[Sidenote: The first railway]

At home in England it was a period of unprecedented scientific and industrial development. Following Faraday's recent conversion of the electric current into mechanical motion, Sturgeon invented the prototype of the electro-magnet. The first public railway for steam locomotives was opened between Stockton and Darlington by Edward Peese and George Stephenson—an innovation which caused great excitement throughout England. On the opening day, September 27, an immense concourse of people assembled along the line to see the train go by. Nearly every one prophesied that the "iron horse" would be a failure. The train weighed about ninety English tons, and consisted of six wagons loaded with coal and flour, then a covered coach containing directors and proprietors, with twenty-one coal wagons fitted up for invited passengers, nearly 600 in number. Stephenson's engine, named the "Locomotion," had a ten-foot boiler and weighed not quite 1,500 pounds. As six miles an hour was supposed to be the limit of speed, it was arranged that a man on horseback should ride on the track ahead of the engine carrying a flag. The train was started without difficulty amid cheers. Many tried to keep up with it by running, and some gentlemen on horseback galloped across the fields to accompany the train. After a few minutes, Stephenson shouted to the horseman with the flag to get out of the way, for he was going to "let her go." Ordering the fireman to "keep her hot, lad," he opened wide the throttle-valve and the speed was quickly raised to twelve miles an hour and then to fifteen.

[Sidenote: Stephenson's practical demonstration]

The runners on foot, the gentlemen on horseback and the horseman with the flag were left far behind. So, with the cross-beams and side-rods trembling from the violent motion, the red-hot chimney ejecting clouds of black smoke, amid the cheers of the delighted spectators and to the astonishment of the passengers—the immortal George Stephenson brought his train safely into Darlington.

As the "Newcastle Courant" (October 1, 1825) put it, "certainly the performance excited the astonishment of all present, and exceeded the most sanguine expectations of every one conversant with the subject. The engine arrived at Stockton in three hours and seven minutes after leaving Darlington, including stops, the distance being nearly twelve miles, which is at the rate of four miles an hour; and upon the level part of the railway, the number of passengers was counted about four hundred and fifty, and several more clung to the carriages on each side. At one time the passengers by the engine had the pleasure of accompanying and cheering their brother passengers by the stage coach, which passed alongside, and of observing the striking contrast exhibited by the power of the engine and of horses; the engine with her six hundred passengers and load, and the coach with four horses and only sixteen passengers."

[Sidenote: Immediate railroad development]

So successful was the Stockton and Darlington railway that a bill was brought in Parliament for the construction of a railroad between Liverpool and Manchester after Stephenson's plan. The scheme was violently opposed. Its detractors, among whom were Lords Lefton and Derby, declared that Stephenson's locomotive would poison the air, kill the birds as they flew over them, destroy the preservation of pheasants, burn up the farms and homesteads near the lines; that oats and hay would become unsalable because horses would become extinct; travelling on the highways would become impossible; country inns would be ruined; boilers would burst and kill hundreds of passengers. Indeed, there was no peril imaginable that was not predicted to attend the working of a railroad by steam.

When Stephenson was examined by a Parliamentary committee, one of the members put this question: "Suppose, now, one of these engines to be going along a railroad at a rate of nine or ten miles an hour, and that a cow were to stray upon the line, and get in the way of the engine, would not that, think you, be a very awkward circumstance?" "Yaw," replied Stephenson, in his broad Northumbrian dialect, "ay, awkward—for the coo." On account of his speech Stephenson was denounced as a "foreigner," and the bill was thrown out by the committee, by a vote of 37 against 36. After a second Parliamentary battle, the bill was passed through both Houses by a majority of forty-seven votes. The passage of the act cost L27,000.

[Sidenote: Other modern inventions]

[Sidenote: English financial crisis averted]

[Sidenote: Canning's attempted reforms]

Almost coincidentally, Faraday found that benzine was a constituent of petroleum, a discovery destined to affect the modern construction of automobile vehicles toward the close of the century. A number of other achievements made this an important year for science in England. John Crowther took out a patent for his invention of a hydraulic crane. The steam jet was first applied to construction work by Timothy Hackworth. Joseph Clement built a planing machine for iron. One of the earliest chain suspension bridges was erected at Menai Strait by Thomas Thelford, and at the same time Brunel sunk his first shaft for the Thames tunnel. Significant of the industrial revival of those days was the opening of mechanics' institutes at Exeter and Belfast. In Canada, the newly founded McGill College was raised to the rank of a university. A financial measure of far-reaching import was the Bank of England's sudden diminution of its circulation to the extent of L3,500,000 by the combined exertions of the bank and of the royal mint. A crisis in public funds was thus averted. The most important political measure of the year was Canning's attempt to repeal the political disabilities of the Catholics in England. A bill to this effect was passed through the Commons, but was thrown out by the House of Lords. Canning's friend Huskisson inaugurated a commercial policy, which was founded on the theory of free trade, destined to bring about the repeal of the corn laws.

[Sidenote: Greek reverses]

[Sidenote: Nauplia and Missolonghi besieged]

[Sidenote: Greece devastated]

The situation in Greece was calculated to stiffen the backbone of Canning's foreign policy. On February 22, Ibrahim's Egyptian army had crossed the sea unopposed and overran the Morea. The Greeks were defeated near Nodoni, and the garrison of Sphakteria was overwhelmed. The forts of Navarino capitulated. In vain was old Kolokotrones released from his prison to oppose the onslaught of Ibrahim's Arabs. The Greeks were driven back through Tripolitza, and did not succeed in making a stand until the Turks reached Nauplia. Here Demetrios Ypsilanti with a few hundred men repulsed the Turkish vanguard at Lerna. Ibrahim settled down to the siege of Nauplia and of Missolonghi. The country round about was laid waste and the people killed. Ibrahim's hordes even cut down all trees and saplings. Thus the fertile mountains and hillsides of Greece were changed into the barren rocks they are to-day. Nothing so excited the sympathy of the lovers of liberty in Europe as these wanton ravages on classic soil committed by the savages of the desert. Even Alexander of Russia was so moved by the rising indignation of his people that he dissolved diplomatic conferences at St. Petersburg in August. He issued a declaration that Russia, acting on its own discretion, would put a stop to the outrages of Greece. Accompanied by the leaders of the Russian war party, he left St. Petersburg and travelled to the Black Sea. All Europe waited for the long-threatened Russian advance on Constantinople. Suddenly news arrived that the Czar had died at Taganrog.

[Sidenote: Death of Czar Alexander]

[Sidenote: Alexander's early reforms]

[Sidenote: Russian letters stimulated]

Alexander expired on November 19 (December 1), in the arms of Empress Elizabeth. His last hours were clouded by revelations of a plot to assassinate him. As if to recant his reactionary measures of the last few years, he said: "They may say what they like of me, but I have lived and will die republican"—a curious boast which is justified only by the earlier years of Alexander's reign. In the beginning of his rule the Czar reversed the despotic tendencies of his predecessors. Free travel was permitted; foreign books and papers were allowed to enter; the better classes of the community were exempted from corporal punishments; the emancipation of serfs was begun, and the collegiate organization of the administration was supplanted by ministries modelled after those of the chief European countries. As early as 1802 Alexander could boast of a Cabinet as good as that of any constitutional monarch. Another far-reaching reform was the reorganization of Russian public education, and the encouragement given to the publication of Bibles. A temporary relaxation of the censorship resulted in the foundation of societies of literature and of such journals as the "Russian Messenger," "The Northern Mercury," and the "Democrat." Writers like Pushkin and Gogol brought forth their earliest works. Koltsov discovered a new source of poetry in the popular songs. Lermontov sang the wild beauty of the Caucasus, and Ozerov wrote his classical drama "Dmitri Donskoi," which recalled the struggles of Russia against the Tartars. Modern romantic tendencies were advanced by Joukovsky's translation of Schiller's and Byron's poems. Ginka composed the scores for his earlier operas.

