Chapter 20

The first signature to the Act of Allegiance was that of Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, eldest surviving brother of the late King William. To him passed the crown of Hanover, which for a hundred and twenty-five years had been held by the occupants of the British throne. Under the Salic law, restricting succession to the male line, Hanover now became separated from England. On June 28, the new King arrived in Hanover. He refused to receive the deputation of the estates that had come to greet him. Dispensing with the formality of taking the required oath to the constitution, he dissolved the estates. The validity of the Hanoverian Constitution was next called in question, and the restoration of the less liberal constitution of 1819 was ordained. The first to protest against this royal breach of faith were seven professors of the University of Goettingen. Among them were the two brothers Grimm, to whom the German language and literature are so deeply indebted, and Gervinus, the great historian of modern Europe. The professors were instantly dismissed. This high-handed act provoked an insurrection among the students, which had to be quelled by troops, with bloodshed.

The departure of the unpopular Duke of Cumberland and the dissolution of the embarrassing connection with Hanover wrought distinct relief to the people of England. According to usage on the accession of a new sovereign, Parliament was dissolved, in this instance by the Queen in person. She drove to the House of Lords in state, and created a sensation by her youth and graciousness. What she said of her own good intentions, her confidence in the wisdom of Parliament and the love of her people and her trust in God, was re-echoed throughout the English dominion. Her popularity speedily became unbounded. The change in the person of the sovereign was a great advantage for the Melbourne Ministry. They had no longer to fear such a summary dismissal or interference by the throne as they had suffered during the last reign. The dissolution of Parliament only resulted in their favor. The Tories were in despair. The departure of the Duke of Cumberland, their power behind the throne, had deprived them of a leader. The old Duke of Wellington regarded the accession of a female sovereign a probable bar to his return to power. To a friend he said: "I have no small talk, and Peel has no manners."

[Sidenote: The Victorian era]

The Victorian era in England, a period comparable for brilliancy only to that of Queen Elizabeth, began indeed under auspicious circumstances. In the field of letters there was the galaxy of diverse spirits: Southey, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning. A new start was given to English prose by such powerful writers as Lord Macaulay, Carlyle, Charles Dickens, and William Makepeace Thackeray, who brought out his "Yellowplush Papers" this very year. Another newcomer in the field of romance was the Irish novelist, Charles Gaines Lever, whose early "Adventures of Harry Lorrequer" found instant favor. Among the women writers were Maria Edgeworth, Jane Austen, and Elizabeth Barrett. Great strides were also made in science. Shortly after the appearance of Whewell's "History of Inductive Sciences," the Ornithological and Electrical Societies were founded at London. The principle of working clocks by electricity was advanced by Alexander Bain. Wheatstone and Cooke invented the magnetic needle telegraph. Ericsson's new screw steamer "Francis Bogden" was found to develop a speed of ten miles an hour. John Upton patented his steam plow, and the first photographic prints on paper were made by Fox Talbot.

[Sidenote: Macaulay joins Cabinet]

[Sidenote: Famine in India]

[Sidenote: Boers defeat Zulus]

When Parliament was reconvened, Lord Macaulay was added to the Cabinet. In the northwestern provinces of East India a widespread famine, which cost the lives of 8,000 natives, necessitated relief measures on a large scale. In the midst of these troubles the death of the ruling King of Delhi caused a vacancy, which was filled by Mahmoud Bahadour Shah, the last titular Great Mogul under the protection of the British colonial government. In South Africa some measure of home rule was accorded to Cape Colony by the institution of a representative legislative council under a governor appointed by the Crown. To the north of Cape Colony the Boer emigrants carried on their war of revenge against the Zulus. In a fierce battle on December 16, at Blood River, the Boers under Maritz and Potgieter utterly defeated Dingaan's warriors. Pantah, the brother of Dingaan, became King of the Zulus. The anniversary of this battle was ever after celebrated as a holiday by the Boers. A settlement was founded in the conquered land, and the first church was built on the site of Pietermaritzburg, named after the Boer leaders.

