the epoch-maker of the 19th century for his realm. He was son of
Frederick William III., and born March 22, 1797. In 1849 he was made
commander-in-chief of the Prussian army. He succeeded to the throne of
Prussia in 1861, and immediately under the guidance of Bismarck set
about those measures which were to end in the unification of the German
states. These involved the war of 1866 with Austria, after which,
in 1867 he became head of the powerful North German confederation,
comprising 22 states, and a population of 29,000,000. Then followed the
successful war with France, in 1871, which resulted in the complete
realization of his idea of a united Germany, and on January 28, 1871,
King William of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor of Germany, in the
palace of the French kings, at Marseilles. He died March 9, 1888.
Victor Emmanuel. At the birth of Victor Emmanuel in 1820, Italy was
a segregation of states or provinces, owned and played against one
another by the chess-players of Europe. The policy of ambitious
sovereigns to the north was to keep it divided and discordant. Victor
Emmanuel became king of Sardinia at a time when Austria’s power was
well-nigh supreme in the belligerent Italian states. His plea with
Austria that the Sardinian constitution should be protected, and its
success, aroused for him the confidence of the Italian people, and
paved his way to the Italian crown. In 1852 he secured the services
of the masterly Count Cavour, the Bismarck and Gladstone of Italy,
for his premier and guide. Through Cavour’s influence France united
with Sardinia against Austria. The war which followed and the peace of
Villafranca completed Emmanuel’s task, and made him king of a united
Italy, over which he reigned successfully for eight years, dying on
January 9, 1878.
Czar Alexander II. The epoch-maker of Russia during the 19th century
was Alexander II., born April 29, 1818. Of the many important events of
his reign, which began in 1855, the most illustrious was the abolition
of serfdom in his dominions, which gave freedom to 23,000,000 subjects.
He was killed by anarchists in 1881.
Francis Joseph. This emperor of Austria-Hungary was born August 18,
1830, and succeeded to the throne of Austria in 1848, and of Hungary
in 1867. Though defeated in wars with France, by which he lost Italian
provinces, and with Germany by which he lost Schleswig-Holstein, he
managed through an unprecedently long reign, in some part of which he
was both emperor and legislature, to hold together an empire composed
of heterogeneous Germans and Slavs, a task that would have proved
impossible with a less wise and respected ruler. He survived the
century, and the question also lived, what of the empire after his
death?
Victoria, Queen and Empress. Alexandrina Victoria Guelph, whose reign
was the longest in English annals, and covered the epoch-making time
of Great Britain during the nineteenth century, was born in London,
May 24, 1819. She was the daughter of the Duke of Kent, fourth son
of George III. She became next in succession to the throne on the
death of her uncle, King William IV., which occurred June 20, 1837.
Her ancestry dated back to Egbert, A. D. 827. To the wisdom of her
mother she owed a well-ordered, peaceful, and happy childhood, with a
view to the possibility of the English throne. Special teachers were
employed as her instructors, and she became proficient in music and
drawing, as well as in the classic and modern languages. She became
equally proficient in the English constitution and general history. In
1831, when, at the age of twelve, it was deemed necessary to acquaint
her with the fact that she was heir presumptive to the throne, the
genealogical table of the royal family was placed in her book of
history. After a study of it, she remarked that she was nearer the
throne than she had thought, and that the reasons for her course of
mental training had become obvious.
About this time the young princess made her first appearance at court,
and Parliament voted her an additional appropriation of $50,000 a
year for her expenses. But as a rule her mother made use of the fast
vanishing possibility of the birth of other heirs who would take
precedence of her, to keep the child, as long as propriety would
permit, out of the whirl of court life, and to allow her education
to proceed without interruption. The consequence of this maternal
discretion was that Victoria came to the throne in excellent physical
and mental health.
