A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 17

Sir Thomas Lawrence, the celebrated English portrait painter, died at the outset of the year. In his early youth at Bristol and Oxford, this artist showed marked talent for portraiture, and became a pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds at the Royal Academy. His delicate pastel portraits obtained great vogue in the most aristocratic circles of London. On the death of his master, Lawrence was appointed painter to the King. He became the fashionable portrait painter of the age. As such, Lawrence was summoned to Aix-la-Chapelle during the International Congress of 1818 to paint the various dignitaries of the Holy Alliance. While at Vienna he painted the famous pastel of Napoleon's son, the little King of Rome--by all odds the most charming of all the many likenesses of that unfortunate eaglet.

Lawrence returned to England a few days after the death of Benjamin West, and was immediately elected to succeed him as President of the Royal Academy. He held this office for ten years, until his death. Among the most noted works of Lawrence, executed during this time, were the portraits of Master Lambton and of the Duke of Wellington. Lawrence's ambitious essays beyond the limits of portrait painting, such as his once celebrated "Satan," obtained no lasting success. After the artist's death a number of his best known canvases were collected for permanent exhibition in the Waterloo Gallery of Windsor.

[Sidenote: Lister's microscope]

In this year Joseph Jackson Lister, an English amateur optician, contributed to the Royal Society the famous paper detailing his recent experiments with the compound microscope. Aided by Tully, a celebrated optician, Lister succeeded in making of the microscope a practical scientific implement rather than a toy. With the help of his own instrument Lister was able to settle the long mooted question as to the true form of the red corpuscles of the human blood.

[Sidenote: Conquest of Algiers]

[Sidenote: England's vain protest]

In the face of the menacing att.i.tude of the liberal elements of France, which had been rendered more acute by the King's increase of the Chamber of Peers to the detriment of the Deputies, the French Government launched forth upon the conquest of Algiers. It was believed to be an auspicious moment. The Sultan's reluctant acknowledgment of the independence of Greece, April 25, showed how powerless he was. The Dey of Algiers had insulted France by his discourteous treatment of a French consul. He refused the satisfaction demanded by France. On the failure of a blockade to reduce the city of Algiers, an expedition commanded by Bourmont set out for Africa in spring. A landing was successfully effected by the middle of June. Early in July, Algiers was taken. Immense spoils, valued at 48,000,000 francs, were seized by the French. England grew apprehensive.

George IV. had just died (June 26), and the Duke of Wellington, who was retained in power by the new king, William IV., demanded from the French Government an engagement to retain none of its new conquests. "Never," said Lord Alverdon to Lavel, the French Amba.s.sador, "never did France, under the Republic or under the Empire, give England such serious ground of complaint as she has been giving us for the last year." It was in vain. The seething spirit of the people in France seemed to demand an outlet. The victories of French arms in Africa were cast before the French people as a sop. The permanent annexation of Algiers was announced. It was too late.

[Sidenote: "Hernani"]

[Sidenote: Theophile Gautier]

[Sidenote: Honore de Balzac]

[Sidenote: French Government outvoted]

[Sidenote: Charles Xth's Coup d'etat]

The heated spirit of the rising generation had already been revealed in the hysterical demonstrations that occurred on the occasion of the first performance of Victor Hugo's "Hernani" on February 25. Conspicuous among the leaders of the literary tumult was Theophile Gautier, then a youth of eighteen, but already an author and an _Hugolatre intransigeant_, who led the claque on this first night resplendent in a rose-colored doublet and streaming long hair. With him was young Balzac, who had just won renown and notoriety by his "Physiologie du Mariage," and the first of his "Contes Drolatiques." In March, the Liberals in the Chambers declared their want of confidence in the government by a majority of forty votes. Charles X., staking all on the success of his Algerian campaign, dissolved the Chambers. "No compromise, no surrender," was the motto of the Royalists as they appealed to the people. The result was an overwhelming majority against the government. No less than 202 deputies pledged to opposition were elected. The whole of France was now waiting for the _coup d'etat_, and Europe waited with France. "Your two weakest points are the electoral law and the liberty of the press," said Metternich to the French Amba.s.sador in Vienna, "but you cannot touch them except through the Chambers. A _coup d'etat_ would ruin the dynasty." The Czar, in St. Petersburg, spoke in a like strain to the Duc de Mortemart. Charles X. could not be restrained.

