A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.--It is remarkable that almost exactly a century
before the present world war, Europe was engaged in a somewhat similar
struggle to prevent an ambitious French general, Napoleon Bonaparte,
from becoming the ruler of all that continent, and of America as well.
He had conquered or intimidated nearly all the states of
Europe--Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, etc.--except Great Britain. He
once planned a great settlement on the Mississippi River, and so alarmed
President Jefferson that the latter said the United States might be
compelled to "marry themselves to the British fleet and nation." But
England's navy kept control of the seas; Napoleon's colony in North
America was never founded; and at last the peoples of Europe rose
against their conqueror, and in the battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815,
finally overthrew him.

EUROPE SINCE 1815.--After the downfall of Napoleon the rulers of
Europe met in conference at Vienna and sought to restore conditions as
they had been before the war. They were particularly anxious that the
great masses of the people in their several nations should continue to
respect what was termed "the divine right of kings to rule over their
subjects." They did not, except in Great Britain, believe in
representative governments. They feared free speech and independent
newspapers and liberal educational institutions. They hated all kinds of
popular movements by which the inhabitants of any country might throw
off the monarch's yoke and secure a share in their own government. For
over thirty years the "Holy Allies,"--the name applied to the monarchs
of Austria, Prussia, and Russia,--succeeded tolerably well in keeping
the peoples in subjection. But they had many difficulties to face, and
after 1848 their policy was largely given up.

DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENTS.--During the nineteenth century the people of