[Sidenote: Changes for the worse]

[Sidenote: Araktcheyev]

[Sidenote: The Russian succession]

[Sidenote: Conflicting proclamations]

[Sidenote: Nicholas, Czar of Russia]

[Sidenote: Moscow mutiny]

[Sidenote: Miloradovitch shot]

[Sidenote: End of revolt]

When Alexander came under the influence of Madame de Kruedener and the more baneful ascendency of Metternich everything was changed for the worse. The publication of Bibles was stopped; the censorship was re-established in its full rigor; Speranski's great undertaking of a Russian code of laws was nipped in the bud; Galytsin, the liberal Minister of Publication, had to resign, and Araktcheyev, a reactionary of extreme type, was put in his place. Some idea of the dark days that followed may be gathered from Araktcheyev's first measures. The teaching of the geological theories of Buffon and of the systems of Copernicus and Newton were forbidden as contrary to Holy Writ. Medical dissection was prohibited, and the practice of medicine was reduced to that of faith cure. All professors who had studied at seats of learning abroad were dismissed. Then it was that the secret societies sprang up in Poland and in the north and south of Russia. One of the foremost conspirators was Pestel, who had undertaken to frame a new code of laws for Russia. When Alexander died, Russia was on the brink of a military revolution. It was the intention of the conspirators to assassinate the Czar in the presence of his troops and to proclaim a constitution; but his unexpected departure to the Black Sea frustrated the plan. Alexander's death threw the Russian court into confusion. For a while it was not known who was to succeed him. The supposed heir to the throne was Alexander's brother, Constantine. Unbeknown to the people he had formally renounced his right to the throne. At the time of his brother's death he was in Warsaw. His younger brother, Nicholas, at St. Petersburg, had him proclaimed emperor. When they brought him Constantine's written abdication, Nicholas refused to acknowledge it and caused the troops to take their oath of allegiance to his brother. Constantine in Warsaw proclaimed Nicholas emperor. Nicholas would not accept the crown unless by the direct command of his elder brother. At length the matter was adjusted, after an interregnum of three weeks. On Christmas Day, Nicholas ascended the imperial throne. The confusion at St. Petersburg was turned to account by the military conspirators who had plotted against Alexander's life. To the common soldiers they denounced Nicholas as a usurper who was trying to make them break their recent oath to Constantine. When ordered to take the oath to Nicholas, the Moscow regiment refused, and marched to the open place in front of the Senate House. There they formed a square and were joined by other bodies of mutineering soldiers. It is gravely asserted by Russian historians that the poor wretches, ignorant of the very meaning of the word constitution, shouted for it, believing it to be the name of Constantine's wife. An attack upon them by the household cavalry was repulsed. When General Miloradovitch, a veteran of fifty-two battles against Napoleon, tried to make himself heard, he was shot. The mutineers would not listen even to the Emperor. Not until evening could the new Czar be brought to use more decisive measures. Then he ordered out the artillery and had them fire grapeshot into the square. The effect was appalling. In a few minutes the square was cleared and the insurrection was over. Its leaders were wanting at the moment of action. A rising in the south of Russia was quelled by a single regiment. Before the year ended, Nicholas was undisputed master of Russia.

[Sidenote: Death of Fresnel]

By the death of Augustin Jean Fresnel, France lost a brilliant scientist, who shares with Thomas Young the honor of discrediting the old emission theory of light, and of formulating the undulatory theory.

[Sidenote: Death of David]

Jacques Louis David, founder of the new French school of classicism in painting, died at the close of the year at Brussels. Many of his paintings were on exhibition before the fall of the old regime in France. In the days of the French Revolution, David was a Jacobite and friend of Robespierre, and suffered in prison after the latter's fall. It was not, however, until the time of the First Empire that David's fame spread. He then reached the zenith of his success. His masterpieces of this period are "Napoleon Crossing the Alps"—a canvas on which is founded Hauff's story of "The Picture of the Emperor"—"The Coronation of Napoleon," "Napoleon in His Imperial Robes," and the "Distribution of the Eagles." Equally famous is his portrait of "Madame Recamier resting on a Chaiselongue." After the fall of the First Empire, David was exiled from France, and retired to Brussels. David, unlike so many other beneficiaries of the Empire, remained warmly attached to Napoleon. Once when the Duke of Wellington visited his studio in Brussels and expressed a wish that the great artist would paint him, David coldly replied, "I never paint Englishmen." In his declining years he painted subjects taken from Grecian mythology. Among the paintings executed by David during his banishment were "Love and Psyche," "The Wrath of Achilles," and "Mars Disarmed by Venus." The number of David's pupils who acquired distinction was very great, among whom the best known were Gros, Gerard, Derdranais Girodet, Jugros, Abel de Pujel and Droming.



1826

[Sidenote: Czar Nicholas' measures]

[Sidenote: Ryleyev and Pestel hanged]

[Sidenote: Russian laws codified]

Driven to assert his rights to the crown by bloodshed, Nicholas I. showed himself resolved to maintain the absolute principles of his throne. He accorded a disdainful pardon to Prince Trubetskoi, whom the conspirators of the capital had chosen as head of the government. The mass of misled soldiery was likewise treated with clemency. But against the real instigators of the insurrection the Czar proceeded with uncompromising severity. One hundred and twenty were deported to Siberia; and the five foremost men, among whom were Ryleyev, the head of the society in the north, and Pestel, were condemned to be hanged. All died courageously. Pestel's chief concern was for his Code: "I am certain," said he, "that one day Russia will find in this book a refuge against violent commotions. My greatest error was that I wished to gather the harvest before sowing the seed." In a way the teachings of these men gave an impetus to Russia that their death could not destroy. Even the Czar, with his passion for military autocracy, made it his first care to take up the work of codifying the Russian laws. Alexis Mikhaielovitch during the next four years turned out his "Complete Code of the Laws of the Russian Empire."

[Sidenote: Persian war]

[Sidenote: Defence of Choucha]

[Sidenote: Russian victories]

[Sidenote: Persia abandoned by England]

[Sidenote: Russia's ultimatum to Turkey]

[Sidenote: Massacre of Janizaries]

The military ambitions of Nicholas found a vent in the direction of Persia. The encroachments of Ermolov, the Governor-General of the Caucasus, so exasperated the Persians that soon a holy war was preached against Russia. Ebbas-Mirza, the Prince Royal of Persia, collected an army of 35,000 men on the banks of the Araxes. A number of English officers joined his ranks. Nicholas at once despatched General Kasevitch with reinforcements for Ermolov. Ebbas-Mirza was checked on his march on Tivlas by the heroic defence of Choucha. In the meanwhile the Russians concentrated their forces. The Persian vanguard, 15,000 strong, was defeated at Elizabethpol. On the banks of the Djeham, Paskevitch, with a division of the Russian army, overthrew the main body of the Persians and forced them back over the Araxes. The Persians continued their resistance, relying on the terms of the treaty of Teheran, wherein England had promised financial and military subsidies in case of invasion. The English, promise was not kept. Hence forth the Persians were at the mercy of the Russian army of invasion. Almost simultaneously a rebellion against the Chinese Government broke out in Kashgar. Undeterred by this diversion, Nicholas took up a vigorous stand against the Turks. In March he presented an ultimatum insisting on the autonomy of Moldavia, Wallachia and Servia, and on the final cession to Russia of disputed Turkish territory on the Asiatic frontier. Turkey yielded. Nicholas then joined in an ultimatum with England and France for an immediate stop of the Turkish outrages in Greece. In this matter Nicholas, who regarded the Greeks as rebels, showed himself more lenient to the Turks, and negotiations with the Porte were permitted to drag. The Sultan profited by the lull to execute a long contemplated stroke against the Janizaries. The whole of this famous corps of bodyguards was massacred.

[Sidenote: Death of Bennigsen and Rostopchin]

During this year two men died in Russia who had distinguished themselves at the time of Napoleon's invasion. One was General Bennigsen, a soldier of German extraction and training, who took a leading part in all the Russian campaigns against Napoleon. The other was Prince Rostopchin, who as Governor of Moscow consigned that city to the flames after Napoleon's triumphant entry.

[Sidenote: Death of Hastings and Heber]

[Sidenote: Alfred Tennyson]

[Sidenote: English letters flourishing]

[Sidenote: Scientific progress]

England lost two men who had distinguished themselves in India. One was the Marquis of Hastings, who had but lately relinquished his Governor-Generalship of British India, and whose rule there both from a military and from a political-economical point of view must be regarded as pre-eminently successful. The other was Reginald Heber, the Bishop of Calcutta, who endeared himself to Anglo-Indians by his translations of the folk songs and classic writings of Hindustan. In other respects this year is notable in English literary annals. Alfred Tennyson published his earliest verses in conjunction with his brother; Elizabeth Barrett also brought out her first poems; Macaulay had begun to captivate England by his essays; Thomas Hood issued his "Whims and Oddities"; Scott and Coleridge were then in the heyday of literary favor. Scott had just brought out his "Talisman" and "The Betrothed," and now published "Woodstock." Coleridge contributed his "Aids to Reflection." A new impetus was given to scholarship by the foundation of the Western and Eastern literary institutions of England, and the establishment of a professorship for political economy at Oxford. London University was chartered. Drummond's namesake, Lieutenant Thomas Drummond, perpetuated his name by his limelight, produced by heating lime to incandescence in the oxy-hydrogen flame.

[Sidenote: English lotteries suppressed]

While Herschel was working out his spectrum analysis, Fox Talbot contributed his share by his observation of the orange line of strontium. John Walker perfected his invention of friction matches. Industrially, on the contrary, England still suffered from the canker of the corn laws and the recent financial crisis resulting from the operations of ill-fated stock companies. In Lancashire nearly a thousand power looms were destroyed by the distressed operatives. Some relief was given by Canning's abolition of all public lotteries.

