dependence of the Spanish American states, at the instigation of Spain, was the most impolitic of his measures. He imprudently addressed a pastoral letter to the ecclesiastics in Mexico, enjoining upon them to return to their allegiance to Ferdinand, as a duty which they owed the catholic church. This measure could have no effect among American cathoics, but to produce alienation of feeling, towards the see of Rome. In the domestic administration of his territorial possessions, the present pontiff has, also, shown himself less liberal than his predecessor. In August, 1825, the law regulating the censorship of the press was remodeled, requiring printers and booksellers to be licensed, and prohibiting books to be delivered to the public libra ries. Prosecutions for carbonarism, have also been instituted at Rome; and, it is said, that a part of the troops, to be removed from Naples, will be stationed in the adjoining Roman territory, as an army of observation. Ferdinand, king of NAPLES the imbecile protegé of the Holy Alliance, died January 4th, 1825, and was succeeded by his son, who began his reign, with endeavors to relieve his kingdom of part of its military burden. The fear of revolution was now so much diminished, that the king, by a decree of amnesty, gave permission to most of the Neapolitan exiles to return to their country, and concluded a convention with Austria, for decreasing the army of occupation. By pre-existing treaties, the number of Austrian troops was fixed at 32,500 men, who were to remain This number until May, 1826. was now reduced to 15,000, who were not to evacuate the two Sicilies, until March, 1827, unless the king should, in the mean time, feel secure in making a still farther reduction. Notwithstanding the obstinate legitimacy of the emperor of AusTRIA, and his extreme care to prevent the introduction of liberality, or its harbinger, knowledge, into his dominions, he found it difficult to satisfy the Hungarian diet, which assembled at Presburg, in September, 1825. The emperor addressed the states in a Latin speech, in which he charged them to discourage all innovations, assuring them of his devotion to their welfare, with many other unmeaning generalities, and ended, by presenting them with a demand for money and troops. Before giving any answer to his requisition, the diet discussed and adopted a kind of petition of rights, couched in firm, They but respectful language. complained that levies had been made, and contributions levied by him alone, without their assent;、 us, we shall hasten over them, to leave the more space for an account of the important events, which have occurred in Russia., and they demanded an assurance from him, that the fundamental laws of the kingdom should no longer be disregarded. To these representations, the emperor made a conciliatory reply, and engaged to convene the diet regularly every three years, or oftener, if they desired it. In SARDINIA, and the neighboring country of SWITZERLAND, no political events of consequence have occurred. The bigoted policy of the holy alliance, still predominated in the councils of Sardinia, and domineered over the Swiss republics. In the former, an ordinance was issued, forbidding any one to be taught reading and writing, who was not worth 1,500 francs, and the works of Goethe, Wieland and Schiller, were prohibited while two German professors, who had removed to Basel, were compelled to leave the cantons, in order to escape from the power of the allied courts, who demanded them as conspirators against "the established order of things." There is little in the recent history of Netherlands, the Germanic states, and the smaller powers in the north of Europe, to arrest our attention. Devoted to the arts of peace, pursuing the even tenor of their course, engaged in no wars and presenting but few incidents in their domestic affairs, of interest to In the During the winter of 1824-5, much suffering was occasioned in the NETHERLANDS by inundations, which extended even to the kingdom of Hanover. The greatest distress was experienced in east Frisland and Overyssel latter province, it was calculated that not less than 250 persons, and 14,000 cattle perished. The destruction of houses, manufactories, furniture, dockyards, and other erections, swept away by the floods, was immense. Subscriptions were liberally made to relieve the distressed; and a credit of eight millions of florins, was granted by, the states-general, to repair the dykes, and other damages which the country sustained. The government was sedulously occupied in the internal improvement of the country; having no care elsewhere, except the embarrassed condition of its East India possessions, to which we shall allude in our chapter on Asia. The session of the states general in 1826, was opened in October. The king's speech announced that Curaçoa was made a free port, the only fact in it, of much interest to foreign nations. It also stated, that the indigent classes every where in the kingdom, could now enjoy education gratuitously. Nothing in the political condition of the country was inauspicious; excepting the pecuniary distresses of the East India colonies, which were ascribed to their pertinacious conflicts with the natives, and the undue severity of their policy. Maximilian Joseph, king of BAVARIA, died of apoplexy, in October, 1825, and was succeeded by his son, Charles Louis. Between SWEDEN and Great Britain, a treaty was concluded in November, 1825, which provided for enforcement of penal laws against slave trade, conferring on each power the right of searching sus pected vessels, and establishing tribunals at Sierra Leone and St. Bartholomew's, for the trial of vessels captured. None of the other northern powers underwent any political change of moment, except Russia. In RUSSIA, the death of Alexander, although it produced no change in the foreign policy of the empire, was the commencement of a series of domestic incidents, full of the deepest interest. After closing the diet of Warsaw, in June, 1825, the emperor commenced a tour through his extensive dominions. In November, being on a visit to the Crimea, he was taken sick, at Taganrog a town situated on the sea of Azoff. Symptoms of Alexander's declining state of health, had been apparent for some time; and