Revolution and struggle for independence. To join the revolutionists'
cause, Lafayette not only had to sacrifice his private fortune and
brilliant prospects at home, but also to leave a young, dearly-loved wife
with an unborn babe. Throughout the weary struggle of America against the
overwhelming power of England, Lafayette, together with Kosciusko and De
Kalb, stood by Washington and the cause for which he had drawn his sword.
Lafayette's presence in the American army, and the example of his constant
financial sacrifices for the American cause, were instrumental in winning
France over to that offensive alliance against England which helped to turn
the tide of war against that country. Throughout his subsequent career,
Lafayette sustained the reputation he had won in early manhood. He was one
of the few prominent figures of the French Revolution who emerged from that
ordeal with untainted reputation. From then until his closing days he was
the foremost champion of liberal thought and political freedom in France.
[Sidenote: Delaroche]
[Sidenote: Death of Blackwood]
Another distinguished Frenchman who died during this year was Jacquard, the
inventor of the loom which bears his name. In the French Salon in spring,
"The Execution of Lady Jane Grey in the Tower," by Paul Hippolyte
Delaroche, took the highest prize. The picture was a happy medium between
the ultra-romantic method of Delacroix and the classicism of David. Three
years previous to this, Delaroche sent to the Salon his famous paintings
"Cromwell at the Bier of Charles I.," and "The Children of Edward IV. in
the Tower." At this same time he was engaged on the greatest of his works,
"The Hemicycle," now in the Hall of the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.
England lost three men prominent in letters, Blackwood, Lamb, and
Coleridge. Blackwood's contribution to English letters was the "Edinburgh
Magazine," founded and maintained by him from 1817 until his death.
[Sidenote: Charles Lamb]
[Sidenote: "Essays of Elia"]
Charles Lamb appeared in the world of letters as "Elia," a fancifully
adopted name of an Italian fellow clerk at the South Sea House, where Lamb
served his literary apprenticeship. While serving as a clerk for the South
Sea Company he published his first poems at the age of twenty-two, followed
shortly by "Rosamond Gray" and "John Woodville," at the beginning of the
century. With his sister Mary he shared in the publication of the two
children's books, "Tales from Shakespeare" (1806), and "Poetry for
Children" (1809). During this same period he compiled and edited the famous
"Specimens of Dramatic Poets Contemporary with Shakespeare." The "Essays of
Elia," which made Lamb's reputation, did not appear until 1823. The charm
of these essays is a frank note of autobiography tempered by a kindly humor
and whimsicality peculiar to Lamb. His fond appreciation of the poetry of
Elizabethan days, as revealed in these essays, was instrumental in bringing
about that revival of Shakespeare and old English poetry which set in early
in the Nineteenth Century.
[Sidenote: Death of Coleridge]
Thus it happened that Lamb and Coleridge were intimately associated. Lamb's
first poems appeared in a volume of Coleridge's. Lamb repaid the debt by
his tribute to Coleridge in his letters. There he has aptly described him
as a "logician, metaphysician and bard." It so happened that both friends,
who were almost of the same age, died in the same year.
[Sidenote: The "Lake School"]
[Sidenote: "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"]
[Sidenote: Swinburne on Coleridge]
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in 1772 at Ottery St. Mary, in Devonshire,
the son of a clergyman. He studied at Cambridge and then went to London,
where he enlisted as a trooper in a regiment of dragoons. Finding military
service uncongenial, he obtained a discharge and devoted himself to
literature. Together with Southey and Lovell he undertook to found a
communistic colony on the banks of the Susquehanna in America. The project
failed from lack of money. The three friends married the three sisters
Fireckes of Bristol and settled in Stowey. There Coleridge, Southey and
Wordsworth founded their so-called "Lake School of Poetry." Coleridge has
told in his "Biographia Literaria," how the "Lyrical Ballads," issued at
that time, derived their inspiration from two sources; to wit, supernatural
themes, which appealed to Coleridge, and homely every-day subjects, which
Wordsworth loved to beautify. Occasionally Coleridge tried himself in the
other field, as in his "Lines to a Young Ass." In the same year Coleridge
brought out the famous "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," his "Odes," and wrote
his first version of "Christabel." The period at Nether Stowey, from 1797
to 1798, was Coleridge's most fruitful year as a poet. All his best poetic
works had their origin at that time. Swinburne has said of Coleridge: "For
height and perfection of imaginative quality he is the greatest of lyric
poets, this was his special power and is his special praise." Much of the
charm and magnetic suggestion of his famous poem "Christabel" rests on its
exquisite vowel-music. The same is true of his wonderful "Rime of the
Ancient Mariner." There the running prose glossary accompanying the poem
displays the same delicate, fanciful tone as his most musical verse. By
these two poems alone Coleridge proved himself the most successful of the
English poets who have tried to imbue their verse with an eerie sense of
the invisible and the unreal:
Like one that on a lonesome road,
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And, having once turned round, walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows a frightful fiend,
Doth close behind him tread.
