1849-1852 LITERATURE AND PAINTING 943 6. Tennyson. 1849.-The best poetry of the time reflected in a milder way the teaching of Carlyle. Tennyson, whose most thoughtful work, In Memoriam, appeared in 1849, is filled with a sense of the pre-eminence of duty, combined with a reverent religious feeling and a respect for the teaching of science which was then bursting on the world. The opening lines of In Memoriam give the key-note of the teaching of a master who held out the hand to Carlyle on the one hand, and to Keble and Newman on the other. Strong Son of God, immortal love Whom we, that have not seen thy face, By faith, and faith alone, embrace, Thou seemest human and divine, The holiest, highest manhood, thou; 7. Turner. 1775—1851.—The pursuit of the knowledge of the secret processes and the open manifestations of nature, which placed its stamp upon the science and the literature of the time, made itself also visible in its art. No man ever revealed in landscape-painting the infinity of the natural world and the subtleness of its gradations, as did Turner in the days of his strength, before his eyes fixed on the glory of the atmosphere and the sky lost perception of the beauty of the earth. 8. The beginning of the Aberdeen Ministry. 1852-1854.-The Derby Ministry was followed by a coalition ministry of Liberals and Peelites under the Earl of Aberdeen. At first it seemed as if Parliament was about to settle down to a series of internal reforms. In 1853, Gladstone, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, produced a budget which proved generally acceptable, and Russell promised a new Reform Bill which was actually brought forward in 1854, though by that time circumstances having become adverse to its consideration caused its prompt withdrawal. 9. The Eastern Question. 1850-1853.-For some time there had been a diplomatic struggle between France and Russia for the possession of certain holy places in Palestine by the clergy of their respective churches, and though in 1852 the Sultan proposed a compromise, neither party was satisfied. In the beginning of 1853, the Tzar Nicholas spoke to Sir Hamilton Seymour of the Turk' as a sick man, and proposed that if he died, that is to say, if the Turkish power fell to pieces, England should take Crete and Egypt, and that the Sultan's European provinces should be formed into independent states, of course under Russian protection. There can be no doubt that the Christians under the Sultan were misgoverned, and that the Tzar, like every Russian, honestly sympathised with them, especially as they belonged to the Orthodox Church-commonly known as the Greek Church-which was his own. It was, however, also true that every Tzar wished to extend his dominions southward, and that his sympathies undoubtedly tended in the same direction as his ambition. In England the sympathies were ignored, whilst the ambition was clearly perceived, and the British ministers refused to agree to Nicholas's proposal. Nicholas then sent Prince Menschikoff as ambassador to Constantinople to demand that the protection of the Sultan's Christian subjects should be given over to himself, and when this was refused, occupied the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia with his troops; upon which a British fleet was moved up to the entrance of the Dardanelles. 1853-1854.-To avert 10. War between Russia and Turkey. an outbreak of war the four great Powers, Austria, France, Great Britain, and Prussia, in what is usually called the Vienna note, embodied a proposal, which, if adopted by the Sultan, would convey his promise to the Tzar to protect the Christians of the Greek Church as his predecessors had promised to do in older treaties with the Tzars, and to extend to the Greek Christians all advantages granted to other Christians. With this note the Tzar was contented, but the Sultan urged on by the imperious Sir Stratford Canning, the British ambassador at Constantinople, refused to accept it without alteration, and on the Tzar insisting on its acceptance as it stood declared war upon him. In the autumn the Turks crossed the Danube and defeated some Russian troops, on which the Russian fleet sallied forth from Sebastopol, the great Russian fortified harbour in the Crimea, and on November 30 destroyed the Turkish fleet at Sinope. In England strong indignation was felt; England and France bound themselves closely together, and, refusing to be held back by Austria and Prussia, entered upon war with Russia in March 1854. In May the Russians laid siege to Silistria on the south bank of the Danube. The siege however ended in failure, and, as a British and French army arrived at Varna, a seaport on the Black Sea, south of the mouth of the Danube, and as the Austrians insisted on the Russians evacuating Moldavia and Wallachia, the Russian army drew back to its own territory, and abandoned any further attempt to enforce its claims by invasion. II. Resolution of the Allies. 1854.