The discovery of gold in South Australia drew hordes of immigrants to that colony. Others were attracted to America by the discovery of diamonds in Brazil. In the West Indies, the successful rising against President Boyer Secession of Santo Domingo of Hayti resulted in the foundation of the Black Republic of Santo Domingo. President Rivière, at the head of 20,000 negroes from Hayti, was defeated and had to abandon his attempt to subdue the Dominicans. Guerrier superseded him as President of Hayti. The warlike spirit of these negroes spread to the neighboring island of Cuba. Various armed risings of the blacks in the province of Santiago and elsewhere were sternly put down by the Spaniards and their white descendants in Cuba.
A bloodless revolution in Greece resulted in the dismissal of King Otto's Bavarian Ministry and the King's acceptance of a Constitution, which left Otto's reign in Greece the King almost as absolute as before. Yet his government was weak and slipshod. The wretched fiscal system and heavy taxation of the old Turkish régime were retained, while ill-managed innovations from Bavaria, such as military conscription, drove large numbers to brigandage. As an American traveller remarked at the time: "The whole Greek Government is one enormous job."
The long-smouldering discontent of the common people in Italy and Sicily, Revolt of Calabria fomented by the secret agitation of such men as Mazzini and Garibaldi, found premature vent in a popular insurrection in Calabria. The revolt was ruthlessly put down. The patriotic leaders, Attilio and Emilio Bandiero, with eighteen others, were shot for their part in the affair.
On March 8, Bernadotte, latterly known as King Charles XIV. of Sweden, died in his eighty-first year. During the last years of his reign he received Death of Bernadotte many signs of love and appreciation from his adopted people, notably on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his coronation. Shortly before his death this self-made king asserted with good reason: "No one living has made a career like mine."
The reign of Bernadotte produced a new line of eminent scientists and was the golden age of Swedish literature. Berzelius remolded the science of Progress in Sweden chemistry and founded theoretical chemistry. Elias Fries devised a new system of botany. Sven Nilsson, a distinguished zoologist, also became the founder of a new science, comparative archeology. Schlyter brought out a complete collection of the old Scandinavian laws, a work of equal importance to philology and jurisprudence. Ling invented the Swedish system of gymnastics and founded the Institute of Gymnastics in Stockholm, where his Swedish massage or movement cure was further developed. Geijer, as a Geijer philosopher, was a follower of Hœijer, while as a historian he attained foremost rank in Sweden. As a poet and composer, Geijer also attained noteworthy success. Professor of History at Upsala, he was accused of atheism, but acquitted. His political career was equally remarkable. Geijer was a firm supporter of the government until fifty-seven years of age, when he joined the opposition. Swedish writers were divided in factions as opposed to each other as political parties. The old Gustavian school, of which Leopold remained the last representative, was attacked by the "New School," which was inspired by German Romanticism. Of this so-called "phosphoristic" school Atterbom was the leader. Stagnelius, the young poet, who died early, belonged to the same group. The New School was in turn Tegnér's "Frithiof's Saga" opposed by the Gothic Society or Scandinavian School, among whom were Ling and Geijer. Franzen and Wallin devoted themselves to religious poetry. The most famous of all modern Swedish poets was Esaias Tegnér, whose "Frithiof's Saga" achieved an international reputation. Politically, he was conspicuous for his inveterate hostility to the "Holy Alliance" and its reactionary spirit in state, church and literature.
Bernadotte's son, Oscar I., was forty-five years old when he ascended the Oscar I. of Sweden throne. Like his father, he was a patron of the fine arts. Upon his accession several important reforms were at once enacted by the new Riksdag. It was decided that this assembly should meet every third instead of every fifth year; the liberty of the press was extended, and equal rights were accorded to women in certain matters of inheritance and of marriage. This last reform aroused so much criticism that a powerful opposition was organized in the Riksdag, under the leadership of Hartmansdorff and Bishop Wingan.
