A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 2

In France, likewise, the return of peace gave a new lease of life to literature. The French Academy was reorganized to consist of forty members, who were elected for life, and who were to be regarded as "the highest authority on questions relating to language, grammar, rhetoric, poetry and the publication of the French cla.s.sics." Chateaubriand was the Academy's foremost member. Beranger on the other hand, albeit his lyrics had reached the height of their popularity, fell into official disfavor by reason of his glorification of Napoleonic times, as exemplified in his ballads "La Vivandiere," "La Cocarde Blanche," or "Le Juge de Charenton." The last poem, with its veiled allusions to the Lavalette episode, was made the subject of an interpellation in the Chamber of Deputies. While this was still pending further offence was given by the publication of Beranger's satirical piece on "The Holy Alliance." Beranger had to give up his position as secretary at the University of France, and was soon afterward arrested among his boon companions at Madame Saguet's near Le Moulin Vert.

He was placed on trial for the alleged blasphemies committed in his song "Le Dieu des Bonnes Gens," and condemned to spend three months in prison and to pay a heavy fine.

[Sidenote: Death of Madame de Stael]

[Sidenote: Death of Ma.s.sena]

Other literary events of the year were the publication of Beyle's "Lives of Mozart and Haydn"; the performance of Scribe's early plays, and the death of Madame de Stael, which occurred on July 14. This gifted daughter of Necker had not been allowed to return to France until after the fall of Napoleon. Her last work was a treatise of the Const.i.tutional Government, ent.i.tled "Considerations sur les Princ.i.p.aux Evenements de la Revolution Francaise," and published posthumously by her long time German companion and adviser, Schlegel. Marshal Ma.s.sena died during the same year. His funeral was attended with imposing military honors rendered him by his old followers and comrades-in-arms, who recalled the triumphs of Rivoli, Essling, and a score of other victories in which this famous warrior had borne the brunt of the fighting.

[Sidenote: Wachabite rebellion]

[Sidenote: Seminole war]

This year would have been one of peace, the first since the outbreak of the French Revolution, but for another uprising of the Wachabites in Arabia under the standard of Tourkee and the re-occurrence of North American Indian troubles. A year had pa.s.sed after the destruction of Fort Negro in Florida before the whites found a pretext for another attack. King Natchez was accused of receiving fugitive negroes, and he replied: "I have no negroes.... I shall use force to stop any armed American from pa.s.sing my lands or my towns." The Seminoles looked with alarm on the new forts of the United States. At Fowltown, on Flint River, the Indians, in November, put up a war pole, and the chief warned Colonel Meigs in command at Fort Scott not to cross the Flint River. Gaines reached the place with some regular troops and volunteers, and Twiggs, with 250 men, moved upon the town, killed some of the people and burned the village. The revenge of the Seminoles was swift and b.l.o.o.d.y. Settlers were ma.s.sacred and the property of the whites within reach of the Indians was destroyed. Over 2,700 Seminoles took the field. General Jackson a.s.sumed command on the day after Christmas.

He declared that so long as the Spaniards held Florida the trouble would continue.

[Sidenote: Pindaree war]

[Sidenote: Treaty of Toona]

About the same time the British in India were plunged into further wars with the natives. First the Pindarees sent out plundering bands from Malwa.

To suppress them, Lord Hastings had to collect an army of 120,000, the largest force yet mustered in India. From Madras, four army divisions under Sir Thomas Hislop crossed the Nerbudda, and drove the Pindarees toward Bengal. By the great number of his remaining troops Lord Hastings overawed the neighboring rulers, Peishwa Sindia of the Mahratta, Ameer Khan, Holkar and Runjit Singh of the Punjab. Peishwa Baji Rao was compelled to sign a treaty of neutrality at Toona. In October, thereupon, Lord Hastings left Cawnpore and crossed the Jumna. The Pindarees were routed in a series of swift-fought engagements. One of their chieftains, Khurin, gave himself up with his whole household, while another, Chetu, was killed by a tiger while hiding in the jungle.

[Sidenote: Mahratta war]

The Peishwa of the Mahrattas, who was biding his time until the British forces should withdraw from his dominions, grew impatient and threatened open war. To appease him a newly arrived British regiment was withdrawn from Toona to Khirki, a village about four miles from the British Residency. This concession only encouraged the Peishwa to further resistance.

