Page images
PDF
EPUB

foreseen circumstances or obstacles inter- On the 10th of December, 1864, he wrote vened, to press still further forward, and if a letter from the West End of Rowe's Welpossible reach the open Polar Sea, and per- come, a strait between Southampton Island haps return by way of Behring Strait. If and the main land, in the north part of Hudimpeded he expected to return from his son's Bay, that he had received information expedition to King William's Land about from the Esquimaux that some time preSeptember of 1868, and take up his quar-vious to 1854 an Indian, while engaged in ters for the winter at Repulse Bay. Last year he wintered in this locality, and at the time Dr. Goold saw him was in 66 degrees 28 minutes north latitude, and longitude 81 degrees 5 minutes west."

From The Transcript, 30 Sept. CAPT. HALL AND THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION.

sealing, saw four white men not far from Pelly Bay, one of whom he recognized as Crozier, having seen him before. Crozier was nothing but skin and bones, nearly starved to death, while the others were fat, having been living on the flesh of their companions who escaped from the vessels, which Crozier would not eat. The Esquimaux took care of the men, and gradually THE accounts received from Captain Hall Crozier gained flesh and strength. They of the information he has obtained from the lived some time with the Indians in the Esquimaux in regard to the fate of a por- neighborhood, and having guns and plenty tion of the survivors of the Franklin Expe- of ammunition, they killed a great many dition are deeply interesting, and if true, ducks and other birds. At length, Crozier reveal an amount of endurance on the part and two men, one having died, left the Inof Europeans of the rigors of the Arctic dians, who had been kind to them, and climate unparalleled in the history of expe- started for the white men's country, taking ditions to that inhospitable region. It will a southerly direction. The Indians had heard be recollected that Captain McClintock nothing from them since, but they did not found, in May, 1859, on King William's believe they were dead. Such is the subLand, the record left by the Franklin Ex- stance of Captain Hall's letter. pedition, stating that Sir John Franklin was dead, that the Terror and Erebus were deserted on the 22d of April, 1848, and that the officers and crew, consisting of 105 souls, under the command of Captain Crozier, were to start on the 26th for Back's Fish River. Traces of that march along the west coast of King William's Land were found by McClintock, and a skeleton lying upon its face testified to the truth of the remark of an old Esquimaux woman "that they fell down and died as they walked along." This record is all the direct intelligence ever received from the expedition. Dr. Rae obtained information from the Esquimaux near Pelly Bay, in April, 1854, of the fate of the party under Captain Crozier, which, in connection with the character of the country they were traversing, convinced him that they perished from starvation. This conviction was strengthened by information obtained by Mr. James Anderson from the natives near the mouth of Fish River, in July, 1855, and by Captain McClintock from the natives at King William's Land, in 1859. So that the most experienced Arctic naval authorities in England were satisfied that none of the missing navigators could be living. Still it was possible some might be living with the Esquimaux, and it was to settle this question and to rescue such unfortunate persons that Captain C. F. Hall started on his travels.

Dr. Goold, who had recently arrived from Cumberland Inlet, states that he saw Captain Hall in August, 1867, at Repulse Bay, which is in the immediate neighborhood of Southampton Island and that part of Rowe's Welcome where Captain Hall wrote the letter above referred to. He says that Captain Hall learned from some Esquimaux that Captain Crozier and one of the Franklin crew died in the neighborhood of Southampton Island in 1864, while endeavoring to make their way to that place in the hope of meeting a whaler to convey them home. Captain Hall had obtained Captain Crozier's watch and some articles of silver and trinkets. From the above it will be seen that Captain Crozier left the Indians in the neighborhood of Pelly Bay before 1854, and died in the neighborhood of Southampton Island in 1864, spending ten or more years in making a journey which Dr. Rae accomplished in seventeen days. Ten years of wanderings terminated by death within sight of the shore which was to afford him the means of rescue!

