VIII. at Warsaw on the 13th March, and immediately the CHAP. Polish standard was hoisted on the palace amidst the thunder of artillery and cheers from every human being in the city. 1818. 63. memorable the Diet. The Diet opened on the 27th of March, and the speech of the emperor, which was listened to with the deepest Alexander's attention, was not only prophetic of peace and happiness speech to to Poland, but memorable as containing evidence of the March 27, views he at that period entertained for the regeneration 1818. and freedom of mankind. After having expatiated on the advantages of a constitutional regime, he added, "With the assistance of God, I hope to extend its salutary influence to ALL the countries intrusted to my care; prove to the contemporary kings that Liberal institutions, which they pretend to confound with the disastrous doctrines which in these days threaten the social system with a frightful catastrophe, are not a dangerous illusion, but that, reduced in good faith to practice, and directed in a pure spirit towards conservative ends and the good of humanity, they are perfectly allied to order, and the best security for the happiness of nations." Such were the sentiments and intentions of the Czar, while yet influenced by the illusions of 1814, and before the brilliant and benevolent dream had been dissipated by the military treason and social revolutions of southern Europe in 1820. When such words came from such lips, and everything around bespoke order and peace, and the reviving nationality of Poland, it need not be said that all was unanimity and hope in the Diet, and its sittings were closed, after a short session of thirty days, without a dissenting voice on any question of general interest having 185, 186. been heard in the assembly.1 Ann. Hist. i. 270,271, 275; Biog. Univ. lvi. Alexander From Warsaw, which he left on the 30th April, the 64. emperor proceeded to Odessa, after traversing, with the Journey of utmost rapidity, the fertile plains and verdant turf to his of the Ukraine, where, as their poets say, the "sky ever blue, the air clear, and storms and hurricanes are is southern provinces. VIII. 1818. CHAP. unknown." In Odessa he beheld, with astonishment, the rapid progress and rising importance of a city which, under the fostering care of government, and the wise direction of the Duke de Richelieu, had sprung up, as if by enchantment, on the edge of the wilderness, become the emporium of the south, and realised all that the genius of Virgil had fancied of the fabled rise of Carthage under the sceptre of Dido. He there assisted at the launching of a seventy-four, laid down an 110gun ship, and evinced at once his sympathy with the sufferings of humanity, by erecting a monument to the celebrated Howard, who had died, in 1790, in the neighbourhood of that city, and his admiration of its virtues, by subscribing to the erection of one in Paris to Malesherbes, the generous and intrepid defender of Louis XVI. He there appointed also a government commission, specially intrusted with the duty of watching over and aiding the settlement of colonists in Bessarabia and the southern provinces of the empire, of whom vast numbers had already begun to flock from the neighbouring states; and, passing by Moscow to the north, he there met the King of Prussia, with whom he returned to St Petersburg, where magnificent rejoicings attended the union of the two sovereigns. Hardly were they concluded when he set out for Aix-la-Chapelle, where his generous interposition, in conjunction with the Duke of vi. §§ 63, Wellington, in favour of France, already mentioned,1 was attended with such happy results; and from thence rei. 278,279; turned to St Petersburg, and concluded an almost incesBiog. Univ. lvi. 186. sant journey of two thousand leagues, devoted, without a day's intermission, to the interests of humanity.2 1 Ante, c. 66. 2 Ann. Hist. 65. Although Alexander's mind was not of the most peneHis efforts trating character, and his practical knowledge of mankind for the en- was small, his intentions were all of the most generous, ment of the his feelings of the most philanthropic kind. He had franchise peasants. already, by several ukases, completed the enfranchisement of the peasants on the Crown domains; and at Mittau, VIII. 1819. Sept. 24, on his way to Aix-la-Chapelle, he had assisted at a very CHAP. interesting ceremony-that which completed, by a solemn act, the entire liberation of the serfs of Courland, Esthonia, and Livonia, the provinces of the empire next to 1818. Germany, by the voluntary act of the nobles, who, in this instance, had anticipated the wishes of the emperor. He had also, in the same year, published a ukase, which accorded several important immunities to the peasants of Merick, whose miserable condition had forcibly arrested his attention in passing through that province on his way from Warsaw to Odessa. He opened the year 1819 by a still more important step, because it was one of general application, and of vast influence on the social training of the nation. This was a ukase which extended to serfs in every part of the empire, and to whomsoever pertaining, the right, hitherto confined to the nobles and merchants, of establishing themselves as manufacturers in any part of the empire, and relieving them from the capitation tax during four years. At the same time he took a step, and a very material one, in favour of public instruction, by completing the organisation of