She attained her legal majority—eighteen years—on May 24, 1837,
and her birthday was celebrated throughout the country. On June 20,
1837, King William died childless. It became the immediate duty of
the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham to inform the young
princess of her uncle’s death and her own right of accession. She held
out her hand to the Archbishop to be kissed, and said, “I ask your
prayers on my behalf.” A meeting of the privy council was called for
eleven o’clock. The princess was known to but few of the members, and
there was a universal desire to ascertain what manner of person she
might be. She appeared before this august body of a hundred leading
nobles and statesmen with modest composure, bowed to the lords, took
her seat, and read her declaration. The members of the council were
then sworn to allegiance, kneeling and kissing her hand. The foreign
ambassadors were then received one by one. All were captivated by the
easy dignity of their girl-queen. Her speech was generally remarked
upon for its perfect elocution. Of her speech a few months after,
upon the dissolution of Parliament, Charles Sumner, who heard it,
said, “I was astonished and delighted. I think I never heard anything
better read.” And of the same speech Fanny Kemble said: “I think it is
impossible to hear a more excellent utterance than that of the Queen’s
English by the English queen.”
Victoria promptly reformed her court, which was sadly in need of
correction, and removed the royal residence to Windsor Castle. Public
admiration for her ability and grace of manner grew into enthusiasm, so
that on the day of her coronation at Westminster Abbey, June 28, 1838,
the pageant was not only one of unsurpassed splendor, but the populace
were described as “coronation mad.” This was the manifestation of a
radically changed public sentiment as to royalty, for the eclipse of
monarchy under the four Georges had long been accepted as a humiliating
fact, and respect for the throne had been well-nigh lost during
William’s reign. Altogether it was a bad time for a girlish queen to
assume power; yet her guiding hand was soon favorably and powerfully
felt, and it has been said by more than one good authority that her
accession at that special crisis was the salvation of monarchy in Great
Britain.
[Illustration: QUEEN VICTORIA IN 1840.
(After a painting by Wm. Fowler.)]
Her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, received at an early date a touch
of her quality, when, after vainly urging her to sign a certain
document, he testily withdrew it with the remark that it was not of
paramount importance. “Sir,” replied the queen instantly, “it is with
me a matter of the most paramount importance whether or not I attach
my signature to a document with which I am not thoroughly acquainted.”
And on another occasion, when her signature was asked to a document
on the ground of “expediency,” she replied, “I have been taught, My
Lord, to judge between what is right and what is wrong, but expediency
is a word I neither wish to hear nor to understand.” The beginning of
her reign was coincident with the inauguration of transatlantic steam
navigation. In the second year of her reign the Whig ministry, at whose
head stood Lord Melbourne, lost its working majority in Parliament.
The queen immediately summoned the Tory leader, Duke of Wellington, to
form a new government. Wellington suggested Sir Robert Peel as better
qualified for the task. He accepted, but when the queen found that the
change would affect all the ladies of her Bedchamber and household
she repudiated Peel, and recommissioned Melbourne. For this she and
her premier were taunted as being at the head of what was called the
“Bedchamber Plot.” Subsequently, when Peel succeeded Melbourne, the
queen found in him and Wellington warm friends and trusted advisers.
Among the other notable events of this year (1839) of her reign, were
the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League, and the occupation of Cabul
and Aden by the British forces.
The queen’s hand was sought in marriage by many kings, dukes, and
princes of Europe. Her choice fell upon her cousin, Prince Albert of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. It was a love-match, mingled with not a little
diplomacy on the part of her aunt, the Duchess of Gloucester, and
Albert’s uncle, King Leopold. The wedding was celebrated with stately
splendor at the Chapel Royal in St. James’s Palace, on February 10,
1840. The marriage proved a happy one. All that the most affectionate
and unselfish wife could be, she was to her husband. And the Prince
Consort not only returned her affection in full, but became her
faithful, laborious, vigilant, discreet adviser and helper, lifting
from her shoulders the crushing load of state affairs, and opening a
new era in her life. Careful and well informed observers have ranked
Prince Albert among the statesmen of his day, and some have said that
for the greater part of his twenty-one years of married life he was
practically King of England.
On November 21, 1840, their first child, afterwards Empress Frederick
of Germany, was born. An economic triumph of the year was the
introduction of cheap postage in England. In 1841 Sir Robert Peel
succeeded Lord Melbourne as premier. British arms greatly extended
political and commercial influence in the Orient by the taking of
Canton and Amoy. On November 9 the Prince of Wales, who, January 23,
1901, succeeded to his mother’s throne, was born. In 1842 two attempts
were made to assassinate the queen. It became the foreign policy of the
government not to further complicate the Indian question by pushing
conquest in Afghanistan, so the British forces were withdrawn. The
commercial prestige of England was greatly advanced in the Orient by
the acquisition of Hong Kong as a port, and the general opening of
all the Chinese ports to foreign trade. This year also witnessed the
permanent foothold of Great Britain in South Africa, by absorbing the
Boer republic of Natal.
