Part 23

During this interim the practice of duelling in England, but recently countenanced in the army by the Duke of Wellington, fell under lasting disfavor by the fatal outcome of an army duel, in which Lieutenant Hawkes killed Lieutenant Seaton. About the same time occurred the death of Thomas Hood, the poet and humorist. Born in 1798, as a son of a bookseller, he soon became a writer. As one of the editors of the "London Magazine," he moved among all the principal wits of the day. His first book, "Odes and Addresses to Great People," was written in conjunction with J.H. Reynolds, his brother-in-law. This was followed by "Whims and Oddities," in prose and verse; "National Tales," and "The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies," a book full of imaginative verse. Hood's rich sense of humor found scope in his "Comic Annual," appearing through ten successive years, and his collection of "Whimsicalities." Among his minor poems, "The Bridge of Sighs" and "The Song of the Shirt" deserve special mention.

Sir Sydney Smith, the essayist, died shortly before this. Born in 1771, he studied for orders and became a clergyman. At the opening of the Nineteenth Century he entered the field of authorship with the publication of "Six Sermons Preached at Charlotte Chapel." Then came the famous "Letters on the Catholics, from Peter Plymley to his Brother Abraham." This book established Sydney Smith's reputation as a satirist. For nearly twenty years he published no more books, though a constant contributor to the "Edinburgh Review." Some idea of Sydney Smith's pungent style may be derived from his famous remarks on England's taxation during the wars with Napoleon: "The schoolboy," he said, "whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine which has paid seven per cent, into a spoon which has paid fifteen per cent, flings himself back upon his chintz bed which has paid twenty-two per cent, and expires in the arms of an apothecary, who has paid a license of one hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from two to ten per cent. Large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel; his virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble, and then he is gathered to his forefathers to be taxed no more."

It was Sydney Smith, too, who asked the famous question: "Who ever reads an American book?" In 1824 Sydney Smith broke his long silence as an author, with the fervent pamphlet "The Judge that Smites Contrary to the Law." This was followed by a long series of open letters on clerical and political questions of the day. Shortly before his death he brought out a collection of sermons. A posthumous work was his collection, "Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy." Sydney Smith's case has been held up, together with that of Swift, as an example of political ingratitude. Despite all his labors for the Whig cause, but slender recognition was given to him by his political friends in office. The excuse for not making him a bishop was that his writings were generally regarded as inconsistent with clerical decorum. Like Jeffrey, Wilson and other distinguished contributors to English periodical literature at this time, he left no truly great work to posterity.

Elizabeth Fry, the great English prison reformer, died on October 15. She it was that improved the condition of women prisoners at Newgate. Later her influence was apparent in most of the reforms introduced into the jails, houses of correction, lunatic asylums and infirmaries of England, the abuses of which were so eloquently voiced by Dickens.

Lord John Russell's attempts to form a new Ministry proved unsuccessful, largely because Lord Howick--who by the death of his father had become Earl Grey--refused to join the new Ministry on account of his objections to the foreign policy of Lord Palmerston. Sir Robert Peel was presently recalled. All of his colleagues retained their posts, except Lord Stanley, superseded by Gladstone. Soon after Peel's re-entry into office, the London "Times" announced that the Cabinet had decided on proposing a measure for the repeal of the corn laws. This premature announcement was one of the most startling journalistic achievements of the time. Notwithstanding all the published denials it was generally believed, and was followed by a great fall in the price of corn.

In the mind of the Ministry, as well as of the country at large, the threatening state of foreign affairs claimed precedence. In Autumn the Sikh army of the Khalsa had crossed the Sutlej, to the number of 60,000 warriors, 40,000 armed followers and 150 guns. Sir John Little marched out of Ferozepore with 10,000 troops and 31 guns to offer battle, but the Sikhs preferred to surround them. Meanwhile, Sir Hugh Gough and Sir Henry Hardinge, the new Governor-General, hurried toward the frontier with a large relieving force. On September 18, they met the army of Lal Singh at Moodkee and won a slender success. But for the flight of Lal Singh, the Sikhs might have claimed the victory. The British troops now advanced on the Sikh intrenchments, Ferozeshahar, where they effected a junction with Little. On December 21, the British advanced in force, but encountered such stubborn resistance that the day ended in a drawn battle. Not until after sunset did Gough's battalions succeed in storming the most formidable of the Sikh batteries. After a night of horrors the battle was resumed. The Sikh soldiers, who had risen in mutiny against their own leaders, fell back and yielded their strong position. The second army of the Sikhs under Tej Singh came up too late. After a brief artillery engagement, all the Sikh forces fell back across the Sutlej River.

