[Sidenote: Feargus O'Connor]

[Sidenote: Chartist leaders]

The "People's Charter" was submitted to a large public meeting and enthusiastically approved, and the leaders of the movement began to organize. They soon fell into two factions; those who were in favor of force and those in favor of agitation only. The leader of both parties was Feargus O'Connor, an Irish barrister, and once a follower of O'Connell, with whom he subsequently quarrelled. Associated with him as leaders of the movement at various periods were Lovett, Heatherington, Henry Vincent, Ernest Jones, and Thomas Cooper "the poet of Chartism."



[Sidenote: French expedition to Mexico]

[Sidenote: Coast towns bombarded]

In France, the sympathies of the people with the cause of the French Canadians were kept under firm control by the government of Louis Philippe. A dissolution of the Chambers, which modified the condition of the Assembly, served to strengthen the Ministry of Mole. To vent the feelings excited in behalf of the Frenchmen of Canada, the French Government picked a quarrel with the Republic of Mexico. Reparation was demanded late in March for injuries inflicted on French residents during the internal dissensions of Mexico. The demand was refused. A French squadron of warships, under Admiral Baudin and Prince de Joinville, was sent out to blockade the coast of Mexico. On November 27, San Juan de Ulloa was bombarded. Vera Cruz likewise suffered bombardment. The Argentine Republic became involved and declared war on France. French cruisers blockaded Buenos Ayres.

[Sidenote: Louis Napoleon returns]

[Sidenote: Alexandre Dumas]

On the occasion of his mother's death, Prince Louis Napoleon returned to Europe. His book, "Idees Napoleoniennes," which was widely read throughout France, at once drew attention upon him. At the request of the French Government he was expelled from Switzerland. Louis Philippe's friend, Alexandre Dumas, at this time achieved a popular success with his book "Le Capitaine Paul." Dumas's romantic plays and several of his latest comedies, written in the style of Scribe, were at the height of their vogue.

[Sidenote: Daubigny]

In the French salon of this year, Francois Daubigny, the great pupil of Delaroche, first exhibited his early masterpieces, "Banks of the River Oulins" and "The Seine at Charenton." Both paintings were purchased by the French Government.

[Sidenote: Poe]

[Sidenote: Hawthorne]

[Sidenote: Emerson]

[Sidenote: Wendell Phillips]

In America, a new writer had arisen in Edgar Allan Poe, who disputed the field with Longfellow and Whittier. Poe's "Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym," a story of marine adventures, which had begun in Poe's own journal, "The Messenger," was published in complete form by Harpers. Before this several of his works, among them that of "Ligeia," had already brought him into some prominence. Nathaniel Hawthorne during this same year wrote his early stories, which were afterward collected under the title of "Twice Told Tales." Ralph Waldo Emerson at Concord, Massachusetts, had begun to deliver those penetrating lectures which, rewritten in the form of essays, later established his rank as the foremost philosophic writer in America. Wendell Phillips made his appearance as a lecturer against slavery in Boston. Shortly before this a pro-slavery mob at Alton, Illinois, murdered the Rev. E.P. Lovejoy and destroyed the press and building of his newspaper, published in the interests of abolition. Abraham Lincoln, who had been re-elected to the Legislature of Illinois, voiced a strong protest against this and other pro-slavery tendencies in Illinois.

[Sidenote: Removal of Cherokees]

Other acts of persecution during this year brought lasting disgrace upon America. In direct violation of the Federal treaties with the Indians the State troops of Georgia forcibly removed 16,000 Cherokees from their lands in that State. Nothing was done to alleviate the sufferings of the Cherokees, who were driven from their settlements in midwinter. The resulting death rate was fearful. More than 4,500 Indians, or one-fourth of the whole number, perished before they reached their destination in the distant Indian Territory.

[Sidenote: Persecution of Mormons]

The members of the new sect of Mormon, numbering some 12,000 souls, were driven from their homes at Nauvoo in western Missouri. They went across the plains of Iowa, stopping temporarily at Council Bluffs. From there they passed over the great American prairies, and, crossing the Rocky Mountain range, settled near the Great Salt Lake of Utah.

[Sidenote: Record transatlantic trip]

Chicago was incorporated with a population of 4,170 residents. Much comment was excited by a record trip of the steamboat "Great Western," which steamed from Bristol, England, to New York in fifteen days. Among those who lived to witness this event was John Stevens, one of the pioneers of modern steamboat building. Shortly afterward he died in his eighty-ninth year.

[Sidenote: Indian truce broken]

[Sidenote: Betrayal of Osceola]

[Sidenote: Zachary Taylor in Florida]

Within a short time after suing for peace, the Southern Indians broke the truce and made a determined effort to take Fort Mellon. In this they were unsuccessful. In March, at Fort Dade, five of the chiefs signed an agreement, in which they stipulated to cease from war until the government decided whether they might remain in Florida. Some seven hundred Indians and negroes were taken by the government before its decision was announced, and were sent off to Tampa for shipment. In violation of a flag of truce, Osceola and several of his principal chiefs were seized and sent to Fort Moultrie as prisoners. Their treatment there was such that Osceola soon died. In May, Colonel Zachary Taylor succeeded Jesup. The remaining forces of the Indians were now wary. They scattered in the swamps, eluding attempts of organized troops to capture them. In December, Colonel Taylor set out with over a thousand men for their almost inaccessible haunts. On Christmas Day they found the Seminoles prepared to receive them near Okeechobee Lake. After a hard fought battle, in which Taylor lost 139 men, the Indians once more retreated into the swamps of Florida.

[Sidenote: Boers in Natal]

[Sidenote: Pretorius]

In South Africa during this year, the new community of Dutch settlers, who had evaded English jurisdiction, soon revived their peculiar institutions in the region that is now Natal—from the Drakensberg to the sea at Durban, and from the Tugela River to the Umzimbolbu. The fight against the African savages continued. Early in the spring, a Boer expedition was defeated by the Zulus, who followed up their advantage by an attack on the nearest Boer laager. Seventy Boers, with their Kaffir servants, were massacred. A large Boer settlement, numbering some 800 persons, was saved from extermination only by a timely relief expedition under Pretorius, in December. On the other side troubles arose between the Boers and the Bechuanas in consequence of King Moroka's prohibition of the importation of spirituous liquors into Bechuanaland. The growth of a new Dutch State to the north of Cape Colony caused uneasiness among the British authorities at Cape Town. A movement was started to extend British rule to Natal, and to secure the important seaport of Durban.



1839

[Sidenote: French hold on Mexico]

[Sidenote: Ancona evacuated]

[Sidenote: Status of Belgium]

[Sidenote: Fall of Mole's Ministry]

[Sidenote: French provincial government]

[Sidenote: Parisian revolt suppressed]

The French expedition against Mexico was brought to a successful close after the capture of the fort of San Juan d'Ulloa and the town of Vera Cruz. General Santa Anna's attempt to relieve Vera Cruz resulted only in another upheaval of the government at the capital. President Bustamente had to call in a new Ministry, with which, through the mediation of England, negotiations for peace were undertaken. On March 9, the terms of peace were concluded. Mexico had to pay an indemnity of $600,000. Further use for the French squadron in American waters was found in the complicated affairs of the small South American republics at the mouth of the Plata and the alleged injuries suffered by Frenchmen from the disordered state of affairs in Hayti. On the other hand, France withdrew its troops from the citadel of Ancona in the Papal dominions, simultaneously with the withdrawal of the Austrian forces of occupation from the Papal States. The long-pending difficulties between Belgium and Holland were brought to a settlement at last by the King of Holland's acceptance of the conditions of separation fixed by the international conference. The abandonment of Casimir Perier's vigorous foreign policy in Europe was viewed with regret by the Liberal party in France. Guizot combined with Thiers and Odilon Barrot against the Ministry, and thus accomplished its downfall, though they retained Marshal Soult, the most popular member of Mole's Cabinet. "I must have that gallant sword," remarked Louis Philippe. Their efforts to conduct the government proved a failure. The King established a provisional government in their place, which prolonged the crisis. On May 12, an insurrection broke out in the most populous quarters of Paris. Under the leadership of Barbes, Bernard and others, attacks were made on the Hotel de Ville, the Palace of Justice and the Prefecture of Police. The revolt had to be put down by merciless measures. Marshal Soult was placed at the head of the government to the exclusion of Guizot and Odilon Barrot, while Thiers was made president of the Chambers. Guizot employed his leisure time to write his famous "Life of Washington." About the same time Daguerre published his new invention of making the sun prints which were called daguerreotypes after him. A life pension of 6,000 francs was awarded to him by the government of Louis Philippe. The interest in the family of Bonaparte and its dreaded pretensions in France was revived by the death of Letizia Buonaparte, the mother of Napoleon, in her eighty-ninth year. The first problem confronting the new administration of France was the fresh trouble that had broken out in the Orient.

[Sidenote: Turkish-Egyptian War]

[Sidenote: Battle of Nissiv]

[Sidenote: Abdul Medjid, Sultan]

The long-brewing war between Sultan Mahmoud of Turkey and his vassal, Mehemet Ali of Egypt, broke out in May. In the face of new assurances of peace, the Sultan ordered his commander-in-chief of the Euphrates to commence hostilities. The Turkish troops crossed the Euphrates on May 23. In spite of the good counsels of Moltke and other European officers at the Turkish headquarters, the Turks were outmanoeuvred by the Egyptian forces under Ibrahim. June 24, Ibrahim Pasha inflicted a crushing defeat on the Turkish army at Nissiv. All the artillery and stores fell into his hands. The Turkish army dispersed in another rout. Mahmoud II. did not live to hear of the disaster. One week after the battle of Nissiv, before news from the front had reached him, he died. The throne was left to his son, Abdul Medjid, a youth of sixteen.

