disturbances which followed the rejection of the Reform Bill in the House
of Lords. A great number of rioters were convicted. Altogether, seven men
were put to death at Bristol and Nottingham. The officers who commanded the
troops during the riots were court-martialed. When Parliament reassembled,
the Commons once more passed the Reform Bill and carried it up to the
Lords. In the course of the renewed debate on the Reform Bill in the House
of Peers the Duke of Wellington announced that he had reason to believe
that the King did not approve of the bill. The statement was confirmed by
the King's refusal to create new peers wherewith to pass the bill through
the Upper House. Thereupon Lord Grey and his colleagues resigned from the
Ministry. The King accepted their resignation. Monster petitions were
immediately sent in to the Commons from Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and
other great centres of population, urging the Commons to refuse the
supplies until reform should have been secured. Once more stocks fell
sharply. For the express purpose of embarrassing the King's chosen
successors for the Cabinet, runs were made on the Bank of England, and on
the savings banks at Birmingham and Manchester. The streets of London were
covered with placards: "Go for gold and stop the Duke!" In the face of this
agitation the Duke of Wellington declined the King's offer to form a
Ministry. Sir Robert Peel likewise declined. As a last resort Wellington
consented to form a Ministry, but could not get together a Cabinet strong
enough to stem the storm. The Iron Duke's popularity as well as the King's
was at an end. When the King came up to London, accompanied by his sons,
they were received with hoots and insults. Missiles were thrown at the
royal carriage, and the Life Guards had to fight a way through the mob with
their swords. The King was driven to the humiliating expedient of recalling
his dismissed Ministers. William IV. now consented to create the required
number of new peers. Lord Brougham gave mortal offence to the King by a
request that he should put his promise in writing. With the King's written
pledge in their hands the Ministers obtained an agreement from their
opponents to pass the bill without further coercion. Early in June, at
length, the Reform Bill passed through the House of Lords after a third
reading. One hundred and six peers voted for it and only twenty-two against
it. On this occasion Sir Robert Peel made a remark to which his subsequent
change of front gave peculiar significance: "Whenever the government comes
to deal with the corn laws, the precedent formed by the present occasion
will be appealed to." The reform measure, as at last adopted, swept away
142 seats in the Commons. It gave to the counties sixty-five additional
representatives and conferred the right of sending members to Parliament on
Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and thirty-nine other large towns hitherto
unrepresented. The King showed his disapproval of the reform by
peremptorily declining to give his assent to the bill in person. The
Crown's sanction was given by commission. This ended all agitation for the
time being.
[Sidenote: Otto, King of Greece]
It was in May that the great Powers, in response to another appeal from
Greece, suggested Prince Otto of Wittelsbach, the second son of the
Philhellene King of Bavaria, for the vacant throne. This choice was
ratified in October amid general rejoicings by the population of Greece.
[Sidenote: Foreign intervention in Italy]
In Italy, early in the year, the Pope's failure to carry out his promise of
reform created new troubles. An amnesty, which had been granted by the
legate Benvenuti, was disregarded and the papal soldiery practiced all
manner of repression. Another revolt broke out and once more the Austrians,
at the Pope's request, crossed the frontier. They restored order so well
that they were actually welcomed as protectors against the ruthless
condottieri of the papal troops. Austria's intervention was resented by
France as a breach of the peace. Casimir Perier, now on his deathbed,
despatched a French force to Ancona. The town was seized before the
Austrians could approach it. Austria accepted the situation, and both
powers in Italy remained face to face jealously watching each other. Had
Casimir Perier lived he might have made Ancona a lever for effecting the
desired reforms at Rome. As it was, the French garrison at Ancona remained
merely as a balancing point between the contending parties in Italy.
[Sidenote: Death of Cuvier]
[Sidenote: Cuvier's Works]
France in the same year lost one of its distinguished men of science, by
the death of Baron Cuvier, the great naturalist. Georges Leopold Cuvier was
born in 1769 at Montbeliard. After studying at Stuttgart he became private
tutor in the family of Count D'Hericy in Normandy, where he was at liberty
to devote his leisure to natural science and in particular to zoology. A
natural classification of the _Vermae_ or worms was his first achievement.
The ability and knowledge shown in this work procured him the friendship of
the greatest naturalists of France. He was invited to Paris, took a chair
at the Ecole Centrale, and was received by the Institute as a member of the
first class. His lectures on natural history, distinguished not less for
the elegance of their style than for profound knowledge and daring
speculation, were attended by some of the most accomplished persons of
Paris. In January, 1800, Cuvier was appointed to the College de France.
