were discouraged by the report of the Italian defeats in the north.
Filangieri succeeded in capturing Taormina, the Sicilian base of supplies.
In the defence of Catania the Polish general commanding the Sicilian
troops, Mierolavsky, was severely wounded. At the foot of Mount Etna, the
Sicilians were again defeated on April 6, Good Friday. Catania was taken.
Syracuse surrendered to the Neapolitan fleet. Filangieri's army penetrated
into the interior. In vain did the English and Austrian Ambassadors offer
mediation. Ruggiero Settimo resigned his Presidency of the Sicilian
Republic. The heads of the insurrection fled the country. Palermo
surrendered. The customary courts-martial and military executions followed.
Until the accession of King Ferdinand's eldest son to the throne,
Filangieri ruled as military governor. In commemoration of one of the
cities he had laid in ashes, he was created Duke of Taormina. When England
tried to exact the promised recognition of the Constitution of 1812, King
Ferdinand rejected the proposal with the sardonic statement that peace had
been re-established in Sicily, and everybody was content.
[Sidenote: Danish war]
[Sidenote: Dueppel trenches stormed]
[Sidenote: Battle of Gudsoe]
The armistice of Malmoe with Denmark expired on February 26. The German
Bundestag mobilized three divisions of the allied German federation. Within
a month Prussian, Bavarian and Swabian troops marched into Holstein. A
Prussian general, Von Prittwitz, assumed supreme command. On April 3, the
Danes opened hostilities by a bombardment of the Island of Allston. Then
came the battle of Eckenfoerde, when German shore batteries blew up the
Danish ship of the line, "Christian VIII.," and two smaller vessels, the
crews of which surrendered. On April 13, the Bavarians and Saxons stormed
the intrenchments of Dueppel. One week later, the German troops, in
conjunction with the volunteers of Schleswig-Holstein, under Von Bonin,
occupied Jutland, and defeated the Danes at Kolding. A Danish advance from
Fridericia was repulsed after a seven hours' fight, on May 7, at Gudsoe.
The Danes fell back on Fridericia, where they were invested.
[Sidenote: Francis Joseph's "Constitution"]
[Sidenote: German Constitution adopted]
[Sidenote: German imperial crown rejected]
Meanwhile the German Parliament had met again at Frankfort. After the
resignation of the former Austrian chief of the Cabinet, Schmerling, the
Parliament was split into two factions, according to their preferences for
a German union with or without Austria. Early in January it had been
decided to elect some German prince to assume the leadership of German
affairs as Emperor of the Germans. To this plan the minor German
sovereigns gave their consent. During the first week of March, when the
Emperor of Austria issued his new Constitution, which declared the whole of
the Austrian Empire under one indivisible constitutional monarchy, it was
plain to the German delegates that Austria could no longer be reckoned on.
On March 28, King Frederick IV. of Prussia was elected by 290 votes. Some
284 delegates, among whom were 100 Austrians, abstained from voting. An
imperial constitution was adopted which limited the former sovereign rights
of the various principalities, declared for the liberties of speech and of
the press, religious worship, free public schools, and the total abolition
of all feudal titles of nobility. On April 23, the great Parliamentary
deputation, with President Simpson at its head, came to Berlin to notify
the King of Prussia of his election. To the consternation of all, Frederick
William declined the honor. He explained in private that he did not care
"to accept a crown offered to him by the Revolution."
[Sidenote: Saxon revolution]
[Sidenote: South German risings]
[Sidenote: German Parliament dispersed]
The immediate effects of his rejection were new attempts at revolution in
Germany. After Frederick William's refusal to enter into the plans of the
German Parliament, this body fell into utter disrepute. Its radical
elements could no longer be kept in control. Armed revolts, encouraged by
the radical delegates, broke out in Frankfort, Kaiserslautern and
throughout Saxony. The King of Saxony, with his Ministers, Von Beust and
Rabenhorst, fled from Dresden. From the barricades the provisional
government was proclaimed. The garrison was at the mercy of the insurgents,
great numbers of whom flocked to Dresden from Leipzig and Pirna. Prussian
troops overran Saxony. The revolutionary movement spread to Hesse, Baden,
the Rhine provinces, Wurtemberg and the Bavarian Palatinate. Encounters
with the troops occurred at Elbafeldt, Duesseldorf and Cologne. The reserves
and municipal guards sided with the insurgents. All Baden rose and declared
itself a republic, forming an alliance with the revolted Palatinate. The
people of Wurtemberg, in a turbulent mass-meeting, demanded coalition with
both of these countries. It was then that the Parliament at Frankfort
decided to hold its future sessions at Stuttgart. Those principalities
which had not yet succumbed to revolution withdrew their delegates. Prussia
now gave to the Parliament its _coup de grace_ by arrogating to herself all
further prosecution of the Danish war, on the ground that "the so-called
central government of Frankfort had no more weight of its own to affect the
balance of peace or war." The remnants of the Parliament tried to meet at
Stuttgart, under the leadership of Loewe and Ludwig Uhland, the foremost
living poet of Germany. When they came together at their meeting hall they
found the doors blocked by troops. Attempts at protest were drowned by the
roll of drums. Under the threat of a volley the delegates dispersed. Such
was the end of the first German Parliament.
