A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 30

A loss to German philosophic literature was the death of Joseph Sch.e.l.ling, whose theories formed the main inspiration of the romantic poet Novalis.

Aga.s.siz, the naturalist, published his original researches on fresh-water fishes.

[Sidenote: Schwann's cell theory]

[Sidenote: Liebig's theory of fermentation]

It was then that Dr. Theodore Schwann, stimulated in his microscopic researches by the previous discoveries of Robert Brown, Johannes Muller and Schleiden, propounded the famous cell theory in his work, "Microscopic Researches Concerning the Unity in the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants." Schwann's book became a scientific cla.s.sic almost from the moment of its publication. It was Schwann, too, who, simultaneously with Cagniard la Tour, discovered the active principle of gastric juice to be the substance which he named pepsin. The cell theory was for some time combated by the most eminent German men of science. Thus Liebig, in apparent agreement with Helmholtz, took a firm stand against the new doctrine with his famous "theory of fermentation" promulgated this same year.

[Sidenote: Death of William Smith]

[Sidenote: The new geology]

In England, William Smith, "the father of English geology," died. Born in 1769, Smith, like many another English scientist, was self-taught and perhaps all the more independent for that. He discovered that the fossils in rocks, instead of being scattered haphazard, are arranged in regular systems, so that any given stratum of rock is labelled by its fossil population; that the order of succession of such groups of fossils is always the same in any vertical series of strata in which they occur, and that a fossil, having once disappeared, never reappears in a later stratum.

The facts which he unearthed were as iconoclastic in their field as the discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo.

[Sidenote: Spanish civil war]

[Sidenote: Carlist reverses]

[Sidenote: Flight of Don Carlos]

[Sidenote: Decline of Spain]

In Spain, a signal defeat of the Carlists at Pennecerrada during the previous year had caused a decisive turn in the civil war. Don Carlos'

attempted march on Madrid had to be abandoned, and was followed by the retreat of his forces to the Ebro. General Espartero forced back the Carlist forces step by step, and carried the fight into the Basque provinces. There the struggle degenerated into a war of extermination. The Carlist leaders turned against one another. The priests excommunicated the generals, and the generals in turn shot the priests. At last, by the middle of September, so many of the insurgents had surrendered to Espartero that Don Carlos found himself almost without followers. He gave up the struggle and fled into France. This ended the civil war. It had lasted six weary years, and had proved almost as disastrous for Spain as the great Peninsular War. Robbed of her former colonial resources, excepting only those from Cuba and the Philippines, Spain's finances were all but ruined.

Of industrial progress there was next to none. The country relapsed into semi-barbarism.

[Sidenote: American Whig Convention]

[Sidenote: Henry Clay's candidacy.]

[Sidenote: Financial failures]

[Sidenote: Longfellow's poems]

In the United States, prominent Northern abolitionists met at Warsaw, New York, and resolved to form an independent political party. A Whig Convention, the first of such gatherings, was held at Harrisburg, fifteen months before the next Presidential election. Harrison was nominated for President and John Tyler for Vice-President. In the West, Henry Clay, popularly known as "Harry of the West," was the ideal of a strong minority.

His repeated failures to attain the Presidency led to the remark: "He is too good a man to be President." The first session of the Twenty-sixth Congress opened in December. An organization of the House was at last effected by John Quincy Adams, who put a question to vote which the Speaker had refused to present. The Representatives indulged for the first time in the practice of "pairing off." Adams opposed this, declaring that it was a violation of the Const.i.tution, of an express rule of the House which the Representatives owed to their const.i.tuents. Another event of the year in America was the failure of the United States Bank at Philadelphia, in consequence of speculations in cotton, as the result of which the government lost $2,000,000 of its deposits. Other bank failures followed.

Mississippi repudiated $5,000,000 of its State bonds. The first power loom for making carpets was set up at Lowell, Ma.s.sachusetts. Charles Goodyear obtained his first patent for making vulcanized rubber. The express business was organized by Harndon, who sent his first pack from New York to Boston by the public messenger. Longfellow published his romance "Hyperion," and "Voices of the Night," a collection of verses embracing some of his most widely known poems. In the same year appeared Willis's "Letters from Under a Bridge" and Cooper's "History of the Navy."

Toward the close of the year, Queen Victoria held a Privy Council at Buckingham Palace, at which she announced her intention to marry her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

[Sidenote: Queen Victoria's betrothal]

Greville wrote in his diary that "about eighty Privy Councillors were present, the folding-doors were thrown open, and the Queen came in, attired in a plain morning gown, but wearing a necklace containing Prince Albert's portrait. She read the declaration in a clear, sonorous, sweet tone of voice, but her hand trembled so excessively that I wonder she was able to read the paper which she held."

All this time the agitation for the People's Charter in England went on unabated. In the autumn, St. Paul's Cathedral in London was temporarily taken possession of by a large body of Chartists. Churches were likewise entered in Manchester.