1846

In January, the hostile forces on both sides of the Sutlej River in India were reinforced. The Sikhs recrossed the river, entered British territory, and hostilities were renewed. On January 27, Sir Harry Smith defeated a part of the Sikh forces at Aliwal. The Sikhs threw up intrenchments at Sobraon. On February 10, the British army advanced to the attack under Gough and Hardinge. The battle proved one of the hardest fought in the history of British India. Advancing in line, the British had two battalions mowed down by the Khalsa guns. Tej Singh broke down the bridge over the river. After fighting all day, the British at last succeeded in driving the Sikhs into the Sutlej at the point of the bayonet. The victory was dearly won. The British losses were 2,000 men, while the Sikhs were said to have lost 8,000. This practically ended the first Sikh war. The British army crossed the Sutlej River by means of their pontoons, and, pushing on to Lahore, there dictated terms of peace. An indemnity of a million and a half pounds was exacted. It was paid by Gholab Singh, the Viceroy of Cashmere and Jamu, upon British recognition of his independence of the Sikh Government at Lahore. The British frontier was extended from the banks of the Sutlej to those of the Ravi.

In England, Sir Henry Hardinge's services in the Sikh war were rewarded by his elevation to the peerage. The distress of the previous year continued, owing partly to a commercial panic brought on by overspeculation in railways, and partly to a repeated failure of the crops. To relieve the potato famine in Ireland, Parliament voted £10,000,000 for that country. In the midst of this general distress the twopenny omnibuses made their first appearance in London, and the first issue of the "Daily News" appeared in the metropolis. Leigh Hunt brought out his stories from the Italian poets. Sir Aubrey De Vere, the Irish poet, died in his thirty-ninth year. A few years before his death he had published his "Song of Faith" and other poems. A posthumous publication was the poetic drama "Mary Tudor." Thomas Clarkson, the great anti-slavery advocate of England, died soon afterward, in his eighty-sixth year. Early during the first Parliamentary session Sir Robert Peel avowed his complete change of face in regard to the corn laws. The rage of the protectionists was voiced by Benjamin Disraeli, then known chiefly as a writer of novels remarkable for the wild exuberance of their fancy. He denounced Peel as a political trimmer and no more of a statesman "than a boy who steals a ride behind a carriage is a great whip." Peel, in speaking for the principle of free trade, declared that England had received no guarantees from any foreign government that her example would be followed. Notwithstanding their hostile tariffs, however, he showed that the value of British exports had increased above £10,000,000 since the first reductions in the tariffs were made. On June 26, a bill for the total repeal of the corn laws was at last accepted. It passed through the Commons by a majority of 98 votes, while in the House of Peers, largely through the efforts of the Duke of Wellington, a majority of 47 was attained. The wrath of the defeated protectionists found vent on the same day when another Irish oppression bill was brought before the House. Lord Bentinck, as the mouthpiece of the protectionist party, launched forth in vehement invective against Sir Robert Peel, "his forty paid janizaries, and the seventy other members who, in supporting him, blazoned forth their own shame." In conclusion, Lord Bentinck called upon Parliament to "kick the bill and the Ministry out together," exclaiming, "It is time that atonement should be made to the betrayed honor of Parliament and of England." After this speech the Ministry called for a vote of confidence. It was denied by a majority of 73 votes against the government. On June 29, Sir Robert Peel announced his resignation. In a final speech he gave all credit for the repeal of the corn laws to Richard Cobden. A few weeks later a testimonial of £80,000 was placed at the disposal of Richard Cobden for his eminent services in promoting the repeal of the corn laws. On July 16, Lord Russell succeeded Peel as Prime Minister. His Cabinet included the Marquis of Lansdowne, Viscount Palmerston, Earl Grey, Earl Granville, Lord Auckland and Gladstone. The Duke of Wellington was retained in supreme command of the army. Unlike other heroes, he lived to see several monuments raised to his fame. Thus the grand Wellington Monument in London, made chiefly from captured cannon, was erected at the corner of Hyde Park. Otherwise it was a year of bridge building in England. At Newcastle a high level bridge was erected, while at Conway and at the Menai Strait work was begun on two of the greatest tubular bridges of England. In Germany, Schoenbein invented gun-cotton. About the time of the death of Friedrich Bessel, the great German astronomer, one of the greatest triumphs of abstract astronomical reasoning was achieved. In France, Leverrier had worked out the position of the planet Neptune, finally determining it on September 23. He communicated this to Johann Gallé at Berlin, who discovered the planet on the same night. Adams, in England, a few months previous, had made calculations to the same effect, and communicated with Challis, but owing to delays Challis did not discover the planet until after Gallé. The Royal Astronomical Society at London awarded its gold medal to each as equally deserving. Within a few days after this discovery, on October 10, a satellite of Neptune was discovered by Laselle. Eugène Sue, moved by the popular agitation against the Jesuits, wrote his novel of the "Wandering Jew," first published in serials.

