the " right of intervention," a doctrine new in international law, yet one to which he succeeded in giving great vitality for many THE CONGRESSES 59 years. The doctrine was that, as modern Europe was based upon opposition to revolution, the powers had the right and were in duty bound to intervene to put down revolution not only in their own states respectively but in any state of Europe, against the will of the people of that state, even against the will of the sovereign of that state, in the inter- ests of the established monarchical order. A change of government within a given state was not a domestic but an international affair. This doctrine did not originate in 1820. The principle The Coa- was clearly laid down in the treaty of Quadruple Alliance S^^^^ °^ of 1815 as far as France was concerned. It had been chapelle elaborated at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. 1818. There the five Great Powers had declared their purpose to maintain the general peace which was " founded on a religious respect for the engagements contained in the Treaties, and for the whole of the rights resulting therefrom." The phrase was vague because the powers could not agree on anything more definite. How much did it mean or might it be made to mean.'' Would revolutionary movements in any country be considered as justifying intervention in the in- terests of the sacred treaties.'' The opportunity to test the matter had now arisen. Metternich, as usual, was quite equal to the occasion. A congress was called at Troppau to consider The Con- the affairs of the Kingdom of Naples. Austria, Russia, Prus- S^^^^ °^ sia, France, and England were represented. Unanimity was .q^q ' lacking but there was a majority for the ominous principle. The three eastern powers, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, absolute monarchies, now formally accepted the principle of intervention as laid down by Metternich. They would refuse to recognize as legal changes brought about in any state by revolution, even if the king of that state himself consented. They asserted their right to intervene to over- throw any such changes, first by using concihatory methods, then by using force. This probably meant an immediate armed intervention wherever and whsnever revolution might 60 REVOLUTION IN SPAIN AND ITALY break out. And the right so to intervene was held to be implicit in the treaties of 1815 on which the European system rested. From this view England dissented vigorously, declaring that in her opinion the powers by those treaties intended to guarantee to each other only their territorial possessions, not at all their form of government. That was a domestic concern. England and France, though not signing the new declaration, remained, however, merely passive and the absolute monarchies had their way. The Con- Having established the principle the Congress next de- I cided to apply it to the Kingdom of Naples. They accord- 1821. ii^gly adjourned to Laibach, inviting the King of Naples to meet them there. The Neapolitan Parliament was opposed to letting him leave the kingdom and only finally consented after he had again sworn to the constitution, and had with facile duplicity declared that he wished to go solely to inter- cede for his people and " to obtain the sanction of the powers for the newly acquired liberties." Falsehoods with Ferdinand I were redundant and superfluous. " I declare to you," he said, " and to my nation that I will do everything to leave my people in the possession of a wise and free constitution." Parliament, deceived by the royal mendacity, permitted him to go. No sooner was he out of his realm than he retracted all his promises and oaths and appealed to the Allies to restore him to absolute power, which was precisely what they had already determined to do. Austria was commis- sioned to send an army into the kingdom. It did so. The opposition of the Neapolitans was ineffective and Ferdinand was restored to absolutism by foreigners in 1821. He broke his return journey at Florence in order to make the amende honorable to a probably outraged Deity by placing a votive lamp in the Church of the Annunciation. The political results were for the Neapolitans most de- plorable. The reaction that ensued was unrestrained. Hun- dreds were imprisoned, exiled, executed. Arbitrary govern- REVOLUTION IN PIEDMONT 61 ment of the worst kind was henceforth meted out to this unfortunate kingdom. Just as this Neapolitan revolution was being snuffed out an insurrection blazed forth at the opposite end of the peninsula, in Piedmont. The causes of this movement were discontent at the stupid reaction of the last five years, the desire for constitutional government, and dislike of Austria. The insurgents were led to believe that they would have the support of Charles Albert, Prince of Carignan, head of a younger branch of the royal family and heir presumptive to the crown, as his relations with Liberals were known to be intimate. His political importance was considered great owing to his nearness to the throne. As the king, Victor Emmanuel I, had no son, the crown would upon his death pass to his brother, Charles Felix, and upon the latter's death, he, too, being without direct heir, Charles Albert would him- self become king. The Piedmontese revolution broke out in Alessandria on The March 10, 1821. The revolutionists demanded the Spanish Revolution Constitution and war against Austria as the great enemy p- ^ + of Piedmont and of Italy. The King wavered for several days. He did not wish a civil war, Piedmontese fighting Piedmontese, which would surely come if he should refuse the demands and attempt to put down the movement. On the other hand, he knew that if he should grant those demands, the powers would intervene to suppress constitutionalism here as they had done in Naples and his promises would have been in vain. Unable to decide between the cruel alternatives of civil war or foreign intervention and conquest, and dis- covering no other course to follow, he abdicated on March 13, in favor of his brother Charles Felix. As the latter was not in Piedmont at the time, Charles Albert was ap- pointed regent, until his arrival. Charles Albert, therefore, exercised the royal power for the moment and in a manner favorable to the revolutionists. He allowed the Spanish Constitution to be proclaimed from the royal palace in Turin 62 REVOLUTION IN SPAIN AND ITALY "with such modifications as His Majesty, in agreement with the national representation, shall consider advisable." The new King shortly disavowed these concessions. The whole imbroglio was cut short by the action of the powers. An Austrian army was already on the borders and a hundred thousand Russians were ordered forward from Galicia. The revolutionists clashed at Novara with an army composed of Austrians and Piedmontese loyal to the King. They were easily routed and the revolution was over. Charles Felix, an absolutist king, was upon the throne, and Austria had again shown her resolution and her power. Once more the demand for constitutional freedom had been suppressed, once more Metternich had triumphed. Reasons for Thus both the Italian movements for a freer political „ ,, life had ended in disaster. The reasons for their failure 01 tne movements are instructive and are important for an understanding of the of 1820. Italian problem. The Neapolitan revolution failed because of the European coaHtion forbidding its success, because of the treachery of the King, because of the illiberal treat- ment of Sicily by the revolutionists. That of Piedmont failed because it was the work of a small clique, had no broad basis of appeal to the people, lacked leadership and definite aims, neglected details, and also because of the opposition of the powers. Thus two revolutions had been overcome and the system of the Congress of Vienna preserved in Italy. There re- mained the more remote problem of Spain. The principle there, however, was the same and the Allies felt obliged to The Con- assert it. This was the work of the Congress of Verona. gress of The revolution in Spain was still triumphant. The King and the reactionary parties could not by their own strength regain their old position. They appealed to the allied mon- archs and by 1822 they, thoroughly committed to the policy involved, decided at the Congress of Verona, that Russia, Austria, Prussia, and France, should send to their ministers in Madrid identical notes demanding the immediate restora- INTERVENTION IN SPAIN 63 tion of Ferdinand VII to the fulness of his powers. In the event of the expected refusal the ministers should quit Madrid and war should be declared. England opposed this policy with high indignation, but in vain. France, now a thor- oughly reactionary country, was commissioned to carry out the work of restoring Ferdinand. The Spaniards refused to accede to the demand of the powers, and in April 1823 a French army of a hundred thousand under the Duke of Angouleme, heir presumptive to the French throne, crossed the Pyrenees. The Spanish Government had no army and no money and could not oppose the advance of the invaders with any vigor. The French spent six months in traversing the peninsula from north to south, meeting no serious resist- ance. The Cortes retired from Madrid to Cadiz before the invaders, taking the King with them. The siege of Cadiz was now begun. The war was soon over with the seizure of the fort of the Trocadero and Ferdinand was back upon his absolute throne, by act of France, supported by the Holy Alliance. There now began a period of odious reaction. All the Reaction in acts passed by the Cortes since 1820 were annulled. An ®P^^^- organization called the " Society of the Exterminating Angel " began a mad hunt for Liberals, throwing them into prison, shooting them down. The war of revenge knew no bounds. " Juntas of purification " helped it on. Thou- sands were driven from the country, hundreds were executed. The French Government, ashamed of its protege, endeavored to stop the savagery, but with slight success. It is an odious chapter in the history of Spain. The Holy Alliance by these triumphs in Naples, Piedmont, The and Spain, showed itself the dominant force in European t"^"^P^ politics. The system, named after Metternich, because his ^^niance. diplomacy had built it up and because he stood in the very center of it, seemed firmly established as the European system. But it had achieved its last notable triumph. It was now to receive a series of checks that were to limit it forever. 64 REVOLUTION IN SPAIN AND ITALY Against the decisions of the congresses we have passed in review, one power, England, had protested, though to no effect. England's prestige had steadily dechned since the Congress of Vienna. The three eastern powers simply filed her protests against their intentions in their archives, paying no further heed. England, which had driven the French out of Spain ten years before, now saw them coming in again, this time with ease and success. As England's influence abroad decreased the wrath of Englishmen grew, and with the advent of Canning to the cabinet England delivered some swift blows in retaliation, showing that she was still a power to be reckoned with. It was, of course, useless for her to think of opposing the three great military monarchies by arms. But the contest between her and them was now removed to a field where her authority would unquestionably prove decisive. Having restored the King of Spain to absolute power, the next wish of the Holy Alliance was to restore to Spain, and thus to monarchy, the revolted Spanish- American colonies. England let it be known that she would oppose any steps having this end in view, save those of the Spaniards them- selves, and, as she controlled the sea, her declaration virtually was that she would keep the Holy Alliance restricted to the continent of Europe and would prevent it from sending ships and troops to the scene of the revolt. She sought and received the co-operation of the United States in this purpose, though no alliance was formed and each power acted independently. The United States had approved the secession of the countries to the south of her, so plainly to her advantage and so evidently in imitation of her example. This Government had also in 1819 virtually forced Spain to cede Florida, hitherto a Spanish possession. And now, just after the close of the successful French invasion and the restoration of Ferdinand, the President of the United The Monroe States, James Monroe, in a message to Congress destined Doctrine. ^^ become one of the most famous documents ever written ^ THE MONROE DOCTRINE 65 'In the White House, gave emphatic notice to the Holy Alliance of the attitude this country would assume in case it should endeavor to win back her colonies for Spain, should Spain herself be unable to do so. We should consider any attempt on the part of these absolute monarchies of Europe " to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety," and we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing the South American states " or controlling in any other manner, their destiny, by any European power, In any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition to- wards the United States." These suggestions from England and the United States were sufficient to prevent the sum- moning of any new congress to consider the reconquest of America and thus to add new laurels to the Holy Alliance. The doctrine of intervention had reached its high water mark as applied to the interests of reaction, had received an emphatic defiance — a defiance made the more resounding by the recognition shortly by England and the United States of the independence of the South American republics. Aus- tria, Russia, and Prussia protested against a course which " tended to encourage that revolutionary spirit it had been found so difficult to control in Europe." Canning proudly said, " We have called In the New World to redress the balance of the Old." On the other hand, Metternich's opinion of Canning was that he was a " malevolent meteor hurled by an angry Providence upon Europe." The Metternich system, thus checked, was to receive before The ' Metter- long a series of blows from which it never recovered, in the 1 ,., --r^ 'i-r^i- ^ich sys- overthrow of the restored Bourbons in France, in the Belgian ^^^ „ revolution of 1830, and, In a certain way, In the Greek war checked. of Independence. CHAPTER IV FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION THE REIGN OF LOUIS XVIII The pro- No country in Europe had undergone between 1789 and fects of th ^^^^ ^^ sweeping and so vital a transformation as had French France, the birthplace of the Revolution and still the home Revolution, of its unrealized ideals. Institutions, feehngs, aspirations, mental outlook of a kind quite new in Europe, had been adopted by millions of Frenchmen as a new evangel. Much had been irrevocably destroyed by the Revolution, much had been created, much had been merely sketched. It remained for the nineteenth century to fill in this outline. The old form of society to which France had been accustomed for centuries was gone and a type new to Europe, of immense proselytizing power, had been unfolded. The old had been one of privileged classes. The new was democratic. The three great institutions, agencies of the privileged few, which had long weighed down with paralyzing effect upon the mass of Frenchmen, the monarchy, the nobility, and the church, had been brought into subjection to the people, had been weak- ened immeasurably as controlling forces in the life of modern France. France had made a passionate effort to free her- self from all forms of aristocracy, temporal and ecclesiast- ical. France in 1815 was by far the most democratic coun- try in Europe, in her feelings, her thoughts, her customs, and her institutions. These changes had, however, not been brought about bj'' the unanimous consent of the French people. The old privi- leged classes were, from the very nature of the case, sworn enemies of the new order which had been erected at their 66 THE RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS 67 expense, and it was precisely because men were not agreed as to the permanence of the principles and decisions of the Revolution that the contest between the adherents of the old and the supporters of the new was to be carried over into the new era, and indeed still continues. The war of opinions which began with the Revolution was not ended in 1795 or in 1815, nor has it entirely ended yet, for the reason that not all Frenchmen have at any time been ready to accept the present fact, the status quo, but have tried repeatedly to re-open the discussion, and to modify, if not to reverse, the decision. This wai'fare is the warp and woof of French history in the nineteenth century. One thing, however, was settled at the outset. The old The regime was not to be restored. The Bourbons recovered the restoration right to rule only on condition that their monarchy should be Bourbons a constitutional one. The Allies who, as the phrase ran, not a had " brought back the Bourbons in their baggage," in- restoration sisted on this, believing it the only means of assuring the jx^^j^g continuance of their rule, and Louis XVIII, rather than have a constitution forced upon him by the representatives of the French people, granted one himself. This procedure had the manifest advantage for him that he did not appear to receive his throne from the people on conditions imposed by them, that he did not at all recognize the revolutionary principle of popular sovereignty, that he appeared to rule solely by right of birth, by divine right, as had his ancestors. In the plenitude of his powers he would graciously grant certain privileges to his people. The monarchical principle would remain unblemished. Consequently, on his first return to France in 1814, he issued the most famous document con- The Con- nected with his name, the Constitutional Charter, which, ^ ^tutional Charter, suspended later during the Hundred Days, was revived in 1815 and remained in force until 1848, under three kings, Louis XVIII (1815-1824), Charles X (1824-1830), and Louis Philippe (1830-1848), only altered in some details in 1830 as a result of the revolution of that year. 68 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION The form of By this act the King decreed that his own person should government, j^g inviolable, that his ministers might be impeached by the chambers, that he alone should possess all executive power, that he should command the army and navy, declare war, make treaties, and appoint to all positions in the public services ; that the legislative power should be exercised by himself and a legislature consisting of two houses, a Cham- ber of Peers and a Chamber of Deputies ; that the king alone should propose all laws ; that they then should be discussed by the chambers and accepted or rejected according to their desire, but not amended save with his consent. If he should not propose a law desired by the chambers they might peti- tion him to do so and might suggest the provisions they would like to see it contain, but if the king should reject this petition it should not be again presented during the same session. No tax could be levied without the consent of the chambers. A restricted The Chamber of Peers was to be appointed by the king su rage. £qj. i[{q^ qj. foj. hereditary transmission, as he might see fit. Its sessions were to be secret. The Chamber of Deputies was to consist of representatives chosen for a period of five years. The suffrage was carefully restricted by an age and prop- erty qualification. Only those who were at least thirty years of age and paid at least three hundred francs in direct taxes should have the right to vote for deputies, and only those were eligible to become deputies who were forty years of age or over and paid a direct tax of at least one thousand francs. These provisions were very favorable to the wealthy. Indeed, they made the chamber a plutocratic body. There were less than 100,000 voters in France out of a population of 29,000,000, and not more than 12,000 were eligible to become deputies. The Charter proclaimed the equality of all Frenchmen, yet only a petty minority were given the right to participate in the government of the country. France was still in a political sense a land of privilege, only privilege was no THE CONSTITUTIONAL CHARTER 69 longer based on birth but on fortune. Nevertheless, this was a more liberal form of government than she had ever had under Napoleon, and was the most liberal to be seen in Europe, outside of England. The number of voters and of those eligible as deputies increased with the increase of wealth. The influence of English example is apparent in many of the provisions of the Charter. There was another set of provisions in this document of Provisions even greater importance than those determining the future <^°^<^^r^i^& form of government, namely, that in which the civil rights rights, of Frenchmen were narrated. These provisions show how much of the work of the Revolution and of Napoleon the Bourbons were prepared to accept. They were intended to reassure the people of France, who feared to see in the Restoration a loss of liberties or rights which had become most precious to them. They were thus intended to win for the restored monarchy a popular support and a guarantee of permanence it thus far lacked. It was declared that all Frenchmen were equal before the law, whatever their titles or rank, and thus the cardinal principle of the Revolution was preserved; that all were equally eligible to civil and military positions, that thus no class should monopolize public service, as had largely been the case before the Revolu- Kecognition tion ; that no one should be arrested or prosecuted save °^ *^® by due process of law, that thus the day of arbitrary Revolution imprisonment was not to return; that there should be com- plete rehgious freedom for all sects, though Roman Cathol- icism was declared to be the religion of the state; that the press should be free " while conforming to the laws which are necessary to restrain abuses of that liberty " — a phrase suspiciously elastic. Those who had purchased the con- fiscated property of the crown, the church, and the nobles, during the Revolution were assured that their titles were inviolable. The Napoleonic nobility was placed on an equal- ity with the old nobility of France, and the king might create new peers at will, but nobility was henceforth simply 70 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION a social title carrying with it no privileges and no exemp- tions from taxation or the other burdens of the state.^ Such were the concessions that Louis XVIII was willing to make to the spirit of the times and the demands of the people. They constituted an open recognition of the fact that the France of 1815 was not to be a restoration of the France of 1789. Certain phrases of the Charter gave offense, but they were mainly those of the preamble in which the King labored to maintain the claim of the divine right of monarchy and to connect his act with medieval precedents. These phrases were far-fetched and curiously archaic, but the fact remained that with all its limitations the Charter granted France a larger portion of self-government than it had enjoyed before, except during a brief period in the Revolu- tion. And it put the Bourbon monarchy on record as recognizing the principal results of the democratic evolution of society. The Restoration started out by accepting the centralized administrative system, the great law codes, the concordat, and the nobility of Napoleon, and the social or- ganization created by the Revolution. The political condition of France after 1815 was exceed- ingly troubled. The nation was divided into several parties whose animosity toward each other had only been embittered louis by the Hundred Days. Louis XVIII, restored for a second ' time by the victorious enemies of France, was eminently quali- 1755-1824. ^,'^,, , . . „,. 