rule. In October, Generals O'Donnel and Concha headed a rising at Pambulna
in behalf of the former Queen-Regent Christina. The Queen's guard repelled
an attack of Don Diego Leon on the palace. On October 15, Don Diego was
captured and shot. One week later O'Donnel fled to France. On the same day,
General Zurbano gained possession of the citadel and port of Bilbao. He
declared himself in favor of the Queen-Regent.
[Sidenote: French Algerian victories]
On the other side of the Pyrenees the restoration of the French _entente
cordiale_ with England and the other European Powers was manifested in the
conclusion of the International Convention of Alexandria in July, and the
quintuple treaty for suppression of the slave trade proposed by the British
Government. The French cry for the forcible recovery of the Rhine frontier
died down and public funds rose accordingly. Alfred de Musset's second
invective poem on "Le Rhin Allemand" scarcely raised a stir. All desire for
military conquests was satisfied for the moment by the exploits of French
arms under General Bugeaud and the Duc d'Aumale in Algeria. For once the
Arab chiefs of the Desert were cowed into submission. The effect of the Duc
d'Aumale's triumphal return was spoiled somewhat by the attempt to
assassinate him on September 13. Under Guizot's guidance the French
Chambers showed their appreciation of the flourishing state of literature
in France by their amendments to the copyright law, extending the
provisions of copyright to a period of thirty years after an author's
death.
[Sidenote: Death of Lermontov]
[Sidenote: Lermontov's work]
Michel Jurgevitch Lermontov, the Russian poet, died on July 27, as the
result of a duel in the Caucasus. His romance, "A Hero of Our Time," was
the immediate cause of the duel. This poet was the Russian spokesman of the
so-called Weltschmerz (world-sorrow) which had come into vogue with the
"Sorrows of Werther." Following in the wake of Chateaubriand and Byron,
Lermontov wrote epic poems in a pessimistic, cynical strain, without
attaining quite the bitterness of spirit of a Byron or Heine, nor the
melancholy lyric beauty of a Lenau or Leopardi. Pre-eminent, on the other
hand, are his poetical descriptions of the scenery and wild national traits
of the Caucasus, which furnished the background for almost all of his
poems. Noteworthy among his epics are "The Circassian Boy," "Ismail Bey,"
"Valerik," "Hadshy-Abrak," and "The Demon." Under Czar Nicholas,
Lermontov's works were forbidden in Russia. After having been banished to
the Caucasus, for demanding revenge for Pushkin's death, the poet published
his last brilliant epic, "Song of Czar Ivan Vasilyevitch," under a
pseudonym.
[Sidenote: German letters]
[Sidenote: Prussian General Estates]
In Germany, too, letters and arts were flourishing. In Vienna, Nikolaus
Lenau (Baron Strehlenau) and his friend, Anastasius Gruen (Count
Auersperg), were the leaders of a literary movement which found its
counterpart in the so-called "Young German" movement of the north, where
Ferdinand Freiligrath, Laube, Gutzkow, and Emanuel Geibel came under the
ban of the German Bundesrath. The great political event of the year was the
meeting of the first General Estates, convoked at Berlin. The new king's
hostile attitude toward their popular demands for constitutional rights and
larger liberties soon destroyed the hopes of liberal Germans for a change
of spirit in the government of Prussia. A more material advance in
civilization was assured by the opening of the first railway from Berlin to
Magdeburg.
[Sidenote: Cornelius]
Peter von Cornelius, one of the leaders of the religious Catholic movement
in art which had followed the classicism of the first decade of the
century, was commissioned by the King to decorate the cemetery at Berlin.
These decorations afterward, as well as the mural paintings in the Church
of Saint Louis at Munich, proved to be his masterpieces.
[Sidenote: Defence of Jellalabad]
The British occupation of Afghanistan had continued since the last year.
The expenses of the occupation were so heavy that economy was imperative.
As soon as the British Resident cut down the subsidies paid to Shah Shuja
the situation took a sinister turn. In October, Sir Robert Sale left Kabul
with a brigade of British troops to reopen communications with Jellalabad,
which had been interrupted by hostile mountain tribes. He got to Jellalabad
only after a desperate struggle and heavy losses. His subsequent defence of
that stronghold against the Afghans is one of the heroic traditions of
British India.
