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Population.—The stupendous growth of the population of Berlin during the last century is best illustrated by the following figures. In 1816 it contained 197,717 inhabitants; in 1849,431,566; in 1871, 826,341; in 1880, 1,122,330; 1890, 1,578,794, and in 1905, 2,033,900. The birth-rate is about 30, and the death-rate 20 per 1000 inhabitants a year. Illegitimate births amount to about 15% of the whole. According to religion, about 84% are Protestants, 10% Roman Catholics and 5% Jews, but owing to the great number of Jews who for social and other reasons ostensibly embrace the Christian faith, these last figures do not actually represent the number of Jews by descent living in the city.
Environs.—Marvellous as has been the transformation in the city itself, no less surprising results have been effected since 1875 in the surroundings of Berlin. On the east, north and west, the city is surrounded at a distance of some 5 m. from its centre by a thick belt of pine woods, the Jungfernheide, the Spandauer Forst, and the Grunewald, the last named stretching away in a south-westerly direction as far as Potsdam, and fringing the beautiful chain of Havel lakes. These forests enjoyed until quite recent times an unenviable notoriety as the camping-ground and lurking-place of footpads and other disorderly characters. After the opening of the circular railway in 1871, private enterprise set to work to develop these districts, and a “villa colony” was built at the edge of the Grunewald between the station West-end and the Spandauer Bock. From these beginnings, owing mainly to the expansion of the important suburb of Charlottenburg, has resulted a complete transformation of the eastern part of the Grunewald into a picturesque and delightful villa suburb, which is connected by railway, steam-tramway and a magnificent boulevard—the Kurfürstendamm—with the city. Nowadays the little fishing villages on the shores of the lakes, notably the Wannsee, cater for the recreation of the Berliners, while palatial summer residences of wealthy merchants occupy the most prominent sites. Suburban Berlin may be said to extend practically to Potsdam.
Traffic.—The public streets have a total length of about 350 m., and a large staff of workmen is regularly employed in maintaining and cleaning the public roads and parks. The force is well controlled, and the work of cleaning and removing snow after a heavy fall is thoroughly and efficiently carried out. The less important thoroughfares are mostly paved with the so-called Vienna paving, granite bricks of medium size, while the principal streets, and especially those upon which the traffic is heavy, have either asphalt or wood paving.
Water-Supply and Drainage.—The water-supply is mainly derived from works on the Müggel and Tegeler lakes, the river water being carefully filtered through sand. The drainage system is elaborate, and has stood the test of time. The city is divided into twelve radial systems, each with a pumping station, and the drainage is forced through five mains to eighteen sewage farms, each of which is under careful sanitary supervision, in respect both of the persons employed thereon, and the products, mainly milk, passing thence to the city for human consumption. Only in a few isolated cases has any contamination been traced to fever or other zymotic germs. In this connexion it is worth noting that the infectious diseases hospital has a separate system of drainage which is carefully disinfected, and not allowed to be employed for the purposes of manure.
Hospitals.—In no other city of the world is the hospital organization so well appointed as in Berlin, or are the sick poor tended with greater solicitude. State, municipal and private charity here again join hands in the prompt relief of sickness and cases of urgency. The municipal hospitals are six in number, the largest of which is the Virchow hospital, situate in Moabit and opened in 1906. It is arranged on the pavilion system, contains 2000 beds, and is one of the most splendidly equipped hospitals in the world. The cost amounted to £900,000. Next comes that of Friedrichshain, also built on the pavilion system, while the state controls six (not including the prison infirmaries) of which the world-renowned Charité in the Luisen-strasse is the principal. The hospitals of the nursing sisters (Diakonissen Anstalten) number 8, while there are 60 registered private hospitals under the superintendence of responsible doctors and under the inspection of government.
Charities.—Berlin is also very richly endowed with charitable institutions for the relief of pauperism and distress. In addition to the municipal support of the poor-houses there are large funds derived from bequests for the relief of the necessitous and deserving poor; while night shelters and people’s kitchens have been organized on an extensive scale for the temporary relief of the indigent unemployed. For the former several of the arches of the city railway have been utilized, and correspond in internal arrangement to like shelters instituted by the Salvation Army in London and various other cities.
Markets.—Open market-places in Berlin are things of the past, and their place has been taken by airy and commodious market halls. Of these, 14 in number, the central market, close to the Alexander-platz station of the city railway with which it is connected by an admirable service of lifts for the rapid unloading of goods, is the finest. It has a ground area of about 17,000 sq. yds., and is fitted with more than 2000 stalls. The other markets are conveniently situated at various accessible places within the city, and the careful police supervision to which they are subjected, both in the matter of general cleanliness, and in the careful examination of all articles of food exposed for sale, has tended to the general health and comfort of the population.
The central cattle market and slaughter-houses for the inspection and supply of the fresh meat consumed in the metropolis occupy an extensive area in the north-east of the city on the Ringbahn, upon which a station has been erected for the accommodation of meat trains and passengers attending the market. The inspection is rigorously carried out, and only carcases which have been stamped as having been certified good are permitted to be taken away for human consumption.
History.—The etymology of the word “Berlin” is doubtful. Some derive it from Celtic roots—ber, small, short, andlyn, a lake; others regard it as a Wend word, meaning a free, open place; others, again, refer it to the wordwerl, a river island. Another authority derives it from the German wordBrühl, a marshy district, and the Slavonic terminationin; thus Brühl, by the regular transmutation Bührl (compare Ger.bren-nen and Eng. burn), Bürhlin. More recent research, however, seems to have established the derivation fromWehr, dam.
