Although several deputies and senators were tried, no one was convicted save an ex-minister, who confessed that he had accepted 300,000 francs. Had the exposure come a little earlier, it must have led to the triumph of Boulanger. Its princ.i.p.al consequence was to bring new men of less tarnished reputations to the front.
THE CHURCH.--In the same year the Church with direct encouragement and even pressure from Pope Leo XIII, rallied to the support of the Republic. The pope issued an encyclical to French Catholics and followed this by a letter to the French cardinals. Many royalists were afflicted by this att.i.tude, but nearly all were submissive. They called themselves the "const.i.tutional party," but were also called the "rallied." Their watchword seemed to be, "Accept the const.i.tution in order to modify legislation."
PARTIES.--The radical revolutionary groups, which had been crushed in the suppression of the Commune of 1871, and which had not been able to reconst.i.tute themselves effectively until the amnesty of 1880, began in the early nineties to make their influence more effective. This coincided with a general shifting of political power toward the Left. The a.s.sa.s.sination of President Carnot, in 1894, and the enthusiasm provoked by the cementing of the Russian alliance and by the coming of the Czar to Paris, prolonged the control of the moderates, or Progressists, as they were called in 1896. It was the persistent attacks of the radicals that disgusted Casimir-Perier with the presidency. His successor was Felix Faure, a successful business man. When he died suddenly in 1899, emile Loubet was chosen by the support of the groups of the Left. Before the moderate Republicans lost control they revolutionized the economic policy of France, subst.i.tuting for practical free trade and commercial treaties a high protective tariff.
DREYFUS CASE.--France had not recovered from the shock of the Panama scandal before she was involved in another scandal far more subtle in its demoralizing influence. Jealousy of the success of Jewish financiers, strengthened by the common feeling that capitalists are enriched by ill-gotten gains, led to an obscure campaign against the Jews and all capitalists. The reminiscences of Panama did not allay these feelings. Soon the royalists seized this instrument as a means of discrediting the Republic, a.s.serting that it had been organized through the influence of German-Jewish immigrants who were enriching themselves at the expense of the thrifty but guileless French. It was also a.s.serted that Jews in the army were betraying its secrets to their German kindred. As the army was universally popular, this was an effective blow at the Jews. The denouement was the arrest of Captain Dreyfus, his degradation, and his confinement on an island off the coast of French Guiana. The evidence had been slight, and it was discredited when a courageous officer of the Intelligence Department told his superiors that even this had been constructed by a Major Esterhazy. The officer, Colonel Picquart, was removed, and his place taken by Colonel Henry, who undertook to supply the necessary evidence. Although he imposed on the minister of war, he was unable to endure the moral strain, especially after distinguished men like Zola became champions of the innocence of Dreyfus, and he committed suicide after making a confession. The government was obliged to bring the case before the Court of Ca.s.sation in 1898, which ordered a new trial. Although Dreyfus was again convicted by a military court, he was immediately pardoned by the President.
OTHER COUNTRIES.--After 1897 the situation in Austro-Hungary became precarious, owing to the difficulties which arose when the time came to renew the _Ausgleich_, or agreement, between Austria and Hungary, first made in 1867. Neither portion of the empire was satisfied with its part of the bargain. As the Hungarians always stood together in any struggle with Austria, they were likely to get the better of the bargain. There was the additional difficulty that no agreement of any sort could be adopted in the Austrian parliament, which had become hopelessly disorganized through the savage conflicts between the various groups, Germans, Czechs, anti-Semites, etc. The only way to prevent the actual dissolution of the empire was to renew the agreement in behalf of Austria by imperial warrant. Another country belonging to the Triple Alliance, Italy, was brought into trouble by the policy of extravagant expansion, pursued especially under the leadership of Crispi. But the disastrous defeat by the Abyssinians at Adowa, in 1896, gave pause to the plans of such statesmen. Spain also suffered disaster in this period, first through the outbreak of revolt in Cuba, and then through the loss of the remnant of her once splendid colonial empire in consequence of the war with the United States.
EUROPEAN DIPLOMACY.--The foundation of the Triple Alliance had been laid by the treaty between Germany and Austria. To this Italy had acceded in 1883. Such a combination tended to bring Russia and France together, especially as Russia began to see that the only power pursuing a policy favorable to her desires was France. Finally Russian and French officers were authorized to arrange for the possible cooperation of armies in case of war, and in 1894 a military convention was completed. That there came to be a definite understanding still more comprehensive has been generally believed, but its terms were not divulged. The French minister of foreign affairs used the word "alliance" in the Chamber of Deputies in 1895, and two years later, when President Faure visited the Czar at St. Petersburg, the Czar used the phrase "two great nations, friends and allies." The consequence of these two alliances, and of the peaceful policy pursued by England, was the localizing of difficulties and the maintenance of a "concert" on all questions likely to embroil Europe. This was evident from the treatment of the Eastern, the African, and the Far Eastern questions.
ARMENIA.--Bulgarian affairs had not received their final solution at the Berlin Congress, for the peaceful revolution of Philippopolis in 1885 had forcibly reunited Bulgaria and East Roumelia. But the powers did not recognize the change until Prince Alexander had withdrawn, and Prince Ferdinand had placed himself more under Russian tutelage, making this emphatic by the decision to bring up his son, Prince Boris, according to the Greek rite. The success of Bulgaria rendered the Armenians envious. Discontent at the failure to carry out the reforms promised by the treaty of Berlin led to the formation of a revolutionary party which hoped by provoking a Turkish repression, similar to the Bulgarian "atrocities," to necessitate a new European intervention. Such a scheme was opposed by American missionaries and by the native clergy, for they saw that it was doomed to disaster. The revolutionists endeavored to compromise the missionaries by posting their placards on the walls of the American college at Marsivan. The suspicions of the Turks were directed against the missionaries, and the Girls" Schoolhouse was burned by a mob. Ostensibly to capture agitators the Kurds followed by the regular troops perpetrated terrible ma.s.sacres in the mountain villages of Sasun in 1893 and 1894. The powers could not agree upon any common plan to check such evils, and when they did force upon the Sultan a scheme of reform, it served only as a signal for worse ma.s.sacres, which recurred chronically until the final ma.s.sacre in Constantinople in August, 1896. As the "concert" was honeycombed by jealousies, it was impossible to do more than prevent the development of this horror into a general European war. England was unable to intervene separately because of the hostile att.i.tude of Russia. Such statesmen as Lord Salisbury recognized that England"s traditional support of Turkey had been discredited by such events. When, in the following year, war broke out between Greece and Turkey, and when Crete fell into a state of anarchy, the powers were more successful in their common action, for they were able to mitigate the terms which the victorious Turks demanded, and to withdraw Crete from direct Turkish control.