111 ned to calm the seethmg passions of his countrymen and lead them in the necessary work of recuperation. He was natu- rally a man of moderate opinions. A thorough believer in the divine right of monarchs and asserting the belief with fervor, he was, however, too clear-sighted to think that mon- archy of the type historic in France could be restored. He saw as clearly as any one in the realm the greatness of the changes that had latterly been effected in France, and that *The Charter may be found in full in Anderson, Constitutions and Documents, No. 93, or in Univ. of Penn. Translations and Reprints, Vol. 1, No. 3. LOUIS XVIII 71 his very throne would be imperiled if he attempted to undo any of the important work of the Revolution. He willingly granted a constitution to his people, sharing with them the power which his ancestors had wielded alone. He preferred to rule as a constitutional king than not to rule at all. He had known the bitterness of the exile's life too well to desire to be compelled to " resume his travels " owing to any illiberal conduct on his part. The throne was for him. only the " softest of chairs." Cold-blooded, skeptical, free from illusions, free from the passion of revenge, indolent by nature, he desired to avoid conflicts and to enjoy his power in peace. His policy, which from the beginning he at- tempted to carry out, was expressed by himself a few years later in these words : " The system which I have adopted . . is based on the maxim that it will never do to be the king of two peoples, and to the ultimate fusion of these — ■ for their distinction is only too real — all the efforts of my government are directed." The personality of the King seemed, therefore, admirably The adapted for the problem that confronted France in 1815. difficulties ..... of his But there were difficulties in the situation that foreboded situation. trouble. Louis XVIII had been restored by foreign armies. His presence on the throne was a constant reminder of the humiliation of France. Moreover, his strength lay not in himself but in the historic role of his house, in immemorial prescription, and the power of mere custom over the French mind had been greatly lessened during the past twenty- five years. But a more serious feature was his environ- ment. The court was now composed of the nobles who had suffered greatly from the Revolution, who had been robbed of their property, driven from the country, who had seen many of their relatives executed by the guillotine. It was but natural that these men should have come back full of hatred for the authors c . their woes, that they should detest the ideas of the Revolution and the persons who had been identified with it. These men were not free from passion, as was 72 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION Louis XVIII. More eager to restore the former glory of the crown, the former rank of the nobiHty and the clergy, more bitter toward the new ideas than the King himself, The TTltras. they were the Ultra-royalists, or Ultras — men more royalist than the King, as they claimed. They saw in the Revolution only robbery and sacrilege and gross injustice to them- selves. They bitterly assailed Louis XVIII for granting the Charter, a dangerous concession to the Revolution, and they secretly wished to abolish it, meanwhile desiring to nullify its liberal provisions as far as possible. They constituted the party of the Right. Their leader was the Count of Artois, brother of Louis XVIII, who, the King being childless, stood next in line of succession. These men, not very numerous, but very clamorous, formed the natural entourage of the monarch. The matter of most pressing importance to France was what power of resistance the King would show to this resolute and revengeful band. Would he in the end give way to them or would he be able to control them? The other parties in France in 1815 were shortly differen- tiated. There was the party of the Left. This was not so much a coherent group as a conglomeration of the disaffected. It included those who believed in a republic, who, however, were for some time so few as to be a negligible quantity. It also included the adherents of Napoleon. This class was numerous and composed chiefly of old soldiers who saw them- selves, the glory of the Napoleonic state, now degraded, put on half-pay, thrown into the background. These radical and discontented elements were opposed to the very existence of the Bourbon monarchy. But they were hopelessly dis- credited by the abuses and the failures of both the Republic and the Empire. The Center There were two other parties, called the Right Center parties, and the Left Center. They comprised the body of moderate men who stood between the two extremes and were opposed to both. They were united by one bond — common loyalty to the Charter which the King had granted. They were the PARTIES IN FRANCE 73 convinced supporters of the constitutional regime, but they differed from each other in their interpretation of what the Charter should mean. The Right Center accepted it as a finality, to be carried out honestly and to the letter. The Left Center believed in its honest execution, but also be- Heved that, while the Charter should be thus observed, men should work for its further expansion, that as the years went by larger constitutional liberty should be accorded to the people. The Charter was for them not a finality but a stepping-stone. But further progress should be at- tempted only slowly and after full reflection. Of these four parties, two were distinctly unconstitutional — the Ultras and the Radicals or Left. The former, professing a momentary lip service to the Charter, were resolved to alter it as soon as possible in fundamental and comprehensive ways. They were in principle opposed to a written constitution. They wished to restore the absolute authority of the king and the former privileged positions of clergy and nobility. The Charter stood bluntly in the way. Consequently, however much they might dissemble, they favored its ultimate abrogation. The Radicals favored its destruction for the opposite reason — that the Republic or the Empire might be restored, the Revolution made triumphant once more. The two middle parties were the friends of the new regime. The events of the first year seemed to show the great The White power of the Ultras. Reaction set in fast and furiously in ®^^°^* 1815. There occurred a series of outrages that have come down in history as the White Terror, in contradistinction to the Red Terror of the Revolution. Immediately after the battle of Waterloo rioting broke out in Marseilles, led by Royalists, and resulting in much plundering and many murders. The movement spread to other departments in the south. Religious motives were added to the political, as the Protestants, particularly numerous in the south, had been strongly attached to the Revolution and to Napoleon and had welcomed the return of the latter from Elba. The white 74 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION flag of the Bourbons was disgraced by these atrocities com- mitted by Royalists. The Government was in no sense the cause of them, but it was criminally negligent in not trying to repress them. With the meeting of the first legislative chambers this campaign of revenge and reaction became systematic and frenzied. The Chamber of Deputies was overwhelmingly Ultra-royalist, elected, as it had been, amid the terror and demoralization of the crashing Empire. It demanded satisfaction for the treachery of the Hundred Days. As a result Marshal Ney, " the bravest of the brave," and other distinguished French soldiers, were condemned to death and shot — an everlasting disgrace to the Bourbon monarchy. The Chamber demanded repressive measures of various kinds from the King and got them. It demanded still more violent ones which the King would not concede. The dissension between the Moderate Royalists, represented by the King, the ministry, and the Chamber of Peers, on the one hand, and the Ultras, represented by the Count of Artois and the Chamber of Deputies on the other, soon reached a climax. The King himself said bitterly, " If these gentlemen had full liberty, they would end by purging even me." The representatives of the foreign governments intervened to say that so unreasonable a reaction must cease, in the in- terest of the stability of the Bourbon monarchy and of the peace of Europe. They feared that the revolutionary ele- ments of France would break out again, stung by such in- sane legislation. The Ultras even went so far as to reject the budget, a blazing indiscretion, as it offended all who were financially interested in France, foreigners and French- Louis men. The King now took a decisive step, prorogued the XVIII Chamber, and then dissolved it. He then appealed to the cliccks t)ll6 people to return a moderate Chamber. The appeal was wholly successful and this mad reaction was speedily brought to a close. The Ultra majority was swept away and a large majority of Moderate Royalists was returned. France Ultras. THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION 75 had weathered her first crisis in parliamentary government, but the temper of the Ultras had been shown with the vividness of lightning. France had had emphatic warn- ing of the danger that would lie in the triumph of that party. From 1816 to 1820 the Government of France was able A period of to advance along more liberal lines. The two chief ministers, moderate . . . liberalism. Richelieu and Decazes, both convinced adherents of the Bour- bon monarchy, were men who saw the utter folly of attempts at reaction such as those just witnessed and who believed that the pressing needs of France were very different from those of a faction bent on revenge. The two Centers now controlled Parliament, and for several years worked in har- mony with the King. They accomplished much for the rehabilitation of France. In 1815, it will be recalled, the Allies had imposed a large war indemnity on France, and had insisted that she support an army of occupation of 150,000 in eighteen fortresses of the northern and eastern departments for a minimum of three, a maximum of five, years. This was a great financial burden and a greater humiliation. The liberation of the soil of the The libera- foreien armies was a task which the Kino; and the ministry ^°^. ^ ^ *= . ^ -^ territory, had very much at heart. To effect this the people had to make great sacrifices, for before it could be accomplished the national credit must be re-established and to effect this Frenchmen must pay higher taxes. This they did, and France proceeded to pay off the immense war indemnity more rapidly that the powers that had imposed it had ex- pected would be possible. By 1817 the Allies agreed to withdraw thirty thousand of their troops, and at the Con- gress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818 they agreed to withdraw the remainder before the close of that year. Thus the out- ward evidence of the appalling national humiliation was re- moved. " I can die at peace," said Louis XVIII, " since I shall see France free and the French flag floating over every city of France." France was, for the first time since 1815, 76 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION mistress in her own house. The foreign ambassadors ceased their weekly meetings in Paris, designed for the drafting of advice to be given to the French Government. The foreign tutelage was over. Keorgani- The reorganization of the army was undertaken at this time. The mihtary power of France had been sadly shattered in the general downfall of the Napoleonic system. The army was reduced to a few corps kept up by voluntary enlistment. Now that the foreign troops were to be withdrawn and France was to resume her full place in international affairs it was necessary to create an army that should command respect. There were, however, difficulties in the way. A large army could not be raised by volunteering. And yet forced military service had become, under Napoleon, so hateful a burden that it had been expressly forbidden in the Charter. A com- bination of the two methods lay at the basis of the new law. Voluntary enlistments were still to furnish the bulk of the army. If these should not be sufficient recourse should be had to compulsion to complete the corps. All young men of twenty years of age should draw lots. The " bad numbers " alone would be forced to serve for six years. Forty thousand might thus by these two processes be enrolled every year. Having served in the active army six years, they should pass into the reserve army for six years more. This reserve should be used only in defense of the soil of France, should not be ordered out of the country. It was estimated that thus there would be an army of 240,000 men on a peace footing. Promotion was to be for service and merit and was to be equally open to all. The bill was violently opposed by the Ultras for the reason that it destroyed all hope of the nobility monopolizing the positions in the army. Their chances were simply the same as those of other men. The bill became law in 1818. Thus the basis of the military in- stitutions was firmly laid. The army as thus constituted lasted with some alterations of detail down to 1868, surviving many violent changes in French history. THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM 77 On two other subjects this moderate ministry of Riche- The lieu carried important legislation, the electoral system and the liberty of the press. Concerning both matters the Charter had merely laid down general principles, leaving the manner in which they should be applied to be determined by the legislature in special laws. A liberty so large enabled the legislature to determine the real character, the range, and effect of two fundamental privileges, and as the different parties soon saw that by framing the laws in this way, or in that, they could further their own interests, both matters became the subject of passionate contention in parliament all through the period of the Restoration, and laws very dissimilar in character and in effect were passed as first one party, then another, gained ascendency in the state. Moderates and Ultras differed on these questions as on others. Concerning the electoral system, the ideas of the Mod- erates were shown in the law of 1817, passed by the Richeheu- Decazes ministry. The Charter merely stated the qualifica- tions required of voters and of deputies. The manner in which the voters should elect the deputies was not defined. The law of 1817 established the system of the so-called gen- eral ticket {scrutin de liste) ; that is, the voters of each de- partment should meet in the chief town of the department, and there elect all the deputies to which the department was entitled. This system favored the Moderates and Liberals, who belonged generally to the bourgeoisie, to the industrial and trading classes, largely an urban population, whereas the country gentlemen, the landed proprietors and their tenants, living in the country, were chiefly Ultras, members or adherents of the aristocracy of the old regime. Many of these found it difficult or expensive or annoying to make the trip to the chief town of the department, where alone they could cast their votes. Thus the law, which remained in force from 1817 to 1820, favored the Moderates as each succeeding election showed. 78 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION The press There was passed in 1819 a press law, much more liberal ^^ ° ' than that of the Napoleonic period, which had, in the main, been carried over into the first years of the Restoration. The censorship was abolished, and press cases were hence- forth to be tried before juries. But even under this system newspapers were a luxury, enjoyed only by the rich and well- to-do, as they were not sold by the single copy but only to subscribers at a high price, and in addition there was a stamp tax on each copy of two cents, and a postage duty of one cent. Moreover, while freedom in establishing newspapers was guaranteed, as a matter of fact only the well-to-do could establish them, owing to the large preliminary deposit re- quired of their proprietors, which was to serve as a guaranty fund for the payment of fines that might be inflicted as a result of damage suits. Activity of But this body of liberal legislation rested upon an insecure ® ^^^' basis, the favor of the King, and the coherence of the great mass of moderate men, the Centers. The Ultras did not re- linquish their activity and were alert to seize upon every incident that might discredit the party in power. Nor had they long to wait. Events shortly occurred that aroused misgivings among the most timid of the Moderates, tending to drive them over to the Ultras, events, too, that shook the firmness of the King. According to the Charter there was to be a partial renewal of the Chamber of Deputies each year, one-fifth of that body passing out, and their places being filled by new elections. These elections showed a distinct trend in favor of the Radical party, or party of the Left. At the first renewal in 1817, twenty-five " independents " of the Left were returned; in 1818 the result was similar, the Left increasing to forty-five. Among them were Lafayette and Manuel, both prominent figures in the Revolution. Now the principles of the Left were not only liberal, but were largely anti-dynastic. While that wing acquiesced in the existence of the Bourbon monarchy, it might at any time become actively opposed to it. THE ELECTION OF ABBE GREGOIRE 79 The elections in 1819 added greatly to the growing Left — Election of it numbering now ninety out of a total of 258. But more damaging than the number was the character of some of the members chosen, particularly of Gregoire. Gregoire had played a prominent role in the Revolution, having been a member of the Constituent Assembly and of the Conven- tion. He had aided in the overthrow of the Roman Catholic Church. He had shown himself a fervid republican. A remark of his that kings are in the moral world what monsters are in the physical had had an immense notoriety, and was not yet forgotten. He was not a regicide, as he was absent from Paris at the time of the trial of Louis XVI, but he was, owing to his utterances, commonly considered one. No man was more odious to the Ultras and his election to the Chamber outraged their deepest feelings. Some of them had themselves helped bring about his election, believ- ing that the triumph of so notable a revolutionary would help them in upsetting the mild policy of the ministry and bring about the longed-for reaction. In this they were largely right, as this election aroused consternation in the ranks of those who had hitherto been moderate, and drove many into the camp of the Ultras. The chief minister, Decazes, (Richelieu having previously resigned), was con- vinced that some change must be made in the policy of the Government. The Ultras raged against this " regicidal priest," declared that either he must yield to the dynasty or the dynasty to him, and in a stormy session and amid shouts of " Long live the King," voted his exclusion from the Chamber, to which he had been chosen. The freedom of elections was thus grossly violated, as well as the promise of the Charter that the past should be forgotten. But an event far more damaging to the Moderates now Murder of occurred — the murder of the Duke of Berry. The Duke *^^ Duke of Berrv. was the younger son of the Count of Artois, and as his elder brother, the Duke of Angouleme, had no heir, he was the hope of the dynasty. At about eleven o'clock on the even- 80 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION ing of February 13, 1820, as he was helping his wife into a carriage at the door of the Opera, he was violently attacked by a man, named Louvel, who plunged a dagger into his breast. The Duke died in the opera house at five o'clock, surrounded by the royal family, and demanding pardon for the murderer. The murderer desired to cut off the Bourbon line, which he thought he could do as the Duke had no children. His act was his own ; he had no accomplices. But the Royalists at once asserted that the Liberal party was responsible and that anarchy was the natural result of the policy of liberalism. Their opposition was directed against the ministry under Decazes, whom they succeeded in forcing to resign. At his resignation Louis XVIII is said to have remarked, " It is over with me," meaning that from that time on his policy of reconciliation was over, that the party headed by the Count of Artois would control. This was virtually to be the case. In 1820 began the great royalist reaction, started in 1815, suspended from 1816 to 1820, when the more moderate policies prevailed, and destined now to last with but a single shght interruption until 1830, when it culminated in a new revolution. Electoral ^he Right, now in control, proceeded to undo much of the 1820 work of the preceding ministries. By the electoral law of 1820 that of 1817 was rescinded, and a new system brought into existence. The Chamber of Deputies was enlarged from 258 members to 430, an increase of 172. The electors of deputies were no longer to meet together in the chief town of the department and vote for all the deputies from that department, but were to be divided into as many groups or colleges as there were arrondissements or districts in the department. Each voter was therefore to vote for one deputy only, the one from his district. Thus the principle of single- member constituencies was adopted. This arrangement would be advantageous to the Ultras, as the country gentle- men and their tenants, supporters of that party, no longer having to make the journey to the chief THE LAW OF THE DOUBLE VOTE 81 town, but enabled to vote at places nearer home, would come to the polls in larger numbers. In this way 258 members were to be chosen. The other 172 were to be elected in a special manner. At the chief town of each department were to meet one-fourth of the voters, those who paid the heaviest taxes, and they were to choose the additional 172. This method, of course, greatly augmented the power of the rich. It thus happened that about twelve thousand voters had the right to vote twice, once in the district and once in the de- partment college, and similarly were twice represented — by the deputies chosen in both ways, in both of which elections they participated. Hence this electoral law of 1820 was called the law of the double vote. Moreover, the president of each The double electoral college was to be chosen by the central government ^° ^' and the voters must write out their ballots in his presence and hand them to him unfolded — an excellent device for enabling the Government to bring pressure upon them in favor of its candidates. This bill was hotly contested in the Chamber and outside. The debate was long and im- passioned, participated in by over a hundred and twenty members. The principle of the law, the double vote, was adopted only by a majority of five. Hailed with enthusiasm by the Ultras it assured their ascendency. By 1824 the independents, or Radicals, numbered only seven. The hberal press law of 1819 went the same way after a The censor- brief existence of ten months. It was rescinded. The cen- \ ^^ f ^' stored, sorship was restored. No journal could be founded without the Government's consent, no single issue could appear with- out the censor's permission, the Government might suspend its publication for six months, and even under certain con- ditions suppress it (1820). This control, which would ap- pear sufficient, was strengthened two years later by an additional law which enabled the Government to suppress publications even for " tendencies " when no definite infrac- tion of the law could be proved. Armed with these powerful instruments for the control 82 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION French invasion Spain. of Triumph of the Ultras. Death of Louis XVIII. of elections and of the organs of opinion and agitation, the Ultras pushed confidently forward, and their future appeared assured by the birth of a posthumous son of the Duke of Berry. They forced the King to send an army into Spain to restore Ferdinand VII to an absolute throne in the interests of the Holy Alhance (1823). They thus hoped to throw military glamor over the restored House of Bourbon, to efface by dazzling exploits the uncomfortable memory of those performed by Napoleon. Flushed with an easy victory in Spain, the Ultras resumed the policy of political and re- ligious reaction at home with great enthusiasm. Thinking that a new election of the Chamber of Deputies held during the war fever would result overwhemingly in its favor, the Villele ministry (1822-1828) caused the existing Chamber to be dissolved and new elections to be ordered. They were held in February 1824, and resulted as desired in a sweeping triumph of the Ultras. Of the 430 deputies elected only fifteen were Liberals. This triumph had been achieved only by the grossest abuse of power on the part of the Government, which stopped at nothing to gain its ends. It even went so far as to relieve many prominent Liberals of taxes, so that they could not meet the tax qualification for voters or for membership in the Chamber. A law was now passed decreeing that the new Chamber should last seven years, to be entirely reconstructed at the end of that time. This was an arbitrary change in the Charter. The reactionary party, now overwhelmingly in the major- ity in the Chamber, and declaring that that Chamber should not be altered for seven years, thus lengthening the term and suppressing the annual partial renewal, considered that it could safely advance to the realization of its most cherished plans, too long held in abeyance. Their project was helped by the death in 1824 of Louis XVIII, and the accession to power of his brother, the Count of Artois, who assumed the title of Charles X. Charles had virtually directed the policy CHARACTER OF CHARLES X 83 of his brother for several years. His accession, however, would necessarily give it additional impetus. He needed only six years thoroughly to uproot the elder branch of the House of Bourbon. THE REIGN OF CHARLES X The characteristics of the new King were well known. He Charles X, was the convmced leader of the reactionaries in France from *^*'^°'^^' 1814 to 1830. He had been the constant and bitter oppo- nent of his brother's liberalism, and had finally seen that liberalism forced to yield to the growing strength of the party which he led. He was not likely to abandon lifelong principles