Similar obscurity rests on the origin of the city. The hypotheses which carried it back to the early years of the Christian era have been wholly abandoned. Even the margrave Albert the Bear (d. 1170) is no longer unquestionably regarded as its founder, and the tendency of opinion now is to date its origin from the time of his great-grandsons, Otto III. and John I. When first alluded to, what is now Berlin was spoken of as two towns, Kölln and Berlin. The first authentic document concerning the former is from the year 1237, concerning the latter from the year 1244, and it is with these dates that the trustworthy history of the city begins. In 1307 the first attempt was made to combine the councils of Kölln and Berlin, but the experiment was abandoned four years later, and the two towns continued their separate existence till 1432, when the establishment of a common council for both led to disturbances of which the outcome was that Frederick II. the Iron in 1442 abolished this arrangement, seriously curtailed the privileges of both towns, and began the building of a castle at Kölln. A feud between the elector and the Berliners ended in the defeat of the latter, who in 1448 were forced to accept the constitution of 1442. From this time Berlin became and continued to be the residence of the Hohenzollerns, the elector John Cicero (1486-1499) being the first to establish a permanent court inside the walls. It was not, however, until the time of King Frederick William I. that the sovereigns ceased to date their official acts from Kölln. In 1539, under the elector Joachim II., Berlin embraced the Lutheran religion. Henceforth the history of Berlin was intimately bound up with the house of Hohenzollern. The conversion of the elector John Sigismund in 1613 to the Reformed (Calvinist) faith was hotly resented by the Berliners and led to bloody riots in the city. The Thirty Years’ War all but ruined the city, the population of which sank from some 14,000 in 1600 to less than 8000 in 1650. It was restored and the foundations of its modernsplendour were laid by the Great Elector, by the time of whose death (1688) the population had risen to some 20,000. During this period several suburbs had begun to grow up, Friedrichswerder in 1667 and the Dorotheenstadt, so named in 1676 after the electress Dorothea its founder. In 1688 Frederick III. (afterwards King Frederick I.) began the Friedrichstadt, completed by Frederick William I. Under Frederick I., who did much to embellish the city as the royalResidenzsiadt, the separate administrations of the quarters of Berlin, Kölln, Friedrichstadt, Friedrichswerder and Dorotheenstadt were combined, and the separate names were absorbed in that of Berlin. The fortifications begun in 1658 were finally demolished under Frederick the Great in 1745, and the Neue Friedrich-strasse, the Alexander-strasse and the Wall-strasse were laid out on their site.
Twice during the Seven Years’ War Berlin was attacked by the enemy: in 1757 by the Austrians, who penetrated into the suburbs and levied a heavy contribution, and in 1760 by the Russians, who bombarded the city, penetrated into it, and only retired on payment of a ransom of 1,500,000 thalers (£225,000). After the disastrous campaign of Jena, Berlin suffered much during the French occupation (24th October 1806 to 1st December 1808). In spite of these misfortunes, however, the progress of the city was steady. In 1809 the present municipal government was instituted. In 1810 the university was founded. After the alliance of Prussia and Russia in 1812 Berlin was again occupied by the French, but in March 1813 they were finally driven out. The period following the close of the war saw great activity in building, especially in the erection of many noble monuments and public buildings,e.g.those by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The most notable event in the history of Berlin during the 19th century, prior to the Franco-German War, was the March revolution of 1848 (seeGermany:History, andFrederick William IV., king of Prussia). The effect of the war of 1870-71 on the growth of Berlin has been sufficiently indicated already.
Authorities.—For the history of Berlin see the publications of the “Verein für die Geschichte Berlins”; theBerlinische Chronik nebst Urkundenbuch, and the periodicalsDer Bar(1875, &c.) andMitteilungen(1884, &c.). Of histories may be mentioned A. Streckfuss,500 Jahre Berliner Geschichte(new ed. by Fernbach, 1900);Berlin im 19ten Jahrhundert(4 vols., 1867-1869), andStatistisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Berlin(1904-1905); Fidiein,Historisch-diplomatische Beiträge zur Geschichte der Stadt Berlin(5 vols., 1837-1842); Brockhaus,Konversations-Lexikon(1904); Meyer,Konversations-Lexikon(1904); Baedeker,Fuhrer durch Berlin; Woeri,Fuhrer durch Berlin; J. Pollard,The Corporation of Berlin(Edinburgh, 1893); A. Shaclwell,Industrial Efficiency(London, 1906);Berliner Jahrbuch für Handel und Industrie(1905); and O. Schwebel,Geschichte der Stadt Berlin(Berlin, 1888).
Authorities.—For the history of Berlin see the publications of the “Verein für die Geschichte Berlins”; theBerlinische Chronik nebst Urkundenbuch, and the periodicalsDer Bar(1875, &c.) andMitteilungen(1884, &c.). Of histories may be mentioned A. Streckfuss,500 Jahre Berliner Geschichte(new ed. by Fernbach, 1900);Berlin im 19ten Jahrhundert(4 vols., 1867-1869), andStatistisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Berlin(1904-1905); Fidiein,Historisch-diplomatische Beiträge zur Geschichte der Stadt Berlin(5 vols., 1837-1842); Brockhaus,Konversations-Lexikon(1904); Meyer,Konversations-Lexikon(1904); Baedeker,Fuhrer durch Berlin; Woeri,Fuhrer durch Berlin; J. Pollard,The Corporation of Berlin(Edinburgh, 1893); A. Shaclwell,Industrial Efficiency(London, 1906);Berliner Jahrbuch für Handel und Industrie(1905); and O. Schwebel,Geschichte der Stadt Berlin(Berlin, 1888).
