The military ambitions of Nicholas found a vent in the direction of Persia. Persian war The encroachments of Ermolov, the Governor-General of the Caucasus, so exasperated the Persians that soon a holy war was preached against Russia. Ebbas-Mirza, the Prince Royal of Persia, collected an army of 35,000 men on the banks of the Araxes. A number of English officers joined his ranks. Defence of Choucha Nicholas at once despatched General Kasevitch with reinforcements for Ermolov. Ebbas-Mirza was checked on his march on Tivlas by the heroic defence of Choucha. In the meanwhile the Russians concentrated their forces. The Persian vanguard, 15,000 strong, was defeated at Elizabethpol. Russian victories On the banks of the Djeham, Paskevitch, with a division of the Russian army, overthrew the main body of the Persians and forced them back over the Araxes. The Persians continued their resistance, relying on the terms of Persia abandoned by England the treaty of Teheran, wherein England had promised financial and military subsidies in case of invasion. The English, promise was not kept. Hence forth the Persians were at the mercy of the Russian army of invasion. Almost simultaneously a rebellion against the Chinese Government broke out in Kashgar. Undeterred by this diversion, Nicholas took up a vigorous stand against the Turks. In March he presented an ultimatum insisting on the Russia's ultimatum to Turkey autonomy of Moldavia, Wallachia and Servia, and on the final cession to Russia of disputed Turkish territory on the Asiatic frontier. Turkey yielded. Nicholas then joined in an ultimatum with England and France for an immediate stop of the Turkish outrages in Greece. In this matter Nicholas, who regarded the Greeks as rebels, showed himself more lenient to Massacre of Janizaries the Turks, and negotiations with the Porte were permitted to drag. The Sultan profited by the lull to execute a long contemplated stroke against the Janizaries. The whole of this famous corps of bodyguards was massacred.
During this year two men died in Russia who had distinguished themselves at Death of Bennigsen and Rostopchin the time of Napoleon's invasion. One was General Bennigsen, a soldier of German extraction and training, who took a leading part in all the Russian campaigns against Napoleon. The other was Prince Rostopchin, who as Governor of Moscow consigned that city to the flames after Napoleon's triumphant entry.
England lost two men who had distinguished themselves in India. One was the Death of Hastings and Heber Marquis of Hastings, who had but lately relinquished his Governor-Generalship of British India, and whose rule there both from a military and from a political-economical point of view must be regarded as pre-eminently successful. The other was Reginald Heber, the Bishop of Calcutta, who endeared himself to Anglo-Indians by his translations of the Alfred Tennyson folk songs and classic writings of Hindustan. In other respects this year is notable in English literary annals. Alfred Tennyson published his earliest verses in conjunction with his brother; Elizabeth Barrett also brought out her first poems; Macaulay had begun to captivate England by his essays; Thomas Hood issued his "Whims and Oddities"; Scott and Coleridge were then in the heyday of English letters flourishing literary favor. Scott had just brought out his "Talisman" and "The Betrothed," and now published "Woodstock." Coleridge contributed his "Aids to Reflection." A new impetus was given to scholarship by the foundation of the Western and Eastern literary institutions of England, and the establishment of a professorship for political economy at Oxford. London University was chartered. Drummond's Scientific progress namesake, Lieutenant Thomas Drummond, perpetuated his name by his limelight, produced by heating lime to incandescence in the oxy-hydrogen flame.
While Herschel was working out his spectrum analysis, Fox Talbot contributed his share by his observation of the orange line of strontium. John Walker perfected his invention of friction matches. Industrially, on the contrary, England still suffered from the canker of the corn laws and English lotteries suppressed the recent financial crisis resulting from the operations of ill-fated stock companies. In Lancashire nearly a thousand power looms were destroyed by the distressed operatives. Some relief was given by Canning's abolition of all public lotteries.