at the age of sixty-seven, and at the moment when he seemicd about to be able to put them into force. Louis XVIII had made an honest effort to reconcile the two social regimes and systems into which Frenchmen were di- vided — the old pre-revolutionary regime and the new regime, the product of the Revolution, the old nobility and the modern middle class with its principle of equality before the law. The nobility had returned from abroad unchanged, with ideas of feudal privileges, with the determination to restore as much as possible of the old power of the landed aristocracy and of the church, faithful support of the monarchy by divine right. The policy of reconciliation had been badly shattered during the closing years of Louis XVIII's reign. With the accession of Charles X it was Policy of entirely abandoned, and that of restoration vigorously at- *^^ "^^ tempted. Not that this was proclaimed from the housetops. Charles rather at first attempted to reassure the somewhat perturbed mind of the nation. He announced his firm in- tention to support the Charter, and declared that all Frenchmen were, in his eyes, equal. He liberated political prisoners and won great applause by abolishing the censor- ship of the press. But these halcyon days Avere limited to the inauguration of the new Government. At the corona- tion of the King, France was treated to a spectacle of 84 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION medieval mummery that impressed most unpleasantly a people that had for a generation been living in the posi- tive realities of the modern spirit. It seemed the most incredible height of absurdity to see the King anointed on seven parts of his person with sacred oil, miraculously pre- served, it was asserted, and dating from the time of Clovis. Nor could France, in the modern scientific atmosphere, gravely believe, as it was asked to, in the power of the king's touch. Beranger's witty poem on Charles the Simple was on everybody's lips. The nobles But the legislation now brought forward by the King, and ^ largely enacted, showed the belated political and social ideas for property o j y x- confiscated ^^ this Government. It was first proposed to grant nine during the hundred and eighty-eight million francs to the nobility whose Revolution, j^jjjg j^g^^j been confiscated during the Revolution and sold as " national property " to private individuals. The Charter explicitly assured the purchasers of this land that they should not be molested in their possession. But the courtiers, despite this assurance, were demanding the restoration of their estates to themselves. The King expressed the belief that by this act the last wounds of the Revolution would be closed. The emigres should not receive their lands, but they should receive a money indemnification. The debates on this proposal were heated. Many of the Ultra-royalists criticised it, saying that the sum proposed was entirely insufficient. Many rejected the very idea of indemnification, but demanded that the " stolen goods " themselves be given back. That there was an article in the Charter preventing this they did not consider a legitimate obstacle. The Opposition, however, did not lack arguments. Had the descendants of those whose property had been seized after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes ever been indemnified.'' Had the emigres suffered so much more than others from the Revolution that they alone should be compensated for their losses.'' It might be right to compensate those who had COMPENSATION OF THE EMIGRES 85 had to flee from France to save their lives, but many of these emigres who were now to help themselves out of the public treasury had fled voluntarily in order to bring about an invasion of France by foreigners, and, when that invasion had occurred, had themselves joined it and borne arms against France. Confiscation of property was a very proper pun- ishment for such persons. Again, those who had remained at home and defended the fatherland had suff^ered as much as those who had emigrated and then invaded it. Further- more, this measure would aid only the landed proprietors, but many fortunes, based upon personal property, had like- wise been destroyed by the Revolution. The bill passed (1825) and became law, though the Op- position in the Chamber of Deputies was larger than had been expected. Charles called it " an act of justice." It was perhaps wise in the sense that all purchasers of national domains, who, despite the assurance of the Charter, were constantly threatened, were henceforth safe. The value of these properties immediately rose in the market. But while the act pleased the emigres and satisfied the purchasers of their domains, it off'ended the great mass of Frenchmen. The manner in which the transaction was to be carried into Method of eff^ect was as follows : the sum involved was estimated at about p^^^"^ ^ , .„. . 1 . . ,. 1 indemnity, a bilhon francs ; the financial condition of the state did not permit the outright payment of so immense a capital; it was decided, therefore, to pay not the capital but the interest each year. This, it was estimated, would increase the annual expenditures of the state by about thirty millions.^ This sum was procured by the conversion of the existing debt of France from a five per cent, to a three per cent, basis, thus saving about 28,000,000 francs in interest charges. In this way the indemnification of the emigres would be effected without an increase in taxes. But this new act offended the nation's bondholders, who saw their income arbitrarily reduced by ^ As a matter of fact, interest was paid not on a billion but on about 625,000,000 francs. 86 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION The law against sacrilege. Clerical reaction. two-fifths. Thus the monarchy made enemies of a powerful class of capitalists, particularly the bankers of Paris. Money was taken from Peter to pay Paul. The strength of this class, which felt itself outrageously defrauded, was to be shown in 1830 to the great discomfiture of the Bourbon monarchy. Another law that cast discredit upon this reign, and helped undermine it with the great mass of Frenchmen, was the law against sacrilege. By this act burglaries committed in ecclesiastical buildings and the profanation of holy vessels were, under certain conditions, made punishable with death. This barbaric law was, as a matter of fact, never enforced, but it bore st -iking witness to the temper of the party in power, and has ever since been a mark of shame upon the Bourbon monarchy. It helped to weaken the hold of the Bourbons upon France. It created a feeling of intense bitterness among the middle and lower classes of society, which were still largely dominated by the rationalism of the eighteenth century. They began to fear the clerical re- action more even than the political and social. The re- newed missionary zeal of the church, the denunciation by Catholic bishops of civil marriage as concubinage, the open and great activity of the Jesuits, a society that had been declared illegal in France, all indicated the growing influence of the clergy in the state, an impression not decreased when, in 1826, the Papal Jubilee was celebrated with great elab- orateness, and Frenchmen saw the King himself, clad in the violet robe of a prelate and accompanied by the court, walking in a religious procession through the streets of Paris. The university was under the control of the local bishop, who kept watch over professors whose opinions were denounced as dangerous, and who suspended many of their courses, as, for instance, those of Cousin and Guizot. Was it the purpose of the dominant party to restore both the nobility and the church to the proud position they had occupied before the Revolution.? PROPOSED LAW OF INHERITANCE 87 Criticism of the evident policy of the Government was Attempt to I • 11- T«j.j.i*"j. jj re-establish becommg general and ommous. But the ministry proceeded with its plans with unusual fatuousness. It now attacked dpig of what was regarded as one of the most precious acquisitions primo- of the Revolution, the right to an equal division of an in- S^mture. heritance among all the heirs. The ministry brought for- ward a proposal, quite modest in its scope, to re-establish the principle of primogeniture. The Civil Code provided that in case the deceased died without leaving a will, his real estate should be apportioned equally among his heirs; and this equal division was to be made of most of his property in land, even if he did leave a will. He was given liberty freely to dispose by will of only a portion larger or smaller, according to the number of children. The proposal now made was that this disposable part, which a man might will to his eldest son if he chose, should go to him likewise, if there were no will, as a legal advantage over the other children. This was to be the law only for those who paid three hundred francs in direct taxes. As a matter of fact this law would affect probably not more than eighty thousand families out of six million. Furthermore, the father was in no way forced to constitute this preference for his eldest son, since he was left full liberty of testa- mentary disposition. Yet the mere suggestion threw the country into commotion. The prevailing thought was ex- pressed by the Duke of Broglie, who said : " This is no law. It is a manifesto against existing society. It is a forerunner of twenty other laws which, if your wisdom does not prevent it, will break in upon us and will leave no rest to the society of France, which has been the growth of the last forty years." The proposition was defeated in the Chamber of Peers. For several nights the streets of Paris were illuminated in gratitude for this escape from feudalism. These measures and failures, which were costing the min- istry much popularity, were crowned by an attempt to render 88 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION Attempt to the press law more stringent. Charles X had long since re~ es roy e gj-g^^ed his act in abolishing the censorship. A bill was the press. "^^ proposed which wound an amazing mesh around the printing presses of France. So sweeping was it in char- acter, giving the Government a practically unlimited con- trol of all publications, both periodical, like the daily papers, and non-periodical, that it aroused immediately a remark- able opposition. It was denounced as barbaric by Chateau- briand, the foremost man of letters in France. " Printing," said Casimir-Perier, "is suppressed in France to the ad- vantage of Belgium." Those engaged in this business, as well as the prominent writers and members of the French Academy, protested with vigor. The bill passed the Chamber of Deputies, but in the Chamber of Peers an oppo- sition so intense developed that the ministry deemed it wise to withdraw the measure before it came to a vote. Paris was illuminated in honor of this escape. The provinces imitated the capital. These outbursts of joy were occa- sioned not only by the withdrawal of the press law. The people were already celebrating the fall of the hated VillMe ministry, which was felt to be imminent. Disband- The mistakes of this ministry, however, were not yet over. ment of the ^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ withdrawal of this press bill the Na- JN3,X10il3>i , Guard. tional Guard was reviewed by the King. The King was personally received with much warmth, but cries of " Long live the Charter," " Down with the Ministers, down with the Jesuits," were heard from the troops. Villele at once de- manded that these troops be disbanded. The King consented and it was done. This was a mistake for two reasons: be- cause it offended the bourgeoisie of Paris, thus far opposed to the ministry but loyal to the King, and because the men were permitted to retain their arms, of which three years later they were to make effective use. The ministry, conscious of rapidly waning power, did not propose to yield, but attempted to crush the opposition. It had been unable to get the press bill through Parliament. THE MARTIGNAC MINISTRY 89 The chief resistance the ministry had encountered had come Attempt to from the Chamber of Peers, which had favored a moderate ^ *™P °^ . 1 • 1 1-1 *^^ opposi- pohcj. Villele thought to overcome this by packing that ^j^j^ jj^ Par. chamber with men who would support the ministry through liament. thick and thin. Consequently seventy-six new peers were created, enough, it was thought, to enable the ministry to control that body thenceforth. But it was also clear that the opposition was growing in the Chamber of Deputies too. Although the ministry was able to get its measures through that chamber, its majority was gradually becoming smaller. Villele therefore decided to dissolve the Chamber, although it had yet four years to run. He expected by manipulation of the election to get an assembly in its place overwhelmingly in favor of the ministry. Thus, with the press shackled, and the Chamber of Peers and Chamber of Deputies con- trolled, the ministry could retrieve the rebuffs it had recently experienced and carry out its policy in all its vigor. Never did a minister make a greater mistake. The min- istry was overwhelmingly defeated in the elections. Its sup- porters numbered only 170; the combined opposing elements counted 250. Villele retired from office. The Martignac ministry now came in in January 1828. The The difficulties in its way were numerous. It had neither ^^ ^S^^^o •^ ministry, the favor of the King, nor the hearty support of the Chambers. Charles X told the new ministers, " Villele's pol- icy was mine, and I hope you will endeavor to carry it out ?3 best you can." Martignac, however, made no such at- tempt, but strove rather to carry out a liberal policy, some- what like that of the years 1816-20. The professors, Guizot, Villemain, whose courses Villele had stopped, were reinstated. A somewhat more liberal press law was carried, abolishing censorship and the offense of " tendency." An educational law was enacted directed against the Jesuits and intended to please the more liberal religious element. But Martignac's course suited neither the Right nor the Left, and he shortly resigned. This pleased Charles X, who re- 90 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION sented the liberalism of the ministry. Charles believed that he had the right to choose the ministers to suit himself, whether they pleased the Chamber or not. " I would rather saw wood," he said, " than be a king of the Enghsh type." The With the fall of the Martignac ministry in 1829 fell also minStry ^^^ ^^^^ attempt made under the rule of the Bourbon Legiti- mists to fuse old and new France, to reconcile monarchy and constitutional freedom. The announcement of the new min- isters was received with great popular indignation. The chief minister was Polignac, son of the Countess of Poli- gnac, the friend of Marie Antoinette. Pohgnac had beeij one of the leaders of the emigres at the outbreak of the Revolution, had joined in the Cadoudal conspiracy against Napoleon, had been sentenced to death, but had escaped with simply imprisonment, owing to the intervention of Josephine. In 1815 he had protested against the Charter, and had long refused to take the oath to support it. He had for years been very closely identified with Charles X, and had favored the most extreme laws proposed by him. Other ministers were Bourmont in the War OfBce, a man who was commonly supposed to have been a traitor to Napoleon, consequently to France, in 1815, and Labourdonnaye, Minister of the Interior, connected in the popular mind with the White Terror of 1815. Even Metternich, who could ordinarily view a policy of reaction with fortitude, considered the advent of such a ministry a matter of considerable gravity. " The change in the ministry is of the first importance," he wrote. " All the new ministers are pure royalists. Everything about the episode means counter-revolution." The feeling, that the appointment of this ministry was virtually a declara- tion of war to the bitter end against the modern society of France, was widespread, and was shared by all parties. Journals whose loyalty to the Bourbon monarchy was un- impeachable attacked the new ministry at once and in the most vigorous fashion. Liberals of every shade began to organize to meet the CONFLICT BETWEEN KING AND CHAMBER 91 dangers which they felt were coming'. Societies were formed. Widespread Old societies, like the Carbonari, renewed their activity, j^^^f^ ^^^ ^ to tne Men began to say that the House of Bourbon and a con- ministry. stitutlon were two Incompatible terms. A faction was organ- ized to prepare the way to the throne of the Duke of Orleans. Men began to study those chapters of English history which told how one prince could be put aside for another more to the liking of the nation. The groups op- posed to the new ministry differed widely from each other in belief and purpose, Orleanlsts, Bonapartists, Republicans ; but they were temporarily united in a common opposition. Indignation at the appointment of such a ministry was both widespread and deep, and became all the more vehement when Pollgnac declared his object to be " to reorganize society, to restore to the clergy its former preponderance in the state, to create a powerful aristocracy and to surround it with privileges." For the time being, however, the ministry remained in- Conflict Yj p 4" TTT p ii -M active, apparently amazed and checked by the remarkable _ _ ebullition of hostile feeling its appointment had called forth and the with the meeting of the Chambers. Early in March 1830 Chamber of began a conflict which, short and sharp, ended in the over- ^^^ ^^^" throw and exile of Charles X. The King opened the session with a speech which clearly revealed his irritation at the Opposition, and his emphatic intention to support the min- istry, '^.'he Chamber of Deputies, not at all intimidated, replied by an Address to the King, passed by a vote of 221 to 181, which was virtually a demand for the dismissal of the unpopular ministry, that thus " constitutional harmony " might be restored. The King replied by declaring that " his decisions were unchangeable," and by dissolving the Chamber, hoping by means of new elections to secure one subservient to his will. But the people thought otherwise. The elec- tions resulted in a crushing defeat for the King and his ministry. Of the 221 who had voted for the Address, 202 were returned; of the 181 who had voted against it only 92 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION 99 were returned. The total Opposition was increased from 221 to 270. The ministry could count on less than 150 votes in the new Chamber. The voters had spoken decisively. This Liberal majority was not opposed to the monarchy. Had the King been willing to make some concessions, had he dismissed the ministry, the majority of the Opposition would have been satisfied. Charles X was urged to take this course by the most absolute of rulers, the Emperor Alexander, and by the most absolute of ministers, Metternich. Polignac was willing to go. But Charles had so conspicuously identified himself with his minister that yielding on that point seemed to him like abdicating. His own brother, Louis XVI, had come to a tragic end, he said, because he had made conces- sions. The ministry remained. ^^® Charles was unconquerably stubborn. Other methods of ordinances .. ,. ^ i • cmii ii -i of Julv gaining his ends having lailed, he now determined upon coercion. He resolved to issue a series of ordinances to meet the demands of the situation. The ordinances consequently appeared in the Moniteur, the official organ, July 26, 1830. They were four in number. The first suspended the liberty of the press. For the publication of any periodical a pre- liminary authorization of the Government was thenceforth to be required. This authorization must be renewed every three months and might be revoked at any moment. Thus the edi- tors of France could not lawfully publish another issue without obtaining the permission of the Government. This, it was supposed, would effectually silence the opposition press. The second ordinance dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, just elected and overwhelmingly against the ministry, before that Chamber had ever met. This was to sport with the voters' rights to choose the deputies whom they desired. The reason assigned for this step was that during the late elections methods had been used " to deceive and mislead the electors." To prevent the recurrence of such manoeuvers a third ordinance was issued gravely altering the electoral system. The number of deputies was reduced again to 258, THE JULY ORDINANCES 93 one-fifth renewable each year. The property qualification for the suffrage was so manipulated as practically to ex- clude the rich bourgeoisie, merchants, and manufacturers, liberals and partisans of the new regime born of the Revolu- tion, and to lodge political power almost entirely in the hands of the class of great landed proprietors, chiefly mem- bers of the nobility of the old regime. The electorate was hereby reduced by about three-fourths. Instead of about 100,000 voters there were now to be about 25,000. The fourth ordinance ordered new elections and fixed the date for the meeting of the new Chamber of Deputies that would emerge from those elections. The King had persuaded himself that in issuing these ordi- Charles X's nances he was acting not against the Charter but in con- f th formity with it. He based his right upon an interpretation charter, of Article 14, which gave him the power to make " the necessary regulations and ordinances for the execution of the laws and the safety of the state." He held that the king alone had the right to interpret the Charter, as the king alone had granted it. His interpretation was monstrous and his application of it pure absolutism, since, if the ordi- nances were legal, the most carefully safeguarded clauses of the Charter could be made null and void by the monarch's act. Needless to say, the Charter did not give the king the right co alter or abolish the fundamental provisions of the Charter. If so the French people would enjoy their liberties simply at the humor of the monarch. Not to have opposed these ordinances would have been to acquiesce quietly in the transformation of the French government into the absolute monarchy of the time of Louis XIV. If the French cared for the liberties they enjoyed, they could not permit this action of the King to stand. They must repel the assault upon their political system to whatever extent might be necessary, for the first and third ordinances were plainly violations of the Charter. Yet Charles X and his minister, Polignac, were confident 94 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION The King's that there would be no trouble. The ordinances affected, . they said, only a few people — newspaper men and those who had the right to vote — an exceedingly small minority. No right that the masses of the people enjoyed was infringed. The people, therefore, would have no motive or desire to rise to aid simply the privileged few. It was the belief of the ministry that the mass of the nation was indifferent to the electoral law and was satisfied with material pros- perity. The Government, entertaining this view of the situation, took no serious precautions against trouble. The Minister of Police assured his colleagues that Paris would not stir. Charles X, having signed the fateful decrees, and feeling secure, went off to hunt at Rambouillet. On his return that evening everything was quiet and the Duchess of Berry congratulated him that at last he was king. The opposi- The constitutional party, in truth, was poorly organized for resistance and moved slowly. The ordinances were aimed liberal -^ editors of ^^ the newspapers and the Chamber. The Chamber had Paris. not yet met. Its members were scattered over France, although some were in Paris. The first step in resistance was taken by the liberal editors of Paris. Under the leader- ship of Thiers they published a protest. " The reign of law has been interrupted; that of force has begun. The Government has violated the law; we are absolved from obedience. We shall attempt to publish our papers without asking for the authorization which is imposed upon us. The Government has this day lost the character of legality which gives it the right to exact obedience. We shall resist it in that which concerns ourselves. It is for France to decide how far her own resistance shall extend." On the following day the liberal members of the Chamber of Depu- ties drew up a formal protest against the ordinances, but outlined no course of action. The Revolution of 1830, however, was not to be accomplished by the journalists or the deputies. As the significance of the ordinances came to be more THE JULY REVOLUTION 95 clearly seen, popular anger began to manifest Itself. Crowds assembled in the streets shouting " Down with the Minis- try ! " ; " Long live the Charter ! " Fuel was added to the rising flame by the appointment of Marmont, odious as a traitor to France in 1814, to the command of the troops in Paris. The workmen of the printing establishments, thrown out of employment, began agitating, and other workmen joined them. On Wednesday, July 28, civil war broke