198

UNION OF SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND.

Ch. 17 That the succession to the United Kingdom should remain A. D. to the Princess Sophia, Duchess Dowager of Hanover, and the 1702 heirs of her body, being Protestants; and that all Papists, and persons marrying Papists, should be excluded from, and be for ever incapable of inheriting, the crown of Great Britain;

to 1714.

Conditions

That the whole people of Great Britain should be represented by one Parliament, in which sixteen peers and forty-five commoners, chosen for Scotland, should sit and vote;

That the subjects of the United Kingdom should enjoy an of the entire freedom and intercourse of trade and navigation, and Union. reciprocal communication of all other rights, privileges, and advantages belonging to the subjects of their kingdom;

Effects

of it.

That the laws, in regard to public rights and civil government, should be the same in both countries, but that no alteration should be made in the laws respecting private rights, unless for the evident utility of subjects residing in Scotland;

That the Court of Session, and all other courts of judicature in Scotland, should remain as before the union, subject, however, to such regulations as may be made by the Parliament of Great Britain.

Beside these permanent regulations, a sum of three hundred and ninety-eight thousand pounds was granted to Scotland, as an equivalent to the augmentation of the customs and excise.

By this treaty the Scotch became identified with the English in interest. If they lost in independence, they gained security and peace, and rapidly rose in wealth and consequence. The advantage was mutual.

Of the illustrious men who adorned the literature of England in this brilliant age, Addison, Swift, Bolingbroke, Bentley, Warburton, Arbuthnot, Gay, Pope, Tickell, Halifax, Parnell, Rowe, Prior, Congreve, Steel, and Berkeley, were the most distinguished. Dryden belonged to a preceding period. The wits of Queen Anne's reign were political writers as well as poets, and their services were sought for and paid by reigu. the great statesmen of the times. Of these, two only can here be noticed,-Addison and Swift.

Wits of

Queen
Anne's

Addison was born in 1672.

WITS OF QUEEN ANNE'S REIGN.

199

A. D.

1702

to

Joseph

He had distinguished himself at Oxford, and was a fellow of Ch.17 Magdalen College. His early verses attracted the notice of Dryden, then the great autocrat of letters, and the oracle of the literary clubs. At the age of twenty-seven, he was provided with a pension from the Whig Government, and set out 1714. on his travels. He was afterwards made secretary to Lord Halifax, and elected a member of the House of Commons, Addibut was never able to make a speech. He however made son. up for his failure as an orator by his power as a writer. He was also charming in conversation, and his society was everywhere cultivated by statesmen and scholars. In 1708 he became secretary for Ireland, and, while in Dublin, wrote those delightful papers on which his fame chiefly rests. Next to Addison in fame, and superior in genius, was Swift, Dean born in Ireland in 1677, educated at Dublin, and patronized by Sir William Temple. He was very useful to his party by his political writings. He was a great master of venomous satire, sparing neither friends nor enemies. He was ambitious, misanthropic, and selfish. His treatment of women was disgraceful and heartless in the extreme. But he was witty and learned. He was never known to laugh himself, yet he convulsed the circles into which he was thrown. His distinguishing power, however, was unscrupulous sarcasm.

Swift.

of Anne.

With these brief notices we must conclude our remarks on this period. In 1714, soon after the conclusion of the Death treaty of Utrecht, the Queen died, and the Elector of Hanover ascended the throne, under the title of George the First. To his reign we shall devote a separate chapter.

REFERENCES.-Lord Mahon's "History of England," which commences with the peace of Utrecht, is one of the most useful and interesting works which have lately appeared; Smollett's continuation of Hume should be consulted; Hallam should be read in reference to all constitutional questions; Coxe's "Life of Marlborough" throws great light on the period, and is very valuable. See, also, Bolingbroke's "Letters," and the Duke of Berwick's "Memoirs."

200

EARLY HISTORY OF RUSSIA

A. D.

CHAPTER XVIII.

RUSSIA AND SWEDEN UNDER PETER THE GREAT AND

CHARLES XII.

Ch. 18 WHILE Louis XIV. was prosecuting his schemes of aggrandizement, and William III. was opposing those schemes; while 1682. Villeroy, Villars, Marlborough, and Eugene were contending, at the head of great armies, for their respective masters, a new power was arising at the north, destined soon to become prominent among the great empires of the world.

Russia:

its Scla

ter.

