Elgin took his oath as Governor-General of Canada in January. The imperial
government abandoned all control over the customs of Canada. The building
of the first great Canadian railroad was begun on the main line of the
Grand Trunk system. Discouraging reports from the extreme northern regions
of America at last confirmed the impression that Sir John Franklin, with
the other members of his expedition, had perished in the Arctic regions. A
romantic naval career was thus brought to a close. Born in 1786, John
Franklin entered the British navy at the age of fourteen as a midshipman,
and soon saw his first active service at the battle of Copenhagen in 1801.
In the following year he was taken on his first trip of exploration to
Australia by his cousin, Captain Flinders of the "Investigator." In 1818 he
was a member of an expedition sent out by the British Government to attempt
a passage to India by crossing the Polar Sea. His bold seamanship during
this voyage brought him into such prominence that during the next year he
was appointed by the Admiralty to command an expedition to travel overland
from Hudson's Bay to the Arctic Ocean. During the course of this expedition
he and his companions walked 5,560 miles and endured many hardships, of
which Franklin wrote a thrilling narrative on his return to England in
1822. He then married Eleanor Porden, the author of the heroic poem
"Coeur de Lion." In 1825 he was appointed to the command of another
overland Arctic expedition. When the day of his departure arrived, his wife
was dying of consumption. Lying at the point of death as she was, she would
not let him delay his voyage, and gave him for a parting gift a silk flag
to hoist when he reached the Polar Sea. On the day after Franklin left
England she died. When he returned again he was knighted and showered with
honors by various scientific societies of England and France. After serving
as Governor of Van Diemen's Land, Sir John, in 1845, was appointed an
admiral, and then another Arctic expedition to discover the Northwest
Passage was organized. He sailed from Sheerness on May 26, 1845, and was
last seen by a whaler in Baffin's Bay. Many years later a record was found
on the northwest shore of King William's Land, announcing that Sir John
Franklin died in the spring of 1847, and that the survivors of his
expedition had attempted to make their way back on the ice to the American
continent. To Sir John Franklin belongs the honor of the first discovery of
the northwest passage leading from Lancaster Sound to Behring Strait.
[Sidenote: O'Connell's last speech]
[Sidenote: Death of O'Connell]
On February 8, Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish Parliamentary leader, made
his last speech in the English House of Commons. The question on which he
spoke was a proposed bill for the relief of famine in Ireland: "I am
afraid," he said, in the course of this address, "that the English people
are not sufficiently impressed with the horrors of the situation in
Ireland. I do not think they understand the accumulated miseries which my
people are suffering. It has been estimated that 5,000 adults and 10,000
children have already died from famine, and that one-fourth of the whole
population must perish unless something is done." Failing in health
himself, O'Connell went to Italy. At Rome, Pope Pius IX. prepared a
magnificent reception for him. Before he could reach the Eternal City,
O'Connell died in his seventy-second year. Lacordaire, who but shortly
before this had pronounced his greatest of funeral orations over the bier
of General Drouot, thus spoke of O'Connell: "Honor, glory and eternal
gratitude for the man who gave to his country the boon of liberty of
conscience. Where is a man in the Church since the time of Constantine who
has at one stroke enfranchised six millions of souls?" When the body of
O'Connell was buried at Glasnevin, it was followed to the grave by fifty
thousand mourners, among whom Orangemen and Ribbonmen walked side by side.
In England, O'Connell's death was regarded with a feeling akin to relief.
There his persistent demands of "justice for Ireland" had come to be
regarded with derision, bringing him the nickname of "Big Beggarman."
[Sidenote: Death of Thomas Chalmers]
[Sidenote: "Vanity Fair"]
[Sidenote: "Jane Eyre"]
[Sidenote: Jenny Lind]
Another spirit that won religious renown in England passed away with Thomas
Chalmers, the great Scotch divine. As a teacher of theology at Edinburgh he
wrote no less than twenty-five volumes, the most famous of which is his
"Evidences of the Christian Revelations," a reprint of his article on
"Christianity" contributed to the "Encyclopedia Britannica." In other
respects it was a notable year for English letters. Charles Dickens had
just published his famous stories "Dombey and Son" and "The Haunted Man."