[Sidenote: Canada restive]

[Sidenote: Papineau]

[Sidenote: The "family compact"]

On December 22, the British Parliament received the news of rebellion in Lower Canada. The distress occasioned by the financial panic of this year in the United States had spread to Canada. It found vent in agitation against English rule on the part of the French Canadians. On the occasion of the announcement of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne, when Te Deums were sung in the churches, the French Canadians signified their disapproval by walking out of church. Louis Joseph Papineau, Speaker of the Lower House, led the opposition to the government proposals regarding the application of the revenues of the province. The home government kept up a narrow "British party" devoted to the so-called interests of the mother country. The majority in the Legislative Council constantly thwarted the resolutions of the vast majority of the popular Assembly. In Upper Canada, a British and official class practically held within its control the government of the province. This class became known as the "family compact." The public offices and lands were parcelled out among themselves and their followers.

[Sidenote: Supplies refused]

The immediate points in dispute in 1837 were, that the government retained in its service certain officials contrary to the wishes of the Representative Assembly, and insisted on paying their salaries out of colonial funds. The Representative Assembly declined to furnish the supplies, complained of arbitrary infringement of the Constitution, and demanded that the Legislative Council, instead of being nominees of the Crown, should be made elective.

[Sidenote: Lord Russell's measures]

When intelligence reached England that the Assembly obstinately refused supplies for the payment of public officials, and of the arrears, which up to that time amounted to nearly one hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling, Lord John Russell carried in the English House of Commons a series of resolutions rejecting the demand for an elective legislative council and other changes in the Constitution, and empowering the executive government to defray the expenses of the public service out of the territorial and casual revenues.

[Sidenote: Fils de la Liberte]

[Sidenote: Mackenzie]

[Sidenote: American filibusters]

[Sidenote: Sinking of "Carolina"]

[Sidenote: Major Head's measures]

On November 6, the so-called "Fils de la Liberte" rose in Montreal under the leadership of Papineau. In Upper Canada, a similar rising was headed by William Lyon Mackenzie, a journalist. On December 4, an attempt was made to surprise Montreal. With the help of the militia the insurgents were defeated, on December 4, at St. Eustace. The leaders of the insurrection at Toronto fled to the United States and persuaded Van Rensselaer with other citizens of Buffalo to join them. On December 12, they seized Navy Island in Niagara River, established a provisional government, and issued paper money. Loyalists of Canada attempted in vain to capture the place. On December 29, they attacked the steamer "Carolina" and sent her over the Falls, resulting in the loss of several lives. This incident caused great excitement, both in England and this country. President Van Buren issued a proclamation of neutrality forbidding all interference in Canada, and sent General Wool with a military force to compel obedience to the proclamation. In Upper Canada, Major Head--afterward Sir Francis Head--undertook to suppress the rebellion by throwing the Canadians on their honor. Trusting to the good will of the people, he sent all the regular soldiers out of the province to the assistance of Governor Gosford in Lower Canada. The plan worked well. The Canadians, proud of the confidence reposed in them, enrolled themselves in the militia to the number of ten or twelve thousand, and when Mackenzie and the rebels assembled to show fight, they were routed at the first encounter, and the rebellion in Upper Canada was at once suppressed. But Major Head's policy was not approved by the British Government, and Head had to make way for Lord Durham, the newly appointed Governor of Canada.