[Sidenote: Massacre of Kabul]
[Sidenote: Afghans up in arms]
At Kabul, in the meanwhile, the garrison had been removed from the citadel
of Bala Hasir to open cantonments outside of the city. Sir William
MacNaghten, the British Resident, had been appointed Governor of Bombay,
and was about to be succeeded by Sir Alexander Byrnes. Byrnes took up his
abode in the centre of the city amid the turbulent bazaars. On November 2,
the people of Kabul rose against the English. Byrnes barricaded his house
and sent to MacNaghten for help. On the advice of General Elphinstone,
MacNaghten decided to wait for further information before acting. The delay
was fatal for Byrnes. He held out with thirty-two others from eight in the
morning until two in the afternoon. Then the ammunition gave out. The mob
rushed in and tore the house to pieces. Byrnes and twenty-three of his
followers were massacred. One hour later a British relief corps tried to
enter the city. All Kabul turned against them. The British were forced to
retire. The news of this set Afghanistan wild. Thousands of armed
mountaineers flocked to Kabul, and the whole nation rose against the
foreigners. The British troops were cut off from all supplies. They
maintained their precarious position only by lavish promises of ransom. At
length, after many parleys, a meeting was arranged, for December 23,
between MacNaghten and the Afghan chiefs. When the English envoy walked
into the meeting the Afghans fell upon him, and he was slain by Akbar
Khan.
1842
[Sidenote: MacNaghten's murder unavenged]
[Sidenote: The retreat from Kabul]
[Sidenote: Disaster of Khaibar Pass]
The situation of the British in Afghanistan was so critical that they could
not avenge the murder of their countrymen. Negotiations were actually
renewed with Akbar Khan upon his statement that he had not meant to murder
the British envoy, but had been goaded into the act by the taunts of
MacNaghten. Promises of safe conduct were obtained. In January the British
forces began their retreat from Kabul. Then followed a series of
treacheries and mutual breaches of faith. Akbar Khan and his hordes of
Afghans dogged the retreating column exacting further concessions. The
English women and children were demanded as hostages. From the heights of
the Khaibar Pass, the Ghilzai mountaineers poured a destructive fire into
the Englishmen. Akbar Khan's followers made common cause with them.
Thousands of Englishmen were slain, or perished in the deep snows of the
Khaibar Pass. The wounded and those who fell behind were butchered by the
Afghans. A fortnight sufficed to cut the whole column to pieces. Of the
entire force of 4,000 soldiers and 12,000 followers, one single survivor
succeeded in reaching Jellalabad. He was a British surgeon named Brydon,
who dragged himself on all fours out of reach of the Afghans; but he lived
to tell the tale for more than thirty years afterward.
Colonel Stoddart and Captain Connelly had been sent as British emissaries
to Bokhara. When the news of the British massacre at Kabul reached Bokhara,
both men were promptly thrown into prison. Later, when the news of the
British disaster in the Khaibar Pass reached Bokhara, the Ameer had the two
envoys taken from their dungeons. They were publicly beheaded in the
market-place of Bokhara.