This is a sad story enough, and one cannot help hoping that it is founded on incorrect information. It is certainly very strange that if Crozier and his companions had spent considerable time in the neighborhood of Pelly Bay previous to 1854, Dr. Rae, who visited the place in the spring of that year, should have heard nothing of them, the natives informing him that they had not seen

any white men. And it is also strange that if Crozier died in the neighborhood of Southampton Island in 1864, Capt. Hall, who was near there that year, should not have heard of it through the natives at the time he wrote his letter from Rowe's Welcome in December. But it is idle to speculate. Dr. Goold says that Capt. Hall intended to visit King William's Land, and it is to be hoped that on his way he will be able to gain such additional information as will confirm the truth of his story, or disprove it altogether. That he will find any record on King William's Land is very doubtful, as Captain McClintock has searched that island very thoroughly, and brought away all that was found. As for "King William " and his force of two hundred, they are the creatures of somebody's imagination.

M.

THE STARS IN THEIR COURSES FOUGHT
AGAINST SISERA.

and perform by energetic movements the only useful service which such a distant detachment could give-namely, to prevent a concentration of all the Austrian armies against the Prussians at the decisive moment.

What Napoleon did, was to instruct La Marmora to deceive the Prussians, to fight and lose the battle of Custozza; and this done, to do nothing more. Napoleon's calculation was, that the Prussians would be fatally embarrassed by this defeat and inaction of the Italians; that the Austrians would be able to concentrate all their armies against the Prussians; that the war would thus be protracted, and both parties to it exhausted; and then he was to play the part of mediator, and demand as his reward the surrender of territory to the Rhine. He meantime promised Venice to Italy, in

any case.

But the decisive battle of Sadowa totally broke down this well-planned piece of treachTHAT the Emperor of France was sur-ery. The Prussians, by their military genprised and disappointed at the result of the ius, daring and fine soldiership, achieved remarkable seven weeks' campaign of Prus- alone that which they had expected to do sia against Austria, in 1866, was very well only with the help of Italy. Sadowa placed known, for he was unable to conceal his the Austrian capital as completely at the mortification and embarrassment. That he mercy of the Prussians as though La Marhad intrigued with Italy against the inter- mora had been an honest man; and Napoests of Prussia was suspected, soon after leon, to his dismay and chagrin, found Sadowa; but it is only recently that the that his unscrupulous cunning only brought precise nature and the extent of this in-him what he must have felt a double defeat. trigue have been revealed, in the course of a "The stars in their courses fought" against quarrel between General La Marmora, who him. lost the battle of Custozza, and the Prussian Count Usedom, who was in 1866 envoy in Italy. It seems now to be established upon good authority that La Marmora, who was in 1866 President of the Italian Cabinet and Minister for Foreign Affairs, most treacherously revealed to Napoleon the whole Prussian plan of campaign, and acted, in the management of the Italian part of the war, under the instruction of Napoleon, and with a bad faith towards Prussia, the ally of Italy, which ought to make his name odious throughout Europe.

Napoleon, it seems, could not openly withstand Bismarck; but with characteristic cunning, and that cynical disregard of human life which the Napoleons imagine to be statesmanship, he prepared to benefit himself by the war, in which, he believed, with the aid of the traitor La Marmora, he could so manage, without taking any open part, as to cause Prussia to be crippled and laid at his mercy.

The Prussian plan of campaign, communicated to Prussia's ally Italy, contemplated a decisive and determined attack upon Austria, in which the Italian armies were to march directly upon the Austrian capital,

It is easy to see that this story of La Marmora's treachery, and of Napoleon's unscrupulous use of Italy to her own disgrace, will not increase the number of the French Emperor's friends in Europe, or make his reign pleasanter. The Italians, who came out of the war of 1866 disgraced and humbled, will hate with a bitter hatred the French Emperor, who arranged beforehand their defeat and disgrace. The Prussians, who now see that Napoleon, by a singular act of treachery, planned their defeat, will not hate him the less that his plan was itself defeated, and that they escaped the trap he had prepared for them.

It begins to look as though Napoleon had lived too long. He is getting found out. His treachery, his dishonesty, his readiness to benefit by the disasters of others, have been exposed so often, that men begin to see him in his true colors to see what an arrant knave and cheat he is. But they see more; for they see him defeated at every turn, in Mexico and in Germany, and exposed thus to the contempt which justly overtakes a detected and defeated rogue.

N. Y. Evening Post, 26 Sept.

From The Examiner. DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH MEXICO.

