"Her son Paul I. succeeded her in 1796. His mother had neglected him in early years, and hated him when he became a man, keeping spies near him, compelling him to live away from the court, and depriving him of all power and influence. She had caused the murder of his father, and the hatred was reciprocal. After his accession, he gave funeral honors to his father, disinterred his mother's last favorite, Potemkin, and threw his remains into a ditch. His temper had been soured by his mother's treatment, and he took a malicious pleasure in undoing what she had done. The revolution in France was in progress when he came to the throne, and Paul joined the coalition against her, sending his armies into Switzerland, Italy, and Holland, to fight against the French republic. Suvarof, in these campaigns, proved himself to be one of the greatest generals of his age, and is still held in the highest veneration by the Russians. But the emperor, dissatisfied with his allies, withdrew his armies from the coalition, and, with Denmark and Sweden, joined in the armed neutrality, of which I have spoken to you before.
"Paul was capricious, despotic, and subject to fits of partial insanity, which aggravated his ill temper, and caused him to commit the most atrocious deeds. By his second wife he had ten children, the oldest of whom was Alexander, the Czarovitz; the second, Constantine; and the youngest but one, Nicholas. Paul's humors were unendurable, and Alexander consented to his dethronement, to avoid greater evils to the empire. He signed a proclamation, announcing his assumption of the crown. The conspirators found the emperor in his palace. Breaking into his chamber, they required him to sign his abdication, and his refusal brought on a struggle, in which, after a desperate resistance, he was strangled with a sash. Alexander had not consented to the assassination of his father, and the event filled him with passionate grief. This was in 1801, and the new emperor was twenty-five years old, and a man of decided ability. He was in favor of peace; but it was impossible for him not to take part in the general war against Napoleon, though he first entered into an alliance with him.
"The Russians and Austrians were defeated at Austerlitz in 1805. Alexander joined his army to that of Prussia, and both were disastrously defeated at Friedland in 1807, and the emperor was obliged to conclude a peace with Napoleon at Tilsit, in which he was arrayed against England and Sweden. The French stirred up a war in Turkey, in which the Russians obtained Moldavia and Wallachia. A war with Sweden resulted in the conquest of Finland. In 1810 Alexander, finding that he had nothing more to gain by an alliance with France,—that his commerce was suffering under the provisions of the treaty of Tilsit, and that the marriage of Napoleon with Maria Louise would prevent him from obtaining any more territory from Austria,—broke the treaty, and prepared for war. In 1812 Napoleon marched into Russia late in the season, with half a million soldiers, intending to crush Russia. The Russians lost the terrible battle of Borodino, near Moscow, and even this city fell into the hands of the French; but those who could not defend it burned it. The winter suddenly set in, and the army of Napoleon, robbed of their expected supplies and shelter in Moscow, commenced that disastrous retreat which ended only in the total destruction of the Grand Army. Prussia and Austria joined Russia the next year; in the battle of Leipsic, the power of the French was effectually broken, and in 1814 the allies entered Paris, and Napoleon was sent to Elba. He returned, and was finally defeated in the battle of Waterloo, and sent to St. Helena. The war ended, and Alexander turned his attention to the internal affairs of the nation. He labored earnestly to promote the civilization of his people, and to develop the immense resources of his vast empire. In 1825 he set out on a tour through his dominions, and died at Taganrag, near the mouth of the Don, of the Crimean fever. He had been the champion of absolute power, and had welded more closely the chains of Poland; yet, judged by the Russian standard, he was an amiable and good man.
"At his death his brother Constantine was the Czarovitz; but this prince had voluntarily renounced his right to the throne in favor of his younger and only surviving brother Nicholas, who was proclaimed Czar. A conspiracy, fomented before his accession, was sternly and severely suppressed. Nicholas, like his brother, was despotic in his ideas, and remorselessly crushed the insurrection in Poland in 1830, making the kingdom a province of Russia. He enlarged his dominions, and carried on the war in Circassia, which lasted fifty years. In 1853 Nicholas demanded of the Turkish government certain guarantees of the rights of Greek Christians in Turkey, which the latter could not give without yielding its sovereign rights, and a war ensued, in which England, France, and Sardinia took part with the Turks. It was the evident design of the Czar to conquer Turkey, and extend his dominions to the Mediterranean.
"Nicholas did not live to see the end of this war, and was succeeded by his son, Alexander II., in 1856. Sebastopol was captured after a siege of about a year, and a treaty of peace was signed, by which Russia lost her naval superiority in the Black Sea.[B] The war in the Caucasus was continued, and ended by Alexander II., who is still the reigning emperor."
[B] This provision of the treaty was abrogated by Russia in 1870.
The professor closed his lecture, which, though longer than usual, was listened to with interest to the end by the students.
"Young gentlemen," said the principal, "I desire to give you an opportunity to see as much as possible of Russia, and for this purpose you will all have an opportunity to visit Moscow; but I do not purpose to go there in a body. There will be no ship's duty done at present. We will divide you into four squads; the ship's companies of the consorts forming two of them, the starboard watch of the ship the third, and the port the fourth squad. A fifth party will make a more extended trip to Nijni Novgorod and Kazan, down the Volga. The captain of each vessel may appoint one to go on this journey, and four more will be elected by ballot to-morrow night, two for the ship, and one for each of the consorts, after your return from St. Petersburg."
Mr. Lowington retired amid the applause of the students.