Albert Bertal Thorvaldsen, the great Danish sculptor, died suddenly on Death of Thorvaldsen March 25, at Copenhagen. Thorvaldsen was the son of an Icelandic sailor, who incidentally earned a living by carving wooden figure-heads for ships. The boy was born at sea, in 1770, while his mother was making a voyage to Copenhagen. At the age of twenty-four, young Thorvaldsen, who had attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at Copenhagen, won the grand prize, which enabled him to pursue his studies at Rome. His first work was the model of a colossal statue of Jason, a marble execution of which was ordered by Thomas Hope, the English banker. For this work Thorvaldsen asked six hundred sequins. Hope offered him eight hundred. Yet Thorvaldsen did not The great sculptor's career fulfil his contract with Hope until fourteen years had passed. At the house of Baron Wilhelm von Humboldt, in Rome, Thorvaldsen met Count von Moltke, who commissioned him to execute two statues of Bacchus and Ariadne. About the same time he made his famous "Cupid and Psyche" for the Countess von Ronzov. The fame of these statues and others was such that the Academy of Copenhagen bestowed upon the young sculptor another prize of four hundred crowns.
In the spring of 1805 Thorvaldsen made his first important bass-relief, "The Abduction of Brisëis," which still remains one of the most celebrated Famous works of the sculptor's works. Orders now began to come in from all over the world. Marquis Torlogna commissioned Thorvaldsen to make companion pieces to Canova's famous group "Hercules and Lycas" in the Palazzo Brazzino, while a government representative of the United States offered to pay five thousand crowns apiece for colossal statues of a Liberty and a Victory to be erected in the city of Washington. These and other works Thorvaldsen was prevented from executing by his unfortunate entanglement with Signora d'Uhden, whose fits of jealousy imbittered his life. About this time the sculptor formed life-long friendships with his German fellow-sculptor, Rauch, and with Prince Louis of Bavaria, who commissioned him to execute an Adonis for the Munich Museum, and to restore the Ægean marbles lately A Napoleonic order acquired by that prince. Napoleon's visit to Rome in 1811 resulted in a characteristic order. The Emperor left to Thorvaldsen the choice of the subject, but gave him only three months' time wherein to finish his models. The sculptor accordingly executed his colossal frieze presenting the "Entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon." It remains one of the largest and most ambitious of Thorvaldsen's works. It was intended for the Temple of Glory, now the Church of the Madeleine in Paris, and the price stipulated by Napoleon was 320,000 francs. Before Thorvaldsen could execute the frieze in marble, Napoleon suffered his reverses and was exiled to Elba. The Bourbon Government in France refused to take the monument. A replica in marble now adorns the Palace of Christianborg in Denmark. No less abortive was Thorvaldsen's undertaking of a great monument intended to commemorate the re-establishment of Poland. The monument was ordered in 1812, after Napoleon's entry into Warsaw. By the time the work was finished Poland was "Morning and Night" no more. To the year 1815 belong Thorvaldsen's famous bass-reliefs "The Workshop of Vulcan," "Achilles and Priam," and the two well-known medallions, "Morning" and "Night," which were reproduced a thousand-fold throughout Europe. They were conceived, it is said, during a sleepless night, and were modelled in one day.
Despite the urgent requests of his countrymen, Thorvaldsen would not be weaned from Rome. About this time Thorvaldsen produced his famous "Dancing Girl," "Love Victorious," "Ganymede and the Eagle," and "A Young Shepherd with his Dog." It was then, too, that he modelled the portrait of Lord Byron which served for the monument subsequently erected to that poet in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge.
At last, after thirty-three years of absence from home, Thorvaldsen "The Lion of Luzerne" resolved to return to Denmark. On the way he stopped at Luzerne in Switzerland, and there executed the famous Lion of Luzerne, carved into the solid rock of the Alps. When he modelled this monument, Thorvaldsen had never seen a live lion. From Luzerne, Thorvaldsen proceeded straight to Copenhagen. He was received like a royal sovereign. At Copenhagen the Thorvaldsen in Copenhagen artist began his great series of sculptural embellishments for the Cathedral. As completed, they comprised almost all his works on religious subjects, among them the colossal "Christ and the Twelve Apostles," the grand frieze of "Christ on the Road to Calvary," "The Baptism of Christ," "The Preachings of St. John the Baptist," "Christ's Entry into Jerusalem," and "The Lord's Supper." From Copenhagen Thorvaldsen went to Warsaw, where he executed a bust of Emperor Alexander, and an equestrian statue of Prince Poniatovski. This monument did not reach Warsaw until 1829. It was never put up. What became of it is still a matter of conjecture.