EVENTS OF 1886 Peace Signed Between Bulgaria and Servia-Russia Forces Prince Alexander to Renounce Bulgarian_Throne-It is Offered to Various Princes Anti-Russian Party Establishes Regency-Russian Minister and Officials Leave Bulgaria-Anglo-Russian Commission Fixes Afghan Boundary-Burmese Hold Off British-Great Britain Annexes Socotra-Annamese Massacre Native Christians-Bert Supersedes Courcy as Resident-General of Tonquin-Bert Works Himself to Death-Birth of Alfonso XIII of Spain-Unwise Congratulations by French Envoy at Marriage of Prince of Portugal with Daughter of Comte de Paris, Leads to Expulsion of Pretenders from France-Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor is Dedicated-Deaths of Hancock, Tilden, Ex-President ArthurGeronimo's Band of Apaches Surrenders Death of Scheffel, the Poet-Louis II of Bavaria Becomes Insane, is Deposed, and Drowns Himself-Deaths of Liszt, the Pianist, Piloty, the Artist, and Ranke, the Historian-Labor Strikes in Belgium-Riots of the Unemployed in Great Britain. HE disturbed condition into which eastern Europe was thrown by the Roumelian revolution and the Servian-Bulgarian war continued throughout the year. On March 1, after much tedious negotiations, a treaty of peace between Servia and Bulgaria was signed. Later in the year Russia, through her agents in Bulgaria, succeeded in accomplishing her end. At midnight, on August 21, a party of officers at Sofia forced their way into Prince Alexander's bedchamber and attempted to extort from him his abdication. On his refusal he was carried off and put on board a steamer, which landed him at Reni on Russian territory. The Provisional Government at Sofia then issued a proclamation declaring the deposition of Prince Alexander a political necessity. His friends at once established a rival government at Tirnova. The militia was called out, and, supported by popular feeling, upset the Sofia Government and arrested the principal conspirators. On September 3 Prince Alexander returned and made a state entry into Sofia, but a few days after this, under the cloud of the Czar's 1886 BULGARIAN CROWN GOES BEGGING disapproval, he renounced the throne. He left Sofia the next day. The Great Sobranje (Bulgarian Parliament) then offered the crown to Prince Waldemar of Denmark, but he declined it. The Prince of Montenegro was next put forward semi-officially by Russia, but was rejected by the Bulgarian Government. Finally the delegates offered the crown to Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg. At Sofia a great meeting had been held in support of the Bulgarian Regency. General Kaulbars, the Russian Commissioner, attempted to address the people, but their menacing demeanor compelled him to desist. Another incident in Eastern Roumelia was the seizure of Bourgas, on the Black Sea, on November 4, by a body of Montenegrins under the leadership of the Russian Captain Nabokov. The town was speedily recovered by forces despatched by the Regency at Tirnova. Finally, on the 19th, Russia recalled General Kaulbars from Bulgaria. He left Sofia without demonstration, and was followed by the other Russian agents and consuls throughout the country. The protection of Russian subjects in Bulgaria was committed to the French Consul-General. Friction between Russia and England was obviated in a measure by the Anglo-Russian delimitation commission concerning the boundary of Afghanistan. A British expeditionary force under General Gordon in Burma met with resistance when attacking Bosweh at Maphe, but dislodged the enemy. At the same time, Major Haines failed to dislodge 1,500 Burmese near Tumensoo and had to retire. The island of Socotra, east of Cape Guardafui near the line of the route commanding the Gulf of Aden, was annexed by Great Britain in the autumn. In Tonquin, General Courcy, whose rule had been disturbed by a terrible massacre of native Christians and by the spread of rebellion in Annam, was recalled by the French Government. Paul Bert, the distinguished Minister of Pub BIRTH OF KING ALFONSO 1886 lic Instruction under Gambetta, was appointed ResidentGeneral to accomplish the task in which the military men had failed. At the beginning of April he reached Hanoi. In spite of the strained relations between the civil and military authorities he managed to put French rule before the natives in a more attractive light. Worn out by work and anxiety, he died after a brief rule of six months. About this time in Spain a posthumous son of King Alfonso was born at Madrid. The infant was proclaimed as King Alfonso XIII. About 200 soldiers, supported by a few civilians, rebelled at Madrid. The revolt was easily quelled. At the marriage of the Prince Royal of Portugal, Don Carlos, with the eldest daughter of the Comte de Paris, Princesse Amélie d'Orleans, M. Billoc, representing President Grévy of France, had made use of these words: "Let me express