"There are only Lafayette and I who have not changed since 1789," said the King. On July 24, a Sunday, after attending ma.s.s, Charles X. signed the orders that were to rid him of his Chambers. All his Ministers signed with him. "For life and for death, gentlemen," said the King. "Count upon me as I count upon you."

[Sidenote: Thiers]

[Sidenote: Marmont]

[Sidenote: The July revolution]

The Orders in Council appeared in the "Moniteur" the next day. It was said that Sauvo, the editor of the "Moniteur," as he gave the order to go to press, exclaimed: "G.o.d protect the King." The publication of the edict caused an instant extraordinary fall in stocks. Thiers thundered against it in the "Journal des Debats." Government troops seized the printing presses of the leading journals. Murmuring crowds gathered on the streets. The King appointed Marshal Marmont commandant of Paris. It was the last stroke, for Marmont was popularly execrated as the betrayer of Napoleon. The National Guards brought forth their old tricolor c.o.c.kades of the Revolution and the Empire. Though military patrols tramped the streets, the night pa.s.sed quietly. Next morning all work stopped, and the people fell to building barricades. Whole streets were torn up. The pupils of the Polytechnic School broke open the gates and the tricolor flag floated on the towers of Notre Dame. Marshal Marmont reported to the King: "Sire, it is no longer a riot, but a revolution. There is urgent need for your Majesty to take means of pacification. Thus the honor of the Crown may yet be saved. To-morrow it will be too late." The King's answer was to declare Paris under a state of siege. The so-called "Great Week," or "three days' revolution," had begun. The bourgeoisie or middle cla.s.s and all the students joined the revolt. Before nightfall 600 barricades blocked the streets of Paris. Every house became a fortress. "Where do the rebels get their powder?" asked the King in astonishment. "From the soldiers," was the curt reply of the Procureur-General.

[Sidenote: Charles X. obstinate]

[Sidenote: Fall of Ministry]

[Sidenote: An interim republic]

[Sidenote: Duke of Orleans summoned]

In the evening the Hotel de Ville was captured. That evening the Ministers tried to enlighten the King, but he only replied: "Let the insurgents lay down their arms." While the discharges of artillery shook the windows of the palace the King played whist. Next day two line regiments openly joined the revolt. The Louvre was stormed. Still the King at St. Cloud would not yield. "They exaggerate the danger," said he. "I know what concessions would lead to. I have no wish to ride like my brother on a cart." Instead of concessions he vested the command in the Dauphin, having grown suspicious of Marmont. The mob sacked the Tuileries and hoisted the tricolor flag on the clock tower. At the Hotel de Ville a munic.i.p.al commission was installed, composed of Lafayette, Casimir Perier, General Lobau and Audry de Puyraveau. At last, when it was too late, the King countermanded his obnoxious orders and dismissed Polignac with his Ministry. The people no longer paid attention to the King's acts. He was declared deposed. A republic was proclaimed and its presidency offered to Lafayette. But the old hero declined the honor. With Thiers he threw his influence in favor of the Duke of Orleans. The Duke of Orleans, the son of Philip Egalite, of Revolutionary fame, was invited to Paris to exercise the functions of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. The deposed King at St.

Cloud hastened to confirm the appointment. The Duke of Orleans respectfully declined the royal appointment. "You cannot receive things from everybody,"

said Dupont. General Lafayette soon came to pay his respects. "You know,"

said he, "that I am a republican, and consider the Const.i.tution of the United States as the most perfect that has been devised." "So do I,"

replied the Duke; "but do you think that in the present condition of France it would be advisable for us to adopt it?" "No," answered Lafayette; "what the French people must now have is a popular throne, surrounded by republican inst.i.tutions." "That is just my opinion," said Prince Louis Philippe.

