hilippe were over forever. If not good enough to help Russia
spoil Turkey, the Czar must be taught he was good enough to help England
prevent the spoliating scheme. France and England united their forces to
those of Turkey, and were joined by Sardinia. Russia was beaten in the
war, on almost all its scenes. The world ascribed the result to Napoleon
III. France carried off the honors of the war, and of spoil there was
none. The Peace of Paris, which terminated the contest, was the work of
Napoleon. He dictated its terms, forcing them less on his enemy than on
his allies.

As Russia's leadership of Europe had come from success in war, and had
been maintained by subsequent successes of the Russian armies,--in
Persia, in Turkey, in Poland, and elsewhere,--it followed that that
leadership was lost when the fortune of war changed, and those armies
were beaten on every occasion where they met the Allies. No military
country could stand up erect under such crushing blows as had been
delivered at the Alma, at Inkermann, at the Tchernaya, and at
Sebastopol, not to name lesser Allied successes, or to count the
victories of the Turks. Nicholas died in the course of the war, falling
only before the universal conqueror. His successor submitted to the
decision of the sword, and in fact performed an act of abdication
inferior only to that executed by Napoleon. France stepped into the
vacant leadership, and held it for ten years. Subsequent events
confirmed and strengthened the French hegemony. The Italian war, waged
by the Emperor in person, had lasted only about as many months as the
Russian war did years, and yet it had proved far more damaging to
Austria than the other had proved to Russia. The mere loss of territory
experienced by Austria, though not small, was the least of the adverse
results to her. Her whole Italian scheme was cut through and utterly
ruined; and it was well understood that the days of her rule over
Venetia were destined to be as few as they were evil. For what she then
did, France received Savoy and Nice, which formed by no means a great
price for her all but inestimable services,--services by no means to be
ascertained, if we would know their true value, by what was done in
1859. France created the Kingdom of Italy. After making the amplest
allowance for what was effected by Cavour, by Garibaldi, by Victor
Emanuel, and by the Italian people, it must be clear to every one that
nothing could have been effected to