CHAPTER XIII. Political condition of ITALY.-Rome-Naples. Hungary. AUSTRIA.- LANDS. BAVARIA. SWEDEN. RUSSIA.-Death of Alexander-Constantine proclaimed-Abdicates in favor of Nicholas Seditions-Secret Societies-Coronation of Nicholas-Relations with Turkey-Persian War. That overruling destiny, which governs the affairs of the world, has made Austria the arbiter of Italy, and thus associated them in the page of history. Austria, of all the great governments of Europe the least intellectual; whose emperor will not have learned men in his dominions, if he can avoid it,, lest they should shed a ray of light upon the dark despotism of his policy, has bound the chain of her slavish rule around Italy, the land of genius, of poetry, of the arts. The kings of the two Sicilies, and of Sardinia, reign only by virtue of the power of Austria, whose troops garrison Naples and Piedmont. Tuscany, Lombardy, Venice, the Italian principalities, are appanages of the imperial family; and though once, and that not many centuries ago, the smallest cities of Italy, were the theatre of grand events; the history of the whole nation is now almost a blank. Had a stable federal league united her states, independence might still have been their lot; or had Napoleon continued to rule them, they would, at least, have had an Italian for a master, whose vigor and genius were worthy of his national extraction. In adverting to the recent acts of the see of ROME, we seem to be restored to older times. Leo XII. has busied himself in various political transactions of foreign states, where the pretensions of the Roman church came in conflict, with the extension of public liberty. Thus, in the disputes between the ultra catholics, and the more moderate church party, in the Netherlands, which gave rise to great warmth of feeling, the pope sided with the former. So, also, in the still more bitter controversy between the jesuits in France, and their opponents, whose only aim is to create a national feeling, and to resist transmontane influence; Leo was not sparing of censure against the journals that supported the liberties of the Gallican church. But his interference with the int dependence of the Spanish American states, at the instigation of Spain, was the most impolitic of his measures. He imprudently addressed a pastoral letter to the ecclesiastics in Mexico, enjoining upon them to return to their allegiance to Ferdinand, as a duty which they owed the catholic church. This measure could have no effect among American cathoics, but to produce alienation of feeling, towards the see of Rome. In the domestic administration of his territorial possessions, the "present, pontiff has, also, shown himself less liberal than his predecéssor. In August, 1825, the law regulating the censorship of the press was remodeled, requiring, printers and booksellers to be licepsed, and prohibiting books to be delivered to the public libraries. Prosecutions for carbonarism, have also been instituted at Rome; and, it is said, that a part of the troops, to be removed from Naples, will be stationed in the adjoining Roman territory, as an army of observation. Ferdinand, king of NAPLES the imbecile protegé of the Holy Alliance, died January 4th, 1825, and was succeeded by his son, who began his reign, with endeavors to relieve his kingdom of part of its military burden. The fear of revolution was now so much diminished, that the king, by a decree of amnesty, gave permission to most of the Neapolitan exiles to return to their country, and concluded a convention with Austria, for decreasing the army of occupation. By pre-existing treaties, the number of Austrian troops was fixed at 32,500 men, who were to remain until May, 1826. This number was now reduced to 15,000, who were not to evacuate the two Sicilies, until March, 1827, unless the king should, in the mean time, feel secure in making a still farther reduction. Notwithstanding the obstinate legitimacy of the emperor of AusTRIA, and his extreme care to prevent the introduction of liberality, or its harbinger, knowledge, into his dominions, he found it difficult to satisfy the Hungarian diet, which assembled at Presburg, in September, 1825. The emperor addressed the states in a Latin speech, in which he charged them to discou rage all innovations, assuring them of his devotion to their welfare, with many other unmeaning generalities, and ended, by presenting them with a demand for money and troops. Before giving any answer to his requisition, the diet discussed and adopted a kind of petition of rights, couched in firm, but respectful language. They complained that levies had been made, and contributions levied by him alone, without their assent; and they demanded an assurance from him, that the fundamental laws of the kingdom should no longer be disregarded. To these representations, the emperor made a conciliatory reply, and engaged to convene the diet regularly every three years, or oftener, if they desired it. In SARDINIA, and the neighboring country of SWITZERLAND, no political events of consequence have occurred. The bigoted policy of the holy alliance, still predominated in the councils of Sardinia, and domineered over the Swiss republics. In the former, an ordinance was issued, forbidding any one to be taught reading and writing, who was not worth 1,500 francs, and the works of Goethe, Wieland and Schiller, were prohibited while two German professors, who had removed to Basel, were compelled to leave the cantons, in order to escape from the power of the allied courts, who demanded them as conspirators against "the established order of things." : There is little in the recent history of Netherlands, the Germanic states, and the smaller powers in the north of Europe, to arrest our attention. Devoted to the arts of peace, pursuing the even tenor of their course, engaged in no wars and presenting but few incidents in their domestic affairs. of interest to us, we shall hasten over them, to leave the more space for an account of the important events, which have occurred in Russia. During the winter of 1824-5, much suffering was occasioned in the NETHERLANDS