[Sidenote: Princes reinstated]
[Sidenote: Battle of Fridericia]
Prussian troops advanced into the Palatinate, Baden and Wurtemberg. After
desultory encounters with ill-led bands of insurgents, the sovereigns of
these principalities were reinstated on their thrones by the Prussian
army. The refugees thronged into Switzerland. In the north, on the other
hand, Prussia's further advance into Denmark was stopped by the
threatening attitude of England, Russia and France. On July 5, the Danes
made a sortie from Fridericia and inflicted a crushing defeat on the
Schleswig-Holsteiners, capturing 28 guns and 1,500 prisoners. The Germans
lost nearly 3,000 men in dead and wounded.
[Sidenote: Danish armistice]
Five days after this disgrace to German arms, the Prussian Government
accepted an armistice, according to which Schleswig was to be cut in two to
be occupied by Swedish and Prussian troops. The provisional government of
this province was intrusted to a joint commission, presided over by an
Englishman. Holstein was abandoned to its fate. The final downfall of all
the ideals of the German Liberals was followed by a feeling of dejection in
Germany akin to despair. The number of immigrants who left Germany to seek
new homes in America and elsewhere rose abruptly to 113,000 persons.
[Sidenote: Austrian-Russian alliance]
[Sidenote: Russians invade Hungary]
[Sidenote: Fall of Budapesth]
[Sidenote: Last Hungarian victories]
[Sidenote: Kemmisvar]
[Sidenote: Surrender of Vilagos]
[Sidenote: Batthyany hanged]
[Sidenote: Hungary crushed]
Worse even than in Germany fared the cause of popular government in
Hungary. On the day that Goergey's Hungarians stormed Ofen (May 21),
Emperor Francis Joseph had a personal interview with Czar Nicholas at
Warsaw. A joint note announced that the interest of all European States
demanded armed interference in Hungary. The Emperor of Russia placed his
whole army, under the command of Paskievitch, at the disposal of his "dear
brother, Francis Joseph." On June 3, the vanguard of the Russian main army
occupied Pressburg. Paskievitch called upon all Magyars to submit. Instead
of that, Kossuth called upon his countrymen to destroy their homes and
property at the approach of the enemy, and to retreat into the interior as
did the Russians before Napoleon. The rapid course of military events made
this impracticable. While Kossuth and his government retired to Scegedin in
the far southeast, Goergey, with the bulk of the army, took post on the
upper Danube to prevent the junction of the Austrians and Russians. There
the notorious Haynau, who had been recalled from Italy, was in command.
While Goergey attacked his left wing on the River Vag, Haynau perfected his
junction with the Russians. On June 28 their united forces, 80,000 strong,
captured Raab, under the eyes of Francis Joseph. The Russians occupied
Debreczin, while the Austrians moved on Budapesth. Goergey's attempts to
stop them resulted only in placing him in a dangerous position between both
armies. On the same day that the Austrians reoccupied Budapesth, the
Hungarians under Vetter succeeded in inflicting another disastrous defeat
on Jellacic at Hegyes. Three days later, Goergey won his last victory over
the Russians at Waitzen. After this the tide of war turned against Hungary.
The united army of Austria and Russia exceeded 225,000 men and 600 guns.
