A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 5

[Sidenote: Fall of Decazes' Ministry]

The a.s.sa.s.sination of the Duc de Berry involved the ruin of the Ministry of Decazes. The ultra-royalists in their frenzy of grief and indignation charged their chief opponent with complicity. Clausel de Coussergues, a member of the Court of Ca.s.sation, moved the impeachment of Minister Decazes in the Chambers as an accomplice in the a.s.sa.s.sination. The King himself felt menaced by the unwarranted accusation. "The Royalists give me the finishing stroke," said he; "they know that the policy of M. Decazes is also mine, and they accuse him of a.s.sa.s.sinating my nephew." Yet he had to abandon his favorite to the violent entreaties of the Comte d'Artois and the d.u.c.h.esse de Angouleme. Decazes was permitted to retire, and set out for London with his new t.i.tles of Duke and Amba.s.sador to the Court of St.

James. Richelieu was recalled to the Ministry. The d.u.c.h.esse de Berry retired to Sicily.

[Sidenote: Rise of the Carbonari]

[Sidenote: Neapolitan military revolt]

[Sidenote: Revolution in Naples]

[Sidenote: Bourbon duplicity]

In Naples and Sicily the recent events in Spain and France exerted a powerful influence over the minds of the people. In southern Italy the secret society of the Carbonari had become a power in the land. The members of this society, after the manner of Freemasons, took their name and the symbolism of their rites from the calling of the charcoal burners. Since the revolt against Bourbon tyranny in 1799, the Carbonari had played their part as revolutionary conspirators. By the year 1820 it was believed that one person out of every twenty-five in Naples belonged to the society. To offset their hidden power, the government encouraged the foundation of a rival society, known as the Calderari, or Braziers. This only made matters worse. After the success of the revolution in Spain, the head lodge of the Carbonari in Salerno issued orders for a rising in June. Later the date was postponed. A score of Carbonari serving in the ranks of a cavalry regiment at Nola, persuaded one of the officers, Lieutenant Morelli, to head a revolt in favor of a const.i.tutional government. On July 2, Morelli marched out with a squadron of 150 men, and proclaimed for the Const.i.tution. Only one trooper refused to follow his standard. The others rode along the road to Avellino and were received with enthusiasm all along the way. The country was ripe for revolt. At Avellino the commandant with all his garrison and the Bishop with the townspeople gave them a magnificent reception. The news of the revolt spread like wildfire throughout the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Everywhere the Carbonari declared in its favor. Before the government had taken a single step, the Const.i.tution was generally proclaimed and joyfully accepted by the populace. From Naples the King sent General Carrascosa to negotiate with the insurgents. In the meanwhile General Pepe, himself a Carbonaro of high rank, hastened to Avellino and placed himself at the head of the revolution. On July 6, the King published an edict promising a const.i.tution within eight days, and then, feigning illness, committed the royal authority to his son, the Duke of Calabria. The Carbonari, recalling the fact that the King, in order to preserve his contingent rights to the Spanish crown, had but recently helped to sign the Spanish Const.i.tution of 1812, insisted that this same Const.i.tution should be proclaimed for Naples. Old King Ferdinand yielded and signed an edict to that effect. General Pepe and Morelli, at the head of the garrison of Avellino, and the national guards of Naples, triumphantly entered the city with public honors, and were received by the Duke of Calabria, in his capacity as viceroy. On July 13, the King in person swore to support the Const.i.tution. Standing before the altar in the royal chapel, he raised his eyes to the crucifix and prayed that the vengeance of G.o.d might fall upon him if ever he broke his oath. Immediately afterward he wrote to the Emperors of Austria and Russia, declaring that his conduct on this occasion was a mere farce and that he regarded his obligations as null and void.

[Sidenote: Revolution in Portugal]

[Sidenote: End of Lisbon regency]

