Little Glimpses of the 19th Century.

The Great Events in the History of the Last One Hundred Years, Assembled so as to Present a Nutshell Record.

[Continued from page 340.]

FIFTH DECADE.

1841

William Henry Harrison died April 4, one month after his inauguration as President of the United States, and John Tyler, the Vice-President, succeeded him. Harrison's Cabinet, excepting Daniel Webster, resigned soon after Tyler assumed office, owing to his veto of measures by which the Whigs tried to revive the National Bank. Seminole War, the most protracted and costly of all Indian wars, ended after an expenditure of ten million dollars. University of Michigan founded. Brook Farm communistic experiment begun.

The "opium war" between Great Britain and China continued during intervals separated by periods of negotiation. The British took Hong-Kong, silenced the Bogue forts, destroyed a Chinese flotilla at Canton, took that city, exacted six million dollars' indemnity from local authorities, and forced the reopening of trade there. British fleet, convoying troops and moving northward, captured successively Amoy, Chusan, Chinhai, and Wingpo. In Afghanistan (November 2), British residents and followers at Kabul were massacred, and British troops outside the city were driven off and forced to retreat toward Jelalabad.

Richard Cobden came into prominence in the British Parliament as a free trader, and the struggle over the Corn Laws began. Lord Melbourne's ministry resigned after an unsuccessful appeal to the country, and Sir Robert Peel formed a new cabinet. Punch, the humorous weekly, founded. Sir David Wilkie, English artist; Sir Astley Cooper, English surgeon; and Theodore Hook, English humorist, died.

POPULATION—Washington, D.C., 23,364; New York (including boroughs now forming Greater New York), 391,114; New York (Manhattan), 312,710; London (Metropolitan District, census 1841), 1,873,676; London (old city), 125,009; United States, 17,017,723; Great Britain and Ireland (census 1841), 27,019,558.

RULERS—The same as in the previous year, except that William Henry Harrison became President of the United States, and was succeeded in April by John Tyler.

1842

Maine boundary question settled by a treaty negotiated by Daniel Webster for the United States and Lord Ashburton for Great Britain. Congress resisted a threatened invasion by the French of the Hawaiian Islands. Dorr's "rebellion" in Rhode Island, by which T.W. Dorr, "free suffragist," tried to get governorship, to which S.W. King had been elected under the old charter.

War between Great Britain and China ended, Great Britain winning at all points, and reopening the opium trade. In the retreat from Kabul, Afghanistan, a British detachment and its followers were slaughtered in Khyber Pass, Dr. Brydon alone of fifteen thousand who started reaching Jelalabad, though a few who were captured were later freed. British envoys to Bokhara beheaded. Jelalabad, besieged by the Afghans, was relieved by the British, Kabul was recaptured, and Akbar Khan, leader of the insurgents, fled.

In Great Britain, Parliament rejected a Chartist petition for universal suffrage, etc., containing over three million signatures. A general strike was conducted by the Chartists; Feargus O'Connor, the leader, convicted of inciting to riot, but escaped sentence. Two attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria. Law passed by Parliament restricting the employment of women and children in coal mines. The bore of the Thames Tunnel was finished. In Algeria, the war went on, with several serious reverses for the French. The Illustrated London News, first publication of its kind, started. Luigi Cherubini, Italian musician; Marie Henri Beyle (better known as "Stendhal"), French novelist; Thomas Arnold, the famous head master of Rugby; and Allan Cunningham, Scottish poet, died.

RULERS—The same as in the previous year.

1843

Extradition treaty negotiated between the United States and Great Britain. Bunker Hill monument was dedicated. Annexation of Texas by United States was mooted, and Mexico, foreseeing war, proclaimed new constitution, and Santa Anna made himself virtually dictator. Charles Thurber, Worcester, Massachusetts, built the first practical typewriter; too slow to be generally adopted.

