trouble has been spent by critics in comparing him with other poets of
established fame. Read and commented upon with more admiration than
intelligence in the Italian universities in the generation immediately
succeeding his death, his name became obscured as the sun of the
Renaissance rose higher towards its meridian. In the 16th century he was
held inferior to Petrarch; in the 17th and first half of the 18th he was
almost universally neglected. His fame is now fully vindicated.
Translations and commentaries issue from every press in Europe and
America, and many studies for separate points are appearing every year.
AUTHORITIES.--It would be impossible here to give anything like a
complete account even of the editions of Dante's works; still more of
the books which have been written to elucidate the _Commedia_ as a
whole, or particular points in it. The section "Dante" in the British
Museum catalogue down to 1887 occupies twenty-nine folio pages; the
supplement, to 1900, as many more. The catalogue of the Fiske
collection, in Cornell University library, is in two quarto volumes
and covers 606 pages. A few of the more important editions and of the
more valuable commentaries and aids may, however, be recorded.
_Editions._--The _Commedia_ was first printed by John Numeister at
Foligno, in April 1472. Two other editions followed in the same year:
one at Jesi (_Federicus Veronensis_), and Mantua (_Georgius et Paulus
Teutonici_). These, together with a Naples edition of about 1477
(Francesco del Tuppo), were included by Lord Vernon in _Le Prime
Quattro Edizioni_ (1858). Another Neapolitan edition, without
printer's name, is dated 1477, and in the same year Wendelin of Spires
published the first Venetian edition. Milan followed in 1478 with that
known from the name of its editor as the _Nidobeatine_. In 1481
appeared the first Florentine edition (_Nicolo and Lorenzo della
Magna_) with the commentary of Cristoforo Landino, and a series of
copper engravings ascribed to Baccio Baldini, varying in number in
different copies from two to twenty; a sumptuous and very carelessly
printed volume. Venice supplied most of the editions for many years to
come. Altogether twelve existed by the end of the century. In 1502
Aldus produced the first "pocket" edition in his new "italic" type,
probably cut from the handwriting of his friend Bembo. A second
edition of this is dated 1515. The firm of Giunta at Florence printed
the poem in a small volume with cuts, in 1506; and for the rest of the
16th century edition follows edition, to the number of about thirty in
all. The most noteworthy commentaries are those of Alessandro
Vellutello (Venice, 1544), and Bernardo Daniello (Venice, 1568), both
of Lucca. The Cruscan Academicians edited the text in 1595. The first
edition with woodcuts is that of Boninus de Boninis (Brescia, 1487).
Bernardino Benali followed at Venice in 1491, and from that time
onward few if any of the folio editions are without them. The 17th
century produced three (or perhaps four) small, shabby and inaccurate
editions. In 1716 a revival of interest in Dante had set in, and
before 1800 some score of editions had appeared, the best-known being
those of G. A. Volpi (Padua, 1727), Pompeo Venturi (Venice, 1739) and
Baldassare Lombardi (Rome, 1791).
_Commentaries._--The _Commedia_ began to be the subject of
commentaries as soon as, if not before, the author was in his grave.
One known as the _Anonimo_ until in 1881 Dr Moore identified its
writer as Graziole de' Bambaglioli, was in course of writing in 1324.
It was published by Lord Vernon, to whose munificence we owe the
accessibility of most of the earlier commentaries, in 1848. That of
Jacopo della Lana is thought to have been composed before 1340. It was
printed in the Venice and Milan editions of 1477, and 1478
respectively. The so-called _Ottimo Comento_ (Pisa, 1837) is of about
the same date. It embodies parts of Lana's, but is largely an
independent work. Witte ascribes it to Andrea della Lancia, a
Florentine notary. Dante's sons Pietro and Jacopo also commented on
their father's poem. Their works were published, again at Lord
Vernon's expense, in 1845 and 1848. Boccaccio's lectures on the
_Commedia_, cut short at _Inf._ xvii. 17 by his death in 1375, are
accessible in various forms. His work was achieved by his disciple
Benvenuto Rambaldi of Imola (d. c. 1390). Benvenuto's commentary,
written in Latin, genial in temper, and often acute, was popular from
the first. Extracts from it were used as notes in many MSS. Much of it
was printed by Muratori in his _Antiquitates Italicae_; but the entire
work was first published in 1887 by Mr William Warren Vernon, with the
aid of Sir James Lacaita. No greater boon has ever been offered to
students of Dante. Another early annotator who must not be overlooked
is Francesco da Buti of Pisa, who lectured in that city towards the
close of the same century. His commentary, which served as the basis
of Landino's already mentioned, was first printed in Pisa in 1858. One
more commentary deserves mention. During the council of Constance,
John of Serravalle, bishop of Fermo, fell in with the English bishops
Robert Hallam and Nicholas Bubwith, and at their request compiled a
voluminous exposition of the _Commedia_. This remained in MS. till
recently, when it was printed in a costly form.
_Translations._--Probably the first complete translation of Dante into
a modern language was the Castilian version of Villena (1428). In the
following year Andreu Febrer produced a rendering into Catalan verse.
In 1515 Villegas published the _Inferno_ in Spanish. The earliest
French version is that of B. Grangier (1597). Chaucer has rendered
several passages beautifully, and similar fragments are embedded in
Milton and others. But the first attempt to reproduce any considerable
portion of the poem was made by Rogers, who only completed the
_Inferno_ (1782). The entire poem appeared first in English in the
version of Henry Boyd (1802) in six-line stanzas; but the first
adequate rendering is the admirable blank verse of H. F. Cary (1814,
2nd ed. 1819), which has remained the standard translation, though
others of merit, notably those of Pollock (1854) and Longfellow (1867)
in blank verse, Plumptre (1887) and Haselfoot (1887) in _terza rima_;
J. A. Carlyle (_Inferno_ only, 1847). C. E. Norton (1891), and H. F.
Tozer (1904), in prose, have since appeared. The best in German are
those of "Philalethes" (the late King John of Saxony) and Witte, both
in blank verse.
_Modern Editions and Commentaries._--The first serious attempt to
establish an accurate text in recent times was made by Carl Witte,
whose edition (1862) has been subsequently used as the basis for the
text of the _Commedia_ in the Oxford edition of Dante's complete works
(1896 and later issues). Dr Toynbee's text (1900) follows the Oxford,
with some modifications. The notes of Cary, Longfellow, Witte and
"Philalethes," appended to their several translations, and Tozer's, in
an independent volume, are valuable. Scartazzini's commentary is the
most voluminous that has appeared since the 15th century. With a good
deal of superfluous, and some superficial, erudition, it cannot be
neglected by any one who wishes to study the poem thoroughly. An
edition by A.J. Butler contains a prose version and notes. Of modern
Italian editions, Bianchi's and Fraticelli's are still as good as any.
_Other Aids._--For beginners no introduction is equal to the essay on
Dante by the late Dean Church. Maria Rossetti's _Shadow of Dante_ is
also useful. _A Study of Dante_, by J. A. Symonds, is interesting.
