A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 14

In July a treaty for European intervention in Greece was signed in London.

Turkey and Greece were summoned to consent to an armistice, and to accept the mediation of the powers. All Turks were to leave Greece, and the Greeks were to come into possession of all Turkish property within their limits on payment of an indemnity. Greece was to be made autonomous under the paramount sovereignty of the Sultan. The demand for an armistice was gladly accepted by Greece. But the Sultan rejected it with contempt. The conduct of the Turkish troops in Bulgaria caused the Bulgarians to rise and call for Russian help.

[Sidenote: Death of Canning]

[Sidenote: Canning's policy]

It was at this crisis of European affairs that Canning died. His Ministry, brief as it was, marked an epoch for England. Unlike his predecessors, George Canning was called to the Ministry by a king who disliked him. What he accomplished was done amid the peculiar embarra.s.sments and difficulties of such a situation. On the other hand, it freed him from certain concessions to the personal prejudices of his sovereign that hampered other Ministers. Thus he was able to introduce in Parliament his great measure for the removal of the political disabilities of the Catholics, a reform on which so great a Prime Minister as the younger Pitt came to grief. Had this measure pa.s.sed the House of Lords it would stand as the crowning act of Canning's administration. By an irony of fate the same Canning that so bitterly opposed the French Revolution and the claims of America achieved highest fame by his latter day recognition of the rights of revolution in the New World.

[Sidenote: William Blake]

[Sidenote: Artist and poet]

[Sidenote: Blake's mysticism]

[Sidenote: Thomson's lines]

William Blake, the English poet and artist, died at Fountain Court in London on August 12. While Blake's poems and paintings belonged to the Eighteenth Century, chronologically, the spirit of his works, with its extraordinary independence of contemporary fashions, make him a herald of the poetic dawn of the Nineteenth Century. An engraver by profession and training, Blake began while still very young to apply his technical knowledge to his wholly original system of literary publication. As a poet he was not only his own ill.u.s.trator, but his own printer and publisher as well. Beginning with the "Poetical Sketches" and his delightful "Songs of Innocence," down to the fantastic "Marriage of Heaven and h.e.l.l," all of Blake's books, with the exception of his "Jerusalem" and "Milton," were issued during the Eighteenth Century. Blake's artistic faculties seemed to strengthen with advancing life, but his literary powers waned. He produced few more satisfying ill.u.s.trations than those to the Book of Job, executed late in life. His artistic work also was left comparatively untainted by the morbid strain of mysticism that runs through his so-called "prophetic writings." The charm of Blake's poetry, as well as of his drawings, was not fully appreciated until late in the Nineteenth Century. Charles Lamb, to be sure, declared, "I must look upon him as one of the extraordinary persons of the age," but his full worth was not recognized until Swinburne and Rossetti took up his cause. In America, Charles Eliot Norton, at Harvard, was Blake's ablest expounder. Famous are James Thomson's lines on William Blake:

He came to the desert of London town, Gray miles long; He wandered up and he wandered down, Singing a quiet song.

He came to the desert of London town, Mirk miles broad; He wandered up and he wandered down, Ever alone with G.o.d.

There were thousands and thousands of human kind, In this desert of brick and stone; But some were deaf and some were blind, And he was there alone.

At length the good hour came; he died As he had lived, alone; He was not missed from the desert wide, Perhaps he was found at the Throne.

[Sidenote: Richard Bright]

In this year Dr. Richard Bright of London published his famous "Reports of medical cases with a view to ill.u.s.trate the symptoms and cure of diseases by a reference to morbid anatomy." A special feature of the book was a full description of Bright's discoveries in the pathology of the peculiar disease of the kidneys which bears his name. Bright, in response to urgent demands, lectured more fully on his great discovery before the London College of Physicians and Surgeons.

[Sidenote: Delacroix]

Eugene Delacroix, the great exponent of French romantic art, and a pupil of Guerin, exhibited this year his "Christ in the Garden of Olives." He had previously exhibited "Dante and Virgil," which created a sensation by its rich coloring. This was followed by his "Ma.s.sacre of Scio," "The Death of the Doge," "Marino Faliero," "Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi" and "Death of Sardanapalus." Not until some time after his death was he recognized as the greatest early master of the French art after David. The great majority of his works, embracing mural paintings and pictures of immense size, are to be found in the princ.i.p.al churches and galleries of France.