Another attempt to kill King Louis Philippe by one Lecompte in April had been frustrated by the Guards. On July 29, Joseph Henry risked his life in the seventh attempt at the assassination of the King. Louis Bonaparte, the quondam king of Holland, who resigned his throne rather than submit to his brother Napoleon's demands, died in his sixty-eighth year. His namesake, Prince Louis Napoleon, imprisoned in the fortress of Ham, succeeded in making a sensational escape disguised in the garb of a stone mason. Once more he returned to his exile in England.

On July 8, King Christian VIII. of Denmark published an open letter in which he reasserted the union of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein with Denmark regardless of the differing systems of succession prevailing in these provinces. The question of succession was so intricate that the Chancelleries of Europe despaired of satisfactory solution. Inasmuch as Schleswig and Holstein had been recognized as German principalities entitled to representation in the Germanic Confederation, the German people as such objected to their absolute incorporation with Denmark. The storm raised over King Christian's letter was such as to forebode no other settlement than by arms.

Pope Gregory XVI. died at Rome in his eighty-first year. At the time of his death the Papal prisons were filled with conspirators and reformers, among whom were some of his best subjects. His death gave new hope to the followers of Gioberti, whose political dreams depicted a new Italy, regenerated by the moral force of a reforming Papacy. Austria's candidate for the Papacy having failed to secure the requisite number of votes in the College of Cardinals, Mastai Ferretti, Bishop of Imola, was elected, and on June 17 assumed the title Pius IX. The choice of this popular prelate was taken to be a tribute to Italian feeling. The first acts of Pio Nono confirmed this impression. Universal amnesty was extended to political prisoners. Hundreds of Italian patriots who had been sentenced to imprisonment for life were set free. When, in addition to this, permission was given to the citizens of Rome to enroll themselves in the new civic guard, all Rome gave itself up to popular rejoicings. The climax of national enthusiasm was reached when the new Pope took occasion to voice a formal protest against the designs of Austria upon Ferrara.

For the time being the Austrian Government was too preoccupied with its troubles at home to carry its Italian policy to extremes. The Polish refugees at Paris had long determined to strike another blow for the freedom of their country. It was arranged that the Polish provinces in Austria and Prussia should rise and revolt, early during this year, and extend the revolution to Russian Poland. But the Prussian Government crushed the conspiracy before a blow was struck. In Austria the attempt was more successful. Late in February insurrection broke out in the free city of Cracow. General Collin occupied the city, but his forces proved too weak. The Polish nobles around Tarnow in Northern Galicia raised the standard of revolt. Some 40,000 Polish insurgents marched on Cracow. A severe reverse was inflicted upon them by the government troops. Now the peasants turned against the nobles, burning down the largest estates and plunging the country into anarchy. The landowners, face to face with the humiliating fact that their own tenants were their bitterest foes, charged the Austrian Government with having instigated a communistic revolt. In a circular note to the European courts, Metternich protested that the outbreak of the Polish peasantry was purely spontaneous. A simultaneous attempt at revolution in Silesia was ruthlessly put down. Austria, Russia and Prussia now revoked the treaty of Vienna in regard to Poland. Cracow, which had been recognized as an independent republic, was annexed by Austria with the consent of Russia and Prussia, and against the protests of England, France and Sweden. New measures of repression against Polish national aspirations were taken in Russia. The last traces of Poland were blotted from the map of nations. It was then that Tennyson wrote his famous sonnet on Poland:

"How long, O God, shall men be ridden down, And trampled under by the last and least Of men? The heart of Poland hath not ceased To quiver, tho' her sacred blood doth drown The fields, and out of every smouldering town Cries to Thee, lest brute Power be increased."

In Russia during this year Otto von Kotzebue, the great navigator and Arctic explorer, died in his fifty-ninth year.

Almost simultaneously with the attempted revolution of Poland, another revolt broke out in Portugal. On April 20, the northern provinces rose against the Ministry of Costa Cabral, the Duke of Tomar. After desultory fighting, the Duke of Plamella, one of the commanders of the constitutional army, gave up the struggle. He resigned his post and was banished from the country. Late in the year the Marquis of Saldanha, with a force of Pedro loyalists, defeated Count Bonfinn at the Torres Vedras.