[Sidenote: Turkish fleet betrayed]

[Sidenote: Anglo-French intervention]

[Sidenote: French diplomacy offset]

Scarcely had the new Sultan been proclaimed when the Turkish admiral, Achmet Fevzi, who had been sent out to attack the coast of Syria, sailed into Alexandria and delivered his fleet over to Mehemet Ali. Turkey, now practically rulerless, was left without defence, on land and on water. Mehemet Ali not only declared Egypt independent of the Porte, but, encouraged by France, prepared to move on Constantinople. In this extremity the foreign Ambassadors at Constantinople addressed a collective note to the Divan, announcing European intervention. Shortly afterward a squadron of British and French warships sailed into the Dardanelles for the ostensible purpose of protecting Constantinople against Mehemet Ali, in reality to prevent Russia from profiting by the terms of its treaty of Unkiar Skelessi. In vain did Russia propose to join the coalition. The recent acquisition of Aden gave England the upper hand. Russian diplomacy accordingly directed itself toward effecting a breach between the allies. A good opening was afforded by the French intrigues at Cairo, which fell in with the ambitions of Mehemet Ali. As a result, France was gradually crowded out of the European coalition during the course of 1839.

[Sidenote: Decamps]

At the French Salon of this year Decamps exhibited his celebrated "Punishment of the Hooks," "Executioners at the Door of a Prison," and "Children Playing with Turtles." Decamps with Delacroix, the leader of the French school of romanticism, was praised at this time for the exceeding charm of his colors.

[Sidenote: Rise of English Conservatives]

England during this period passed through a Cabinet crisis. The popularity of Melbourne's Ministry was waning. Lord Melbourne was a typical Whig, opposed to the policy of the Tories, or, as they were beginning to be called at that time, the Conservatives. The alteration in title is attributed to John Wilson Croker, who, in the "Quarterly Review," referred to "what is called the Tory, but which might with more propriety be called the Conservative party." This new name was indorsed by Lord John Russell, who said, "If that is the name that pleases them, if they say that the old distinction of Whig and Tory should no longer be kept up, I am ready, in opposition to their name of Conservative, to take the name of Reformer, and to stand by that opposition." Sir Robert Peel defined Conservatism when he said, "My object for some years past has been to lay the foundation of a great party, which, existing in the House of Commons, and deriving its strength from the popular will, should diminish the risk and deaden the shock of collisions between the two branches of the legislature."

[Sidenote: Fall of Melbourne Ministry]

[Sidenote: Bedchamber question]

In May, the government's proposition to suspend the Constitution of Jamaica brought about the fall of the Ministry. The measure was sustained by a majority of only five. The Queen sent for Sir Robert Peel. Her wish to retain as ladies of her household the wife and sister of two members of the last Cabinet brought forth a respectful remonstrance from Peel. The Queen replied in this wise: "The Queen having considered the proposal made to her yesterday by Sir Robert Peel, to remove the Ladies of her Bedchamber, cannot consent to a course which she considers to be contrary to usage, and is repugnant to her feelings."

[Sidenote: Queen Victoria yields]

This ended Peel's attempt to form a Ministry and Melbourne was recalled. The question created much discussion at the time. Lord Brougham maintained that Lord Melbourne "had sacrificed liberal principles and the interests of the country to the private feelings of the sovereign." "I thought," he said, "that we belonged to a country in which the government by the Crown and the wisdom of Parliament was everything, and the personal feelings of the sovereign were absolutely not to be named at the same time." In the end the Queen yielded her point. A statement was put forth that "the Queen would listen to any representation from the incoming Prime Minister as to the composition of her household, and would arrange for the retirement, of their own accord, of any ladies who were so closely related to the leaders of Opposition as to render their presence inconvenient."

[Sidenote: Chartist agitation]

On behalf of the Chartists large public meetings were organized in London and in all parts of England at which violent speeches were made. On the 1st of April, at a public meeting in Edinburgh to support the Ministry, the Chartists took possession of the platform, ejected the Lord Provost, and passed their own resolutions. On the same day at Devizes, in Wiltshire, Vincent entered the town at the head of about a thousand men, carrying sticks, and attempted to address them in the market-place. In May, the Chartist National Convention removed from London to Birmingham. There they were met by a mob of five thousand persons and conducted through the principal streets to the meeting-place.

[Sidenote: Chinese oppose opium trade]

[Sidenote: English opium destroyed]

[Sidenote: British resentment]

[Sidenote: Chinese orders defied]

[Sidenote: Opening of hostilities]

[Sidenote: Sea fight off Chuenpee]

[Sidenote: British squadron sails for China]

Meanwhile, Great Britain was embroiled in another Oriental war. The despatch of Admiral Maitland and Captain Elliot to China to deal with the difficulties growing out of the English opium trade there only served to make the situation more acute. In January, Emperor Taouk-Wang ordered Lin Tsiaseu, Viceroy of Houk Wang, to proceed to Canton to put a definite stop to the opium traffic. The peremptory instructions given to Commissioner Lin were "to cut off the fountain of evil, and if necessary to sink the British ships and to break their caldrons, since the hourly thought on the Emperor's part was to do away with opium forever." Within a week of Lin's arrival at Canton he issued an edict wherein he stigmatized the foreigners as a heartless people who thought only of trade and of making their way by stealth into the Flowery Land, whereas the laws of England, he asserted, prohibited the smoking of opium in their own country. A demand was made to surrender to him all stores of opium within three days. To enforce this demand, Chinese troops were concentrated around the European settlement. Eventually more than 20,000 chests of opium were seized and dumped into the sea. After this triumph, Lin wrote a letter to Queen Victoria calling upon her government to interdict the importation of opium. At the same time a memorial was sent to England by the British merchants of Canton begging the government to protect them against "a capricious and corrupt government" and demanding compensation for the opium confiscated by the Chinese. On the part of the British Government no answer was vouchsafed to the demands of the viceroy. In China, matters took their course. Captain Elliot at Canton, on May 22, issued a notice in which he protested against the action of the Chinese Government "as utterly unjust per se," and advised all British merchants to withdraw to Hong Kong. The merchants acted on the suggestion, and the English factory at Canton, which had existed for nearly 200 years, was abandoned. The British sailors in Chinese waters threw off all restraint. Frequent collisions occurred between them and the natives. In one of them a Chinaman was killed. The Chinese viceroy denounced this act as "going to the extreme of disobedience to the laws" and demanded the surrender of the British sailor who perpetrated the murder. This demand was flatly refused. The Chinese thereupon refused to furnish further supplies to the ships and prohibited all British sailors from coming ashore on Chinese soil. The official notice said: "If any of the foreigners be found coming on shore to cause trouble, all and every one of the people are permitted to withstand and drive them back, or to make prisoners of them." The English naval officers retaliated by sending out their men to seize by force whatever they needed. A boat's crew of the British ship "Black Jack" was massacred. Thus hostilities began. Two British men-of-war exchanged shots with the forts in the Bogue. On November 3, the two frigates "Volage" and "Hyacinth" were attacked by twenty-nine junks-of-war off Chuenpee. A regular engagement was fought and four of the junks were sunk. On the news of the fight at Chuenpee, Emperor Taouk-Wang promoted the Chinese admiral. On December 6, an imperial edict prohibiting all trade with Great Britain was issued. Already a strong British squadron was on its way to China.

[Sidenote: War with Afghans]

[Sidenote: Fall of Kandahar]

[Sidenote: British enter Kabul]

[Sidenote: Failure of Russian counter move]

Simultaneously with these troubles the British had become embroiled in war with the Afghans. The ostensible purpose was to depose Dost Mohammed Khan from his usurpation of the throne of Afghanistan. In reality this chieftain had aroused the ire of England by entering into negotiations with Russia, after Lord Auckland had declined to call upon Runjit Singh to restore Peshawar to Afghanistan. When it was learned that a Russian mission had been received at Kabul, the British Government resolved to dethrone Dost Mohammed Khan and to restore Shah Shuja to the throne of Kabul. War was declared at Simla. Columns were sent out from Bombay and Bengal and were united at Quetta under the command of Sir John Keene. Kandahar was captured in April. In July, Ghasni was taken by storm. It was on this occasion that Sir Henry Durand, then a young subaltern, distinguished himself by blowing up the Ghasni gate. In August, the British entered Kabul. Dost Mohammed Khan fled over the Oxus into Bokhara. Shah Shuja was restored as ruler of Afghanistan under the tutelage of a British resident minister. In response to Dost Mohammed's appeals, the Russian Government sent out an expedition toward Khiva, in November; but the winter weather in the mountains was so severe that the expedition had to return.

[Sidenote: British colonial problems]

Other problems engaged the attention of the British Colonial Office. A rebellion in Borneo had to be suppressed by force of arms. In Canada, the new Governor-General, Charles Pollot Thompson, later Lord Sydenham, found it difficult to carry out Durham's scheme of union. In November, martial law had to be declared again at Montreal. The reported discovery of gold by Count Strzelescki in New South Wales, and the discovery of copper in South Australia, drew great numbers of emigrants thither. New Zealand was incorporated in New South Wales. The wild financial speculations engendered by these changes plunged almost all of Australia into bankruptcy. In Cape Colony the public school system was introduced by Sir W. Herschel.

[Sidenote: Industrial development]

[Sidenote: Charles Darwin]

In England, it was a period of material advances in civilization. Postal reforms were introduced by Sir Roland Hill. In July, a bill for penny postage was introduced in Parliament, resulting in a new postage law providing a uniform rate of fourpence per letter. New speed records were made on land and on water. While the steam packet "Britannia" crossed from Halifax to Liverpool in ten days, the locomotive "North Star" accomplished a run of thirty-seven miles in one hour. Wheatstone perfected his invention of a telegraph clock. A patent was obtained for the process of obtaining water gas. Charles Darwin, having returned from his scientific travels on H.M.S. "Beagle," published his "Journal of Researches."

