A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 49

[Sidenote: Blockade of the Piraeus]

[Sidenote: Cholera in England]

At the opening of the year the British Foreign Office determined to bring pressure to bear upon Greece for payment of the public debts which were owing to English bankers. A British squadron, during January, blockaded the Piraeus. On January 17, a resolution was pa.s.sed in the British House of Lords condemning the foreign policy of the government in Greece. Later France interposed in behalf of Greece and the blockade was discontinued.

Throughout the earlier part of the year the scourge of cholera continued in England. In London alone the death-rate for a while was 1,000 per week.

More than 50,000 people died from the epidemic in England and Wales.

[Sidenote: Death of Wordsworth]

[Sidenote: "Lyrical Ballads" and "Peter Bell"]

[Sidenote: The "Lake School"]

[Sidenote: Wordsworth's doctrine]

William Wordsworth, the English Poet Laureate, died on April 23, at Rydal Mount. Born at c.o.c.kermouth in 1770, Wordsworth received his academic education at Cambridge University. Two years after his graduation, he made his first appearance as a poet with the publication of "An Evening Walk; an Epistle in Verse." In the same year he published "Descriptive Sketches in Verse," inspired by a pedestrian tour through the Alps. These poems brought the appreciation of Coleridge, and both men soon became friends. Together with Wordsworth's sister they made a tour of Germany. On their return, Wordsworth brought out the first volume of his "Lyrical Ballads," which won great popularity, and the anonymous "Peter Bell," the most condemned of all his poems. After his marriage in 1803, Wordsworth settled at Grasmere in the lake country, where he was joined by Southey and Coleridge. This caused the writings of all three to be cla.s.sified under the generic t.i.tle of "The Lake School of Poetry" by the "Edinburgh Review." The fame of Wordsworth's poetic productions, and especially of his sonnets, slowly grew. While he won the immediate approbation of his countrymen by some of his stirring patriotic pieces, his strongest appeal to the world at large and to future generations lay in his poetic appreciation of the beauties of nature and of the essential traits of human character. As he sang in the famous preface to "The Excursion":

Beauty--a living presence of the earth, Surpa.s.sing the most fair ideal forms Which craft of delicate spirits hath composed From earth's materials--waits upon my steps; Pitches her tents before me as I move, An hourly neighbor. Paradise, and groves Elysian, Fortunate Fields--like those of old Sought in the Atlantic main--why should they be A history only of departed things, Or a mere fiction of what never was?

For the discerning intellect of man, When wedded to this goodly universe In love and holy pa.s.sion, shall find these A simple produce of the common day.

[Sidenote: Ode on immortality]

The annunciation of this doctrine was greeted by the critic of the "Edinburgh Review" with the insolent: "This will never do." In truth, Wordsworth's fondness for the inner beauty of common things sometimes led his verse into the commonplace. Wordsworth reached the height of his poetic fervor in his "Ode on the Intimations of Immortality," containing the famous lines:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar.

[Sidenote: Sh.e.l.ley's sonnet to Wordsworth]

It is at the end of this ode that Wordsworth summed up his veneration for nature in the lines:

To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

After the death of his friend Southey, the mantle of the Poet Laureate fell upon him. His acceptance of this honor, and of the humble office of stamp distributer in the counties of Westmoreland and c.u.mberland, was decried by some of his fellow poets as a sordid compromise. Robert Browning then wrote his stirring invective, "The Lost Leader," while Sh.e.l.ley wrote the famous sonnet addressed to Wordsworth:

Poet of Nature, thou hast wept to know That things depart which never may return: Childhood and youth, friendship and love's first glow, Have fled like sweet dreams, leaving thee to mourn.

These common woes I feel. One loss is mine Which thou too feel'st, yet I alone deplore.

Thou wert as a lone star, whose light did shine On some frail bark in winter's midnight roar, Thou hast like to a rock-built refuge stood Above the blind and battling mult.i.tude: In honored poverty thy voice did weave Songs consecrate to truth and liberty-- Deserting these, thou leavest me to grieve, Thus having been, that thou shouldst cease to be.