[Sidenote: Louis I. of Bavaria]

[Sidenote: Munich embellished]

[Sidenote: German romantic literature]

[Sidenote: "Die Wacht am Rhein"]

[Sidenote: Froebel]

In Germany, arts and literature flourished in the same degree. King Louis I. of Bavaria, upon his accession to the throne, gathered about him in Munich some of the foremost artists and writers of Germany. The capital of Munich was embellished with public monuments; public buildings were decorated with fresco paintings, and art galleries were established. The University of Bavaria was transferred from Landshut to Munich, and other institutions of learning were erected by its side. Streets were widened, new avenues and public squares laid out, and public lighting introduced throughout the city. Within a short time the quasi-medieval town of Munich was changed into a modern metropolis and became the Mecca of German art. Among the artists who gathered round Louis of Bavaria were Moritz von Schwind, Cornelius, Hess, Raupp, and the elder Piloti. Among the writers who drew upon themselves the notice of this liberal king were the Count of Platen, who during this year published his "Ghazels" and the comedy "The Fatal Fork"; and Hauff, who brought out his romantic masterpiece, "Lichtenstein." Of the rising writers, Heinrich Heine alone withstood the blandishments of Louis with verses of biting satire. Little noticed at the time was the appearance of Reichardt's "Wacht am Rhein," a song which was destined to become the battle hymn of Germany. Scant attention, likewise, was given to Froebel's epoch-making work, "The Education of Man." On the other hand much pother was made over some curious exchanges of sovereignty, characteristic of German politics in those days. The Dukes of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Meiningen exchanged their respective possessions. Saalfeld Meiningen received Gotha. Altenburg was assigned to Saxe-Hilburghausen, which latter principality in turn was relinquished to Meiningen. The settlements of the succession in those petty principalities called forth volumes of legal lore.

Jens Baggesen, the most prolific Danish humorist, died this year, seventy-two years of age. After his death Baggesen's writings declined in popularity.

[Sidenote: American semi-centennial]

[Sidenote: Death of Jefferson and Adams]

[Sidenote: "The Father of Democracy"]

In America, the people of the United States commemorated the semi-centennial of their independence. The Fourth of July, the date of the declaration of American independence, was the great day of celebration. The day became noted in American history by the simultaneous death of two patriots: Jefferson and Adams. Thomas Jefferson's greatest achievements, as recorded by himself on his gravestone at Monticello, were his part in the declaration of American independence, in the establishment of religious freedom and in the foundation of the University at Virginia. He was the most philosophic statesman of his time in America. Much of the subsequent history of the United States was but the development of Jefferson's political ideas. His public acts and declarations foreshadowed the policies of his most worthy successors. The essentials of the Monroe Doctrine, of the emancipation of slaves, as well as of the doctrine of State rights and of American expansion, can all be traced back to him. Thus he has come to be venerated by one of the two great political parties of America as "The Father of Democracy."

[Sidenote: Jefferson's principles]

[Sidenote: Third term discountenanced]

Jefferson's principles were stated in his first inaugural address: "Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments and all their rights as the most competent of administrations for our domestic concerns; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor, as a sheet anchor of peace at home and safety abroad.... The supremacy of civil over military authority; economy in public expense, honest payment of public debts; the diffusion of information; freedom of religion; freedom of the press and freedom of the person, under the protection of the habeas corpus and trial by jury." When Jefferson's second term as President came to an end he retired from the White House poorer than he had entered it. A third term was declined by him with these words: "To lay down a public charge at the proper period is as much a duty as to have borne it faithfully. If some termination to the services of a chief magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution or supplied by practice, this office, nominally four years, will in fact become for life; and history shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance." Together with Washington's similar action, this established a custom which has since been followed in the North American Republic.

[Sidenote: John Adams's career]

Jefferson's predecessor, John Adams, who died on the same day, though likewise a model President, was less fortunate in his career. His administration was a struggle almost from beginning to end. The troubles with France, though not attaining the dignity of international warfare, presented all the difficulties of such a war. Adams's extreme measures against domestic danger, as embodied in his "alien and sedition laws," were unfortunate. They were in fact an infringement of the rights of free speech and personal liberty, and were with justice denounced as unconstitutional and un-American. His departure from the American Bill of Rights among other things effectually prevented his re-election as President. His wisest closing act was the appointment of John Marshall to the Chief Justiceship of the American Supreme Court.

[Sidenote: Stars of the stage]

[Sidenote: "The Last of the Mohicans"]

In the annals of the American stage the season of 1826 is remembered for the first appearance of the three great actors Edwin Forrest, Macready and James H. Hackett, the American comedian. The same year saw the first appearance of Paulding's "Three Wise Men of Gotham," and Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans."

[Sidenote: Philhellenic efforts]

The Greek cause found friends in Switzerland, England and America. Two loans for $14,000,000 were raised in London by American and English subscriptions. Both loans were disgracefully financed. Barely one-half of the amount was finally accounted for. With the proceeds contracts were made for eight warships. The "Perseverance," a steam corvette, mounting eight 68-pound cannon, reached Nauplia in September. The "Hope," a staunch frigate of 64 guns, built in New York, arrived in December. She was rechristened the "Hellas."

[Sidenote: Dom Pedro IV.]

The death of Dom Juan de Braganza in March had placed the throne of Portugal as well as that of Brazil at the disposal of his oldest son, Dom Pedro IV., at Rio. Under the terms of England's mediation of the previous year, Dom Pedro renounced the throne of Portugal in favor of his infant daughter, Maria Gloria, while at the same time he conferred upon Portugal a liberal constitution, the so-called Charta de Ley, similar to that conceded to Brazil in 1822.

[Sidenote: Dom Miguel's revolt]

[Sidenote: Canning's policy]

Dom Pedro IV. had intrusted the throne of Portugal to the regency of his sister Maria Isabella, on condition that his infant daughter should marry her uncle, Dom Miguel. It was his intention that the infant Princess should be recognized as Queen, while Dom Miguel would reign as regent. Under the leadership of Marquis de Chaves, instigated by Dom Miguel, several provinces revolted and declared for Miguel as absolute king. Conquered in Portugal, the insurgents retired to Spain, where they were well received. The Portuguese constitutional government called for help from England. France threatened to invade Spain. Canning acted at once: "To those who blame the government for delay," declared Canning in Parliament, "the answer is very short. It was only last Friday that I received the official request from Portugal. On Saturday the Ministers decided what was to be done. On Sunday our decision received the King's sanction. On Monday it was communicated to both Houses. At this very moment the troops are on their way to Portugal." It was then that Canning delivered the great speech in defence of his foreign policy which he closed with Shakespeare's famous lines:

Oh, it is excellent To have a giant's strength. And it is tyrannous To use it like a giant.



1827

[Sidenote: Portuguese revolt suppressed]

On the first day of January an English army corps under Clinton was landed at Lissabon and a squadron of eleven British ships of the line came to anchor at the mouth of the Tagus. The news of this foreign intervention dismayed the revolutionists. On the banks of the Mondego the Marquis de Chaves, with 10,000 rebels, still commanded the approach to Coimbra. On January 9, a drawn battle was fought with 7,000 constitutional troops under Saldanha. Next morning Dom Miguel's followers, on the news of an approaching British column, quitted the field and dispersed. The Spanish troops on the frontier disarmed those that crossed into Spain.

[Sidenote: Dissatisfaction in France]

In France, the government of Charles X., after some violent attacks in the Chambers, recalled the Swiss brigade sent to protect the royal family in Madrid. There was trouble enough at home. The clerical reaction in France brought about a popular outcry against the order of the Jesuits. On the occasion of a royal military review on April 29, some of the companies of the National Guards shared in demonstrations against them. "I am here," said the King, "to receive your homage, not your murmurings." The entire National Guard of Paris was disbanded by royal ordinance.

[Sidenote: Russians invade Persia]

Early in the spring the Russian forces under Paskievitch had crossed the Araxes and forced the defiles of the Persian frontier. By a rapid flank movement an army of 10,000 Persians was detached and brought to surrender. Erivan, the bulwark of Persia, was taken by assault. The triumphant Russian column entered Pauris, the second city of the kingdom. Thence an advance was made on Teheran.

[Sidenote: Intervention in Greece favored]

These easy victories in Persia left the Czar free to resume his threatening attitude toward Turkey. In this he received the hearty support of Canning. A protocol at St. Petersburg, concluded between the Duke of Wellington and Nesselrode, formed the basis for Anglo-Russian intervention in the East. The royalists of France were won over by an offer from the Greek insurgents to place the Duke of Nimours on the throne of Greece. Without giving actual support to the proposed intervention the French ambassador in Constantinople was instructed to act with his English and Russian colleagues. Under the weight of this combination even Prince Metternich gave way.

