firm policy abroad. In British India the new Governor-General, Lord
Bentinck, upheld British prestige by his firm abolition of the native
custom of burning widows and by his extermination of the roving gangs of
Thugs. In regard to the Eastern Question and the war in the Balkans,
England came to an agreement with Austria to frustrate Russia's plans with
respect to Constantinople. Thanks to this _entente cordiale_ between the
two countries, enterprising English capitalists and engineers were allowed
to put into operation the first line of steamboats that plied the waters of
the Danube. Among other minor events of interest to Englishmen during this
year, may be mentioned the first public appearance of Fanny Kemble, the
actress, and the earliest boat race between student crews from the
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. England lost two of her famous
scientists during this year--Sir Humphry Davy and Thomas Young. Davy was
born in 1778 and died in Geneva. Besides inventing the miner's safety lamp,
with which his name will be forever associated, he made valuable
experiments in photography; discovered that the causes of chemical and
electrical attraction are identical; produced potassium and sodium by the
electric current; proved the transformation of energy into heat; formulated
a theory of the properties of particles of matter (or atoms); and made
remarkable experiments which led to the theory of the binary composition of
chemical compounds. Young was born in 1773. At Cambridge they called him
"Phenomenon Young," because he was said to know everything. In truth, Young
developed into the most profound English scientist of the century. When
only twenty he was asked to read papers before the Royal Society. In 1801
he delivered the Bakerian lecture, his subject being "The Theory of Light
and Colors." That lecture marks an epoch in physical science; for it
brought forward for the first time convincing proof of the correctness of
the undulatory theory of light. The intangible substance which pulsates
and undulates to produce light, Young christened the "luminiferous ether."
And the term is still to be found in our scientific vocabulary.
[Illustration: AMERICAN INVENTORS
Painted by C. Schussele
1 Dr Morton, Etherization
2 Bogardus, Iron Architecture
3 Colt, Revolvers
4 McCormick, Reapers
5 Saxton, Coast Survey Machinery
6 Goodyear, Vulcanizing Gum Elastic
7 Cooper, Gelatine
8 Prof Henry, Electricity as a Motor
9 Mott, Works in Iron
10 Dr Nott, Management of Heat
11 Ericsson, Caloric Engine Monitors, etc.
12 Sickles, Steam Cut off, etc.
13 Morse, Telegraph
14 Burden, Horseshoe Machine
15 Hoe, Rotary Press
16 Bigelow, Carpet Loom
17 Jennings, Friction Matches
18 Blanchard, Eccentric Lathe
19 Howe, Sewing Machine]
[Sidenote: War in the Balkans]
[Sidenote: Battle of Kulevtcha]
[Sidenote: Fall of Adrianople]
[Sidenote: Powers save Turkey]
[Sidenote: Russia's hold on Turkey]
In the Balkans Russia's war with Turkey was waged with vigor. The winter
months had been spent in bringing up reserves. The Czar withdrew from
interference at headquarters, and Wittgenstein was superseded by General
Diebitsch, a trained Prussian soldier. This general made preparations to
cross the Balkans as soon as Silistria should have fallen, without waiting
for the fall of Shumla. On the other side of the Balkans the Russian fleet
made a diversion so as to prepare the way for joining forces on the banks
of the Black Sea. In accordance with these plans Diebitsch sent a strong
force against Silistria. Before anything had been effected in front of
Silistria, Reshid Pasha, the Turkish Grand Vizier, moved eastward from
Shumla and took the field against the weak Russian forces at Varna. He lost
time, however, and suffered himself to be held at bay by the Russians.
Diebitsch hurried across Bulgaria in forced marches. Coming up in Reshid's
rear he could either fall upon Shumla or force the Turks to open battle. He
chose the latter course. The Turks, harried in their rear, attempted to
regain the roads to Shumla. On June 10, the two forces met in a pitched
battle at Kulevtcha. Reshid was badly defeated, losing 5,000 men and
forty-three guns, but made good his retreat to Shumla. Diebitsch had to lay
siege to Shumla. Soon after this, Silistria fell into the hands of the
Russians. Turning Varna over to the Bulgarians, and leaving a blockading
force before Shumla, Diebitsch boldly crossed the Balkans. The resistance
of the Turks was weak. On August 19, the Russians appeared before
Adrianople. In the Black Sea the Russian frigate "Mercury" defeated two
Turkish men-of-war. The Turks were seized with terror. Adrianople
surrendered without a blow. In the Morea the Turks evacuated Tripolitza and
Missolonghi and acknowledged the independence of Greece. The ports of the
Black Sea, almost as far south as the Bosphorus, fell into Russian hands.