In Spain, the long-pending diplomatic struggle over the Spanish marriages culminated, on October 10, in the wedding of Queen Isabella to her cousin, Don Francisco d'Assisi, Duke of Cadiz. Put forward by France, this prince was physically unfit for marriage. Simultaneously with the Queen's wedding, her sister was married to the Duke of Montpensier, the son of Louis Philippe. Thus the King of France and his Minister, Guizot, had their way.

Lord Palmerston's candidature of the Prince of Saxe-Coburg for Queen Isabella's hand was foiled. It proved a doubtful success for France. The entente cordiale between France and Great Britain was broken. Guizot was charged in the Chambers with sacrificing the most valuable foreign alliance for the purely dynastic ambitions of the House of Orleans. Having cut loose from England, Guizot now endeavored through his diplomatic envoys to form a new concert of Europe from which England should be left out.

Great Britain's diplomatic dispute with America, concerning the northwestern boundary, was satisfactorily settled by the Oregon treaty, signed on June 15. Before this a peremptory demand had been put forward by the American Congress that the joint occupation of Oregon should cease. The British originally claimed all the territory west of the Rocky Mountains, from Mexico to Alaska. For years the land was settled jointly. Now the forty-ninth degree of northern latitude was accepted as the boundary between British North America and the United States. The Columbia River was retained by the United States, with free navigation conceded to English ships, while the seaport of Vancouver, the importance of which was not as yet recognized, fell to England. The value of this possession was soon revealed. Agents of the British Hudson's Bay Company selected Victoria, on the Island of Vancouver, as the most promising British port in the Pacific. During this same year, Dr. John Rae, by sledge journeys of more than 1,200 miles, explored the northernmost region, Boothia, wherein was determined the northern magnetic pole.

On October 16, Dr. J.C. Warren of Boston, to whom Drs. Wells and Morton had communicated their discoveries with sulphuric ether, demonstrated the potency of the drug in a public test. A severe operation was performed at the Boston Hospital, in the presence of some of the foremost medical men of the city, while the patient remained unconscious. The news was heralded abroad and was received by medical men throughout the world as a new revelation. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the famous physician and author, named the new method "Anæsthesia." The credit of the new discovery was claimed forthwith by several persons--notably by Dr. Charles T. Jackson of Boston, and Dr. Crawford W. Long of Alabama. A few months after the value of ether in surgery had come to be clearly recognized, a Scotch surgeon, Sir J.V. Simpson, discovered that chloroform could be administered with analogous effect.

In the United States, during this period, the long-expected war with Mexico was well under way. By a joint resolution of Congress, Texas had at last been admitted into the Union. General Taylor took position in Texas, opposite Matamoras on the Rio Grande, where the Mexican troops were gathering. Taylor presently moved his troops to Point St. Isabel. There a fleet of seven ships brought supplies. Leaving a part of his force there, he marched to a point on the Rio Grande opposite Matamoras, where he built Fort Brown, named after Major Brown, whom he left in command. The ground was malarious, and many soldiers died of disease. On April 12, the Mexican general, Ampudia, moved forward with a strong force to drive Taylor beyond the Rio de la Nueces. Ampudia demanded that Taylor should withdraw within twenty-four hours, but Taylor refused to leave what he claimed to be the soil of the United States. Ampudia hesitated, and General Arista was appointed in his place. Learning that two vessels with supplies for the Mexicans were about to enter the Rio Grande, Taylor caused the river to be blockaded, at the "cost of war." Arista prepared to attack Fort Brown, and cut off communication between Taylor and his supplies. Captain Thornton's command, sent out to reconnoitre, was captured on April 26. Only Thornton escaped by leaping his horse over a dense hedge. On May 1, leaving Major Brown in command at the fort, Taylor made a forced march to Point Isabel. The Mexicans promptly sent men across the river to the rear of Fort Brown, and opened fire together with the guns of Matamoras on that work. Major Brown was first among the killed. Signal guns were fired to recall Taylor. With 2,300 men he turned back on May 6. Meanwhile, 6,000 Mexicans had arrived and taken up a strong position at Palo Alto. On the 8th, Taylor assaulted the superior force confronting him. Two eighteen-pounders and two light batteries made fearful havoc in the closed ranks of the Mexican infantry. The prairie grass between the two armies took fire. Both lines drew back, but soon renewed the fight. Taylor's left was met by cannonade, but the Mexican column was overthrown and the entire force fell back to Resaca de la Palma. The Americans took up their march to Fort Brown. When within three miles of the fort they encountered the Mexicans, strongly posted in Resaca de la Palma, a ravine three hundred feet wide bordered with palmetto trees. Taylor deployed a portion of his force as skirmishers, and a company of dragoons overrode the first Mexican battery. The Americans then advanced their battery to the crest. A regiment charged in column, and, joined by the skirmishers, seized the enemy's artillery. After hard fighting in the chaparral, the Mexicans were put to flight. The Mexicans lost one thousand men, the Americans conceded but one hundred. Refusing an armistice, Taylor crossed the river on May 18, and unfurled the Stars and Stripes on Mexican territory. Another attempted stand of the Mexicans resulted in worse defeat. Arista's retreat became a rout. Of 7,000 men he brought only 2,500 to Linares. The American troops occupied Matamoras, Reinosa and Camargo. The three States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo Leon were annexed to the territory of the Rio Grande. In the interior of Mexico a revolution broke out. General Paredes was made President.