[Sidenote: Death of Schelling]

[Sidenote: Agassiz]

A loss to German philosophic literature was the death of Joseph Schelling, whose theories formed the main inspiration of the romantic poet Novalis. Agassiz, the naturalist, published his original researches on fresh-water fishes.

[Sidenote: Schwann's cell theory]

[Sidenote: Liebig's theory of fermentation]

It was then that Dr. Theodore Schwann, stimulated in his microscopic researches by the previous discoveries of Robert Brown, Johannes Mueller and Schleiden, propounded the famous cell theory in his work, "Microscopic Researches Concerning the Unity in the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants." Schwann's book became a scientific classic almost from the moment of its publication. It was Schwann, too, who, simultaneously with Cagniard la Tour, discovered the active principle of gastric juice to be the substance which he named pepsin. The cell theory was for some time combated by the most eminent German men of science. Thus Liebig, in apparent agreement with Helmholtz, took a firm stand against the new doctrine with his famous "theory of fermentation" promulgated this same year.

[Sidenote: Death of William Smith]

[Sidenote: The new geology]

In England, William Smith, "the father of English geology," died. Born in 1769, Smith, like many another English scientist, was self-taught and perhaps all the more independent for that. He discovered that the fossils in rocks, instead of being scattered haphazard, are arranged in regular systems, so that any given stratum of rock is labelled by its fossil population; that the order of succession of such groups of fossils is always the same in any vertical series of strata in which they occur, and that a fossil, having once disappeared, never reappears in a later stratum. The facts which he unearthed were as iconoclastic in their field as the discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo.

[Sidenote: Spanish civil war]

[Sidenote: Carlist reverses]

[Sidenote: Flight of Don Carlos]

[Sidenote: Decline of Spain]

In Spain, a signal defeat of the Carlists at Pennecerrada during the previous year had caused a decisive turn in the civil war. Don Carlos' attempted march on Madrid had to be abandoned, and was followed by the retreat of his forces to the Ebro. General Espartero forced back the Carlist forces step by step, and carried the fight into the Basque provinces. There the struggle degenerated into a war of extermination. The Carlist leaders turned against one another. The priests excommunicated the generals, and the generals in turn shot the priests. At last, by the middle of September, so many of the insurgents had surrendered to Espartero that Don Carlos found himself almost without followers. He gave up the struggle and fled into France. This ended the civil war. It had lasted six weary years, and had proved almost as disastrous for Spain as the great Peninsular War. Robbed of her former colonial resources, excepting only those from Cuba and the Philippines, Spain's finances were all but ruined. Of industrial progress there was next to none. The country relapsed into semi-barbarism.

[Sidenote: American Whig Convention]

[Sidenote: Henry Clay's candidacy.]

[Sidenote: Financial failures]

[Sidenote: Longfellow's poems]

In the United States, prominent Northern abolitionists met at Warsaw, New York, and resolved to form an independent political party. A Whig Convention, the first of such gatherings, was held at Harrisburg, fifteen months before the next Presidential election. Harrison was nominated for President and John Tyler for Vice-President. In the West, Henry Clay, popularly known as "Harry of the West," was the ideal of a strong minority. His repeated failures to attain the Presidency led to the remark: "He is too good a man to be President." The first session of the Twenty-sixth Congress opened in December. An organization of the House was at last effected by John Quincy Adams, who put a question to vote which the Speaker had refused to present. The Representatives indulged for the first time in the practice of "pairing off." Adams opposed this, declaring that it was a violation of the Constitution, of an express rule of the House which the Representatives owed to their constituents. Another event of the year in America was the failure of the United States Bank at Philadelphia, in consequence of speculations in cotton, as the result of which the government lost $2,000,000 of its deposits. Other bank failures followed. Mississippi repudiated $5,000,000 of its State bonds. The first power loom for making carpets was set up at Lowell, Massachusetts. Charles Goodyear obtained his first patent for making vulcanized rubber. The express business was organized by Harndon, who sent his first pack from New York to Boston by the public messenger. Longfellow published his romance "Hyperion," and "Voices of the Night," a collection of verses embracing some of his most widely known poems. In the same year appeared Willis's "Letters from Under a Bridge" and Cooper's "History of the Navy."

Toward the close of the year, Queen Victoria held a Privy Council at Buckingham Palace, at which she announced her intention to marry her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

[Sidenote: Queen Victoria's betrothal]

Greville wrote in his diary that "about eighty Privy Councillors were present, the folding-doors were thrown open, and the Queen came in, attired in a plain morning gown, but wearing a necklace containing Prince Albert's portrait. She read the declaration in a clear, sonorous, sweet tone of voice, but her hand trembled so excessively that I wonder she was able to read the paper which she held."

All this time the agitation for the People's Charter in England went on unabated. In the autumn, St. Paul's Cathedral in London was temporarily taken possession of by a large body of Chartists. Churches were likewise entered in Manchester.

[Sidenote: Popular riots in England]

[Sidenote: The Charter propaganda]

At Newport, in Monmouthshire, an organized attempt was made, under the leadership of John Frost and Zephaniah Williams, to rescue Henry Vincent from prison. Armed with guns, crowbars and pick-axes the mob poured into the town twenty thousand strong. They were met by a small body of soldiery, and after a sharp conflict were scattered with a loss of ten killed and fifty wounded. The leaders were arrested and condemned in court. A vast periodical literature kept alive the agitation. Among the new Chartist newspapers were the "Northern Star," the property and the organ of Feargus O'Connor; the London "Despatch"; the Edinburgh "New Scotsman"; the Newcastle "Northern Liberator"; the Birmingham "Journal," and many others.



1840

[Sidenote: England declares war on China]

The Chinese edict prohibiting all trade and intercourse with England was put in force on January 5. The English missionaries in China fled to Hong Kong, which port was put in readiness for defence against the Chinese. Great Britain declared war, and sent out an expedition consisting of 4,000 troops on board twenty-five transports, with a convoy of fifteen men-of-war.

[Sidenote: End of Dingaan]

In South Africa, during January, the Boers inflicted a crushing defeat on the Zulus under Dingaan. The Zulu King himself was killed. His brother, Upanda, succeeded him as ruler.

[Sidenote: Union of Upper and Lower Canada]

[Sidenote: Canadian boundary commission]

On the other side of the globe, the legislative union of Upper and Lower Canada was at last effected, after a separation of forty-nine years. Each had equal representation in the common legislature, with practical concession on the part of the mother country of responsible government. Kingston was selected as the new seat of government, to be shifted presently to Montreal. To settle the long pending boundary dispute between Canada and the United States, a commission was appointed, consisting of Lord Ashburton for England and Daniel Webster for America. Between the line claimed by Great Britain and that demanded by the United States lay 12,000 square miles of territory. The commission sat all the year.

[Sidenote: American Presidential election]

[Sidenote: Morse]

[Sidenote: Draper]

[Sidenote: Florence]

[Sidenote: Fanny Ellsler]

The American Senate early in the year passed the Sub-Treasury bill. By this measure it was required that the national funds should be kept at Washington, and in federal sub-treasuries in some of the large cities, subject to the orders of the Washington office. The first National Convention against anti-slavery met at Albany. James G. Birney, a Kentuckian, was nominated for President. The Whigs were incensed at the nomination and Birney withdrew. The Democratic National Convention at Baltimore unanimously renominated Van Buren. The political campaign that followed began a new era in American elections. The facilities of transit effected by the railroads now first rendered possible immense gatherings at central points. In May, 20,000 political followers gathered at Baltimore in Harrison's interest. The contest had just opened, when a leading Democratic paper stated "if some one would present Harrison with a barrel of cider he would sit down on a log content and happy the rest of his days." The log cabin and hard cider jug forthwith became the emblems of the Whigs. Log cabin songs were heard, with shouts for "Tippecanoe, and Tyler too." All the Middle States gave their majorities to Harrison. Harrison and Tyler were elected by a vote of 1,275,017 to 1,128,702 for Van Buren. It was a political revolution, breaking the Democratic success of forty years. It was during this year that Samuel F.B. Morse obtained his first American patent on the telegraph. William Draper of New York turned out the most successful daguerreotype portraits yet obtained. Florence, the actor, made his first appearance at the National Theatre in Philadelphia, while Fanny Ellsler appeared at the Park Theatre in New York City. Ralph Waldo Emerson published the "Dial." Other notable publications in American letters were Poe's "Tales of the Arabesque and Grotesque," Willis's "Loiterings of Travel," Cooper's "Pathfinder," and Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast."

[Sidenote: New Mexico]

[Sidenote: Yucatan]

[Sidenote: Revolution in Mexico]

[Sidenote: Dom Pedro II. of Brazil]

[Sidenote: General Lavalle shot]

In Central and South America, it was likewise a year of political upheavals. The Yankee settlers of Texas maintained their independence against Mexico. Their movement was joined by the Northern States along the Rio Grande. The independent State of New Mexico was formed. Yucatan likewise became an independent government. On July 25, a revolution broke out in the City of Mexico. General Urrea captured in person President Bustamente. After two days Bustamente was released on a pledge of general amnesty and administrative reforms. Santander, the first President of Colombia, died in May. The election of Marquez to the Presidency was followed by civil war. The province of Cartagena seceded from Colombia. The union of Central American States was dissolved, and Costa Rica became an independent republic. In Brazil, another political overturn resulted in material changes in the Constitution. In July, the Brazilian Legislature declared Dom Pedro II., then still under age, Emperor of Brazil. In the Argentine Republic, General Lavalle, who had taken the field against his opponents, was utterly defeated and shot. A new treaty was concluded between Argentina and Montevideo.