(P. A. A.)
Berlin, Congress and Treaty of. The events that led up to the assembling of the congress of Berlin, the outcome of which was the treaty of the 13th of July 1878, are described elsewhere (seeEurope:History;Turkey:History;Russo-Turkish War). Here it must suffice to say that the terms of the treaty of San Stefano (3rd March 1878), by which the Russo-Turkish War had been brought to a conclusion, seemed to those of the other powers who were most interested scarcely less fatal to the Ottoman dominion than that Russian occupation of Constantinople which Great Britain had risked a war to prevent. By this instrument Bulgaria was to become a practically independent state, under the nominal suzerainty of the sultan, bounded by the Danube, the Black Sea, the Aegean and Albania, and cutting off the latter from the remnant of Rumelia which, with Constantinople, was to be left to the Turks. At the same time the other Christian principalities, Servia and Montenegro, were largely increased in size and their independence definitively recognized; and the proposals of the powers with regard to Bosnia and Herzegovina, communicated to the Ottoman plenipotentiaries at the first sitting of the conference of Constantinople (23rd December 1876), were to be immediately executed. These provisions seemed to make Russia permanently arbiter of the fate of the Balkan peninsula, the more so since the vast war indemnity of 1,400,000,000 roubles exacted in the treaty promised to cripple the resources of the Ottoman government for years to come.
The two powers whose interests were most immediately threatened by the terms of the peace were Austria and Great Britain. The former especially, refusing to be bribed by the Russian offer of Bosnia and Herzegovina, saw herself cut off from all chance of expansion in the Balkan peninsula and threatened with the establishment there of the paramount power of Russia, a peril it had been her traditional policy to avert. On the 5th of February, accordingly, Count Andrássy issued a circular note, addressed to the signatory powers of the treaty of Paris of 1856 and the London protocol of 1871, suggesting a congress for the purpose of establishing “the agreement of Europe on the modifications which it may become necessary to introduce into the above-mentioned treaties” in view of the preliminaries of peace signed by Russia and Turkey. This appeal to the sanctity of international engagements, traditional in the diplomatic armoury of Austria, and strengthened by so recent a precedent as that of 1871, met with an immediate response. On the 1st of April Lord Salisbury had already addressed a circular note to the British embassies refusing on behalf of the British government to recognize any arrangements made in the peace preliminaries, calculated to modify European treaties, “unless they were made the subject of a formal agreement among the parties to the treaty of Paris,” and quoting the “essential principle of the law of nations” promulgated in the London protocol. By Great Britain therefore the Austrian proposal was at once accepted. Germany was very willing to fall in with the views of her Austrian ally and share in a council in which, having no immediate interests of her own, Bismarck could win new laurels in his rôle of “honest broker.” In these circumstances Russia could not but accept the principle of a congress. She tried, however, to limit the scope of its powers by suggesting the exclusion of certain clauses of the treaty from its reference, and pointed out (circular of Prince Gorchakov, April 9th) that Russia had not been the first nor the only Power to violate the treaties in question. The answer of Lord Beaconsfield was to mobilize the militia and bring Indian troops to the Mediterranean; and finally Russia, finding that the diplomatic support which she had expected from Bismarck failed her, consented to submit the whole treaty without reserve to the congress.
On the 3rd of June Count Münster, in the name of the German government, issued the formal invitation to the congress. The congress met, under the presidency of Prince Bismarck, at Berlin on the 13th of June. Great Britain was represented by Lord Beaconsfield, Lord Salisbury and Lord Odo Russell, ambassador at Berlin; Germany by Prince Bismarck, Baron Ernst von Bülow and Prince Chlodwig von Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, ambassador at Paris; Austria by Count Andrássy, Count Louis Károlyi and Baron Heinrich Karl von Haymerle, ambassador at Rome; France by William H. Waddington, the Comte de Saint-Vallier, ambassador at Berlin, and Félix Hippolyte Desprez, director of political affairs in the department for foreign affairs; Russia by the chancellor, Prince Gorchakov, Count Peter Shuvalov, ambassador to the court of St James’s, and Paul d’Oubril, ambassador at Berlin; Turkey by Alexander Catheodory Pasha, minister of public works, All Pasha,mushirof the Ottoman armies, and Sadullah Bey, ambassador at Berlin. The bases of the conferences had, of course, been settled beforehand, and the final act of the congress was signed by the plenipotentiaries mentioned above exactly a month after the opening of the congress, on the 13th of July.
The treaty of Berlin consists in all of sixty-four articles, of which it will be sufficient to note those which have had a special bearing on subsequent international developments. So far as they affect the territorial boundaries fixed by the treaties of Paris and San Stefano it will be sufficient to refer to the sketch map in the articleEurope:History. By Art. I. Bulgaria was “constituted an autonomous and tributary principality under the suzerainty of H.I.M. the Sultan”; it was to have “a Christian government and a national militia,” Art. II. fixedthe boundaries of the new state and provided for their delimitation by a European commission, which was “to take into consideration the necessity for H.I.M. the Sultan to be able to defend the Balkan frontiers of Eastern Rumelia.” Arts. III. to XII. provide for the election of a prince for Bulgaria, the machinery for settling the new constitution, the adjustment of the relations of the new Bulgarian government to the Ottoman empire and its subjects (including the question of tribute, the amount of which was, according to Art. XII., to be settled by agreement of the signatory powers “at the close of the first year of the working of the new organization”). By Art. X. Bulgaria, so far as it was concerned, was to take the place of the Sublime Porte in the engagements which the latter had contracted, as well towards Austria-Hungary as towards the Rustchuck-Varna Railway Company, for working the railway of European Turkey in respect to the completion and connexion, as well as the working of the railways situated in its territory.