[Sidenote: "Aids to Reflection"]
[Sidenote: "Sartor Resartus"]
After his twenty-fifth year, Coleridge's poetic qualities declined. As a
result of his travels in Germany he published, in 1800, a translation of
Schiller's "Wallenstein," after which he reluctantly undertook to edit the
"Morning Post," a government organ. In 1804 he went to Malta as secretary
of Governor Ball. His last works were "Biographia Literaria" (1817),
"Zapolya" (1818), "Aids to Reflection" (1825), "Constitution of the Church
and State" (1826), as well as his posthumous "Literary Remains,"
"Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit," and the "Theory of Life." In English
literary annals this year is noted likewise for the appearance of Carlyle's
"Sartor Resartus."
[Sidenote: The Church of Ireland]
[Sidenote: Royal interference]
[Sidenote: Earl Grey resigns]
A Parliamentary bill admitting dissenters to university honors in England
was thrown out by the House of Lords. Another bill for the removal of the
civil disabilities of the Jews was again carried in the Lower House only to
be rejected by the Lords. Next, another coercion bill against Ireland was
introduced by the Ministry early in July. In the Commons much fault was
found with the Government's manner of dealing with Irish questions. In
spite of the concessions to O'Connell, that formidable leader had not been
won over. The Tories held that the Ministry had gone altogether too far. At
this critical moment, on the King's birthday, the Irish prelates, with the
Primate at their head, presented an address signed by fourteen Irish
clergymen in which they deprecated the proposed changes in the discipline
of the Church in Ireland. Instead of leaving the reply to his Ministers,
the King answered it in person: "I had been by the circumstances of my life
led to support toleration to the utmost extent of which it is justly
capable, but toleration must not be suffered to go into licentiousness....
I have spoken more strongly than usual, because of unhappy circumstances
that have forced themselves on the observation of all. The words which you
hear from me have not been learned by heart, but do indeed flow from my
heart." This speech was received with transports of joy by the opposition.
Earl Grey and his colleagues, on July 9, handed in their resignation.
Viscount Melbourne was called in with a heterogeneous Cabinet. During this
interregnum, on October 16, the two Houses of Parliament burned down.
Westminster Hall, the Abbey and the Speaker's residence were saved, but all
the rest, including the interior of the tower and the library of
Parliament, was destroyed.
[Sidenote: Troubles in China]
[Sidenote: Opium trade resented]
[Sidenote: Lord Napier's defiance]
[Sidenote: British ships fired on]
The most serious of the many embarrassments inherited from the
Administration of Grey was the trouble with China, that had arisen out of
the East India Company's opium trade in the Far East. When the charter of
the East India Company was renewed in 1834, it was shorn of its monopoly of
this trade. The consequent extension of the trade in opium, so strenuously
opposed by the Chinese Government, incensed Emperor Taouk-Wang. Lord
Napier, the new British Commissioner, reached the Canton River in July. His
instructions from Lord Palmerston were to foster the English opium trade
not only at Canton, but to demand an extension of the trade to other parts
of the Chinese empire. The Chinese mandarins, under instructions from the
Viceroy of Canton, refused to have anything to do with Napier. He was
lampooned in Chinese prints as "the foreign eye." The Viceroy issued an
edict forbidding the British Commissioner to proceed up the river. At the
same time all trade with English merchants was suspended. In defiance of
the Chinese orders Lord Napier left Macao, and sailing up the river made
his way to the English factory at Canton. There he found himself isolated.