On April 25, 1843, Princess Alice was born. British possessions in
India were enlarged by the annexation of Scinde. The queen and her
husband paid a friendly visit to Louis Philippe of France, and received
a return visit. In 1845 Mr. Gladstone became premier. England and
France joined in war against the Argentine republic. The year witnessed
the outbreak of the formidable Sikh rebellion. In the following year,
1846, this rebellion was suppressed and the Sikh territory was ceded
to the East India Company. The aggravated question of the Northwest
boundary of the United States was settled by treaty. The great famine
in Ireland, and a somewhat indignant public sentiment in England,
conduced to the repeal of the Corn-laws. For several years the Irish
situation was serious, famine and insurrection going hand in hand. In
1848 Princess Louise was born. The Sikh rebellion was renewed. The Boer
territory in South Africa was further trenched upon, and the farmers
trekt across the Vaal River to establish the Transvaal republic. In
1849 the queen paid her first visit to Ireland, the Sikh rebellion
was suppressed, and the Punjaub was annexed to British India. 1850
witnessed the conclusion of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty with the United
States. In 1851 the queen opened the great Exposition in London. In
1852 the first Derby ministry came into power. In 1854 Great Britain
participated with France in the Crimean War against Russia. For several
years the vigorous foreign policy of the government led to serious
complications. In 1860 the Prince of Wales visited America. During the
Civil War in the United States, the queen’s sympathies were with the
Union cause, and the very last public act of the Prince Consort was to
sign in the name of the queen the paper which modified the demand of
the ministry upon the United States with reference to seizure of the
Confederate envoys Mason and Slidell. The paper in its unmodified form
would have been equivalent to a declaration of war by England.
Toward the end of 1861 Prince Albert’s strength began to fail, and on
December 14 he passed away. His death was a severe blow to the queen
and to the nation. Two years afterwards she wrote in a letter to Dean
Stanley, “I can never be sufficiently thankful that I passed safely
through those two years [the two first years of her reign] to my
marriage. Then I was in a safe haven, and there I remained for twenty
years. Now, that is over, and I am again at sea, always wishing to
consult one who is not here, groping by myself, with a constant sense
of desolation.”
In 1863 the Prince of Wales was married. For several years the
government had serious trouble with the Fenian uprisings in Ireland and
America. In 1867 the Dominion of Canada was constituted. 1868 witnessed
a cabinet change from Derby to Disraeli, and from him to Gladstone;
and the passage of a reform act for Scotland and Ireland. In 1874
Disraeli succeeded Gladstone as premier. In 1875 Great Britain acquired
control of the Suez canal, and in 1876 the queen was proclaimed
Empress of India. In 1879 Great Britain was carrying on war in India
against revolting tribes, and in South Africa against the Zulus. Two
years later (1881) she attacked the Boers of the Transvaal, but met
with defeat. In 1885 there was a further loss of military prestige
by withdrawal from the Soudan campaign. In 1887 the queen celebrated
her semi-centennial jubilee, and ten years later (1897) her diamond
jubilee. In 1900 she witnessed the consolidation of her Australasian
colonies, and in 1901 the establishment of the Commonwealth of
Australia. The closing years of her life were clouded by the attitude
of her country in South Africa, and the losses of life and treasure
entailed by the war with the Boers. It was said by many that her
anxiety and grief over this situation hastened her death. Her last
illness was brief and painless, and her death took place at Osborne,
Isle of Wight, surrounded by her family, at 6.55 P.M. on January 22,
1901, in the eighty-second year of her age, and sixty-fourth of her
reign.
Her death occasioned sincere mourning throughout the civilized world.
She was succeeded by her oldest son, the Prince of Wales, who ascended
the throne on January 23, 1901, and assumed the title of Edward VII.