By Art. XIII. a province was formed south of the Balkans which was to take the name of “Eastern Rumelia,” and was to remain “under the direct military and political control of H.I.M. the Sultan, under conditions of administrative autonomy.” It was to have a Christian governor-general. Arts. XIV. to XXIII. define the frontiers and organization of the new province, questions arising out of the Russian occupation, and the rights of the sultan. Of the latter it is to be noted that the sultan retained the right of fortifying and occupying the Balkan passes (Art. XV.) and all his rights and obligations over the railways (Art. XXI.).
Art. XXV., which the events of 1908 afterwards brought into special prominence, runs as follows: “The provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary. The government of Austria-Hungary, not desiring to undertake the administration of the sanjak of Novi-Bazar, ... the Ottoman administration will continue to exercise its functions there. Nevertheless, in order to assure the maintenance of the new political state of affairs, as well as freedom and security of communications, Austria-Hungary reserves the right of keeping garrisons and having military and commercial roads in the whole of this part of the ancient vilayet of Bosnia.”
By Art. XXVI. the independence of Montenegro was definitively recognized, and by Art. XVIII. she received certain accessions of territory, including a strip of coast on the Adriatic, but under conditions which tended to place her under the tutelage of Austria-Hungary. Thus, by Art. XXIX. she was to have neither ships of war nor a war flag, the port of Antivari and all Montenegrin waters were to be closed to the war-ships of all nations; the fortifications between the lake and the coast were to be razed; the administration of the maritime and sanitary police at Antivari and along the Montenegrin littoral was to be carried on by Austria-Hungary “by means of light coast-guard boats”; Montenegro was to adopt the maritime code in force in Dalmatia, while the Montenegrin merchant flag was to be under Austro-Hungarian consular protection. Finally, Montenegro was to “come to an understanding with Austria-Hungary on the right to construct and keep up across the new Montenegrin territory a road and a railway.”
By Art. XXXIV. the independence of Servia was recognized, subject to conditions (as to religious liberty, &c.) set forth in Art. XXXV. Art. XXXVI. defined the new boundaries.
By Art. XLIII. the independence of Rumania, already proclaimed by the prince (May 22/June 3 1877), was recognized. Subsequent articles define the conditions and the boundaries.
Arts. LII. to LVII. deal with the question of the free navigation of the Danube. All fortifications between the mouths and the Iron Gates were to be razed, and no vessels of war, save those of light tonnage in the service of the river police and the customs, were to navigate the river below the Iron Gates (Art. LII.). The Danube commission, on which Rumania was to be represented, was maintained in its functions (Art. LIII.) and provision made for the further prolongation of its powers (Art. LIV.).
Art. LVIII. cedes to Russia the territories of Ardahan, Kars and Batoum, in Asiatic Turkey. By Art. LIX. “H.M. the emperor of Russia declares that it is his intention to constitute Batoum a free port, essentially commercial.”
By Art. LXI. “the Sublime Porte undertakes to carry out, without further delay, the improvements and reforms demanded by local requirements in the provinces inhabited by the Armenians, and to guarantee their security against the Circassians and Kurds.” It was to keep the powers informed periodically of “the steps taken to this effect.”
Art. LXII. made provision for the securing religious liberty in the Ottoman dominions.
Finally, Art. LXIII. declares that “the treaty of Paris of 30th March 1856, as well as the treaty of London of 13th March 1871, are maintained in all such of their provisions as are not abrogated or modified by the preceding stipulations.”
For the full text of the treaty in the English translation see E. Hertslet,Map of Europe by Treaty, vol. iv. p. 2759 (No. 530); for the French original seeState Papers, vol. lxix. p. 749.
For the full text of the treaty in the English translation see E. Hertslet,Map of Europe by Treaty, vol. iv. p. 2759 (No. 530); for the French original seeState Papers, vol. lxix. p. 749.
(W. A. P.)
BERLIN,a city of Coos county, New Hampshire, U.S.A., on the Androscoggin river, in the N. part of the state, about 98 m. N.W. of Portland, Maine. Pop. (1890) 3729; (1900) 8886, of whom 4643 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 11,780. The area of the city in 1906 was 57.81 sq. m. Berlin is served by the Grand Trunk and Boston & Maine railways. It is situated in the heart of the White Mountains and 16 m. from the base of Mt. Washington. Berlin Falls, on the picturesque Androscoggin river, furnishes an immense water-power, the development of which for manufacturing purposes accounts for the rapid growth of the city. The forests of northern New England and of the province of Quebec supply the raw material for the extensive saw-mills and planing-mills, the pulp- and paper-mills, and the sulphite fibre mills, said to be the largest in existence. In 1905 the city’s factory products were valued at $5,989,119, of which 78.5% was the value of the paper and wood pulp manufactured. Berlin was first settled in 1821, was incorporated as a township in 1829, and was chartered as a city in 1897.
