FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
Florence Nightingale was born, May, 1823, in Florence, Italy, of English parents, and, prompted by philanthropic instincts, turned her attention to the relief of humanity. After study in various nursing schools, she was sent atthe head of a corps of trained nurses to care for the sick and wounded soldiers of the Crimean war, in which position she displayed marvelous energy and ability. A grateful public subscribed for her a testimonial of $250,000, which she devoted to the founding of a training-school for nurses.
Clara Barton (b. about 1830) left a clerkship in Washington to engage in the work of alleviating the sufferings of the soldiers of the Civil War, on the battlefields and in hospitals, a work she performed with rare energy and self-sacrifice. She afterwards aided the Grand Duchess of Baden in establishing her hospitals during the Franco-Prussian war, and was decorated with the Golden Cross of Baden and the Iron Cross of Germany. In 1881 she organized the American Red Cross Society, for which she secured an international treaty giving it protection. She performed splendid service in camp and field during the Spanish-American war.
John D. Rockefeller (b. 1839) is a splendid example of those many and noble American millionaires who have responded with astonishing liberality to the promptings of their philanthropic natures. The reconstruction of the Chicago University, the founding or endowment of other public institutions, and of numerous charitable benefactions, together embracing the expenditure of many millions, are magnificent monuments to Mr. Rockefeller’s share in promoting the progress of his country during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Matthew Vassar (b. April 29, 1792; d. June 23, 1868) founded Vassar College, N. Y., in 1861. A brewer of large fortune, he conceived the idea of erecting and endowing a college for women, wherein education could be obtained either moderately or gratuitously, and which should be undenominational. To this end he gave land and $428,000 for buildings and equipment. Again he gave $360,000. Other members of his family added to his gifts, till $1,000,000 and more were expended in buildings, apparatus, etc., and the endowment amounted to over $1,000,000.
Inventors.—George Stephenson, of England (b. June 9, 1781; d. August 12, 1848), was the first (1814) to construct a satisfactory locomotive steam engine. In 1815 he introduced the steam blast into his second locomotive. In 1822 he built and operated his first railway, eight miles long. In 1829 his engine, named the Rocket, was driven at the rate of twenty-nine miles an hour. He invented a safety lamp, which is still in use in English collieries. A natural genius and self-taught mechanic, he refused knighthood, but has received by common consent the title of the father of railways.
Richard M. Hoe (b. September 12, 1812; d. June 7, 1886) completely revolutionized the art of printing by the invention of his “lightning” rotary press, in 1846. This marvel was capable of printing 20,000 impressions an hour. After many costly experiments, with a view to printing both sides of a sheet at once, he evolved his web-perfecting press, which drew the paper from a roll, perhaps miles in length, at the rate of 1000 feet a minute, printed both sides simultaneously, and cut and folded the sheets at the rate of 20,000 per hour. Subsequent improvements have given his machines a much larger hourly capacity.
CLARA BARTON.
CLARA BARTON.
Elias Howe (b. June 9, 1819; d. October 3, 1867) contributed the sewing-machine to the century’s triumphs and wonders, though it is alleged that the honor of inventing both the eye-pointed needle and the lock-stitch belongs to Walter Hunt, between whom and Howe long litigation prevailed, finally resulting in the recognition of the 1846 patent of the latter. Modifications and improvements by more recent inventors have made the sewing-machine the household boon of to-day.
Cyrus W. Field (b. November 30, 1819; d. July 12, 1892) made the problem of a telegraphic cable across the Atlantic an aim of his life. For thirteen years he labored with wonderful faith and perseverance, and at last, after aseries of defeats and mortifying failures, succeeded (1866) in laying a cable that thoroughly solved the problem. Since then submarine telegraphy has become one of the most useful and powerful factors in the private and public life of the world.
Samuel F. B. Morse (b. April 27, 1791; d. April 2, 1872) contributed to the century’s triumphs and world’s civilization by that brilliant and persistent series of investigations, which resulted in the first practical telegraph. He brought his invention before the world in 1844, and with the aid of the government set up a line of forty miles between Washington and Baltimore, over which dispatches successfully passed, May 24, 1844. From this moment his triumph was complete, and he became the recipient of many flattering distinctions at home and abroad.
