A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 62

[Sidenote: King of Delhi transported]

The subsequent history of the Sepoy revolt is largely a recital of military operations for the dispossession of the rebels and the restoration of British supremacy. Sir Colin Campbell, now Lord Clyde, undertook a general and successful campaign against the rebels of Oude and Rohlikund, and Sir James Outram drove them out of Lucknow, and re-established British sovereignty in the capital of Oude. At the same time a column under Sir Hugh Rose and another under General Whitlock did a similar work in Central India and Bundelkund. Rose's campaign was peculiarly difficult. It was carried out amid the jungles and ravines of the Vindhya Mountains, and in the secluded regions of Bundelkund. He fought battles against baffling odds, and captured the stronghold of Jhansi. He then marched against Tantia Topi, who had an army of 40,000 near Kalpi, which he routed and scattered.

Having brought his campaign to a close, he congratulated his troops on having marched a thousand miles, defeated and dispersed the enemy, and captured a hundred guns. The old King of Delhi was put on trial, convicted and sentenced to transportation. He was sent to the Cape of Good Hope, but the colonists there refused to receive him. The last of the line of the Great Moguls of India had to go begging for a prison.

Toward the close of the year, when the Indian mutiny appeared to have spent its force, Lord Elgin returned from Calcutta to Hong Kong. In the meanwhile the English, French and American Governments had exchanged notes on the subject of Chinese outrages against Christians. Louis Napoleon was found to be in hearty accord with England's desire to make an example of China.

Baron Gros was sent to China charged with a mission similar to that of Lord Elgin. The United States declined to join in active measures against China.

[Sidenote: Buchanan, American President]

In the United States of America, James Buchanan had become President at sixty-six years of age. He had served as a member of Congress from 1821 to 1831; then as Minister to Russia from 1832 to 1834; United States Senator from 1834 to 1845; Secretary of State under Polk from 1845 to 1849, and Minister to Great Britain from 1853 to 1856.

[Sidenote: Dred Scott case]

Buchanan's first message repeated the a.s.surance that the discussion of slavery had come to an end. The clergy were found fault with for fomenting the disturbances. The President declared in favor of the admission of Kansas with a Const.i.tution agreeable to the majority of the settlers. He also referred to an impending decision of the Supreme Court with which he had been acquainted and asked acquiescence in it. This was Judge Taney's decision in the Dred Scott case, rendered two days after Buchanan's inauguration. An action had been begun in the Circuit Court in Missouri by Scott, a negro, for the freedom of himself and children. He claimed that he had been removed by his master in 1834 to Illinois, a free State, and afterward taken into territory north of the compromise line. Sanford, his master, replied that Scott was not a citizen of Missouri, and could not bring an action, and that he and his children were Sanford's slaves. The lower courts differed, and the case was twice argued.

[Sidenote: The decision]

The decision nullified the Missouri restriction, or, indeed, any restriction by Congress on slavery in the Territories. Chief-Justice Taney said: "The question is whether that cla.s.s of persons (negroes) compose a portion of the people, and are const.i.tuent members of this sovereignty. We think they are not included under the word citizen in the Const.i.tution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges" of that instrument.

"They were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior cla.s.s who had been subjugated by the dominant race--and had no rights or privileges but such as those who held the power and the government might choose to grant them. They had for more than a century been regarded as beings of an inferior grade--and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man is bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his (the white man's) benefit. The negro race by common consent had been excluded from civilized governments and the family of nations and doomed to slavery. The unhappy black race were separated from the whites by indelible marks long before established, and were never thought of or spoken of except as property." The Chief-Justice nullified the Missouri restriction, by a.s.serting that "the act of Congress, which prohibited a citizen from holding property of this kind north of the line therein mentioned, is not warranted by the Const.i.tution, and is therefore void." This made slavery the organic law of the land. Benton said that it was "no longer the exception with freedom the rule, but slavery the rule, with freedom the exception."

[Sidenote: Financial distress]

[Sidenote: Trouble with Mormons]

It was a year of financial distress in America, which recalled the hard times of twenty years before. The United States Treasury was empty. There had been a too rapid building of railway lines in comparatively undeveloped regions where they could not pay expenses for years to come. Settlers did not come so quickly as was expected, and a fall in railway shares resulted.

There was great loss, yet the country suffered less than in 1837. During the summer the Mormons in Utah gave new trouble. Brigham Young, after Utah was excluded from the Union, destroyed the records of the United States courts, and practically drove Federal judges from their seats and other officials from the Territory. The Mormons now numbered 40,000 members, and felt strong enough to defy the government.

[Sidenote: Ma.s.sacre of Mount Meadow]

In September, the Indians, believed to have been instigated by the Mormons, ma.s.sacred an immigrant train of 120 persons at Mountain Meadow in Utah.