out. The in- The July surgents were mainly old soldiers, Carbonari, and a group of B,evolutio3i. republicans and workmen — men who hated the Bourbons, who followed the tricolor flag as the true national emblem, rather than the white flag of the royal house. This war lasted three days. It was the July Revolution — the Glorious Three Days. It was a street war and was limited to Paris. The insurgents were not very numerous, probably not more than ten thousand. But the Government had itself prob- ably not more than fourteen thousand troops in Paris. The insurrection was not difficult to organize. The streets of Paris were narrow and crooked. Through such tortuous lanes it was impossible for the Government to send artillery, a weapon which it alone possessed. The streets were paved The with large stones. These could be torn up and piled in character such a w?.y as to make fortresses for the msurgents. In fighting, the night of the 27th-28th the streets were cut up by hun- dreds of barricades made in this manner of paving stones, of overturned wagons, of barrels and boxes, of furniture, of trees and objects of every description. Against such ob- stacles the soldiers could make but little progress. If they overthrew a barricade and passed on, it would immediately be built up again behind them more threatening than before because cutting their line of reinforcements and of possible retreat. Moreover, the soldiers had only the flint-lock gun, a weapon no better than that in the hands of insurgents. Again, the officers had no knowledge of street fighting, where- as the insurgents had an intimate knowledge of the city, of 96 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION The ordinances withdrawn. The candidacy of louis Philippe. its streets and lanes. Moreover, the soldiers were reluctant to fight against the people. The fighting continued two days amid the fierce heat of July. About six hundred lives were lost. Finally Charles, seeing his troops worsted and gradually driven back out of the city, determined to with- draw the ordinances. His messengers, who were bringing this news to the insurgents, were greeted with cries of " Too late, too late I " The insurgents were no longer content with the withdrawal of the odious measures that had pre- cipitated the contest. They would have nothing more to do with Charles X. But the determination of the govern- ment to succeed his was a delicate matter. Those who had done the actual fighting undoubtedly wanted the republic. But the journalists and deputies and the majority of the Parisians were opposed to such a solution. They now took the aggressive and skilfully brought forward the candidacy of Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, representing a younger branch of the royal family, a man who had always sympa- thized with liberal opinions. On July 30 appeared a mani- festo written by Thiers in the interest of this candidacy, running as follows : " Charles X may no longer return to Paris : he has caused the blood of the people to flow. The Republic would expose us to frightful divisions ; it would embroil us with Europe. The Duke of Orleans is a prince devoted to the cause of the Revolution. . . . The Duke of Orleans is a citizen king. The Duke of Orleans has borne the tricolors in the heat of battle. The Duke of Orleans alone can again bear them; we wish no others. The Duke of Orleans makes no announcement. He awaits our will. Let us proclaim that will and he will accept the Charter, as we have always understood it and desired it. From the French people will he hold his crown." On the following day the deputies who were in Paris met and invited the Duke of Orleans " to exercise the functions of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom." In a proclamation announcing this fact to the people it was stated : " He will ABDICATION OF CHARLES X 97 respect our rights, for he will hold his from us." The Duke of Orleans accepted the position until the opening of the Chambers which should determine upon the future form of government for France. He added, " The Charter shall henceforth be a reality." But the transition from the old to the new was not yet completed. The people, who, during these three hot July days, had done the actual fighting, desired a republic. They had their quarters at the Hotel de Ville and must be reckoned with. The final decision be- tween monarchy and republic lay in the hands of Lafayette, the real leader of the Republicans. It was of the highest importance to know his attitude. On July 31 Louis Philippe rode to the Hotel de Ville dressed in the uniform of a general and wearing the tricolor cockade. He appeared on the balcony. Lafayette appeared with him and embraced him. The effect of the little pantomime was instantaneous. The crowd shouted for Louis Philippe. This popular applause ended the brief hope of the Repub- licans. The crowd virtually gave another sovereign to France. Charles X now accepted the revolution. He abdicated, as Abdication did his eldest son, the Duke of Angouleme, in favor of the posthumous son of the late Duke of Berry, the Duke of Bordeaux, later well known in the history of France as the Count of Chambord and as Henry V, the title he would have worn had he ever become king. The leaders of the movement had, however, other ideas concerning the future government of France. They wished to be entirely rid of this legitimate royal line. Their first step was directed against Charles X and his Immediate family. Desiring no repetition of the experience of the former revolutionists of having a king as prisoner they sent troops against him to frighten him out of the country. The method succeeded. Slowly the King and his family withdrew toward the coast, whence they embarked for England (August 14). For two years Charles X lived In Great Britain, keeping a 98 FRANCE DURING THE RESTORATION Louis Philippe King. The end of the Restora- tion. melancholy court in Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, of somber memory in the life of Mary, Queen of Scots. Removing later to Austria, he died in 1836. The Chamber of Deputies, whose dissolution by Charles X before it had ever come together, had been one of the causes of this revolution, organized itself August 3 and undertook a revision of the Charter. It then called Louis Philippe to the throne, ignoring the claims of the legitimate prince, the nine-year-old Duke of Bordeaux. The revolution was now considered over. It had had no such scope as had that of 1789. It grew out of no deep-seated abuses, out of no crying national distress. France was growing every day richer and more prosperous. It was an unexpected, impromptu affair. Not dreamed of July 25th, it was over a week later. One king had been overthrown, another created, and the Charter slightly modified. Parliamentary govern- ment had been preserved; a return to autocracy prevented. The essential weakness of the monarchy of the Restoration was shown by the ease with which it was terminated. It always labored under the odium of its origin, having been brought back, as the phrase went, *' in the baggage of the Allies," the enemies and vanquishers of France. The very presence of Louis XVIII and Charles X in France was a reminder of the humiliation of that country, was a trophy of her enemies' victories. Moreover, it was an inevitable fatality of this monarchy that its natural representatives and counselors had been long in exile, did not understand the complete intellectual transformation of their country- men, had themselves always lived in a world of ideas alien to modern France, viewed the country they had to rule through a distorting though inevitable medium of precon- ceptionsj prejudices, and convictions. The Bourbon mon- archy accomplished much that was salutary. It restored the sadly disordered finances of the nation. Its policy in foreign affairs, in Greece, in Algeria, even in Spain, gave general satisfaction. But its ideal in government was the ACCESSION OF LOUIS PHILIPPE 99 old, aristocratic regime and it was impelled by its very nature to seek to approach that ideal. When it approached too near it suddenly found itself toppled over. This ends the Restoration and the reign of Louis Philippe now begins. Those who brought about the final overthrow of the elder Bourbons received no adequate reward. They had the tricolor flag once more, but the rich bourgeoisie had the government. The Republicans yielded, but without re- nouncing their principles or their hopes. Cavaignac, one of their leaders, when thanked for the abnegation of his party, replied, " You are wrong in thanking us ; we have yielded because we are not yet strong enough. Later it will be diiFerent." The revolution, in fact, gave great impetus to the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people. CHAPTER V REVOLUTIONS BEYOND FRANCE Wide- The influence of the Revolution of 1830 was felt all over „ . ' Europe — in Poland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, England, the July ^nd the Netherlands. It was the signal and encourage- Eevolution. ment for wide-spread popular movements which for a short time seemed to threaten the whole structure erected in 1815 at Vienna. It created an immediate problem for the rulers of Europe. They had bound themselves in 1815 to guard against the outbreak of " revolution," to watch over and assure the " general tranquillity " of Europe. They had adopted and applied since then, as we have seen, the doctrine of intervention in the affairs of countries infected by revolu- tionary fever, as the great preservative of public order. Would this self-constituted international police acquiesce in the overthrow of the legitimate king of France by the mob of Paris.'' Now that revolution had again broken out in that restless country, would they " intervene " as they had done in Spain and Italy.'' At first they were disposed to do so. Metternich's immediate impulse was to organize a coalition against this " king of the barricades." But when the time came this was seen to be impracticable, for Russia was occupied with a revolution in Poland, Powerless- Austria with revolutions in Italy, Prussia with simi- ness of the -^^^ movements in Germany, and England was engrossed in Alliance. ^^^ most absorbing discussion of domestic problems she had faced in many decades. Moreover, England approved the revolution. All the powers, therefore, recognized Louis Philippe, though with varying indications of annoyance. In one particular, consequently, the settlement of 1815 was undone forever. The elder branch of the House of Bourbon, 100 THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS 101 put upon the throne of France bj the Allies of 1815, was now pushed from it, and the revolution, hated of the other powers, had done it. THE RISE OF THE KINGDOM OF BELGIUM Another part of the diplomatic structure of 1815 was The now overthrown. The Congress of Vienna had created an Congress of • n •/» • 1 1 c -n 1 ;-• Vienna and essentially artincial state to the north of France, the Kmg- ^j^g Kine- dom of the Netherlands. It had done this explicitly for dom of the the purpose of having a barrier against France. The Bel- ^ether- gian provinces, hitherto Austrian, were in 1815 annexed to Holland to strengthen that state in order that it might be in a position to resist attack until the other powers should come to its rescue. The Congress had also declared and guaranteed the neutrality of the new state as an additional protection against an aggressive France. But it was easier to declare these two peoples formally united under one ruler than to make them in any real sense a single country. Though it might seem by a glance at the map that the peoples of this little comer of Europe must be essentit Uy homogeneous, such was not at all the case. There were many more points of difference than of similarity between them. Their historic evolution had not been at ^ union all the same. Except under the overpowering rule of Na- poleon they had not been under the same government since mentally 15T9. Holland had been a republic. The Belgian prov- dissimilar inces had remained subject to Spain at the time that Hoi- P^°P^®s- land had acquired her independence and had later passed under Austrian rule. They were also divided by language. The Dutch spoke a Teutonic tongue, the Belgians either Flemish, a Teutonic speech, yet differing from the Dutch, or Walloon, allied to the French. They were divided by re- ligion. The Dutch were Protestants and Calvinists ; the Bel- gians devoted Catholics. They differed in their economic life and principles. The Dutch were an agricultural and com- mercial people and were inclined to free trade ; the Belgians 102 REVOLUTIONS BEYOND FRANCE The spirit of nation- ality awak- ened among the Belgians. Difficulties in the drafting of the Constitu- tion. a manufacturing people and inclined toward protection. There was one form of union, however, under which such dis- similar peoples might have lived harmoniously together — that of a personal union. Each might have had the same monarch but have kept its own institutions and followed its own line of development. But at Vienna no thought was given to such an arrangement. It was decided that the union should be " close and complete." This was the first disappointment for the Belgians. They had hoped that henceforth they Avould have a large measure of independence. They had never yet constituted a nation. For centuries they had been subject to the Spaniards and the Austrians. But the French Revolution had powerfully aroused the longing for a national existence. This desire for liberty and independence, thwarted in 1815, operated with growing force throughout the period of their connection with Holland. The Belgians saw themselves simply added to and subjected to another people inferior in numbers to themselves. Friction began at once. The king, William I, had prom- ised a constitution to his united kingdom and appointed a commission to draw it up. The commission consisted of an equal number of Dutch and Belgian members. There were discussions as to the capital. The Dutch desired Amsterdam; the Belgians, Brussels. No decision was pos- sible, and it was decided consequently to make no mention of the subject in the Constitution. It was agreed that there should be a legislature consisting of two chambers, an Upper Chamber appointed by the king, a Lower elected by the provincial estates. The latter was to be composed of 55 Dutch and 55 Belgian members. The Belgians objected to this equality, saying that they were a population of over three million, while Holland had less than two million. Hol- land replied that it had been a sovereign and independent state for over two centuries and that it would not admit Belgian predominance; also that wealth and general state AN UNSATISFACTORY UNION 103 of civilization must be taken into account; moreover, that if population were regarded as the sole basis of the state Holland had a right to count in her colonies. She insisted upon a representation at least equal to that of the newly incorporated territories. As neither would recognize the predominance of the other, equality of representation was the only possible outcome. Equal rights were granted all forms of worship. This was denounced by the Belgian Catholics. The Constitution gave great power to the king. The legislative bodies could reject but not amend bills. The right of trial by jury was not guaranteed, a right the Belgians had enjoyed under the French rule. The Constitution was now submitted to assemblies of the two peoples for approval. The Dutch assembly accepted it but the Belgian rejected it. Never- theless, by an arbitrary exercise of power the King declared it in force. A union so inharmoniously begun was never satisfactory Friction to the Belgians. Friction was constant. The Belgians between objected with Justice that the officials in the state and army 3gig.ia,ns were almost all Dutch. They objected to the King's attempts and the to force the Dutch language into a position of undue privi- Dutch, lege. They objected to the system of taxation, particularly to two odious taxes on bread and meat, now imposed. Re- ligious differences inflamed passions still further. Though the fact remains that during this period and largely because of this union the material prosperity of the Belgians ad- vanced greatly, still the union never became popular. The evident desire of the King to fuse his two peoples into one was a constant irritation. The system was more and more disliked by the Belgians as the years went by. Thus, long before the revolution in France, there was a The strong movement in Belgium in favor of larger liberty, of ii^fli^ence of self-government. Few as yet, however, dreamed of a dis- Revolution, ruption of the kingdom. There was a lively sense of griev- ances too long endured. The July Revolution now came 104 REVOLUTIONS BEYOND FRANCE The Belgians declare their inde- pendence. as a spark In the midst of all this inflammable material. On August S5, 1830, rioting broke out in Brussels. It was not at first directed toward independence. The Bel- gians would have been satisfied if each country could have been given its own government under the same king. The King rejected this proposal to change a " real " into a " personal '* union. His troops attempted to put down the insurrection. There were in September several days of fight- ing in Brussels as there had been in Paris, and of the same character. The royal troops were driven out, and on Octo- ber 4 the Provisional Government that had arisen out of the turmoil declared Belgium independent and called a con- gress to determine the future form of government. The King now prepared to make concessions, but it was too late. The congress decided in favor of a monarchy as the form of government, adopted a liberal constitution, and at the suggestion of England and France elected as king Leopold of Coburg, who had just declined the new throne of Greece, but who accepted this. The task of greatest difficulty was to get the new kingdom recognized by the Great Powers, which in 1815 had added Belgium to Holland. Would they consent to the undoing of their own work? The king, William I, was resolved not to give up Belgium and was preparing to reconquer it, which he probably could have done, as Belgium had no army. Everything, therefore, depended on the powers which had suppressed revolution in Spain and Italy ten years before. Would they do it again in the interest of the treaties of 1815.'' Now, however, they were divided, and in this division lay the salvation of the new state. The Tsar wished to intervene in order " to oppose an armed barrier to the progress of revolution." Prussia seemed simi- larly inclined, but Louis Philippe, knowing that his own throne would be overthrown by the Parisians if he supinely allowed these absolute monarchies to crush the new liberties of the Belgians, gave explicit warning that if they inter- RISE OF THE KINGDOM OF BELGIUM 105 vened France also would intervene against them " in order to hold the balance even " until the whole question should be settled by the powers, in congress assembled. In November, 1830, an insurrection broke out in Poland, Interven- which effectually prevented Russia from acting in the Belgian *^°^ ^^ *^® matter, caused Prussia to fix her attention upon her eastern j^m^^^ boundaries, and filled Austria with apprehension. Thus the prevented Holy Allies, hitherto so redoubtable as the opponents of ^y events , ,. ^ , . ^^ ... in Poland, revolutionary movements everywhere, were m no position to stamp out such a movement in Belgium. This part of the work of the Congress of Vienna had consequently been undone. A new state had arisen in Europe as a result of revolution. Its revolutionary origin, however, was covered up by the action of the powers in now consenting to it. Conferences of the powers, held in London at the close of 1830 and in 1831, accepted the separation of Belgium from Holland, guaranteed the neutrality of the new king- Hecogni- dom, and sanctioned the choice by the Belgians of Leopold ^^^ ° ^ as their ruler. The powers had the satisfaction of knowing Belgium, that though the territorial arrangements of Vienna were altered, France, the arch-enemy, had gained nothing. More- over, the monarchical principle was saved, as Belgium had been prevented from becoming a republic; but the new monarchy was constitutional, a fact pleasing to England and France, but odious to the three eastern powers. The success of the Belgian revolution had to a considerable extent been rendered possible by a revolution in Poland, which ended in disastrous failure. Neither Russia, nor Prussia, nor Austria would have acquiesced so easily in the dismemberment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands had they not feared that if they went to war with France con- cerning it, France would in turn aid the Poles, and the future of the Poles was of far greater immediate importance to them than the future of the Netherlanders. The French Revolution of 1830 was followed by the rise of the Kingdom 106 REVOLUTIONS BEYOND FRANCE of Belgium; but it was also followed by the disappearance of the Kingdom of Poland. The resto- ration of the King- dom of Poland in 1815. REVOLUTION IN POLAND Poland had been down to the last quarter of the eighteenth century an independent state. During that quarter its in- dependence had been destroyed and its territory seized by its three neighbors, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, in the famous partitions of 1772, 1793, and 1795. But the Polish people's passionate love of country was not destroyed and their hope that Revolutionary and Napoleonic France would restore their independence was intense. It was, however, destined to disappointment. But with the fall of Napoleon hope sprang up in another quarter. Alexander I, Tsar of Rus- sia, was in 1815 filled with generous and romantic aspira- tions and was for a few years a patron of liberal ideas in various countries. Under the influence of these ideas he conceived the plan of restoring the old Kingdom of Poland. Poland should be a kingdom entirely separate from the Em- pire of Russia. He should be Emperor of Russia and King of Poland. The union of the two states would be simply personal. Alexander had desired to restore Poland to the full extent of its possessions in the eighteenth century. To render this possible Prussia and Austria must relinquish the prov- inces they had acquired in the three partitions. This, as we have seen, was not accomplished at the Congress of Vienna. There were henceforth four Polands — Prussian Poland, Austrian Poland, Russian Poland, and a new small independent Poland, created by the Congress of Vienna, the Republic of Cracow, The new Polish kingdom, erected by Alexander I in 1815, was then simply a part of historic Poland, nor did it indeed include all of the Polish territories that Russia had acquired. Of this new state Alexander was to be king. To it he granted toward the close of 1815 a Constitution. There was POLAND A CONSTITUTIONAL KINGDOM 107 to be a Diet meeting every two years. This was to consist Alexander I of a Senate, nominated by the king, and of a Chamber of Nuncios, elected by the assembhes of the nobles and by tion to the communes. The latter chamber was to be elected for Poland, six years, one-third renewable every two years. Roman Catholicism wa,s recognized as the state religion; but a generous measure of toleration was given to other sects. Liberty of the press was guaranteed, subject to laws de- signed to prevent its abuse. The Polish language was made the official language. All positions in the govern- ment were to be filled by Poles, not by Russians. No people in central Europe possessed such liberal institutions as those with which the Poles were now invested. A prosperous career as a constitutional monarchy seemed about to begin. The Poles had never enjoyed so much civil freedom, and they were now receiving a considerable measure of home-rule. But this regime, well-meant and full of promise, en- Friction countered obstacles from the start. The Russians were ^^^^^^^ iTr»ii 1 -11 *^6 Poles opposed to the idea of a restored Poland, and particularly ^^^ ^^le to a constitutional Poland, when they themselves had no Russians, constitution. Why should their old enemy be so greatly favored when they, the real supporters of the Tsar, were not.'' The hatred of Russians and Poles, a fact centuries old, continued undiminished. Moreover, what the dominant class of Poles desired, far more than liberal government, was independence. They could never forget the days of their prosperity. Unfortunately they had not the wisdom or self-control to use their present considerable liberties for the purpose of building up the social solidarity which Poland had always lacked by redressing the crying grievances of the serfs against the nobles, by making all Poles feel that they were a single people rather than two classes of oppres- sors and oppressed. They did not seek gradually to de- velop under the segis of their constitution a true and vigor- ous nationality, which might some day be strong enough to win its independence, but they showed their dissatisfaction 108 REVOLUTIONS BEYOND FRANCE Influence of the July Revolution. The Polish expectation of foreign aid disap- pointed. with the limited powers Alexander had