EGYPT.--The history of Egypt touches both the situation in the Turkish empire and the more general situation of Africa and the routes to the Far East. England"s occupation of Egypt, at first considered temporary, gave her practical control of the Suez Ca.n.a.l; it also gave her a strong position in the eastern Mediterranean, the lack of which had been one reason for her hostility to the treaty of San Stefano in 1878. The problem of the equatorial provinces had remained vexatious ever since the triumph of the Mahdi and of his successor, the Kalifa. Any attempt to begin a campaign for their recovery was hindered by the peculiar financial condition of Egypt. As all the funds were either mortgaged to creditors, or at least under an international control not favorable to the presence of England, the only money absolutely under the control of the Egyptian government was a special reserve fund, the result of painful administrative economies. But the necessity of an advance was imperative. Although the attempt of the Congo Free State to establish a permanent foothold in the upper Nile basin had been checked by England, France was striving to extend her territorial possessions straight across from Senegal to Jibutil, on the Gulf of Aden. Major Marchand had left Paris secretly in 1896 with this mission. In this year also the defeat of the Italians at Adowa, and the pressure of the troops of the Kalifa upon Ka.s.sala, held by the Italians for the English, did not permit longer delay. A great preparatory work had been done in the ten years previous. A new army had been created. The advance began in March, under the leadership of Sir Herbert Kitchener. One of its most effective and brilliant features was the construction in the following year of a railway 230 miles across the Nubian desert to save a river journey of 600 miles. The decisive campaign took place in 1898, with the battle on the Atbara and the crushing defeat of the Kalifa at Omdurman in September. During the summer Marchand had been establishing posts in the upper Nile region as far as Fashoda. Kitchener immediately proceeded thither, raised the English and Egyptian flags near by, leaving the settlement of the question to diplomacy. The French, not being supported by Russia in an aggressive att.i.tude, were obliged to give way, and their sphere of influence was not to include any portion of the Nile basin. The war had been economically managed, so that Egyptian finances were not seriously disarranged. The help that England was obliged to give justified her in considering the Sudan as territory held jointly by her and by Egypt. The general consequence of English rule in Egypt has been a reduction of taxation, and, at the same time, the collection of a larger revenue. Vast public improvements, like the dam at a.s.souan, also added to the resources of the country.
AFRICA.--Although Africa since 1885 had been the subject of an important conference at Berlin and of various international agreements it was, strictly speaking, beyond the sphere of action of the European concert. Its part.i.tion among the European states, a movement originating in the expeditions of Livingstone and Stanley, went on rapidly from 1884. The Congo Free State, which at first promised to be an international enterprise, speedily changed into a territorial possession of the king of Belgium. When in 1890 it became necessary for him to raise funds for the support of his rule, it was agreed that the reversion of the territory belonged to Belgium as a colony. King Leopold, as already remarked, made an attempt to establish his authority over a part of the upper Nile basin, but here he was thwarted by the ambition of both England and France. England undertook to lease the Bahr-el-Ghazal in consideration of the lease from him of a strip fifteen and a half miles wide along the eastern border of the state, in order to make possible the scheme of a railway on land under British control from "the Cape to Cairo." This scheme was defeated by the Germans as well as by the French. The Portuguese were in turn prevented from extending their holdings from Angola to Mozambique. The French and the English, though each disappointed in their extreme purposes, made substantial gains; England in the regions north of the Cape, across the Zambezi, in Uganda, and in the Sudan; France in western and northern Africa, so that all the northwest, except the coast colonies and the independent Sultanate of Morocco, came under her power. France also turned her protectorate of Madagascar into a colonial possession. England"s policy of expansion, together with difficulties arising out of the gold mining industry, involved her in a war with the Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. The center of the mining industry was Johannesberg. So rich were the mines that the foreign population there soon outnumbered the Boers. These foreigners, or uitlanders, desired all the privileges of Englishmen, although they had become residents in a state ruled by primitive agriculturists. They claimed that their industry was ruinously hampered by unwise taxation. So great did their sense of wrong become that they entered into an arrangement with Cecil Rhodes, premier of Cape Colony, and with Dr. Jameson, administrator of the South African Chartered Company, in accordance with which, at a given signal, they were to rise and Dr. Jameson with armed troopers was to come to their a.s.sistance. Dr. Jameson did not wait for the signal, the scheme broke down, and he and his troops were captured. To the Boers all this seemed to be an English plot against their independence, and so they became more suspicious. Through a series of incidents the Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, was led to attempt to extort by force from the Boers the desired concessions. Before the diplomatic campaign was well begun new issues were introduced, both parties began to prepare for war, and finally in October, 1899, the Boers took the initiative and invaded the British colonies. The war was at first disastrous for the English, but finally through a large army under Lord Roberts the Boers were driven from both the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, which were occupied and declared to be colonies of the empire. But it was not until three years after the beginning of the war that the last Boer bands were compelled by Lord Kitchener to surrender, and the country was pacified. England"s influence in South Africa was greatly strengthened by this victory, although her prestige in the world at large was somewhat compromised.