More advanced students will find Dr Toynbee's _Dante Dictionary_
indispensable, and Dr E. Moore's _Studies in Dante_ of great service
in its discussion of difficult places. Two concordances, to the
_Commedia_ by Dr Fay (Cambridge, Mass., 1888), and to the minor works
by Messrs Sheldon and White (Oxford, 1905), are due to American
scholars. Mr W. W. Vernon's _Readings in Dante_ have profited many
students. Dante's minor works still lack thorough editing and
scholarly elucidation, with the exception of the _De vulgari
eloquentia_, which has been well handled by Professor Pio Rajna
(1896), and the _Vita Nuova_ by F. Beck (1896) and Barbi (1907). Good
translations of the latter by D. G. Rossetti and C. E. Norton, and of
the _De monarchia_ by F. C. Church and P. H. Wicksteed are in
existence. The best text is that of the Oxford _Dante_, though much
confessedly remains to be done. The dates of their original
publication have already been given.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The first attempt at a bibliography of editions of
Dante was made in Pasquali's edition of his collected works (Venice,
1739); but the first really adequate work on the subject is that of
the viscount Colomb de Batines (1846-1848). A supplement by Dr Guido
Biagi appeared in 1888. Julius Petzholdt had already covered some of
the same ground in _Bibliographia Dantea_, extending from 1865 to
1880. The period from 1891 to 1900 has been dealt with by SS.
Passerini and Mazzi in _Un Decennio di bibliografia Dantesca_ (1905).
The catalogues of the two libraries already named, and that of Harvard
University, are worth consulting. For the MSS. Dr E. Moore's _Textual
Criticism_ (1889) is the most complete guide. (A. J. B.*)
DANTON, GEORGE JACQUES (1759-1794), one of the most conspicuous actors
in the decisive episodes of the French Revolution, was born at
Arcis-sur-Aube on the 26th of October 1759. His family was of
respectable quality, though of very moderate means. They contrived to
give him a good education, and he was launched in the career of an
advocate at the Paris bar. When the Revolution broke out, it found
Danton following his profession with apparent success, leading a
cheerful domestic life, and nourishing his intelligence on good books.
He first appears in the revolutionary story as president of the popular
club or assembly of the district in which he lived. This was the famous
club of the Cordeliers, so called from the circumstance that its
meetings were held in the old convent of the order of the Cordeliers,
just as the Jacobins derived their name from the refectory of the
convent of the Jacobin brothers. It is an odd coincidence that the old
rivalries of Dominicans and Franciscans in the democratic movement
inside the Catholic Church should be recalled by the names of the two
factions in the democratic movement of a later century away from the
church. The Cordeliers were from the first the centre of the popular
principle in the French Revolution carried to its extreme point; they
were the earliest to suspect the court of being irreconcilably hostile
to freedom; and it was they who most vehemently proclaimed the need for
root-and-branch measures. Danton's robust, energetic and impetuous
temperament made him the natural leader in such a quarter. We find no
traces of his activity in the two great insurrectionary events of
1789--the fall of the Bastille, and the forcible removal of the court
from Versailles to the Tuileries. In the spring of 1790 we hear his
voice urging the people to prevent the arrest of Marat. In the autumn we
find him chosen to be the commander of the battalion of the national
guard of his district. In the beginning of 1791 he was elected to the
post of administrator of the department of Paris. This interval was for
all France a barren period of doubt, fatigue, partial reaction and
hoping against hope. It was not until 1792 that Danton came into the
prominence of a great revolutionary chief.
In the spring of the previous year (1791) Mirabeau had died, and with
him had passed away the only man who was at all likely to prove a wise
guide to the court. In June of that year the king and queen made a
disastrous attempt to flee from their capital and their people. They
were brought back once more to the Tuileries, which from that time forth
they rightly looked upon more as a prison than a palace or a home. The
popular exasperation was intense, and the constitutional leaders, of
whom the foremost was Lafayette, became alarmed and lost their judgment.
A bloody dispersion of a popular gathering, known afterwards as the
massacre of the Champ-de-Mars (July 1791), kindled a flame of resentment
against the court and the constitutional party which was never
extinguished. The Constituent Assembly completed its infertile labours
in September 1791. Then the elections took place to its successor, the
short-lived Legislative Assembly. Danton was not elected to it, and his
party was at this time only strong enough to procure for him a very
subordinate post in the government of the Parisian municipality. Events,
however, rapidly prepared a situation in which his influence became of
supreme weight. Between January and August 1792 the want of sympathy
between the aims of the popular assembly and the spirit of the king and
the queen became daily more flagrant and beyond power of disguise. In
April war was declared against Austria, and to the confusion and
distraction caused by the immense civil and political changes of the
past two years was now added the ferment and agitation of war with an
enemy on the frontier. The distrust felt by Paris for the court and its
loyalty at length broke out in insurrection. On the memorable morning of
the 10th of August 1792 the king and queen took refuge with the
Legislative Assembly from the apprehended violence of the popular forces
who were marching on the Tuileries. The share which Danton had in
inspiring and directing this momentous rising is very obscure. Some look
upon him as the head and centre of it. Apart from documents, support is
given to this view by the fact that on the morrow of the fall of the
monarchy Danton is found in the important post of minister of justice.
This sudden rise from the subordinate office which he had held in the
commune is a proof of the impression that his character had made on the
insurrectionary party. To passionate fervour for the popular cause he
added a certain broad steadfastness and an energetic practical judgment
which are not always found in company with fervour. Even in those days,
when so many men were so astonishing in their eloquence, Danton stands
out as a master of commanding phrase. One of his fierce sayings has
become a proverb. Against Brunswick and the invaders, "_il nous faut de
l'audace, et encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace_,"--we must
dare, and again dare, and for ever dare. The tones of his voice were
loud and vibrant. As for his bodily presence, he had, to use his own
account of it, the athletic shape and the stern physiognomy of the
Liberty for which he was ready to die. Jove the Thunderer, the rebel
Satan, a Titan, Sardanapalus, were names that friends or enemies
borrowed to describe his mien and port. He was thought about as a
coarser version of the great tribune of the Constituent Assembly; he was
called the Mirabeau of the sansculottes, and Mirabeau of the markets.
In the executive government that was formed on the king's dethronement,
this strong revolutionary figure found himself the colleague of the
virtuous Roland and others of the Girondins. Their strength was speedily
put to a terrible test. The alarming successes of the enemy on the
frontier, and the surrender of two important fortresses, had engendered
a natural panic in the capital. But in the breasts of some of the wild
men whom the disorder of the time had brought to prominent place in the
Paris commune this panic became murderously heated. Some hundreds of
captives were barbarously murdered in the prisons. There has always been
much dispute as to Danton's share in this dreadful transaction. At the
time, it must be confessed, much odium on account of an imputed
direction of the massacres fell to him. On the whole, however, he cannot
be fairly convicted of any part in the plan. What he did was to make the
best of the misdeed, with a kind of sombre acquiescence. He deserves
credit for insisting against his colleagues that they should not flee
from Paris, but should remain firm at their posts, doing what they could
to rule the fierce storm that was raging around them.