by inundations, which extended even to the kingdom of Hanover. The greatest distress was experienced in east Frisland and Overyssel In the latter province, it was calculated that not less than 250 persons, and 14,000 cattle perished. The destruction of houses, manufactories, furniture, dockyards, and other erections, swept away by the floods, was immense. Subscriptions were liberally made to relieve the distressed; and a credit of eight millions of florins, was granted by the states-general, to repair the dykes, and other damages which the country sustained. The government was sedulously occupied in the internal improvement of the country; having no care elsewhere, except the embarrassed condition of its East India possessions, to which we shall allude in our chapter on Asia. The session, of the states-general in 1826, was opened in October. The king's speech announced that Curaçoa was made a free port, the only fact in it, of much interest to foreign nations. It also stated, that the indigent classes every where in the kingdom, could now enjoy education gratuitously. Nothing in the political condition of the country was inauspicious; excepting the pecuniary distresses of the East India colonies, which were ascribed to their pertinacious conflicts with the natives, and the undue severity of their policy. Maximilian Joseph, king of BAVARIA, died of apoplexy, in October, 1825, and was succeeded by his son, Charles Louis. Between SWEDEN and Great Britain, a treaty was concluded in November, 1825, which provided for enforcement of penal laws against slave trade, conferring on each power the right of searching suspected vessels, and establishing tribunals at Sierra Leone and St. Bartholomew's, for the trial of vessels captured. None of the other northern powers underwent any political change of moment, except Russia. In RUSSIA, the death of Alexander, although it produced no change in the foreign policy of the empire, was the commencement of a series of domestic incidents, full of the deepest interest. After closing the diet of Warsaw, in June, 1825, the emperor commenced a tour through his extensive dominions. In November, being on a visit to the Crimea, he was taken sick, at Taganrog a town situated on the sea of Azoff. Symptoms of Alexander's declining state of health, had been apparent for some time; and a few days after he was taken ill, at Taganrog, his situation began to grow critical, and he expired the 1st of December. His physicians ascribed his disease to a bilious fever; but he himself, considered it an erysipelas driven in upon his stomach. The unexpected death of Alexander, in the vigor of manhood, for he was only forty-eight years of age, created much uneasiness throughout Europe. Not that the emperor's intellect was such as to command admiration abroad; nor his policy of a nature to acquire for him the unqualified respect of the wise. Alexander was a temperate and prudent, but not a great monarch. His influence in foreign affairs, depended on his mighty military power, and the weight of his vast empire, in the scale of nations. His principles of administration had not always been uniform, nor consistent. At one time, he was the friend of peace, abounding with expressions of general good will; although maintaining the greatest standing army in the world. At another, he was disposed to favor liberal ideas, and to extend the blessings of education to his subjects. But latterly, the development of his policy, as head of the holy alliance, tended to shake that esteem for his character, which his early misfortunes, when attack ed by Napoleon, had inspired; and which his subsequent successes confirmed. Still, when he died, anxiety was felt for the consequences. Would not his death be followed by some act on the part of his successor, to disturb the present course of events?-was the universal question, in Europe and America. But these speculations were abruptly terminated, by the singular events which transpired in the capital, on the news of his decease being received there. : Alexander left no children of course, in the order of succession, as prescribed by the testament of Paul, which was regarded as a fundamental law of the empire, the imperial crown would descend to his elder brother, the grand duke Constantine, who was in Warsaw at this period. Intelligence of Alexander's death, was sent from Taganrog to St. Petersburg, by express; and immediately communicated to the grand duke Nicholas, Alexander's second brother. was generally believed, that Constantine had, at the instance of Alexander, renounced his right of succession, in favor of Nicholas. Nevertheless, Nicholas immediately assembled the palace guards, and, after taking himself the oath of allegiance, to Constantine, caused it to be administered to the guards, and the great officers of the army. These acts were done with It the advice, and approbation, of the empress mother. Scarcely had Nicholas discharged this duty, when he was apprised by the senate, that the late emperor had deposited in their hands, in October, 1823, a letter under his seal, with a direction upon it, in his own handwriting, to open the packet, immediately on his decease, and before proceeding in any other business. This packet contained a letter of Constantine's, dated January 14, 1822, addressed to Alexander, by virtue of which, he renounced the succession to the throne, belonging to him, by right of primogeniture; and a manifesto, bearing the signature of Alexander, dated August 16th, 1823, ratifying Constantine's renunciation, and declaring Nicholas to be his successor, in the empire. Documents of the same tenor, were deposited also, with the directing senate, and the holy synod, and in the cathedral church of the Ascension, at Moscow. Nevertheless, Nicholas refused to abide by an abdication, which, when it took place, was not proclaimed publicly, and had not received the force of law, as irrevocable. Accordingly, the senate took, and subscribed, the oath of allegiance to Constantine, caused him to be proclaimed, by ukase; and despatched orders to every department of the empire, to have the |