THE FAR EAST.--Before the close of the century the interest which had once belonged to the near East was transferred to the Far East. The first indication of this was the action of the powers at the close of the war which broke out between j.a.pan and China, in 1894, over their relations to Korea. j.a.pan was triumphant, demonstrating in the battle of the Yaloo River the superiority of her new navy. She occupied the peninsula of Liaotung and Port Arthur, a harbor of strategic importance. She demanded a cession of this peninsula, together with Formosa and a large indemnity. Russia, Germany, and France intervened and kept j.a.pan from establishing herself on the mainland. This action did not appear altogether in the interest of China, for each of the three powers soon asked of China quite as important concessions for themselves,--France in the south, Germany at Kiaochow, and Russia at Port Arthur,--which compelled England to guard her interests by leasing WVei-hai-wei, opposite Port Arthur. At this time began the marking out of spheres of influence, a practical part.i.tion of China, accompanied by demands of all sorts of railway and mining concessions. This unedifying pressure from aggressive Europeans seemed for a time to awaken China. The emperor began to urge forward reform. It was thought that China might follow in the footsteps of j.a.pan, but suddenly there was a palace revolution, the dowager-empress seized control, and the reformers had to fly for their lives. Closely following this came a serious anti-foreign outbreak, led by "the Boxers," and encouraged by certain high officials. Before Europe was aware of the gravity of the situation it was alarmed by the report that the foreign legations at Pekin had been besieged, captured, and ma.s.sacred. Although this was a false report, it was true that from June 20 to August 14, 1899, the legations were besieged, partly by a mob and partly by Chinese regulars. The siege was raised by a mixed expedition of European and j.a.panese troops sent from the coast. The satisfaction with which the news of rescue was received in Europe was chilled by stories that some portions of the expeditionary corps had been guilty of crimes only to be paralleled in the history of European wars in the seventeenth century. After the war a difficult diplomatic question remained, all the more puzzling because the ambitions of the powers prevented any hearty agreement among them. These questions were only in appearance settled by the signing of the protocol in January, 1901. Attention was fixed upon Russia, supported by a new instrument of influence, the Trans-Siberian railway, because it appeared to be her purpose to establish her power in Manchuria on a permanent basis.
AUSTRALIA.--During the Boer war the English colonies by their loyal and generous cooperation strengthened the bonds of empire and forced to the front schemes to render the imperial tie more practically beneficial and effective. One of these groups succeeded in completing its own federal organization. This was Australia. Active effort towards federation was begun in 1889 by Sir Henry Parkes, but not until six years later was public sentiment sufficiently aroused. The main difficulty, as in the case of the American colonies, was to reconcile the differing trade-interests and to establish a proper balance between the larger and the smaller states. Finally, in 1900, these difficulties were overcome, and all the colonies save New Zealand voted to become parts of the commonwealth of Australia. Each state was to have six senators, and to be represented in the lower house in proportion to its population, although no state was to have fewer than five representatives. Matters of taxation were more fully intrusted to the lower house than in the United States. For a time it seemed impossible to settle the delicate questions of appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of England, the only instrument of control left in the hands of the home government, but this was settled by a judicious compromise. During the last decade not only Australia, but also New Zealand, made many interesting attempts to solve labor and social problems by legislation. Although the prosperity of Australia received heavy blows after 1890, it began to recover after 1895, and to advance towards its earlier level.
UNITED STATES: CLEVELAND"S SECOND ADMINISTRATION.--Although the McKinley tariff aided in elevating its author to the presidency, its first political consequences were not helpful to the Republican party. In 1892 there was a popular cry for tariff reduction, and Cleveland was triumphantly elected by the Democrats, who also obtained control of both houses of Congress. President Cleveland"s purpose of reforming the tariff was hindered at first by a grave financial and industrial crisis, which came in the spring of 1893. The causes of this crisis were the extravagant inflation of business during the preceding years, a financial policy accompanied by the purchase for coinage of vast quant.i.ties of silver, and the natural timidity of capital while the economic policy of the government was in danger of fundamental change. The opponents of the administration took skillful advantage of the panic to bring its policies into discredit. So great was the stringency of the money market, especially on account of the depletion of the gold reserve in the treasury, that President Cleveland was obliged to call an extra session of Congress, and to urge upon that body the repeal of the law requiring the monthly purchases of silver for coinage. This measure, adopted by the Senate with evident reluctance in the late fall, did not wholly relieve the situation, and to maintain the gold reserve and defend its credit the government was forced four times to issue bonds for more gold, the consequence of which was the increase of the public debt by over $262,000,000. During the controversies upon monetary legislation, the President had alienated many members of his party in the House, and particularly in the Senate. He was unable to bring them together for such tariff legislation as had been promised. A bill was pa.s.sed which also embodied income tax provisions, and this bill became a law without the President"s signature. Not long afterwards the Supreme Court declared the income-tax clauses unconst.i.tutional. Since the tariff bill did not produce the expected revenue, the government was obliged to face an ominous deficit. The President, however, by his courage and honesty, upheld the national credit despite attacks from his own party. His foreign policy, save in one instance, was conservative. He refused to take advantage of the Hawaiian revolution to bring on the annexation of those islands, and he endeavored to maintain the neutrality of the United States in the struggle between Spain and the Cuban revolutionists; but he intervened in a boundary dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela, insisting that the question should be submitted to arbitration rather than be settled on the terms imposed by the stronger.