The success of these novels was surpassed by that of Thackeray's "Vanity
Fair." Three writers now made their appearance. Anthony Trollope brought
out his "MacDermotts of Ballycoran"; Emily Bronte published her first
novel, "Wuthering Heights," while her sister, Charlotte Bronte, at the same
time achieved an immense success with her story of "Jane Eyre." These
successes were more than rivalled by that of Jenny Lind, the great soprano
singer, who made her first appearance in London during this season. Another
event for intellectual England was the sale at auction of Shakespeare's
house at Stratford. It was acquired by a united committee of Shakespeare
lovers for the sum of L3,000.
[Sidenote: Jewish disabilities reconfirmed]
The oft-mooted question of the civil disabilities of the Jews in England
was brought up again by the election of Baron Rothschild as a member of
Parliament for London, together with Lord John Russell. The Premier, whose
name was already identified with the cause of civil and religious liberty,
made another strong effort to obtain the recognition of his colleague's
claim to his seat. He was supported in this not only by most of the Whigs
in the House of Commons, but also by three such prominent men of the
opposition as Lord Bentinck, Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli, himself of
Jewish lineage. As heretofore, this proposed reform was accepted by the
Commons only to be rejected by the Lords, now installed in their new House
of Peers. Otherwise, Lord Russell's Ministry followed largely in the
footsteps of their immediate predecessors. Palmerston pursued his wonted
vigorous foreign policy.
[Sidenote: Don Pacifico affair]
[Sidenote: British retaliation]
[Sidenote: Palmerston obdurate]
It had been customary in Greek towns to celebrate Easter by burning an
effigy of Judas Iscariot. This year the police of Athens were ordered to
prevent this performance, and the mob, disappointed of their favorite
amusement, ascribed the new orders to the influence of the Jews. The house
of one Don Pacifico, a Portuguese Jew of Gibraltar, happened to stand near
the spot where the Judas was annually burned. Don Pacifico was known to be
a Jew, and the anger of the mob was wreaked upon him accordingly. On April
4, his house was sacked. Don Pacifico made a claim against the Greek
Government for compensation. He estimated his losses, direct and indirect,
at nearly L32,000. Another claim was made at the same time by another
British subject, Finlay, the historian of Greece. The Greek Government,
which was all but bankrupt, was dilatory in settling these claims. A
British fleet was ordered to the Piraeus. It seized all the Greek vessels
belonging to the government and to private merchants that were found within
those waters. The Greek Government appealed to France and Russia as Powers
joined with England in the treaty to protect the independence of Greece.
France and Russia both made bitter complaint of not having been consulted
in the first instance by the British Government, nor was their feeling
softened by Lord Palmerston's peremptory reply that it was all a question
between England and Greece. It was on this occasion that Palmerston made
the famous speech harking back to the sentiment expressed in the old Roman
boast "Civis Romanus Sum."
[Sidenote: Troubles in China]
[Sidenote: Bogue forts recaptured]
[Sidenote: A Chinese protest]
Next, new troubles arose with China. During the previous year riots broke
out in Canton, by reason of a superstitious belief that a weather-vane on
top of the flagstaff over the American Consulate interfered with the
spirits of the air. A Chinaman was shot during the riots. The British had
to interfere on behalf of the threatened Americans. The outraged feelings
of the Chinese populace were allayed by a conciliatory declaration of
Emperor Taouk-Wang, to the effect that the Christian religion could be
commended as a faith for inculcating the principles of virtue. At the same
time he sent a special commissioner, Ke-Ying, "amicably to regulate the
commerce with foreign merchants at Canton." Trouble again broke out in
March, when a small English hunting and fishing party violated the
agreement confining them to the foreign concession at Canton. They were
pelted with stones by the natives. Sir John Davis denounced this incident
as international outrage, and, in disregard of the accepted treaty
provisions, proclaimed "that he would exact and acquire from the Chinese
Government that British subjects should be as free from molestation and
insult in China as they would be in England." On April 1, all the available
forces at Hong Kong were summoned to Canton. Three steamships, bearing two
regiments of soldiers, convoyed by a British man-of-war, attacked the Bogue
forts. The Chinese, acting under orders from Ke-Ying, made no resistance. A
British landing force seized the batteries and spiked the guns. Next, the
forts opposite Canton were captured without a blow. Without a shot fired,
Canton, on April 3, lay at the mercy of the British guns. Ke-Ying accepted
the British ultimatum that the whole city of Canton should be opened to
Englishmen two years from date. The agreement was closed with this
significant statement on behalf of the Chinese Emperor: "If mutual
good-will is to be maintained between the Chinese and foreigners, the
common feelings of mankind, as well as the just principles of heaven, must
be considered and conformed with."