[Sidenote: Hindu Blondin]

[Sidenote: Outbreak of Poonah]

[Sidenote: Flight of Baji Rao]

The Mahratta war opened with a romantic incident. Trimbukji Dainglia, one of the favorites of the Peishwa, was held closely confined by the English at Thanna for his share in the murder of one of Baji Rao's enemies. Before the outbreak of hostilities the Mahrattas managed to get word to him of what was coming. A native groom in the service of one of the British officers pa.s.sed the window of the prisoner every day leading his master's horses. As he did so he trolled a native song the purport of which the British guards neither understood nor suspected. It has thus been translated by Bishop Heber:

Behind the bush the bowmen hide The horse beneath the tree.

Where shall I find a chief to ride The jungle paths with me?

There are five-and-fifty horses there, And four-and-fifty men; When the fifty-fifth shall mount his steed, The Dekhan thrives again.

A few days after this Trimbukji Dainglia was missing. He had broken a bar from its setting, scaled the wall, and joined a party of hors.e.m.e.n lying in wait. With them he fled to the jungles of Kanderish. Just before the outbreak of hostilities a British officer thought he recognized him at Poonah. On November 5, the British Resident, Elphinstone, left Poonah to inspect the forces at Khirki. On that same day the Mahrattas burned Elphinstone's house and rich Sanskrit library. Baji Rao attacked the military post Khirki with 26,000 men, but was repulsed with a loss of five hundred. The British immediately despatched an army under General Smith for Poonah. On November 15, they prepared for a general attack on the morrow, but in the night Baji Rao fled from Poonah. Thus he surrendered his dominions without a blow.

Appa Sahib, the Rajah of Nagpore, meanwhile had made common cause with Baji Rao. On the evening of November 24, he brought up his forces and attacked the British Residency at Nagpore. The resulting battle of Sitaboldi is famous in Hindu annals. As Wheeler, the historian of British India, describes it:

[Sidenote: Battle of Sitaboldi]

"The English had no European regiment, as they had at Khirki; they had scarcely fourteen hundred Sepoys fit for duty, including three troops of Bengal cavalry, and only four six-pounders. Appa Sahib had an army of eighteen thousand men, including four thousand Arabs, the best soldiers in the Dekhan; he had also thirty-six guns. The battle lasted from six o'clock in the evening of the 26th of November until noon the next day. For many hours the English were in sore peril; their fate seemed to hang upon a thread. The Arabs were beginning to close round the Residency, when a happy stroke of British daring changed the fortunes of the day. Captain Fitzgerald, who commanded the Bengal cavalry, was posted in the Residency compound and was anxious to charge the Arabs; but he was forbidden. Again he implored permission, but was told to charge at his peril. 'On my peril be it!' cried Fitzgerald. Clearing the inclosures, the Bengal cavalry bore down upon the enemy's horse, captured two guns, and cut up a body of infantry. The British Sepoys hailed the exploit with loud huzzahs, and seeing the explosion of one of the enemy's tumbrels, rushed down the hill, driving the Arabs before them. The victory was won, but the English had lost a quarter of their number."

[Ill.u.s.tration: LAST MOMENTS OF MAXIMILIAN Painted by J. Paul Laurens From Carbon Print by Braun, Clement & Co., N.Y.]

[Sidenote: Appa Sahib's escape]

[Sidenote: Battle of Nahidpore]

[Sidenote: Defence of Korygaun]

[Sidenote: End of Mahratta rule]

Appa Sahib surrendered himself and was placed under arrest. Presently he made good his escape and found a refuge with the Rajah of Jodhpur. In Holkar's State of Indore affairs ran in a similar groove. The Regent Mother showed herself inclined to come to an agreement with the British marching northward under Sir Thomas Hislop. But the Mahratta chiefs were bent on war, and murdered the Regent Mother. A battle, henceforth, was unavoidable.

Already the British supply train had been plundered by the Mahrattas. The battle was fought on December 21, at Nahidpore. On each occasion Sir John Malcolm commanded the British troops and won a complete victory. All the Hindu guns and swords fell into British hands. Then came the heroic defence of Korygaun, still celebrated in British Indian annals. A detachment of Bombay Sepoys and native cavalry, under the command of Captain Staunton and ten English officers, in all 800 men with two guns, were caught unawares by the Peishwa's army of 30,000 Mahratta Gosains. Captain Staunton's force intrenched itself in the village of Korygaun and prepared for the worst.