MCKINLEY ADMINISTRATION.--In the campaign of 1896 the older leaders of the democracy were thrust aside and William J. Bryan became the party candidate, with the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 as its watchword. This appealed strongly to the distressed debtor cla.s.s, very numerous in the West on account of the "hard times." The tone of the platform and of the speeches of the leaders was such as to attract the workingmen. The Republicans nominated McKinley, with the promise to reenact the former tariff legislation, to foster industries, and to protect the financial credit of the country. The success of the Republicans was at first doubtful; but the conservative interests became alarmed, and finally the Republicans gained a decisive victory. By the time President McKinley was inaugurated, the period of business liquidation and readjustment was over, confidence had returned, and so the new President became, as campaign placards of his party had announced, "the advance agent of prosperity." The tariff was restored to its older level, the monetary system was reformed, and the gold standard legally established. It was not this legislation, however, that rendered the period significant; it was the adoption of a new national policy of expansion, incident to the war with Spain. The Spaniards had been unable to put down the Cuban insurrection. The drastic measures, especially the policy of "reconcentration" adopted by General Weyler, had discredited the Spanish cause. The ancient tradition of Spain"s cruelty to her colonies predisposed the American people to credit reports of atrocity. The administration was apparently anxious to perform its duties as a friendly power, but this was rendered more and more difficult owing to the growing popular demand for intervention. On the 15th of February, 1898, the American battleship _Maine_ was blown up in Havana harbor. Although there was no decisive proof that this was due to the Spaniards, there was no doubt of it in the popular mind. A little later the Spaniards were ready to make any concessions short of an actual abandonment of their sovereignty. It was now too late. There was an irresistible demand for war, and war was declared in April. The result was inevitable, and Spain was obliged to yield sooner than was antic.i.p.ated. Her fleet at Manila was destroyed by Admiral Dewey, May 1, and her West India squadron by the fleet in which Rear Admiral Sampson held the chief command, on July 3. Meantime a small American army had rendered Santiago untenable. After the surrender of Santiago, Porto Rico was soon overrun. Manila, which had been under the American guns since May, was also forced to surrender. A protocol signed in August led to the negotiation of peace in December. According to its terms, not only was Cuba to be evacuated, but Porto Rico, the Philippines, and the Ladrones were to become American possessions. In this way a war begun because of popular sympathy with the Cubans, turned into a means of territorial expansion. The resistance to the policy of an expansion of this sort was strong in certain sections of the country. Many senators held similar opinions, long delaying the ratification of the treaty of peace.
COLONIAL PROBLEMS.--Simultaneously with the ratification of the peace, war broke out in the Philippines between the American army and the natives, whose leaders had been bent on securing independence. The American troops easily defeated the organized native armies, though one consequence of the struggle was widespread ruin in the island of Luzon; but they were unable for over two years to pacify the country. Even before these troubles were ended, measures were taken to subst.i.tute a civil for a military administration, which went into effect in the summer of 1901. Porto Rico was organized as a partly autonomous territory, and although on its trade with the United States there was not at first a full freedom from tariff restrictions, these subsequently disappeared. In dealing with Cuba there had been no formal recognition of the revolutionary organization. It was suspected by many that the military occupation would be prolonged until annexation was brought about, but the President insisted upon the fulfilment of the pledges which had been made at the beginning of the war. A Cuban convention agreed to a treaty in accordance with which the United States acquired the right to intervene to guarantee the independence of the island should this be endangered by entanglements with foreign states. The Cubans also promised to sell or lease to the United States sites for naval stations. The army of occupation was then withdrawn, and the new government inaugurated in 1902. Even before the outbreak of the war, President McKinley had endeavored to bring about the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, but it required such a pressing need of a controlling position in the mid-Pacific, as the hostilities emphasized, to overcome the opposition. It was not until after the war closed that the islands were organized as a territory. About the same time England withdrew from her joint control of Samoa, and Germany agreed with the United States for a part.i.tion of the group. Active preparations were also made for the building of an interoceanic ca.n.a.l through Nicaragua or the Isthmus of Panama on the route laid out by the French. With these questions of expansion and colonial government, other equally important problems, growing out of the new period of prosperity, agitated the public mind, particularly the formation of gigantic corporations, a form of organization which tended to supersede the trusts. As the state laws were helpless to check abuse of power by such corporations, there was a growing demand for the better enforcement of the national laws already enacted or the adoption of other laws more effective. In 1900 McKinley was reelected, Bryan again being put forward by the Democrats. A few months after his inauguration, while he was visiting the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, he was fatally shot by an anarchist. Upon his death, the Vice-President, Theodore Roosevelt, became President.
CHAPTER VIII. DISCOVERY AND INVENTION: SCIENCE AND LITERATURE: PROGRESS OF HUMANE SENTIMENT: PROGRESS TOWARD THE UNITY OF MANKIND.
As an era of invention and discovery, the nineteenth century is a rival of the fifteenth.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES.--Too much was already known of the globe to leave room for another so stupendous discovery as that of the New World. Nevertheless, many important geographical discoveries have been made, especially since about 1825. Geographical societies without number have been founded, of which the Royal Geographical Society in England (1830) is one of the best known. Geographical knowledge is increased in two ways,--first, by the discovery of places not before known; and secondly, by the scientific examination of countries and districts, with accurate surveys, and the making of maps. In both these departments, especially in the latter, the recent period won distinction. The _Russians_ in their advance rendered the regions of Northern and Central Asia accessible to travelers. Not only India, but also extensive districts in Central Asia, have been explored by the British. China has been traversed by a succession of travelers, and j.a.pan has unbarred its gates for the admission of foreigners. Abyssinia has been traversed. The mystery respecting the sources of the Nile has been dispelled by _Speke_, _Grant_, and _Baker_. In 1822 and 1825 _Clapperlon_, in two journeys, went over the whole route from Tripoli to the coast of Guinea. In 1830 _Richard_ and _John Lander_ settled the question as to the outlet of the _Niger_.