[Sidenote: "The Prelude"]

Sir Robert Peel's recognition of Wordsworth's genius, on the other hand, was regarded by the English Liberals as one of the brightest points in that famous statesman's career. The University of Oxford, shortly afterward, bestowed upon Wordsworth an honorary degree. One of Wordsworth's latest poems was addressed to the Mount of Wanswell, rising above his country home at Ambroside, closing with the prophetic lines:

When we are gone From every object dear to mortal sight, As soon we shall be, may these words attest How oft, to elevate our spirits, shone Thy visionary majesties of light, How in thy pensive glooms our hearts found rest.

After Wordsworth's death, appeared "The Prelude, or Growth of the Poet's Mind," an autobiographical poem.

[Sidenote: Death of Peel]

[Sidenote: First international cable]

[Sidenote: The Koh-i-noor]

The next noted death in England this year was that of Sir Robert Peel, which occurred after a stirring debate on the foreign policy of Lord Palmerston in Greece. On the following day Peel was thrown from his horse while riding near London. The injuries he received were such that he died three days later. A monument to his memory was erected in Westminster Abbey; but in accordance with his own wish he was buried in the village churchyard of Drayton Ba.s.sett. Of other events arousing interest in England, the most noteworthy was the laying of the first submarine electric telegraph between England and France. The cable, which was twenty-seven miles long and covered with gutta-percha, stretched from Dover to Cape Gris Nez. Messages were interchanged, but the cable soon parted. During the same year the great East Indian diamond, Koh-i-noor, was presented to Queen Victoria. The history of this great jewel was more stirring, in its way, than that of any living man. Its original weight was nearly 800 carats. By the lack of skill of the European diamond cutters this was reduced to 270 carats.

[Sidenote: Death of Taouk w.a.n.g]

[Sidenote: Hien Fong, Emperor]

[Sidenote: The Taiping rebellion]

[Sidenote: Chinese emigration]

Beyond the immediate sh.o.r.es of England the course of events kept the British Colonial Office fully occupied. In Canada, a movement arose for the annexation of British America to the United States. Earl Grey, the Colonial Secretary, took occasion to warn all Canadians against this movement as an act of high treason. In India, the Afghans succeeded in reconquering Balkh.

The fifth Kaffir war broke out in South Africa. The affairs of China gave fresh concern. On February 24, Emperor Taouk w.a.n.g died in his sixty-ninth year. The thirty years during which he reigned were among the most eventful, and in some respects the most portentous, for China. His strenuous opposition to the evils of the opium trade mark him as a wise, if not a powerful, ruler. He never wasted the public moneys of China on his own person, and his expenditures in behalf of the court and mere pomp were less than that of most of his predecessors. One of Taouk w.a.n.g's last acts showed how his mind and his health had been affected by the recent misfortunes of the empire. It appeared that the Chinese New Year's Day--February 12, 1850--was marked by an eclipse of the sun. Such an event being considered inauspicious in China, the Emperor decreed that the new year should begin on the previous day. The decree was utterly disregarded, and the Chinese year began at the appointed time. Taouk w.a.n.g's end was hastened by the outbreak of a great fire in Pekin, which threatened the imperial city with destruction. On February 25, a grand council was held in the Emperor's bedchamber, and Taouk w.a.n.g wrote in his bed an edict proclaiming his fourth son, Yihchoo, ruler of the empire. Prince Yihchoo, who was less than twenty years old, took the name of Hien Fong, which means great abundance, and immediately upon his accession drew to his aid his four younger brothers, a new departure in Manchu rule. Their uncle, Hwuy w.a.n.g, who had made one attempt to seize the throne from his brother Taouk w.a.n.g, once more put forward his pretensions. After the imperial Ministers, Kiaying and Muchangah, had been degraded, Hwuy w.a.n.g's attempt signally failed, but his life was spared. Later in the year, as a result partly of poor harvests, the great Taiping rebellion began. The great secret society of the Triads started the movement by raising an outcry in southern China against the Manchus. Their leader, Hung Tsiuen, a Hakka or Romany, proclaimed himself as Tien w.a.n.g, which means the head of the Prince. Under the cloud of the impending upheaval, Chinese coolies in great numbers began to emigrate to the United States. At the same time the bitter feeling against foreigners was intensified by an encounter of the British steamship "Media" with a fleet of piratical Chinese junks. Thirteen of the junks were destroyed.

