Silvio Pellico]

The victory of absolutism in Italy was complete. Courts-martial sat all
over Italy. Morelli, the officer who had led out the so-called sacred band
of Nola, was shot. His followers were expressly excluded from all amnesty
acts. An attempted insurrection in Sicily cost the conspirators their
lives. Hundreds of persons were cast into prison, or were marched off to
distant fortresses in Austria. It was at this time that Silvio Pellico, the
author of the famous "Prison Records," was sent to the dungeon of
Spielberg. Then began that long stream of fugitives to England and America.

[Sidenote: Revolt in Brazil]

[Sidenote: Mexican independence]

[Sidenote: San Martin's Campaign]

The Holy Alliance, sitting at Leibach, thought the time was ripe to
pronounce its anathema against all peoples seeking their liberties
elsewhere than in the grace of their legitimate sovereigns. Yet the spirit
of revolt was abroad, and its flames continued to flicker up at widely
separated points. On February 26, the Portuguese troops in Brazil rose in
revolt. The king, still residing at Rio Janeiro, was compelled to appoint a
new Ministry pledged to give to both Portugal and Brazil a new
representative system. In Mexico, General Iturbide, at the same time,
issued a pronunciamiento, containing his so-called "Plan of Iguala," which
proposed independence for Mexico under a Spanish Bourbon prince. Several
rebel leaders acquiesced in this, and forced the Spanish viceroy to resign.
Juan O'Donoju became acting-viceroy. He signed a treaty with Iturbide
virtually accepting the plan. The people of Buenos Ayres profited by the
military troubles in Brazil to throw in their lot with that of the
Argentine Republic. Their popular idol, San Martin, meanwhile was leading
his victorious troops from Chile into Peru. Lima, one of the greatest
Spanish strongholds in South America, was threatened by the revolutionists.

[Sidenote: War in Annam]

[Sidenote: Taouk-Wang]

At the other end of the earth, the new force of national feeling showed
itself in popular uprisings. In distant Annam the death of Emperor
Gia-Long, followed by a bloody struggle for the succession between his
sons, incited the people to a national demonstration against the
encroachments of the French in Tonquin. In China the new Emperor Taouk-Wang
was enthroned. He was the first to throw his whole personal influence
against the evils of the opium trade inflicted upon China by Engl