In Spain, General Espartero throughout this year continued his precarious rule. In October, Generals O'Donnel and Concha headed a rising at Pambulna Revolts in Spain in behalf of the former Queen-Regent Christina. The Queen's guard repelled an attack of Don Diego Leon on the palace. On October 15, Don Diego was captured and shot. One week later O'Donnel fled to France. On the same day, General Zurbano gained possession of the citadel and port of Bilbao. He declared himself in favor of the Queen-Regent.
On the other side of the Pyrenees the restoration of the French entente cordiale with England and the other European Powers was manifested in the conclusion of the International Convention of Alexandria in July, and the quintuple treaty for suppression of the slave trade proposed by the British Government. The French cry for the forcible recovery of the Rhine frontier died down and public funds rose accordingly. Alfred de Musset's second invective poem on "Le Rhin Allemand" scarcely raised a stir. All desire for French Algerian victories military conquests was satisfied for the moment by the exploits of French arms under General Bugeaud and the Duc d'Aumale in Algeria. For once the Arab chiefs of the Desert were cowed into submission. The effect of the Duc d'Aumale's triumphal return was spoiled somewhat by the attempt to assassinate him on September 13. Under Guizot's guidance the French Chambers showed their appreciation of the flourishing state of literature in France by their amendments to the copyright law, extending the provisions of copyright to a period of thirty years after an author's death.
Michel Jurgevitch Lermontov, the Russian poet, died on July 27, as the Death of Lermontov result of a duel in the Caucasus. His romance, "A Hero of Our Time," was the immediate cause of the duel. This poet was the Russian spokesman of the so-called Weltschmerz (world-sorrow) which had come into vogue with the "Sorrows of Werther." Following in the wake of Chateaubriand and Byron, Lermontov wrote epic poems in a pessimistic, cynical strain, without attaining quite the bitterness of spirit of a Byron or Heine, nor the Lermontov's work melancholy lyric beauty of a Lenau or Leopardi. Pre-eminent, on the other hand, are his poetical descriptions of the scenery and wild national traits of the Caucasus, which furnished the background for almost all of his poems. Noteworthy among his epics are "The Circassian Boy," "Ismail Bey," "Valerik," "Hadshy-Abrak," and "The Demon." Under Czar Nicholas, Lermontov's works were forbidden in Russia. After having been banished to the Caucasus, for demanding revenge for Pushkin's death, the poet published his last brilliant epic, "Song of Czar Ivan Vasilyevitch," under a pseudonym.
In Germany, too, letters and arts were flourishing. In Vienna, Nikolaus Lenau (Baron Strehlenau) and his friend, Anastasius Gruen (Count German letters Auersperg), were the leaders of a literary movement which found its counterpart in the so-called "Young German" movement of the north, where Ferdinand Freiligrath, Laube, Gutzkow, and Emanuel Geibel came under the ban of the German Bundesrath. The great political event of the year was the Prussian General Estates meeting of the first General Estates, convoked at Berlin. The new king's hostile attitude toward their popular demands for constitutional rights and larger liberties soon destroyed the hopes of liberal Germans for a change of spirit in the government of Prussia. A more material advance in civilization was assured by the opening of the first railway from Berlin to Magdeburg.
Peter von Cornelius, one of the leaders of the religious Catholic movement Cornelius in art which had followed the classicism of the first decade of the century, was commissioned by the King to decorate the cemetery at Berlin. These decorations afterward, as well as the mural paintings in the Church of Saint Louis at Munich, proved to be his masterpieces.
The British occupation of Afghanistan had continued since the last year. The expenses of the occupation were so heavy that economy was imperative. As soon as the British Resident cut down the subsidies paid to Shah Shuja Defence of Jellalabad the situation took a sinister turn. In October, Sir Robert Sale left Kabul with a brigade of British troops to reopen communications with Jellalabad, which had been interrupted by hostile mountain tribes. He got to Jellalabad only after a desperate struggle and heavy losses. His subsequent defence of that stronghold against the Afghans is one of the heroic traditions of British India.
At Kabul, in the meanwhile, the garrison had been removed from the citadel of Bala Hasir to open cantonments outside of the city. Sir William MacNaghten, the British Resident, had been appointed Governor of Bombay, and was about to be succeeded by Sir Alexander Byrnes. Byrnes took up his abode in the centre of the city amid the turbulent bazaars. On November 2, the people of Kabul rose against the English. Byrnes barricaded his house and sent to MacNaghten for help. On the advice of General Elphinstone, MacNaghten decided to wait for further information before acting. The delay Massacre of Kabul was fatal for Byrnes. He held out with thirty-two others from eight in the morning until two in the afternoon. Then the ammunition gave out. The mob rushed in and tore the house to pieces. Byrnes and twenty-three of his followers were massacred. One hour later a British relief corps tried to enter the city. All Kabul turned against them. The British were forced to retire. The news of this set Afghanistan wild. Thousands of armed mountaineers flocked to Kabul, and the whole nation rose against the foreigners. The British troops were cut off from all supplies. They maintained their precarious position only by lavish promises of ransom. At Afghans up in arms length, after many parleys, a meeting was arranged, for December 23, between MacNaghten and the Afghan chiefs. When the English envoy walked into the meeting the Afghans fell upon him, and he was slain by Akbar Khan.
1842
THE situation of the British in Afghanistan was so critical that they could MacNaghten's murder unavenged not avenge the murder of their countrymen. Negotiations were actually renewed with Akbar Khan upon his statement that he had not meant to murder the British envoy, but had been goaded into the act by the taunts of MacNaghten. Promises of safe conduct were obtained. In January the British forces began their retreat from Kabul. Then followed a series of treacheries and mutual breaches of faith. Akbar Khan and his hordes of Afghans dogged the retreating column exacting further concessions. The The retreat from Kabul English women and children were demanded as hostages. From the heights of the Khaibar Pass, the Ghilzai mountaineers poured a destructive fire into the Englishmen. Akbar Khan's followers made common cause with them. Thousands of Englishmen were slain, or perished in the deep snows of the Khaibar Pass. The wounded and those who fell behind were butchered by the Disaster of Khaibar Pass Afghans. A fortnight sufficed to cut the whole column to pieces. Of the entire force of 4,000 soldiers and 12,000 followers, one single survivor succeeded in reaching Jellalabad. He was a British surgeon named Brydon, who dragged himself on all fours out of reach of the Afghans; but he lived to tell the tale for more than thirty years afterward.