Flying columns of the Russian army penetrated down to the AEgean coast and
as far as the Euxine. Yet the Russians were so weak in numbers that
anything like determined resistance could easily have checked them. As it
was, all Turkish resistance collapsed before the Russian onward march
toward Constantinople. The Sultan appealed to the Powers for help. England
and Austria intervened, and peace was forced upon Russia. The treaty of
Adrianople, signed on September 14, confirmed to Russia its protectorate
over the Danubian principalities. No Mussulman was to be permitted to stay
within the principalities, and all Turkish lands were to be sold within
eighteen months. No fortified point on the left bank of the Danube was left
to Turkey. Territory in Asia was ceded to Russia, as well as the ports of
Poti and Anapa on the Black Sea. The waters of this sea were thrown open to
international navigation; and the straits of Constantinople and the
Dardanelles were declared open to the merchant ships of all powers at
peace with the Porte. The payment of a money indemnity of 2,000,000 roubles
to Russia was deferred, thus leaving to Russia the means for exerting
pressure on the Yildiz Kiosk.
[Sidenote: French ambitions]
[Sidenote: Polignac Prime Minister]
[Sidenote: Liberal opposition]
Russia's acceptance of foreign mediation at Adrianople brought
disappointment to France. Reverting to Napoleonic ambitions, King Charles's
Ministers had proposed a partition of the Ottoman Empire on the basis of a
general rearrangement of Europe. Russia was to have the Danubian provinces
near the Austrian empire, Bosnia and Servia; Prussia was to have Saxony and
Holland; Belgium and the Rhine provinces were to fall to France, and the
King of Holland was to be installed in the Sultan's divan at
Constantinople. It was a chimerical project which it was hoped might avert
the impending troubles at home by dazzling acquisitions abroad. A
formidable majority had been raised up against the government by its
persistent encroachments upon the freedom of speech and of the press.
Martignac's Ministry resigned and Prince Polignac, a crony of the King, was
put in his place. In August, the "Journal des Debats" thundered against
him: "Now again is broken that bond of love and confidence which joined the
people to the monarch. The people pay a million of taxes to the law; they
will not pay two millions on the orders of the Minister. What will he do
then? Will he bring to his assistance the force of the bayonet? Bayonets in
these days have become intelligent. They know how to defend the law.
Unhappy France, unhappy King!" The Bertins were prosecuted for that
article and condemned. It only made matters worse. Societies were formed
throughout France to refuse the payment of taxes should the government
attempt to raise them without the consent of the Chambers. In the face of
this growing popular opposition, the King and his Minister resolved to
prepare an expedition against Algiers. As Guizot put it, "They hope to get
rid of their difficulties through conquest abroad and a resulting majority
at home." The death of Paul Barras about this time served to revive
revolutionary memories in France.
[Sidenote: The Schlegels]
The memory of Madame de Stael and her struggle for freedom of speech and of
literary opinion against Napoleon were recalled by the death of her
long-time friend and biographer, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm von Schlegel,
brother of August Wilhelm, the German poet. Karl studied at Goettingen and
Leipzig, devoting most of his time to the classics. It was his ideal to
become the "Winckelmann of Greek Literature." Schlegel's first publication
was "Greeks and Romans." In 1798 he wrote "Lucinda," an unfinished romance,
and "Alarcos," a tragedy. In 1803 he joined the Roman Church, and several
years later was appointed an imperial secretary at Vienna. He served as
Consul of Legation for Austria in the German Diet at Frankfort. Besides his
published lectures, Schlegel's chief works are: "History of the Old and New
Literature" (1815), "Philosophies of Life" (1828), "Philosophy of History"
(1829), and the posthumous work "Philosophy of Language." His wife, a
daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, was the author of several works published
under Schlegel's name. During the same year Pope Leo XII. died at Rome and
was succeeded by Pius VIII.