[Sidenote: Lord Ellenborough in India]
[Sidenote: Jellalabad relieved]
[Sidenote: Recapture of Kabul]
[Sidenote: British vandalism]
Such was the state of affairs in India when Lord Ellenborough landed at
Calcutta in February, to succeed Lord Auckland as Governor-General. The
first trying need was to rescue the remaining British garrisons at
Jellalabad and Kandahar. General Pollock, with a strong force of Sepoys,
was sent through the Punjab and Peshawar. In April, he pushed his way
through the Khaibar Pass, in the face of fierce resistance from the
mountaineers. The relieving force reached Jellalabad none too soon. General
Sale and his garrison were fighting for time. In a last sortie they had
just inflicted a telling defeat on Akbar Khan and his besieging army. From
Kabul the boy sovereign of the Afghans fled out of Akbar Khan's reach and
put himself under the protection of General Pollock. Akbar Khan now wrote
to General Pollock, offering to deliver up his British prisoners and
hostages if he would withdraw from Afghanistan. Lord Ellenborough showed
himself inclined to accept this proposition. The British officers at the
front were furious. General Pollock wrote to Nott at Kandahar not to move
until further instructions, while he himself reported to headquarters that
he could not retire to Jellalabad for want of transports. Eventually, Lord
Ellenborough consented to modify his instructions. Without waiting for
this, General Nott was already marching on Kabul. Pollock, accompanied by
Sale, left Jellalabad to support Nott's advance. In the Tezeen Valley the
British came upon the scene of one of the bloodiest massacres of the
retreat from Kabul. The sight of the murdered bodies of their comrades
exasperated the soldiers. The heights around were bristling with Akbar
Khan's men. In the face of a murderous fire from their matchlocks, the
British stormed the heights and gave no quarter. Akbar Khan fled into the
northern hills. In September, Nott's column took Kabul and hoisted the
British flag over the Bala Hassar. The English captives managed to bribe
their keepers and to join the rescuing army, amid general rejoicings. The
British conquest of Afghanistan was followed by barbarous deeds of
vandalism. The great bazaar of Kabul, one of the handsomest stone
structures of Central Asia, was blown up by gunpowder. The city itself was
turned over to loot and massacre. The bloodcurdling atrocities of the white
men on that occasion kept alive the fierce hatred of all things British in
Afghanistan for years to come. By the express orders of Lord Ellenborough
the sacred sandalwood gates of Somnath, which had adorned the tomb of
Mahmud of Ghasni since the Eleventh Century, were brought away as trophies
of war.
[Sidenote: Boers driven from Natal]
[Sidenote: Foundation of Transvaal]
In South Africa, too, the seeds of enduring hatred were sown at this time.
Scarcely had the new Boer community in Zululand become well settled when a
proclamation was issued in Cape Town, declaring that Natal should become a
British territory. Soldiers were despatched to Durban to support this
claim. After some sharp fighting the Boers were driven out of the seaport.
When the British Commissioner arrived at Pietermaritzburg, a stormy mass
meeting was held. For two hours Erasmus Smith, the Boer predicant, argued
in vain in behalf of his flock. In the end the Boer women passed a
unanimous resolution that rather than submit to English rule they would
emigrate once more. Pointing to the Drakensberg Mountains, the oldest of
the women said: "We go across those mountains to freedom or to death." Over
these mountains almost the whole population of Natal trekked their way into
the uninhabited regions beyond. Only 300 families remained, the ancestors
of some 10,000 Afrikanders of Natal in later days. On the other side of the
Orange and Vaal Rivers the Boer emigrants founded once more their
commonwealth, known later as the Transvaal, or South African Republic.
In Australia the first representative constitution was granted to the
English colonists of New South Wales. Almost simultaneously with this began
the agitation for separating Victoria from New South Wales.
[Sidenote: "The Sliding Scale"]
[Sidenote: British Income Tax]
In England, early in the Parliamentary session, Sir Robert Peel on behalf
of the government moved his famous bill for a sliding scale of the duties
on corn. In the debate that followed, the most notable speeches were made
by Cobden and Macaulay, who advocated complete free trade. In spite of all
opposition, the bill in an unamended form reached its third reading and was
passed on the 5th of April. The most serious difficulty confronting the
government was a financial deficit of L2,570,000, to which had to be added
the heavy expenditures for the wars in India and China. To fill up this
deficiency, Peel resorted to the levy of an income tax. To make this
unpopular tax more acceptable a number of minor mischievous taxes were
abolished. Thus rendered palatable, this bill, too, was carried through
Parliament with tolerable speed, and was passed with handsome majorities by
both Houses. It called for a tax of sevenpence on every pound of annual
income above L150.
