^ . ^ -S .* "P ^0-n^. A->^ ^Aq^ ^oK ^* o, ' • / 1 • Ay '^-^ * ^-^^^' 'bV © » • • s K' . ^^ -^^ «y^%^/ J' % <* a V 'V' ^^ % •" ^^ ^ "oT^^ .V^ o. * , « * o, ' « • s o • * < •. * s THE WORLD'S GREATEST CONFLICT REVIEW OP"' FRANCE AND AMERICA 1788 TO 1800 AND HISTORY OF AMERICA AND EUROPE 1800 TO 1804 f) BY / - y HENRY 'bOYNTON BOSTON D LOTHROP COMPANY WASHINGTON STREET OPPOSITE BROMFIELD \ ■Q •■> a Copyright, 1890, BY D. LoTHROP Company. PREFACE. The world's greatest conflict is the struggle for and against good government. Our Revolution established independence, but it did not settle our government; that grand work was later. We had one State (Vermont) outside the Union, and thirteen commonwealths but loosely connected. They were not firmly united. Popular rule of a great combination of States with varying interests and habits was not yet accomplished. To do it properly demanded an invention — a new mech- anism. The American system in which a clearly ex- pressed Constitution, interpreted by an independent judiciary, defines, limits and overrules all executive power and all legislation, prevents aggression by or against the Government, and guarantees the rights of every person, however humble, is the greatest of all in- ventions; the grandest achievement of human intellect. Republics had already existed ; they are of ancient origin — even steam and steam machinery existed before James Watt. But those old republics compare with the modern system now used in both Americas, Great Britain, France, Australia and Switzerland, as does the rude steamboat of Blasco de Garey of blessed memory with that great Inman steamer, the City of New York. Our best statesmen were then students of statesman- ship — seekers for a system to secure individual liberty and equality and the certainty of legal remedies, and yet to restrain license, protect person and property, to 3 IV PREFACE. surely punish crime, and to debar any part of the people from invading the rights of any other part. It was not perfect — it has been several times amended. Lack of precedent rendered American government in the times of Washington, Adams and Jefferson, more crude and much more difficult than to-day, when laws, practices and expectations of State legislatures and courts are better affiliated. Our form of government and those of Great Britain and France are not due to any one man, but are the work of self-made nations who are willing to make the mutual concessions always necessary to any good government. The vital principle of success is consent to peacefully abide the decisions of the majority — a failure to obey which barred from success the first French Revolution. Great Britain has now a free popular government so far as its House of Commons, and that House controls the Ministry. Members are elected by manhood suf- frage in a form of balloting better guarded against fraud than in most States and countries. But prior to the first " Reform Act " of 1832, only a few persons chose the members ; few men were voters. Great Britain has a constitution, though it is still not one compact document; but its Magna Charta and its many acts of Parliament and long ages of judicial decisions. Since 1789 Great Britain has made more real progress than in many previous centuries ; it is one of the most progressive of nations. France, Italy, the two Americas, the British colonies, the educational system of Germany, and the Swiss can- tons have immensely advanced. PREFACE. V The whole civilized world is more humane, more en- lightened ; there exists in people and in governments far less of hatred, of malignancy ; the standards of public and private honor are higher than a hundred years ago. The world is vastly indebted to men and w^omen who have labored to make our race better and happier. Retrospect shows that they have accomplished great good in the improvement of manners, morals, intelli- gence, charity, in the betterment of public institutions and of private habits. The world grows better. The peoples are learning that the more they uphold, aid and comfort the intelligent teachers of religion, honor, honesty and kindness, the less are they likely to need force ; the more Sunday-schools and day schools, the less policemen ; and it follows that the more inter- national courtesy, the less liability to w^ar. The more obedience to the fifth chapter of Matthew, the less need of armies ; the more they secure fraternal, gener- ous and humane habits and principles, the more they honor God and their country. No nation should be judged to-day by what it was two generations ago. It is an age of progress, not equal in all nations, for some, notably in the increase of standing armies, have retrograded. If we wish to learn the real lessons that history teaches we must lay aside our own bias — all our pre- conceived ideas — and examine history in the same im- partial spirit with which a good juryman tries a cause in court by " law and evidence " ; we must make our verdicts by the holy law of good conscience and facts, "without fear or favor," even though it condemn our historical idols. VI PREFACE. Much that has passed as history or material for his- tory is badly defective because distorted from fact by the vindictive party feelings, in fashion to a much later period. False sentiments, party hates, a dis- position to have and to worship an idol, a blind fol- lowing of mistaken leaders, have too often usurped the place of honest, manly conscience in judging of the characters of men and measures of history, especially of that so recent that men are still living who heard the thunder of all Europe's cannon as it closed around France, or have been active partisans of men then living. The statements of facts that bear hardest upon leading characters in this book, and in one that must follow it, are proven by documents found among their own papers, and by testimony of their own friends and intimate contemporaries, and confirmed by other ample evidence. For one to palliate or excuse a public crime or wrongful measure because of the eminence or leadership of the perpetrator, would be to wrong one's own conscience and to aid in demoraliza- tion of public opinion. H. B. The World's Greatest Conflict. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. THE American and English Revolutions were made to defend rights, the French to obtain them. Religion favored the former, but injured the latter. The immorality of the higher French clergy, who were all nobles, in contrast with the morality of the common priests, disgusted the people and excited them toward revolt. American and British parliaments rank above the executive power; the French parliaments were almost powerless ; the king alone was power. " I am the State ! " said the imperious Louis. In proportion to the degree of misrule are, usually, the excesses of revolt. French kingly misrule was terrible ; revolt was therefore terrible. Insurgents who have nothing to lose, destroy property ; men to whom life is of little value, commit bloodshed freely. The kings and nobles made the people poor, and by rendering their lives of little value to themselves, qualified them for bloody and destructive revolt. 9 10 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. England presents a striking contrast ; in revolu- tion since 1832, its great change has, nevertheless, been peaceful and beneficent, because the people had the means to progress peacefully. In 1774 this means was denied to France. All the people, even the nobility, were out of power. Then only Great Britain, Switzerland and Holland had limited rulers. All else was absolute monarchy. France in many provinces was under diverse laws and customs ; some had little parliaments, others had none. The king's "Intendents" ruled over many sections and extorted all possible taxes, legal and illegal. Every person was either a noble or a plebeian ; no middle class existed ; of twenty-five millions of French, one hundred and fifty thousand nobles held all the valuable places in church, state and army. The only taxes they paid were a five per cent, on crops ; all other taxes and tithes were extorted from plebeians. Offices, honors, titles and tolls, the king sold or donated to favorites. It is an error of writers to claim that the work- ingmen of France read Rousseau and Voltaire ; most of them could not read at all ; they toiled and starved ; absentee landlords spent the rents in Paris and drained the farm country of cash. In 1788-89 skilled mechanics earned twenty-six sous a day, women twenty sous ; bread was three sous a pound.* * Bouteau, Laverne, von Sybel. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 1 1 II. IT was a fine May morning in the year 1774. Everybody was glad. Louis the Fifteenth was dead. He had been a bad king. Not a mourner followed to the tomb L'roi at St. Denis. Paris, long angry, long estmort:- repressed, threw up its eight hundred " abasi'roi. thousand hats, caps and bonnets, hugged itself, sang merrily, danced, and jeered that lonely royal funeral that galloped through the streets. The fifteenth Louis had lived sixty-four years ; he had been king fifty-nine years, and had led a gay and wicked life. France suffered frightfully from this bad king's badness. His death was the best act of his life. It gave Parisians the merriest day they had seen for years. Louis the Fifteenth had boasted of being the best cook in France. Far better for the French had he been born only a cook ; he was worthless for anything else. It was on May 10, 1774, that Louis was so gracious as to die. On May 10, 1770, just four years before, there had been solemnized a famous wedding. The bridegroom was a big, ill-mannered, abrupt, 12 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. awkward, ill-humored * and decidedly dull boy of less than sixteen years. Boys are usually bright and can talk ; but this boy bridegroom had both poverty of mind and of speech. He was also very timid and very lazy. He had a coarse way of moving and of walking ; he lacked both grace and graciousness. Poor de- ficient boy ! Nature had made him unfitted for a career ; and Fate had caused him to be born to be a king. It was deplorable. The young bride was unwisely selected for a French queen. Her Austrian birth invited French criticism and she was but a romping, ignorant f girl of fourteen and a half years. This boy and girl were not in love ; they were not attracted to each other ; each was averse to the other. Their nations, characters, tastes, habits — everything were different and opposite. When the exit of the bad old Louis the Fifteenth had caused this spontaneous popular festival, and every one was feeling happy, this unloving and not very lovely wedded pair made their debut on the great political stage of France as King Louis the Sixteenth and Queen Marie Antoinette. Whenever you have on your hands a very vicious elephant, and luck suddenly exchanges him for a worthless donkey, what do you do ? Why, you re- joice greatly ; you are exceeding glad for the loss of that big, bad brute. You hurrah without wait- * Martin, Vol. II. p. 280. ~ t Thiers, Vol. I. p. 227. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 1 3 ing to learn that your new donkey is very stupid, very awkward, very lazy, very much worse than use- less ; that really as a nuisance his merit is second only to that of the now discarded vicious elephant. Such was the French situation. Each order stood alone ; nobles, clergy, and " third estate " each had interests adverse to the other two, each was divided against itself. The nobles were luxurious and licentious ; the higher clergy, some of whom disbelieved, lived in rich excess, while the honest common priests in pov- erty soothed the sick and the mourning, and married, baptized, and buried the poor. The king and his favorites imprisoned, exiled, confiscated at will. Innocence was not safe, prop- erty was not safe, life was not safe ; Louis was apt to break over his own laws, to oppress his people. The great nobles were courtiers, hated by coun- try gentlemen, and abhorred by France ; they bought, sold or held offices in the church, the state, the army and navy ; they drew unearned pensions and many royal gifts of cash wrung from working people. Even the seats in the Paris par- liament were sold for life by the king. The king made laws ; parliament merely '* regis- tered " them. If it refused to register the king could come in person and compel registry. In 1800 it was the fashion for sovereigns to be half-witted or insane. But in 1774, it was quite 14 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. otherwise, when Catherine the Second of Russia, Frederic the Second of Prussia, Maria Theresa of Austria, Joseph the Second of Germany, and Charles the Third of Spain were ruling. Louis the Sixteenth was himself ill-tempered, selfish, ]azy ; his wife was of ill-mannered igno- rance, and made scandal by frolicking with doubt- ful characters in Versailles woods ; both of them were of very narrow minds and should early have perceived that they were never made to reign. Marie Antoinette could not endure Louis' dull- ness, and he, when but sixteen, preferred an anvil and hammer to the society of his young wife. Not till years after marriage did any love exist between them. Americans have too generously credited Louis with friendly aid to America. This credit is due to France, but not to Louis. Louis opposed it ; he only yielded when French public opinion co- erced him into war with England. Britain was the hereditary enemy of France ; she had, by the war which ended in 1763, despoiled France of Canada, Cape Breton, and most of the French Indies. Louis was a champion blunderer. His first and greatest blunder was in being born at all, his sec- ond in being born to be a king, his third in accept- ing from Austria a wife when Austria had just humiliated France in a long war. That wife had a singular genius for displeasing the French. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. I 5 In examining the strange and now famous career of this fateful and untalented pair, we wonder that Louis did not omit so unfit a marriage, perceive his own very marked worthlessness, resign the crown, marry some suitable very dull damsel, and live a dull life as became his stupid disposition. Even foolish Charles the Fourth of Spain was wise enough to abdicate (1808), and live in private and happy luxury ; even fool Philip of Spain {1788) had the good taste to be an outright idiot, and as such was set aside to spend his life in hunting just as Louis wanted to hunt. Louis ought to have been as wise as these two champion fools. We do not wish to be -deceived : let us look at the real Louis the Sixteenth uncolored by fancy. Let us try this case by the evidence, and by the laws of common justice and fairness, applying the same rules of right and wrong to king and com- moner. If the results differ from that derived from former historical reading let us blame only the facts ; let us quarrel with the acts and the persons who made them, not with the conclusion. Profligacy had run riot ; morality was deranged ; royal mistresses had ruled France. So disgusted with wicked Louis the Fifteenth were the French that they hailed with delight the accession of stupid Louis the Sixteenth, even with Marie An- toinette ** the Austrian." God made Louis the Sixteenth for a small tinker, 1 6 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. a mender of pots and pans ; heredity defied God's design and made him a king. He was one of those good-for-nothings, such as every one has seen, presuming without dignity, assuming with- out ability, undecided except when it is folly to decide, and then foolishly tenacious. Praised for good intentions, his career does not sustain it. Nature denied him capacity to be a great roue like his grandfather Louis the Fifteenth, or his grandfather's great-grandfather Louis the Four- teenth. His queen, badly brought up, was impolite among the polite French ; she was tactless and frivolous; she was neither dignified nor elegant; she indulged caprice and levity ; her habits hardly left her reputation free from scandal,* Her mother, the Austrian Empress, Maria Theresa, severely chided her for light habits. f Louis allowed his two brothers to keep very costly households at the nation's expense. His tax system was so wasteful that when France paid forty-one million livres, only twenty-three millions reached the king. Tax gatherers got the rest. Louis called the old courtier, Maurepas, for advice. That cunning man assumed to be prime minister. "Not that," replied Louis. "Then I will show you how to be king without a minister," responded the old fraud, and he kept the chief * Martin. t Maria Theresa, Letters. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 7 place till his death in 178 1. He was a witty, charming, trivial old humbug. With Maurepas came Madame, his wife. That good creature knew more than her husband. She had a heart. Her memory should be cherished. She chose for Controller of Finance the great lib- eral statesman, Turgot. Her husband and the king opened wide their eyes in surprise. Should a king choose Turgot the half republican for a royal minister .-* It was of no use to object. The good Madame said it ; she put down her small foot ; she ruled her husband. She required him to require the king to do it. It was done; enter Turgot, 1774. A woman knows much about spending money. She knows much, too, of saving it. The best investment a man can make is a good woman. Madame Maurepas was worth to France one thou- sand times her weight in gold coin ; one hundred thousand times her weight in husbands like hers. Had she been sovereign of France, and Louis a tinsmith, then would the tremendous explosion of France, that shook the world, have omitted itself. Justice and honor would have ruled. Madame required M. Turgot to do the unheard- of justice in France of allowing any one who desired to make goods to freely make them, and any one who had anything to sell to sell it. This seems very simple. But the most profound states- manship of France had not reached it. The l8 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. privilege to make, to haul, to buy, to sell, were all owned as monopoly. The right to carry a load of wheat to market, the right to cross a river, the right to make even a plow was owned. If you were poor and a peasant, you must pay for your "privileges." You must pay, to those to whom kings have given these rights, their own prices to use their mill to grind your corn, to press your grapes, to use their oven to bake your bread. And you must pay taxes till for very hunger you and your loved ones wish yourselves dead. Turgot's policy was : no bankruptcy ; no in- crease of taxes ; no loans ; no royal gifts of the nation's money ; reduction of royal expenses ; economy ; reform. Louis promised it all. Prom- ising was his forte. He was a bad performer. Turgot wanted to remove odious taxes and have but one single, equal tax laid alike on all. He wanted free manufacture, free commerce, and no crippling of labor. France was astonished. France was suspicious of Turgot. What a policy ! France held up its hands. Allow a man to raise wheat and sell it without paying the king for the privilege ! Allow a woman to make butter or linen and not pay the lord of the manor for that right ! Bar the king from taking your money and giving it to Monsieur the prince or Madame the courtesan ! Stop the starving of millions of peasants ! Stop the king from giving as Louis the Fifteenth in THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. I9 five years gave to the fair but frail du Barry one hundred and eighty million livres. The nobles opposed such reform. Each man waited the king's orders. Law regu- lated nothing ; no one originated ; lack of system or of justice stifled public spirit ; neither nobles nor people were expected to keep order ; that was the king's business ; * each sought his own escape from tax. Large owners held two thirds of all the land ; small owners one third, but wild game for the nobles' benefit must go at large, though they de- stroyed the crop on which depended the peasant's bread. Severe edicts forbade hoeing and weeding lest the brooding partridges be disturbed. The nobles and king owned all the game. Tenants must pay toll for bruising buckwheat between stones. By corvee they were forced to build roads with- out pay, but they must pay when they used these same roads. Land was subdivided till what was needed for one was used by six.f Turgot wanted to remove ruinous burdens. His plan included schools ; it would have allowed vil- lagers to apportion their taxes ; to care for the poor ; to choose local deputies, who should choose deputies of provincial assemblies ; who should send deputies to a General Assembly of France. It was a great plan, quite at variance with * Young's Travels. t Turgot. 20 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. Rousseau. Most writers date the Revolution from May 5, 1789, when the States-General met. But Turgot's advent began the Revolution in 1771. Later, Turgot saw that a workman's ability to work is property and should have property protec- tion. He wanted reform by royalty, not against it. Adam was not more surprised at Eve's appear- ance in Eden than was France at Turgot's new ideas. Great was Madame Maurepas for bringing Turgot to the front. Louis recalled the old Paris parliament, he har- assed and embittered it, and then tried to force it to be his servile tool. But, if resistance is pos- sible, submission to insult is not human nature. Louis's insults spurred it to opposition, and thus he himself inaugurated the great struggle. Royal extravagance was great ; king, queen, princes and courtiers squandered the nation's money. Royalty counteracted Turgot's reforms ; the nobles, high clergy, and tax farmers were Turgot's foes. To royal and noble extortion, was added in 1774-75, bread scarcity. Hunger caused riots. The people were suffering, starving. Turgot re- duced the grain tax, but hunger drove the people wild. He gave public work, but hunger increased. He offered premiums for imports of wheat, but kings had given away the right to haul it or to make bread ; monopolists checked relief to starv- ing France. THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. 21 Suffering drove the people to frenzy. Mobs destroyed stores of grain, because it was kept from them. The people were very hungry, very angry, very raving, but who will not rave when the children starve .'* Necker attacked Turgot's policy. It was said that wheat was not lacking, but the king's law for its distribution. A hungry mob invaded Versailles (May 2, 1775) ; they shouted to Louis for bread. He tried to address them. They refused to listen. Dishonest Louis foolishly tried to appease them, not at his expense, but that of merchants ; not by buying bread for charity, but by an arbitrary discount of the price of bread. It was not a reduction of price that the penniless wanted, it was bread itself ; but Louis had neither the kindness to feed them nor the justice to protect Paris. His act sent the mob to Paris to pillage the bakers' shops. Turgot, not Louis, quieted the riot. Then Louis decreed the old price, and the Paris Parliament headed op- position. Louis ordered it not to meet. It did meet, and placarded Paris with requests that the king provide cheaper bread. The people sided against Louis. They justly blamed him for dear bread. His reduction of price flew all over France, without the retraction. Mobs seized bread at prices that ruined mer- chants ; or they took it for nothing. France was in a great spasm of rioting. Louis brought an army to Versailles, but for what he did not know. 22 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. Turgot required him to give energetic orders, but dishonest Louis tried to nullify these orders ; other and better men suppressed the extensive insurrec- tions. Turgot proclaimed that enough grain exist- ed ; that the price was not for the king, but for demand and supply to regulate, and the clergy were angry that he required them to read this proclama- tion from their pulpits. Pamphlets, ballads, carica- tures of Louis, the Queen and Turgot abounded. Louis wanted money. He always wanted money. Had he been as rich as an American railroad king he would still have lacked money. He pretended to reduce the royal expenses. He did so only on days when he had no money. The first receipt of taxes again inflated them. He had two brothers. Monsieur who believed nothing, and d'Artois, a great rowdy, who believed everything. These two kept hotel for the court, at the peo- ple's expense, with board but without those dis- agreeable things board bills. Turgot wanted the coronation to be at Paris in- stead of at Rheims. It would save eight million livres. He wanted to omit the king's oath to exterminate heretics. Louis dared not. So to Rheims the king went and took the oath, and spent the money that would have bought a great quan- tity of bread for his starving subjects. The high clergy petitioned Louis to deny to Protestants the right of meeting, marriage, and the teaching of their own children. If Protes- THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 23 tants would persist in having children they must be taught to be Catholics. Tax farmers terribly oppressed France. So un- certain were Louis* taxes that none knew what sum they ought to pay. A mere tax clerk might decide. Laborers were responsible for laborers' taxes, so that the delinquents fell back upon those who could pay ; a great unfairness. Some of the taxes had no law. Such was the odious corvee (forced labor). Everything was arbitrary. January, 1776, Turgot asked Louis to abolish corvee, to put the road tax on land, to let all land pay its share, to remove vexatious taxes from food, to make manufacturing free to all, to abolish the many useless offices that hamper trade and labor, to legalize Protestant marriages, and to reduce the monstrous expenses of the king's household. Against Turgot swarmed a host of holders of undeserved and unearned pensions, donations, privileges of which they had swindled France. But for the time Turgot had the ear of the king and Louis signed these edicts. It was easier for him to sign than to adhere. Then the Paris Parliament rose in opposition. It held that feudal claims and the right to extort forced road labor were the property of nobles. Now that the wealthy land owners were to pay the road tax on land, they denounced it as ruinous, though they had long compelled the poor to pay it in labor without recompense. 24 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. In spite of all the extravagances of queen, court, and nobles, Turgot's ability had overcome the deficiency. Business revived, money became easier ; it dropped to four per cent. Turgot was on the high road to make France again prosperous. But queen, nobles, and high clergy intrigued. Forged letters in his name were put into the mail. Louis was known to meanly violate the mails, to break seals. He stole letters, he got these forged ones. They were intended to provoke him to dismiss Turgot. The plot succeeded. The mail robber sent away his able minister. Lack of business confidence, dullness, new dis- tress followed the disastrous step. The treacherous king restored the odious forced labor, retracted freedom to manufacture, restored old oppressions. The false Louis was laying up wrath against himself. IIL IN June, 1777, Necker became Controller of Finance. He was not made a minister be- cause he was a Protestant. He borrowed freely and gave the appearance of prosperity. Necker. He abolished over five hundred sine- cures. He tried to remove the tolls by which rivers and roads were obstructed. He obtained thirty million livres from the high clergy. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 2$ He abolished mortmain ; he freed the king's serfs ; the Jura monks refused to free theirs unless paid for them ; those monks had to settle with the serfs in the Revolution afterwards. Necker abolished the compelling confession of guilt. (August 8, 1780.) Necker astonished France and gratified it by pubHshing his Report of the finances. Such a Report was never before published in France. The effect was prodigious. It was light in fiscal darkness. It seemed like progress. It indicated lono-ed-for reforms. France believed it. France believed in Necker. It believed that exposure of faults meant that those faults would now be re- moved. Why publish an evil but to reform ? France saw in that Report twenty-eight millions in pensions, double that of the rest of Europe.* It saw gross inequalities. But it looked for better days. That Report showed a surplus for 1781. The surplus appeared by omissions ; it was not real. But it helped the controller to a great loan. But losers of sinecures, pensioned nobles and clergy, swindlers of France who feared recla- mation, the king's two brothers who wanted un- limited freedom to spend the nation's money were all against Necker and equity. Necker's loan furnished money for a year. He asked to be made a minister. Louis made the * Martin. Vol. II. p. 450. 26 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. condition that Necker must renounce his Protes- tant religion. Necker manfully refused. He asked to have inspection of purchases for army and navy. Again Louis refused. Necker then resigned May 12, 1781. The trifling Louis never forgave Necker that his resignation was written on small paper without address or title. Freed from the wholesome restraint of Necker's presence, Louis, only three days later, showed his own innate arrogance and injustice by decreeing that candidates for even the lowest army com- missions must prove noble descent for four gen- erations ! Nearly all the French were excluded ! Sons of persons ennobled three generations before were barred out. The same rule was practiced with applicants for clergy places. By this insolent act, at once odious and useless, Louis dealt a severe blow to himself. It refreshed the anger of the army, the navy, the people, already aroused by his many acts of arrogance and treachery. It outraged the French people's sense of equity. Louis restored many of the useless offices that Necker had aboHshed, and increased again the taxes of the poorer classes. They must pay for these restored sinecures. Louis always claimed the exclusive right to make all laws and decide on all taxes. But he recklessly violated the old laws and equity and customs, by arbitrary caprices, sometimes by gross THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 27 offense against the poor, hard-working cures ; then against the nobles ; again he attacked the vital interests of the French merchants ; then of the manufacturers; and finally of the business classes, making himself practically the enemy of his people. Space is lacking to enumerate his many acts of cruel folly, ill temper and malice. Joli d'Fleuri and then d'Ormesson followed as finance Ministers. When the extravagance and folly of the royal family had made a financial stringency, so severe that d'Ormesson could not borrow, and had forced the bank to lend France six million livres, the foolish Louis whose dull mind could always find some means to outrage France, had no more com- mon sense or good disposition than to buy Ram- bouillet for himself, with fourteen million livres of the nation's money, and he did not even mention it to France's hard-pressed controller of finance who must find the money and pay the bill. This secret fraud became known. People rushed to the bank to withdraw their money ; the run was severe ; it became panic ; it spread rapidly ; money hid itself ; distress became general ; France was suffering intensely from Louis the bad-intentioned, the thief. The public conscience of that honorable nation was touched. It condemned the theft; it was profoundly dissatisfied with the corrupt and stupid king and with the frivolous queen, whose 28 THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. own mother* had written in 1776, "She is hurry- ing at great pace to her ruin." f It was no more right for Louis to buy Ram- bouillet with the money of France than it would be for President Harrison to buy with public money the Hotel Brunswick for his own private use. Just when Necker's Report had inspired hope, Louis, by tyrannical reaction, lavished gifts in State and Church, on unworthy high nobles, in- creased odious taxes, making the poor still poorer and the rich still richer, so now he did not reform even when the terrible effects of his folly were ruining France. He was plunging it deeper and deeper in debt ; even the monstrous taxes that he extorted were so wasted as not to keep up with royal and courtly prodigality. IV. THREE and a half years after Necker, on October 30, 1784, Louis made Calonne con- troller of finance. Calonne found a great debt, a great deficiency, an empty treasury. Calonne. He formed a deceptive, compound interest sinking fund. His policy was to spend money freely, to appear rich in order to be able to borrow. He hesitated at no * Maria Theresa's letter. t ** She tried to restrain her giddy, reckless daughter till her death in 1708," — Alison, Vol. I. p. 56. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 29 extravagance. He lavished money and gifts; he dazzled by sumptuous display. He brought back old abuses. He held the treasury wide open to the follies of the lavish Queen, the princes, the avaricious high nobles. The king's brothers had immense sums. The Queen bought magnificent St. Cloud with the nation's money. This was a bold embezzlement, but such were frequent. The treasury paid debts for nobles. Ruined courtiers had relief from it. Everything was corrupt, everything dishonest like the dishonest royal pair. Calonne gave from the treasury for mere asking. Speculation was rampant. The golden days of roguery had come. Royal orders on the treasury were prodigious ; they exceeded those of bad Louis the Fifteenth. They were as secret as possible ; false Louis pretended economy while he squan- dered at a mad rate. He made offices to sell for money. Frauds luxuriated. He increased farmers' taxes from twelve to forty-eight per cent., and let them buy suspended rescripts at low price, and he redeemed them at par ; a fraud on France. The unloving bride and groom had now become a lov- ing pair. The very scandals she had raised drove her to Louis. Her influence over him now be- came very damaging to France. Her brother, the Emperor of Germany, Joseph the Second, begged her to reform her actions. Calonne's first great loans were exhausted. He wanted another. The parliament refused its assent. 30 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. Bad Louis compelled it (December 30, 1784). He forced the money for the folly of himself, the queen, the court, and favorites. Stock gambling ran wild. Calonne annulled all short sales. Bank- ers were deep in them, panic came, money sud- denly hid itself, the bank asked aid. Calonne handed out twelve million of treasury credits to his friends to sustain public credit ; they omitted to repay it and credit was not restored. 1774-85 saw two severe winters; the second was followed by excessive drought, and rural France was very wretched. Still Louis had no mercy ; his royal taxes on the third order were violently extorted. V. GENEVA tried to escape from aristocratic rule. But Louis, with Sardinia and Berne, compelled submission. The French with regret saw this oppression of Louis in Switz- 1782. erland. While Joseph the Second of Austria was making liberal reforms with a free hand, Louis was thus subduing a free foreign city. It has been the fashion for writers while admit- ting his lack of ability, to praise Louis for "good intentions," but when we look for the particular THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 3 1 acts or deeds of *'good intention," we fail to find them. We do, however, find him in many acts the marplot of what good men like Turgot, La- fayette, Lanjuinais would do. VI. EVEN in Austria, under Maria Theresa, nobility and clergy were taxed, though lightly, and peasants had appeal to courts, while all this was lacking in Joseph France. the second of Joseph the Second (1780-90) pro- Austria, claimed uniform Austrian courts and administration, unity of tax. He abolished tithes, corvee and primogeniture. He made himself in- dependent of the Pope ; he forbade Rome's foreign interference ; suppressed two thousand convents ; kept seven hundred for teaching ; re- duced the great number of clergy from sixty- three thousand to twenty-seven thousand ; for- bade pilgrimages ; instituted toleration, moral catechism, civil marriage ; established many hos- pitals and asylums, permitted a free press and limited executions to assassins. He promoted arts, manufactures and commerce. He tried to absorb Bavaria. The offended French laid blame to his sister, their Queen Marie Antoinette. Joseph the Second threatened Holland in 1785. 32 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. He demanded ten million florins. Holland would pay but five million five hundred thousand. To prevent war between Austria and Holland, Louis the Sixteenth paid the balance four million five hundred thousand with French money. This pay- ment shocked French pride. Again they blamed their queen. They had long stigmatized her as "the Austrian." VII. IN 1785 France was deluged with royal scandal by an affair of a necklace. Cardinal d' Rohan was a bad character. He secretly bought a neck- lace on credit, in the queen's name. A Diamond It was worth onc million six hundred Necklace. thousand livrcs (about three hundred thousand dollars). He showed a let- ter signed "Marie Antoinette d'France." Pay- time came, the merchant asked for his money and so Louis discovered the affair. He ordered the arrest of the bad cardinal. D'Rohan demanded trial by parliament. The Pope suspended him for recog- nizing the civil authority of parliament to try him a prince of the church, D'Rohan had to retract his demand for such trial, but parliament held the case, the first trial of a Roman Catholic prelate by a secular court. The queen was in a great panic ; so was Paris ; THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 33 SO was France. Was she guilty } Everybody asked it. Most persons believed it ; others, through hate, wished it. The queen denied that she had authorized him to buy the necklace. Here was plain battle be- tween the queen and the church prince. France was against her ; her bad behavior had made for her a bad reputation. France believed " the Austrian " capable of almost any wickedness. If guilty, it was not her first offense. Her habits had invited distrust. Had d'Rohan been the dupe of another swind- ling woman, La Motte ? Was the letter forged } Or had he really bought the magnificent necklace for the queen without her husband's knowledge ? Nothing would acquit her in the public mind but proof of innocence ; thus the burden of proof was put on her. Before the court of public opinion it was the queen that was being tried, the queen's honor on which verdict was given. A good moral character in that day would have been priceless to her. It was extreme folly for Louis to bring this suit, to parade his wife's damaged reputation be- fore France. But Louis was a man of folly. He was already at loggerheads with his parliament. The arrogant blockhead, at this critical time, again quarrelled with and insulted and abused this very body of men till he goaded them to rage about a new loan that he demanded, and which 34 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. they unanimously refused to sanction. By arbi- trary orders he compelled them to register it, thus humiliated them, made them to feel anew the keen sting of bad royalty, and then sent his wife's honor to public trial before this insulted parliament. Princes of the blood openly canvassed against the qeeen.* It was not, as many writers have given the impression, the common people only, it was the- highest nobles as well that abhorred the "Austrian woman." For nine months the scandalous trial continued. Then by five majority, all of them of the higher class of French society, the debauchee cardinal was acquitted. The queen was stigmatized. Parliament condemned the Cardinal's accom- plice, Madame La Motte, to be whipped, im- prisoned, and branded on each shoulder with a letter V. ( Voleur — thief.) Where was the diamond necklace .-* Just that France wished and still wishes to know. The cardinal was unloved ; he was a bad char- acter ; the French did not admire him ; yet so dis- reputable was the queen that the people were wild with delight over his acquittal; they gave him an ovation ; everybody but stupid royalty had fore- seen the result. Probably the queen was not guilty in the neck- lace affair, but the public mind was ready to con- demn her as a return for other misdeeds. If * Madame Campan's Memoirs, Vol. II. p. 286, THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 35 guilty, then this crime was of far less magnitude than her known knavery in purchase of St. Cloud with public money. VIII. CALONNE over-issued the loans of 1781-82, and thus fraudulently obtained one hun- dred and twenty-three million livres. Credit was low, and dying ; in the Another ten years since Turgot royal taxes great fraud, and royal and court extravagance had been increased to a monstrous extent. For this the king and queen were directly responsi- ble. They were the tax layers, the squanderers of French substance. " There exists an annual deficit of one hundred million," said Calonne to Louis. Even the reckless and prodigal Calonne now called for a halt in their monstrous iniquity. He asked for a reform. He proposed creating parish, district and province assemblies to levy and appor- tion taxes, to tax land so that the acres of the nobles then exempt must bear their share of bur- den, to abolish forced labor of poor peasants to make the roads, to remove the tariffs between towns and between city and country, to take away all taxes that hamper industry and trade, to sell the king's lands to pay his debts, to reduce the 36 THE world's greatest conflict. king's own household and expenses by twenty million a year.* Great proposals to come from a bad minister. '* This is pure Neckerism," said Louis, *' I can give you nothing better," responded Calonne. Parliament would not register Calonne's plan. Then he said to Louis : ''France at this moment is only kept up by a species of artifice." IX. CALONNE called for a convocation of notable persons for advice. They came together on February 22, 1787. Notables had no legal authority. They were convoked, but The Notables they wcrc merely a debating club. convoked. They did not abolish privileges or make taxes equal. They comprised seven royal princes, thirty-six dukes, peers and marshals, fourteen high clericals, thirty-eight mag- istrates, several officials, and only seven commoners out of the total one hundred and forty-four ; ninety- eight per cent, of the French were not represented. They were a phantom. They demanded a true statement of receipts and expenditures. Calonne refused ; they persisted ; they wanted to know the extent and nature of the deficits. For what * Calonne'^ s precis cfu:i ridn, Droz, Vol. I. p. 461. Bailie, Vol. II. p. 267. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 3/ is money wanted ? This was a very embarrassing question for king and queen, and also for Calonne. He did not yield. The revolution commenced with the parliaments and " privileged classes." It was already getting headway. The queen disliked Calonne personally. She disliked the tendencies of France. April 9, 1787, she induced Louis to dismiss him. Louis pre- tended to give the statement required, but it was not clear. The notables referred the whole mat- ter back to the bewildered king and dispersed themselves, a failure. (May 25, 1787.) Louis called from the church Lomenie (d'Brienne) to take charge of the finances. He, though an archbishop, was an atheist. A plan was made : (i.), free trade in grain, (2.), provincial assemblies, (3.), abolish forced labor {corvee)^ (4.), have a stamp tax, (5.), and a land tax. Had Louis pressed all five measures at once, he must have succeeded. But, always incompetent, he offered the first three, which parliament regis- tered ; then waited till their willingness had gone by, and offered the stamp tax. To this parliament responded by calling for the financial accounts ; then it refused by voting that only States-General could grant general taxes. Louis peremptorily compelled parliament to regis- ter these edicts. It protested its grief at having been compelled, in this reign, to register enormous increase of taxes. (August 6, 1787.) 38 THE world's greatest conflict. Next day parliament declared their forced regis- try null and void. An immense crowd outside manifested delight at this abrogation act. France was tired of its inefficient, wasteful king and queen. Louis exiled the resisting parliament to Troyes.* The alarmed Lomenie suppressed a few useless places. The court made outcry for this loss of plunder. He had Calonne indicted ; but the peo- ple regarded it as an indictment of queen and corrupt court. Louis sent the stamp tax decree to be registered in the Chamber of Accounts and Court of Aids. Both responded by demanding recall of the par- liament and assembly of the States-General. Re- volution was revolving. France had three parties : one of abuses ; a larger one, that wanted to take to themselves much of the king's arbitrary power, and maintain abuses for their own noble and clergy orders ; a third, and much the largest, the party of reform and redress. The second and third parties held that only a representative assembly from all France, the *' States-General," could grant the much-needed reform and the equality of taxes ; could relieve France from ruin caused by the political crimes of its kings. Clubs sprang into existence. They began with the Breton Club. Clubs became hotbeds of op- * Alison, Vol. I. p. 6i. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 39 position to Louis. His ministers closed these clubs. Then people cried out against the queen "Madame Deficit!" as they had cried ''the Austrian ! " France was deeply agitated. Parlia- ments, tribunals, magistracies, demanded the recall of the Paris parliament, and the convocation of the States. The electricity of revolution was in the air. The calls were vehement. The French were in earnest. Louis withdrew his two tax edicts and let the parliament come back to Paris. Louis would convoke States-Generals for five years if parliament would register a series of annual loans of four hundred and twenty million livres for that time. Louis called the parliament to him. He made a speech. His ministers declared this scheme registered. It was a knavish trick. The Duke of Orleans protested. Louis sent him away. The parliament voted that arbitrary arrests were illegal. Louis ordered this vote struck from their register. It demanded fixed terms of magistrates. Louis refused. Magistrates must be held in his arbitrary power by chance of re- moval. He ordered freedom of Protestants. This the parliament vetoed, and it opposed an illegal tax ; it resolved against arrests except for imme- diate hearing by competent magistrates ; and it voted in favor of only legal exercise of the king's functions. It voted for States-General. Louis caused his council to annul these votes of parliament, and he ordered the arbitrary arrest of 40 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. two members, Barthelemy and Goesland, for mak- ing these motions. This is the same Louis whom writers have taught us to regard as ** well inten- tioned ! " Major Agoust came with soldiers to make the arrests. Parliament had voted the ses- sion permanent. Nobody could point out which men they were. After thirty-six hours session the two members " yielded to force " and were sent to distant fortress prisons. This despotic foolishness, imprisoning members for doing their duty, gave fresh irritation to France. Louis ar- bitrarily reduced the parliament to sixty-nine members. He meant to punish it into obedience. He took away its political powers and announced a plenary court of high courtiers to register his edicts. This bogus court met but once, was discordant and adjourned indefinitely. Louis prorogued all parliaments, while he should create new courts to suit his purposes. Paris was still calm. But France itself was greatly excited. Noblesse and peasants, all classes, opposed the arbitrary measures. Tumults began ; revolts threatened. All demanded States-General. Louis did not want that Legislature. He wanted money ; absolute rule. He would sell some few national rights to his people for great sums of continuous money to spend. He would have had money enough if he would guard the treasury from all but honest demands. The treasury was empty, Lom^nie appealed to the clergy. They gave him THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 4I less than two millions.* They protested against taxing their property, though they had vast pos- sessions. Louis exempted it from his tax decrees. Though Louis compelled registry of the great loans, nobody would subscribe money to them. Resources were gone. Credit was lacking. Coin payments were stopped. Something must be done. It was the bad-intentioned Louis and his not well-intentioned queen, and the evil court royal that had brought France to this. It was all avoidable, had royalty been honest and capable. X. LOUIS had offended all classes. None had confidence in him. In provincial towns it was the privileged orders that gave much of the adverse influence. Rouen parliament declared as trait- open Revoiu- ors all who obeyed Louis's new court tion began decrees ; Louis exiled that parliament. J"iy ^7, 1788. Brittany blazed with opposition. The nobles declared imfamous any who should accept office in his new courts. A regiment refused to obey him. Twelve gentlemen were sent to Louis to denounce his ministry. He sent them to the Bastille. He sent sixteen thousand * One million eight hundred thousand livres. 42 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. troops into Brittany. Not overawed, the Bretons still vigorously opposed. The Pyrenees valleys were almost in insurrection. At Grenoble the people took arms, erected barri- cades, drove back the soldiers. Louis exiled the parliament of Grenoble ; the people brought it back ; the people called together the States of Dauphiny. This was revolt. This began active revolution, July, 1788.* The States met ; one half of the deputation was from the third order, and they met in one chamber. The States refused any new tax till the States-General should meet. Anarchy was too common. By his arbitrary, foolish reign, his despotic assumption of all power to make laws ; his refusal of wholesome restraints ; his bad disposition and intentions ; his unreliable character ; his reckless waste of the money and credit of France, and the unpopular character of his queen, and follies of his court, Louis had made wreck of his government. Let no one call that man "well-intentioned" who deliberately pros- trates the happiness, the business, the prosperity of a whole great, brave people. With his government blocked, Louis was driven by lack of funds, to call (August 8, 1788) the States-General to meet May, 1789. The bank had suspended specie payment ; the ministry fell. At this fall the public rejoiced with * This active revolution really began July 17, 1788, though it is usually de- scribed as beginning July 14, 1789, with the capture of the Bastile. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 43 illuminations, fireworks, shouts, music and riots. Still the queen caused the scandalously immoral archbishop Lomenie the atheist to be made a car- dinal. A lascivious atheist cardinal ! No wonder both Catholic and disbelieving French were scan- dalized. The people broke out in fury. Troops gave bloody suppression to a riot August 28, 1788. XL LOUIS was compelled to recall Necker. The Paris mob fairly howled with joy for Neck- er's return. Public funds rose thirty per cent. He pledged his own great fortune. He obtained advances. The parlia- Necker ments were reinstated. The bank Again: 1788. resumed. The Paris parliament reg- istered the call for States-General "as in 1614." This would cancel the equal vote and make the Third Estate,* representing twenty-four million or more people, only equal to one half that of noblesse and clergy representing six hundred thousand, a gross inequality ; and Poictiers districts with seven hundred thousand persons would have no more deputies than Dourdan with eight thousand. No more of " as in 1614" for France. Shouts, growls, howls of disapproval ran through France. * "The Third Estate is the French nation minus the nobles and clergy," said Abbe Sieyes in 1788. 