THE THIRD repubLIC.

The Third Republic (1871- ). Third Republic was now completed.

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The organization of the M. Thiers, the historian,

was made its first President (Aug. 31, 1871). He was followed (May 24, 1873) by Marshal MacMahon, who, resigning in 1879, was succeeded by M. Grévy, the present head of the Republic

(1885) // Read Dr. Lord's paper

CHAPTER VII.

RUSSIA SINCE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

Paul I. (1796-1801) and Napoleon.-Catherine II. of Russia was an ardent disciple of the French philosopher Voltaire and the Encyclopedists; but when the Revolution began to reduce to practice the theories of these writers, Catherine became frightened, caused the bust of Voltaire in her palace to be taken down, and set herself in violent opposition to the whole French movement.

Catherine's son, Paul I., with the sure instinct of a born autocrat, hated the Revolution and all the ideas it represented. But when Napoleon came to the head of French affairs and began to exhibit his despotic character, Paul was delighted, became his most ardent admirer, and proposed to him a scheme for the humiliation of England by the conquest of her East Indian possessions. The plan was a bold one. The attacking forces were to march to the Indies by two routes: a Russian army was to move through Khiva and Bokhara, and an allied Russian and French force to march from the Caspian by the way of Herat and Kandahar. What would have come of the project it is hard to divine, had not the whole scheme been suddenly frustrated by the assassination of the Czar.

Alexander I. (1801-1825) and the Holy Alliance.— Alexander I., the son and successor of Paul I., held, during the greater part of his reign, a most commanding position among the rulers of Europe. The great defect in his character was inconstancy. At first he was the friend of Napoleon, then his enemy, again his ardent admirer, and finally the one to call upon the nations of Europe to crush him as an outlaw.

This same vacillation characterizes all his acts. During the earlier years of his reign he was a zealous advocate of liberal ideas. It was due largely to his influence that the French secured a constitution upon the restoration of the Bourbons. He granted the Poles a liberal constitution. He freed the serfs in Livonia and Courland. He introduced many beneficent reforms into Russia, and even encouraged his subjects to hope that they should have a constitution which should give them a part in the government.

Toward the middle of his reign he became a sort of mystic, and upon the downfall of Napoleon, he organized the celebrated union known as the Holy Alliance. This was a league embracing as its chief members Russia, Austria, and Prussia, the ostensible object of which was the maintenance of religion, peace, and order in Europe, and the reduction to practice in politics of the maxims of Christ. The several sovereigns entering into the union promised to be fathers to their people, to rule in love and with reference solely to the promotion of the welfare of their subjects, and to help one another as brothers to maintain just government and prevent wrong. In a solemn address to the world (Sept. 26, 1815) they announced that they would henceforth rule in exact accord with Christian love, regarding themselves as the "plenipotentiaries of Heaven."

All this had a very millennial look. But the "Holy Alliance" very soon became practically a league for the maintenance of absolute principles of government, in opposition to the liberal tendencies of the age. Under the pretext of maintaining religion, justice, and order, the sovereigns of the union acted in concert to suppress every aspiration among their subjects for political liberty.

Yet, although such was the final history of the league, Alexander, when he founded it, meant all that he said. But conspiracies among his own subjects, the ingratitude of the Poles, and the uprisings throughout Europe, all tended to create in him a revulsion of feeling. His disposition underwent a complete change. From an ardent apostle of liberal ideas, he was transformed into a violent absolutist, and spent all his latter years in aiding the des

potic rulers of Spain, Italy, and Germany to crush every uprising among their subjects for political freedom.

This reactionary policy of Alexander caused bitter disappoint ment among the Liberals in Russia, the number of whom was large, for the Russian armies that helped to crush Napoleon came back from the West with many new and liberal ideas awakened by what they had seen and heard and experienced.

The Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829. In 1825 Alexander I. was succeeded by his brother Nicholas I. (1825-1855), “a terrible incarnation of autocracy." He carried out the later policy of his predecessor, and strove to shut out from his empire all the liberalizing influences of Western Europe.

A war with Persia, which ended in 1828, greatly extended Russian influence in the regions of the Caspian. The same year, taking advantage of the embarrassment of the Sultan through a stubborn insurrection in Greece,1 Nicholas declared war against the Ottoman Porte. The Balkans were quickly passed, and the victorious armies of the Czar were in full march upon Constantinople, when their advance was checked by the jealous interference of England and Austria, through whose mediation the war was brought to a close by the Peace of Adrianople (1829). Nicholas restored all his conquests in Europe, but held some provinces in Asia which gave him control of the eastern shore of the Euxine. Greece was liberated, and Servia became virtually independent of the Sultan. Thus the result of the contest was greatly to diminish the strength and influence of Turkey, and correspondingly to increase the power and prestige of Russia.

Revolution in Poland (1830-1832). The Congress of Vienna (1815) re-established Poland as a constitutional kingdom

1 This was the struggle known as the "War of Grecian Independence." It was characterized by the most frightful barbarities on the part of the Turks. Lord Byron enlisted on the side of the Greeks. The result of the war was the freeing of Greece from Turkish rule. England, France, and Russia became the guardians of the little state, the crown of which was given to Prince Otto of Bavaria (Otto I., 1832-1862).

RUSSIA AND THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848.

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dependent upon Russia in some such way as Ireland was subject to England previous to the Union in 1801. Under their constitution the Poles could manage their own finances and administer their local affairs; yet the Polish patriots were still impatient of the subjection of their country to the authority of the Czar, for memories of the prouder days of Poland's power and independence were kept fresh among them. Moreover, the agreement for local self-government was not faithfully kept by Russia.

The revolutionary movements of the year 1830 sent a wave of hope through Poland, and the people arose, set up a provisional government, and drove out the Russian garrisons. But the armies of the Czar quickly poured over the frontiers of the revolted state, and before the close of the year 1831 the Polish patriots were once more under the foot of their Russian master.

It was a hard fate that awaited the unhappy nation. Their constitution was taken away, and Poland was made a province of the Russian Empire (1832). The Polish regiments, instead of being allowed to form an independent army as hitherto, were scattered in widely separated provinces. Everything in the nature of a weapon was taken away from the people, the peasant being deprived even of his scythe. Multitudes were banished to Siberia, while thousands more expatriated themselves, seeking an asylum in England, America, and other countries. Nicholas even attempted to root out the Polish language, the Russian being introduced into all the schools and made a requisite for holding any office whatever. Of all the peoples that rose for freedom in 1830 none suffered so cruel and complete an extinguishment of their hopes as did the patriot Poles.

Russia and the Revolutions of 1848.-Russia's chief part in the affairs of the revolutionary years of 1848 and 1849 was to help Austria suppress the liberal movement in her dominions.

The uprising of 1848 in Paris sent an electric thrill throughout Europe. Poland "quivered with excitement," but dared not and could not rise. Hungary, however, rose against Austria, and under the lead of the illustrious patriot Louis Kossuth, made a noble