exile of many young members of the first families, struck terror into
the Noblesse, and prepared the way for a period of repressive police
administration. Nicholas had none of the moral limpness and vacillating
character of his predecessor. His was one of those simple, vigorous,
tenacious, straightforward natures--more frequently to be met with
among the Teutonic than among the Slav races--whose conceptions are all
founded on a few deep-rooted, semi-instinctive convictions, and who are
utterly incapable of accommodating themselves with histrionic cleverness
to the changes of external circumstances. From his early youth he had
shown a strong liking for military discipline and a decided repugnance
to the humanitarianism and liberal principles then in fashion. With
"the rights of man," "the spirit of the age," and similar philosophical
abstractions his strong, domineering nature had no sympathy; and for
the vague, loud-sounding phrases of philosophic liberalism he had a most
profound contempt. "Attend to your military duties," he was wont to say
to his officers before his accession; "don't trouble your heads with
philosophy. I cannot bear philosophers!" The tragic event which formed
the prelude to his reign naturally confirmed and fortified his previous
convictions. The representatives of liberalism, who could talk so
eloquently about duty in the abstract, had, whilst wearing the uniform
of the Imperial Guard, openly disobeyed the repeated orders of their
superior officers and attempted to shake the allegiance of the troops
for the purpose of overthrowing the Imperial power! A man who was at
once soldier and autocrat, by nature as well as by position, could of
course admit no extenuating circumstances. The incident stereotyped his
character for life, and made him the sworn enemy of liberalism and
the fanatical defender of autocracy, not only in his own country, but
throughout Europe. In European politics he saw two forces struggling
for mastery--monarchy and democracy, which were in his opinion identical
with order and anarchy; and he was always ready to assist his brother
sovereigns in putting down democratic movements. In his own Empire he
endeavoured by every means in his power to prevent the introduction
of the dangerous ideas. For this purpose a stringent intellectual
quarantine was established on the western frontier. All foreign books
and newspapers, except those of the most harmless kind, were rigorously
excluded. Na