A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Volume Two (of Three)   By: Edwin Emerson (1869-1959)

BY

EDWIN EMERSON, Jr.

Member of the American Historical Association, New York Historical Society, Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, Honorary Member of the Royal Philo Historical Society of Bavaria, etc., etc.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY GEORG GOTTFRIED GERVINUS

ILLUSTRATED WITH SIXTEEN COLORED PLATES AND THIRTY TWO FULL PAGE, HALF TONE CUTS AND TWO MAPS

IN THREE VOLUMES VOLUME TWO

[Illustration]

NEW YORK

P.F. COLLIER AND SON

MCMII

COPYRIGHT, 1900

By EDWIN EMERSON, Jr.

[Illustration]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME TWO

FULL PAGES IN COLOR

THE FIRST STEAM RAILWAY. Painted by Edward L. Henry Frontispiece

BALAKLAVA. Painted by Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler)

SOLFERINO. Painted by E. Meissonier

LAST MOMENTS OF MAXIMILIAN. Painted by J. Paul Laurens

FULL PAGES IN BLACK AND WHITE

AMERICAN INVENTORS. Painted by C. Schussele

THE KING OF ROME. Painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence

LORD BYRON. Painted by Maurin

BEETHOVEN AND HIS ADMIRERS. Painted by A. Grafle

QUEEN VICTORIA TAKING THE OATH. Painted by Sir George Hayter

LORD TENNYSON. Painted by Frederic Sandys

WASHINGTON IRVING AND HIS FRIENDS. Painted by Daniel Huntington

THE BATTLE OF INKERMANN. Painted by Gustave Doré

WAGNER AND LISZT. Painted by W. Beckmann

OPENING OF THE OPERA. Painted by Edouard Detaille

EXECUTION OF SEPOY REBELS. Painted by Verestchagin

THE EMPEROR OF CHINA RECEIVING THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS.

1816

[Sidenote: Parliamentary rule in France]

[Sidenote: Revival of French letters]

An era of peace and reconstruction had begun. After a generation of war and turmoil France was started on her new career of parliamentary government. The brief period of retaliation ended with the so called amnesty act of January, which condemned Napoleon and all his relatives to perpetual exile. The Chambers now entered into a prolonged discussion of the propositions for a new election law. The Ministry was headed by the Duc de Richelieu, who had taken the place of Talleyrand and Fouché. The latter was compelled to leave France forever. Marshal Gouvion St. Cyr, who succeeded Davoust, reorganized the army on a permanent footing of military equality which satisfied even Napoleon's veterans. In the Chambers, the Comte d'Artois represented the ultra royalist right wing, while the left was brilliantly led by Lafayette, Manuel, and Benjamin Constant. Guizot, during the same year, for the first time ascended the tribune as spokesman of the moderate party the so called Doctrinaires. Chateaubriand so offended the king by his book "La Monarchie selon la Charte" that his name was crossed from the list of the Council of State. Yet he remained the foremost man of letters in France.

[Sidenote: Béranger]

Béranger was the foremost lyric poet. A typical song by him is that rendered by Thackeray:

With pensive eyes the little room I view, Where, in my youth, I weathered it so long; With a wild mistress, a stanch friend or two, And a light heart still breaking into song: Making a mock of life, and all its cares, Rich in the glory of my rising sun, Lightly I vaulted up four pair of stairs, In the brave days when I was twenty one.

Yes; 'tis a garret let him know't who will There was my bed full hard it was and small; My table there and I decipher still Half a lame couplet charcoaled on the wall. Ye joys, that Time hath swept with him away, Come to mine eyes, ye dreams of love and fun; For you I pawned my watch how many a day, In the brave days when I was twenty one.