A Modern History, From the Time of Luther to the Fall of Napoleon Part 22

Scotland, until the reign of James II., was theoretically and practically independent of England, but was not so fortunately placed, as the latter country, for the development of energies. The country was smaller, more barren, and less cultivated. The people were less civilized; and had less influence on the political welfare of the state. The aristocracy were more powerful, and were more jealous of royal authority. There were constant feuds and jealousies between dominant cla.s.ses, which checked the growth in political importance, wealth, and civilization. But the people were more generally imbued with the ultra principles of the Reformation, were more religious, and cherished a peculiar attachment to the Presbyterian form of church government, and a peculiar hatred of every thing which resembled Roman Catholicism. They were, moreover, distinguished for patriotism, and had great jealousy of English influences.

James II. was the legitimate King of Scotland, as well as of England; but he soon acquired a greater love for England, than he retained for his native country; and England being the greater country, the interests of Scotland were frequently sacrificed to those of England.

Queen Anne, as the daughter of James II., was also the legitimate sovereign of Scotland; and, on her decease, the Scotch were not bound to acknowledge the Elector of Hanover as their legitimate king.

[Sidenote: Duke of Hamilton.]

Many ardent and patriotic Scotchmen, including the Duke of Hamilton and Fletcher of Saltoun, deemed it a favorable time to a.s.sert, on the death of Queen Anne, their national independence, since the English government was neither just nor generous to the lesser country.

Under these circ.u.mstances, there were many obstacles to a permanent union, and it was more bitterly opposed in Scotland than in England.

The more patriotic desired complete independence. Many were jealous of the superior prosperity of England. The people in the Highlands and the north of Scotland were Jacobinical in their principles, and were attached to the Stuart dynasty. The Presbyterians feared the influence of English Episcopacy, and Scottish peers deprecated a servile dependence on the parliament of England.

But the English government, on the whole, much as it hated Scotch Presbyterianism and Scotch influence, desired a union, in order to secure the peaceful succession of the house of Hanover, for the north of Scotland was favorable to the Stuarts, and without a union, English liberties would be endangered by Jacobinical intrigues. English statesmen felt this, and used every measure to secure this end.

The Scotch were overreached. Force, bribery, and corruption were resorted to. The Duke of Hamilton proved a traitor, and the union was effected--a union exceedingly important to the peace of both countries, but especially desirable to England. Important concessions were made by the English, to which they were driven only by fear. They might have ruled Scotland as they did Ireland, but for the intrepidity and firmness of the Scotch, who while negotiations were pending, pa.s.sed the famous Act of Security, by which the Scottish parliament decreed the succession in Scotland, on the death of the queen, open and elective; the independence and power of parliaments; freedom in trade and commerce; and the liberty of Scotland to engage or not in the English continental wars. The English parliament retaliated, indeed, by an act restricting the trade of Scotland, and declaring Scotchmen aliens throughout the English dominions. But the conflicts between the Whigs and Tories induced government to repeal the act; and the commissioners for the union secured their end.

It was agreed, in the famous treaty they at last effected, that the two kingdoms of England and Scotland be united into one, by the name of _Great Britain_.

That the succession to the United Kingdom shall remain to the Princess Sophia, d.u.c.h.ess Dowager of Hanover, and the heirs of her body, being Protestants; and that all Papists, and persons marrying Papists, shall be excluded from, and be forever incapable of inheriting, the crown of Great Britain;

That the whole people of Great Britain shall be represented by one parliament, in which sixteen peers and forty-five commoners, chosen for Scotland, should sit and vote;

That the subjects of the United Kingdom shall enjoy an entire freedom and intercourse of trade and navigation, and reciprocal communication of all other rights, privileges, and advantages belonging to the subjects of either kingdom;

That the laws, in regard to public rights and civil government, shall be the same in both countries, but that no alteration shall be made in the laws respecting private rights, unless for the evident utility of the subjects residing in Scotland;

That the Court of Session, and all other courts of judicature in Scotland, remain as before the union, subject, however, to such regulations as may be made by the parliament of Great Britain.

Beside these permanent regulations, a sum of three hundred and ninety-eight thousand pounds was granted to Scotland, as an equivalent to the augmentation of the customs and excise.