granted and shortly became obstructive and censorious — conduct lacking in tact and judgment. The Diet criticized certain acts of the Tsar's officials and the Tsar warned the Diet. Friction developed from time to time, and, moreover, as the years went by, Alexander's early liberalism faded away. His successor, Nicholas I, who came to the throne in 1825, was a thorough-going absolutist. The spirit of unrest was strong among the mass of the lesser Polish nobility, a class little accustomed to self- control and also strongly influenced by the democratic ideas of Western Europe. This party was now inflamed by the reports of the successful revolution in France; by the belief that the French would aid them if they strove to imitate their example. When, therefore, the Tsar summoned the Polish army to prepare for a campaign whose object was the sup- pression of the Belgian revolution, the determination of the Liberals was quickly made. They rose in insurrection on the 29th of November, 1830. The Russian Grand Duke Constantine was driven from Warsaw. The revolutionists first tried negotiation with the Tsar, hoping in this way to secure their demands for larger political liberty. The attempt failed, but consumed time which the revolutionists could have used to much better advantage in arousing and organizing the country. When the Tsar sent word that Poland had but two alternatives — unconditional submission or annihilation — then the more radical revolutionists seized control of the movement, declared that the House of Roman- off^ had ceased to rule in Poland, and prepared for a life and death struggle. Russia's military resources, however, were so great that Poland could not hope alone to achieve her national inde- pendence. The Poles expected foreign intervention, but no in- tervention came. Enthusiasm for the Poles was widespread among the people in France, in England, and in Germany. But the Governments, none of which was controlled by public THE POLISH INSURRECTION 109 opinion, refused to move. Louis Philippe, feeling his new throne quite insecure, did not wish to hazard it in the vicissi- tudes of a war. The revolution from which he had himself profited was a half-way affair. Revolutionary flames feed each other. If France should aid Poland the restless elements at home would be encouraged to go further and insist upon a thorough change in France which would endanger his position. England was not disposed to injure Russia, which might somewhere else wreak vengeance upon her. Prussia and Austria felt that an independent Poland would be a menace to them, as it would seek to win their Polish possessions. Moreover, patrons of reaction as they were, ought they to become, for no reason better than a popular sentiment, patrons of revolution ? Thus Poland was left to fight alone with Russia and of The failure the outcome there could be no doubt. The Poles fought °^ *^® }^' *\11 IT P C t i O Tl with great bravery, but without good leadership, without careful organization, without a spirit of subordination to military authorities. The war went on from January 1831 until September of that year, when Warsaw fell before the Russians. The results of this ill-advised and ill-executed insurrection were deplorable in the extreme. Poland ceased to exist as a separate kingdom and became merely a province of the Russian Empire. Its Constitution was abolished and it was henceforth ruled with great severity and arbitrariness. The insurgents were savagely punished. Many were exe- cuted, many sent to Siberia. Thousands of Polish officers and soldiers escaped to the countries of western Europe and became a restless element in Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, al- ways ready to fight for liberty. Even the Polish language seemed doomed, so repressive was the policy now followed by Russia. The Poles' sole satisfaction was a highly altruistic one, that by their revolt they had contributed greatly to the success of the revolutions in France and Belgium. 110 REVOLUTIONS BEYOND FRANCE Italy after the revolu- tions of 1820. Revolu- tionary movements in 1831. The Italians receive Ho help from France. REVOLUTION IN ITALY Another country which felt the revolutionary wave of 1830 was Italy. The revolutions of 1820 and 1821 had occurred in northern and southern Italy. They had been easily crushed, largely by Austrian arms. During the next decade Austrian influence weighed ever more heavily upon the peninsula. Discontent with existing conditions was general. The various governments were despotic, reaction- ary, unenlightened. The Carbonari were constantly plot- ting new insurrections. In 1830 Prince Metternich de- clared Italy to be of all European lands the one which had the greatest tendency to revolution. Metternich's diagnosis was destined to immediate vindica- tion. Revolutions broke out in the states of central Italy in 1831. The Prince of Modena and the Duchess of Parma, Marie Louise, the former Empress, were forced to flee from their states. More serious was the rising in the Papal States against the government of the priests. In the Ro- magna, the northern part of the Papal States, Bologna, the center of the disturbance, declared the temporal power of the Papacy at an end. Nearly every town in the States except Rome joined the movement. The revolutionists expected the inevitable hostility of Austria but hoped for the support of France as well as of the people in other Italian states. But France was a most uncertain reed. Louis Philippe desired peace above all things, not wishing to risk his newly acquired power in the chances of a war so far away and with so strong a state as Austria. His prime minister declared in a cele- brated speech that " French blood belongs to France alone," a phrase odious to all Liberals as in it there was only egoism. Louis Philippe, too, was probably influenced by fear of the rise anew of Bonapartism out of an Italian war. The two sons of Louis Napoleon of Holland had off'ered their services to the Italian insurgents. Further, might not Austria, AUSTRIAN INTERVENTION IN ITALY 111 irritated, permit Napoleon's son, the Duke of Reichstadt, now a virtual prisoner at Vienna, to return to France, in which case Louis Philippe's power would probably founder quickly? Feeling his position strong, Metternich decided to intervene and suppress the insurrection. Austrian troops were sent southward. The exiled rulers were easily restored. The Pope recovered his provinces. But a conference of the five great powers at this juncture demanded that he carry out extensive reforms, mainly in the direction of put- ting the government into the hands of laymen. The Aus- trian forces were then withdrawn. But the papal promises, not being kept, insurrection broke out again in 1832. Again the Papal Government was powerless to maintain itself. The Austrians once more crossed the frontier, at the re- Austrian quest of the Pope. But this time France intervened, not i^^terveu- in the interest of the Italians but, as she held, in the general interest of the European equilibrium which would be upset by the predominance of Austria in Italy. Asserting that she had as good a right to be in the Papal States as had Austria, she seized the fortress of Ancona, announcing that she proposed to stay there as long as Austrian troops re- mained. All this was a mere episode in the game of the balance of power. The two powers watched each other on the Pope's domains until 1838 when, the Austrians having withdrawn their troops, France gave up Ancona. Absolu- tism was restored in the Papal States and in the duchies. Thus another attempt of Italians to direct their own The results affairs had failed. The leaders were incapable, the odds too °^ *^^ insurrec- great. But there were certam results of importance. The tjons. absolute necessity of driving Austria out of the peninsula, if the peninsula was ever to have a career of its own, was proved once more; also the difficulty of driving her out. The hostility of the Papacy to any such project was again shown. The temporal power of the Pope had by some of his own subjects been declared at an end — a suggestive precedent. The ambition of the leaders, too, had been to make Rome 112 REVOLUTIONS BEYOND FRANCE Revolution in Qermany. New measures of re- pression. the capital of a new state of Italy. The revolutions of 1820 and 1821 had mainly been the work of military circles. The movements of 1831 and 1832 were joined by many merchants and laborers. Liberalism was appealing with increasing force to classes of the population hitherto passive or ignored. Liberalism was becoming more democratic. But for the time being reaction again held sway in Italy. REVOLUTION IN GERMANY Thus in 1830 revolution raged with varying vehemence all about Germany — in France, in Belgium, in Poland, and in Italy. The movement also affected Germany itself. In Brunswick, Saxony, Hesse-Cassel, and in two Saxon duchies revolutionary movements broke out with the result that sev- eral new constitutions were added to those already granted. The new ones were chiefly in North German, whereas the earlier ones had been mainly in South German states. But the two great states, Austria and Prussia, passed unscathed and set themselves to bring about a reaction, as soon as the more pressing dangers in Poland and Italy and France were over, and they themselves felt secure. Using certain popular demonstrations, essentially insignificant, with all the effect with which he had previously used the Wartburg festival, Metternich succeeded in carrying reaction further than he had been able to even in the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819. Those decrees were aimed chiefly at the universities and the press. New regulations were adopted in 1832 and 1834) by which he secured not only the renewal of these but the enactment of additional repressive measures. In 1832 six new articles were adopted by the Diet of the Confederation, by which the suppression of liberalism was rendered more thorough than ever. By them every German sovereign was bound to refuse any petition of his local assem- bly that might impair his sovereignty ; every assembly was forbidden to refuse its sovereign the taxes necessary to carry on the government or to use the taxing power to force REPRESSION IN GERMANY 113 concessions from the prince, or to pass any laws prejudicial to the objects of the Confederation. A committee was to be appointed by the Diet to watch over the legislation of the different states, and to report all measures that threat- ened the rights of the Diet or of the individual sovereigns. The Federal Diet was made a kind of Supreme Court with power to interpret the fundamental laws of the Confedera- tion and to decide what state laws were inconsistent with them, that is, were unconstitutional. The Diet also passed other repressive measures forbidding Metternicli political societies, public meetings, and revolutionary badges, ^^P'^^™® and promising aid to sovereigns in case of need. The de- crees against the universities were enforced with renewed vigor. Thus not only universities, but chambers of deputies were now under the Metternich system. This was Metter- nich's crowning achievement in Germany. Again a persecu- tion of professors, students, and journalists, surpassing pre- vious ones, was instituted. Obstinate chambers of deputies were dissolved. Constitutional life in the few states where it existed was reduced to a minimum. The political history of Germany offers but little interest until the great mid-century uprising of 1848 shook this entire system of negation and repression to the ground. CHAPTER VI THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE The career Louis Philippe, the new monarch of the French, was Philippe ah-eady in his fifty-seventh year. He was the son of the 1773-1850. notorious Philippe Egahte, who had intrigued during the Revolution for the throne occupied by his cousin, Louis XVI, had, as a member of the Convention, voted for the latter's execution, and had himself later perished miserably on the scaffold. In 1789 Louis Philippe was only sixteen years of age, too young on the whole to play a political role, though he became a member of the Jacobin Club. Later, when the war broke out, he joined the army of his country and fought valiantly at Valmy and Jemappes. Becoming suspected of treason he fled from France in 1793 and entered upon a life of exile that was to last twenty-one years. He went to Switzerland, where he lived for a while, teaching geography and mathematics in a school in Reichenau. Leav- ing there when his incognito was discovered he traveled as far north as the North Cape, and as far west as the United States. He finally settled in England and lived on a pension granted by the British Government. Returning to France on the fall of Napoleon he was able to recover a large part of the family property, which, though confiscated during the Revolution, had not been actually sold. During the Restora- tion he lived in the famous Palais Royal in the very heart of Paris, cultivating relations that might some day prove His useful, particularly appealing to the solid, rich bourgeoisie liberalism, by ^ display of liberal sentiments and by a good-humored, unconventional mode of life. He walked the streets of Paris alone, talked, and even drank with workmen with engaging bonhomie, and sent his sons to the public schools to associate 114 THE CAREER OF LOUIS PHILIPPE 115 with the sons of the bourgeoisie — a delicate compliment fully appreciated by the latter. His palace was the meeting place for the liberal, artistic, intellectual society of Paris. Here certainly was a prince as nearly republican as a prince could be. The rights won by the Revolution would surely not be endangered by a man who so easily adapted himself to the new ideas that had come into the world with the great up- heaval. Frenchmen, who dreaded the idea of a republic, discredited by the horrors of the Revolution, and who wished to do away with the old-style monarchy, revived by Charles X, might naturally be hopeful of combining the advantages of both and avoiding the evils of both by placing so amiable and enlightened a prince in power. Thus the legend grew up, carefully fostered, that here was a prince who put patriotism above self-interest, who had fought and suffered for his country. It was not known then, or in 1830, that he had sought to fight against it during Napoleon's reign, nor was it known that under this exterior of ostentatious liberalism there lay a strong ambi- tion for personal power, a nature essentially autocratic, thoroughly imbued with extreme monarchical principles. Louis Philippe had learned the arts of intrigue, of self- control, of silent, incessant exploitation of circumstances for his own advancement. Such was the man who in 1830 became king, called upon His legal to govern a country in a sea of troubles. His legal title *^*^® *° *^® 11 11- .1 •■•/> throne, to the throne was very weak, ms actual position lor many years most precarious. He had been invited to ascend the throne simply by the Chamber of Deputies — a chamber, more- over, which had been legally dissolved, which, furthermore, had never been authorized to choose a king, which was, therefore, giving away something it did not possess. More- over, of that chamber of 430 members only 252 took part in the vote, 219 in favor of Louis Philippe, 33 opposed. The Chamber of Peers concurred, but its concurrence merely emphasized its nullity in the whole proceeding. The lie THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE choice of the new king was never submitted to the people for ratification, was never even submitted to the voters, who numbered about a hundred thousand. Louis Phihppe was virtually the elect of 219 deputies who, in turn, had no legal standing. Though the people of France acquiesced in the new regime, they never formally sanctioned it. The new king, in order to show clearly the break with the past, assumed the name Louis Philippe, rather than Philip VII. The Con- The Chamber of Deputies, before calling Louis Philippe stitution to the throne, drew up a Constitution to which he took oath. The Constitution was really a revision of the Charter of 1814 in those articles which had occasioned trouble during the last fifteen years, or which seemed inconsistent with the new monarchy. The fatal Article 14 was modified to read, *' The king issues the ordinances necessary for the execution of the laws but never has power to suspend the laws or prevent their execution." Another change was that the right of initiating legislation should no longer belong simply to the king, but should be enjoyed by both chambers. The sessions of the Chamber of Peers were made public like those of the Chamber of Deputies. Instead of the formula, " the Catholic religion is the re- ligion of the state," a phrase that denoted a position of privi- lege, a new formula appeared to the effect that that religion was " professed by the majority of the French." It was explicitly provided that the censorship should never be re- established. Article 67 said, " France resumes its colors. For the future, no other cockade shall be worn than the tricolor cockade." Thus the flag of the Revolution, lustrous with victories on a hundred battlefields, replaced the white banner of the Bourbons. The preamble of the Charter of 1814 was suppressed because it sanctioned the theory of monarchy by divine right and because in it the king con- descended to grant Frenchmen rights as an act of royal pleasure, which they considered belonged to them inherently. In most other respects the Charter of 1814 remained un- CHARACTER OF THE JULY MONARCHY 117 altered. The age qualification was reduced for deputies to thirty years, for voters to twenty-five. It was, however, stated in the revision that the electoral system should be determined by ordinary law, thus providing for a super- session of the existing method.^ A law was accordingly passed in 1831 establishing the sys- The fran- tem that was destined to remain in force until 1848. The law f ^^^ ^ lowered. of the double vote was rescinded. The franchise, hitherto given only to those paying a direct property tax of 300 francs, was now extended to those paying one of 200 francs. The qualification was reduced to 100 francs in the case of certain professional classes, the " capacities," so-called, law- yers, physicians, judges, professors. Thus the electorate was doubled. But France was still far from democracy. At the beginning of the reign the voters numbered about two hundred thousand out of a population of about thirty mil- lions. France was still governed by the propertied classes, by an aristocracy of wealth. Under the July Monarchy the bourgeoisie enjoyed a practical monopoly of power. There was from the beginning a division of opinion as ^^^ char- to the character of the new monarchy. Did Louis Philippe rule by divine right, or did he rule by the will of the people, archy. expressed by their deputies? The very nature of the July Revolution showed that the former claim was untenable. That revolution had been made by the people of Paris against the monarch who ruled by divine right. Even with Charles X out of the way his legitimate successor was not Louis Philippe but the little Duke of Bordeaux. But did the accession of this prince to the throne prove on the other hand that all sovereignty was vested in the people.? Many claimed that such was the case, that the people of France had virtually elected Louis Philippe king, that they might with equal propriety have elected any one else, that having elected him they could dismiss him. The opponents of those * The constitution is given in full in Anderson, Constitutions and Documents, No. 105. 118 THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE who held this view declared that this was to make the July- Monarchy virtually a republic, and the fact remained that the republic had been deliberately rejected. This party argued that the new monarchy was peculiar — ^that the basis of the new system was a kind of contract between the king and the nation; that neither was absolutely sov- ereign, but that each possessed a part of the sovereignty; that thus each was indispensable to the other, each incom- plete without the other; that France did not recognize with- out qualification the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people, or that of the sovereignty of the monarch; that the fusion of the two, inevitable, complete, was the basis of the state; that the true theory of the monarchy was that expressed in Louis Philippe's phrase that he was " king by the grace of God and the will of the nation." Insecurity Not only was the legal basis of the July Monarchy un- of the new certain, but its practical hold on France was most precarious. It was forced to devote the first half of its life to the prob- lem of getting solidly established. Improvised at the mo- ment of revolution, cleverly set up in the midst of general confusion, it was singularly lacking in all the qualities that impose upon mankind, that command immediate respect, that indicate the possession of authority and power. There was nothing majestic about its origin. It had no roots. De- vised by the rich bourgeoisie, it seemed the expression of purely business considerations. Whether it could captivate the sentiments of France, could throw about itself the glamour that usually hovers over a throne, remained to be seen. It certainly possessed no prestige at the moment of its incep- tion. Metternich analyzed the situation with keenness. " Louis Philippe finds himself at his accession to the throne in an untenable position," wrote the Austrian Chancellor, " for the basis upon which his authority rests consists only of empty theories. His throne lacks the weight of the plebiscite which was behind all the forms of government from 1792 to 1801 ; lacks the tremendous support of his- PARTIES UNDER LOUIS PHILIPPE 119 torical right, which was behind the Restoration; lacks the popular force of the republic, the military glory of the empire, the genius and the arm of Napoleon, the Bourbon support of a principle. Its durability will rest solely upon accidents." Its durability, however, proved greater than had that of A period the Napoleonic Empire or of the Restoration. Yet it had first ^^ storm to pass through a long period of storm and stress. It had enemies without, who denied its very right to exist. And even the supporters of the new regime were divided into two parties who could not long co-operate, so different were their views of the policies that ought to be followed by the Government both at home and abroad. There was the so-called party of movement or progress, with Laffitte, a The pro- rich Parisian banker, and Lafayette, at its head. This S'^^^"''^® party did not consider that the revolution was over as soon as Louis Philippe sat upon a throne. They wished at home to effect many reforms in a democratic sense, not with revolutionary haste but gradually ; and abroad, they wished to aid those peoples which were revolting against mis- rule — as in Belgium, Poland, and Italy. Thus by making France more democratic and by supporting democratic movements elsewhere, France would resume in the world her position of leadership in liberalism, which she had held under the Revolution of 1789. The other party was called the party of resistance, of The con- conservatism. It beheved that the Revolution of 1830 had servative pa^rty. terminated on August 9th when Louis Philippe accepted the revised constitution and became king. It held that the Revolution had simply substituted for a king who wished to overthrow the parliamentary system established in 1814* a king who wished to maintain that system ; that the Revolu- tion meant the preservation of existing institutions, did not at all mean the expansion of those institutions in a democratic direction ; that it was a popular revolution designed to prevent a royal revolution. It believed that 120 THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE Popular unrest. Casimir- Perier and the policy of the con- servatives. France ought immediately to recover her normal condition, that the revolutionary passions which disturb men's minds and injure business ought to be quieted at once. Abroad, as well as at home, it would pursue a policy of peace. Casimir-Perier, Guizot, and the Duke of Broglie were leaders of this group. Louis Philippe's preferences were decidedly for the latter party. Yet he could not at first break openly with the former. For some time, therefore, he called members of both to the ministry. Such a ministry could not from the very nature of the case have a clear, coherent policy. Revolutionary passions still ran riot in Paris. Crowds de- manded the execution of the ministers of Charles X, who had advised the autocratic actions of that monarch. Mobs attacked Legitimists in the streets of Paris. These out- breaks resulted in business stagnation. The working classes suffered. It is said that 150,000 of them left Paris in search of employment. Pubhc credit sank rapidly. The bonds fell. No one could foresee what would happen either at home or abroad. The bourgeoisie felt insecure and rallied to the party of resistance. Finally March 13, 1831, Casimir-Perier and the party of resistance came into power. That party was destined to remain in power, with some variations, more or less marked, during the rest of the reign of Louis Philippe. Its policy truly expressed the essential character of the July Monarchy, which fell after eighteen years because it had not accomplished the democratic reforms demanded by the party of progress. Casimir-Perier was a man of great wealth, of imperious temper, of positive opinions, of incisive speech. The prin- ciples according to which he intended to administer the government were boldly and clearly stated in an address delivered in the Chamber of Deputies shortly after the for- mation of his ministry. His declarations formed virtually the programme of the party of resistance. He announced THE POLICY OF ORDER 121 his intention to carry out without weakness and without exaggeration the principle of the July Revolution. Now that principle was not insurrection; it was resistance to executive aggression. " France was exasperated, she was defied ; she defended herself, and her victory was the victory of law basely outraged. Respect for plighted faith, respect for law, that is the principle of the Revolution of July, the principle of the government founded by it. For that Revo- lution founded a government and did not inaugurate an- archy. It did not overthrow the form of society, it affected only the political system. It aimed at the establishment of a government that should be free but orderly. Thus violence must not be, either at home or abroad, the character of our government. At home every appeal to force, abroad every encouragement of popular insurrection, is a violation of its principle. Such is the thought, such the rule of our home and foreign policy. Order must be maintained, the laws must be executed, authority respected. Public security and tranquillity must be revived. The Revolution has not begun for France the reign of force. The blood of the French belongs to France alone. The first result of this Revolution has been to render monarchy more popular by reconciling it with liberty." Casimir-Perier formulated for foreign affairs the principle Foreign of non-intervention, promising not to intervene in favor of Po^^^y* peoples in insurrection, but asserting that foreign powers had likewise no right to intervene beyond their own frontiers. This principle was absolutely opposed to that on which the Holy Alliance had been acting. Later Casimir-Perier did intervene in Italy and in Belgium in the name of the principle of non-intervention. This policy of rigorous restoration of order was begun at once. Casimir-Perier died in 1832 after a service of only fourteen months, but the policy he outlined with such clearness and firmness, and put into force, was continued in large measure by his successors. 