[Sidenote: Hawaiian Islands recognized]

In the distant South Seas, the Hawaiian Islands were recognized as an independent kingdom by the Powers on the condition that free access be given to white missionaries and the teachings of Christianity.

[Sidenote: Oriental problems]

[Sidenote: Egypt's status defined]

In regard to the affairs of the Orient, the Powers found agreement more difficult. France gave continued support to the pretensions of Mehemet Ali of Egypt against Turkey. The French scheme to anticipate Russia's designs on Constantinople by a dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of Mehemet Ali at Constantinople found little favor with the Powers. The Russian statesmen understood the true weakness of Turkey, and were willing to bide their time. Metternich and Lord Palmerston clung to the belief that the Ottoman Empire could still be reconstructed. Thus Lord Palmerston said at this time: "All that we hear about the decay of the Turkish Empire, and its being a dead body, or a sapless trunk, and so forth, is pure and unadulterated nonsense." Metternich affected to look upon Mehemet Ali as a mere rebel. At last, on July 15, the negotiators of Great Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia, without waiting for France, concluded a treaty at London. Egypt was offered to Mehemet Ali in perpetuity with southern Syria for his lifetime. If this offer was not accepted within ten days, Egypt alone was to be ceded; if, after twenty days, this alternative were not accepted, joint action was to be taken against Mehemet Ali.

[Sidenote: France slighted]

[Sidenote: French pretensions on the Rhine]

[Sidenote: Becker's Rhine song]

[Sidenote: Musset's defiance]

The exclusion of France from the concert of Europe aroused a storm of anger at Paris. Guizot, the French Ambassador at London, expostulated with Lord Palmerston. Thiers, then at the head of affairs in France, issued orders for an increase of the strength of army and navy. The long-delayed fortifications at Paris were begun. Military spirit was so awakened in France that the familiar cry was raised to avenge Waterloo and recover the Rhine. The Germans fiercely resented this threat of invasion, prompted largely by French exasperation over the turn which Egyptian affairs had taken. Even the Rhenish provinces, which owed so much to France, shared in this national feeling. It was at this time that Becker, himself a man from the Rhine, wrote the lines which in later years became one of Germany's most famous war songs:

"Sie sollen ihn nicht haben Den freien deutschen Rhein."

Alfred de Musset answered this with his defiant verses:

"Nous avons eu votre Rhin Allemand,"

[Sidenote: Napoleonic memories]

[Sidenote: Louis Napoleon's second fiasco]

Under the stress of this new military ardor in France, agitation was revived for the return of Napoleon Bonaparte's remains from St. Helena to France. The consent of the British Government having been obtained, a decree to this effect was passed by the French Chambers. Other events helped to fan to fresh life the smouldering flames of Napoleonic imperialism. Thus the death of Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's eldest brother, and of Marshal MacDonald, hero of Wagram, recalled a host of Napoleonic memories. On August 6, Prince Louis Napoleon deemed the time ripe for another Napoleonic rising. Crossing over from England with General Moltenon and fifty followers he attempted to incite an insurrection at Vimereux near Boulogne. He hoped to re-enact the events after Elba. Once more his plans ended in a fiasco. "Bonaparte or not, I see in you only a conspirator," exclaimed Colonel Puygelier. The conspirators fled back to their boat and capsized. Louis Napoleon was taken and sentenced to life imprisonment within the fortress of Ham. As a sop to popular feeling, King Louis Philippe permitted the bronze statue of the Great Napoleon to be replaced on the column of the Grande Armee in Paris.



[Sidenote: Prince Consort Albert]

[Sidenote: First attempt to assassinate Victoria]

In England, great popular rejoicings had been occasioned by the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. A bill was passed appointing the Prince Consort regent of England in case of the Queen's death. The royal couple were well matched. The credit of having brought about this marriage was chiefly due to Lord Melbourne. The tactful conduct of Prince Albert after the marriage fully justified his choice. Yet Prince Albert was never popular in England. Parliament cut down his proposed income from the Crown by nearly one half. The lower classes were prejudiced against him as a foreigner, while the nobility and army turned against him when they found that he preferred the society of men eminent for their intellectual attainments to that of dukes and marquises. On June 10, an insane pot-boy named Oxford attempted to assassinate the Queen and the Prince Consort with a pistol. The would-be assassin was confined in an asylum. On November 21, Queen Victoria gave birth to her eldest child, Augusta, who subsequently became Empress of Germany.

[Sidenote: First Charter petition]

[Sidenote: Jack Frost's revolt]

Other English events of domestic importance were the passage of the vaccination act, the introduction of screw propellers in the British navy, and the State trial of the three leaders of the Chartist movement of the previous year. A monster petition subscribed by 1,280,000 signatures on a great cylinder was rolled into Parliament. In it were embodied new demands for a bill of rights, or the "People's Charter," comprising universal suffrage, including that of woman, secret ballots, payment of Parliamentary representatives, and the like. The denial of this petition provoked a popular uprising under the leadership of Jack Frost at Newport, which had to be suppressed by the military. After a sensational trial, the leaders were condemned to deportation.

[Sidenote: Death of Beau Brummel]

Echoes of the English Regency were re-awakened by the death of "Beau" Brummel, a dandy after the manner of the French exquisites. It was a boast of this leader of fashion that he spoiled twenty-five cravats before one was tied to his liking. The Prince Regent in his dress imitated Brummel. The offended beau retaliated one day, when some of his friends saluted the Prince on Rotten Row, by asking, "Who is your fat friend?" Leigh Hunt improved upon this in his "Examiner" by describing the Prince as "a corpulent Adonis of fifty." For this Hunt was sentenced to imprisonment for two years and fined L500. After George IV. became king, Brummel fell into disfavor and had to leave London. Years later, the bankrupt beau, who had been cheated out of a snuff-box by Prince George, presented the King with another in token of submission. In the words of Thackeray, "the King took the snuff, and ordered his horses, and drove on, and had not the grace to notice his old companion—favorite, rival, enemy, superior." Poor Beau Brummel died in extreme poverty. Some of the striking episodes of the beau's career were dramatized in a play, which has kept alive the memory of this lesser light of modern English society.

[Sidenote: Death of Paganini]

[Sidenote: Foremost violin virtuoso]

[Sidenote: Genius and charlatan]

[Sidenote: Paganini's compositions]

The career of another striking figure of the Nineteenth Century was ended by the death of Paganini, the most remarkable of violin virtuosi. The son of a poor shopkeeper, with little musical knowledge, but of some proficiency on the mandolin, Paganini received an indifferent early schooling in music. After the boy had come under the tutelage of Costa, the orchestral leader of Genoa, his progress on the violin was rapid. At the age of eight he composed a violin sonata. Soon he surpassed his instructors. At sixteen he ran away from his father, after a concert at Lucca, and made a tour of his own through Italy. Already he was addicted to gambling and other forms of dissipation. At Leghorn he had to sell his violin to pay a gambling debt. A Frenchman, M. Levron, lent him his own Guarnero violin. When he heard him play on it he was so charmed that he made him a present of the instrument. Paganini kept the Guarnero throughout the rest of his life. It was the turning-point of his career. After two years of incessant practice, Paganini appeared in public again at Lucca, where he aroused unbounded enthusiasm by his novel performances on the G string. For the next twenty years he travelled and played throughout Italy, vanquishing all rivals. His superstitious countrymen believed him to be in league with the Evil One, an impression which Paganini loved to confirm by dark utterances and eccentricities of dress. Not until 1828 did he leave his own country to gather foreign laurels. His first appearance at Vienna was an unprecedented triumph. The Emperor appointed him court violinist and the city of Vienna presented him with a gold medal. From there he made a triumphal tour through Europe, appearing in Berlin, Paris and London. He was acknowledged the most wonderful violinist that had ever been heard. He soon amassed a colossal fortune. Withal, Paganini was almost as much a charlatan as he was an original genius. He liked to impress his audiences by fantastic eccentricities and by mere tricks of legerdemain, such as dropping and catching his instrument, or breaking one string after another to finish his concert on one alone. Other tricks of virtuosity, such as tuning up the A string by a semi-tone, left hand pizzicato, or his double thirds, were executed with such stupendous technique that they held connoisseurs and amateurs spellbound. His individuality, in fact, was so abnormal that it rendered him unfit to play with others in quartets or other chamber music. As a man he had all the worst faults of a genius. The vast sums of money which he accumulated were gambled away. His whole life was disgraced by unbridled sensuality coupled with sordid avarice. This explains in a measure Paganini's inferior rank as a composer. Famous are his variations on the tune "God Save the King," his "Studies," his twenty variations on "Il Carnevale di Venezia," and the concert allegro "Perpetual Motion." The celebrated twenty-four violin capricci, written early in Paganini's career, have been rendered familiar by their transcriptions to the pianoforte by Schumann and Liszt. Paganini died from the results of dissipation. He left his famous Guarnero fiddle to his birthplace, Genoa.

[Sidenote: Frederick William IV. King of Prussia]

In Germany, King Frederick William III. of Prussia died in his sixty-sixth year. He was succeeded by Frederick William IV. The pending dispute between the Prussian Government and the Vatican, arising out of the refusal of the Rhenish priests to sanction marriages between Catholics and Protestants, found a temporary adjustment by the new king's concessions to the clergy.