By this treaty, the Scotch became identified with the English in interest. They lost their independence; but they gained security and peace; and rose in wealth and consequence. The nation moreover, was burdened by the growth of the national debt. The advantage was mutual, but England gained the greater advantage by s.h.i.+fting a portion of her burdens on Scotland, by securing the hardy people of that n.o.ble country to fight her battles, and by converting a nation of enemies into a nation of friends.

We come now to glance at those ill.u.s.trious men who adorned the literature of England in this brilliant age, celebrated for political as well as literary writings.

Of these, Addison, Swift, Bolingbroke, Bentley, Warburton, Arbuthnot, Gay, Pope, Tickell, Halifax, Parnell, Rowe, Prior, Congreve, Steele, and Berkeley, were the most distinguished. Dryden belonged to the preceding age; to the period of license and gayety--the greatest but most immoral of all the great poets of England, from the time of Milton to that of Pope.

[Sidenote: Wits of Queen Anne's Reign.]

The wits of Queen Anne's reign were political writers as well as poets, and their services were sought for and paid by the great statesmen of the times, chiefly of the Tory party. Marlborough neglected the poets, and they contributed to undermine his power.

Of these wits the most distinguished and respectable was Addison, born 1672. He was well educated, and distinguished himself at Oxford, and was a fellow of Magdalen College. His early verses, which would now be p.r.o.nounced very inferior, however attracted the notice of Dryden, then the great autocrat of letters, and the oracle of the literary clubs.

At the age of twenty-seven, Addison was provided with a pension from the Whig government, and set out on his travels. He was afterwards made secretary to Lord Halifax, and elected a member of the House of Commons, but was never able to make a speech. He, however, made up for his failure as an orator by his power as a writer, being a perfect master of elegant satire. He was also charming in private conversation, and his society was much sought by eminent statesmen, scholars, and n.o.blemen. In 1708, he became secretary for Ireland, and, while he resided at Dublin, wrote those delightful papers on which his fame chiefly rests. Not as the author of Rosamond, nor of Latin verses, nor of the treatise on Medals, nor of Letters from Italy, nor of the tragedy of Cato, would he now be known to us. His glory is derived from the Tatler and Spectator--an entirely new species of writing in his age, original, simple, and beautiful, but chiefly marked for polished and elegant satire against the follies and bad taste of his age. Moreover, his numbers of the Spectator are distinguished for elevation of sentiment, and moral purity, without harshness, and without misanthropy. He wrote three sevenths of that immortal production, and on every variety of subject, without any attempt to be eloquent or _intense_, without pedantry and without affectation. The success of the work was immense, and every one who could afford it, had it served on the breakfast table with the tea and toast. It was the general subject of conversation in all polite circles, and did much to improve the taste and reform the morals of the age. There was nothing which he so severely ridiculed as the show of learning without the reality, c.o.xcombry in conversation, extravagance in dress, female flirts and b.u.t.terflies, gay and fas.h.i.+onable women, and all false modesty and affectation. But he blamed without bitterness, and reformed without exhortation, while he exalted what was simple, and painted in most beautiful colors the virtues of contentment, simplicity, sincerity, and cheerfulness.

His latter days were imbittered by party animosity, and the malignant stings of literary rivals. Nor was he happy in his domestic life, having married a proud countess, who did not appreciate his genius. He also became addicted to intemperate habits. Still he was ever honored and respected, and, when he died, was buried in Westminster Abbey.

[Sidenote: Swift.]

Next to Addison in fame, and superior in genius, was Swift, born in Ireland, in 1677, educated at Dublin, and patronized by Sir William Temple. He was rewarded, finally, with the deanery of St. Patrick's.

He was very useful to his party by his political writings; but his fame rests chiefly on his poetry, and his Gulliver's Travels, marked and disgraced by his savage sarcasm on woman, and his vilification of human nature. He was a great master of venomous satire. He spared neither friends nor enemies. He was ambitious, misanthropic and selfish. His treatment of woman was disgraceful and heartless in the extreme. But he was witty, learned, and natural. He was never known to laugh, while he convulsed the circles into which he was thrown. He was rough to his servants, insolent to inferiors, and sycophantic to men of rank. His distinguis.h.i.+ng power was his unsparing and unscrupulous sarcasm and his invective was as dreadful as the personal ridicule of Voltaire. As a poet he was respectable, and as a writer he was original. He was indifferent to literary fame, and never attempted any higher style of composition than that in which he could excel. His last days were miserable, and he lingered a long while in hopeless and melancholy idiocy.