[Sidenote: Andrew Jackson inaugurated]
In the United States of North America, John Quincy Adams was succeeded by
Andrew Jackson. Calhoun was re-elected Vice-President. A motley crowd of
backwoodsmen and mountaineers, who had supported Jackson, crushed into the
White House shouting for "Old Hickory." For the first time the outgoing
President absented himself from the inauguration of his successor. He had
remained at his desk until midnight of the previous day signing
appointments which would deprive Jackson of so much more patronage. Jackson
took his revenge by the instant removal of 167 political opponents. His
remark, "To the victor belong the spoils," became a byword of American
politics. The system of rotation in office dates from his administration.
[Sidenote: "The Kitchen Cabinet"]
[Sidenote: "Pocket Vetoes"]
[Sidenote: Peggy O'Neill]
Jackson's first Cabinet was headed by Van Buren, with Samuel D. Ingham for
Secretary of the Treasury. The President also encouraged a set of
confidential advisers, among whom Kendall, Lewis and Hill were the most
influential. They came to be known as the "Kitchen Cabinet." The regular
members of the Cabinet were treated as mere head clerks. In one week
Jackson vetoed more bills than any of his predecessors had done in four
years. Other bills he held back until after the adjournment of Congress,
and then failed to sign them. The bills remained, as it were, in the
President's pocket. This new method of vetoing became notorious as the
"Pocket Veto." In other respects Jackson's first administration was stormy.
International relations were repeatedly threatened by the long-standing
controversy over the indemnity for French spoliations. An adjustment of the
indemnity claims with Denmark was likewise forced to an issue. At home,
Jackson's abandonment of the principle of extreme protection and his
hostility to the United States Bank lost him the support of the loose
constructionists. As a Freemason, the President was likewise opposed by the
new anti-Masonic party in politics. In a quarrel over the character of the
wife of Secretary Eaton, the beautiful Peggy O'Neill, all Washington was
involved. It was commonly believed that the subsequent break-up of
Jackson's Cabinet was caused by the social bickerings among the wives of
the members. Van Buren was the first to resign. Soon he was appointed
Minister to England, but the Senate rejected him through the vote of
Vice-President Calhoun. Jackson afterward took his revenge by defeating
Calhoun's aspirations to the Presidency through Van Buren. The new Cabinet
consisted of Livingston, McLean, Cass, Woodbury, Tracy and Berry. By reason
of the new protective tariff, the States of Georgia and South Carolina,
toward the close of 1829, returning to the Kentucky Resolutions of 1799,
affirmed the right of any State to declare null and void any act of
Congress which the State Legislature deemed unconstitutional. This was the
doctrine of nullification which grew to secession in 1860.
[Sidenote: American development]
The industrial progress of the United States was little affected by the
political dissensions during Jackson's first Presidential year. On July 4,
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was opened. The first trip of an American
locomotive was made on the Carbondale and Honesdale road. Throughout the
country many canals were opened; to wit, the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal,
the Delaware and Hudson, and the Oswego in New York; the Farmington in
Connecticut, and the Cumberland and Oxford Canal in Maine. Among the
literary productions of the year were a collection of minor poems by Edgar
Allan Poe, Parkman's earlier essays, Cooper's "Wept of the Wish-ton-Wish,"
Sparks's "John Ledyard," and Washington Irving's "Granada."
[Sidenote: Early automobile vehicles]
In England the first successful experiments with steam-propelled stage
coaches were made by Sir Goldsworth Gurney. These machines were the
precursors of the latter-day automobile vehicle. This account of a ride in
the Gurney stage coach was published by the "United Service Journal":
[Sidenote: A contemporary description]
"We numbered four in a coach attached to the steam carriage, and we had
travelled without difficulty or mishap as far as Longford, where they were
repairing the bridge over the Cambria. On this was a large pile of bricks,
so high as to conceal what was happening on the other side. Precisely at
the moment we began to cross the bridge the mail-coach from Bath arrived on
the other end. As soon as we perceived it we shouted to the driver to take
care; but, as he was not aware of the extraordinary vehicle he was going
to meet, he did not slacken speed. To avoid a collision, Mr. Gurney guided
our steam carriage into the pile of bricks. Some damage to our apparatus
resulted, but was repaired in less than a quarter of an hour. As to the
horses of the coach, they had taken the bit between their teeth and had to
be cut loose.