[Sidenote: Religious discussions]

[Sidenote: Chinese naval brigade]

[Sidenote: Capture of Chusan]

In England, too, church questions temporarily rose uppermost during debates in Parliament over the proposed government assistance to schools in which the Douay Bible, or Roman Catholic version of the Scriptures, was used. On account of these Parliamentary debates, and the attempted reform of Irish registration by which more Roman Catholic voters were to be admitted, a loud anti-Popery cry was raised by the English Tories. Once more the House of Peers rejected a bill for removing the political disabilities of the Jews, after its passage through the Commons by a handsome majority of 113 yeas. The attention of Englishmen at this time was diverted to questions of foreign policy. The British expedition against China had arrived at the mouth of the Canton River in June. A naval blockade was established in Chinese waters. The Chinese retaliated by offering a reward for every Englishman taken, and a prize of $20,000 for the destruction of a British man-of-war. Sir Gordon Bremer sent an expedition against the Island of Chusan. The Chinese officials refused to surrender until after the city of Tinghai had been all but demolished by the English guns. Tinghai was made a British base of supplies, but proved a very unhealthy place. The Chinese capture of an English subject, Vincent Stanton, was followed by a British expedition into the Canton River. The barrier forts, after a heavy bombardment, were taken by storm. Stanton was released. The British fleet made demonstrations at Amay, Ningpo, and in the Gulf of Pechili. Emperor Taouk-Wang sent for troops from the interior. Mandarin Lin, who had entered into negotiations with the British, was degraded and was succeeded by Viceroy Keshen of Peiho. Keshen received Lord Palmerston's formal demands upon China and forwarded them to Pekin. By dilatory tactics he succeeded in gaining a breathing space.

[Sidenote: Burmese expedition]

[Sidenote: Sikhs restive]

[Sidenote: Fall of Kelat]

[Sidenote: Todd leaves Herat]

In India, the British occupation of Kabul continued. New trouble broke out in Burma where the British Resident was expelled from Ava. An expedition had to be sent against Burma. The death of Runjit Singh led to a series of revolutions which shook the Sikh dominion to its foundations. The successive deaths of Runjit Singh's son and grandson, who had succeeded him as Maharajas, led to a general belief that they had been murdered by the Prime Minister, Dhian Singh. All the chief Sirdars rose against Dhian. The Sikh army of Khalsak, numbering 7,000 soldiers, became a menace for Hindustan. In July, the British garrison of Kelat in Beluchistan was overpowered by the natives. Lord Auckland had to prepare another expedition to restore English prestige in that quarter. Kelat was retaken by the British in November. New complications arose at Herat. This had long been the bone of contention between Great Britain and Russia in Central Asia. British ascendency over Herat had been gained by large financial subsidies, which had been spent in frustrating the designs of the Persians and Russians in that quarter. Major d'Arcy Todd, the English envoy at Herat, incensed by King Kamram's continued dealings with Russia, withheld the further payment of the British subsidies, unless British troops were admitted to Herat. The situation became so acute that Major Todd on his own authority threw up his post and left Herat. It was a severe setback for British influence in Central Asia. Lord Auckland in exasperation dismissed his erstwhile ambassador from political employ. Todd found a soldier's death on the field of Ferozeshahar. The continued rebellion of the Sarawacks in Borneo gave the British an opportunity for interference there. Sir James Brooke, at the head of a British expedition, helped the Sultan of Borneo in quelling the rising.

[Sidenote: Turkish-Egyptian War]

[Sidenote: Mehemet Ali brought to terms]

The operations of the international coalition against Mehemet Ali of Egypt had now begun. Though the Viceroy's soldiers lay on Turkish soil without a foe before them, and France stood at his back, Mehemet Ali found himself checkmated. While Russia undertook to keep Ibrahim's army out of Constantinople, all French support was neutralized by Germany's mobilization on the Rhine. A naval squadron, composed of British and Austrian warships, was free to land the Turkish forces in Syria. On October 10, Commodore Napier bombarded Beyrout. The Syrians were armed against their Egyptian oppressors. On November 3, the British and Austrian fleets captured Acre. Ibrahim, with the remains of his army, fell back toward the Egyptian frontier. When the British fleet arrived before Alexandria, Mehemet Ali made haste to come to terms. In contravention of the ultimatum of the Powers, he was allowed to retain his hereditary dominion over Egypt upon relinquishment of Syria, and of the Turkish fleet, which had been betrayed into his hands. Sir Charles Napier in later years, while speaking of his part in this expedition in Parliament, said: "I was ashamed for my country and for myself."

[Sidenote: Fall of Thiers' Ministry]

[Sidenote: Oriental affairs readjusted]

The humiliating position forced upon France caused the downfall of the Ministry of Thiers. Marshal Soult was placed at the head of affairs. Guizot was recalled from his embassy at London to take the portfolio of Foreign Affairs. He succeeded in restoring France to her former place in the concert of Europe. The French Government joined with the other powers in the restoration of the ancient rule of the Ottoman Empire by which all foreign warships were excluded from the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. Russia thereby virtually conceded the abrogation of her treaty of Unkiar Skelessi. On the other hand, Sebastopol and the Russian arsenals of the Euxine were thus safeguarded against any maritime attack except by Turkey.

[Sidenote: Napoleon's body returned]

The revival of the Napoleonic legend by such writers as Beranger, Lamartine, and Victor Hugo, together with other influences which served to keep bright the glories of the Empire, bore their fruit in the return of Napoleon's remains to France. On October 15, his body had been removed from the simple tomb at St. Helena. On November 30, the ship bearing Napoleon's remains arrived at Cherbourg. A million francs were voted by the Chambers for the new sepulchre under the dome of the chapel of the Hotel des Invalides. On this occasion great publicity was given to Lord Palmerston's letter to Ambassador Granville: "The government of her British Majesty hope that the promptness of their response to this French request will be considered in France as a proof of their desire to efface all traces of those national animosities which, during the life of the Emperor armed against each other the French and English nations. The government of her Majesty are confident that if such sentiments still exist anywhere, they will be buried in the tomb in which the remains of Napoleon are to be laid." Napoleon's reburial was witnessed by a million of persons including a hundred and fifty thousand soldiers drawn up in line to do him honor. The ceremonies were attended by the royal family and all the dignitaries of France, excepting only the immediate relatives of the great Napoleon. As it happened, those of the Napoleonides that were not dead were either in exile or in prison.

[Sidenote: Floods in France]

[Sidenote: Earthquake of Zante]

Shortly before this, great havoc had been wrought in France by disastrous inundations of the Saone and Rhone. The water, which covered 60,000 acres, and flooded Lyons, rose higher than it had within 250 years. In Greece, a tremendous earthquake laid the city of Zante in ruins. These catastrophes were made the object of special study in Germany and Switzerland, where Agassiz was in the midst of his epoch-making discourses on the glacial period.

[Sidenote: Isabella abdicates]

[Sidenote: Rule of Espartero]

Toward the end of the year wretched Spain suffered another political upheaval. After the last abandonment of the cause of Don Carlos by General Cabrera, in July, the Queen-Regent found herself confronted by a strong democratic party both in the Cortes and the country. The scandals of her private life undermined her political authority. By an insurrection at Barcelona she was forced to call in General Espartero, the chief of the Progressist party, as her Prime Minister. Rather than submit to his demands she abdicated the Regency in October and left Spain. Espartero, toward the close of the year, was acknowledged by the Cortes as Regent of Spain. His first measures turned a large part of the people against him. On December 29, as a result of the growing discussions between the government and the clergy, the Papal Nuncio was expelled from Madrid. Thereafter Espartero and the clerical party of Spain were at daggers' points.

[Sidenote: Overbeck]

This year Friedrich Overbeck finished his masterpiece, the "Triumph of Religion and the Arts." This German artist, at the time when the classicism of David was at its height, had become his most strenuous opponent, and had brought about the regeneration of the German religious school of painting. He and several of his followers formed the Nazarites, whose fundamental principle was that art existed only for the service of religion. Overbeck's frescoes of the "History of Joseph" and "Jerusalem Delivered" are best known. Among his paintings of this period, "The Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem" at Luebeck, "Christ on the Mount of Olives" at Hamburg, and "The Coronation of Mary" in the Cathedral of Cologne, are the most celebrated.



1841

[Sidenote: British capture Bogue forts]

[Sidenote: Hong Kong ceded to Britain]

The dilatory tactics of Viceroy Keshen in China had prolonged the negotiations there for several weeks. In the meanwhile a large Chinese army was gathering in the interior. Early in the year, after the arrival of the British plenipotentiaries, orders were issued for an attack on the Bogue forts. On January 7, 1,500 British troops were landed on the flank and rear of the forts at Chuenpee. After a sharp cannonade by the fleets, the forts were carried by a storming party under Captain Herbert. Simultaneously the forts at Taikok were destroyed by the fleet, and their Chinese garrison was routed by landing parties. Several Chinese junks were sunk during the engagement. In all the Chinese lost some 1,500 men in casualties; the British losses were small. After the capture of the Bogue forts, Viceroy Keshen came to terms. He agreed to pay a large money indemnity and to cede Hong Kong absolutely. On January 29, Hong Kong was declared a British possession, and was heavily garrisoned with the troops transferred from Chusan. The importance of the new acquisition was scarcely realized by Englishmen at the time.