Affairs in Germany were calculated to excite his alarm. At Dresden the accession of Anthony Clement to the crown of Saxony met with extreme disfavor on the part of the Saxon people by reason of Anthony's pronounced Catholicism. Soon his measures provoked a rising of the people. Anthony had to resign, and Frederick Augustus II. became regent.

[Sidenote: Death of Hauff]

In Wurtemberg, where public affairs had taken a more liberal turn, the death of Wilhelm Hauff, the young author, was felt as a great loss. Hauff died in his twenty-fifth year, while still in the first promise of his literary activity. His stories of the Black Woods and his Oriental Tales, together with his medieval romance "Lichtenstein," modelled after the best of Walter Scott's romances, have assured him a prominent place in German letters.

[Sidenote: Laplace]

[Sidenote: The nebular hypothesis]

On March 15, Marquis Pierre Simon de Laplace, one of the greatest mathematicians and physical astronomers of all time, died at Arcueil. Laplace was born in 1749, in Normandy. Although a poor farmer's son, he soon won the position of a teacher at the Beaumont Military School of Mathematics, and later at the Ecole Militaire of Paris. One of the early notable labors of Laplace was his investigation of planetary perturbations, and his demonstration that planetary mean motions are invariable—the first important step in the establishment of the stability of the solar system and one of the most brilliant achievements in celestial mechanics. In his "Exposition du Systeme du Monde" was formulated the theory called the "nebular hypothesis," the glory of which he must share with Kant. "He would have completed the science of the skies," says Fourier, "had the science been capable of completion." As a physicist he made discoveries that were in themselves sufficient to perpetuate his name, in specific heat, capillary action and sound. In mathematics he furnished the modern scientist with the famous Laplace co-efficients and the potential function, thereby laying the foundation of the mathematical sciences of heat and electricity. Not satisfied with scientific distinction, Laplace aspired to political honors and left a public record which is not altogether to his credit. Of his labors as Minister of the Interior, Napoleon remarked: "He brought into the administration the spirit of the infinitesimals." Although he owed his political success, small as it was, to Napoleon—the man whom he had once heralded as the "pacificator of Europe"—he voted for his dethronement.

[Sidenote: Death of Beethoven]

Shortly after the death of Laplace, Ludwig van Beethoven died in Vienna on March 26. The last years of his life were so clouded by his deafness and by the distressing vagaries of his nephew that he was often on the verge of suicide. In December, 1826, he caught a violent cold, which brought on his ultimate death from pneumonia and dropsy. Beethoven, though he adhered to the sonata form of the classic school, introduced into his compositions such daringly original methods that he must be regarded as the first of the great romantic composers. Some of his latest compositions notably, were so very unconventional that they found no appreciation, even among musicians, until years after his death. Technically, his art of orchestration reached such a perfection of general unity and elaboration of detail that he must stand as the greatest instrumental composer of the nineteenth century. The profound subjective note that pervades his best compositions lifts his music above that of his greatest predecessors: Bach, Haydn and Mozart.

[Sidenote: Beethoven's career]

[Sidenote: Notable compositions]

[Sidenote: "Fidelio"]

[Sidenote: Beethoven's declining years]

Beethoven came of a line of musical ancestors. His grandfather and namesake was an orchestral leader and composer of operas. His father was a professional singer, who took his son's musical education in hand at the age of four. At eight the boy was a fluent performer both on the violin and on the piano. When but ten years old Beethoven produced his first pianoforte sonata, and was installed as assistant organist in the Electoral Chapel at Bonn. When the lad visited Vienna, in 1787, his extemporizations on the piano made Mozart exclaim: "He will give the world something worth listening to." It was Haydn that persuaded Beethoven's patron to send the youth to Vienna; there he became Haydn's pupil and received material support from Prince Lichnovsky, one of his warmest admirers. From his first entrance into the musical circles of Vienna, Beethoven was justly regarded as a highly eccentric man. His generosity of soul and transcendent genius made all those that learned to know him condone his freaks. It was after the opening of the Nineteenth Century that Beethoven reached his freest creative period. Between 1800 and 1815 he composed the first six of his great symphonies, the music to "Egmont," the best of his chamber-music pieces, fourteen pianoforte sonatas, among them the "Pastorale" and the "Appassionata," and his only opera "Fidelio." This opera, which was first named "Leonore," with an overture that was afterward abandoned, had its first public performance in Vienna just before Napoleon's entry into the capital in 1805. After three representations it was withdrawn. Nearly ten years later, after complete revision by Beethoven, "Fidelio" achieved its first great success. The great "Heroica Symphony" composed at the same time was originally dedicated to Bonaparte. When Napoleon had himself proclaimed Emperor, Beethoven tore up the dedication in a rage. It was subsequently changed "to the memory of a great man." After 1815, when the composer had grown quite deaf, his compositions, like his moods, took a gloomy cast. The extravagances of his nephew, whose guardianship he had undertaken, caused him acute material worries. In truth he need have given himself no concern, for his admirers, Archduke Rudolph and Princes Lobkovitz and Kinsky, settled on him an annuity of 4,000 florins; but to the end of his days the unhappy composer believed himself on the verge of ruin. When he died, his funeral was attended by the princes of the imperial house and all the greatest magnates of Austria and Hungaria. Twenty thousand persons followed his coffin to the grave.



[Sidenote: English officers in Greece]

[Sidenote: Fall of Athens]

[Sidenote: Turks reject armistice]

By this time a number of foreign volunteers had flocked to Greece. Lord Cochrane, an English naval officer of venturous disposition, was appointed High Admiral. Sir Richard Church was put in command of the Greek land forces. Early in May, Church and Cochrane sought in vain to break the line of Turks under Kiutahi Pasha pressing upon Athens. They were defeated with great loss, and on June 5 the Acropolis of Athens surrendered to the Turks. In July a treaty for European intervention in Greece was signed in London. Turkey and Greece were summoned to consent to an armistice, and to accept the mediation of the powers. All Turks were to leave Greece, and the Greeks were to come into possession of all Turkish property within their limits on payment of an indemnity. Greece was to be made autonomous under the paramount sovereignty of the Sultan. The demand for an armistice was gladly accepted by Greece. But the Sultan rejected it with contempt. The conduct of the Turkish troops in Bulgaria caused the Bulgarians to rise and call for Russian help.

[Sidenote: Death of Canning]

[Sidenote: Canning's policy]

It was at this crisis of European affairs that Canning died. His Ministry, brief as it was, marked an epoch for England. Unlike his predecessors, George Canning was called to the Ministry by a king who disliked him. What he accomplished was done amid the peculiar embarrassments and difficulties of such a situation. On the other hand, it freed him from certain concessions to the personal prejudices of his sovereign that hampered other Ministers. Thus he was able to introduce in Parliament his great measure for the removal of the political disabilities of the Catholics, a reform on which so great a Prime Minister as the younger Pitt came to grief. Had this measure passed the House of Lords it would stand as the crowning act of Canning's administration. By an irony of fate the same Canning that so bitterly opposed the French Revolution and the claims of America achieved highest fame by his latter day recognition of the rights of revolution in the New World.

[Sidenote: William Blake]

[Sidenote: Artist and poet]

[Sidenote: Blake's mysticism]

[Sidenote: Thomson's lines]

William Blake, the English poet and artist, died at Fountain Court in London on August 12. While Blake's poems and paintings belonged to the Eighteenth Century, chronologically, the spirit of his works, with its extraordinary independence of contemporary fashions, make him a herald of the poetic dawn of the Nineteenth Century. An engraver by profession and training, Blake began while still very young to apply his technical knowledge to his wholly original system of literary publication. As a poet he was not only his own illustrator, but his own printer and publisher as well. Beginning with the "Poetical Sketches" and his delightful "Songs of Innocence," down to the fantastic "Marriage of Heaven and Hell," all of Blake's books, with the exception of his "Jerusalem" and "Milton," were issued during the Eighteenth Century. Blake's artistic faculties seemed to strengthen with advancing life, but his literary powers waned. He produced few more satisfying illustrations than those to the Book of Job, executed late in life. His artistic work also was left comparatively untainted by the morbid strain of mysticism that runs through his so-called "prophetic writings." The charm of Blake's poetry, as well as of his drawings, was not fully appreciated until late in the Nineteenth Century. Charles Lamb, to be sure, declared, "I must look upon him as one of the extraordinary persons of the age," but his full worth was not recognized until Swinburne and Rossetti took up his cause. In America, Charles Eliot Norton, at Harvard, was Blake's ablest expounder. Famous are James Thomson's lines on William Blake:

He came to the desert of London town, Gray miles long; He wandered up and he wandered down, Singing a quiet song.