Scinde, Northwest India, annexed by Great Britain after a brilliant campaign by Sir Charles Napier, with victories at Meanee and Hyderabad. A revival of Mahratta resistance was crushed in December by Sir Hugh Gough in the battle of Maharajpore. Natal proclaimed a British settlement, after war with the Boers, who had set up a republic there. Some Boers submitted; others migrated beyond the Drakensberg mountains. Daniel O'Connell, Irish patriot, continuing his agitation for the repeal of the Act of Union, held mammoth meetings, and was arrested on a charge of seditious conspiracy. Free-trade movement grew in Great Britain, with Cobden and Bright leading. "Rebecca" riots in Wales against toll-gates. Active demands in Hungary for electoral and other changes favoring national interests of the Magyars. Carlist struggle in Spain, after years of sporadic outbreaks, ended with the assumption of power, by the young Queen Isabella, who swore to observe constitutional rule.

Robert Southey, English poet; Dr. Hahnemann, founder of homeopathy; Washington Allston, American artist; Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star-Spangled Banner"; and Noah Webster, American lexicographer, died.

RULERS—The same as in the previous year.

1844

In the United States, the annexation of Texas was the chief political topic. Tyler was a strong annexationist, but he failed during the year to get a treaty through the Senate. The slavery question and questions of keeping good faith with other countries were involved in the problem. Henry Clay's political aspirations went to wreck because of his vacillation concerning Texas. Anti-Mormon riots at Nauvoo, Illinois, resulted in the death of Prophet Joseph Smith; Brigham Young became leader. Samuel F.B. Morse, assisted by a Congressional grant of thirty thousand dollars, constructed a successful telegraph line from Baltimore to Washington. Copper and iron deposits discovered in Lake Superior country. Dr. Horace Wells, of Hartford, Connecticut, discovered "laughing gas." James Knox Polk elected President.

In Great Britain, Daniel O'Connell was sentenced to a heavy fine and to imprisonment, but the judgment was reversed by the House of Lords. The Repeal movement, which he had led, languished thereafter. The tractarian agitation raised at Oxford. Gold discovered in South Australia. The Y.M.C.A. founded by George Williams, in London.

Premature insurrection in Calabria, Italy, suppressed, and twenty leaders executed. As a result of the Algerian campaigns, France became involved in war with Moroccan rebels. France, which had been annexing islands in the South Seas, made amends for indignities visited on British residents in Tahiti by her naval representatives. China revoked edicts against Christianity.

Among persons of prominence who died were Albert Thorwaldsen, Danish sculptor; Bernadotte, in his later life King Charles XIV of Sweden; Joseph Bonaparte, brother of the great Napoleon; John Dalton, English chemist; and Etienne St. Hilaire, French zoologist.

RULERS—The same as in the previous year, except that Oscar I became King of Sweden and Norway, at the death of Charles XIV.

1845

Congress passed a resolution for the annexation of Texas to the United States (January 25), and March 1 President Tyler signed it. Slavery was to be permitted in Texas. Preparations begun for war with Mexico. The Mormons decided to migrate westward from Illinois. Florida and Texas admitted to Statehood. United States Naval Academy founded at Annapolis.

In Ireland, the potato crop failed, and a terrible famine set in. Sir John Franklin set out on his ill-fated Arctic expedition, never to return. Sikh War in the Punjab begun. Peel's cabinet resigned, but as Lord John Russell failed to form a new one, Peel was recalled. Jesuits expelled from France. Indignation against France because French soldiers smothered five hundred Kabyles in the caves of Dahra, Algeria. The city of Quebec nearly destroyed by fire. Spain reluctantly recognized the independence of Venezuela. Seven Catholic cantons of Switzerland signed an act of secession from the confederacy, and agreed to support one another against all attacks; this union is called the Sonderbund.

Andrew Jackson, ex-President of the United States; Thomas Hood, English poet and humorist; Sydney Smith, English politician, clergyman, and wit; and Elizabeth Fry, English prison reformer, died.

