People

Neither England nor Austriareceived Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 17:19:12 +0000
The people had begunto know good and evil: examples of a free social order were too close athand to render it possible for any part of the western continent to relapsefor any very long period into the condition of the eighteenth century.It was indeed within a distinct limit that the Revolutionary epoch effectedits work of political and social change. Neither England nor Austriareceived the slightest impulse to progress.

Autor of the post: Undefined

Like other great epochs Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 17:38:23 +0000
England, on the contrary,suspended almost all internal improvement during the course of the war; thedomestic policy of the Austrian Court, so energetic in the reignimmediately preceding the Revolution, became for the next twenty years,except where it was a policy of repression, a policy of pure vacancy andinaction. But in all other States of Western Europe the period whichreached its close with Napoleon's fall left deep and lasting traces behindit. Like other great epochs of change, it bore its own peculiar character.

Autor of the post: Undefined

Itselements of mere violence Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 17:58:09 +0000
It was not, like the Renaissance and the Reformation, a time when newworlds of faith and knowledge transformed the whole scope and conception ofhuman life; it was not, like our own age, a time when scientific discoveryand increased means of communication silently altered the physicalconditions of existence; it was a time of changes directly political intheir nature, and directly effected by the political agencies oflegislation and of war. In the perspective of history the Napoleonic agewill take its true place among other, and perhaps greater, epochs. Itselements of mere violence and disturbance will fill less space in the eyesof mankind; its permanent creations, more.

Autor of the post: Undefined

Of all the events which Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 18:13:42 +0000
As an epoch of purely politicalenergy, concentrating the work of generations within the compass of twentyfive years, it will perhaps scarcely find a parallel.The Restoration of 1814-Norway-Naples-Westphalia-Spain-The SpanishConstitution overthrown: Victory of the Clergy-Restoration in France-TheCharta-Encroachments of the Nobles and Clergy-Growing Hostility to theBourbons-Congress of Vienna-Talleyrand and the Four Powers-The PolishQuestion-The Saxon Question-Theory of Legitimacy-Secret Alliance againstRussia and Prussia-Compromise-The Rhenish Provinces-Napoleon leaves Elbaand lands in France-His Declarations-Napoleon at Grenoble, at Lyon, atParis-The Congress of Vienna unites Europe against France-Murat's Actionin Italy-The Acte Additionnel-The Champ de Mai-Napoleon takes up theoffensive-Battles of Ligny, Quatre Bras, Waterloo-Affairs atParis-Napoleon sent to St Helena-Wellington and Fouch魭Arguments on theproposed Cession of French Territory-Treaty of Holy Alliance-SecondTreaty of Paris-Conclusion of the Work of the Congress of Vienna-Federation of Germany-Estimate of the Congress of Vienna and of theTreaties of 1815-The Slave Trade.Of all the events which, in the more recent history of mankind, have struckthe minds of nations with awe, and appeared to reveal in its directoperation a power overruling the highest human effort, there is none equalin grandeur and terror to the annihilation of Napoleon's army in theinvasion of Russia.

Autor of the post: Undefined

Perilswhich then seemed to envelop Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 18:30:02 +0000
It was natural that a generation which had seen Stateafter State overthrown, and each new violation of right followed by anapparent consolidation of the conqueror's strength, should view in thecatastrophe of 1812 the hand of Providence visibly outstretched for thedeliverance of Europe. [196] Since that time many years have passed. Perilswhich then seemed to envelop the future of mankind now appear in partillusory; sacrifices then counted cheap have proved of heavy cost.

Autor of the post: Undefined

His empire had already attained Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 18:48:49 +0000
Thehistory of the two last generations shows that not everything was lost toEurope in passing subjection to a usurper, nor everything gained by thevictory of his opponents. It is now not easy to suppress the doubt whetherthe permanent interests of mankind would not have been best served byNapoleon's success in 1812. His empire had already attained dimensions thatrendered its ultimate disruption certain: less depended upon thepostponement or the acceleration of its downfall than on the order ofthings ready to take its place.

Autor of the post: Undefined

The serf would have been Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 19:03:57 +0000
The victory of Napoleon in 1812 would havebeen followed by the establishment of a Polish kingdom in the provincestaken from Russia. From no generosity in the conqueror, from no sympathy onhis part with a fallen people, but from the necessities of his politicalsituation, Poland must have been so organised as to render it the bulwarkof French supremacy in the East. The serf would have been emancipated.

Autor of the post: Undefined

Political independence, the heritage Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 19:15:35 +0000
Thejust hatred of the peasant to the noble, which made the partition of 1772easy, and has proved fatal to every Polish uprising from that time to thepresent, would have been appeased by an agrarian reform executed withNapoleon's own unrivalled energy and intelligence, and ushered in withbrighter hopes than have at any time in the history of Poland lit the darkshades of peasant-life. The motives which in 1807 had led Napoleon to stayhis hand, and to content himself with half-measures of emancipation in theDuchy of Warsaw [197], could have had no place after 1812, when Russiaremained by his side, a mutilated but inexorable enemy, ever on the watchto turn to its own advantage the first murmurs of popular discontent beyondthe border. Political independence, the heritage of the Polish noble, mighthave been withheld, but the blessing of landed independence would have beenbestowed on the mass of the Polish people.

Autor of the post: Undefined

By the side Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 19:31:04 +0000
In the course of some years thisrestored kingdom, though governed by a member of the house of Bonaparte,would probably have gained sufficient internal strength to survive thedownfall of Napoleon's Empire or his own decease. England, Austria, andTurkey would have found it no impossible task to prevent its absorption byAlexander at the re-settlement of Europe, if indeed the collapse of Russiahad not been followed by the overthrow of the Porte, and the establishmentof a Greek, a Bulgarian, and a Roumanian Kingdom under the supremacy ofFrance. By the side of the three absolute monarchs of Central and EasternEurope there would have remained, upon Napoleon's downfall, at least onepeople in possession of the tradition of liberty: and from the example ofPoland, raised from the deep but not incurable degradation of its sociallife, the rulers of Russia might have gained courage to emancipate theserf, without waiting for the lapse of another half-century and theoccurrence of a second ruinous war.

Autor of the post: Undefined

The generation which witnessedthe fall Post Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 19:50:34 +0000
To compare a possible sequence ofevents with the real course of history, to estimate the good lost and evilgot through events which at the time seemed to vindicate the moralgovernance of the world, is no idle exercise of the imagination. It mayserve to give caution to the judgment: it may guard us against an arbitraryand fanciful interpretation of the actual. The generation which witnessedthe fall of Napoleon is not the only one which has seen Providence in thefulfilment of its own desire, and in the storm-cloud of nature and historyhas traced with too sanguine gaze the sacred lineaments of human equity andlove.

Autor of the post: Undefined

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