He came to the desert of London town, Mirk miles broad; He wandered up and he wandered down, Ever alone with God.

There were thousands and thousands of human kind, In this desert of brick and stone; But some were deaf and some were blind, And he was there alone.

At length the good hour came; he died As he had lived, alone; He was not missed from the desert wide, Perhaps he was found at the Throne.

[Sidenote: Richard Bright]

In this year Dr. Richard Bright of London published his famous "Reports of medical cases with a view to illustrate the symptoms and cure of diseases by a reference to morbid anatomy." A special feature of the book was a full description of Bright's discoveries in the pathology of the peculiar disease of the kidneys which bears his name. Bright, in response to urgent demands, lectured more fully on his great discovery before the London College of Physicians and Surgeons.

[Sidenote: Delacroix]

Eugene Delacroix, the great exponent of French romantic art, and a pupil of Guerin, exhibited this year his "Christ in the Garden of Olives." He had previously exhibited "Dante and Virgil," which created a sensation by its rich coloring. This was followed by his "Massacre of Scio," "The Death of the Doge," "Marino Faliero," "Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi" and "Death of Sardanapalus." Not until some time after his death was he recognized as the greatest early master of the French art after David. The great majority of his works, embracing mural paintings and pictures of immense size, are to be found in the principal churches and galleries of France.

[Sidenote: Wellington Prime Minister]

[Sidenote: Powers intervene in Greece]

[Sidenote: Greek Naval victory]

[Sidenote: Turkish warships stopped]

[Sidenote: The Morea ravaged]

[Sidenote: An international demonstration]

After the brief interregnum of Goderich's administration in England, Canning was succeeded by his rival, the Duke of Wellington. The good sense and great renown of this distinguished soldier promised strength and prestige to his administration. For a while the change of Ministry brought no avowed change in Canning's plans. Huskisson and Palmerston were retained in the Cabinet, and Canning's policy of active intervention in Greece was upheld. In consequence of the Turkish refusal of mediation, the war continued on both sides. The Turks got heavy reinforcements from Egypt, and a strong expedition was on the point of leaving Navarino to make a descent upon Hydra, the last stronghold of the insurrection. An Anglo-French fleet under Admirals Codrington and Regnier made a demonstration in Greek waters. The foreign admirals exacted a promise from Ibrahim that he would make no movement until further orders should arrive from Constantinople. An oral agreement to this effect was reached late in September. A few days later the Greeks in free continuance of hostilities won a brilliant naval victory in the Gulf of Corinth. The hero on this occasion was Captain Hastings, an English volunteer. Ibrahim was so incensed that he sailed out of Navarino and made for Patras. Codrington threw his British squadron across the track of the Egyptian ships and forced them to turn back by a threat to sink them. It was regretted at the time that Codrington did not compel Ibrahim to take his expedition out of Greek waters back to Alexandria. As it was, Ibrahim returned to Navarino, and there found orders from the Sultan to carry on the war without regard to Western intermeddling. Another Turkish column was forthwith despatched into the Morea and devastated that country with fire and sword. Clouds of smoke revealed to the European naval officers how the Turks had met their proposals for peace. Admiral Codrington sent messages to Ibrahim, calling for instant cessation of hostilities, for the evacuation of the Morea, and the return of his fleet to Constantinople and Alexandria. The answer to this message was that Ibrahim had marched into the Morea and could not be reached. The three squadrons of England, Russia and France cruising off Zante immediately came together. They consisted of twenty-nine vessels, ten ships of the line, ten frigates, four brigs and five schooners. United in one column, under command of Codrington as senior admiral, they sailed for Navarino.

Codrington was unhampered by instructions. He could feel sure of the support of his government, however, for in his pocket was a confidential note from the Duke of Clarence, the royal commander of the navy, encouraging him to "find" a quarrel with the Turkish admiral.

[Sidenote: Navarino]

On October 20, the three squadrons sailed into Navarino harbor in battle array, and came to anchor within pistol shot of the Turkish fleet, composed of seventy warships, forty transports and four fire-ships, anchored under cover of the land batteries. To windward of the British corvette "Dartmouth" lay a Turkish brulote or fire-ship. A gig was sent to demand the withdrawal of this dangerous vessel. The Turks fired on the boat with cannon-shot and musketry. When Codrington sent a boat to the Egyptian flagship, Moharem Bey, the admiral, opened with his guns. One shot struck the "Asia," Codrington's flagship, and his pilot was killed. Codrington opened with all his guns. The British broadsides soon reduced the Egyptian flagship on one side, and a Turkish man-o'-war on the other side to mere wrecks. The French and Russians joined in. The Moslem ships, which had a superiority of 800 guns, replied with spirit. At close range they fought the combined fleets of their hated Christian adversaries. From the surrounding shores 20,000 Moslem soldiers discharged their guns into the land-locked harbor. The fight lasted from three in the afternoon until seven in the evening. All bravery was in vain when pitted against Western seamanship and gunnery. In the course of a short afternoon one Turkish ship after another was sunk or blown to pieces. By sundown little was left of the Turkish fleet but a mass of wreckage. Only fifteen ships escaped, to be scuttled by their own sailors. Four thousand Moslem seamen lost their lives. All night long the Turkish gunners on shore kept up their fire. On the morrow, when Ibrahim returned to Navarino, he found the waters of the harbor strewn with wreckage and the floating bodies of his sailors. One of the best accounts of the battle of Navarino has been given by Eugene Sue, the novelist, who then served as surgeon on one of the French vessels.

[Sidenote: Greece saved]

The island of Hydra and with it all Greece was saved. The subsequent course of Sultan Mahmoud was that of blind infatuation and fury. So far from accepting the European demands for an armistice, he put forward a peremptory request for an indemnity for the losses inflicted upon him. The Ambassadors of the Powers quitted Constantinople. It was then that the loss of Canning was felt in England. Instead of pursuing the vigorous policy to which it stood committed by the battle of Navarino, Great Britain hung back. Further intervention, with the profits accruing therefrom, was left to Russia.



1828

[Sidenote: Peace of Tourkmanchay]

The time for undisturbed intervention in the East was most auspicious for Russia. Peace with Persia was concluded early in the year. By the treaty of Tourkmanchay, Fet Aly of Persia ceded to Russia the provinces of Erivan and Nakhitchevan and paid an indemnity of 20,000,000 roubles. The river Araxes was recognized as the frontier of both states. England's ascendency in Persia was effectually set at naught. Even in China Emperor Taouk-Wang felt encouraged to issue edicts prohibiting England's pernicious opium trade on the Chinese coast. Russia's armies were now let loose on Turkey.

[Sidenote: Independence of Greece]

[Sidenote: Capodistrias summoned]

[Sidenote: Russia's double game]

[Sidenote: Understanding with France]

In the meanwhile, the Greeks profited by the Turkish check at Navarino to assert themselves as an independent people. On January 18, Capodistrias, the former Prime Minister of Russia, was summoned from Geneva and made president of the Greek republic. His term of office was to last seven years. This eminent statesman justified his selection by immediate beneficent measures. A grand council of state was established and a national bank opened in Athens. With the help of France, immunity from further incursions from the Turks was practically assured. To preserve the status quo in Greece, Russia undertook to limit its single handed war on Turkey to operations on the mainland and in the Black Sea. Within the waters of the Mediterranean the Czar proposed to continue as an armed neutral in harmony with the other Powers under the treaty of London, and, to allay the apprehensions of Austria, the Russian forces in the Balkans were ordered to carry their line of operations as far as possible from Austria's sphere of influence. A still more effectual check on Austria was secured by the Czar's secret encouragement of French aspirations toward the Rhine. Charles X. exposed the plot when he said: "If the Czar attacks Austria, I will hold myself in reserve and regulate my conduct according to circumstances. If Austria attacks, I will instantly march against her." As Prince Metternich put it, "The two powers were at one: France against the European status quo; Russia against that of the Orient."