_Barth_, and other later explorers, have carried forward the study of the course of this great river, in the exploration of which _Mungo Park_ lost his life (1806). In 1816 the Congo was explored to the falls of Yellala. The travels of _Schweinfurth_, _Livingstone_, _Barth_, _Cameron_, and _Stanley_ have greatly enlarged our acquaintance with formerly unknown portions of the African continent. In 1879 _Stanley_, commissioned by King _Leopold_ of Belgium, opened up communication with the populous basin of the Congo. During the struggle of the European states to acquire colonial territory, no part of the continent remained unexplored. European rivalries also had similar important consequences to geography in Asia, especially in the Trans-Caspian region and in Tibet. Dr. Sven Hedin was the most successful of the explorers in Tibet, traversing wholly unknown districts. Unknown regions on the American continent, in South America, in far north-western North America, and in Labrador, have been visited. The same is true of the interior of Australia. The eagerness to find a north-western pa.s.sage (and later in scientific exploration) has led to hazardous and not unfruitful expeditions under _Ross_, _Parry_, _Franklin_, _Kane_, _Markham_, _McClintock_, _Greely_, and other voyagers. In 1875 _Markham_ reached the highest lat.i.tude that up to that time had been attained (83 21"
26"). A still higher point (86 14") was reached by Dr. Nansen who in 1893 started to drift in the _Fram_ across the polar regions. In 1892 Lieutenant Peary crossed Greenland from the west coast to a part of the north-east coast never before visited. The Antarctic seas were also explored first by the _Challenger_ in 1874. By 1900 the farthest point reached was 78 50". Geography has become a much more profound and instructive science. The physical character of the globe, and of the atmosphere that surrounds it, have been studied in their relation to man and history. Physical geography, or physiography, has thus arisen. In recent years scientists have gone far in the study of the physical geography of the sea, in making maps of its bottom, and in the endeavor to define the system of oceanic winds and currents. In connection with physical geography, the distribution of animal life on the land and in the depths of the sea has been studied, and much valuable information gained.
FOUR INVENTIONS.--Among the useful inventions of the present century, there are four which are of preeminent consequence. The honor connected with each of these, as is generally the case with great inventions, belongs to no individual exclusively. Several, and in some cases many persons, can fairly claim a larger or smaller share in it. (1) The most efficient agent in bringing the _steam-engine_ to perfection was _James Watt_ (1736-1819), a native of Scotland. (2) In connection with the application of steam to navigation, no name stands higher than that of _Robert Fulton_. (3) Carriages on railroads were at first drawn by horses. In 1814 _George Stephenson_, in England, invented the locomotive, and afterwards (1829) an improved construction of it.
The first great railroad for the transportation of pa.s.sengers began to run between Manchester and Liverpool in 1830. Remarkable achievements in engineering have been connected with the construction of railways. The Alps were pierced, and the Mont Cenis tunnel was completed in 1871. The princ.i.p.al civilized countries have gradually become covered with networks of railways. The whole method of transportation of the products of industry has been altered by them. Besides their vast influence in facilitating and stimulating travel and trade, they have modified the method of conducting warfare, with very important results. (4) In contriving the _electric telegraph_, _Wheatstone_, an Englishman, _Oersted_, a Dane, and _Henry_, an American, had each an important part. The most simple and efficient form of the telegraphic instrument is admitted to be due to the inventive sagacity of _Morse_ (1837). His instrument was first put in use in 1844. The first submarine wires connecting Europe with America transmitted messages in 1858, between England and the United States. Since that time numerous submarine cables have been laid in different parts of the globe. Upon the invention of the telegraph, another invention--that of the _telephone_--has followed, by which conversation can be held with the voice between distant places. By the phonograph it has become possible to reproduce audibly songs, speeches, and conversations. Still more recently a system of wireless telegraphy has been invented by which messages may be sent even across the Atlantic without the use of a cable.
The Suez Ca.n.a.l, a channel for ships, connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and opening thus a shorter highway by water between Europe and the East, was officially opened on the 17th of November, 1869.
USES OF STEAM.--The practical applications of steam, besides its use in the propulsion of vessels, and of carriages on railways, are numberless. It is used, for example, in automobiles, in traction engines, in plowing and harvesting machinery, in fire-engines, in road-rollers, and in all sorts of hoisting and conveying machinery.
Steam forge hammers were invented by _Nasmyth_, an engineer of Manchester, in 1839. In a mult.i.tude of industrial occupations, where water-power was once used, or tools and machines whose use involved muscular exertion, the work is now done by the energy of steam. More recently electricity has been displacing steam not only on street railroads and suburban railroads, but also in many other industrial processes, as well as the lighting of buildings and streets.
TOOLS AND MACHINES.--In modern days no small amount of skill has been directed to the devising of tools and machines for the more facile and exact production of whatever costs labor. Factories have become monuments of ingenuity, and museums in the useful arts. Improved machinery lightens the toil of the sailor. Machines in a great variety facilitate agricultural labor. They open the furrow, sow the seed, reap and winnow the harvest. In-doors, the sewing-machine performs a great part of the labor formerly done by the fingers of the seamstress. The art of printing has attained to a marvelous degree of progress. _Hoe"s_ printing-press, moved by steam, seizes on the blank paper, severs it from the roll in sheets of the right size, prints it on both sides, and folds it in a convenient shape,--all with miraculous rapidity. Inventions in rock-boring and rock-drilling have made it possible to tunnel mountains. The use of explosives for mechanical purposes is a highly important fact in connection with the modern labor-saving inventions.
INDIA RUBBER.--Shoes made of _caoutchouc_, the thickened milky juice of the india-rubber plant, were imported from Brazil to Boston as early as 1825. Improvements in the use of this material, in the solid form and in solution, were made by Mr. _Macintosh_ of Glasgow, and _Thomas Hanc.o.c.k_ of Newington, England, about 1820. From the dissolved caoutchouc, a coating was obtained making garments water-proof. In 1839 _Charles Goodyear_, an American, discovered the process of vulcanizing india-rubber,--that is, producing in it a chemical change whereby its valuable qualities are greatly enhanced. The material thus procured was applied to a great number of uses. It enters into a great variety of manufactured articles.