The elections to the National Convention took place in September, when
the Legislative Assembly surrendered its authority. The Convention ruled
France until October 1795. Danton was a member; resigning the ministry
of justice, he took a foremost part in the deliberations and proceedings
of the Convention, until his execution in April 1794. This short period
of nineteen months was practically the life of Danton, so far as the
world is concerned with him.
He took his seat in the high and remote benches which gave the name of
the Mountain to the thoroughgoing revolutionists who sat there. He found
himself side by side with Marat, whose exaggerations he never
countenanced; with Robespierre, whom he did not esteem very highly, but
whose immediate aims were in many respects his own; with Camille
Desmoulins and Phelippeaux, who were his close friends and constant
partisans. The foes of the Mountain were the group of the
Girondins,--eloquent, dazzling, patriotic, but unable to apprehend the
fearful nature of the crisis, too full of vanity and exclusive
party-spirit, and too fastidious to strike hands with the vigorous and
stormy Danton. The Girondins dreaded the people who had sent Danton to
the Convention; and they insisted on seeing on his hands the blood of
the prison massacres of September. Yet in fact Danton saw much more
clearly than they saw how urgent it was to soothe the insurrectionary
spirit, after it had done the work of abolition which to him, as to them
too, seemed necessary and indispensable. Danton discerned what the
Girondins lacked the political genius to see, that this control of Paris
could only be wisely effected by men who sympathized with the vehemence
and energy of Paris, and understood that this vehemence and energy made
the only force to which the Convention could look in resisting the
Germans on the north-east frontier, and the friends of reaction in the
interior. "Paris," he said, "is the natural and constituted centre of
free France. It is the centre of light. When Paris shall perish there
will no longer be a republic."
Danton was among those who voted for the death of the king (January
1793). He had a conspicuous share in the creation of the famous
revolutionary tribunal, his aim being to take the weapons away from that
disorderly popular vengeance which had done such terrible work in
September. When all executive power was conferred upon a committee of
public safety, Danton had been one of the nine members of whom that body
was originally composed. He was despatched on frequent missions from the
Convention to the republican armies in Belgium, and wherever he went he
infused new energy into the work of national liberation. He pressed
forward the erection of a system of national education, and he was one
of the legislative committee charged with the construction of a new
system of government. He vainly tried to compose the furious dissensions
between Girondins and Jacobins. The Girondins were irreconcilable, and
made Danton the object of deadly attack. He was far too robust in
character to lose himself in merely personal enmities, but by the
middle of May (1793) he had made up his mind that the political
suppression of the Girondins had become indispensable. The position of
the country was most alarming. Dumouriez, the victor of Valmy and
Jemmappes, had deserted. The French arms were suffering a series of
checks and reverses. A royalist rebellion was gaining formidable
dimensions in the west. Yet the Convention was wasting time and force in
the vindictive recriminations of faction. There is no positive evidence
that Danton directly instigated the insurrection of the 31st of May and
the 2nd of June, which ended in the purge of the Convention and the
proscription of the Girondins. He afterwards spoke of himself as in some
sense the author of this revolution, because a little while before,
stung by some trait of factious perversity in the Girondins, he had
openly cried out in the midst of the Convention, that if he could only
find a hundred men, they would resist the oppressive authority of the
Girondin commission of twelve. At any rate, he certainly acquiesced in
the violence of the commune, and he publicly gloried in the expulsion of
the men who stood obstinately in the way of a vigorous and concentrated
exertion of national power. Danton, unlike the Girondins, accepted the
fury of popular passion as an inevitable incident in the work of
deliverance. Unlike Billaud Varenne or Hebert, or any other of the
Terrorist party, he had no wish to use this frightful two-edged weapon
more freely than was necessary. Danton, in short, had the instinct of
the statesman. His object was to reconcile France with herself; to
restore a society that, while emancipated and renewed in every part,
should yet be stable; and above all to secure the independence of his
country, both by a resolute defence against the invader, and by such a
mixture of vigour with humanity as should reconcile the offended opinion
of the rest of Europe. This, so far as we can make it out, was what was
in his mind.
The position of the Mountain had now undergone a complete change. In the
Constituent Assembly its members did not number more than 30 out of the
578 of the third estate. In the Legislative Assembly they had not been
numerous, and none of their chiefs had a seat. In the Convention for the
first nine months they had an incessant struggle for their very lives
against the Girondins. They were now (June 1793) for the first time in
possession of absolute power. It was not easy, however, for men who had
for many months been nourished on the ideas and stirred to the methods
of opposition, all at once to develop the instincts of government.
Actual power was in the hands of the two committees--that of public
safety and of general security. Both were chosen out of the body of the
Convention. The drama of the nine months between the expulsion of the
Girondins and the execution of Danton turns upon the struggle of the
committee to retain power--first, against the insurrectionary commune of
Paris, and second, against the Convention, from which the committees
derived an authority that was regularly renewed on the expiry of each
short term.
Danton, immediately after the fall of the Girondins, had thrown himself
with extraordinary energy into the work to be done. The first task in a
great city so agitated by anarchical ferment had been to set up a strong
central authority. In this genuinely political task Danton was
prominent. He was not a member of the committee of public safety when
that body was renewed in the shape that speedily made its name so
redoubtable all over the world. This was the result of a self-denying
ordinance which he imposed upon himself. It was he who proposed that the
powers of the committee should be those of a dictator, and that it
should have copious funds at its disposal. In order to keep himself
clear of any personal suspicion, he announced his resolution not to
belong to the body which he had thus done his best to make supreme in
the state. His position during the autumn of 1793 was that of a powerful
supporter and inspirer, from without, of the government which he had
been foremost in setting up. Danton was not a great practical
administrator and contriver, like Carnot, for instance. But he had the
gift of raising in all who heard him an heroic spirit of patriotism and
fiery devotion, and he had a clear eye and a cool judgment in the
tempestuous emergencies which arose in such appalling succession. His
distinction was that he accepted the insurrectionary forces, instead of
blindly denouncing them as the Girondins had done. After these forces
had shaken down the throne, and then, by driving away the Girondins, had
made room for a vigorous government, Danton perceived the expediency of
making all haste to an orderly state. Energetic prosecution of the war,
and gradual conciliation of civil hatreds, had been, as we have said,
the two marks of his policy ever since the fall of the monarchy. The
first of these objects was fulfilled abundantly, partly owing to the
energy with which he called for the arming of the whole nation against
its enemies. His whole mind was now given to the second of them. But the
second of them, alas, was desperate.
It was to no purpose that, both in his own action and in the writings of
Camille Desmoulins (_Le Vieux Cordelier_), of whom he was now and always
the intimate and inspirer, he worked against the iniquities of the bad
men, like Carrier and Collot d'Herbois, in the provinces, and against
the severity of the revolutionary tribunal in Paris. The black flood
could not at a word or in an hour subside from its storm-lashed fury.
