Part 19

The financial crisis of this year was not only one of the most severe, but also the most remarkable in the financial history of the United States. A Congressional act of the previous year provided that after January 1, 1837, all surplus revenues of the government should be divided as loans among the States. The amount to be distributed this year aggregated $28,000,000. No part of this large sum was ever recalled. When the government called for its deposits in order to distribute the surplus an immediate shrinkage of specie was the result. As bank after bank suspended, it was found that the paper issue had increased from $51,000,000 in 1830 to $149,000,000 in 1837. Jackson's attacks on the National Bank had shaken public confidence in this institution, and it likewise suspended specie payments. The mercantile failures of a single fortnight in New York City amounted to $100,000,000. A repeal of Jackson's order that payments for public lands should be in coin filled the National Treasury with paper money. Congress met in special session to relieve the financial distress. A law was passed authorizing the issue of $10,000,000 in Treasury notes. This brought some relief. President Van Buren's first message recommended the adoption by the government of the Sub-Treasury plan. A bill for the establishment of an independent treasury passed the Senate, but was defeated in the House by a union of Whigs and Conservatives. The Sub-Treasury plan, as eventually carried out, provided for complete separation of the National Bank and the government, and established the principle that the government revenues should be received in coin only. President Van Buren in his message specially deprecated any interference by Congress in the struggle between Texas and Mexico. Texas, which had been bargained away by Southern votes in 1819, was now an eagerly desired prize. It had now become a part of Coahuila, and had declared its independence. Still Congress persisted in its attempt to interfere, but a bill to that effect was voted down by the adherents of the President.

[Sidenote: Distress in Spain]

In Mexico, Bustamente had again become President. In the neighboring State of Colombia, President Marquez, likewise, had himself re-elected. The influence of North American progress was shown in Cuba by the opening of the first railway there, long before the mother country, Spain, could boast of such an advance in civilization. There the civil war was still draining the resources of the country. On May 17, General Evans took Trun, but failed to follow up his success. In Portugal, the restoration of Pedro's Charta de Ley was proclaimed by the Duke of Terceira.

[Sidenote: Fall of Guizot]

[Sidenote: Death of Fourier]

In France, an unfortunate attempt to fix large dowries on the Duc de Nemours and the Queen of the Belgians raised an outcry against the private avarice of the King. As the result of the Ministerial crisis that followed the defeat of these measures in the Chambers Guizot had to retire from the Ministry. Mole remained in charge with the reconstituted Cabinet. The success of a second expedition against Constantine, in which the Duc de Nemours gained distinction, invested Mole's new Ministry with a certain popularity. Measures for a general political amnesty and for the closing of gambling houses were readily voted by the Chambers. The people of Paris were kept amused first by the marriage of the Duc d'Orleans to Princess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and by the subsequent wedding of Princess Marie d'Orleans, the amateur sculptress, to Duke Alexander of Wurtemberg, a dilettante, like herself, in letters. The occasion provoked the German poet Heine, then lying ill at Paris, to some of his most pungent witticisms. Ailing though he was, Heine was made a member of the new "Societe des Gens de Lettres," founded by Balzac, Lamennais, Dumas and Georges Sand. Further events in French letters were the publication of Eugene Sue's "Latreaumont," and the appearance of the early part of Michelet's "History of France." Francois Charles Marie Fourier, the philosophic writer and follower of St. Simon, died in his sixty-fifth year. Before his death his well-elaborated system of communism, as put forward in his "Traite de l'Association Domestique et Agricole," had found general acceptance among the radical orders of France.

[Sidenote: Death of Leopardi]

[Sidenote: Ode to Brutus Minor]

[Sidenote: A self-apostrophe]

Count Giacomo Leopardi, the foremost lyric poet of modern Italy, died on June 14. Leopardi's genius was tinctured with pessimism. Like Byron, he was powerfully moved by the painful contrast between the classic grandeur of ancient Italy and the degeneracy of its latter days. The tendency toward pessimism was increased by his own ill health. His first works were the result of his eager study of classic antiquities. Thus he brought out a new edition and translation of Porphyrios' "De vita Plotini." His earliest verses, such as the fine "Ode to Italy," and his poem on a projected monument for Dante, already contained the strain of sadness that ran through all his later poems. On the publication of Leopardi's first collection of verses, Niebuhr, the Prussian Ambassador at Rome, offered him a professorship at Berlin, but the poet's failing health prevented acceptance. Religious dissensions with his father depressed his spirits still more. He gave expression to his increasing sadness in the beautiful ode on the "Minor Brutus." In 1825 he took part in bringing out the famous "Antologia" at Florence, and also issued an edition of Petrarch and two collections of Italian verse. Another collection of his own poems was published in 1826, followed by the prose dialogues "Operette Morali." In 1833, declining health led Leopardi to withdraw to Naples. One year before his death he brought out a last collection of poems distinguished alike for poignant pessimism and for their high lyric beauty. Characteristic of Leopardi's verse is this poem addressed to himself:

Now lie forever still, My weary heart. Farewell, my last illusion The dream that we endure. Farewell! Too surely I know my end, and now of self-deception The hope long since and dear desire has left me. Be still forever! Enough Of fluttering such as thine has been. Vain, vain Thy palpitation, the wide world is not worth Our sighs; for bitter pain Life's portion is, naught else, and slime this earth. Subside henceforth, despair forever! Fate gave this race of ours For only guerdon death. Then make a sport Of thine own self, of nature, and the dark First power that, hidden, rules the world for harm-- And of the infinite emptiness of all.

[Sidenote: Death of Pushkin]

[Sidenote: Lermontov]

Russia lost her foremost man of letters at this period by the death of Count Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, as the result of a duel. His last work, the drama "Boris Goudunov," was left uncompleted. After his recall from his exile in Bessarabia, Pushkin had been appointed as imperial historian by Czar Nicholas, in which capacity he wrote a history of Peter the Great and an account of the conspiracy of Pugatshev. Of his poetic works, the most important was "Eugene Onegin," an epic written after the manner of Byron's "Don Juan." "Eugene Onegin" has remained one of the classics of Russian literature throughout the Nineteenth Century. Pushkin's brother poet Lermontov, then an officer of the Guards, wrote a poem demanding vengeance for Pushkin's death. He was banished to the Caucasus, and his writings were suppressed. Under a false name he now wrote his famous epic: "Song of Czar Ivan Vasilyevitch."

[Sidenote: The first kindergarten]

[Sidenote: German clerical struggle]

A joyful event in German letters was the great festival at Mainz in honor of Gutenberg and his invention of the art of printing. Froebel opened his first kindergarten at Blankenburg in Thuringia. Auerbach, the popular novelist, brought out his "Spinoza." Much was made by Germans of the opening of the first railway between Dresden and Leipzig, and of the invention of coal-tar colors, or aniline dyes, by a process destined to revolutionize the arts of coloring and dyeing throughout the world. A great stir was created by the imprisonment of the Archbishop of Cologne at Minden after a quarrel with the Prussian Government concerning marriages between persons of different creeds. He was forbidden to go to Bonn. Backed by the Holy See in Rome, he continued to defy the Protestant authorities.

[Sidenote: Death of William IV.]

[Sidenote: Victoria's accession]

A change of rule, fraught with future consequences for Hanover, resulted from the death of William IV., King of England and Hanover, on the 20th of June. By the death of the old King, his niece, Victoria Alexandra, then in her eighteenth year, became Queen of England. Miss Wynn, in her "Diaries of a Lady of Quality," has told how the news was brought to the young Princess at Kensington by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Howley) and the Lord Chamberlain (Marquis Conyngham): "They did not reach Kensington Palace until five o'clock in the morning. They knocked, they rang, they thumped for a considerable time before they could rouse the porter at the gate; they were again kept waiting in the courtyard, then turned into one of the lower rooms, where they seemed forgotten by everybody. They rang the bell, and desired that the attendant of the Princess Victoria might be sent to inform Her Royal Highness that they requested an audience on business of importance. After another delay, and another ringing to inquire the cause, the attendant was summoned, who stated that the Princess was in such a deep sleep that she could not venture to disturb her. Then they said, 'We are come on business of state to the Queen, and even her sleep must give way to that.' In a few minutes she came into the room in a loose white nightgown and shawl, her nightcap thrown off, and her hair falling upon her shoulders, her feet in slippers, tears in her eyes, but perfectly collected and dignified."

[Sidenote: Her first Privy Council]

Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister, was summoned, and at eleven o'clock that same morning a Privy Council was held, which is thus described by Charles Greville, an eye-witness: "Never was anything like the first impression she produced, or the chorus of praise and admiration which is raised about her manner and behavior, and certainly not without justice. It was very extraordinary, and something far beyond what was looked for. Her extreme youth and inexperience, and the ignorance of the world concerning her, naturally excited intense curiosity to see how she would act on this trying occasion, and there was a considerable assemblage at the palace, notwithstanding the short notice which was given. The first thing to be done was to teach her her lesson, which for this purpose Melbourne had himself to learn.... She bowed to the Lords, took her seat, and then read her speech in a clear, distinct, and audible voice, and without any appearance of fear or embarrassment."

[Sidenote: Hanover separates from England]

[Sidenote: Ernest, King of Hanover]

[Sidenote: Royal breach of faith]

[Sidenote: Revolt at Goettingen]

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."