An Imperial proclamation declared that the national dignity was at stake,
and ordered all Chinese subjects to keep away from the Englishmen. The
Canton factory was deserted by all of its coolies and domestic servants.
Lord Napier, ailing in health as he was, found his position untenable. He
sent a final defiance to the Viceroy of Canton: "The merchants of Great
Britain wish to trade with all China on principles of mutual benefit. They
will never relax in their exertions until they gain this. The Viceroy will
find it as easy to stop the current of the Canton River, as to carry into
effect his insane determination." After this the Viceroy sent his troops
into the foreign settlements, and ordered the Bogue forts to fire on any
English ship that attempted to pass. On September 5, two British ships in
the river were fired upon by the Chinese. The English merchants petitioned
Lord Napier to retire to Macao. This he did with a futile protest against
China's acts "of unprecedented tyranny and injustice." Lord Napier died,
leaving to others the settlement of the difficulties which his presence had
intensified.
[Sidenote: Lord Melbourne dismissed]
[Sidenote: Peel dissolves Parliament]
The death of Earl Spencer, which raised Lord Althorp, his son, to the Upper
House, gave the King a chance to get rid of his new advisers. When Lord
Melbourne, on November 14, submitted to the King the changes he proposed to
make in the Ministry in consequence of the vacancies in the Exchequer,
William IV. expressed his disapproval and called in the Duke of Wellington
in his stead. The Duke advised that the task of forming a new Cabinet be
intrusted to Sir Robert Peel, then in Rome. Sir Robert arrived in London
on December 9, and at once accepted the task imposed on him. The opposition
against his new-formed Ministry was so strong that it was decided to appeal
to the country. On December 30, Parliament was dissolved.
[Sidenote: American slavery agitation]
[Sidenote: "Atherton Gag"]
[Sidenote: American events]
In North America, the contest between the Northern and Southern States in
regard to slavery steadily gathered force. President Jackson, in his annual
message, called attention to "the fearful excitement produced in the South
by attempts to circulate through the mails inflammatory appeals addressed
to the slaves." The Federal postmasters of the South and in several cities
of the North were encouraged in the practice of rifling the mails of
possibly offensive matter. John Quincy Adams was threatened with public
censure at the bar of the House for proposing to print a petition for
freedmen. All attempts to get such petitions before Congress were defeated
by a standing rule known as the Atherton Gag. During this year the national
debt was almost liquidated by Jackson's payment of $4,760,082. A measure
was passed through Congress establishing the value of gold and silver. Gold
flowed into the Treasury through all channels of commerce. The mint was
kept busy, and specie payments, which had been suspended for thirty years,
were resumed. Gold and silver became the recognized currency of the land.
The President's measures against the National Bank were less successful. On
March 28, the Senate debated Clay's resolution censuring the President for
his removal of the government deposits. A joint resolution by both Houses
of Congress was passed, in the Senate, June 3, by a vote of 29 to 10. Other
events of the year of interest to Americans were the popular riots that
threw New York into a turmoil on the occasion of the first mayoralty
election in that city, the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Legislature
of Illinois, the establishment of the Indian Territory; and the first
appearance of Bancroft's "History of the United States."
[Sidenote: Friction matches]
Of world-wide interest was the emancipation of all black slaves in the
British West Indies, South Africa, and other colonies; the establishment of
the German tariff union, including all German States except Austria; the
transfer of the capital of Greece from Nauplia to the site of Athens; the
foundation of the free university of Brussels, and the death of the great
German theologian Schleiermacher. An innovation that was destined to add to
the convenience and comfort of domestic life throughout the world was the
introduction of lucifer matches during this year.
1835
[Sidenote: Irish balance of power]
[Sidenote: Gladstone's anti-Irish speech]
[Sidenote: O'Connell's reply]
On February 19, Parliament reassembled. It was found that a working
majority of Tories had been returned, but the first vote on the King's
speech revealed a junction of the Whigs with O'Connell's Irish party, which
foreboded disaster to the government. For the first time in Parliamentary
history the Irish members held the balance of power. In vain did Sir Robert
Peel attempt to stave off his downfall by the introduction of welcome
measures of reform. Once more it was on a question affecting Ireland that
the government was defeated. This was Peel's high commutation bill. Lord
Russell in reply moved that the surplus revenues of the Irish Church be
used for non-ecclesiastical purposes. In the debate that followed,
Gladstone spoke strongly against the measure. For this early speech,
embodying as it did views so radically different from those of his later
life, he was constantly reproached during his career. It ended with the
words, "I hope I shall never live to see the day when such a system shall
be adopted in this country; for the consequences of it to public men will
be lamentable beyond all description." O'Connell said in reply: "I shall
content myself with laying down the broad principle that the emoluments of
a church ought not to be raised from a people who do not belong to it....