44 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. Louis decreed to this twenty-four million one half of the whole number of deputies, to the six hun- dred thousand noblesse and clergy, the other half, and representations " on basis of combined tax and populations." Many common people did not vote. The middle class generally made the elections.* Among noblesse and clergy was much disagree- ment and clamor. XII. A FULL States-General would have been eleven hundred and seven members, but some localities had failed to elect. f Eleven hundred and twenty-eight The Active dcputics appeared and marched in French grand procession (May 4) with the Revolution. ^^^^ ^^ Versailles. Nobles and high states-Gen- clcrgy displayed magnificent apparel. erai. (1789.) But it was the plainly-dressed Third Estate who received the rapturous applause of the innumerable multitude. The five hundred and sixty-five Third Estate deputies represented about ninety-seven per cent, of the French people ; the five hundred and sixty- three nobles and clergy only about two per cent. A great struggle was made by nobles and high * Martin, Vol. II. p. 572. t Thiers' French Revolution, Vol. I. pp. 34, 42. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 45 clergy, to restrict this ninety-seven per cent, of the people to but thirty-three per cent, of the influence, so that one fortieth of France should outvote the other thirty-nine fortieths. This deeply irrita- ted the Third Estate. This irritation was fresh- ened by the mean action of Louis in leaving the Third Estate deputies standing out in the rain, when they came to be presented, while the nobles and clergy were quickly admitted. The foolish king had taken a bad time to show contempt for the common people. If men are better than property and rank, then this thirty-nine fortieths of the French, the Third Estate, should have had eleven hundred deputies and the nobles and clergy but twenty- eight ; or five hundred and thirty-five less than they had. About one half of the Third Estate deputies were lawyers ; only two were clergymen ; very few were philosophers ; eighty were magistrates or mayors ; one hundred and seventy-six were merchants or farmers. » At the opening the king's speech did not pro- pose anything tangible ; Louis failed to take the valuable initiative. Necker's speech helped noth- ing. Necker was great only in finance. Though liberty and equality was the cry, yet it was equality before the law, equal taxes, equal chance to manifest merit and receive its reward, 46 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. equal justice, equal chance of employment, no favoritism — these the Third Estate desired. They *' did not extend their wishes beyond moderate monarchy," says Thiers. " If the king had spon- taneously established some equality in official ap- pointments and given some guarantees, all discon- tent would have been appeased for a long time," * says Guizot the Bourbonist. It lowered the dignity of the king that he had no plan ready, not even for mode of procedure, no ideas to guide theirs, in deciding or in voting. Should they sit as one body or two, or three ? If as one body, then the Third Estate, being a slight majority, could outvote the other orders. If as two, then each would be a check on the other. For seventeen days Louis weakly let the three orders quarrel about what he might have settled in advance. This increased the already great bit- terness ; more and more did it convince the French that Louis was incapable to rule fairly. " If the king had tact enough to place himself at our head instead of betraying wishes at variance with ours ! " exclaimed the orator Mirabeau. The Commons invited the other orders to join them. Some of the clergy did join. The old nobility was unwilling to mix with the clergy, because it contained curates of plebeian birth. The clergy and nobles debated separately with * Guizot, Vol. V. p. 385. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 4/ tumult. Financial business was pressing. Some- thing must be done. For forty-three days the Third Estate waited ; on the forty-fourth it took decided action ; it assumed the name of the " National Assembly " and was at once a power higher than the king, nobles and clergy. Three days later the king arbitrarily assumed to adjourn the Third Estate for two days. The members coming, found their hall closed and sur- rounded by soldiers. They were alarmed ; in- censed. If the king could adjourn them for two days, it followed that he might adjourn them indefinitely. With the enthusiasm of patriotism they met in a tennis court, and swore to never separate till the Constitution should be established. Louis came and held a " royal sitting " June 23. Again he kept the Third Estate deputies a long time out in the rain, after nobles and clergy had been admitted. Soldiers were at hand to overawe them. He arbitrarily annulled the votes already an- nounced : he upheld as property inviolate, the servile *' feudal rights " which oppressed France. He ordered that the distinctions as three orders be maintained ; agreeing only that they might vote together on general questions ; he did not order joint meetings ; he demanded obedience by the Third Estate; he merely presumed it of the 48 THE world's greatest conflict. high orders ; he vainly boasted that he would establish French welfare ; he declared himself the sole representative of the people. It was two months too late for this silly talk. Louis retired. The Assembly was firm. A court lackey admonished them to go out. Mira- beau exclaimed that only with bayonets could they be driven from their hall. The king's workmen came to take away the benches ; armed soldiers crossed the hall ; the king's guard came to the very door. The Assembly voted to adhere. " The king cannot prevent what does not require his assent," said Barnave. Lest the king's officers should arrest them they voted deputies inviolate, and made it a capital crime to do violence to one of them. June 24 a majority of the clergy joined the Third Estate in the Assembly. The next day forty-five nobles, headed by the Duke of Orleans, came in. June 27, Louis ordered the rest to join, though he had so recently pronounced against it. He had made issue with the common people and they had beaten him. He yielded because he feared the French troops would take the popular side against him. Even then, had Louis promptly and freely abol- ished extravagance, favoritism and some of the most oppresive burdens, made equality of taxes THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 49 and public employment, and protected working people, all might have been quieted. The previous year (1788) a hail-storm had dam- aged the crops; now in 1789 bread riots were fearful. Louis assembled his foreign troops. This ex- cited public suspicion and animosity. July II, Louis had the folly to dismiss the popu- lar Necker. Rumors flew about that troops would disperse the Assembly. Paris was in uproar. The people encouraged the Assembly. The guards were excited. Three hundred of them deserted and joined the crowd at the Palais Royal. Eleven of them were arrested. The crowd broke open the prison and released them. The king, on pe- tition of the Assembly, pardoned them. Louis made Foulon Intendant of Marine. This was the man who had said that hungry people might eat grass. The king's folly in assembling the foreign troops at Versailles, this Foulon appointment, his threat- ening attitude, aroused the people ; orators mounted on tables in the streets, harangued the crowds ; any citizen became an orator ; the press spoke for re- sistance ; the Palais Royal rang with the cry, " To arms ! " * Louis seemed to be about to use force. July 12. Prince Lambese brought foreign troops to restrain the French Guards. It resulted in street fights with the foreign soldiers. Lambese * The Palais Royal was Orleans' headquarters. 50 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. ordered cavalry charges. The French troops re- fused to act against the people. A panic ran through Paris. Everybody was excited. Men rushed to enroll and quickly formed the Civic (National) Guard, with Lafayette as its com- mander. The red and blue cockade * appeared everywhere. Men ransacked Paris for arms. They were ready to resist the king's favorites. By July 13, Louis, now thoroughly frightened, went to the opposite extreme. He withdrew his troops to the Champ de Mars and Versailles, leaving Paris unprotected. Then crowds rushed to the Invalides and seized many thousands of muskets, and twenty cannon. Electors met at Hotel de Ville and organized a committe to govern Paris, abandoned by the king after he had angered it to revolt and riot. This action of the people was essential for self protec- tion. Had the foolish king protected Paris and behaved civilly the revolt had not occurred. By the fourteenth the excitement had become frenzy. The guns of the Bastille overlooked St. Antoine. '* Down with the Bastille!" rang through all Paris. A crowd assembled around it. Somebody fired at it. The soldiers within re- turned the fire. The people stormed and took it. They carried the head of its commander, de Launay, on a pike. They went into a grand ex- citement over their first victory. * The white was added some days later. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 5 1 The foreign troops were visited at Versailles, and flattered* by the queen. News of this act of folly still further annoyed Paris. The king's two brothers ran away from France, whose money they had so freely abstracted and spent. The bringing of foreign troops to Paris proved thus to have been only a new irritation, for Louis had no genius to use them. The insurrection forced him to send them away, and to recall Necker. King Louis had now destroyed what little prestige remained to him. XIIL THE mob captured Louis's new minister, Foulon. They hanged him with hay in his mouth, and then paraded his head on a pike. Good sense then certainly dictated to Louis to resign. He had been King and on the throne fifteen years, and he commons, knew his whole career was already a miserable failure. He knew he could not reisrn. Louis came into Paris. Lafayette handed him the new Revolution's cockade — the white had been added — with the remark that it "would go around the world." * Mirabeau. 52 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. Royal authority was gone. France was aflame. Peasants rose in arms ; they burned chateaux and title-deeds and killed landlords. " Fire for the mansions, peace for the cottage ! " was the cry. Disorder swept over the country. The courts of law had vanished. For security, committees were everywhere formed. Town gate custom houses were abolished. Famine was terrible, but farmers were afraid to bring wheat to market lest they be robbed. Beg- gars were in countless numbers.* Everything was in disorder. One hundred and eighty, then two hundred and forty, and later three hundred representatives chosen by the forty-eight sections formed the Paris government. Each section had its separate assembly. P'orty-eight assemblies, all against bad foolish Louis ; all hating the bad deeds of the queen ; but all still royalists. The National Assembly declared the " Rights of Man," original equality ; liberty, property, se- curity, resistance to oppression ; the nation is sovereign, every power emanates from it ; freedom to do whatever does not injure another; law is general will ; public burdens should be propor- tioned to fortunes ; all men may vote. At the one memorable sitting of August 4, 1789, it abolished, first, serfdom ; second, senioral jurisdictions ; third, exclusive game rights ; fourth, * Blanc computes them at two million in 1789. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 53 sale of office ; fifth, special privileges of cities and provinces ; sixth, pensions undeserved. And it ordered : first, equal taxes ; second, any citizen may hold civil or military office ; third, tithes to be redeemed ; fourth, abatement of pigeon and rabbit nuisances ; fifth, reform of wardenships ; sixth, redemption of senioral rights. Everywhere payment of tithes was refused ; the game that had been allowed to destroy crops of the poor was slaughtered. The French were uneducated in parliamentary practice. They did not understand its procedure. Motions were made and carried and afterwards re- duced to writing by committees and again voted at a later session. The House was boisterous. The king caviled at the " Rights of Man." He ought either to have accepted or rejected the dec- laration instantly. But he was irritated ; he hesi- tated. The Assembly voted an income tax of twenty-five per cent, to be paid within three years. Wise men advised the king to transfer the gov- ernment to a distance from inflamed Paris. The stupid, worthless king actually went to sleep while a grave delegation was thus advising him on this extremely important matter ; he suddenly woke, said " No," and left the room, with abrupt ill-man- ners. He demurred to the sweeping acts of August 4 ; he neither accepted nor refused them. The Assembly made a Constitution. A drunken orgy occurred at Versailles. King 54 THE world's greatest conflict. and queen appeared, the new people's cockade was slio:hted, and wild remarks made. This news ex- asperated a crowd of Paris women to invade Ver-^ sailles, October 5, 1789. They wanted bread. Men joined the mob. A raving, hungry crowd marched from Paris to Versailles. They rioted in the king's palace grounds ; they took possession of the Assembly hall. They remained all night, and required the king and his family to go with them to Paris. They wanted him to approve the " Rights of Man " and the Constitution. He yielded. It was believed that the Duke of Orleans stimu- lated this riot in the hope that Louis would be set aside, and that he as a professed liberal would gain the crown himself. He used much money for the mob. The mob escorted the king, queen and family to the Tuileries. It was a dismal procession — roy- alty and starvation. Lafayette had come with the National Guard to protect the king. His Memoirs deny the oft-repeated story, that heads were car- ried on pikes before the king's carriage. The Assembly, too, moved to Paris. It was high time for Louis to abdicate. The Assembly divided France into eighty-three departments. They ordered the sale of crown lands and clergy property to redeem four hundred millions of assignats which they issued ; they de- creed citizenship to Jews ; forbade monastic vows ; made the French clergy free of the pope ; abol- THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 55 ished nobility, and established new courts of jus- tice with elective judges, jury, counsel and appeal. They confiscated convents and pensioned the monks and nuns ; they conceded liberty of wor- ship, though the clergy opposed it. Mirabeau and Lafayette were rivals in influenc- ing the king, but Louis suspected Mirabeau and the queen distrusted Lafayette, and the king's self-esteem and wrong-headedness spoiled all their advice. Louis paid Mirabeau in cash for his aid. Clubs, formed all over France, received direc- tion from Paris clubs. In the south the sale of church property caused disturbances. In the east an insurrection received bloody suppression at Nancy (August 31, 1791). Bishops and curates were to be elected by the people as in the primitive church. Benefices had been very unequal. This was to be corrected. Many bishops opposed it. Their submission to the foreign power of Rome wounded French pride and patriotism. The king asked the pope's con- sent to the changes. The pope did not answer promptly. Then he referred it to the clergy.* The Assembly decreed that the clergy take the oath t of allegiance to France. Some of the bishops took it, others objected ; they would be loyal to Rome ; only partly loyal to France. * Thiers, Vol. I. p. 136. t " To be faithful to the nation, the law and the king, and to maintain with all their power the constitution." 56 THE world's greatest conflict. Anarchy was begun. The bishops talked of becoming martyrs. But France was to be the martyr. The king took the oath to support the constitu- tion, July 14, 1790. So did some curates. Those who declined were paid salary and allowed to offi- ciate in private places. Mirabeau, President of the wild Jacobin Club, became speaker of the National Assembly (Janu- ary 29, 1 791). He was a support to Louis. He died April 2, 1791. Later, priests who refused the oath and were dismissed, opened private chapels. Paris was un- friendly to them. The king broke his oath by keeping non-juror priests as his private chaplains. Princes and nobles were running from France. Emigration became the fashion. The fugitives expected the foreign powers to speedily bring them back. Members of the Assembly, too, ran away. Two hundred deputies asked for passports. The public demanded a law against emigration. A law was made to dismiss from office any func- tionary who should not reside in the place of his functions. It required the king to remain near the Assembly.* These royal and noble runaways arranged for a great foreign army to invade France. At that time the revolutionists were not republicans ; they all were royalists. Mirabeau died a royalist. * Thiers, Vol. I, p. 139. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 5/ It was believed that the king meditated flight. The law of April i8, 1791, decreed that the flight of the king should be equivalent to his dethrone- ment * He tried to go to St. Cloud for a few days. It is not six miles from the Tuileries. The people would not let him go. After being kept in his carriage four hours he re-entered the Tuileries, baffled, dispirited, apprehensive. XIV. THE king decided to escape. But he lacked the common sense to do it safely. The boy who reads dime novels could have given him points. A carriage of enormous size was loaded with luggage ; parties of The Royai soldiers were placed on the road, sure Runaway, to attract attention, sure to indicate June 21, 1791. which way the runaway had gone. Then foolish king, foolish queen, son and daugh- ter, a governess, and the king's sister slipped away — six well-known persons secretly escaping together through towns and villages, on a great public road ! Surely persons so very foolish are unfit for even the most commonplace business. The boy prince of six years ought to have known better. The lowest peasant would have better arranged an escape. Contemplate a pair of such * Alison, Vol. I. p. loi. Miguel, Vol. I. pp. 124-25. 58 THE world's greatest conflict. precious fools ruling over a great and grand nation. Alas ! for heredity. This childish farce continued till Drouet stopped the blockheads at Varennes. Louis had an escort ; they rallied about him, but as they were drunk, they had no more wits than their royal master. Louis had not even the small heroism to mount and dash on while he might. A French corporal would have done it. A private soldier would have done it or been condemned as too imbecile for a private. A few hours more on horseback would have taken Louis to a waiting officer who would have guarded him safely beyond the Assembly's reach. Paris was confused at this news. Louis had left a statement of his reasons for deserting — loss of powers, and reduction of his annual expenses to thirty million francs yearly ! * Carried back to Paris, Louis, the deserter, was received in silence. Desertion to the enemy is a very high military crime. It was a military as well as a civil offense, for the king was head of the army. By his desertion Louis legally abdicated his position according to the law of April i8, 1791. This action forced the Assembly to take the vacated executive power. P'ar better had he formally abdicated long before. He had been * Precisely the whole sum asked by the Emperor Napoleon for his own allowance in 1804. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 59 king for fifteen long years when the Assembly met in 1789. Every year had been a demonstra- tion of his inability, had warned him to resign, as Louis Philippe resigned in 1848. His desertion added energy to the opposition. Maret, the fury, was calling for eight hundred gibbets on which to hang lovers of order. XV. A PETITION to depose Louis was exhibited in the Champ de Mars. The city commit- tees opposed it. Thousands went there to sign. Lafayette and the Mayor Bailly pro- claimed martial law. The National The Guards tried to clear the ground. Fatal Affair of The crowd resisted. The Guards J^^y ^7, 1791- fired ; twelve persons were killed and the place cleared. This fatal interference with the sacred right of petition was never forgiven. It was bitterly remembered by the wild Jacobins against the Girondists and used against order (and for it Bailly was later executed on that very spot). Under Lafayette's vigorous command and advice order seemed once more restored. Of the savage mob leaders, Danton was absent ; Maret, the frightful, was obliged to hide himself ; Robespierre dared not show himself. The Jacobins' brutal power was for a short time shaken. The Moder- 60 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. ates had seceded from the Jacobins and formed a new club, the Feuillants. These two clubs were now rivals in influencing all the clubs throughout France. The license of clubs was boundless. Disorder was wild. Had Lafayette alone been at the head of government all might have been adjusted. But nobody could maintain law and order under the marplot Louis. The Assembly made the new Constitution of 1 791. The French runaways in Germany tried to dissuade Louis from accepting it. They spread through Europe their letter promising him for- eign assistance ; this was an insult to France that only made the many enemies of Louis still more bitter. The German emperor, Leopold, brother of Louis' wife, and the King of Prussia, met and decided to prepare to aid Louis against his outraged people. But secretly the emperor advised Louis to accept the Constitution. Louis accepted it September 14, 1791. It gave Frenchmen equality in the laws ; and deputies elected by the people. It was still monarchy ; Louis was its head. The revolutionists were still monarchists. Louis was allowed thirty million francs a year, and extensive powers. Religious strife, disorder, bloodshed at Avignon, the pope's friends against the new condition, dis- turbed the peace. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 6 1 The National Assembly ended September 30, 1791. It had established liberty of worship, trial by jury ; decreed that trials be public and de- fense allowed ; it had abolished torture; arbitrary arrests without cause ; exemption of the nobles and clergy (two thirds of France) from taxation ; relieved the excessive taxes and feudal claims ; and had opened to every person a fair chance for employment ; equal taxes, equal rights ; com- mon suffrage had removed a great number of abuses. Had Louis been an honest, capable executive, all might still have been well. '' His indecision, weakness, and half-measures ruined everything," * says that lover of arbitrary monarchy, Alison. The newly-elected Legislative Assembly came in October i, 1791. The National Assembly had made its own members ineligible, so the new Chamber was of new men. Many were fanatics. It divided into two parties, the Right for consti- tutional monarchy, the Left for further revolution. Of its seven hundred and forty-five members above four hundred were lawyers ; many were journa- lists ; all were eager to make reputation, to gain popularity, to rule. Many were ignorant, all were presumptuous. Many nobles were still emigrating. More than seventy thousand had gone. One thousand nine * Alison, Vol. I. p. 3. 62 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. hundred officers, all nobles, had deserted.* The military preparations of the deserters on the Rhine, their violent language and intrigues, exas- perated the French people. The new Assembly decreed the return of the king's brother, Stanislaus Xavier (afterwards Louis the Eighteenth) ; it announced that emigrants were to be regarded as conspirators, would forfeit reve- nue and be punished unless they returned by Jan- uary I, 1792. Louis signed the decree for his brother's return, but he vetoed that concerning the emigrants. This veto was exceedingly offensive to the Assem- bly and the public. The people gave the epithet "Madame Veto" to their despised queen. They believed, with justice, that she intrigued with her Austrian family against the French. At that moment emigrants were organizing a foreign army against the French ; they were arranging to bring the enemy to Paris. In Vendee non-juror priests were accused, **not without reason," f of exciting people against the Constitution. As they refused to swear "fidelity to nation, law, king and Constitution," the Assem- bly suspended their salaries, decreed their removal from. one place to another, if they incited civil war, and forbade their illicit worship. They might remove this disability by taking the oath, * Republican War Minister, Thiers, Vol. L p. 168. t Guizot's History of France, Vol. I, p. 69. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 63 by adhering to France instead of to the Pope. Thus the Assembly in the name of liberty were opposing liberty of conscience. Louis vetoed this decree. He was himself still breaking the law and his oath by keeping non-juror priests in his household. Jacobin Clubs all over France supported the fiery Paris Clubs, that constrained the Assembly to pass violent decrees. The Left accused Louis of beins^ in leasfue with the foreign enemy. The ministers resigned. The king took Jacobins into the ministry.* The Girondists in the Assembly united with the Revolutionists. The German emperor demanded f ''redress" for German princes for losses in Alsace ; he de- manded Avignon for the Pope ; restitution of the immense Church estates in Alsace; restitution of arbitrary authority to the king with certain concessions.^ Charged with treason, his queen hated and believed to be still Austrian — the people believ- ing that she was leading him to betray France — the king was constrained to propose war. The Assembly accepted the proposal and voted war, April 20, 1792. The Assembly decreed the exile of the refrac- * Narbonne, Dnmouriez, Roland, t Hardinburg, Vol. I. pp. 391, 392. t Alison, Vol. I. pp. 119-177. 64 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. tory priests. Louis refused to sanction this order of exile. At Avignon Protestants and Catholics had assassinated each other. The Assembly decreed a camp of twenty thou- sand troops ("federates ") near Paris. Louis dismissed his Jacobin ministers. He had the folly also to turn away from his friends of the Right, the Girondists. He was imbecile. P'or ten days he hardly spoke.* He sat and sulked. His neglected Girondists resented his desertion of them. He had a sudden awakening in his stupidity. Instigated by the Girondists a great, tumultuous crowd came July 20, 1792, to the Assembly with petitions. Singing Ca Ira, they went also to the Tuileries with petitions to the king, asking him to sanction the recalcitrant priest and emigrant decrees that he had vetoed, and recall the ''patriot" ministers. Louis took from a pike a red Revolution cap and put it on his head. He did not grant the petitions, though the crowd filled his palace for hours. Louis the Fourteenth and Louis the Fifteenth had by their bad conduct caused the French to hate kings. Louis the Sixteenth, during the eighteen long years that he had been king, from 1774, had done nothing to dispel, and very much to immensely and justly increase that hatred. He was incapable, assuming, irresolute ; that he was less dissolute than these two predecessors * Alison, Vol. I. 122. Thiers; Mad. Campan. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 65 is because nature vetoed it, not because of his own goodness. Morally, he was not good. This mob visit to the king, and his lack of tact and common foresight to have precluded its possibil- ity, excited more strongly all France against a king whose lack of common sense excited contempt. When he plainly saw that he was incapable, and confessed it by desertion, in 1791, why did not he let *' Monsieur " his elder brother, who had ability, and who had no Austrian wife, become regent ? This neglect was a fatal error. Lafayette prepared the way for Louis to escape, but the queen by whim opposed it because she disliked Lafayette, and Louis was cool to this man who would save him. Lafayette appealed to the Assembly for reign of law instead of reign of clubs. But the Giron- dists, who had once defended order and justice, were provoked by the king and queen, and had joined the violent Commune. Even Lafayette was accused by them. He tried to get the mob leaders punished, but failed. All parties had been Royalists. But now arose popular demand for the dethronement of so worth- less a king. Should these two semi-imbeciles head the defense of France against foreign armies whom both king and queen desired } Should France have an Austrian queen, who now had great influence over the king, when France would be at war with Austria.? This Austrian queen 66 THE world's greatest conflict. was in correspondence with the enemy ! Every body said this ; and it was true. Then came a proclamation from the Duke of Brunswick, who commanded the foreign invaders. Its language was extremely cruel, rash, ill-judged, offensive — admirably calculated to exasperate the French people. It threatened the direst venge- ance — death, the destruction of Paris. It alone was sufficient to arouse any people to the ardor of defense against one capable of threats so atro- cious. Dated at Coblentz, July 25, it appeared at Paris on the 28th. How came it so quickly } It was well known that many friends of the invad- ing army were in Paris. August 3 Petion, Mayor of Paris, accused Louis to the Assembly as aiding the invasion. " His name is the signal of discord. . . . We appeal to it (the Constitution) in our turn, and ask his de- thronement." The Paris Sections supported the accusation. There was much reason to believe it true. The Girondists, who had been his friends until he repulsed them, now implored Louis to *' Let the sight of the men who surround you invite public confidence." The Assembly proclaimed "the country in danger." These words stirred all France. Local authorities enrolled volunteers. Not daring to trust Louis, who was not trusty, and whom they feared as a traitor, they kept control of these troops. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 67 Then came the famous Marseilles battalion. The Girondists, moderate, able, patriotic, lost con- trol of the revolt. Maret, hideous, repulsive, depraved by an insane thirst for blood, lived and sneaked and schemed apart, a horror even to those who used him, yet an exciter to violence strongly felt. XVI. AGAIN the people assembled around the Tuileries. The king, as usual, did not know what to do. Somebody told him to take refuge in the Assembly which he had so often insulted. With the hated The Reign of queen and his family he did so. But Terror begins his Swiss guard, far braver than their August 10, puerile master, he left to their fate. 1792. They defended his palace till many of them were slain. In the midst of their defense he sent orders to these brave Swiss to cease firing, but he did not withdraw them ; they obeyed, and, defenseless, were massacred. So contemptible had the king become that, in his presence, the Assembly decreed the suspen- sion of his powers, and ordered that a national convention be called.* They were still Royalists ; * Thiers, Vol. I. p. 276. 68 THE world's greatest conflict. they ordered the education of the boy prince-royal. But they sent him and his family to the temple. The prisons were crowded with nobility and clergy. After August lO, of seven hundred and forty-nine deputies, but two hundred and eighty-four were present, all of them Jacobins.* The majority were absent. Lafayette resigned the command of an army at Sedan and left France. He was then imprisoned by Austria. Danton the furious, president of the Cordeliers Club, a rival of the Jacobin Clubs, was made Minister of Justice. What a misnomer ! The " Reign of Terror " began at once, August ID, 1792. It lasted till October 26, 1795 — thirty- eight and one half months. The Commune had come into power. The Commune! — a minority frenzied ; a political insanity ; a bloody panic of partisanship ; a small fraction only of the French people, but maddened to delirium by the wrongs France had long endured from king, high clergy and nobles ; a fanatical following, exasperated by the later conduct of Louis and his queen, his brother d'Artois, and by the impending advent of a powerful foreign and domestic army whose commander had threatened devastation and whose avowed purpose was to restore despotism just when the people believed France to be emerging from it ; this minority made the terrible Reign of Terror that dishonors all humanity. Yet even its ex- * Von Sybel, Vol. I. p. 315. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 69 cesses were no worse than the anarchy threatened by the Duke of Brunswick's proclamation. Longwy fortress was taken by the invaders, August 13. A great army of Austrians, Prussians, Hessians and emigrant French deserters were advancing on Paris. August 17. On Brissot's * motion a Revolu- tionary tribunal was formed for summary trials, elected by the Sections.! A decree ordered non- juror priests to leave France within fifteen days, or be banished to Guiana. It was charged that they aided the common enemy by exciting their people. Those who did not go were arrested. Danton and the Commune changed their sentence to death. The Prussians attacked Verdun. With- out and within Paris terror reigned. The fiery Danton demanded a law to search houses ; to arrest those suspected of aiding the approaching enemy. The excitement of danger was terrible. The fragmentary Assembly, partly Jacobin, while the rest were overawed, voted it. August 29, 30 and 31. Shops were closed; every one, shut up in his house, waited the terri- ble visit of the Commune. Great numbers were sent to crowd the prisons — men, women and children. September 2, 3. Alarm bells were rung, black flags were raised. Conspiracy was rumored. *A Girondist. t Eight judges and eight jurymen. Paris was in forty-eight " Sections." 'JO THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. Panic ensued, Paris was insane. The Assembly decreed death to all who should disobey the city powers. This was to prevent resistance ; it was murder made easy. The Commune was in power ; too powerful for control by the Assembly. Paid assassins opened prisons and massacred several thousand prisoners. Says Alison, ''The small number who perpe- trated these murders ... is one of the most instructive facts . . . the number of those actually engaged in the massacre did not exceed three hundred, and twice as many more witnessed their proceedings, yet this handful of men gov- erned Paris and France with a despotism." * The bloody Marat sent couriers with a call to all France to follow this atrocious example. At Rheims, Caen and Lyons magistrates and priests were slain. Prisoners sent from the south were murdered at Versailles. France was held by Terror. It was neither monarchy, republic, nor democracy, but only Ter- ror — the many suppressed by a small minority. ''There were not more than five men in France who wished for a republic," said Petion, then Mayor of Paris. Then Paris and France were stirred to wild en- thusiasm by Kellerman's decisive victory at Valmy, over the invaders, September 20, 1792. The Rev- olution's soldiers had beaten the trained and * History of Europe, Vol, I. p. 140. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 7 1 highly disciplined Prussians ; they had expelled the emigrants who were returning in arms against the Revolution. XVII. THE Legislative Assembly was dissolved and the National Convention convened Sep- tember 21, 1792. Two parties existed — the Giron- The dists, who desired law and order, and Convention, the Jacobins, wild, headstrong furies, many of them anarchists, neither republicans nor monarchists. The contest between the two parties for do- minion was fierce and terrible. Robespierre, Danton and Marat were Jacobin members of the Convention. The first day, on motion of a priest, the Conven- tion voted abolition of royalty. That day it began a new calendar. All citizens were voted equal political rights. Yet this was not a republic. A real republic is constitutional rule of the majority through regular forms of law, and only by law. The moment it ceases to be this it has ceased to be a republic. France before 1848 was never this ; so it was not a republic. The Reign of Terror was diametrically opposed to a republic, because it was a small 72 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. minority that ruled, and not by law, but by Terror. The Jacobins denounced the Girondists as fed- eralists, as desiring to form France into twenty- three states held together by a federal union. This inflamed Paris against them, for Paris wished to be the seat of central ruling power. The Convention ordered perpetual banishment to the traitor emigrants and death to those who should return. They had invaded France and made war on it ; for this they must perish. French troops took Savoy, and the Convention annexed it to France. Custine took Mentz. Damourier defeated the Austrians at Jemappes, November 6, and soon made conquest of Belgium from Austria. XVIII. THE Convention decreed the trial of Louis. He was well-treated in prison, as Clery his friend has testified.* When Manuel frequently asked him if he needed anything. The death of Louis always replied, " I have no Louis. need." Sixteen persons were employed to prepare his well-furnished table. Louis was defended by able counsel, Malesher- * Thiers, Vol. I. p. 340. Clery's statements. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 73 bes, Tronchet and De Seze. Some of the Giron- dists moved to refer the verdict to a vote of the people. Robespierre repelled this course as likely to cause civil war. January 15, 1793. Of 720 members present 683 voted " guilty " ; not one '' not guilty " ; 37 refused to vote. Then 281 voted appeal to the people ; 423 against it.* Later, exactly a majority— 361 out of 721 — voted for death unconditionally ; 72 were for death after delay ; 286 for detention or banishment. January 20, prompt execution was voted — 380 against 310. On January 21, 1793, the "Son of St. Louis" was beheaded. He had reigned above eighteen years. His wicked predecessor, Louis the Fifteenth, be- queathed him France in bad condition. But in these eighteen years a wise, able, honest man could have remedied the former evils and rendered France contented, happy and free from unequal and severe burdens. By '' weakness, vacillation, irreso- lution," by ill temper, inconstancy, stupidity and pre- sumptuous folly Louis the Sixteenth provoked the Revolution. "All the measures of Louis," says AUson, " conspired to bring it about.f Had Louis the Sixteenth resisted manfully, had he used the courage, the activity, the resolution of Charles the First of England, he would have triumphed."- But it was not in Louis' nature to act manfully. * Thiers, Vol. I. p. 417- t Alison, H. Rev., Vol. I. p. iii. 74 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. The very grave charge that Louis had betrayed France by inviting the invading armies of Europe was too true. In December, 1790, he appealed to the German emperor, and to the sovereigns of Russia, Sweden, Spain and Prussia, and "sug- gested the plan of a congress of the principal pow- ers, supported by an armed force, as the means of arresting the factions here and establishing a more desirable order of things." * These are Louis's own words to the Prussian king. Therefore all the French blood shed at Valmy was done by his treason. Louis and his queen sent secret emissa- ries to the Prussian and Austrian rulers,f and to England, Yet on the twentieth of April, 1792, Louis declared war on Austria for acts which he had himself instigated. XIX. AUSTRIA and Prussia agreed at Pilnitz, August 27, 1791, to prepare armies to assail the French. Several armies were to form on the frontiers. The Allies. Belgium had revolted against Aus- tria in 1789 and been suppressed by force. France saw the necessity for defensive action. In April, 1792, it sent an army to enter * Louis to Frederick William the Second, Hardenburg, Vol. I. pp. 94, 95. t Alison, Vol. L p. 173. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 75 Belgium. It failed ; the French soldiers were not ready to fight. The allied armies, Austrian, Prussian, German and French emigrant, under the Duke of Bruns- wick, brother-in-law of George the Third of Eng- land, had invaded France July 30, 1792. Sig- nally defeated at Valmy, September 20, they retreated from France. The French, following up this victory, won the battle of Jemmapes, November 6, and soon rescued Belgium from Austria and the German emperor who had begun the war. The French, received with enthusiasm, opened the fine river Scheldt to commerce, to the great joy of Antwerp. This river had been closed for years because Antwerp was a commercial rival of the Dutch towns. The French seques- tered the public and church property and made requisitions to support the French liberating army. Its demands were severe. Belgium nobles and clergy opposed the French. France annexed some small districts taken from Germany. The people of Savoy formed a great club to spread liberty and equality ; they successfully revolted against the king of Sardinia, abolished royalty, tithes and exclusive privileges, and asked France to annex Savoy. France compUed. It also annexed Nice and Monaco. War resulted between the French and the King of Sardinia. Geneva wished to be free from dictation of 76 THE world's greatest conflict. Berne. France aided it ; she reversed the op- pression put on Geneva by Louis in 1782. November 19, 1792, the French Convention decreed " Fraternity and assistance to all people who wish to recover their liberty." * December 15, 1792, it decreed that in all coun- tries occupied by French armies, imposts, tithes, feudal right, personal servitude shall cease ; that royal, public and church property shall be placed under French safeguard ; that the people's sover- eignty and liberty should be established. Five London societies sent friendly addresses to the French Convention. XX. I HAVE carefully enumerated these events because these, and the Tuileries mob of August 10, 1792, the September massacre, the suspension of the king, his execution, The and the fact of the French Revolu- great war tiou itsclf, the inflammatory language begins. of the Frcuch and their belief that they were missionaries of revolution, are the causes why Great Britain, in February, 1793, entered on that long and terrible war that, *" This imprudent decree, passed in a moment of enthusiasm, was not con- strued, as Pitt asserted, into an invitation to all nations to rebel." — Thiers, Vol. I. p. 433. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 7/ with two intermissions, was not to terminate till more than twenty-two years later. England prepared to declare war, unless the French would "withdraw their arms within French territory ; abandon their conquests," and make pledges not to foment troubles.* Yet at this time, when England wanted France to abandon its conquests, England had itself re- cently been augmented in India, and Russia, Austria and Prussia had divided Poland. To preserve the old "balance of power" France needed additions. Sir Walter Scott and other British writers have pronounced these causes as insufficient to justify England in going to war. English militia were called out. After angry discussion with the French ambassador Pitt's ministry ordered him to leave England within eight days. Vessels laden with grain for France were stopped, " prepa- rations and proclamations announced impending war." t The Convention declared war on England, Holland and Spain February 3, 1793. Ten days after the king's death, the rulers of Britain, Spain, Holland and Russia began war on the French. Prussia, Austria, Hesse and Sardinia were already at war with France. * Lord Grenville's dispatch. t Thiers, Vol. L p. 433. yS THE world's greatest conflict. XXI. THE death of Louis in 1793 brought the Jaco- bins to the summit of power. The Giron- dists had invented the dread Revolutionary tribunal, the Jacobins revised and The Jacobin . , . ^ ... rendered it tar more terrible. tyranny. . r -n> ^ ^' Two committees — that of Public Safety and that of General Safety, were formed ; Robespierre, Danton, and Murat, the bloody trio, ruled by violence. Hot-headed Jacobins were sent to watch the armies and the generals, and to domineer tyrannically over provinces. The Girondists opposed the Terror ; they ac- cused Marat and had him arrested, but his accom- plices on the bloody Terror tribunal acquitted him. Strife between Jacobins and Girondists be- came very fierce, very deadly. The Girondists were accused of being Federalists, which meant that they favored local against central govern- ment, more power in provinces, less power in Paris. The violence depressed trade and work and brought severe want. Assignats had fallen two thirds in value, prices were high. The Con- vention ordered low prices ; scarcity continued, famine came. Amid bread riots, and food rob- beries, and lack of money, the Convention made forced loans. Civil war, both religious and politi- cal, raged in Catholic Vendee and Brittany. The THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 79 insurgents defeated the National Army in battle at Fontenay, May 24. The French under Dumou- riez and Louis PhilHpe lost the battle of Neer- winden, March 18, and with it Belgium. Austria recovered it. Foreign and civil war at once and both disastrous ! France called out three hundred thousand men.* Dumouriez determined to end the tyranny of the Convention, and establish the Constitution of 1791 ; he made armistice with the Austrians, and surrendered to them the deputies sent to remove him. But his army refused to obey him. ~ Then he escaped with Louis Philippe (afterwards king) to the Austrians. f Serious but indecisive fighting occurred on the Belgic and Spanish frontiers. The Paris mob now threatened the Jacobins ; they wanted food. The Convention decreed judges and jury for Danton's extra tribunal of summary trial without appeal ; levied a large tax on the rich to support the war ; sent two deputies to control each of the eighty-four departments. A riot, organized by Hebert, Marat, Danton and Robespierre began May 31. Twenty-two Giron- dist deputies had been denounced. The Paris Commune hated them, and they were expelled. All parties were terribly embittered ; the Girondists had to fly for their lives to Caen. Robespierre was chief of Jacobins and Commune. The Jac- obins were in power from June 2, 1793, till July * Thiers, Vol. IV. pp. 13, 14. t Koch. 8o THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 28, 1794. The Girondists had tried to stop the terrible violence. In April, 1793, the Convention resolved that it would not intermeddle with governments of other nations, nor permit them to meddle with French internal affairs.* The same declaration was put into the Jacobin Constitution of August 10, 1793. t Marat, ill at his home — July 14, 1793 — was in his bath, making lists of intended victims. Here he was killed by the girl Charlotte Corday. But the Jacobins regarded him as a martyr. The enemies of the Girondists succeeded in out- lawing them. Now the Jacobins and the Com- mune ruled alone. They adopted a new Jacobin constitution without much discussion, an execu- tive council of twenty-four persons, a Legislature for one year, but it died at once. August 2, 1793, on Danton's motion was created the new Revolutionary Despotism, the new Committee of Public Safety. Summary tribunals were hard at work condemning those accused. Danton, chief of the Cordeliers, a bloody society, was for a time in the lead. April 5, 1793, he had a Commune army formed, chosen in towns from the poorer class, to fight at home. A frightful law against suspected persons caused horrors. The Commune army dragged around guillotines, and used them. Business men and women were per- secuted. Robespierre suspected Danton. The * Decree, April i6, 1793. t Article, 119, THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 8 1 new Constitution was accepted by the primary as- semblies June 24, but he suspended it August 28 and declared the continuance of revolution. " They warred on opinions ; harassed political conscience, stirred up every passion," said Barrere, a member. Seventy-four deputies who protested against the revolt of May 31, were arrested; twenty-one were outlawed ; thirty-nine were cited for trial by the bloody tribunal. The furies sent to execution twenty-two Girondist deputies because they tried to obstruct the frightful excesses. The late queen, the Duke of Orleans, Brissot, and many others, great figures in France, and obscure persons alike were guillotined. Besides these horrors war was outside and within France. Everywhere was terror, cruelty. Many bloody men were in turn beheaded. Some of the victims were guilty of frightful crimes. They took the Commune cal- endar, September 22, 1793. Hebert and Chau- mette, two Commune chiefs, obtained a decree to abolish Christianity November 10, 1793, and established the worship of Reason. Some high clergy apostatized. In the west of France, Royalist and Catholic, the " Vendean " war raged. After the success at the battle of Saumur, June 9, 1793, all the Loire towns but Nantes declared for royalty. One hun- dred thousand Vendeans, men, women and chil- dren, crossed the Loire, after the royalist defeat at Chatillon, eager to reach the coast where they 82 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. expected English supplies. Several battles oc- curred. " The Commune deputy Carrier covered the whole Loire country with slaughter and ex- erted his ingenuity to invent new methods of massacre."* He drowned many, even children. Bordeau, Lyons, Marseilles and Toulon declared against the bloody rule. Bordeau was speedily subdued August 25, 1793. Gen. Carteaux re- took Marseilles by aid of its populace. Toulon proclaimed Louis the Seventeenth August 29, 1793, and accepted the protection of the British and Spanish fleets lying here. Lyons vigorously resisted. It was taken. Atro- cious barbarities ensued. The convention ordered the city's finest buildings demolished. Toulon was retaken by assault. Here Napoleon Bonaparte first received notice. The British admiral carried off or destroyed the fine French fleet at Toulon. November 10, 1793, Paris and the Convention celebrated the " Feast of Reason " at Notre Dame. An actress represented the Goddess of Reason. It was also done in other churches — a Commune insanity. * Schoell's Koch, Vol. II. p. 153. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 83 XXII. THE Revolution was now three parties : (i.) The Committee of Pubhc Safety under Robespierre supported by the Jacobins, ruled absolutely. (2.) Hebert, Chaumette, Clootzand the Commune, violent and "Vive Robe- of contemptible character. (3.) I)an- spierrei — ton, Desmoulins, Herault and others a bas Robe- who feared the extravagant fury of spierre!" Robespierre and his villains. Robespierre's party united with the Danton party to send Hebert, Chaumette and some of their friends to execution March 24, 1794. Then Robespierre turned on the other party and ex- ecuted Danton, Desmoulins and Herault twelve days later (April 5). Now Robespierre, renowned as the " Incorruptible," famous for virtue held his bloody reign. Danton had unchained fiery passions ; Robe- spierre set himself to enslave these passions. The Convention voted without discussion what- ever the Jacobin leader demanded. Robespierre abolished the worship of Reason ; he proclaimed the existence of the Supreme Being and of immortality and duty, by extraordinary ceremony (June 8, 1794), with himself, the bloody tyrant, for its leading supporter and high priest. 