122 THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE Opposition The Government needed whatever strength it could get ^ ' from a concentration of all its forces for the preservation of its existence, for the parties that desired the overthrow of the Orleanist Monarchy were active and daring. These parties, the Legitimists and the Republicans, it finally suc- ceeded in silencing, though not until after much shedding of blood. The For the Legitimists, those who defended the rights of egi imi . (;^]^^j.jgg -^ g^^^ yg descendants, Louis Philippe was a usurper, a thief who had treacherously stolen the crown of the Duke of Bordeaux, the legitimate king. This party was numer- The ically small, but it had in the Duchess of Berry a dauntless Duchess of ^jj(j resolute, if imprudent leader. A woman of unusual Berry. personal charm, attracting people to her and her plans despite their better judgment, she now, an exile in England, conceived the idea of winning a throne for her son, the Duke of Bordeaux. That the accomplishment of this would be the very climax of adventure did not sober her romantic, passionate nature. She believed that foreign monarchs would aid in asserting the principle of legitimacy, which lay at the basis of their own power. The magic of Na- poleon's return from Elba was fresh in the mind of Europe. Might not a beautiful woman, representative of the House of Bourbon, succeed where the audacious soldier had suc- ceeded.'* The Duchess won the reluctant consent of Charles X. She counted for success upon the favorable situation of the European powers, upon the supposed strength of the Bourbon party in France, upon the co-operation of the clergy and the nobility, and upon the support of the Vendee, considered the home of chivalric devotion to the white flag of the Bourbons. She felt so sure of success that she had already prepared a new constitution. She was warned in vain by prominent Legitimists of the total lack of effective preparations for so desperate an undertaking. Crossing the continent from England to Italy, she landed in France April 28, 1832, and, concealed in a hut, waited INSURRECTIONARY MOVEMENTS 123 for the promised rising of Marseilles. Even the news that this had failed and that the leaders were prisoners did not daunt her. She had told the faithful to be ready for her in Vendee on the first of May. She must keep the promise. Eluding the spies who were upon her heels, after great hard- ship, constant danger, and numerous adventures, she suc- ceeded in reaching her destination. But the Government knew of the plan and the few hundred defenders of the legitimate monarchy were put down after a brave resistance. The Duchess escaped, reached Nantes after great exertions, and eluded the police for several months. She was betrayed by a person whom she had employed on several errands, was arrested, and was imprisoned until it was thought she was dishonored and rendered politically impotent by the birth of a daughter and the avowal of a secret marriage. At the very time this royalist insurrection was being put down in the west, a republican insurrection burst out in Paris. Lafayette had won the acquiescence of the Republi- cans in the erection of the July Monarchy, but only by assuring them that it would be the " best of republics." But this did not prove to be the case. By 1832 it seemed clear to them that they had been duped, and that the July Mon- archy promised no growth in liberty for France. They then became its bitter enemies. An insurrection broke out in Paris in June 1832 on the Republican occasion of the funeral of General Lamarque, a prominent 1^^^^^^°' Republican. It was not sanctioned by the prominent men of the republican party. The generals, known to be Re- publicans, remained inactive. The insurgents, therefore, were obscure, and their number was small, yet they fought with desperation for two days in the streets of the capital. They were defeated because they were unable to gain the co-operation of any considerable body of men. The work- men of Paris did not rise. The leaders refused to lead. Yet an insurrection so ill-timed and so ill-directed occasioned considerable loss to the Government. It was important as be- 124. THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE Vigorous measures of the Gov- ernment. ing the first frankly republican insurrection since 1815, and it was the strongest opposition the Government of July had thus far had to overcome. The Republicans were not discouraged by this failure, but went on preparing for the future. The Government favored a law aimed at breaking up the secret societies which were spreading republican principles, by restricting the right of association. Hence- forth, any association, whatever might be its nature and whatever the number of its members, must submit its con- stitution and by-laws to the Government, and might not exist without its consent. Hardly had the new law been passed than new insurrections burst forth in several cities. Particularly important was that in Lyons in April 1834, which grew out of labor troubles but quickly took on a political character. For five days the riot raged in that city, finally, after great exertions, being put down by the Government. Insurrections also occurred in several other cities. The Government was successful in suppressing these re- publican upheavals. It made no attempt to conciliate the discontented. It did not study the labor problem, which was one of the causes of the prevalent unrest, but deter- mined to crush this annoying faction once for all. Repub- licanism must be stamped out. To this end the press must be controlled. The revised Charter of 1830 had provided for freedom of the press, and had declared the censorship abolished forever ; yet the July Monarchy from the very mo- ment of its inception had vigorously prosecuted republican journals, instinctively recognizing in them its most danger- ous enemy. From July 1830 to September 1834 it had in- stituted over five hundred trials of journalists alone, had imposed heavy fines and long terms of imprisonment upon editors. The Tribune, the most aggressive republican sheet, had been prosecuted 111 times and had been forced to pay 157,000 francs in fines. Such prosecutions were more fre- quent than ever after the futile insurrections of April 1834. ATTACKS UPON LOUIS PHILIPPE 125 In addition to press prosecutions the Government deter- The prose- rained to prosecute some of those who had been arrested in edition of the recent riots. It instituted a monster trial of 164 ac- cused, not before the jury courts, distrustful of the results in that case, but before the Chamber of Peers. Over four thousand witnesses were called. The defendants refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the Peers or to defend them- selves. The case dragged on for months, from March 1835 to January 1836, creating much bitterness of feeling. Fi- nally the accused were condemned to various terms of im- prisonment or to deportation. But the decision was not enforced. A general amnesty, proclaimed a little later on the occasion of the marriage of the King's eldest son, liber- ated them. By these vigorous methods, however, the repub- lican party was effectually silenced for many years. Its im- potence was increased still further by divisions among the members themselves. Not only were attacks made upon the Government during Attempts these stormy years, but attempts upon the life of the King 1^.^°^ ® were frequent. These were ascribed to the Republicans xouis and served to discredit them still further. They were not the Philippe, acts of the party but of isolated individuals. From 1835 to 1846 six different attempts to assassinate the monarch were made and numerous other plots were discovered before they could be put into operation. The most horrible of these was that of Fieschi in 1835. An infernal machine composed of many gun-barrels was discharged by a Corsican, Fieschi, at the King as he was passing with his three sons and many members of the court and army through the streets of Paris, July 28, 1835. Eighteen persons were killed on the spot, many more were injured. The King and his sons escaped as by a miracle. The Government, encouraged by the widespread execration The Sep- of this fiendish crime, determined to strike hard at all op- timber ponents. It secured the passage in September 1835 of new laws concerning the assize courts, the jury system, 126 THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE and the press. The Minister of Justice was empowered to establish as many of these assize or special courts as might be necessary to judge summarily all those attacking the security of the state. The accused might be judged even though absent. In jury trials the decision might hence- forth be given by a mere majority, seven, instead of the two- thirds vote, eight, previously required. The third and most The press important law concerned the press. It was designed to pro- law, tect the king, the constitution, and the fundamental prin- ciples of society from attack. Heavy fines, as high as 50,000 francs, were imposed for various offenses — for a summons to insurrection, even if the insurrection should not occur; for attacks upon the King, even allusions to his per- son, or caricatures; for publication of jury lists; for the collection of subscriptions to aid newspapers to pay their fines. The law went even further and forbade Frenchmen under heavy fines the right to defend other forms of govern- ment than the existing one, to declare themselves adherents of any fallen royal house ; to question the principle of private property. The censorship was re-established for drawings, caricatures, and plays. The preliminary deposit required of papers was raised to 100,000 francs. These September laws gave great offense to all liberal and moderate men. After five years of freedom of the press to return to so far-reaching a suppression of that freedom seemed unjustifiable. The most careful defense of the King and the constitution was certainly desirable, but did it require any such drastic measures at this time? Would not the very multiplicity of crimes tend to encourage crime ? These laws greatly weakened the July Monarchy. Men felt that individual liberty was only an empty word. The press law was aimed particularly at the Legitimists and the Republicans. The papers of the former party, well supplied with capital, survived the persecution to which they were now subjected. The republican organs, lacking THE REVIVAL OF BONAPARTISM 127 this resource, largely disappeared. The press in France was in as deplorable a condition as in the worst days of the Restoration. The Government might now feel secure against the at- The Bona- tempts of the Legitimists and the Republicans. The only P^rtists. other party that was an inevitable opponent of the July Monarchy was the Bonapartist. But of this Louis Philippe entertained no fear. Indeed, with what proved to be singu- lar fatuity, he distinctly promoted by his actions the growth of a sentiment that in the end was to prove very costly both to himself and to France. VV^ith the evident intention of showing that the July Monarchy, unlike that of the Restora- tion, was truly national, that it had no desire to eliminate all reminders of the Napoleonic era, but rather regarded them as among the priceless glories of France, he completed the Arc de Triomphe, begun by Napoleon, named streets and bridges after Napoleon's battles, and caused the Na- ^^^^^ poleonic history to be portrayed on the walls of the palace at ^^ ^^^ Versailles, side by side with that of Louis XIV. Literature Napoleonic was already busy creating the Napoleonic legend, which, ig- iegend. noring the evils and the frightful cost to France of the great Emperor's rule, was immortalizing his achievements and mourning his tragic end. It was singular policy, indeed, for a descendant of Capetian kings to foster the reviving interest in the career of the illustrious founder of a rival family. But that no danger lay that way seemed to be proved by two attempts on the part of the heir to the Napoleonic throne to overthrow the July Monarchy, which was showing itself so complaisant to the Napoleonic senti- ment, attempts which resulted in ridiculous failures. Napoleon I had died in 1821, and his son, the King of Louis Rome, known after 1818 as the Duke of Reichstadt, had ^*^° ^°^ / . . Bonaparte, died in 1832. The headship of the family thus passed to i808-1873. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the son of Louis Napoleon, for- merly King of Holland, and of Hortense Beauharnais, daughter of the Empress Josephine. Napoleon had indicated 128 THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE that the succession should be in this Hne in case he should leave no direct descendant. Prince Louis, born in the Tuile- ries in 1808, had been educated in Germany, and had gone to Italy, where, in 1831, he had participated on the popular side in the revolutionary movements described above. He was now living in Switzerland, brooding over his fortune, taking seri- ously his role of pretender, publishing his political views. Suddenly he appeared before the garrison of the fortress of Strassburg in 1836, wearing the familiar Napoleonic coat and hoping to win the support of the soldiers by the very magic of his name. Thus having a lever he could perhaps topple Louis Philippe from his throne. He failed miserably, and was brought to Paris a prisoner. The Government, thinking it wise to treat this episode as a childish folly, did not prosecute him but allowed him to sail to the United States. But Louis returned next year to Switzerland. He removed to England upon the threat of Louis Philippe, taking part there in fashionable or semi-fashionable life, elaborating his political theories and planning for his political future. His undertaking had failed but he had at least announced himself to France as the heir of the Great Napoleon. He believed firmly in his star and felt that he would some day be called to finish the interrupted work of his uncle. The second The Government of Louis Philippe proceeded to inject still further vitality into the growing Napoleonic legend. It secured the consent of the English Goverment to the removal of the remains of Napoleon from St. Helena to Paris, where they might repose according to the wish which the Emperor had himself expressed in his last testament, on the banks of the Seine, " in the midst of the French people whom I have loved so well," and in December 1840 they were de- posited beneath the dome of the Invalides with elaborate funeral pomp and amidst evidences of extraordinary popular excitement. A minister of Louis Philippe said in the Cham- ber of Deputies, " He was Emperor and King, the legitimate funeral of Napoleon I. THE BOULOGNE FIASCO 129 sovereign of this land; as such he might rest in St. Denis. But he is entitled to more than the usual burial place of kings." The question put by Lamartine was pertinent. What was the Government thinking of " to allow the French heart and imagination to be so fired? " Meanwhile, Louis Bonaparte, pretender to the throne, had The resolved to take advantas-e of this renewed interest in Na- „ °^ °^^® '^ fiasco, poleon. Declaring that the ashes of the Emperor ought to rest only in an Imperial France, he made another attempt to overturn the Government of Louis Philippe. On August 6, 1840, he landed with about sixty companions near Bou- logne, hoping to win over the garrison of that town and then to enact another " return from Elba," an event whose fascination for adventurers was lively, but an achievement difficult to repeat. He brought with him proclamations declaring the House of Orleans dethroned. The failure of this attempt was more humiliating than that of Strassburg, four years earlier. The little group was scattered by the appearance of troops. They fled toward the beach, where most of them surrendered. But a few, among them the Prince, plunged into the water in order to get to a boat nearby, which capsized as they were attempting to scramble into it. They were seized by the authorities. But the Prince, brought before the Chamber of Peers for trial, had a chance to make a speech. " For the first time in my life," he said, " I am at last able to make my voice heard in France and to speak freely to Frenchmen. . . . The cruel and undeserved proscription which for twenty-five years has dragged my life from the steps of a throne to the prison which I have just left has not been able to impair the courage of my heart. ... I represent before you a principle, a cause, a defeat. The principle is the sovereignty of the people: the cause is that of the Empire: the defeat is Waterloo." His eloquence, however, was unavailing. He was condemned to imprisonment for life in the fortress of Ham. He escaped, however, six years later disguised as 130 THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE Ministerial instability. Rivalry of Thiers and Guizot. loTiis Philippe intends to rule. a mason. Two years after that he was the most important figure in France. The parliamentary history of France during the ten years from 1830 to 1840 was marked by instability. There were ten ministries within ten years. Yet there was a fairly con- tinuous policy. Ministries might disappear and new ones come on the scene, but all after the fall of Laffitte, 1831, were composed of men of the party of resistance, such as Casimir-Perier, Broglie, Thiers, and Guizot. The chief work was to consolidate the July Monarchy, to put down its ene- mies, and to keep the peace with foreign countries. When, however, the members of this party had finally triumphed over their adversaries, they divided against each other. The personal rivalry of two men, Thiers and Guizot, was largely the cause of this. Each desired the leading place in the Government. Out of this rivalry arose two parties, one called the Left Center, with Thiers as leader, the other called the Right Center, under Guizot. The division, however, was not based simply upon the personal ambitions of the two men. Each had its theory of the constitution. Thiers held that the king reigns but does not govern ; in other words, the king must always choose his ministers from the party that is in the majority in the Chamber and must then let them govern without intervening personally in affairs. Guizot, on the other hand, held that the king should have the greatest consideration for the opinions of the majority but that he was not bound strictly to follow that majority. " The throne," he said, " is not an empty chair." Louis Philippe had no desire to be simply an ornamental head of the state, as he was according to Thiers' view. He desired to be the real ruler, to govern as well as to reign. He insisted upon conducting foreign affairs himself, and he endeavored to exercise a controlling influence in other ways through his ministers. But for several years after his accession to the throne he was careful to guard himself from LOUIS PHILIPPE AND THIERS 131 all appearance of assuming personal power. But now that his enemies were overthrown and crushed, now that these street insurrections were stamped out, he began to reveal his real purpose more clearly, which was to be ruler in fact as well as in theory. Taking advantage of the party divi- sions just alluded to he forced Thiers, the chief minister and a man too independent to be a mere spokesman of the King, to resign in 1836, and called to the ministry Mole, a man who, as he correctly supposed, would, because of his political convictions, be very willing to be the representative of the King's personal views. Men began at once to talk of " personal government," of the interference of the mon- Personal arch in the realm that properly, they held, belonged to S^'^^^^' parliament. References to Charles X became frequent. A vigorous opposition to this " court policy " and " court min- istry " finally brought about its fall in 1839. Thereupon Soult became chief minister, but was looked upon as as much the representative of the King as Mole had been. His brief ministry was notable for a direct rebuff administered through him to the monarch. Louis Philippe asked for an appro- priation for his son, the Duke of Nemours. The Chamber rejected the request by a vote of 226 to 220. The Soult ministry then retired and at last the King, appearing to renounce his personal ambition, called Thiers to the ministry. The chief feature of the short Thiers ministry was its Thiers and treatment of the Eastern Question, which in a new phase ^ ® astern . ^ , Question, had been for several years before Europe agam. The exist- ence of the Turkish Empire was once more threatened, this time by a powerful vassal of the Sultan. After the Greek war of independence, in which the viceroy of Egypt, Me- hemet Ali, had greatly aided the Sultan, the former was dis- satisfied with his reward. He began to extend his possessions by arms. He conquered all of Syria (1832). He pushed for- ward into Asia Minor, defeating the Turkish generals sent against him. He prepared to go still further, to Constanti- nople. At once the European powers began to take sides. 13a THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE Resigna- tion of Thiers. Russia offered her aid and succeeded in making a treaty with the frightened Sultan, the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi, 1833, whereby, for certain obhgations she was to assume, she acquired an almost complete control of the Turkish govern- ment. England, hostile as ever to Russian influence in Turkey and also wishing to maintain her own commercial prestige in the East, came to the aid of Turkey, Russia and England, therefore, declared their intention of maintain- ing the integrity of the Sultan's dominions, though their mo- tives were contradictory. Prussia and Austria took the same side, asserting that the rights of legitimate monarchs must be maintained. On the other hand, France supported Me- hemet Ali. The French had been attracted toward Egypt ever since Napoleon's expedition. The Egyptian army was organized and drilled by Frenchmen. France had just conquered Algiers. A close connection between Mehemet Ali and France would probably offer considerable commer- cial and political advantage in the Mediterranean. Thus France became the patron of Mehemet. But she stood alone. Her isolation was shown to all the world when the powers met in conference in London in 1840 and, ignoring her, because they knew that she was hostile, made a treaty with Turkey, pledging themselves to force Mehemet Ali to terms. The publication of this treaty aroused a warlike feel- ing in France, as it seemed to exclude her from the concert of powers, as in 1815. Thiers urged the adoption of warlike measures, but the King vigorously opposed such proposals, which would involve France and the July Monarchy in the greatest danger. Thiers resigned and Guizot now became chief minister. France adopted a policy of peace and the danger of a war passed. Thus the King rather than the ministry had determined the policy of the Government. In- cidentally, Louis Philippe found himself relieved of the min- ister who believed that the king should reign but should not govern, and he gained in Guizot, who now became the leading minister and who remained in power until 1848, THE GUIZOT MINISTRY 133 an instrument through which he was enabled to carry out with great skill his personal policy during the remainder of his reign. With the elevation of Guizot to the leading position in Guizot, the Government, France attained ministerial stability. The 1787-1874. administration of which he was the head remained in power from 1840 to 1848. Guizot was now fifty-three years of age. He had been a Liberal at the time of the Empire and the Restoration. Eminent as a professor, an historian, and an orator, he was a man of strong and rigid mind, holding certain political principles with the tenacity of a mathema- tician. In a world of change he remained immutable. He Guizot's refused to recognize that France needed any alteration ^V ^.'