In Germany, arts and literature flourished in the same degree. King Louis Louis I. of Bavaria I. of Bavaria, upon his accession to the throne, gathered about him in Munich some of the foremost artists and writers of Germany. The capital of Munich was embellished with public monuments; public buildings were decorated with fresco paintings, and art galleries were established. The University of Bavaria was transferred from Landshut to Munich, and other institutions Munich embellished of learning were erected by its side. Streets were widened, new avenues and public squares laid out, and public lighting introduced throughout the city. Within a short time the quasi-medieval town of Munich was changed into a modern metropolis and became the Mecca of German art. German romantic literature Among the artists who gathered round Louis of Bavaria were Moritz von Schwind, Cornelius, Hess, Raupp, and the elder Piloti. Among the writers who drew upon themselves the notice of this liberal king were the Count of Platen, who during this year published his "Ghazels" and the comedy "The Fatal Fork"; and Hauff, who brought out his romantic masterpiece, "Lichtenstein." Of the rising writers, Heinrich Heine alone withstood the "Die Wacht am Rhein" blandishments of Louis with verses of biting satire. Little noticed at the time was the appearance of Reichardt's "Wacht am Rhein," a song which was destined to become the battle hymn of Germany. Scant attention, likewise, was given to Froebel's epoch-making work, "The Education of Man." On the Froebel other hand much pother was made over some curious exchanges of sovereignty, characteristic of German politics in those days. The Dukes of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Meiningen exchanged their respective possessions. Saalfeld Meiningen received Gotha. Altenburg was assigned to Saxe-Hilburghausen, which latter principality in turn was relinquished to Meiningen. The settlements of the succession in those petty principalities called forth volumes of legal lore.
Jens Baggesen, the most prolific Danish humorist, died this year, seventy-two years of age. After his death Baggesen's writings declined in popularity.
In America, the people of the United States commemorated the American semi-centennial semi-centennial of their independence. The Fourth of July, the date of the declaration of American independence, was the great day of celebration. The day became noted in American history by the simultaneous death of two Death of Jefferson and Adams patriots: Jefferson and Adams. Thomas Jefferson's greatest achievements, as recorded by himself on his gravestone at Monticello, were his part in the declaration of American independence, in the establishment of religious freedom and in the foundation of the University at Virginia. He was the most philosophic statesman of his time in America. Much of the subsequent history of the United States was but the development of Jefferson's political ideas. His public acts and declarations foreshadowed the policies of his most worthy successors. The essentials of the Monroe Doctrine, of the emancipation of slaves, as well as of the doctrine of State rights and "The Father of Democracy" of American expansion, can all be traced back to him. Thus he has come to be venerated by one of the two great political parties of America as "The Father of Democracy."
Jefferson's principles were stated in his first inaugural address: "Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments and all their rights as the most competent of administrations for our domestic concerns; the preservation of the general government in its whole Jefferson's principles constitutional vigor, as a sheet anchor of peace at home and safety abroad.... The supremacy of civil over military authority; economy in public expense, honest payment of public debts; the diffusion of information; freedom of religion; freedom of the press and freedom of the person, under the protection of the habeas corpus and trial by jury." When Jefferson's second term as President came to an end he retired from the White House poorer than he had entered it. A third term was declined by him with these words: "To lay down a public charge at the proper period is as much a duty as to have borne it faithfully. If some termination to the Third term discountenanced services of a chief magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution or supplied by practice, this office, nominally four years, will in fact become for life; and history shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance." Together with Washington's similar action, this established a custom which has since been followed in the North American Republic.
Jefferson's predecessor, John Adams, who died on the same day, though likewise a model President, was less fortunate in his career. His John Adams's career administration was a struggle almost from beginning to end. The troubles with France, though not attaining the dignity of international warfare, presented all the difficulties of such a war. Adams's extreme measures against domestic danger, as embodied in his "alien and sedition laws," were unfortunate. They were in fact an infringement of the rights of free speech and personal liberty, and were with justice denounced as unconstitutional and un-American. His departure from the American Bill of Rights among other things effectually prevented his re-election as President. His wisest closing act was the appointment of John Marshall to the Chief Justiceship of the American Supreme Court.
Stars of the stage