In July, Colonel Philip Kearney, with an American force, marched unopposed from the Arkansas River and took possession of Santa Fé. On August 1, he annexed the State of New Mexico as a Territory of the United States. In May, Captain John C. Fremont, in charge of an exploring expedition in the South, received a message from Secretary of State Buchanan and Senator Benton, whose daughter he had married, suggesting that he should remain in California. Fremont took the hint and returned to Sacramento. There he learned that the Mexican commander was about to take the offensive. He at once assumed command of the American forces, and on June 15 captured Sonoma. Meanwhile Commodores Sloat and Stockton took possession of the coast towns as far as Los Angeles, and, on August 13, held Monterey, the capital of California. Fremont set up a provisional government, placing himself at the head. In the meantime, the United States had sent a company of artillery, which took two hundred days in making the journey around the Horn. Among its members were three future heroes of the American Civil War--Lieutenants Sherman, Halleck and Ord.

The news of these events did not reach Washington until after Congress had declared war on April 26, authorized a call for 50,000 volunteers, and made an appropriation of $10,000,000. Three hundred thousand volunteers responded. Of these some 75,000 were enrolled with the regular army of 40,000. President Polk, on May 11, sent to Congress an aggressive measure, announcing that war existed by the act of Mexico. On May 23, Mexico made her formal declaration of war. General Taylor, with the army of occupation, was ordered to seize and hold points on the Rio Grande.

General Taylor waited at Matamoras until September 19, when, having been joined by General Worth, he encamped with 6,000 men within three miles of Monterey, a strongly fortified place, ninety miles distant from Matamoras. On the north, Monterey was protected by a strong citadel, with lunettes on the east, and by two fortified hills on either side of the river just above the town. Worth's division planted itself above the city on the Mexican line of retreat. Garland's brigade, advancing between the citadel and the first lunette, reached the city with heavy loss. After three companies had failed to move to Garland's support, two other companies passed to the rear of the citadel and compelled the Mexicans to abandon that point. An attempt on the second lunette failed with heavy loss to the Americans. The next morning Worth endeavored to capture the fortified eminence south of the river. The Americans advanced in the face of a plunging artillery fire. A host of skirmishers clambered over the parapet and turned its guns on the fleeing Mexicans, and, with two supporting regiments moving along the slope, drove the Mexicans out of Fort Saldado. At daybreak the hill on the north side of the river was carried. These positions commanded the western half of the city. On the morning of the 23d, the American troops fought their way in, but were driven out again. Worth's men then pushed into the town from the west, and finding the streets swept by artillery, broke into the houses. On the next morning, September 24, Ampudia capitulated. The capture of Monterey inspired the American poet, Charles F. Hoffman, to a song modelled after the famous St. Crispin's Day speech in Shakespeare's "King Henry V.":

We were not many--we who stood Before the iron sleet that day; Yet many a gallant spirit would Give half his years if he but could Have been with us at Monterey.

Our banners on those turrets wave, And there our evening bugles play; Where orange-boughs above their grave Keep green the memory of the brave Who fought and fell at Monterey.

An armistice of eight weeks was agreed upon. The armistice was disapproved by the American Secretary of War, and, in November, General Scott was ordered to take command and conduct the war on his own plans.

In Mexico, General Paredes, who favored the restoration of monarchical rule, was opposed by General Alvarez in the south. When Paredes left the capital to go to the front, revolution broke out behind him. Don Mariano Solas, the commandant of the City of Mexico, summoned to his aid General Santa Anna. On his arrival this popular general, but recently banished from the capital, was hailed as the saviour of his country and was invested with the supreme military command. Paredes went into exile. Santa Anna, after inexplicable delay, raised war funds to the amount of six million dollars, and advanced toward San Luis Potosi. There the "Napoleon of the West," as they called him in Mexico, wasted more precious months.