ENGINERY OF WAR.--A continual advance has been made in the construction of the implements of war. The whole science and art of war have been fundamentally changed, mainly in consequence of these modern inventions. Reference may be made to the invention of _rifled cannon_, heavier ordnance, breech-loading guns, and sh.e.l.ls and explosive bullets. It was the _needle-gun_ of the Prussians, which gave them a signal advantage in their war with the French. The building of armored battle ships has been followed by the construction of small swift vessels from which to launch torpedoes at the battle ships. Other swift vessels have been constructed to pursue and destroy the torpedo boat. High explosives and smokeless powder have also been invented.
THE TELESCOPE AND MICROSCOPE.--Among the instruments which have promoted the extension of science, the microscope, with its modern improvements, is one of the most interesting. It has aided discovery in botany, in physiology, in mineralogy, and in almost all other branches of science. It has even a.s.sisted in the detection of crime. The large refracting telescopes have been constructed within the last few decades. Telescopes have recently been used with increasing success in photographing the heavens with accuracy.
INSTRUMENTS IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY.--The microscope has rendered inestimable service to the healing art. Rare ingenuity has been exerted in contriving surgical instruments by which difficult operations are performed with comparative safety and without pain. In medicine and surgery, the discovery of _anesthetics_ for the general or partial suspending of nervous sensibility is one of the triumphs of practical science in later times. _Chloroform_ was brought into general use in the medical profession in 1847; although it had been discovered, and had been used by individuals in the profession, much earlier. _Nitrous oxide_ was first used by _Horace Wells_, a dentist of Hartford, in the extraction of a tooth (1844). In 1846 the great discovery of anaesthetic _ether_, by _Morton_ of Boston, was first applied in surgery. _Jackson_ and others were claimants, with more or less justice, to a part in the honors of this discovery. Lately _cocaine_ has been found to benumb the sensibility of the more delicate membranes, as those of the eye and the throat. In _auscultation_, or the ascertaining of the state of the internal organs by listening to their sound, a very valuable instrument is the _stethoscope_. The principle of the _ophthalmoscope_, that wonderful instrument for inspecting the interior of the eye, was expounded by _Helmholtz_ in 1851. By its aid, not only the condition of that organ is explored, but indications of certain diseases in the brain, and in other parts of the body, are discovered. Helmholtz did an equal work in acoustics. The recent discovery and use of the _X-rays_ has a.s.sisted surgeons in locating foreign substances and in diagnosing disease.
THE SPECTROSCOPE: PHOTOGRAPHY.--In connection with the phenomena of light, the _spectroscope_, by which the chemical elements entering in the composition of the sun and of other heavenly bodies are ascertained, is one of the marvels of the age. The way was paved for this discovery by a succession of chemists and opticians,--_Fraunhofer_ (1814), _Brewster_ (1832), _Sir John Herschel_ (1822), _J. W. Draper_, and others; but the instrument was devised by _Kirchhoff_ and _Bunsen_. _Photography_, or the art of making permanent sun-pictures, is the result of the labors of _Niepce_ (who died in 1833), _Daguerre_ (1839), _Fox Talbot_, an Englishman, _J. W. Draper_, and other men of science and practical artisans. _Instantaneous_ photography has been of much service in the observation of eclipses and other astronomical phenomena. Progress has also been made in color-photography.
THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY.--Perhaps the most important conclusion of physical science which has been reached in the recent period is the doctrine of the conservation of energy. Chemists had shown that the sum of matter always remains the same. In the transformations of chemistry no matter is destroyed, however it may change its form. Now, it has been proved that the quant.i.ty of power or energy is constant. If lost in one body, it reappears in another; if it ceases in one form, it is exerted in another, and this according to definite ratios. One form of energy is convertible into another: heat, light, electricity, magnetism, chemical action, are so related that one can be made to produce either of the others. This fact is termed the _correlation_ of physical forces. Connected with the discovery of it are _Meyer_ in Germany, and _Grove_ and _Joule_ in England. It has been expounded by _Sir William Thompson_, _Helmholtz_, _Tait_, _Maxwell_, etc. The truth was elucidated by _Tyndall_ in his _Heat considered as a Mode of Motion_, and by _Balfour Stewart_ in his _Conservation of Energy_. But _Count Rumford_, an American (1753-1814), the real founder of the Royal Inst.i.tution, long ago opened the path for this discovery by furnishing the data for computing the mechanical equivalent of heat.
GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY.--In geology, from the publication of _Lyell"s_ work (1830), the tendency has more and more prevailed to explain the geological structure of the earth by the slow operation of forces now in action, rather than by violent convulsions and catastrophes. In 1831 _Sedgwick_ and _Murchison_, likewise English geologists, commenced their labors. _Aga.s.siz_ published his Essay on the Glaciers in 1837, the precursor of like investigations by _Tyndall_ and others. These are only a small fraction of the numerous body of explorers and writers in geological science. In the United States, _Benjamin Silliman_ (1779-1864), an eminent scientific teacher, lent a strong stimulus to the progress of geology, as well as of chemistry. Even in the branch of _paleontology_, or the study of the fossil remains of extinct animals, it would be impracticable to give the names of those who have added so much to our knowledge of the earth and its inhabitants in the ages that preceded man.
ASTRONOMY.--The great French geometers, _Lagrange_ and _Laplace_, made an epoch in astronomical science. Since their time, however, there has been a large increase of knowledge in this branch. The discovery of the planet Neptune (1846) by _Galle_, as the result of mathematical calculations of _Leverrier_, which were made independently also by _Adams_, was hailed as a signal proof of scientific progress; and, recently, the discovery of a fifth satellite of Jupiter. Besides Neptune hundreds of thousands of stars have been discovered and registered. Mathematical astronomy has advanced, while the study of nebulae and of meteors, and the investigation of the const.i.tution of celestial bodies by the help of the spectroscope, are among the more recent achievements of this oldest of the sciences. Among the names identified with the recent progress of astronomy are _Sir John Herschel_ and _A. Herschel_, _Maxwell_, _Struve_, _Secchi_, _Bessel_, _Bond_, _Peirce_, _Newton_, _Newcomb_, _Young_, _Lockyer_, _Schiaparelli_.
