ligious; but he had rather vague ideas as to how his plans were to be
carried out. Thus it is characteristic that when his successor desired
to have a solemn coronation as King of Poland it was found that Alexander
had not foreseen the difficulties which were met with in trying to
arrange for the coronation of a Sovereign of the Greek Church as King of
a Roman Catholic State. The much-dreaded but very misty Holy Alliance
was one of the few fruits of Alexander's visions. His mind is described
as passing through a regular series of stages with each influence under
which he acted. He ended his life, tired out, disillusioned, "deceived
in everything, weighed down with regret;" obliged to crush the very hopes
of his people he had encouraged, dying in 1825 at Taganrog, leaving his
new Polish Kingdom to be wiped out by-his successors.

The minor sovereigns require little mention. They retained any titles
they had received from Napoleon, while they exulted, at being free from
his heavy hand and sharp superintendence. Each got a share, small or
great, of the spoil except the poor King of Denmark, who, being assured
by Alexander on his departure that he carried away all hearts, answered,
"Yes, but not any souls."

The reintroduction of much that was bad in the old system (one country
even going so far as to re-establish torture), the steady attack on
liberty and on all liberal ideas, Wurtemberg being practically the only
State which grumbled at the tightening of the reins so dear to
Metternich,--all formed a fitting commentary on the proclamations by
which the Sovereigns had hounded on their people against the man they
represented as the one obstacle to the freedom and peace of Europe.
In gloom and disenchantment the nations sat down to lick their wounds:
The contempt shown by the monarchs for everything but the right of
conquest, the manner in which they treated the lands won from Napoleon as
a gigantic "pool" which was to be shared amongst them, so many souls to
each; their total failure to fulfil their promises to their subjects of
granting liberty,--all these slowly bore their fruits in after years, and
their effects are not even yet exhausted. The right of a sovereign to
hold his lands was now, by the public law of Europe, to be decided by his
strength, The rights of the people were treated as not existing. Truly,
as our most gifted poetess has sung--

"The Kings crept out--the peoples sat at home,
And findi