[Sidenote: Copyright reform]
[Sidenote: "Lays of Ancient Rome"]
[Sidenote: "Locksley Hall"]
In emulation of the new provisions for copyright in France, a bill was
brought in to extend English copyright from twenty-eight to forty-two
years. Among the considerations which prompted Parliament to perform this
long delayed act of justice was the recent lamented death of Sir Walter
Scott. The royalties on his works were the only resource left to his
family, and the copyright on the most important of them, the Waverley
Novels, was about to expire. Southey, the Poet Laureate, before his recent
illness, it was stated, had been deterred from undertaking a projected
great work by the unsatisfactory copyright provisions. Wordsworth was about
to lose the fruits of some of his earliest and most patriotic poems. Among
those who actively pressed the measure were Charles Dickens and Thomas
Carlyle. The sixty years' copyright demanded in Carlyle's petition was not
obtained; but authors were allowed to retain the property of their works
during life, while their heirs could possess it for seven years after their
death. Coincident with this literary victory came other triumphs in
literature. Thomas B. Macaulay published his "Lays of Ancient Rome"; Alfred
Tennyson brought out "Locksley Hall" and other poems; Bulwer Lytton
finished "Zanoni"; the new Shakespeare Society issued some twenty volumes
of researches. A new impetus to the making of books and printing was given
by Woolwich's new system of electrotyping, and Charles Young's new device
of a type-setting machine, first employed on the "Family Herald."
It was then, too, that Dr. Julius Robert Meyer, an obscure physician in
Heilbronn, published a paper in Liebig's "Annalen," entitled "The Force of
Inorganic Nature." Not merely the mechanical theory of heat, but the entire
doctrine of the conservation of energy was clearly formulated. It is true
that he was anticipated in a measure by Mohr, and that Helmholtz more
exhaustively demonstrated the truth of the hypothesis of the conservation
of energy; but Helmholtz himself hailed Meyer as the rightful claimant of
the honor of having first clearly formulated the doctrine.
[Sidenote: Second Charter petition]
[Sidenote: The "Sacred Month"]
A great gain for humanity was made in Lord Ashley's successful bill for the
restriction of work done by women and children in mines and collieries.
Under the leadership of O'Connell's former Irish rival, Feargus O'Connor,
the agitation for a People's Charter was revived. On May 2, another monster
petition, containing nearly three and a half million signatures, was rolled
into Parliament. Too voluminous to pass through the doors, it had to be cut
up and carried into the hall by sixteen men. A motion to consider it was
violently opposed by Macaulay. Once more the petition was rejected by 287
over 49 votes. Now followed one of the most singular labor strikes of
England. This was the so-called sacred month, or thirty days' idleness to
be enforced throughout the United Kingdom. Within a few days the Chartists
could boast that for fifty miles round Manchester every loom was still. The
attempt to extend the strike to London was followed by the arrest of
O'Connor and nearly a hundred of his associates. They were tried and
convicted, but owing to a flaw in the indictment sentence could not be
carried out. The agitation was made to appear more serious by two attempts
to assassinate the Queen in May and July, but the young Queen was not
deterred thereby from making her first visit to Scotland.
[Sidenote: Chinese opium war]
[Sidenote: Fall of Chapoo]
[Sidenote: Shanghai occupied]
[Sidenote: Assault of Chinkiangfoo]
[Sidenote: China brought to terms]
[Sidenote: Treaty ports designated]
[Sidenote: Opium forced upon China]
In August, the Duke of Wellington was reinstated as commander-in-chief of
the British army. Among the military reforms undertaken was the general
introduction of the percussion-cap musket in the infantry, and the use of
the carbine in the artillery. The war in China was brought to a close. The
long period of inaction following the occupation of Ningpo had been broken
in March by Chinese attempts to recapture Ningpo, Chinhai and Chusan. In
all three places the British beat off their assailants. At Ningpo the
Chinese succeeded in breaking through the south and west gates, and reached
the centre of the city only to be mowed down there by the British
artillery. At Tszeki a strong Chinese camp was captured by the British. The
Chinese losses on this occasion were over a thousand killed, including many
of the Imperial Guards. The British casualties did not exceed forty. A
naval expedition next attacked Chapoo, China's port of trade with Japan.
The main body of the Chinese was routed, but 300 of their soldiers shut
themselves up in a walled inclosure, and held their ground until
three-fourths of their number were slain. As heretofore, the British
casualties were small. The important city of Shanghai was captured without
appreciable resistance. The most serious affair of the war was the attack
on Chinkiangfoo on the southern bank of the Yangtse-Kiang at one of the
entrances of the great canal. A part of the Manchu garrison held out there
until shot down to the last man. The inner Tartar city was only taken after
the Manchus had first killed the women and children and then themselves.