PROGRESS IN CHEMISTRY.--In chemistry the major part of the more rare elements have been discovered since the century began. It was proved in 1819 that the capacities for heat which belong to the atoms of the different elements are equal. In the same year _Mitscherlich"s_ law was propounded,--the law of _isomorphism_, according to which atoms of elements of the same cla.s.s may replace each other in a compound without altering its crystalline structure. Chemists have directed their attention to the _molecular_ structure--the ultimate const.i.tution--of various compounds. _Faraday_ (1791-1867) developed the relations of electricity to chemistry. _Liebig_ (1803-1873), a German chemist, in connection with numerous laborers in the same field, made interesting contributions in the different departments of chemical science. Among the recent elements which have been discovered are argon, which enters into the composition of air, helium, and radium.
BIOLOGY.--No branch of natural science has been more zealously cultivated of late than _biology_. Among those who have given an impulse to the study of natural history, one of the most eminent names is that of _Charles Darwin_. His work on _The Origin of Species_ (1859) advocated the opinion that the various species of animals, instead of being all separately created, spring by natural descent and slow variation from a few primitive forms of animal life. He laid much stress upon "natural selection," or the survival of the strongest or fittest in the struggle for existence. With the name of Darwin should be a.s.sociated that of _Wallace_, who simultaneously propounded the same doctrine. The general doctrine of _evolution_, or of the origin of species by natural generation, has been held in other forms and modifications by _Richard Owen_, and other distinguished naturalists. One of the most noted opponents of the evolution doctrine in zoology was _Louis Aga.s.siz_ (1807-1873), a very able and enthusiastic student of nature. One of its most eminent expounders and defenders was _Huxley_. Some have sought to extend the theory of natural development over the field of inorganic as well as living things, and to trace all existences back to nebulous vapor.
ARCHEOLOGY.--Geology lends its aid to _archeology_, or the inquiry into the primitive condition of man. Not only has much light been thrown on obscure periods of history, by the uncovering of the remains of Babylon, a.s.syria, and other abodes of early civilization, and by the deciphering of monumental inscriptions in characters long forgotten; but the discovery of buried relics of prehistoric men has afforded glimpses of human life as it was prior to all written memorials. One of the most instructive writers on this last subject is _Tylor_ in his _Primitive Culture_, and in other works on the same general theme.
PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE.
PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE.--_Victor Cousin_ (1792--1867), a brilliant thinker and eloquent lecturer and writer, founded in France the _eclectic school_ of philosophy. He aimed to construct a positive view on the basis of previous systems, which he cla.s.sified under four heads,--_idealism_, _sensualism_, _skepticism_, and _mysticism_. In his teaching, he sought a middle path between the German and the Scottish schools, leaning now more decidedly to the one, and now to the other. _Jouffroy_ (1796-1842), the most prominent of _Cousin"s_ disciples, but more exact and methodical than his master, wrote instructively, especially on _aesthetics_ and _moral philosophy_. Philosophy in France took an altogether different direction in the hands of _Auguste Comte_ (1798-1857), the founder of the _positivist_ school. He taught that we know only phenomena, or things as manifested to our consciousness, and know nothing either of first causes, efficient causes, or of final causes (or design). We are limited to the ascertaining of facts by observation and experiment, which we register according to their likeness or unlikeness, and their chronological relation, or the order of their occurrence in time.
SCOTTISH PHILOSOPHY.--The most distinguished expounder of the _Scottish_ philosophy, and the most learned of that whole school, was _Sir William Hamilton_ (1788-1856). He maintained the doctrine of _natural realism_,--that we have a direct, "face to face" perception of external things. He held that the range of the mind"s power of conceptive thought lies between two _inconceivables_, one of which must be real. Thus we can not conceive of free-will (which would be a new beginning), nor can we conceive of an endless series of causes. Free-will--and the same is true of the fundamental truths of religion--is verified to us as real by our moral nature. A Scottish writer of ability, who, however, opposed the peculiar tenets of the Scottish school, was _Ferrier_ (1808-1864). Among the other philosophical writers of Scotland, affiliated, but with different degrees of dissent, with the school of Reid and Hamilton, are Professors _Fraser_ and _Calderwood_, and the late _James McCosh_.
PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLAND.--More allied to the philosophy of Hume and of Comte are the metaphysical theories of _John Stuart Mill_ (1806-1873). _Intuitions_ were regarded by Mill as the impression produced by a frequent conjunction of like experiences, and thus to be the product of sensation. _Causation_ was resolved into the invariable a.s.sociation of phenomena, by which an expectation is created that seems instinctive. Another writer of the same general tendency, who seeks for the explanation of knowledge in the materials furnished by the senses, is _Alexander Bain_, a Scottish author, versed in physiology. _Herbert Spencer_ constructed a general system of philosophy on the basis of the theory of evolution. He holds that our knowledge is limited to _phenomena_, which are the manifestation in our consciousness of things which in themselves are unknown; and that behind and below all is "the Unknowable,"--an inscrutable force, out of which the universe of matter and mind is developed, and which gives to it unity and coherence.
PHILOSOPHY IN GERMANY.--In Germany the decline of the school of _Hegel_ was succeeded by a sort of anarchy in philosophy. _Herbart_ (1776-1841), a contemporary of _Hegel_, framed a system antagonistic to Hegelian idealism. Among numerous metaphysical authors, each of whom has a "standpoint" of his own, are the justly distinguished names of _Fichte_ (the younger), _Ulrici, Trendelenburg_, and _Hermann Lotze. Lotze._ in his _Microcosm_, has unfolded, in a style attractive to the general reader, profound and genial views of man, nature, and religion. A remarkable phenomenon in German speculation is "pessimism,"--the doctrine gravely propounded in the systems of _Schopenhauer_ and _E. Von Hartmann_, that the world is radically and essentially evil, and personal existence a curse from which the refuge is in the hope of annihilation. In its view of the world as springing from an unconscious force, and of the extinction of consciousness as the state of bliss, as well as in its notions of evil as inwrought in the essence of things, this philosophy is a revival of Indian Oriental speculation. Historical and critical writings in the department of philosophy abound in Germany. The histories of philosophy by _Ritter, Erdmann, Zeller, Kuno Fischer,_ and _Lange_, are works of remarkable merit.
