Chapter 25

When the fortress, which no European eye had before seen, was reached, it was found deserted. Immense stores of ammunition had been left behind. Napier mined Emaun-Ghur in twenty-four places, and blew up all the mighty walls of its square tower. After great privations on the march back, Napier and his men rejoined the main army on the 23d near Hyderabad. The Duke of Wellington said that the march to Emaun-Ghur was one of the most arduous military feats of which he knew. On February 12, the Ameers at Hyderabad, who, according to the British Resident himself, had been "cruelly wronged," came to terms. On the day after their apparent submission the British Resident, Major Outram, was attacked by the infuriated Beluchees. With a hundred followers he barely succeeded in fighting his way through to two British war steamers lying in the river. Napier, with his 2,600 men, now moved against the Beluchee army, numbering nearly 10,000. On February 17, the day of the battle of Meanee, Napier wrote in his journal: "It is my first battle as a commander. It may be my last. At sixty it makes little difference what my feelings are. It shall be do or die." It proved an all-day fight. Most of the white officers fell. In the end, Napier closed the doubtful struggle by a decisive cavalry charge. The Sepoy horsemen charged through the Beluchee army and stormed the batteries on the ridge of the hill of Meanee.

[Sidenote: Hyderabad]

Napier followed up his victory the next day by a message sent into Hyderabad that he would storm the city unless it surrendered. Six of the Ameers came out and laid their swords at his feet. Another enemy remained--Shere Mahomed of Meerpoor. On March 24, Napier, with 5,000 troops, attacked this chief, who had come with 20,000 Beluchees before the walls of Hyderabad. Napier won another brilliant victory, which was followed up by the British occupation of Meerpoor. The spirit of the Beluchees was so broken that after two slight actions in June, when Shere Mahomed was routed and fled into the desert, the war was at an end. Scinde was annexed to the British Empire.

[Sidenote: English free-trade agitation]

[Sidenote: Irish disaffection]

[Sidenote: O'Connell arrested]

[Sidenote: Anti-corn law league]

[Sidenote: Mill's "System of Logic"]

[Sidenote: Death of Southey]

[Sidenote: Ballad of Blenheim]

At home, in the meanwhile, the Chartist agitation, with its "sacred month" strike, was carried over into this year, while the leaders were tried before the Lancashire Assizes. Popular meetings were held at Birmingham, Manchester and London. O'Connor, after his suspension of sentence in court, made the mistake of setting himself against the anti-corn law agitation led by Cobden and Bright. To most Englishmen of the day the free-trade issue appeared the most momentous. O'Connor's star paled accordingly. Early in the year a new free-trade hall had been opened in London, the largest room for public meetings in the United Kingdom. A dozen lecturers were kept busy. Cobden alone addressed some thirty great country meetings during the first half of the year. At the same time the Irish agitation for repeal of the legislative union with England assumed formidable proportions. The Irish secret society of the "Molly Maguires" spread alarmingly. On March 16, Daniel O'Connell addressed 30,000 persons at Trim, urging repeal of the act of united legislation for Ireland and Great Britain. A few months later several hundred thousand people gathered on the hill of Tara to listen to his eloquent words. As a result of this agitation, O'Connell, with several of his followers, was arrested, in October, on charges of sedition. Simultaneously with this the so-called "Becca Riots" against turnpikes broke out in Wales. One month after O'Connell's arrest the greatest free-trade meeting of the year was held at Manchester. Both Cobden and Bright made speeches against the corn laws. One hundred thousand pounds were collected on the spot from wealthy manufacturers who attended the meeting. This opened the eyes even of the editors of the London "Times." Under the caption "The League is a Great Fact," it announced that a new power had arisen in the State. This reluctant concession of the leading Tory paper of England caused a great sensation. Other events that excited the attention of Englishmen were the erection of the great Nelson column in Trafalgar Square and the opening of the Thames tunnel for pedestrians. Thousands of curious Londoners passed through its shaft, measuring 1,300 feet in length. Nasmyth invented his steam hammer. Mill published his "System of Logic." The event of the year in English letters was the death of Robert Southey, the Poet Laureate. During the last few years his brain had softened, and his mind had become enfeebled. Southey was born at Bristol in 1774. He was educated at Westminster School and Baliol College, Oxford. While still at college he brought out two volumes of poems, together with Robert Lovell. His first long narrative poem, "Joan of Arc," was written at the age of nineteen, and gave him, as he called it, "a Baxter's shove into the right place in the world." At the opening of the Nineteenth Century, he published the "wild and wondrous song" of "Thalaba, the Destroyer," founded on Moslem mythology. "Kehema," founded on Hindu lore, followed. In 1803, after some years of wandering, the poet went to live at Greta Hall, near Keswick, which remained his home until his death. Besides a long line of prose works, Southey wrote innumerable short poems. Famous among them is the ballad of the battle of Blenheim, with its homely irony:

"With fire and sword the country round Was wasted far and wide, And many a childing mother then And new-born baby died; But things like that, you know, must be At every famous victory."

[Sidenote: Brilliant occasional pieces]

[Sidenote: Southey's works]

[Sidenote: "Stanzas in My Library"]

Southey nourished a passionate hatred against Napoleon Bonaparte. Again and again he invoked the Muse against the world conqueror. Thus he wrote to Landor in 1814: "For five years I have been preaching the policy, the duty, the necessity of declaring Bonaparte under the ban of human nature." Under this stress of feeling he wrote his great "Ode During the Negotiations for Peace." It was the most powerful of his occasional pieces. In 1813, he was made Poet Laureate. As such, it fell to him to write another occasional piece on the death of the Princess Charlotte. The grace and beauty of his lines on this occasion have long outlived the memory of that lamented princess. Unlike his great contemporaries, Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott, Southey never achieved a great material success. Having married young, he often walked the streets, so he himself confessed, "not having eighteen pence for a dinner, nor bread and cheese at his lodgings." In 1835, when he was sixty-one years old, he wrote to Sir Robert Peel while declining the offer of a baronetcy, "Last year for the first time in my life I was provided with a year's expenditure beforehand." Yet his works at this time filled nearly a hundred volumes. In the words of his brother poets:

"Southey's epics crammed the creaking shelves."

It was in his declining age that he wrote the prophetic "Stanzas Written in My Library":

My days among the Dead are passed: Around me I behold, Where'er these casual eyes are cast, The almighty minds of old; My never-failing friends are they, With whom I converse day by day.

* * * * *

My hopes are with the Dead, anon My place with them will be, And I with them shall travel on Through all Futurity; Yet leaving here a name, I trust, That will not perish in the dust.

[Sidenote: Wordsworth, Poet Laureate]

[Sidenote: "The Lost Leader"]

After Southey's death, William Wordsworth was made Poet Laureate. His acceptance of this benefice from the government incensed his more radical friends. Robert Browning then wrote the famous invective lines entitled "The Lost Leader":

Just for a handful of silver he left us, Just for a ribbon to stick in his coat-- Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us, Lost all the others, she lets us devote; They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver, So much was theirs who so little allowed: How all our copper had gone for his service! Rags--were they purple, his heart had been proud! We that had loved him so, followed him, honored him, Lived in his mild and magnificent eye, Learned his great language, caught his clear accents, Made him our pattern to live and to die! Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us, Burns, Shelley, were with us--they watch from their graves! He alone breaks from the van and the freemen, He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves!