The contagion of Spain and Sicily proved too much for the people of Portugal. The continued absence of the royal family in Brazil, and the unwelcome prolongation of the British regency had long caused dissatisfaction in Portugal. The feeling of discontent was deepened by industrial and commercial distress which made the manifest prosperity of Brazil seem all the more galling. Marshal Beresford, the English commander-in-chief of the Portuguese army, was generally execrated for his barbarous treatment of military conspirators. After the outbreak of the Spanish revolution, the aspect of affairs became so threatening in Portugal that Beresford set out for Rio Janeiro to induce the Princes of Braganza to return to their Court in Lisbon. Before he could accomplish his purpose, the government that he had left behind him was overthrown by the people. On August 24, the city of Oporto rose against the regency. The officers of the army, the magistrates, the priests and townspeople united in declaring against the regency. They established a provisional Junta to govern in the name of the King until the Cortes of Portugal could be convened to frame a const.i.tution. The authority of the regency in Oporto was lost without a blow. The Junta immediately seized the reins of government, and began its career by dismissing all English officers and paying the arrears of the soldiers. In Lisbon the regency itself tried to stem the storm by giving its formal approval to the measures of the Junta of Oporto. The troops of Lisbon, however, would no longer recognize the authority of the government.

Within a fortnight the regency was deposed, and a Junta installed in its place. Beresford was forbidden to return to Portugal. He went to England, but found there that the British Ministry did not deem it advisable to interfere further in the domestic affairs of Portugal. Dom Juan VI., in Rio Janeiro, promised to return to Portugal and bestow on his subjects a liberal const.i.tution.

[Sidenote: British liberalism]

[Sidenote: Sale of Russian fleet]

In England, Lord Beresford's attempt to induce the government to suppress the revolutionists of Portugal only served to strengthen the popular antipathy that had grown up against the reactionary tendencies of the Holy Alliance. Prior to this an attempt had been made to persuade England to act as instrument of the Alliance by suppressing the rebellious colonies of Spain in South America. At the last session of the Holy Alliance, the envoys of Russia and France submitted a paper in which they suggested that Wellington, as "the man of Europe," should go to Madrid to preside over a negotiation between the Court of Spain and all the Amba.s.sadors, regarding the terms to be offered to the transatlantic States. If the colonies continued rebellious, England's fleet was counted upon to reduce them to submission. But the force of liberalism was too strong in England for any British Minister to enter into such a scheme. Then it was that the Czar of Russia sold a large part of the Russian fleet to Spain. To Englishmen, who had seen these same ships in their harbors at the time they were held as hostages by England, this action gave but little concern. The scandal that followed in Spain was antic.i.p.ated in England. On their arrival at Cadiz, the Russian ships were found to be useless rotten hulks.

[Sidenote: Death of George III.]

[Sidenote: Queen Caroline's trial]

[Sidenote: Death of the Queen]

Another more trying scandal engrossed public attention in England. On January 29, old King George III. had at last sunk into his grave. His son, George IV., became king, and began his rule with the same Ministry under Lord Liverpool that had served him as Prince Regent. The new king's first public act was to call for a bill for the divorce of his wife, Caroline of Brunswick. The Cabinet refused to favor such a bill. On April 23, Parliament met. The King sent "a green bag" to each House of Parliament, containing a ma.s.s of testimony and accusations concerning the queen's conduct with her Italian chamberlain, Pergami. On June 6, Queen Caroline arrived from Italy. Having been refused pa.s.sage on a royal ship, she chartered a vessel of her own. This bold step was taken to imply innocence.

She was received with great popular demonstrations in her favor. Before a secret committee of Parliament, Queen Caroline offset the King's charges against her by laying stress on his own well-known failings as a husband.

On July 5, Lord Liverpool introduced a bill of "Pains and Penalties" to dissolve the marriage of Queen Caroline. Her trial was taken up by the House of Lords, where she was defended by Lord Brougham. To this day the proceedings of the trial are remembered as one of the most outrageous scandals in England. The feelings thereby engendered in the people have been immortalized in the trenchant writings of Thackeray. Before the trial was concluded, Lord Liverpool's bill was brought up for the third time in Parliament. It pa.s.sed by a majority of a few votes. With so slender an indors.e.m.e.nt, the Ministry had cause to tremble for its existence. Lord Liverpool prevailed upon the King to recede from his extreme position, and, succeeding in this, moved for the abandonment of the bill. The trial was quashed. Queen Caroline died shortly afterward.

[Sidenote: The Missouri Compromise]

[Sidenote: Cabinet in a quandary]

In America, public feeling was no less excited. The occasion for this was the first serious clash of the Northern and Southern factions of the United States over what was known as the Missouri Compromise. On February 18, the Missouri Compromise bill pa.s.sed the Senate, and on March 2 the House. It admitted Missouri as a slave State, and prohibited slavery north of parallel 36 30', the southern line of Missouri. Henry Clay declared that it settled the slavery question "forever." The bill went to the President.

