THE REBELLION CRUSHED IN SPAIN.—The French unwisely rejected England's advice. Louis XVIII. sent an army into Spain, under the Duke of Angoulême, released Ferdinand at Cadiz, and gave him the power to revoke all that he had done in favor of liberty. The brave Riego was hung on a gibbet of enormous height. The Spanish army was disbanded, and the "Army of the Faith" took its place. Many thousands of constitutionalists were thrown into prison. Canning recognized the republics of South America, lest they, too, should fall under French control. It was his boast, that he "called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old."
PORTUGAL: BRAZIL.—The royal family of Portugal were residing in Brazil when the Spanish revolution occurred. Portugal, in the absence of King John VI., framed a liberal constitution. The Brazilians were eager for independence from Portugal. John decided to withdraw. Arrived in Portugal, he accepted the new constitution; but the anti-revolutionary party rallied about his son Dom Miguel, who was supported by his mother, a sister of Ferdinand VII, of Spain. Dom Miguel was at length driven into exile, and went to Vienna. Meantime Dom Pedro, a son of John VI., had made himself emperor in Brazil by allying himself with the constitutional party; and John was prevailed on by the British, in 1825, to recognize the new South American empire.
NAPLES AND SICILY.—In all the eight principalities of Italy, except in Tuscany, the misrule of the restored governments was galling to the people, whose hope of freedom had been raised only to be cast down. Everywhere the tyrannical influence of Austria was dominant. The rulers in Italy were slavishly submissive to her will; and any rising of the people, if not put down by them, was crushed by Austrian forces sent down from Lombardy. Secret societies sprung up; the chief of which, the Carbonari, aimed at national independence, but beyond that cherished no definite, united purpose. The Spanish revolution served as the occasion for a similar rebellion of the soldiery of Naples. A new liberal constitution was established, which Ferdinand IV. (July 13, 1820) solemnly swore to maintain. The insurrection in Sicily aimed at independence, but Palermo was surrendered to the revolutionary government of Naples. The Neapolitan rebellion led to the Congress of Troppau (Oct., 1820), which was transferred to Laybach (Jan., 1821). There Austria, Prussia, and Russia formed a league, the fruit of which was, that an Austrian army of sixty thousand men marched into the South of Italy, and the revolution was crushed. Ferdinand reëstablished his despotism, disbanded the greater part of his army, and punished with exile, imprisonment, and death the leading supporters of the constitution which he had taken an oath to defend.
SARDINIA.—In Piedmont, the demand for a constitution and a rising at Alessandria impelled Victor Emmanuel I. to abdicate in favor of his brother, Charles Felix, who was favorable to Austria and her policy. Prince Charles Albert,—a distant cousin,—who had liberal views, held the regency for a few months; but Charles Felix, on his return from Modena (Oct., 1821), governed according to despotic principles. The contest in Italy between "despots and conspirators" went on until the renewed outbreakings of revolt in 1830.
THE GREEK INSURRECTION.—The weakness of Turkey emboldened the Greeks to attempt to throw off the hated Ottoman yoke. The sultans had become the puppets of their guards, the janizaries. One after another of them had been dethroned by their soldiers. The pashas were insubordinate: in Egypt, Mehemet Ali had almost made himself independent. Russia, by the Peace of Bucharest in 1812, had possessed herself of Bessarabia and of Eastern Moldavia as far as the Pruth. Among the Greeks, who were not more than a million in number, and were only one among the various peoples subject to Turkey, there were formed Hetaireiai, or secret societies, for the purpose of organizing an insurrection. The people were first summoned to rise by Alexander Ypsilanti (1821). A "national congress" promulgated a new constitution for Greece (1822). Great enthusiasm in behalf of the Greek cause was awakened in most of the civilized countries; but the Congress of Verona (1822), inspired by Metternich, decided to give no help to the "insurgents." In the war of the Greeks with the Turks, there were atrocities committed on both sides. Scio was taken by the latter in 1822. Not far from twenty thousand of the inhabitants were massacred, and twice that number were enslaved. In 1824 the Greeks began to receive foreign help. Among those who volunteered with a chivalrous sympathy to aid them in their combat was Lord Byron, who died at Missolonghi (1824). Nicholas I. of Russia, who in 1825 succeeded Alexander I., was more inclined to take an active part in the Greek contest, as he considered himself the head of all Christians of the Greek faith. The Sultan Mahmoud II., by crushing the janizaries, strengthened himself at home, but weakened his means of attack and defense abroad. In 1826 he made important concessions to Russia; among other things, allowing her to occupy the east coast of the Black Sea, and giving to her vessels a free admission to Turkish waters.