"Upon our arrival at Melksham, we found that there was a fair in progress,
and the streets were full of people. Mr. Gurney made the carriages travel
as slowly as possible, in order to injure no one. Unfortunately, in that
town the lower classes are strongly opposed to the new method of
transportation. Excited by the postilions, who imagined that the adoption
of Mr. Gurney's steam carriage would compromise their means of livelihood,
the multitude that encumbered the streets arose against us, heaped us with
insults, and attacked us with stones. The chief engineer and another man
were seriously injured. Mr. Gurney feared we could not pursue our journey,
as two of his best mechanics had need of surgical aid. He turned the
carriage into the court of a brewer named Ales, and during the night it was
guarded by constables."
[Sidenote: Jobard]
[Sidenote: Jobard's impressions]
To have assisted at the experiment of Gurney's steam carriage was, in those
days, almost a title to glory. These carriages became speedily one of the
curiosities of London. Foreign travellers who printed accounts of their
journeys, did not fail to devote a chapter to the new means of locomotion.
Jobard, the Belgian savant and economist, was of the number, and so were
Cuchette, St. Germain Leduc and C.G. Simon, three prominent scientific
writers of that time. Jobard's impressions noted down at the time are
worthy of record: "My first visit in England was to the starting station of
Sir Goldsworth Gurney's steam omnibus, running between London and Bath.
This carriage does not differ materially from other stage-coaches, nor has
it had any serious mishap as yet. For my benefit it manoeuvred back and
forth over the street pavement and later on the smooth macadam of the
highway, without any apparent difficulties of guiding. The drivers of other
stage-coaches are agreed that the thing is a success, and that before long
it will do them much harm."
[Sidenote: Lamarck]
Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, a forerunner of Charles Darwin died in this year.
As early as 1801 Lamarck had outlined his ideas of the transmutation of
species and attempted to explain the manner in which that transmutation had
been brought about. There is no such thing as a "species," he held; there
are only individuals descended from a common stock and modified in
structure to suit their environment. Lamarck was scoffed at in his own
time; he was respected as a naturalist, but unrecognized as a prophet.
1830
[Sidenote: First sewing machine]
Early in the year, Bartholemy Thimonnier, a French tailor, took out a
patent for his invention of a sewing machine. It was an invention destined
to revolutionize the manufacture of clothing and the matter of dress in all
civilized countries. Thimonnier's device was a chain stitch sewing machine
worked with a treadle. It had taken the inventor, ignorant as he was of
mechanics, four years of painful application to perfect it. The first to
recognize the real value of the invention was M. Beunier, supervisor of
mines at Paris. He took Thimonnier to Paris and installed him as a partner
and manager of a large clothing firm that manufactured army uniforms. They
set up eighty machines and did so well with them that the workmen of Paris,
profiting by the revolutionary disturbances of the times, wreaked their
vengeance on the new labor-saving device by wrecking the establishment. The
inventor was compelled to flee for life. During the same year, another
Frenchman, Charles Barbier, invented the system of raised printing for the
blind.
[Sidenote: Sir Thomas Lawrence]
Sir Thomas Lawrence, the celebrated English portrait painter, died at the
outset of the year. In his early youth at Bristol and Oxford, this artist
showed marked talent for portraiture, and became a pupil of Sir Joshua
Reynolds at the Royal Academy. His delicate pastel portraits obtained great
vogue in the most aristocratic circles of London. On the death of his
master, Lawrence was appointed painter to the King. He became the
fashionable portrait painter of the age. As such, Lawrence was summoned to
Aix-la-Chapelle during the International Congress of 1818 to paint the
various dignitaries of the Holy Alliance. While at Vienna he painted the
famous pastel of Napoleon's son, the little King of Rome--by all odds the
most charming of all the many likenesses of that unfortunate eaglet.
