Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading

by George Park Fisher

ESSAYS AT POLITICAL REFORM.

RUSSIA: GERMANY.—The minds of men were unsettled, not only by the prevalent tone of literature and speculation, but by governmental changes and reforms. The disposition was to introduce French methods of administration. Catherine II. of Russia (1762-1796) tried the experiment of various judicial and educational reforms. Frederick the Great, with more wisdom and consistency, introduced many changes for the benefit of the industrial class. The most sweeping reforms were undertaken by the Emperor Joseph II. (1780-1790), after the death of his mother, Maria Theresa. His measures for the reduction of the power of the clergy and of the nobility, the closing of monasteries, and the weakening of the connection of the Austrian Church with Rome, were of a very radical character. He himself finally became convinced that they were too radical to be completely realized, in the existing state of opinion among his subjects. Two of his reforms—the abolition of serfdom, and the edict of religious toleration—remained in force. The other changes did not survive him. The attempts to impose his reforms in the Austrian Netherlands provoked an insurrection. Leopold II. (1790-1792), Joseph's successor, suppressed the Belgian revolt, but repealed the ordinances of his brother which had occasioned it.

TUSCANY.—In Tuscany, the brother of Joseph II., Leopold, prior to his becoming emperor, undertook likewise a great plan of ecclesiastical reform in the same line as that of Joseph (1786); but there the opposition of the bishops prevented him from practically carrying out his scheme.

PORTUGAL.—In Portugal, the house of Braganza had ascended the throne in 1640. Joseph Emanuel (1750-1777) left the management of the government to his minister, Pombal. His measures were contrived to weaken the power of the nobles and the clergy. By him the warfare against the Jesuits was carried forward. The fall of Pombal, which followed the death of the king, led to the abolition of all his reforms, which had the same fate as those undertaken later in Austria by Joseph II.

LITERATURE.—See the lists of works on pp. 16, 395, 450, and Adams's Manual of Historical Literature; SCHLOSSER'S History of the Eighteenth Century (8 vols,); NOORDEN'S Europaische Gesch. im 18tn. Jahr.: Der Spanische Erbfolgekrieg (2 vols.); Lord John Wakeman, European History, 1598-1715; Hassall, European History, 1715-1789; Perlcins, Regency and Louis XV, (3 vols.); St. Simon, The Memoirs of the Reign of Louis XIV. and the Regency [an abridgment, 3 vols.]; Voltaire, Age of Louis XIV.; PHILIPPSON (in Oncken's Series), Das Zeitalter Ludwigs d. Vierzehten; A. de Broglie, Louis XV: The King's Secret Correspondence with his Agents, etc. (2 vols.); A. Thiers, The Mississippi Bubble; Morley's Life of Voltaire, and Life of Rousseau.

A. v, Arneth, Geschichte Maria Theresas (10 vols., 1863-79): DUNCKER, Aus der Zeit Friedrichs d. Grossen, etc.; RANKE, Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg, and History of Prussia during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (3 vols); CARLYLE'S History of Frederick the Second (6 vols.); Tuttle, History of Prussia (4 vols.); Von Raumer, Frederick the Second and his Times; A. de Broglie, Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa (2 vols.); ONCKEN, Das Zeitalter Friedrich d. Grossen (2 vols.).

The Diaries of PEPYS and EVELYN; R. Vaughan, Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell; MACAULAY'S History of England from the Accession of James II. (4 vols.); MAHON'S History of England (1701-13), also History of England (1713 to 1783) (7 vols.); BURTON, History of the Reign of Queen Anne; E.E.MORRIS, The Age of Anne; Alison, Military Life of the Duke of Marlborough; Life of Marlborough, by Gleig, by Coxe (3 vols.); LECKY'S History of England in the Eighteenth Century (2 vols.); Froude, The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century (2 vols.); Mahan, Influence of the Sea Power on History; Egerton, Short History of British Colonial Policy; Seeley, The Expansion of England; Payne, European Colonies; Lucas, Introduction to a Historical Geography of the British Colonies; H. Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George II. (3 vols.), and of George III. (4 vols.); J. G. Phillimore, History of England during the Reign of George III.; J. Adolphus, History of England [1760 83] (3 vols.); Wraxall (1751-1831), Historical Memoirs of his own Time (4 vols.). and Posthumous Memoirs of his own Time, (3 vols.); May, Constitutional History of England [1760-1860] (2 vols.); STOUGHTON, History of Religion in England from the Opening of the Long Parliament to the End of the Eighteenth Century (6 vols.); TYERMAN'S Life of Wesley; SOUTHEY'S Life of Wesley; TYERMAN'S Life of Whitefield; TYLER'S History of American Literature; VAN LAUN, History of French Literature (3 vols.); MORLEY'S Series of English Men of Letters; TAINE'S History of English Literature.

Schuyler's Life of Peter the Great; Catherine II., Memoirs written by herself; RAM-BAUD'S History of Russia.

Histories of the United States by BANCROFT, HILDRETH, McMaster, Bryant and Howard, DOYLE, Wilson, Laboulaye, NEUMANN, Fiske, Schouler; Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America (8 vols.); Hart, American History told by Contemporaries (4 vols.); Macdonald, Select Charters and Select Documents; Preston, Documents; Channing, The United States of America (1765-1865); Higginson, Larger History of the United States; Goldwin Smith, The United States; LODGE'S Short History of the English Colonies in America; PARKMAN'S Series of Histories of the French in America; Frothingham, Rise of the Republic [to 1790]; Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England; Palfrey's History of New England; Sabine's American Loyalists; Bruce, Economic History of Virginia; Trevelyan, The American Revolution (1766-76); LOSSING, Field Book of the American Revolution; Fiske's Old Virginia and Dutch and Quaker Colonies; brief treatment of epochs by Fisher, Thwaites, Hart, Sloane, Walker.

Lives of Washington, by MARSHALL, SPARKS, IRVING, Weems; Lives of John Adams, by C. F. ADAMS, by MORSE; Life of Franklin, by himself (Bigelow's ed.), by SPARKS, by Parton; Lives of Jefferson, by RANDALL, Parton, Morse; Tudor's Life of James Otis; Life of Samuel Adams, by Wells, by Hosmer; Life of Hamilton, by MORSE; Life of Madison, by RIVES; W. Jay's Life of John Jay (2 vols.); H. Von Hoist, Constitutional and Political History of the United States [from 1759]; Sparks's American Biography (2 series, 25 vols.). WINSOR's Reader's Handbook of the American Revolution (1761-83), a very useful work, gives the literature on the subject (1880); Bancroft, History of the Formation of the Constitution of the United States.