There was still another compromise, and that was in the Cabinet. The President asked advice on two points. The first point was whether Congress had a Const.i.tutional right to prohibit slavery in a Territory. The Cabinet agreed that the right existed. Then the question arose whether the section prohibiting slavery "forever" referred only to the territorial condition, or whether it also applied when the Territory became a State. The Cabinet, with the exception of Adams, agreed that "forever" applied only to the territorial condition; Adams held that "forever" meant literally forever, in State as well as in Territory. In order to escape this dilemma it was proposed that the question of "forever," as relating to States, should be avoided; and that the only question should be, whether the section prohibiting slavery in the Territories forever was Const.i.tutional. The order of proceeding was reversed; Mr. Adams was to reply in the affirmative without giving his reasons, while the others were to explain in writing that the provision was Const.i.tutional; but "forever" meant only while the territorial condition existed. With this understanding the bill was signed.

It is plain now that in the unsettled point the whole pith and meaning of the Missouri Compromise was contained, as the country learned fully and decisively thirty-five years afterward.

[Sidenote: Monroe elected President]

New issues then came to the front--protection, internal improvements, and recognition of the South American republics. Presently, in order to preserve the balance of power between slavery and freedom, it was enacted that Maine was to be admitted on March 15, making twelve free and twelve slave holding States. A bill was pa.s.sed p.r.o.nouncing the maritime slave trade piracy. On October 20, Spain ratified the treaty ceding Florida.

Congress rea.s.sembled in November. James Monroe and John Quincy Adams were the opposing candidates for the Presidency. Monroe received 231 electoral votes; Adams received one from a New Hampshire elector who voted in sympathy with a popular sentiment that Washington should stand alone in the high honor of a unanimous choice.

[Sidenote: Quinine]

In this year the great fever drug quinine was first clearly separated and identified by Drs. Pelletier and Caventou, who were spurred on to their labors by the previous experiments with the drug by Drs. Gomez and Lambert.

In its crude form the bark of the chinchona tree had been used for its medical properties since times immemorial.

[Sidenote: Homeopathy]

It was about this time that the German physician Hahnemann's theory of homeopathy caused general discussion among medical pract.i.tioners and laymen. Hahnemann's first thesis was that many diseases could most quickly be eradicated by similar effects--fever with fever, poison with anti-poison. This theory of "like with like"--the Greek h.o.m.oia h.o.m.oiois--was accordingly named by him homeopathy. It was most fully expressed in his "Dogma of Rational Healing" and in the later treatise "Chronic Ailments and their Homeopathic Cure." These books created such a widespread sensation that they were at once translated into several languages and ran through a great number of editions. As a matter of course, Hahnemann's peculiar theories were violently combated by his fellow pract.i.tioners.

[Sidenote: Hydropathy]

Almost at the same time with the rise of the new science of homeopathy came Vincenz Priessnitz's innovation of hydropathy or water cure. He established his first sanitarium at Grafenberg, his birthplace, and in the face of vehement medical opposition soon won government recognition for his sanitarium. Similar water-cure establishments were erected by many imitators and followers in Germany and elsewhere.

[Sidenote: Convention of Troppau]

[Sidenote: Intervention in Naples]

Late in the year Emperor Alexander of Russia and Metternich came together to settle on the counter strokes to be delivered against the revolutionists of Spain and southern Italy. When Metternich first heard of the fall of absolute government in Naples he was dismayed. Gentz, who saw him at that time, has left this record: "Prince Metternich went to-day to inform the Emperor of the sad events in Naples. As long as I know him I have never seen him so upset by any event." Metternich had reason to feel alarmed. A revolution in Naples was almost sure to be followed by an Italian uprising in the Austrian possessions of Venice and an insurrection in the Papal States. Had Metternich felt free to follow his own devices, he would forthwith have marched an Austrian army into southern Italy to put an end to the troubles there. With all his exasperation he did not feel free to cut loose from joint action with the Czar and with the other sovereigns of Europe. Thus it came that the summer was spent in arranging for another conference of the allied monarchs. They met on October 20, at Troppau in Moravia. The Emperors of Austria and Russia and the King of Prussia received one another in state. The envoys of England and France were found to be in accord against armed intervention in southern Italy. The other powers determined to proceed on their course without them. Metternich's diplomatic dealings with the Czar were greatly hampered by the clever intrigues of Count Capodistrias, Alexander's foreign minister. For once Metternich found himself matched by a diplomat even more subtle than himself. In the end, he prevailed over Capodistrias sufficiently to overcome Alexander's scruples against harsh measures in Naples. It was determined to invite King Ferdinand to meet the sovereigns at Leibach, in Austria, and to address a summons to the Neapolitans commanding them to abandon their const.i.tution, under threat of immediate invasion. Accordingly a note was issued from Troppau to all the courts of Europe, embodying the doctrine of federative intervention, as applied to Naples.