BERLIN,a city and port of entry, Ontario, Canada, and capital of Waterloo county, 58 m. W. of Toronto, on the Grand Trunk railway. It is the centre of a prosperous farming and manufacturing district, inhabited chiefly by German immigrants and their descendants. An electric railway connects it with the town of Waterloo (pop. 4100) 2 m. to the north, which has important flour and woollen mills and distilleries. Berlin is a flourishing manufacturing town, and contains a beet sugar refinery, automobile, leather, furniture, shirt and collar, felt, glove, button and rubber factories. Pop. (1881) 4054; (1901) 9747.
BERLIN,a four-wheeled carriage with a separate hooded seat behind, detached from the body of the vehicle; so called from having been first used in Berlin. It was designed about 1670, by a Piedmontese architect in the service of the elector of Brandenburg. It was used as a travelling carriage, and Swift refers to it in his advice to authors “who scribble in a berlin.” As an adjective, the word is used to indicate a special kind of goods, originally made in Berlin, of which the best known is Berlin wool. A Berlin warehouse is a shop for the sale of wools and fancy goods (cf. Italian warehouse). The spelling “berlin” is also used by Sir Walter Scott for the “birlinn,” a large Gaelic rowing-boat.
BERLIOZ, HECTOR(1803-1869), French musical composer, was born on the 11th of December 1803 at Côte-Saint-André, a small town near Grenoble, in the department of Isère. His father, Louis Berlioz, was a physician of repute, and by his desire Hector for some time devoted himself to the study of medicine. At the same time he had music lessons, and, in secret, perused numerous theoretical works on counterpoint and harmony, with little profit it seems, till the hearing and subsequent careful analysis of one of Haydn’s quartets opened a new vista to his unguided aspirations. A similar work written by Berlioz in imitation of Haydn’s masterpiece was favorably received by his friends. From Paris, where he had been sent to complete hismedical studies, he at last made known to his father the unalterable decision of devoting himself entirely to art, the answer to which confession was the withdrawal of all further pecuniary assistance. In order to support life Berlioz had to accept the humble engagement of a singer in the chorus of the Gymnase theatre. Soon, however, he became reconciled to his father and entered the Conservatoire, where he studied composition under Reicha and Lesueur. His first important composition was an opera calledLes Francs-Juges, of which, however, only the overture remains extant. In 1825 he left the Conservatoire, and began a course of self-education, founded chiefly on the works of Beethoven, Gluck, Weber and other German masters. About this period Berlioz saw for the first time the talented Irish actress Henrietta Smithson, who was then charming Paris by her impersonations of Ophelia, Juliet and other Shakespearean characters. The enthusiastic young composer became deeply enamoured of her at first sight, and tried, for a long time in vain, to gain the love or even the attention of his idol. To an incident of this wild and persevering courtship Berlioz’s first symphonic work,Épisode de la vie d’un artiste, owes its origin. By the advice of his friends Berlioz once more entered the Conservatoire, where, after several unsuccessful attempts, his cantataSardanapalusgained him the first prize for foreign travel (1830), in spite of the strong personal antagonism of one of the umpires. During a stay in Italy Berlioz composed an overture toKing Lear, andLe Retour à la vie—a sort of symphony, with intervening poetical declamation between the single movements, called by the composer a melologue, and written in continuation of theÉpisode de la vie d’un artiste, along with which work it was performed at the Paris Conservatoire in 1832. Paganini on that occasion spoke to Berlioz the memorable words: “Vous commencez par où les autres ont fini.” Miss Smithson, who also was present on the occasion, consented to become the wife of her ardent lover in 1833. The marriage was a tempestuous mistake. In 1840 he separated from his wife, who died in 1854. Six months later Berlioz married Mademoiselle Récio. His second wife did not live very long, nor was there much that was edifying in this marriage. Between the date of his first marriage and 1840 came out his dramatic symphoniesHarold en Italie,Funèbre et triomphale, andRoméo et Juliette; his operaBenvenuto Cellini(1837); hisRequiem, and other works. In the course of time Berlioz won his due share of the distinctions generally awarded to artistic merit, such as the ribbon of the Legion of Honour and the membership of the Institute. But these distinctions he owed, perhaps, less to a genuine admiration of his compositions than to his successes abroad and his influential position as the musical critic of theJournal des Débats(a position which he held from 1838 to 1864, and which he never used or abused to push his own works). In 1842 Berlioz went for the first time to Germany, where he was hailed with welcome by the leading musicians of the younger generation, Robert Schumann foremost amongst them. The latter paved the way for the French composer’s success by a comprehensive analysis of theÉpisodein his musical journal, theNeue Zeitschrift für Musik. In 1846 he produced his magnificent cantataLa Damnation de Faust. Berlioz gave successful concerts at Leipzig and other German cities, and repeated his visit on various later occasions—in 1852 by invitation of Liszt, to conduct his opera,Benvenuto Cellini(hissed off the stage in Paris), at Weimar; and in 1855 to produce his oratorio-trilogy,L’Enfance du Christ, in the same city. This latter work had been previously performed at Paris, where Berlioz mystified the critics by pretending to have found the last chorus amongst the manuscript scores of a composer of the 17th century, Pierre Ducré by name. In 1855 hisTe Deumwas written for the opening of the Paris exhibition. Berlioz also made journeys to Vienna (1866) and St Petersburg (1867), where his works were received with great enthusiasm. In 1861 he produced his workBéatrice et Bénédict, and in 1863Les Troyens. He died in Paris on the 8th of March 1869.