[Sidenote: California an American issue]

[Sidenote: Fugitive slave bill]

In California, where most of the Chinese immigrants landed, this movement was scarcely considered in the heat of the discussion whether California should be admitted into the Union as a pro-slavery or anti-slavery State.

In the American Senate, Henry Clay introduced a bill for a compromise of the controversy on slavery. His proposal favored the admission of California as a free State. On March 7, Daniel Webster delivered a memorable speech in which he antagonized his anti-slavery friends in the North. This was denounced as the betrayal of his const.i.tuents. State Conventions in South Carolina called for a Southern Congress to voice their claims. Not long afterward a fugitive slave bill was adopted by the United States Congress. A fine of $1,000 and six months' imprisonment was to be imposed on any person harboring a fugitive slave or aiding him to escape.

Fugitives were to be surrendered on demand, without the benefit of testimony or trial by jury. This served to terrorize some 20,000 escaped slaves and created intense indignation in the North. The issues were still more sharply drawn by the resignation of Jefferson Davis from the Senate, to run as a State-rights candidate for Governor of Mississippi. His Unionist rival, Foote, was elected.

[Sidenote: American filibusters in Cuba]

[Sidenote: Bulwer-Clayton treaty]

[Sidenote: Friction with Portugal]

In the meanwhile trouble had arisen with Spain and Portugal. On May 19, General Narcisso Lopez, with 600 American filibusters, landed at Cardenas to liberate Cuba from the dominion of Spain. He was defeated and his expedition dispersed. Another Cuban expedition was agitated in America. On April 25, President Taylor felt constrained to issue a second proclamation against filibusters. In May, the United States, in conjunction with Great Britain, recognized the independence of the Dominican Republic. Both countries at the same time agreed not to interfere in the affairs of Central America. In accordance with this agreement the famous Bulwer-Clayton Treaty was completed. It provided that neither country should obtain exclusive control over any inter-oceanic ca.n.a.l in Central America, nor erect fortifications along its line. In June an American squadron was sent to Portugal to support the United States demand for American war claims of 1812. The claims were refused and the American Minister was recalled from Lisbon. The American fleet was withdrawn without further hostile demonstrations. The American President, in pursuance of his policy of peace, proclaimed neutrality in the civil war which had arisen in Mexico.

[Sidenote: Shields' prophecy]

[Sidenote: Webster scourged]

The furious slavery debate was resumed when Clay's so-called "Omnibus Bill"

was offered for final consideration. It was during this debate that Senator Shields of California uttered his famous prophecy that the United States, so far from dissolving, would within a few generations send its soldiers to Asia and into China. On July 9, Webster soothed the angry pa.s.sions of the legislators when he announced that President Taylor was dying. Webster's support of the Compromise Act of 1850, with its fugitive slave bill, dimmed his Presidential prospects. It was then that Whittier wrote the scathing lines ent.i.tled "Ichabod":

So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn Which once he wore!

The glory from his gray hairs gone For evermore!

Revile him not! the tempter hath A snare for all; And pitying tears, not scorn and wrath, Befit his fall.

Oh, dumb be pa.s.sion's stormy rage, When he who might Have lighted up and led his age Falls back in night!

Scorn! would the angels laugh to mark A bright soul driven, Fiend-goaded, down the endless dark, From hope and heaven?