John Ericsson (b. July 31, 1803; d. March 8, 1899) either invented, or first made practical, the steam fire-engine, the artificial draught for locomotives, the reversible locomotive, the “link-motion,” the caloric engine, and the screw propeller. Discouraged in England, he came to the United States in 1839, where he revolutionized naval warfare by applying the screw propeller to the U. S. S. Princeton, and employing a range finder. In 1854 he invented the Monitor iron-clad on principles first applied in the Monitor which defeated the Merrimac in Hampton Roads, Virginia, March 9, 1862. His career was signalized by many other valuable inventions.
Alexander Graham Bell, born March 3, 1846, besides exploiting in America his father’s valuable system of instruction to deaf mutes, typifies the inventive spirit of his age by his contribution to public progress through the material side, as exemplified in that indispensable aid to modern life, the telephone, with the invention of which he is generally, but by no means undisputedly, credited.
Thomas Alva Edison (b. February 11, 1847) is a splendid example of the tireless, acute, and practical scientific inventor, and is well named the electrical “wizard.” Among the triumphs of his skill and genius are the automatic telegraphic repeater; the duplex telegraph, afterwards developed into the quadruplex and sextuplex transmitter; the printing telegraph for stock quotations; the carbon telephone transmitter; the aerophone; the megaphone and microphone; the phonograph and photometer; the incandescent lamp; and many other devices for electric lighting.
Nicola Tesla (born 1858), a former pupil and assistant of Edison, shares with his master the honor of representing the world’s greatest and most practical of scientific inventors and discoverers. His most noted investigations and discoveries have been along the line of arousing luminous vibrations in matter, without, at the same time, setting in action heat-vibrations. He has made the remarkable discovery that 200,000 volts may pass harmlessly through that body which 2000 would kill, and is experimenting to produce 3,000,000 vibrations a minute in matter. He has also shown that both motors and lights can be operated on one wire without a circuit. His rotary motor is used in conveying power from the great plant at Niagara Falls.
Novelists.—Sir Walter Scott, of Scotland (b. August 15, 1771; d. September 21, 1832), exerted a powerful influence on the literature of the century through the medium of his stirring poetry and delightful fiction, in both ofwhich he was most ready and prolific. His numerous works, teeming with striking situations, strong and noble in style, are models of literary excellence, and are as captivating to readers of to-day as they were half a century ago.
SIR WALTER SCOTT.
SIR WALTER SCOTT.
Charles Dickens, of England (b. February 7, 1812; d. June 9, 1870), ably exemplified that school of novelists who paint homely social life with all its innocent, clumsy efforts at humor; its sorrows, vanities, and weaknesses; its selfishness, malice, and vice; its wrongs, sufferings, and goodnesses. Though faulty in plot and style and ridiculous in their exaggerations, his novels marked a new era in literature, and no books ever so appealed to the sympathies and good impulses of readers.
James Fenimore Cooper (b. September 15, 1789; d. September 14, 1851) typifies a large and apparently enduring class of fiction writers of which he was a remarkable forerunner; that school of novelists who deal with stirring, bold, and healthful adventure, in which the Anglo-Saxon mind particularly seems to find unfailing delight. Both at home and abroad, his novels attained a wide, sudden, and well-deserved popularity. And to this day no library of fiction is complete without them.
CHARLES DICKENS.
CHARLES DICKENS.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (b. July 4, 1804; d. May 18, 1864) exhibits in his numerous fictional works a man’s breadth and strength of imagination and a woman’s quick perception and spiritual insight. Almost gloomy in color, overhung with impending fate, and often uncanny, his stories are yet always fascinating. As has been well said, one catches in them “gleaming wit, tender satire, exquisite natural description, subtle and strange analysis of human life, darkly passionate and weird.”
Count Leo (or Lyoff) Alekseevich Tolstoi (b. August 28, 1828) is a Russian aristocrat by birth, but has assumed the dress and life of a peasant, the better to exploit his doctrines respecting non-resistance, communism, labor, religion, politics, government, and society. His numerous writings show a combination of keenness of realistic insight and wealth of poetical imagination, of a wonderful breadth of view with perfect handling of minute detail, seldom rivaled in all literature. Whether or not he will prove to be the forerunner of a great revolution in the world’s national and social life, there is no disputing his genius and pertinacity.