PHILOSOPHY IN ITALY.--Among the Italian metaphysicians, the two writers who are most noteworthy are _Rosmini_ (1797-1855), who taught idealism; and _Gioberti_ (1801-1882), whose system is on a different basis,--a gifted writer who was equally conspicuous as a statesman and a philosopher.
PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNITED STATES.--Philosophy in America has been zealously cultivated, both in connection with theology and apart from it, by a considerable number of teachers and writers. Among them are _James Marsh, C. S. Henry, Francis Wayland, L. P. Hickok, H. B. Smith_, and other eminent authors, mostly of a more recent date.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.--_Ricardo_ (1772-1823), who followed _Adam Smith_ (p. 492), dealt more in abstractions and processes of logic, than his predecessor. The writings of _Ricardo_, together with the discussions of _Malthus_ (1766-1834) on population,--in which it was maintained that the tendency to an increase of population outstrips the increase of the means of subsistence,--led to numerous other writings.
Political economy was handled in productions by _James Mill_ (1821), _J. R. McCulloch, N. W. Senior_ (1790-1864), _R. Torrens_ (1780-1864), _Harriet Martineau_ (1802-1876), _Thomas Chalmers_, the celebrated Scottish divine, Archbishop _Richard Whately, Richard Jones_ (1790-1855), a critic of the system of _Ricardo_, and others. An eminent writer, an expositor with important modifications of the Ricardian teaching, is _John Stuart Mill_ (1806-1873). _Fawcett_ and other able authors have followed for the most part in Mill"s path. An English author of distinction in this field is _J. E. Cairnes_ (1824-1875). The French school of economists have adhered to the principles of _Adam Smith_ much more than have the Germans. Among the most noted of the French authors in this field are _Say_ (1767-1832), whose views are founded on those of _Smith; Sismondi_ (1773-1842), who, however, departs from the English doctrine, and favors the intervention of government to "regulate the progress of wealth"; _Dunoyer_ (1786-1862); _Bastiat_ (1801-1850), one of the most brilliant advocates of free-trade; _Cournot_ (1801-1877), who applies, with much ac.u.men, mathematics to economical questions.
In America, since the days of _Franklin_ and _Hamilton_, both of whom wrote instructively on these topics, a number of writers of ability have appeared. Among them are _H. C. Carey_, who opposes the views of _Ricardo_ and _Malthus_, and defends the theory of protection; _Francis Bowen_, also a protectionist; _F. A. Walker, Perry_, etc. In Italy, there have not been wanting productions of marked acuteness in this department. Of the numerous German writers, one of the most eminent is _List_ (1798-1846), a critic of _Adam Smith_, and not an adherent of the unqualified doctrine of free-trade. In the list of later English writers, the names of _Bagehot, Leslie, Jevons_, and _Sidgwick_ are quite prominent. With regard to free-trade and protection, the latter doctrine has been maintained in two forms. Some have regarded protection as the best _permanent_ policy for a nation to adopt. Others have defended it as a _provisional_ policy, to shield manufactures in their infancy, until they grow strong enough to compete, without help, with foreign products. After the repeal of the corn-laws in England (1846), the free-trade doctrine prevailed in England. Since _Comte_ published his exposition of _Sociology_ (1839), the tendency has arisen to consider political economy as one branch of this broader theme. With it the controversies pertaining to socialism are intimately connected.
The disciples of _Adam Smith_ have contended for the non-intervention of governments in the industrial pursuits of the people. They are to be left to the natural desire of wealth, and the natural exercise of compet.i.tion in the pursuit of it. The prevalent theories of _socialism_ are directly hostile to this--called the _laissez-faire_--principle. Socialists would make government the all-regulative agent, the owner of land and of the implements of labor.
ENGLISH ESSAYISTS.--In literature the later time has seen an extraordinary multiplying of periodicals and newspapers, among whose editors and contributors have been included numerous writers of much celebrity. In Great Britain, several famous authors first acquired distinction mainly by historical and critical articles in reviews. This is true of _Thomas Babington Macaulay_ and _Thomas Carlyle_. Each of them became a historian. _Macaulay_, an ardent Whig, with an astonishing familiarity with political and literary facts, wrote in a spirited and brilliant style a _History of England from the Accession of James II_. to the death of his hero, _William III. Carlyle_, with a unique force of imagination and a rugged intensity of feeling, original in his thought, yet strongly affected by German literature, especially by _Richter_ and _Goethe_, wrote in his earlier days a _Life of Schiller_. He wrote later a history of the French Revolution, in which the scenes of that tragic epoch are depicted with dramatic vividness; and a copious _History of Frederick the Great_. Among the most characteristic of his writings are his _Heroes and Hero-Worship_; the "Latter-Day Pamphlets," in which is poured out his contempt of democracy; and the _Life of John Sterling_,--the counterpart of a biography of _Sterling_, written in a different vein by a learned and scholarly divine, _Julius Hare_.
Of essayists in a lighter, discursive vein, one of the most popular, who has already been referred to (p. 544), was the Scottish writer, _John Wilson_ (1785-1854), the author of numerous tales and criticisms, and of diverting papers written under the name of "Christopher North." Without the fancy and humor of Wilson, yet master of a style keeping within the limits of prose while verging on poetry, was _Thomas De Quincey_, the author of _The Confessions of an Opium Eater, Essays on the Roman Emperors_, etc.