THE ghost of the Mexican Expedition, which caused such dismay among believers in Napoleonic statecraft, is not yet laid. A few days ago another stormy debate on that apparently inexhaustible subject took place in the Corps Législatif, on which occasion the members of the Imperial Cabinet received some hard hits which they were wholly unable to parry. The revelations made in the book of M. de Kératry have powerfully told upon public opinion in France, and all that the Minister could do by way of refutation was to call the author "ce monsieur."

great mistake. If order and prosperity are to be promoted in Mexico, it can only be done by fortifying that form of government on which the nation has evidently set its heart. Practical men will agree on this point with the adherents of principle.

66 not

It is to be deplored, under these circumstances, that international relations have not yet been restored between England and Mexico. Lord Stanley indeed, in his recent reply to Mr. Kinglake's interpellation, declared that our Government are ready to agree to a reconciliation, but he added that the offer must come from Mexico, from us." He acknowledged that the Republican Government had right on its side when it chose to consider the recognition of the Empire as an act of hostility, but he thinks it imprudent on the part of that Government to keep harping on its right. He therefore says that England will simply wait until the Government of Mexico shall approach her with a proposal for the resumption of diplomatic relations.

The documentary evidence furnished by M. de Kératry is interesting. But it will probably pale before the astounding revelations which we are told will be contained in a new work, entitled History of the Intervention,' about to be published under the sanction of the Mexican Government and Congress. It is to appear in four languages simultaneously, Spanish, French, English, The Foreign Secretary does not suffiand German. Its author, a free-minded ciently take into account the position in Frenchman who has stood faithful to the which the Mexican Republic is placed. cause of Mexican independence and self- Naturally, the theory. of its rulers, defendgovernment against the vainglorious Bona- ers, and adherents has always been, that partist policy, is in possession of upwards the invasion was a mere incident; that the of a thousand documents of the greatest im- Government of the Republic, founded on portance, which have not yet been published the free suffrages of the people, was the nor even alluded to, whilst they are calcula- only legal one; and that there is, conseted to throw a lucid light on the more oc- quently, no solution of “ continuity" in the cult doings of the French Court, on the re-existence of their democratic commonlations between the Archduke Maximilian wealth. This theory is supported by reaand Louis Napoleon, on the influence of the son as well as by fact. Every Government Empress Charlotte, on the attitude of the which, in a struggle continued without inHoly See towards the Imperial Court of termission, has succeeded in repelling a forMexico, on Maximilian's financial opera- eign invasion, would act, we presume, as tions, and so forth. The appearance of President Juarez has done. He declares this work will no doubt inflict another heavy that the Republic never broke off diplomatic blow on the prestige of Napoleonism. relations with the European Powers, but Well may England congratulate herself that several of these Powers broke off relathat she had the wisdom to withdraw at an tions with the Republic, making war upon early hour from an enterprise so deeply it and acknowledging the so-called Empire. fraught with disastrous consequences to all If these Powers now desire to resume relaconcerned. The Federal Government of tions of amity, it is clearly for them to take the Mexican States has never for a moment, the first step, in reparation. If the Repubduring the foreign invasion, ceased to strug-lican Government were to take the first gle against the aggressor. Its efforts, step, it might, in a certain sense, be held to thanks to the energy and perseverance of imply a recognition of the Empire of MaxiPresident Juarez, and thanks also to the milian during the time of the invasion. favour of circumstances, were at last This," President Juarez practically says, crowned with success. Even those who be- " we cannot do. We must uphold the thelieved for awhile in the possibility of a ory of the legal continuity of the republiFranco-Austrian Empire on Mexican soil, can form of government -a theory which and who were ready to condone the acts of is in accordance with facts. Such a proterror by which it was to be established for cedure is for us a safeguard against reacsake of the benefits which they thought tionary intrigues; and that safeguard we would accrue to the cause of order and shall not throw away." prosperity, must now see that they made a