The Mahrattas completely surrounded the place and the defenders were cut off from all water and supplies. Then came a succession of fierce rushes by the Mahratta horse and foot, every one of which had to be fought off in desperate hand-to-hand encounters. Of the ten white officers eight were killed; besides them Staunton lost one-third of his Sepoys. The Mahrattas left 600 on the field. To the present day the exploit is celebrated in the songs and stories of the Dekhan. The Peishwa witnessed the long fight from a neighboring hill, and was beside himself when his discouraged troops refused to renew the battle. After this Baji Rao could no longer hold his army together. By the close of the year his forces were dispersed. It was the end of Mahratta rule in the Dekhan.

1818

[Sidenote: Battle of Ashti]

[Sidenote: Baji Rao's surrender]

Peace was re-established in India shortly after New Year's day. Lord Hastings would stop at nothing but the absolute deposition of the Peishwa.

He had long resolved to reduce Baji Rao to the condition of Napoleon at St.

Helena. Accordingly, he delivered the Rajah of Satara from the thraldom of generations, and a.s.signed to him sufficient territory for support. This done he set himself to hunt down the deposed Peishwa. For several months Baji Rao remained at large. He made a feeble stand at Ashti, but fled at the first shot, leaving his army to be defeated by General Smith. It was on this occasion that the Rajah of Satara fell into English hands. Later in the year Baji Rao was surrounded by British troops, under the command of Sir John Malcolm. No alternative was left him but to die or give up. The terms offered by Malcolm were so liberal as to excite astonishment in Europe. While the great Napoleon was condemned to spend his remaining days on a mere pittance at St. Helena, this most cowardly of Indian princes was allowed to live in luxury near Cawnpore, on a yearly grant of 80,000. His friend Trimbukji Dainglia, however, when captured, was condemned to close confinement in the fortress of Chunar.

[Sidenote: Lord Hastings' Indian policy]

The remains of the Holkar states were permitted to endure, nor would Hastings sanction the proposed dethronement of the family of Jaswant Rao.

Holkar was merely required to seize certain territories, and to confirm the grants already made to Ameer Khan. From a sovereign princ.i.p.ality the land was reduced to a subsidiary state under British guarantee. Otherwise the infant Mulhar, Rao Holkar, was treated as an independent prince and his administration was left in the hands of a native Durbar, aided by the British Resident. The policy of Lord Hastings, although severely criticised in England, must be p.r.o.nounced a success in the light of later events. From the suppression of the Pindarees and the extinction of the Peishwa in 1818, down to the days of the great mutiny, no serious attempt was made to overthrow British suzerainty by means of an armed confederation of native states.

In some respects the administration of Lord Hastings marks a new era in the history of India. Hastings was the first Governor-General who encouraged the education of the native population. Early in his administration he denounced the maxim of his predecessors, that native ignorance would insure the security of British rule, as an utterly unworthy and futile doctrine.

Accordingly, he promoted the establishment of native schools and publications.

[Sidenote: Death of Warren Hastings]

[Sidenote: Hastings' career]

The affairs of India were kept before the British public by the renewed discussion that followed the death of Lord Hastings' great namesake, Warren Hastings. It was due to the scandals of Warren Hastings' career in India, and his famous impeachment toward the close of the previous century, that the administrative reforms and modern rule in India were inaugurated during the nineteenth century. This reform began with the act, known at Pitt's Bill, by which the British Crown a.s.sumed supreme authority over the civil and military administration of the affairs in India by the British East India Company. Henceforward, no alliances could be formed with any native prince without the express sanction of Parliament. This act arose directly out of Warren Hastings' confession that he had accepted a present of a hundred thousand pounds from Asof-Ud-Daula. Warren Hastings' record, though he was ultimately acquitted, was lastingly besmirched by his dubious monetary transactions, and it was for this reason that William Pitt refused to recommend him for the peerage, or for honorable employment under the British Crown. Yet he was the greatest statesman that ever ruled India. His overthrow of the French in India, of the first Mahratta rising, and of the formidable rebellion of Hyder Ali, are among the greatest achievements of British colonial extension. The disgrace of Warren Hastings was a great event in English history, but it made no impression on the people in India.

They only knew him as one of the greatest of conquerors and their deliverer. Philip Francis, who brought about Hastings' downfall, so far from supplanting him, is remembered now only as the probable author of the anonymous "Letters of Junius."

[Sidenote: Ross' and Franklin's Expeditions]

[Sidenote: "Frankenstein"]

[Sidenote: "Endymion"]

[Sidenote: Macadam roads]

[Sidenote: Invention of Velocipede]