Edward George Earle Bulwer (Baron Lytton), of England (b. May 25, 1803; d. January 18, 1873), was novelist, poet, dramatist, and essayist, and ranked as one of the most versatile and classical authors of the century. Through his plays, poetry, and novels he introduced a new literary era, and was the leader, if not actual founder, of the school of melodramatic romance.
Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe (b. June 14, 1811; d. July 1, 1896) acquired great fame as authoress of the epoch-making book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” It proved to be a powerful contribution to the anti-slavery cause, and served to electrify readers in twenty different languages. In dramatized form it has delighted millions of auditors. The authoress represents woman’s efforts for the overthrow of slavery; efforts she put forth modestly, completely unconscious of their great power and future influence.
George Eliot, pseudonym of Marian Evans, afterwards Mrs. Lewes, then Mrs. Cross, of England (b. November 22, 1819; d. December 22, 1880), was one of the ablest of the world’s female novelists, and had but few equals among men. She was a leading epoch-maker in that introspective school which always with astonishing skill uses the “plot” in all its events, environments, and circumstances to develop each character in strict logical accord, whether for good or evil.
Victor Hugo, of France (b. February 20, 1802; d. May 22, 1885), was, in his day, the most popular author who has ever lived. Few poems, no drama, and absolutely no novel have ever produced the immediate and tremendous effect of his earlier poems, his “Hernani,” and his “Les Misérables.” Through “Hernani” he completely defeated the classic school and became the leader of the romantic school of revolutionary individualists, thuscreating a new epoch in literature. He invented novelties in poetry and prose which produced strength, variety, delicacy, harmony, and richness of imagery and coloring, absolutely unparalleled and original.
LORD BYRON.
LORD BYRON.
Poets.—Lord George Gordon Byron, of England (b. January 22, 1788; d. April 19, 1824), is a remarkable instance of a poet of marvelous natural powers, mingling good and evil in accordance with the whim that took him; yet exhibiting distinctly, through it all, evidences of a great soul and genius. He created an epoch in the world’s poetic literature. Skeptical, cynical, melancholy even to sentimentality, and skillfully manipulating the public side of his affairs to keep up a most fascinating air of romantic mystery about them all, he succeeded in affecting public thought with these characteristics to a wonderful extent. As a result, “Byronism,” for a time, was the absorbing rage in all prominent circles, literary and even social.
Henry W. Longfellow (b. February 27, 1807; d. March 24, 1882) is possibly the century’s finest type of the people’s poet. Though by no means a poet of great imaginative or creative powers, yet few reached his perfectskill as a painstaking and unerring artist; while none have ever surpassed him in creating that atmosphere of subtile beauty which always seems to surround and penetrate his verse. As an epoch-maker his influence extended even to Europe, and especially to England, securing him a fame wider and greater than that of any other American poet, and rarely failing to win the enduring affection of all kinds of readers.
John Greenleaf Whittier (b. December 17, 1807; d. September 7, 1892), as an editor and poet contributed no little to the cause of the abolitionists. Together with Longfellow, Holmes, Lowell, Hawthorne, and Emerson, he may be considered an epoch-maker in the development of American literature as guided by the spirit of New England. He types the sweet, simple, and absolutely sincere poet whose verse breathes forth a strong patriotism, and is redolent of the healthful home life of the Eastern States.
Sir Alfred Tennyson, of England (b. August 6, 1809; d. October 6, 1892), was by far the leading representative of those English poets who, while not wanting in the fire and spontaneity of true genius, nevertheless wrote carefully, after long reflection, with calculation and toil, as to diction, polish, and arrangement of sentences and thoughts. His highly-wrought “In Memoriam” and his exquisite, though somewhat sensuous “Idylls of the King” were absolutely novel, and mark an epoch in the history of the world’s poetry.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (b. 1809; d. June 29, 1861) is, without doubt, the greatest poetess of the present century and probably of any other. She presents an extraordinary instance of the grasp, comprehensiveness, and logic of man’s intellect, united with the intuitions, deep emotions, impulses, and visions of woman. Her especial contribution to the progress of this century is not only to the wealth of its poetry, but also to the careful and discriminating consideration of many of its social problems.
Robert Browning (b. in London, May 7, 1812; d. in Venice, December 12, 1889) was the foremost of psychological poets. Belonging to “The Romantic School,” he created an epoch in literature by carrying his high ideals and wonderful efforts of genius over into what became known as “The Spasmodic School.”
