a second attempt to relieve that place. Sir Colin Campbell had reached
Calcutta as Commander-in-Chief. Sir James Outram had come to Allahabad on
September 16. He joined Havelock with 1,400 men. With generous chivalry the
"Bayard of India" waived his rank in honor of Havelock. "To you shall be
left the glory of relieving Lucknow," he wrote. "I shall accompany you,
placing my military service at your disposal, as a volunteer." On September
20, Havelock crossed the Granges into Oude with 2,500 men. Having twice
defeated the enemy, on September 25 he cut his way through the streets of
Lucknow. Late in the day he entered the British cantonments. The defence of
the Residency at Lucknow was a glorious episode in British annals. It has
been sung in immortal strains by Alfred Tennyson. The fortitude of the
garrison was surpassed only by the self-sacrificing conduct of the women
who nursed the wounded and cared for all. They received the thanks of Queen
Victoria for their heroic devotion. For four months the garrison had
watched for the succor which came at last. The surrounding city remained
for two months longer in rebel hands. In November, Sir Colin Campbell with
2,000 men took charge of the intrenchments at Cawnpore, and then advanced
against Lucknow with 5,000 men and thirty guns. He defeated the enemy and
carried away the beleaguered garrison with all the women and children.
[Sidenote: Cawnpore rises again]
[Sidenote: Death of Havelock]
Still the British were unable to disperse the rebels and reoccupy the city.
Sir Colin Campbell left Outram with 4,000 men near Lucknow. He himself
returned to Cawnpore. On approaching that city he heard the roll of a
distant cannonade. Tantia Topi had come again to the front. He had
persuaded the Gwalior contingent to break out in mutiny and march against
Cawnpore. General Windham resisted his advance. The whole city was in the
hands of the rebel Sepoys, but the bridge of boats over the Ganges was
saved to the British. Sir Colin Campbell marched over it, and in safety
reached the intrenchment in which Windham was shut up. He routed the
Gwalior rebels and drove them out of Cawnpore. General Havelock the day
after he left Lucknow succumbed to dysentery. Throughout the British Empire
there was universal sorrow that will never be forgotten so long as men
recall the memory of the mutinies of Fifty-seven. Havelock's victories had
aroused the drooping spirits of the British nation.
[Sidenote: Aftermath of the Mutiny]
[Sidenote: Rose's brilliant campaign]
[Sidenote: King of Delhi transported]
The subsequent history of the Sepoy revolt is largely a recital of military
operations for the dispossession of the rebels and the restoration of
British supremacy. Sir Colin Campbell, now Lord Clyde, undertook a general
and successful campaign against the rebels of Oude and Rohlikund, and Sir
James Outram drove them out of Lucknow, and re-established British
sovereignty in the capital of Oude. At the same time a column under Sir
Hugh Rose and another under General Whitlock did a similar work in Central
India and Bundelkund. Rose's campaign was peculiarly difficult. It was
carried out amid the jungles and ravines of the Vindhya Mountains, and in
the secluded regions of Bundelkund. He fought battles against baffling
odds, and captured the stronghold of Jhansi. He then marched against Tantia
Topi, who had an army of 40,000 near Kalpi, which he routed and scattered.
Having brought his campaign to a close, he congratulated his troops on
having marched a thousand miles, defeated and dispersed the enemy, and
captured a hundred guns. The old King of Delhi was put on trial, convicted
and sentenced to transportation. He was sent to the Cape of Good Hope, but
the colonists there refused to receive him. The last of the line of the
Great Moguls of India had to go begging for a prison.
Toward the close of the year, when the Indian mutiny appeared to have spent
its force, Lord Elgin returned from Calcutta to Hong Kong. In the meanwhile
the English, French and American Governments had exchanged notes on the
subject of Chinese outrages against Christians. Louis Napoleon was found to
be in hearty accord with England's desire to make an example of China.
Baron Gros was sent to China charged with a mission similar to that of Lord
Elgin. The United States declined to join in active measures against China.
[Sidenote: Buchanan, American President]
In the United States of America, James Buchanan had become President at
sixty-six years of age. He had served as a member of Congress from 1821 to
1831; then as Minister to Russia from 1832 to 1834; United States Senator
from 1834 to 1845; Secretary of State under Polk from 1845 to 1849, and
Minister to Great Britain from 1853 to 1856.