1838

[Sidenote: Lord Durham in Canada]

[Sidenote: Napierville]

[Sidenote: Prescott]

[Sidenote: Durham repudiated]

[Sidenote: Canadian interregnum]

Early in the year the Canadian insurgents and their sympathizers at Navy Island were compelled to surrender. United States troops were posted at the frontier. In the meanwhile Lord Durham had taken charge in Canada with dictatorial powers. He undertook to remodel the Constitution of Canada. His first act was a proclamation of amnesty from the Queen. The beneficent effect of this was spoiled by a clause of exceptions providing for the perpetual banishment of a number of men implicated in the recent rising. On April 2, Lunt and Matthews, two conspicuous rebels, were hanged. Lord Durham's confession that his measures were illegal evoked a storm in Parliament. Lord Brougham, who had a personal quarrel with him, led the opposition there. In Canada, Mackenzie promptly proclaimed a republic. On June 5, a fight between the rebels and British troops near Toronto quelled the rebellion for a short time. Within a few months it broke out again at Beauharnais. A pitched battle was fought at Napierville early in November. After their defeat there, the rebels made another stand at Prescott on November 17, but suffered so crushing a defeat that the insurrection was believed to have been ended. In the meanwhile, Lord Brougham had succeeded in passing a bill through the House disapproving Lord Durham's measures. Durham, he said, had been authorized to make a general law, but not to hang men without the form of law. To save his own Administration Lord Melbourne on the next day announced that the Cabinet had decided to disallow Durham's expatriation ordinances. Durham was called upon to proclaim to the rebellious colonists that the ordinance issued by him had been condemned by his own government. Venting his mortification in a last indignant proclamation, he quitted Canada without waiting for his recall. By the express orders of the government the honors usually paid to a Governor-General were withheld from him. Lord Durham returned to England a broken-hearted and dying man. He was succeeded by Sir John Colbourne. His first measure was to offer a reward of L1,000 for the apprehension of Papineau. The storm of indignation that followed was so violent that Colbourne incontinently threw up his post, and hastened back to England. The Hudson's Bay Fur Company improved the interval of the interregnum to monopolize the functions of government in the vast regions of the extreme north of America. An expedition was sent out to explore the northernmost coast. The United States also fitted out an Antarctic exploring expedition, consisting of six vessels, under the command of Lieutenant Wilkes.

[Sidenote: Renewed agitation in England]

[Sidenote: People's Charter]

In the British Parliament, the question of the adoption of the ballot was raised by Duncombe, but Lord John Russell spoke against it, stating that the majority of the people were against fresh changes, or any renewal of the agitating circumstances which preceded the Reform Bill. But twenty members voted with Duncombe, of whom six were asked to meet six members of the Workingmen's Association to discuss a programme of action. At that meeting a document in the shape of a Parliamentary petition was prepared containing "six points," which were: Universal suffrage, or the right of voting by every male of twenty-one years of age; vote by ballot; annual Parliaments; abolition of the property qualification for members of Parliament; members of Parliament to be paid for their services; equal electoral districts. At the conclusion of the meeting, Daniel O'Connell rose and handed the petition to the secretary of the Workingmen's Association, saying, "There, Lovett, is your Charter. Agitate for it and never be content with anything else."

[Sidenote: Feargus O'Connor]

[Sidenote: Chartist leaders]

The "People's Charter" was submitted to a large public meeting and enthusiastically approved, and the leaders of the movement began to organize. They soon fell into two factions; those who were in favor of force and those in favor of agitation only. The leader of both parties was Feargus O'Connor, an Irish barrister, and once a follower of O'Connell, with whom he subsequently quarrelled. Associated with him as leaders of the movement at various periods were Lovett, Heatherington, Henry Vincent, Ernest Jones, and Thomas Cooper "the poet of Chartism."

[Sidenote: French expedition to Mexico]

[Sidenote: Coast towns bombarded]

In France, the sympathies of the people with the cause of the French Canadians were kept under firm control by the government of Louis Philippe. A dissolution of the Chambers, which modified the condition of the Assembly, served to strengthen the Ministry of Mole. To vent the feelings excited in behalf of the Frenchmen of Canada, the French Government picked a quarrel with the Republic of Mexico. Reparation was demanded late in March for injuries inflicted on French residents during the internal dissensions of Mexico. The demand was refused. A French squadron of warships, under Admiral Baudin and Prince de Joinville, was sent out to blockade the coast of Mexico. On November 27, San Juan de Ulloa was bombarded. Vera Cruz likewise suffered bombardment. The Argentine Republic became involved and declared war on France. French cruisers blockaded Buenos Ayres.