Under Napoleon, who fully recognized his merits, Cuvier held important
offices in the department of public instruction. Under the Restoration he
was made one of the forty members of the French Academy. In 1831, a year
prior to his death, he was appointed a Peer of France. Among the numerous
works by which Cuvier greatly expanded the study of natural history may be
mentioned as foremost "Researches into Fossil Bones," "Discourse of the
Revolutions on the Surface of the Globe," "A Course of Comparative
Anatomy," "Natural History of Fishes," and his great work, "The Animal
Kingdom," with its subdivisions into the four great classes--vertebrates,
mollusks, articulates and radiates.
[Sidenote: Death of Goethe]
On March 22, Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany's foremost man of letters,
expired at Weimar. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in 1749, at
Frankfort-on-the-Main, the son of a councillor under the old German empire.
His best traits were inherited from his mother. As he himself sang in later
years:
Vom Vater hab ich die Statur,
Des Lebens ernstes Fuhren,
Vom Mutterchen die Frohnatur
Und Lust zum Fabuliren.[A]
[Footnote A:
From my father I have my stature
And serious view of life;
From dear little mother my glad heart
And fondness for telling stories.]
[Sidenote: Goethe's career]
[Sidenote: "Goetz von Berlichingen"]
[Sidenote: "The Sorrows of Werther"]
[Sidenote: Goethe at Weimar]
[Sidenote: "Hermann und Dorothea"]
His father had him educated for the study of law. In his sixteenth year he
was sent to the University at Leipzig. Later he went to Strasburg, where he
became acquainted with the poet Herder, and had his first love affair with
Friederike Brion of Sesenheim, whose charm has been kept alive in Goethe's
autobiography, "Dichtung und Wahrheit." In 1772 he returned to Frankfort
and practiced law. While thus engaged he wrote his first
romantic-historical play, "Goetz von Berlichingen." In the following year
he published his sentimental romance, "The Sorrows of Werther," based in a
measure on one of his own unfortunate love affairs at Wetzlar. Both of
these early works achieved instant success. "The Sorrows of Werther"
inaugurated in German literature what is known as the period of storm and
stress. Disenchantment of life, or "Weltschmerz," became a fashionable
malady. The romantic suicide of Goethe's sentimental hero Werther was aped
by a number of over-susceptible young persons. Wieland drew the attention
of the Duke of Weimar to Goethe, and the young poet was invited to Weimar.
He remained under the patronage of this enlightened prince until the end of
his days. At Weimar, Goethe was the centre of a court comprising some of
the foremost spirits of Germany. The little capital became a Mecca for
poets, scholars, artists and musicians from all over the world. Goethe's
only rival poet in Germany, Schiller, was drawn into the circle and the two
became life-long friends. Most of Goethe's lyric poems were written during
the first ten years at Weimar. At the outbreak of the French Revolution he
accompanied the Duke of Weimar in one of the campaigns against France. The
thrilling atmosphere of the Revolution furnished him with a literary
background for his epic idyl, "Hermann und Dorothea." Goethe's subsequent
journey to Italy, which was a turning-point in the poet's career, was
commemorated in his "Letters from Italy"--a classic among German books of
travel. Another eminently successful creation was the epic of "Reynard, the
Fox," modelled after the famous bestiary poems of early Flemish and
French literature.
[Illustration: THE KING OF ROME
Painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence]
[Sidenote: Goethe's dramas]
[Sidenote: "Wilhelm Meister"]
[Sidenote: "Dichtung und Wahrheit"]
[Sidenote: "Faust"]
During the same period Goethe wrote four of his greatest dramas, "Iphigenie
in Tauris," "Torquato Tasso," "Egmont," and the first part of "Faust."
Later he wrote his great prose work, "Die Wahlverwandtschaften," a
quasi-physiological romance; "Wilhelm Meister's Lehr und Wander Jahre," a
narrative interspersed with some of Goethe's finest lyrics, such as the
songs of Mignon and of the old harper, as well as the famous critique of
Hamlet. The height of Goethe's superb prose style was reached in "Dichtung
und Wahrheit," which stands as one of the most charming autobiographies of
all times. Goethe's versatility as a writer and man was shown not only by
his free use of all literary forms, but also by his essays on such abstruse
subjects as astrology, optics, the theory of color, comparative anatomy and
botany. Shortly before his death, the poet finished the greatest of his
works, the tragedy "Faust." He died in the eighty-third year of his life,
uttering the words "More Light." Goethe was entombed in the ducal vault at
Weimar, by the side of his friends, Friedrich Schiller and Carl August of
Weimar.