the sympathy with which my government looks upon a union which will establish a future tie between the two na tions." After stormy debates over these impolitic words both Chambers voted for the expulsion of the French pretenders. The law which was applied to the two chiefs of the Houses of Bourbon and Bonaparte, and their direct heirs, was forthwith promulgated. A few days after the departure of Prince Napoleon, Prince Victor, Comte de Paris, and the Duc d'Orléans, General Boulanger struck from the army roll the names of all the princes of Bourbon and Bonaparte families. The Duc d'Aumale remonstrated. He, too, was expelled from France. The colossal Statue of Liberty erected in New York Harbor by the French sculptor Bartholdi was formally dedicated by President Cleveland in June. Major-General Winfield Scott Hancock, commander of the Eastern Division of the United States Army, died in his sixty-second year. On Au gust 4 Samuel J. Tilden, ex-Governor of New York State. died at Greystone, Yonkers, aged seventy-two years. On his 1886 SUICIDE OF MAD KING OF BAVARIA death he bequeathed a large part of his private fortune to New York City for the erection of a public library. Chester Alan Arthur, twenty-first President of the United States, died on November 18 at New York City. Late in the summer a large band of hostile Apaches under Geronimo surrendered at Skeleton Canyon. Here Lawton, later distinguished for his gallantry in the Spanish-American and Philippine wars, came into prominence. At the age of sixty, Joseph Victor von Scheffel, the German poet and novelist, died at Karlsruhe. In 1852 he wrote his famous romantic poem "The Trumpeter of Säckingen." Three years after the appearance of the "Trumpeter," he published the historical novel "Ekkehard,” one of the most popular German works of fiction. On June 10 it was officially announced that King Louis II of Bavaria was insane and not able to continue his reign. His uncle, Prince Luitpold, assumed the Regency together with the command of the Bavarian army, since the King's brother, Prince Otto, suffered likewise from incurable lunacy. Some Bavarian physicians had the hardihood to deny that the King was insane, but the question was set at rest by an autopsy after the unfortunate king's suicide in the Lake of Starnberg five days later. Like his grandfather and namesake, King Louis had shown himself a great patron of the arts, especially of music and the drama. Soon after 1871, when he was prevailed upon to offer the Imperial crown to King William of Prussia, he began to withdraw himself from public affairs. Leaving the foreign policy of his kingdom to be directed by Bismarck, and its home affairs by a Liberal Ministry, he devoted himself to the gratification of his musical and esthetic taste. He took Richard Wagner under his protection, enabling that eminent composer to produce his chief works at Munich on a large scale. Later, King Louis, exasperated by the hostile attitude of the people at Munich, built a great opera-house at Bayreuth for Wagner's productions. Although the Bavarian civil list was ample, King Louis, by his mania for building magnificent palaces, involved himself in financial straits, calling for the interference of his Ministers and his family. Six weeks after this Franz Liszt died at Bayreuth. Liszt, whose baptismal name was Ferencz, was born at Raiding near Edenburg, Hungary, in 1811. His musical instrucstruction, under the tutelage of his father, began at six. The advent of Paganini moved him to hitherto unprecedented feats in technique. With the Countess d'Agoult, who wrote under the name of Daniel Stern, Liszt retired from Paris society to Geneva, in 1835. Three children were born to them, one of whom, Cosima, became the wife of Richard Wagner. During this period Liszt appeared in public but once, to vanquish his rival on the piano, Thalberg. In 1839 he set out for a triumphant concert tour through Europe, and for the next ten years the world rang with his fame. In 1849 he was called to the Court of Weimar, where his commanding position enabled him to bring out the despised works of Wagner, and some of the more extreme creations of Schumann and Berlioz. At Weimar the virtuoso matured into a fullfledged composer. There he originated the orchestral conception of symphonic poems. Owing to the opposition encountered over the production of Cornelius's "Barber of Bagdad," Liszt removed to Rome, where Pius IX made him an Abbé. In 1870 he was recalled to Weimar to conduct the Beethoven festival. Elected director of the new Hungarian Academy of Music at Pesth, he divided the last ten years of his life between Weimar, Rome, and Pesth, followed everywhere by throngs of pupils and admirers. Germany next lost one of her foremost artists by the death of Karl Theodor von Piloty. Born at Munich in 1826, Piloty studied at the Academy there under his father. |