[Sidenote: Chinese convention repudiated]

[Sidenote: British threaten Canton]

[Sidenote: English opium factory destroyed]

[Sidenote: Canton bombarded]

[Sidenote: Heavy ransom exacted]

[Sidenote: British camp attacked]

[Sidenote: More ransom saves Canton]

The suspension of hostilities proved but temporary. Keshen was degraded and banished. Emperor Taouk-Wang issued an edict that he was resolved "to destroy and wash the foreigners away, without remorse." Keshen's successor, Elang, repudiated the convention signed by his predecessor. On February 25, the British proceeded to attack the inner line of forts guarding the approaches to Canton. The formidable lines of Anunghoy, with batteries of two hundred guns, were carried in the first rush. In quick succession the other positions of the Chinese were taken, until, on March 1, the English squadron drew up in Whampoa Reach, under the very walls of Canton. On the arrival of Sir Hugh Gough, to take command of the British forces, a brief armistice was granted. After a few days, hostilities were renewed by the capture of the outer line of defences. Under the threat of immediate military occupation, the Viceroy of Canton came to terms. On March 18, the British reoccupied their opium factories in Canton. Emperor Taouk-Wang's anti-foreign policy remained unshaken. He appointed a new commission of three mandarins to govern Canton, and collected an army of 50,000 men in that province. In May, Captain Elliot was insulted in the streets of Canton. He sent for reinforcements from Sir Hugh Gough at Hong Kong. A notice was issued advising all Englishmen to leave Canton that day. On the following night the Chinese sacked the opium warehouses and fired upon the British ships lying at anchor. Fire rafts were let loose against the squadron, but drifted astray. The British promptly took the offensive. They sunk forty war junks, and dismantled the Chinese batteries. On May 24, Sir Hugh Gough arrived at Canton with all his forces. The fleet advanced up the Macao passage, and troops were landed under unusually difficult circumstances. The Chinese failed to take advantage of this, preferring to await the British attack in a strong line of intrenchments north of the city. On May 25, two British columns of 2,000 men each, with sixteen pieces of artillery and fifty-two rockets, advanced to the attack across the sacred burial grounds. Three of the hill forts were carried with slight loss. At the fourth fort desperate resistance was encountered. After this fort had succumbed to a bayonet attack the Chinese rallied in an open camp one mile to the rear. Intrenchments were thrown up with remarkable rapidity. The British troops, led by the Royal Irish Fusiliers, streamed over the open ground and scattered the remaining forces of the Chinese. The brilliancy of this exploit was dimmed by the slaughter of Chinamen while asking quarter. The British losses were 70 killed and wounded. A general attack on the city was ordered for the next day. A fierce hurricane and deluge of rain frustrated this plan. During the day the Canton mandarins came to terms. They agreed to pay an indemnity of $6,000,000, and to withdraw their troops sixty miles from the city. A few days after this, when $5,000,000 of the indemnity had already been paid, the Chinese broke the armistice by an attempt to surprise the British camp. Instead of driving the attack home, the Chinese soldiers, some 10,000 in number, contented themselves with waving their banners and uttering yells of defiance. The British artillery opened on them, and a running fight ensued. In the midst of it a violent thunderstorm burst over Canton. A detachment of Madras Sepoys lost its way, and was all but overwhelmed by the Chinese. They had to be extricated by a rescue party of marines, armed with the new percussion gun, which was proof against wet weather. Under threat of immediate bombardment, the payment of more ransom was exacted from Canton. In the end the city was spared, to remain, according to the English formula, "a record of British magnanimity and forbearance."

[Sidenote: Reduction of Amoy]

[Sidenote: Chinese reverses]

[Sidenote: An Indian diversion]

After this the opium trade reverted to its former footing. To bring the Chinese Emperor, himself, to terms, Sir Henry Pottinger, the new British plenipotentiary, sailed northward, and appeared before the seaport of Amoy, nominally at peace with England. The Viceroy of Amoy sent a flag of truce to demand what was wanted. He was called upon to surrender the town. This he refused to do. The British ships at once engaged the land batteries, and landing parties were sent around the rear. The Chinese gunners were driven from their pieces, but several of their officers committed suicide. The commandant of the chief fort drowned himself in the face of both armies. The capture of Amoy remained barren of useful results. The British fleet proceeded northward until scattered by a hurricane in the Channel of Formosa. Coming together off Ningpo, the fleet attacked Chusan for the second time. Spirited resistance was offered by the Chinese. In the defence of the capital city Tinghai, Keo, the Chinese general-in-chief, was killed. All his officers fell with him. Leaving a garrison at Chusan, the British attacked Chinhai on the mainland. Here the Chinese suffered their heaviest losses. After this victory the city of Ningpo was occupied without opposition. The inhabitants shut themselves up and wrote on their doors: "Submissive people." Nevertheless, Ningpo was put to ransom, under threats of immediate pillage. More British troops and warships were arriving to carry the war to the bitter end, when news arrived of disastrous events in Afghanistan. Troops had to be diverted in that direction, and a more definite settlement of the Chinese question was accordingly postponed.

[Sidenote: Corn Law agitation]

[Sidenote: Richard Cobden]

[Sidenote: Defeat of Melbourne's Ministry]

[Sidenote: Parliamentary precedents defied]

[Sidenote: Adverse elections]

[Sidenote: Peel, Prime Minister]

The attention of Englishmen at home was all but engrossed by domestic topics. In Parliament, the opposition found its strongest issue in the long demanded reform of the Corn Laws. Various circumstances, such as increase of population and bad harvests, contributed to bring this issue to the front. The retaliatory tariffs adopted by America, Russia, France, Sweden and the German Zollverein had their serious effect on British trade. The resulting financial depression engendered discontent. It was at this time that Richard Cobden came into prominence with his free trade views. Then began the great struggle over the Corn Laws which, until its settlement, remained the most important question of the day in England. Lord Melbourne's Ministry by its attempt to adjust the sugar bounties, and incidentally the Corn Laws, dealt the first formidable blow against the great system of monopoly called protection. The government's proposals on that subject were denounced as an encouragement of the produce of the sugars of Cuba and other slave states at the expense of the British West Indies, where slavery had been abolished. As a result the anti-slavery Whigs joined with the Tories, under the leadership of Peel. The government was defeated by a majority of thirty-six votes. In contravention of Parliamentary customs, Lord Melbourne's Ministry did not hand in their resignations, neither did they see fit to dissolve Parliament. When Parliament met again Sir Robert Peel, amid tumultuous cheering from his followers, moved a direct vote of want of confidence in the government. By a majority of one the motion was carried. The dissolution of Parliament was announced on the morrow. The appeal to the country resulted in a strong gain of Conservatives. The moribund Ministry made another attempt to carry their measures before retiring from office. Sir Robert Peel, in his proposals for a sliding scale in the duties on corn, already showed some bias toward that free-trade policy to which he afterward became committed. On the first division on this question the government was outvoted by a majority of sixty-four. Melbourne's resignation was of course followed by the elevation of Peel to the Prime Ministry. Lord Palmerston was replaced by the Earl of Aberdeen in the Foreign Office. Lord Lyndhurst was retained in the Chancellorship. The leadership of the Upper House was left to the Duke of Wellington, who joined the Cabinet without taking any office.

[Sidenote: Growth of mission work]

Throughout the year industrial distress prevailed in England and Ireland, with the usual consequence of an increase in crime. The vigorous support of British trade in the Far East was followed by an extension of Christian missions. Thus missionary work was resumed in China, while Livingstone preached the Gospel to the Hottentots of South Africa. The growth in colonial bishoprics caused Sidney Smith to say that soon there would not be a rock in the ocean without an English bishop and archdeacon. During this year adhesive postage stamps were first used in England. Wheatstone patented his alphabetic printing telegraph, and telegraph wires were strung as far as Glasgow. Almost simultaneously with the death of Hook, the British humorist, the new publication of "Punch, or the London Charivari," made its appearance. One of its earliest contributors was George Cruikshank, the caricaturist.

[Sidenote: William H. Harrison inaugurated]

[Sidenote: Death of Harrison]

[Sidenote: Tyler, tenth President]

[Sidenote: Canadian boundary treaty]

[Sidenote: American financial policy]

In British North America, the first Parliament of Canada was opened with great ceremony in June. After the changes in the Ministry, Sir Charles Bagett became Governor-General of Canada. In the United States, General Harrison was inaugurated as President. It rained on his inauguration day, and the aged General suffered so from exposure that he contracted pneumonia. One month later he died. The clamor of office-seekers during his brief tenure contributed largely to his death. Harrison had been active in public life since he was Secretary of the Northwest Territory in 1797. He acquired a national reputation by his victory over the Indians at Tippecanoe. He served as Senator from Indiana from 1825 to 1828, when he became Minister to the Republic of Colombia in South America. Congress, after some debate, passed a bill to appropriate one year's Presidential salary to General Harrison's widow. Vice-President Tyler became President. A Virginian by birth, he was committed to the Southern theory of State rights. In his first message he recognized the veto of the United States Bank measure as approved by the nation. This caused a decisive break with the holdover Cabinet. All the members resigned except Daniel Webster, who was retained to complete the Canadian boundary treaty with England. The line at length agreed upon gave to the United States 7,000 square miles, and to Great Britain 5,000, with the navigation of the St. John's River. Lord Ashburton in a speech at New York declared that never again could war be possible between the two countries. Tyler's new Secretary of State was Upham. The first measure of the Whigs was the repeal of the independent Treasury act of the previous Congress, and the next was the establishment of a general system of bankruptcy, and for distribution of the public land revenue. The former was more than a bankrupt law; it was practically an insolvent law for the abolition of debts at the will of the debtor. The bill passed both Houses. The land-revenue distribution was made imperative by the fact that various American States and municipalities owed $200,000,000 to European creditors. These became uneasy, and wished the Federal Government to assume their debts. The system was first favored in 1838, and again in 1839, and in 1840 became a national issue. Although Calhoun and Benton both opposed the measure as a squandering of the public patrimony, it passed by a party vote.

[Sidenote: Tyler's vetoes]

[Sidenote: Loss of Whig support]

A compromise tariff measure, advocated by Clay, provided for an upward scale of duties, to reach their maximum during the following year. The bill was vetoed by the President. Another important measure was that for the rechartering of the National Bank. It passed both Houses by a close vote, but Tyler vetoed it, to the consternation of the Whigs. On the second vote the necessary two-thirds majority was not obtained. Thus the second attempt to resuscitate the old United States Bank resulted in failure. After this the Whigs withdrew their support from the Administration they had put into office.