[Sidenote: Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico"]

[Sidenote: Edgar Allan Poe]

[Sidenote: "The Gold Bug"]

America this year lost three of her prominent literary men by the deaths of Allston, the poet and painter, Noah Webster, the lexicographer, and Key, the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner." The historian Prescott now brought out his great "Conquest of Mexico." Longfellow published his "Spanish Student." Edgar Allan Poe entered upon his new journalistic venture "The Stylus." For this he wrote his stories of "The Tell-Tale Heart," "Leonore," and his "Notes upon English Verse." For other publications he wrote "The Pit and the Pendulum," and the striking poem, "The Conqueror Worm." His fearful tale of the "Black Cat" was published in the "Saturday Evening Post." At this time he was ailing in health, while his young wife, Virginia, was dying. During these trying months his principal income was a hundred dollar prize received for his famous story of "The Gold Bug," published in the "Dollar Newspaper." The judges confessed later that they awarded the prize to this contribution largely on account of its neat handwriting.

[Sidenote: Oregon controversy]

[Sidenote: Texas unannexed]

On June 17, the new Bunker Hill Monument of Boston was dedicated amid impressive ceremonies. Daniel Webster, who as a young man had spoken there when the cornerstone was laid by Lafayette, was once more the orator of the day. In the South, Jefferson Davis began his political career as a member of the Mississippi Convention, as did Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, who was then elected to Congress. The pending negotiations with Great Britain concerning the possession of Oregon were made more momentous by the exodus of some thousand American emigrants from Missouri, on an overland journey to distant Oregon. The first session of the Thirty-eighth Congress, in December, showed a Democratic majority in the House of sixty-nine votes. Under the Whig regime, the policy of a great navy had been developed. A bill for a large increase in ships was passed. Tyler's last message recommended the annexation of Texas, for which a treaty was pending. It was voted down in the Senate by a two-thirds vote.

[Sidenote: Central-American upheavals]

Under the shadow of impending war with the United States, a new Constitution was proclaimed in Mexico. Santa Anna prepared for the conflict by assuming the practical powers of a dictator. In Ecuador, too, a new Constitution was adopted. General Flores had himself made President for a third time. When the opposition to him became too formidable, he consented to yield and quit the country after accepting a bonus of $20,000 and the title of generalissimo. Another revolution in Hayti resulted in the expulsion of President Boyer.

[Sidenote: Revolution in Spain]

[Sidenote: Isabella proclaimed queen]

[Sidenote: Spanish marriage projects]

In Spain a revolutionary junta in June once more assumed power at Barcelona. Other parts of the country declared for the ex-Queen Regent Christina. On July 15, General Narvaez compelled the surrender of Madrid to Christina. General Espartero laid siege to Seville. On November 8, the Spanish Cortes proclaimed as queen, Princess Isabella, then in her thirteenth year. With the crown of Spain on the head of a young girl, and no immediate successor in sight but her sister, the King of France and his Prime Minister, Guizot, deemed the time ripe for action. It was proposed to marry both Spanish princesses to the sons of Louis Philippe, so as to secure the throne of Spain to the House of Orleans, as it had once been secured to that of Bourbon. For the French people the interest in Spain was revived by Gautier's new book, "Tras los Montes." During the negotiations over the new extradition treaty with England, the project was confidentially broached to Lord Aberdeen. He gave his consent to the proposed marriage of the Duke of Montpensier to the Infanta Fernanda, on the express understanding that it should not be celebrated until Queen Isabella had been married herself, and had children. For some time still the plan hung fire.

In the meanwhile, Hungary was once more in uproar. Kossuth, after his release from prison in 1840, had become the spokesman of the new generation of Magyars. The other wings of the Hungarian party were led by Scechenyi and Deak.

[Sidenote: Hungarian reform movement]

[Sidenote: Clash at Agram]

[Sidenote: Kossuth's oratory]

By the time the Hungarian Diet of 1843 was convoked, all parties united in demanding the most important reforms, _i.e._ of a new electoral system, a new criminal code, trial by jury, and official recognition of the Magyar language. One of the first resolutions of the Lower Chamber was that no language but Magyar should be permitted in debate, and that all persons incapable of speaking Magyar should gradually be excluded from all public employment. Against the prohibition of Latin in the Diet, the Croatians appealed to the government. The Emperor promptly vetoed the resolution. Upon the publication of the imperial rescript a popular storm broke forth in Hungary. At Agram, the capital of Croatia, the two factions fought on the streets. The Austrian Cabinet receded from its position. A compromise was accepted whereby Latin was to be permitted in the Hungarian Diet for the next six years. Of all the important schemes for reform brought before the Hungarian Diet of this year, only the language compromise became law. This was due to the fact that the members of the Lower House were bound to vote as directed by the Provincial Assemblies, which vetoed everything affecting their local interests. To do away with this anomaly Kossuth and his followers now set themselves to bring their appeal before the country at large. Kossuth dropped the pen and became an orator.