[Sidenote: Goethe's genius]
Like Heine, Goethe offended his fellow Germans by his apparent lack of
purely national and patriotic sentiments. To the present day his outspoken
admiration of Napoleon and his cold abstention from the ardent enthusiasm
of the Prussian war of Liberation have not been forgiven by certain
Germans. As a man, Goethe has been denounced as an egotist, for the
apparently selfish character of his relations with women, ending with his
marriage to a woman far below him. On the other hand, Goethe must be
regarded as the most universal literary genius produced by Germany. He
stands in line with those master spirits of all ages, Homer, Virgil, Dante,
Cervantes, Shakespeare and Moliere.
[Sidenote: Death of Scott]
[Sidenote: Walter Scott's poems]
[Sidenote: "The Waverley Novels"]
[Sidenote: Scott a bankrupt]
[Sidenote: Literary drudgery]
A few months after the death of Goethe, in September, Sir Walter Scott died
in England. Goethe was accustomed to speak of Scott as "the greatest writer
of his time." Shortly before his death Goethe said: "All is great in
Scott's 'Waverley Novels'--material, effect, characters and execution."
Scott himself derived much of his inspiration from Goethe's writings. One
of his earliest works was a translation of "Goetz von Berlichingen." The
creation of Mignon, in "Wilhelm Meister," furnished Scott with the
character of Fenella in his "Peveril of the Peak." Scott began his career
as a writer with a translation of Buerger's "Ballads." His most successful
metrical pieces, "The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," "The Lay of the
Last Minstrel," "Marmion," and "The Lady of the Lake," for the most part
appeared during the opening years of the Nineteenth Century. Then came the
great series of the "Waverley Novels," named after the romance of
"Waverley," published anonymously in 1814. The series comprised such
classics as "Guy Mannering," "The Heart of Midlothian," "Kenilworth,"
"Quentin Durward," and "Ivanhoe." Scott's historical romances, based as
they were on painstaking researches into old chronicles, revived in
Englishmen an interest in their own past. The romance of the Middle Ages
was recognized for the first time, if in an exaggerated degree, throughout
the civilized world. The romantic movement in French literature, now in
full swing, was directly inspired by Scott. Notwithstanding his great
success as a writer, Scott's later career was clouded by difficulties and
debt. Through his friendship with Canning early in his career he obtained
the post of court clerk in Edinburgh. This left him leisure to edit a
number of literary works, such as the editions of Swift, Dryden and Sir
Tristan. The great popular success of his novels soon made him rich. His
hospitality at Abbotsford grew so lavish that in order to defray his
expenses he joined in a financial partnership with his publishers. The
failure of the Bank of Constable, in 1826, and the consequent failure of
the house of Ballantyne, ruined Scott. His debts amounted to L117,000. In
his efforts to earn enough money wherewith to pay this enormous sum, Scott
became a literary drudge. It was at this time that he wrote his
seven-volume history of the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, "Tales of a
Grandfather," and a two-volume "History of Scotland." His work as a
historian was by no means equal to that of his purely literary creations.
In 1830, as the result of overwork, Sir Walter Scott suffered from a stroke
of paralysis. A journey to Italy brought no relief. Two years later he
died. He was buried at Dryburgh Abbey. For several generations after his
death Scott remained one of the most popular authors of England.
[Sidenote: Advances in Medicine]
A remarkable instance of good resulting from evil was afforded this year by
the revolting murders committed by Burke and Hare in Edinburgh. These two
men deliberately killed a number of persons to sell their bodies to medical
dissecters. The discovery of their crimes led to a Parliamentary
investigation in the course of which Sir Astley Cooper boldly stated that
any man's body could be obtained in the United Kingdom if enough money were
offered. The scandal resulted in the passage of an Anatomy Act licensing
the traffic in human bodies within strict limitations. Before this reform
surgeons experimenting in human anatomy had to rely on body-snatchers for
their material. The repeal of the old laws on this subject removed much of
the odium hitherto attached to the science of dissection, while the
increase of experimental material gave a fresh impetus to the study of
anatomy.
