VIII. 1815. 58. cent mea Senate had decreed should be conferred upon him. His CHAP. first care was to efface, so far as possible, the traces of the war; his next, to grant a general pardon to all the persons, of whom there were many, who had, during its con- His benefitinuance, been drawn into traitorous correspondence with sures. the enemy. He remitted the capitation tax to the peasants in the provinces which had suffered the most from invasion, and opened at Berlin and Königsberg banks, where the notes of the Bank of Russia which had been given in payment during the war were retired from the holders at the current rate of exchange. Soon after, he concluded a peace with the Sultan of Persia, by which, in consideration of a very large district of country ceded to Russia, he promised his aid in supporting the son whom the Shah might design for his successor. By this treaty the Russians acquired the whole important country which lies between the Black Sea and the Caspian, and became masters of the famous gates of Derbend, which so often in former ages had opened to the Tartars an andre). entrance into Southern Asia.1 1 Biog. Univ. lvi. 181, 182 (Alex Alexander's Prince of Orange, and Grand las to the Prussia. A full account has already been given of the part which 59. Russia took in the Congress of Vienna, and the acquisi- Marriage of tion of Poland in a former work ;2 and of the magnanimous sister to the sentiments which Alexander displayed at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in this.3 Two important alliances, des- of the tined to influence materially the international relations of duke NichoEurope, were concluded during this period. The first Princess of was the marriage of his sister, the Grand-duchess Ann, 2 Hist. of to the Prince of Orange, which took place when he visited Europe, Brussels and the field of Waterloo in September 1815; c. xcvi. §§ the second, the conclusion of the arrangements for the s marriage of his brother Nicholas, who has since become vi. $$ 61, emperor, to Charlotte, Princess of Prussia, who is still Empress of Russia, which was solemnised some years after. From thence he proceeded to Warsaw, where he concluded the arrangements for the establishment of the 1815. kingdom of Poland, and left General Zayonchek, a Pole 1789-1815, 53, 60. 3 Ante, c. 70. Sept. 19, VIII. 1815. July 13, 1817. CHAP. by birth, in command as viceroy. He returned to St Petersburg on 13th December, having, by this acquisition of territory and family alliances, extended the Russian influence in a direct line, and without any break, over 1 Ann. Reg. the whole north of Europe, from the Niemen to the Rhine. Biog. Univ. Thus was the Netherlands restored to its proper position and rank in Continental affairs; instead of being the outVivantes, work of France against Europe, it became the bulwark of Europe against France.1 1815, 101; lvi. 185; Biog. des Hommes iv. 542. 60. Incessant travels of from 1815 to 1825. Consumed with the desire to heal the wounds of war, and convince himself with his own eyes of the necessities Alexander of the districts for which succour was petitioned, Alexander gave himself only a few months' repose at St Petersburg. His life, for the next ten years to his death, was more than half spent in travelling, and flying with almost incredible rapidity from one part of his vast dominions to another. The postilions, urging their horses to the utmost speed, carried him over the rough roads of Russia at the rate of seventeen miles an hour: wrapt in his cloak, meditating acts of justice, dreaming of projects of philanthropy, the Czar underwent, for days and nights together, with almost incredible patience, the exhausting fatigue. Hardly was his departure from St Petersburg heard of, when the thunder of artillery announced his arrival at Moscow, Warsaw, or Odessa. But although Alexander thus wasted his strength and passed his life in traversing his dominions, his heart was elsewhere. The great events of Paris had got possession of his imagination; the Holy Alliance, the suggestions of Madame Krudener, occupied his thoughts; and he dreamt more of his supposed mission as the apostle of peace, the arbiter ler, i. 75; of Christendom, than of his duties as the Czar of Russia, the supreme disposer of the lives and liberties of sixty millions of men.2 2 Schnitz Biog. Univ. lvi. 185. The heart of the emperor, however, was too warm, his disposition too benevolent, for him not to feel keenly the sufferings of his subjects, and engage in any measures VIII. 1816. 61. beneficent measures introduced 1816. that appeared practicable for their relief. Various bene- CHAP. ficent acts signalised the pacific years of his reign; but they were such as went to relieve local distress, or induce local advantage, rather than to stimulate the springs of in- Various dustry over his whole empire, or remove the causes which obstructed civilisation over its vast extent. In August by him. 1816 he visited Moscow, then beginning to rise from its Aug. 25, ashes; and in a touching manifesto, which evidently came from the heart, testified his profound sympathy for the sufferings induced by its immortal sacrifice. At the same time, he set on foot or aided in the establishment of many valuable undertakings in different parts of the empire. He rebuilt, at a cost of 160,000 rubles, the bridge over the Neva; he took the most efficacious measures for restoring the naval forces of the empire, which had been unavoidably neglected during the pressure of the war-several ships of the line were begun both at Cronstadt and Odessa; no less than 1,500,000 rubles was advanced from the treasury to set on foot several new buildings in the two capitals; the completion of the splendid façade of the Admiralty; the building of a normal school for the training of teachers; an imperial lyceum, in which the imperial founder ever took a warm interest; and several important regulations adopted for the encouragement of agriculture and the establishment of colonies in desert districts. The finances of the empire engaged his special and anxious attention. By a ukase, dated 16th April 1817, he devoted to the payment of April 16, the debts contracted during 1812 and 1813, which were still in floating assignats, 30,000,000 rubles annually out of the imperial treasury, and a like sum out of the hereditary revenue of the Crown. At the same time he advanced 30,000,000 rubles to establish a bank specially destined for the support of commerce; and decreed the Council of Public Credit," which, by its constitution, presented the first shadow of representative institutions. Such was the effect of these measures, that when the 1817. VIII. 1818. CHAP. emperor opened a subscription for a large loan, to enable him to retire a proportion of the floating, and reduce considerably the immense mass of paper assignats in circulation, at an advance of 85 rubles paid for 100, inscribed 1 Ann. Hist, as 6 per cent stock, 30,000,000 was subscribed the first i. 277,278; day, and before the end of the year 33,000,000 more-in Biog. Univ. lvi. 185. all, 63,000,000-which enabled the Government to retire a similar amount of assignats.1* 62. at Warsaw in 1818. Alexander was sincerely and deeply interested in the His arrival prosperity of Poland, to which he was attached, not only by the brilliant additions which it made to the splendour and influence of the empire, but by the more tender feelings excited by the Polish lady to whom he had been so long and deeply attached. The sufferings of the country had been unparalleled, from the events of the war, and the enormous exactions of the French troops : the population of the grand-duchy of Warsaw, which, before it commenced, had been 3,300,000, had been reduced at its close to 2,600,000 souls. The country, however, had prospered in the most extraordinary degree during the three years of peace that it had since enjoyed: new colonists had been invited and settled from the neighbouring states of Germany; and industry had flourished to such an extent that the State was now able to maintain, without difficulty or contracting debt, a splendid army of forty thousand men, which, clothed in the Polish uniform, i. 270, 271; commanded by Polish officers, and following the Polish Biog. Univ. lvi. 186. standards, was almost worshipped by the people as the germ of their reviving nationality.2 The emperor arrived 2 Ann. Hist. * The public debt of Russia, on 1st January 1818, stood thus: 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. memorable the Diet. The Diet opened on the 27th of March, and the speech 63. 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. 64. Alexander From Warsaw, which he left on the 30th April, the 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. |