Alfred c.u.mming, Superintendent of Indian Affairs on the upper Missouri, displaced Young as Governor of Utah. Judge Eckles of Indiana was appointed Chief-Justice of the Territory. A force of 2,500 men under Colonel A.S.

Johnston was sent to Utah to suppress interference with the laws of the United States. On the arrival of the Federal troops in the autumn, they were attacked, on October 6, by the Mormons, their supply trains were destroyed, and their oxen driven off. Colonel Johnston was compelled to find winter quarters at Fort Bridger.

Early in the year a Legislature had met at Topeka, Kansas, and was immediately dissolved by the United States marshals. A Territorial Legislature also met at Lecompton and provided for a State Const.i.tution.

The people of Kansas utterly refused to recognize the Legislature chosen by the Missouri invaders, and both parties continued to hold their elections.

[Sidenote: Quintana]

Manuel Jose de Quintana, the Spanish playwright and patriotic poet, died on March 11, at Madrid. He was one of the many Spanish writers whose first poetic inspirations were derived from the stirring incidents of the Peninsular War. On the return of King Ferdinand VII., Quintana had to expiate his liberal sentiments by a term of six years in the prison of Pampeluna. The revolution of 1820 brought about his release, but three years later he was banished again from Madrid. An ode on King Ferdinand's marriage restored him to royal favor. He was appointed tutor to the Infanta Isabella, and in 1833 was made Minister of Public Instruction. Two years before his death Queen Isabella publicly crowned the poet with a wreath of laurel in the hall of the Cortes. It was a well-merited honor, for the poet's patriotic odes and ringing lyrics long before this had taken rank among the finest productions of the modern literature of Spain.

[Sidenote: Jules Breton]

Jules Breton, the famous French pupil of Drolling and of Devigne, exhibited this year at Paris one of his greatest works, "La Benediction des Bles." It was of this picture that Hamerton, the author of "Painting in France,"

wrote: "It is technically a work of singular importance in modern art for its almost perfect interpretation of sunshine."

[Sidenote: Alfred de Musset]

[Sidenote: Relations with Georges Sand]

[Sidenote: "Rolla" and "Les Nuits"]

Alfred de Musset, the French lyric poet, died on May 1, in Paris. Born in 1810, the scion of an old aristocratic family, he was brought up with the Duke of Orleans. They remained intimate friends until the Duke's death in 1842. In his eighteenth year De Musset took rank among the romantic writers of Paris by his first volume of poems--"Contes d'Espagne et d'Italie."

During the next two years De Musset published another volume of poems and the collection "Un Spectacle dans un Fauteuil," and followed this up with several essays in dramatic verse, published under the t.i.tle "Comedies Injouables." In 1833, De Musset went to Italy together with Georges Sand, but in Venice the lovers quarrelled and separated. The character of Stenio in Georges Sand's novel "Lelia" was recognized as a personification of De Musset. Alfred de Musset himself drew on these experiences for his novel "Confessions d'un Enfant du Siecle," published upon his return from Italy in 1836. Georges Sand, stung by De Musset's allegations concerning her, gave her version of their relations in the famous book "Elle et Lui,"

whereupon De Musset's brother Paul published an even less lovely version of the affair, in his book "Lui et Elle." During the succeeding year De Musset became one of the foremost contributors to the "Revue des Deux Mondes." In its pages appeared most of his "Comedies et Proverbes," and the lyric pieces of "Rolla" and "Les Nuits." Among his prose tales of this period were "Emmeline," "Les deux Maitresses," "Frederic et Bernerette," and "Le Fils du t.i.tien." Having lost part of his income, the poet was made librarian of the Ministry of the Interior at the instance of the Duke of Orleans, and as such received an ample pension. After the revolution of 1848 he was deprived of this stipend. Louis Napoleon, on his coronation as Emperor, restored Alfred de Musset to office and had him elected to the French Academy. During his last years the poet wrote but little verse.

[Sidenote: De Musset's pessimism]

[Sidenote: "Rappelle-toi"]

As a lyric poet, Alfred de Musset claims foremost rank among the modern writers of France. His verse, like that of his contemporaries, Byron, Lermontov, Leopardi, Lenau and Heine, is tinged with sadness and pessimism.

Like them, too, he excels in the mastery of the subtile beauties of his native tongue. Characteristic of the spirit of his verse, if not of its outward form, are these lines, translated from his beautiful lyric "Rappelle-toi!"

Recall our love when the shy dawn unfoldeth The enchanted radiance of the morning sun-- Recall our love when darkling night beholdeth Veiled trains of silvery stars pa.s.s one by one, When wild thy bosom palpitates with pleasure, Or when the shades of night lull thee in dreamy measure; Then lend a willing ear To murmurings far and near: Recall our love!