[Sidenote: Wellington Prime Minister]

[Sidenote: Powers intervene in Greece]

[Sidenote: Greek Naval victory]

[Sidenote: Turkish warships stopped]

[Sidenote: The Morea ravaged]

[Sidenote: An international demonstration]

After the brief interregnum of G.o.derich's administration in England, Canning was succeeded by his rival, the Duke of Wellington. The good sense and great renown of this distinguished soldier promised strength and prestige to his administration. For a while the change of Ministry brought no avowed change in Canning's plans. Huskisson and Palmerston were retained in the Cabinet, and Canning's policy of active intervention in Greece was upheld. In consequence of the Turkish refusal of mediation, the war continued on both sides. The Turks got heavy reinforcements from Egypt, and a strong expedition was on the point of leaving Navarino to make a descent upon Hydra, the last stronghold of the insurrection. An Anglo-French fleet under Admirals Codrington and Regnier made a demonstration in Greek waters.

The foreign admirals exacted a promise from Ibrahim that he would make no movement until further orders should arrive from Constantinople. An oral agreement to this effect was reached late in September. A few days later the Greeks in free continuance of hostilities won a brilliant naval victory in the Gulf of Corinth. The hero on this occasion was Captain Hastings, an English volunteer. Ibrahim was so incensed that he sailed out of Navarino and made for Patras. Codrington threw his British squadron across the track of the Egyptian ships and forced them to turn back by a threat to sink them. It was regretted at the time that Codrington did not compel Ibrahim to take his expedition out of Greek waters back to Alexandria. As it was, Ibrahim returned to Navarino, and there found orders from the Sultan to carry on the war without regard to Western intermeddling. Another Turkish column was forthwith despatched into the Morea and devastated that country with fire and sword. Clouds of smoke revealed to the European naval officers how the Turks had met their proposals for peace. Admiral Codrington sent messages to Ibrahim, calling for instant cessation of hostilities, for the evacuation of the Morea, and the return of his fleet to Constantinople and Alexandria. The answer to this message was that Ibrahim had marched into the Morea and could not be reached. The three squadrons of England, Russia and France cruising off Zante immediately came together. They consisted of twenty-nine vessels, ten ships of the line, ten frigates, four brigs and five schooners. United in one column, under command of Codrington as senior admiral, they sailed for Navarino.

Codrington was unhampered by instructions. He could feel sure of the support of his government, however, for in his pocket was a confidential note from the Duke of Clarence, the royal commander of the navy, encouraging him to "find" a quarrel with the Turkish admiral.

[Sidenote: Navarino]

On October 20, the three squadrons sailed into Navarino harbor in battle array, and came to anchor within pistol shot of the Turkish fleet, composed of seventy warships, forty transports and four fire-ships, anch.o.r.ed under cover of the land batteries. To windward of the British corvette "Dartmouth" lay a Turkish brulote or fire-ship. A gig was sent to demand the withdrawal of this dangerous vessel. The Turks fired on the boat with cannon-shot and musketry. When Codrington sent a boat to the Egyptian flagship, Moharem Bey, the admiral, opened with his guns. One shot struck the "Asia," Codrington's flagship, and his pilot was killed. Codrington opened with all his guns. The British broadsides soon reduced the Egyptian flagship on one side, and a Turkish man-o'-war on the other side to mere wrecks. The French and Russians joined in. The Moslem ships, which had a superiority of 800 guns, replied with spirit. At close range they fought the combined fleets of their hated Christian adversaries. From the surrounding sh.o.r.es 20,000 Moslem soldiers discharged their guns into the land-locked harbor. The fight lasted from three in the afternoon until seven in the evening. All bravery was in vain when pitted against Western seamanship and gunnery. In the course of a short afternoon one Turkish ship after another was sunk or blown to pieces. By sundown little was left of the Turkish fleet but a ma.s.s of wreckage. Only fifteen ships escaped, to be scuttled by their own sailors. Four thousand Moslem seamen lost their lives. All night long the Turkish gunners on sh.o.r.e kept up their fire. On the morrow, when Ibrahim returned to Navarino, he found the waters of the harbor strewn with wreckage and the floating bodies of his sailors. One of the best accounts of the battle of Navarino has been given by Eugene Sue, the novelist, who then served as surgeon on one of the French vessels.

[Sidenote: Greece saved]

The island of Hydra and with it all Greece was saved. The subsequent course of Sultan Mahmoud was that of blind infatuation and fury. So far from accepting the European demands for an armistice, he put forward a peremptory request for an indemnity for the losses inflicted upon him. The Amba.s.sadors of the Powers quitted Constantinople. It was then that the loss of Canning was felt in England. Instead of pursuing the vigorous policy to which it stood committed by the battle of Navarino, Great Britain hung back. Further intervention, with the profits accruing therefrom, was left to Russia.