Actors.—Edmund Keene, of England (b. 1787; d. May 15, 1833), was one of the greatest and most popular actors of all time. He typified, and greatly contributed to the success of, that school of actors who rely almost solely on their own native genius and acquired powers, rather than on the aid of externals. He has been called both the “Byron” and the “Napoleon” of actors, and seemed to have the most extraordinary power both of catching and revealing the meaning of Shakespeare, with the quickness and vividness of the lightning flash.
Edwin Forrest (b. March 9, 1806; d. December 12, 1872) was a tragedian of the robust type. His success upon the stage was signal, owing to natural genius, superb form, and noble presence. For more than a generation he rendered effective and kept popular the leading tragedies of Shakespeare, and others suited to his powers. The Actors’ Home at Philadelphia was endowed by him, and stands as his monument.
Edwin Booth (b. November 13, 1833; d. June 7, 1893) stood as the exponent of the refined and lofty in drama. Through his rare histrionicpowers he became a recognized interpreter of such characters as Richard III., Shylock, Lear, Iago, Othello, Brutus, etc., but he never appeared to better advantage than in Hamlet. His ability was as fully recognized abroad as at home. He expended $175,000 in establishing the Players’ House and Club in New York.
Charlotte S. Cushman (b. July 23, 1816; d. February 18, 1876) first won her histrionic honors in opera. Her voice failed, and then she began her memorable career as actress, her most famous personations being Lady Macbeth, Bianca, Julia, Beatrice, Lady Teazle, Queen Katharine, and Meg Merrilies. She readily ranked with the great dramatic artists of the century, and her skill, native and acquired, divided with her own splendid character the admiration of the general public.
Tommaso Salvini (b. January, 1830) demonstrates that now very rare and severely tragic school of the stage in which the actor appeals to the public through his genius and art, rather than through his environments and accessories. He thus belongs to an apparently closing era in the history of the stage. Powerful, passionate yet self-controlled, magnificent in physique, in elocution, in reading and in deportment, as an actor he really belongs to the world, although Italian in both spirit and training.
Sir Henry Irving (or really John Henry Broadrib), of England, was born in 1838, and is the leader of that modern school of actors, who depend not so much on good reading, acting and general elocution as upon careful attention to details in stage-setting and presentation. As an epoch-maker in the history of the modern drama, he marks that point where the actor begins to look away from his own personal art to that displayed in his surroundings and accessories.
Lyric Dramatists.—Ludwig van Beethoven, of Germany (b. December 17, 1770; d. March 26, 1827), is widely held to be the most colossal of musical geniuses, in breadth and grasp of intellect, in vastness and boldness of imagination, and in depth and tenderness of emotion. His one opera, “Fidelio,” is by many considered to be unrivaled in the realm of pure dramatic music. His sonatas and chamber music are generally conceded easily to lead in those two departments, while his symphonies are universally believed to have reached the utmost limit of development which is possible in the field of orchestral composition.
Charles F. Gounod, of France (b. June 17, 1818; d. October 18, 1893), is an instance of a composer whose permanent fame must rest on but one work, the opera of “Faust,” in which he reached the utmost height of his powers and success. No opera has ever had such instant, universal, and constant popularity. Eclectic in style, and faithful and enthusiastic in his art, he did much to advance the progress of religious and operatic music in France.
Robert Schumann, of Saxony (b. June 8, 1810; d. July 29, 1856) was one of the creators of the romantic school of music. He was not a piano player, but a teacher and composer. His symphonies have been accorded a rank next to those of Beethoven, and for their deep pathos, fine, intense passion and wild, mournful beauty many of his compositions are almost peerless.
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (b. February 5, 1809; d. November 4, 1847) was as lovely in character as in works. In symphony, song, piano-forte, organ, or oratorio, he showed himself worthy of being classed with the greatmusical masters. His compositions suffered eclipse for a time by those of a stronger school, but his true position in the musical world is once more becoming recognized.
Franz Schubert, of Austria (b. January 31, 1797; d. November 10, 1829), has been called “the immortal melodist.” His fecundity was marvelous, and he is best known by his songs, several hundred in number, and nearly half of which have immortal quality. He also composed many charming symphonies and operas. His chief characteristics are the freshness of his delightful melodies supported by harmonies of equal interest.
