history. Though he wrote several long narrative poems and one great
tragedy, he was above all a lyric poet--according to some the greatest
lyric poet of England. His life, like his poetry, was almost untrammelled
by convention. Both gave great offence to the stricter elements of English
society. In some respects Shelley was peculiarly unfortunate. At the age of
eighteen, after his expulsion from Oxford University, he married Harriet
Westbrook, a girl of sixteen, and then found himself unable to support
her. Later he abandoned her and eloped with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin.
Within a year his first wife committed suicide, and, three weeks later,
Shelley married Mary Godwin. The tragedy stirred up much feeling among his
friends. Among others the poet-laureate, Southey, remonstrated with
Shelley. Shelley replied: "I take God to witness, if such a Being is now
regarding both you and me, and I pledge myself, if we meet, as perhaps you
expect, before Him after death, to repeat the same in His presence--that
you accuse me wrongfully. I am innocent of ill, either done or intended."
Next came Shelley's trouble with the Chancery. Lord-Chancellor Elden
refused to give to Shelley the custody of his own children on the ground
that Shelley's professed opinions and conduct were such as the law
pronounced immoral. Shelley replied with his famous poetical curse "To the
Lord Chancellor." While the poem stands as a masterpiece of lyric invective
it did not mend matters for Shelley in England. In many of his other poems
his detractors saw nothing but the glorification of revolution, incest, and
atheism. When he wrote a satirical drama on so delicate a subject as the
unhappy affairs of Queen Caroline, even his publisher turned against him.
Yet the charm and beauty of Shelley's purely lyric pieces was such that he
must ever stand as one of the foremost poets of England. Either his
"Adonais" or the beautiful "Ode to the West Wind," would alone have
perpetuated his name in English letters. One of Shelley's most exquisite
pieces, written shortly before his death, has come to stand as the poet's
own threnody:
"When the lamp is shattered
The light in the dust lies dead--
When the cloud is scattered
The rainbow's glory is shed.
When the lute is broken,
Sweet tones are remembered not;
When the lips have spoken,
Loved accents are soon forgot.
As music and splendor
Survive not the lamp and the lute,
The heart's echoes render
No song when the spirit is mute,
No song but sad dirges,
Like the wind through a ruined cell,
Or the mournful surges
That ring the dead seaman's knell."
[Sidenote: Revival of letters]
[Sidenote: Golden age of music]
During this same year Thomas de Quincey published his "Confessions of an
Opium Eater," a masterpiece of balanced prose. In other parts of the world,
likewise, it was a golden period for literature. In France, Victor Hugo
published his "Odes et Poesies Diverses," a collection of early poems which
contained some of his most charming pieces. The rising Swedish poet,
Tegner, brought out his "Children of the Last Supper." In Germany, Heinrich
Heine, then still a student at Bonn, issued his earliest verses. For
Germany this was no less a golden age of music. Beethoven, though quite
deaf, was still the greatest of living composers. His great Choral
Symphony, the ninth in D minor, was produced during this year, as was his
Solemn Mass in D major. As a virtuoso he was rivalled by Hummel, who at
this time gave to the world his famous Septet, accepted by himself as his
masterwork. Two other German composers so distinguished themselves that
they were invited to London to conduct the Philharmonic accompaniments.
They were Carl Maria von Weber, who had just brought out his brilliant
opera, "Der Freischuetz," and Ludwig Spohr, who performed in London his new
Symphony in D minor. Of other composers there were Franz Schubert, whose
melodious songs and symphonies won him the recognition of the Esterhazys
and of Beethoven. Among those whose career was but beginning were Jacob
Meyerbeer, a fellow pupil with Weber under Abbe Vogler at Vienna, and Felix
Mendelssohn, the precocious pupil of the famous pianist Moscheles.