[Sidenote: Holy War proclaimed in Turkey]

[Sidenote: Russia declares war]

[Sidenote: Early success]

Although the recent Turkish concessions to Russia left to the Czar no ground for war, a pretext was supplied by Sultan Mahmoud himself. With true Turkish infatuation he chose this moment to issue a direct challenge to Russia. The Czar was denounced as the instigator of the Greek rebellion, and the arch enemy of Islam. The treaty of Akerman was declared null and void. A holy war was proclaimed against the Muscovites. "The Turk does not count his enemies. If all the unbelievers together unite against us we will enter on the war as a sacred duty, and trust to Allah for help." This proclamation was followed by the expulsion of all Christians from Constantinople. Unfortunately for the Sultan, his recent massacre of the Janizaries deprived him of the flower of his troops, and the reorganization of the Turkish army, which was the motive of that act, was only under way. For seven years the Russians had been preparing for this war. Nicholas lost no time in answering the Sultan's challenge. He replied with a declaration of war on April 26. Field Marshal Wittgenstein crossed the Pruth, while Paskievitch entered Asia Minor. The Russian troops overran the Roumanian provinces, Wallachia and Moldavia. The Danube was crossed early in June, under the eyes of the Czar. Unable to meet their enemy in the open field, the Turks withdrew into their strongholds, Ibraila and Silistria on the Danube, Varna and Shumla in the Balkans. The Russians besieged and stormed Ibraila, and thence pushed on through the Dubrudsha toward the Black Sea. In the meanwhile Paskievitch in Asia Minor defeated two Turkish armies and captured Erzeroum.

[Sidenote: Brionis victorious]

[Sidenote: Surrender of Varna]

After these early successes the Russian operations began to lag. The Czar's presence at headquarters was a source of embarrassment rather than of strength. Wittgenstein committed the error of dividing his army into three slender columns. Too weak to conduct forward operations, they were held in check before Silistria, Varna and Shumla. The Russian transport service, none too good at best, collapsed under the threefold strain. The ill-fed soldiers wasted away by thousands. At length Homer Brionis, the commandant of Shumla, took advantage of the weakness of his besiegers. On September 24 he broke out of Shumla and marched to the relief of Varna. The Czar, notwithstanding the evident weakness of his troops, ordered his cousin, Eugene of Wurtemberg, to check the Turkish advance with a frontal attack. The result was a severe defeat. Had Brionis marched onward Varna would have been relieved. He clung to Shumla, however, and the Turks at Varna were forced to surrender. It was late in autumn now, and cold weather put a stop to the campaign for the year. The display of military weakness seriously injured the prestige of Russia. The manifold mistakes of this campaign have been unsparingly laid bare in a famous monograph of Moltke. Henceforth the successful prosecution of the war became a sine qua non for Russia.

[Sidenote: Turks evacuate Morea]

[Sidenote: Vacillation in France]

During the progress of these events, French forces were landed in Greece. They occupied Navarino, Patras and Modon. The Turks gave in and consented to evacuate the Morea. In France, the ultra-royalist measures of Charles X. gave rise to an ever growing spirit of dissatisfaction. The death of Manuel, the outcast of the Chambers, was made the occasion of a great public demonstration. The coalition of Liberals with a faction of Royalists opposed to the Ministry had a brilliant triumph. Villele's Cabinet offered to resign. Instead of that, the King placed Martignac above him. "You are deserting M. Villele," said the Princess Royal to the King. "It is your first step downward from the throne." The Duc de Broglie wrote: "Should we succeed, after the fall of the present Ministry, in getting through the year tranquilly, it will be a triumphant success." By way of concession to the Liberals, a royal edict suppressed all the educational institutions maintained by the Society of Jesus. The effect of this measure was offset later in the year by renewed imprisonment and a heavy fine inflicted upon Beranger for writing political songs.

[Sidenote: South American revolutions]

[Sidenote: Mitre's resume]

Latin attempts at parliamentary government in America were productive of even more discouraging results. In the Argentine Republic, the army, after defeating the Brazilians, was led against its own government by General Lavalle. The administration was overturned and President Dorrego was shot. General Rosas became the leader of the Federalist forces and took the field against the revolutionists. In Chile, the different parties contending for the government patched up a precarious peace which was not destined to last long. In Colombia, the Nueva Granada of the Spaniards, Bolivar clung to the dictatorship. A new proclamation of dictatorial powers was issued by him on February 10. Soon afterward an insurrection broke out against him led by Peadella. Scarcely had this uprising been quelled when an attempt was made to kill Bolivar at his seat of government. Henceforth the history of Latin America degenerated into an endless series of revolutions and counter-revolutions. The only real strength supplied to the various republican governments, so called, was that derived from strong personal characters, yielding one-man power. General Mitre, the great statesman and historian of South America, has drawn up this striking resume of the fate of the foremost leaders of Spanish American revolutions. Their story is the quintessence of the subsequent turbulent career of Latin America during the Nineteenth Century.

[Sidenote: The gratitude of republics]

"The first revolutionists of La Paz and of Quito died on the scaffold. Miranda, the apostle of liberty, betrayed by his own people, died, alone and naked, in a dungeon. Moreno, the priest of the Argentine revolution, and the teacher of the democratic idea, died at sea, and found a grave in the ocean. Hidalgo, the first popular leader of Mexico, was executed as a criminal. Belgrano, the first champion of Argentine independence, who saved the revolution, died obscurely, while civil war raged around him. O'Higgins, the hero of Chile, died in exile, as Carrera, his rival, had done before him. Iturbide, the real liberator of Mexico, died a victim to his own ambition. Montufar, the leader of the revolution at Quito, and his comrade Villavicencio, the promoter of that of Cartagena, were strangled. The first presidents of New Granada, Lozano and Torres, fell sacrifices to colonial terrorism. Piar, who found the true base for the insurrection in Colombia, was shot by Bolivar, to whom he had shown the way to victory. Rivadavia, the civil genius of South America, who gave form to her representative institutions, died in exile. Sucre, the conqueror of Ayacucho, was murdered by his own men on a lonely road. Bolivar and San Martin died in exile."

[Sidenote: Dissension in North America]

[Sidenote: New tariff]

[Sidenote: North vs. South]

In North America, likewise, the radical issues between the Northern and Southern States produced ever more dissensions and discord. The question of State sovereignty was prominent in the discussion of the tariff law of 1828, and assumed more and more a sectional aspect. The North had grown rich and prosperous; when under free trade her energies were directed to agriculture and commerce. This was the more emphasized when, under a protective policy, her labor and her capital were devoted to the development of manufactures. The Southern States had originally desired a protective policy for their own supposed advantage; now they demanded free trade for the same reason. But the North had put much money into manufactures, and therefore demanded that Congress, which had placed her in this position, should protect her in it. So the tariff of 1828, the highest adopted in the United States up to that time, was a more comprehensive measure than any which preceded it, and was adjusted throughout to encourage Northern industry. New England was largely at one on this subject, and the Middle and Western States were practically united. Thus it became a question of party politics. From the tariff of 1828 dates a new era in American Federal legislation. The division between the North and the South began. Led by Daniel Webster, the New England States became advocates of the protective system. The question, from being a national issue, became distinctly sectional.

[Sidenote: Injustice to Indians]

[Sidenote: State rights precedent]

State sovereignty was the most important problem that presented itself during John Quincy Adams's administration. The trouble with the Creek and Cherokee Indians in Georgia brought this issue to the front. These tribes were now partially civilized, and were tilling their lands in contentment. Although they held their lands under treaty with the United States, Georgia sought to eject them. Instead of protecting the Indians the national government allowed Georgia to have its way and sent them to the Indian Territory. Thus was an individual State permitted to act in defiance of the national government.

[Sidenote: Industrial development]

[Sidenote: Webster's Dictionary]

[Sidenote: The "Book of Mormon"]

In other respects, it was a year of great prosperity and progress for the United States. The differences with British North America in regard to boundaries and to the proposed joint settlement of Oregon were amicably settled by arbitration. The question of indemnities arising out of the differences with England was likewise satisfactorily adjusted. England's recent introduction of railroads was eagerly followed up in America. The rails of the first American steam road were laid at Baltimore. They were made of wood covered with iron bars. At Baltimore, too, the manufacture of fire bricks was begun. Boston harbor beheld its first steamboat. The new canal between Providence and Worcester was opened and produced an instant increase of traffic for New England. In the other Eastern States factories grew in number and new processes were introduced. Thus, the first varnish made in America was produced at New York. Damask table linen was manufactured at Pittsburg. The first straw paper was turned out at Meadville, Pennsylvania. The planing mill was introduced. The Franklin Institute at Philadelphia awarded to Stephen Boyden of Newark the premium for his malleable castings. Arts and literature likewise flourished. Among the new paintings exhibited during this year in America were Inman's portrait of Halleck, Stuart's "Jared Sparks," Greenough's "Chanting Cherubs," Dunlap's "Calvary" and Thomas Cole's "Garden of Eden." At Boston the first lithographic press was established. Noah Webster published his dictionary. Fenimore Cooper brought out his American romances, "The Prairie" and "Red Rover," while Richard H. Dana published his "Buccaneer." A book of singular fruition was Joseph Smith's "Book of Mormon," a corrupted version of Spaulding's "The Manuscript Found."