The Hungarian resources were exhausted. In the first week of August the
final conclusion of peace between Austria and Sardinia and the victorious
movement against Venice put new forces at Austria's disposal. Dembinsky,
who was to defend the passage of the Theiss before Scegedin, was defeated,
on August 5, at Czoreg with heavy losses. Kossuth now gave the command to
Bem. He fought the last battle of the campaign at Kemmisvar, on August 9,
ending in the disastrous defeat of the Hungarians. Bem barely succeeded in
saving the remnant of his army by crossing the Moldavian frontier. On
August 11, Kossuth at Arad relinquished his dictatorship in favor of
General Goergey. This headstrong soldier, in realization of his
helplessness, led his army of 20,000 foot, 2,000 horse and 130 guns within
the Russian lines at Vilagos and surrendered unconditionally. Goergey's
life was spared. Not so those of his foremost fellow prisoners, who were
handed over to the tender mercies of Haynau. "Hungary," wrote Paskievitch
to the Czar, "lies at the feet of your Majesty." Goergey's galling
explanation that he did not deign to surrender to his despised Austrian
adversaries was brutally avenged by Haynau. The foremost Magyar officers
and statesmen who fell into Austrian hands were court-martialled and shot.
Count Batthyany, the former Prime Minister, was hanged as a common felon.
Hungary lost all her ancient constitutional rights, besides her former
territories of Transylvania and Croatia. The flower of her youth was
enrolled in Austrian ranks and dispersed to the most remote garrisons of
the empire. Her civil administration was handed over to German bureaucrats
from Austria. The exiled patriots sought refuge in Turkey and in America.
[Sidenote: Paris insurrection suppressed]
[Sidenote: French enter Rome]
[Sidenote: Flight of Garibaldi]
[Sidenote: Pio Nono firm]
The French interference in Rome aroused the Republicans in France. While
Oudinot was carrying on siege operations against Rome, Ledru-Rollin, in
Paris, demanded the impeachment of the Ministry. The rejection of this
motion by the Chambers was followed by revolutionary risings at Paris,
Lyons, Marseilles and other cities. Then it was shown that France had a new
master. President Louis Napoleon was on his guard. Large forces of troops,
held in readiness for this event, put down the insurrections without much
trouble. The siege of Rome was pressed to its conclusion. On June 14,
Oudinot began his bombardment of Rome. Garibaldi prolonged his defence
until the end of the month. Then, when sufficient breaches had been opened,
the French stormed the ramparts and entered Rome. Garibaldi attempted to
throw his forces into Venice to prolong the war against Austria. With his
ever-dwindling followers he was hunted from place to place. In the end,
through the devotion of Italian patriots, he managed to escape to America.
On July 14, the restoration of the Pope's authority over Rome was announced
by Oudinot. Pio Nono, however, showed no inclination to place himself in
the power of his protectors. Remaining at Gaeta, he sent a commission of
cardinals to take over the government of Rome. Their first act was to
restore the Inquisition, and to appoint a court for the trial of all
persons implicated in the Roman revolution. Thereat great wrath arose
among the Republicans of France. Louis Napoleon felt compromised. In
reliance on the growing ascendency of Austria, the Pope insisted on his
absolute rights as a sovereign of Rome. All that Pio Nono would consent to,
under the pressure of the French Government, was to suffer his political
prisoners to go into exile, and to bestow a small measure of local powers
upon the municipalities of the various States.
After the fall of Rome and of Hungary no hope remained for Venice. A
fortnight after the surrender of Vilagos, and several months after the
subjugation of the Venetian mainland, the Republic of St. Mark, reduced by
cholera and famine, gave up its long struggle. The Austrians re-entered
Venice.
Having gained a free hand in her Hungarian and Italian dominions, Austria
set to work to recover her ascendency in Germany.
1850
[Sidenote: Blockade of the Piraeus]
[Sidenote: Cholera in England]
At the opening of the year the British Foreign Office determined to bring
pressure to bear upon Greece for payment of the public debts which were
owing to English bankers. A British squadron, during January, blockaded the
Piraeus. On January 17, a resolution was passed in the British House of
Lords condemning the foreign policy of the government in Greece. Later
France interposed in behalf of Greece and the blockade was discontinued.
Throughout the earlier part of the year the scourge of cholera continued in
England. In London alone the death-rate for a while was 1,000 per week.
More than 50,000 people died from the epidemic in England and Wales.