[Sidenote: Popular riots in England]

[Sidenote: The Charter propaganda]

At Newport, in Monmouths.h.i.+re, an organized attempt was made, under the leaders.h.i.+p of John Frost and Zephaniah Williams, to rescue Henry Vincent from prison. Armed with guns, crowbars and pick-axes the mob poured into the town twenty thousand strong. They were met by a small body of soldiery, and after a sharp conflict were scattered with a loss of ten killed and fifty wounded. The leaders were arrested and condemned in court. A vast periodical literature kept alive the agitation. Among the new Chartist newspapers were the "Northern Star," the property and the organ of Feargus O'Connor; the London "Despatch"; the Edinburgh "New Scotsman"; the Newcastle "Northern Liberator"; the Birmingham "Journal," and many others.

1840

[Sidenote: England declares war on China]

The Chinese edict prohibiting all trade and intercourse with England was put in force on January 5. The English missionaries in China fled to Hong Kong, which port was put in readiness for defence against the Chinese.

Great Britain declared war, and sent out an expedition consisting of 4,000 troops on board twenty-five transports, with a convoy of fifteen men-of-war.

[Sidenote: End of Dingaan]

In South Africa, during January, the Boers inflicted a crus.h.i.+ng defeat on the Zulus under Dingaan. The Zulu King himself was killed. His brother, Upanda, succeeded him as ruler.

[Sidenote: Union of Upper and Lower Canada]

[Sidenote: Canadian boundary commission]

On the other side of the globe, the legislative union of Upper and Lower Canada was at last effected, after a separation of forty-nine years. Each had equal representation in the common legislature, with practical concession on the part of the mother country of responsible government.

Kingston was selected as the new seat of government, to be s.h.i.+fted presently to Montreal. To settle the long pending boundary dispute between Canada and the United States, a commission was appointed, consisting of Lord Ashburton for England and Daniel Webster for America. Between the line claimed by Great Britain and that demanded by the United States lay 12,000 square miles of territory. The commission sat all the year.

[Sidenote: American Presidential election]

[Sidenote: Morse]

[Sidenote: Draper]

[Sidenote: Florence]

[Sidenote: f.a.n.n.y Ellsler]

The American Senate early in the year pa.s.sed the Sub-Treasury bill. By this measure it was required that the national funds should be kept at Was.h.i.+ngton, and in federal sub-treasuries in some of the large cities, subject to the orders of the Was.h.i.+ngton office. The first National Convention against anti-slavery met at Albany. James G. Birney, a Kentuckian, was nominated for President. The Whigs were incensed at the nomination and Birney withdrew. The Democratic National Convention at Baltimore unanimously renominated Van Buren. The political campaign that followed began a new era in American elections. The facilities of transit effected by the railroads now first rendered possible immense gatherings at central points. In May, 20,000 political followers gathered at Baltimore in Harrison's interest. The contest had just opened, when a leading Democratic paper stated "if some one would present Harrison with a barrel of cider he would sit down on a log content and happy the rest of his days." The log cabin and hard cider jug forthwith became the emblems of the Whigs. Log cabin songs were heard, with shouts for "Tippecanoe, and Tyler too." All the Middle States gave their majorities to Harrison. Harrison and Tyler were elected by a vote of 1,275,017 to 1,128,702 for Van Buren. It was a political revolution, breaking the Democratic success of forty years. It was during this year that Samuel F.B. Morse obtained his first American patent on the telegraph. William Draper of New York turned out the most successful daguerreotype portraits yet obtained. Florence, the actor, made his first appearance at the National Theatre in Philadelphia, while f.a.n.n.y Ellsler appeared at the Park Theatre in New York City. Ralph Waldo Emerson published the "Dial." Other notable publications in American letters were Poe's "Tales of the Arabesque and Grotesque," Willis's "Loiterings of Travel," Cooper's "Pathfinder," and Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast."

[Sidenote: New Mexico]

[Sidenote: Yucatan]

[Sidenote: Revolution in Mexico]

[Sidenote: Dom Pedro II. of Brazil]

[Sidenote: General Lavalle shot]

In Central and South America, it was likewise a year of political upheavals. The Yankee settlers of Texas maintained their independence against Mexico. Their movement was joined by the Northern States along the Rio Grande. The independent State of New Mexico was formed. Yucatan likewise became an independent government. On July 25, a revolution broke out in the City of Mexico. General Urrea captured in person President Bustamente. After two days Bustamente was released on a pledge of general amnesty and administrative reforms. Santander, the first President of Colombia, died in May. The election of Marquez to the Presidency was followed by civil war. The province of Cartagena seceded from Colombia. The union of Central American States was dissolved, and Costa Rica became an independent republic. In Brazil, another political overturn resulted in material changes in the Const.i.tution. In July, the Brazilian Legislature declared Dom Pedro II., then still under age, Emperor of Brazil. In the Argentine Republic, General Lavalle, who had taken the field against his opponents, was utterly defeated and shot. A new treaty was concluded between Argentina and Montevideo.