It is not only as a composer that the life of Berlioz is full of interest, although in this respect his achievement is singularly significant for the comprehension of the modern spirit in music. But it is as the symbol of French romanticism in the whole domain of aesthetic perception that his pre-eminence has come to be recognized. HisMémoires(begun in London in 1848 and finished in 1865) illustrate this romantic spirit at its highest elevation as well as at its lowest depths. Victor Hugo was a romantic, Musset was a romantic, but Berlioz was romanticism itself. As a boy he is in despair over the despair of Dido, and his breath is taken away at Virgil’s “Quaesivit coelo lucem ingemuitque reperta.” At the age of twelve he is in love with “Estelle,” whom he meets fifty years afterwards. The scene is described by himself (1865) with minute fidelity—a scene which Flaubert must have known by heart when he wrote its parallel in the novelL’Éducation sentimentale. The romance of this meeting between the man—old, isolated, unspeakably sad, with the halo of public fame burning round him—and the woman—old also, a mother, a widow, whose beauty he had worshipped when she was eighteen—is striking. In a frame of chastened melancholy and joy at the sight of Estelle, Berlioz goes to dine with Patti and her family. Patti, on the threshold of her career, pets Berlioz with such uncontrollable affection, that as the composer wrote a description of his feelings he was overwhelmed at the bitterness of fate. What would he not have given for Estelle to show him such affection! Patti seemed to him like a marvellous bird with diamond wings flitting round his head, resting on his shoulder, plucking his hair and singing her most joyous songs to the accompaniment of beating wings. “I was enchanted but not moved. The fact is that the young, beautiful, dazzling, famous virtuoso who at the age of twenty-two has already seen musical Europe and America at her feet, does not win the power of love in me; and the aged woman, sad, obscure, ignorant of art, possesses my soul as she did in the days gone by, as she will do until my last day.” If this episode touches the sublime, it may be urged with almost equal truth that his description of the exhumation of his two wives and their reburial in a single tomb touches the ridiculous. And yet the scene is described with a perception of all the detail which would call for the highest praise in a novelist. Perhaps some parallel between the splendid and the ridiculous in this singular figure may be seen in the comparison of Nadar’s caricature with Charpentier’s portrait of the composer.
The profound admiration of Berlioz for Shakespeare, which rose at moments to such a pitch of folly that he set Shakespeare in the place of God and worshipped him, cannot be explained simply on the ground that Henrietta Smithson was a great Shakespearean actress. Unquestionably the great figures in English literature had a profound attraction for him, and while the romantic spirit is obvious in his selections from Byron and Scott, it can also be traced in the quality of his enthusiasm for Shakespeare. It is in his music more than in his literary attitude, however, that is disclosed something in addition to the pure romance of Schumann—something that places him nearer in kind to Wagner, who recognized in him a composer from whose works he might learn something useful for the cultivation of his own ideals. As a youth the power of Beethoven’s symphonies made a deep impression on Berlioz, and what has been described as the “poetical idea” in Beethoven’s creations ran riot in the young medical student’s mind. He thus became one of the most ardent and enlightened originators of what is now known as “programme music.” Technically he was a brilliant musical colourist, often extravagant, but with the extravagant emotionalism of genius. He was a master of the orchestra; indeed, his treatment of the orchestra and his invention of unprecedented effects oftimbregive him a solitary position in musical history; he had an extraordinary gift for the use of the various instruments, and himself propounded a new ideal for the force to be employed, on an enormous scale.
His literary works include theTraité d’instrumentation(1844);Voyage musical en Allemagne et en Italie(1845);Les Soirées d’orchestre(1853);Les Grotesques de la musique(1859);À travers chant(1862);Mémoires(1870);Lettres intimes(1882). For a full list of his musical works, Grove’sDictionaryshould be consulted.
The new critical edition of the complete musical works (published by Breitkopf and Hartel) is in ten series. I. Symphonies:Fantastique, Op. 14;Funébre et triomphale, Op. 15, for military band and chorus;Harold en Italie, Op. 16, with viola solo;Roméo et Juliette, with chorus and soli. II. Overtures (ten, including the five belonging to larger works). III. Smaller instrumental works, of which only the Funeral March forHamletis important. IV. Sacred music: theGrande Messe des morts, Op. 5; theTe Deum, Op. 22;L’Enfance du Christ, Op. 25, and four smaller pieces, V. Secular cantatas, includingHunt scênes de Faust, Op. I;Lélio, ou le retour à la vie, Op. 146 (sequel toSymphonie fantastique), andLa Damnation de Faust, Op. 24. VI. Songs and lyric choruses with orchestra, two vols. VII. Songs and lyric choruses with pianoforte, 2 vols. including arrangements of the orchestral songs. VIII. Operas:Benvenuto Cellini;Les Troyens(five acts in two parts,La Prise de TroieandLes Troyens à Carthage); Recitatives for the dialogue in Weber’sFreischutz. IX. Arrangements, including the well-known orchestral version of Weber’sInvitation à la danse. X. Fragments and new discoveries.Adolphe Julien’s biography of Berlioz (1888) first gave a careful account of the details of his life. See also the books by R. Pohl (1884), P. Galibert (1890), E. Hippeau (1890), G. Noufflard (1885), L. Mesnard (1888), Louise Pohl (1900), and D. Bernard (trans. by H.M. Dunstan, 1882). An illuminating essay on Berlioz is in Filson Young’sMastersingers(1902). See also the essay in W.H. Hadow’sStudies in Modern Music(1st series, 1908). Berlioz’sTraité d’instrumentationhas been translated into German and brought up to date by Richard Strauss (Peters’ edition [1906]).