The commune of Paris was now composed of men like Hebert and Chaumette,
to whom the restoration of any sort of political order was for the time
indifferent. They wished to push destruction to limits which even the
most ardent sympathizers with the Revolution condemn now, and which
Danton condemned then, as extravagant and senseless. Those men were not
politicians, they were fanatics; and Danton, who was every inch a
politician, though of a vehement type, had as little in common with them
as John Calvin of Geneva had with John of Leiden and the Munster
Anabaptists. The committee watched Hebert and his followers uneasily for
many weeks, less perhaps from disapproval of their excesses than from
apprehensions of their hostility to the committee's own power. At length
the party of the commune proposed to revolt against the Convention and
the committees. Then the blow was struck, and the Hebertists were
swiftly flung into prison, and thence under the knife of the guillotine
(March 24th, 1794). The execution of the Hebertists was the first
victory of the revolutionary government over the extreme insurrectionary
party. But the committees had no intention to concede anything to their
enemies on the other side. If they refused to follow the lead of the
anarchists of the commune, they were none the more inclined to give way
to the Dantonian policy of clemency. Indeed, such a course would have
been their own instant and utter ruin. The Terror was not a policy that
could be easily transformed. A new policy would have to be carried out
by new men, and this meant the resumption of power by the Convention,
and the death of the Terrorists. In Thermidor 1794 such a revolution did
take place, with those very results. But in Germinal feeling was not
ripe. The committees were still too strong to be overthrown. And Danton
seems to have shown a singular heedlessness. Instead of striking by
vigour in the Convention, he waited to be struck. In these later days a
certain discouragement seems to have come over his spirit. His wife had
died during his absence on one of his expeditions to the armies; he had
now married again, and the rumour went that he was allowing domestic
happiness to tempt him from the keen incessant vigilance proper to the
politician in such a crisis. He must have known that he had enemies.
When the Jacobin club was "purified" in the winter, Danton's name would
have been struck out as a moderate if Robespierre had not defended him.
The committees had deliberated on his arrest soon afterwards, and again
it was Robespierre who resisted the proposal. Yet though he had been
warned of the lightning that was thus playing round his head, Danton did
not move. Either he felt himself powerless, or he rashly despised his
enemies. At last Billaud Varenne, the most prominent spirit of the
committee after Robespierre, succeeded in gaining Robespierre over to
his designs against Danton. Robespierre was probably actuated by the
motives of selfish policy which soon proved the greatest blunder of his
life. The Convention, aided by Robespierre and the authority of the
committee, assented with ignoble unanimity. On the 30th of March Danton,
Desmoulins and others of the party were suddenly arrested. Danton
displayed such vehemence before the revolutionary tribunal, that his
enemies feared lest he should excite the crowd in his favour. The
Convention, in one of its worst fits of cowardice, assented to a
proposal made by St Just that, if a prisoner showed want of respect for
justice, the tribunal might pronounce sentence without further delay.
Danton was at once condemned, and led, in company with fourteen others,
including Camille Desmoulins, to the guillotine (April 5th, 1794). "I
leave it all in a frightful welter," he said; "not a man of them has an
idea of government. Robespierre will follow me; he is dragged down by
me. Ah, better be a poor fisherman than meddle with the government of
men!"
Events went as Danton foresaw. The committees presently came to quarrel
with the pretensions of Robespierre. Three months after Danton,
Robespierre fell. His assent to the execution of Danton had deprived him
of the single great force that might have supported him against the
committee. The man who had "saved France from Brunswick" might perhaps
have saved her from the White reaction of 1794.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Sources for the life of Danton abound in the national
archives and in the columns of the _Moniteur_. His _Oeuvres_ were
published by A. Vermorel (Paris, 1866), and his speeches are included
in H. Morse Stephens' _Principal Speeches of the Statesmen and Orators
of the French Revolution_ (vol. ii., Oxford, 1892); cf. F. V. Aulard,
_Les Orateurs de la Legislative et de la Convention_ (Danton and his
group; 2 vols., 1885-1886). The charges of corruption freely brought
against Danton by contemporaries were accepted by many historians, and
he has been persistently accused of instigating or at least abetting,
by failure to use the power he possessed, the September massacres. A
minute examination of the evidence by F. V. Aulard and J. F. E.
Robinet in France, followed by A. H. Beesly in England, has placed his
career and his character in a fairer light. The chief books on
Danton's life are:--A. Bougeart, _Danton, documents pour servir a
l'histoire de la Revolution francaise_ (Brussels, 1861); J. F. E.
Robinet, _Danton, memoire sur sa vie privee_ (Paris, 1865), _Le Proces
des Dantonistes_ (Paris, 1879), _Danton emigre_ (Paris, 1887),
_Danton, homme d'etat_ (Paris, 1889); F. V. Aulard, _Hist. pol. de la
Rev. fr._ (Paris, 1901), and _Danton_ (Paris, 1887); A. Dubost,
_Danton et la politique contemporaine_ (Paris, 1880); A. H. Beesly,
_Life of Danton_ (1899, new ed. 1906); H. Belloc, _Danton_ (1899).
There is a short "Life of Danton" in Morse Stephens' _Principal
Speeches_, cited above. See also C. F. Warwick, _Danton and the French
Revolution_ (1909). (J. Mo.)
DANUBE (Ger. _Donau_, Hungarian _Duna_, Rumanian _Dunarea_, Lat.
_Danubius_ or _Danuvius_, and in the lower part of its course _Ister_),
the most important river of Europe as regards the volume of its outflow,
but inferior to the Volga in length and in the area of its drainage. It
originates at Donaueschingen in the Black Forest, where two mountain
streams, the Brigach and the Brege, together with a third stream from
the Palace Gardens, unite at an elevation of 2187 ft. above the sea to
form the Danube so called. From this point it runs in an easterly
direction until it falls into the Black Sea some 1750 m. from its
source, being the only European river of importance with a course from
west to east. Its basin, which comprises a territory of nearly 300,000
sq. m., is bounded by the Black Forest, some of the minor Alpine ranges,
the Bohemian Forest and the Carpathian Mountains on the north, and by
the Alps and the Balkan range on the south. From the point where the
Danube first becomes navigable, i.e. at its junction with the Iller at
Ulm (1505 ft. above sea-level), it is fed by at least 300 tributaries,
the principal of which on the right bank are the Inn, the Drave and the
Save; while on the left bank are the Theiss or Tisza, the Olt, the
Sereth and the Pruth. These seven rivers have a total length of 2920 m.
and drain one half of the basin of the Danube.
Historical and political associations.