[Sidenote: Pope--Bolingbroke--Gay--Prior.]

Pope properly belongs to a succeeding age, though his first writings attracted considerable attention during the life of Addison, who first raised him from obscurity. He is the greatest, after Dryden, of all the second cla.s.s poets of his country. His Rape of the Lock, the most original of his poems, established his fame. But his greatest works were the translations of the Iliad and Odyssey, the Dunciad, and his Essay on Man. He was well paid for his labors, and lived in a beautiful villa at Twickenham, the friend of Bolingbroke, and the greatest literary star of his age. But he was bitter and satirical, irritable, parsimonious, and vain. As a versifier, he has never been equalled. He died in 1744, in the Romish faith, beloved but by few, and disliked by the world generally.

[Sidenote: Writers of the Age of Queen Anne.]

Bolingbroke was not a poet, but a man of vast genius, a great statesman, and a great writer on history and political philosophy, a man of most fascinating manners and conversation, brilliant, witty, and learned, but unprincipled and intriguing, the great leader of the Tory party. Gay, as a poet, was respectable, but poor, unfortunate, a hanger on of great people, and miserably paid for his sycophancy. His fame rests on his Fables and his Beggar's Opera. Prior first made himself distinguished by his satire called A City Mouse and a Country Mouse, aimed against Dryden. He was well rewarded by government, and was sent as minister to Paris. Like most of the wits of his time, he was convivial, and not always particular in the choice of his a.s.sociates. Humor was the natural turn of his mind. Steele was editor of the Spectator and wrote some excellent papers, although vastly inferior to Addison's. He is the father of the periodical essay, was a man of fas.h.i.+on and pleasure, and had great experience in the follies and vanities of the world. It is doubtful whether the writings of the great men who adorned the age of Anne will ever regain the ascendency they once enjoyed, since they have all been surpa.s.sed in succeeding times. They had not the fire, enthusiasm, or genius which satisfies the wants of the present generation. As poets, they had no greatness of fancy; and as philosophers, they were cold and superficial. Nor did they write for the people, but for the great, with whom they sought to a.s.sociate, by whose praises they were consoled, and by whose bread they were sustained. They wrote for a cla.s.s, and that cla.s.s alone, that chiefly seeks to avoid ridicule and abstain from absurdity, that never attempts the sublime, and never sinks to the ridiculous; a cla.s.s keen of observation, fond of the satirical, and indifferent to all inst.i.tutions and enterprises which have for their object the elevation of the ma.s.ses, or the triumph of the abstract principles of truth and justice.

REFERENCES.--Lord Mahon's History of England, which commences with the peace of Utrecht, is one of the most useful and interesting works which have lately appeared.

Smollett's continuation of Hume should be consulted, although the author was greater as a novelist than as an historian. Burnet's history on this period is a standard.

Hallam should be read in reference to all const.i.tutional questions. c.o.xe's Life of Marlborough throws great light on the period, and is very valuable. Macaulay's work will, of course, be read. See, also, Bolingbroke's Letters, and the Duke of Berwick's Memoirs. A chapter in the Pictorial History is very good as to literary history and the progress of the arts and sciences. See, also, Johnson's Lives of the Poets; Nichols's Life of Addison; Scott's Life of Swift; Macaulay's Essay on Addison; and the Spectator and Tatler.

CHAPTER XVIII.

PETER THE GREAT, AND RUSSIA.

[Sidenote: Early History of Russia.]

While Louis XIV. was prosecuting his schemes of aggrandizement, and William III. was opposing those schemes; while Villeroy, Villars, Marlborough, and Eugene were contending, at the head of great armies, for their respective masters; a new power was arising at the north, destined soon to become prominent among the great empires of the world. The political importance of Russia was not appreciated at the close of the seventeenth century, until the great resources of the country were brought to the view of Europe by the extraordinary genius of Peter the Great.

The history of Russia, before the reign of this great prince, has not excited much interest, and is not particularly eventful or important.

The Russians are descended from the ancient Sclavonic race, supposed to be much inferior to the Germanic or Teutonic tribes, to whom most of the civilized nations of Europe trace their origin.

The first great event in Russian history is the nominal conversion of a powerful king to Christianity, in the tenth century, named Vladimir, whose reign was a mixture of cruelty, licentiousness, and heroism.

