Chapter 43

To his sorrow the poet lived many more years suffering great agony from a spinal complaint which confined him to his bed, or "mattress grave" as he called it. His powers of wit and raillery never failed him, even to the last. On the night before he died an anxious friend called to bid farewell. He asked if the dying man had made his "peace with God." Heine replied with a wan smile: "Do not trouble yourself. God will pardon me. That's his trade." These were the last recorded words spoken by Heine. Another story has it that when the physician put a handglass to the lips of the dying man and said, "Can you hiss (siffler)?" Heine murmured, "No, not even a play of Scribe."

[Sidenote: German romantic poets]

Among German writers of this period, Friedrich Rueckert, the lyric poet, and Fritz Reuter, who wrote in Low German dialect, were at the height of their activity. Emanuel Geibel presented himself as heir presumptive to the mantle of Heine. Unlike Heine, this poet devoted his muse to the glorification of German patriotism. He achieved such a success that he was soon called to Munich, where he brought out the first "Golden Book of Poets." Other German poets, such as Gottfried Kinkel, the revolutionist, Hoffmann von Fallersleben, and Ferdinand Freiligrath, famous outside of Germany for his happy translations of English and American verse, had to write their poems in exile.

[Sidenote: Biela's comet]

On February 18, Wilhelm von Biela, the great German astronomer, died at Venice. Born in 1782 at Rossla in the Hartz Mountains, he entered the Austrian military service in 1805, and was made colonel in 1826, and commandant of Rovigo in 1832. On February 27, 1826, he discovered the famous comet named after him. According to Biela's prediction, the comet returned every six years and thirty-eight weeks until 1852. Thereafter it was not seen as a comet during the century. Biela also discovered two other comets.

[Sidenote: Crimean peace conference]

[Sidenote: Black Sea and Danube opened]

[Sidenote: Status Quo in Balkans]

After the fall of Sebastopol, Austria made another attempt to secure peace. Two of the Powers, France and Russia, were heartily weary of the war. Louis Napoleon had entered the struggle merely to gain military glory and political prestige. He had succeeded in attaining his ends. Alexander II., who had continued the war largely as a matter of filial piety, was ready to seize the first opportunity to conclude peace with honor. A Congress was therefore assembled in Paris to draw up terms satisfactory to all concerned. On March 30, a treaty was signed which gave Kars back to the Sultan and restored Sebastopol to the Czar. The Porte was admitted to the Concert of Powers. Most important was the regulation of the navigation of the Black Sea. It was decreed in the treaty that "the Black Sea is neutralized; its waters and its ports, thrown open to the mercantile marine of every nation, are formally and in perpetuity interdicted to the flag of war of the Powers possessing its coasts or of any other Power." Patrolling of the sea by small armed vessels was permitted. The Danube was thrown open to the commerce of the world. In order more fully to secure free navigation of the river, the Czar's frontier in Bessarabia was somewhat changed by the cession of certain territory to Moldavia under the suzerainty of the Porte. Both Wallachia and Moldavia continued under the protection of Turkey, and were permitted to enjoy their former privileges. The _status quo_ of Servia was assured. It was further stipulated that, following the ancient rule of the Sultans, no foreign war vessels were to pass through the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus while Turkey was at peace. To insure the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, England, France and Austria signed a treaty, on April 15, guaranteeing the independence of the Sultan's dominions and declaring that any violation of this would call for war.

[Sidenote: The Paris convention]

Besides drawing up the treaty of peace, the Congress of Paris settled various moot points in international law. The plenipotentiaries all agreed to the doctrines: "First, privateering is and remains abolished. Second, the neutral flag covers enemy's goods, with the exception of contraband of war. Third, neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to capture under an enemy's flag. Fourth, blockades in order to be binding must be effective; that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the enemy's coast." The United States of America did not subscribe to this convention.

