All the time-honoured abuses abolished by Napoleon had been at once restored with the help of the populace; but nothing effective was done to suppress the insurrections which had broken out, during the war, in Mexico and South America. Up to that time, the Indians were serfs and the negroes were slaves. All political power was monopolised by officials sent over from Spain. Spanish interests were protected so thoroughly that all domestic industries were crippled, and goods often cost six times as much as in Europe. Schools and newspapers were almost unknown; no books but religious ones could be bought; and heresy was punished pitilessly.
The invasion of Spain by Napoleon gave opportunity for several simultaneous insurrections. That in Venezuela was crushed by a great earthquake, which was accepted as a sign of divine wrath. Among the leaders was Bolivar, who retreated to Colombia. A Spanish version of Paine's Rights of Man had been circulated there, and the patriots were fighting gallantly. There were many bloody battles in Venezuela and Colombia; but both countries were finally made free by the battle of Carabolo, won on June 24, 1821, by Bolivar.
On July 28th, in that same year, the independence of Peru was proclaimed by General San Martin, who had liberated Chili, three years previously, with an army which he led from the Argentine Republic across the Andes by paths never used thus before. His decisive victories were won by the help of emancipated slaves. Chili would have made him her ruler; but he asked only her help against the Spaniards, who were concentrated in Peru. There he found such disorder as led him to declare himself Protector; but this made him so unpopular that he resigned his power and left the continent which he had done more than anyone else to liberate.
The war went on until the hold of Spain on America was broken forever by a battle fought, 12,000 feet above the sea, on December 9, 1826, at Ayacucho, a name given long before by Indians who had fought there among themselves, and meaning "the Corner of Death." Constitutions like that of the United States had already been proclaimed; too much power was held by Bolivar and other despots; but they did not keep the people in such poverty, ignorance, and apathy as had been inflicted by Spain. Paraguay, however, had a tyrant who dressed himself after a caricature of Napoleon, and tried to imitate his despotism, but had nothing of his genius. Francia was one of Carlyle's model rulers, perhaps because he allowed no elections, juries, public meetings, or newspapers, and sent everyone who talked politics to prison. Men who would not take off their hats to him were cut down by his guards; and timid boys were seen running through the streets with no other article of dress. There were no imports or exports, except by special permission; and goods cost ten times as much as at Buenos Ayres. Equality of races was sought by degrading the whites; but Francia's reign had the one merit of peace.
IX. Intelligent Spaniards were provoked at their king's failure to suppress the rebellion; and the soldiers who were called together for this purpose in 1819 had been so badly paid that they plotted with the friends of progress. A revolt broke out in the camp on the first day of 1820; and it was soon followed by one at Madrid, where the dungeon of the Inquisition was broken open. The King was forced to restore the Constitution which had been framed by the patriots in 1812, after the model of the French instrument of 1791. The prospect of freedom in religion made the clergy and peasantry mutinous. The reactionists in France and Spain found favour with the sovereigns of Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The Liberal Government was overthrown in April, 1823, by a French army. The peasants took sides with the invaders, and many patriots were massacred by the populace. Absolute monarchy and other ancient iniquities were restored, but not the Inquisition. France would have gone on to subdue the rebels in South America for her own benefit; but this was prevented by the British Ministry, which was now showing the liberalising influence of peace.
Napoleon's despotism had the awful and baneful grandeur of an eruption of Vesuvius; but his despicable enemies merely kept up the oppression of his empire without its glory. Their work completed his, as the last of the petty emperors at Rome and Constantinople showed the legitimate tendency of the political system of the mighty founder. Caesar and Napoleon had much in common as conquerors; but it showed far more greatness to found an empire which endured for fifteen centuries, than one which held together for scarcely as many years. Even that length of despotism was sadly too long for the welfare of mankind.
CHAPTER II. FRUITS OF PEACE
EXIGENCIES of war had given the British nobles a despotic power, which they retained long after it ceased to be needed for the nation's safety. The King was their puppet and Parliament their property. The laws were framed and administered for their protection and emolument. Clergy, army, militia, and police were all organised for keeping the people down; and education could do nothing to raise the lowly. Pensions and salaries, even in the Church, were reserved for members and servants of the aristocracy, with little care for the public good. Wages were low, food dear, illiteracy common, and paupers numerous. Even the middle class was in great part disfranchised; taxation was needlessly severe; the press was restricted grievously; and Ireland was shamefully oppressed.
I. As public attention ceased to be absorbed by victorious generals, it turned to the miseries of the poor; and there was much discussion of plans for their relief. Early in the century it became generally known that Robert Owen's factories were unusually profitable, on account of what he did for the intelligence, health, and happiness of the operatives. His pamphlet, published in 1813, and often reprinted as a New View of Society argued strongly for universal education as the remedy for poverty and crime; public opinion was much enlightened on the Continent, as well as in England; but a sagacious member of the British aristocracy said to him: "Oh, I see it all! Nothing could be more complete for the working-classes; but what will become of us?"