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 nations.' 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.

After completing his studies in Paris and Brussels, Piloty was commissioned by King Maximilian of Bavaria to paint a number of historical subjects. He achieved national fame by his celebrated canvas of "Seni before the Dead Wallenstein." Equally famous are his "Discovery of America" and "Thusnelda at the Triumph of Germanicus."

With the death of the historian Leopold von Ranke, at the age of ninety-one, Germany lost another of her most distinguished sons. His celebrated "History of the Popes" was published in the thirties. Histories of Germany, Prussia, France, and England at different periods, were published between 1839 and 1868. At the age of eighty-six Ranke began his "History of the World," and published one volume each year thereafter, bringing it down to the death of Charlemagne before he died.

In March strikes occurred in the densely populated mining districts of the Valley of the Meuse, Belgium. The situation at length became so serious that regular troops were required to restore order. Amsterdam likewise was the scene of disorders in March and July. Mass meetings of laboring men called for less working hours and for the imposition of an income tax, to provide the poor with daily bread. The military interfered and 25 persons were shot and 90 wounded. Serious riots of the unemployed occurred late in the year in England and Ireland.

EVENTS OF 1887

Italian War with_Abyssinians Involves Capture of Salinbein's Scientific Expedition-Italians are Defeated_at Massowah-Balfour's Irish Coercion Bill is Pushed Through Parliament by "Times's" Use of Letter from Parnell Endorsing Assassination-Parnell Declares Letter a Forgery-Russian Agents Foment Risings in the Balkans -Russia Protests to Powers against Ferdinand Taking Bulgarian Crown-Unsuccessful Attempt to Kill Czar — It is Followed by Closure of Universities and Other Reactionary Measures-Fatal Fire Destroys Opéra Comique, Paris-President Grévy Resigns Owing to Scandal of Sale of Decorations by His Son-in-Law-Deaths of Jenny Lind, Opera Singer, and Henry Ward Beecher, American Divine White Citizens of Hawaii Force King to Grant Constitution Depriving Him of Autocratic Powers-Anarchists Kill Police in Chicago Riot-They are Tried and Condemned, Some to Death and Some to Imprisonment-Rising of Slaves in Brazil Accelerates Emancipation.

N the commencement of the year the attention of the world was drawn to Abyssinia. A scientific mission

I

commanded by Count Salinbein had proposed to penetrate into the interior of the country. General Géne, commanding the expeditionary force, had assured the mission that no military enterprise on the part of the Italians should compromise their safety. Only a few days had elapsed after this promise when the Italian troops marched out of the fortifications of Massowah to meet Ras Alula, commanding on behalf of King John of Abyssinia. Count Salinbein was at once made prisoner by the Abyssinians, and the evacuation of Massowah was demanded. On January 25 Ras Saati made an attack on the Italian lines, but after three hours' fighting was repulsed. The following day, three companies of Italian troops, despatched to revictual the garrison, were ambushed and overwhelmed. Twenty-three officers and 407 soldiers were killed, and all the guns fell into the hands of the Abyssinians. An Italian Cabinet crisis resulted.

In Great Britain the failure of Gladstone's Home Rule Bill had only brought Irish affairs into greater prominence. Charles Parnell came forward with a bill for the diminution