[Sidenote: Results of Crimean war]

Russia came out of the conflict defeated but respected. She had received a check in the Black Sea and her frontier line had been readjusted. Still her political losses were trivial. The war most deeply affected Austria. She had played a false game and had lost. The sceptre of European leadership slipped from her. The situation afforded to Bismarck and Cavour the opportunity each was anxiously awaiting.

[Sidenote: Italy benefited]

Cavour had won his first point. At the Conference of Paris he took his place as a representative of Sardinia by right of an alliance with the other great Powers. Then it was seen that every Italian soldier who had fallen on the Tchernaya, or who had wasted away in the fever-stricken camps, had died indeed for the honor of Italy among the nations of the world. At the close of the Conference Cavour made a plain statement concerning the misgovernment of southern and central Italy and the evils of the Austrian occupation. When Count Buol von Schauenstein protested, the French and English representatives supported Cavour. The effect of these representations was such that there was a sudden change in Austria's restrictive measures hitherto inflicted upon her Italian dominions. Old Marshal Radetzky, the man of the sword, was retired. The sequestrated Italian estates were returned to their owners. Emperor Francis Joseph came in person to Milan to proclaim a general amnesty. His brother Maximilian, a prince of liberal tendencies, came with his young bride Charlotte to undo the harsh measures of the military government. Maximilian's liberal policy proved too much for the narrow spirit of the Ministry at home.

[Sidenote: After effects in England]

[Sidenote: Friction with America]

[Sidenote: Australian Home Rule]

One of the first results of the Crimean war was the threatened suspension of the Bank of England. In November, it was found that the reserve funds of the Bank had shrunk to L1,462,153, while the deposits that might at any moment be drawn out aggregated L18,248,003. In these circumstances, a special bill of Parliament authorized a new issue of paper notes for L180,000 more than the law permitted. Furthermore, the war with Russia left behind it a dispute between the governments of Great Britain and of the United States. Under the provisions of a recent foreign enlistment bill in England, American citizens had been induced to enter the British military service. The American Government complained that the practice was in violation of international law. The point was practically conceded by the English Government, which at once put a stop to the enlistment of American citizens and tendered an apology to the government of the United States. The situation was aggravated by the fact that one of the attaches of the American Legation in London at this very time was refused admission to a diplomatic levee at the Court of St. James because he did not appear in court dress. The British Minister at Washington received his passports. In Australia, the first Home Rule Parliament had been opened at Sydney by Sir William Denison. The popular elections were conducted under the famous ballot system which was afterward adopted in other parts of the world.

[Sidenote: Singular suicidal mania]

In South Africa, the province of Natal was separated from Cape Colony, and became an independent Crown Colony with a constitution of its own. The land of the Basutos, no longer under British protectorate, suffered greatly from hostile incursions and cattle raids from the Boers. During the summer the Kaffirs fell victims to a fatal delusion. Their prophet Amaxosa foretold the resurrection of all their dead heroes and warriors, on condition that they themselves should put an end to their lives. In all, some 50,000 Kaffirs committed suicide. Emigrants from Cape Colony occupied the Kaffir lands, which had become depopulated.

[Sidenote: Affair of "The Arrow"]

[Sidenote: British reprisals on China]

[Sidenote: Canton bombarded]

[Sidenote: Insufficient British forces]