[Sidenote: Death of Wordsworth]
[Sidenote: "Lyrical Ballads" and "Peter Bell"]
[Sidenote: The "Lake School"]
[Sidenote: Wordsworth's doctrine]
William Wordsworth, the English Poet Laureate, died on April 23, at Rydal
Mount. Born at Cockermouth in 1770, Wordsworth received his academic
education at Cambridge University. Two years after his graduation, he made
his first appearance as a poet with the publication of "An Evening Walk; an
Epistle in Verse." In the same year he published "Descriptive Sketches in
Verse," inspired by a pedestrian tour through the Alps. These poems brought
the appreciation of Coleridge, and both men soon became friends. Together
with Wordsworth's sister they made a tour of Germany. On their return,
Wordsworth brought out the first volume of his "Lyrical Ballads," which won
great popularity, and the anonymous "Peter Bell," the most condemned of all
his poems. After his marriage in 1803, Wordsworth settled at Grasmere in
the lake country, where he was joined by Southey and Coleridge. This caused
the writings of all three to be classified under the generic title of "The
Lake School of Poetry" by the "Edinburgh Review." The fame of Wordsworth's
poetic productions, and especially of his sonnets, slowly grew. While he
won the immediate approbation of his countrymen by some of his stirring
patriotic pieces, his strongest appeal to the world at large and to future
generations lay in his poetic appreciation of the beauties of nature and of
the essential traits of human character. As he sang in the famous preface
to "The Excursion":
Beauty--a living presence of the earth,
Surpassing the most fair ideal forms
Which craft of delicate spirits hath composed
From earth's materials--waits upon my steps;
Pitches her tents before me as I move,
An hourly neighbor. Paradise, and groves
Elysian, Fortunate Fields--like those of old
Sought in the Atlantic main--why should they be
A history only of departed things,
Or a mere fiction of what never was?
For the discerning intellect of man,
When wedded to this goodly universe
In love and holy passion, shall find these
A simple produce of the common day.
[Sidenote: Ode on immortality]
The annunciation of this doctrine was greeted by the critic of the
"Edinburgh Review" with the insolent: "This will never do." In truth,
Wordsworth's fondness for the inner beauty of common things sometimes led
his verse into the commonplace. Wordsworth reached the height of his poetic
fervor in his "Ode on the Intimations of Immortality," containing the
famous lines:
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar.
[Sidenote: Shelley's sonnet to Wordsworth]
It is at the end of this ode that Wordsworth summed up his veneration for
nature in the lines:
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
After the death of his friend Southey, the mantle of the Poet Laureate fell
upon him. His acceptance of this honor, and of the humble office of stamp
distributer in the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland, was decried by
some of his fellow poets as a sordid compromise. Robert Browning then wrote
his stirring invective, "The Lost Leader," while Shelley wrote the famous
sonnet addressed to Wordsworth:
Poet of Nature, thou hast wept to know
That things depart which never may return:
Childhood and youth, friendship and love's first glow,
Have fled like sweet dreams, leaving thee to mourn.
These common woes I feel. One loss is mine
Which thou too feel'st, yet I alone deplore.
Thou wert as a lone star, whose light did shine
On some frail bark in winter's midnight roar,
Thou hast like to a rock-built refuge stood
Above the blind and battling multitude:
In honored poverty thy voice did weave
Songs consecrate to truth and liberty--
Deserting these, thou leavest me to grieve,
Thus having been, that thou shouldst cease to be.
[Sidenote: "The Prelude"]
Sir Robert Peel's recognition of Wordsworth's genius, on the other hand,
was regarded by the English Liberals as one of the brightest points in that
famous statesman's career. The University of Oxford, shortly afterward,
bestowed upon Wordsworth an honorary degree. One of Wordsworth's latest
poems was addressed to the Mount of Wanswell, rising above his country home
at Ambroside, closing with the prophetic lines:
When we are gone
From every object dear to mortal sight,
As soon we shall be, may these words attest
How oft, to elevate our spirits, shone
Thy visionary majesties of light,
How in thy pensive glooms our hearts found rest.
After Wordsworth's death, appeared "The Prelude, or Growth of the Poet's
Mind," an autobiographical poem.
[Sidenote: Death of Peel]
[Sidenote: First international cable]
[Sidenote: The Koh-i-noor]
The next noted death in England this year was that of Sir Robert Peel,
which occurred after a stirring debate on the foreign policy of Lord
Palmerston in Greece. On the following day Peel was thrown from his horse
while riding near London. The injuries he received were such that he died
three days later. A monument to his memory was erected in Westminster
Abbey; but in accordance with his own wish he was buried in the village
churchyard of Drayton Bassett. Of other events arousing interest in
England, the most noteworthy was the laying of the first submarine electric
telegraph between England and France. The cable, which was twenty-seven
miles long and covered with gutta-percha, stretched from Dover to Cape Gris
Nez. Messages were interchanged, but the cable soon parted. During the
same year the great East Indian diamond, Koh-i-noor, was presented to Queen
Victoria. The history of this great jewel was more stirring, in its way,
than that of any living man. Its original weight was nearly 800 carats. By
the lack of skill of the European diamond cutters this was reduced to 270
carats.