Anton Gregor Rubinstein, of Russia (b. November 30, 1830; d. November 20, 1894), combined the brilliant pianist with the composer of genius. Had he not been preceded by Liszt as an epoch maker, he would undoubtedly have had the honor of being first of all great pianists.
Frederic F. Chopin, of Poland (b. March 1, 1809; d. October 17, 1849), was one of the first of pianists and musical composers. His playing, like his music, was marked by a strange and ravishing grace, and he was the great interpreter of the music of his native country. He composed concertos, waltzes, nocturnes, preludes, and mazurkas abounding in poetic fancy and subtle harmonic effects.
Jacques Offenbach, of France (b. June 21, 1819; d. October 4, 1880), was the chief creator of the opera bouffe, and was an astonishingly prolific composer. He stands for the clever, tactful musician, shrewd to perceive and quick to seize what catches the public ear for the time being.
Franz Liszt, of Hungary (b. October 22, 1811; d. July 31, 1886), ranks as one of the world’s phenomenal pianists. His strength and technique were prodigious, his magnetism irresistible, and his power over audiences unequaled. By his free, fantastic compositions he created a new school of composers. He gave extraordinary aid and inspiration to other musicians, and in reality brought Richard Wagner into prominence before the musical world.
Richard Wagner, of Germany (b. May 22, 1813; d. February 13, 1883), early abandoned Beethoven as an operatic model, and felt that a new era in music was about to dawn. His musical theories first found full swing in his famous opera of the “Nibelungen Ring,” with which, and kindred productions, he practically created the modern music-drama. In his operas he was sole author of their wonderful wealth of true poetry, stage effects, dramatic action, and endless melody. No musician has ever made such bitter foes and warm friends, and none ever had to fight his way so stubbornly to recognition.
Giuseppe Verdi, of Italy (b. October 9, 1813), is one of the most remarkable musical composers of the century, in the respect that his talent has not failed with age, but has kept pace with the great changes which have affected the dramatic stage since his youth. In the beauty of his melodies and the intensity of his dramatic powers he is unsurpassed. Very few, indeed, of his numerous productions have failed to hold exalted place in public estimation. His best-known works are “Il Trovatore,” “La Traviata,” “Rigoletto,” “Ballo in Maschera,” “Aïda,” “Otello,” and “Falstaff,” the latter written in 1893, when the author had reached the age of eighty.
Sovereigns.—William I., King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany, was the epoch-maker of the 19th century for his realm. He was son of Frederick William III., and born March 22, 1797. In 1849 he was made commander-in-chief of the Prussian army. He succeeded to the throne of Prussia in 1861, and immediately under the guidance of Bismarck set about those measures which were to end in the unification of the German states. These involved the war of 1866 with Austria, after which, in 1867 he became head of the powerful North German confederation, comprising 22 states, and a population of 29,000,000. Then followed the successful war with France, in 1871, which resulted in the complete realization of his idea of a united Germany, and on January 28, 1871, King William of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor of Germany, in the palace of the French kings, at Marseilles. He died March 9, 1888.
Victor Emmanuel. At the birth of Victor Emmanuel in 1820, Italy was a segregation of states or provinces, owned and played against one another by the chess-players of Europe. The policy of ambitious sovereigns to the north was to keep it divided and discordant. Victor Emmanuel became king of Sardinia at a time when Austria’s power was well-nigh supreme in the belligerent Italian states. His plea with Austria that the Sardinian constitution should be protected, and its success, aroused for him the confidence of the Italian people, and paved his way to the Italian crown. In 1852 he secured the services of the masterly Count Cavour, the Bismarck and Gladstone of Italy, for his premier and guide. Through Cavour’s influence France united with Sardinia against Austria. The war which followed and the peace of Villafranca completed Emmanuel’s task, and made him king of a united Italy, over which he reigned successfully for eight years, dying on January 9, 1878.
Czar Alexander II. The epoch-maker of Russia during the 19th century was Alexander II., born April 29, 1818. Of the many important events of his reign, which began in 1855, the most illustrious was the abolition of serfdom in his dominions, which gave freedom to 23,000,000 subjects. He was killed by anarchists in 1881.