The course of this mighty river is rich in historical and political
associations. For a long period it formed the frontier of the Roman
empire; near Eining (above Regensburg) was the ancient Abusina, which
for nearly five centuries was the chief Roman outpost against the
northern barbarians. Traces of Trajan's wall still exist between that
point and Wiesbaden, while another line of fortifications bearing the
same emperor's name are found in the Dobrudja between Cernavoda (on the
lower Danube) and Constantza. At intervening points are still found many
notable Roman remains, such as Trajan's road, a marvellous work on the
right bank of the river in the rocky Kazan defile (separating the
Balkans on the south from the Carpathians on the north), where a
contemporary commemorative tablet is still conspicuously visible. At
Turnu Severin below the end of this famous gorge are the remains of a
solid masonry bridge constructed by the same emperor at the period of
his Dacian conquests. But since Roman days the central Danube has never
formed the boundary of a state; on the contrary it became the route
followed from east to west by successive hordes of barbarians--the Huns,
Avars, Slavs, Magyars and Turks; while the Franks under Charlemagne, the
Bavarians and the Crusaders all marched in the opposite direction
towards the east. In more modern days its banks were the scenes of many
bloody battles during the Napoleonic Wars. Still more recently it has
become the great highway of commerce for central Europe. It has been
pointed out by J. G. Kohl (_Austria and the Danube_, London, 1844) and
others that, in consequence of the Danube having been in constant use as
the line of passage of migratory hostile tribes, it nowhere forms the
boundary between two states from Orsova upwards, and thus it traverses
as a central artery Wurttemberg, Bavaria, Austria and Hungary, while on
the other hand various tributaries both north and south, which formed
serious obstacles to the march of armies, have become lines of
separation between different states. Thus Hungary is separated from
Austria by the rivers March and Leitha; the river Enns, for a
considerable period the extreme western boundary of the Magyar kingdom,
still separates Upper and Lower Austria; the Inn and the Salzach divide
Austria from Bavaria, and farther west the Iller separates Bavaria from
Wurttemberg.
Course.
The Danube after leaving Donaueschingen flows south-east in the
direction of Lake Constance, and below Immendingen a considerable
quantity of its waters escapes through subterranean fissures to the
river Ach in the Rhine basin. At Gutmadingen it turns to the north-east,
which general direction, although with many windings, it maintains as
far as Linz. At Tuttlingen it contracts and the hills crowd close to the
banks, while ruins of castles crown almost every possible summit. The
scenery is wild and beautiful until the river passes Sigmaringen. At
Ulm, where the river leaves Wurttemberg and enters Bavaria, it is joined
by a large tributary, the Iller, and from this point becomes navigable
downstream for specially constructed boats carrying 100 tons of
merchandise. It is here some 78 yds. in breadth, with an average depth
of 3 ft. 6 in. Continuing its north-easterly course it passes through
Bavaria, gradually widening its channel first at Steppberg, then at
Ingolstadt, but finally narrowing again until it reaches Regensburg
(height 949 ft.). At this point it changes its direction to the
south-east, and passing along the southern slopes of the Bavarian Forest
enters Austria at Passau (height 800 ft.). In its passage through
Bavaria it receives several important affluents on both banks, notably
on the right the Alpine rivers Lech, Isar and Inn, the last of which at
the junction near Passau exceeds in volume the waters of the Danube.
From Passau the Danube flows through Austria for a distance of 233 m.
Closed in by mountains it flows past Linz in an unbroken stream--below,
it expands and divides into many arms until it reaches the famous
whirlpool near Grein where its waters unite and flow on in one channel
for 40 m., through mountains and narrow passes. Beyond Krems it again
divides, forming arms and islands beyond Vienna. The Danube between Linz
and Vienna is renowned not only for its picturesque beauty but for the
numerous medieval and modern buildings of historical and archaeological
interest which crown its banks. The splendid Benedictine monastery of
Melk and the ruins of Durrenstein, the prison of Richard Coeur de Lion,
are among the most interesting.
After passing Vienna and the Marchfeld, the Danube (here 316 yds. wide
and 429 ft. above sea-level) passes through a defile formed by the lower
spurs of the Alps and the Carpathians and enters Hungary at the ruined
castle of Theben a little above Pressburg, the old Magyar capital, after
leaving which the river passes through the Hungarian plains, receiving
several affluents on both sides. It divides into three channels, forming
several islands. After passing the fortress of Komarom it loses its
easterly course at Vacz (Waitzen), and flows nearly due south for 230 m.
down to its junction with the Drave (81 ft. above sea-level), passing in
its course Budapest, the capital of Hungary, and farther on Mohacs.
Below Mohacs the Franz Josef canal connects the Danube with the Theiss.
After its junction with the Save the Danube follows a south-easterly
direction for 200 m. until it is joined on the right bank of the Drave
at Belgrade, above which it receives on the left bank the Theiss or
Tisz., the largest of its Hungarian affluents. From Belgrade the Danube
separates Hungary from Servia. It flows eastward until it has passed
through the stupendous Kazan defile, in which its waters (at Semlin 1700
yds. wide and 40 ft. deep) are hemmed in by precipitous rocks to a width
of only 162 yds., with a depth of 150 ft. and a tremendous current.
Emerging, above Orsova, at a height of 42 ft. above sea-level, it opens
to nearly a mile in width and, turning south-eastwards, is again
narrowed by its last defile, the Iron Gates, where it passes over the
Prigrada rock. The course of the river through Hungary, from Pressburg
to Orsova, is some 600 m.
The river now flows south, separating Servia from Rumania down to its
junction with the Timok, after which as far as Silistria, a distance of
284 m., it separates Rumania from Bulgaria. The north bank is mostly
flat and marshy, whereas the Bulgarian bank is almost continuously
crowned by low heights on which are built the considerable towns of
Vidin (Widdin), Lom Palanka, Rustchuk and Silistria, all memorable names
in Turko-Russian wars. From Silistria the river flows through Rumanian
territory and after passing Cernavoda, where it is crossed by a modern
railway bridge, it reaches (left bank) the important commercial ports of
Braila and Galatz. A few miles east of Galatz the Pruth enters on the
left bank, which is thenceforward Russian territory. The Danube flows in
a single channel from Galatz for 30 m. to the Ismail Chatal (or fork),
where it breaks up into the several branches of the delta. The Kilia
branch from this point flows to the north-east past the towns of Ismail
and Kilia, and 17 m. below the latter breaks up into another delta
discharging by seven channels into the Black Sea. The Tulcea branch
flows south-east from the Ismail Chatal, and 7 m. below the town of
Tulcea separates into two branches. The St George's branch, holding a
general, though winding, course to the south-east, discharges by two
channels into the sea; and the Sulina branch, taking an easterly
direction, emerges into the Black Sea 20 m. south of the Ochakov mouth
of the Kilia, and 20 m. north of the Kedrilles mouth of the St George.
In 1857 the proportion of discharge by the three branches of the Danube
was Sulina 7%, St George's 30% and Kilia 63%; but in 1905 the relative
proportions had altered to Sulina 9%, St George's 24% and Kilia 67%. The
average outflow by the three mouths combined is 236,432 cub. ft. per
second. The delta enclosed between the Kilia and St George's branches,
about 1000 sq. m. in area, mainly consists of one large marsh covered
with reeds, and intersected by channels, relieved in places by isolated
elevations covered with oak, beech and willows, many of them marking the
ancient coast-line. On the eastern side of the Kilia delta the
coast-line is constantly advancing and the sea becoming shallower, owing
to the enormous amount of solid deposits brought down by the river. In
time of ordinary flood the Kilia branch with its numerous mouths pours
into the sea some 3000 cub. ft. of sand and mud per minute. Its effects
are felt as far south as Sulina, and tend to necessitate the farther
extension into the sea of the guiding piers of that port.