In October, the Chinese Emperor, beset as he was by the victorious Taiping rebels, was made to feel the heavy hand of Great Britain. A Portuguese lorcha, "The Arrow," flying the British flag though without British register, was overhauled by the Chinese authorities while at anchor near Dutch Folly. One of her crew had been recognized as one of a band of pirates who had committed some recent outrages. The Taotai of Canton had the offender arrested. Sir John Bowring at Hong Kong at once protested. The Chinese Imperial Commissioner Yeh replied that "The Arrow" was not a foreign vessel, and therefore declined to enter into any discussion about her. As a first step toward obtaining reparation the British seized a Chinese imperial junk and held her in reprisal. As this failed to bring the Chinese to terms, Sir Michael Seymour with a British squadron bombarded and seized the barrier forts of Canton. The fleet proceeded up the river, and, after capturing the Chinese fort of Macao Passage, came to anchor before Canton. An ultimatum was addressed to Yeh, stating that unless he at once complied with all English demands they would "proceed with the destruction of all the defences and public buildings of the city and of the government vessels in the harbor." No reply was vouchsafed. The Canton forts were seized by the British and their men-of-war trained guns on the city. All able-bodied Chinamen were called upon by the Viceroy of Canton to rally for the defence of their city. The British bombarded Canton and sunk a large fleet of Chinese war junks up the river. A fort at French Folly was reduced, and the Bogue forts on both sides of the river were captured. The Chinese retaliated by burning the whole foreign settlement, and by chopping off the heads of all the Englishmen who came into their power. Sir Michael Seymour found his force inadequate to capture Canton, and had to withdraw from his positions while he sent home a request for reinforcements. The urgency of the request opened the eyes of the British Foreign Secretary to the gravity of the situation. A force of 1,500 men was at once sent from England, another regiment from Mauritius, and a division from the Madras army. The situation in India shortly became such that this force never reached China.

[Sidenote: British war with Persia]

New difficulties had arisen with Persia respecting Herat. The death of Yar Muhammad Khan in 1852 was followed by intrigues in Herat. The province became a bone of contention between the Shah of Persia and the aged Dost Muhammad Khan. This ruler's hostility to England during the second Sikh war had been condoned, and a treaty of friendship concluded between him and Lord Dalhousie. In virtue of this treaty the British sided with Dost Muhammad. When the Shah moved an army into Herat and captured the capital, England declared war on Persia. Arms and munitions in great quantity were presented to Dost Muhammad, together with a subsidy of ten thousand pounds a month so long as the Persian war should last. An expedition under Sir James Outram was sent from Bombay to the Gulf of Persia. The capture of Bushire by the English and their victory at Mohamrah brought the Shah of Persia to withdraw his troops from Afghanistan. Herat was relinquished. While the war lasted a new danger to the British Indian Empire arose at Delhi. In July, the heir-apparent of old Bahadur Shah, the reigning King of Delhi, suddenly died. A younger queen was believed to have poisoned him. She persuaded Bahadur Shah to proclaim her son heir to the throne. Lord Canning withheld Great Britain's recognition. An elder brother was recognized as successor by Lord Canning, on condition that he should leave Delhi upon his succession to the throne and take up his abode at Kutut. The young Queen was moved to wild wrath. She was a daughter of the House of Nadir Shah, burning with the traditional ambitions of her family. Forthwith she took a part in all manner of intrigues against the English on the side of Persia as well as of the Afghans. The remarkable outbursts of anti-British feeling that followed have been credited to her.

1857

[Sidenote: Chinese war ships sank]

[Sidenote: Assault on Fatshan]

The reverses of the Persians brought the Shah to terms. A treaty of peace was presently concluded in which all claim to Herat was abandoned by Persia. Early in the year the British expedition in China resumed hostilities. Commodore Elliot with five gunboats and a host of small boats destroyed a fleet of forty armed junks. Next an attack was delivered on the Chinese headquarters at Fatshan. A flotilla of English small boats cut their way through the long line of war junks, and a landing party under Commodore Harry Keppel attacked the main position. The Commodore's boat was sunk and several others had to be abandoned. A number of the Chinese junks were burned. Keppel's force was found too small to capture Fatshan. Sir Michael Seymour decided to postpone further hostilities until the arrival of the promised reinforcements that were to come after Lord Elgin. When these troops failed to arrive in good time, Lord Elgin went to Calcutta himself to hasten their despatch. There he found affairs of far more serious import than those in China.