The political importance of Russia was not appreciated at vonic the close of the seventeenth century, nor, indeed, until the charac- great resources of the country were brought to the view of Europe by the extraordinary genius of Peter the Great. Its history, before the reign of this distinguished prince, has not excited much interest, and is not particularly eventful or important. The Russians are descended from the ancient Sclavonic race, supposed to be much inferior to the Germanic or Teutonic tribes, to whom most of the civilized nations of Europe trace their origin.

mir.

The first great event in Russian history is the nominal conversion of a powerful king to Christianity, in the tenth Vladi- century, named Vladimir, whose reign was a mixture of cruelty, licentiousness, and heroism. Seeing the necessity of some generally recognized religion, he sent ten of his most distinguished men into all the various countries then known, to examine their religious systems. Being semi-barbarians, they were disposed to recommend that form which had the most imposing ceremonial, and appealed most forcibly to the

THE TARTAR CONQUEST.

201

sion to

senses. The commissioners came to Mecca, but soon left Ch. 18 with contempt, since Mohammedanism then made too great A. D. demands upon the powers of self-control, and prohibited the 1682. use of many things to which the barbarians were attached. They were no better pleased with the Manichean philosophy, Conver which then extensively prevailed in the East; for this involved Christi. the settlement of abstract ideas, for which barbarians had no anity. relish. They disliked Roman Catholicism, on account of the arrogant claims of the Pope. Judaism was spurned, because it had no country, and its professors were scattered over the face of the earth. But the lofty minarets of St. Sophia, and the extravagant magnificence of the Greek worship, filled the commissioners with admiration; and they easily induced Vladimir to adopt the forms of the Greek Church, which has ever since been the established religion of Russia. But Christianity, in this corrupted form, failed to destroy, and scarcely alleviated, the traits of barbarous life. Old superstitions and vices prevailed; nor were the Russian territories on an equality with the Gothic kingdoms of Europe, in manners, arts, learning, laws, or piety.

When Genghis Khan, with his Tartar hordes, overran Early the world, Russia was subdued, and Tartar princes took pos-of history session of the throne of the ancient czars. But the Russian Russia. princes, in the thirteenth century, recovered their ancient power. Alexander Nevsky performed exploits of great brilliancy, gained important victories over Danes, Swedes, Lithuanians, and Teutonic knights, and greatly enlarged the boundaries of his kingdom. In the fourteenth century, Moscow became a powerful city, to which was transferred the seat of government, which before was Novgorod. Under the successor of Ivan Kalita, the manners, laws, and institutions of the Russians became fixed, and the absolute power of the czars was established.

III.

Under Ivan III., who ascended the Muscovite throne in Ivan 1462, the Tartar rule was abolished, and the various provinces and principalities of which Russia was composed, were

202

A. D.

ACCESSION OF PETER THE GREAT.

Ch. 18 brought under a central government. The Kremlin, with its mighty towers and imposing minarets, now arose in all the 1682. grandeur of Eastern art and barbaric strength. The mines of the country were worked, the roads cleared of banditti, and a code of laws established. The veil which concealed

Accession of

Peter.

His

Russia from the rest of Europe was rent. An army of three hundred thousand men was enlisted, Siberia was discovered, the printing press introduced, and civilization commenced. But the Czar was, nevertheless, a brutal tyrant and an abandoned libertine. Most of his successors were disgraced by every crime which degrades humanity; and with few exceptions, the whole population remained in rudeness and barbarism, superstition and ignorance.

Such was Russia, when Peter, the son of Alexis Michaelovitz, ascended the throne, in 1682-a boy, ten years of age. He early exhibited great sagacity and talent, but was addicted to gross pleasures. These, however, did not enervate him, or prevent him from making considerable attainments. At this time, Sophia, a daughter of Alexis by a first marriage, was regent, and, jealous of his growing power, she attempted to secure his assassination. In this she failed, and the youthful sovereign reigned supreme in Moscow, at the age of seventeen.

No sooner did he assume the reins of empire, than his genius blazed forth with singular brilliancy, and the rapid development of his powers was a subject of universal wonder. Full of courage and energy, he found nothing too arduous for him to undertake; and he soon conceived the vast project of changing the whole system of his government, and reforming the manners of his subjects.

He first directed his attention to the art of war, and resolved genius. to increase the military strength of his empire. With the aid of Le Fort, a Swiss adventurer, and Gordon, a Scotch officer, he instituted, gradually, a standing army of twenty thousand men, officered, armed, and disciplined after the European model; cut off the long beards of the soldiers, took away their robes, and changed their Asiatic dress. He also studied