66

This view, we may here add, has the de

eided support, not only of the German | gest of their 'Recollections' as this Prince. Press in general, among which the Rheinische Written with no apparent purpose of proZeitung has spoken out most clearly, but ducing effect, or even with the design of even of the Liberal Austrian Press. It publication, the literary merit of the work might be expected that the fate of Maximil- is very considerable. We meet with deian would induce Austrian journals to be scriptions which are vivid, reflections which rather severe against the Mexican Republic. are simple but ardent, and an acquaintance But the fact is that papers like the Neue with several branches of art which, perhaps, Freie Presse of Vienna, a Liberal organ of the majority of readers had hardly been led the most extensive circulation, and one to expect from Maximilian. We should say, which exercises great influence even beyond for example, that Naples has seldom been the frontiers of Austria, acknowledge in the better described, nor Pisa, Pompeii, Lucca, strongest terms that the procedure of the Baice, and Capri. Those who have visited Mexican Government is the only one which these places will recognise at once that no it could possibly take without dereliction of unskilled or unfamiliar hand has touched national dignity. We speak of articles that these modest yet artistic pictures. But the have appeared since the reply to Mr. King- author seems especially to delight in delake's interpellation was given by Lord scribing works of art, and to excel in the deStanley. Now, when the Austrian Press scription. After wandering through the maintains such views, we think the English Pitti gallery at Florence, he notes down in Government might make the first step to- his diary, with regard to a picture of the wards a reconciliation without fear for its First Napoleon, whose soul the artist had own dignity. In the interest of trade and depicted as in hell: commerce the re-establishment of a regular intercourse ought not to be delayed any longer.

From The Examiner.

By Maximilian
Bentley.

The Pisans recognise with delight the head of Napoleon in hell in one of them, and this is but natural; it is characteristic of mankind to condemn the hated fallen enemy, and to rejoice over his disgrace; one does not risk anything by it, for he has become harmless. As long as the Pisan hell-figure was called Roi d'Italie, there was not gold enough to be found to represent the nimbus in his apotheosis; but the god of the day fell from the heavens, and the holy light was converted into the glow of hell. Sic transit

And, again, in speaking of the necessary influence of religious belief on art, he says:

Recollections of My Life. I., Emperor of Mexico. IN the Midsummer of 1851, Maximilian started on his first sea-voyage. "I was glad," he says, "to realise my much-longed-gloria mundi. for desire. Accompanied by several acquaintances, I put off from the dearly-loved shore of Africa. This moment was one of great excitement to me, for it was the first Constantinople had fallen before the sword of time I confided myself to the sea for a long Mohammed. Greco-Byzantine art and philoso trip. We dashed rapidly through the waves, phy and the rich sciences of the East found a home in Italy, through the luxurious spirit of and already, at about a quarter past seven the Medici, which in its turn conferred splen(July 30th), amidst the strains of the na-dour on their new dynasty. The tiara was tional hymn, we went on board the frigate borne by a Medici, and the hitherto forgotten Novara, our future floating palace, of which treasures of Rome were wedded to Greek recthe name itself was a good omen to every ollections, which brought forth a new epoch in Austrian." art, the Mythologico-Christian. The Lord's Supper was celebrated in the Temple: Venus got the same court-rank as the God-mother. It was in harmony with such a state of things to blend the customs of antiquity with those_of modern times, and call this philosophy. But from this resulted an unsatisfied Ideal. Men discovered that the gods of antiquity only represented men; and the pride of the senses which took possession of the heart, and laid in it the first produced great things in art and science, germ of atheism. The very princes believed themselves to be a kind of divinity, needing no longer to be afraid of the old God. They nursed religion only as a convenient state institution for their subjects. In France Francis I. was the chief supporter of the worship of the Syrens,

[ocr errors]

Throughout the first volume of these 'Recollections' we are treated only to the visits of the Prince to Italy, Andalusia, and Granada. Nothing of a political kind is found in this volume in the way of reference, opinion, or incident. It is simply a most interesting record, a diary," of Maximilian's pleasure-trip in days when the shadows of his future throne could cast no gloom on his imagination; but when, surrounded by his friends, he opened his heart to free enjoyment and his mind to intelligent observation. Few tourists, if we may apply the word to such a traveller, have contributed to the press so admirable a di

round which he attempted to throw a nimbus by the arts of Italy. Catherine di Medici was too zealous in the service of Aphrodite, and Louis XIV. Jupiterised himself entirely. A vanity that could be satisfied, vanity and the apotheosis of sensuality, became the philosophy of rulers. These ideas soon descended to the people, and were fed by their rulers and celebrated in their

songs, and finally had their chief representative in Voltaire. France saved Italy partly by concentrating these ideas in herself; but she had to pay for this glory with her blood. The tombs of the Medici produce thoughts of a very cold and

terrible kind.