[Sidenote: Murmurs in India]

[Sidenote: The greased cartridges]

Some time previously rumors had been circulated concerning a danger to British rule in India. Mysterious little cakes were circulated far and wide. Lord Canning, the new Governor-General, was blamed for not taking alarm. A dangerous story got abroad early in the year. The Enfield rifle had been introduced. Its cartridges were greased with animal lubricants. The fat of pigs was hateful to Mohammedans, while that of cows was still more of an abomination in the eyes of the Hindus. At Barrackpore, near Calcutta, where Sepoys were stationed, a Laskar reviled a Brahmin as defiled by the British cartridges. The whole of the Bengal army was seized with horror. The British authorities claimed that none of the greased cartridges had been issued to the Sepoys. The story of the greased cartridges ran up the Ganges to Benares, Delhi and Meerut. It was soon noised abroad that the bones of cows and pigs had been ground to powder and thrown into wells with flour and butter in order to destroy the caste of the Hindus so as to convert them to Christianity.

[Sidenote: Hindu soldiers demur]

In March, incendiary fires broke out at Barrackpore. The Sepoys from the Nineteenth Regiment refused to receive the cartridges dealt out to them. There was only one white regiment in the 400 miles between Barrackpore and Patna. After remonstrances had been made by the English officers, the Sepoys returned, but there still remained disaffection at Benares, Lucknow, Agra and other places. When it was believed that the excitement was allayed another outbreak occurred at Lucknow. Lawrence's energetic measures maintained order in Oude. The mutiny was only scattered, however. Within a week Meerut, thirty-eight miles northeast of Delhi, and the largest cantonment in India, was in a blaze. The story of the greased cartridges had been capped by that of the bone dust. Some eighty-five of a regiment of Sepoy cavalry refused to take the cartridges and were marched off to the guard-house. During the afternoon of the following Sunday, when the European officers were preparing for church, the imprisoned Sepoys were liberated with others. They shot down every European they met.

[Sidenote: The Indian mutiny]

The mutiny became a revolt. The rebellious Sepoys marched on Delhi. When the rebel troops came up from Meerut the English officers prepared to meet them. Their Sepoys joined the mutineers. The revolt spread throughout Delhi. In despair, Willoughby blew up the fort with 1,500 rebels who were assaulting it. Only four of his command escaped. Willoughby himself died six weeks afterward, while India and Europe were ringing with his name. Fifty Englishmen whom the rebels had captured were butchered in cold blood. Delhi on Monday evening was in rebel hands. The remaining officers on the Ridge fled for their lives. Their subsequent suffering was one of the harrowing features of the great convulsion. The revolution at Delhi opened Lord Canning's eyes. He telegraphed for regiments from Bombay, Burma, Madras and Ceylon.

[Sidenote: Lahore mutineers foiled]

On May 11, the news of the outbreak at Meerut was brought to the authorities at Lahore. Meean Meer is a large military cantonment five or six miles from Lahore, and there were then some four thousand native troops there, with only about thirteen hundred Europeans of the Queen's and the Company's service. There was no time to be lost. A parade was ordered on the morrow at Meean Meer. On the parade-ground an order was given for a military movement which brought the heads of four columns of the native troops in front of twelve guns charged with grape, the artillerymen with their port-fires lighted, and the soldiers of one of the Queen's regiments standing behind with loaded muskets. A command was given to the Sepoys to stack arms. Cowed, they piled their arms, which were borne away at once in carts by the European soldiers. All chances of a rebellious movement were over for the moment in the Punjab.

[Sidenote: Situation at Lucknow]

[Sidenote: Massacre of Jhansi]

At three stations--Lucknow, Jhansi and Cawnpore--the mutiny was of political importance. The city of Lucknow, the capital of Oude, extended four miles along the right bank of the river Goomti. The British Residency and other principal buildings were between the city and the river. The Residency was a walled inclosure, and near it stood a castellated structure, the Muchi Bowun. Since the affair of May 3, Sir Henry Lawrence had been making preparations for a defence in case of insurrection. The native force consisted of three regiments of infantry and one of cavalry, all Sepoys, and there was a European force of 570 men with sixty artillerymen. Lawrence brought all the European non-combatants within the Residency walls, and established a strong post between the Residency and the Muchi Bowun to command the two bridges which led to the cantonments. The outbreak began on May 30, when the insurgents rushed to the bridges, and, being repulsed by Lawrence, made off to Delhi. At Jhansi, the garrison of fifty-five men was butchered in cold blood.