The new critical edition of the complete musical works (published by Breitkopf and Hartel) is in ten series. I. Symphonies:Fantastique, Op. 14;Funébre et triomphale, Op. 15, for military band and chorus;Harold en Italie, Op. 16, with viola solo;Roméo et Juliette, with chorus and soli. II. Overtures (ten, including the five belonging to larger works). III. Smaller instrumental works, of which only the Funeral March forHamletis important. IV. Sacred music: theGrande Messe des morts, Op. 5; theTe Deum, Op. 22;L’Enfance du Christ, Op. 25, and four smaller pieces, V. Secular cantatas, includingHunt scênes de Faust, Op. I;Lélio, ou le retour à la vie, Op. 146 (sequel toSymphonie fantastique), andLa Damnation de Faust, Op. 24. VI. Songs and lyric choruses with orchestra, two vols. VII. Songs and lyric choruses with pianoforte, 2 vols. including arrangements of the orchestral songs. VIII. Operas:Benvenuto Cellini;Les Troyens(five acts in two parts,La Prise de TroieandLes Troyens à Carthage); Recitatives for the dialogue in Weber’sFreischutz. IX. Arrangements, including the well-known orchestral version of Weber’sInvitation à la danse. X. Fragments and new discoveries.
Adolphe Julien’s biography of Berlioz (1888) first gave a careful account of the details of his life. See also the books by R. Pohl (1884), P. Galibert (1890), E. Hippeau (1890), G. Noufflard (1885), L. Mesnard (1888), Louise Pohl (1900), and D. Bernard (trans. by H.M. Dunstan, 1882). An illuminating essay on Berlioz is in Filson Young’sMastersingers(1902). See also the essay in W.H. Hadow’sStudies in Modern Music(1st series, 1908). Berlioz’sTraité d’instrumentationhas been translated into German and brought up to date by Richard Strauss (Peters’ edition [1906]).
BERM(probably a variant of “brim”), a narrow ledge of ground, generally the level banks of a river. In parts of Egypt the whole area reached by the Nile is included in the berm. Thus of the lands near Berber, Mr C. Dupuis writes (in Sir William Garstin’sReport on the Upper Nile, 1904), “In most places there is a well-defined alluvial berm of recent formation and varying width, up to perhaps a couple of kilometres.” In military phraseology the berm is the space of ground between the base of a rampart and the ditch.
BERMONDSEY,a south-eastern metropolitan borough of London, England, bounded N. and E. by the Thames, S.E. by Deptford, S.W. by Camberwell, and W. by Southwark. Pop. (1901) 130,760. It is a district of poor streets, inhabited by a labouring population employed in leather and other factories, and in the Surrey Commercial Docks and the wharves bordering the river. The parish of Rotherhithe or Redriff has long been associated with a seafaring population. A tunnel connecting it with the opposite shore of the river was opened in June 1908. The neighbouring Thames Tunnel was opened in 1843, but, as the tolls were insufficient to maintain it, was sold to the East London Railway Company in 1865. The Herold Institute, a branch of the Borough Polytechnic, Southwark, is devoted to instruction in connexion with the leather trade. Southwark Park in the centre of the borough is 63 acres in extent. Bermondsey is in the parliamentary borough of Southwark, including the whole of Rotherhithe and part of the Bermondsey division. The borough council consists of a mayor, 9 aldermen, and 54 councillors. Area 1499.6 acres.
The name appears in Domesday, the suffix designating the former insular, marshy character of the district; while the prefix is generally taken to indicate the name of a Saxon overlord, Beormund. Bermondsey was in favour with the Norman kings as a place of residence, and there was a palace here, perhaps from pre-Norman times. A Cluniac monastery was founded in 1082, and Bermondsey Cross became a favoured place of pilgrimage. The foundation was erected into an abbey in 1399, and Abbey Road recalls its site. Similarly, Spa Road points to the existence of a popular spring and pleasure grounds, maintained for some years at the close of the 18th century. Jacob Street marks Jacob’s Island, the scene of the death of Bill Sikes in Dickens’sOliver Twist. Tooley Street, leading east from Southwark by London Bridge railway station, is well known in connexion with the story of three tailors of Tooley Street, who addressed a petition to parliament opening with the comprehensive expression “We, the people of England.” The name is a corruption of St Olave, or Olaf, the Christian king of Norway, who in 994 attacked London by way of the river, and broke down London Bridge.
See E.T. Clarke,Bermondsey, its Historic Memories(1901).
See E.T. Clarke,Bermondsey, its Historic Memories(1901).
BERMUDAS,a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, forming a British colony, in 32° 15′ N. and 64° 50′ W., about 580 m. E. by S. from Cape Hatteras on the American coast. The group, consisting of small islands and reefs (which mark the extreme northern range of the coral-building polyps), is of oval form, measuring 22 m. from N.E. to S.W., the area being 20 sq. m. The largest of the islands is Great Bermuda, or the Main Island, 14 m. long and about a mile in average width, enclosing on the east Harrington or Little Sound, and on the west the Great Sound, which is thickly studded with islets, and protected on the north by the islands of Watford, Boaz, Ireland and Somerset. The remaining members of the group, St George, Paget, Smith, St David, Cooper, Nonsuch, &c., lie N.E. of the Main Island, and form a semicircle round Castle Harbour. The fringing islands which encircle the islands, especially on the north and west, leave a few deep passages wide enough to admit the largest vessels.