The queen and Prince Consort were ever anxious as to the education
of their children. They were trained to industry and economy. The
daughters were taught accomplishments as well as sewing and cooking,
and were given to understand that they were not to marry without
affection, nor for mere money or reasons of state. Victoria was herself
a careful manager in pecuniary affairs. By thirty she had saved enough
from her income to provide for the whole expense of her new place at
Osborne, where she died,—about $1,000,000,—while for the Prince she
had already saved from the revenues of her Cornwall estate, $500,000.
The Prince left her a valuable estate which at her death had come to be
estimated at $25,000,000. This, added to her own judicious investments
through the sixty-four years of her reign, gave her rank as one of the
wealthiest of sovereigns, as well as of the world’s persons.
Already the “Victorian era” is being celebrated as the greatest period
of progress that Britain ever knew, as the golden age of England.
And this with much propriety and truth, for her reign teemed with
instances of the exercise of power in the form of moral influence,
with results important and far reaching. Some of these instances
showed statesmanship of a high order. She never took sides in partisan
politics, nor antagonized the policy of her responsible ministers,
though often advising them and even at times correcting their serious
mistakes, never cheapening her advice by offering it in affairs of
little moment, always straightforward, self-reliant, vigilant for the
rights of the people, yet strenuous of law, neither misled by flattery,
nor coerced by fear, a hater of evil, a maker of peace. More than
once, in hours of crisis, did she exercise a moral influence whose
weight turned the course of events in both Europe and America. As an
instance of this, the modification of Lord Palmerston’s action in the
Trent affair, already mentioned, may be referred to. And when Bismarck,
surprised at the rapid recovery of France from the effects of the
Franco-Prussian War, had resolved on a second invasion and humiliation,
it was through Victoria’s intervention that the aged German emperor was
influenced to refuse a renewal of hostilities.
If her reign pass into history as the “Victorian Era,” then it
will truly have many interesting chapters, some grandly inspiring,
others—for such there must be—widely open to the criticism and
judgment of posterity. It witnessed the greatest achievement in
invention, the greatest advancement in science and art, and the most
remarkable evolution in the relations of capital and labor that the
world has ever seen. No equal period of world-history has seen such
unparalleled growth of a people, and such unexampled expansion of
national territory. At the beginning of her reign the population of
the Empire was 127,000,000. At her death it embraced 11,334,000 square
miles and 384,000,000 people. The United Kingdom itself grew from
16,000,000 to 40,000,000 besides sending out its swarms of emigrants
to people continents and isles. Commerce kept even pace with this
advancement. British ships sailed every sea. England’s flag was known
in every port of the world. During Victoria’s reign the foreign trade
of Great Britain increased 420 per cent. The great cloud on the
Victorian era was England’s wars,—the questionable Crimean War of
1853–55; the Indian mutiny of 1857, which ran a frightful course of
rapine and bloodshed; the Soudanese campaign; the Boer War in South
Africa.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced
quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained; occurrences of
inconsistent hyphenation have not been changed.
Many of the original illustrations were grainy and faded. In this
eBook, the graininess has been reduced, when possible, and the contrast
has been increased, when necessary.
Text frequently uses either “De” or “de” in people’s names.
The List of Illustrations had “Christmas Chimes” and “Whispers of
Love” in the wrong sequence; corrected here.
The List of Illustrations omitted the portrait of Queen Victoria. It
has been added by the Transcriber.
“Van’t Hoff” is consistently printed that way in the original book,
and is shown that way here. It should be “Van ’t Hoff” with a space.
There may be similar misprints of other names.
Page 109: “growth—force” may be a misprint for “growth-force”.
Page 192: Most of the illustration’s handwriting on this page is
illegible.
Page 199: In the chemical formula “CH2”, the “2” is subscripted.
Page 403: “Bauken” was printed that way; probably refers to “Bautzen.”
Page 527: The illustrated examples of the letters of the alphabet in
the “Child’s Guide” were not in alphabetic order, and there was no
example for “J”. In this eBook, the text accompanying those examples is
presented in alphabetic sequence.
Page 721: “Marseilles” was printed that way; must be a misprint for
“Versailles.”
The tables on pages 445, 450, and 467 have been split in this version
of the eBook to keep their widths within 72 characters.