Francis Joseph. This emperor of Austria-Hungary was born August 18, 1830, and succeeded to the throne of Austria in 1848, and of Hungary in 1867. Though defeated in wars with France, by which he lost Italian provinces, and with Germany by which he lost Schleswig-Holstein, he managed through an unprecedently long reign, in some part of which he was both emperor and legislature, to hold together an empire composed of heterogeneous Germans and Slavs, a task that would have proved impossible with a less wise and respected ruler. He survived the century, and the question also lived, what of the empire after his death?
Victoria, Queen and Empress. Alexandrina Victoria Guelph, whose reign was the longest in English annals, and covered the epoch-making time of Great Britain during the nineteenth century, was born in London, May 24, 1819. She was the daughter of the Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III. She became next in succession to the throne on the death of her uncle, King William IV., which occurred June 20, 1837. Her ancestry dated back to Egbert,A. D.827. To the wisdom of her mother she owed a well-ordered, peaceful, and happy childhood, with a view to the possibility of the Englishthrone. Special teachers were employed as her instructors, and she became proficient in music and drawing, as well as in the classic and modern languages. She became equally proficient in the English constitution and general history. In 1831, when, at the age of twelve, it was deemed necessary to acquaint her with the fact that she was heir presumptive to the throne, the genealogical table of the royal family was placed in her book of history. After a study of it, she remarked that she was nearer the throne than she had thought, and that the reasons for her course of mental training had become obvious.
About this time the young princess made her first appearance at court, and Parliament voted her an additional appropriation of $50,000 a year for her expenses. But as a rule her mother made use of the fast vanishing possibility of the birth of other heirs who would take precedence of her, to keep the child, as long as propriety would permit, out of the whirl of court life, and to allow her education to proceed without interruption. The consequence of this maternal discretion was that Victoria came to the throne in excellent physical and mental health.
She attained her legal majority—eighteen years—on May 24, 1837, and her birthday was celebrated throughout the country. On June 20, 1837, King William died childless. It became the immediate duty of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham to inform the young princess of her uncle’s death and her own right of accession. She held out her hand to the Archbishop to be kissed, and said, “I ask your prayers on my behalf.” A meeting of the privy council was called for eleven o’clock. The princess was known to but few of the members, and there was a universal desire to ascertain what manner of person she might be. She appeared before this august body of a hundred leading nobles and statesmen with modest composure, bowed to the lords, took her seat, and read her declaration. The members of the council were then sworn to allegiance, kneeling and kissing her hand. The foreign ambassadors were then received one by one. All were captivated by the easy dignity of their girl-queen. Her speech was generally remarked upon for its perfect elocution. Of her speech a few months after, upon the dissolution of Parliament, Charles Sumner, who heard it, said, “I was astonished and delighted. I think I never heard anything better read.” And of the same speech Fanny Kemble said: “I think it is impossible to hear a more excellent utterance than that of the Queen’s English by the English queen.”
Victoria promptly reformed her court, which was sadly in need of correction, and removed the royal residence to Windsor Castle. Public admiration for her ability and grace of manner grew into enthusiasm, so that on the day of her coronation at Westminster Abbey, June 28, 1838, the pageant was not only one of unsurpassed splendor, but the populace were described as “coronation mad.” This was the manifestation of a radically changed public sentiment as to royalty, for the eclipse of monarchy under the four Georges had long been accepted as a humiliating fact, and respect for the throne had been well-nigh lost during William’s reign. Altogether it was a bad time for a girlish queen to assume power; yet her guiding hand was soon favorably and powerfully felt, and it has been said by more than one good authority that her accession at that special crisis was the salvation of monarchy in Great Britain.
QUEEN VICTORIA IN 1840.(After a painting by Wm. Fowler.)
QUEEN VICTORIA IN 1840.(After a painting by Wm. Fowler.)
QUEEN VICTORIA IN 1840.
(After a painting by Wm. Fowler.)