84 THE world's greatest conflict. Monsters such as St. Just, Couthon, Bariere and Collet urged greater celerity in condemning ; no more delay ; no more witnesses ; haste. Even the hardened Convention recoiled at this ; but Robespierre insisted ; they decreed it ; there was an enthusiasm for bloodshed ; a wild frenzy for injustice; a madness for atrocity. Fouquier-Tin- ville huddled together a crowd for condemnation by wholesale.. It became necessary to restrict him to sixty victims a day. In forty-eight days — June lo to July 27, 1794 — two thousand two hundred and eighty-five were executed ! St. Just proposed that Robespierre be dictator. Robespierre denounced some of the depu- ties and certain of the Committee of Public Safety. This roused the till now servile Convention to self-defense. It decreed arrest of Robespierre, Couthon and St. Just. They were sent to prison. The jailers refused to receive them. Again they were free ; they stood at the head of the assem- bling mob. All Paris rushed into the streets. The alarm bells rang, the barriers were closed. Com- mander Herniot ordered the soldiers to fire on the Convention. It had just decreed him outlawed and named Barras commandant. The gunners did not fire. Men left their guns when they heard the decree that outlawed the Commune, whose head was Robespierre. Robespierre saw himself lost ; he tried suicide, but, only broke his jaw with a bullet. He was THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 85 promptly guillotined with St. Just and twenty-two more of his principal villains, July 28, 1794. Eighty-three more were executed within two days. Many prisoners were released, but cruelty contin- ued till the end of the Convention. Some of the men who had pushed Robespierre to his greatest excesses, and taken part in his crimes, aided to overthrow him to save themselves. The public rejoiced at his fall. The Conven- tion struck a blow to the Commune by stopping the forty cents a day, the pay of members present. This sent many idlers and tramps away from clubs to seek work. The Convention suppressed the Jacobin club. It restored sixty-three imprisoned deputies, twenty- seven banished and four others. It allowed workmen refugees to return. In Alsace alone it is said forty thousand work people who had fled the Terror returned. The country had been frightfully desolated. The villain Car- rier of Nantes was but one of many tyrants of provinces. He said, " It forms part of the project and is the orders of the Convention to lay waste all means of subsistence, all provisions and for- age, to deliver to flames all buildings, and exter- minate all inhabitants " of the Loire district. The distress was great ; great districts were devastated. The cruel Mountain Jacobins accused before the Convention incited mob revolt, April i, 1795. Crowds of men, women and children entered the S6 THE world's greatest conflict. Convention, shouting for bread and for liberty of these cut-throats. But this mob failed of its pur- pose. Billaud-Varennes, Collet d'Herbois and Barrere, bloody chiefs, were sent to prison and later exiled.* Again, May 20, an insurrection ; again women invaded and insulted the Convention. Behind the women came rioters shouting for bread and for the Constitution of 1793. The Mountain allowed the rioters to vote with them in the Convention to re-establish Jacobin power. National Guards arrived and dispersed the rioters. The Conven- tion ordered arrest of the riotous Mountain, and many of these savage men were tried and executed or banished. XXIII. IN 1793-94 all Europe except Turkey, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal and Switzerland made war on France. The French raised great armies. In 1794 General Jourdan took Charleroi, France defeated the Austrians at Fleurus against all (Juue 26), and conqucrcd Belgium Europe. from Austria. In the southwest the French had beaten the Spanish, entered Spain, and beaten them again. * Mountain, the extremely violent party, who sat on high seats. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 8/ The British took most of the French colonies. The British Admiral Howe defeated the French fleet off Ushant, June i. Favored by the cold winter of 1795, that per- mitted the crossing of rivers on the ice, and aided by the Dutch patriots, the French General Pichegru occupied Holland. (January, 1795.) The Dutch patriots re-established their old Republic ; the Prince of Orange (the Stadtholder) fled to Eng- land, and his restored republic allied itself with France May 16, 1795, and gave the French one million florins. The Vendeans having lost some of their leaders made peace with the Convention, February 17, 1795. But the wicked Convention ordered Cor- martin, the Chouan chief, to be shot. This opened a new revolt. The English ministry tried to help the insurgents, landed some French at Oueberon (June 18), but, badly managed, they were defeated. Five hundred and sixty rebels were taken, and they were shot by Tallien's order. The peace of Basle, April 15, 1795, ended war with Prussia and Spain. Tuscany and Hesse too made peace. 88 THE world's greatest conflict. XXIV. THE Convention framed a new constitution, August, 1795. This established a council of five hundred, elected by assemblies chosen by the voters, to originate laws ; a Council of Ancients with power of veto ; and an Famous Exccutive Directory of five members. Revolt of the one to be replaced each year. Sections. The Convention, to keep in power and escape vengeance for their bloody acts, decreed that two thirds of the new legisla- ture must be taken from its members. Both constitution and decree were to be voted on to- gether as one proposition. This coupling excited great discontent. Paris was terribly agitated. It wished to accept the constitution and reject the decree. It wanted riddance of the members of the convention. The departments of France accepted both ; so did the army. The convention brought five thousand regular soldiers ; they annoyed the citizens' meetings ; they summoned the National Guards of Section Lepelletier to surrender its arms. The Section refused. Resistance was appearing. The National Guard assembled Octo- ber 4. General Menon was ordered to disperse it, but failed. At eleven at night the convention gave Barras full powers. He put in command THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 89 General Napoleon Bonaparte. Lieutenant Joachim Murat brought up the fifty cannon. Early October 5, the Sections and National Guard appeared, thirty thousand strong. It had been reorganized to contain only well-to-do men. Bonaparte had placed the regulars around the Tuileries. The Sections began firing on the regulars near the church of St. Roch. The artil- lery replied with rapid discharges of grape-shot. The Sections made a sharp fight, but the artillery cleared them in a few minutes. On the opposite side of the Tuileries the Sections carried the bridge Neuf, and pressed on ; at twenty yards Bonaparte gave them a heavy fire of grape. They stood a few minutes, did not charge, lost confi- dence, and victory was decided against them. It was the last insurrection of the people of Paris till a generation later, in 1830. The revo- lutions between 1795 and 1830 were not the work of Paris or the mob or people. These insurgents of 1795 were not the rabble. It was against the best men of Paris that Bonaparte made his first victory, this in front of St. Roch. Few severe punishments followed. The Con- vention soon declared amnesty. October 26, 1795, the Convention ended. It had chosen one hundred and four members of the new councils. Paper assignats were 18,933,500,000 francs. France tried to borrow 600,000,000 in specie, 90 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. but without success. France was bankrupt for 39,000,000,000 francs ! Two other kinds of paper were tried. Both failed. Trade was done in barter. Heavy taxes became imperative. In the south many Jacobins were massacred. Furious scenes of fire and carnage occurred. It was the reaction ; France was on the road to consolidated despotism. XXV. THE French offered liberation to Italy. Italy was not united in feeling. No two States had the same needs, wishes or inclinations. Jeal- ous of each other, they were bound Italy after to local habits, capriccs, dislikes. 1789— Class differences were still more dis- Napoieon. couraging. Thinkers were at strife against aristocracy and the feudalism of Naples. Many nobles held revolutionary sen- timents. They did not follow the example of the French noblesse by emigrating, and few bloody excesses stain the Italians of the Italian Revolu- tion of 1 796-1 802, except the massacres of Verona, April 17, 1797, and of Naples of 1799.* It was the middle and higher classes that gave the impulse to reform. The rural lower class, victims of abuses both church and secular, gave *Spaulding's Italy, Vol. III. pp. 16-19. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. QI only blind, sluggish submission to the revolution, and sometimes turned fitfully against those who sought to lighten their burdens.* The numerous clergy, with few exceptions, were hostile to changes. The thinkers favored reform. f In religion, Italy had many quiet disbelievers ; few worshipers of the Goddess of Reason. They doubted dogmas without disclaiming faith. The ignorant crippled liberty.^ In the south, many nobles and a few of the middle class aided their hindering efforts. Queen Caroline of Naples was a daughter of the late Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Her husband. King Ferdinand, a weak and wicked prince, was completely under her influence. § She and her favorite, Acton, ruled the kingdom. Ferdinand was a brother of the depraved king, Charles the Fourth of Spain, and son of Charles the Third of Spain and Naples. || The Govern- ment imposed extra taxes, robbed the banks of deposits, set spies on men of liberal views, organ- ized arbitrary commissions to try political cases, excluded foreign books and newspapers, and robbed the churches of property for use of Government.^ In the courts of Naples and Sicily plots were dis- covered, torture used to compel confession of guilt, and plotters executed. * Spaulding's Italy, Vol. III. t Ibid. % Ibid. § Chambers' Cyclopaedia, Vol. V. p. 785. II Ibid. IT Botta, Vol. I. p. 293 ; Coletta, Vol. III. 92 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, became Ger- man Emperor (Austrian) in 1790. In 1791 Tuscan peasants, prompted by priests, clamored for revival of religious abuses in forms and societies that Leopold had abolished as superstitious and hurtful. Yet in his reign he had advocated reform in Church and State, established a new criminal code and penitentiaries, abolished the Inquisition and the death penalty, equalized the land tax, favored free trade, and founded schools and almshouses.* But Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, introduced the odious inquisition in Parma. September 18, 1792, the French National Assembly made war on Victor Amadeus the Third, king of Sardinia (Piedmont). His people did not wish to fight for him, so in two weeks the French troops held Savoy and Nice. In 1793 they seized the mountain passes in Piedmont. In January, 1793, the Roman populace stoned the French Republican agent to death. The French were expelled from Italy in 1795, but their victory of Loano, November 24, gave them again a foothold. Bonaparte began the Italian campaign of 1796 by marching quickly down the Alps, gained the victories of Montenotte over Austrians, of Melessimo over Italians, and of Dego over Austrians (April 12, 13 and 14) — three victories in three days ! And a week later another at Mondovi. Piedmont's king accepted an * Chambers' Cyclopedia, Vol. VIII. p. 814. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 93 armistice, April 27, and peace, May 15. He ceded Savoy and Nice, gave French armies free passage through Piedmont, and allowed them to occupy his fortresses of Coni, Allessandra and Tortoni. Paris was astonished. He put into the treaty Piedmont's consent for him to cross the Po at Valentia. The Austrians watched for him there, but he crossed at Placentia. He entered Parma, and compelled its defenceless duke to give him one thousand six hundred horses, two million francs, great army supplies, and twenty of Parma's finest paintings. May 10. Then Bonaparte marched on Milan. At Lodi bridge sixteen thousand Austrians met him. Twenty cannon defended the bridge. Bona- parte formed six thousand grenadiers in solid column behind buildings. His cannon opened on the Austrians. Soon as he saw their fire slacken, his six thousand grenadiers suddenly appeared, charged across the bridge, took the cannon, and drove the Austrians. He entered Milan in triumph. May 15. The Milanese were transported with joy ; they believed they saw the regenerator of Italy. But he de- manded twenty million francs from that one city, and ten million francs with twenty of his best paintings from the Duke of Modena. He made great requisitions for horses and food, for which he paid nothing or almost worthless paper money. He had begun his terrible system of making war 94 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. support war, that soon impoverished Europe. France teemed with men ; it lacked money ; revo- lutionary violence had destroyed its prosperity. The Directory became afraid of him ; it ordered that Kellermann command in North Italy and Bonaparte march on Rome and Naples. Napoleon instantly resigned. He saw that to divide the army would allow the Austrians to beat both halves. The Directory reinstated him. The Lombards did not regard themselves as conquered ; they were offended by the great de- mands of the French. But Republican clubs were everywhere founded. This aroused the lower class and the ignorant monks. At Pavia they rose and expelled the French. Napoleon hastened there, retook the town, gave it up to plunder, shot the magistrates and leaders, and killed great numbers of peasants.* It was cruel. He moved against the Pope's States, seized Bologna and Ferarra, and granted the Pope armis- tice on his furnishing great war supplies, paying twenty million francs and one hundred of the finest works of art to adorn Paris. f He sent Murat into neutral Tuscany to commit atrocious robbery of British merchants at Leghorn — a crime against the Law of Nations — and sold their goods for about twelve million francs. This was simply crime. Some Italian villages J were * Alison, Vol. I. p. 405-407. ^ Ibid. J Brescia, Lago. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 95 burned and peasants in great number murdered by his orders and by his officers. A new Austrian army came to Italy and drove Bonaparte from the siege of Mantua. But he defeated the Austrian enemy at Castiglione and Medola. Still again the Austrians approached Mantua. Bonaparte beat them in several battles and drove them into Mantua fortress. Naples, Genoa and Parma then made peace with France. Two more Austrian armies entered Italy, but Bonaparte defeated one at Arcole (November 17), and the other at Rivoli (November 21). Nearly all Italy was in Bonaparte's power. Mantua surrendered with eighteen thousand Aus- trians and five hundred cannon. Bonaparte broke his truce and advanced towards Rome, took Ancona, and compelled the Pope to purchase peace by relinquishing Bologna, Ferrara and Romagna and paying a great sum. In Corsica Paoli arrano;ed a constitution which acknowledged George the Third of England. P'erdinand, Grand Duke of Tuscany, was the first sovereign to recognize the French Republic. He made a treaty with it in February, 1795, and assumed neutrality. Venice feared Austria and hated Paris democ- racy. Genoa feared it might lose its commerce. Austrian Lombardy, dissatisfied with the public burdens and insolence of Austrian officials, desired a change. 96 THE world's greatest conflict. XXVI. LOMBARDY wished to be an independent republic. So did the eastern papal States. The French Directory hesitated, Reggio was in revolt against its Italy before old government. 1800. Modena was uneasy, Bonaparte charged its duke with violating neu- trality, deposed him, and declared Modena and Reggio free. At Bonaparte's instigation deputies chosen by the lawyers, landholders and merchants erected Modena, Reggio, Papal Bologna, Ferrara and Mirandola — all the country between the Po and Rome — into the Cispadine Republic in 1796; that north of the Po was made the Transpadane Republic, In February, 1797, Bonaparte defeated the Papal troops at Tolentino. He compelled the Pope to cede all claim to Bologna, Ferrara and Romagna to the Cispadine Republic, to give Avignon to France, to pay large sums to redeem the other Papal provinces, and to send to Paris one hundred works of art. Bonaparte pressed the war on towards the heart of Austria. When he had reached within twenty- five leagues of Vienna, Austria yielded and agreed THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. cyj to the preliminaries of the *' Peace of Leoben," April 1 8, 1797. Austria gave up the Netherlands (Belgium) to France, which thus gained the Rhine as its frontier. Austria renounced Lombardy and agreed to acknowledge the Cispadine Republic. But, with Bonaparte's aid, Austria robbed Venice of its mainland provinces, Illyria, Istria, and Upper Italy west to the Oglio. These Venetian territories were already in the republican revolt. But Bonaparte left them to the hard fate of Austrian rule. Had Bonaparte been as willing to part with Illyria in 181 3, it might have saved him his throne. At Verona a mob, headed by a few nobles and clergy, assaulted the French. A massacre occurred April 17, 1797. The French gave it a bloody suppression, April 20. In a disturbance at Venice several French privateersmen were killed. So Bonaparte declared war on Venice. He compelled the Venetian Grand Council to decree its own dissolution, May 12, 1797, by a vote of five hundred and twelve to twenty. A tumult at once arose in the streets. It was suppressed, and May 16 a treaty was signed at Milan between France and the new Venetian Republic, and Venice, ostensibly at its own request, was garrisoned by French troops. When asked to procure ratification of the treaty, 98 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. Bonaparte reminded the Council that it had prior to the treaty deprived itself of all power by its own vote to dissolve the Council, that the treaty was null, and that France would decide what to do with Venice.* Bonaparte united the Cispadine and Transpadane republics and formed thus the Cisalpine Republic, which embraced Lombardy, Mantua, Bergime, Brescia, Cremona, Verona and Rovigo, the duchy of Modena, the principality of Massa and Carrara, and the legations of Bologna, Ferrara and Ro- magna, with sixteen thousand square miles, and three million five hundred thousand inhabitants.f Bonaparte proclaimed that France had obtained by conquest the Austrian-Italian States, and pro- nounced the new state independent. All natives twenty-one years old, except vaga- bonds, might be citizens. It had an executive of five Directors, a law-making Council of one hun- dred and sixty, and a Senate of eighty members. All the original members were appointed by Bonaparte. Milan was its capital. Its army was twenty thousand French troops, paid by Italy. In 1798 an alliance offensive and defensive was made with France. The Cisalpine Republic was dissolved in 1799 by the Austrian and Russian victories over the French and Italians, but was restored after the *Dam, Histoire de Venise, Tome V. ; Botta, Vol. II. 225-320. t Chambers's C>'clopsdia, Cisalpine. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 99 victory of Marengo of June 14, 1800, by Bonaparte, its territory increased, its constitution modified, and the name of the "Italian Republic" was given it in 1802. In Genoa, June, 1797, democracy was recog- nized, and a provisional government given it by Bonaparte. In September, 1797, many armed peasants opposed to democracy and the new order of affairs, attacked the city. They were beaten with great slaughter, by the French and the militia.* December 2, 1797, the people approved a constitution like the Cisalpine, and Genoa became the Ligurian Republic! In 1796 French armies under Jourdan and Moreau invaded Germany and laid immense con- tributions or robberies. Moreau reached Bavaria, but the Austrians made a brilliant campaign ; they beat Jourdan at Amberg August 24 and at Wents- burg September 3 and sent both French armies hastening back to France. The British had taken most French foreign islands. The French fleets were blockaded, destitute. Political violence that destroyed French prosperity had ruined its navy by loss of means. By treaty of St. Ildefonso August 19, 1796, Spain and France agreed to assist each other in case of attack, with twenty-four thousand troops, thirty ships of the line and six frigates. * Chambers's Cyclopsedia. tSpaulding, Vol. IIL pp. 28-30. 100 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. Ireland was threatened with a French invasion, but a storm dispersed the expedition. France had acquired Belgium, Savoy and Nice and its armies held Holland and Northern Italy, when Pitt sent an envoy with the British offer of recognition, peace and restoration of the French colonies, on condition that France give Belgium to Austria ; Holland to the Prince of Orange whom the Dutch patriots had driven away ; and aban- doned all the rich conquests in Italy — proposals of massive absurdity. Their acceptance would have overturned any French government. Their stu- pidity was eminently worthy of George the Third. Corsica revolted from the British in 1796 and formed a democratic government. The naval events of 1796 were the British fleet mutinies of the Channel and Nore, and the two great British victories of St. Vincent over the Spanish fleet and Camperdown over the Dutch, both allies of France. In Paris the Communist conspiracy of Babeuf to overthrow the Directory and make equality of property, was discovered and suppressed. Strong royalist reaction appeared. Many emigrants and priests came back. The election for the yearly third of the councils went against the Directory. The Directory assembled troops, arrested Royal- ists deputies (September 3, 1797), annulled elec- tions of forty-eight deputies, and left their places vacant. They exiled to Guiana sixteen leaders. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. lOI They dismissed many judges, abolished juries, banished nobles and priests. The emigrants fled anew. Bonaparte had aided this aggression. XXVII. DECEMBER, 1797, a riot occurred in Rome. The French general, Duphot, was shot on the French ambassador's staircase. Papal soldiers and French partisans were quarreling. In February, 1798, Berthier, with The Republics a French army, occupied Rome and of itaiy. demanded that Pius the Ninth resign the temporal sovereignty, remain universal bishop and receive a great pension. The Pope refused. He was conducted to Tus- cany, and thence to France a prisoner. A revolt was quelled by the French with bloodshed. French soldiers, '' defrauded of their pay, and dis- gusted by the rapine of their superior officers," mutinied at Rome and Mantau ; General Massena, said to be the worst offender, resigned. March 20, 1798, the Roman Republic was pro- claimed. It was an imitation of the French.* The Italian Republics were required to receive and support P'rench troops. France dominated them. * Thiers. Botta. 102 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. In the Cisalpine Republic (August, 1798), the French envoy, Trouve, dictated a new constitu- tion. It was irregularly accepted. Other changes followed. The people were disaffected. XXVIII. BONAPARTE had returned to Paris in De- cember, 1797. He was greeted with great enthusiasm wherever he appeared. But he avoided public places. He kept the com- The rise of the pany of his officcrs and of learned Conqueror. men, wore the dress of the institute, and lived as quietly and privately at his own house. A plan was formed, and many troops and vessels collected for the invasion of England. It was sup- posed to be Napoleon's plan, but he seems to have then foreseen the impossibility of sustaining an in- vading army in England, even if it were once safely landed. General Bonaparte first won distinction as an artillery officer at the siege of Toulon in 1793. He saved the Government from overthrow by sup- pressing the revolt of the sections at Paris, Octo- ber 4, 1795, thus ending the French Revolution. The Directory rewarded him with the command of the army of Italy. His masterly strategy in THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. IO3 Italy which resulted in brilliant victories and a triumphant campaign, had placed him in the front rank of great commanders. In 1797 the Directory wanted to extend France to the Rhine. So they rejected Bonaparte's peace of Leoben with Austria. Bonaparte had promised to give up Mantua fort- ress. But he refused to keep his word. He threatened to renew the war unless Austria agreed to the Rhine boundary, and relinquished claim to Mantua. Then Austria submitted to make with him the Treaty of Campo Formio, October 7, 1797. This divided between them as spoil, the Repub- lic of Venice, though the Paris Directory had for- bidden him to do it. The Adige was made the boundary. Bonaparte ruthlessly seized for France, Venice's Ionian Islands. Austria ceded Belgium to P'rance, and was to receive Salsburg. In 1798 the French stimulated revolt in Switzer- land. Her army went to Berne and robbed the Swiss treasury of about five million dollars. It also seized three hundred cannon and forty thousand muskets. It instigated the new Constitution of April 12, 1798, and required alliance offensive and defensive. It extensively robbed the Swiss. It united Geneva and free Mulhousen with France, and set all Switzerland in turmoil and strife. The Egyptian campaign was proposed. Bona- 104 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. parte saw in it his hope of humbling the British power in the East. The Nile might be a good point through which French power and French armies were to reach the rich countries and com- mercial seas of India. A rich commerce from the East, when it should have been subdued, was to be controlled by France. The ports of Italy, Malta, Corfu and Alexandria would be in his possession. With forty thousand men he sailed to attack peaceful Egypt, May 19, 1798. He obtained Malta by capitulation of recalcitrant knights. His only title was force. A barbarous decree of the Directory, that any neutral vessel bearing English goods, or having touched at an English port, should be lawful prize ; and the seizure of many American vessels ; and the attempt to extort tribute of several millions from America to France and many thousands as bribery to the Directory, brought on a quasi-yN2iX with the United States (1798) ; Washington took command of the American army ; treaties were suspended, and several sea fights occurred. The Americans resisted, but the Hanse Towns, unable to resist, were forced to pay the Directory great sums for their own right to trade. The French fleet that carried Bonaparte's army to Egypt was almost destroyed in the great Brit- ish victory of the Nile, August i, 1798. The Congress of Rastadt could agree on no THE world's greatest CONFLICT. IO5 peace, but it continued to sit for some time to gain time for both sides to prepare for battles. Naples, too, soon began the war by invading Rome with eighty thousand men (November, 1798). The French defeated them and followed their retreat ; the cowardly king, Ferdinand the Fourth, fled to Sicily, but the lazzaroni, braver than their master, fought the enemy for three days, before the French became masters of Naples. The French formed Naples into the Parthe- nopean Republic, similar to the other Italian re- publics. The nobles were divided, the middle class eager for the Republic ; the lazzaroni became quiet ; what friends the king had were powerless. But soon came bloody scenes. Cardinal Ruffo, a ruffian, as royal vicar, organized ruffians, robbers and lazzaroni into royal irregulars for villains' work. Count Ruvo, supported by the French, was pitted against Ruffo. Both waged barbarous conflict, revenge, torture, extermination with fright- ful atrocity. France made war on Charles Emmanuel the Fourth of Sardinia (December, 1798), and he re- nounced his throne and commanded his subjects to obey the new government made by the French and Piedmontese in Northern Italy. He soon after died. Then came the establishment of the French system of conscriptions. Every Frenchman from twenty to forty years was made liable to service. I06 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. It was applied to Switzerland and Holland as well as to Belgium. This law it was that supported Napoleon's great wars from 1799 to 181 5. One third of the French Councils were to be elected annually. In March, 1799, ^^^ elections were against the Directory, Sieyes became a Director in place of Rewbel ; the other two of the bayonet Directory of September 3, 1797, were compelled to resign. Jacobinism revived. The clubs reopened. But France was no longer in frenzy ; Paris did not rise. But civil war renewed in Vendee, religious and political. Severe taxes and forced robbery of citizens, called forced loans, were severely enforced. In January, 1799, Lucca became French repub- lican. In March the French seized Tuscany. In Germany, Archduke Charles of Austria de- feated the French under Jourdan at Pullendorf and Stechach, March 20-25 (1799), and drove them back to France. In Italy the French under Sherer were defeated by Austrian Kray at Legnano (March 25), Roco (March 30) and Verona (April 5). The Russians, under Suwarov, arrived, united with the Austrians, and defeated Moreau at Cas- sano (April 27). December 3 the French lost the battle of Coni. All Lombardy, all Italy was taken from French rule. The peasants frequently rose and aided the allies ; Massena, cooped up in Genoa, besieged, THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 10/ famished, had the only French troops left in all Italy. In Naples after the French retired the republic fell at once ; the outrages committed by the Royal- ist party were most revolting : murder, torture, republicans slowly strangled or burned on slow fires while furies danced and yelled around them. For two days the horrible work went on ; death without torture was accepted by republicans as mercy ; the details are too sickening to relate. Two castles surrendered on condition promised that republicans should be carried to Toulon or remain unmolested, but Admiral Nelson arrived, bringing the worthless runaway king, Ferdinand the Fourth. The treaty was discarded. Arbitrary commissions tried these prisoners. Four thousand were executed ; a fearful royal offset against the French oligarchy's Reign of Terror. Forty-five thousand more Russians under Kor- sakov, and thirty thousand Austrians, came to Switzerland and defeated the French. Suwarov crossed the Alps from Italy. General Massena defeated Korsakov at Zurich and drove him to a remarkable march across the Grisons, to Suwarov. The Turkish and Russian fleets took from France the Ionian Islands of which Bonaparte had robbed Venice. io8 THE world's greatest conflict. XXIX. ON March 3, 1799, Bonaparte, in his attempt to conquer Syria, reached Jaffa, the ancient Joppa. Its fortifications contained a garrison of more than four thousand men. He Egypt. took it by assault and, for thirty hours, delivered it up to pillage and murder. Many prisoners were taken. Thiers * says, '' Bonaparte decided upon a terri- ble measure . . . Transported into a barbarous country he had involuntarily adopted its measures. He caused these prisoners to pass under the edge of the sword." But Bonaparte had no right to be there at all. Morally he had no authorization that a pirate on the seas does not also have. His only guarantee was brute force, and it was brutally ex- ecuted. He had attacked a Mohammedan country and shown it that he was a barbarian ; had dis- graced the civilization of Europe. That this was not his only cruel act we shall see. These men were captured ; they were helpless. No arms were now in their hands. Had Bona- parte not been an unprovoked invader ; had he even been as these prisoners were, defenders of their own country and their homes against a for- eign foe of another race, another civilization and * A French historian and statesman and defender of Bonaparte. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. IO9 another religion, even in that case this bloody massacre would still have been atrocious, whole- sale murder. Fortunately for the checking of this barbarous campaign, an English officer captured some heavy artillery, sent by sea for Bonaparte, and with it landed British forces for the successful defense of Acre. Although the French under Kleber de- feated the Damascus army near Mt. Tabor, yet the assault on Acre, instead of giving Bonaparte the key to Syria, was defeated and his retreat to Egypt was constantly harassed by the pursuing Turks and Arabs whose tempers were sharpened to vengeance by the atrocities of Bonaparte. The French, sick and exhausted, fell upon the burn- ing sands. The pursuers killed every straggler. Bonaparte retreated to Cairo, where he pretended to be a conqueror. The terrible defeat he had re- ceived in his Syrian campaign was a great chagrin to his ambition. A Turkish army landed in Egypt. Bonaparte defeated and routed it at Aboukir. Bonaparte left Egypt August 23, 1799, to seize the govern- ment of France. The plea in excuse of this frightful murder of prisoners is that the French had no means of sending them to Egypt, that the French army was itself in want of rations ; that to free the prison- ers would be to increase the number of its own enemies. The matter was debated in a council of no THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. war before the bloody executions by musketry and bayonets. Such was the lesson in inhumanity that the barbarity of Napoleon taught to the East. General Kleber was left with forces much de- pleted by war and plague. In vain he made a gallant struggle. He was murdered by a fanatic Turk. Napoleon's Egyptian war convicts him of atro- cious motive ; neither he nor France had any previous quarrel with or provocation from Egypt or Turkey. He invaded, in the evil spirit of con- quest, a peaceful people. A robber takes property and goes his way ; Bonaparte intended to also take from Moslems the sacred right of government. » XXX. IN the final treaty of peace, September 23, 1783, Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the American Republic, bounded by British America, the Atlantic, Florida and America. the Mississippi River from its source to the Spanish possessions south. West of the Mississippi to the Rocky Mount- ains, all south of British America to Texas, was Louisiana territory, mostly wilderness and all held by Spain. This now includes several great States. THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. Ill North of the Ohio River all was wilderness except a few very small settlements. Chicago did not exist. Pittsburg was a small frontier outpost. No State existed west of Pennsylvania. In 1789 Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsyl- vania were the great States. North Carolina and New York ranked next. Philadelphia was a larger city than New York. The States were loosely held together ; each had its own separate custom's tariff ; each was almost independent of the others ; great evils came from the commercial competition ; the old Congress owed eight million dollars abroad — a great sum in those days ; it had a great debt at home. The army was unpaid ; the Treasury was empty ; the paper currency was worthless. Each State, too, was in debt ; Congress had no power to raise money; it could not compel the States to levy taxes, or to pay their shares of the public debt, or of current expenses. Revenue is a first necessity of a nation. Great interests were clashing and eagerly debated. Should the tonnage tax be higher on foreign than on American vessels } Producers of raw material objected. Madison favored the affirmative. Should the tonnage tax be lighter on our allies by commercial treaties than on other nations ? " No," said Sherman, Benson and others, ** let trade fol- low its natural course." 112 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. Congress asked the States to grant it power to put a five per cent, duty on imported foreign goods, in order to pay the public debt. Several of the States assented. Rhode Island and New- York refused. They wished to control their own duties on imports as they were doing. The public debt was at a great discount ; poor soldiers of the Revolution sold their pay certifi- cates very low ; the public faith was dishonored ; there was most urgent need of power in Congress to raise a national revenue ; excessive importa- tions* ruined the domestic manufactures which had begun during the war. Could a revenue and protective duty have been laid on imports it would have relieved the public credit, and might have protected private credit, of which these light-taxed and free importations completed the ruin. With a proper protective tariff the worthless currency could have been made sound, domestic industry encouraged, and some of the specie re- tained in the country. Without such protection great distress existed ; the specie went abroad. To add to the distress Great Britain shut its West India ports against United States vessels ; and still further, England imposed enormous tariff duties on the most valuable American exports. Congress had no power to remedy the bad con- * In 1784-85 the imports were $30,000,000 against less than $9,000,000 exports. THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. II3 dition. The States had not delegated it. They were thirteen independent sovereignties. Thus the country was powerless to preserve its honor, its credit, its commerce, its self-respect. The attempt of Massachusetts to raise by direct tax the money to pay its debts, produced " Shay's Rebellion " of 1786, to suppress which a military force was required. The States were not yet a united nation. A convention was assembled at Philadelphia in May, 1787, ''for the sole and express purpose of re- vising the Articles of Confederation." It exceeded instructions and decided to form a constitution. At that date not a nation on earth had a written, single-instrument constitution. Great Britain had Magna Charta and many acts of Parliament. Its real constitution was only its whole mass of laws, precedents and judicial deci- sions. Its Parliament, then as now, could make any law whatever, and no constitutional principle except these was behind them to declare their powers exceeded and the act null. The Americans founded the system of a funda- mental declaration of principles as the basis of all law, any violation of which, by Congress or legis- lature, to be declared null and void, by an inde- pendent judiciary on application of any citizen. Thus the powers of the government were at once firmly restricted within defined limits. Thus Con- gress can make only such laws as are authorized 114 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. by the Constitution. This system is the great governmental invention of the modern ages. In the Convention of 1786, one party supported the plan of a congress of but one House, in which each State should be represented in proportion to its population. Another party urged that every State, large or small, should have the same equal representation. The former became the Federal- ist, the latter the Anti-Federalist party. The debates were chiefly on representation and on the power of Congress to coerce States. An agreement was made on a House, elected on the basis of population, two fifths of the slaves to be counted in the apportionment of representa- tives ; and a Senate in which each State has but two senators. The executive (a president), the judiciary and the legislative branches are independent of one another and not to infringe on one another's duties. This Constitution, of many provisions, required the ratification of State conventions of nine States before it had effect. It was ratified as follows : Delaware, December 7, 1787; Pennsylvania, December 12, 1787; New Jersey, December 18, 1787; Georgia, January 2, 1788 ; Connecticut, January 9, 1788 ; Massachusetts, February 6, 1788; Maryland, April 28, 1788 ; South Carolina, May 23, 1788; THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. II5 New Hampshire, June 21, 1788; and from this ninth ratification dates the adoption of the Consti- tution.* Virginia followed four days later and New York on July 26, 1788 ; North Carolina, November 21, 1789, and Rhode Island May 29, 1790, George Washington was unanimously elected President by eleven States ; the others did not vote. He was inaugurated April 30, 1789. John Adams was chosen Vice-President by plurality only ; thirty-five out of sixty-nine votes. Adams was accused of holding monarchial preferences, but he denied it. Two parties existed. The Federalists, headed by Washington, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, were favorably inclined to a strong, cen- tralized government ; the Anti-Federalists, after- wards called Republicans, headed by Thomas Jefferson, advocated strong reserve powers in the individual States, and in the people, and that all powers not expressly granted to the general gov- ernment in plain terms, are retained in the State or in the people. The Federalists generally sympathized with the Enghsh, the Republicans with the French. Departments of State, Treasury and War were created. Thomas Jefferson became Secretary of State ; Alexander Hamilton, of the Treasury ; Henry Knox, of War, and Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General. * Goodrich, p. 241. Il6 • THE world's greatest CONFLICT. A Supreme Court was organized, with John Jay as Chief Justice. Virginia ratified the Constitution with the declaration that she was at liberty to withdraw from the Union whenever its powers were used for oppression ; and New York, after Hamilton had declared that no State could ever be coerced by an armed force. The very first Fourth of July under our Consti- tution was signalized by the first law of our new government, except one which established the official oaths required to start the government itself. The Tariff Act of July 4, 1789, of both specific and ad valorem duties, was passed on Washington's recommendation, in his very first message, that " the safety and interest of the people " required it. Southern representatives gave twenty-one votes for and three against it ; the Middle States thirteen for to one against ; New England five for to nine against ; total, thirty- nine for to thirteen against. Thus the almost solid South and Middle States passed it against almost two thirds of the New England vote. At the second session of the first Congress the Tariff of 1790 was enacted. After much discussion. Congress decided that the President can remove officers without consent of the Senate.* In 1790 ended the war between Georgia and * Goodrich, p. 24. THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 11/ the Creek Indians. General Harmer was se- verely defeated in two battles in Ohio with the Indians. On November 3, 1791, the Indians there gave a bloody defeat to another force of about fourteen hundred men under the veteran General St. Clair, of whom eight hundred and ninety were killed, wounded or missing.* The numbers engaged on each side were supposed to be about equal. Congress, resolved to continue the Indian war, voted to raise the regular army to five thousand men. This law to raise three more regiments of regulars was carried against the warm opposition of the Anti-Federalists, who charged that it was in aid of monarchial designs. Congress ordered Hamilton to prepare a plan of finance. He reported it to Congress in 1790. He advised that the nation should provide to pay its foreign and its domestic debts, and the war debts of the several States, and for that pur- pose to lay a tax on luxuries and spirits. All favored paying the foreign debt. Many opposed assuming the domestic debt ; they feared the influence of a national debt to consolidate the government. These were mostly Southern Republicans. The Federalists urged the assumption by the nation of the State debts of twenty-six million dol- lars in addition to the old Confederation debt of * Hale's U. S., p. no. Il8 THE world's greatest CONFLICT, fifty-four million dollars. Much of the old debt had been sold to speculators at low prices, some as low as fifteen per cent, and mostly in the Middle and Northern States. Some argued that Govern- ment should pay only the market price. Should the present holder have the full amount or only the current price .-* Some proposed to divide the difference between the original holder and the speculative purchaser. Madison proposed in Congress to pay the market price to the present holder and the balance to the original owner. Congress rejected the proposal by a large majority. Hamilton insisted on paying the full face value. Federalists urged that the debt was made in the common cause ; that States, then most active for the benefit of all, should not now be made to bear the burden of all ; that States had transferred to the general Government their principal sources of reve- nue, and the debts should follow. The House by a small majority refused. Then originated American *' log-rolling." Vir- ginians wanted the capital moved from Philadel- phia to the Potomac. Jefferson and Hamilton traded. They yoked the two measures together. The Virginia Senators, White and Lee, changed their votes. They now voted to assume the debts. Hamilton and Robert Morris sold themselves to the Potomac plan. Both measures were thus, sep- arately, barely carried by small majorities, by this THE world's greatest CONFLICT. II9 corrupt bargain. The capital was to be moved in ten years. The debts were funded at interest. Govern- ment paper soon rose from fifteen per cent, to above par. This gave sudden wealth to the spec- ulators who had bought it at low prices. This again excited dissatisfaction. Hamilton advised to charter a national bank. Again the South opposed. They feared a national bank as a great monied institution that might hold too much power and influence. They denied the power of Congress to create it. The Federalists replied that the power given by the Constitution to Congress to regulate com- merce, collect taxes, borrow money and pay debts included this power as incident. But three banks existed in America. More bank facilities, it was said, were needed. The debate was long and earnest. Congress passed the bill to charter a national bank in 1791, to expire in 181 1, with ten million dollars capital, one quarter to be paid in coin, and three quar- ters in six per cent, national debt certificates. The Government was to own one fifth of the stock. Washington asked the advice of his cabinet. Jefferson and Randolph denied, Hamilton and Knox affirmed the constitutionality of the bill. Then Washington signed it. Again the newly funded debt aided the specula- 120 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. tors who had bought it. It was used as capital for this great, privileged bank. Jefferson wrote, August 25, 1791 : " Ships are lying idle at the wharves ; buildings are stopped ; capital withdrawn from commerce, manufactures, arts and agriculture, to be employed in gambling, and the tide of prosperity almost unparalleled in any country, is arrested in its course and suppressed by the rage of getting rich in a day." This active speculation had been stimulated by Hamilton's Federalists' legislation. Nothing yet seemed to be done for industry. But Hamilton was an aristocrat. Yet he produced a better measure. It was his tariff bill which was passed in February, 1792. It exempted from duty raw material for manufactures. Internal revenue taxes, including tax on spirits, were created in 179 1. In 1 791 Vermont adopted the national Consti- tution and asked to be admitted as a State. In 1776 it had no government. It was variously claimed by New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. It resisted these claims. It was not one of the original, united thirteen colonies. It should have been considered as the fourteenth colony. It aided in the struggle for American in- dependence. It fought the British. It became the fourteenth State, March 4, 1791. Vermont was a free State, so the slave power THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 121 required that Kentucky be admitted a slave State, to balance Vermont. This was done June i, 1792. In 1 791 Congress decided not to admit members of the cabinet to take part in Congress,* The census taken in 1791 showed 3,921,326 persons, of whom 695,655 were slaves. The reve- nue was ^4,771,000; exports about $19,000,000; imports about $20,000,000. f Great Britain still held that colonial trade was all her own. She prohibited Americans from trading with British colonies. She would admit American produce only in the vessels of the State that pro- duced it or in British vessels. This threw the trade of those States that had little or no ship- ping, into British vessels, to the exclusion of the vessels of other States. Still our exports were five times and our imports nine times larger with Britain than with France.J Since the treaty of 1783 America and England had constantly accused each other of bad faith. England alleged that America prevented loyalists from recovering their property, and British from collecting debts due before the Revolution. The Americans complained that British troops carried away slaves, for whom the owners wanted pay; that the British still refused to give up, according to the treaty, the American frontier posts, but by holding them controlled American ♦Randall's Life of Jefferson, Vol. II. p. 103. t Hale, p. no. $ Jefferson's Report, December 28, 1791. 122 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. Indians and incited them against the American settlers. Recent depredations on American commerce — impressment of American seamen by the British navy — added greatly to the animosity. England refused commercial negotiations and declined to exchange ministers. But at last, in October, 1791, a minister — Mr. Hammond — came. He defended England's course by urging that the individual States had not repealed their war confiscation laws, but had passed new ones ; had made property and paper money a legal tender to British creditors. Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State, replied that the British negotiators of 1783 knew beforehand that Congress could not repeal State laws ; that the British carried off negro slaves in violation of the treaty ''on the fulfillment of which de- pended the means of paying debts in proportion to the number of laborers withdrawn," and that the State legislation was retaliatory for prior Brit- ish infractions ; that England continued to hold the frontier forts which made the expense of Indian wars and cut off our Indian trade. The hopes, fears and passions of American politics were inextricably influenced by those of England and France. In many American minds England was asso- ciated with Indian massacres ; the horrors of prison ships ; the miseries of seven years of war ; THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 1 23 commercial restrictions, and George the Third's odious personality. France was in revolution. It was ruled by vio- lent oligarchy. It was not a democracy, for democracy is ''rule of the people, by the people, for the people," and it was but few who ruled France. It was not a republic, for in a republic the people freely choose their law-makers and rulers, and the French did not freely choose Dan- ton and Robespierre. Those villains were no more real republicans or actual democrats than they were monarchists : less so ; for they ruled with the power of dictators. The sympathy of Americans was for their re- cent friends, the French, as against their recent enemy, George the Third ; for those struggling for the hope of republican democracy yet to come in France. Toward France was lively gratitude for help in time of urgent need ; a warm, friendly desire to reciprocate the great favor ; a general, fervent wish for French free, liberal, republican govern- ment ; the hope that French revolutionary ex- cesses would cease, and mild, good government yet come. Secretary Jefferson wrote, in August, 1 791, ** I still hope the French Revolution will issue happily, I feel that the permanence of our own leans, in some degree, on that, and that fail- ure there would be a powerful argument to prove that there must be a failure here." 124 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. These feelings were especially strong among the Anti-Federalists. Shocked by the horrors, the unbridled license, the lack of real republican democracy in France, the Federalists were less friendly to its sham democracy, less tolerant of bloody, arbitrary tyrants, who took the sacred name of Liberty and blasphemed it. News of the decisive defeat of the royalists by the French troops at Valmy, September 20, 1792, caused enthusiastic delight in America, and Americans addressed each other as " Citizen." The election of November, 1792, gave the unanimous electoral vote to Washington for a second term of four years. Adams was accused of desiring to have an aris- tocracy, and of favoring the new finance laws. George Clinton, ex-Governor of New York, favored the supremacy of the individual States over the general government ; he had opposed the adop- tion of the Constitution and the new finance system. For Vice-President, Adan.s had seventy-seven votes, Clinton fifty, Jefferson four. Burr one. An eminent British authority says, ''In 1793, the ministry of Pitt, without any real cause, de- clared war against the French republic, in spite of the opposition of Fox and Sheridan."