[Sidenote: Death of Herschel]
Sir Frederick William Herschel, the greatest modern astronomer, died at
Slough in England. Herschel was born in 1738 at Hanover. He was a musician
of rare skill and a self-taught mathematician of great ability. In 1757, he
deserted the band of Hanoverian Guards in which he played the oboe,
although a mere boy, and fled to England, where he taught music and
achieved success as a violinist and organist. His studies in sound and
harmony led him to take up optics; and from optics to astronomy the step
was short. Dissatisfied with the crude instruments of his time, he made his
own telescopes; for it was his ambition to be not a mere star-gazer, but an
earnest student of the heavens. By day, he and his brother and sister
ground specula; by night he observed the heavens. His astronomical work
includes a careful study of variable stars; an attempt to explain the
relation of sun-spots to terrestrial phenomenae; the determination that the
periods of rotation of various satellites, like the rotation of our own
moon, are equal to the times of their revolutions about their primaries;
and the discovery of the planet Uranus and two of its satellites, and of
the sixth and seventh satellites of Saturn. His greatest work was his study
of binary stars and the demonstration of his belief that the law of
gravitation is universal in its application. His labors were invariably
systematic, and were characterized by dogged, Teutonic perseverance. His
discoveries were never purely accidental, but were made in accordance with
a well-conceived plan.
[Sidenote: Death of Canova]
Late in the autumn news came from Venice that Canova, the celebrated
sculptor, had died. Antonio Canova was born in 1757 at Passaguo near
Treviso. He was first an apprentice to a statuary in Bassano, from whom he
went to the Academy of Venice, where he had a brilliant career. In 1779 he
was sent by the Senate of Venice to Rome, and there produced his Theseus
and the Slain Minotaur. In 1783, Canova undertook the execution of the tomb
of Pope Clement XIV., a work similar to the tomb of Pope Clement XIII. His
fame rapidly increased. He established a school for the benefit of young
Venetians, and among other works produced the well-known Hebe and the
colossal Hercules hurling Lichas into the sea. In 1797, Canova finished the
model of the celebrated tomb of the Archduchess Christina of Austria.
Napoleon called the rising sculptor to France, and he there executed the
famous nude portrait of Napoleon now preserved in Milan. After his return
to Italy he fashioned his Perseus with the Head of Medusa at Rome. When the
Belvidere Apollo was carried off to France, this piece of statuary was
thought not unworthy of the classic Apollo's place and pedestal in the
Vatican. Among the later works of Canova are the colossal group of Theseus
Killing the Minotaur, a Paris, and a Hector. After Napoleon's second fall
in 1815, Canova was commissioned by the Pope to demand the restoration of
the works of art carried from Rome. He went to Paris and succeeded in his
mission. At his return to Rome in 1816, the Pope created him Marquis of
Orchia, with a pension of 3,000 scudi, and his name was entered into the
Golden Book at the Capitol. His closing years were spent in Venice. There
he died October 13, 1822.
[Sidenote: Congress of Verona]
[Sidenote: England slighted]
Upon Canning's accession to the Ministry in England, Wellington was
appointed representative of Great Britain at the Congress of Powers
convened at Vienna. The unsettled state of public opinion kept Wellington
in England and later at Paris. He did not join the Congress until after its
adjournment to Verona, to dispose of purely Italian affairs. Thus it
happened that the supplementary meetings at Verona became the real European
Congress of 1822. With the Neapolitan problem practically settled, and the
Greek war with Turkey at a standstill, the situation in Spain was the most
vital issue. The Czar of Russia and Metternich were determined not to
tolerate the Constitution of the Spanish liberals. Alexander hoped to make
good Russia's non-intervention in Greece by marching a victorious army into
Spain. The extreme Royalists of France, on the other hand, were so bent on
accomplishing this task themselves that they were resolved not to permit
any Russian troops to pass through France. With the spectre of a general
European war thus looming on the horizon, England endeavored to hold the
balance for peace. Acting under the instructions of Canning, Wellington
declared that England would rather set herself against the great alliance
than consent to joint intervention in Spain. In his despatches to Canning,
Wellington expressed his belief that this would result in a decision to
leave the Spaniards to themselves. The only result was that England was
left out of the affair altogether, as she had been in the case of Naples.
It was partly owing to this international slight that Canning put his foot
down so firmly in behalf of Portugal and the South American colonies.
[Sidenote: French attitude toward Spain]
At the Congress of Verona, Metternich once more won the day. With this
backing, the French envoys, Montmorency and Chateaubriand, in defiance of
their home instructions, committed France to war with Spain. An agreement
was reached that, in default of radical changes in the Spanish
Constitution, France and her allies would resort to intervention. On the
part of England, Wellington rejected this proposal, but all the other
powers consented. When the French Ambassadors returned to France, their
Prime Minister, Villele, vented his dissatisfaction by repudiating his
envoys. He addressed himself to the foreign Ambassadors at Paris with a
request that the allies' demands on Spain be postponed. Montmorency at once
resigned. No notice was taken of Villele's request except by England. The
King himself went over to the war party and appointed Chateaubriand his
Minister of Foreign Affairs. Great Britain's tentative offer of mediation
was summarily rejected by France. To Villele, King Louis XVIII. thus
explained his attitude: "Louis XIV. destroyed the Pyrenees; I shall not
allow them to be raised again. He placed my house on the throne of Spain; I
shall not allow it to fall."