[Sidenote: Algerian campaign]

[Sidenote: "Foreign Legion" formed]

In other parts of the world the spread of Western civilization was carried on with accustomed vigor. A French squadron seized Tahiti in the Society Islands. In Algiers the war against Abd-el-Kader was kept alive by occasional raids and by buying over the less faithful of his followers. The natives were enrolled in the French army in regiments of Turcos, Zouaves and Spahis. The barbaric glamour of their oriental garb, as well as the reputation of their dashing leader, Colonel Lamorciere, attracted many Frenchmen and foreign adventurers to this service. Soon there were enough men to form the famous "Foreign Legion."

[Sidenote: Chinese treaty ports opened]

[Sidenote: British seize Sindia]

In China, after the ratification of the Nanking treaty, the five treaty ports were opened to all foreigners on the same footing as to Englishmen. Long before this, the Russians had already established themselves in certain parts of China. The smouldering resentment against the white men found vent in the truculent doings of the anti-foreign society of the "Green Water Lily" in Hoonan. Now trouble broke out in the Punjab. Jankoji Bao Sindia had died in February, and his widow, a girl of twelve, now ruled over the Sikhs. She outwitted her native Minister, who was supported by the British. Lord Ellenborough hastened to interfere. He ordered the British army to advance to Gwalior, under Sir Hugh Gough, in December. All Sindia made common cause against the foreigner. The Sikh warriors tried to oppose the British advance in two simultaneous battles at Maharajpore and Punniar, fought on the twenty-ninth day of December. Both engagements resulted in their defeat. The Queen and her Ministers submitted to England's terms. They were deposed. The Sikh army was reduced to 6,000 men.

1844

[Sidenote: Texas]

[Sidenote: Calhoun becomes Secretary of State]

[Sidenote: Texan annexation rejected]

Tyler's scheme for the annexation of Texas to the North American Union was uppermost in American affairs from the outset of this year. After the retirement of Daniel Webster from the State Department, active efforts toward that end were begun. The Mexican Government, learning of this movement, notified the United States that annexation would be regarded as a cause for war. Texas first asked for American interference, and, failing in this, came to an agreement with Great Britain. In return for England's action in securing the recognition of independence by Mexico, Texas pledged itself not to be annexed to any other country. This agreement was approved in Mexico. The Texan debt was largely owed in England, and it was the policy of Lord Aberdeen, accordingly, to encourage her independence. In February, a note by Lord Aberdeen was transmitted to the American Government, stating that Great Britain desired to see slavery abolished in Texas, as elsewhere, but disclaimed any intention unduly to force that point. This statement in itself whetted the desire of the Southern States of the Union to incorporate Texas among the slave-holding States. Calhoun, who as early as 1836 had demanded the annexation of Texas on behalf of the interests of Southern slavery, was invited to join Tyler's Cabinet as Secretary of State. The office had been rendered vacant by the calamitous explosion of a new monster gun on the U.S.S. "Princeton," killing Secretary of State Upshar and Secretary Gilmer of the Navy in the immediate vicinity of President Tyler. Calhoun entered office on March 6, and on April 12 the Texan treaty of annexation was signed. On April 18, Calhoun answered Lord Aberdeen's note, declaring that "the British avowal made it the imperious duty of the Federal Government to conclude in self-defence a treaty of annexation with Texas." As to this transaction, Von Holst, Calhoun's biographer, has said: "It may not be correct to apply, without modification, the code of private ethics to politics; but, however flexible political morality may be, a lie is a lie, and Calhoun knew there was not a particle of truth in these assertions." The annexation treaty was held back in the American Senate until the Democratic Convention of 1844 had declared for the reannexation of Texas. In the hope that this would secure ratification the treaty was submitted in June, but the Senate once more rejected it by 35 to 16 votes. Undismayed by this, President Tyler within three days sent another message to the House of Representatives asking for reconsideration of the subject, but the matter went over until after the Presidential campaign in the autumn. Henry Clay's vacillating stand throughout this controversy proved fatal to his Presidential aspirations.