[Sidenote: Nicaragua coerced]
[Sidenote: Threatened intervention in Portugal]
A new phase in Great Britain's boundary dispute with Nicaragua was reached
by a British squadron's abrupt seizure of the harbor of San Juan del Norte,
Nicaragua's only seaport on the Atlantic coast. In regard to the demands
made for the free navigation of the La Plata River, the Argentine Republic
at last came to terms. The joint squadrons of England and France thereupon
raised their blockade of Buenos Ayres. At London a conference of English
and French statesmen, to which Spain was likewise admitted, had come to an
agreement to interfere on behalf of Queen Maria II., in Portugal. When this
was made known, Bandiera, one of the chief partisans of Dom Pedro,
announced his submission. Nonetheless, Pedro's followers persevered, and on
June 26 the Junta at Oporto had to capitulate to Pedro's army.
[Sidenote: German Parliamentary essays]
[Sidenote: Schleswig-Holstein issue]
In Germany, in the meanwhile, the agitation for Parliamentary government
steadily gained ground. In Bavaria, where King Louis's open liaison with
the dancer Lola Montez had turned his subjects against him, the deputies
of the Landtag exerted their power to abolish the crown lotteries by a
unanimous vote. In Prussia, King Frederick William IV. at last issued his
long-promised summons for a united provincial Diet. A semblance of
representative government was established. It was at this time that
Frederick William became Elector of Hesse-Cassel. The agitation for a
representative government grew. On September 12, the Liberals held a
meeting at Orthenburg. Within a month the Constitutional party met at
Heppenheim, in Hesse. At length a united Prussian Parliament, called the
Landtag, was convoked at Berlin. The first question to claim the attention
of this Parliament was that of Schleswig-Holstein. The gauntlet recently
flung down to the German population of Schleswig and Holstein, by King
Christian VIII. of Denmark, was picked up not only by the anti-Danish
Holsteiners, but by the whole German nation as well. Little Schleswig, with
its 160 square miles and 400,000 inhabitants, was claimed by every German
as German borderland. King Christian at this time was failing in health.
His condition had been aggravated by the recent great fire at Copenhagen,
which, amid other costly properties, destroyed invaluable records of
Icelandic literature, including more than 2,000 unpublished manuscripts.
[Sidenote: Death of Mendelssohn]
[Sidenote: "Songs Without Words"]
An event of like international importance was the death of Felix
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, at the age of thirty-eight. He was the grandson of
the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, and the son of the gifted Lea
Solomon-Bartholdy, from whom he received his first piano lessons. At the
age of ten he joined the Singing Academy of Berlin, where a composition of
his, the "Nineteenth Psalm," was performed shortly after his entry. In 1825
his father took him to Paris to consult Cherubini, as to his future.
Cherubini offered to take him as a pupil, but his father preferred to bring
him up in the musical atmosphere of his own home. There the boy perfected
himself as a piano player and wrote a host of early compositions. The
overture to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written in 1826, when
Mendelssohn was but seventeen years old. Two years later his first opera,
"The Marriage of Camecho," was given at the Berlin Opera. In Berlin,
Mendelssohn became the leading figure in the propaganda for the music of
Bach. Having undertaken a journey to England, at the suggestion of
Moscheles, he gave a series of concerts there, after which he travelled
throughout Europe. It was at this time that he wrote his "Songs Without
Words," and composed the overture, "A Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage."
After filling a musical directorship at Duesseldorf, he was summoned to
conduct the orchestra of the Gewandhaus there. This proved an important
turn in his career. In 1841, Frederick William IV. of Prussia invited him
to Berlin, where he organized the famous Cathedral choir. Returning to
Leipzig, he founded the musical conservatory in that city. The sudden death
of his favorite sister, Fannie, gave him such a shock that he died within a
few months after her. Mendelssohn exerted little influence as an operatic
composer, but achieved the highest rank by such vocal compositions as the
oratorios "St. Paul" and "Elijah," and some of his beautiful songs, which
have become folksongs. Of his orchestral pieces, the most famous are his
concert overtures, such as that of the "Midsummer Night's Dream," or "Ruy
Blas," and his "Funeral March." The most celebrated of his piano pieces are
the popular "Songs Without Words," the "Wedding March" and the brilliant
"Rondo Capriccioso."
