1815.

THE HOLY ALLIANCE.

31

struggle for commercial independence, the principle had been announced over and over again that we would not meddle in European affairs. The counterpart of this-the principle that the Old World must not meddle in the affairs of the New-was called forth by the attempt of Spain to get back her lost colonies in South America.

As all the world knows, the overthrow of the French at Waterloo was followed by a second abdication of Napoleon, by a second lifting of the wretched Louis Eighteenth to the throne of France, and by a second meeting of the allied Kings or their representatives at Paris in the autumn of 1815. To the mind of Alexander of Russia, this new triumph over the "Man of Destiny" was but another signal instance of the mysterious workings of Providence; but another demonstration of the great truth that God in his own good time will confound the policy of the wicked and will raise up those who put their trust in him. So deeply was Alexander convinced of this that he determined then and there to rule henceforth, and, if possible, persuade his fellow-monarchs to rule in strict accordance with the principles of the Christian religion. To accomplish this end the more easily, he persuaded Frederick William, King of Prussia, and Francis, Emperor of Austria, to join with him in a league which he called the Holy Alliance, and to sign a treaty which is commonly supposed to have bound the allies to pull down constitutional government and stamp out liberal ideas. It did nothing of the sort.

It was, in truth, a meaningless pledge, framed in a moment of religious excitement, and well described in its own words, which assert "that the present act has no other aim than to manifest to the world their unchangeable determination to adopt no other rule of conduct either in the government of their respective countries or in their political relations with other governments than the precepts of that holy religion, the precepts of justice, charity, and peace."

Considering themselves members of one great Christian family whose real and only sovereign was Almighty God, these three kings announced that they looked on themselves "as as delegates of Providence" sent "to govern so many branches of the same family," and would make the Word of

God and the teachings of Jesus Christ their guide in "establishing human institutions and remedying their imperfections."

That the King, the Emperor, and the Czar had any hidden motive in forming this far-famed Holy Alliance; that they said one thing and meant another; that their intention was less to rule in accordance with the maxims of Christ than to set up and maintain absolute governments; that when they signed that league they knew they were forming a bond of union against the spread of liberal ideas, and even then contemplated a system of meddling in the affairs of other nations —can be sustained by no evidence whatever.

The alliance having been formed, the next step was to invite all the Christian powers of Europe except the Pope to join it. England-whose representative at the congress of the allies, Lord Castlereagh, wrote home that the Emperor Alexander was not perfectly sound in his mind-excused herself. The kings of France, Spain, Naples, and Sardinia, however, signed gladly, and the era of Christian politics was supposed to have opened.

That this little society of Christian monarchs should have any interest for us of to-day is due solely to the fact that their treaty contains the words "Holy Alliance," and that to it have wrongfully been attributed results which sprang from the quadruple treaty signed two months later by Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain; a new alliance which bound the four powers to do four things-exclude Napoleon forever from power; maintain the Government they had just set up in France; resist with all their might any attack on the army of occupation; and meet in 1818 to consult concerning their common interests, and to take such measures as should then seem to be best fitted to serve the peace and happiness of Europe.

Unhappily, before 1818 came, a great change took place in the political ideas of Europe. The old families were once again safely seated on their old thrones. The old nobility, the old courtiers, were home from their wanderings eager for proscription and confiscation. A reaction set in. Liberalism was checked. Absolutism came again into fashion, and be

1814.

FALL OF LIBERALISM IN SPAIN.

33

fore five years had come and gone the Holy Allies were hard at work pulling down and stamping out popular government wherever and whenever it appeared in Europe.

The centre of this reactionary movement was Austria, then ruled by Metternich, the very personification of resistance to progress, a man who described his policy as not to go backward, not to go forward, but to keep things just as they were. To do this in Austria was easy. To do it in countries which had been stirred and awakened by the French Revolution was not so easy. But Metternich went bravely to work and began with Naples. In 1813 Great Britain had forced Ferdinand, King of Sicily, to grant a constitution to Sicily and to promise one to Naples; but no sooner had the allies restored him to the throne so long occupied by Murat than Metternich persuaded him to sign a treaty pledging him to keep the kingdom just as it had been, and to bring in none of the products of liberal ideas. Ferdinand kept the agreement, and constitutional government in Sicily and Naples perished.