[Sidenote: Anti-Mormon riots]

[Sidenote: Brigham Young]

During this same year, the Indians surrendered the regions adjoining Lake Superior, which were promptly settled by white men. Iron was then discovered at Marquette and copper at Kewenaw Point. At Nauvoo, Illinois, where the Mormons had just erected a temple, their revival of patriarchal polygamy excited the wrath of the people. Riots broke out June 27. The Mormon leader, Joseph Smith, and his brother, who had been lodged in jail, were killed. Brigham Young thenceforth became the leader of the Mormons.

[Sidenote: Morse's telegraph]

[Sidenote: Wells' anaesthetic discovery]

By means of a Congressional grant of $30,000, Samuel B.F. Morse constructed his first telegraph line over the forty miles between Baltimore and Washington. The first message, "What hath God wrought?" is still preserved by the Connecticut Historical Society. Before this Alfred Vail had perfected his telegraph code of alphabetical signs, with his dry point reading register and relay key. Now Ezra Cornell contributed his invention of an inverted cup of glass for insulating live wires. Dr. Horace Wells, a dentist of Hartford, Connecticut, first employed nitrous oxide gas, popularly known as laughing gas, in extracting one of his own teeth.

[Sidenote: Death of John Dalton]

In England, Faraday published his first "Experimental Researches in Electricity." The anonymous publication of "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation," containing the first enunciation of Darwin's doctrine of the origin of species by evolution, was followed by a storm of controversy. Another subject for controversy was furnished by the invention of the new tonic system in music (Do re mi fa). Kingsley brought out his "Village Sermons," while Max Mueller came into prominence by his new edition and translation of "Hitopadesa," a collection of old Hindu fables. The necrology of the year in England includes John Dalton, the physicist, and Sir Francis Burdett, the parliamentarian and popular leader, who did so much for liberty of speech and of the press. John Dalton, a strangely original genius, and perhaps the greatest theoretical chemist of his generation, first came into prominence by showing that water existed in air as an independent gas. The wonderful theory of atoms, on which the whole gigantic structure of modern chemistry rests, was the logical outgrowth of the original conception of this country-bred, self-taught Quaker.

[Sidenote: O'Connell's trial]

[Sidenote: Government monopoly of English railways]

[Sidenote: Y.M.C.A. founded]

A feature of the year was the sensational trial of Daniel O'Connell and his associates on charges of sedition in Ireland. On May 30, O'Connell was sentenced to imprisonment for one year and fined L2,000. After Lord Heytesbury's advent as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland the judgment of the Irish Court of Queen's Bench against O'Connell was reversed and O'Connell and his associates were liberated. Baring's bill for a renewal of the Bank of England's charter was passed with a handsome government majority. The new Royal Exchange was opened by the Queen in October. Another measure which was speedily passed through Parliament, owing to the slight importance attached to it, was Gladstone's bill requiring the railroads of England to provide proper accommodations and to run cheap trains daily. The government was authorized, with the approval of Parliament, to undertake the gradual purchase of all existing railways before the year 1866. At this same time there were but fourteen miles of railroad in all British America. Minor events of importance to Englishmen were the foundation of the Young Men's Christian Association by certain drygoods clerks of London, and the demolition of the notorious Fleet Prison, made immortal by the novels of Dickens.

[Sidenote: Secession of Santo Domingo]