[Sidenote: Death of Taouk Wang]
[Sidenote: Hien Fong, Emperor]
[Sidenote: The Taiping rebellion]
[Sidenote: Chinese emigration]
Beyond the immediate shores of England the course of events kept the
British Colonial Office fully occupied. In Canada, a movement arose for the
annexation of British America to the United States. Earl Grey, the Colonial
Secretary, took occasion to warn all Canadians against this movement as an
act of high treason. In India, the Afghans succeeded in reconquering Balkh.
The fifth Kaffir war broke out in South Africa. The affairs of China gave
fresh concern. On February 24, Emperor Taouk Wang died in his sixty-ninth
year. The thirty years during which he reigned were among the most
eventful, and in some respects the most portentous, for China. His
strenuous opposition to the evils of the opium trade mark him as a wise, if
not a powerful, ruler. He never wasted the public moneys of China on his
own person, and his expenditures in behalf of the court and mere pomp were
less than that of most of his predecessors. One of Taouk Wang's last acts
showed how his mind and his health had been affected by the recent
misfortunes of the empire. It appeared that the Chinese New Year's
Day--February 12, 1850--was marked by an eclipse of the sun. Such an event
being considered inauspicious in China, the Emperor decreed that the new
year should begin on the previous day. The decree was utterly disregarded,
and the Chinese year began at the appointed time. Taouk Wang's end was
hastened by the outbreak of a great fire in Pekin, which threatened the
imperial city with destruction. On February 25, a grand council was held in
the Emperor's bedchamber, and Taouk Wang wrote in his bed an edict
proclaiming his fourth son, Yihchoo, ruler of the empire. Prince Yihchoo,
who was less than twenty years old, took the name of Hien Fong, which means
great abundance, and immediately upon his accession drew to his aid his
four younger brothers, a new departure in Manchu rule. Their uncle, Hwuy
Wang, who had made one attempt to seize the throne from his brother Taouk
Wang, once more put forward his pretensions. After the imperial Ministers,
Kiaying and Muchangah, had been degraded, Hwuy Wang's attempt signally
failed, but his life was spared. Later in the year, as a result partly of
poor harvests, the great Taiping rebellion began. The great secret society
of the Triads started the movement by raising an outcry in southern China
against the Manchus. Their leader, Hung Tsiuen, a Hakka or Romany,
proclaimed himself as Tien Wang, which means the head of the Prince. Under
the cloud of the impending upheaval, Chinese coolies in great numbers began
to emigrate to the United States. At the same time the bitter feeling
against foreigners was intensified by an encounter of the British
steamship "Media" with a fleet of piratical Chinese junks. Thirteen of the
junks were destroyed.
[Sidenote: California an American issue]
[Sidenote: Fugitive slave bill]
In California, where most of the Chinese immigrants landed, this movement
was scarcely considered in the heat of the discussion whether California
should be admitted into the Union as a pro-slavery or anti-slavery State.
In the American Senate, Henry Clay introduced a bill for a compromise of
the controversy on slavery. His proposal favored the admission of
California as a free State. On March 7, Daniel Webster delivered a
memorable speech in which he antagonized his anti-slavery friends in the
North. This was denounced as the betrayal of his constituents. State
Conventions in South Carolina called for a Southern Congress to voice their
claims. Not long afterward a fugitive slave bill was adopted by the United
States Congress. A fine of $1,000 and six months' imprisonment was to be
imposed on any person harboring a fugitive slave or aiding him to escape.
Fugitives were to be surrendered on demand, without the benefit of
testimony or trial by jury. This served to terrorize some 20,000 escaped
slaves and created intense indignation in the North. The issues were still
more sharply drawn by the resignation of Jefferson Davis from the Senate,
to run as a State-rights candidate for Governor of Mississippi. His
Unionist rival, Foote, was elected.
[Sidenote: American filibusters in Cuba]
[Sidenote: Bulwer-Clayton treaty]
[Sidenote: Friction with Portugal]