[Sidenote: Dred Scott case]
Buchanan's first message repeated the assurance that the discussion of
slavery had come to an end. The clergy were found fault with for fomenting
the disturbances. The President declared in favor of the admission of
Kansas with a Constitution agreeable to the majority of the settlers. He
also referred to an impending decision of the Supreme Court with which he
had been acquainted and asked acquiescence in it. This was Judge Taney's
decision in the Dred Scott case, rendered two days after Buchanan's
inauguration. An action had been begun in the Circuit Court in Missouri by
Scott, a negro, for the freedom of himself and children. He claimed that he
had been removed by his master in 1834 to Illinois, a free State, and
afterward taken into territory north of the compromise line. Sanford, his
master, replied that Scott was not a citizen of Missouri, and could not
bring an action, and that he and his children were Sanford's slaves. The
lower courts differed, and the case was twice argued.
[Sidenote: The decision]
The decision nullified the Missouri restriction, or, indeed, any
restriction by Congress on slavery in the Territories. Chief-Justice Taney
said: "The question is whether that class of persons (negroes) compose a
portion of the people, and are constituent members of this sovereignty. We
think they are not included under the word citizen in the Constitution, and
can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges" of that instrument.
"They were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class who
had been subjugated by the dominant race--and had no rights or privileges
but such as those who held the power and the government might choose to
grant them. They had for more than a century been regarded as beings of an
inferior grade--and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white
man is bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be
reduced to slavery for his (the white man's) benefit. The negro race by
common consent had been excluded from civilized governments and the family
of nations and doomed to slavery. The unhappy black race were separated
from the whites by indelible marks long before established, and were never
thought of or spoken of except as property." The Chief-Justice nullified
the Missouri restriction, by asserting that "the act of Congress, which
prohibited a citizen from holding property of this kind north of the line
therein mentioned, is not warranted by the Constitution, and is therefore
void." This made slavery the organic law of the land. Benton said that it
was "no longer the exception with freedom the rule, but slavery the rule,
with freedom the exception."
[Sidenote: Financial distress]
[Sidenote: Trouble with Mormons]
It was a year of financial distress in America, which recalled the hard
times of twenty years before. The United States Treasury was empty. There
had been a too rapid building of railway lines in comparatively undeveloped
regions where they could not pay expenses for years to come. Settlers did
not come so quickly as was expected, and a fall in railway shares resulted.
There was great loss, yet the country suffered less than in 1837. During
the summer the Mormons in Utah gave new trouble. Brigham Young, after Utah
was excluded from the Union, destroyed the records of the United States
courts, and practically drove Federal judges from their seats and other
officials from the Territory. The Mormons now numbered 40,000 members, and
felt strong enough to defy the government.
[Sidenote: Massacre of Mount Meadow]
In September, the Indians, believed to have been instigated by the Mormons,
massacred an immigrant train of 120 persons at Mountain Meadow in Utah.
Alfred Cumming, Superintendent of Indian Affairs on the upper Missouri,
displaced Young as Governor of Utah. Judge Eckles of Indiana was appointed
Chief-Justice of the Territory. A force of 2,500 men under Colonel A.S.
Johnston was sent to Utah to suppress interference with the laws of the
United States. On the arrival of the Federal troops in the autumn, they
were attacked, on October 6, by the Mormons, their supply trains were
destroyed, and their oxen driven off. Colonel Johnston was compelled to
find winter quarters at Fort Bridger.
Early in the year a Legislature had met at Topeka, Kansas, and was
immediately dissolved by the United States marshals. A Territorial
Legislature also met at Lecompton and provided for a State Constitution.
The people of Kansas utterly refused to recognize the Legislature chosen by
the Missouri invaders, and both parties continued to hold their elections.
[Sidenote: Quintana]
Manuel Jose de Quintana, the Spanish playwright and patriotic poet, died on
March 11, at Madrid. He was one of the many Spanish writers whose first
poetic inspirations were derived from the stirring incidents of the
Peninsular War. On the return of King Ferdinand VII., Quintana had to
expiate his liberal sentiments by a term of six years in the prison of
Pampeluna. The revolution of 1820 brought about his release, but three
years later he was banished again from Madrid. An ode on King Ferdinand's
marriage restored him to royal favor. He was appointed tutor to the Infanta
Isabella, and in 1833 was made Minister of Public Instruction. Two years
before his death Queen Isabella publicly crowned the poet with a wreath of
laurel in the hall of the Cortes. It was a well-merited honor, for the
poet's patriotic odes and ringing lyrics long before this had taken rank
among the finest productions of the modern literature of Spain.
[Sidenote: Jules Breton]
Jules Breton, the famous French pupil of Drolling and of Devigne, exhibited
this year at Paris one of his greatest works, "La Benediction des Bles." It
was of this picture that Hamerton, the author of "Painting in France,"
wrote: "It is technically a work of singular importance in modern art for
its almost perfect interpretation of sunshine."