1823
[Sidenote: French invasion of Spain]
The Spanish Government was resolved to maintain the national independence
of Spain. It would make no concession. The French Ambassador in Madrid was
recalled. At the opening of the French Chambers in January, the King
himself announced his decision: "I have ordered the recall of my Minister.
One hundred thousand Frenchmen, commanded by a prince of my family, whom I
fondly call my son, are ready to march with a prayer to the God of St.
Louis that they may preserve the throne of Spain to the grandson of Henri
IV. They shall save that fair kingdom from ruin and reconcile it to
Europe." By the middle of March, the Duke of Angouleme and his staff left
Paris. On April 7, the French vanguard crossed the Bidassoa, and the Duke
entered Irun, welcomed by Spanish royalists. About the same time the Cortes
and Constitutional Ministry left Madrid, and compelled King Ferdinand VII.
to accompany them to Seville. The forces of the Spanish Government fell
back without striking a blow. Bands of freebooters calling themselves
royalists went pillaging throughout the northern provinces. The commandant
of Madrid felt constrained to beg the French to hasten their advance lest
the city fall a prey to the freebooters. Already the looting of the suburbs
had begun, when the French entered the Spanish capital on the 24th of May.
A regency was appointed under the Duke of Infantado. The Continental powers
sent accredited representatives to Madrid. Meanwhile the Cortes withdrew to
Cadiz. King Ferdinand refused to accompany them; so they suspended his
powers and appointed a regency over his head. The French prepared to lay
siege to Cadiz.
[Sidenote: Revolution in Portugal]
[Sidenote: Independence of Central America]
[Sidenote: The South American struggle]
Civil war broke out in Spain. Across the border in Portugal, Dom Miguel,
the second son of the absent king, excited a counter revolution. This state
of affairs in the Peninsula gave a finishing stroke to the royal cause in
America. In Central America, the revolutionists of Costa Rica and
Guatemala, who had made common cause with Mexico, proclaimed their
independence. In Mexico, Santa Anna proclaimed the republic at Vera Cruz.
Emperor Iturbide, who felt his throne tottering beneath him, retired, and
was banished from Mexico with an annuity. His sympathizers in Costa Rica
were overthrown in a battle at Ochomoco. On the first day of July, Costa
Rica was united with its neighboring States in the federation of Central
America. Nor had Peru been idle. Two royalist armies under Santa Cruz had
entered the upper provinces. During the summer months they overran the
country between La Paz and Oruro. But in early autumn they were forced back
by the revolutionists under Bolivar, who entered Lima on September 1, and
had himself proclaimed dictator of Peru. In Brazil, during this interval,
the Constitutional Assembly had been convoked in accordance with Dom
Pedro's promise. Under the leadership of the two Andrade brothers the
delegates insisted on the most liberal of constitutions. Dom Pedro's first
attempt to suppress the liberal leaders was foiled by the Assembly. Finally
he dissolved the contentious assembly and exiled the Andrade brothers to
France. In the provinces of Pernambuco and Ceara a republic was proclaimed.
Rebellion broke out in Cisplatina.
[Sidenote: Warring factions in Spain]
[Sidenote: Siege of Cadiz]
In Spain, the two opposing regencies vied with each other in retaliatory
measures. Odious persecutions were instituted on both sides. In vain the
Duke of Angouleme tried to restrain the reprisals of the Spanish royalists.
In August he appeared before Cadiz. He called upon King Ferdinand to
publish an amnesty and restore the medieval Cortes. But the Spanish
Ministry, in the King's name, sent a defiant answer. Cadiz was thereupon
besieged. On August 30, the French stormed the fort of the Trocadero. Three
weeks later the city was bombarded. For the Spanish liberals, the cause had
become hopeless. The French refused all terms but the absolute liberation
of the King. On Ferdinand's assurance that he bore no grudge against his
captors, the liberals agreed to release him. At last, on the 30th of
September, Ferdinand signed a proclamation of absolute and universal
amnesty. Next day he was taken across the bay to the French headquarters.