Navigation.
In the course of the 19th century, more especially during its latter
half, much was done to render the Danube more available as a means of
communication. In 1816 Austria and Bavaria made arrangements for the
common utilization of the upper portion of the river, and since then
both governments have been liberal in expenditure on its improvement. In
1844 the Ludwigs Canal was constructed by King Louis of Bavaria. It is
110 m. in length and 7 ft. in depth, and connects the Danube at Kelheim
(half way between Ulm and Passau) with the Rhine at Mainz by means of
the rivers Altmuhl, Regnitz and Main. Various other projects exist, one
for the connexion of the Danube (near Vienna) with the river Oder at
Oderberg, another for a canal from the Danube to the Moldau at Budweis,
125 m. in length, which owing to the regularization of the Moldau is the
last uncompleted link of a navigable channel 1875 m. in length between
Sulina and Hamburg at the mouths of the Danube and the Elbe
respectively. There also exist other schemes for joining the Danube with
the rivers Neckar and Theiss, and also for connecting the Oder Canal
with the Vistula and the Dniester. Between Ulm and Vienna, a distance of
629 m., works of rectification have been numerous and have greatly
improved the navigability of the river. The draining of the Donau-moos
between Neuburg and Ingolstadt, commenced in 1791, was successfully
completed about 1835; and in 1853 the removal of the rocks which
obstructed the river below Grein was finally achieved; while at Vienna
itself the whole mass of the Danube was conducted nearer the town for a
distance of nearly 2 m. through an artificial channel 10 m. in length
and 330 yds. in width, with a depth of about 12 ft., and at a cost with
subsidiary works of over three millions sterling. The work, begun in
1866, involved the removal of 12,000,000 cub. metres of sand and gravel,
and proved a great success, not only amply realizing its principal
object, the protection of Vienna from disastrous inundations, but also
improving the navigability of the river in that portion of its course.
The Hungarian government also, throughout the latter half of the 19th
century, expended vast sums at Budapest for the improvement of
navigation and the protection of the town from inundation, and in the
regularization of the Danube down to Orsova.
In prehistoric times a great part of the plains of Hungary formed a
large inland sea, which ultimately burst its bounds, whereupon the
Danube forced its way through the Carpathians at the Kazan defile. Much
of what then formed the bottom of this sea consisted until modern times
of marshes and waste lands lying in the vicinity of its numerous rivers.
The problem of draining and utilizing these lands was not the only
difficulty to be surmounted by the Hungarian engineers; the requirements
of navigation and the necessity in winter of preventing the formation of
large ice-fields, such as caused the disastrous floods at Budapest in
1838, had also to be considered. In carrying out these works the
Hungarian government between 1867 and 1895 spent seven millions
sterling, and a further expenditure of three and a half millions was
provided for up to 1907. At Budapest, where the formation of ice-fields
at the upper entrance of the two side arms of the Danube--the Promontor
on the north, 20 m. in length, and the Soroksar, 35 m. long,--caused the
inundation alluded to, the latter branch has been artificially blocked
and the whole of the Danube now flows through Budapest in a single
channel. For the first section of 60 m. after entering Hungary, the bed
of the river, here surcharged with gravel, was constantly changing its
course. It has been regularized throughout, the width of the stream
varying from 320 to 400 yds. In the second section from Gonyo to Paks,
164 m. in length, the river had a tendency to form islands and
sandbanks--its width now varies uniformly from 455 to 487 yds. The third
section of 113 m., from Paks to the mouth of the Drave, differed from
the others and made innumerable twists and curves. No fewer than
seventeen cuttings have been made, reducing the original course of the
river by 75 m. The fourth section, 217 m. in length, from the Drave to
Old Moldova, resembles in its characteristics the second section and has
been similarly treated. Cuttings have also been made where necessary,
and the widths of the channel are 487 yds. to the mouth of the Theiss,
650 between that point and the Save, and lower down 760 yds. In the
fifth and last section from Old Moldova to Orsova and the Iron Gates the
river is enclosed by mountains and rocky banks, and the obstacles to
navigation are rocks and whirlpools.
Article VI. of the treaty of London (1871) authorized the powers which
possess the shores of this part of the Danube to come to an
understanding with the view of removing these impediments, and to have
the right of levying a provisional tax on vessels of every flag which
may henceforth benefit thereby until the extinction of the debt
contracted for the execution of the works. As the riverain powers could
not come to an agreement on the subject, the great powers at the
congress of Berlin (1878) entrusted to Austria-Hungary the execution of
the works in question. Austria-Hungary subsequently conferred its rights
on Hungary, by which country the works were carried out at a cost of
about one and a half millions sterling.
The principal obstructions between Old Moldova and Turnu Severin were
the Stenka Rapids, the Kozla Dojke Rapids, the Greben section and the
Iron Gates. At the first named there was a bank of rocks, some of them
dry at low water, extending almost across the river (985 yds. wide). The
fall of the river bed is small, but the length of the rapid is 1100 yds.
The Kozla Dojke, 9 m. below the Stenka Rapids, extend also for 1100
yds., with a fall of 1 in 1000, where two banks of rocks cause a sudden
alternation in the direction of the current. The river is here only 170
to 330 yds. in width. Six miles farther on is the Greben section, the
most difficult part of the works of improvement. A spur of the Greben
mountains runs out below two shoals where the river suddenly narrows to
300 yds. at low water, but presently widens to 1(1/2) m. Seven miles
lower down are the Jucz Rapids, where the river-bed has a fall of 1 in
433. At the Iron Gates, 34 m. below the Greben, the Prigrada rocky bank
nearly blocked the river at the point where it widens out after leaving
the Kazan defile. The general object of the works was to obtain a
navigable depth of water at all seasons of 2 metres (6.56 ft.) on that
portion of the river above Orsova, and a depth of 3 metres (9.84 ft.)
below that town. To effect this at Stenka, Kozla Dojke, Islaz and
Tachtalia, channels 66 yds. wide had to be cut in the solid rock to a
depth of 6 ft. 6 in. below low water. The point of the Greben spur had
to be entirely removed for a distance of 167 yds. back from its original
face. Below the Greben point a training wall 7 to 9 ft. high, 10 ft. at
top and nearly 4 m. in length, has been built along the Servian shore in
order to confine the river in a narrow channel. At Jucz another similar
channel had to be cut and a training wall built. At the Iron Gates a
channel 80 yds. wide, nearly 2000 yds. in length and 10 ft. deep (in the
immediate vicinity of traces of an old Roman canal) had to be cut on the
Servian side of the river through solid rock. Training walls have been
built on either side of the channel to confine the water so as to raise
its level; that on the right bank having a width of 19 ft. 6 in. at top,
and serving as a tow-path; that on the left being 13 ft. in width. These
training walls are built of stone with flat revetments to protect them
against ice. These formidable and expensive works have not altogether
realized the expectations that had been formed of them. One most
important result, however, has been attained, i.e. vessels can now
navigate the Iron Gates at all seasons of the year when the river is not
closed by ice, whereas formerly at extreme low water, lasting generally
for about three months in the late summer and autumn, through navigation
was always at a standstill, and goods had to be landed and transported
considerable distances by land. The canal was opened for traffic on the
1st of October 1898. It was designed of sufficient width, as was
supposed, for the simultaneous passage of boats in opposite directions;
but on account of the great velocity of the current this has been found
to be impracticable.
