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NIC the instinctive veneration of the Sclavonic race for their sovereign, prevailed; most of the soldiers kneeled before their master, and grounded their arms in token of submission. Wherever resistance was made, the artillery played upon the gathering crowds, and the fire of musketry completed the work of destruction. Executions, confiscations, imprisonments, and exile to Siberia followed, and were inflicted with merciless severity. Nicholas thus found himself the sole and absolute master of the gigantic Russian empire, and set himself with iron resolution to carry out the hereditary policy, home and foreign, of his family. "Despotism," he said, "is the very essence of my government, and it suits the genius of the land." Federal institutions he detested; a representative monarchy, he said, "is the government of falsehood, fraud, and corruption, and rather than adopt it I would fall back to the borders of China." It must be admitted that he played his part with great energy and distinction, and the events of his reign bear testimony to his grasping ambition and untiring activity. Scarcely had Nicholas ascended the throne when he made war upon Persia. Hostilities continued till 1828, when the shah was obliged to sue for peace, which was only granted him on condition of his ceding two fine provinces to Russia, and binding himself to pay twenty millions of silver roubles towards the expenses of the war. A few months later the czar declared war against Turkey. Although the Turks covered themselves with glory by their defence of Silistria and Varna, the Russians were victorious both in Europe and Asia, crossed the Balkan, captured many important fortresses, and compelled the Sublime Porte to conclude the celebrated treaty of Adrianople ( 14th September, 1829), by which the southern portions of the czar's empire were considerably advanced, large provinces in Asia added to his overgrown states, and the payment of eleven millions and a half of Dutch ducats promised to indemnify him for the expenses of the contest. The Caucasus was included in the territory ceded to Russia by this treaty; and as the independent tribes who inhabited this mountainous region refused to acknowledge the supremacy of Russia, Nicholas, after an ineffectual attempt to gain over the chiefs by bribes, decorations, and pensions, at length had recourse to arms. The struggle thus commenced continued during the remainder of his life at an enormous waste of men and money, and with little honour to the Russian arms. In November, 1830, the Polish insurrection broke out; but as England and France remained neutral, and Austria and Prussia aided the czar, the Poles after a heroic resistance were completely crushed. The most cruel vengeance was inflicted upon the vanquished, and an iron despotism was subtituted for the semblance of constitutional government which previously had been permitted to exist. The French revolution of 1830 gave a new direction to the policy of Nicholas, and induced him for some years to direct his energies rather against the free governments of the West than the tottering empires of the East. He drew closer his ties of alliance with Austria and Prussia, and contrived to make these states act for many years as his vassals, and the mere tools of his policy. He steadfastly refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of Louis Philippe, and lost no opportunity of heaping contumely upon the government of that monarch. He stood aloof from the revolution in Germany in 1848, and contented himself with watching its progress; but he readily responded to the call of Austria for aid in 1849, and sent a powerful army which turned the scale against the Hungarians, who had repeatedly and ignominiously defeated their oppressors and driven them out of the country. He united with Austria in demanding from the sultan the surrender of Kossuth and the Hungarian leaders who had taken refuge in his dominions, and attempted to coerce him into compliance; but the appearance of a British fleet in the Dardanelles compelled him to lower his tone and to abandon his disgraceful demand. Meanwhile the designs of the czar on the Turkish dominions had been stealthily but steadily pursued, and treaty after treaty had been concluded with the sultan, by which additional influence over the decaying empire had been secured to its rapacious and unprincipled neighbour. At length, in 1853, Nicholas thought that the time had come to carry the long-cherished designs of his family into execution, and made a demand upon the Porte which, if admitted, would have had the effect of virtually admitting the sovereignty of the emperor over the Greek church in Turkey, and would have completely destroyed the independence of that power. On the refusal of this demand a powerful Russian army crossed the Pruth, and took possession of the Principalities as a "material guarantee" for the concessions which the czar required. But the danger which threatened Europe from the unprincipled ambition of Russia had now become apparent to the whole world, and Turkey was no longer left to contend, single-handed, with her powerful adversary. England and France at once interposed for her protection, and sent their fleets and armies to her assistance. The czar put forth the most gigantic efforts, and tasked the whole resources of his vast empire to keep his enemies at bay, but in vain. Disaster followed disaster—his best-concerted plans were frustrated—his fleet was annihilated—his armies were routed again and again with prodigious slaughter—his fortresses beleagured or actually destroyed—the enemy within sound of his capital—his commerce shut up—his merchants ruined. In the midst of the terrible calamities which were gathering on all sides around his throne, the one great author of the war himself was suddenly stricken down. Even his gigantic strength was unequal to the burden of the intolerable labours imposed upon himself by the conflict with the most powerful nations of Europe, aggravated as they must have been by the agonizing sense of humiliation and remorse. He died suddenly of congestion of the lungs on the 2nd of March, 1855, thus expiating, with the loss of reputation, of power, and of life itself, the outrage he had committed on the rights of other states, and on the peace of Europe. It cannot be denied that Nicholas was in many respects well fitted for the position which he occupied. He was herculean in stature and strength, and was remarkably handsome and well proportioned. He was simple and abstemious in his personal habits, and of indefatigable industry. The labours imposed upon him by his office were utterly overwhelming. He was incessantly compelled to visit the remotest parts of his dominions to review his armies and fleets, and to inspect his fortresses; to cause roads to be made and canals to be cut; and to ascertain if the orders he had given were executed. Besides carrying on his vast and varied schemes of ambition, superintending the diplomacy of his court, and organizing and directing the movements of his enormous armies, he nominated to all civil and military offices throughout the entire extent of his empire, and regulated the most minute details in every department of government. No wonder that even his adamantine frame broke down under this superhuman task. His moral endowments were not of a high order. He was, indeed, affectionate to his family, and a kind master to his domestics; but his private life was licentious, and his extravagant vanity and boundless, almost insane pride, made him in the end think himself infallible, and, at times at least, to fancy that he transcended the appointed limits of all human greatness. His political principles were purely despotic, and were carried out with unmitigated harshness and cruelty. His sole means of action were force and fraud. His ruling passion was to consolidate and extend despotic institutions, not only within his own dominions but throughout Europe, to unite all the nations of Sclavonic origin under Muscovite rule, and to acquire, at all hazards, Constantinople as the seat of his vast empire. Hence he waged incessant war against liberal principles, and all those elevated sentiments which ennoble human nature. Every religious denomination was proscribed and persecuted except his own, and the Bible was rigorously banished his dominions. Nicholas married in 1817 Charlotte Louisa, eldest daughter of Frederick William of Prussia, who bore to him four sons and three daughters. His eldest son, Alexander, succeeded him on the throne.—J. T.  NICHOLAS: the name of five popes:—

I., a Roman, was raised against his will to the popedom in the year 858. His zeal and energy obtained for him the name of the Great. He condemned the intrusion of Photius into the patriarchal see of Constantinople. He mediated with great prudence and success in many affairs of the Gallican church and state; as an instance of which may be given the reconciliation which he effected between Baldwin, count of Flanders, and Charles the Bald, whose daughter, Judith, Baldwin had carried off. He took a deep interest in the promotion of christianity among the Bulgarians, who with their king Michael had recently been converted. He died in 867.

II. Upon the death of Stephen IX. in 1058, some Roman nobles set up one John Mincius as antipope. The cardinals, among whom was St. Peter Damian, fled from the city, and elected, with the consent of the Empress Agnes, Gerhard, bishop of Florence, who took the name of Nicholas II. At a council held in Rome by the new pope, the heresy of Berengarius was condemned, and the works of John Scotus 