During this year, in America, the grain drill was patented. Wilkes explored the coast of California. Graham's Magazine was published—one of the first American literary magazines of high pretensions. Among its earliest contributors was Edgar Allan Poe. At the same time Longfellow published his ballads, Cooper his "Deerslayer," and Ralph Waldo Emerson brought out his philosophical lectures in essay form.

[Sidenote: Close of Seminole War]

War with the Seminoles continued unabated. In the spring, General William J. Worth had been appointed to succeed Armisted. During the summer, Worth dispersed his troops into small parties, which ascended the rivers and penetrated the swamps to the islands to which the Indians had retired. Worth brought Chief Coacoochee to Tampa in irons. To secure peace, Worth bade him name five of his fellow chieftains, who were to return to the Indians and inform them that unless they should appear at Tampa within a given time and give themselves up, Coacoochee and his fellow prisoners would forthwith be hanged. The Indians came within the appointed time. As one band after another surrendered they were sent West to Mississippi. The cost of the war from first to last had been $40,000,000, which was twice the sum paid for the Territories of Louisiana and Florida together. It was estimated that for each black slave brought back from Florida to his owners, three white men had lost their lives, and $80,000 had been expended.

[Sidenote: Latin-American upheavals]

In Mexico, the Presidency of Bustamente was superseded by that of General Santa Anna. The northern States of Mexico maintained their independent attitude. The State of Costa Rica attempted to withdraw from the ascendant influence of Guatemala. About the same time the city of Cartago was destroyed by an earthquake. In Colombia, Marquez maintained himself as President against his opponents. The States of Panama and Veragua seceded from the Colombian Union, but the President prevailed upon them to return to the confederation. In South America, an expedition from Peru invaded Bolivia and laid siege to La Paz, only to be driven back. Peru was now invaded by an army from Bolivia, but General Bolnes, the newly elected President of Chile, interfered on behalf of Peru.

[Sidenote: Revolts in Spain]

In Spain, General Espartero throughout this year continued his precarious rule. In October, Generals O'Donnel and Concha headed a rising at Pambulna in behalf of the former Queen-Regent Christina. The Queen's guard repelled an attack of Don Diego Leon on the palace. On October 15, Don Diego was captured and shot. One week later O'Donnel fled to France. On the same day, General Zurbano gained possession of the citadel and port of Bilbao. He declared himself in favor of the Queen-Regent.

[Sidenote: French Algerian victories]

On the other side of the Pyrenees the restoration of the French entente cordiale with England and the other European Powers was manifested in the conclusion of the International Convention of Alexandria in July, and the quintuple treaty for suppression of the slave trade proposed by the British Government. The French cry for the forcible recovery of the Rhine frontier died down and public funds rose accordingly. Alfred de Musset's second invective poem on "Le Rhin Allemand" scarcely raised a stir. All desire for military conquests was satisfied for the moment by the exploits of French arms under General Bugeaud and the Duc d'Aumale in Algeria. For once the Arab chiefs of the Desert were cowed into submission. The effect of the Duc d'Aumale's triumphal return was spoiled somewhat by the attempt to assassinate him on September 13. Under Guizot's guidance the French Chambers showed their appreciation of the flourishing state of literature in France by their amendments to the copyright law, extending the provisions of copyright to a period of thirty years after an author's death.

[Sidenote: Death of Lermontov]

[Sidenote: Lermontov's work]

Michel Jurgevitch Lermontov, the Russian poet, died on July 27, as the result of a duel in the Caucasus. His romance, "A Hero of Our Time," was the immediate cause of the duel. This poet was the Russian spokesman of the so-called Weltschmerz (world-sorrow) which had come into vogue with the "Sorrows of Werther." Following in the wake of Chateaubriand and Byron, Lermontov wrote epic poems in a pessimistic, cynical strain, without attaining quite the bitterness of spirit of a Byron or Heine, nor the melancholy lyric beauty of a Lenau or Leopardi. Pre-eminent, on the other hand, are his poetical descriptions of the scenery and wild national traits of the Caucasus, which furnished the background for almost all of his poems. Noteworthy among his epics are "The Circassian Boy," "Ismail Bey," "Valerik," "Hadshy-Abrak," and "The Demon." Under Czar Nicholas, Lermontov's works were forbidden in Russia. After having been banished to the Caucasus, for demanding revenge for Pushkin's death, the poet published his last brilliant epic, "Song of Czar Ivan Vasilyevitch," under a pseudonym.

[Sidenote: German letters]

[Sidenote: Prussian General Estates]

In Germany, too, letters and arts were flourishing. In Vienna, Nikolaus Lenau (Baron Strehlenau) and his friend, Anastasius Gruen (Count Auersperg), were the leaders of a literary movement which found its counterpart in the so-called "Young German" movement of the north, where Ferdinand Freiligrath, Laube, Gutzkow, and Emanuel Geibel came under the ban of the German Bundesrath. The great political event of the year was the meeting of the first General Estates, convoked at Berlin. The new king's hostile attitude toward their popular demands for constitutional rights and larger liberties soon destroyed the hopes of liberal Germans for a change of spirit in the government of Prussia. A more material advance in civilization was assured by the opening of the first railway from Berlin to Magdeburg.

[Sidenote: Cornelius]

Peter von Cornelius, one of the leaders of the religious Catholic movement in art which had followed the classicism of the first decade of the century, was commissioned by the King to decorate the cemetery at Berlin. These decorations afterward, as well as the mural paintings in the Church of Saint Louis at Munich, proved to be his masterpieces.

[Sidenote: Defence of Jellalabad]

The British occupation of Afghanistan had continued since the last year. The expenses of the occupation were so heavy that economy was imperative. As soon as the British Resident cut down the subsidies paid to Shah Shuja the situation took a sinister turn. In October, Sir Robert Sale left Kabul with a brigade of British troops to reopen communications with Jellalabad, which had been interrupted by hostile mountain tribes. He got to Jellalabad only after a desperate struggle and heavy losses. His subsequent defence of that stronghold against the Afghans is one of the heroic traditions of British India.

[Sidenote: Massacre of Kabul]

[Sidenote: Afghans up in arms]

At Kabul, in the meanwhile, the garrison had been removed from the citadel of Bala Hasir to open cantonments outside of the city. Sir William MacNaghten, the British Resident, had been appointed Governor of Bombay, and was about to be succeeded by Sir Alexander Byrnes. Byrnes took up his abode in the centre of the city amid the turbulent bazaars. On November 2, the people of Kabul rose against the English. Byrnes barricaded his house and sent to MacNaghten for help. On the advice of General Elphinstone, MacNaghten decided to wait for further information before acting. The delay was fatal for Byrnes. He held out with thirty-two others from eight in the morning until two in the afternoon. Then the ammunition gave out. The mob rushed in and tore the house to pieces. Byrnes and twenty-three of his followers were massacred. One hour later a British relief corps tried to enter the city. All Kabul turned against them. The British were forced to retire. The news of this set Afghanistan wild. Thousands of armed mountaineers flocked to Kabul, and the whole nation rose against the foreigners. The British troops were cut off from all supplies. They maintained their precarious position only by lavish promises of ransom. At length, after many parleys, a meeting was arranged, for December 23, between MacNaghten and the Afghan chiefs. When the English envoy walked into the meeting the Afghans fell upon him, and he was slain by Akbar Khan.



1842

[Sidenote: MacNaghten's murder unavenged]

[Sidenote: The retreat from Kabul]

[Sidenote: Disaster of Khaibar Pass]

The situation of the British in Afghanistan was so critical that they could not avenge the murder of their countrymen. Negotiations were actually renewed with Akbar Khan upon his statement that he had not meant to murder the British envoy, but had been goaded into the act by the taunts of MacNaghten. Promises of safe conduct were obtained. In January the British forces began their retreat from Kabul. Then followed a series of treacheries and mutual breaches of faith. Akbar Khan and his hordes of Afghans dogged the retreating column exacting further concessions. The English women and children were demanded as hostages. From the heights of the Khaibar Pass, the Ghilzai mountaineers poured a destructive fire into the Englishmen. Akbar Khan's followers made common cause with them. Thousands of Englishmen were slain, or perished in the deep snows of the Khaibar Pass. The wounded and those who fell behind were butchered by the Afghans. A fortnight sufficed to cut the whole column to pieces. Of the entire force of 4,000 soldiers and 12,000 followers, one single survivor succeeded in reaching Jellalabad. He was a British surgeon named Brydon, who dragged himself on all fours out of reach of the Afghans; but he lived to tell the tale for more than thirty years afterward.

Colonel Stoddart and Captain Connelly had been sent as British emissaries to Bokhara. When the news of the British massacre at Kabul reached Bokhara, both men were promptly thrown into prison. Later, when the news of the British disaster in the Khaibar Pass reached Bokhara, the Ameer had the two envoys taken from their dungeons. They were publicly beheaded in the market-place of Bokhara.