Seeing the necessity of some generally recognized religion, he sent ten of his most distinguished men into all the various countries then known, to examine their religious systems. Being semi-barbarians, they were disposed to recommend that form which had the most imposing ceremonial, and appealed most forcibly to the senses. The commissioners came to Mecca, but soon left with contempt, since Mohammedanism then made too great demands upon the powers of self-control, and prohibited the use of many things to which the barbarians were attached. They were no better pleased with the Manichean philosophy, which then extensively prevailed in the East; for this involved the settlement of abstract ideas, for which barbarians had no relish. They disliked Roman Catholicism, on account of the arrogant claims of the pope. Judaism was spurned, because it had no country, and its professors were scattered over the face of the earth. But the lofty minarets of St. Sophia, and the extravagant magnificence of the Greek wors.h.i.+p, filled the commissioners with admiration; and they easily induced Vladimir to adopt the forms of the Greek Church; which has ever since been the established religion of Russia. But Christianity, in its corrupted form, failed to destroy, and scarcely alleviated, the traits of barbarous life. Old superst.i.tions and vices prevailed; nor were the Russian territories on an equality with the Gothic kingdoms of Europe, in manners, arts learning, laws, or piety.

[Sidenote: The Tartar Conquest.]

When Genghis Khan, with his Tartar hordes, overran the world Russia was subdued, and Tartar princes took possession of the throne of the ancient czars. But the Russian princes, in the thirteenth century, recovered their ancient power. Alexander Nevsky performed exploits of great brilliancy; gained important victories over Danes, Swedes, Lithuanians, and Teutonic knights; and greatly enlarged the boundaries of his kingdom. In the fourteenth century, Moscow became a powerful city, to which was transferred the seat of government, which before was Novgorod. Under the successor of Ivan Kalita, the manners, laws, and inst.i.tutions of the Russians became fixed, and the absolute power of the czars was established. Under Ivan III., who ascended the Muscovite throne in 1462, the Tartar rule was exterminated, and the various provinces and princ.i.p.alities, of which Russia was composed, were brought under a central government. The Kremlin, with its mighty towers and imposing minarets, arose in all the grandeur of Eastern art and barbaric strength. The mines of the country were worked, the roads cleared of banditti, and a code of laws established. The veil which concealed Russia from the rest of Europe was rent. An army of three hundred thousand men was enlisted, Siberia was discovered, the printing press introduced, and civilization commenced. But the czar was, nevertheless, a brutal tyrant and an abandoned libertine, who ma.s.sacred his son, executed his n.o.bles, and destroyed his cities.

His successors were disgraced by every crime which degrades humanity; and the whole population remained in rudeness and barbarism, superst.i.tion and ignorance. The clergy wielded enormous power; which, however, was rendered subservient to the interests of absolutism.

[Sidenote: Accession of Peter the Great.]

Such was Russia, when Peter, the son of Alexis Michaelovitz, ascended the throne, in 1682--a boy, ten years of age. He early exhibited great sagacity and talent, but was addicted to gross pleasures. These, strangely, did not enervate him, or prevent him from making considerable attainments. But he was most distinguished for a military spirit, which was treated with contempt by the Regent Sophia, daughter of Alexis by a first marriage. As soon, however, as her eyes were open to his varied studies and his ambitious spirit, she became jealous, and attempted to secure his a.s.sa.s.sination. In this she failed, and the youthful sovereign reigned supreme in Moscow, at the age of seventeen.

No sooner did he a.s.sume the reins of empire, than his genius blazed forth with singular brilliancy, and the rapid development of his powers was a subject of universal wonder. Full of courage and energy, he found nothing too arduous for him to undertake; and he soon conceived the vast project of changing the whole system of his government, and reforming the manners of his subjects.

He first directed his attention to the art of war, and resolved to increase the military strength of his empire. With the aid of Le Fort, a Swiss adventurer, and Gordon, a Scotch officer, he inst.i.tuted, gradually, a standing army of twenty thousand men, officered, armed, and disciplined after the European model; cut off the long beards of the soldiers, took away their robes, and changed their Asiatic dress.

He then conceived the idea of a navy, which may be traced to his love of sailing in a boat, which he had learned to navigate himself. He studied a.s.siduously the art of s.h.i.+p-building, and soon laid the foundation of a navy.