[Sidenote: Charles X. abdicates]

Lafayette's conversation with the prince led to the so-called programme of the Hotel de Ville. "I shall not take the crown," said the Duke of Orleans, "I shall receive it from the people on the conditions it suits them to impose. A charter will henceforth be a reality." At last Charles X.

abdicated in favor of his grandson, the Duke of Bordeaux. The Duke of Orleans refused to recognize the claims of Henri V., and France and Europe were with him. Charles X. relinquished further hopes.

[Sidenote: Louis Philippe, King of France]

The Dauphin, formerly Duke of Angouleme, in like manner resigned his rights to his nephew. The act was signed on the 2d of August. Charles X. now set out for Normandy with his guards, commanded by Marmont, and, on August 16, embarked at Cherbourg in two American vessels, with the Dauphin and Dauphiness, the d.u.c.h.ess of Berry, the Duke of Bordeaux, and a numerous suite of attendants. The ships sailed for England, and, anchoring at Spithead, the royal fugitives took up their residence at Lulworth Castle, in Dorsetshire, but eventually removed to Holyrood Castle at Edinburgh, which was placed at their disposal by the British Government. On August 9, Louis Philippe, on the formal request of the two Chambers, accepted the crown of France with a solemn oath to uphold the Const.i.tution.

[Sidenote: Louis Philippe's previous career]

[Sidenote: Sojourn in America]

[Sidenote: "Le Roi Citoyen"]

[Sidenote: A new power in France]

The overthrow of the Bourbons was not a revolution in the sense of the great French Revolution of the previous century. It resulted chiefly in the transfer of government from one political faction to another. Louis Philippe, raised to the throne by reason of his supposed democratic principles, rather than for his royal lineage, was a Republican only in name. His early education, together with that of his brothers, was directed by the Countess of Genlis. On the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, the young Prince, then Duke of Chartres, fought with distinction by the side of Kellermann and Dumouriez at Valmy and Jemmapes. He accompanied the latter when he took refuge in the camp of the imperialists in April, 1793. After the death of his father, Philippe Egalite, refusing to bear arms against France, he joined his sister and Madame de Genlis in Switzerland, where they lived for some time under an a.s.sumed name. In 1795 he travelled into the north of Germany, Sweden and Norway, and in the following year sailed from Hamburg for the United States of America. Here he was joined by his two brothers, and after some years in America, during which they were often in distress, the three princes went to England in 1800. The Duke of Orleans now obtained a reconciliation with the heads of his family, Louis XVIII.

and the Count of Artois. Subsequently he became a guest at the court of Ferdinand IV., the dispossessed King of Naples, at Palermo; and here was celebrated, in November, 1809, his marriage with the Princess Marie Amelie, daughter of that monarch. Upon the restoration of Louis XVIII. he re-entered France, and took his seat in the Chamber of Peers; but having fallen under suspicion of disaffection, he once more retired to England and did not reappear in France till 1817. During the remainder of the reign of Louis he took no part in public affairs and lived in tranquillity at his favorite villa of Neuilly. He was a "citizen king," only in so far as he sent his children to the public schools and walked about the streets of Paris with an umbrella under his arm. The most lasting effect in France of the July revolution was the obliteration of clerical influences in the administration and public education. The Royalist n.o.bility likewise lost what political ascendency they had regained during the Restoration.

Henceforth the party in power was that of the bourgeoisie or great middle cla.s.s of France, of which Louis Philippe himself was the self-const.i.tuted representative.

[Sidenote: Revolution in Belgium]

[Sidenote: Bombardment of Antwerp]

[Sidenote: Talleyrand's last mission]

[Sidenote: Belgian Independence recognized]