[Sidenote: Louis Napoleon returns]

[Sidenote: Alexandre Dumas]

On the occasion of his mother's death, Prince Louis Napoleon returned to Europe. His book, "Idees Napoleoniennes," which was widely read throughout France, at once drew attention upon him. At the request of the French Government he was expelled from Switzerland. Louis Philippe's friend, Alexandre Dumas, at this time achieved a popular success with his book "Le Capitaine Paul." Dumas's romantic plays and several of his latest comedies, written in the style of Scribe, were at the height of their vogue.

[Sidenote: Daubigny]

In the French salon of this year, Francois Daubigny, the great pupil of Delaroche, first exhibited his early masterpieces, "Banks of the River Oulins" and "The Seine at Charenton." Both paintings were purchased by the French Government.

[Sidenote: Poe]

[Sidenote: Hawthorne]

[Sidenote: Emerson]

[Sidenote: Wendell Phillips]

In America, a new writer had arisen in Edgar Allan Poe, who disputed the field with Longfellow and Whittier. Poe's "Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym," a story of marine adventures, which had begun in Poe's own journal, "The Messenger," was published in complete form by Harpers. Before this several of his works, among them that of "Ligeia," had already brought him into some prominence. Nathaniel Hawthorne during this same year wrote his early stories, which were afterward collected under the title of "Twice Told Tales." Ralph Waldo Emerson at Concord, Massachusetts, had begun to deliver those penetrating lectures which, rewritten in the form of essays, later established his rank as the foremost philosophic writer in America. Wendell Phillips made his appearance as a lecturer against slavery in Boston. Shortly before this a pro-slavery mob at Alton, Illinois, murdered the Rev. E.P. Lovejoy and destroyed the press and building of his newspaper, published in the interests of abolition. Abraham Lincoln, who had been re-elected to the Legislature of Illinois, voiced a strong protest against this and other pro-slavery tendencies in Illinois.

[Sidenote: Removal of Cherokees]

Other acts of persecution during this year brought lasting disgrace upon America. In direct violation of the Federal treaties with the Indians the State troops of Georgia forcibly removed 16,000 Cherokees from their lands in that State. Nothing was done to alleviate the sufferings of the Cherokees, who were driven from their settlements in midwinter. The resulting death rate was fearful. More than 4,500 Indians, or one-fourth of the whole number, perished before they reached their destination in the distant Indian Territory.

[Sidenote: Persecution of Mormons]

The members of the new sect of Mormon, numbering some 12,000 souls, were driven from their homes at Nauvoo in western Missouri. They went across the plains of Iowa, stopping temporarily at Council Bluffs. From there they passed over the great American prairies, and, crossing the Rocky Mountain range, settled near the Great Salt Lake of Utah.

[Sidenote: Record transatlantic trip]

Chicago was incorporated with a population of 4,170 residents. Much comment was excited by a record trip of the steamboat "Great Western," which steamed from Bristol, England, to New York in fifteen days. Among those who lived to witness this event was John Stevens, one of the pioneers of modern steamboat building. Shortly afterward he died in his eighty-ninth year.

[Sidenote: Indian truce broken]

[Sidenote: Betrayal of Osceola]

[Sidenote: Zachary Taylor in Florida]

Within a short time after suing for peace, the Southern Indians broke the truce and made a determined effort to take Fort Mellon. In this they were unsuccessful. In March, at Fort Dade, five of the chiefs signed an agreement, in which they stipulated to cease from war until the government decided whether they might remain in Florida. Some seven hundred Indians and negroes were taken by the government before its decision was announced, and were sent off to Tampa for shipment. In violation of a flag of truce, Osceola and several of his principal chiefs were seized and sent to Fort Moultrie as prisoners. Their treatment there was such that Osceola soon died. In May, Colonel Zachary Taylor succeeded Jesup. The remaining forces of the Indians were now wary. They scattered in the swamps, eluding attempts of organized troops to capture them. In December, Colonel Taylor set out with over a thousand men for their almost inaccessible haunts. On Christmas Day they found the Seminoles prepared to receive them near Okeechobee Lake. After a hard fought battle, in which Taylor lost 139 men, the Indians once more retreated into the swamps of Florida.