GREEK INDEPENDENCE.—Mehemet Ali hoped to succeed Mahmoud. His son Ibrahim had defeated the Greeks at Navarino (1825). The next year, in conjunction with the Turks, he captured Missolonghi. The apprehension that Nicholas might seek to divide Turkey with Mehemet Ali caused the Treaty of London to be concluded by the Great Powers which founded the kingdom of Greece (July 6, 1827). England, Russia, and France joined in executing the treaty. They destroyed the Turkish-Egyptian fleet at Navarino (Oct. 20). Later, Nicholas waged a separate war with the Porte, which was terminated by the Peace of Adrianople (1829), when the latter recognized the independence of Greece. The crown of Greece was accepted in 1832 by Otho, son of Louis of Bavaria.
CHAPTER II. EUROPE FROM THE REVOLUTION OF 1830 TO THE REVOLUTIONARY EPOCH OF 1848.
CHARLES X.—Louis XVIII. died in 1824. His brother, Charles X. (1824-30), dealt generously with the collateral branch of the Bourbons, the house of Orleans. He restored to Louis Philippe, the son of that Philip Egalite whose base career was ended by the guillotine (p. 512), the vast estates of the Orleans family, and gave him the title of "Royal Highness." But he failed to secure the cordial support of this ambitious relative. The Duke of Orleans stood well with the king, but was on good terms with the liberal leaders. The king sought to reinstate the ideas and ways of the old régime. He was specially zealous in behalf of ecclesiastics, and ceremonies of devotion. But liberal views in politics gained ground in the second Chamber, as well as in the army and among the people. A liberal ministry under Martignac was in power for a while; but in 1829 it was succeeded by a ministry the head of which was the unpopular Prince Polignac, and the other principal members of which were hardly less obnoxious. They represented the extreme reactionary and royalist party. Their active opponents—Guizot, Thiers, and Benjamin Constant among them—found that their assaults on the government were generally applauded. All of these were brilliant political writers. Constant (from 1825) had been the leader of the opposition. Thiers was a journalist of wide influence. Guizot had held office under the liberal ministers, and as lecturer on modern history, and by his writings, had laid the foundation of the great distinction which he deservedly gained, as one of the foremost students and expounders of history in recent times. Thiers and Guizot were at this time united in the advocacy of a constitutional system, as opposed to the reactionary policy and the personal government to which the king and his ministers were committed. Later we shall see that the paths of these two statesmen diverged. In 1830 Guizot was the opposition leader in the Chamber of Deputies. In the Chamber of Peers, the ministry was attacked by Chateaubriand, who had been a valuable supporter of the Bourbon cause, and by others. The Chambers were dissolved by the king. The capture of Algiers, in a war against the piratical power of which it was the seat, did not avail to lessen the growing hostility to his government. It found expression through the press and in speeches at a great banquet.
ORDINANCES OF ST. CLOUD.—Taking advantage of the provision in the charter which gave extraordinary powers to the king for special emergencies (p. 537), the ministry took the fatal step (July 25, 1830) of issuing the "ordinances of St. Cloud," dissolving the Chamber of Deputies, further restricting the suffrage so that many merchants and manufacturers lost this privilege, and reëstablishing the censorship of the press in a peculiarly burdensome form.
THE JULY REVOLUTION.—The ordinances were published on July 26. That evening Prince Polignac's windows were broken by a mob. The whole city of Paris was in a tumult. The liberal journals protested. There were collisions between the mob and the king's troops. A protest of the liberal deputies, who met at the house of Casimir Perier, was issued. In the night the people armed themselves. La Fayette arrived in Paris. On the 28th students, workmen, and all classes of citizens, armed themselves with whatever weapons they could lay hold of. The revolutionists took possession of the Hôtel de Ville. The cry was that the charter was violated. All efforts to induce the king to make concessions failed. Many of the soldiers in Paris fraternized with the people, who on the 29th had control of the whole city, except the vicinity of the Tuileries, which they gained possession of that evening. La Fayette, at the call of the deputies, assumed command of the National Guard. Finally, when it was too late, the king decided to withdraw the ordinances, and to change the ministry. Thiers and Mignet caused anonymous placards to be posted, proposing that the Duke of Orleans should take the crown from the people. On the 30th Louis Philippe entered Paris on foot: he had passed the summer at his country place at Neuilly. Talleyrand,—whose influence was great with foreign courts,—Lafitte, and Thiers were active in the effort to advance him to the throne. The deputies decided that he must be made lieutenant-general of the kingdom. Charles X., who still blindly confided in him, on the 31st appointed him to this office. What the intentions of Louis Philippe were, is not clear. He probably meant to be governed by circumstances. On the 29th a municipal commission was installed at the Hôtel de Ville, consisting of La Fayette and six other leading men. They selected several persons as officials whose authority was generally acknowledged. Louis Philippe, at the head of the deputies, went to the Hôtel de Ville. He was cordially received by La Fayette and his associates. It was agreed that there should be "a popular throne, with free institutions." On the balcony, under the tri-color flag, the Duke of Orleans was introduced as "the man of the people." La Fayette felt that a republic would be contrary to the national wish. Thiers was of the same mind. They feared complications and contests abroad, and what might be the results of general suffrage, in the existing state of the country, at home.