Outside of France, on the contrary, the effects of the short revolution were far-reaching. In the Netherlands ever increasing friction between the Dutch-speaking Protestants of Holland and the French Catholics of Belgium had excited the country to the point of revolution. Recent repressive measures on the part of the Dutch Government made matters worse. On August 25, the performance, at the Brussels Opera House, of Auber's "La Muette di Portici," with its representation of a revolutionary rising in Naples, gave the signal for revolt. From the capital the insurrection spread throughout Belgium. The King summoned the States-General to The Hague and agreed to an administrative separation of Belgium and Holland; but the storm was not quelled. On the appearance of Dutch troops in Brussels, barricades were erected and the insurgents drove the soldiers out of the city. For several days fighting continued in the outskirts. A provisional government declared the independence of Belgium. Mediation by a conference in Holland was frustrated by the bombardment of Antwerp by its Dutch garrison. The French Liberals were burning to give a.s.sistance. Austria and Russia stood ready to prevent their intervention by force of arms. Louis Philippe, while holding the French war party in check, felt constrained to look about him for an ally. In this extremity Prince Talleyrand, the old-time diplomat of the Bourbons, the Republic, the Empire and the Restoration, now in his eightieth year, was sent to London. He approached Wellington and the new King with such consummate address that an understanding was soon reached with England, which set at naught all projects of European armed intervention on behalf of the Prince of Orange. Such intervention could not have failed to drag the French into war. Now it was agreed that the regulation of Belgian affairs should be submitted to a conference at London. In the interim Belgian independence was accepted in effect and hostilities ended.

[Sidenote: Leopold of Coburg declines Greek crown]

In Greece, the government of Capodistrias was beset with such difficulties that it was decided to invite some European prince to set up a const.i.tutional monarchy. The throne was offered to Prince Leopold of Coburg, the husband of the late Princess Charlotte of England. Leopold accepted, but when he learned that the Powers would not grant complete independence to Greece, without restoring aetolia, Thessaly and the fertile islands of Samos and Candia to the Sultan, he withdrew his acceptance.

[Sidenote: Revolution in Poland]

[Sidenote: War declared on Russia]

Peace had scarcely been restored in the Netherlands when the spirit of revolt, travelling northward, seized the ardent people of Poland.

Alexander's recognition of home rule in Poland had given the Poles a parliament and army of their own. After the Polish conspiracies at the outset of Nicholas's reign, Alexander's successor would no longer invoke the Polish Diet, and Russian troops and officers were sent into Poland. Of course this was bitterly resented. Plans for an uprising had already been made in 1828 during the Turkish war. The example of the successful risings in Paris and Brussels now brought matters to a head. On November 29, the revolt broke out in Warsaw. The Polish regiments of the garrison joined the insurgents. The Russian troops, finding the odds against them, withdrew.

Grandduke Constantine narrowly escaped with his life. A provisional Polish Diet was convoked. Prince Czartoryski was elected President. The Poles, in remembrance of the late Czar's kindly att.i.tude toward them, flattered themselves that the fruits of their revolution might be left to them.

Lubecki, the former chief of the Imperial Council in Poland, with two a.s.sociates, set out for St. Petersburg to voice the Polish demands for const.i.tutional government before the Czar. It was even proposed that const.i.tutional government should be conceded to those Russian provinces that had formerly belonged to Poland. On the way to St. Petersburg the eyes of the envoys were opened as they met the formidable columns of Russian troops marching to the Polish frontier. Forthwith, Lubecki forsook the cause of Poland. His colleagues found difficulty in obtaining a hearing from the Czar. When they were finally admitted to the imperial palace, Nicholas gave them clearly to understand that Poland had but two alternatives, unconditional submission or complete subjugation. When this answer reached Warsaw it was too late to swing the outside Polish provinces and Lithuania into the movement. Yet the Polish Diet, in a spirit of patriotic frenzy amounting to national suicide, pa.s.sed a resolution declaring that the House of Romanoff had forfeited the Polish crown.

Feverish preparations were made for a life and death struggle with Russia.

[Sidenote: Revolt in Spain]

The fall of the Bourbons in France had once more raised the hope of the Spanish Liberals. On the other hand, King Ferdinand's abolition of the Salic law of succession in Spain, so as to a.s.sure the throne to his new wife, raised up a party of absolutists against him. His brothers, Don Carlos and Francisco, became the heads of this movement and rallied their supporters around them, in the Basque provinces. In Portugal kindred dissensions rent the land in twain. Dom Miguel's claims to the crown were disputed on behalf of the const.i.tutional government by the Duke of Palermo.

Across the seas, Dom Pedro of Brazil proclaimed himself the legitimate heir to the throne of Braganza.