[Sidenote: Alfred de Musset]
[Sidenote: Relations with Georges Sand]
[Sidenote: "Rolla" and "Les Nuits"]
Alfred de Musset, the French lyric poet, died on May 1, in Paris. Born in
1810, the scion of an old aristocratic family, he was brought up with the
Duke of Orleans. They remained intimate friends until the Duke's death in
1842. In his eighteenth year De Musset took rank among the romantic writers
of Paris by his first volume of poems--"Contes d'Espagne et d'Italie."
During the next two years De Musset published another volume of poems and
the collection "Un Spectacle dans un Fauteuil," and followed this up with
several essays in dramatic verse, published under the title "Comedies
Injouables." In 1833, De Musset went to Italy together with Georges Sand,
but in Venice the lovers quarrelled and separated. The character of Stenio
in Georges Sand's novel "Lelia" was recognized as a personification of De
Musset. Alfred de Musset himself drew on these experiences for his novel
"Confessions d'un Enfant du Siecle," published upon his return from Italy
in 1836. Georges Sand, stung by De Musset's allegations concerning her,
gave her version of their relations in the famous book "Elle et Lui,"
whereupon De Musset's brother Paul published an even less lovely version of
the affair, in his book "Lui et Elle." During the succeeding year De Musset
became one of the foremost contributors to the "Revue des Deux Mondes." In
its pages appeared most of his "Comedies et Proverbes," and the lyric
pieces of "Rolla" and "Les Nuits." Among his prose tales of this period
were "Emmeline," "Les deux Maitresses," "Frederic et Bernerette," and "Le
Fils du Titien." Having lost part of his income, the poet was made
librarian of the Ministry of the Interior at the instance of the Duke of
Orleans, and as such received an ample pension. After the revolution of
1848 he was deprived of this stipend. Louis Napoleon, on his coronation as
Emperor, restored Alfred de Musset to office and had him elected to the
French Academy. During his last years the poet wrote but little verse.
[Sidenote: De Musset's pessimism]
[Sidenote: "Rappelle-toi"]
As a lyric poet, Alfred de Musset claims foremost rank among the modern
writers of France. His verse, like that of his contemporaries, Byron,
Lermontov, Leopardi, Lenau and Heine, is tinged with sadness and pessimism.
Like them, too, he excels in the mastery of the subtile beauties of his
native tongue. Characteristic of the spirit of his verse, if not of its
outward form, are these lines, translated from his beautiful lyric
"Rappelle-toi!"
Recall our love when the shy dawn unfoldeth
The enchanted radiance of the morning sun--
Recall our love when darkling night beholdeth
Veiled trains of silvery stars pass one by one,
When wild thy bosom palpitates with pleasure,
Or when the shades of night lull thee in dreamy measure;
Then lend a willing ear
To murmurings far and near:
Recall our love!
Recall our love when fate hath separated
Thy heart and mine, estranged for evermore--
When by the grief of exile ever mated
The soul is crushed that soared so high before--
Remember our sad love, remember how we parted--
Time, absence, grief, are naught for love full-hearted,
So long as fond hearts beat,
They ever must repeat:
Recall our love!
Recall our love when under earth reposes
This heart at last lulled in eternal sleep--
Recall our love when on my grave dark roses
In solitude their tender petals weep.
You will not see me more, but in immortal anguish
My stricken soul will ever near you languish;
Under the midnight sky
A spirit voice will sigh,
Recall our love!
[Sidenote: "Les Fleurs de Mal"]
[Sidenote: Baudelaire's Litany]
During this same year in France the pessimism of Alfred de Musset was
outdone by Baudelaire's famous collection of poems "Les Fleurs de Mal."
Baudelaire, as a poet, took a unique place in French literature. Following
in the footsteps of Victor Hugo, and the American, Poe--whose works he was
the first to translate into French--he outdid both these masters of the
grotesque in bizarre creations. He was the founder of diabolism in French
letters. As Sainte-Beuve wrote of Baudelaire: "S'est pris l'enfer et s'est
fait diable." The lucubrations of the so-called Satanic School of Byron,
Shelley and Hugo were surpassed by Baudelaire's rapt worship of evil as the
great power of the world. Take his famous Litany to Satan:
O thou the wisest and most beautiful of cherubim,
A god betrayed by fate and reft of worshipping,
O Satan, have pity on my endless woe!
Thou, who dost save the bones of the old sot
That reels 'twixt prancing steeds and heeds them not,
O Satan, have pity on my endless woe!
Adopted father of those whom in his rage on high
The God of Vengeance banished from his paradise,
O Satan, have pity on my endless woe!