[Sidenote: Death of Marilhat]
[Sidenote: Gautier on Marilhat]
By the death of Prosper Marilhat, a young artist of great promise was lost
to France. But a few years before, Marilhat sent no less than eight
masterpieces to the Salon, but they were received so coldly that the young
artist fell into a state from which death was a happy deliverance.
Theophile Gautier wrote of him, "That exhibition was Marilhat's swan song,
and the works he sent were eight diamonds." After Marilhat's death, some of
his unfinished paintings commanded great prices. Thus his "Entrance to
Jerusalem," at the Wertheimer sale at Paris in 1861, fetched 16,000 francs.
Fifteen years later, at the Oppenheim sale in Paris, Marilhat's "Ruins Near
Cairo" brought no less than 29,000 francs. It was as a painter of Oriental
subjects that Marilhat won his most lasting distinction. Having travelled
to the East with Baron Hugel, he remained for many years in Egypt, painted
portraits of the Khedive and decorated several of the buildings of
Alexandria. In an obituary article published in the "Revue des Deux
Mondes," Theophile Gautier wrote: "Marilhat was a Syrian Arab. He must
have had in his veins some blood of the Saracens whom Charles Martel did
not kill.... One of the glories of Marilhat was that he preserved his
originality in presence of Decamps. The talents of these two men are
parallel lines, it is true, but they do not touch each other. The more
fruitful fancy of the one is balanced by the character in the works of the
other."
[Sidenote: Death of Oudinot]
[Sidenote: Death of Grouchy]
[Sidenote: Death of Marie Louise]
[Sidenote: Merimee and Dumas]
In France the dissatisfaction with Louis Philippe's government, as
administered by Guizot, was steadily increasing. The Socialist party, led
by Louis Blanc, agitated the country for reform. An appeal to Revolutionary
traditions was made by the simultaneous publication of Blanc's and
Michelet's histories of the French Revolution. At the same time, Lamartine
brought out his "Histoire des Girondins." Napoleonic traditions were
revived by a series of events following the death of General Drouot. In
September came the death of Marshal Oudinot, the hero of Bitche,
Moorlautern, Treves, Ingolstadt, Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, Ostralenka,
Friesland and Wagram. Oudinot was wounded innumerable times and was twice
made a prisoner. He bore a prominent part throughout the Russian campaign
and that of 1814. During the Hundred Days he remained in retirement. For
this he was made Commander-in-chief of the National Guards under the
Restoration, and passed through the campaign of Spain in 1823, when he
captured Madrid. After his death, Marshal Soult, another veteran of the
Napoleonic wars, succeeded him as general commander of the French army.
Before this, Marshal Grouchy had likewise expired in his eighty-first year.
He it was who was held responsible by Napoleon for the final crushing
defeat at Waterloo. There he failed to support his chief, when Bluecher came
to the support of Wellington. To the end of his days, Grouchy insisted that
Napoleon's orders to this effect never reached him, but it was held up
against him that some of his officers on that occasion had vainly urged him
to march on the sound of the cannons at Waterloo. On October 10, Jerome
Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother and the quondam king of Westphalia, was
permitted to return to France after an exile of thirty-two years. Late in
the year, ex-Empress Marie Louise, Napoleon's second wife, died at the age
of fifty-six in Austria. Never beloved like her predecessor Josephine, she
lost the esteem of all Frenchmen by her failure to stand by her husband
after his downfall and exile to St. Helena, and by her subsequent liaison
with her chamberlain, Neipperg, to whom she bore several children. Other
events of lasting interest in France, during this year, were the opening of
the great canal from Marseilles to Durano, the death of Duc de Polignac,
who helped cause the downfall of his royal master Charles X., and the
publication of Merimee's "Carmen" and of "Aventures de Quatre Femmes et
d'un Perroquet," by the younger Dumas.
[Sidenote: Austrians occupy Ferrara]
[Sidenote: Italy aroused]
Under the stimulus of Pius IX.'s apparent sympathy for the cause of
national unity in Italy, as well as that of the teachings of Mazzini, the
Italian patriots took heart again. One group, consisting mostly of the
politicians and military men of Piedmont, centred their hopes in the
traditional antagonism of the princes of Savoy against Austria. Charles
Albert of Carrignano, whom Metternich had attempted to exclude from the
succession, showed marked independence in his dealings with Austria. In
1847, the Italian question came uppermost again when the Austrian
Government, on a new interpretation in one of the clauses in the treaty of
Vienna, occupied the town of Ferrara in the ecclesiastical states. Pius IX.
promptly protested against this trespass of his territories. The King of
Sardinia openly announced his intention to take the field against Austria,
should war break out. English and French warships appeared at Naples. In
Sicily and southern Italy the attitude of the patriots grew threatening.
