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 Wellington, in favour of France, already mentioned,' 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. vi. §§ 63, 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 ivi. 186. clergy of those persuasions.1 i. 279, 280; Biog. Univ. 66. tions of The finances of the empire, in the following year, exhibited the elasticity which might have been expected from Transacthe 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 soldiers— the 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 i. Ann. Hist. 67. of the Je suits. The year 1820 commenced with a very important Expulsion step-the entire expulsion of the Jesuits from Russia. 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 CHAP. VIII. 1820. Provision was made for their maintenance in the mean 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 their 297; Ukase, faith, seek only to adopt measures that may secure their 1820. own.1 iii. 296, Univ. lvi. March 23, 68. changes in from the of 1820. The time, however, had now arrived when the views of the emperor, heretofore so liberal and indulgent, were Great to undergo an entire change, when the illusions of 1814 the empewere 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 à 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. VIII. 1820. CHAP. no credit to these warnings; he could not believe that an army which, under himself, had done such great things, and had given him personally such proofs of entire devotion, could have so soon become implicated in a traitorous project for his destruction. But the military revolution in Spain, Portugal, and Naples, in the early 1 Schnitz- part of the year 1820, opened his eyes as to the volcano on which possibly his empire might be resting; and the events in Poland ere long left no doubt that the danger was rapidly approaching his own dominions.1 ler, ii. 4, 32; Ann. Hist. iii. 300, 302. 69. Violent scene, and dissolution of the PolSept. 28. ish Diet. The Polish Diet opened in September, and the emperor, who assisted at it in person, in the Polish uniform, and surrounded with Polish officers, was received with enthusiasm: the city was illuminated on his arrival, and at several reviews the troops of the national army evinced the most loyal feelings. The exposition of the minister exhibited the most flattering appearance; the population had increased to 3,468,000, being no less than a million since the termination of the war; agriculture, manufactures, the finances, were in the most flourishing state. But what is material prosperity, beneficent government, to a country infested with the fever of revolution? It soon appeared, when the Diet proceeded to real business, with what species of spirit they were animated. On a proposition to amend the criminal law, brought forward by the ministers, a violent opposition broke forth in the chamber, on the ground that the proposed mode of trial was not by jury; and it was rejected by 120 votes to 3. Another proposal of government, for certain changes in the Senate, was also rejected by a large majority. It was evident that the Diet was animated with the wild spirit of Polish equality, not merely from their measures, but from the extreme violence of the language which they used, and that they would be as difficult to manage as the old comitia, where any member, by the exercise of his liberum veto, might paralyse the whole proceedings. Alexander was profoundly affected; he saw at once the depth of the |