1 by formidable accessions of strength received from France and England, and by a great victory gained by Gustavus over Tilly in the vicinity of Leipsic.' (Sept. 7th, 1631.) Gustavus now rapidly traversed Germany from the Elbe to the Rhine, pursuing his victo rious career to the borders of Switzerland: all northern and western Germany, together with Bohemia, were in the hands of the Protestants; and early in the following year Tilly himself was slain on the banks of the river Lech, a southern tributary of the Danube, in Bavaria. 10. Ferdinand now saw no alternative, in his sinking fortunes, but to call the great and proud Wallenstein from retirement. His res toration at once gave a new direction to the war. He quickly seized Prague, and restored Bohemia to his sovereign; and Gustavus was now obliged to retire within the walls of Nuremberg2 until he could rally his troops, which were scattered over Germany. After a tedious blockade of Nuremberg, in which both parties lost thirty thousand soldiers by famine and the sword, Wallenstein made a sudden movement towards Dresden; but the advance of Gustavus thwarted his plans and brought on that fatal action in which the Swedish hero lost his life. On the 16th of November, 1632, the two armies met at Lutzen; but scarcely had the battle commenced when Gustavus, throwing himself before the enemy's ranks, fell pierced by two balls. After a desperate engagement the Protestants triumphed; but the glory of their victory was dearly bought by the death of their leader. 1. Leipsic is a celebrated commercial city of the kingdom of Saxony, sixty miles north-west from Dresden. It is a manufacturing town of considerable importance, and is the greatest book emporium in the world. In Oct. 1813, Leipsic was the scene of a most tremendous tonflict between Napoleon and the allies, in which the French, greatly inferior in numbers, were repulsed with a heavy loss. (Map No. XVII.) 2. Nuremberg is a city of Bavaria, ninety-three miles north-west from Munich. It is surrounded by feudal walls and turrets, and these are inclosed by a ditch one hundred feet wide and fifty feet deep, lined throughout with masonry. Nuremberg is celebrated in the history of the Reformation, having early embraced its doctrines. (Map No. XVII.) 3. Dresden, the capital of the kingdom of Saxony, is situated on the Elbe, one hundred miles south-east from Berlin, and two hundred and thirty north-west from Vienna. Population mostly Protestant. It has a great number of literary and scientific institutions, and establishments devoted to education. Dresden and its environs have been the scene of some of the most important conflicts in modern warfare, particularly on the 26th and 27th of August, 1813, when Napoleon defeated the allies under its walls. (Map No. XVII.) 4. Lutzen is a small town of Prussian Saxony, twelve miles south-west from Leipsic. It would be unworthy of notice were it not that. its environs have been the scene of two of the most memorable conflicts of modern times,-the first, which occurred Nov. 16th, 1632, and in which the Swedish monarch Gustavus Adolphus fell; and the second, which took place on nearly the same ground, May 2d, 1813, and in which tho French, under Napoleon, defeated the allies, who were encouraged by the presence of the emperor Alexander and the king of Prussia. (Map No. XVII.) IV. FRENCH 11. Thus terminated the Swedish period of the "Thirty years' war;" for although the Swedes still determined to support the Protestant cause in Germany, the animating spirit of the war had fled, and they were unable, alone, to accomplish anything effectual. A little more than a year after the fall of Gustavus, Wallenstein, being accused of treason to his master and the Catholic cause, was assassinated by the command of the emperor Ferdinand. (Feb. 1634.) We come now to what has been called the French period, embracing the closing scenes of this war. 12. The French minister, Richelieu, had long observed, with se-, cret satisfaction, the misfortunes of the house of Austria, and of the German empire generally; and now he offered the aid of France to the Swedes and the German Protestants, with Holland and the duke of Savoy as allies, on the condition of extending the French frontier over a portion of the German territory; and thus the persecutor of the Huguenots was leagued with the Protestant powers of Europe against its Roman Catholic princes;-"a clear proof," says a writer of French history, "that his principles were politic, not bigoted." In a short time French armies were sent into Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands; and from this moment the provinces along the Rhine became the chief seat of the war, being pillaged and devastated as those along the Oder, Elbe, and Weser, had been previously. 13. From the moment of the active interference of France, the power of the German imperialists declined; and the remainder of this "Thirty years' war," which was marked by an unusual degree of ferocity on both sides, presents a continuation of gloomy and disheartening scenes, in which Richelieu had the advantage, not from military but diplomatic superiority. Ferdinand died in the year 1637, without living to witness the termination of the civil and domestic war in which he had been engaged from the commencement of his reign. The French monarch Louis XIII., and his minister Richelieu, the great fomentors and leaders of the war, died in 1642, after which the negotiations for peace, which had been begun as early as 1636, were the more easily concluded; and in October 1648, the treaty of Westphalia' closed the sad scene of the long and sanguinary 1. Westphalia is a province embracing all the northern portion of the Prussian dominions west of the Weser The "peace of Westphalia" was concluded in 1648, at Munster and Osnaburg,-both then in Westphalia, but the latter now in Hanover. In 1641 preliminaries were agreed upon at Hamburg: in 1644 actual negotiations were commenced at Osnaburg, between the ambassadors of Austria, the German empire, and Sweden; and at Munster between those of the emperor, France, Spain, and other powers; but the articles adopted in both formed one "Thirty years' war." Peace found the German States in a sadlydepressed condition; the scene that was everywhere presented was a wide waste of ruin; and two-thirds of the population had perished, although not so much by the sword as by contagion, plague, famine, and the other attendant horrors that follow in the train of war. 14. The chief articles of the treaty of Westphalia were, 1st, the confirmation of the religious peace of Passau, and the consequent establishment of the independence of the Protestant German powers: 2d, the dismemberment of many of the German States for the purpose of indemnifying others for their losses; and the sanction of the complete sovereignty of each of the German States within its own territory: 3d, the extension of the eastern limits of France: 4th, the grant, to Sweden, of a considerable territory on the Baltic coast, together with a subsidy of five millions of dollars; and 5th, the acknowledgment of the independence of the Netherlands by Spain, and of the Swiss cantons by the German empire. II. ENGLISH HISTORY-THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION.-While the "Thirty years' war" was progressing on the continent, leading to the final triumph of religious liberty there, England was convulsed by domestic dissensions, which eventually led to a civil war, and the temporary overthrow of the monarchy. On the death of Elizabeth in 1603, James VI. of Scotland, the son of the unfortunate Mary, succeeded to the throne of England, with the title of James I. England and Scotland were thus united under one sovereign; and henceforth the two countries received the common designation of "Great Britain.” 1. UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. II. JAMES I. 2. The character of James, the first English monarch of the Stuart family, was not calculated to win the affections of his subjects. He was as arbitrary as his predecessors of the Tudor race; and, although excelling in the learning of the times, he was signally deficient in all those noble qualities of a sovereign which command respect and enforce obedience. His imprudence in surrounding himself with Scotch favorites irritated the English: the Scotch saw with no greater satisfaction his attempts to subject them to the worship of the English church: some disappointed Roman Catholics formed a conspiracy, which was fortunately detected, to destroy by gunpowder the king and assembled parliament; and the treaty. After terms had been settled between the parties at Osnaburg, the ministers repaired * to Munster, where the final treaty was concluded, Oct. 24th, 1648. (Map No. XVIL) puritans, aiming at farther reforms in the church and in the state, were committed to prison for even petitioning for some changes, not in the least inconsistent with the established hierarchy. James strenuously maintained the "Divine right of kings;" and his entire reign was a continued struggle of the house of commons to restore, and to fortify, their own liberties, and those of the people. III. 3. In 1625 James was succeeded on the throne by his son Charles I., then in the twenty-fifth of his year Had Charles age. CHARLES I lived a hundred years earlier, or had not the reformatory spirit of the age introduced great and important changes in the minds of men on the subject of the royal prerogative and the liberties of the people, he might have reigned with great popularity; for his stern and serious deportment, his disinclination to all licentiousness, and a deep regard for religion, were highly suitable to the character of the English people at this period; but it was the misfortune of Charles to be destitate of that political prudence which should have taught him to yield to the necessities of the times. 4. The accession of Charles was immediately followed by difficulties with his parliament, which had no confidence in the king, and which he suddenly dissolved, because it refused to vote the supplies demanded by him, and showed an inclination to impeach his favorite minister Buckingham. The second parliament proceeded with the impeachment of the minister, (1626,) and the king retaliated by imprisoning two members of the house on the charge of "words spoken by them in derogation of his majesty's honor;" but the exasperation of the Commons soon obtained their release. The third parliament, called in 1628, waiving all minor contests, demanded the king's sanċtion to a "Petition of Right," which set forth the rights of the Eng lish people as guaranteed to them by the Great Charter, and by various laws and statutes of the realm. Charles, after many evasions, reluctantly signed the Petition; but in a few months he flagrantly violated the obligations it had imposed upon him, and in a fit of indignation dissolved parliament, resolving never again to call another. (1629-39.) 5. During an interval of about ten years, and until the assembling of another parliament, no opposition, except such as public opinion interposed, was made to the full enjoyment of the unrestrained prerogatives of the king. Monopolies were now revived to a ruinous extent, and the benefits of them were sold to the highest bidder; illegal duties were sustained by servile judges; unheard of fines were imposed; and no expedient was omitted that might tend to bring money into the royal treasury, and thus enable the king to rule Without the aid of parliament. The English clergy, at the head of whom was archbishop Laud, one of the chief advisers of the king, usurped, by degrees, the civil powers of government; and the puritans were so rigorously persecuted that great numbers of them sought an asylum in America. In 1637 the attempts of Charles to introduce the Episcopal form of worship into Scotland, drove the Scotch presbyterians to open rebellion; and a covenant to defend the religion, the laws, and the liberties of their country against every danger, was immediately framed and subscribed IV. SCOTCH by them. The covenanters, having received arms and money from the French minister Richelieu, marched into England; but the English army refused to fight against their brethren, when the king, finding himself beset with difficulties on every side, was obliged to place himself at the discretion of a fourth parliament. (April 1640.) This parliament, not fully complying with the king's wishes, was abruptly dissolved after a month's session; but public opinion soon compelled the king to summon another, which assembled in November of the same year. REBELLION. V. THE LIAMENT. 6. The new parliament, called the Long Parliament, from the extraordinary length of its session, first applied itself diligently to the correction of abuses and a redress of griev- LONG PARances. Future parliaments were declared to be triennial; many of the recent acts for taxing the peoplo were declared illegal, and monopolies of every kind were abolished-the king yielding to all the demands that were made upon him. Not satisfied with these concessions, the commons impeached the earl of Strafford, the king's first minister, and favorite general, accusing him of exercising pow ers beyond what the crown had ever lawfully enjoyed, and of a systematic hostility to the fundamental laws and constitution of the realm. By the unconstitutional expedient of a bill of attainder, Strafford was declared guilty; and the king had the weakness to sign his condemnation. (1641.) Archbishop Laud was brought to trial and executed four years later. The severity of the punishment of Strafford, and the magnanimity displayed by him on his trial, have half redeemed his forfeit-fame, and misled a generous posterity; but he died justly, although the means taken to accomplish his condemnation, by a departure from the ordinary course of judicial proceed. ings, established a precedent dangerous to civil liberty. |