The Cortes dissolved.
[Sidenote: Release of Ferdinand VII.]
The Duke of Angouleme received King Ferdinand with misgivings. Already he
had written to France: "What most worries the liberals is the question of
guarantees. They know that the King's word is utterly worthless, and that
in spite of his promises he may very well hang every one of them."
Angouleme's first interview confirmed his impression. In reply to his
demand for a general pardon, Ferdinand pointed to the ragged mob shouting
in front of his windows, and said: "You hear the will of the people."
Angouleme wrote to Villele: "This country is about to fall back into
absolutism. I have conscientiously done my part, and shall only express my
settled conviction that every foolish act that can be done will be done."
[Sidenote: Royalist reprisals]
[Sidenote: Riego executed]
Within twelve hours Ferdinand annulled all acts of the Constitutional
Government during the preceding three years. By approving an act of the
regency of Madrid, which declared all those who had taken part in the
removal of the King to be traitors, Ferdinand practically signed the death
warrant of those men whom he had just left with fair promises on his lips.
Even before reaching Madrid, Ferdinand VII. banished for life from Madrid
and from the country fifty miles around it every person who had served the
government in Spain during the last three years. Don Saez, the King's
confessor, was made Secretary of State. He revived the Inquisition, and
ordered the prosecution of all those concerned in the pernicious and
heretical doctrines associated with the late outbreak. Ferdinand justified
his acts with a royal pronunciamiento containing this characteristic
passage: "My soul is confounded with the horrible spectacle of the
sacrilegious crimes which impiety has dared to commit against the Supreme
Maker of the universe.... My soul shudders and will not be able to return
to tranquillity, until, in union with my children, my faithful subjects, I
offer to God holocausts of piety." Thousands of persons were imprisoned, or
forced to flee the country. On November 7, Riego was hanged. Young men were
shot for being Freemasons. Women were sent to the galleys for owning
pictures of Riego.
The Duke of Angouleme was indignant and would have nothing more to do with
the King. In a parting letter of remonstrance he wrote: "I asked your
Majesty to give an amnesty, and grant to your people some assurance for the
future. You have done neither the one nor the other. Since your Majesty has
recovered your authority, nothing has been heard of on your part but
arrests and arbitrary edicts. Anxiety, fear, and discontent begin to spread
everywhere." Angouleme returned to France thoroughly disenchanted with the
cause for which he had drawn his sword.
[Sidenote: The French elections]
In France, as in England, the return of absolute rule in Spain was viewed
with extreme disfavor by the Liberals. The success of the French arms, to
be sure, gave the government an overwhelming majority at the elections. The
voice of the Liberals was heard, however, in the first debate over the
Spanish war. Manuel, a Liberal deputy, denounced foreign intervention in
Spain. He said: "Can any one be ignorant that the misfortunes of the
Stuarts in England were caused by nothing so much as the assistance granted
them by France--an assistance foreign to the Parliament and to the people.
The Stuarts would have avoided the fate that overtook them had they sought
their support within the nation." For this alleged defence of regicide
Manuel was excluded from the Chambers. On his refusal to give up his
constitutional rights, he was forcibly ejected by the National Guards. "It
is an insult to the National Guard," exclaimed the venerable Lafayette. In
spite of the momentary triumph of the Royalists, Guizot's final verdict on
French intervention in Spain expresses the true attitude of France:
[Sidenote: Guizot's verdict]
"The war was not popular in France; in fact, it was unjust, because
unnecessary. The Spanish revolution, in spite of its excesses, exposed
France and the Restoration to no serious risk; and the intervention was an
attack upon the principle of the legitimate independence of States. It
really produced neither to Spain nor France any good result. It restored
Spain to the incurable and incapable despotism of Ferdinand VII., without
putting a stop to the revolutions; it substituted the ferocities of the
absolutist populace for that of the anarchical populace. Instead of
confirming the influence of France beyond the Pyrenees, it threw the King
of Spain into the arms of the absolutist powers, and delivered up the
Spanish Liberals to the protection of England."
During this year in France occurred the deaths of Dumouriez, the famous
general of the Revolution, and of Marshal Davoust, the hero of Eckmuehl,
Auerstaedt, and a score of other victories won during the Napoleonic
campaigns. At Rome, Pope Pius VII., the one time prisoner of Napoleon, died
in old age, and was succeeded by Pope Leo XII.
