The Earl of Aberdeen formed a new Ministry including Lord John Russell as New English Ministry Foreign Secretary; Lord Palmerston, Home Secretary; Earl Granville, President of the Council; Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer, while Sir W. Molesworth, the historian, was Commissioner of Public Works. The Marquis of Lansdowne occupied a seat in the Cabinet without holding any office. It was another Ministry of all the talents. Recent events in France demanded instant attention, the more so since the municipal council of London had taken upon itself to send an address of congratulation to Louis Napoleon upon his assumption of the empire. In the end the British Government took the same course.
In Paris, the Senate had been reconvened to consider the reinstitution of End of French Republic the empire. Within three days a senatus consultum was ready recommending the desired change to another plebiscite. Every one of the Senators, so the Parisians suggested, had 30,000 francs' worth of reasons for advocating the change. The formality of a plebiscite was accomplished by November 21. The government functionaries reported 7,854,189 yeas against 253,145 nays. On the anniversary of his coup d'état of the previous year, Louis Napoleon took the title of Napoleon III., by the grace of God and the will of the Second Empire nation, Emperor of the French. The title was made hereditary. In vain did the Count of Chambord voice the protest of the Royalists, and Victor Hugo, in his exile on the Island of Jersey, that of the Republicans. France was once more under imperial rule, and seemed content to remain so. About this time the great Crédit Mobilier was established as a joint-stock company by Isaac and Emile Pereire.
Outside of France, Louis Napoleon's second coup d'état created little stir. Only Emperor Nicholas of Russia refused to recognize Louis Napoleon Holy Sepulchre controversy as a full-fledged monarch. An ecclesiastical dispute concerning the guardianship of the holy places in Palestine threatened to make trouble between France and Russia. In the end the Sultan was prevailed upon to sign a treaty confirming the sole custody of the Holy Sepulchre to the French.
1853
ON JANUARY 30, Louis Napoleon married Eugénie Marie de Montijo de Guzman, a Empress Eugénie Spanish beauty. Raised to the rank of Empress, this ambitious lady at once became a leader of fashion. The Czar of Russia, acting in conformity with the sovereigns of Austria and Prussia, finally consented to acknowledge Napoleon III. as Emperor of the French, and Great Britain followed. Strengthened by this outward recognition, Louis Napoleon deemed it safe to extend an amnesty to some 4,500 political prisoners and Republican exiles. On February 5, however, General Saint-Priest, with many other Royalists, was secretly arrested on charges of communicating with the Comte de Chambord and of sending false news to foreign newspapers. Not long afterward a bill was passed restoring capital punishment for attempts to subvert the imperial government and for plots against the life of the Emperor. On the recognition of the Empire by Great Britain, application was made to the English Government for a surrender of the Great Napoleon's last testament. The request was granted. Louis Napoleon thereupon undertook to carry out his famous uncle's bequests. Under the stress of adversity, the two branches of the Bourbon family became reconciled to each other. The French Royalists reconciled Duke de Nemours, on behalf of the House of Orleans, made his peace with the Comte de Chambord. Henceforth, the Count of Paris was recognized by the Royalists of France as the rightful pretender to the crown.
In Germany, reactionary measures of repression were still in order. An alleged democratic conspiracy was unearthed at Berlin in March, and another Gervinus' State trial in April. In Baden, Georg Gervinus, the historian, on charges of high treason for writing his "Introduction to the History of the Nineteenth Century," was sentenced to ten months' imprisonment, and his book was ordered to be burned. The sentence of imprisonment, however, was not executed. On April 28, Ludwig Tieck, the great German Shakespearian scholar and romantic poet, died at Berlin. Born in 1778 at Berlin, he entered into Death of Tieck literary activity at the opening of the Nineteenth Century, and joined the enlightened circle of Weimar. There he issued his great collection of German medieval romances, and of the works of the Minnesingers. It was he who drew Goethe into the study of Shakespeare, and who persuaded Henry Steffens, the Norwegian philosopher, to try his hand at purely literary productions. Together with Schlegel he was the greatest German exponent of the works of Shakespeare.
In Italy, likewise, severe measures of reaction were inflicted on the people of the governments of Austria, Naples and some of the petty principalities. In Tuscany, the reading of the Bible was prohibited. In February, a revolt at Milan, instigated by Mazzini, was ruthlessly put Reaction in Italy down. A few months later a revolutionary plot was revealed at Rome. Some hundred and fifty conspirators were thrown into prison. As heretofore, Garibaldi figured in these movements. In Sardinia alone, under the enlightened Ministry of Count Cavour, the liberal movement for united Italy was encouraged. The Pope's hostile attitude was resented by the passage of anti-clerical measures in Sardinia. Thus at first ecclesiastical jurisdiction was abolished, and later bills were proposed for the suppression of convents and for the ultimate withdrawal of all State support from the clergy.
In October, while the conspiracy trials were still in full prosecution at Milan, Tommaso Grossi, the Italian romantic poet, died in that city. Grossi Tommaso Grossi was born at Belland, on Lake Como, in 1791, and at an early age won distinction by a patriotic satire against Austrian rule in northern Italy. In 1817 he published "La Fuggitiva," a love story of the French wars, which found great favor. Inspired by his intercourse with Manzoni, a few years later he wrote "Ildegonda," a romantic poem treating of the times of chivalry and cloister life. This poem won a great success. Less happy was his attempt to rival Tasso with an epic poem in fifteen cantos on the Crusades. Among his prose tales, the most lasting in interest are the historical novel "Marco Visconti" and the idyl "Ulrico e Lida." Of his lyric songs, "La Rondiella" achieved the greatest popularity.
Gustave Courbet, the French originator of realism Gustave Courbet in painting, the author of "Le Beau c'est le Laid," the man who claimed that all search for the beautiful or ideality in art was a gross error, this year exhibited his "Women Bathing," and again created a stir on the exhibition of his "Funeral at Ornans" and his "Drunken Peasants at Flagny." This early exponent of realism in its most radical form, despite his taste for vulgar types, showed such strength of technique that his landscapes were accepted almost at once as masterpieces.