of his father. The young emperor, immediately on his accession, undertook a variety of internal improvements. He founded four universities, and reorganized that of Wilna; he decreed that the number of gymnasias (colleges preparatory to the universities) should be 204, besides 2000 elementary public schools. He abolished judicial torture, liberated a great number of persons unjustly condemned, gave liberty to the press, introduced a greater amount of publicity into the proceedings of government, and encouraged arts and manufactures. He made peace with England, but sought to preserve the friendship of Napoleon. Meantime, he did not deviate from the career of stealthy aggrandizement marked out by his ancestors. David, the king of Georgia, was induced by subtle diplomacy to cede his dominions to Russia. A rupture with France next followed, and Alexander formed a coalition with England, Austria, and Sweden. The decisive battle of Austerlitz broke up the alliance. Austria submitted, and Alexander, after some insincere negotiation, formed a fresh coalition with Prussia and Sweden. This proving also unfortunate, Alexander entered into a treaty with Napoleon, to whose resentment he abandoned his former ally, the king of Prussia, in violation of the most solemn engagements, and even accepted one of the provinces of which the latter was deprived. The treaty embraced also a number of secret articles directed chiefly against England. Alexander now appeared as an open supporter of the policy of Napoleon, and excluded all articles of English manufacture from his dominions. The bombardment of Copenhagen, and the seizure of the Danish fleet, he publicly denounced as a piratical expedition, whilst he privately congratulated the British government on its success. The king of Sweden having refused to exclude British manufactures from his dominions, war was proclaimed against him by Alexander, who, after a short campaign, and a liberal use of bribery, succeeded in stripping him of the province of Finland. He was equally successful in his encroachments upon the Turkish empire and upon Persia. Austria having resumed the struggle against France, Alexander, so far from assisting her, openly sided with Napoleon. The favour shown by the latter to Poland, however, led anew to a rupture between the two emperors. The well-known Russian campaign of Napoleon now ensued. On the disastrous close of this expedition, Alexander, who had previously allowed the German sovereigns to weaken themselves by struggling single-handed against the great emperor, now embraced the favourable moment to adopt a more generous policy, and by coming forward as the liberator of Europe, to secure for himself an unprecedented influence. Prussia and Sweden, forgetful of the past, acceded to his proposals. Austria and some of the minor German states joined the alliance, and in the great battle of Leipzig, the supremacy of Napoleon received its death-blow. During the allied occupation of Paris, Alexander displayed remarkable moderation. About this time he visited England, where the insinuating graces of his deportment, together with the part he had played in the overthrow of Napoleon, gained for him a great popularity At the congress of Vienna, which now met to arrange the affairs of Europe, Alexander laid aside his recent moderation. He advocated the entire suppression of the kingdom of Saxony, and succeeded in obtaining for himself the grand duchy of Warsaw. This territory, together with some other parts of Poland, were accordingly erected into a kingdom, of which Alexander was declared sovereign, and to which he granted a "paper" constitution. He soon after, along with the emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia, entered into an agreement called the "Holy Alliance," which, when stripped of its veil of religion and philanthropy, was simply a confederacy to repress all political reforms. This league soon displayed its real nature, by the steps taken under its sanction to repress the constitutional movements in Naples, Sardinia, and Spain. Even the Greek insurrection found no favour in the eyes of Alexander, so great was his dread of revolutionary principles. He reintroduced the censorship both in Russia and in the kingdom of Poland. The administration of this latter territory proved unsuccessful. The diet claimed a greater share of power than the autocrat was willing to grant, and was accordingly dismissed. Symptoms of an insurrection appeared, and several students of the university of Wilna were thrown into prison. From this time forward, Poland was subjected to an unmitigated despotism. The latter years of Alexander's life were clouded with melancholy, arising in part from the mystical religious views which he had imbibed from Madame Krudener, in part from the conflicting and inconsistent features of his character, and possibly also from fear of a revolutionary movement in his own dominions. Many military men of Russia, it must be observed, had, during the occupation of France, imbibed the ideas of Western Europe, and eagerly wished for an alteration of the government. In September, 1825, Alexander left his capital and repaired to the Crimea. At Taganrog he was attacked with an intermittent fever, which, from neglect, became dangerous. He died 1st of December, 1825, leaving the throne to his brother Nicholas.—J. W. S.
* ALEXANDER II., surnamed Nicolaewitch, the present czar of Russia, was born on the 29th of April, 1818. He is the eldest son of the late Emperor Nicholas, by his wife Alexandra Veodorowna—a name which, according to custom, she substituted for her original appellation, Frederica Louisa Charlotte Wilhelmina, on being admitted, at the period of her marriage, into the Greek communion. She is the sister of the reigning Prussian monarch, Frederick William IV.—a circumstance which goes far to explain the reluctance of the Prussian government to join the Western alliance in the recent war against the Russian power. Alexander was educated from his earliest infancy as the heir-expectant of a great military monarchy; but it is said that he showed little relish for the arts of war; that he left to his more ambitious brother the concerns of the army; and that he thereby compromised his chances of the throne. Like many princes of the remarkable dynasty of which he is the present chief, he has sought a German alliance in marriage. His choice was one of preference and affection, rather than of political expediency. On the 28th of April, 1841, he married the Princess Maximilienne—now Marie Alexandrowna—the daughter of Louis II., the grand-duke of Hesse. When on March 2nd, 1855, his father, the Czar Nicholas died, worn down by the disasters of the war with England and France, and consumed by the personal toil which his overweening ambition had imposed on him, Alexander succeeded to the throne, and his coronation has since been celebrated at the Kremlin in Moscow with unexampled and barbaric magnificence. Though not deficient in talent and intelligence, his views as crown prince were known to be pacific, and Europe looked to him for a change of policy on the part of Russia when he became emperor. It was expected that he would pause in the attempt to enlarge the frontiers of the empire, and apply himself rather to measures of internal improvement. These tendencies did not at once develop themselves. On succeeding to the imperial sceptre, he gratified the warlike portion of his subjects by issuing a strong proclamation, in which he declared his intention of adhering to the policy of his predecessor. But when the united armament, naval and military, of England, France, Turkey, and Sardinia, had taken Kertch and Yenikale,—when on the 8th September, 1855, the great arsenal of Sebastopol fell,—when the commercial port of Odessa was seen to be at the mercy of the allies,—when Kinburn was captured and Cherson and Nicolaieff menaced,—and when it was known that the next campaign would open with a combined attack on Sweaborg and Cronstadt, within a few miles of his northern capital, and that Sweden was ready to reassert her ancient and just claim on Finland, he gladly accepted terms of peace. To this he was additionally urged by the accumulating distresses of his subjects, and the growing unpopularity of the war. Like his uncle, Alexander, he is said to be favourably disposed to a close alliance with the family of Napoleon, and to be ready to share with the present emperor of France the supremacy in continental Europe. Perhaps, however, in this policy he only displays the accustomed finesse of the house of Romanoff, and will be glad to avenge the fall of Sebastopol and the loss of his navy in the waters of the Euxine whenever circumstances will permit. Apparently intent now on establishing a large mercantile marine, and in promoting a network of railroads throughout his dominions from Abo to Odessa, and from the Volga to the Danube, it is said that he is really bent on securing steam-ships of war, and the means of easily transporting his numberless troops to any point of his empire which may be menaced, or which supplies a good base for operations against a weak neighbour. We write in the year 1857. The future alone can solve and explain the policy of the new emperor. His consort has borne him four sons and one daughter. Of these, the eldest son, Nicholas Alexandrowitch, the crown prince and heir to the throne, was born on the 20th of September, 1843.—T. J.