[Sidenote: King Ferdinand's duplicity]

As soon as King Ferdinand received the summons he prepared to leave Naples.

The populace became aroused, and angry crowds surrounded the palace.

Ferdinand was not allowed to leave Naples until he had once more sworn on his honor to maintain the const.i.tution borrowed from Spain. The King took this oath as readily as he did the other. Then he journeyed northward. Half way, at Leghorn, he sent letters to each of the five princ.i.p.al sovereigns of Europe declaring his last declaration just as null and void as his previous perjuries. His double-dealing was rather too much even for the Holy Alliance. As Gentz, the secretary of the Congress, expressed himself in private: "The conduct of this wretched sovereign, since the beginning of his troubles, has been nothing but a tissue of weaknesses and lies. Happily they will remain secret. No Cabinet will care to draw them from the graveyard of its archives. Till then there is not much harm done."

[Sidenote: Benjamin West]

Benjamin West, the celebrated American-English artist, died at London in his eighty-second year. At the opening of the Eighteenth Century, West was in the forefront of the agitation that grew out of his contested succession to Sir Joshua Reynolds as president of the Royal Academy. Wearied with these quarrels he visited Paris, where he studied the newly pillaged masterpieces at the Louvre. He resigned from the Royal Academy, but was almost unanimously re-elected. It was then that he painted his famous "Christ Healing the Sick." His later works failed to attain the success of his earlier historical paintings. When West died, his reputation had declined appreciably, still a public funeral at St. Paul's Cathedral was accorded to him, a unique honor for an American.

1821

[Sidenote: Congress of Leibach]

[Sidenote: Naples under duress]

The Congress of Leibach met in January. It was attended by the representatives of Russia, Austria, Prussia, England, France, Sardinia and Modena. When King Ferdinand of Naples arrived he was received by the Emperors of Russia and Austria in person. It was predetermined that absolute government in Naples should be restored by Austrian arms. The only problem remaining to diplomacy was to put a respectable face on King Ferdinand's dishonor. Capodistrias offered to make up some fict.i.tious correspondence in which Ferdinand was proudly to uphold the const.i.tution which he had sworn to support, and to yield protestingly to the powers only after actual threats of war. The device was rejected as too transparent.

Moreover, the old king scarcely cared how his conduct appeared to his subjects. A letter was sent in his name to his son, the acting-viceroy, stating that the Powers were determined not to tolerate the order of things sprung from revolution, and that certain securities for peace would have to be given. The reference to securities meant the occupation of the country by an Austrian army. The letter reached Naples on February 9. Three days before the Austrian troops had received their orders to cross the Po.

[Sidenote: Battle of Rieti]

[Sidenote: Revolt of Piedmont]

The invading army of Austria was 50,000 strong. The Neapolitan soldiers numbered a little more than 40,000, of whom 12,000 were in Sicily engaged at Palermo in suppressing a counter revolution for home rule. At the first encounter at Rieti in the Papal territory, the Neapolitans under General Pepe were utterly routed. Their forces melted away, as they did when Murat made his last stroke for Italy and Napoleon. Not a single strong point was defended. On March 24, the Austrians entered Naples. Then came a moment of danger. Rebellion broke out in Piedmont, and an attempt was made to unite the troops of Piedmont with those of Lombardy. The King of Piedmont rather than sign the Spanish Const.i.tution abdicated his throne. On the refusal of the King's brother, Charles Felix, to recognize a const.i.tution, his cousin Charles Albert of Carignano was made the regent and commander of the troops. He advanced so cautiously that the conspirators at Milan dared not follow suit with a revolution of their own. In the meanwhile the Czar had ordered 100,000 Russians to march in the direction of the Adriatic. The Austrian forces advanced westward from the Venetian strongholds, and, brushing aside all resistance, entered Piedmont.

[Sidenote: End of Italian revolution]