Geology.—The Bermudas consist of aeolian limestones (cf.Bahamas) which in some of the larger islands form irregular hills attaining a height of some 200-250 ft. These limestones are composed chiefly of comminuted shells drifted and deposited by the wind, and they are very irregularly stratified, as is usually the case with wind-blown deposits. Where fresh the rock is soft, but where it has been exposed to the action of the sea it is covered by a hard crust and often loses all trace of stratification. The surface is frequently irregularly honeycombed. Even the reefs are not wholly formed of coral. They are ridges of aeolian limestone plastered over by a thin layer of corals and other calcareous organisms. The very remarkable “serpuline atolls” are covered by a solid crust made of the convoluted tubes of serpulae andVermetus, together with barnacles, mussels, nullipores, corallines and some true incrusting corals. They probably rest upon a foundation of aeolian rock. The Bermudas were formerly much more extensive than at present, and they may possibly stand upon the summit of a hidden volcano. There are evidences of small oscillations of levels, but no proofs of great elevation or depression.
Soil, Climate, &c.—The surface soil is a curious kind of red earth, which is also found in ochre-like strata throughout the limestone. It is generally mixed with vegetable matter and coral sand. There is a total want of streams and wells of fresh water, and the inhabitants are dependent on the rain, which they collect and preserve in tanks. The climate is mild and healthy, although serious epidemics of yellow fever and typhus have occurred. The maximum reading of the thermometer is about 87° F. and its minimum 49°, the mean annual temperature being 70°. The islands attract a large number of visitors annually from America. Vegetation is very rapid, and the soil is clad in a mantle of almost perpetual green. The principal kind of tree is the so-called “Bermudas cedar,” really a species of juniper, which furnishes timber for small vessels. The shores are fringed with the mangrove; the prickly pear grows luxuriantly in the most barren districts; and wherever the ground is left to itself the sage bush springs up profusely. The citron, sour orange, lemon and lime grow wild; but the apple and peach do not come to perfection. The loquat, an introduction from China, thrives admirably. The mild climate assists the growth of esculent plants and roots; and a considerable trade is carried on with New York, principally in onions, early potatoes, tomatoes, and beetroot, together with lily bulbs, cut flowers and some arrowroot. Medicinal plants, as the castor-oil plant and aloe, come to perfection without culture; and coffee, indigo, cotton and tobacco are also of spontaneous growth. Few oxen or sheep are reared in the colony, meat, as well as bread and most vegetables, being imported from America. The indigenous mammals are very few, and the only reptiles are a small lizard and the green turtle. Birds, however, especially aquatic species, are very numerous. Insects are comparatively few, but ants swarm destructively in the heat of the year. Fish are plentiful round the coasts, and the whale-fishery was once an important industry, but the fisheries as a whole have not been developed.
Towns, and Administration.—There are two towns in the Bermudas: St George, on the island of that name, founded in1794 and incorporated in 1797; and Hamilton, on the Main Island, founded in 1790 and incorporated in 1793. St George was the capital till the senate and courts of justice were removed by Sir James Cockburn to Hamilton, which being centrally situated, is more convenient. Hamilton, which is situated on the inner part of the Great Sound, had a population in 1901 of 2246, that of St George being 985. In Ireland Island is situated the royal dockyard and naval establishment. The harbour of St George’s has space enough to accommodate a vast fleet; yet, till deepened by blasting, the entrance was so narrow as to render it almost useless. The Bermudas became an important naval and coaling station in 1869, when a large iron dry dock was towed across the Atlantic and placed in a secure position in St George, while, owing to their important strategic position in mid-Atlantic, the British government maintains a strong garrison. The Bermudas are a British crown colony, with a governor resident at Hamilton, who is assisted by an executive council of 6 members appointed by the crown, a legislative council of 9 similarly appointed, and a representative assembly of 36 members, of whom four are returned by each of nine parishes. The currency of the colony, which had formerly twelve shillings to the pound sterling, was assimilated to that of England in 1842. The English language is universal. The colony is ecclesiastically attached to the bishopric of Newfoundland. In 1847 an educational board was established, and there are numerous schools; attendance is compulsory, but none of the schools is free. Government scholarships enable youths to be educated for competition in the Rhodes scholarships to Oxford University. The revenue of the islands shows a fairly regular increase during the last years of the 19th century and the first of the 20th, as from £37,830 in 1895 to £63,457 in 1904; expenditure is normally rather less than revenue. In the year last named imports were valued at £589,979 and exports at £130,305, the annual averages since 1895 being about £426,300 and £112,500 respectively. The population shows a steady increase, as from 13,948 in 1881 to 17,535 in 1901; 6383 were whites and 11,152 coloured in the latter year.
History.—The discovery of the Bermudas resulted from the shipwreck of Juan Bermudez, a Spaniard (whose name they now bear), when on a voyage from Spain to Cuba with a cargo of hogs, early in the 16th century. Henry May, an Englishman, suffered the same fate in 1593; and lastly, Sir George Somers shared the destiny of the two preceding navigators in 1609. Sir George, from whom the islands took the alternative name of Somers, was the first who established a settlement upon them, but he died before he had fully accomplished his design. In 1612 the Bermudas were granted to an offshoot of the Virginia Company, which consisted of 120 persons, 60 of whom, under the command of Henry More, proceeded to the islands. The first source of colonial wealth was the growing of tobacco, but the curing industry ceased early in the 18th century. In 1726 Bishop George Berkeley chose the Bermudas as the seat of his projected missionary establishment. The first newspaper, theBermuda Gazette, was published in 1784.