Apprehensions of a general revolution throughout Italy at length induced
Metternich to agree with the neutral powers on a compromise concerning the
occupation of Ferrara. Lucca was united with Tuscany. Still patriotic
passion seethed in Italy.
[Sidenote: Mexican campaigns resumed]
[Sidenote: Santa Anna outflanked]
In America, after several months of comparative inaction, the war in Mexico
was renewed with vigor. On August 6, General Scott received reinforcements.
Leaving a governor at Puebla, he marched on with 14,000 men. He met with no
resistance at the passes of the Cordilleras. On August 10, from the top of
the Rio Frio Mountains, the City of Mexico, lying in a fertile, lake-dotted
basin, was in sight. The land around the city was under water, and the
capital was approached by causeways across the low and marshy ground. The
numerous rocky hills were all fortified. Scott passed around Lake Chalco to
the southwest, and thence moved west skirting the south shore. Santa Anna,
intercepting the Americans, took up his headquarters at San Antonio, five
miles from the city. His position was flanked on the west by broken lava,
and on the east by marshy ground. The ground was as bad as could well be
encountered. Santa Anna sent orders to General Valencia, who held a
fortified hill in front of the Americans, to spike his guns, destroy his
stores and retreat, but Valencia refused. Riley, occupying a hill in his
rear, took his intrenchments in reverse. He was cut off both north and
south; 2,000 of his force were killed and wounded; a thousand with four
generals were captured, and guns, stores and ammunition fell into the hands
of the Americans.
[Sidenote: Battle of Contreras]
The divisions of Pellow and Twiggs were ordered, August 19, to storm
Contreras. The line between that position and Santa Anne's reserves was cut
at the close of the day, and General Persifer F. Smith at sunrise the next
morning led an assault on the Mexican camp, and in less than half an hour
drove 6,000 Mexicans out of the fortification. Shortly afterward General
Worth attacked Santa Anna and routed the garrison.
[Sidenote: Churubusco]
The Americans followed to Churubusco on the road to the capital, where
Santa Anna had concentrated his whole force. Here the river was protected
by levees, the head of the bridge strongly fortified, and the stone convent
surrounded by a strong field-work. The attack on the bridge and the
convent was desperate. Pierce and Shields had made a detour to the main
road in the rear of Churubusco. They struck the Mexican reserves, and all
the troops on both sides were engaged. Worth and Pellow carried the bridge
in time to save Pierce and Shields. The Mexican left gave way. A detachment
crossed the river and threatened the bridge from the rear. Worth threw his
whole force upon the broken line. Through ditches and over parapets they
went with a rush, and the battle was won. The Americans lost a thousand men
and seventy-six officers.
[Sidenote: Santa Fe captured]
[Sidenote: Mexican reverses]
General Kearney had left Fort Leavenworth in the spring of 1847. To him
fell the task of conquering New Mexico and California. On August 18, Santa
Fe was captured, and all New Mexico submitted. From Santa Fe, Kearney, with
400 dragoons, set off for California. Kit Carson, whom he met on the road,
informed him that Colonel Fremont had conquered California. On learning
this Kearney sent back most of his force, and with the few remaining pushed
on to the coast. In the five distinct victories thus far gained over the
Mexican army of 80,000, scarcely 10,000 Americans had been engaged, 4,000
Mexicans had been killed and wounded, and 3,000 made prisoners, and
thirty-seven pieces of artillery were captured.
[Sidenote: Another armistice]
Scott again made overtures for peace. He had with him a government
commissioner, Trist, who had already made a vain effort to secure peace.
Scott accordingly advanced to Tecubaya within three miles of the capital,
and on August 21 sent to Santa Anna a proposition for an armistice looking
to negotiations for peace. The proposition was accepted, and Trist entered
the capital on the 24th, where he remained until September 5. He reported
that the American proposition had not only been rejected, but that Santa
Anna had improved the armistice to strengthen the city's defences. Scott
instantly declared the armistice at an end.
[Sidenote: Molino del Rey]