Recall our love when fate hath separated Thy heart and mine, estranged for evermore-- When by the grief of exile ever mated The soul is crushed that soared so high before-- Remember our sad love, remember how we parted-- Time, absence, grief, are naught for love full-hearted, So long as fond hearts beat, They ever must repeat: Recall our love!

Recall our love when under earth reposes This heart at last lulled in eternal sleep-- Recall our love when on my grave dark roses In solitude their tender petals weep.

You will not see me more, but in immortal anguish My stricken soul will ever near you languish; Under the midnight sky A spirit voice will sigh, Recall our love!

[Sidenote: "Les Fleurs de Mal"]

[Sidenote: Baudelaire's Litany]

During this same year in France the pessimism of Alfred de Musset was outdone by Baudelaire's famous collection of poems "Les Fleurs de Mal."

Baudelaire, as a poet, took a unique place in French literature. Following in the footsteps of Victor Hugo, and the American, Poe--whose works he was the first to translate into French--he outdid both these masters of the grotesque in bizarre creations. He was the founder of diabolism in French letters. As Sainte-Beuve wrote of Baudelaire: "S'est pris l'enfer et s'est fait diable." The lucubrations of the so-called Satanic School of Byron, Sh.e.l.ley and Hugo were surpa.s.sed by Baudelaire's rapt worship of evil as the great power of the world. Take his famous Litany to Satan:

O thou the wisest and most beautiful of cherubim, A G.o.d betrayed by fate and reft of worshipping, O Satan, have pity on my endless woe!

Thou, who dost save the bones of the old sot That reels 'twixt prancing steeds and heeds them not, O Satan, have pity on my endless woe!

Adopted father of those whom in his rage on high The G.o.d of Vengeance banished from his paradise, O Satan, have pity on my endless woe!

Baudelaire's worship of evil was genuine, since he cared nothing for any virtue save the crowning virtue of artistic excellence. From beginning to end his "Fleurs de Mal" may be said to have blossomed in defiance of all that the world has accepted as virtuous. Baudelaire's unusual sense of the grotesque is believed to have been fostered by his early voyages in the Far East.

[Sidenote: Czerny]

Carl Czerny, the eminent pianist and teacher, died on July 15, at the age of sixty-six, at his birthplace, Vienna. Czerny while a boy showed rare talent for music. He received encouragement from such men as Beethoven, Clementi and Hummel, and began his career as a teacher at sixteen. An early concert tour in 1804 had to be given up on account of the wars. The rest of his life was spent in Vienna, where he became one of the most influential teachers. In all he published over a thousand compositions, the most lasting of which were his pedagogic piano studies. As a musical writer he gained recognition by a work on the history of music.

[Sidenote: Death of Beranger]

[Sidenote: The poet's early career]

[Sidenote: Napoleonic songs]

[Sidenote: Beranger in prison]

On the day following Czerny's death, Jean Pierre Beranger, the great French song writer, died at Paris. He was seventy-seven years old. Little cared for by his father, he was brought up by his grandfather, a tailor, who let him roam the streets as a gamin. At the age of nine he was sent to act as a tavern boy for his aunt, who kept a small inn near Peronne in Picardy. In his fourteenth year he was apprenticed to a printer, and learned the first principles of versification while setting up the poems of Andre Chenier. On his own behalf he soon printed a small volume of songs ent.i.tled "A Garland of Roses." In 1798, he returned to Paris, and was reclaimed by his father.

For more than a year he had no settled occupation, during which time he composed some of his best songs. At the outset of the Nineteenth Century, Beranger definitely determined to follow the career of letters. He wrote a comedy, but failing to get it accepted threw it into the fire. Collecting all his poems he sent them to Lucien Bonaparte, the enlightened brother of the First Consul. Prince Lucien took the young poet under his patronage, but, unfortunately for Beranger, soon had to leave France, an exile. On his arrival at Rome, Lucien Bonaparte transmitted to Beranger the salary coming to him as a member of the Inst.i.tute. As a song writer Beranger made the most of his opportunities. In 1809, he was appointed Secretary of the University of France, an office which he held throughout the Napoleonic era. In 1813, he became a member of the Jolly Topers of the Caveau, then the resort of the most distinguished literary men of Paris. On the fall of Napoleon, Beranger took it upon himself to sing the glory of the fallen empire in elegiac strains. A severe reprimand was administered to him by the government. His second series of Napoleonic songs, published in 1821, cost him his place and three months' confinement in the prison of St.

Pelagie, while his third (1828) subjected him to nine months' imprisonment in La Force and a fine of ten thousand francs. The fine was paid by his admirers, and the prison in which he was incarcerated became the gathering place of the most celebrated literary men of the day. The songs which he composed during this period helped to bring about the revolution of 1830.