lands and transferring the Indians to territories in the West. Such bargains must always be one-sided affairs, with craft on the one hand and ignorance on the other, and quarrels soon broke out leading to a number of detached wars, the most troublesome of which was with the Seminoles, who held out in Florida under a brave chief named Osceola.

In 1841 General Harrison, the Whig candidate who had been defeated by Van Buren in 1837, was elected president. The most important event of his presidency was the settlement of certain threatening differences between America and Great Britain. For a long while there had been an unsettled question between the two countries as to the boundary of Nova Scotia. There were also more serious subjects

of dispute. In 1837 an insurrection broke out in Canada. The insurgents were aided by a party of Americans. To check the latter some of the loyal Canadians crossed over to the American part of the St. Lawrence and destroyed the Caroline, a vessel belonging to the friends of the insurgents. In the affray which followed one Durfee, an American, was killed.

For this Alexander Macleod, a British subject, was arrested, and it seemed at one time as if he was likely to be found guilty of murder and executed, a proceeding which the British government must have resented. Fortunately he was acquitted. In 1841 an American vessel, the Creole, was sailing from Richmond to New Orleans with a cargo of slaves. The slaves rose, seized the vessel, and took her into the British port of New Providence in the West Indies. The authorities there assisted the slaves to escape. Thus each nation was furnished with a grievance against the other, and such ill-feeling resulted that serious fears of war were entertained.

Webster, who was Tyler's secretary of state, was liked and respected by British statesmen. In 1842 Lord Ashburton was sent out from England to negotiate a treaty. The main point to be settled was the boundary between Canada and the Northern States. The difficulty occurred which specially be

sets federal governments in their dealings with foreign nations, in the matter of territory. The question affected, not merely the whole American union, but more especially the states of Maine and Massachusetts, to which the territory in dispute would belong. These states might reasonably suspect that their special interest would be sacrificed to those of the Union.

At length the matter was settled by a compromise. Great Britain gave up the larger and more valuable share of the disputed territory, and the United States government paid a sum of $250,000 to the states of Maine and Massachusetts to make up the loss of the rest. Two other points of importance were settled by this treaty. One was the suppression of the slave-trade by the two governments. This it will be better to deal with when we come to the whole question of slavery. The other was the mutual surrender of criminals. This was beset by some difficulty. The United States demanded that this arrangement should include fugitive slaves, a point on which the British government was resolved not to yield, or even to admit anything which could be afterward twisted into a pretext for such dealings. At length Lord Ashburton was satisfied on this point, and the treaty was signed in August, 1842.

During the period through which we have passed, several new states had been added to the Union. Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan had been formed out of the unappropriated north-western territory; and Missouri and Arkansas out of the remainder of the French province of Louisiana. At the extreme north-east, moreover, Maine had, with the consent of Massachusetts, been formed out of the territory of that state in 1820, as a partial compensation to the anti-slavery party for the gain which the slaveholding interest was to receive through the admission of Missouri as a slave state. Two territories, subsequently to become states, viz., Iowa and Wisconsin, had been organized in the north-west; and the Spanish cession of 1819 had been organized as the territory of Florida.

LEXANDER I. commenced his reign by renewing the friendship with England. In the following year

Alexander entered into an alliance with Austria, joining her against France, and sharing with her the defeat of Austerlitz. In 1806 he commenced a war with Turkey, which lasted until 1812. Its result was the Treaty of Bucharest and the annexation to Russia of the province of Bessarabia, the strip of territory lying between the Dniester and the Pruth. During 1806 Russia had to enter into a closer grapple with the new autocrat of Europe. Napoleon had shattered the military power of Austria and of Prussia, and after Jena the tide of war rolled towards the frontiers of Russia. Three bloody and stoutlyThree bloody and stoutlycontested battles between the French and the Russians-Pultusk, December 1806, Eylau, February 1807, and Friedland, June 1807-all fought in the same district, the neighborhood of Königsberg, proved that Napoleon was meeting with a stern and tenacious resistance. The French claim all three of these battles as victories. Eylau was a Russian victory, but at Friedland Napoleon was triumphant. The famous Treaty of Tilsit was signed upon a raft on the river Niemen, where the descendant of Rurik met and fraternized with the little Lieutenant of Artillery.

Alexander, in furtherance of the projects of his new alliance, made war with England and Sweden. He reaped his harvest from the latter power, seizing the whole of her remaining possessions in Finland, together with East Bothnia and Aland, and these acquisitions were confirmed to Russia by the

Treaty of Frederiksham, 1809. Against England Alexander was less successful. He sent a fleet to assist Napoleon on the Portuguese coast, which fleet was captured by the British. His efforts to carry out Napoleon's system of the continental blockade against English commerce caused much misery to his subjects, by depriving them of their best market for their exportable produce. The alliance with France became as irksome to Alexander as it was unpopular with his people. Very soon the rigorous maintenance of this blockade became impossible; hence mutual recriminations between the allies. Each prepared for a mortal duel.