a few days after he was taken ill, at Taganrog, his situation began to grow critical, and he expired the 1st of December. His physicians ascribed his disease to a bilious fever; but he himself, considered it an erysipelas driven in upon his stomach. The unexpected death of Alexander, in the vigor of manhood, for he was only forty-eight years of age, created much uneasiness throughout Europe. Not that the emperor's intellect was such as to command admiration abroad; nor his policy of a nature to acquire for him the unqualified respect of the wise. Alexander was a temperate and prudent, but not a great monarch. His influence in foreign affairs, depended on his mighty military power, and the weight of his vast empire, in the scale of nations. His principles of administration had not always been uniform, nor consistent. At one time, he was the friend of peace, abounding with expressions of general good will; although maintaining the greatest standing army in the world. At another, he was disposed to favor liberal ideas, and to extend the blessings of education to his subjects. But latterly, the development of his policy, as head of the holy alliance, tended to shake that esteem for his character, which his early misfortunes, when attack ed by Napoleon, had inspired; and the advice, and approbation, of which his subsequent successes con- the empress mother. firmed. Still, when he died, anxiety was felt for the consequences. Would not his death be followed by some act on the part of his successor, to disturb the present course of events?-was the universal question, in Europe and America. But these speculations were abruptly terminated, by the singular events which transpired in the capital, on the news of his decease being received there. of Alexander left no children course, in the order of succession, as prescribed by the testament of Paul, which was regarded as a fundamental law of the empire, the imperial crown would descend to his elder brother, the grand duke Constantine, who was in Warsaw at this period. Intelligence of Alexander's death, was sent from Taganrog to St. Petersburg, by express; and immediately communicated to the grand duke Nicholas, Alexander's second brother. was generally believed, that Constantine had, at the instance of Alexander, renounced his right of succession, in favor of Nicholas. Nevertheless, Nicholas immediately assembled the palace guards, and, after taking himself the oath of allegiance, to Constantine, caused it to be administered to the guards, and the great officers of the army. These acts were done with It Scarcely had Nicholas discharged this duty, when he was apprised by the senate, that the late emperor had deposited in their hands, in October, 1823, a letter under his seal, with a direction upon it, in his own handwriting, to open the packet, immediately on his decease, and before proceeding in any other business. This packet contained a letter of Constantine's, dated January 14, 1822, addressed to Alexander, by virtue of which, he renounced the succession to the throne, belonging to him, by right of primogeniture; and a manifesto, bearing the signature of Alexander, dated August 16th, 1823, ratifying Constantine's renunciation, and declaring Nicholas to be his successor, in the empire. Documents of the same tenor, were deposited also, with the directing senate, and the holy synod, and in the cathedral church of the Ascension, at Mo SCOW. Nevertheless, Nicholas refused to abide by an abdication, which, when it took place, was not proclaimed publicly, and had not received the force of law, as irrevocable. Accordingly, the senate took, and subscribed, the oath of allegiance to Constantine, caused him to be proclaimed, by ukase; and despatched orders to every department of the empire, to have the oath administered to all the male linquish his claims to the greatest subjects of Constantine. Intelligence of Alexander's death reached Warsaw, direct from Taganrog, two days before it was known at St. Petersburg. Constantine, immediately before hearing from the capital, addressed letters to the empress mother, and to Nicholas, in which he persisted in renouncing the throne. Meantime, he continued to reside at Warsaw, as a private individual; and when acquainted with the proceedings at the capital, he again wrote to Nicholas, solemnly persisting in his previous declarations, and refusing the proffered allegiance of the Russians. Nicholas no longer hesitated to assume the imperial dignity. By a manifesto, dated December 24th, he announced the foregoing facts, annexing to it copies of the writings and correspondence of which we have given an abstract. The 25th, he communicated these documents to the senate, and was immediately proclaimed emperor of Russia. On the next day, the manifesto was published, and orders were issued to the guards to reassemble and take the oath of allegiance to the new emperor. These remarkable incidents, could not but fill Europe with astonishment. The world hesitated to believe, that both Nicholas and Constantine were so ready, to re empire on earth. Curiosity was busy, above all, to discover the causes and motives of Constantine's renunciation in 1822. They, who suspect duplicity in every act of a court, insist that Nicholas was insincere, and that Constantine was authoritatively compelled to abdicate in favor of his younger brother. On the other hand, if it was so, never did compulsion wear more completely the air of cheerful willingness. In his letter of abdication, Constantine says "I do not lay claim to the spirit, the abilities, or the strength, which would be required if I should ever exercise the high dignity, to which I may possess a right by birth." He afterwards says: "The circumstances of my present situation, induce me still more to adopt this measure." These expressions furnish much color to the generally received idea, that Constantine was prevailed upon by Alexander to do this, in consideration of the emperor's consenting to his marriage with a Polish lady of humble circumstances. But the submissiveness of temper implied in such an act for such a cause, and his disqualifying expressions concerning himself above cited, are by no means in unison with the impetuous and warlike character, which Constantine has always been supposed to possess. |