[Sidenote: Heine's "Book of Songs"]

About the same time Wergeland in Norway published his tragedy, "Sinclair's Death." In Germany the appearance of the "Book of Songs," instantly raised Heine to the foremost rank among German lyric poets. The early influence of Byron was revealed by his masterly translations from "Manfred," and of the opening stanzas of "Childe Harold" and the lines addressed to "Inez." Most felicitous was Heine's German version of Byron's famous farewell to his wife:

"Fare thee well, and if forever, Still forever, fare thee well."

Heine's own lyrical pieces, now put forth in profusion, were fully equal to those of his English prototype. The "Book of Songs" throughout breathed the spirit of the poet's sad boast:

"From my heavy sorrows Made I these little songs...."

Heine's love songs, alone, by their subtile fusion of exquisite simplicity with cynicism in a perverse form, won him immediate recognition outside of Germany. This in itself has never been forgiven by the Germans. Such prejudice did not deter German song composers from setting to music Heine's melodious verses. Franz Schubert, the foremost song composer, just before his death found inspiration in Heine's poems for his famous "Swan Song."

[Sidenote: Death of Schubert]

Schubert died in Vienna on the 19th of October, at the age of thirty-one. Notwithstanding his brief career and lack of systematic schooling, he was one of the most prolific as well as original of German composers. His earliest extant song, "Hagar's Lament," was written at the age of fourteen. Such early master works as "Margaret at the Spinning Wheel," and the "Erl-King," both written for Goethe's words, mark the swift development of his genius. During his eighteenth year, when he wrote the "Erl-King," he composed no less than 144 songs. On one day alone he wrote eight. Besides this he composed two operettas, three song plays, three other stage pieces, four masses and several cantatas. In spite of his astonishing fecundity the young composer suffered signally from lack of recognition. His whole life was a long-drawn battle for subsistence. All his efforts to obtain a steady income were unavailing. Though he composed scores for no less than seventy-two of Goethe's lyrics, that great poet was indifferent to the young composer. Beethoven, too, gave him but reluctant recognition. Not until the year of his death did Schubert succeed in giving a public concert that was a pecuniary success. He was wretchedly underpaid by his publishers, and his greatest works utterly failed of contemporary recognition. He died in the depths of poverty. In accordance with his last request, Schubert was buried in the eastern graveyard at Waehring, close to the grave of Beethoven. Schubert achieved immortal fame as the creator of the modern lyric song. No less original were his effective transfers of the song motive to pianoforte music, as shown in his "Moments Musicales" and "Impromptus." Some of his symphonies, notably that in C and the "Fragment" in B minor, are equal to those of Beethoven.

[Sidenote: Moratin]

Spain lost one of her most distinguished modern playwrights by the death of Nicolas Fernandez de Moratin, a pupil of Goldoni, and the author of such enduring Spanish comedies as "El Baron," "La Mogigata" and "El Si de Las Ninas." Besides his plays, Moratin also wrote an authoritative work on the "Origins of the Spanish Stage."

Toward the end of the year the disorders in Portugal appeared to have subsided sufficiently to warrant the withdrawal of the British troops. Dom Miguel, the regent, promptly proclaimed himself King. After having grasped the reins of power, one of his first measures was the dissolution of the seven ancient estates of Portugal. In Spain King Ferdinand VII., in December, celebrated his wedding to Maria Christina of Naples.

[Sidenote: Huskisson]

[Sidenote: O'Connell]

[Sidenote: Robert Peel]

Domestic affairs in England at this turn furnished an all-absorbing topic. In the Cabinet, Huskisson's strong stand on the rotten borough question, with his desire to accord Parliamentary representation to the working people of Birmingham, had caused his expulsion from the Duke of Wellington's councils. His resignation was followed by that of the former members of the Canning Cabinet. Among those chosen to supply their place was Vesey Fitzgerald, member for County Clare in Ireland. His acceptance of office compelled him to go back to his constituents. It was then that Daniel O'Connell, the great leader of the Catholic Association in Ireland, saw his chance to strike a blow for Catholic emancipation. Though disqualified from sitting in the Commons as a Catholic, O'Connell ran against Fitzgerald. From the first Fitzgerald's cause was hopeless. The great landowners, to be sure, supported his cause with all their wealth and influence, but the small freeholders, to a man, voted against him. After a five days' poll, Fitzgerald withdrew from the contest. The result was that the hitherto irresistible influence of England's territorial aristocracy lay shattered. The Protestant conservatives of England were filled with consternation. Every debate in Parliament showed that the Catholic party was daily gaining strength, while the resistance of the government became weaker. It was clear that something must be done. At this crisis Robert Peel, hitherto the champion of the Protestant party in the House of Commons and Cabinet, became convinced of the necessity of yielding. He lost no time in imparting this conviction to the Duke of Wellington, his chief, and therewith offered his resignation. Wellington had learned a lesson from the events that followed Huskisson's withdrawal. He refused to let Peel go. Reluctantly he became a party to Peel's change of views. As late as December 11, Wellington wrote a letter to the Catholic primate of Ireland, deferring all hope of Catholic emancipation to the distant future. Before the year closed, however, Wellington, armed with the arguments of Peel, wrung from the King the Crown's consent to concede Catholic emancipation without delay. Peel, as the author of this radical measure, consented to take charge of the bill in Parliament.



1829

[Sidenote: Wellington's change of front]

At the opening of Parliament in England, the concessions of the government in regard to Catholic emancipation were revealed in the royal speech, delivered by commission. The great Tory party, thus taken unawares, was furious. The Protestant clergy opposed the bill with all their influence and clamored for a dissolution of Parliament. In the excited state of public feeling, an immediate appeal to the country would undoubtedly have wrecked the bill. Unable to carry out such a plan, the Tory opposition showed itself ready to unite with any party in order to defeat the measure and wreak vengeance on its framers. Within the Cabinet itself, Wellington's change brought him bitter opposition. When the bill was brought into Parliament in March, the Attorney-General, Sir C. Wetherell, not content with refusing to draw the bill, sprang up to explain his position.

[Sidenote: Wetherell's attack]

"Am I, then," he exclaimed, "to blame for refusing to do that, in the subordinate office of Attorney-General, which a more eminent adviser of the Crown, only two years ago, declared he would not consent to do? I dare them to attack me! I have no speech to eat up. I have not to say that a thing is black one day and white another. I would rather remain as I am, the humble member for Plympton, than be guilty of such treachery, such contradiction, such unexplained conversion, such miserable and contemptible apostasy.... They might have turned me out of office, but I would not be made such a dirty tool as to draw that bill. I have therefore declined to have anything to do with it." Of course, Wetherell was at once dismissed.

[Sidenote: Defeat of Peel]

[Sidenote: Emancipation of English Catholics]

But an opportunity to avenge his dismissal was soon afforded. Robert Peel, since he was not suffered to withdraw from the Ministry, felt in honor bound to go back to his constituents at Oxford. The Protestant party that had sent him to Parliament now opposed him with a simple country gentleman, in no wise his Parliamentary equal. Peel was crushingly defeated. On the other hand, the Whig party almost in a body went over to the government. With their help the Catholic Emancipation act was passed. The Tories waited only for the time to strike down their former leaders.

[Sidenote: Reforms in India]

[Sidenote: Fanny Kemble]

[Sidenote: Humphry Davy]

[Sidenote: Thomas Young]

The precarious position of Wellington's Ministry at home was offset by a firm policy abroad. In British India the new Governor-General, Lord Bentinck, upheld British prestige by his firm abolition of the native custom of burning widows and by his extermination of the roving gangs of Thugs. In regard to the Eastern Question and the war in the Balkans, England came to an agreement with Austria to frustrate Russia's plans with respect to Constantinople. Thanks to this entente cordiale between the two countries, enterprising English capitalists and engineers were allowed to put into operation the first line of steamboats that plied the waters of the Danube. Among other minor events of interest to Englishmen during this year, may be mentioned the first public appearance of Fanny Kemble, the actress, and the earliest boat race between student crews from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. England lost two of her famous scientists during this year—Sir Humphry Davy and Thomas Young. Davy was born in 1778 and died in Geneva. Besides inventing the miner's safety lamp, with which his name will be forever associated, he made valuable experiments in photography; discovered that the causes of chemical and electrical attraction are identical; produced potassium and sodium by the electric current; proved the transformation of energy into heat; formulated a theory of the properties of particles of matter (or atoms); and made remarkable experiments which led to the theory of the binary composition of chemical compounds. Young was born in 1773. At Cambridge they called him "Phenomenon Young," because he was said to know everything. In truth, Young developed into the most profound English scientist of the century. When only twenty he was asked to read papers before the Royal Society. In 1801 he delivered the Bakerian lecture, his subject being "The Theory of Light and Colors." That lecture marks an epoch in physical science; for it brought forward for the first time convincing proof of the correctness of the undulatory theory of light. The intangible substance which pulsates and undulates to produce light, Young christened the "luminiferous ether." And the term is still to be found in our scientific vocabulary.