[Sidenote: Lord Ellenborough in India]

[Sidenote: Jellalabad relieved]

[Sidenote: Recapture of Kabul]

[Sidenote: British vandalism]

Such was the state of affairs in India when Lord Ellenborough landed at Calcutta in February, to succeed Lord Auckland as Governor-General. The first trying need was to rescue the remaining British garrisons at Jellalabad and Kandahar. General Pollock, with a strong force of Sepoys, was sent through the Punjab and Peshawar. In April, he pushed his way through the Khaibar Pass, in the face of fierce resistance from the mountaineers. The relieving force reached Jellalabad none too soon. General Sale and his garrison were fighting for time. In a last sortie they had just inflicted a telling defeat on Akbar Khan and his besieging army. From Kabul the boy sovereign of the Afghans fled out of Akbar Khan's reach and put himself under the protection of General Pollock. Akbar Khan now wrote to General Pollock, offering to deliver up his British prisoners and hostages if he would withdraw from Afghanistan. Lord Ellenborough showed himself inclined to accept this proposition. The British officers at the front were furious. General Pollock wrote to Nott at Kandahar not to move until further instructions, while he himself reported to headquarters that he could not retire to Jellalabad for want of transports. Eventually, Lord Ellenborough consented to modify his instructions. Without waiting for this, General Nott was already marching on Kabul. Pollock, accompanied by Sale, left Jellalabad to support Nott's advance. In the Tezeen Valley the British came upon the scene of one of the bloodiest massacres of the retreat from Kabul. The sight of the murdered bodies of their comrades exasperated the soldiers. The heights around were bristling with Akbar Khan's men. In the face of a murderous fire from their matchlocks, the British stormed the heights and gave no quarter. Akbar Khan fled into the northern hills. In September, Nott's column took Kabul and hoisted the British flag over the Bala Hassar. The English captives managed to bribe their keepers and to join the rescuing army, amid general rejoicings. The British conquest of Afghanistan was followed by barbarous deeds of vandalism. The great bazaar of Kabul, one of the handsomest stone structures of Central Asia, was blown up by gunpowder. The city itself was turned over to loot and massacre. The bloodcurdling atrocities of the white men on that occasion kept alive the fierce hatred of all things British in Afghanistan for years to come. By the express orders of Lord Ellenborough the sacred sandalwood gates of Somnath, which had adorned the tomb of Mahmud of Ghasni since the Eleventh Century, were brought away as trophies of war.

[Sidenote: Boers driven from Natal]

[Sidenote: Foundation of Transvaal]

In South Africa, too, the seeds of enduring hatred were sown at this time. Scarcely had the new Boer community in Zululand become well settled when a proclamation was issued in Cape Town, declaring that Natal should become a British territory. Soldiers were despatched to Durban to support this claim. After some sharp fighting the Boers were driven out of the seaport. When the British Commissioner arrived at Pietermaritzburg, a stormy mass meeting was held. For two hours Erasmus Smith, the Boer predicant, argued in vain in behalf of his flock. In the end the Boer women passed a unanimous resolution that rather than submit to English rule they would emigrate once more. Pointing to the Drakensberg Mountains, the oldest of the women said: "We go across those mountains to freedom or to death." Over these mountains almost the whole population of Natal trekked their way into the uninhabited regions beyond. Only 300 families remained, the ancestors of some 10,000 Afrikanders of Natal in later days. On the other side of the Orange and Vaal Rivers the Boer emigrants founded once more their commonwealth, known later as the Transvaal, or South African Republic.

In Australia the first representative constitution was granted to the English colonists of New South Wales. Almost simultaneously with this began the agitation for separating Victoria from New South Wales.

[Sidenote: "The Sliding Scale"]

[Sidenote: British Income Tax]

In England, early in the Parliamentary session, Sir Robert Peel on behalf of the government moved his famous bill for a sliding scale of the duties on corn. In the debate that followed, the most notable speeches were made by Cobden and Macaulay, who advocated complete free trade. In spite of all opposition, the bill in an unamended form reached its third reading and was passed on the 5th of April. The most serious difficulty confronting the government was a financial deficit of L2,570,000, to which had to be added the heavy expenditures for the wars in India and China. To fill up this deficiency, Peel resorted to the levy of an income tax. To make this unpopular tax more acceptable a number of minor mischievous taxes were abolished. Thus rendered palatable, this bill, too, was carried through Parliament with tolerable speed, and was passed with handsome majorities by both Houses. It called for a tax of sevenpence on every pound of annual income above L150.

[Sidenote: Copyright reform]

[Sidenote: "Lays of Ancient Rome"]

[Sidenote: "Locksley Hall"]

In emulation of the new provisions for copyright in France, a bill was brought in to extend English copyright from twenty-eight to forty-two years. Among the considerations which prompted Parliament to perform this long delayed act of justice was the recent lamented death of Sir Walter Scott. The royalties on his works were the only resource left to his family, and the copyright on the most important of them, the Waverley Novels, was about to expire. Southey, the Poet Laureate, before his recent illness, it was stated, had been deterred from undertaking a projected great work by the unsatisfactory copyright provisions. Wordsworth was about to lose the fruits of some of his earliest and most patriotic poems. Among those who actively pressed the measure were Charles Dickens and Thomas Carlyle. The sixty years' copyright demanded in Carlyle's petition was not obtained; but authors were allowed to retain the property of their works during life, while their heirs could possess it for seven years after their death. Coincident with this literary victory came other triumphs in literature. Thomas B. Macaulay published his "Lays of Ancient Rome"; Alfred Tennyson brought out "Locksley Hall" and other poems; Bulwer Lytton finished "Zanoni"; the new Shakespeare Society issued some twenty volumes of researches. A new impetus to the making of books and printing was given by Woolwich's new system of electrotyping, and Charles Young's new device of a type-setting machine, first employed on the "Family Herald."

It was then, too, that Dr. Julius Robert Meyer, an obscure physician in Heilbronn, published a paper in Liebig's "Annalen," entitled "The Force of Inorganic Nature." Not merely the mechanical theory of heat, but the entire doctrine of the conservation of energy was clearly formulated. It is true that he was anticipated in a measure by Mohr, and that Helmholtz more exhaustively demonstrated the truth of the hypothesis of the conservation of energy; but Helmholtz himself hailed Meyer as the rightful claimant of the honor of having first clearly formulated the doctrine.

[Sidenote: Second Charter petition]

[Sidenote: The "Sacred Month"]

A great gain for humanity was made in Lord Ashley's successful bill for the restriction of work done by women and children in mines and collieries. Under the leadership of O'Connell's former Irish rival, Feargus O'Connor, the agitation for a People's Charter was revived. On May 2, another monster petition, containing nearly three and a half million signatures, was rolled into Parliament. Too voluminous to pass through the doors, it had to be cut up and carried into the hall by sixteen men. A motion to consider it was violently opposed by Macaulay. Once more the petition was rejected by 287 over 49 votes. Now followed one of the most singular labor strikes of England. This was the so-called sacred month, or thirty days' idleness to be enforced throughout the United Kingdom. Within a few days the Chartists could boast that for fifty miles round Manchester every loom was still. The attempt to extend the strike to London was followed by the arrest of O'Connor and nearly a hundred of his associates. They were tried and convicted, but owing to a flaw in the indictment sentence could not be carried out. The agitation was made to appear more serious by two attempts to assassinate the Queen in May and July, but the young Queen was not deterred thereby from making her first visit to Scotland.

[Sidenote: Chinese opium war]

[Sidenote: Fall of Chapoo]

[Sidenote: Shanghai occupied]

[Sidenote: Assault of Chinkiangfoo]

[Sidenote: China brought to terms]

[Sidenote: Treaty ports designated]

[Sidenote: Opium forced upon China]

In August, the Duke of Wellington was reinstated as commander-in-chief of the British army. Among the military reforms undertaken was the general introduction of the percussion-cap musket in the infantry, and the use of the carbine in the artillery. The war in China was brought to a close. The long period of inaction following the occupation of Ningpo had been broken in March by Chinese attempts to recapture Ningpo, Chinhai and Chusan. In all three places the British beat off their assailants. At Ningpo the Chinese succeeded in breaking through the south and west gates, and reached the centre of the city only to be mowed down there by the British artillery. At Tszeki a strong Chinese camp was captured by the British. The Chinese losses on this occasion were over a thousand killed, including many of the Imperial Guards. The British casualties did not exceed forty. A naval expedition next attacked Chapoo, China's port of trade with Japan. The main body of the Chinese was routed, but 300 of their soldiers shut themselves up in a walled inclosure, and held their ground until three-fourths of their number were slain. As heretofore, the British casualties were small. The important city of Shanghai was captured without appreciable resistance. The most serious affair of the war was the attack on Chinkiangfoo on the southern bank of the Yangtse-Kiang at one of the entrances of the great canal. A part of the Manchu garrison held out there until shot down to the last man. The inner Tartar city was only taken after the Manchus had first killed the women and children and then themselves. The immediate losses of the British were nearly two hundred. Owing to the intense heat, they failed to bury the bodies of the Chinese. Pestilence and cholera broke out, and caused more serious losses than befell the main force sent against Nanking. On August 5, the British fleet appeared before Nanking, the second city of the empire. It was then that Minister Elepoo, the leader of the Chinese peace party, prevailed upon Emperor Taouk-Wang to give in. On August 26, peace was concluded on board the British flagship "Cornwallis." China paid an indemnity of $21,000,000, and confirmed the cession of Hong Kong to England. The English opium factory at Canton was to be reinstalled, and, in addition to this, foreign trading was to be allowed at the ports of Shanghai, Ningpo, Amhoy and Foochow, after a tariff should have been agreed upon and consular officers appointed. The final ceremonies of peace were marred by barbarous injuries inflicted upon the famous porcelain tower of Nanking by a party of British officers and soldiers. In the words of a British historian: "The only weak point in the commercial treaty was that it contained no reference to opium. Sir Henry Pottinger failed to obtain the assent of the Chinese government to its legalization." In reply to Sir Henry Pottinger's final demand for legalization of the opium trade in China, Emperor Taouk-Wang delivered this ultimatum: "True, I cannot prevent the introduction of the poison; but nothing will induce me to raise revenue from the vice and misery of my people." The emperor, himself a reformed opium smoker, had lost three sons by this vice. All this time American, Dutch and Russian trade with China had been continued. President Tyler made it the subject of his message to the American Congress during this year. From the first any American traffic in opium was discouraged.