All that the Catholics of Ireland require is justice--equal and even-handed
justice."
[Sidenote: Fall of Peel's Ministry]
[Sidenote: Melbourne's second Administration]
When the matter came to a vote the government was defeated by a majority of
thirty-three. On April 8, the resignation of the Ministry was announced to
Parliament. The King sent for Earl Grey, and, on his refusal to form a
Ministry, was driven to the humiliating expedient of recalling Lord
Melbourne. On April 18, a new Cabinet was formed, composed largely of the
men who had been so summarily dismissed by the King a few months before.
Lord Melbourne's second Administration was marked by the elevation of the
settlements of South Australia to a Crown colony. The city of Melbourne,
which was founded that year, was named in his honor.
[Sidenote: Death of William Cobbett]
An extraordinary career was ended, on June 18, by the death of William
Cobbett, from overwork in Parliament. With but little school education,
this remarkable man succeeded in becoming not only one of the foremost
prose writers of English, but the leader of a great popular party.
[Sidenote: The Orange Lodges]
[Sidenote: Duke of Cumberland implicated]
During the early part of Lord Melbourne's Administration, the discontent
and irritation prevailing in Ireland were heightened by the agitation
against the Orange lodges. The original purpose of these lodges had been to
defend, against the Stuarts and their supporters, the Protestant ascendancy
which had begun with the reign of William of Orange. The lodges had grown
in strength until, in 1835, it was estimated that they numbered 140,000
members in Ireland, and as many as 40,000 in London alone. The Grand Master
of all the Orange Lodges was no less a personage than the Duke of
Cumberland, the King's brother. It was believed in Ireland that a
conspiracy existed on the part of the Orangemen to set aside the Princess
Victoria, the next heir to the throne, in favor of the Duke of Cumberland.
The subject was brought to the notice of Parliament by Hume and O'Connell,
who drew special attention to the illegal introduction of Orangemen into
the British army, under warrants signed by the Duke of Cumberland. The
scandal grew to such an extent that the Duke of Cumberland hastened to
dissolve the order before a resolution condemning his conduct could pass
through the Commons.
[Sidenote: D'Urban in South Africa]
[Sidenote: Beginning of Boer trek]
In South Africa, another war over boundary questions broke out between the
Dutch and English settlers and the Kaffirs. Sir Benjamin d'Urban advanced
the frontier of Cape Colony to the Keir River. The Zulu chief, Dingaan, on
the assassination of King Chaka, who had welded together a confederation of
warlike tribes, succeeded to his powers. In the midst of these difficulties
an advance guard of Boers, exasperated by Great Britain's abolition of the
old Dutch moot courts or "Heemraden," and of slavery in Cape Colony,
trekked across the Orange River and founded a colony of their own.
[Sidenote: South American disorders]
[Sidenote: Revolution of Texas]
In South America, political changes rapidly followed one upon the other.
Rocafuerte seized the reins of power in Ecuador. About the same time
General Rosas had himself re-elected for fifteen years as dictator of the
Argentine Republic. President Santa Cruz of Bolivia made a raid into Peru,
and in his absence the State of Bolivia promptly fell a prey to internal
disorders. In Mexico, General Santa Anna established his rule as dictator.
The affairs of Texas soon demanded his attention. On December 20, Texas
declared itself independent of Mexico. Support came from the United States.
The revolution began with the battle of Gonzales, in which 500 Americans
took part. The Mexicans were defeated. Soon afterward Goliad and the strong
citadel of Bexar, known as the Alamo, were taken and the Mexican forces
dispersed.
[Sidenote: Osceola in Florida]
[Sidenote: Treaty of Payne's Landing disputed]
In the meanwhile the Seminole war in Florida had assumed a serious aspect.