--Two courses were now 1854 THE SICK MAN' 945 open to the Allies. They might knit themselves again to Austria and Prussia and substitute a European protection of the Christians under the Sultan for a merely Russian protection, without driving Russia to a prolongation of the war; or else, breaking loose from their alliance with Austria and Prussia (neither of which was inclined to drive matters to extremities), they might seek to destroy the Russian Black Sea fleet and the fortifications of Sebastopol, in order to take from Russia the power of again threatening the Turks. Public opinion in England was defiantly set upon the latter course. There was exasperation against the ambition of Russia and a determination that the work should be thoroughly done. To the support of this passionate desire to carry on the war to its end, came a misconception of the nature of the Turkish Government. In reality the Turk was, as Nicholas had said, a sick man, and as he would become weaker every year, it was impossible to provide for his guarding his own even if Sebastopol were destroyed. In England the Government of the Sultan was regarded as wellintentioned and perfectly capable of holding its own, if the existing danger could be removed. This view of the case was strongly supported by Palmerston, who, though he was no longer foreign minister, brought his strong will to bear on the resolutions of the ministry. England and France resolved on transporting their armies from Varna to the Crimea. The English force was commanded by Lord Raglan, and the French by Marshal St. Arnaud. 12. Alma and Sebastopol. 1854.-On September 14, the two armies, numbering together with a body of Turkish soldiers about 61,000 men, landed to the south of Eupatoria. They marched southwards and found the Russian army drawn up on high ground beyond the river Alma. There was not much skill shown by the generals on either side, but the Allies had the better weapons, and the dogged persistence of the British contributed much to the success of the Allies. The Russians were defeated, and the Allies wheeled round the harbour of Sebastopol and established themselves on the plateau to the south of the town. There was inside the place a vast store of guns and of everything needed for the defence, and what was more, a man of genius, General Todleben, to improve the fortifications and direct the movements of the garrison. He closed the harbour against the Allied fleets by sinking ships at the mouth, and he brought up guns and raised earthworks to resist the impending attack on the land side. On October 17, the Allies opened a tremendous fire. The British batteries destroyed the guns opposed to them, and the place might perhaps have been taken by assault if the French had done as well. The French, however, who were now under the command of Marshal Canrobert-St. Arnaud having died after the battle of the Alma— made their magazines of gunpowder too near the surface of the ground, and when one of them exploded, their efforts were rendered useless. The attack had to be postponed for an indefinite time. 13. Balaclava and Inkerman. 1854.-The stores and provisions for the British army were landed at the little port of Balaclava. On October 25, a Russian army pushed forward to cut off communication between this port and the British force before Sebastopol. A charge by the Brigade of Heavy Cavalry drove back a huge mass of Russian horsemen. Lord Cardigan, who commanded the Brigade of Light Cavalry, received an order vaguely worded to retake some guns which had been captured by the Russians. The order was misunderstood, and the Light Brigade, knowing that it was riding to its destruction, but refusing to set an example of disobedience, charged not in the direction of the guns, which they were unable to see, but into the very centre of the Russian army. The ranks of the English cavalry were mown down and but few escaped alive. 'It is magnificent,' said a French general, but it is not war.' On November 5, the battle of Inkerman was fought, in which the scanty British drove back thick columns of Russians. If the Russians had prevailed, both the Allied armies would have been destroyed. As it was the British held out against fearful odds, till the French came to their help, and forced the Russians to retreat. 14. Winter in the Crimea. 1854-1855.-Winter was now upon the armies. It had been supposed at home that their task would be accomplished before the fine weather ended, and no adequate provision for a winter season had been made. A storm swept over the Black Sea and wrecked vessels laden with stores. The soldiers had only tents to keep off the rain and bitter cold, and fell ill by hundreds. The horses, which should have brought stores from Balaclava, died, and it was useless to replace them, because, though large numbers of horses were obtainable, forage had not been sent from home to keep them alive. What provisions reached the camp had to be carried by the men, and the men were worn out by having to spend long hours in guarding the trenches and to fetch provisions as well. Besides, the English Government, having had no experience of war, committed many blunders in their arrangements for the supply of the army. The French were better off, because Kamiesch Bay, where their provisions were landed, was nearer their camp than Balaclava was to the camp of the British. |