[Sidenote: Defence of Cawnpore]

[Sidenote: Massacre of Cawnpore]

[Sidenote: Englishwomen spared]

At Cawnpore, on the Ganges, fifty-five miles southwest of Lucknow, the tragedy was even more terrible. Cawnpore had been in the possession of the English for more than fifty years. In May, sixty-one artillerymen and four Sepoy regiments were there. Sir Hugh Wheeler, the commandant, prepared for the coming storm. He took some old barracks and there quartered the white women, children and invalids. He accepted from the Nana, who professed great friendship, 200 Mahrattas and two guns. On the night of June 4, the Sepoy regiment at Cawnpore broke out in mutiny. The Nana overtook them on the road to Delhi and soon returned with them to Cawnpore. Sir Hugh was taken by surprise on the morning of the 6th, when he received a message from the Nana, announcing that his men were about to attack the Englishmen. Sir Hugh prepared for the defence of the barracks. The mutineers first rifled the city and cantonment, and murdered all the English who came in their way. At noon they opened fire on the intrenchments. From the 6th to the 25th of June, the inmates struggled against fearful odds. Though starving, they resisted successfully. On June 25, Wheeler received a proposal that safe passage would be given to Allahabad to those who were willing to lay down their arms. An armistice was proclaimed, and next morning terms were negotiated. The English were to capitulate and march out with their arms and sixty rounds of ammunition for each man, to the river a mile away, where boats would be furnished for all. The next morning they marched down to the boats--the men on foot, the wounded and non-combatants on elephants and bullocks. They were all huddled together on board the boats. Suddenly, at the sound of a bugle, a murderous fire was opened on them. The women and children, one hundred and twenty-five in number, were hurried off to prison, and the men were ordered to immediate execution. All was soon over. Nana was proclaimed Peishwa. English reinforcements were coming from Allahabad. Nana hastened back to Cawnpore. There, within a few days, more than two hundred English were taken prisoners. The men were all butchered, and eighty women and children were sent to join those in a house near the Nana. Great excitement prevailed in England, where it was believed that these women were subjected to all manner of outrage and made to long for death as an escape from shame. As a matter of fact the royal widows of the Nana's adoptive father did their utmost to protect the captive Englishwomen. They threatened to throw themselves and their children from the palace windows should any harm befall the English ladies. Thanks to them no worse indignity than the compulsory grinding of corn was inflicted on the white women. Meanwhile, Colonel Mill was pushing up from Calcutta. In July, he was joined at Allahabad by a column under General Havelock.

[Sidenote: Havelock to the relief]

[Sidenote: Englishwomen slaughtered]

[Sidenote: Capture of Cawnpore]

In July, Havelock left Allahabad for Cawnpore with 2,000 men, Europeans and Sikhs. He burned to avenge the massacre of Cawnpore. On the 12th and 15th of July he inflicted three defeats on the enemy. When within twenty miles of Cawnpore, having halted for the night, he heard that the women and children at Cawnpore were still alive, and that the Nana had taken the field to oppose him. He broke camp and marched fifteen miles that night. In the meantime, the crowning atrocity was committed at Cawnpore. The defeated rebels had returned to the Nana. On receiving the tidings of their repulse, he ordered the slaughter of the 200 women and children. They were hacked to death with swords, bayonets, knives and axes. Their remains were thrown into a well. At 2 p.m. Havelock toiled on with a thousand Europeans and three hundred Sikhs, and without cavalry and artillery, to meet the 5,000 rebels. Failing to silence the enemy's batteries, Havelock ordered a bayonet charge. Nana Sahib with his followers took flight. He was never heard from again. The next morning Havelock marched into the station at Cawnpore, and there found the well filled with mangled human remains. On July 20, having been reinforced by General Neill, whom he left in charge at Cawnpore, Havelock set out for the relief of Lucknow.

[Sidenote: The defence of Lucknow]

[Sidenote: Havelock captures Bethan]