* Both British and French authors are generally very obscure in assigning causes for this needless * Chambers's Cyc!opa;dia, Article on Great Britain. THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 125 war, began by George the Third, Pitt, and the French Convention. It was to continue till the middle of 1815 — twenty-two long years — except the intervals from March 27, 1802, to May 24, 1803, and again from April 6, 18 14, to March i, 1815. The exciting news of this war reached America in April, 1793. Americans friendly to France prepared to send out privateers against English commerce. Washington was resolved on neutrality. He issued a proclamation April 22, 1793, warning Americans against carrying contraband, and all acts contrary to impartial, friendly conduct towards both belligerents. The Republicans violently assailed this act of Washington as an illegal *' royal edict" unworthy our gratitude to our late allies, the French. Bitter vituperation in politics was the fashion of that day, and its venomous invective was not spared against Washington. The war between England and France, in which Holland and Spain and other powers soon joined, put the ocean trade of Europe largely into the vessels of neutral America. This trade was very profitable to Americans. In 1793 a French de- cree opened the French home and West India ports to American vessels free as those of France.* This benefited Americans. * Jefferson's Life by Randall, Vol. II. p. 151. 126 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. Americans now took most of the rich West India trade and had the richest commerce in the world except that of Great Britain. French, Spanish, Dutch, even English, found it safer to entrust the carriage of their goods to the neutral American vessels, to escape capture by the priva- teers of their enemies who were supposed to respect the neutral flag. Even before this war, England and America had nearly all the ocean China trade. XXXI. IN April, 1793, Citizen Genet came to represent France. He landed at Charleston, where he was received with rapturous admiration. He be- lieved that all Americans were, like Genet. thcsc Southcmers, wild with enthusi- asm for the French Revolution. Be- fore he had reported to the American government as envoy, or been officially recognized, he issued at Charleston commissions to two privateers against British commerce. On his journey from Charleston to Philadelphia, Genet received extravagant attentions. Crowds flocked to meet him. He persisted in schemes likely to involve America in war with England and Spain. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 12/ Washington refused to permit such violations of neutrality. Americans were excited. The two parties took sides for and against Genet. A French ship captured an English vessel in American waters. Washington required Genet to restore the vessel. The popular agitation grew wilder. Genet, very angry, threatened to appeal from President Washington to the people; a means which other French revolutionary agents had used with success in Europe. He expected the warm friendship of Americans for France to overrule the wise measures of Washington. But his insolence and the recent atrocities of the ruling minority in France alienated many Americans; origin, language, religion, literature, manners, and many customs akin, drew them to- ward friendship with the English. They remem- bered that even in the late war many of the real British people were friends to America ; that not all English were partakers in the crimes of George the Third. These Americans, mostly Federalists and mostly Northerners, approved of Washington's measures. The Federalist majority in Congress passed a neutrality act. Republicans charged Washington and the Fed- eralists with hostility to ''free principles," and attachment to England. The Federalists charged the Republicans with contempt of law and order 128 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. and subserviency to France. At Washington's request, France annulled the powers of Genet. Jefferson reported to Congress that American exports were mostly raw material, nearly one half of which go to Britain and its countries ; that im- ports were mostly manufactures, four fifths of which come from there ; that some of those coun- tries exacted heavy duties on American articles and prohibited some of them ; that England's corn laws, navigation act and colonial system restricted American commerce, while England had superior privileges in the United States ; that not one sixth of our shipping was in this trade. He advised an amicable effort to remove these unequal restrictions against America, and if that should fail, to lay the same counter-restrictions. Madison offered resolutions that higher duties be laid on goods and vessels of nations with whom America had no commercial treaties, from which losses of its citizens by the restrictions of such countries should be paid. America had such a treaty with France, but none with England. Then it was that news came t'hat the English ministry had announced it lawful to capture any neutral vessels bound to France with grain or flour. A British ''Order in Council" of June, 1793, declared as a good prize any vessel carjcying corn to France. Under this hostile order many Amer- THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 1 29 ican vessels were captured by British cruisers. America was indignant. A long and sometimes bitter debate followed. Jefferson Republicans argued that America's great dependence on the British for manufactures and her debts to them, were alarming evils ; that they placed the United States at their mercy ; and gave them great influence in American politics ; that by refusing English goods, America was bene- fited by drawing to herself such of their artisans, whose wages she really paid, but who are not permitted to use American productions ; that the United States ought to reciprocate the hostility of England and the friendship of France.* To this the more northern and more commercial men replied that the British make what we want ; they give credit which the French do not ; they sell cheaper than others ; we gain in volume of our commerce; while in 1789. but one half, now in 1794, two thirds of our commerce is by American vessels ; that Virginia owes the British money and supports the restrictive resolutions, while New England owes them little and opposes restrictions, so the British do not appear to influence our politics ; that although England injures us by Holding our western posts and inciting Indians to hostility, yet it is impolitic to adopt trade restric- tions that injure America more than England.! * Hale's U. S., Vol. II. p. 117. t Ihid, p. 118. 130 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. Then news came of the British " Order in Council" of November, 1793, which authorized the detention or capture of all neutral (therefore American) vessels laden with goods from France or its colonies, or carrying provisions or supplies to either. This aroused new indignation. The House passed a Bill prohibiting all trade in articles produced or made in Great Britain ; the Senate finding that Washington wished to try further negotiation, rejected the Bill, but it was only by the casting vote of Vice-President Adams. To prepare for war Congress passed acts to increase the regular army, to organize the militia and to erect fortifications. England modified its November order so as to apply only to vessels bringing produce from French Islands direct to France, and gave assur- ance that most of the American vessels already captured would be released. Thereupon the Fed- eralists opposed anything irritating to England. THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. I3I XXXII. THE people east of the Alleghanies paid most of the import duty. The whiskey tax reached those further west ; their members of Congress bitterly opposed The whiskey it ; they said it was an excise, an Rebellion of odious form of tax, and an inter- ^794. ference in local affairs. In West Pennsylvania officers were resisted. Five hundred insurgents attacked an inspector who was guarded by a few soldiers. Several citi- zens were driven from their homes. Washington sent against the malcontents fifteen thousand militia. This force was too large to be resisted. Several leaders were seized. One was tried and convicted of treason, but was afterwards pardoned. In 1794 Congress prohibited the Slave Trade from American ports. This is the first prohibition by a nation, of that wicked trade, although Vir- ginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts abolished their foreign slave trade before 1789. 132 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. XXXIII. A LGERINE corsairs had captured eleven J^\^ American vessels and taken one hundred Americans prisoners. To protect our commerce a Bill was offered to construct six Trouble with frigatCS. Algiers. The Republicans strongly opposed it, as beginning a permanent navy, expensive, and making payment of the national debt impossible. History, they said, shows that all nations with a navy are heavily in debt. The force was incompetent ; a navy, unless large, would fall a prey to the maritime powers. Peace with Algiers, or protection by other powers, could be bought with less money. Against these arguments were brought the heavier ones that our commerce was exposed and that one hundred Americans were in Algerine slavery. These prevailed. The Bill was passed. Still the United States, like other nations, bought '-^eace with Algiers by paying annual tribute. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 33 XXXIV. GENERAL WAYNE defeated the Indians in battle near the Miami, August 20, 1794. He laid waste their houses and corn- fields and erected forts. In 1795 a Wayne's cam- treaty with these Indians permitted paign, 1794. the peaceful settlement of Ohio. The land was bought for a trifling price, but far higher than it was worth for mere hunting purposes. The purchase gave wheat bread to the natives, which was to them a valuable change from their former meager diet. So the sale, in- stead of impoverishing the Indians, gave them comparative wealth. XXXV. WASHINGTON sent John Jay to England to negotiate. The treaty made by Jay with England allowed to the British free inland navigation in the United States ; opened American ports to British jay's English vessels ; left Canadian ports closed to Treaty. American vessels ; bound the United States to guarantee to British creditors the collec- tion of such debts as an American could collect ; 134 THE WORLD^S GREATEST CONFLICT. Great Britain to pay American losses by former captures by British cruisers ; no private property to be confiscated in wars ; the United States to have a West India trade for two years, but not to carry West India or East India goods to other countries, nor rice or military or naval stores without special permit ; war ships of either nation to be allowed in the other's ports; foreign enemies of either country not to arm privateers in the other's ports or to sell prizes there ; no reprisals to be made against each other till demand for satisfaction is refused ; rendition of escaping criminals. Mr. Jay proposed abolition of privateering, but the British minister, Grenville, refused. This treaty, so favorable to England, so inviting it to future aggression on America, by barring retaliatory penalties, met with great opposition. Republicans vehemently opposed it ; so did others. By public meetings, resolutions, remon- strances, they denounced it. They alleged that it favored England ; was not favorable to France ; was for the benefit of the North ; failed to secure pay for slaves who fled with the British army ; did not allow Americans to have a permanent trade to the British West Indies ; did not provide against the impressment of American seamen by the British ; they declared that it acknowledged naval stores to be contraband, while France did not ; that it rejected the great idea held by America, THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 35 Russia, Denmark, and admitted by France, that an enemy's goods were not liable to capture in vessels of neutrals. Some of these were, indeed, very grave objections. As the news of its terms became public, the people from Boston to South Carolina received it with a storm of execration. All Republicans and many Federalists censured it. Now they charged that it exceeded the treaty-making power. The treaty entirely satisfied nobody. Washing- ton had ''several objections" to it. By his influ- ence however the Senate ratified it by a vote of twenty to ten ; exactly the two thirds required to ratify a treaty. But the Senate annulled the inland navigation article. Washington believed it was best to ratify it, as these were the best terms obtainable. He signed it, August 14, 1795, in the face of the popular clamor. The first treaty ever made by the United States was that of 1778 with France, in which France made the then vast concession to the United States that from a neutral vessel, no cruiser can seize any goods belonging to enemies of the cruiser's nation. England still refused this exemption from its practice which France had freely accorded. France was offended by this Jay treaty. France now revived old treaty restrictions on American commerce. 136 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. England had not rescinded, but renewed its order to seize provisions going to French ports. England still impressed American seamen to serve an indefinite time in the British navy. A British frigate boarded an American vessel between New York and Newport in an attempt to seize the French minister. The minister escaped, but the British took away his papers. The House, sixty-two to thirty-seven, demanded the instructions given to Jay. Washington refused. In 1796, he laid the treaty before the House. Here it had many enemies. A long debate followed ; its friends, including Washington, claimed that it was now law complete and binding. The opposition Republicans insisted that a treaty which requires appropriation of money or any act of Congress to give it effect is not valid till the House has acted on it; that the House might make or withhold action without breaking faith. The House voted, fifty-seven to thirty-five, that the House has a right to consider the expediency of giving effect to treaties on subjects committed by the Constitution to Congress. As this treaty required money, the House voted by two majority, that it is expedient to make the appropriation. The Republican members retired from Wash- ington's cabinet. By Jefferson's party Washing- ton was assailed with clamor and abuse. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. I37 XXXVI. SPAIN feared that the spirit of American liberty might be carried into its great American possessions. During negotiations for American independence it had tried secretly to have the western boundary of the The position United States fixed several hundred of Spain, miles east of the Mississippi. Now it refused to make a trade treaty or join in a plan for the mutual use of that river ; it denied access to the sea, in the hope that Kentucky would come into Spanish possession to gain that route. The Kentuckians were enraged. War existed between France and Spain. Genet, in 1794, prepared in Kentucky to seize Louisiana. Spain was alarmed. In October, 1795, a treaty was made which gave to Americans the free use of that river to the Gulf, and the right to deposit goods at New Orleans. 138 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. XXXVII. IN September, 1796, Washington issued his fare- well address, which is still wise counsel against disunion, sectional dislikes, party spirit, and inter- national favoritism. Washington's The general election of November, Farewell. 1 796, gave John Adams seventy-one and Thomas Jefferson sixty-eight elec- toral votes. The Constitution then required that the one having the highest number be President, and the one with the next highest number, Vice- President. Adams and Jefferson were inaugurated March 4, 1797. P'rance claimed that the treaty of 1778 granted to her all that could be acquired by any other power, and ordered its cruisers to treat neutrals as neutrals permitted England to treat them, to seize British property on American vessels, and all food supply going to England. France had hoped for the election of its friend Jefferson, as President. Washington had sent Mr. Pinckney to Paris and recalled James Monroe a well-known friend to the French. Now France refused to receive a new minister from the United States until *' reparation of grievances," and com- pelled Pinckney to leave France. Under the excitement of this situation President THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONElICT. 1 39 Adams called Congress in special session, May 15, 1797. He urged it to create a navy, to fortify harbors, to permit merchant ships to arm for self- defense, and to prepare the militia ; he spoke with severity of the injuries done by France. Congress responded with money for several frigates and forts and for the services of eighty thousand militia ; but it refused to make a regular army, or to permit private ships to arm except in East Indian and Mediterranean trade, where pirates were plenty. This permission to arm was given in 1798. In May, 1797, the frigate United States was launched. It was the only American frigate. We had not a single ship of the line ! Jefferson's Repub- lican party, ruled by agriculturists, was bitterly opposed to having a navy. The French directory was arbitrary. It confis- cated many American vessels charged with having British property on board ; it went further and seized others for lack of usual " sea-letters " and signed lists of seamen, neither of which our ships ever carried, so this was pure, intentional outrage on us. Adams sent an extraordinary mission — three envoys — to France. They found it difficult to get an interview with Talleyrand, the French minister of foreign affairs, but they were met and beguiled by irresponsible servants of the Directory, who in- sisted that they should make a gift of fifty thousand 140 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. dollars to Talleyrand or the Directory, and furnish a large loan as a condition that captures of Ameri- can vessels should be stopped. Our envoys had the weakness to permit this absurd talk through several conversations, and the indiscretion to send home detailed reports of it, which in the highly inflamed state of the public mind could not fail to do great harm. It caused a fierce burst of indig- nation throughout America. Jefferson's party in- stantly became a smaller minority than before. Most Southern slaveholders were violent French Democrats ; yet they bought and sold human beings and lived from forced labor. They denounced well-to-do Northerners as aristocrats. But, as the war-cloud gathered, even some of these slavery Republicans were either silenced or, for a time, joined in the outcry against France. In and out of Congress the war spirit blazed. Congress authorized the President to increase the miniature navy, to use two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for harbor fortifications, eight hundred thousand dollars for arms, to seize armed aggressive vessels, and to enlist ten thousand soldiers in case of war or threatened invasion. It was a strange, infatuated spirit of Americans of those times to seek redress by the suicidal policy of laying destructive embargoes on our own commerce ; a policy far more ruinous to us than all our grievances from France and England. In this insane spirit Congress empowered the THE world's greatest CONFLICT. I4I President to suspend our own great commerce with French countries, the effect of which was to throw away our valuable trade with French West Indies, Holland and Italy, as well as with France ; a heavy blow to America for a slight blow to France. Congress, in 1798, authorized merchant ships to resist French search or seizure, and to capture such aggressors. Treaties with France were de- clared annulled. Naval ships and privateers were to capture French armed ships. Twelve regiments of infantry, two million dollars of direct war tax, and five million dollars loan were authorized. XXXVIII. THE American press already had vast influence. Newspapers may rule a reading, intelligent country. More than one hundred then existed. Philadelphia had eight dailies — as many as Napoleon afterwards allowed The American France ; New York had five, Balti- Press. 1798. more two ; Boston had five semi- weeklies ; an attempt to support one daily had failed. Publisher, printer and editor were gen- erally the same man. Dictionary Noah Webster, editor of the leading Federalist paper, the Minerva, was editor only ; an exception. Outside of New England most newspaper men 142 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. were foreigners, especially the Jefferson Repub- licans. Newspaper essays were the fashion. Ferocious epithets abounded with richest license. Slander, bitter invective, seemed alike in Ameri- can and British press and in English diplomacy, to outrun common sense. Verbal outrages were extreme. William Cobbett fairly shook parties, as, when a libel verdict drove this English tory home he turned radical, and stirred up England against George the Third's ministry. Many Americans — the Republican party — mis- took the French Revolution for real democracy in which the real people must rule. In France it was not the people, but violent usurping faction that ruled. Democracy is not license. The moment the real people cease to rule or one is permitted to injure another, then real democracy has ceased. Foreign writers violently denounced the meas- ures of Adams' administration. They stirred up friends of France and dislikers of England to bit- ter, invective opposition. The Federalists majority in Congress retaliated by passing the famous Alien law, which required fourteen years residence and five years previous declaration of intentions before an alien could become a citizen. All aliens must be registered. Any alien whom the President judged to be dangerous must leave the country or be forcibly removed. In case of war, natives of countries hostile to us might be secured, removed or required to give security for good behavior. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. I43 July 14, 1798, the "Sedition Law" followed, to restrain Americans from abuse of speech and of the press, from defaming Congress or the Presi- dent, exciting hatred against them, stirring up sedition, making unlawful combinations to resist the laws, or aiding foreign enemies. Severe penalties were attached to violation of these two laws. These laws contained an un-American spirit ; a spirit foreign to the English and American race. They aroused a fierce discussion. The Federal- ists had made a great mistake. Pitt had an alien law in Britain, and the spirit of the English was against it. In both countries the spirit of Hberty and justice opposed such laws. The existence but non-enforcement of Pitt's alien law helped to pro- voke renewal of British war with France in 1803. Libel was common in both America and Britain. The Adams alien law was never enforced, so the Federalists incurred all its great odium for no advantage whatever. Under the Adams sedition law were very few prosecutions. Matthew Lyon of Vermont, a mem- ber of Congress, Charles Colt, a Connecticut pub- lisher, Thomas Cooper and J. T. Callender were prosecuted, convicted, fined and imprisoned for defamation of the President. It was mainly these petty affairs in which a great free principle was outraged, that drove the Federalist party from power in 1801. 144 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. XXXIX. NOVEMBER 10, 1798, Kentucky's legislature passed resolutions, written by Thomas Jefferson, that the Union is a compact ; " that as in other cases of compact between Kentucky parties having no common judge, each "Nuiiifica- party has equal right to judge for tion," 1798. itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measures of redress." This principle would permit any one State to block the general government. The national gov- ernment is itself really the *' common judge " be- tween States. These resolutions pronounced the Alien and Sedition acts '' not law, but altogether void and of no force; " " that every State has a natural right, in cases not within the compact, to nullify of their own authority, all assumptions of power." They asked other States to concur and to take meas- ures of resistance. Virginia responded, but more mildly. Jefferson and his party were then strict con- struers of the Constitution ; they denied that it gave any power whatever not stated in plain words. With this the Federalists took issue. After Jeffer- son and his States Rights party came into power, they went to the opposite extreme in practice THE world's greatest CONFLICT. I45 when acquisition of territory and embargo became the great questions, while Federalists, led by Josiah Quincy, made the opposite change by insist- ing on the strict letter of the Constitution ; thus, after 1801, came the strange spectacle of the two great parties exchanging ground. XL. BETWEEN 1795 and 1805 France sent great expeditions for the conquest of Ireland, Egypt, Syria, Malta and St. Domingo. Every- where it was ready to conquer and to dictate. Had England maintained American war peace it is probable that France with France, would have secured and colonized 1798-99- the immense country, that is now that of the United States west of the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. This was a startling prospect for the United States. In 1796, Barras, head of the French Directory, asserted to James Monroe that the United States owes its liberty to France, and efforts were made to require us to pay tribute to France. From that time forward for years the French government was not friendly to the American republic. The French were terrible alike to friends and foes. They continued to imprison our seamen. The idea of war with France was distasteful to 146 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. Americans. America then had more merchant vessels and more sailors than any other nation except Britain. Much of the French carrying trade was done by our vessels, because French vessels were a good prize to the British with whom France was at war. During six months of 1795 British war ships impressed forty-two American seamen; the French decree of July 2, 1796, ex- posed these helpless impressed Americans to be hanged if captured by the French. In the West Indies French cruisers made prisoners of nine hundred American seamen, and the British gen- erously liberated two hundred of them by exchange. In 1797 French cruisers preyed on, and British cruisers protected, our West India vessels. The embargo forbade clearing of our vessels except for the East Indies or the Mediterranean. Many did sail despite embargo. Holland presented a sad warning against reli- ance on the French government. Its patriots had been friendly to France, and France had practi- cally usurped their government and held it till the fall of Napoleon in 18 14. Spain's experience gave the same timely warning. The French minister, Talleyrand, threatened to ravage our coasts. January 18, 1798, the Directory forbade any ves- sel that had touched at an English port to enter France, and declared as good prize any vessel with English goods or colonial produce on board. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. I47 This meant American vessels. This so aroused Americans that citizens quickly subscribed $yiir 700 for war vessels. War with France existed. Decatur took the first French prize — a twenty-gun privateer. Thirty thousand muskets were bought. A French agent was arrested in Kentucky. Recruiting an army was commenced. President Adams appointed Washington lieutenant-general of the prospective army. Alexander Hamilton was second in command, but seems to have been then engaged in a conspiracy with General Miranda, a South American, and with the British government, for separating the Spanish posses- sions from Spain, which must have involved America in war with Spain as well as France. In November, 1798, the French corvette Retali- ation was captured by an American ship, refitted, and then taken by the French. In 1798 a British squadron boarded at sea the American war sloop Baltimore, took from her fifty-five seamen, sent back fifty, and carried off the other five. The American captain protested, struck to superior force, but the Government dis- missed him from the navy for lack of spirit, and authorized armed vessels to resist all attempts to impress from their crews. In 1799 the American frigate Constellation, Captain Truxton, thirty-eight guns and three hun- dred and nine men, met, fought and took the 148 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. French frigate L'Insurgente, of forty guns and four hundred and nine men. In 1800 the Con- stellation, after a long chase, fought and disabled the French frigate L'Vengeance, of fifty-two guns and four hundred men. L'Vengeance lost fifty killed, one hundred and ten wounded ; the Constellation fourteen killed, twenty-five wounded. In 1800 the sloop Boston captured the French Marceau of twenty-four guns. In all, nearly eighty small French vessels, mostly privateers, were taken by the Americans. The French took fewer American vessels than before the war began. Talleyrand made overtures that he would re- ceive an envoy with respect. Adams nominated three ; Ellsworth, VanMurray and Henry. (Feb- ruary 25, 1799.) Both cabinet and Congress, dominated by Hamilton, were against this step. As it was the habit of Presidents Washington and Adams to retire to their own homes after Congress adjourned, leaving the Cabinet to conduct all but the most important affairs, which were forwarded by the slow mail to the President, Adams now removed the opposition members to make the Cabinet a Federalist unit. The great George Washington died, December 14, 1799, at Mt. Vernon, after an illness of one day. He was almost sixty-eight years of age. America's grief was deep, absorbing. Congress ordered a monument erected at Wash- ington, which is a disgrace to that generation, THE world's greatest CONFLICT. I49 because it represents that great Christian Ameri- can as a half-naked pagan Roman. As well represent an American as an Indian or a Hotten- tot. But art continued corrupt for more than forty years later. September 30, 1800, America and France made peace. Each was to restore all captured property not already condemned ; each to pay its debts ; each to put the other's commerce on the *' most- favored-nation " basis; free ships to make free goods ; old treaties and indemnity to wait further negotiations. Our Senate ratified all but the old treaties clause — it regarded them as ended — and delay of French payment of indemnity. Bonaparte construed this action as relinquishing both, and as he never paid anything when he could re- pudiate it, he thus ratified it and America assented in 1801. The war spirit declined ; Congress enacted suspension of enlistments and discharge of most of the new army. Hamilton's ambitious scheme of conquest had fallen. It was for Aaron Burr to try that scheme later. A navy was unpopular and Congress, in 1800, authorized the sale of all but thirteen frigates. A man was charged with mutiny and murder as Thomas Nash ; was claimed by a British consul under the extradition clause of Jay's treaty. He made oath that he was born in Connecticut, and 1^0 THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. that he was impressed into the British service. He presented a notarial certificate granted him in New York long before, as Jonathan Robbins. The President instructed the court to surrender him on such testimony as would justify his commitment for trial had the offense been committed in Amer- ica. He was tried at Halifax by court-martial and hanged. Many persons severely censured the President's act ; resolutions in the Senate charg- ing the President with a dangerous interference with the duties of the judiciary were defeated by about the usual party vote. Mobs resisted the direct tax in Pennsylvania. Without resistance about thirty rioters were ar- rested. Some of them were rescued. Troops and militia were sent there. P>ies, a ringleader, and two others, were tried and convicted of trea- son. President Adams pardoned them. The government was removed to Washington, D. C, in June, 1800. In the election of 1800 the Republican candi- dates for President and Vice-President were Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr ; the P'ederalist candidates were John Adams and Charles C. Pinckney. In the electoral college, elected by the people of the States, Jefferson and Burr had each seventy- three votes, Adams had sixty-five and Pinckney sixty-four. There was no choice. The constitu- tion provided that the one having the highest THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 15I number should be President, and the next highest Vice-President. The House of Representatives voting by States must choose from the two highest candidates. An effort was made to reverse the intention of the people and to elect Burr President. The first ballot Jefferson had eight States, Burr six ; divided equally, two. The House balloted thirty-five times without choice. On the thirty-sixth ballot, Feb- ruary 17, ten States voted for Jefferson, four for Burr (New England), two were blank (Delaware and South Carolina). Fifteen days more without choice would have ended the Constitutional gov- ernment. It was the Federalists who had voted during the thirty-five ballots to make a man presi- dent whom the people had not intended for that office. This wanton violation of the spirit of the constitution swept many men away from the Federal party. They viewed this mad attempt to reverse the people's will, with astonishment, alarm and indignation. Burr, a bad, selfish, immoral man, did not decline such support. The Republican party now disavowed him. The election of Jef- ferson was effected by an assurance from him that he would support the nation's financial credit ; that he favored a navy, and did not intend to dis- place fair-dealing holders of minor offices for par- tisan reasons. The Federalist majority passed an act to estab- lish twenty-three judicial districts in six circuits, 152 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. in five of which were created the offices of a chief justice and two associates. These judgeships Adams filled up very near the close of his term, with Federalists, greatly to the dissatisfaction of the Republicans, Henceforth the Federalists, lately so powerful, were but a defeated minority. The Alien and Sedition laws, house tax, stamp taxes, the new court law, and the effort to defeat the people's election by trying to make Burr president, the monarchial or class ideas of Hamilton's wing of the Federalist, had ruined that party. In 1801 not a governor or State legislature was Federal except in Delaware, Massachusetts and two other New England States. These Alien and Sedition laws and that for non-intercourse with France, expired on the day of Adams' retirement, March 4, 1801. The new judiciary law was soon after repealed (March 1802). The army was reduced to three regiments ; about three thousand men commanded by one brigadier-general. - ' , The United States internal taxes were abolished. Naturalization requirement was reduced from four- teen years' residence to five. The Republicans wanted little navy ; no standing army ; no direct national internal taxes. The Federalists wanted all these. : ' The census of 1800 showed the population to be 5,305,666 whites and 1,002,037 colored.* The new * Chambers's Cyclopaedia, Va). XIV. p. 710, THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 53 ratio for members of Congress was thirty-three thousand ; the number of members one hundred and forty-one, of which seventy-six were from eight free States and sixty-five from the eight slave States. XLI. PUBLIC lands were sold at vendue and only at the Treasury or at Pittsburg and Cincin- nati ; all at a distance from settlers, and in tracts of not less than six hundred and forty acres. William H. Harrison, delegate united states, from Ohio, procured for the settlers a isoo. reform of this inconvenience, with land offices easy of access and land at two dollars an acre on credit. As in colonial times England had pro- hibited manufactures in America, and, since the sep- aration, tariff protection was insufficient to cause them to grow up as they were then growing in France under strong protection, the specie was nearly all drained from America and everybody wanted credit. The East almost alone had specie in plenty, because the East was commercial. The Connecticut reserve, settled from New Eng- land, became the northeast part of Ohio. Missis- sippi became a territory. Indiana was organized a territory, with Harrison as governor. Bonaparte's Egyptian projects had failed. He 154 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. suddenly appeared October 9, 1799, in France, pre* ceded by news of his Turkish victory of Aboukir. His military renown, simplicity of manners, favor to science, and the labors of his secret faction, gave him welcome. His coming caused extreme sensa- tion. The Directory was alarmed, the Republicans dismayed. French public offices were elective ; he might probably have obtained power by regu- lar means without force, yet he chose to use force. For a time he avoided public places. His dress was simple, he declined important calls to fetes, he met the great lawyers, discussed civil and criminal law and commended a simpler and bet- ter code. Still military spirit was not that of France. A great lawyer, scientist or literateur was preferred to a mere soldier. Many leaders were not soldiers. The civil took precedence. Simplicity was popular. It had helped Marat, Robespierre and Danton to power. It might serve Bonaparte. He went with great civilians ; wore the Institute dress.* But he was intriguing. Of the three parties the Republicans had Berna- dotte, Augereau, Jourdan and Marbot. Barras and Sieyes [each led a party which sought supre- macy over France], Ducos and the Republicans, Moulins and Gohier, were the discordant Direc- tory in power. The Sieyes party was influential, but not ener- * Memorial of St, Helena. THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. 1 55 getic. Siey^s "could not be a dangerous rival,"* while Republicans would not accept a master. XLII. AMONG great soldiers who were republican leaders Bonaparte might have found rivals. "Have Barras take care of the military party, par- alyze Bernadotte, Jourdan and Auge- reau and gain over Sieyes," advised The coup Fouche. An overture was made to d'etat. Nov 9, Barras, but he indicated that he ex- ^799- pected to be at the head of the new government. Bonaparte left him without giving him a hint of his own designs. That conversation, he said, was decisive. In a few minutes he was with Sieyes. He told Sieyes that for the last ten days he had been applied to by all parties, but that he had resolved to connect himself with that of Sieyes, and the majority of the Council of An- cients. They arranged on the eighth Brumaire, that between the fifteenth and the twentieth the revolution should occur. Bonaparte's emissaries alarmed Barras into suspense, and lulled the vigi- lance of Moulins and Gohier. The Banker Collet lent the conspirators two million francs. This put the conspirators' plan in motion. It matured with great rapidity. The * Fouchfe's Memoirs, Tome I. p. 68. 156 THE WORLD^S GREATEST CONFLICT. garrison of Paris was quietly gained over. Partic- ular reliance was placed in two cavalry regiments that had served with Bonaparte in Italy. Murat, Lannes and Leclerc were employed to conciliate the leaders and principal officers. They soon won over Berthier, Marmont, Serruier, Lefevre, Moncey and even Moreau. Lucien Bonaparte and Regnier treated with a few deputies who were devoted to Sieyes. Thus a multitude of varying opinions and dif- fering interests concurred to facilitate the over- throw of the Constitution. The Minister of War discovered the plot. He informed Moulins and Gohier. He demanded the immediate arrest of Bonaparte. These two direc- tors could not believe the report. They had seen General Bonaparte almost every morning and evening ; his manners appeared so unpretending ; his advices uniformly so disinterested and open, they could not believe him treacherous. How could they imagine that a general who laid aside his military dress for that of a member of the learned Institute, who was never seen in public but in the society of men of science, literary charac- ters, lawyers and philosophers whom nobody feared, and who declaimed to his soldiers about Tarquin and Brutus, could be at the head of a deep-laid conspiracy to overturn the Republic and subject France to military government ? The plan was to dissolve both councils and the THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 5/ Executive Directory, and take supreme power. Sieyes had great influence in the Council of the Ancients. Lucien Bonaparte was President of the Council of Five Hundred. The conspiring members of the Ancients, and those whose weakness was known, were summoned to meet at five o'clock in the morning of the eighteenth ; all the other members were to meet at ten. In this fragmentary council Carnot urged the transfer of the Legislative Assembly to St. Cloud, and to commit the command of the army to Bonaparte. Those members not in the con- spiracy saw the snare. They strongly resisted ; but two hours before the rest of the deputies arrived, the decree was passed giving legal color to the gross usurpation.* General Bonaparte was seconded by many not in the conspiracy, who ignorantly believed they were aiding a legal meas- ure. He had summoned those officers and sol- diers on whom he relied ; each one believed the invitation for himself alone, and expected orders. f When the decree reached him he was surrounded by generals and officers and three regiments of cavalry, most of whom were ignorant of his pur- pose. He addressed them. He declared that he relied on their co-operation to save France ; he showed them his new commission, placed himself at the head of these officers and the fifteen hun- dred horsemen, ordered the generate sounded, and * Memoir by Napoleon, pp. 73-6. t Ibid, pp. 73-4. 158 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. that the decree be published all over Paris as well. The speeches which he is represented to have made to the Ancients differ materially, but Bour- rienne, who was present, says that he made no speech, but delivered '^ a series of rambling, un- connected sentences and confused replies to the President's questions." Sieyes and Ducos resigned; Moulinsand Gohier protested. Gohier was arrested. Moulins escaped. Barras got away from Paris in hot haste. Fouche closed the barriers. It was important to the conspirators that France should know what was passing only from their reports. Bonaparte proclaimed to Paris that the Council of Ancients charged him to take measures for the surety of the national representation. He told the soldiers that he was commissioned to assist in the execu- tion of constitutional measures in favor of the people ; that liberty, victory and peace would soon replace France in the high rank she had occupied among the States of Europe. He promised a '* republic founded upon true liberty; upon civil liberty; upon national representation ;" he swore it. Each of the generals cried out " I swear it." In the evening another council was held. Many would have drawn back. It was too late. The more timid retired. Then temporary consuls were named ; Bonaparte, Sieyes, Roger Ducos. Sieyes proposed the arrest of forty members. "No," said Bonaparte; *' I have sworn this morning to protect THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 1 59 the national representation ; I will not break my oath." The next day the road from Paris to St. Cloud was covered with troops commanded by Murat. Soldiers under Lannes guarded the Legislative Councils. Still the Parisians saw nothing but the execution of an apparently legal decree. So the two Councils in the midst of the troops were with- out means of support from without. They met. The debate became stormy. The conspirators were not in a majority. In the Council of Five Hundred a new oath to the Constitution was demanded. No member dared refuse. The proposal was loudly cheered and opposed. As Bonaparte has described it : "Yells and applause were heard in the hall. The moment was pressing. Many members pronounced the oath, and the influence of such discourse made itself felt among the troops; all spirits were in suspense ; the tide was against the conspirators ; the zealous became timid ; the timid had already changed banners ; there was not an instant to lose." * Bonaparte was in the greatest peril. Then Bonaparte arrived from the Council of Ancients, followed by a company of grenadiers. The instant the deputies saw him and his military escort they broke out into the wildest disorder. The whole body stood up and expressed by loud shouts and execrations their resentment at this * Memoir by Napoleon, Vol. I, p. 87. l60 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. invasion of their sacred privileges ; this profana- tion of the temple of the law. " You violate the sanctuary of the Law, retire," cried many deputies. Bonaparte tried to speak from the tribune. From all parts he heard repeated cries : '' Vif la ConstiUc- tion ! Vif la Repitblique !'' From all sides the invective 'M bas Cro7nwell!'' ''A has V Dicta- tor !^' ^^ Tyrant ! You make war on your coun- try!'' cried Arena, and showed his poniard. The grenadiers were alarmed. They traversed the hall to protect their general. He threw himself into their arms ; they carried him out. Bonaparte, the bold usurper, was panic-stricken. In a frenzy of defeat he remounted his horse and galloped wildly away, crying to the soldiers, ''They have attempted my life ! " But for the prompt action of Murat at this crisis, the subsequent destiny of Bonaparte had all been changed. The Consulate ; the Empire would never have been ; the history of Europe for the next fifteen years would all have been differ- ent. Other men would have been at the head of France ; other soldiers would have led her armies ; while Bonaparte would, probably, have suffered punishment as a political felon for his attempt to assassinate the Republic. The Second Empire, too, would never have existed. There would have been no Austerlitz and no Waterloo ; no Magenta and no Sedan. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. l6l But at this, one of the most critical moments of his eventful career, his presence of mind appears to have totally failed him. He was saved by the decisive energy of Murat, who rode up to him, and, calling out that it is not fitting that the con- queror of so many potent enemies should be over- come by a few noisy blockheads, turned his horse's head toward the hall and led him into the midst of the soldiers, who, less frightened than their general, still remained around it. The most horrible tumult continued in the hall. Lucien Bonaparte, the President, was loudly re- quired to put the vote for the outlawry of his brother. Vainly Lucien entreated a hearing. He then attempted to dissolve the meeting. Leaping from his chair, he threw off his official dress and was instantly hurried away by the soldiers. He joined Murat and General Bonaparte, and in his character as President, applied formally for a guard to enable him to dissolve the assembly. General Bonaparte ordered Murat to march into the hall. Five hundred soldiers entered. " I in- vite you to retire ; we can no longer answer for the security of the Council," said a colonel to the deputies. The soldiers pushed the deputies before them ; their red cloaks and hats gradually dis- appeared ; the most obdurate scarcely resisted ; many passed out by the windows near the ground. A small number of deputies favorable to the usurpation were soon assembled. They passed a l62 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. decree constituting a consular executive commis- sion, composed of Bonaparte, Sieyes, and Ducos, invested with complete dictatorial power. A com- mission of twenty-five was selected in each Council to assist the executive power. Thus the reign of assemblies was for a long time ended in France. The Constitution of the year Three was abrogated. On that day Bonaparte and Sieyes declared there should be no oppression ; no proscription ; on the very next day they ban- ished fifty-nine deputies without trial : thirty-seven to Guiana, and twenty-two to Oleron. Bonaparte placed the most respectable names with the worst, hoping to degrade them by this association. This mean policy he usually pursued. The desire of riches, honors, employment, and the terror inspired by his military power ; the fear of being thus confounded with bad characters ; the absence of public discussion ; the lack of means of knowing the real opinions of others ; the suppres- sion of all opportunity for choice ; the subjection of the press, all aided to throw into Bonaparte's train many, till then, sincere lovers of liberty. Sieyes wrote the new Constitution. Five mil- lions of electors in primary assemblies were to prepare a department list of fifty thousand, and these in turn were to elect a national list of five thousand alone capable of becoming agents of the executive power. Municipal and department officers were to be chosen in similar manner. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 63 A conservative Senate of eighty members, called guardians of the public liberties — a misnomer — were to appoint a Tribunate of one hundred mem- bers, who could only discuss such proposals as the Government should make ; and a Corps Legisla- tive who were to vote without power to debate on measures submitted by the Council of State and discussed by the Tribunate. Bonaparte, Cam- baceres and Lebrun were made Consuls. Sieyes, Ducos, Cambaceres and Lebrun chose the senators. Bonaparte appointed a Council of State. New laws were voted rapidly. The journals, except thirteen, were suppressed. It was a fine irony that called the Senate the guardian of liberties, for liberty had ceased. Bonaparte ruled with firm hand. He abrogated several revolutionary laws, amalgamated different parts, and by degrees consolidated a complete des- potism ; all power was in his hands. He caused the suppression of the Vendean and Chouan insur- rection in the west, and perfidiously caused the leader, Frotte, to be killed. The new constitution was proclaimed December 13, 1799. 164 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. XLIII. OUR century began in war. The nations hated each other. Only Americans, British and Swiss had guar- anteed rights. Elsewhere was abso- When this lutc monarchy without constitutions Century or liberty or personal security, began. Sovereigns ruled at will over life, liberty, property. Persons were not free ; hardly owned their own bodies. Labor en- riched nobles, but not laborers. Only Denmark and four American States had forbidden the slave trade. Labor took part in ruling only by paying taxes. The few ruled. When, in 1805-9, Napoleon defeated Austria, the Austrians submitted readily, because it was not a war between peoples or of the people, but of rulers. Such were wars then. Victory, defeat, were mere change of masters. The people gained noth- ing. So Europe itself did not rise against Napoleon till it became a war of the people. In war the pawns were human lives ; the prizes were not human happiness. Had Austria and Russia overthrown Napoleon at Austerlitz, or had he destroyed them at Leipsic, it would have been THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 65 only the triumph of one arbitrary ruler instead of another. Content, comfort, protection, progress, prosperity, happiness, the most exalted blessings, would have had no gain. The great Jenner blessed mankind more than did all Napoleon's wars. James Watt the illustrious, with his steam-engine helped our race more than a thousand Caesars. Fitch, Miller, Symonton and Fulton's steamboat is worth more than ten thou- sand Alexanders. In 1 801, no national Parliament represented a whole people. The American did not represent the colored one fifth of the people, nor the British the common class. The French Chambers were ruled by the man who appointed them — Bona- parte. Even Swiss freedom had fallen under his dictation. Till 1789 the French had no rights. Kings and the high clergy and nobles, only two per cent, of the French, gave hard rule to the ninety-eight per cent. The two per cent, owned two thirds of the land, but their property was exempt from tax, except two per cent, on crops. The poorer class paid all other taxes. The king, his mistress or his favorite could send an innocent person to prison for life without trial. The misery of the poor ; their grinding taxes; the wrongs received from kings and nobles, goaded them to agony ; drove them to resistance ; gave 1 66 THE world's greatest conflict. them fury. Kings and the higher class caused the bloody Revolution ; incited the people to it. Had rule been kind, just, no revolt would have come. The "Reign of Terror" was done, not by France, but by a criminal minority that gained an advantage of the better France. The Revolution was " the outbreak of a people, down-trodden, starved, insulted, spurned and scorned till humanity could bear no more." Frenchmen could not always beat marshes that nobles might sleep. Everything elastic will rebound. So did France from bad king at one extreme to bad mob, the other extreme. Despotism was atrocious, recoil was terrible. Former victims sought vengeance. It was a cruel period : of war, privateers, press- gangs, slave trade, slavery, serfdom, intolerance, anti-neutral rights, brute force, war on trade, denial of manhood rights, debasement of labor. On the day the invaders who came to restore despotism were defeated at Valmy, September 20th, 1792, the Assem.bly had declared France a Republic. Revolutionary France was never a free Repub- lican Democracy. Democracy is the rule of the people, by the people, for the people.