[Sidenote: War in the Balkans]

[Sidenote: Battle of Kulevtcha]

[Sidenote: Fall of Adrianople]

[Sidenote: Powers save Turkey]

[Sidenote: Russia's hold on Turkey]

In the Balkans Russia's war with Turkey was waged with vigor. The winter months had been spent in bringing up reserves. The Czar withdrew from interference at headquarters, and Wittgenstein was superseded by General Diebitsch, a trained Prussian soldier. This general made preparations to cross the Balkans as soon as Silistria should have fallen, without waiting for the fall of Shumla. On the other side of the Balkans the Russian fleet made a diversion so as to prepare the way for joining forces on the banks of the Black Sea. In accordance with these plans Diebitsch sent a strong force against Silistria. Before anything had been effected in front of Silistria, Reshid Pasha, the Turkish Grand Vizier, moved eastward from Shumla and took the field against the weak Russian forces at Varna. He lost time, however, and suffered himself to be held at bay by the Russians. Diebitsch hurried across Bulgaria in forced marches. Coming up in Reshid's rear he could either fall upon Shumla or force the Turks to open battle. He chose the latter course. The Turks, harried in their rear, attempted to regain the roads to Shumla. On June 10, the two forces met in a pitched battle at Kulevtcha. Reshid was badly defeated, losing 5,000 men and forty-three guns, but made good his retreat to Shumla. Diebitsch had to lay siege to Shumla. Soon after this, Silistria fell into the hands of the Russians. Turning Varna over to the Bulgarians, and leaving a blockading force before Shumla, Diebitsch boldly crossed the Balkans. The resistance of the Turks was weak. On August 19, the Russians appeared before Adrianople. In the Black Sea the Russian frigate "Mercury" defeated two Turkish men-of-war. The Turks were seized with terror. Adrianople surrendered without a blow. In the Morea the Turks evacuated Tripolitza and Missolonghi and acknowledged the independence of Greece. The ports of the Black Sea, almost as far south as the Bosphorus, fell into Russian hands. Flying columns of the Russian army penetrated down to the AEgean coast and as far as the Euxine. Yet the Russians were so weak in numbers that anything like determined resistance could easily have checked them. As it was, all Turkish resistance collapsed before the Russian onward march toward Constantinople. The Sultan appealed to the Powers for help. England and Austria intervened, and peace was forced upon Russia. The treaty of Adrianople, signed on September 14, confirmed to Russia its protectorate over the Danubian principalities. No Mussulman was to be permitted to stay within the principalities, and all Turkish lands were to be sold within eighteen months. No fortified point on the left bank of the Danube was left to Turkey. Territory in Asia was ceded to Russia, as well as the ports of Poti and Anapa on the Black Sea. The waters of this sea were thrown open to international navigation; and the straits of Constantinople and the Dardanelles were declared open to the merchant ships of all powers at peace with the Porte. The payment of a money indemnity of 2,000,000 roubles to Russia was deferred, thus leaving to Russia the means for exerting pressure on the Yildiz Kiosk.

[Sidenote: French ambitions]

[Sidenote: Polignac Prime Minister]

[Sidenote: Liberal opposition]

Russia's acceptance of foreign mediation at Adrianople brought disappointment to France. Reverting to Napoleonic ambitions, King Charles's Ministers had proposed a partition of the Ottoman Empire on the basis of a general rearrangement of Europe. Russia was to have the Danubian provinces near the Austrian empire, Bosnia and Servia; Prussia was to have Saxony and Holland; Belgium and the Rhine provinces were to fall to France, and the King of Holland was to be installed in the Sultan's divan at Constantinople. It was a chimerical project which it was hoped might avert the impending troubles at home by dazzling acquisitions abroad. A formidable majority had been raised up against the government by its persistent encroachments upon the freedom of speech and of the press. Martignac's Ministry resigned and Prince Polignac, a crony of the King, was put in his place. In August, the "Journal des Debats" thundered against him: "Now again is broken that bond of love and confidence which joined the people to the monarch. The people pay a million of taxes to the law; they will not pay two millions on the orders of the Minister. What will he do then? Will he bring to his assistance the force of the bayonet? Bayonets in these days have become intelligent. They know how to defend the law. Unhappy France, unhappy King!" The Bertins were prosecuted for that article and condemned. It only made matters worse. Societies were formed throughout France to refuse the payment of taxes should the government attempt to raise them without the consent of the Chambers. In the face of this growing popular opposition, the King and his Minister resolved to prepare an expedition against Algiers. As Guizot put it, "They hope to get rid of their difficulties through conquest abroad and a resulting majority at home." The death of Paul Barras about this time served to revive revolutionary memories in France.

[Sidenote: The Schlegels]

The memory of Madame de Stael and her struggle for freedom of speech and of literary opinion against Napoleon were recalled by the death of her long-time friend and biographer, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm von Schlegel, brother of August Wilhelm, the German poet. Karl studied at Goettingen and Leipzig, devoting most of his time to the classics. It was his ideal to become the "Winckelmann of Greek Literature." Schlegel's first publication was "Greeks and Romans." In 1798 he wrote "Lucinda," an unfinished romance, and "Alarcos," a tragedy. In 1803 he joined the Roman Church, and several years later was appointed an imperial secretary at Vienna. He served as Consul of Legation for Austria in the German Diet at Frankfort. Besides his published lectures, Schlegel's chief works are: "History of the Old and New Literature" (1815), "Philosophies of Life" (1828), "Philosophy of History" (1829), and the posthumous work "Philosophy of Language." His wife, a daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, was the author of several works published under Schlegel's name. During the same year Pope Leo XII. died at Rome and was succeeded by Pius VIII.

[Sidenote: Andrew Jackson inaugurated]

In the United States of North America, John Quincy Adams was succeeded by Andrew Jackson. Calhoun was re-elected Vice-President. A motley crowd of backwoodsmen and mountaineers, who had supported Jackson, crushed into the White House shouting for "Old Hickory." For the first time the outgoing President absented himself from the inauguration of his successor. He had remained at his desk until midnight of the previous day signing appointments which would deprive Jackson of so much more patronage. Jackson took his revenge by the instant removal of 167 political opponents. His remark, "To the victor belong the spoils," became a byword of American politics. The system of rotation in office dates from his administration.

[Sidenote: "The Kitchen Cabinet"]

[Sidenote: "Pocket Vetoes"]

[Sidenote: Peggy O'Neill]

Jackson's first Cabinet was headed by Van Buren, with Samuel D. Ingham for Secretary of the Treasury. The President also encouraged a set of confidential advisers, among whom Kendall, Lewis and Hill were the most influential. They came to be known as the "Kitchen Cabinet." The regular members of the Cabinet were treated as mere head clerks. In one week Jackson vetoed more bills than any of his predecessors had done in four years. Other bills he held back until after the adjournment of Congress, and then failed to sign them. The bills remained, as it were, in the President's pocket. This new method of vetoing became notorious as the "Pocket Veto." In other respects Jackson's first administration was stormy. International relations were repeatedly threatened by the long-standing controversy over the indemnity for French spoliations. An adjustment of the indemnity claims with Denmark was likewise forced to an issue. At home, Jackson's abandonment of the principle of extreme protection and his hostility to the United States Bank lost him the support of the loose constructionists. As a Freemason, the President was likewise opposed by the new anti-Masonic party in politics. In a quarrel over the character of the wife of Secretary Eaton, the beautiful Peggy O'Neill, all Washington was involved. It was commonly believed that the subsequent break-up of Jackson's Cabinet was caused by the social bickerings among the wives of the members. Van Buren was the first to resign. Soon he was appointed Minister to England, but the Senate rejected him through the vote of Vice-President Calhoun. Jackson afterward took his revenge by defeating Calhoun's aspirations to the Presidency through Van Buren. The new Cabinet consisted of Livingston, McLean, Cass, Woodbury, Tracy and Berry. By reason of the new protective tariff, the States of Georgia and South Carolina, toward the close of 1829, returning to the Kentucky Resolutions of 1799, affirmed the right of any State to declare null and void any act of Congress which the State Legislature deemed unconstitutional. This was the doctrine of nullification which grew to secession in 1860.

[Sidenote: American development]

The industrial progress of the United States was little affected by the political dissensions during Jackson's first Presidential year. On July 4, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was opened. The first trip of an American locomotive was made on the Carbondale and Honesdale road. Throughout the country many canals were opened; to wit, the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, the Delaware and Hudson, and the Oswego in New York; the Farmington in Connecticut, and the Cumberland and Oxford Canal in Maine. Among the literary productions of the year were a collection of minor poems by Edgar Allan Poe, Parkman's earlier essays, Cooper's "Wept of the Wish-ton-Wish," Sparks's "John Ledyard," and Washington Irving's "Granada."