Her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, received at an early date a touch of her quality, when, after vainly urging her to sign a certain document, he testily withdrew it with the remark that it was not of paramount importance. “Sir,” replied the queen instantly, “it is with me a matter of the most paramount importance whether or not I attach my signature to a document with which I am not thoroughly acquainted.” And on another occasion, when her signature was asked to a document on the ground of “expediency,” she replied, “I have been taught, My Lord, to judge between what is right and what is wrong, but expediency is a word I neither wish to hear nor to understand.” The beginning of her reign was coincident with the inauguration of transatlantic steam navigation. In the second year of her reign the Whig ministry, at whose head stood Lord Melbourne, lost its working majority inParliament. The queen immediately summoned the Tory leader, Duke of Wellington, to form a new government. Wellington suggested Sir Robert Peel as better qualified for the task. He accepted, but when the queen found that the change would affect all the ladies of her Bedchamber and household she repudiated Peel, and recommissioned Melbourne. For this she and her premier were taunted as being at the head of what was called the “Bedchamber Plot.” Subsequently, when Peel succeeded Melbourne, the queen found in him and Wellington warm friends and trusted advisers. Among the other notable events of this year (1839) of her reign, were the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League, and the occupation of Cabul and Aden by the British forces.
The queen’s hand was sought in marriage by many kings, dukes, and princes of Europe. Her choice fell upon her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. It was a love-match, mingled with not a little diplomacy on the part of her aunt, the Duchess of Gloucester, and Albert’s uncle, King Leopold. The wedding was celebrated with stately splendor at the Chapel Royal in St. James’s Palace, on February 10, 1840. The marriage proved a happy one. All that the most affectionate and unselfish wife could be, she was to her husband. And the Prince Consort not only returned her affection in full, but became her faithful, laborious, vigilant, discreet adviser and helper, lifting from her shoulders the crushing load of state affairs, and opening a new era in her life. Careful and well informed observers have ranked Prince Albert among the statesmen of his day, and some have said that for the greater part of his twenty-one years of married life he was practically King of England.
On November 21, 1840, their first child, afterwards Empress Frederick of Germany, was born. An economic triumph of the year was the introduction of cheap postage in England. In 1841 Sir Robert Peel succeeded Lord Melbourne as premier. British arms greatly extended political and commercial influence in the Orient by the taking of Canton and Amoy. On November 9 the Prince of Wales, who, January 23, 1901, succeeded to his mother’s throne, was born. In 1842 two attempts were made to assassinate the queen. It became the foreign policy of the government not to further complicate the Indian question by pushing conquest in Afghanistan, so the British forces were withdrawn. The commercial prestige of England was greatly advanced in the Orient by the acquisition of Hong Kong as a port, and the general opening of all the Chinese ports to foreign trade. This year also witnessed the permanent foothold of Great Britain in South Africa, by absorbing the Boer republic of Natal.
On April 25, 1843, Princess Alice was born. British possessions in India were enlarged by the annexation of Scinde. The queen and her husband paid a friendly visit to Louis Philippe of France, and received a return visit. In 1845 Mr. Gladstone became premier. England and France joined in war against the Argentine republic. The year witnessed the outbreak of the formidable Sikh rebellion. In the following year, 1846, this rebellion was suppressed and the Sikh territory was ceded to the East India Company. The aggravated question of the Northwest boundary of the United States was settled by treaty. The great famine in Ireland, and a somewhat indignant public sentiment in England, conduced to the repeal of the Corn-laws.For several years the Irish situation was serious, famine and insurrection going hand in hand. In 1848 Princess Louise was born. The Sikh rebellion was renewed. The Boer territory in South Africa was further trenched upon, and the farmers trekt across the Vaal River to establish the Transvaal republic. In 1849 the queen paid her first visit to Ireland, the Sikh rebellion was suppressed, and the Punjaub was annexed to British India. 1850 witnessed the conclusion of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty with the United States. In 1851 the queen opened the great Exposition in London. In 1852 the first Derby ministry came into power. In 1854 Great Britain participated with France in the Crimean War against Russia. For several years the vigorous foreign policy of the government led to serious complications. In 1860 the Prince of Wales visited America. During the Civil War in the United States, the queen’s sympathies were with the Union cause, and the very last public act of the Prince Consort was to sign in the name of the queen the paper which modified the demand of the ministry upon the United States with reference to seizure of the Confederate envoys Mason and Slidell. The paper in its unmodified form would have been equivalent to a declaration of war by England.
Toward the end of 1861 Prince Albert’s strength began to fail, and on December 14 he passed away. His death was a severe blow to the queen and to the nation. Two years afterwards she wrote in a letter to Dean Stanley, “I can never be sufficiently thankful that I passed safely through those two years [the two first years of her reign] to my marriage. Then I was in a safe haven, and there I remained for twenty years. Now, that is over, and I am again at sea, always wishing to consult one who is not here, groping by myself, with a constant sense of desolation.”