* France was not this. A republic is rule by freely chosen representatives of the people. The Terror was not that. * Abraham Lincoln. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 6/ Most political convulsions are to benefit the rulers ; few are for the good of the commons. The British, American and French Revolutions were exceptions. By 1801, France, Genoa, Holland and the '' Cisalpine Republic " had won constitutions, but were neither democracies nor republics in fact. In 1 80 1 every prominent hereditary monarch, except the Sultan Selim the Third, was insane, stupid or narrow-minded. George the Third of England had all these traits ; insane at times, stupid, small-minded always. He took active part in ruling. Since his day England has much pro- gressed. Since the Reform Act of 1832 the people control Parliament, Parliament controls the ministry, and the ministry controls the sovereign. George was an obstacle to the good of that grand nation. Paul, Emperor of Russia, was half crazy, violent, cruel. His was a bad reign. Frederick William, King of Prussia, lacked dignity, energy, decision, ability ; he was unfit to reign. PVancis the Second, Emperor of Germany, ruler of Austria, was incapable as a leader. Nature intended him for a common peasant. Birth made a great blunder when it made him a ruler. Gustavus the Fourth misruled Sweden. His senators were merely to give advice. He was 1 68 THE world's greatest conflict. rash, erratic ; so unfitted to Sweden that his peo- ple in 1809 expelled him for his foolishness. Denmark's king, Christian the Seventh, was insane from his excesses. Prince Frederick was regent from 1784 to 1808, when he became king. The able Bernstordf was minister. In his time serfdom and monopolies were abolished, and first in Europe, the slave trade prohibited. In Spain Charles the Third died, 1788. The heir to the throne was an idiot ; another disa- greement between Nature and heredity. The heir was set aside. The king's immoral, worth- less second son became Charles the Fourth. " He was the jest of the Queen and her favor- ites." * ** Manuel Godoy, ' Prince of Peace,' the worthless Queen's favorite, ruled : a weak minis- ter, under whom everything became venal." f Queen Maria of Portugal was insane. Her son, Joam, became regent, 1799. Government, army, finance, trade were deplorable. War with France ended in 1801. In Naples Ferdinand the First was little better than his brother Charles of Spain. In 1798 he ran away, while the lazzaroni fought the French for three days. The victorious French declared the *' Parthenopean Republic" (which fell in 1799). Then Ferdinand bought peace of France and received sixteen thousand French troops. Rome had no trade, no navy, no incentives to * Sir Walter Scott. t Ibid. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 169 labor. The Pope ruled. The officials were priests. They encouraged celibacy and beggary. Napo- leon had declared it a '' republic," but it fell again to its old rulers in 1799. While Bonaparte was gone to Egypt in 1799, Austria aided by Russia reconquered all Northern Italy. Austria held Venice. France retook Piedmont, Tuscany, Parma, Genoa, Lucca and Rome in Bona- parte's campaign of 1800. Holland was liberated from its Stadtholder by the French under Pichegru, in 1795. It took its old constitution and made alliance with France. The French ruled it, which caused England to seize its colonies. It was the ''Batavian Republic." The German Emperor Joseph the Second had made reforms before 1789. Belgium, offended, revolted, formed the '' United States of Belgium " in 1790, but yielded to Joseph's successor, Leo- pold the Second, in 1791. In 1794, in war with Austria, the French won Belgium in their victory at Fleurus. In Switzerland the PYench overthrew the old Helvetic Confederacy, in 1798, and forced a new order of affairs. Revolutions followed each other for six years. Napoleon controlled it from 1799 to 1 8 14. The Ionian Isles were subdued by Turkey and Russia and made the "Republic of the Seven Islands" in 1800. 1/0 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. Selim the Third was Sultan of Turkey from 1789 till 1807. In 1788 Russia and Austria tried to divide Turkey. But the Austrians met defeat, while Russia got the country beyond the Dniester. The French attacked Egypt in 1798. In 1 701 Britain ruled beyond ocean perhaps 3,000,000 people ; in 1801 about 100,000,000. * In 1 801 the kingdom's population was 16,319,444; its exports were ^180,000,000; not two thirds per head as much as that of the United States. Brief peace in 1802 increased it, but war in 1803 sent it still lower. England's population,! a. d. 450, was reckoned at 1,500,000. In 616 years it increased to 2,150,000, in 1066, only 431 per cent. During the Norman period, 1066 to 11 54 — 88 years — it gained to 3,350,000 or 55j-% per cent. Under the Plantag- enets, 321 years to 1485 it became 4,000,000 ; barely 6J per cent, for each century. In the Tudor, 118 years to 1603, it rose to 5,000,000 ; about 25 per cent, increase. This is England without Wales. In the next two centuries to 1801, the increase was about 3,609,000; about 36 per cent, a century. From 1801 to 1881, it gained to the astonishing increase of 1851 per cent, to 24,608,391 ; an increase above two and three tenths per cent, a year ; a rate larger each four years than any rate per cent- ury prior to 1485, except in the Norman period. * Census. t J. Fisher's Landholding in England, p. 5. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. I /I XLIV. JANUARY I, 1801, Britain and Ireland became one kingdom. Because Russia, Sweden and Denmark united to resist British search of their ships at sea, England embargoed their War and riot. VCSSCls. 1800. Denmark shut out the English from the Elbe. Prussia occupied free Bremen and George the Third's Hanover. England took Denmark's and Sweden's West India Islands. Admirals Parker and Nelson destroyed most of the Danish fleet, and the Russians murdered their Czar Paul. This stopped the war, broke the union, and peace was made, each giving up what had been taken. The peace of Luneville, February 9, 1801, left only France and Britain at war. It separated Austria and the Cisalpine by the Adige, left all west of the Rhine to France, gave up part of Ger- many as spoils to be divided among rulers by Bonaparte and the Czar. Malta was to go to its knights of St. John. England's distress in 1800 was frightful. Small harvests and useless war made famine. Still the ministry harassed neutral ships, thus frightening away cargoes of needed food. Any 172 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. American or English ship was liable to lose its seamen, forcibly taken to serve in the British navy. Wheat was four dollars a bushel. Bread mobs rioted. Hunger was raging. By December it was worse. Wheat was higher, hunger more severe, mobs more angry. The min- istry suspended the great safety of Britons — the habeas corpus — so as to make arbitrary arrests. But famine grew stronger ; its riots gave wild alarm for social danger. By the spring of 1801 it was still worse ; bread still higher, the poor still poorer. The poor rate took twenty-five million dollars ; it had doubled in eighteen years. Men were not safe; press gangs prowled and kidnaped ; men disappeared to perish in the navy abroad. British liberty was limited ; imports of food turned the balance of trade against this greatest of trading nations. Pitt's war and Pitt's prodigality had sent abroad England's gold and silver to hire nations to fight France. Gurth, thrall of Cedric, with iron collar, was less miserable than George the Third's press-gang victims. Gurth, the slave, had friends around him ; the pressed man had none ; Gurth was safe from harm ; the pressed man had many harms. Gurth had the free woods and fields ; the pressed man's hammock hung on deck in the cold winds THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 73 of Northern seas, or perhaps was below decks in the stifling heat of the Indies. Gurth slept peace- fully at night ; the pressed man was exposed to all the night storms and gales and billows and fevers of African lagoons. Happily progress has swept such governments as that of George the Third from Britain. XLV. IRELAND was never conquered by Romans or Northmen. Many small and five principal tribes once existed. Roderic O'Connor of Con- naught was nominal head. McMurrough, King of Leinster, Ireland, was, for offense, deposed. To recover power he engaged Norman knights, under Strong- bow, who then married his daughter, usurped rule, beat Roderic himself, seized much land and divi- ded it among his co-robbers. The Irish were never under the see of Rome till Pope Adrian the Third, by a Bull, in 1 1 56, ex- horted Henry the Second of England to invade Ireland to extirpate vice and wickedness, and compel natives to pay to the Pope a penny a year for every house. The Pope gave entire authority to Henry, and commanded obedience to him as their king. Henry made a progress, received homage, and 1/4 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. shortly returned to England, leaving Strongbow as his seneschal. Law and equity were soon little known. *' Palatinates were erected in favor of the new adventurers, independent authority conferred ; the natives, never fully subdued, re- tained their animosities against their conquerors ; their hatred was retaliated by like injuries." * Under Henry the Eighth '' the English law courts, ignoring the Irish custom by which the land belonged to the tribe at large, regarded the chiefs as the sole proprietors." f Thus England originated Irish landlords. '' Landlordism kept the bulk of the people in worse than Egyptian bondage ; held them in igno- rance of the real sources of their misery ; exacted from them the highest rent that could be obtained by subdivision of the land ; and by this multipli- cation of small holdings, left them to multiply upon the barest amount of subsistence, and with the total absence of the ordinary decencies and comforts of the humblest life." J Three fourths were Catholics, and English law of 1 69 1 excluded Catholics from Irish parliament. The English Act of 1760 took away their right of voting. By act of Queen Anne, Irish Catholics were excluded from civil rights, civil service, army and * Hume's History of England, Vol. I. p. 333. t Green's (English) History of England, p. 204. t Knight's (English) History of England, Vol. VIL p. 115. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 75 navy commissions, from magistracy, from fran- chise, from any part in Irish government. A Catholic could not be a lawyer ; could not defend a Catholic in court. Education was forbidden. Teaching a Catholic school or family was felony. Catholics could not buy or inherit land ; they could rent only on uncertain tenure, and must pay rackrent for their own improvements. Law bribed children to betray parents. A child, by becoming Protestant, could dispossess his father and take his property at once. English law shut out Irish cattle from English market, forbade Irish products foreign market, hin- dered Irish manufactures, burdened Irish industry, barred its progress, prevented its prosperity. This system kept the Irish very poor and very hopeless. The Irish parliament in Dublin could initiate no business. All must first be approved by the British ministry. It was merely a tool of the min- istry. It did not represent Ireland or the Irish. Said Grattan (1793) : '' Of three hundred mem- bers, above two hundred are returned by individ- uals ; from forty to fifty are returned by ten persons ; several burroughs have no resident elector at all" ; two thirds were chosen by less than one hundred persons. The Irish rebelled in 1798. The revolt was forcibly suppressed. By persuasion, pressure and money, George 1/6 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. the Third and Pitt obtained a vote of this parlia- ment for union with Great Britain. The British Parliament passed the Act January i, 1801, and Britain and Ireland became one kingdom with one parliament, with twenty-eight Irish temporal, and four Protestant church peers, and one hundred Irish members of the House of Commons. Revenue taxes were proportioned fifteen for Britain to two for Ireland, though Ireland was half as populous as Great Britain. Ireland was to have the same trade and naviga- tion laws, and treaty rights ; it kept its law courts, and had appeal and writ of error to the House of Lords. Pitt prepared to give to Catholics all the rights of Britons. The king refused. They must still be excluded from corporations, Parliament, and from army and navy office. *' That reconciliation of races and sects without which the Union could exist only in name, was not accomplished."* * Macaulay. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. I// XLVI. IN 1801 Germany was the fifty-fourth part of Europe : 208,613 square miles. The German Empire had three Chambers, (i) Electoral col- lege of eight votes, held by the Arch- bishops of Mentz, Cologne and Germany. Treves, and the electors who were sovereigns of Bohemia, Bavaria, Saxony, Branden- burg, and Brunswick-Luneberg or Hanover. (2) College of Princes of the Empire, spiritual and temporal, each with a vote. (3) Fourteen Rhen- ish and thirty-seven Swabian free, imperial cities, each with a vote. These were the Diet. The Emperor was referee. He could refuse sanction, but could not modify decisions. Meet- ings were usually called by the Emperor at Ratis- bon twice a year. The Diet could make laws, war, peace or taxes. Aulic Council and Cameral decided disputes between members. Forty-four free towns were little republics, each with local rule. The Emperor had little power ; the Diet much. Yet each of nearly one hundred ruling nobles was absolute in his domain. Nobility was strict caste ; a poor noble would not have married the richest plebeian heiress. The High Church places were held by hereditary aristocracy. Pride of birth 1/8 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. was extreme. Nobles held extreme power to tax, or use or sell the service of common people, as several sold their subjects to George the Third to fight Americans in 1777.* A noble's children are nobles, while in England only the oldest son is a noble. British peers are under law ; continental nobles were above law. Only nobles could hold army or navy office. British peerage and office are open to all to aspire. Till Von Stein's reforms in Prussia, began in 1807, a commoner could not buy a noble's land. Nobles' property was exempt from land tax, which made the tax heavier on commoners. Military flogging was allowed till 1808-9. Free jury trial was unknown. Popular education, now so com- plete, did not exist. Then, as now, were three classes : nobles, burghers and peasants ; profes- sional men, merchants, artists and many public officers are burghers. February 3, 1801, Pitt proposed to resign, know- ing that the king would ''influence others on the Catholic question," but promised his assistance to a new ministry. George accepted. For weeks, till March 7, George was again insane. When his mind returned, he accused Pitt of making him ill. Pitt's answer was ''most dutiful, humble, contrite." He said he would give up the Catholic question. f That Pitt lacked * Bancroft, Vol. V. p. 12. t Pitt to George, March, 1801. THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. I/Q conscience is here strongly indicated. Pitt, who did not wince at the world's misery from the bloodshed which he instigated and subsidized, be- trayed his own measure, failed in his own promise to a great people, to please this George of whom Thackeray says : " He bribed ; he bullied ; he darkly dissembled on occasion ; he exercised a slippery perseverance and a vindictive resolu- lution,"* At the moment when so weak toward George, Pitt was planning the bloody Copenhagen calamity, and the useless Egyptian campaign of 1 80 1, though the French in Egypt had offered to surrender and be sent to France. He left office March 14, 1801. With him went out Lord Gren- ville, whose advice, taken by George, lost England her American colonies, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and whose ill-mannered reply to Bona- parte's overtures for peace in 1799 angered both English and French. The old Whig leaders re- tired also (Wyndham and Spencer). A just and able king would have made a cabinet of the wisest and ablest men. But George was obstinate. He called " up the rear rank of the old ministry to form the front rank of the new minis- try. In an age preeminently fruitful of parlia- mentary talents, a cabinet was formed, containing hardly a single man who, in parliamentary talents, could be considered as even of the second rate."t They relied on Pitt ; he took his seat behind * Thackeray, George the Third, t Macaulay, Life of Pitt. l80 THE world's greatest CONFLICT, them ; was still the active power of their Tory ministry. England saw the situation with dismay. New taxes, famine, bread riots, the coin gone to pay foreign subsidies. British cargoes, for less danger, were seeking American vessels ; trade was suffer- ing; press gangs busy; the British stood utterly alone; the treaty of Luneville (February 9, 1801) had given Europe peace, but George and Pitt had held aloof. Not a nation of the world sympathized with George and Pitt. The new premier, Henry Addington, was not an able man. He released men arrested arbitrarily by Pitt, but in April he again suspended habeas corpus^ and made war on free British meetings and freedom of speech. XLVII. AT sea every nation now has control over its public and private vessels and punishes crime committed on them. No nation has a right to visit or search the vessels of The Right of another nation at sea. Search. Then George the Third claimed the right to stop, board and search the private ships of any nation, and take away such seamen as were believed to be British born, and such of the cargo as he called contraband. By THE world's greatest CONFLICT. l8l force he exercised this dangerous, odious power in defiance of laws, protests, rights and interests of other nations. He seized ships, impressed sea- men from them, took away cargoes, and turned aside vessels from their voyages. Nations engaged in commerce, injured, insul- ted, were indignant. In time of peace — July, 1799 — the Danish frigate Freya, attempting to defend its convoy, was captured and taken as a prize to England. XLVIII. IN 1808 Russia had 41,403,200 people, or 32,129,200, in Europe, and 9,274,000 in Asia. Seven million people had been taken from Poland and Turkey since 1773. Russia, in Nature had forgotten to endow iSoo. the Czar Paul with manly heart and mind. Violent, ignorant, he hated his mother, Catherine the Second, and aimed to make his rule different from hers. At first he raised hope by disgracing his father's murderers, and pardoning Polish prisoners. But no department was free from his frivolous meddling ; no class escaped his arbitrary mischief ; he irritated the soldiers ; he offended the nobles. His ministers, his wife, his children, were not safe from his fury. He guarded his palace as a fortress. He filled the prisons. 1 82 THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. Executions were frequent! He exiled many per- sons to Siberia. He was absolute monarch and his people were powerless to restrain his vicious course. A Russian was as helpless as a Protes- tant in Spain, a Catholic in Ireland, a Jew in England, a Mussulman in Portugal, a Christian at Stamboul ; not quite as hopeless as a Jew in Germany or a slave in Carolina. Russia had but two classes : nobles and com- mons ; as England had two classes, the govern- ing and the governed. In much of Europe was but one class ; the governed. Russians needed British commerce to exchange raw produce for goods. Enraged by the Czar's spoil of English vessels, and by his many vexa- tious acts, they remonstrated. Paul threatened them with exile ; he punished, exiled, impris- oned ; nobody was safe. One night men entered his palace. Paul was asleep. Two Hungarians guarded his bedroom. They resisted, but no help came ; nobody wanted to defend the crazy tyrant ; the Hungarians, seeing numbers against them, ran off; Paul took refuge behind a screen. Some- body held out a paper and said : " Here is your abdication ; sign it and I will answer for your life." Paul resisted ; the light fell ; somebody tight- ened a scarf around his neck, gave him a blow on the head. When light was brought Paul was dead. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 183 With him fell the Northern coalition, nine days before the calamity of Copenhagen. A few days later Paul's son, Alexander the First, was crowned Emperor. Madame Bonneuil wrote : " Before him marched his grandfather's murderers, by his side his father's, and behind him his own." XLIX. THE Danish fleet, six ships of the line, eleven floating batteries, and some smaller vessels, were, in time of peace, attacked by Admiral Parker and Vice-Admiral Nelson, with eighteen ships of the calamity of line and several frigates and smaller Copenhagen, vessels, and destroyed. It was vie- ^prii i, isoi. tory to superior force ; a great outrage when war had not been declared. The Danes made brave defense. Pitt planned this cruelty when minister. Denmark, Sweden and Russia would have been peaceful if only England would let alone their ships and seamen. This alone was why they were preparing for war, that the English seized their ships and sailors. The new Czar, Alexander, made a treaty with Britain in June. Bonaparte sought supremacy ; but England's min- istry wanted to be absolute at sea, the highway of nations that should be free. 1^4 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. L. BERNSTORFF improved the condition of the Danes, allowed a free press, and estab- lished courts of conciliation ; respectable men were to examine each case of conten- Denmark. tion, givc dccisions legal only on consent of both parties, either of whom is at liberty still to try his cause in the regular courts. During three years before this peacemakers' law, 25,521 causes were begun in the law courts ; in the next three years only 9,653, a difference of 15,863 law suits saved. In Holland this system had good results. A few peasants had freeholds ; most of them were tenants ; landlords furnished the first stock and took pay in produce, labor or money. Bern- storff enabled many to buy their land. In 1796 the army was 23,654 regulars, and 50,880 militia. In 1801 the whole navy was twenty-two line ships, ten frigates and some small vessels. Specie was scarce ; too much paper money issued. Potatoes, after great objections, had be- come a common crop. About seventy-five vessels, of forty to two hundred tons, had its West India trade. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 85 LI. IN March, 1801, British and Turkish troops and a British squadron went to Egypt. The French, badly scattered, were defeated near Alexandria, March 21. Attacked by superior force, Bellard surrendered at a wanton Cairo, and the other French at Alex- war. Egypt, andria, August 30, on condition of iSoi. safe conveyance to France. Thus, with great expense of life and treasure, George got precisely what he and Pitt had stupidly refused a year and a half before. And this vast expense when England was starving ! LII. EIGHTEEN- HUNDRED- AND-ONE was again a year of short crops. England suffered terribly. The people were uneasy. They rioted for bread. Shareholders of the Bank of Eng- Famine, land received five per cent, bonus besides seven per cent, interest ; but the people were hungry. The people wanted peace and food. They wanted the bread that the expense of the useless 1 86 THE world's greatest conflict. Egypt war would have bought. England was in alarm. What might not be feared from starving poor men ? Import of food was invited by high bounties. Still George's officers searched neutral ships and George wondered why American and Russian ships did not bring a full supply of wheat. Early in 1801, when George was destroying Denmark's navy, because Denmark wished to pro- tect peaceful commerce, English mobs paraded Windsor streets before George's palace windows. They wanted food. The militia was brought out. Bayonets were paraded. But somehow bayonets did not satisfy British hunger. The mob broke the baker's windows. But British ships that might have brought food were carrying forces to attack peaceful Copenhagen. LIII. IN 1795 Holland passed from the influence of England and Austria to the power of France. When the French army arrived, the Patriots, the worthy and thrifty middle class, ob- Hoiiand. taincd ascendency. Could they have retained it, happy it would have been for Holland. France acknowledged its independ- ence, as the Batavian Republic, May 16, 1795. France received it as an allv, but, taking advan- THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 8/ tage of its disagreeing parties, soon subjected it, practically, to the condition of a province. Sel- dom was country so harassed by friends. It vacillated between a united and a federal republic ; its late ally, England, deprived it of its trade, seized its colonies, blockaded its coasts, barred it even from its own valuable coast fisheries, and de- stroyed much of its fleet. France constantly in- terfered in its affairs, exacted large sums of money, compelled the Dutch to feed, clothe and pay a French army in Holland, freely exposed and lost Dutch ships to the stronger British. Political changes in Paris were repeated in Hol- land. It had its Directory. Then Consul Bona- parte gave it a constitution like that of France, October 17, 1800, with a President to be chosen every three months. Both Dutch Chambers rejected it. The sub- servient Dutch Directory expelled them from their halls. The Constitution was then submitted to a ple- biscit. Of the 416,419 citizens who were voters, 52,219 voted against it ; the rest did not vote at all ; their silence was counted as consent ; the Constitution was proclaimed as adopted. Holland was helpless. It was compelled to submit. Bona- parte announced this fraudulent instrument as "the expressed will of an independent people." * In 1 80 1 another change gave the executive power * Bonaparte to Legislative Body, October, 1800. 1 88 THE world's greatest conflict. to a college of twelve persons, the legislative to thirty-five persons, to assemble twice each year. This form, introduced with difficulty, produced continual party contests. Holland and Belgium, long the victims of Spanish misrule, had been for generations tyrannized by the house of Austria, whose only claim was heredity. It was as liberators that the French army appeared in 1795. It was from the foreign power of Aus- tria that the French rescued them. Up to 1800 France had no conquest of the Dutch and Belgi- ans themselves, nor of the Italians. It was in favor of the former Austrian unloved oppressor that George and Pitt, disregarding the advice of great British statesmen, made their bloody inter- ference in 1 793-1 802 and 1805. But England then had not a representative parliament. In early times the Romans noticed the weaving and love of trade of Belgium. [Gallia Belgtca.'] The middle of the thirteenth century saw it dis- tinguished for industry. After 1492 Antwerp took the lead, and was regarded as a northern Venice. The terribly oppressive Spanish fanatic rule, with its cruel wars in recognition of the bar- barism that a monarch owns his people and has divine right to rule, destroyed its great prosperity ; its important river, the Scheldt, was actually closed to navigation ; it was a beneficent result of the French Revolution that it restored its natural uses. Napoleon restored and greatly enlarged the im- THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 89 portant harbor of Antwerp. Belgium only learned the English mode of smelting iron with coke in 1816; now for iron it ranks next to England. LIV. FOR three years ending with December, 1795, the Bank of England notes averaged ^11,975,573. December, 1800, it had risen to £ 1 5,450,070, a very great excess above its former average before suspension Money, of specie. In the height of bread famine, 1801, a reduction of ;£" 1,500,000 was made. Its bills are the principal means of payments. So this strange reduction, made because the min- istry had forced its credit, added to the horrors of famine, by lack of currency. LV. THAT famine year, less distilled and fer- mented liquors were used ; about half the amount of 1803 or 185 1. The kingdom used 8,800,840 gallons — about a half-gallon a head ; the Irish alone used less Liquors, than a third of a gallon per head, which indicates that the Irish were then less in- temperate than their neighbors. In all countries, at that period, alcoholic liquors were used as a beverage. 190 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. LVI. LUNEVILLE peace (February 9, 1801) left France no enemy but Great Britain. Bonaparte prepared his gunboat fleet at Bou- logne. He would compel Italy, Hol- invasion. land, Spain and Portugal to aid him. Britain held the channel. That was her safety. Lost even for a few days, the French army might cross ; it would be a gigantic struggle, with ages of rivalry to sharpen the tremendous contest. The British ministry chose to continue the war against Bonaparte ; they believed that England was struggling, not for victory merely, but for her very existence. It was also the rivalry that had continued for centuries ; Englishmen and French against each other. LVII. BONAPARTE prompted Spain to war on Portugal, February 22, 1801. Naples had to shut out English ships. Spain held all South America except Brazil and part of Bad Charles Guiana, all North America west of the Fourth. the Mississippi, and Florida, Cuba and other countries. Yet Charles gave to Bonaparte, Parma, five ships of war, a large THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. IQI sum of money and Louisiana, in exchange for the title ''King of Etruria"for his son-in-law, the boy duke of Parma. It was a treacherous deed, a crime, an embezzlement. For this Charles also agreed to close Portugal to English trade. The new boy king was a simple lad, and Bona- parte ruled Etruria just as before ; so he got Spain's property for nothing, and Spain got noth- ing but the disgrace. Tuscany did not belong to Bonaparte or to France ; he had traded what was not his ; he offered to give Lucca also, which was not his, to this boy for three of Spain's frigates, and six " ships of war well equipped," thus to sell another independent State.* This Bonaparte, head of a so-called Republic, had made a king ! LVIIL BRITAIN was first in commerce, the United States next. The American-British trade was then, as now, the richest trade in the world. In 1801 the United States were but sixteen, with about 4,500,000 commerce and whites and 1,000,000 colored persons ; Population, about one third of the 16,319,444 of Great Britain and Ireland, or a little above half Spain's 10,600,000, or Prussia's 9,500,000, one fifth of France's 27,349,000, or Austria's 27,600,000. * Bonaparte, to Talleyrand; March 2, 1801, 192 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. The square miles of area of the United States was 820,000, more than doubled by purchase of Lou- isiana Territory in 1803, with 930,928 ; increased by Florida from Spain in 1819 with 59,270; Texas in 1845 with 247,000; by occupying Oregon in 1803-6 with 280,425 ; by California, Arizona, New Mexico and part of Colorado and Utah in 1848- 1852 with 677,260; and by Alaska from Russia in 1867 with 577,390 to its present magnitude of 3,603,844 square miles. Our exports were one half those of Britain and Ireland ; ^93,020,573 against ^182,500,000 ; to have been in the same proportion to population, theirs should have been $300,000,000. America's were per head one and one half greater than theirs. But we imported twenty per cent, or $18,342,938 more than we exported, and our coin went abroad in payment of difference, to the great damage of home business. In 1803 Britain had nine months of peace, and their exports shot up to $200,000,000; but with war in 1803 they dropped below $150,000,000, and our ships carried part of that. Our cotton crop was ^£48,000,000 against 2,000,000 in 1 79 1. New England had six colleges, the other ten States had sixteen. During war much commerce of Europe was done on American ships because, being neutral, they were less liable to capture. By the war THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 1 93 British ships were shut out of much of Europe. America had little to sell except raw material, be- cause we had little tariff protection to produce factories. Our ships carried for English mer- chants to the continent, where English ships would have been seized. LIX. MANUFACTURES were England's strong- est support that sustained her through the terrible years of that long war, that kept her from bankruptcy. America, with half the population of Britain, produced Manufac- turcs* little, and was flooded withEnglish goods which drained it of specie. Denmark's tonnage in West India trade was but about 9000. France had lost much of its shipping, and with Spain and Holland was almost limited to coast trade. In 1800 Bonaparte professed the doctrine that the flag protects the ship, but he violated it whenever he could with advantage, for America had but the barest shadow of navy to pro- tect our ships. England, with a great navy, was the most powerful nation on the seas. England and Russia agreed to restrain " emi- grants " (Bourbons and Poles) ; to division of plunder in Germany ; to keep Austria and Prussia in balance ; to help Bavaria and Wurtemberg to German spoils ; and to be friendly to the *' king of Sardinia." 194 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. LX. BONAPARTE wished to secure to himself the monarchy hereditary in his family. He meant to extend the boundaries of France and to support it by neighboring Italy, 1801. monarchies under his control, and so amalgamated with his own dynasty that they must be vitally interested to support him and his house. i A so-called Executive Committee of three mem- bers assisted by a legislative Consulta, appeared at the head of the Cisalpine Republic in Italy. All of them were nominated by Bonaparte. They all obeyed his orders. He resolved to govern Italy in a manner differing from his governing of Paris. He invited to Lyons, in France, the most distin- guished citizens of the Cisalpine State, the execu- tive committee of Milan, judges of several tribu- nals, deputies from the bishops, the academies, the artists, the army, the government departments, national guards and chambers of commerce, one from each of the forty cities, and one hundred and forty-eight other Italians, named by himself — in all four hundred and fifty-two. Bonaparte sent Talleyrand to exercise on these visitors the arts of hospitality, conversation and amiability, and to amuse them with the idea of THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. I95 an Italian Republic, which had a ready charm for Italians. They wanted an Italian at their head. Bona- parte was a born Italian. Fie meant to receive the sovereign power. But the Italians had a fear of becoming French subjects. He would use trickery to obtain the power. The old army of Italy had come from Egypt. To impress the Italians he would cause a great display. He ordered that army to Lyons. As was arranged, this army and the populace hailed him with great acclamations on his arrival, January ii, 1802. The Italians were charmed with the display, the courtesies and the honors shown them. It was urged that Italy required the protecting care of one whose name and power might throw over the infancy of its Republic a splendor that should accelerate its manhood. Bonacossi, one of the Italian delegates, says that on the 26th Bonaparte reviewed the army of Egypt. People went out of town to see the spec- tacle. In the absence of many members, Talley- rand hastily caused a meeting, as had been previ- ously arranged with Melzi's party, to take the important vote that Bonaparte should be Presi- dent of the new republic for ten years, and should then be eligible to re-election. Instead of collect- ing the votes, he caused one side to stand up, while the other remained sitting, thus leaving the decision which had a majority for the presiding 196 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. officer to decide. Great was the astonishment of the other members when they heard that in their absence Bonaparte had been chosen President. For fifteen days Bonaparte had interested and flattered the Italians by his amiable appearance, by his splendor, by his apparent wisdom. The French, on their part, were delighted to feel that Italy's national assembly was held in France. An Italian was seemingly put in power to repre- sent the President. This was Melzi, an old court- ier, who could never become dangerous, and had manners of dignity, politeness and vivacity. LXI. THIS *' Italian Republic " was to be practically a monarchy ; the Paris-Lyons constitution was in part dictated by Bonaparte. No laws were admissible except those proposed by The Italian him. Thcrc were, a Council of State, ^^" ^^" a Legislative Body and Ministers. Only seven hundred Italians could vote. Three hundred land owners, two hundred men of learning and science and two hundred traders or manufacturers, chosen by the citizens, were to nominate the Council of State and elect the Legislative Body of seventy-five members, one third to be renewed every two years. They must assemble for two months each year. The laws must be uniform for all parts of the state. The Catholic religion was established, but all creeds THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. IQ/ were tolerated. The Italian Republic was required to raise, pay and feed troops for the new President, and permit a French army in their country and its fortresses. But they were freed from the odious Austrian system ; they could throw off the fetters of the Middle Ages ; they could speak openly to- gether ; they had the appearance of liberty of speech and of the press. In the army they might hope to gain distinction, never possible to them under Austria. Caprice did not usurp the place of law as formerly, and although Bonaparte's policy was annoying and oppressive, it did not carry off Italians to immure them in distant prisons. The ministers were responsible, but Bonaparte was their master. The Ligurian Republic (Genoa) was reorganized, to prepare for union with France, which came three years later. In June, 1802, the Ligurian Senate gave Bonaparte the privilege of appointing its Doge. Liberty and equality of civil rights were the basis of its constitution, which lasted only till 1802. Democracy in Italy was ended. The middle and upper classes had a limited franchise and jury trials in criminal cases ; tenure of judges during life or good behavior were provided. The government named the bishops who ap- pointed the priests subject to its approval. 198 THE WORLD^S GREATEST CONFLICT. LXII. THE old debt of France had been disowned. The new debt had reached 1,375,000,000 francs ($270,000,000). The French revenue, in- cluding the Rhine provinces, Belgium, The hand of Gcncva and Piedmont, was about the Consul. ^00,000,000 fraucs (nearly $180,000,- 000), of which the foreign possessions gave about two ninths (about $40,000,000). Bonaparte's police surveillance was despotic. There were plenty of sycophants. His acts were praised in extravagant terms ; pompous boasting was common. But when the word ''subjects" was used by him in the Russian treaty, it created a storm of anger. So did his proposal to estab- lish a Legion of Honor, the law for which was passed by a small majority (March 2, 1802). He anticipated by several months the legal re- tirement of one fifth of the Tribunate, thus render- ing that body more submissive, that the Concor- dat, opposed by many, might be ratified. Public and private morals had suddenly retro- graded. The Dark Ages, when it was assumed that the sovereign owned the state as his own private property, seemed to have returned. Distinguished republicans such as Bernadotte, Lannes, Jourdan and Augereau, had no other choice but to serve Bonaparte or retire into exile. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. I99 Bonaparte fell rapidly into the customs and usages of royalty. The court dresses and the absurd courtly usages of the eighteenth century were adopted by many. Consuls Lebrun and Cambaceres made themselves ridiculous by these absurdities. The latter, once a violent Jacobin, now covered with orders and ribbons, strutted like a peacock up and down the Palais Royal. Public repugnance against this folly was vehement. Without an equal as a soldier, Consul Bona- parte governed wisely, strongly. His hand was heavy, but firm and guiding. France saw prosper- ity returning, and, wearied with instability and cruelty, submitted. His measures were not all popular ; Paris and the army did not like his res- toration of the church, but the devout peasants re- joiced in it. He promoted higher learning, but not the education of the people ; he improved and equalized the modes of taxation ; he made roads and canals ; erected many buildings ; permitted banished persons to return and restored their un- sold property. French law varied in different localities — sometimes damagingly so; he aided the adoption of a uniform code. Everywhere he acted with the spirit that inspired energy. He suppressed the freedom of the press ; he organized Fouche's police ; he supplemented it with three other separate systems of spies and police ; he established special tribunals, arbitrary and sum- mary, appointed by himself. 200 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. In 1800 he appointed able jurists to form a code common to all France. No one ventured to speak the truth ; scientific works, newspapers, histories, all speeches, ad- dresses, reports of the men he employed, were composed in the style of the degenerate pagan Romans of Caesar's time. Over the world swept a Roman craze. P'or years after, art was debased. Even Protestant St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and the Republican Capitol at Washington, are de- faced with still later statues of our own modern Christian heroes, who appear either as naked as savages or scantily unclothed in the bad taste of imitating Pagan Rome. To conciliate the emigres Bonaparte promised, by decree of the Senate, to all not yet arrived, who should return before 1803, take the oath of fidelity to the Constitution, renounce all places, pensions, titles from foreign powers, and quietly submit for ten years to the particular superintend- ence of the government, to restore their unsold property. This amnesty excepted those who had acted as officers in an enemy's army, or had ex- cited war, civil or foreign, against the Republic ; all commanders who had committed treason and prelates who had not resigned as required by the Concordat. His own wife Josephine and her daughter Hortense belonged to the old style and its usages. He could hardly expect to become really a mon= THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 201 arch by the aid of republicans and democrats alone. There were many shades of opinion ; he must have the support of various and conflicting elements ; he must conciliate his enemies. He was vehemently opposed, and assailed by the talkers in the Paris salons to his great vexa- tion. He was establishing an order widely dif- ferent from that of his former declarations. Lxni. WHEN Jefferson became President, March 4, i8oi, the stately formalities of previ- ous administrations were abolished. Instead of going, escorted by both bodies of Con- gress, to the Capitol and making Fashions, speeches to them, Jefferson began iSoi. the method of sending messages, and he refused the British fashion of receiving an address in reply. * Radical changes were making in dress and man- ners ; trousers were taking the place of knee- breeches ; wigs and hair powder began to disap- pear. In 1795 England laid a tax of a guinea a per- son on the use of hair powder ; the law required that it be only of starch ; this tax at first produced about ;£20,ooo a year. Cocked hats went out with hair powder, though some were seen as late as 1837. * Chambers's Cyclopedia, Vol. V. p. 731. 202 THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. * Coats of the eighteenth century were of silk, velvet, satin or broadcloth of fanciful colors. A large square-plated buckle was in style in 1791, when shoe-strings were coming into use. In 1800 petitions were sent to the British Parliament, ask- ing that the use of shoe-strings be prohibited. It was in a wig, with the queue in a silk bag, with powdered hair, knee-breeches, silk stockings, buckles at the knees and shoes, and wearing a dress sword, that Washington was inaugurated President at New York, in 1789. About 1790 cloth came into general wear, the waistcoat of more costly material and embroidered. In France the change from 1789 to 1801 was greater than in the whole previous century. The popular common class dress became a round hat, short coat, light waistcoat and trousers ; a hand- kerchief tied loosely round the neck, with flowing ends, showing the shirt collar above, the hair short, without powder, the shoes tied with strings. This style became common for young men in Eng- land ; close-fitting trousers were common till 18 14. Before 1789 the dress of boys had been almost like that of men except that they wore trousers earlier. In England white neckcloths held their own until George the Fourth's example quickly brought in the black stock. * Chambers's Cyclopaedia, Vol. V. p. 731. The world^s greatest conflict. 203 LXIV. CAMP-MEETINGS and religious revivals in America had begun a little before 1800. The Methodists had increased from 316 in 1781, to 72,874 in 1801. In Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the West Indies Religion, they numbered 13,667, and in Europe ^soi. 109,961 ; a total everywhere of 196,502. Says Jesse Lee: ''Crowds collected; no house could hold them ; ministers preached in the woods. Persons were struck down by the power of God and lay helpless ; after awhile people, ex- pecting to be detained all night, began to prepare tents of cloth or bushes and carried provisions that they might tarry all night, keeping up the meeting through the night where there was a par- ticular manifestation of the divine presence." Methodists,* Presbyterians and Baptists united to hold these meetings. He speaks of '* a good work of God " in Balti- more, and *' in Annapolis was a very great display of the love and power of God, and many souls were converted."! In 1802 were added 13,860 mem- bers in America ; they had seven conferences. In 1 801 they took in Maine as two circuits. $ In * Lee's History of Methodists, 1810, p. 280. t Ibid p. 279. -t Ibid p. .285. 204 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 1800 the annual allowance of traveling preachers was raised from sixty-four dollars to eighty dollars, and traveling expenses and all presents made to him and the same to his wife.* In May, 1801, a rule was adopted, against stren- uous opposition by Southern preachers, to ordain colored deacons for colored churches, Richard Allen v^^as the first colored deacon ever ordained by Methodists. Under the plan of Union of 1801 hundreds of Union Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches met, with a pastor of either. Sunday schools scarcely existed. In Massachu- setts and Connecticut, towns settled ministers and paid them by tax. These were nearly all Federal- ists ; in newer regions, West and South, most of the revival preachers were Republicans. Meeting- houses were without fires, even in winter, and ser- mons and prayers were frequently too long to ac- cord with Matthew vi. 7. In 1 801 Germans discoursed well of religion, metaphysics and science, illy of politics ; English- men acutely of trade, admirably in literature, badly in politics ; Frenchmen cautiously in re- ligion, with a manifest disposition to take a rest in political discussion ; Americans were excited in politics, but gaining in religion ; f Russians were standing silent; Italians were full of hope, * Lee's History of Methodists, 1810, p. 267. t Goodrich's U. S. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 205 political, social and religious ; Austria seemed disposed to do its thinking with its bayonets ; Prussia watched its chance to seize German terri- tory whenever it could do so without much risk ; Turkey, Denmark and Sweden looked on to see what next ; Portugal tried to trim between Eng- land and Bonaparte ; and Spain tried to be on both sides of political struggles. Strict censorship of the press existed in Ger- many and France ; England's right of habeas corpus was suspended ; there was no liberty else- where in Europe. Then it was that America repealed her law, re- stricting the liberty of speech and of the press, as England's people too would have gladly restored the habeas corpus. Dalton's Experimental Essays first directed the attention of Guy Lussac to chemical physics. The German philosopher Hegel published his first work. The poems of the Scotchman, James Hogg, first appeared. In Germany the " romantic school " of poets were writing their religio-aesthetic poems. In Spain De Los Henos, the most popular mod- ern poet, and Serafin Calderon, were just born. Walter Scott was already well known as a poet. Robert Burns (July 21, 1796), Hugh Blair (July 7, 1797) and William Cowper had lately died. In 1798 Canning had made his reputation as 206 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. an anti-slavery orator. Galvanism had just been heard of in England. In 1801 Plazzi discovered the first-known as- teroid, January i. Lavater, the physiognomist, died of wounds at Zurich. Martial law continued in Ireland. Bonaparte deported one hundred and thirty re- publicans, accused but not proven to have taken part in the " infernal machine " plot to destroy him. This machine exploded in the street, broke the glass of his carriage, December 25, 1800. It was a Royalist plot. To injure the Jacobins, he charged it to them. In Germany, Fuerbach, a jurist, found support- ers in the idea that the decision of a judge in penal cases should always be in strict conformity to law without discretion. In 181 3 he planned the penal code of Bavaria. The Servians revolted against Turkey, elected Czerny their prince, and, aided by Russia, main- tained their liberty for several years. The British Admiral, Nelson, attacked Bona- parte's flotilla at Boulogne, in August, without success. A great event of the year was the signing, October i, of the preliminaries of peace after eleven years of war. The terms left all as when war began except that England held Surinam and Trinidad, taken from the Spanish, and the very THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 20/ important island of Ceylon, taken from the Dutch, with its fine harbor, and Trincomalee, extremely important to India. LXV. BONAPARTE, now the strong head of France, addressed a letter, December 26, 1799, to George the Third, urging a peace. But George and his advisers did not desire peace unless they could dictate terms to Bonaparte's France and the world. The English Letter of Dec. are distinguished for generous terms 26, 1799. of peace. Yet George the Third's minister. Lord Grenville, insolently replied, Janu- ary 4, 1800,* to the French minister that France desired the "extermination of all established gov- ernments," that '' the most solemn treaties have only prepared the way for fresh aggression," his Majesty could not "place reliance on the mere re- newal of general professions of pacific disposi- tions." He required to be convinced "that after the experience of so many years of crimes and miseries, better principles have ultimately pre- vailed in France. The best guarantee for the reality and permanence of the pacific intentions of the French government would be the restoration of that royal dynasty which has maintained for so *Whig. 208 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. many ages the internal prosperity of France and made it regarded with respect and consideration abroad. Such an event would clear away all ob- stacles which hinder negotiations for peace; it would insure to France the tranquil possession of her ancient territory, and it would give to all the nations of Europe that security which they are compelled to seek at present by other means." This rude refusal to try to make peace, this language, both stupid and malicious, was a formal, official notice to France that there could never be peace until France, as a conquered country, should accept the return of the odious and incapable Bourbons, whose long misrule had kept the nation for ages distressed, and had thus qualified the revolutionists for the extravagant bursts of fero- city and disgust with which they had flung from them this worthless dynasty. It meant that George wished to force upon France his own, not her choice of rulers. His statement that the Bour- bons maintained "internal prosperity of France" was not truth. Intelligent England did not believe it. Who can doubt that, had the Bourbons and the noblesse exercised common fairness and justice towards the industrious French workers, who are in France, as in every country, the only pro- ducing class, the people would not have been o-oaded to revolution, and cruelties would never have occurred, for the French would have been a contented people. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 2O9 So George, who had already twice treated with the Directory for peace, refused to discuss the subject with Bonaparte, and thus left him no choice but to continue the war with all its evils. Thus great responsibility rests upon George. The language of that reply was unlike the courteous English ; it was rude, offensive, impolitic. Many Englishmen condemned it. Addington said it was "too caustic and opprobrious." Wilberforce was shocked by it ; Cornwallis spoke of it as " un- provoked insolence," and as "haughty and most unwise." A violent debate in Parliament ensued. Fox was roused ; he made a great speech for peace. Pitt represented the insecurity of a peace with the violator of so many Italian treaties. Fox was in a minority of sixty-four. George, hater of Catho- lics, prepared to aid the Catholic royalist revolt in Vendee. Yet England was in distress. An importation of grain turned the balance of trade against England. The gold and silver de- monetized, had been exported to pay foreign sub- sidies and to buy food. The scarcity of crops for two years (1801-2) raised prices just when the banks' arbitrary restrictions of loans decreased the facilities for procuring money. In the summer of 1802 the amount of the Bank of England notes in circulation was ;^i6,747,300. Exchange with Hamburg was almost sixteen per 210 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. cent, discount against England ! In May, 1803, the additional disadvantage at Dublin was a dis- count of about sixteen per cent, between it and London. The London rate expresses the deprecia- tion of British currency, it being about equal to the premium on silver above Bank of England notes. LXVL FRENCH law had introduced military con- scription, September, 5, 1798. Now it helped to fill the army. General Melas, who com- manded the Austrian army in Italy, The War in began the campaign with brilliant Italy. 1800. success. Hc won a victory over the French General Massena at Voltri, April 10, and so cut the French army in two as to separate Suchet's corps, and drive it to a dis- tance from Massena, whom Melas soon after besieged in Genoa and compelled to surrender after great starvation (June 5, 1800). Fifteen thousand Genoans perished by famine and disease during this terribly cruel siege. General Moreau, with a French army, crossed the Rhine, April 25, and soon after defeated the Austrians under Kray in several battles. Bonaparte quietly formed a third army, with which he crossed the Alps and reached Italy before Melas knew of its existence. Bonaparte THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 211 was beaten at Marengo, but Desaix came with re-enforcements and turned the defeat into a com- plete victory, which compelled the Austrians to evacuate Italy as far as the Mincio, and to sign an armistice. Desaix fell, but his charge won from Austria all it had gained in 1798-99. The truce stopped Moreau, who had taken Munich, and was pushing on victoriously towards Vienna. Europe wanted peace. Russia, as anxious not to establish an Austro-German supremacy as she had been in 1798-99 to weaken the growing power of France, had withdrawn from the Austro-English coalition as soon as they were successful in 1799. Austria was held back from making peace only by her English subsidy treaty. Thus George com- pelled the resumption of war that recovered Italy for France. Moreau crushed the Austrian, army at Hohenlinden, December 2, 1800. The English took Malta. When the bloody bargain between George and Austria expired, the war between Aus- tria and France ended in the Peace of Luneville, February 9, 1801. Austria ceded Belgium to France, with all the left bank of the Rhine. In Italy the line between Austria and the Cis- alpine Republic was fixed at the Adige, and the cities of Verona and Legnano were divided. The Grand Duke of Modena got Brisgau in exchange for his duchy, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany had Salzburg and other places instead of Tuscany 212 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. which Bonaparte sold to foolish Charles the Fourth, King of Spain, to be given to the puppet Duke of Parma, a creature of Bonaparte's. LXVII. THE overthrow of the old Helvetic Confed- eracy, in 1798, was a crime of the French Directory, The new Swiss Constitution, non- federative, was, like that of France, Switzerland. made by the French party. May 30, 1798, supported by a French army and force. The Orisons evaded it by re- ceiving an Austrian army. Not till 1799 did they lose independence. Then France took from the Swiss, Mulhousen, Geneva and part of Basle, and forced upon them an alliance offensive and defen- sive (August 19, 1799). The Swiss had to renounce their glorious neutral- ity, so well maintained for centuries as the safe- guard of Swiss liberty. Union and local rights parties were now at war. January, 1800, Dolder's revolt overthrew the new Directory, and attempted anew Swiss Constitution. Opposition, aided by France, made counter revolt, August 7, 1800. Aristocracy against democracy, and Bonaparte stimulating trouble so as to find pretext to inter- fere. He wished to appear as dictator as soon as peace with England should come. THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 213 Aristocracy would serve his purpose better than freedom and union of feeling. It would require his aid. A free republic would be self-defensive, supported by patriotism. This was not what he wanted. He sent an outline of a Constitution. In May, 1 801, another revolt used this outline altered to the old Canton system. It was laid before the Assembly. Many deputies, enraged, withdrew, led by Alois Reding. Six Alpine cantons aided the seceders (Grisons). Their boldness alarmed the Centrals ; they de- feated the Centrals' troops ; Zurich favored Swiss freedom, so the Centrals bombarded it. It held out and Reding's party routed the Centrals' troops, took Berne, the capital, and were hailed with joy by the people. The French separated Valais into what they called a republic. Bonaparte hoped, by compli- cating affairs, to be called in by both parties and keep Austria from charging him with violating his Luneville pledge to let the Swiss alone to arrange their government. Bonaparte insisted that recent changes be annulled. England objected to his interference. The remainder of the Assembly, left by the seceders, held on till October, when the Bonapart- ists made a Constitution from their chief's model, dissolved the Assembly, chose a senate, and held power till it chose a new Council, which in turn put Reding, the head of opposition, in full execu- ^14 THE WORLD^S GREATEST CONFLICT. tive power — a strange situation. Bonaparte was surprised. To permit this would make the Swiss free, and would defeat his designs on that country. Reding went to Paris to arrange with him. Bonaparte would yield nothing. He compelled Reding to take into his council six of his Bona- partist opponents. These dissolved the Senate, summoned such persons as they chose, who, un- authorized by the Swiss, deposed Reding, made what they called a constitution, placed a Bonapart- ist. Bolder, at the head of affairs. Then the French troops marched away. Just as the French had foreseen and desired, the Swiss rose in arms against this fraudulent government. Bonaparte wanted pretext. Von Erlack, with militia, took the capital (Berne). Reding called an assembly, at Schwyz, in form of the old Swiss Diet. Canton after can- ton joined. The false government was compelled to escape into Pays du Vaud. The old free gov- ernment was set up by the armed people. Every- where was contention, bloodshed. The situation was terrible. For this situation Bonaparte had plotted. He ordered the Swiss to submit. The Constitution should be settled at Paris. He sent Ney with a French army. The Diet protested. But opposi- tion was useless. Switzerland was suppressed. The Swiss were indignant. Patriots were put in prison. Reding said to the French officer who THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 21 5 arrested him : '* I have obeyed the call of con- science and my country." Bonaparte was scheming to annex the Valais to France ; he wanted its passes, St. Bernard and Simplon, the gates of Italy. He proclaimed himself mediator of Switzerland ; he declared that **all the powers will be dissolved. The Senate alone, assembled at Berne, will send deputies to Paris ; each canton can also send some ; and all the former magistrates can come to Paris, to make known the means of restoring union and tranquillity and conciliating all parties." The chiefs of the Swiss aristocracy immediately joined the radical deputies at Paris. There could be no long discussion, though there was much dis- agreement. Bonaparte manifested towards these Swiss notables, nearly sixty in number, who had gone undelegated to Paris, the exceeding amiabil- ity which he was able to infuse into his manners and address, the condescension expressed in his features and gestures when he wished to please. He delighted them by plausibly amiable speeches and affable behavior. He had decided upon the plan of a Swiss consti- tution. He ostensibly authorized four French senators to adjust with them a Federal govern- ment. Bonaparte gave Switzerland a constitution Feb- ruary II, 1803. He took to himself the title of Protector of the Republic. However, in this 2l6 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. instrument he paid a greater regard to the habits and wishes of the people than was expected from his arrogance. He weakened the central power, as the Diet of twenty-five deputies was to sit, by rotation, in the six principal cantons ; he appointed as President a patrician (Affry). The Swiss cantons, free in internal government, fell as a state under the foreign rule of France, and became a part of Bonaparte's strength and power. A commission of seven, appointed by Bonaparte and assisted by Ney with a French army, intro- duced this newest constitution. April 15, 1803, Bonaparte appointed the provisional magistrates of the '' Republic " and of the Cantons. A war tax was levied for the support of the French troops to November 20, 1802 (625,000 francs). Ney required the Swiss to surrender their arms, which he carried off to Valais. Bonaparte compelled a treaty, offensive and de- fensive, with France (1803). Switzerland was compelled to furnish and support sixteen thousand Swiss for Bonaparte's army, and eight thousand more " if necessary." Reding was liberated. He sat in the Diet as member for Schwyz. The French army retired. But Switzerland was helpless and under Napoleon's control until 18 14. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. ^I^ LXVIII. THOUGH Louis the Fourteenth, to the great damage of France, persecuted the Protest- ants, he vigorously supported French rights and his own authority in Church affairs, against the Pope. Among their dis- concordat. putes was the noted one about reve- isoi. nues of vacant benefices and presen- tations to benefices by the King. In 1673-75 he extended his right to provinces till then exempt. The Pope, Innocent the Eleventh, opposed. Louis assembled the French clergy in 1682. Besides ex- tension of royal claim to Church revenue he caused them to make four famous propositions, regarded as the basis of the Galilean Church. 1. The power of the Pope extends only to things spiritual, and has no concern with tem- poral matters. 2. The authority of the Pope in spiritual affairs is subordinate to a general council. 3. It is even limited by the canons, the cus- toms and constitution of the kingdom and the Gallican Church. 4. In matters of faith the Pope's authority is not infallible. By 1797 worship was re-established in thirty-five thousand parishes ; about one to each eight hun- 2l8 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLtCt. dred French people. The people paid their own priests. These were divided not very unequally between priests who had taken the French oath of allegiance, and those who refused to take it. Thus was division. Each party with its clergy claimed to be the Church itself. The Pope, Pius the Seventh, wanted a stronger hold on France in 1801. He wanted Romanism acknowledged as dominant there. He wished to end division. He wanted the power and influence of the French Government for it as the national religion. He decided to accept the best terms attainable. Bonaparte desired the strength of the Church to aid his ambition. Not yet Consul for life, he was scheming for the empire. Priests might aid to prepare the way. He controlled the Pope. Why not through him rule the priests ? The French liberal branch of the Church was directed by ener- getic and independent men. He feared it. It might not be docile. He decided against the French national idea; he determined to secure power over the Church. He made the famous Concordat of July 15, 1801, with Pius the Seventh. In return for a decree protecting the Catholic as the religion " of the great majority of the French," and a promise of salaries from the Government to the clergy, the Pope agreed to consecrate such bishops as the French Government should nominate ; to give up THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. 2ig claim to the old church lands, and to order a new- prayer for the Consuls, to whom the clergy were to take oath of allegiance. The number of bishops was reduced to forty-two, with nine archbishops ; about half the old number. Bonaparte sent the treaty to the Chambers with " Organic Articles," to which the Pope had de- clined consent. By these, the basis made for teaching in seminaries for recruits for the clergy, are the famous articles of the French clergy of 1682 ; priests were forbidden to accuse individu- als or other churches supported by the State, or to publish anything unconnected with the exercise of their religion. As he had secured the nomination of bishops and cures, he left the appointment of priests to them, expecting them to favor such as were not hostile to him. He appropriated to the Church for 1803, two million francs, raised in 181 r to seventeen million francs. During the war with France from 1793 to 1802 the British navy captured or destroyed seventy- four ships of the line and five hundred and nine- teen smaller vessels, besides many privateers. One hundred and forty-four of the captured ves- sels were added to the British navy, thus increas- ing it above losses ninety-three vessels. Such was the eagerness to steal men that Brit- ish war vessels often made an exciting chase and capture of British privateers in order to press their seamen into the navy. 220 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. Severe flogging was common in both army and navy. The war had continued for nine years. Great Britain had gained but one of the objects for which George and Pitt had made it in 1793. They had begun it to stop the spread of manhood freedom ; to curb the ambition of Repubhcan France ; to prop the thrones of imbecile kings ; to ruin or im- pair the French influence in Europe, especially in the low countries. The first point was attained, but it was Bonaparte that attained it, a very un- English victory in its opposition to liberty, and liberty had disappeared from Europe. George and Pitt had really powerfully aided to consolidate the power of Bonaparte to kill freedom, but had lost the price of blood, for the power of France was immensely extended, its frontier carried to the Rhine, the Netherlands still more firmly held. England's rivals, Russia, Prussia and Austria, too were increased. When a man who is prominent in a civilization or in an age, brings on unnecessary war or other crime, that man is a blot on that age ; a stain on its religion, its enlightenment, its humanity, its patriotism, its philanthropy, its learning, its com- mon sense, its manhood. France ruled Holland, Switzerland and Pied- mont, and had revived union with Spain ; had again adopted religion ; had changed from unre- publican republic to strong monarchy ; she had THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 221 extended her powers, so had the other great pow- ers. Recently Russia, Prussia and Austria had divided Poland ; Austria had acquired Venice ; Great Britain was building an empire in India; she had obtained Ceylon; she was more than ever mistress of the seas. The old "balance of power" had given place to a new " balance of power." The French mastery of Holland ruined the Dutch navy and thus re- moved a great naval and commercial rival of Eng- land. The British and Americans monopolized the ocean-carrying trade. In Ceylon Great Britain supplied her great want in the East, a good harbor. In all India, Bombay alone afforded a safe shelter to ships during mon- soons. Everywhere else vessels were obliged to stand out into open seas on the approach of those terrible storms. In 1801 Great Britain already possessed in India a greater subject population than any European power had in Europe. The glittering fragments of Portuguese empire scat- tered up and down the East had warned England of the great importance of acquiring Ceylon, whose harbor, Trincomalee, is secure at all times. Eng- land sent troops in 1795 to conquer Ceylon from the Dutch. This was done almost without opposition. The British war fleet had reached almost eight hundred vessels, manned by one hundred and twenty thousand men withheld from productive labor. 222 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. Great Britain had spent large sums and in- creased its debt to ;£"484, 000,000, equal to about ^2,400,000,000. Bonaparte presented his scheme for public in- struction. It left primary schools to private support. It provided, for higher education, the lycees and special studies, to which he took the power to appoint sixty-four hundred scholarships.* Girls were omitted. This power of appointment was a power of bribery. In all France but seventy-five thousand pupils under ten years were in the schools, f LXIX. BONAPARTE'S government proposed and urged a Bill to allow him to usurp judicial functions by appointing special tribunals composed of three judges of the criminal court, Arbitrary thrcc officcrs and two asscssors Courts. chosen by himself, to try infamous crimes, arson, coining, robbery, threats against purchasers of national property, bribery, tampering with soldiers and seditious assemblies. What would remain for juries t Only petty offenses t These arbitrary courts were to continue for two * Bourrienne, t Fourcroy. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 223 years after peace, during which time — still more absolute — the government might exile any per- sons who may appear dangerous. The exile clause was so strongly opposed in the Tribunate that he withdrew it ; then the Bill, vigorously opposed by patriotic men, passed the Tribunate by a vote of forty-nine to forty-one. LXX. CHARLES THE SEVENTH and Louis the Fourteenth attempted codes. A commis- sion of able lawyers, Tronchet, Portalis, Merlin, Treilhard and others, appointed in July, 1800, placed in simple order the The Famous French laws, using Dormat's and code. Pothier's writings, constituent de- crees, the convention's drafts of 1793 and 1795, and one by Cambaceres for the Council of Five Hundred ; they eliminated the obsolete and those incompatible with the Revolution ; they formed one code which was then sent to all the high law courts for examination and enrichment, and after all this finally discussed in the Council of State, where only Bonaparte took part in the work when so nearly completed. At his instance changes were made, not always for the better. He reluctantly submitted it to the Tribunate. Neither the Tribu- nate nor the Legislative Body had power to amend 224 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. any bill ; they could merely adopt or reject ; they could not change a single word in the code pro- posed for their country ! The preliminary title, a sort of declaration of principles, was found defective, and the Tribunate and Legislative Body rejected it, the latter by only three majority. Bonaparte was enraged. Had he presented it anew, properly corrected, it would have been adopted. Another title relative to civil rights contained the Dark Ages cruelties, confiscation, dishonor of children in cases of civil death. The Tribunate voted it down for its cruelty. Some members censured provisions hostile to liberty and favorable to favoritism. Bonaparte was very angry; he raved with invec- tive. He withdrew all the code bills until he could force their adoption. The opposition could not be bought; * he pre- pared to break it. Cambaceres showed him how to do it. The Constitution provided that the Tribunate and the Legislative Body should be renewed one fifth every year. The time was come. No new method was provided. " Let the Senate choose who shall be the retiring members," said Camba- ceres. It was done. Constant, Daunon, Chenier, every friend of liberty was thus expelled. The abject Senate then filled the vacancies * Thibaudeau. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 225 mostly with creatures of Bonaparte, of whom fif- teen were generals and twenty-five officials. Car- not was the only republican. The first Code Title was finally promulgated March 5, 1803, another March 30, 1804, the Pro- cedure Civile in 1806, the Code de Commerce in 1807, of rinstruction Criminelle in 1808, and the Code Penal in 18 10.* In this great code Napoleon adopted, as his own, the work of the great French lawyers, and gave it his name. It is not his code, but it is theirs. LXXI. WHEN Pitt had left the British ministry, and after much difficulty and very pointed discussions, protracted through several months, preliminaries of peace be- tween Great Britain and France were Peace of at last signed at London, October Amiens. I, 1 80 1. March 27, 1802. Afterwards some unexpected diffi- culties arose with regard to Malta, as Great Brit- ain repented having agreed to give it up. Means were found to remove this obstacle, and the peace of Amiens was finally signed March 27, 1802. England was generous. The colonies of France, Holland and Spain, captured by Great Britain, were * Chambers's Cyclopaedia Vol. IV. p. 209. 226 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. to be restored, except Dutch Ceylon, and Spain's Trinidad, which England gained. The French were to evacuate Rome, Naples and Elba. Egypt was restored to Turkey. England gained an open port at Good Hope. The integrity of Portugal was guaranteed, France retained all that it had acquired in Europe. Great Britain recognized Bonaparte's government and acknowl- edged the Ionian Islands as a free republic. Great Britain engaged to restore Malta to its old masters, the Knights of St. John, within three months. Malta was placed under the guaranty of France, Great Britain, Austria, Spain, Russia and Prussia. Later Russia and Prussia declined to undertake the guaranty unless modifications were added. Contrary to practice, the former treaties between Great Britain and France were not renewed. When the peace of Utrecht was made England had an interest in having the principle of free com- merce for neutral states held sacred, and she an- nounced it in that treaty of commerce and navigation of 171 3 ; treaties since then had regu- larly renewed it. Now George's government wished to suppress that principle, as it had great- est power at sea. George the Third was displeased with the treaty. He who never risked his own person, nor his comforts and luxurious repose, in campaigns and battles, who never felt wounds or army sick- THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 22/ ness, exhibited his inhumanity by wishing that war, with its nameless horrors, should continue. Ardently, the English people welcomed peace by outbursts of joy. London resounded with glad- ness ; the citizens illuminated the city ; they drew the French envoy's carriage in triumph ; they shouted everywhere friendly expressions toward the French. Throughout England were lively rejoicings ; the people gave thanks that the war was ended. Thus did the real English rebuke George and Pitt. The English are good soldiers, but they do not desire war ; they do not delight in making victims and in desolating homes and countries. They are not fond of cruelty ; they like peace, industry and trade, though in war they fight stubbornly. Extreme delight was also shown in Paris. Everybody rejoiced at peace. Paris was soon crowded with strangers, especially the British. The French and British met with cheerful cordi- ality. Could the feelings of the people of the two nations have ruled their governments, then the peace might have been lasting. 228 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. LXXII. HAD Bonaparte been content with the first place among modern rulers, with a mil- itary reputation surpassing that of all modern men, and had he devoted himself to Bonaparte's the real good of France and of man- Opportunity. kind ; had but a wise ministry and parliament ruled England ; had but a king fair-minded and really Christian, one who ex- ercised beneficent influence, but left British poli- tics to able men, freely chosen by the British — the prosperity and peace of the two great peoples had been assured, and the rest of Europe would have gravitated toward well-regulated freedom. Upon these two men, Bonaparte and George, depended peace and prosperity or bloodshed and misery of Europe. Both chose the latter, and a curse fell upon men. The policy of France should have been peace. By methods of peace and by turning the wonderful energies of the French empire into the building up of a great commerce and an armed navy in France, Holland and Italy, with all the vast re- sources of 40,000,000 of population, when Great Britain and Ireland had but 16,319,000, and the United States but about 5,500,000, Bonaparte might have added vastly to the wealth of his THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 229 empire, created and developed an immense pro- duction, trade and commerce, and made a new empire of fertile Louisiana. He had it in his power to wonderfully increase the world's prosperity. He hated England with a mortal hatred, and had he thrown his whole force into enlarging the ac- tivity and extent of French manufactures and navigation it is possible that he might have made England feel the tremendous power of an enor- mous competition in her own favorite field of enterprise. Holland is naturally a great commercial nation. Such she had been for ages. When standing- alone in former generations, she was a great naval and commercial rival of England. In France, too, presenting three fronts to the best commercial seas of the world, and the fourth front resting on the navigable Rhine, in the neigh- borhood of industrious peoples, Bonaparte pos- sessed rare facilities for building up a very rich commerce. Certainly it was the part of good statesmanship to seek, through the arts and indus- tries, the power on the ocean that he so ardently coveted. On land was his power; at sea Great Britain ruled ; his way to success there lay, not in destroying England's navy, but in obtaining for France still more powerful fleets of trading in- dustry. Could he, in 1801, have driven every British vessel from the ocean, he had nothing ade- quate to take their place. Of what value could be 230 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. ocean rule without commerce ? His success there would simply have destroyed two thirds of the trade of the world. To build up French, Dutch, Belgian, Italian and Spanish industries and com- merce was the right way to rival or outrival Eng- land ; this would have been statesmanship. News of the surrender of Alexandria, by which the French lost Egypt, reached Paris October 7. Bonaparte hastened to make a treaty before the Turkish embassador should hear the news. He offered to give up Egypt. He claimed great mod- eration in this offer, although he knew that Egypt was already yielded. The deceived embassador agreed that French commerce should have, in the Levant, all the advantages accorded to the most favored nations, and he recognized the republic of the seven Ionian Islands. Thus France, that had tried to despoil Turkey of Egypt, gained all that had been accorded to England that had defended Egypt for Turkey at enormous expense of money then needed to buy bread for England's starving poor of 1800-2. France was needy of this com- merce, but her vessels had mostly disappeared ; swept from the seas by England. Note. During the nine years of the Pitt-George War from 1793 to 1802, Pitt and George expended for army 101,393,000 pounds sterling; for navy, 97,244,000 pounds, and for ordnance 14,183,700 pounds; a total of 212,820,700 pounds sterling, or more than a thousand millions of dollars, representing a much larger value than the same amount now. For this vast expenditure Pitt and George had won when war ended, Trinidad and Surinam, which they could no doubt have bought of Spain for less than one million, and Ceylon which they had seized from England's former, later and natural ally, Holland. Such facts seem to THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 23 1 urge the idea that George and Pitt were not statesmen, but only incapables. They viewed the fact, lamentable to all the world, and really disastrous to Eng- land's trade, that French imports, once four fifths as large as those of Great Britain, were now almost annihilated. They believed that they were winning the profits of the world's carrying trade. Yet in 1801, a year of war, but 1,762 British vessels of 418,631 tons and 23,096 men entered the port of London, against 2,459 British ships of 574,700 tons and 33,743 men in 1802, a year that had nine months of peace. In 1801 there entered 3,385 foreign ships of 452,667 tons and 20,388 men against only 1,549 foreign ships of 217,117 tons and 10,555 men in 1802, an advantage of 697 British ships, 156,069 tons and 10,647 men in favor of peace, while the foreign were reduced by 1,836 ships of 235,550 tons and 9,833 men. Peace had reduced the London carrying by foreign ships by one half ; certainly a very suggestive fact. The increase of 10,647 British sailors in 1802 were drawn from unproductive war to wealth-producing labor. The war, destroying confi- dence, trade and industry in many countries, vastly damaged England. The Pitt- George idea that war increased England's ocean trade was really but another of their many blunders. Peace is Britain's wealth. LXXIII. WAR having ceased, Bonaparte continued his vast designs, immense indeed, and intended to make France a world-swaying power to be ruled by himself. France needed repose. He needed the full- 1802. est confidence of France. He acted with energy. Roads, canals, harbors, dykes and bridges were made. In place of liberty, Bonaparte organized vigor, efficiency, tremendous power in France. Every branch of government felt his hand — finance, labor, skill, art, everything but common education. But commerce felt it disastrously. The powers of Consul Bonaparte were almost absolute. He proposed the laws, appointed or 232 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. dismissed ministers and embassadors, high coun- cilors, military and naval officers, and all judges except of the Court of Cassation. Bonaparte again attacked the principle of equal rights by proposing the " Legion of Honor," with pensions and privileges attached. It met great and strong opposition. He persisted. Public opinion was against it. His will carried the act by a small majority, in March, 1802. The throne was coming. In May, 1802, the Tribunate, already purged of its republican members, proposed that a testimo- nial of the nation's gratitude be given to Bona- parte. The Senate voted a prolongation of his consulate for ten years. This did not satisfy him. The proposal that his consulate continue for life was then submitted to a plebiscite. It was dan- gerous to vote " no." For three weeks the polls were open in all the cities and villages. August 2, 1802, the Senate announced 3,577,379 *' ex- pressed or tacit " yeas, and but 8,494 noes. * In receiving from the Senate the report of the votes, Bonaparte said, *' The life of a citizen is for his country. The French people wish mine en- tirely consecrated to it ; I obey its will. In giving me a new pledge, a permanent pledge of its con- fidence, they impose on me the duty of firmly es- tablishing the system of their laws upon provident institutions." * Koch, Vol. n. p. 201 ; Rosteck, Vol. I. p. 156, THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 233 He had made the Concordat of July 15, 1801, against the will of the army, to enlist the Church and the priests for him ; he had recalled the emi^ grant royalists and restored to them the unsold part of their property to win their support ; he had placed the Senate above the Constitution in order to violate it at his will ; he had brought the Italian notables to Lyons and accepted from them kingly power in the Republic of Italy, that France might see his glory reflected from Italy ; he had driven from the Tribunate the friends of liberty, that he might be practically absolute ; he had secured the appointment of sixty-four hundred scholarships that he might use them to make friends, and strengthen his power by gift of them ; he had al- ready the entire appointment of officers of the army, the navy and of the civil service except the justices of the peace, and these he had shorn of powers. He caused the passage of a bill quietly, which re-established slavery, which had been abolished by the repubhc. The same law restored the Slave Trade.* It placed the colonies under his absolute control in the words, ''the colonies will be sub- jected for ten years to regulations made by the Government," a sad fate for St. Domingo if the blacks and yellow fever had not delivered it. Yet he was not satisfied. Two days after the vote was announced the meaning of his speech was made apparent. * Act relative to the Colonies, 1802. 234 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. LXXIV. AUGUST 4, 1802, a senattls considttmi ap- peared. On the bare proposal of Bona- parte's Council of State, without action by the Legislative Body, without the forms An Astound- required for the least important law, ing usurpa- with Only arrogated power, it changed tion. August the fundamental law ; it gave to 4, i8o2. France a new Constitution ! It reduced the Council of Five Hundred to two hundred and fifty-eight, and divi- ded it into sections that should be renewed each year in succession. It reduced the Tribunate from one hundred to fifty, the Senate to eighty. It gave the First Consul power to add forty senators at his pleasure. This Senate, the servile creature of Bonaparte, could change or suspend the Constitution, dissolve the Corps Legislatif or the Tribunate, declare de- partments '' out of the Constitution," reverse the decision of law tribunals, suspend the functions of the jury! But all acts of the Senate were first to emanate from the First Consul ! He had a new Privy Council to prepare senatils consiilta and ad- vise about treaties. A grand judge was to control and inspect infe- rior tribunals, and, if any judgment should appear THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 235 politically improper, inexpedient or hazardous, the subservient Senate might annul it. This Senate, a mere instrument of Bonaparte's, was to appoint the members of the Legislative Body from lists to be arranged by department colleges of but three hundred voters each, that were to present three names for each deputy. The Senate were also to choose the Tribunate, now become of little consequence, from candidates to be nominated by circuit colleges of only two hundred voters each. The three hundred department and two hundred circuit voters were to be named for life by canton assemblies. To convoke and prorogue all these bodies was left to the Consul. Bonaparte took to himself the power to appoint his own successor. In concert with a Privy Coun- cil of his own choice, he took the power of mak- ing war and peace, alliances and of pardon. To this arbitrary and fraudulent Constitution the nation submitted without a struggle ! Despotic monarchy had come without its name. 236 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. LXXV. BY secret treaty France and Russia, October II, 1 80 1, agreed to act with perfect accord respecting "compensation" to German princes whose territories west of the Rhine German had bccn absorbcd by France. This "Compensa- invitation to aid in arbitrating Ger- tions." 1802. many was a flattery that Bonaparte offered to the young czar Alexander, to incline him to favor the French policy. The King of Prussia was in a spirit of inordi- nate cupidity ; Austria impatient, ready to fight for German spoils ; the smaller rulers were terribly alarmed ; mediation was essential ; they had a mediator who had no scruples of conscience. Bonaparte engaged to evacuate Naples as soon as his army should return from Egypt ; the two powers agreed to consult in friendly manner con- cerning the interests of the " King of Sardinia," and have all regard to the actual state of things ; Wurtemberg, Bavaria and Baden were to be favored ; * independence of the Ionian republic was acknowledged and foreign troops excluded ; France and Russia agreed to use their influence to restore universal peace, to preserve the balance of power, * This suited Napoleon's purposes, because the rulers of Baden and Wurtem- berg were his allies, and pleased Alexander because they were his relatives. THE world's greatest COxNFLICT. 23/ and secure freedom of the seas. Russia engaged to recognize all of Bonaparte's condition of Italy as settled by existing treaties.* German sovereigns, small and great, were each alarmed at the activity, the avarice, the influential relations of the others. Intrigue was vigorous; they beseeched Bonaparte with energy ; many of them rushed to Paris to implore him, only to find the counter claimant already there in the attitude of supplication. They thronged the Tuileries. They begged ; they promised ; they exhibited great vigor of cupidity. Bonaparte pretended to refer the matter to the Diet at Ratisbon. Not Germany but Bonaparte arranged the changes of Germany. Right and wrong were principles not entertained. It was simply interest, might, power, birth or circumstance. Bonaparte had his own way, and arranged everything to his own interest and the profit and enrichment of his own friends among German rulers. Rulers were wrongly held to be the actual owners of their people. All was done on that principle. Not the happiness, well being and in- terests of the millions of Germans was considered, but merely the greed of the few royal or princely persons. The rights of men, for which France had strug- gled and suffered and sacrificed, were all ignored. It was merely a strife of men who cared little for *Schlosser, Vol. VII. p. 314. 238 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. the happiness of peoples ; they merely sought gain for themselves. The spoils of Germany were countries, cities, human beings. Sir Walter Scott says, "Towns, districts and provinces were dealt from hand to hand like cards at a gaming table," and Europe " saw with scandal the government of freemen transferred from hand to hand without regard to their wishes, aptitudes and habits any more than those of cattle," while "breaking every tie of affection between governor and governed." Still agents of the German rulers and misrulers swarmed around Bonaparte and his minister, Talley- rand, begging for land and peoples, contracting, higgling, not for the good of fatherland, but only for themselves ; for increase of their paltry gran- deur, for accession to their pretensive egoism, thus showing their unfitness to govern by their readi- ness to sacrifice public interests, and by their ignoring human rights. In weighing claims Bonaparte considered only princes and families that had long wrung their revenues from the labor of other persons ; and their conduct plainly showed that they were not "divinely" sent to wisely rule, but only that they were here to each get the largest possible spoils from the labors of those who produce wealth. And this was called " Indemnity." As no man has any natural right to rule, so no one has any right to "indemnity" for loss of rule. There is no individual, property right in THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 239 rule. It is only an employment lent by the people who have a right at any time to resume it without giving "indemnity." Yet here was the case of the Austrian ex-grand duke of Tuscany, come from Italy, to be " indem- nified " for not being longer wanted in Italy, by now being placed over Germans. All was decided at Paris. By treaty in June, 1802, Bonaparte agreed with the Russian embassa- dor, and the Czar Alexander ratified it in July. Then France and Russia notified the German Diet at Ratisbon what was to be done, and the Diet ratified it March 24, 1803. Long-standing rights were overturned. Forty- five towns had long been free. But six of them were spared. All else were put under princely beggars. Frankfort, Augsburg, Lubec, Bremen, Hamburg and Nuremberg only remained inde- pendent. Prussia, Bavaria, Wurtemberg and Baden, whose rulers were friendly to Bonaparte and Alexander, were enlarged by the great robbery. The ex- grand dukes of Modena and Tuscany received shares of the spoils of unfortunate Germany. The Dutch prince of Orange, a foreigner expelled by his own people, got Fulda and Dortmund. It was a dividing of prey. Everything was taken by these robbers of the people. They im- piously laid unholy hands on the sacred funds of suffering humanity; they stole the charitable funds. 240 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. They declared "that the property of all founda- tions," whether Catholic or Protestant, should be used, not for the charities to which they had been given, but for themselves. The clerical princes were all dispossessed except Carl Von Dalberg of Regenstein, a great admirer of Bonaparte. Such was Bonaparte's great wrong to Germany. LXXVI. ST. DOMINGO, including Tortuga, Goniave and other small islands, is about seven eighths the size of Ireland, or about twenty-eight thousand square miles. With a soil St. Domingo. wcll Watered, a climate tempered by sea breezes, it is one of the most fer- tile spots of the West Indies. Its excellent har- bors offer fine facilities for trade. Its coffee, cotton, sugar, tobacco, wax, ginger, logwood, mahogany and tropical fruits form a valuable commerce. Long before 1800 the remorseless cruelty of Europeans had exterminated the aborigines. In the seventeenth century buccaneers swept its seas and sheltered in its harbors. In 1697, by the peace of Ryswick, Spain ceded the west part to France. During the long period of a century great numbers of slaves were imported THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 24I from Africa. In 1790 the French part was well cultivated by about five hundred thousand slaves. The mulattoes rapidly increased in the Spanish part. There was hostility between them and the negroes. The mulattoes, excluded from citizen- ship, and generally exempt from slavery, were an intermediate caste. They unsuccessfully revolted, in 1790, against the Spanish whites. In 1 791 (August) the western negroes rebelled against their French masters. They committed massacres. The French Convention, in 1791, de- creed rights of French citizens to colored people. But still the struggle went on. Insurrection and anarchy reigned. In 1794 the French National Assembly declared the slaves free, but refused to negroes and mulat- toes equal rights with whites. But a French com- missioner offered these privileges to all who would serve in the French army. This decree won to the French republic, Toussaint (surnamed L'Ou- verture), a negro, formerly a coachman, who had been conspicuously active in favor of royalty and Catholicism. The French commander, Laveaux, made the talented negro a general. Toussaint with his negro army brought most of the western part again under France. Since 1791 the whites had been almost exterminated. It had been a tri- angular antagonism between white, black and mixed, and the whites had lost. In 1795, by the peace of Basle, Spain had ceded 242 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. to France the eastern, of that time, Spanish part, inhabited before the insurrection by whites and mulattoes. Like other Spanish colonies under the bad government of Spanish Bourbons, it had been much neglected. French commissioners, sent to take possession, were refused obedience by the whites. In 1796 Toussaint received from Paris the rank of general, and was made Commander in St. Domingo. He now governed the western, and Rigaud the eastern or mulatto part. The British still held some western ports and forts. France sent General Hedouville to expel them. Tous- saint joined him with the negroes and Rigaud with the mulattoes. The French took Port au Prince from the British. The British chose to surrender the other places to Toussaint. He gave them favorable terms. The British left the country. Hedouville with the French troops left the island. Then Rigaud with the mulattoes con- tended against L'Ouverture and the negroes. By the end of 1799, in only a single district (Aux Cayes), Rigaud still resisted. Finding him- self unsupported by the French, Rigaud went to Paris. Consul Bonaparte now confirmed L'Ouverture as French governor. He did not intend to allow him to possess the Spanish part. He sent com- missioners to take possession of that part. But L'Ouverture moved there with his negro army and THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 243 compelled the Spanish to deliver up to him, as French commissioner, the fortresses, against the protest of the French commissioners. From this time L'Ouverture tried to play in St. Domingo the same part that Bonaparte was play- ing in France. To Bonaparte's great disgust the St. Domingo negro imitated every step of the for- midable Corsican ; at the same time L'Ouverture created a government that bid fair to restore the former degree of prosperity to that island. As Bonaparte had done, so did L'Ouverture appoint a commission to make a constitution. He caused it to be presented to himself for acceptance. He caused himself to be proclaimed president. He took the power to name his successor. Bonaparte was very angry, because the negro had guessed his own intentions and anticipated them. He was enraged too because L'Ouverture had proclaimed to his negroes, '* We are free to-day because we are strongest ; but the First Consul maintains slavery in Martinique and the Isle of Bourbon ; we also may become slaves if he should be able to become the strongest." When order was restored L'Ouverture allowed the whites to return ; he let out the plantations of the absent, he soothed the jealousies of the mulat- toes, he restrained the ruder negroes by strict discipline. L'Ouverture notified Bonaparte of his new dignity in a letter beginning, " The First of Blacks to the First of Whites." 244 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. Bonaparte prepared a great expedition, under command of General Leclerc, the husband of his sister Pauline, to destroy the new negro govern- ment. He intended to re-inslave that people who had fought for and won their free independence. Bonaparte was unpopular with the French army of the Rhine. It must go to St. Domingo. He would then be rid of it. George the Third's Addington ministry, favor- able to slavery, looked on quietly until the great magnitude of the expedition alarmed them. It might be designed for purpose other than to sub- jugate St. Domingo. They made a protest. Bonaparte explained that the British, too, '' were materially interested in the reduction of Tons- saint's power, who would otherwise establish a piratical state."* So Bonaparte, in a piratical spirit, sent an immense national piratical force to destroy, not only their property and to rob them like ordinary pirates, but also to take from them those treasures dearest to men's hearts, their own freedom and the safety and liberty of their wives and children. St. Domingo still recognized the sovereignty of France. But it was really become independent ; it was really a black Roman Catholic nation — the only negro Christian people in the world. They wished to live under French protection. Some British merchants let out their ships for * Bonaparte to Talleyrand. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 245 hire to help to convey these marauder troops and their stores on their miserable, despotic and wicked errand, but many British denounced it as monstrous crime. While Bonaparte was directing Talleyrand to in- form the British ministry of his intention " of annihilating the government of the blacks " he wrote to Toussaint of " the great services you have rendered to the French people. If their flag floats over St. Domingo it is to you and the brave blacks that it is due." And " you have caused civil war to cease ; you have put a stop to perse- cution by savage men, brought back honor to re- ligion and God." " The constitution that you have framed, while it contains many good things, contains others opposed to the dignity and sover- eignty of the French people." To General Leclerc-he wrote, March i6, 1802, **as soon as you have got rid of Toussaint, Chris- tophe, Dessalines and the principal brigands, and when the mass of the blacks are disarmed, send to the continent all negroes and colored men who have taken part in the civil troubles." Such was Bonaparte's duplicity. The St. Domingans feared return to slavery. How well grounded were these fears is seen in the facts that in July, 1802, Bonaparte directed that Richepanse must restore slavery in Guada- loupe, and that he caused an enactment of a French law to re-establish slavery in the French 246 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. colonies, and put St. Domingo under his own *' personal government " for ten years. The natives, with terrible earnestness not un- mixed with cruelty, resisted the great aggression. It was a fierce, a terrific struggle, with alternating success ; on the side of the natives it was for home, fireside, country, liberty, honor, and all that is valuable and attractive in life ; on the Bonaparte side it was for such conquest as disgraces human nature. Leclerc soon found that he had met a desperate enemy. The natives had tasted liberty ; with many the struggle was death. Again the country was devastated, desolated. The sufferings of the French troops were fright- ful. Veterans of many battles fell before sickness and negro war. Cape Frangois was regarded as the principal town. It was burned in 1793, but since rebuilt. When the French advanced to invest it they found it again only ashes. Christophe, a negro chief, unable to hold it had burnt the city. As the French approached the negroes fulfilled their threat to convert the country into a desert. Blooming and fertile parts were made desolate wastes. But by degrees several native generals were enticed by fine offers made to them by Leclerc ; whole troops of disciplined negroes went over to the French. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 24^ At last, apprehensive of total desertion, Presi- dent Toussaint negotiated ; he offered to resign ; he refused all of Leclerc's offers of personal ad- vantage. He withdrew to his estate in the forest. He only asked to be permitted to live there in peace. When the French believed their conquest of the island complete, they treated the mulattoes and negroes according to their former custom, with haughtiness. Leclerc's force had been greatly reduced by war and disease, and he apprehended another popular rising against the French. He determined to forestall this by decisive action. Toussaint had capitulated. May 8, 1802. On June 8 the French general invited him to a con- ference, treacherously seized him, and sent him to France, where this son of the tropics died in the cold mountain prison of Joux, in April, 1803. Was it a Divine retribution that sent to the luxuriant retirement at St. Helena, surrounded by the very few men who loved him, this same Bona- parte, who uselessly sacrificed many thousands of lives, who had caused indescribable wholesale suf- fering in a very cruel attempt to make slaves of the free St. Domingans, and who himself had wickedly and brutally sent the patriot Toussaint to suffer and die in a French prison .? This treachery produced its legitimate effects. Many negroes, enraged, flew to arms. Terrible 24^ THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. scenes followed. In a few weeks many thousands of French and blacks were destroyed by war and fevers. The French were deserted, attacked, harassed. General Leclerc died. His successor, Rocham- beau, received re-enforcements from France. But this only increased the terrible losses of France. The veteran victors of many European battles failed to conquer these West Indian negroes. When, in 1803, war again came between France and England, the few French troops that had not perished were shut up in Cape F'rangois by the negroes by land and by a British fleet by sea. They capitulated to the negro leader Dessalines, and were carried away by a British squadron. Capital had been destroyed, labor demoralized, the people embittered and prevented from learn- ing how to govern themselves ; and a bad les- son in politics given them by this ill-starred expedition. But to Bonaparte it was little more than the ridding himself of some persons in the French army who were not friendly to his personal ag- grandizement, and the loss of so much of military resources. The abolition of the slave trade had been agi- tated at every recent session of the British Par- liament. The cruel death of Toussaint made a deep impression in England. The fate of this heroic black man was ever deplored. The world's greatest conflict. 249 Dessalines became governor. A massacre of whites followed. In 1804, imitating- the example of Napoleon, he proclaimed himself Emperor of Hayti, under the title of James the First. He published a new constitution, May 20, 1805. Soon after he was killed in an insurrection. Christophe succeeded Dessalines, and was de- clared President of Hayti. He opened the ports to the commerce of neutrals. The mulatto Petion led a rebellion. After a bloody civil war, the island became two states ; St. Domingo, where Christophe, as King Henry the First, held style military and pompous, and Hayti, where President Petion preserved repub- lican forms. Bloody wars raged between them. LXXVII. THE slavish senate bowed so completely be- fore Bonaparte, that it resolved, August 30, 1802, that it was not legal to assemble except at the summons of the Consuls.* France rapidly retrograded. The courts of law took the old forms. France in 1802. Old official costumes reappeared in the red dress of the councilors. Bonaparte's court was the center of brilliant tinselry and intrigue. * Schlosser, Vol. II, p. 332. 250 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. National lands, national property and domains were lavished in new gifts by Bonaparte to please his favorites, to bribe the indifferent, and to gratify the greed of the Bonaparte family and their de- pendents. France and Germany were extensively robbed for this purpose. October 10, 1802, fourteen anti-Bonaparte de- partments were deprived of legal rights, by a decree of the Senate, which suspended trial by jury for two years, and organized summary tri- bunals. August 3, 1804, a new decree added two years more. The pretext was disturbances of order. On December 31, 1802, the Christian calendar was restored. The illiberal Jesuits who at different times had been expelled for offenses from most of the coun- tries of Europe, even from Catholic Spain, Italy and Portugal, and were then generally accounted public and private offenders, alike by Protestants and Catholics, were now in high favor with ladies and with old nobles who were becoming numerous at Bonaparte's court. Bonaparte favored, although he disliked them. They might aid his despotism. The beginning of peace (i 801-2) was an era of good feeling between the French and English. Thousands of the English visited France. It was then in the power of the two governments, by acting in harmony, to make peace and prosperity perpetual. THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 25 1 The continuous aggressions of France on other nations in 1802, alarmed Great Britain, who with- held the surrender of Malta which she had prom- ised in the treaty of Amiens of March. Bonaparte was irritated. He continued his Italian, Swiss, German and Dutch schemes of ad- vantage. He acted from the bad idea that a nation may do anything not forbidden by treaty. To please the Czar Paul, while he lived, Bona- parte ruled Piedmont as a separate state, but, April 9, 1802, he ranked it as a military division of France, in six departments. In September he definitely annexed it to France. Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, died, and Bonaparte immediately took possession of Parma, which he held by the treaty of March 21, 1801, with bad Charles the Fourth of Spain. He required the kings of Naples and Sardinia to give him Elba, which he annexed to France. This was a base robbery. In Holland no act of the government had valid- ity without the sanction of Bonaparte, and it was obliged to take into its pay a body of French troops. Bonaparte sent a French army to again occupy Switzerland (October 21, 1802). Each of these bad acts roused great displeasure in England. None of them had any justice in their favor. The English press severely criticised Bonaparte's interference. The French official 252 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. Moniteur replied. The newspaper war became very bitter. Bonaparte could not comprehend the existence of an independent British press. Every- where else in Europe governments restricted the press. Even Republican America had tried to restrain it by the ''Alien and Sedition" laws of the Federalists, which America had just repu- diated. Wherever the press was free — in America and Great Britain only — it was very violent, per- sonal, vituperative, in that peculiarly uncivil, jarring generation, the hating period of modern history. Bonaparte was accused of sending to England military men and engineers, accredited as com- mercial agents, but who really were spies instructed to report plans of the English ports, soundings, depths of water and best winds with which to enter them. England promptly dismissed them. This sly attempt to obtain information danger- ous to England, made a bad impression. England was indignant. The press was vehement. The personal character of Bonaparte, certainly very vulnerable, was severely treated. Bonaparte was furious. He exhibited his rage. The English were again convinced that he hated them. He re- plied in the official Moniteur, angry and violent. Inflaming hostile rejoinders still further scorched out of men's hearts the sentiments of mutual amity and common civility. The two great nations were undignified ; actually scolding each other ! It re- quired great genius to match Bonaparte as a scold. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 253 Bonaparte remonstrated with the British minis- try. The emigres, in their secure retreat in Eng- land, pubUshed many stinging criticisms against Bonaparte. He complained. He ordered the French Envoy, M. Otto, to state in an official note these grievances in substance : (i.) The existence of a deep and continued sys- tem through the press to injure the character of the French First Consul, and to prejudice the effects of his measures. (2.) Permission to a part of the princes of Bourbon and their adherents to remain in England, for the purpose (it was alleged) that they might hatch and encourage schemes against the life and government of the First Consul. He demanded that the British stop this griev- ance, dismiss from the country the culpable emi- gres, and non-juror French bishops, send Cadoudal to Canada, and advise the princes to join their head at Warsaw. He reminded the British min- istry that their Alien act gave full power to ex- clude any foreigners at pleasure. The British reply shrewdly reminded Bonaparte that, while the British ministry did not control the British press, and was not responsible for its free acts, yet the Moniteur, which abused England, was the official organ of the French Government. If any press article is libelous in England the publisher is answerable ; he can be prosecuted in the regular courts of justice. 254 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. It is a glory of Great Britain that its press can- not be reached by any arbitrary act of personal power of the Government. The British ministry did not believe that schemes against the French Government existed there. They declined to expel the emigres, bishops and princes. A suit was brought against Peltier, a French refugee who had been specially active, for malicious and libelous publication against Bonaparte. This was an important trial ; it attracted great attention. But it soon appeared that not Peltier only, but Bonaparte's government also, his oppressions, his violence to liberty, his great greed, his exactions, his ambitions, his cruelties were on trial before the great tribunal of the public opinion of mankind. The able lawyer, James Mackintosh, who de- fended Peltier, argued that the rights of mankind were on trial against their great abuser and de- stroyer, the despoiler of Italy, Germany, Holland and Switzerland. He examined Bonaparte's measures ; he defended the freedom of the press ; he made so comprehen- sive and powerful an argument and criticism as extremely chagrined Bonaparte and delighted his many enemies all over Europe. This speech, ex- tensively circulated, was read in many lands. The trial had redounded against Bonaparte. The jury found Peltier guilty.* * Peltier was never sentenced. He was released after war began. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 255 A part of the British fleet mutinied at Bantry Bay. Six of the ringleaders were hanged. Sandhurst school was established to train boys for army officers. LXXVIII. BONAPARTE revived an old Jacobin law which forbade small vessels within four leagues of France, and seized some British ves- sels. Some driven there by storm did not receive common hospitality by exemption. Both governments used sharp causes of the words. Bonaparte insisted on the war. 1803. Amiens treaty pledges. George had agreed to leave Egypt and yield up Malta ; yet he refused, with complaints of French annexation of Piedmont and Genoa, and aggressions in Holland and Switzerland. He demanded that the conti- nent be as it was when the treaty was made. Pitt said that French increase of power had impaired the treaty. Bonaparte might use Egypt for pur- poses hostile to British India. Malta is between France and Egypt. With its navy, more powerful than other navies, Eng- land could blockade Malta and defend the route to Egypt. George ought to have kept the treaty pledges. The Moniteur published the report of Sebas- 256 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. tiani, who described the British, Turkish and Mameluke armies in Egypt, and said that six thousand French would be sufficient for its con- quest. He had examined fortifications and had exhorted the Zanteans to look to France for protection. Alarmed and offended, George saw in this a threat against British power in India through Egypt. France explained that Sebastiani's re- port was purely commercial, its publication being provoked as rejoinder to a ''book full of atrocious calumnies against the French army," meaning Wilson's History of the Egyptian Expedition, which had been accepted and its author flattered by George and his brother. A showy display of the power of France was officially published February 23, 1803. It summed up that " England, single handed, is unable to cope with France." Bourrienne says it was ''merely an assurance to France." But George, Addington and Adviser Pitt, forgetting that the British glory in the freedom of the press, took it as defiance. The ministry unwisely declared that it would enter into no further discussion about Malta till it received the most ample satisfaction for this " singular aggression." On March 8, a royal message to the British Parliament represented that "considerable military preparations" were going on in the ports of France and Holland, and that King George believed THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 2$"/ it his duty to adopt new measures of precaution. ''Tiie preparations are, it is true, officially in- tended for colonial expeditions." There existed important differences of sentiment between the two governments. Bourrienne says, *' the first grievance com- plained of by England was the prohibition of English merchandise, which had been more rigid since peace than during the war."* '* She was alarmed at the aspect of our internal prosperity, and the impulse given to our manufactures." f Bonaparte had refused a commercial treaty. George the Third's hostile message was known to Bonaparte when, five days later, he excitedly ad- dressed Lord Whitworth, the British embassador, in presence of the entire diplomatic corps : "You have news from London. So you wish for war } " " No," replied Whitworth, ** we know too well the advantages of peace." Bonaparte continued, "We have already made war for ten years ; you wish to make it for an- other ten years ; you force it on me." Then he turned to the Russian and Spanish embassadors and said: "The English wish for war ; if they are the first to draw the sword, I will not be the first to sheathe it. They will not evacu- ate Malta. Since there is no respect for treaties, it is necessary to cover them with a black pall." He then returned to Whitworth and continued : * Bourrienne, Vol. IL p. 82-84. t By protection. 258 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. " How is it that they have dared to say that France is arming ? I have not a single ship of the line in my ports. You want to fight. I will fight also. France may be destroyed, but intimi- dated, never." " We desire neither the one nor the other. We only aspire to live on a good understanding with France," was the appropriate reply of Whitworth. *' Then treaties must be respected. Woe to those who do not respect treaties," said Bonaparte. * Twenty-three days before (February 18) Bona- parte had violently, and with his characteristic lack of diplomatic skill, reproached Lord Whit- worth with England's enmity towards him, and had used the expression, that Egypt " was not worth the chance of war. Sooner or later Egypt will belong to France, either by the dissolution of the Turkish empire or by some arrangement with the Porte." The British Government took great umbrage at these remarks. Their excited fancy stretched them to what plainly they were not, a threat to seize Egypt, April 26, 1803, the British ministry gave in its ultimatum : (i.) England to retain Malta for ten years, and then resign it to its inhabitants as an independent island. * This conversation is mentioned as extraordinary 'by many writers. It is, however, a single instance of this habit of scolding in which Bonaparte indulged even on his trivial household occasions. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 259 (2.) Naples to cede Lampedusa to Great Britain.* (3.) The French army to quit the Batavian Republic (Holland) and Switzerland. (4.) Indemnity for the King of Sardinia. (5.) On these conditions Great Britain would recognize the Cisalpine (Italian) Republic and the kingdom of Etruria (Tuscany). The French minister, Talleyrand, replied that France would acquiesce in a transfer of Malta to Austria, Russia or Prussia, and would open nego- tiations for the adjustment of every disputed point unconnected with the recent treaty, f George's ministry refused this offer. Talleyrand then suggested that Malta should be ceded in perpetuity to Great Britain in return for a proper equivalent to France. J England's demand, useless to herself and ag- gressive to Italy, that the meritless " king " of Sardinia be '' compensated " in Italy, was badly grounded. He had less right to compensation than millions of other men conscripted from occupations, their own personal property, the pro- duct of their own toil and merit. No one can possibly own, as his personal property, any right to rule, or any public office or employment ; these all belong to the aggregate people. All, * Lampedusa is a small island, still uninhabited, about midway between Malta and Africa. t Coote, Vol. L p. 42 (British). t Alison, Vol. IL p. 270 (English). 26o THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. therefore, that this so-called king of Sardinia could have lost was not his own property or right ; it was the property and right of the people of Sardinia to bestow or use as they might see fit. And that people had no need or desire to employ him in any capacity. So there was nothing to redress, nothing to be compensated. Further, the real king of Sardinia, Charles Emmanuel the Fourth, had, in 1798, renounced all power, commanded his subjects to obey the pro- visional government to be established by the French, had retired to the island of Sardinia which alone he governed till 1802, when he had abdica- ted, and, soon after, died. There was no real king of '* Sardinia " * in 1803. Victor Emmanuel, brother of the late king, was only 2. pretender. He had never reigned there. There was nothing for which to consider him. That part of George the Third's demand was, therefore, both absurd and wicked ; a wish to impose upon the people a king they did not want and never had. This worthless pretender, Victor Emmanuel, forced on Italy by the allies in 18 14, himself proved a tyrant, restored hated abuses, increased taxes, persecuted Vaudois Christians and Jews ; this man, so thoroughly un-British in his character and policy, was yet put forward, and his usurpation asked, and his refusal made one of the main pre- texts, not only for the British War, but for the * Savoy and Piedmont. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 261 bloody coalition of Britain, Russia, Sweden and Austria, against France ; it was the pretext that resulted in Trafalgar, Ulm and Austerlitz in 1805, and for the war of 1806, so severely disastrous to Prussia ; and for twelve years devastating war continued, with but twelve months' intermission. These nations might well have dropped his worthless cause ; they had ample cause against Bonaparte, without degrading the great struggle by effort to force this unworthy adventurer on unwilling Piedmont. Still these terms offered by England were better for France than war, and the terms offered by France were better for England than George the Third could hope to obtain by war. LXXIX. THERE were two men, who, by acting with a manly courtesy, and a wise statesman- ship, could have prevented the bloody war that, for more than twelve years longer, was to devastate Europe, scourge mankind, crush hundreds of thousands of honest Badness of • - 1 1 1 1 r 11 11 Bonaparte and men mto bloody orraves, and fill all « , f ° ' , George the Europe with cripples, and with the Third, hopeless mourning of widows, or- phans and bereaved parents. These two men placed in position to bless mankind, deliberately became its scourge. 262 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. Immeasurable human happiness was sacrificed, and wholesale, indescribable misery to vast num- bers of human beings was caused by the stubborn will-passion of Napoleon Bonaparte and George the Third. At the combined invitation of these two bad men, misery came, and it ruined the fairest prospects, and blasted the hopes of human happiness. The French historian Lanfrey says of Bona- parte : '^ In contempt of the will of the nation that hungered for the benefits of peace, and in order to avenge his miserable affront, millions of men were to fight for more than ten years, to tear each other to pieces, to die all kinds of deaths, on all continents, on all seas, at every hour of day and night, in deserts, on mountains, in snows, in flam- ing cities, in obscurest villages, from the Tagus to the Neva, from the Baltic to the Gulf of Tarant." '' And this war he began to force England to vio- late hospitality to proscribed men." * When the Amiens treaty was signed, and for months before, George the Third had full notice that Bonaparte was aggressive in Italy, Switzerland and Holland. He knew that Bonaparte had refused to treat with him on these subjects. He knew that France controlled those three countries. He well knew that Bonaparte never relinquished any item of his power. All the change in the situation that had occurred could have been foreseen. Great *Lanfrey's History of Napoleon, Vol. II. p. 282. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 263 Britain had been very liberal, even generous, in the terms of the treaty. Plainly George repented of the bargain. He wished to withhold a part of the liberal price that Britain had contracted to pay. Malta was not worth to England the cost of one month of war, even though bloodless. Nearly all the advantages offered by possession of Malta could, by either party, have been found elsewhere. The British did not need two Gibraltars in the Mediterranean. George the Third in 1799 had, with unmannerly rudeness, repulsed Consul Bonaparte's peace over- tures and prolonged a war, entirely fruitless of further advantage to the British, on the bare pre- text that he could not trust the French Consul to keep treaties ! Now George had contradicted himself by mak- ing the treaty of Amiens and by proposing ulti- matum with that same Consul, thus acknowledging how wrong he was in 1799. How could Bonaparte now trust George in a new treaty while George refused to keep one so recent } Bonaparte had skillfully put the burden of breaking the peace upon George. The George the Third government was not, like that of to-day, representative of a nation of almost universal intelligence. Few nations have in this nineteenth century made progress equal to that of Great Britain. In 1803 ^^^^ a single free public 264 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. school for common children existed in England. Many men could not read. Every half-sheet copy of a newspaper was stamp taxed 46., equal to 8d. now (sixteen cents). The seats in the House of Commons were owned by a few persons, and were bought and sold like merchandise. The British people were not represented. But few of the British people knew that King George was of natural abilities below the average Englishman. Few knew that in superb stupidity he was solid as lead. Bonaparte was usually a bad diplomatist,* rude and insulting in manner, indelicate in expression, arbitrary and overbearing in his demands. He broke everything that stood in his way. He pledged himself to French liberty ; he utterly de- stroyed it. He invoked the Christian religion ; he ruthlessly broke all its most sacred principles. He boasted of his honor ; he was the champion falsifier of the world. He pretended generosity ; he was the most egregiously selfish man of the age. He promised protection to the Dutch ; he pro- voked their repeated pillage by his enemies ; he immensely robbed them himself. He professed friendship for Charles the Fourth and Spain, yet he swindled them (for it was a swindle) out of Louis- iana. He called France a republic ; yet his gov- ernment was actually almost unlimited monarchy. He governed in the name of " the Republic " ; he * Bourrienne. Lanfrey. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 265 traded German free cities to princes. He pro- fessed to be the defender of liberty ; he was the man-stealer who re-established slavery in the French West Indies. He expected England to trust him ; at that very moment he revealed his hope of obtaining Egypt, which would be a constant menace to British East India trade and empire. Had the two governments willed it, the world must then have secured a long and profound peace, with great progress and improvements. One had overwhelming power on the seas, the other was dominant in Continental Europe. Europe was alarmed by Bonaparte's willful, ex- acting temper, over-ready to quarrel, to seize any undue advantage offered by the distress of any nation to convert the rights, property or liberty of men into spoil, to be traded in diplomacy or gam- bled for on the card-table of war. His character was known in Europe as afterwards described by his close observer, Madame Remusat, who saw him often. *' Although very remarkable for certain intel- lectual qualities, no man, it must be allowed, was ever less lofty of soul. There was no generosity, no true greatness in him. I have never known him to admire, I have never known him to com- prehend a fine action. He always regarded every indication of good feeling with suspicion. He did not value sincerity ; he did not hesitate to say that he recognized the superiority of a man by the 266 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. greater or less degree of cleverness with which he used the art of lying." * LXXX. GEORGE THE THIRD'S ministry resolved on war May i6, 1803. It was made, but never officially declared. Sir Walter Scott says : *' The bloody war, which succeeded War. the short peace of Amiens, origi- nated, to use the words of the satirist, in high words, jealousies and fears. There was no special or determinate cause of quarrel which could be removed by explanation, apology or concession." Another English historian says : " The alleged encroachments and insults were not real justifica- tions of hostility. The arbitrary conduct of the aspiring ruler of France indisputably suggested * Remusat, Memoirs, p. 9. Note. The Chancellor of the Exchequer stated the value of British produce and manufactures exported in 1802 at " little short of ;i^ 50,000,000." This would be about ,^8,000,000 more than in 1801, a year of war, while 1802 had nine months of peace. Knight states it at ;^4i, 000,000. t The government expended in 1802, besides sinking fund, the enormous sum of ;^ 73,441, 403, which is ;^23,ooo,ooo, or more than 156 per cent, of the entire value that year of Great Britain and Ireland's ex- ports! As but ;^6,798,i62 in exchequer bills were redeemed more than issued, and .^^27,550,449 were obtained on loan, thus considerably increasing the national debt, it is evident that George continued war expenditure in preparation for renewal of the war. t " In 1801, before the peace of Amiens, the official value of our (British) exports was thirty-seven millions ; in 1802, a year of uninterrupted peace, they had risen to forty-one millions; in 1803, when peace was broken, they fell to thirty-one millions," —C. Kjiighfs History of Engla7td, Vol. VII. p. 184. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 26/ the expediency of precaution ; but it was not so open and decisive as to provoke or authorize san- guinary extremities." Great Britain had but one great competitor, the United States, in the world's carrying trade, and during peace Britain had much the larger share. Her own trade was in every market of the world. Her naval force was greater than the world had ever before seen. What George expected to win by war is obscure. There was not a single item of his complaint against France that he could hope to enforce ! Strange war ! The two contestants could not get at each other ! This was certainly a remarkable spectacle. France '' could not cope with " Britain at sea ; and " England could not cope single- handed with France" on French land. Except through allies they could hardly carry on active hostilities. Must the war have for its end, then, only the expression of deadly hate .•* The French did not desire war. Madame Remusat says : " Nobody in France wanted any- thing but quiet, the right to free exercise of the intellect, the cultivation of the private virtues and the reparation by degrees of those losses of fortune common to all." In England war was lamentable ; it destroyed all hope of early relief of the heavy burden of taxes ; of improving the nation ; of educating the people ; of giving the people a representative House of Com- 268 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. mons ; of spreading the real Christian spirit of kindness and happiness. Within recent years France had extended her frontiers to the Rhine, obtained Belgium, Savoy, Piedmont, Genoa, seized the Valais, got control of Holland, Switzerland, and nearly all Italy, and secured the dominating influence in Spain. Great Britain had vastly extended her Indian empire, taken from the Dutch Ceylon and Guiana ; from Spain, Trinidad and Minorca ; and from France its East Indian possessions and Malta (which France had taken from the knights). Rus- sia, Austria and Prussia had increased by dividing Poland between them. Thus each of the five great powers had extended its dominion. The French army was 427,910 men,* besides a great number of Dutch, Swiss and Italian auxil- iaries and the French National Guard (militia) and the coast guard. The French revenue of 1803 was over 570,000,- 000 francs (^110,000,000) besides the great subsidy forced from Spain (^13,900,000 yearly), and from Italy and Portugal and maintenance of French troops by Holland, Naples, Tuscany and Hanover. The British ministry called out 80,000 militia in March. 1 30,000 men for regular army were voted, and in June 40,000 more for England and 10,000 * Report of the French War Minister, June, 1803; viz. ; 341,000 infantry, 26,000 artillery, 46,350 cavalry, and 14,560 invalids. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 269 for Ireland, by drafting. The ministry calculated that this would raise the regular army at home to 112,000, besides "a large force" for offensive operations. 50,000 seamen and marines were voted, and then 10,000 more, and again 40,000 more. * Seventy-five ships of the line and 270 frigates and smaller vessels, and hundreds of gunboats were put in commission.! The enormous property tax of five per cent, was made. Other heavy imposts were laid. Yet the great national debt was constantly increasing. The expenditures for 1803 were ^59,656,983 ; many times the value of Malta to the British. Of the twelve newspapers to which Bonaparte's decree of 1799 had reduced the Paris press, but eight remained, with but eighteen thousand six hundred and thirty subscribers. This small num- ber shows how little Paris read the little news that Bonaparte's strict censorship permitted to be printed ; little but that copied from the official Moniteur. J Political discussion was denied to the people. The French did not know the facts. To make the war popular, Bonaparte required great numbers of the officials to get up ad- dresses to him. This was to affect the people. He stirred up the bishops to preach war. They * Alison, Vol. II. p. 281. t Alison; Lanfrey, Vol. II. p. 304. $ Bonaparte to Regnier, June 3, 1803. 2/0 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. forgot that the doctrines of Jesus are peace and good-will ; they " issued pastorals in which they exhorted the people to arm itself for a just war." ** Choose men of good courage and go forth to fight Amalek," was the slogan raised by the bishop of Arras.* To avoid extra taxes on France Bonaparte de- termined that other peoples should bear them. This would strengthen his finances, and not cause French outcry against taxes. Therefore he com- pelled the contribution treaty of June, 1803, with Holland. As part of the treaty of peace with Russia in 1 801, Bonaparte had withdrawn his troops from Naples. Now he claimed a right to send them back as part of his war with England. He sent a large force and compelled the King of Naples to feed, clothe and pay them. He occupied Tarrentium, which, with its extensive fortifications and capacious harbor, seemed to secure to France all the uses to which they might have applied Malta, and thus practically offset the British pos- session of that island. Bonaparte had compelled recognition of himself as " Protector" in Switzerland. Now he required a new treaty. This contract, offensive and defen- sive, compelled Switzerland to furnish him with sixteen thousand soldiers besides four thousand in charge of supply depots, and, in case of attack on * R^musat. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 2^1 French territory, eight thousand more, making in all twenty-eight thousand or nearly one twentieth of the male population.* The French Directory had in 1798 robbed the Swiss treasury at Berne of a large sum of money which Bonaparte used to fit out the ill-starred Egyptian expedition. Now Switzerland, by many disturbances, had become too poor to furnish material for even that expert practical robber to recruit his funds. At that time impressment, the worst form of servitude, existed in England. It recruited its navy by this high-handed tyranny. Armed bands seized any eligible seamen between the ages of eighteen and fifty-five, and carried them by force on board ships of war, where they were compelled to serve. The impressed seamen often fought the press gangs, and men were killed. Armed men boarded ships of their own nation and kidnaped the best men. Sometimes Napoleon used this same odious system. Privateering is a black stain on that generation in Europe and America. But George the Third went further and violated the law of nations and of humanity by issuing letters of marque before war was known to exist ! On May 20 his licensed pirates captured two French vessels. Many others were taken before notice of the war. Three days earlier Bonaparte had done unjustly. He had sent notice to General Clarke in Italy, "it * Lanfrej', Vol. II. p. 311. 2/2 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. is the intention of the First Consul that a general embargo be laid in the ports of Tuscany." Simi- lar instructions were sent to French agents in Holland and Genoa.* The object was to seize British ships and cargoes in ports. Bonaparte cruelly ordered the arrest of all Eng- lish travelers in France to retaliate the seizure of the two French ships. George refused restitution and Napoleon held the English travelers as pris- oners of war for eleven years — till released by his overthrow in 1814 — a great barbarism. Romily (English) says : " If it had been Bonaparte's ob- ject to give strength to the British ministry and to make the war universally popular in England, he could not have devised a better expedient." George and Bonaparte had gone to war pro- fessedly to " save their honor," and the first war act of each was dishonorable ! One warred on defenseless vessels, the other on defenseless trav- elers ; both on peaceful merchants. Great Britain offered to respect Holland's neu- trality if Holland would get the French troops to leave her territory. But Bonaparte required of Holland to make with him the treaty of June, 1803. By this Holland was compelled to support eigh- teen thousand French and sixteen thousand Dutch troops ; to furnish Bonaparte five ships, five frig- ates, one hundred gunboats, two hundred flat-boats and several hundred transports.! This from a * Lanfrey, Vol. II. p. 310, t Ibid. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 273 friendly people, who had lost their commerce by alliance with him ! Bonaparte promised to restore their colonies ; a promise that only Great Britain could perform. The luckless Dutch were the victims of both friends and foes. The British ministry seized Dutch Cape Town during the peace ! Great num- bers of Dutch vessels traded at that far-off port. George licensed privateers, little better than the open piracy of Algiers ; these robbed the inoffen- sive Dutch Cape traders, whose only fault was their misfortune that already a foreign enemy, Bonaparte, held their country by a conquest called an alliance. England usually hangs pirates. LXXXI. GEORGE THE THIRD of England was Elector of Hanover. This did not unite that country to England. Hanover was misgov- erned by George and a German min- ister, not in Hanover, but in England, Hanover, and by an oligarchy in Hanover ; and 1803. it was troubled by such bad charac- ters as the dissolute sons of George, the dukes of Cumberland and Cambridge.* George declared Hanover neutral. Bonaparte never lost an opportunity, right or wrong. In pure * Schlosser, Vol. VII. pp. 364-366. 2/4 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. aggression, he sent General Mortier with a French army into Hanover, June 3, 1803. Hanover's army was too weak to resist. General Mortier allowed it to retire beyond the Elbe, on condition not to serve against France or its allies till duly exchanged. George stupidly refused to ratify this arrangement. Then Mortier compelled its surrender as prisoners of war, with nearly four hundred cannon, thirty thousand muskets, four thousand horses, and all of Hanover's military stores ; and he quartered the French army on that country. "Thus thirty thousand of our troops were lodged, fed and equipped at the expense of foreigners," says Lan- frey. Bonaparte had obtained a great amount of war material to use against England and her allies, at the expense of the stupid George who had placed them accessible to him and refused terms that might have saved them. The French occupied the free cities of Ham- burg and Bremen. Bonaparte stationed troops in Cuxhaven, and closed the Elbe to British com- merce. Fie exacted from the free towns large sums of money. It was robbery. The Hanoverians were ready for a change of masters. Everything was made easy for the French.* Every civil officer remained at his post, and through them, a civil commission, with the Hanover supreme judge at its head, governed the country for the French. There was nothing in it * Schlosser, Vol. VII. pp. 364-366. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 2/5 to disturb the real people. It was merely the old game played — arbitrary ruler against despotic ruler — and both against the people. True, Bonaparte robbed them of a great sum ; but George and his re- lations and friends had always been exacting money. As soon as the French took Hanover, George sent British ships to blockade the Elbe and the Weser, and thus stupidly cut off his own patri- mony, Hanover, from the trade of his own British kingdom ! It is not easy to see any wisdom in that statecraft, for it injured both Great Britain and Hanover, and not the French. The King of Prussia offered if George would remove this blockade and open navigation of these rivers, that he would cause Hanover to be occupied by Prussian troops, that he would hold it for George, and in due time evacuate it. With surprising lack of statesmanship, George and his cabinet refused this offer ! And this George and Pitt called saving the honor of England ! Russia, Austria and Denmark were displeased with the French occupancy of Hanover. They exchanged angry notes with France. Thus seized in 1803, it remained under Bonaparte's rule until in 18 1 3 he lost it by the result of the Russian war of 1812. The King of Prussia at first warmly seconded Russia in its remonstrances against French occu- pation and money exactions in North Germany. But Bonaparte hinted that possibly Hanover 276 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. might fall to Prussia. The King of Prussia, not strong enough to contend with the colossal power of Bonaparte, remained quiet and negotiated. He hoped to gain by neutrality. He urged Bonaparte to evacuate Cuxhaven, to reopen Prussian com- merce. In exchange he offered to guarantee the good-will of Germany to P'rance. But Bonaparte, as usual, wanted everything. He offered to give George's Hanover to Prussia if, as an off-set, Prussia would make alliance offensive and defen- sive with him. Of course this offer meant sub- serviency. It meant war between Prussia and the British. Prussia declined the offer. In December, 1803, an agreement was concluded by which Bonaparte promised that Prussia should be consulted in all negotiations as to Hanover. Bonaparte's occupancy of Hanover and the free cities, and his robbery of them, were in shameful violation of the rights of neutrals. They awak- ened the jealousy of other nations, and made a great sensation. Russia sent notes of angry remonstrance ; Austria protested ; Prussia was alarmed ; Denmark assembled thirty thousand men to defend its territory. But Russia was too far off, Austria too unready, and Prussia wisely loved peace. So the anger of the North took expression in words and diplomatic remonstrances. British trade made a market for Russia's pro- duce. Friendship with France was of less value. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 2// Russia declined to join with other powers to guarantee Malta as neutral. The Czar of Russia was displeased by Bonaparte's occupation of Naples. Bonaparte replied that he could see no more reason why Russia should interfere with the affairs of Italy, than France should meddle with those of Persia. Recriminations followed. War was coming. Russia and Prussia agreed (May 3-24, 1803) not to allow French troops to ap- proach east of Hanover. The Czar was willing to leave undisturbed the French usurpation in Switzerland if Bonaparte would not meddle with the Ionian Isles, then under Russian protection. But Bonaparte's troops in Ancona, Otranto and Brindisi in Italy, were too near Turkey, which they might aid to annoy Russia. LXXXII. IN the war of 1756-63, Great Britain almost cleared the ocean of French vessels. To trade with its colonies, France admitted neutral vessels, and thus, under neutral flags, a vast amount of French goods was pro- " Rule of tected from British cruisers. Great the War of Britain adopted a rule that neutrals 1756." have in war time no right to carry on a trade beween a country and its colonies, which the mother country prohibits in time of peace; that 278 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. it is a shirking of the risks of war by a belligerent, and is unduly rewarding neutrals. The British, applying ''the rule of the war of 1756," adopted when America was part of the British empire and an active participant in that war — known as the " French and Indian War" — and then a beneficiary of the rule, now seized and confiscated many American vessels carrying French property. In other cases British cruisers searched American vessels, took away the French goods and allowed the vessels to go free. But in 1803, under Washington's "Jay treaty," a commis- sion awarded and Great Britain paid to American merchants about $6,000,000 for illegal captures, less about half that sum similarly awarded by the com- mission to British merchants. This award indicates great aggression by as well as upon Americans. LXXXIII. SPAIN is the home of a brave people. It had many honorable men who, in a republic or liberal monarchy would have been at the front of affairs. But heredity gave it as king the miserable Charles the Fourth. Godoy, the The affairs wickcd Quccu's favoritc, ruled over "Mos!^'^' Spain's ten million inhabitants with little respect from Europe. Torture, abolished in Russia in 1801, was still lawful in Spain, was used to extort confessions of THE WORLD^S GREATEST CONFLICT. 2/9 guilt. So restricted was trade that only common carriers could buy and sell grain without the king's special license. In the eighteenth century Spain ranked as the fourth European power in territory, fifth in reve- nue, first in extent of colonies including the countries richest in soil, produce and mines, with nearly twenty millions of people^ At the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, Spain was weak, wretched. Rich only in superstition, redundant only in priests and gran- dees. It had no good roads, no canals, very few manufactures. Industry or capital had little chance. Most land was in entailed estates of ab- sentee grandees, poorly tilled, badly managed. Its policy was restrictive. It tried to make the Carribbean and the Gulf of Mexico its own closed seas, allowed but thirty-four vessels, some of them small, to sail between Spain and America, and but four to the West Indies. Spain owned all the coasts of these two great seas ; all their valuable islands except Jamaica and Hayti. The world, not excepting Great Britain, submitted to this great claim which made closed seas of these two extensive natural highways for the world's trade and friendly intercourse ; an acquiescence repug- nant to the best interests of commerce and of the civilization of that part of the world, thus very far exceeding the present American claim to the Beh- ring Sea seal harvest. Its American colonies re- 28o THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. quired British goods ; as Spain had none, they were sent to Cadiz and re-shipped in these Span- ish vessels. The national debt (1800) was ^215,737,000.* So imbecile was the king that in 1802, a junto, appointed to ascertain the Spanish revenues and costs of collection, knavishly presented him an old report, made in 1789, by Lessena, as their own, rightly judging that he would never discover their fraud. The Spanish are of a mixed race, dialect and character. Dwelling mostly in uncomfortable and badly furnished houses, little was needed and little obtained to support them in their lack of energy. The love of music and dancing, the use of weapons, intrigue and intolerance were general characteris- tics. Castilian is the literary language, but not the dialect of Andalusia, Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Isles and the Basque provinces. Possessing a locally varying climate, a compact and remarkably fine commercial location between the two seas, the most important for the world's trade, and a very diversified surface, it was once the most opulent kingdom of Europe. It was for three centuries the richest province of the Roman empire ; a bountiful granary, rich in gold and other metals, and improved with a vast system of canals, aqueducts and other public works, now in ruins. Yet throughout nearly all of the eighteenth * Scott. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 281 century business there was stagnant, and easy squalor was preferred to labor and plenty. " Even the laws cast dishonor on mechanic labor." * Two thousand years ago Spain was far from being a new country. Yet the continuous occu- pancy of from sixty to a hundred successive gen- erations have not made such improvements as to render it in 1801 a well-tilled land. The population from 1500 to 1700 appears to have actually decreased between two and three millions. The nobility are numerous ; the lower noblesse generally very poor, and the beggars many. In i860 nearly five hundred thousand persons were supported in one thousand and twenty-eight char- itable institutions. Before the suppression of the monasteries in 1836, about one fifth of the whole population were in the employ of the Church. It had far more priestcraft than prosperity. The treaty of St. Ildefonso of 1796 bound France and Spain alike in perpetuity to a stated amount of help by each to the other in case of war, "without discussion." (Article VIII.) In 1788 Charles the Third of Spain died. The heir to the throne, Prince Philip, was an imbecile. So he was set aside, and his brother, imbecile in moral sense, honor, honesty, patriotism and de- cency, became Charles the Fourth. Certainly it * Bancroft. 282 THE WORLD*S GREATEST CONFLICT. was not God who sent to rule a great people, a man far below the average of his subjects in manliness. Louisiana, first taken as French by La Salle in 1682, and colonized many years later, was trans- ferred to Spain in 1762. By secret treaty of March 18, 1801, bad Charles the Fourth embezzled from Spain the great Louis- iana Territory, and gave it to Bonaparte in ex- change for the empty title "King of Etruria" (Tuscany), for his son-in-law, the boy duke of Parma. The boy became only a puppet king, for Bonaparte still ruled Etruria. Louisiana was all that country between the Gulf of Mexico and British America east of the Rocky Mountains and west of the whole length of the Mississippi River, and a broad strip east of that river that separated United States territory from the Gulf. This strip extended east to the Perdido River. The Spanish officials remained there. They, desiring to make western Americans realize the advantage of secession from the United States and union with Spain, which they hoped would recover Louisiana from France, withdrew the right given by our Spanish treaty of 1795, for Americans to deposit goods at New Orleans. Spain still held the strip east of the Mississippi, and also Florida. Thus it held the outlet of all the navigable rivers into the Gulf. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 283 The adjacent parts of the United States must have access to the sea. A union with Spain of- fered it. The denial of deposit made great commotion. Kentucky, alarmed, indignant, called on Congress for aid. The prospect was threatening. The West called for war with Spain (February, 1803). Congress responded by authorizing President Jefferson to prepare eighty thousand volunteers, and appropriated two million dollars. News of Charles the Sixth's foolish sale made great con- sternation. To fight Napoleon would be quite a formidable affair. He had made peace with Eng- land and could send an immense army to America. Much as Jefferson and his party admired Napo- leon, they did not want him for a neighbor. His rapacity was too dangerous. The Federalist party hated and dreaded him. Jefferson instructed our envoys to France, James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston, to try, with the two million dollars, to buy New Orleans and the strip along the Gulf east of the Mississippi. This was all. This would give us an outlet. It was not President Jefferson who bought Louisi- ana ; it was not Louisiana that Jefferson sought to obtain. Napoleon wanted money for the war he was about to begin with the British. He knew that the British could take Louisiana from him ; that they 284 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. were ready to do it. He would not entertain Jefferson's proposal. But he offered to sell the whole vast territory. The American envoys had no authority or instruc- tions to buy it. They lacked time to send to Amer- ica and obtain them ; but their minds grasped the situation. They took the responsibility, they made the purchase. Napoleon signed the treaty of sale April 13, 1803 ; only eleven days before he sent home the British embassador. The price was $15,440,000, of which $11,580,000 were paid to France in United States 6 per cent, bonds, cashed in Holland. The other fourth, $3,860,000, was to be paid by the United States to Americans whose ships and cargoes France had confiscated, and France was discharged from these claims. To Jefferson has popularly been given the credit of this great act of statesmanship. Is it not pri- marily due to Monroe and Livingston ? Jefferson approved it, but so did Congress and millions of Americans. Had Jefferson's action been awaited, the great opportunity must have passed. That Napoleon made war on England proved immense advantage to America ; but it was a great misfortune to France. Napoleon knew that his possession of the natural outlets of our Western trade would make a natural enemy of America. But had he retained Louisiana and devoted the same energy, expense THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 28$ and skill to its colonization and development that he gave to unnecessary war, it is beyond conjec- ture to what height of real glory and prosperity he might have raised France. In the feeble condition of Spain, he could easily have obtained Mexico, California, Central America and Oregon. Had Napoleon pursued a just, honest, really statesman- hke course, then all that great empire, the whole of North America west of the Mississippi, might now be French dominion and constantly adding un- told wealth to France. Napoleon was the first soldier of modern times, but was he a far-seeing statesman .? Jefferson, his admirer, says he was not. * It was to enter European war into which he was not forced that he threw away this grand chance to vastly aggrandize France, without war's waste of human life. The forty thousand Frenchmen in Leclerc's army, wasted in St. Domingo, might have been saved and made a grand installment of Louisiana colonists. The area of this Louisiana purchase was almost exactly double the whole area of France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands and Luxemburg com- bined, with a richer soil and capable, with proper cultivation, of supporting a larger population than double the present nearly 100,000,000 people of those important nations. Its extent exceeded that of the present Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Holland and * Jefferson's Works, Vol. VI. 286 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. Luxemburg together, which now contain popula- tions exceeding 180,000,000. Its 576,000,000 acres was enough to have given a farm to every man in all Napoleon's European dominions. This vast, virgin empire Napoleon sold for about 2 j%% cents an acre. It included all Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, Montana, Idaho, In- dian Territory, and most of Colorado and Wyo- ming. New Orleans had about 8000 inhabitants. Its 930,928 square miles was 110,248 square miles; more than an eighth larger than the whole then United States, which contained 820,680 square miles. Before he became President, Jefferson and his party strenuously insisted on strict construction of the very letter of our Constitution. But that in- strument did not authorize any purchase of terri- tory. Now Jefferson and his " Republican " party took more than former Federalist latitude with the Constitution, while the Federalist, also re- versing their position, cried out against the measure as violation of that compact. They denounced the purchase as likely to dissolve and divide the Union ; even Jefferson had fears of that result. The purchase was a wise act of statesmanship. It has really secured us from the great danger of having a rival nation occupying all the country beyond the Mississippi. Jefferson probably intended to have the Consti- THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 28/ tution amended to cover this case, but the short space of six months allowed for exchange of rati- fications precluded it. Federalists charged Jefferson with folly in not seizing that territory by force and thus saving the purchase money, a proposal for which they held that authority existed in the Constitution. Napoleon sold it for money to fight England, the very power that Spain ought to have regarded as its own natural ally against Napoleon. England so plainly saw Napoleon's great mis- take that it permitted English bankers, the Bar- ings, to offer to take the American bonds and make the cash payments to France. Twenty-two Republican and one Federalist senators voted the ratification and five Federalist senators against it. 288 THE world's GREATEST CONFLICT. LXXXIV. SINCE 1801 war had existed between the United States and Tripoli, on account of the piratical depredations of Tripolitans on American commerce. In 1803 Commodore War between Preble was scnt to Tripoli with a the United small squadron. Captain Bainbridge states and with the frigate Philadelphia grounded Tripoli. in that harbor, and was compelled to 1803-1805. surrender. The officers were held as prisoners, the crew as slaves. In 1804 young Lieutenant Decatur, with seventy- six men, by a gallant dash retook and burned the captured frigate. Jussuf had murdered his father, the Bashaw of Tripoli, and usurped his place. His older brother Hamet escaped to Egypt. There General Eaton, an American agent, espoused his cause, in the hope to force the release of the American cap- tives. After fifty days of march across desert, Eaton and Hamet arrived at Derne, where they found some American warships ready to assist them. They took Derne by assault. Twelve days later the Tripolitans attacked them, but were repulsed. June 10 another battle was fought, and the Tripolitans beaten. Many Tripoli- tans fled to the desert the next day at sight of the THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 289 arrival of the American frigate Constitution. It however brought news of peace. The American Government had bought the release of the captives for sixty thousand dollars, and the relinquishment of its support of Hamet's claims to the throne. Jefferson disliked a navy ; he disapproved ex- pensive fortifications ; he proposed heavy cannon on carriages, movable to any point, some at each port, to be used by trained militia. He objected to war ships. Instead, he proposed gun-boats; some to be kept under sheds, some afloat, to be manned in emergency by seamen and local militia ; a few to be kept fully manned. For the fifteen harbors which he believed needed pro- tection, two hundred and fifty such gun-boats, to cost a million dollars. Ten years might be taken to complete them — twenty-five each year. The three already completed lacked efficiency and excited public amusement, but Congress ap- propriated sixty thousand dollars for the gun-boats. Jefferson wrote in 1804 that the United States had dropped the system of making commercial treaties when avoidable ; he had not renewed that with England, and all overtures were declined ** because it is against our system to embarrass ourselves with treaties, or entangle ourselves at all with the affairs of Europe." The Constitutional amendment that the Presi- dent and Vice-President be separately voted for in the Electoral College, was adopted in 1804. 290 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. The election gave one hundred and sixty-two votes for Jefferson, and fourteen for C. C. Pinck- ney, for President ; one hundred and sixty-two for George Clinton of New York, and fourteen for Rufus King, for Vice-President. LXXXV. SPAIN made trouble about the boundaries of Louisiana. The United States claimed pay for vessels taken by Spanish cruisers, and by French cruisers sailing from Spain ; Spain. 1804. Spain admitted her liability, but de- nied any for the French, The new government, given by the United States to Orleans, was eminently arbitrary. The President was to appoint the governor and, annu- ally, the thirteen members of a legislative council and three judges of Federal Courts, the council to control other courts, with jury trial. Under Spain the colonists had no power, and little under France. In 1805 the people petitioned for American form of government, and were given a territorial elective legislature. The District of Louisiana was made a territory, the governor and judges to be the legislators. A clause continued the exist- ing laws and regulations, until repealed, and tacitly confirmed slavery, already there. Michigan was made a territory, with Williarn THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 29I Hull for governor. This was the American gen- eral afterwards so notorious for his surrender of an army. The European war having thrown much of its vast and rich carrying trade into American ships, the southern coast was annoyed by French and Spanish half-pirates ; American ships in St. Do- mingo trade were armed ; still captures were made. The only other marine neutrals were Sweden, Denmark and the Hanse towns. Goods and produce were first sent to the neutral country, then reshipped at lucrative rates. European goods thus carried by neutrals were protected by neutrality. English admiralty courts began to condemn American vessels. Public meetings in American ports called to Congress for redress. Jefferson in his annual message again urged the gun-boat system. Miranda, an adventurer, sailed from New York with about two hundred volunteers to raise insur- rection against Spain in South America. When too late Jefferson caused the prosecution of two of his assistants. Miranda obtained some British assistance, landed near Caraccas, took two or three towns; failed to receive native support; the Spanish took prisoners about sixty Americans ; the expedition broke up at Trinidad. Spanish and French defeat at Trafalgar pre- vented sending Spanish troops to Louisiana against 292 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. US ; Jefferson had quietly procured an appropria- tion of two million dollars for " extraordinary ex- penses of foreign intercourse," and was trying to buy Florida and the strip extending from it to Orleans, which separated the States entirely from the Gulf of Mexico, and in the rivers of which Spain was exacting toll from American commerce ; Spain refused to sell ; she knew that Bonaparte, not Spain, would receive the purchase money. Americans claimed to the Rio Grande ; Spain only admitted the American claim to a narrow strip west of the Mississippi ; Spanish troops crossed the Sabine from Texas and occupied a post on Red River. Tariff duties most affected the Atlantic States ; the whisky tax the West. The East was mostly Federalist, the West mostly Republican ; the Fed- eralists had the less aversion to taxes ; the Repub- licans were restive under internal impost. The whisky tax became a party measure ; the Federal- ists insisted that it be taxed, for both moral and financial reasons ; the Republicans that it be free. The tax was abolished by party vote. With the admission of Ohio as a State in 1802,* Congress began the system, made general in 1804, of giving each new State twelve hundred and eighty acres of land to each township of 23,040 acres, for public schools. Georgia, for ^1,250,000, ceded to the United * Organized March, 1803, THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 293 States all its claim to lands west of its present limit. This land was nearly all owned by Indians. In July Vice-President Aaron Burr, an unscru- pulous politician, killed the Federalist leader, Alex- ander Hamilton. Both men had great faults. No party was interested to defend Burr's character. The Federalists were eager to defend that of their chief. One appears in popular view as a villain, the other as a patriot. 1804-7 Lewis and Clarke boldly ascended the Missouri twenty-six hundred miles. They then struck across unknown regions westward until they reached a great river which they traced to the Pacific and found it to be the Columbia, dis- covered by Captain Robert Gray of Salem, in 1792. This great exploration and Gray's discovery gave Oregon and Washington to the United States, after we obtained Spain's claim to it. The produce of French and Dutch colonies was largely shipped in American vessels to America, and there reshipped to Europe for greater security under the neutral flag. This trade was very profita- ble to Americans, while it gave to France her trade almost as in peace. The British seized some of these vessels on the claim that they were French property. General Wilkinson was sent, with several hundred American regulars, to oppose the Spanish. War with Spain was imminent, but Trafalgar re- stricted her power of American aggression. Congress passed an act to punish violations of 294 THE world's greatest conflict, our neutrality, and to please France a prohibition of American trade with revolted French St. Domingo. LXXXVI. IMPEACHMENT of Judge Chase, although it failed, served to check the assumption of overbearing demeanor on the bench, which had been handed down as dignity from Misceiia- colonial timcs. Humphreys and Liv- neous. ingstone benefited America by im- portation from Spain of fine wool merinoes, and by making fine cloths. In literature Joel Barlow put forth a splendid edition of his ''Vision of Columbus." Lxxxvn. FOR five hundred dollars in cash ; increase of annuity to one thousand dollars ; three hun- dred to build a church, and one hundred for a priest, Governor Harrison bought from the American rcmuants of the Kaskaskias, all South- indians. em Illinois up to a line across it through the present Alton and Vandalia. In 1804 Delawares and Piankeshaws, for a small annuity, ceded the present Indiana south of a line from Vincennes to Louisville, Kentucky. The Sacs and Foxes, for an annuity of one thousand dollars worth of goods, ceded about fifty THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 295 million acres — more than once and a half the area of England — on both sides of the Mississippi, including much of Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. Land was of very small actual value until labor and skill of whites subdued, cultivated and made it productive. LXXXVIII. BUT three banks existed in the State of New York, all owned by Federalists. The charter of the fourth bank was a party measure for Republican owners, the first party bank in America ; a bad precedent Banks, soon badly abused. Charters were denied for two more banks, because the applicants were Federalists. LXXXIX. BONAPARTE showed little respect for the new "king of Etruria." He fortified his coasts with heavy batteries without notifying the king or even answering his com- plaints.* Etruria was governed prac- Spain, con- tically as a French department.! ti'^^ed. This alone would have afforded Spain grounds to annul its treaty contract to fur- nish troops and war ships to Bonaparte. * Schlosser. t Lanfrey, Vol. II. p. 309. 296 THE world's greatest CONFLICT. The King of Etruria died October 9, 1803, ^^d his ignorant, bigoted widow, Maria Louisa, a Span- ish woman, misgoverned as far as Bonaparte would permit, as regent for their son, Charles Louis, aged four years. Although the Spanish treaty required that peace ''was only to be made by common accord," and ''was not to be to the detriment of the aux- iliary power " (Art. XIV.), yet Bonaparte alone, without consulting Spain, made the treaty of Amiens, of March 2^, 1802, in which he sacrificed Spain's highly valuable Trinidad, to the great detriment of Spain. Again Spain had a right to nullify the treaty because of its violation. But even then Bonaparte, who had so greatly broken the treaty, demanded that Spain should fulfill its terms. He was again at war with Great Britain ; he called for the stipulated aid. Even the corrupt Godoy objected. The proposal was too monstrous. Bonaparte assembled a French army at Bayonne, near Spain. The Spanish Government began to prepare for war with France. It ordered a levy of one hundred thousand men. War seemed imminent. The Spanish army advanced toward France. Bonaparte threatened to invade Spain, He would remove Godoy. He demanded that Spain make war on the British or pay subsidy to France. The alternative offered was war with France.* * Bonaparte to Talleyrand, August 14, 1803. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 29/ Bonaparte threatened Godoy. He would de- nounce to Charles the Fourth Godoy's criminal relations with Charles's queen.* With tears of shame and anger, Godoy read Bonaparte's threat- ening letter. But, bad as he was, he refused. Bonaparte wrote to Charles an expose of Godoy. He would humiliate both. But Charles, informed that it was offensive, declined to open the letter. Charles yielded. He submitted to the insult and injury that Spain was to pay to France six million francs a month, amounting to nearly fourteen million dollars a year, and to compel Portugal, the natural friend of England, to give to Bonaparte one million francs a month. This was done by the treaty of December 19, 1803, by which Portugal was robbed of sixteen million francs for Bonaparte to use against Portugal's interests to severely dam- age her trade and her prosperity. Thus by selling Louisiana, and by using the highwayman's principles, force and fear, against Holland, Hanover, Naples, Italy, Spain and Por- tugal, Bonaparte obtained war funds without lay- ing new taxes on the French. * Bonaparte to Godoy. 29S THE world's greatest CONFLICT. xc. FRANCE had now little popular sympathy in any country. It had lost the good-will of Democrats and Republicans except a party, strong in the American Slave States, and France, 1803. their near neighbors. Throughout the world it was dreaded as a threat- ening and conquering despotism. Boston and New York, as well as Berlin, Vienna, Cairo and Lisbon, were adverse in feeling toward it. Within a short time of Bonaparte's assumption of power, popular institutions had vanished. But the friends of liberty did not disappear ; they were numerous even in the French army. Circumstances drew into Bonaparte's train many sincere friends of liberty. France had many able, patriotic, freedom-loving persons ; they pre- ferred the military hero Bonaparte, to the possible Bourbons. Many army officers were opposed to the Con- cordat of 1802. Many civilians were opposed to the aggressive ambition of the military, and de- sired continued peace. One party wished the return of the elective republic ; the Vendeans desired the old oppressors ; yet all seemed to sup- port Bonaparte except conspirators and the four- teen suspended departments. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 299 Many French were better than their ruler ; more liberal than their government, as many British were wiser than Britain's rulers, more just than Britain's laws. Some of Bonaparte's laws were useful, ''but his insatiable greed of power perverted them."* Then ''he affected great esteem for the priests, and care for their interests. Bonaparte knew how steadily religion supports royalty, and he hoped that through the priests he might get the people taught that catechism which we have since seen — in which all who did not love and obey the emperor were threatened with eternal condemnation." f Bonaparte raised a great conscription. He col- lected an immense fleet of small vessels at Bou- logne, to carry a great army across the Channel to invade England. Other fleets and war forces he collected in Holland and other ports of France. He commenced immense docks at Antwerp, which he hoped to make the greatest naval station of the continent. Fulton repeatedly tried to get Bonaparte to experiment with steam. "The First Consul treated Fulton as a charletan, and would not listen to him."$ His preparations were very complete. He was ready had chance favored. * R^musat, Vol. I. p. 22. t Ibid, Vol. IL p. 211. t Marmont, Tome IL p. 211. 300 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. His threatened invasion united England against him. There the war for a time was popular. All England was excited, alarmed, preparing. It en- rolled 379,000 volunteers (militia), in addition to the 80,000 called out in March, and voted increase of its regular army to 180,000. It had 189 line ships, and 781 smaller war vessels. During the next seven years the men in the navy varied from 100,000 to 120,000. Bonaparte planned to reach England by flat boats of light draft, built on the Gironde, the Loire, the Oise, the Seine, the Somme, the Scheldt, the Meuse, the Rhine, which were to descend these rivers, glide along the coasts, concentrate, and take on board the great army at Boulogne, cross the Channel, and terminate, in England, the many gen- erations of unchristian rivalry of these two Chris- tian nations. Bonaparte prohibited imports from England.* June, 1803, Bonaparte proposed that Russian troops should garrison Malta as long as should be deemed necessary ; that Lampedusa be ceded to Great Britain ; that Switzerland and Holland be evacuated by French troops ; and that the acquisi- tions of France in Italy be recognized by England. Here, certainly, was a chance for George's ministry to make a real effort for peace. But instead of trying to stop the ravages of war, they offered to refer to the arbitration of Alexander ; the evacua- * Bourrienne, Vol. II. p. 84. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 3OI tion of Hanover and North Germany to be part of the arrangement. Of course Bonaparte refused. Alexander was a party to the quarrel, he was committed against France. England had offered to recognize Etruria if Pied- mont were made independent. It would not recognize the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics.* While complaining of French conquest in Europe, England had conquered vast territories in Mysore. In Ireland, a large number of persons, led by Robert Emmett, on July 23, 1803, attempted a rebellion. Emmet was soon arrested, tried for treason, and executed. In 1803, a conspiracy to kill George the Third, in London, was punished by the execution of six humble persons. In 1803, Great Britain's immense preparations and vast expense brought it but little results, ex- cept that its naval superiority enabled the British to capture the French colonies of St. Lucia, To- bago, Demerara, Berbice and Esquibo. This was little to the regret of the planters of these sugar countries, who looked to England to protect them against their own slaves, whom events in St. Domingo had caused them to distrust and dread. It also gave them a share in that lucrative com- merce, which, under the British flag, they could * Bonaparte, Lanfrey, Vol. IL 302 THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. conduct with greater security. French trade was not safe on the ocean. The British navy blockaded French ports, fre- quently harassed French ships, and bombarded coast towns without important result. Thus the first advantages of the war were largely in favor of the French. The Ionian Isles were quieted with a new con- stitution. The Czar appointed the Duke of Richelieu gov- ernor of Odessa ; his administration made Odessa a great wheat exporting port before i8 15. In Arabia the Wahabis defeated the Turks in a Mohammedan war, in several battles, took Mecca, the holy city ; refrained from excesses there, compelled praying more punctually ; dress- ing more plainly, and forbade smoking in public. One of their maxims is, "no tobacco." They are still the dominant people of Arabia. In India the Mahratta war was the beginning of Wellington's military career. The five Mah- ratta chiefs had a military force of three hundred thousand men. The Peishwa at Poonah was their nominal head. He looked to the British for pro- tection. Holkar and Scindia, two of the princes, were at war. Holkar defeated his rival, and drove the Peishwa himself from his capital. The Pei- shwa called for British aid. With them he made the treaty of Bassoin, December 31, 1802. Wel- lesley (Wellington) marched six hundred miles in THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 303 the bad season, drove out the captors and restored the Peishwa to Poonah. The two, lately rival, princes united. The war assumed large propor- tions. The British General Lake defeated Scindia, took Delhi, and won victories at Muttra and Agra. Wellesley, with only about four thousand five hundred British, and a native force, attacked the Mahrattas and won a bloody and remarkable vic- tory at Assay e, September 23, 1803. Ninety-eight cannon, seven standards, all the baggage, and most of the ammunition of the enemy, fell into British hands. The Mahrattas numbered about fifty thousand. Several other battles and sieges resulted in the submission of Scindia in December, 1803. It was a brilliant campaign of four months. Scindia ceded territory, became subsidiary to the British, and agreed to exclude all other Europeans. Malabar was united to the Madras Presidency. Robert Fulton made a small steamboat which he exhibited on the Seine in 1803. Symington built the steamboat, Charlotte Dundas, to tow ves- sels on the Forth and Clyde canal. It was a suc- cess, but its agitation washed the banks so much that its use was abandoned. Sunday-schools were founded by Robert Raikes in 1781. At first the teaching sometimes included reading, writing and arithmetic,* and teachers were hired. By 1800 the teaching became gra- tuitous. In 1803 was formed the Sunday School * Chambers's Cyclopsedia, Vol. XIV. p. 84. 304 THE world's greatest conflict. Union, which has exercised great usefulness in Great Britain and America, and wherever English is spoken. In 1880 the United States had above eighty-two thousand Sunday-schools. In 1803, the Lyceum, London, was lighted with coal gas, by Winsor. That year appeared Gall's idea of phrenology, Malthus' Essay on Population, Brougham's Colonial Policy, Jane Porter's Thad- deus of Warsaw, Miss Edgeworth's Popular Tales, Oehlenschlager's (Dane) first volume of poems. Watt had adapted steam to fixed engines. A steam carriage was wanted. Richard Trevethick invented it. He took a patent in 1802 and ex- hibited it to admiring crowds in London. Soon after he adapted it to draw wagons on railways. In 1804 it drew ten tons five miles an hour on Merthyr-Tydvil railway. This was the first loco- motive. Still engineers disbelieved that an engine could run at speed or draw a load without cogged wheels and rails. Many patents sought to over- come this imaginary difficulty. The invention re- mained of little use till George Stephenson opened the Liverpool and Manchester railway, September 15, 1830. Of George the Third, Thackeray, the Englishman, says : "His mother's bigotry and hatred he inherited with the courageous obstinacy of his race. Like other dull men, the king was, all his life, suspicious of superior people. He did not like Fox ; he did not like Reynolds ; he did not like Nelson, Chat- THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 305 ham, Burke ; he was testy at the idea of all inno- vations, and suspicious of all innovators. He loved mediocrities ; Benjamin West was his favorite painter ; Beattie was his poet. The king lamented, not without pathos, in his after life, that his edu- cation had been neglected. He was a dull lad, brought up by narrow- George minded people. The cleverest tutors theTWrd. in the world could have done little, probably, to expand that small intellect, though they might have improved his tastes and taught his perceptions some generosity." Of the seven million five hundred thousand people in England at the time of his accession, probably five million were born with more natural ability than George possessed. Nature had sent into the world the man who for almost sixty years — from October 25, 1760, to January 29, 1820 — was to be king of one of the bravest and best nations of the earth, with less of natural capacity to be a wise ruler, than that of the average of his subjects. Either Nature or fortune had made a great mis- take in its man. This, too, in a generation when Great Britain and Ireland were prolific of great men. It was the age of Chatham, Fox, Wilber- force, Stevenson, Davy, Wellesley, Clive, Rodney, Cook, Anson, Adam Smith, Johnson, Goldsmith, Gibbon, Robertson, Fielding, Nelson, Watt, Awk- wright, Herschell, Hunter, Howard, Wesley, Raikes, Grattan, Burke, Scott and Clarkson. 3o6 THE world's greatest conflict. Washington and Franklin were once his subjects. The stupid George was king of these great men. Millions of men existed as capable as George to be king ; not a man existed capable of filling the place of James Watt. The men who fought England's battles in that generation were liable to that brutal practice, now happily abandoned by all civilized nations, flog- ging. General Napier stated that, early in this century, he had seen from six hundred to one thousand lashes given by sentence of merely a regimental court-martial. In those days a man who had suffered a part of his sentence was brought from the hospital before his wounds were entirely healed, to receive the remainder. Now fifty lashes is the extreme penalty, and that only after one previous conviction of disgraceful offense.* Many of the men who fought Eng- land's naval battles had been brought into the service by being kidnaped by press gangs. George the Third, who had so many apprehen- sions for good government in France, supplied money, almost openly, to corruptly buy seats in Parliament, and to bribe members. The British people were not blamable for faults of their government. Seats in Parliament were openly offered for sale for more than forty years after the French Revolution of 1789, and down to the Reform Act of 1832. Men who bought * Act of Parliament, 1866. THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 307 seats sold their votes in order to make their out- lay profitable. Two thirds of the members of the Commons were appointed by the peers or other persons. Almost every great nobleman had seats to give away or to sell. Seventy members were returned to places that had scarcely a voter. Old Sarum had two members, but not an inhabitant ; while the great town of Birmingham, with sixty thousand three hundred and twenty-two residents, had none ! The revenue officers, who cast their votes just as George's government directed them, returned seventy out of the total, after the union with Ireland, in 1801, of six hundred and fifty- eight members. About one hundred and sixty persons sent about three hundred members, and the remainder, three hundred and fifty-eight, were sent by a limited number of persons, thus leaving the other ten million eight hundred and twenty thousand British, and five million four hun- dred and ninety-nine thousand Irish unrepresented. Only about one hundred and sixty thousand men were electors at all. Great towns like Manchester and Leeds, leaders though they were and still are among the wealth creators and prosperity winners of England, had no place in the mis- called '* Commons." Thus the British and Irish people had very slight or no share, and little influence in their own government, or means of making their wishes felt. Yet when press gangs were busy and their 3o8 THE world's greatest conflict. unfortunate victims numerous ; when the slave trade was lawful ; when bread could not be eaten until a heavy tax was first paid on it ; when the habeas corpus act was suspended ; when not one person in a hundred was an elector, still, with all these great oppressions, Britain had more freedom than any other country in Europe. Even then Robert Hall said : "■ We are the only people in the Eastern Hemisphere who are in possession of equal laws, and a free constitution. Freedom, driven away from every spot on the continent, has sought an asylum in a country which she always chose for a favorite abode." Since 1800 few nations have made so great progress as the British. Historians tell us that France was very badly oppressed before its revolution ; but they too generally omit to state the fact that most of the world was then hardly more favored. Means of public intelligence in Britain were oppressed in 1776, by doubling the tax of a half- penny on each half-sheet newspaper, to which another half-penny was added in the very year of the French Revolution — 1789 — and one penny and a half in 1797, making four pence in all, which continued till 1836-37, when it was reduced to one penny, and only finally abolished in 1855-56. Pro- secutions were rife against newspapers. The number of stamps issued on British newspapers in 1800 was sixteen million, which shows that this kind of intelligence bore, that year, a burden of THE WORLD S GREATEST CONFLICT. 309 £,266,666, about ^1,293,330, besides the paper tax which was not abolished till 1861. Free public primary schools were established in Scotland in 1696, but in 1801 such non-religious schools did not exist elsewhere except in the Northern United States of America. Holland commenced its system in 1806. The writ of habeas corpus is one of the chief safeguards of British liberty, and one of the best securities ever devised against tyrants. It ex- pressly provides that no subject can be either arrested, imprisoned, dispossessed of his fortune or deprived of his life, except by a legal sentence of his peers conformably to the ancient law of the country, and he can demand immediate trial. It is the basis of British security. Yet George's government suspended it. The bare fact that they suspended it indicates the strong opposition that existed in England wiiiiam Pitt, against the war. William Pitt had once been liberal and patriotic in his efforts to reform some of the great abuses of those times. But he changed in 1793. Macaulay says : * " And this man, whose name, if he had been so fortunate as to die in 1792, would now be associated with peace, with freedom, with philanthropy, with temperate reform, with mild and constitutional administration, lived to associate his name with arbitrary government, with harsh laws harshly * Life of Pitt, p. 51. 3IO THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. executed, with alien bills, with gagging bills, with suspensions of the habeas corpus act, with cruel pun- ishments inflicted on some political agitators, with unjustifiable prosecutions instituted against others, and with the most costly and most sanguinary wars of modern times. He lived to be held up to obloquy as the stern oppressor of England, and the indefatigable disturber of Europe. '* It was pitiable to hear him, year after year, proving to an admiring audience, that the wicked republic (France) was exhausted ; that she could not hold out, that her credit was gone, that her assignats were not worth more than the paper on which they were made. It was impossible that a man who so completely mistook the nature of the contest could carry on that contest successfully. Great as Pitt's abilities were, his military adminis- tration was that of a driveler." Let us not ignore the law eternal. The funda- mental design of all government is to secure the people and individuals from injustice either violent or otherwise. This is the chief object for which each person sacrifices some slight portion of his natural liberties and submits to be governed at all. Only for this were kings and governments in- stituted. When a government inflicts injustice it not only fails in its original purpose, but becomes itself a fraud, and is itself the more guilty because it aims a lash at its own moral source and only justification for existing at all. THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 3II It is wrong alike in king or revolutionary tri- bunal, in parliament or in mob, to disturb com- mon comfort or that individual liberty which may exist without injury to the common good ; to make needless restrictions, or to cause unneces- sary war. By these fundamental truths let George and Pitt and Bonaparte be tried. Did not they reverse the natural purpose of government ? Did not they who should always be the protectors against in- justice, become the inflictors of wrongs? We shall see. XCI. THE British navy, January, 1804, was three hundred and fifty-six vessels, including seventy-five of the line, in commission. This navy was not in the best condition. By strenuous exertion and at enormous The British cost the defects were made up, so that Navy in 1804. by December, 1804, four hundred and seventy-three vessels, including eighty-three of the line, were ready for sea, and eighty vessels were far advanced in building. The whole navy was nine hundred and seventy vessels, including one hundred and eighty-nine of the line. The only valuable British conquests in 1804, ex- cept in India, were a few small Dutch colonies in Guiana and the West Indies. 312 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. One hundred thousand men were that year em- ployed in the British navy. Two hundred and eighty thousand land troops, not including the twenty-two thousand in India that took Delhi and Agra, and exclusive of three hundred and seventy-nine thousand nine hundred and forty-five militia (" volunteers ") were in service. Thus three hundred and eighty thousand able- bodied men were withheld from productive labor, besides the militia, for a trifle of conquest. It caused the following show of British finance, 1804. Great Britain's expenditure in 1804, on army and navy, was above ;£3 5,000,000, or more than $170,000,000, besides ;^i 1,000,000 or $53,600,000 for retiring exchequer bills, and nearly ;£ 7, 000,000 or $34,600,000 for ** miscellaneous " expenses, and ;£ 14,290,772 or nearly $70,000,000 interest on the great debt that" George and Pitt were heaping up to burden Great Britain for generations. They also borrowed ;£6,436,ooo, or nearly $30,000,000 more at interest to put into the sink- ing fund ! * And Pitt stupidly imagined that the sinking fund was paying the debt ! Summed up, Pitt's famous Sinking Fund amounted to just this : For every sixty dollars that you can possibly borrow and spend prodigally, give your creditor an interest bearing note for one hundred dollars ; then make a small note * Alison, Vol. II. p. 284. THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. 313 against yourself at compound interest, and keep it in your own pocket. Continue this process indefi- nitely, and finally pay your whole immense debt with those worthless notes in your pocket ! Yet that scheme deceived the world ! Great Britain for the whole year 1804 expended an average of almost a million dollars a day ! And Great Britain obtained only a few small Dutch outposts, while Napoleon was unharmed. The maritime war of 1804, like that of 1803, was mainly of words. In 1804 the British war taxes were ;£i 5,440,000 ; loans, ;£ 1 0,000, 000 of English and ;£4, 500,000 and ;£i,i5o,ooo annuity; on exchange bills ;£i4,ooo,- 000 ; duty on pensions ;£"2, 000,000 ; on malt ;£"75o,ooo ; lottery ;^2 50,000 ; '' consolidated fund " ;£5,ooo,ooo, and a permanent revenue of £2^,- 365,000 ; in all, ^79,825,000, or more than $S^Sy- 000,000. This was equivalent to a much larger sum at the present time. And with all this vast expenditure, added to the immense expenses of 1803, ^280,000,000, she had in two years only robbed the helpless and not un- friendly Dutch of Surinam in 1804, and of St. Peter, Miquelon, Tobago, Demarara, Esquibo and Berbice easily taken in 1803, with trifling additions in 1804, all <^f which the Dutch would, probably, peacefully have sold to England for less than one cent on the dollar of this enormous expense. Yet they had cost already more than nineteen months 314 THE WORLDS GREATEST CONFLICT. of war. This statement appears incredible. But I am not writing to display fictitious glory. I aim only to relate actual facts. These figures suggest that to make war is un- wise, and sometimes unpatriotic. The British Commons passed Mr. Wilberforce's Bill to abolish the slave trade, but it was thrown out in the Lords. The British and Foreign Bible Society was fully organized March 7, 1804. In seventy-two years following it issued over seventy-six millions of Bibles. It issued, up to 1876, one hundred and ninety languages. The first American Bible Society was formed at Philadelphia in 1808. The Prussian Central dates from 18 14, the Russian from 1813; but the Czar Nicholas suspended the latter in 1826.* Bible societies were forbidden in Austria in 181 7. In 1804, Schiller's greatest drama, William Tell, was published. Immanuel Kant, a great meta- physician, born April 22, 1724, died February 12, 1804. Beranger had begun to write, but his poems were not successful. Reduced almost to destitution, he asked and received from Lucien Bonaparte em- ployment as editor of Annales du Musee.f Prus- sia's population was about nine million five hun- dred thousand, its revenue about thirty million dollars, its army two hundred thousand men.J * Chambers's Cyclopaedia, Vol. II. p. 521-22. t Ibid, Vol. II. p. 459- * Alison, p. 283. THE world's greatest CONFLICT. 315 Its political leaders were Harwitz, Hardenburg and Baron von Stein. Its policy was, Aggrandize, but keep out of dangers of war. It was favorably inclined to France, to etiquette, to economy. Servia rose in arms and expelled the Janizaries, and became masters of their country, with Kara George at their head. It became almost a nation of soldiers. In India British troops defeated the Mahratta princes in two battles. In England the " Frugality Bank " of Tottenham was instituted by Priscilla Wakefield, which gave rise to savings banks. Immanuel Kant died, aged eighty. The wreck of about thirty-five British commercial ves- sels near Portugal, caused greater loss of life than any naval battle of 1804. CONCLUSION. THIS volume closes with April, 1804, at a time when labor was dishonored, literature inactive, merit and morals too little respected, and when rank and wealth took precedence of manliness. It was a very angry, furious generation ; a wick- ed period. The human race was war-mad ; human slavery existed in some form in almost every na- tion ; privateering, which is but legal piracy, was popular; society was just emerging from a corrupt age. The grand humanities which now show them- selves in asylums, hospitals and many similar forms were almost non-existent. Outside of New Eng- land and Scotland few public free schools existed ; newspapers, which usually give enlightened tone to the world, were restricted in Europe and filled with poison invectives in America and England. Neither the British, French nor German law sys- tems had yet been reformed by the efforts of such great men as Romilly, Tronchet and Treilhard, and of Savigny. It was small Denmark and not some great empire that, under now forgotten Bernsdorff, had the best administration in Europe. Germany was many nations ; Italy was divided, and not free, but was controlled by Napoleon ; Norway belonged to Denmark. 316 CONCLUSION. 317 France was a military monarchy ; it was declared an empire in May, 1804. Then William Pitt came back again to head the British ministry. The out- look was unpromising. The tremendous struggle of the succeeding years may well be left for an- other volume. A real republic fully protects the rights and person and property of every person, but many Frenchmen mistook a republic for license to op- press their opponents at home and abroad, there- fore their Revolution failed. The same false idea for a time longer endangered the American re- pubHc. Then Great Britain had a government almost independent of the masses of its people. The king took active part in politics. In our day she has become almost a republic ; she has man- hood suffrage, the prime minister is the real head of active power, and the House of Commons, elected by the people, can control or change the ministry at will. The great impetus given by John Wesley to re- form in all the churches, to purer religious life, to better morals, was actively working, and since then many prejudices of society, class, race and creed have yielded to better Christianity. In politics, society, trade, in the general sentiments of the world is now more honesty, fairness — everywhere is more gentle, humane light and honor. INDEX. 319 INDEX. Acquisitions by various nations, 268. Addington became Premier, March, 1801, 180, America adopts a Constitution, June, 1788, 115.. Adams becomes President, March 4, 1797, 137. American and British Alien and Sedition laws, 143, 144, Trouble with Algiers, 132. Banks, 119, 295. Census of 1791 and 1800, 121, 152. Condition after the Revolution, no. Contest for the Presidency, 1800, 150, Court act, 151. Citizen convicted of treason, 150. Citizen extradited and hanged, 149. Exports, imports, area and population, 128, 191. Friendship for France, 123. House of Representatives claim power over treaties, 136, Indians, 117, 133, 254. Indignation, 129. Navy, but thirteen frigates in 1800, 149. Neutrality, 1793, 125. Parties exchange positions, 286. Public lands, 153, 202. Trouble with England after 1783, 112, 121, 125, 128, 133, 147, 150. Trouble with France, 138, Trade, 125, 128, 146, 192, 267, 293, 294. Vessels seized by British, 129. War with France, 1798, 145. War ship insulted by British, 147. Whisky Rebellion, 1794, 131. What the two parties wanted, 152. What ruined the Federalist party, 143, 144, 151, 152. Armies, British, 268, 300. French, 268. Arabian religious war, 1803, 302. Assignats, French, 54. Austria, Joseph the Second's reforms, 31. Austria's gross demands of France, 63. Bank of U. S., 119. Badness of Bonaparte and George the Third, 261. 320 INDEX. Battle of French and Russians at Zurich, 107. Batavian Republic, 186. Belgium, 72, 74, 79> 97- Bible societies, 314- Boy and girl king and queen, 12. Bonaparte asks for peace with England, 207. Changes the government of France, 234, Cheats Turkey, 230. Bonaparte's conscription, 1S03, 299. Campaign m Egypt and Syria 103, 104, 108. Coup d'etat, November 9, 1799, 155. Government, 198, 231, 249. Return from Egypt, 154. Opportunity, 228. Proposal to England, 300. Oppression of Spain, 297. Prepares to invade England, 1803, 299. Rejects Fulton's steam projects, 299. Restores slavery, 233. Scolds a British ambassador, 257. States his grievances by England, 253. Makes pohtics of schools, 222. Forms a gunboat fleet, 190. Schools, 220. Bread scarcity and riots in England, 171, 180, 185, 209. " " " " " 20, 49, 52, 54, 78, 86. Brittany opposes Louis the Sixteenth, 41. British army, 268, 312. Navy, 219, 268, 300, 311, 312. Commerce and costs of war, 230, 312. Expedition to Egypt, 185. Ministries, 179. Money, 189. Newspapers, 254, 256, 264. Press gangs, 172. Trade, 267. Ultimatum, 238. Union with Ireland, in 1801, 176. Small gains by war in 1803-4, 301, 3ii> 313* Parliament, 306. Brunswick (German, Duke of), proclaims fierce war, 66. Burr kills Hamilton in 1804, 293. Calamity of Copenhagen, 183. Calonne became minister, October, 1784 : his policy, 28, 35, 37. Campaign of 1800 in Italy and Germany, 210. INDEX. 321 Catholic insurrection, 60. Christianity abolished, November 10, 1793, 81. Clergy (French) exempt from tax, make a loan, 41. Join Third Estate, 48 ; made free of the Pope, 54. Elective: oath: oppose Protestant marriage, 22, 55. Non-juror, 62, 69. Commune, 68, 79, 80, 82, 84, 85. Conspiracy of Babeuf, 100. Committees of public and general safety, 78. Commerce and costs of war, 230. Concordat of i8or, 217. Condition when this century began, 164. Constitution (French) of 1791, 60; of 1793, 80. " " i79S> 88 ; of 1802, 234. Conscription, 1798, 105. Corsica democratic, 1798, 105. Corvee and the feudal claims, 23. Courts of law (French), 55, 222 ; the famous code, 223. Cruelty of Carrier, 82, 85. Dan ton 80, 83. Debt of the U. S., 112, 117. Denmark, 183, 184, 193, 276. Departments (French), 54. Directory (French), tyranny, loa Dumouriez escapes, 79. Embargo, 140, 146. Emmett, 301. England's population, increase of, 170. English travelers arrested by Bonaparte, 272- Etruria, 295. Fashions in 1801, 201. Flogging, 306. France in 1803, 298. French, bloodshed in Chamo de Mars, July 17, 1791, 59. Army in 1803, 268. Elections against the Directory, 1796-97, 100. Expeditions, 1795 to 1805, 104, 108, 145, 185.. Emigration, 56, 61, 200. Executions, wholesale, 84. Feast of Reason, 1793, 82. Fontenay, 78. Frenzy for blood, 84. Invasion by nobles and foreign troops, 56, 60, 62, 69. 322 INDEX. French, Revenue and debts, 53. 198- 268. Jacobins, 63, 71, 78, 85. Jaffa wholesale murders, 108. Joli d'Fleury is Finance minister, 27, Geneva oppressed by Louis XVI, 30 ; Freed by France, 76. Genet affair, 126. Genoa, 99, 180, 197, 210. Girondists, 63,66, 71, 72, 78, 80. George the Third, in. German free cities, 236, 274. Germany, 177 ; rearranged, 236. Guillotine, 80, 83. Grenoble begins the active Revolution, July 17, 1788, 42. Habeas Corpus writ, 309. Hanover in 1803, war m, 273. Holland, 87, 186, 272. How Washington became the Capital, 118, 150. India, 302. Ionia, 107, 302. Ireland, 173. Italy, 90, 96, 98, loi, 106, 194, 251. Jay's treaty, 1795, 133. Jefferson abolishes formalities, 201. Against a navy ; his gunboats and cannon, 289. " treaties of commerce, 289. Reelected, 290. Judge Chase impeached, 294. Kentucky became a State, June i, 1792, 121. Nullification Resolutions of 1798, 144. Lafayette, 50, 51, 54, 55, 65,68. Legislative Assembly, October i, 1791, 61. L'roi est mort : — a bas I'roi, 11. Lewis and Clarke explore, 293. Liquors, British, 189. Louisiana, 282, 290, 292. Luneville, peace of, February 9, 1801, 171, 211. Louis the Sixteenth annuls votes of National Assembly, 47. Arrests duke of Orleans and others, 39, 40. Assembles foreign troops, 49. Beaten, orders nobles and clergy to join Assembly, 4? INDEX. 323 Louis the Sixteenth, Brothers run away, 51. Character of, 14; charged with treason, 63. Coronation at Rheims, 22. Claims right to make all laws and taxes, 26. Compels parliament to register taxes, 37. Compelled to back down ; commits a fraud, 39, Creates a bogus law court, 40. Commits the crime of desertion, 57. Dismisses Necker, 49 ; recalled him, 51. Dismisses his Jacobin ministers, 64. Opposes aid to America, 14. Oppresses parliament ; extravagance, 20. Is mobbed ; his bread fraud, 21. Commits outrages and frauds, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 37, 39, 41, 42. Puts on the red cap, July 20, 1792, 64. Takes the oath and breaks it, 56. Dethroned, tried, executed, 66, 73, 74. Lomenie of Brienne, the atheist archbishop, 37, 43- Malta, 104, 257, 263. Marat, 59, 70, 80. Maurepas and his good wife, 16. Marie Antoinette's fraud, 29; her guilt pronounced, 33. Her brother begs her to reform herself, 29 ; called, Madame Deficit, 39 ; Madame Veto, 62. Massacre of prisoners, September, 1792, 69. Merinoes imported, 294. Michigan organized as a territory, 1804, 290. Mirabeau, 55, 56. Miranda's South American expedition, 291. Monks refuse to free serfs, 25. Naples, 91, 105, 107. National Assembly 47, 6r. National Convention of September 21, 1792, 71. National guards formed, 50. Naval events of 1796, 100. Necker, 24, 26, 43, 49. Necklace affair, 32. Neutrals, 125, 180, 181, 276, 291. New Century begins, 164. Newspapers in 1798, 141 ; English, 308. Nobles join Third Estate in National Assembly, 48. Nobility abolished, 55. Notables assembled, February, 1787, 36. Ormesson is finance minister, 27. 324 INDEX. Oregon, 293. Order in Council of June, 1793, 128. Order in Council of November, 1793, 130. Parliament (old French) refuses taxes, 37. Compelled to register them it resists, 37, 38. Parliament's struggle with Louis, 1787, 37 to 41. Parliament of Rouen resists Louis, 41. Parties in France, 38, 83. In America, 1789, 115, 127, Paris government, 52. Peace of Basle, April 15, 1795, 87. Peace of Leoben, April 18, 1797, 97. Peace of Luneville, February 9, 1801, 171, 211. Pitt's absurd offer of peace, 100. Pitt resigns, 1801, 178; his policy 220, 309, Pitt's fallacious sinking fund, 312. Peace of Amiens, March 27, 1802, 225. Peltier's trial, 254. The Pope a prisoner, loi. Populations, 170, 191. Press gangs, 172, 271. Privateering, 271. Prussia, 314. Protestants, 22, 39. Queberon massacre, 87. Revolution, 1771, 20; 1787, 40. Revolt at Grenoble, July 17, 1788, began it, 42. Revolt of August 28, 1788, at Paris, 43. Revolution in July, 1789, 49. "Rights of Man," 52. Religious murders, 64. Riot of July 20, 1792, at the Tuileries, 64. Reign of Terror, August 10, 1792, to October 26, 1795, 67, 71. Revolutionary tribunal, 69. Royalty abolished, September 21, 1792, 71. Religious war,'78, 81. Robespierre 80, 83, 85. Riot of May 31, 1793, 79. Revolts of April i and May 20, 1795, 85, 86. " Revolt of the Sections," 88. Religion in 1801, 203. Russia, 181, 182, 183, 276. " States" at Grenoble, July 17, 1788, 42. INDEX. 325 States-General decreed August 8, 1788, 42. Met May 4, 1789, 44. Swiss Guards, 67. Savoy annexed to France, 72, 75. Switzerland invaded by the French, 103. Sardinia, 92. ^ Spain ; its colonies ; the Tuscany fraud, 190. Situation in 1801, 204. Switzerland, 212, 271. St. Domingo, 240. Sebastiani's report, 256. Spain, 278, 296. Steam, 299, 303, 304. Schools, 309. Sunday schools, 303. Taxes, 23 ; whisky tax, 292. Tariffs (American), 112, 116, 120, 128; French, 153. Toulon disaster, 82. Turgot, 17, 23, 24. Valmy, September 20, 1792, 70, 75. Vendee, peace, February, 1795, and war again, 87. Venice, 97. Vermont became a State, March 4, 1791, 120. Versailles mob, 1789, 53. War in Belgium, 79. War between France and Britain, February 3, 1793, 76, 77, 86. War between France and Austria in Italy, 96, 107. War between France and America, 1798, 104, 147. War between France, king of Savoy and Piedmont, 1798, 105. War between France and Russia, 107. Washington elected President, 115; reelected, 124. Makes farewell address, 1796, 138. Became Lieut.-General, 147 ; died, 148. War's results, 220. What glory Bonaparte could have acquired in peace, 228. War coming again ; its causes, 251 ; comes, May 1804, 266, War between the United States and Barbary states, 288. Whisky tax contest, the tax abolished, 292. BP-181 ^ f ^° s.^"^^ - .^^^^« ♦ Ay '^ lOv!, .-1^^ - rs'