Lawrence returned to England a few days after the death of Benjamin West,
and was immediately elected to succeed him as President of the Royal
Academy. He held this office for ten years, until his death. Among the most
noted works of Lawrence, executed during this time, were the portraits of
Master Lambton and of the Duke of Wellington. Lawrence's ambitious essays
beyond the limits of portrait painting, such as his once celebrated
"Satan," obtained no lasting success. After the artist's death a number of
his best known canvases were collected for permanent exhibition in the
Waterloo Gallery of Windsor.
[Sidenote: Lister's microscope]
In this year Joseph Jackson Lister, an English amateur optician,
contributed to the Royal Society the famous paper detailing his recent
experiments with the compound microscope. Aided by Tully, a celebrated
optician, Lister succeeded in making of the microscope a practical
scientific implement rather than a toy. With the help of his own
instrument Lister was able to settle the long mooted question as to the
true form of the red corpuscles of the human blood.
[Sidenote: Conquest of Algiers]
[Sidenote: England's vain protest]
In the face of the menacing attitude of the liberal elements of France,
which had been rendered more acute by the King's increase of the Chamber of
Peers to the detriment of the Deputies, the French Government launched
forth upon the conquest of Algiers. It was believed to be an auspicious
moment. The Sultan's reluctant acknowledgment of the independence of
Greece, April 25, showed how powerless he was. The Dey of Algiers had
insulted France by his discourteous treatment of a French consul. He
refused the satisfaction demanded by France. On the failure of a blockade
to reduce the city of Algiers, an expedition commanded by Bourmont set out
for Africa in spring. A landing was successfully effected by the middle of
June. Early in July, Algiers was taken. Immense spoils, valued at
48,000,000 francs, were seized by the French. England grew apprehensive.
George IV. had just died (June 26), and the Duke of Wellington, who was
retained in power by the new king, William IV., demanded from the French
Government an engagement to retain none of its new conquests. "Never," said
Lord Alverdon to Lavel, the French Ambassador, "never did France, under the
Republic or under the Empire, give England such serious ground of complaint
as she has been giving us for the last year." It was in vain. The seething
spirit of the people in France seemed to demand an outlet. The victories
of French arms in Africa were cast before the French people as a sop. The
permanent annexation of Algiers was announced. It was too late.
[Sidenote: "Hernani"]
[Sidenote: Theophile Gautier]
[Sidenote: Honore de Balzac]
[Sidenote: French Government outvoted]
[Sidenote: Charles Xth's Coup d'Etat]
The heated spirit of the rising generation had already been revealed in the
hysterical demonstrations that occurred on the occasion of the first
performance of Victor Hugo's "Hernani" on February 25. Conspicuous among
the leaders of the literary tumult was Theophile Gautier, then a youth of
eighteen, but already an author and an _Hugolatre intransigeant_, who led
the claque on this first night resplendent in a rose-colored doublet and
streaming long hair. With him was young Balzac, who had just won renown and
notoriety by his "Physiologie du Mariage," and the first of his "Contes
Drolatiques." In March, the Liberals in the Chambers declared their want of
confidence in the government by a majority of forty votes. Charles X.,
staking all on the success of his Algerian campaign, dissolved the
Chambers. "No compromise, no surrender," was the motto of the Royalists as
they appealed to the people. The result was an overwhelming majority
against the government. No less than 202 deputies pledged to opposition
were elected. The whole of France was now waiting for the _coup d'etat_,
and Europe waited with France. "Your two weakest points are the electoral
law and the liberty of the press," said Metternich to the French Ambassador
in Vienna, "but you cannot touch them except through the Chambers. A _coup
d'etat_ would ruin the dynasty." The Czar, in St. Petersburg, spoke in a
like strain to the Duc de Mortemart. Charles X. could not be restrained.
"There are only Lafayette and I who have not changed since 1789," said the
King. On July 24, a Sunday, after attending mass, Charles X. signed the
orders that were to rid him of his Chambers. All his Ministers signed with
him. "For life and for death, gentlemen," said the King. "Count upon me as
I count upon you."
[Sidenote: Thiers]
[Sidenote: Marmont]
[Sidenote: The July revolution]