[Sidenote: Boers in Natal]

[Sidenote: Pretorius]

In South Africa during this year, the new community of Dutch settlers, who had evaded English jurisdiction, soon revived their peculiar institutions in the region that is now Natal--from the Drakensberg to the sea at Durban, and from the Tugela River to the Umzimbolbu. The fight against the African savages continued. Early in the spring, a Boer expedition was defeated by the Zulus, who followed up their advantage by an attack on the nearest Boer laager. Seventy Boers, with their Kaffir servants, were massacred. A large Boer settlement, numbering some 800 persons, was saved from extermination only by a timely relief expedition under Pretorius, in December. On the other side troubles arose between the Boers and the Bechuanas in consequence of King Moroka's prohibition of the importation of spirituous liquors into Bechuanaland. The growth of a new Dutch State to the north of Cape Colony caused uneasiness among the British authorities at Cape Town. A movement was started to extend British rule to Natal, and to secure the important seaport of Durban.

1839

[Sidenote: French hold on Mexico]

[Sidenote: Ancona evacuated]

[Sidenote: Status of Belgium]

[Sidenote: Fall of Mole's Ministry]

[Sidenote: French provincial government]

[Sidenote: Parisian revolt suppressed]

The French expedition against Mexico was brought to a successful close after the capture of the fort of San Juan d'Ulloa and the town of Vera Cruz. General Santa Anna's attempt to relieve Vera Cruz resulted only in another upheaval of the government at the capital. President Bustamente had to call in a new Ministry, with which, through the mediation of England, negotiations for peace were undertaken. On March 9, the terms of peace were concluded. Mexico had to pay an indemnity of $600,000. Further use for the French squadron in American waters was found in the complicated affairs of the small South American republics at the mouth of the Plata and the alleged injuries suffered by Frenchmen from the disordered state of affairs in Hayti. On the other hand, France withdrew its troops from the citadel of Ancona in the Papal dominions, simultaneously with the withdrawal of the Austrian forces of occupation from the Papal States. The long-pending difficulties between Belgium and Holland were brought to a settlement at last by the King of Holland's acceptance of the conditions of separation fixed by the international conference. The abandonment of Casimir Perier's vigorous foreign policy in Europe was viewed with regret by the Liberal party in France. Guizot combined with Thiers and Odilon Barrot against the Ministry, and thus accomplished its downfall, though they retained Marshal Soult, the most popular member of Mole's Cabinet. "I must have that gallant sword," remarked Louis Philippe. Their efforts to conduct the government proved a failure. The King established a provisional government in their place, which prolonged the crisis. On May 12, an insurrection broke out in the most populous quarters of Paris. Under the leadership of Barbes, Bernard and others, attacks were made on the Hotel de Ville, the Palace of Justice and the Prefecture of Police. The revolt had to be put down by merciless measures. Marshal Soult was placed at the head of the government to the exclusion of Guizot and Odilon Barrot, while Thiers was made president of the Chambers. Guizot employed his leisure time to write his famous "Life of Washington." About the same time Daguerre published his new invention of making the sun prints which were called daguerreotypes after him. A life pension of 6,000 francs was awarded to him by the government of Louis Philippe. The interest in the family of Bonaparte and its dreaded pretensions in France was revived by the death of Letizia Buonaparte, the mother of Napoleon, in her eighty-ninth year. The first problem confronting the new administration of France was the fresh trouble that had broken out in the Orient.

[Sidenote: Turkish-Egyptian War]

[Sidenote: Battle of Nissiv]

[Sidenote: Abdul Medjid, Sultan]