RULERS—The same as in the previous year, except that James Knox Polk became President of the United States.

1846

The dispute concerning the northwestern boundary between Canada and the United States was settled by the Oregon treaty, negotiated after a period of excitement in which war seemed near. Immigration into the United States passed the one hundred and fifty thousand mark this year, owing principally to the Irish famine and the beginning of revolutionary disturbances in Europe; it exceeded two hundred thousand the following year, and did not fall below that figure again until 1856. Iowa admitted to the Union.

Actual hostilities began between the United States and Mexico; General Taylor successful at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, Texas, and then invaded Mexico. A force under Colonel Philip Kearney took Santa Fé and declared New Mexico annexed to the United States; in California Captain Frémont took command of insurgents and set up a provisional American government. The American Congress declared war April 26; Mexico declared war May 23. Monterey captured by a force under General Taylor. General Winfield Scott took command of the American army. Santa Anna, Mexico's popular idol, put in command of the Mexicans.

Ether used for the first time in surgery. The Smithsonian Institute, Washington, founded. Elias Howe improved the sewing machine and patented his lock-stitch machine.

The Sikhs were defeated by the British in India, and much new territory came under British rule. British Parliament voted fifty million dollars to relieve distress in Ireland, and heavy contributions poured into the country from England and America. English government repealed the Corn Laws, Richard Cobden triumphing; Peel resigned as prime minister and was succeeded by Lord Russell. Carbolic acid obtained by Laurent, French chemist. Guncotton invented by Christian Schönbein, German chemist. Planet Neptune discovered by Leverrier in France and Adams in England. Two attempts made on the life of Louis Philippe. Insurrections in Poland, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Portugal; general opposition to the policy of Metternich, which had governed Europe since the Fall of Napoleon. The people of Schleswig and Holstein prepared to resist the attempt of the King of Denmark to set aside the Salic law. Pope Gregory XVI died, and Pius IX, new Pope, promised many reforms and more liberal laws. Louis Napoleon made his sensational escape from the fortress of Ham.

Louis Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon I, and former King of Holland; Thomas Clarkson, English anti-slavery advocate; and Otto von Kotzebue, Russian explorer, died.

RULERS—The same as in the previous year, except that Pius IX became Pope.

1847

In the war between the United States and Mexico, General Taylor defeated the Mexicans under Santa Anna at Buena Vista; General Scott captured Vera Cruz, and defeated Santa Anna at Cerro Gordo; Colonel Doniphan captured Chihuahua. Scott, after various successes, stormed Chapultepec, took the City of Mexico, and thus practically ended the war.

British subjects in China attacked; after several Chinese strongholds had been captured more liberty was granted foreign residents. Maltreatment of British subjects in Greece led Great Britain to send fleet to Piraeus, seizing shipping to enforce claims. The Argentine Republic granted free navigation of the La Plata River, and England and France withdrew their blockading squadrons. In Algeria, Abd-el-Kadr surrendered to French general, thus ending French war for the time. The Swiss Federal Diet ordered Jesuits expelled from all cantons, and called upon the Sonderbund ("Separate League"), composed of four Catholic cantons, to dissolve; the seceding cantons refused, civil war broke out, and after a brief campaign and the capture of Freiburg by the Federalists the seceding cantons came to terms; Jesuits expelled, monastic lands secularized, and Sonderbund dissolved.

Prussia, Bavaria—where the ruler had alienated his people by his liaison with Lola Montez—most of the other German states, France—where the socialists, led by Louis Blanc, were active—Italy, Austria, and Hungary demanded constitutional reforms. Prussian Landtag convened at Berlin and began to consider the question of the separation of Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark. Process of electro-silver plating was discovered by Rogers Brothers, of Hartford, Connecticut.

Among persons of prominence who died were Daniel O'Connell, Irish leader; Thomas Chalmers, Scotch theologian; Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, German musician; Marshals Oudinot and Grouchy, of Napoleon's army; Marie Louise of Austria, Napoleon's second wife.