The chief Indian leader who opposed the removal of the Seminoles west of
the Mississippi was Osceola, son of a half breed squaw and an Englishman.
His wife, the daughter of a slave, had been seized and returned to her
mother's master. Thenceforth Osceola became an uncompromising enemy of the
whites. The Indian controversy with the American Government turned on the
interpretation of a pronoun in the treaty of Payne's Landing. President
Jackson held that the word "they" in the most important clause of the
treaty relating to the compensation of the despoiled Indians referred only
to the deputies who executed the document, whereas Osceola contended that
it was meant to stand for all the Indians. The continued quibbling so
enraged Osceola that he drove his knife into the table exclaiming: "The
next treaty I will execute is with this."
[Sidenote: American progress]
[Sidenote: New York conflagration]
[Sidenote: Death of Justice Marshall]
Among the intellectual and scientific achievements of this year in America
must be reckoned Colt's invention of a revolver and the manufacture of
pins. Longfellow brought out his "Outre-Mer," and Audubon published his
"Birds of America." On December 16, a disastrous fire destroyed most of the
commercial houses of New York City. In all 530 houses burned down and
$18,000,000 worth of property was consumed. Chief Justice Marshall of the
United States Supreme Court died during this year, eighty years of age. As
a member of Congress, a Cabinet officer, and the foremost jurist of the
United States, Marshall won lasting distinction. His ability as a writer
was conspicuously displayed in his popular "Life of Washington."
[Sidenote: Ferdinand, Emperor of Austria]
[Sidenote: Wilhelm von Humboldt]
[Sidenote: Andersen's Fairy Tales]
In Europe, in the meanwhile, there had been some significant changes. On
March 2, Emperor Francis of Austria died at the age of sixty-seven. The
succession of Archduke Ferdinand to the throne produced no change in the
national policy. Metternich was retained at the head of affairs. Almost of
more moment to Germany was the death of Karl Wilhelm von Humboldt, the
diplomat, and brother to Alexander, the great German explorer and
philosophic writer. Besides his services as a statesman at the time of the
international conferences at Paris and Vienna, he is distinguished for his
philological researches in the Basque and Kauri languages. About the same
time Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish author, published his first
collection of fairy tales. The book had an immediate success, and after its
translation into German achieved a world-wide reputation. Various
translations from the German version and from the original had large sales
in England and America.
[Sidenote: Artistic activity in France]
[Sidenote: May riots of Paris]
[Sidenote: Fieschi's infernal machine]
[Sidenote: Second campaign in Algiers]
In France, too, notwithstanding political disturbances, fine arts and
letters flourished. New creations appeared from the pens of Lamartine,
Victor Hugo, Balzac, De Vigny and Alfred De Musset. Theophile Gautier
brought out his masterpiece "Mademoiselle de Maupin." Among the musicians
at Paris, Meyerbeer, Auber, Berlioz, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Spontini,
and Schapa were at the height of their activity. Politically it was a year
of disturbances for France. The opening of the State trial of last year's
conspirators before the Chamber of Peers was followed by diatribes in the
press. The liberties of the press were further restricted. Riots again
broke out in May. After all, but one man was condemned to death. Most of
those who were implicated were sentenced to transportation. New laws for
the repression of sedition were proposed by the Cabinet. Then it was that
the first serious attempt was made on the life of Louis Philippe. Already
seven projects of assassination had been discovered and frustrated, when a
grand review of the National Guards, on July 28, gave an opportunity for a
telling stroke. At the moment when the royal procession arrived on the
Boulevard Temple, an infernal machine was set off by a Corsican named
Fieschi. The King was saved only by the fact that he had bent down from
his horse to receive a petition when the machine was discharged. Among
those that were struck down were the Dukes of Orleans and Broglie, Marshal
Mortier, General Verigny, and Captain Vilate. The perpetrators of the crime
were put to death. In French foreign affairs a renewed uprising of Arab
tribes under Abd-el-Kader necessitated another military campaign in
Algeria.
In Greece, King Otto, having come of age on June 1, dissolved the Bavarian
regency and assumed his full royal powers at Athens. His reign, lacking
though it was in national spirit or sympathies, assured to Greece an era of
undisturbed peace and tranquillity.
[Sidenote: Seminole War]