European commission of the Danube.
From the Iron Gates down to Braila, which is the highest point to which
large sea-going ships ascend the river, there have been no important
works of improvement. From Braila to Sulina, a distance of about 100 m.,
the river falls under the jurisdiction of the European commission of the
Danube, an institution of such importance as to merit lengthened notice.
It was called into existence under Art. XVI. of the treaty of Paris
(1856), and in November of that year a commission was constituted in
which Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia and
Turkey were each represented by one delegate "to designate and cause to
be executed the works necessary below Isaktcha[1] to clear the mouths of
the Danube as well as the neighbouring parts of the sea, from the sands
and other impediments which obstructed them, in order to put that part
of the river and the said parts of the sea in the best possible state
for navigation."
In Art. XVIII. of the same treaty it was anticipated that the European
commission would have finished the works described within the period of
two years, when it was to be dissolved and its powers taken over by a
Riverain commission to be established under the same treaty; but this
commission has never come into existence. Extended by short periods up
to 1871, the powers of the European commission were then prolonged under
the treaty of London for twelve years. At the congress of Berlin in 1878
its jurisdiction was extended from Isakcea to Galatz (26 m.), and it was
decided that the commission, in which Rumania was henceforward to be
represented by a delegate, should exercise its powers in complete
independence of the territorial authority. By the treaty of London of
1883 the jurisdiction of the commission was extended from Galatz to
Braila and its powers were prolonged for twenty-one years (i.e. till the
24th of April 1904), after which its existence was to continue by tacit
prolongation for successive terms of three years unless one of the high
contracting powers should propose any modification in its constitution
or attributes. It was also decided that the European commission should
no longer exercise any effective control over that portion of the Kilia
branch of which the two banks belonged to one of the riverain powers
(Russia and Rumania), while as regards that portion of it which
separated the two countries, control was to be exercised by the Russian
and Rumanian delegates on the European commission. Russia was also
authorized to levy tolls intended to cover the expenses of any works of
improvement that might be undertaken by her. Art. VII. of the same
treaty declared that the regulations for navigation, river police, and
superintendence drawn up on the 2nd of June 1882 by the European
commission, assisted by the delegates of Servia and Bulgaria, should be
made applicable to that part of the Danube situated between the Iron
Gates and Braila. In consequence of Rumania's opposition, the proposed
_Commission Mixte_ was never formed, and these regulations have never
been put in force. As regards the extension of the powers of the
European commission to Braila, 11 m. above Galatz, and at the head of
the maritime navigation, a tacit understanding has been arrived at,
under which questions concerning navigation proper come under the
jurisdiction of the commission, while the police of the ports remains in
the hands of the Rumanian authorities.
Sir Charles Hartley, who was chief engineer of the commission from 1856
to 1907,[2] in a paper contributed to the Institution of Civil Engineers
in 1873 (vol. xxxvi.), gave the following graphic description of the
state of the Sulina mouth when the commission entered on its labours in
1856:--
"The entrance to the Sulina branch was a wild open seaboard strewn
with wrecks, the hulls and masts of which, sticking out of the
submerged sandbanks, gave to mariners the only guide where the deepest
channel was to be found. The depth of the channel varied from 7 to 11
ft., and was rarely more than 9 ft.
"The site now occupied by wide quays extending several miles in length
was then entirely covered with water when the sea rose a few inches
above ordinary level, and that even in a perfect calm; the banks of
the river near the mouth were only indicated by clusters of wretched
hovels built on piles and by narrow patches of sand skirted by tall
weeds, the only vegetable product of the vast swamps beyond.
"For some years before the improvements, an average of 2000 vessels of
an aggregate capacity of 400,000 tons visited the Danube, and of this
number more than three-fourths loaded either the whole or part of
their cargoes from lighters in the Sulina roadstead, where, lying off
a lee shore, they were frequently exposed to the greatest danger.
Shipwrecks were of common occurrence, and occasionally the number of
disasters was appalling. One dark winter night in 1855, during a
terrific gale, 24 sailing ships and 60 lighters went ashore off the
mouth and upwards of 300 persons perished."
The state of affairs in the river was not much better than at the Sulina
mouth. Of the three arms of the Danube, the Kilia, the Sulina and the
St George, the central or Sulina branch, owing to its greater depth of
water over the bar, had from time immemorial been the principal waterway
for sea-going vessels; its average depth throughout its course, which
could not always be counted on, was 8 ft., but it contained numerous
shoals where vessels had to lighten, so that cargo had often to be
shifted several times in the voyage down the river. It also contained
numerous bends and sharp curves, sources of the greatest difficulty to
navigation.
The commission fixed its seat at Galatz. Provisional works of
improvement were begun almost immediately at the mouth of the Sulina
branch of the Danube, but two years were spent in discussing the
relative claims to adoption of the Kilia, the Sulina and the St George's
mouths. Unable to agree, the delegates referred the question to their
respective governments, and a technical commission appointed by France,
England, Prussia and Sardinia met at Paris and decided unanimously in
favour of St George's; but recommended, instead of the embankment of the
natural channel, the formation of an artificial canal 17 ft. in depth
closed by sluices at its junction with the river, and reaching the sea
at some distance from the natural embouchure. The choice of St George's
made by this commission was adopted at Galatz in December 1858, and six
of the seven representatives voted for its canalization; but owing to
various political and financial considerations, it was ultimately
decided to do nothing more in the meantime than render permanent and
effective the provisional works already in progress at the Sulina mouth.
These consisted of two piers forming a seaward prolongation of the
fluvial channel, begun in 1858 and completed in 1861. The northern pier
had a length of 4631 ft., the southern of 3000, and the depth of the
water in which they were built varied from 6 to 20 ft. At the
commencement of the works the depth of the channel was only 9 ft. but by
their completion it had increased to 19 ft. The works designed and
constructed by Sir Charles Hartley had in fact proved so successful that
nothing more was ever heard of the St George's project. In 1865 a new
lighthouse was erected at the end of the north pier. The value of these
early works of the commission is shown by the fact that of 2928 vessels
navigating the lower Danube in 1855, 36 were wrecked, while of 2676 in
1865 only 7 were wrecked. In 1871 it was found expedient to lengthen the
piers seaward, and in 1876 the south jetty was prolonged, so as to bring
its end exactly opposite the lighthouse on the north pier. This resulted
in an increase of the depth to 20(1/2) ft., and for fifteen years, from
1879 to 1895, this depth remained constant without the aid of dredging.