[Sidenote: Death of Jenner]
[Sidenote: Vaccination]
Dr. Edward J. Jenner, the great English surgeon and originator of
vaccination, died in the same year at London. Jenner was led to his great
discovery by the remark of an old peasant woman: "I can't catch smallpox,
for I have had cowpox." In 1796, Jenner performed the first vaccination on
a boy patient, James Phipps, whom he subsequently endowed with a house and
grounds. The scientific results of this experiment and those that followed
were embodied by Jenner in his "Inquiry into the causes and effects of the
variolae vaccinae," published on the eve of the Nineteenth Century. Unlike so
many other medical innovations, Jenner's epoch-making cure for the dread
disease of smallpox won him almost instant general renown. Parliament, in
1802, voted him a national reward of L10,000, and a few years later added
another gift of L20,000. After his death a public monument was erected to
Jenner's memory on Trafalgar Square.
[Sidenote: Amherst Governor in India]
In India, Lord Hastings retired from the governorship at Calcutta and was
succeeded by Lord Amherst. At the time of his accession to office, Dutch
influence had already become paramount in Borneo, whereas the British were
firmly settled in Singapore.
[Sidenote: American letters]
In North America it was a year of industrial progress. On October 8, the
first boat passed through the new Erie Canal from Rochester to New York. In
Brooklyn the first three-story brick houses were built and the paving of
streets was begun. The new system of numbering houses came in vogue. The
earliest steam printing press was set up in New York and issued its first
book. The manufacture of pins was begun, and wine in marketable quantities
was first made in Cincinnati. American letters saw the appearance of
Cooper's novels, "The Pioneers" and the "Pilot." Halleck published his
famous poem, "Marco Bozarris." During this year an American squadron under
Commodore Porter put an end to piracy and freebooting in the West Indies.
On the first day of December the Eighteenth Congress met and Henry Clay was
once more elected Speaker of the House.
1824
[Sidenote: American high tariff]
[Sidenote: Southern ascendency waning]
In January, a protective tariff bill was introduced in the American
Congress. It was opposed by the South and by New England. On May 22,
Congress, by a majority of five in the House and four in the Senate, passed
Clay's measure. The average rate of tariff was thirty-seven per cent.
Before the passage of the bill England had been importing goods more
cheaply than Americans could manufacture them. American manufacturers could
now sell their goods at a profit. Even then there were believers in free
trade, who held that the country would naturally produce that which was
prohibited, and that the productions which were brought into existence by
taxation put a portion of the people into unprofitable employment,
advantageous only to the manufacturers. But the Middle and Western States,
with the aid of the representatives from the manufacturing districts of New
England, were strong enough to give the tariff a small majority. From 1824
the imposition of protective duties has been the bone of contention of the
two great political parties in America. The economical struggle between
protection and free trade has since gone on with varying features.
Political leadership in the United States was passing from the South to the
North. New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio were fast pushing to the front.
Buffalo had 20,000 population; and other interior towns were growing
rapidly. Millions of acres of valuable lands were put under cultivation in
the central and western counties of New York and Pennsylvania and in Ohio;
manufacturing industries multiplied. From a sparsely inhabited country in
1800, Ohio had grown, in 1824, to be the fifth State in population.
[Sidenote: American letters]
American letters were enriched in this year by Irving's "Tales of a
Traveller," Paulding's "John Bull," Bancroft's "Politics in Ancient
Greece," and Verplanck's "Revealed Religion."
[Sidenote: South American republics recognized]
During the first session of Congress a special message from President
Monroe recommended the establishment of intercourse with the new
independent States of South America--Venezuela, New Granada, Buenos Ayres,
Chile and Peru. Congress voted for recognition by an overwhelming majority,
and the President signed the bill. The United States was the first among
the civilized powers to welcome the new republics.
The struggle for independence in South America was furthered more than ever
by the unsatisfactory state of affairs on the Peninsula. In Spain the
return of absolute rule was still followed by a reign of terror. The people
there relapsed into medieval barbarism.
[Sidenote: Portuguese Constitution triumphant]
[Sidenote: Growth of republican sentiment]
[Sidenote: Iturbide shot]
[Sidenote: Santa Anna in power]