^^ ..... . . principles. in her political institutions. He believed in the Charter of 1814 as revised in 1830. Any further reform was un- necessary and would be dangerous. To preserve order within and peace without, that the wealth of France might increase, was his programme. His policy was, as he said in his opening speech in the Chamber, the " maintenance of peace everywhere and always." These were also the views of Louis Philippe. The King could in no sense use Guizot as a pliant tool. Guizot was a man of far too great independence of thought, of far too vigorous and original character, to be the tool of any man. But this harmony of opinions was so complete that the King could complacently watch his minister carry out the royal programme, and Louis Philippe was always far more concerned with the reality than with the appear- ance of power. Moreover, the Government was scrupulous in its adherence The Govern- to parliamentary forms, in which Guizot was a strict be- "^®^* sctu- . . , . . pulously liever. This ministry always had a majority in the Cham- parlia- ber of Deputies. That majority, indeed, increased at each mentary. election. There was no attempt to defy the Chamber and exalt the royal prerogative. The King could not be accused of aspiring to play a personal role as in the days of Mole, 1345 THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE How the Govern- ment ob- tained its majorities. The ma- nipulation of the voters. for the ministry directed the Government and the ministry constantly had a majority of the Deputies to approve its ac- tions. What France witnessed was a policy of stiff con- servatism, or immobility, constantly supported by the Chamber. The attention of the country consequently became riveted on that majority. How was it obtained? It was clear that it did not represent public opinion, did not at all express the convictions of France as a whole. It became evident on examination that that majority, the never failing support of the ministry, was obtained by an elaborate system of corruption. Louis Philippe and Guizot took no account of public opinion. They fixed their attention solely upon what was called the pays legal, that is, upon the body which possessed political rights under the constitution, namely, the voters and the deputies whom the voters chose. Now the number of voters was about 200,000, the number of deputies 430. Bodies so small could be manipulated and the manip- ulation was the supreme task of Guizot, the very founda- tion of his system. It was accomplished without difficulty. France was a highly centralized state, with local govern- ment largely controlled by the central power. Consequently, the ministry had at its disposal an immense number of offices and it could do numberless favors to individuals and to communities. The electoral colleges, which chose the deputies, were small bodies frequently consisting of not more than two hundred members, many of whom were office- holders. The office-holders did as they were told by the Government, and other members were bribed in various ways by appeals to their self-interest. If they elected the candidate desired by the minister they might be rewarded by seeing a railway built in their district, for this was the period of railway building; or they might obtain tobacco licenses or university scholarships or petty offices for their friends. Many were the attractions held out to the self- interest of the voters, the pays legal. This was plainly THE DEMAND FOR REFORM 135 corruption of the electorate, but it worked well in the opinion of the ministry. It insured the election to the Chamber of a large number of deputies pleasing to the ministry. Within the Chamber the same methods were used. About two hundred deputies, nearly half the assembly, were at The ma- the same time office-holders. The Government controlled ^^^^, ^ ^°^ of the them, as all promotions or increases of salary were dependent deputies, upon its favor. The ministry only needed to gain a few more votes to have a majority, and this was easily accom- plished by a tactful distribution of its favors among those who had an eye to the main chance. There were plums enough for the purpose, offices to be bestowed, railroad franchises to be granted, lucrative contracts for government supplies to be awarded. "What is the Chamber?" said a deputy in 1841. " A great bazaar, where every one barters his conscience, or what passes for his conscience, in exchange for a place or an office." Such a system was a mockery. The forms of the con- The stitution were observed but its spirit was nullified. Self- servility of interest was exalted above the interests of the nation. The ministry commanded a servile parliament. It is one of the ironies of history that Guizot, a man of most scrupulous honesty in private life, should have been the master mecha- nician of so corrupt and demoralizing a political machine. Opposition to this system was, of course, inevitable, and is the main feature of the domestic politics of France from 1841 to 1848, when Louis Philippe and Guizot and the entire regime were violently overthrown. Reformers de- manded that there be a change in the composition of the Chamber of Deputies and in the manner of electing it, par- liamentary reform and electoral reform. Electoral reform Demand for should be effected by increasing the body of voters, by ^ ^° °^^ lowering the property qualification, and by adding certain namentary classes which could safely be intrusted with the suffrage, reform, even if they could not meet the property qualification. Thus with an increased body of voters corruption would be more 136 THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE minirtry. difficult. The ministry absolutely refused to consider this proposition. According to Guizot there were voters enough ; moreover, the number was increasing with the increase of wealth. He even rejected a proposition that would have added only fifteen thousand voters to the existing electorate. Rigid oppo- It was demanded that the reform of the Chamber itself SI ion should be effected by forbidding deputies to hold office. the Guizot . ,.,,.. . liT Agamst this also the mmistry set itself. Both plans, there- fore, were rejected and the policy of immobility complacently continued. Year after year the two demands were brought forward in the Chamber ; year after year they were voted down by the pliant majority. Reformers appeared to be hopelessly checkmated by the smooth operation of the machine they were denouncing. Well might Lamartine exclaim to Guizot, " According to you, the genius of the politician consists of only one thing — placing yourself in a position created by chance or by a revolution, and there remaining immobile, inert, implacable to all improvement. If in truth that were all the merit of a statesman directing a govern- ment, there would be no more need of statesmen: a post would do as well." This inertia ultimately disgusted some of the conservatives themselves. One of the members who had hitherto followed the ministry, summing up its work in 1847, said, " What have they done for the past seven years? nothing, nothing, nothing." " France is bored," said La- martine. Yet this July Monarchy with its negative policy of resist- ance in season and out of season, resistance to lawlessness in the streets, to attacks of Legitimists and Republicans, to demands for an active foreign policy favorable to liberty, to demands for constitutional reform at home, was living in a world fermenting with ideas, apparently oblivious of the fact. Not only did its policy alienate many former! supporters by its rigid and peremptory refusal of all con-! cessions, and augment and sharpen more and more the an-i tagonism of the Republicans, but its complete indifference! Rise of radicalism. ECONOMIC PROBLEMS 137 to a new set of demands in the economic sphere, demands for social reform, was creating bitter enmities in another quarter and preparing a troublous future. There was growing up in France a party more radical than the re- publican, a party that looked forward not only to a change in the political form of the government but to a sweeping alteration in the form of society, in the relation of the great mass of the population who were wage-earners to the privi- leged few, the capitalists and employers. The July Mon- archy was a government of the bourgeoisie, of the well-to-do, of the capitalists. They alone possessed the suffrage. Con- sequently, the remainder of the population was in a political sense of no importance. The legislation enacted during these eighteen years was class legislation, which favored the bourgeoisie and which made no attempt to meet the needs of the masses. Yet the distress of the masses was wide- Economic spread and deep and should have appeared clear and ominous ^^ ^^^^' to the Government. Under the Restoration, but chiefly under Louis Philippe, France was passing from the old in- dustrial system of small domestic manufacture to the new factory system, the application of machinery to industry on Introduc- a large scale, the employment of the new motive force, steam. ^^^ ^ , . . . . ..,.;. factory This transition was in every country painful, involving as system. it did a dislocation and clumsy maladjustment of forces, and giving rise to most vexatious labor questions. Capi- talists who could give or withhold the chance of employ- ment had the upper hand and knew it. Grossly excessive hours of labor were required, and women and children who could tend machines were sacrificed to the new system in a manner that had never been possible under the old. The strange new conditions, the manifest evils dangerous to mind and body, required new laws for the protection of the weaker class. But legislation lagged far behind. Em- Condition plovers were intent on exploiting their factories, their ma- ° , .^ . , r- o ' working chines, their workmen to the fullest possible extent, and classes, many were amassing large fortunes. They were not in- 138 THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE terested in lessening the misery which the new order pro- visionally caused. And the law of France forbade the workmen themselves to combine for purposes of improving their condition. Ignorant, poor, lacking leadership, with- out political power, smarting under a sense of oppression and injustice, they were the inevitable enemies of a regime that passed them by, giving them no heed. In 1831 the silk-weavers of Lyons, earning the pitiful wage of eighteen sous a day for a day of eighteen hours, had risen in in- surrection under the despairing banner, " We will live by working or die fighting." Growth of Such conditions provoked discussion and many writers socialism, began to preach new doctrines concerning the organization of industry and the crucial question of the relations of capital and labor, doctrines henceforth called socialistic, and appealing with increasing force to the millions of laborers who believed that society weighed with unjustifiable severity upon them, that their labor did not by any means receive its proportionate reward. St. Simon was the first to an- nounce a socialistic scheme for the reorganization of society in the interest of the most numerous class. He believed that the state should own the means of production and should organize industry on the principle of " Labor according to capacity and reward according to services." St. Simon was a speculative thinker, not a practical man of affairs. His doctrine gained in direct importance when it was adopted by a man who was a politician, able to recruit and lead a party, and to make a programme definite enough to appeal Louis Blanc, to the masses. Such a man was Louis Blanc, who was destined to play a great part in the overthrow of the July Monarchy and in the Republic that succeeded. In his writings he tried to convince the laborers of France of the evils of the prevailing economic conditions, a task which was not difficult. He denounced in vehement terms the government of the bourgeoisie as government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. It must be swept away and THE RISE OF SOCIALISM 139 the state must be organized on a thoroughly democratic basis. This was the condition precedent to all success. Only then and with the full power of the state at their disposal could the laboring classes work out their own sal- vation. The state, organized as a democratic republic, should then create so-called national or social workshops, advancing the necessary capital. These would be con- trolled by the workers who would share the proceeds. They would gradually supersede the existing workshops or fac- tories, controlled and directed by the private individuals who had supplied the capital and who appropriated the profits. Private competition would give way to co-operative production. The individual producers would disappear. Lx)uis Blanc's theories, propounded in a style at once clear and vivid, were largely adopted by workingmen. A social- ist party was thus created. This party threatened the existence of the monarchy ; it also threatened the industrial and commercial system in vogue. It believed in a republic as the only government that the democracy could hope to control; but it differed from the other republicans in that, while they desired simply a change in the form of govern- ment, it desired a far more sweeping change in society. As early as 1842 a German named Stein wrote: " The time for purely political movements in France is past; the next revolution must inevitably be a social revolution." 'i„' Thus it is evident that the amount of discontent with the Widespread Government of France was great and growing. From nearly opposition every quarter enemies arose. These enemies differed from -j^jj^^ ^f each other — they might not be able to co-operate in con- the Govern- structive work, but they could co-operate in destroying the ment. existing system. There were the moderate Orleanists, con- vinced friends of monarchy, who were repelled by the prev- alent corruption of Parliament and wished to end it; there were the convinced Republicans, silenced but not suppressed; there were the Socialists, democratic, republican. The vol- ume of discontent was increased by the unpopular character 140 THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE of the foreign policy of the ministry, which appeared hu- miliatingly submissive to England on certain occasions, too desirous of pleasing the absolute and reactionary monarchs of central Europe on others, too cold towards Liberals every- where, too pettily personal, also, in that one of its aims was the advancement of the dynastic ambitions of Louis Philippe, who sought to promote by marriage alliances the fortunes of his family, even at the expense of the interests of the nation which he ruled. Fusion of These various groups, exceedingly dissatisfied with the the oppos- existing order, converged in 1848, though unintentionally and unsympathetically, toward the most violent and reck- less upheaval France had known since 1789 — a movement initiated by the moderate Monarchists, rapidly furthered by the Republicans, and in the end partly dominated by the Socialists. Each of these parties was by conviction and by temperament violently opposed to the other. The im- mediate occasion for their co-operation was furnished by the continued demand for electoral and parliamentary re- form. The electoral and parliamentary corruption of the July Monarchy has been described. Year after year the ministry had proved itself stronger and had defiantly resisted all proposals. The King was fatuously opposed to reform in itself. Guizot, believing in growth, nevertheless held that the time had not yet come for any alteration in the prevailing system. Beating against this wall, which seemed to grow higher and more solid each year, the Opposi- tion came to see that there was no hope of overthrow- ing the obstructionist ministry by ordinary parliamentary methods. The Guizot constantly asserted that the demand for reform was simply brought forward for political purposes, that it was the work of a few, that the people as a whole were entirely indifferent. To prove the falsity of this assertion the Opposition instituted in 1847 a series of " reform ban- reform banquets." THE REFORM BANQUETS 141 quets," which were to be attended by the people and addressed by the reformers. Petitions for reform were to be circu- lated on these occasions. Thus popular pressure would be brought to bear on Parliament and King. These banquets were instituted by those loyal to the monarchy, but hostile to its policy. They simply wished to change the latter. Similar meetings, however, were instituted by the Republic- ans, who were opposed to the very existence of the monarchy. On the 18th of July, 1847, Lamartine, now rapidly ad- Emergence vancing as a leader of the latter party, prophesied a coming revolution. " If the monarchy," said he, " is unfaithful to the hopes that the wisdom of the country reposed in 1830, less in its nature than in its name, if it surrounds itself with an electoral aristocracy rather than unites the entire nation, if it allows us to descend into the abyss of corruption, rest assured that the monarchy will fall, not in its own blood as did that of 1789, but in the trap it itself has set. And after having experienced revolutions of liberty and counter- revolutions of glory, you will have a revolution of the public conscience and a revolution of contempt." Great enthusiasm was aroused by these informal plebi- The people scites all over the country during the summer and fall of support the , 1 demand for 1847. It was conclusively shown that the people were reform. behind this demand for reform. But the monarchy remained unaffected — still gave its systematic refusal. The King denounced in his speech from the throne this agitation " fo- mented by hostile or blind passions." He denied the legal right of the people to hold such meetings. To test this right before the courts of law the Opposition arranged a great banquet for February 22, 1848, in Paris. Eighty- seven prominent deputies promised to attend. All were to meet in front of the church of the Madeleine and march to the banquet hall. In the night of February 21-22 the Government posted orders forbidding this procession and all similar meetings. Rather than force the issue the depu- ties who had agreed to attend yielded, though under pro- 142 THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE test. But a vast crowd congregated, of students, working- men, and others. They had no leader, no definite purpose. The crowd committed shght acts of lawlessness, but nothing serious happened that day. But in the night barricades arose in the workingmen's quarters of the city. Some shots were fired. The Government called out the National Guard. It refused to march against the insurgents. Some of its members even began to shout, " Long live Reform ! " " Down with Guizot ! " The King, frightened at this alarming as- Resignation pect, was willing to grant reform. Guizot would not con- of Guizot. senf; g^^id consequently withdrew from office. This news was greeted with enthusiasm by the crowds and, in the evening of February 23d, Paris was illuminated and the trouble seemed ended. The contest thus far had been simply between Royalists, those who supported the Guizot ministry, and the reformers, and the fall of Guizot was the triumph of the latter. But the movement no longer remained thus circumscribed. The RepubHcans now entered aggressively upon the scene, resolved to arouse the excited people against Louis Philippe himself and against the monarchy. They marched through the boulevards and made a hostile demon- stration before Guizot's residence. Some unknown person fired a shot at the guards. The guards instantly replied, fifty persons fell, more than twenty dead. This was the doom of the monarchy. The Republicans seized the occa- sion to inflame the people further. Several of the corpses were put upon a cart which was lighted by a torch. The cart was then drawn through the streets. The ghastly spectacle aroused everywhere the angriest passions ; cries of " Vengeance ! " followed it along its course. From the towers the tocsin sounded its wild and sinister appeal. Thus began a riot which grew in vehemence hourly, and which swept all before it. The cries of " Long live Reform ! " heard the day before, now gave way to the more ominous cries of " Long live the Republic ! " Finally, on February 24th, the King abdicated in favor of his grandson, the The over throw of Louis Philippe. THE FALL OF THE JULY MONARCHY 143 little Count of Paris, who should be King Louis Philippe II, and whose mother, the Duchess of Orleans, should be regent. The royal family left the Tuileries and escaped from Paris in safety. Another French king took the road to England and entered upon a life of exile, which was to end only with death in 1850. The Government of France had been swallowed up by another revolution. The King and the minister were over- thrown. Who would succeed them? The King had abdi- cated in favor of his grandson. But would the revolution- ists recognize him.'^ The Duchess of Orleans with great bravery went directly to the Chamber of Deputies with her two sons, nine and seven years old. A painful scene fol- lowed. The majority of the deputies hailed her as regent and her son as king, but soon the mob, consisting of the students, the Republicans, and Socialists who had forced the abdication, invaded the Chamber. The president de- clared the session closed. The mob continued in the hall, re-enforced by new armed bands, which denounced the idea of a regency, denounced the Chamber and the deputies, and cried " No more Bourbons ; a Provisional Government and after that the Republic." Out of this wild turmoil by no legal method arose a new system. The republican deputies The rise of finally declared the House of Orleans deposed and proclaimed ^ ^^.°^ a Provisional Government and Lamartine read a list of seven names of those who should compose it. All were deputies. This list had been previously drawn up at the office of the National, the leading liberal newspaper. The crowd in the hall shouted their approval. This assembly did not proclaim the Republic. While this government was arising in the Chamber, an- other movement was in progress, in another part of the city. The republican Socialists, meeting in the office of the Reform, their organ, had drawn up a list which had included the names on the list of the National, but had added to them three of their own number, among whom was Louis Blanc. 144. THE REIGN OF LOUIS PHILIPPE These established themselves in the Hotel de Ville and pro- claimed the Republic. Thus there were two governments as a result of the insurrection. The members chosen in the Chamber traversed the streets of Paris to the Hotel de Ville. There the two groups were fused. Positions were found in the new government for the members of both. The Repub- lic was immediately proclaimed, subject to ratification by the people. CHAPTER VII CENTRAL EUROPE BETWEEN TWO REVOLUTIONS PRUSSIA The French Revolution of 1848 was the signal for the The Febru- most wide-reachinff disturbance of the century. Revolu- ^^^ Revo- . , lution a tions broke out from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, from signal for France to the Russian frontier. The whole system of re- other revo- action, which had succeeded Waterloo and which had come to liitio^s. be personified in the imperturbable Mettemich, crashed in unutterable confusion. But in order to understand the swiftness amd completeness of this collapse, one must know something of the evolution of central Europe between 1830 and 1848, for the revolutions of 1848 were no sudden and accidental improvisations, but were simply the decisive and dramatic culmination of movements everywhere making for change. The Revolution of 1848 was a signal and an encouragement to other peoples to attempt similar things ; it was not a cause. Particularly necessary is it to trace the inner evolution of Germany, Austria, and Italy during this period, which was not at all one of stagnation, but one characterized by a great and fruitful fermentation of ideas. The interest of German history between 1830 and 1848 The general does not lie in the evolution of political liberty, for political ^.