"Liberty in the Nineteenth Century" by Frederic May Holland. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.
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Frederic May Holland. Liberty in the Nineteenth Century
Liberty in the Nineteenth Century
Table of Contents
PREFACE
LIBERTY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER I. NAPOLEON AND HIS WORK
CHAPTER II. FRUITS OF PEACE
CHAPTER III. DEMOCRATS AND GARRISONIANS
CHAPTER IV. EMANCIPATION
CHAPTER V. EMERSON AND OTHER TRANSCENDENTALISTS
CHAPTER VI. PLATFORM VERSUS PULPIT
CHAPTER VII. THE EVOLUTIONISTS
APPENDIX: SUNDAY RECREATION
LIST OF DATES
1776. Declaration of American independence, July 4th
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Frederic May Holland
Published by Good Press, 2019
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Napoleon is the most famous of generals; but his greatness as a statesman would have been plainer if he had not undertaken so many showy enterprises which had little chance of success. He failed signally in founding a dynasty, in making France the greatest of manufacturers, and in giving her an invincible navy, though he might have gained the first of these objects by peace, and the last by free trade. He could not even leave to his successor the territory which had been conquered by the Revolution. Yet these were his dearest purposes, except the wild dream of humbling England. Was he the greatest of architects, every one of whose colossal structures fell under their own weight before they could be used? Greater is he who builds what lasts for ages.
Napoleon made the twenty years ending with 1815 more glorious than any later period, and much more wretched. Western Europe was afflicted by bloody wars, and impoverished by restrictions on commerce. If his reign had been peaceable, he might have deprived France much more completely of what liberty she had enjoyed under the Directory. Every despot, however enlightened and benevolent, must necessarily interfere so much with the liberty of his subjects as to hinder their making themselves happy. France and Germany lost nothing in freedom and gained much in prosperity by his defeat; for it gave the world many years of peace. What he brought of political and religious equality to Prussia, Western Germany, and Switzerland survived him; for it was part of his inheritance from the Revolution which he closed treacherously. France had received her legacy without his help; and she retained much of it in spite of his interference. His victories over hereditary monarchs were so suggestive that books about him are still prohibited in Russia; but no people lost much by his overthrow except the Italians.