RULERS—The same as in the previous year.

1848

Peace treaty between the United States and Mexico. The war cost the United States many million dollars and about thirteen thousand lives, and had increased the bitterness between the anti-slavery and the pro-slavery forces. The United States gained five hundred and twenty-three thousand square miles of territory. James W. Marshall discovered gold about sixty miles from what is now Sacramento, California, and a rush to the gold fields began. Within two years more than one hundred thousand persons went to California. Spiritualism made its appearance in the United States. Wisconsin admitted to the Union.

Rebellion in Ireland, headed by John Mitchell and Smith O'Brien, quelled, and leaders transported. British at Multan, India, massacred, and a combined uprising of the Sikhs and Afghans occured; hurried preparations made to meet them. Another monster Chartist petition rejected by Parliament; failure of a projected meeting on Kennington Common practically ended Chartist agitation. The Orange River district in South Africa taken by the British. (Held till 1854.)

Revolution and counter-revolution in most of the continental European countries. The nations seething. Schleswig and Holstein met with reverses in attempting to transfer their allegiance from Denmark to Prussia. Polish uprising summarily crushed. Revolt in Sicily began at Palermo and spread throughout the island and to Naples. King Ferdinand II of Naples granted a liberal constitution. The Grand Duke of Tuscany granted a constitution. Revolt against Austrian rule in Italy; Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, placed himself on the side of Italian freedom, won temporary success against the Austrians, but was defeated and forced to ask for an armistice; Venice, which had joined Sardinia, proclaimed itself a free city, and placed Daniel Manin at the head of the government. The Swiss Guards checked an uprising in Naples, and King Ferdinand, encouraged thereby, revoked all the advantages he had granted. Pope Pius IX disavowed intention of fighting against Austria, though a Papal force was in the field; uprising in Rome against him; a free constitution was granted, and the Pope fled in disguise to Gaeta; a provisional government for the Papal States set up; aid sent the Pope by France.

Insurrection in Vienna; Metternich fled to England. Rebellion in Hungary; Austrian military governor murdered; provisional government established, with Kossuth and Count Louis Batthyanyi at the head. Decree that Magyar must be the sole language of the country aroused Serbs, Croats, and Slavs to a counter-rebellion, which was speedily checked. Renewed revolt in Vienna; Emperor Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his son, Francis Joseph.

Frederick William IV of Prussia had granted some liberal concessions, but riots in Berlin followed, barricades were thrown up, and in suppressing the trouble Prince William, future Kaiser, was accused of unnecessary cruelty. A preliminary Prussian Parliament was convoked, but accomplished nothing. Georg Herwegh and Frederick Hecker led an armed uprising, but were defeated. Uprisings in other parts of Germany put down, and the parliament dissolved. A new Swiss constitution adopted, along the lines of the United States constitution.

Revolution started in Paris, February 22; Guizot's ministry went out of power; Thiers placed at head of affairs; soldiers joined in the rebellion; Louis Philippe abdicated; provisional government reformed. Republic proclaimed, February 27; blundering experiments in giving state help to all who requested it led to serious disorder in Paris; Louis Napoleon elected to the Assembly; new constitution November 12; Louis Napoleon elected president of the republic, December 20.

Caroline Herschel, astronomer; Isaac d'Israeli, compiler; Captain Frederick Marryat, English novelist; Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer; John Quincy Adams, American statesman and ex-President; Lord Ashburton, British statesman; François René de Chateaubriand, French poet; Frederick Chopin, Polish musician; George Stephenson, English inventor and railroad-builder; Jöns Berzelius, Swedish chemist, died.

RULERS—The same as in the previous year, except that France became a Republic, with Louis Napoleon as President; and Francis Joseph succeeded Ferdinand as Emperor of Austria.

