182fi.] 



Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 



103 



AI.EXANT>F.n, EMTEROR OF UU!-SIA. 



Dec. 1. — At Tafcanrop, on tlie sea of 

 Azoph, liis Imperial Majesty Alexander, 

 Emperor of all the llussias. Tlie accounts 

 respecting the sudden demise of tliis sove- 

 reign were, up to the time of preparing this 

 sheet for the i)ress, deficient in detail and 

 contradictory in substance ; some rcjire- 

 senting him to have died on tlie 1st, and 

 others on the 3d of December; some attri- 

 buting his death to a general decay of na- 

 ture — some to an attack of erysipelas — some 

 to putrid fever— and others to assassina- 

 tion. At present all that we can offer is a 

 brief record of (latcs and facts. Alexander, 

 the deceased emi)eror, was the eldest son 

 of Paid I., i)y his second wife, Soiiiiia D«)- 

 rothea Augusta Maria Fu'dorowna, of Wir- 

 tembcrg Stutgard. He was born on the 

 22d of Decendjcr 1777; and bis edui'ation 

 was conducted by the celebrated M. de In 

 Ilarpe, under the immediate su])erinten- 

 dence of the Empress Catherine. He mar- 

 ried the Princess of Hesse Baden, Eliza- 

 beth Alexiowna, on the 9th of October 

 1793. He succeeded to tlie throne on the 

 death of his father, by assassination, in the 

 year 1801; was proclaimed on the '21th of 

 March, and crowned at Moscow on the 

 27th of the following September, On liis 

 accession to the throne, be particularly dis- 

 tinguished himsfelf by liberating criminals 

 and debtors, pardoning deserters, lowering 

 taxes, abolishing the censorship of the 

 pr<;ss, and various other popular acts. His 

 earliest care, also, was to ])ut an end to the 

 war which then existed between Russia and 

 England. For some time he jneservcd 

 peace both with England and France ; and 

 he endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to 

 act as mediator between those powers after 

 the termination of the short peace of 

 Amiens. In the year 1804, the murder 

 (or, as some term it, the military execu- 

 tion) of the Duke d'Enghien by Buona- 

 parte, excited the indignation of the empe- 

 ror, who, after presenting an energetic re- 

 monstrance by his ambassador, against a 

 " violation of the law of nations, as arbi- 

 trary as it was public," withdrew his mi- 

 nister from Paris; and, in 1805, he entered 

 into a treaty of alliance, offensive and de- 

 fensive, with England, Austria, and Swe- 

 den, to check the devastating extension of 

 Frencli dominion. Acting upon this treaty, 

 the emperor hastened to lead his troops 

 into Austria, where, however, he arrived 

 only in time to see the capital fall into the 

 hands of the French. He then retreated, 

 with the remnant of the Austrian army, to 

 Berlin, where he resolved to await the ar- 

 rival of the French army ; but, on the de- 

 feat of the Austrians at the battle of Auster- 

 litz, he returned to St. Petersburg, leaving 

 the greater part of liis forces on the fron- 

 tiers of Germany. In 1806, when called 

 upon by the court of Berlin, notwithstand- 

 ing Prussia had formerly declined joining in 



tlie general league, to which Alexander 

 was a partisan, he again took up arms in 

 bdialf of that jiower — but again was only 

 in time to witness the triumph of Buona- 

 jiarte. In the spring of 1807, the emperor 

 joined his army, ^^llic^l bad retreated be- 

 yond the Vistula, and withstood the French 

 with great bravery ; but, having been dc- 

 fc^ited in the battle of Friedland, he re- 

 treated beyond the Nienicn, where, on an 

 interview with Buonaparte, lie agreed to 

 the preliminaries of the peace signed at 

 Tilsit on the Htli of July 1807. In coiise- 

 (|uence, as it is believed, of a secret arti- 

 cle in that treaty, he, n))on the time of 

 our attack upon Denmark, declared war 

 against ICngland, and soon afterwards 

 against Sweden. With Sweden bis con- 

 test lasted two years, and terminated in tlie 

 cession of Finland to Russia. During the 

 hostilities which still subsisted between 

 FYance and England, he continued his ad- 

 herence to the former power, and dismissed 

 from his dominions all the German minis- 

 ters and agents. In the year 1808 he had 

 another interview with Buonaparte at Er- 

 furth ; the parties plighting their faith and 

 friendship to each other. The time, how- 

 ever, soon arrived when be was to see 

 how ill-judged his friendshi]) had been ; and 

 he was forced to defend himself in his own 

 dominions, with no other ally than England, 

 agiiinst Buonai)arte, who led 5(j0,000 

 choice troops against him, joined with those 

 kings who had formerly been his allies, and 

 whom he had formerly assisted. But Buo- 

 naparte's ambitious projects were defeated. 

 The Russians, on their evacuation of Mos- 

 cow, destroyed, by burning that city, the 

 only means of subsistence which the 

 French could expect during the winter; 

 and thence ensued the annihilation of that 

 vast army. The emperor, now apparently 

 animated with a spirit of vengeance against 

 the invader of the Russian dominions, pur-> 

 sued him with unremitting vigour, and even 

 published a description of his person, as 

 though he had been a common felon. Buo- 

 naparte, it will be recollected, effected his 

 escape in a single sledge. Tlie French, 

 however, suffered him to levy new armies, 

 and to lead them into Germany, in the 

 year 1813. On the 13th of March in that 

 year, the Emperor Alexander and the 

 King of Prussia proclaimed the dissolution 

 of the Confederacy of the Rhine. After 

 having been worsted at the battles of Lut- 

 zen and Bautzen, they agreed to an armis- 

 tice ; during which the Russians were 

 joined by General Moreau, who soon after- 

 wards fell, by a random shot, before Dres- 

 den. After various success, the great bat- 

 tle of Leipsic, fought on the 16th, 17th, 

 and 18th of October, completed the deli- 

 verance of Germany. Early in 1814 the 

 allied monarchs crossed the Rhine ; on the 

 30th of March their army besieged Paris, 

 and forced it to capitulate ; and, on the 

 following day, the Emperor Alexander and 