We find but passing allusions in this volume to any of the royal persons whom modern revolutions rendered illustrious, at least

by circumstance if not in character. At Naples Maximilian met King Ferdinand, of whom perhaps he might be supposed to be thinking when, in another part of his diary, he wrote: "It is only when a man either does deeds, or resists a progressive development, that his name is noted down in

the books of Clio."

A tall strong man, with short cropped hair and beard, and with a laced three-cornered hat, received us; my good genius whispered to me that it was the King. Indeed, it must have been a higher revelation, for I had imagined King Ferdinand to be a different man. His figure still floated before me indistinctly, as I saw him fifteen years ago in Vienna, when he was a young man of twenty-six years of age. Now, to be sure, he was forty-one, but, from his appear siderably above fifty; so much has the destroying power of the South and the influence of the years of revolution worked upon him. Later, when I had an opportunity of examining him more closely, I recognised the features of his youth, but his fine black hair had turned grey and his face had become wrinkled. He wore the rather plan uniform of one of his regiments of Grenadiers, which he prefers, I was told, to all others since the revolution. The riband of the Austrian Order of St. Stephen was hanging over his header. He received me in the most friendly manner, and conducted me directly to the Queen.

ance, one would have taken him for a man con

66

and busts of the King." We can appreciate the satirical remark of Maximilian on this odd conjuncture: "I do not like to see, during a monarch's lifetime, monuments everywhere erected to him, out of base flattery."

66

[ocr errors]

In the second part of the introductory volume we find our traveller in Andalusia; and, at first, a minute description of the Cathedral of Seville, and, afterwards, one of the Cathedral of Granada, occupy considerable space. Then we take a sudden leap into a wholly different kind of entertainment; and we wish that space would permit us to tranof a genuine bull-fight, which the Prince scribe at length a magnificent description had the fortune (or ill-fortune) to witness, for the first time in his life, at Seville. But we must content ourselves with merely will at least be easily comprehended by giving his after-thoughts, some of which of a man can be changed," says the Prince, How the feelings every English reader. in so short a space as a quarter of an hour! On entering, I felt uneasy, and very uncomfortable; and now a mania for the bloody spectacle possessed me." And again: "The spectator's nature is soon changed; his original nature is awakened; wild passion gains the mastery, and he is annoyed when the bull does not succeed in his deadly thrust, when phases of the fight are not steeped deep enough in blood." All this follows a passage which will shock the tenone can perfectly comprehend; but there der susceptibilities of not a few of those discerning critics who draw a very wide distinction between taking a personal and hazardous part in cruel sport, and merely assisting as a neutral spectator at a risk incurred by others:

I love such festivals, in which the original nature of man comes out in its truth; and much prefer them to the enervating, immoral entertainments of other luxurious and degenerate countries. Here bulls perish, there heart and soul sink in a weak, sentimental frivolity. I do not deny it, I love the olden time! not that of Elsewhere he describes the eldest son of the last century, where, amidst hair-powder and the King, the present Francis II., who was insipid idyls, men glided over a false paradise then but fifteen years of age. The poor down the yawning abyss. No! the time of our young man is very timid; which may arise ancestors, when chivalrous feeling was developed partly from the manner in which he is edu- in the tournaments, when vigorous women did cated. He is kept out of the world that he not ask for their smelling-bottle at every drop may remain child-like." A curious obser- of blood, nor feigned a swoon, when the wild vation also is to be found, about this date, to the effect that two things struck Maxisilian principally during his visit to the doks and arsenal of Naples" the great y fusion of galley-slaves, dressed in red, o meet you on all sides, rattling their heavy chains, and the numberless portraits

and not as now, behind barricades; this was a boar and bear were hunted in the open forest, vigorous time which brought forth strong children. What remains to us of this heritage of the manly amusements of cur fathers? Perhaps the hunt? No! We call ourselves hunters, but we send from a secure distance a killing bullet into the half-tamed boars. It is only war, which

« PreviousContinue »