In 1894, owing to the constantly increasing size of vessels frequenting
the Danube, it was found necessary to deepen the entrance still further,
and to construct two parallel piers between the main jetties, reducing
the breadth of the river to 500 ft., and thereby increasing the scour.
There is now a continuous channel 24 ft. in depth, 5200 ft. in length,
and 300 ft. in width between the piers, and 600 ft. outside the
extremities of the piers, until deep water is reached in the open sea.
This depth is only maintained by constant dredging. The engineers of the
commission have been equally successful in dealing with the Sulina
branch of the river. Its original length of 45 m. from St George's
Chatal to the sea was impeded at the commencement of the improvement
works by eleven bends, each with a radius of less than 1000 ft., besides
numerous others of somewhat larger radius, and its bed was encumbered by
ten shifting shoals, varying from 8 to 13 ft. in depth at low water. By
means of a series of training walls, by groynes thrown out from the
banks, by revetments of the banks, and by dredging, all done with the
view of narrowing the river, a minimum depth of 11 ft. was attained in
1865, and 13 ft. in 1871. In 1880 the needs of commerce and the
increased size of steamers frequenting the river necessitated the
construction of a new entrance from the St George's branch. This work,
designed in 1857, but unexecuted during a quarter of a century, owing to
insufficiency of funds, was completed in 1882; and in 1886, after other
comparatively short cuttings had been made to get rid of difficult bends
and further to deepen the channel without having to resort to dredgers,
the desired minimum depth of 15 ft. was attained. Since that date a
series of new cuttings has been made. These have shortened the length
of the Sulina canal by 11 nautical m., eliminated all the difficult
bends and shoals, and provided an almost straight waterway 34 m. in
length from Sulina to St George's Chatal, with a minimum depth of 20 ft.
when the river is at its lowest.
In the early days of the commission, i.e. from 1857 to 1860, the money
spent on the works of improvement, amounting to about L150,000, was
advanced as a loan by the then territorial power, Turkey; but in 1860
the commission began to levy taxes on vessels frequenting the river, and
since then has repaid its debt to the Turkish government, as well as
various loans for short periods, and a larger one of L120,000 guaranteed
by the powers, and raised in 1868, mainly through the energy of the
British commissioner, Sir John Stokes. This last loan was paid off in
1882 and the commission became free from debt in 1887. It has now an
average annual income of about L80,000 derived from taxes paid by ships
when[3] leaving the river. The normal annual expenditure amounts to
about L56,000, while L24,000 is generally allotted to extraordinary
works, such as new cuttings, &c. Between 1857 and 1905 a sum of about
one and three quarter millions sterling was spent on engineering works,
including the construction of quays, lighthouses, workshops and
buildings, &c. Sulina from being a collection of mud hovels has
developed into a town with 5000 inhabitants; a well-found hospital has
been established where all merchant sailors receive gratuitous
treatment; lighthouses, quays, floating elevators and an efficient pilot
service all combine to make it a first-class port.
The result of all the combined works for the rectification of the Danube
is that from Sulina up to Braila the river is navigable for sea-going
vessels up to 4000 tons register, from Braila to Turnu Severin it is
open for sea-going vessels up to 600 tons, and for flat barges of from
1500 to 2000 tons capacity. From Turnu Severin to Orsova navigation is
confined to river steamers, tugs and barges drawing 6 ft. of water.
Thence to Vienna the draught is limited to 5 ft., and from Vienna to
Regensburg to a somewhat lower figure. Barges of 600 tons register can
be towed from the lower Danube to Regensburg. Here petroleum tanks have
been constructed for the storage of Rumanian petroleum, the first
consignment of which in 1898, conveyed in tank boats, took six weeks on
the voyage up from Giurgevo. The principal navigation company on the
upper Danube is the Societe Imperiale et Royale Autrichienne of Vienna,
which started operations in 1830. This company also owns the Funfkirchen
mines, producing annually 500,000 tons of coal. The society transports
goods and passengers between Galatz and Regensburg. A less important
society is the Rumanian State Navigation Company, possessing a large
flotilla of tugs and barges, which run to Budapest, where they have
established a combined service with the South Danube German Company for
the transport of goods from Pest to Regensburg. A Hungarian Navigation
Company, subsidized by the state, has also been formed, and the
Hungarian railways, the Servian government and private owners own a
large number of tugs and barges.
But it is the trade of the lower Danube that has principally benefited.
Freights from Galatz and Braila to North Sea ports have fallen from 50s.
to about 12s. or even 10s. per ton. Sailing ships of 200 tons register
have given way to steamers up to 4000 tons register carrying a
deadweight of nearly 8000 tons; and good order has succeeded chaos. From
1847 to 1860 an average of 203 British ships entered the Danube
averaging 193 tons each; from 1861 to 1889, 486 ships averaging 796
tons; in 1893, 905 vessels of 1,287,762 tons, or 68% of the total
traffic, and rather more than two and a half times the total amount of
British tonnage visiting the Danube in the fourteen years between 1847
and 1860. The average amount of cereals (principally wheat) annually
exported from the Danube during the period 1901-1905 was 13,000,000
quarters, i.e. about five times the average annual exportation during
the period 1861-1867. It has been calculated that between 1861 and 1902
the total tonnage of ships frequenting the Danube increased five-fold,
while the mean size of individual ships increased ten-fold.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Marsiglius, _Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus_ (the Hague,
1726); Schulte, _Donaufahrten_ (1819-1829); Planche, _Descent of the
Danube_ (1828); Szechenyi, _Uber die Donauschiffahrt_ (1836); A.
Muller, _Die Donau vom Ursprunge bis zu den Mundungen_ (1839-1841); J.
G. Kohl, _Die Donau_ (Trieste, 1853-1854); G. B. Rennie, _Suggestions
for the Improvement of the Danube_ (1856); Sir C. A. Hartley,
_Description of the Delta of the Danube_ (1862 and 1874); _Memoire sur
le regime administratif etabli aux embouchures du Danube_ (Galatz,
1867); Desjardins, _Rhone et Danube_, a defence of the canalization
scheme (Paris, 1870); _Carte du Danube entre Braila et la mer_,
published by the European Commission (Leipzig, 1874); Peters, _Die
Donau und ihr Gebiet, eine geologische Studie_ (1876); A. F. Heksch,
_Guide illustre sur le Danube_ (Vienna, 1883); F. D. Millet, _The
Danube_ (New York, 1893); Schweiger-Lerchenfeld, _Die Donau als
Volkerweg, Schiffahrtsstrasse, und Reiseroute_ (Vienna, 1895); D. A.
Sturza, _La Question des Portes de Fer et des cataractes du Danube_
(Berlin, 1899); A. de Saint Clair, _Le Danube: etude de droit
international_ (Paris, 1899); D. A. Sturdza, _Recueil de documents
relatifs a la liberte de navigation du Danube_, pp. 933 (Berlin,
1904); A. Schroth-Ukmar, _Donausagen von Passau bis Wien_ (Vienna,
1904). (H. Tr.)