In 1863 the Prince of Wales was married. For several years the government had serious trouble with the Fenian uprisings in Ireland and America. In 1867 the Dominion of Canada was constituted. 1868 witnessed a cabinet change from Derby to Disraeli, and from him to Gladstone; and the passage of a reform act for Scotland and Ireland. In 1874 Disraeli succeeded Gladstone as premier. In 1875 Great Britain acquired control of the Suez canal, and in 1876 the queen was proclaimed Empress of India. In 1879 Great Britain was carrying on war in India against revolting tribes, and in South Africa against the Zulus. Two years later (1881) she attacked the Boers of the Transvaal, but met with defeat. In 1885 there was a further loss of military prestige by withdrawal from the Soudan campaign. In 1887 the queen celebrated her semi-centennial jubilee, and ten years later (1897) her diamond jubilee. In 1900 she witnessed the consolidation of her Australasian colonies, and in 1901 the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia. The closing years of her life were clouded by the attitude of her country in South Africa, and the losses of life and treasure entailed by the war with the Boers. It was said by many that her anxiety and grief over this situation hastened her death. Her last illness was brief and painless, and her death took place at Osborne, Isle of Wight, surrounded by her family, at 6.55P.M.on January 22, 1901, in the eighty-second year of her age, and sixty-fourth of her reign.
Her death occasioned sincere mourning throughout the civilized world. She was succeeded by her oldest son, the Prince of Wales, who ascended the throne on January 23, 1901, and assumed the title of Edward VII.The queen and Prince Consort were ever anxious as to the education of their children. They were trained to industry and economy. The daughters were taught accomplishments as well as sewing and cooking, and were given to understand that they were not to marry without affection, nor for mere money or reasons of state. Victoria was herself a careful manager in pecuniary affairs. By thirty she had saved enough from her income to provide for the whole expense of her new place at Osborne, where she died,—about $1,000,000,—while for the Prince she had already saved from the revenues of her Cornwall estate, $500,000. The Prince left her a valuable estate which at her death had come to be estimated at $25,000,000. This, added to her own judicious investments through the sixty-four years of her reign, gave her rank as one of the wealthiest of sovereigns, as well as of the world’s persons.
Already the “Victorian era” is being celebrated as the greatest period of progress that Britain ever knew, as the golden age of England. And this with much propriety and truth, for her reign teemed with instances of the exercise of power in the form of moral influence, with results important and far reaching. Some of these instances showed statesmanship of a high order. She never took sides in partisan politics, nor antagonized the policy of her responsible ministers, though often advising them and even at times correcting their serious mistakes, never cheapening her advice by offering it in affairs of little moment, always straightforward, self-reliant, vigilant for the rights of the people, yet strenuous of law, neither misled by flattery, nor coerced by fear, a hater of evil, a maker of peace. More than once, in hours of crisis, did she exercise a moral influence whose weight turned the course of events in both Europe and America. As an instance of this, the modification of Lord Palmerston’s action in the Trent affair, already mentioned, may be referred to. And when Bismarck, surprised at the rapid recovery of France from the effects of the Franco-Prussian War, had resolved on a second invasion and humiliation, it was through Victoria’s intervention that the aged German emperor was influenced to refuse a renewal of hostilities.
If her reign pass into history as the “Victorian Era,” then it will truly have many interesting chapters, some grandly inspiring, others—for such there must be—widely open to the criticism and judgment of posterity. It witnessed the greatest achievement in invention, the greatest advancement in science and art, and the most remarkable evolution in the relations of capital and labor that the world has ever seen. No equal period of world-history has seen such unparalleled growth of a people, and such unexampled expansion of national territory. At the beginning of her reign the population of the Empire was 127,000,000. At her death it embraced 11,334,000 square miles and 384,000,000 people. The United Kingdom itself grew from 16,000,000 to 40,000,000 besides sending out its swarms of emigrants to people continents and isles. Commerce kept even pace with this advancement. British ships sailed every sea. England’s flag was known in every port of the world. During Victoria’s reign the foreign trade of Great Britain increased 420 per cent. The great cloud on the Victorian era was England’s wars,—the questionable Crimean War of 1853–55; the Indian mutiny of 1857, which ran a frightful course of rapine and bloodshed; the Soudanese campaign; the Boer War in South Africa.