[Sidenote: Death of Napoleon II.]
A menace to the royal crown of France was removed by the death of
Napoleon's son, the young Duke of Reichstadt, erstwhile King of Rome. He
expired at Schoenbrunn, after an empty life spent under Metternich's
tutelage in Vienna, and was buried there. His death at the time was
commemorated in the famous German ballad, beginning with the lines:
In the gardens of Schoenbrunn
Lies buried the King of Rome.
The French playwright Rostand made the life and death of this unfortunate
Prince the subject of a romantic tragedy "The Eaglet," in which Sarah
Bernhardt achieved so striking a success at the close of the Nineteenth
Century.
[Sidenote: Attempted revolts in France]
[Sidenote: Repressive measures]
The removal of another menace to Louis Philippe's throne was accompanied by
circumstances less tragic. In April, the Duchesse de Berry, wearying of her
exile, crossed over to Marseilles and travelled thence in disguise to
Chateau Plassac, in the Vendee, where she summoned the Royalists to arms.
She was betrayed into the hands of constables sent to arrest her, and was
placed in safe keeping at Chateau Blaye on an island in the Gironde. The
affair took an awkward turn for the cause of the Orleanists in France, when
the Duchess gave birth to an infant daughter, whose parentage she found it
difficult to explain. Next, the death of General Lamarque, a popular
soldier of France, started an insurrection at Paris in the summer. An
attempt was made to build barricades, and conflicts occurred in the
streets, but the National Guard remained true to the army and the King, and
the revolt was soon put down. The government of Louis Philippe resorted to
severe repressive measures, and trials for sedition were common. In Germany
a revolutionary appeal to arms, made at a popular festival at the Castle of
Homburg, near Zweibruecken, resulted in renewed reactionary measures. The
German Diet, at the instance of Metternich, declared that the refusal of
taxes by any legislature would be treated as an act of rebellion. All
political meetings and associations were forbidden and the public press was
gagged.
[Sidenote: Naval demonstration at Lisbon]
[Sidenote: Civil war in Portugal]
The excesses of Dom Miguel's followers in Portugal were followed by more
serious international results. A series of wanton attacks upon foreign
subjects in Lisbon called for outside intervention. English and French
squadrons appeared in the Tagus. Lord Palmerston, the British Foreign
Secretary, declared himself satisfied after Portugal had apologized and
paid an indemnity to the British sufferers. The French admiral, unable to
obtain quick redress, carried off the best ships of the Portuguese navy.
The worst result for Dom Miguel was the foreign encouragement given to his
brother, Emperor Pedro of Brazil, who was preparing an expedition against
him in the Azores. Some of the best British naval officers and veterans of
the Peninsular War were permitted to enlist under Dom Pedro's banner.
Captain Charles Napier took charge of Dom Pedro's navy. In July a landing
was made near Oporto, and that important city was captured by Dom Pedro's
forces. Dom Miguel was constrained to lay siege to Oporto. Thus the civil
war in Portugal dragged on.
The most formidable revolt of the year was that of Mehemet Ali, the Viceroy
of Egypt, against his suzerain, Sultan Mahmoud of Turkey. The disappointing
results of Egypt's participation in Turkey's war in Greece left Mehemet Ali
dissatisfied. He considered the acquisition of Crete by Egypt but a poor
recompense for the loss of his fleet at Navarino.
[Sidenote: Mehemet Ali's revolt]
[Sidenote: Siege of Acre]
[Sidenote: Turkish reverses]
[Sidenote: Russian intervention]
A quarrel with the Pasha of Acre, Abdallah, gave Mehemet Ali a chance for
Egyptian aggrandizement in that direction. Egyptian forces under the
command of Mehemet Ali's adopted son Ibrahim marched into Palestine and
laid siege to Acre. That stronghold resisted with the same stubbornness
that Bonaparte had encountered years before. The protracted struggle there
gave the Sultan time to prepare an expedition wherewith to intervene
between his warring vassals. He took the part of the Pasha of Acre. A
proclamation was issued declaring Mehemet Ali and his son rebels. A Turkish
army under Hussain Pasha entered Syria. The fall of Acre, while the
relieving army was still near Antioch, enabled Ibrahim to throw his full
force against the Turks. In the valley of the Orontes the two forces met.
The Turkish vanguard was routed and the Turkish main column fell back on
Aleppo, leaving Antioch and all the surrounding country to the Egyptians.