In Spain the reaction was a popular one. Scarcely had Ferdinand Seventh crossed the Pyrenees in 1814 and entered his native land than a wild, savage, unreasoning outburst of loyalty swept the country. The courtiers, the churchmen, the military leaders, every one who gathered about the restored King, urged him to destroy the present and bring back the past; to pull down the Constitution and set up the old monarchy as it was when Napoleon drove him from his throne seven years before. He needed little urging, and on May eleventh, 1814, the work of destruction began. First, he sent forth a manifesto from Valencia which destroyed the Constitution of 1812, and declared every decree of the Cortes null and void. Next, he restored the censorship of the press. Then, growing bold, he arrested thirty of the most distinguished of the Liberal leaders; and at this point the people began to lend a hand. Excited and aroused by the priests, mobs appeared all over the country. The writings of Liberalists were burned in the market places. The tablets erected to commemorate the Constitution were pulled down. Men whose sole crime was a firm belief in constitutional government were

VOL. V.-4

flung into prison. Great Britain protested and urged the King to stop; but priests, confessors, and palace favorites ruled him, and the work went steadily on. May twentythird he re-established the monasteries and gave them their old lands; June twenty-fourth he exempted the clergy from taxation; July twenty-first he once more put in operation the most diabolical of all the inventions of man-the Spanish Inquisition. But it mattered little, for of what consequence is it how people are governed in Spain?

That France must sooner or later have experienced a like reaction was inevitable. Signs of the coming storm were already apparent when, on March first, 1815, Napoleon landed with his guards in the bay of Juan, and the Hundred Days commenced. When they had ended, when the news of Waterloo spread over France, the storm broke with fury. A Royalist mob at Marseilles sacked the quarters of the Mamelukes, drove out the garrison, and murdered the citizens. Nismes was pillaged. Avignon disgraced herself by the foul murder of Marshal Brune, and Toulouse by the assassination and savage mutilation of General Ramel. When the Chamber of Deputies, chosen in the midst of this excitement, assembled, a new proscription, a new emigration, a new reign of terror began. Labédoyère was executed. Ney was shot. Royalist committees, in imitation of the Jacobin clubs, sprang up in every department, overawed the officials, and forced them to drive thousands of Liberalists from the army, from the navy, from the courts of law, and from the schools and colleges.

In Germany, in 1815, it seemed as if Liberalism would win. At the very moment when Ferdinand of Spain was about to issue his manifesto establishing the monasteries, Frederick William (May twenty-second, 1815) sent forth his promise that Germany should have a constitution and representative assembly, and that the work of framing the Constitution should begin in September. But delays arose, and two years sped by before even the first step was taken. Then it was too late. The middle classes cared not. The nobility were eager for a restoration of their old privileges. The sole defenders of the Constitution were the professors in the uni

1818.

CONGRESS AT AIX.

35

versities, the students, and the journalists, who conducted their cause with so much more zeal than wisdom that after the famous Warburg Festival took place in 1817 Frederick William justly and seriously doubted the expediency of granting the promised liberty.

Amid all this reaction, one ruler, and one alone, stood out as the earnest friend of liberal ideas. Alexander of Russia, too, had made promises. But, unlike Frederick William, he had kept them, had restored the Duchy of Warsaw to independence as the Kingdom of Poland, had given it a constitution and representative assembly, and in the spring of 1818 summoned the Diet. The speech which he addressed to it marked him out as one of the most advanced of Liberals. Yet before the Diet ended its session a great change came over him. What caused it no man knows; but when, in October, 1818, he met the sovereigns and ministers at the Conference of the Powers, Alexander was the despot he ever after lived and died.

By the Quadruple Treaty, signed at Paris in 1815, England, Prussia, Russia, and Austria bound themselves to maintain the government they had just set up in France, and to hold a Congress of the Powers in 1818. They met, accordingly, in September, at Aix-la-Chapelle, and with that conference a new era opens in the constitutional history of Europe. Then and there was formed the real "Conspiracy of Kings." The reactionary movement of three years had extinguished in the hearts of the best of them the last trace of liberalism, and they all stood together on a common ground of hatred of popular liberty. It was the conference at Aixla-Chapelle, not the Holy Alliance, that united the sovereigns in the project of a joint regulation of European affairs, and turned the Holy Allies into a mutual association for the insurance of monarchy.

Scarcely had this new purpose been formed when the alliance was called upon to act. For ten years past the Spanish colonies in America had been in a state of revolt, first against the rule of Joseph Bonaparte, and then against the tyranny of Ferdinand Seventh. Every resource of the restored King was used against them and used in vain. The struggle went