Russia made peace with Turkey, England, and Sweden. In May, 1812, Napoleon declared war against Alexander, and the "Grande Armée" marched for the Russian frontier. Besides the French troops, there were Austrians, Prussians, Germans of various principalities, Poles, Italians, Dutchmen, and Spaniards, all marching under the orders of the great leader. The vast array numbered over half a million of men; a recent French writer, Rambaud, gives the roll-call as 678,000. Upon his arrival in Poland, Napoleon was received with great enthusiasm, but his innate selfishness caused him to miss the most splendid opportunity of consolidating his empire. Had he then constituted a great and powerful kingdom of Poland, he would probably have erected in central Europe such a buttress for his political power as might have assured him against any future European coalitions. His enormous host had hardly become engaged in the swamps and forests of Lithuania when symptoms of disorganization became apparent. The Russians . (613)

retired before him, removing or destroying all provisions and forage; nevertheless, several partial engagements took place as the French armies marched from Wilna and from Mohilev towards Smolensk. At Smolensk there was severe fighting. The French armies wasted away as they advanced, partly from slaughter, partly from disease and scarcity of provisions, whilst the ubiquitous Cossacks swarmed around their flanks and rear, harassed them on the march, and intercepted their convoys. Smolensk was burned, and the French pursued their march towards Moscow.

At Borodino the Russians stood at bay, and disputed the passage. On the 7th September, 1812, after several days' preliminary skirmishing, was fought the great battle of Borodino, or of the Moskova. It resulted in a victory for Napoleon, inasmuch as it left open to him the road to Moscow, but it was bought at such a cost as to cripple his army, and render it inadequate for the gigantic task which he had undertaken. It is recorded that 30,000 of the French army and 40,000 Russians were left on the field. At every day's march Napoleon's difficulties increased, and his communications became more disorganized. On the 14th September he entered Moscow, hoping to establish himself there and await reinforcements.

But the turning-point of his career had been passed. Two days after his arrival Moscow was in flames, and nearly the whole of the city was destroyed. The French army stayed for five weeks within the walls; they lacked everything-shelter, provisions, forage-and the winter season was fast approaching. On the 19th October Moscow was evacuated; the "Grande Armée" was reduced by this time to 120,000 men. The retreat was a continued series of horrible catastrophes. The winter set in early, and with unusual severity. Napoleon, with his diminishing and famished troops, fought his way through the ever-increasing hosts of the Russians. By the middle of November he had passed through Smolensk, his army reduced to 40,000 combatants.

crowds of fugitives crossing the river upon two narrow bridges, one of which gave way beneath the mass of human suffering, and precipitated it into the ice-encumbered river. Napoleon, abandoning to their fate the small residue of that magnificent army which had followed him across the Niemen five months before, set out for Paris, where he arrived on the 18th December, and immediately commenced raising fresh le vies of men from the almost exhausted male population of his empire.

But the whole of Europe rose against him. During the campaign of 1813 the Russians took a prominent part, and at the battle of Leipsic the emperor Alexander displayed signal marks of valor under the fire of the enemy. This great battle, called the Battle of the Nations, lasted four days16th to 19th October. Russians, Austrians, Prussians, and Swedes were arrayed against the French, who were abandoned by their forced allies, the Saxons. The defeat of Napoleon was overwhelming, and the Allies pursued him into France. His last campaign in the defence of French soil was perhaps the most brilliant of all his strategical achievements; but he was driven back from province to province, until the Allies entered Paris, the emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia at their head. In the meantime the English, under Wellington, drove the French out of the Iberian peninsula, followed them into France, and finally defeated Marshal Soult at Toulouse, on 10th April, 1814. Napoleon abdicated on the 4th April, and was removed to Elba.

After the Hundred Days, and the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, in which battle the Russians did not take part, Alexander and his army again entered Paris. At the Congress of Vienna a larger share of Poland was accorded to Russia, and her conquest of Finland was confirmed, Sweden being recompensed by the annexation of Norway, which had hitherto belonged to Denmark.

Russia emerged from the desperate contest with a military and political position so greatly enhanced as to give her almost a preponderance in the councils of Europe.

During this great European struggle, a war, languidly conducted, had continued between Russia and Persia from 1804 to 1813. Its result was the surrender by Persia to Russia of all claims over Georgia and nearly the whole of the Caucasian prov