universities at Moscow, Wilna, Alo, St Petersburg, Karkow, and Kazan; and of religious freedom, by taking the Lutheran and Cal-Ann. Hist. vinist clergy and flocks under the imperial protection, ii. 358; and establishing in the capital an Episcopal chair for the lvi. 186. clergy of those persuasions.1 i. 279, 280; Biog. Univ. 66. Transac tions of The finances of the empire, in the following year, exhibited the elasticity which might have been expected from the continuance of peace, and the wise measures for the 1819. reduction of the floating debt adopted in the preceding year. The sinking fund had withdrawn from circulation 80,000,000 paper rubles (£4,000,000) in the preceding year; and specie, to the number of 26,000,000 silver rubles (£4,600,000), had issued from the mint in the same time-a quantity greater than had been coined during the ten preceding years. The deposits and discounts at the bank recently established exhibited a large and rapid VOL. II. M VIII. 1820. CHAP. increase. The Lancasterian system of instruction was extended by the emperor even to Siberia, and normal schools established at St Petersburg to train teachers for the principal towns, from which alone the light of knowledge could radiate to the country. In the autumn of this year the emperor visited Archangel, which had not been honoured by the presence of the sovereign for a hundred and seventeen years; and from thence he issued a decree, authorising the levy of two men in every five hundred, which produced a hundred and eighty thousand soldiersthe first levy which had taken place since the war. At the same time, measures were taken for colonising the army cantoned in Bessarabia, above a hundred thousand strong; and steps adopted for establishing the army on the Polish frontier in like manner. The design of the emperor, which was a very magnificent one, was to encircle the empire with a zone of military colonies, stretching from the Black Sea to the Baltic, where the soldiers might acquire dwellings, and pursue the labours of agriculture, like the Roman legions, while still guarding the frontiers, and connect them with similar establishments of a pastoral kind on the frontiers of Persia and Tartary, where the vigilance of the Cossacks guarded from ii. 359, 360. insult the vast steppes which run up to the foot of the Caucasus.1 1 Ann. Hist. 67. of the Je The year 1820 commenced with a very important Expulsion step-the entire expulsion of the Jesuits from Russia. suits. They had already, in consequence of their intrigues, been banished in 1815 from St Petersburg and Moscow, but their efforts to win over proselytes to their persuasion had since that time been so incessant and harassing, that they were now finally expelled from the whole empire.* * "Les Jésuites quoique suffisamment avertis par l'animadversion qu'ils avaient encourue, ne changèrent pas néanmoins de conduite. Il fut bientôt constaté par les rapports des autorités civiles qu'ils continuaient à attirer dans leur communion les élèves du rit orthodoxe, placés au collége de Moholow à Saratof et dans la Sibérie. Le Moniteur des Cultes ne manqua point de signaler ces transgressions au Père Général de l'ordre, dès l'année 1815. Ces adminis VIII. 1820. Provision was made for their maintenance in the mean CHAP. time, and every precaution taken to render the measure as gentle in its operation as possible. Certainly, as the Roman Catholics, like most other sects, regard theirs as the only true faith, and all others as heresies, it can be no matter of surprise, still less of condemnation, that they everywhere make such strenuous efforts to gain proselytes and reclaim souls, as they deem it, on the eve of perdition, to the bosom of the Church. But as other persuasions are equally convinced that their own is the true form of worship, they cannot be surprised, and have no right to complain, if their everywhere aggressive atti-Ann. Hist. tude is met by a corresponding defensive one; and if 297; Biog. these states, without seeking to convert them to faith, seek only to adopt measures that may secure own.1 iii. 296, Univ. lvi. their 297; Ukase, their 1820. March 23, changes in from the of 1820. The time, however, had now arrived when the views 68. of the emperor, heretofore so liberal and indulgent, were Great to undergo an entire change, when the illusions of 1814 the empe were to be dispelled, and Russia, instead of being, as it ror's mind had been for many years, at the head of the movement revolution party in Europe, was to become its most decided opponent. Already the emperor had been warned by anonymous letters and various mysterious communications, as well as by reports from the secret police, of the existence of a vast conspiracy, which embraced several of the leading officers in the armies both of Poland and the Danube, and nobles of the highest rank and consideration in St Petersburg. The object of the conspirators was stated to be to dethrone and murder the emperor, imprison the other members of the imperial family, and establish a constitutional monarchy on the footing of those of western Europe. For long the emperor gave trations furent inutiles. Loin de s'abstenir, à l'instance de l'église dominante, de tout moyen de séduction et de conversion, les Jésuites continuèrent å semer le trouble dans les colonies du rit Protestant, et se poussèrent jusqu'à la violence pour soustraire les enfants Juifs à leurs parents."-Ukase, 25 Mars 1820. Annuaire Historique, iii. 296, 297. |