The Pasha of Aleppo, won over by Mehemet Ali, closed the gates of his city
against Hussain's disordered forces. The Turks retreated into the mountains
between Syria and Cilicia. The Egyptians pursued. At the pass of Beilan a
stand was made by Hussain. The fierce mountain tribes turned against him,
and with their help Ibrahim won a signal victory over the Turks, on July
29. The retreat continued through Cilicia far into Asia Minor. After
several months a new Turkish army under Reshid Pasha, Ibrahim's colleague
in the siege of Missolonghi, advanced from the north. A pitched battle was
fought at Konieh on the 21st of December. The Turks were utterly routed.
The army was dispersed and Reshid himself was made a prisoner. The road to
Constantinople now lay open to Mehemet Ali. Sultan Mahmoud was so alarmed
that he turned to his old adversary, Russia, for help. General Muravieff
was summoned to Constantinople and was empowered to make terms for Turkey
with Mehemet Ali.
[Sidenote: Affair of Quallah Buteau]
In America, likewise, President Jackson had found it necessary to assert
the rights of the United States by means of a punitive expedition. This
grew out of the affair of Quallah Buteau on the Island of Sumatra in the
Dutch East Indies. The American ship "Friendship" had put in there during
the previous year to load with pepper. The captain, whose men were on
shore, permitted the crew of a Malay boat to come on board. There was not a
sign of danger, when suddenly the Malays attacked the Americans, killing
the first officer and two sailors and plundering the vessel. They then
tried to beach the vessel, but two other American ships compelled the
Malays to flee. The Rajah of Quallah Buteau appropriated the plunder and
refused to return it. Commodore Downs, with the frigate "Potomac," was
ordered to Sumatra. He reached there early in February. Finding that
nothing could be accomplished by peaceful means he landed two hundred and
fifty of his sailors under command of Lieutenant Shubrick. The Malays
refused to give or receive quarter. Their palisades were torn down and
turned into a bridge, and the fort was stormed. The Stars and Stripes were
hoisted. Another fort with its magazines was blown up. The town was
occupied. In all one hundred and fifty Malays were killed and wounded,
among them the Rajah. The total loss of the Americans was two men. The
offending town was razed.
[Sidenote: Struggle over United States Bank]
Jackson's domestic policy during this year brought him into conflict with
two powerful factors. One was the United States Bank at Philadelphia.
Jackson disapproved of the Bank on the ground that it failed to establish a
sound and new form of currency. A financial panic had been caused by
worthless paper currency issued by so-called "wildcat" banking
institutions. A petition for the renewal of the National Bank's charter,
which was to expire in 1836, was laid before the Senate. Both Houses passed
a bill to that effect. Jackson vetoed it, and a two-thirds vote wherewith
to override his veto could not be obtained for the measure. Jackson then
ordered the Bank's deposits removed. He read to the Cabinet a long paper,
in which he accused the officers of the Bank of mismanagement and
corruption, and stated that he would assume the entire responsibility for
the removal of the deposits. The Bank made a stubborn fight and spent over
$50,000 in defending itself. In the Senate, Benton was the chief opponent
of the Bank, and Webster was its principal defender. In December, the
President sent a message to Congress recommending the removal of the public
funds from the National Bank to certain State banks. Congress refused to
remove the funds.
[Sidenote: American tariff legislation]
[Sidenote: South Carolina nullification]
[Sidenote: Jackson's vigorous measures]
The passage of a new tariff law, on July 14, which was considered harmful
to Southern interests, brought the Federal Government into armed conflict
with the South. On November 19, a State Convention met at Columbus, South
Carolina, in response to a call of the Legislature, and on the 24th a
nullification ordinance was adopted. The tariff laws were declared
unconstitutional, and therefore "null and void and no law, nor binding upon
the State." On December 10, President Jackson issued a proclamation against
nullifiers, threatening them with trial for treason. Governor Hamilton of
South Carolina in reply warned citizens not to be diverted from their
allegiance to their State by this Federal proclamation. Jackson summoned
General Scott to Washington and sent a part of the army to Charleston with
a ship of war to collect the revenues. On December 28, J.C. Calhoun
resigned the office of Vice-President on account of Jackson's proclamation.
He was forthwith elected Senator from South Carolina.
[Sidenote: Treaty of Payne's Landing]
[Sidenote: Troubles with Indians]
[Sidenote: Black Hawk War]