1828

[Sidenote: Peace of Tourkmanchay]

The time for undisturbed intervention in the East was most auspicious for Russia. Peace with Persia was concluded early in the year. By the treaty of Tourkmanchay, Fet Aly of Persia ceded to Russia the provinces of Erivan and Nakhitchevan and paid an indemnity of 20,000,000 roubles. The river Araxes was recognized as the frontier of both states. England's ascendency in Persia was effectually set at naught. Even in China Emperor Taouk-w.a.n.g felt encouraged to issue edicts prohibiting England's pernicious opium trade on the Chinese coast. Russia's armies were now let loose on Turkey.

[Sidenote: Independence of Greece]

[Sidenote: Capodistrias summoned]

[Sidenote: Russia's double game]

[Sidenote: Understanding with France]

In the meanwhile, the Greeks profited by the Turkish check at Navarino to a.s.sert themselves as an independent people. On January 18, Capodistrias, the former Prime Minister of Russia, was summoned from Geneva and made president of the Greek republic. His term of office was to last seven years. This eminent statesman justified his selection by immediate beneficent measures. A grand council of state was established and a national bank opened in Athens. With the help of France, immunity from further incursions from the Turks was practically a.s.sured. To preserve the _status quo_ in Greece, Russia undertook to limit its single handed war on Turkey to operations on the mainland and in the Black Sea. Within the waters of the Mediterranean the Czar proposed to continue as an armed neutral in harmony with the other Powers under the treaty of London, and, to allay the apprehensions of Austria, the Russian forces in the Balkans were ordered to carry their line of operations as far as possible from Austria's sphere of influence. A still more effectual check on Austria was secured by the Czar's secret encouragement of French aspirations toward the Rhine. Charles X. exposed the plot when he said: "If the Czar attacks Austria, I will hold myself in reserve and regulate my conduct according to circ.u.mstances. If Austria attacks, I will instantly march against her." As Prince Metternich put it, "The two powers were at one: France against the European _status quo_; Russia against that of the Orient."

[Sidenote: Holy War proclaimed in Turkey]

[Sidenote: Russia declares war]

[Sidenote: Early success]

Although the recent Turkish concessions to Russia left to the Czar no ground for war, a pretext was supplied by Sultan Mahmoud himself. With true Turkish infatuation he chose this moment to issue a direct challenge to Russia. The Czar was denounced as the instigator of the Greek rebellion, and the arch enemy of Islam. The treaty of Akerman was declared null and void. A holy war was proclaimed against the Muscovites. "The Turk does not count his enemies. If all the unbelievers together unite against us we will enter on the war as a sacred duty, and trust to Allah for help." This proclamation was followed by the expulsion of all Christians from Constantinople. Unfortunately for the Sultan, his recent ma.s.sacre of the Janizaries deprived him of the flower of his troops, and the reorganization of the Turkish army, which was the motive of that act, was only under way.

For seven years the Russians had been preparing for this war. Nicholas lost no time in answering the Sultan's challenge. He replied with a declaration of war on April 26. Field Marshal Wittgenstein crossed the Pruth, while Paskievitch entered Asia Minor. The Russian troops overran the Roumanian provinces, Wallachia and Moldavia. The Danube was crossed early in June, under the eyes of the Czar. Unable to meet their enemy in the open field, the Turks withdrew into their strongholds, Ibraila and Silistria on the Danube, Varna and Shumla in the Balkans. The Russians besieged and stormed Ibraila, and thence pushed on through the Dubrudsha toward the Black Sea.

In the meanwhile Paskievitch in Asia Minor defeated two Turkish armies and captured Erzeroum.

[Sidenote: Brionis victorious]

[Sidenote: Surrender of Varna]

After these early successes the Russian operations began to lag. The Czar's presence at headquarters was a source of embarra.s.sment rather than of strength. Wittgenstein committed the error of dividing his army into three slender columns. Too weak to conduct forward operations, they were held in check before Silistria, Varna and Shumla. The Russian transport service, none too good at best, collapsed under the threefold strain. The ill-fed soldiers wasted away by thousands. At length Homer Brionis, the commandant of Shumla, took advantage of the weakness of his besiegers. On September 24 he broke out of Shumla and marched to the relief of Varna. The Czar, notwithstanding the evident weakness of his troops, ordered his cousin, Eugene of Wurtemberg, to check the Turkish advance with a frontal attack.

The result was a severe defeat. Had Brionis marched onward Varna would have been relieved. He clung to Shumla, however, and the Turks at Varna were forced to surrender. It was late in autumn now, and cold weather put a stop to the campaign for the year. The display of military weakness seriously injured the prestige of Russia. The manifold mistakes of this campaign have been unsparingly laid bare in a famous monograph of Moltke. Henceforth the successful prosecution of the war became a _sine qua non_ for Russia.

[Sidenote: Turks evacuate Morea]

[Sidenote: Vacillation in France]