The immediate losses of the British were nearly two hundred. Owing to the
intense heat, they failed to bury the bodies of the Chinese. Pestilence and
cholera broke out, and caused more serious losses than befell the main
force sent against Nanking. On August 5, the British fleet appeared before
Nanking, the second city of the empire. It was then that Minister Elepoo,
the leader of the Chinese peace party, prevailed upon Emperor Taouk-Wang to
give in. On August 26, peace was concluded on board the British flagship
"Cornwallis." China paid an indemnity of $21,000,000, and confirmed the
cession of Hong Kong to England. The English opium factory at Canton was to
be reinstalled, and, in addition to this, foreign trading was to be allowed
at the ports of Shanghai, Ningpo, Amhoy and Foochow, after a tariff should
have been agreed upon and consular officers appointed. The final ceremonies
of peace were marred by barbarous injuries inflicted upon the famous
porcelain tower of Nanking by a party of British officers and soldiers. In
the words of a British historian: "The only weak point in the commercial
treaty was that it contained no reference to opium. Sir Henry Pottinger
failed to obtain the assent of the Chinese government to its legalization."
In reply to Sir Henry Pottinger's final demand for legalization of the
opium trade in China, Emperor Taouk-Wang delivered this ultimatum: "True, I
cannot prevent the introduction of the poison; but nothing will induce me
to raise revenue from the vice and misery of my people." The emperor,
himself a reformed opium smoker, had lost three sons by this vice. All this
time American, Dutch and Russian trade with China had been continued.
President Tyler made it the subject of his message to the American Congress
during this year. From the first any American traffic in opium was
discouraged.
[Sidenote: Webster-Ashburton agreement]
[Sidenote: "Battle of the Maps"]
[Sidenote: American interests in Hawaii]
[Sidenote: Daniel Webster resigns]
The Webster-Ashburton treaty, regulating the northeastern boundary between
the United States and Canada, was signed on August 9. A strip of territory
claimed by the State of Maine was ceded to Canada, while a more important
strip was yielded to Vermont and New York. The treaty also provided for a
joint repressive action against the slave trade, and for the extradition of
criminals. It was Webster's greatest achievement in diplomacy, as was
indicated by the fact that the American Senate, notwithstanding its
hostility to President Tyler, ratified it by a three-fourths vote. In
England more serious opposition was encountered. In Parliament the treaty
was termed "Ashburton's Capitulation," and Lord Palmerston went so far as
to attribute its concessions to Ashburton's partiality toward his American
wife. The ratification of the treaty was followed by an international
controversy known as "The Battle of the Maps." An early map found by Jared
Sparks, the American historian, in the Library of Paris, had been used in
the Senate to insure the ratification of the treaty without the knowledge
of Lord Ashburton. When this became known in England it was denounced as
underhand dealing. Frantic search in the archives of the British Museum
brought to light another map, bearing the autograph indorsement of King
George III. As it turned out, this only sustained the American contentions,
and was used in Parliament to vindicate Lord Ashburton, just as Sparks's
map had been used in behalf of Webster. Credit also belongs to Webster for
his strong stand made at the time the Hawaiian Islands were threatened by
a French expedition. It was then stated, as reiterated by President Tyler
to Congress, that, in view of the preponderant intercourse of the United
States with those islands, the American government would insist that no
European nation should colonize or possess them, nor subvert the native
governments. After a settlement of these international questions, Daniel
Webster was permitted to resign his secretaryship to join the Whig
opposition on the floor of the House. His resignation was the more readily
accepted since he was known to be out of harmony with the Administration's
designs against Mexico. As the son of President Tyler has recorded: "The
time had come when it was necessary to have in the office of the Secretary
of State one who would go the full length of the Texas question. Certainly,
that man was not Webster." In the Senate, Henry Clay resigned his seat, the
better to carry on his canvass as a candidate for the Presidency.
[Sidenote: First American submarine cable]
At the time that Charles Dickens paid his first visit to America the
agitation for a better copyright law was renewed, and was in a measure
successful. Dickens's early impressions of the United States, as published
later in England, were distinctly unfavorable to the American people. Had
he lingered longer he might have witnessed the laying of the first
submarine telegraph between Governor's Island and New York City. In the
extreme West another outlet toward the Pacific Ocean was found by Fremont
and Kit Carson in the south pass of the Rocky Mountains.
[Sidenote: Latin-American affairs]