1849

General Zachary Taylor became President of the United States, saying, in his inaugural: "We are at peace with all the world and the rest of mankind." Department of the Interior created, and its secretary given a place in the president's cabinet. Filibustering expeditions from the United States against the Spaniards in Cuba forbidden by the President. The name of the California town Yerba Buena changed to San Francisco; California and other Western States rapidly opened to settlement by the great rush of gold-seekers; California's first constitutional convention declared against slavery.

Cholera epidemic in England. Lord Gough, in the war against the Sikhs, in India, fought bloody and indecisive battle at Chillianwalla, in the Punjab, and later at Guzerat broke the Sikh power after a prolonged engagement; the Punjab annexed by England. Borneo pirates suppressed by Sir James Brooke.

An attempt to form a republic in Rome and strip Pope of temporal power frustrated by a French force, and Pius IX restored after a year in exile. Continuance of war in Austria and Hungary; Hungary declared itself a free state; Russia allied itself to Austria; Hungarians disastrously defeated at Temesvar; Hungarian army under Görgey surrendered; Kossuth, Bem, and other Hungarian leaders fled to Turkey; Louis Batthyanyi captured and executed by the Austrians; war ended; Hungary subdued.

Sardinians completely defeated by the Austrians at Novara; King Charles Albert of Sardinia abdicated in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel, dying soon afterward. Renewal of war between Denmark and Schleswig and Holstein and the Prussian allies of the two latter; various bloody battles fought, victory, for the most part, resting with the Danes; armistice declared July 10. Many of the minor German states urged King of Prussia to accept imperial German crown; offer refused.

Intense industrial depression in Canada, and considerable sentiment for annexation to United States. Parliamentary debates on an indemnity bill for those who suffered property loss in rebellion of 1837-1838 caused riots, and when the bill passed a mob burned the Parliament buildings at Montreal; capital removed from Montreal.

Edgar Allan Poe, American poet, critic, and writer of stories; Maria Edgeworth, Irish novelist; and James Knox Polk, former President of the United States, died.

RULERS—The same as in the previous year, except that Zachary Taylor became President of the United States, March 4; and Victor Emmanuel became King of Sardinia.

1850

Slavery question acute in Congress, and the year marked by passage of Clay's compromise measures, including Fugitive Slave bill. Bulwer-Clayton treaty for the joint control by Great Britain and the United States of a canal across Panama. California admitted to the Union as a free State after stirring debates in Congress. Increased Chinese immigration to California because of the failure of crops in China and the beginning of the Taiping rebellion. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" published. Jenny Lind made her first American appearance. Call is issued by South Carolina to other Southern States to consider question of State rights.

About fifty thousand persons died of cholera in England; epidemic checked late in the year. Submarine telegraph between England and France completed, but had to be relaid. The Koh-i-noor, magnificent diamond once owned by Dhuleep Singh, last native ruler of the Punjab, presented to Queen Victoria. Fifth Kafir War in South Africa begun.

Schleswig and Holstein, without aid from Prussia, made another futile attempt to throw off Danish rule. Louis Napoleon began systematic operations to make himself Emperor of France; the liberty of the French press was interfered with, and general suffrage was replaced by severely limited suffrage. Frederick William IV of Prussia granted constitutional reforms; Austria began preparations for war against Prussia, because of the latter's attempts to make the King of Prussia Emperor of Germany.

Taou-Kwang, the Chinese Emperor who ineffectually fought against the opium traffic; William Wordsworth, English poet; Sir Robert Peel, English statesman; John C. Calhoun, American statesman; and former Vice-President of the United States; Honoré de Balzac, French novelist; Gay-Lussac, French chemist; and Jane Porter, English novelist, died.

RULERS—United States, Zachary Taylor, President, died July 9, succeeded by Millard Fillmore; Great Britain, Queen Victoria; France, Louis Napoleon, President; Austria, Francis Joseph; Prussia, Frederick William IV; Spain, Isabella II; Pius IX, Pope.