Baudelaire's worship of evil was genuine, since he cared nothing for any
virtue save the crowning virtue of artistic excellence. From beginning to
end his "Fleurs de Mal" may be said to have blossomed in defiance of all
that the world has accepted as virtuous. Baudelaire's unusual sense of the
grotesque is believed to have been fostered by his early voyages in the Far
East.
[Sidenote: Czerny]
Carl Czerny, the eminent pianist and teacher, died on July 15, at the age
of sixty-six, at his birthplace, Vienna. Czerny while a boy showed rare
talent for music. He received encouragement from such men as Beethoven,
Clementi and Hummel, and began his career as a teacher at sixteen. An early
concert tour in 1804 had to be given up on account of the wars. The rest of
his life was spent in Vienna, where he became one of the most influential
teachers. In all he published over a thousand compositions, the most
lasting of which were his pedagogic piano studies. As a musical writer he
gained recognition by a work on the history of music.
[Sidenote: Death of Beranger]
[Sidenote: The poet's early career]
[Sidenote: Napoleonic songs]
[Sidenote: Beranger in prison]
On the day following Czerny's death, Jean Pierre Beranger, the great French
song writer, died at Paris. He was seventy-seven years old. Little cared
for by his father, he was brought up by his grandfather, a tailor, who let
him roam the streets as a gamin. At the age of nine he was sent to act as a
tavern boy for his aunt, who kept a small inn near Peronne in Picardy. In
his fourteenth year he was apprenticed to a printer, and learned the first
principles of versification while setting up the poems of Andre Chenier. On
his own behalf he soon printed a small volume of songs entitled "A Garland
of Roses." In 1798, he returned to Paris, and was reclaimed by his father.
For more than a year he had no settled occupation, during which time he
composed some of his best songs. At the outset of the Nineteenth Century,
Beranger definitely determined to follow the career of letters. He wrote a
comedy, but failing to get it accepted threw it into the fire. Collecting
all his poems he sent them to Lucien Bonaparte, the enlightened brother of
the First Consul. Prince Lucien took the young poet under his patronage,
but, unfortunately for Beranger, soon had to leave France, an exile. On
his arrival at Rome, Lucien Bonaparte transmitted to Beranger the salary
coming to him as a member of the Institute. As a song writer Beranger made
the most of his opportunities. In 1809, he was appointed Secretary of the
University of France, an office which he held throughout the Napoleonic
era. In 1813, he became a member of the Jolly Topers of the Caveau, then
the resort of the most distinguished literary men of Paris. On the fall of
Napoleon, Beranger took it upon himself to sing the glory of the fallen
empire in elegiac strains. A severe reprimand was administered to him by
the government. His second series of Napoleonic songs, published in 1821,
cost him his place and three months' confinement in the prison of St.
Pelagie, while his third (1828) subjected him to nine months' imprisonment
in La Force and a fine of ten thousand francs. The fine was paid by his
admirers, and the prison in which he was incarcerated became the gathering
place of the most celebrated literary men of the day. The songs which he
composed during this period helped to bring about the revolution of 1830.
Beranger now retired to Passy, then to Fontainebleau, and finally to Tours,
where he completed what he called his "Memoires Chantantes" by the
publication of a fourth volume of songs. After the revolution of 1848 he
was elected to the Constituent Assembly, but soon resigned that post. His
declining years were spent at Passy.
[Sidenote: Death of Comte]
Isidore Auguste Comte, the metaphysical writer and founder of modern
positive philosophy, died on September 5, at Paris. He was born at
Montpellier in 1798, and became acquainted in his early manhood with
Saint-Simon. Failing to agree with Saint-Simon's doctrines, Comte began to
lecture on his own system of philosophy as early as 1826. In 1849, he gave
readings on the "History of Humanity." After the _coup d'etat_, however,
the government of Louis Napoleon prohibited the continuance of his
readings. Comte's teachings are a combination of empiricism and socialism.
The first of his numerous works was published in 1822--"Plan of Scientific
Work Necessary for Reorganizing Society." Comte's most important work, "A
Course of Positive Philosophy," was published in six volumes, 1830-1842.
During the period of his religious enthusiasm Comte published his "System
of Positive Politics, or a Treatise of Sociology." This was followed by his
"Positivistic Catechism," "An Appeal to Conservators," and "Subjective
Synthesis." In England and America, Comte's works found many illustrious
interpreters, and congregations adhering to the "Positivistic Ritual" were
formed at several places in England. Among his most fervent adherents were
Miss Martineau, R. Congreve, Stuart Mill, Buckle, Lewes, Bridges, Tyler,
and the American, Carey. Positivism also found some noted exponents in
Italy and Germany.