^^^^ ^^ repression and absolutism were the order of the day. It period. lies rather in growth along economic lines, in intellectual achievements outside the domain of politics, and in those movements of opinion and of racial aspiration which ren- dered so notable and far-reaching the vast turmoil of 1848. 145 146 CENTRAL EUROPE BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS Evolution of Prussia. Great in- tellectual activity. For German history the all-important matter is the evolu- tion during those years of a remarkable situation in both Prussia and Austria, which was highly favorable to revolu- tions in the fulness of time. The Confederation as a whole had no evolution, but was a sleeping, hollow mockery. The evolution of the lesser states, important no doubt, must be neglected in a study of this scope. The ideas, personahties, tendencies, and situations that were to prove determinant for central Europe, came not from them but from the two first- class powers already named, which stood confronting each other in the Confederation and in Europe as a whole, ren- dering unity impossible, and both opposed to liberty. And first of the evolution of Prussia during these years. Political liberty, as we have seen, was denied. No constitu- tion was granted, no parliament created, but it would not be reasonable to emphasize that fact unduly. Their absence was not acutely felt save by a small enlightened minority. Such liberties Prussians had never known, and there were few serious practical grievances. The state was well ad- ministered. The king, Frederick Wilham III (1797-1840), was honest and beloved, the administration hard-working and economical, the policies enlightened. The period be- tween 1815 and 1848, though politically unimportant, was immensely significant in other ways. While university pro- fessors and students suspected of dabbling in politics were shamefully persecuted, the regime was not opposed to in- tellectual progress. Under it great advances were made in all branches of education from the lowest to the highest. Intellectual activity, forbidden to enter the pohtical field, overflowed into others. It was a period of great and durable conquests in the domain of science, rich in leaders who held high the best traditions of scholarship and widened the bounds of human knowledge. The great political achievements of the period lay in the administrative and economic questions met and solved by Prussian statesmen. Prussia had to undergo the most thor- REFORMS IN PRUSSIA 147 ough reorganization. Before German unity could be The achieved Prussian unity must be secured. The treaties of ^^ ^*'^" . . . ment of 1815 had transformed Prussia by almost doubling her terri- Prussian tory and her population. Out of ten million inhabitants unity im- five million were new subjects, difficult to assimilate: the in- pc^^^t^^fi. habitants of the Rhenish provinces had been for twenty years a part of the French Empire and were strongly at- tached to French ideas ; the Poles still bitterly regretted the loss of their former independence ; the Saxons resented their annexation to Prussia. These peoples did not feel them- selves Prussians, though fate had put them under a Prussian king. The task of building anew the Prussian state out of such varied elements, of making a thoroughly homo- geneous kingdom, was rendered all the more difficult from the fact that Prussia was divided into two separate, un- connected parts, an eastern and a western, separated by Hanover, Brunswick, and Hesse-Cassel. Her boundaries were not those of a healthy state. These were the problems whose solution would take time. Meanwhile certain definite reforms were undertaken. The financial question was the most urgent, and this was Revision of faced heroically. The burden of the Napoleonic wars had ^^^ ?™ . 1 , 1 of taxation, been tremendous. The Prussian debt was large ; deficits were usual. By revising her system of taxation, and by rigid economy, order was finally brought about, there were surpluses instead of deficits, and in 1828 government bonds stood at par. The great interest of the Prussian Government in the ^^^ • 1T1 . 1 •. p ,^ i question material development and prosperity oi the country was ^^ ^j^^ best shown in its tariff policy. Prussia, as has been said, tariff. was divided into two unequal and unconnected parts. The boundaries were very extensive, increased still further by the fact that entirely within her territory lay states or fragments of other states independent of her. Moreover, the economic conditions in the eastern part of the realm were essentially different from those in the western ; the 148 CENTRAL EUROPE BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS one agricultural, the other industrial. There was nothing like freedom of trade between the different parts. Indeed, there were in old Prussia alone sixty-seven different tariff systems in operation, separating district from district. Cities were shut off from the surrounding country districts by tariff walls, and province from province. All this meant that commerce could not flourish, hampered on every side, and that industries, the support of commerce, could not expand, owing to narrow and uncertain markets. Under these conditions one industry thrived — smuggling. The smugglers' trade was easy, owing to the fact that the fron- tiers to be guarded were over 4,000 miles long, a line that could only be guarded by a very large number of customs officials, which would involve great expense. All this was changed in 1818, under the influence of a great financial reformer, Maassen. All internal customs were abohshed and free trade was established throughout all Prussia. Then a tariff, very simple and covering few commodities, was established against the rest of the world. This tariff was put low enough to make smuggling unprofitable. Products that would be brought over sea were taxed higher, as they must enter by the few ports, which could be easily guarded. Having established a common tariff for her own kingdom, Prussia sought to induce other German states to enter into union with her, to adopt the same tariff against other na- tions and free trade with each other. She offered to share the total revenues collected pro rata according to popula- tion. The other states protested vehemently at first against what they considered the high-handed measures of the larger state, but they finally saw the advantages of union. The first to join were those which were entirely inclosed or which had parts entirely inclosed by Prussia ; whose commerce with the outside world must be through Prussian territory. The Between 1819 and 1828 the little Thuringian duchies entered ZoUverein. this ZoUverein, or Tariff Union. The southern and central states of Germany held aloof and even formed rival tariff THE TARIFF UNION 149 unions of their own. These, however, did not prosper. One by one the other states joined the Prussian Union, led thereto by the apparent advantages of free trade with each other and by Prussia's liberal terms. By 1842 all, save the Hanseatic towns and Mecklenburg, Hanover, and Austria, had joined. The treaties between the co-operating states upon which the union rested were made for brief periods, but were constantly renewed. The advantages of the Zollverein were both economic and The ad- political. Industry grew rapidly by the apphcation of the vantages principle of free trade to the states of Germany. It created _g_gij, a real national unity in economic matters, at a time when Germany was politically only the semblance of a union; it accustomed German states to co-operation without Austria, and it taught them the advantages of Prussian leadership. Men began to see that a Germany could exist without Aus- tria. The Zollverein is generally considered in a very real sense to have been the beginning of German unity. As long as Frederick William III lived it was recognized Death of that no changes would be made in the political institutions _5®, f"*' • -1 11- T • William of Prussia. It was tacitly understood that his declining jjj^ years should not be disturbed, that the demands for reforms should not be pressed. But when he died in 1840, says von Treitschke, " all the long pent up grievances and hopes of Prussia overflowed irresistibly, gushing and foaming like molten metal when the spigot is knocked out." All eyes were now turned upon his son and successor, Frederick William IV. The new King, forty-five years of age, was already well Frederick known as a man of unusual intellectual gifts — quick, mobile, ' enthusiastic, imaginative, an eloquent conversationalist and public speaker. He was a patron of learning, surrounding himself with scholars, artists, and writers. Goethe had said of him that *' so great a talent must awaken new talents in others." From his general intellectual restlessness and lib- erality much was hoped, as it was also known that he had 150 CENTRAL EUROPE BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS latterly not approved the policy of his father. This im- pression he confirmed by his acts at the opening of his reign. He issued an amnesty pardoning political prisoners. He restored Arndt to his professorship at Bonn. He re- leased Jahn. In a series of impassioned utterances he spoke glowingly of Prussia's destiny. It seemed that a new and liberal era was dawning. But disillusionment soon began. The people wanted re- forms and expected them from the new King. His predeces- sor had consented to the creation of local diets for local The demand concerns in each of the provinces into which Prussia was for a par- divided. He had promised a central parliament but had liament. jjq^ kept the promise. The demand now was for this. Would Frederick William IV grant it? This question was asked him by the estates of the Province of Prussia. His answer was kindly and vague. A little later a real answer came in the form of an ordinance which somewhat increased the powers of the provincial estates and provided that dele- gations from each should unite in Berlin. This was not at all what was wanted. Several of the provincial estates de- manded the fulfilment of the promises of 1815. Books ap- peared discussing constitutional questions. The press took the matter up vehemently, the censorship having been some- what slackened. The King apparently made no effort to win back the favor of his people. His policy was evidently purely reactionary. Popular meetings were forbidden in certain provinces; the press, too free for his satisfaction, was shackled again. Even the independence of the judiciary was threatened. Year after year went by and the people became impatient because no parliament was created. The King, meanwhile wavering between the most exalted notions of the divine origin and nature of his position and his desire to live in harmony with his age, sketched plan after plan of an as- sembly which should not be representative, which should co- operate with him, and which should quiet the insistent clamor THE UNITED LANDTAG OF 1847 151 of his people. Finally, on February 3, 1847, he issued a Letter Patent which marks the beginning of the constitu- The letter tional history of Prussia. By this Patent it was announced that the king would summon all the provincial assemblies 1347^ to meet in one general assembly or United Landtag when- ever the needs of the state should demand new loans, the levying of new taxes, or the augmentation of those already existing. The United Landtag was to have the right of petition, and the king might consult it in regard to new legislation. There were to be two chambers, meeting apart, except when considering financial questions, the former a chamber of lords, the other of the three estates. At first enthusiastic, the people were shortly chagrined at the out- come of all their efforts. The Landtag was not to meet at definite periods but only when the king should summon it. It was to resemble a medieval diet more than a modern parliament. Even its power in financial matters was greatly limited. All discussion involving the tariff was reserved for the Zollverein. Provincial and local taxes remained to be determined absolutely by the crown. In case of war the Government might increase the existing taxes, being merely obliged to bring the matter to the attention of the next Landtag. Even the right of petition was carefully restricted. The king would receive petitions only when two- thirds of both houses had agreed upon them. This was not the constitution the people had been so long popular demanding. By it the king was not required ever to call the dissatis- United Landtag together. Moreover, he retained the com- plete law-making power and an almost unrestricted power over the nation's purse. The new parliament was to repre- sent, not the people, but social classes. Moreover, in the speech from the throne, with which ■' Frederick William IV opened this assembly in the following April, he took particular pains to state that this Patent was no constitution creating a parliament representing the people of Prussia. " Never will I allow," he said, " a sheet 152 CENTRAL EUROPE BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS of written paper to come, like a second Providence, between our Lord God in Heaven and this land, to govern us bj its paragraphs. The crown cannot and ought not to de- pend upon the will of majorities. I should never have called you together if I had the least idea that you could dream of playing the part of so-called representatives of the people." Conflict A conflict began at once between the King and the United between Landtag, which developed into a deadlock. The Landtag William IV demanded a real parliament. The King demanded loans, and the Neither yielded to the other, and in June 1847 the Landtag United ^g^g dissolved. Nothing had been accomplished. A grave constitutional crisis had been created. The monarch stood in direct opposition to the Liberals. Such was the danger- ously overheated state of the public mind when news of the revolution in Paris reached Berlin. AUSTRIA Austria The history of Austria between 1815 and 1848 resembles not a in some respects that of the German Confederation in that omoge- .^ ^^g ^^^ ^Y^Q evolution of a single homogeneous state, neous state. ° '^ Movements proceeded from several local centers. For pur- poses of simplification it is well to examine each in turn. In the provinces of Austria proper, in the western part of the empire, the movement took the form of a demand for the diminution of the autocratic system. There, as elsewhere in Europe, after 1840 a popular feeling that the time had come for larger liberty was distinctly perceptible. Yet there the difficulty of its achievement was at its maxi- mum. For as long as Francis I lived there was no hope of sympathy from the throne. His successor, Ferdinand I (1835-48), was a man of less ability and was, moreover, mentally incapacitated for rule. This meant that Metter- nich and his colleagues exercised nearly uncontrolled power. Political During this period little change occurred in the conditions stagnation, of the Austrian provinces. Liberal opinions could not be THE GROWTH OF NATIONALITIES 153 freely published owing to the severity of the censorship; yet there were a few journaUsts and lawyers who managed to express a desire for some measure of political freedom and for a constitution. One significant feature of the time The indus- was the transition from the old to the new in the economic lution. sphere. The introduction of machinery, bringing with it the factory system, was now accomplished, and was accom- panied by the terrible evils which had marked this transition in England and in France. Many laborers were thrown out of work, wandered about the country, demoralized, starving, and drifted to the cities, particularly to Vienna, forming a desperate element, easily incited to deeds of violence, as the issue was to show. An industrial crisis preceded the political crisis of 1848 and profoundly influenced its course. The period preceding 1848, poHtically of shght interest. The devel- was rendered notable by the development of the spirit of na- ^ .^ tionality among several of the varied peoples who had hither- ^^gg within to been quiescent under the House of Hapsburg. This the empire, was the most significant phenomenon of these years, as it was to be the most permanent in its effects. This feeling of separate individuality, this assertion of the rights of nationality, which is one of the principal features of the history of the nineteenth century everywhere, had come to be the most salient characteristic of Austrian evolution in particular, and is so still. Under the aegis of the House of Hapsburg several nations were arising and were strug- ghng for a larger and more independent place in the col- lective state. This spirit was particularly pronounced in Bohemia and Hungary. Bohemia had been united with Austria since 1526. Its Bohemia, population consisted of Germans and of a branch of the Slavic race called Czechs. The Germans had for more than two centuries been preponderant. Their language was that of the government, of educated people, the language of literature and science, the Czechish being regarded as fit only for peasants. But after 1815 the popular conscious- 154! CENTRAL EUROPE BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS ness gradually awoke. The idea that the Czechish nation- ality could be revived took strong hold of a few educated men who believed that Bohemia should be torn from German control and that the native Czechish element should be put in its place. The movement was at first confined to univer- sity men, was literary and scientific. A group of historians arose, of whom Palacky was the leader, who by their his- tories of Bohemia when she had been an independent kingdom, inculcated the wish that she might again be one. Pride was enlisted, too, by reviving a knowledge of the ancient native literature. Henceforth every Czech should cease to use German and speak his own native tongue. This movement grew, passing from university circles to the mass of the people. It was directed against the German office- holders in Bohemia and against the use of German in the government and in education. While during the period from 1815 to 1848 it accomplished no practical reform, it created a public opinion and a vehement aspiration for na- tional independence that constituted an important factor in the general situation of that year. Hungary. A more pronounced national and racial movement within the empire was going on at the same time in Hungary, a country peopled by several different races speaking differ- ent languages and possessing different institutions. The leading races were the Magyars ; the Slavs, broken up into several branches, north and south of the Magyars ; the Ger- mans or Saxons; and the Roumanians. The Magyars, though numerically a minority of the whole people, were more numerous than any other one race, were the most de- veloped politically, and had, ever since they had come into the country in the ninth century, regarded it as their own and had paid scant attention to the other races. Two sec- tions of Hungary, Croatia, peopled almost entirely by Slavs, and Transylvania, the majority of whose inhabitants were Roumanians, were somewhat differentiated from Hungary proper, where the Magyars predominated, in that, though THE CONSTITUTION OF HUNGARY 155 annexed countries and subject to the king of Hungary, they enjoyed a certain measure of autonomy. Croatia, for in- stance, had a viceroy or ban and a Diet of its own. Transyl- vania had its Estates, infrequently convoked. Hungary had a constitution dating in part from the thir- The teenth century. It was in 1222 that the Golden Bull of Hungarian Constitu- Andreas II was issued, nearly contemporary with Magna ^j^^^ Charta. There was a Diet or Parliament meeting in Presburg in two chambers, or Tables, as they were called ; a Table of Magnates, composed of the highest nobility, of certain of the higher clergy and office-holders ; and a Table of Deputies, chosen by the congregations or county assem- blies, and by the free cities. Hungary was divided into more than fifty counties, each one of which had its local assembly or congregation. The nobility alone possessed political power. Only nobles The impor- sat in the national Diet, and only nobles were members of t3.nce of the the county assemblies. The nobility was itself divided into two sections, the very wealthy, the Magnates, about five hun- dred in number, and the petty nobility, numbering perhaps seven hundred thousand, poor, in many cases uneducated and hardly to be distinguished from the peasants among whom they lived, save by their privileges. Everywhere feudalism flourished in its most flagrant form and perhaps as nowhere else in Europe. The aristocracy not only constituted all the assemblies, national and local, but they filled all the offices. They enjoyed old feudal dues and paid no taxes themselves. The very tax intended to defray the expense The of the local administration, which they monopolized, was laid prevalence upon the class beneath. Their lands could be alienated , ,. only to members of their own order. Their palaces in the cities were not subject to municipal jurisdiction. The en- tire class of the bourgeoisie had only one vote in the Diet. Neither bourgeoisie nor the laboring class possessed any power. The immense mass of the population, the peasantry, were subject to a most oppressive serfdom. 156 CENTRA!. EUROPE BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS It is evident that though Hungary had a constitution it was not of the modern type but of the medieval. To take a place among the progressive lands of Europe, Hun- gary needed to be brought within the region of modern ideas. One of those who saw this and whose whole activity was to contribute powerfully to this modernization, was Count Ste- Szechenyi phen Szechenyi, a great Hungarian Magnate who, himself and reform. ^^ aristocrat, boldly told his fellow-aristocrats that the time for reform had come, that they must reform them- selves, and must change radically the conditions of their country. He was rather a social than a political reformer, interested chiefly in the encouragement of material prosper- ity, which necessitated the removal of many abuses from which the aristocracy profited. He devoted his time, his money, and his immense prestige to social and economic im- provement, to the draining of marshes, the building of roads and tunnels and bridges, the clearing of the Danube for nav- igation. His aim was to make Hungary a busy, prosperous, modern industrial state instead of an illustration of belated medievalism. He encouraged the foundation of learned societies, the use of the national language, the establishment of a national theater. His work was mainly outside the Diet and consisted chiefly of his vigorous writings and his example. He was not a political revolutionist, not an enemy of Austria. The spirit in which he worked was shown by his admonition to his countrymen : " Do not con- stantly trouble yourselves with the vanished glories of the past, but rather let your determined patriotism bring about the prosperity of the beloved fatherland. Many there are who think that Hungary has been, but I for my part like to think that Hungary shall be." The policy Meanwhile the Diet, controlled in both houses by the of the Magyar aristocracy, accomplished little in the direction of reform. It was not willing to curtail its own privileges. But, on the other hand, it was willing to assert itself against the Austrian Government, to attempt to gain a larger in- THE AMBITIONS OF THE MAGYARS 157 dependence for Hungary in the collective state. One gain it made — that concerning the Magyar language. Latin was the language used in the Hungarian Diet. It '^^^ was the language of the Roman Catholic Church and had -^gg^-on formerly been the language of diplomacy. In a country where so many tongues were spoken its use seemed a felicitous arrangement, favoring no one race. It was neu- tral. But the Magyars, now alive with the spirit of self- assertion, sought to depose Latin and to place Magyar in its stead as the official language. This they finally achieved in 1844. The Croatian deputies, on the other hand, wished still to speak Latin, but were not permitted to. The Mag- yars showed that their desire was not the freedom of the several peoples of which Hungary was composed, but only their own freedom, indeed, the freedom to impose their will upon others. Their object was the complete Magyar- ization of all who lived in Hungary, were they Croatians, Servians, Roumanians, or what else. In this struggle over language lay the germ of a conflict of races which was later to be most disastrous to the Magyars themselves. They were not willing to grant to others the rights which they had demanded for themselves. While the Hungarian Diet was zealous in asserting the Rise of a claims of Hungary against Austrian domination, and was ^^