Vickipedia

VICTORIA I., Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, daughter and only child of Edward, Duke of Kent, 4th son of George III., was born at Kensington Palace, May 24, 1819. Her mother, Victoria Mary Louisa, was 4th daughter of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and sister of Leopold, late king of the Belgians. Her first husband, the Prince of Leiningen, died in 1814; and on the 11th July 1818. she married, at Kew, the Duke of Kent. The duke died January 23, 1820, leaving his widow in charge of an infant daughter only eight months old, who had been baptized with the names of Alexandria Victoria.

The Duchess of Kent fulfilled the important duties which devolved upon her with more than maternal solicitude, and with admirable care and prudence. The infant princess, as she grew up, was taught to seek health by exercise and temperance, to acquire fearlessness even from her amusements, such as riding and sailing, and to practise a wise economy united to a discriminating charity. After a few years, the Duchess of Northumberland was associated with her mother in her nurture and education. The Princess V. became accomplished in music, drawing, and the continental languages; and acquired a knowledge of some of the sciences, particularly botany. Her father having belonged to the Whigs, her political education was naturally derived from the members of that party; and to Viscount Melbourne (q. v.); belongs the credit of having thoroughly instructed her in the principles of the British constitution. She ascended the throne of the United Kingdom 011 the demise of her uncle, William IV. (q. v.), June 20, 1837; her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, becoming king of Hanover, in virtue of the law which excludes females from that throne. By this event, the connection which had lasted for 123 years between the crowns of England and Hanover was terminated. Victoria was proclaimed June, 1837, and crowned at Westminster, June 28,1838. She found on her accession Viscount Melbourne at the head of the government; and during his premiership, and with the cordial assent of her subjects, the young queen was married at St. James’s Palace (February 10, 1840) to Prince Albert (q. v.), Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and second son of the then reigning duke.

Her Majesty has had issue—four sons and five daughters; the Princess Royal, Victoria, born November 21. 1840, married. Jan. 35, 1858, to Frederick William, now Crown Prince of Prussia, and Prince Imperial of Germany; Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, heir-apparent to the throne of the United Kingdom, born Nov. 9, 1841, married, March 10, 1863, Princess Alexandra, eldest daughter of Christian IX., king of Denmark; Princess Alice, born April 25, 1843, married, in 1862, Prince Frederick William of Hesse (died Dec. 14, 1878); Prince Alfred, born August 6. 1844. created Duke of Edinburgh 1866, married, Jan. 23, 1874, Marie, only daughter of the Emperor of Russia; Princess Helena, born May 25, 1840, married in 1866 to Prince Christian of Denmark; Princess Louisa, born March 18, 1848, married in 1871 to the Marquis of Lorne; Prince Arthur, born May 1, 1850, created Duke of Connaught 1874, married in 1879 Princess Louise Marguerite of Prussia; Prince Leopold, born April 7, 1853, was created Duke of Albany in 1881, and married to Princess Helena of Waldeck in 1882; Princess Beatrice, born April 14,’1857.

The changes of administration in this reign maybe traced in the articles GREAT BRITAIN, MELBOURNE, PEEL, RUSSELL, derby, aberdeen, palmerston, gladstone, disraeli. The legislative measures of greatest importance were the establishment (1840) of the penny-postage (see post-office); the Amendment of the Poor Laws (q. v.) in Scotland (1845) and Ireland (1847); the Abolition (1846) of the Corn Laws (q. v.), and (1849) of the Navigation Laws,(q. v.); the Irish Encumbered Estates Act, (see TITLE, &c.); the transfer (1858) of the Indian possessions from the East India Company to the crown (see india); the admission (1858) of Jews into the House of Commons; the Reform Act of 1867; Disestablishment of the Irish Church (1869); the Irish Land Acts (1870 and 1881); the Abolition of Purchase in the Army (1871); the Elementary Education Act for England (1870), and the Scotch Education Act (1872). See NATIONAL EDUCATION. Other events which will signalize this period of British history were the formation of the Free Church (q. v.) of Scotland (1843); the discovery of the North-west Passage (q. v.) by Sir Robert M’Clure (1850); the Exhibitions (q. v.) of 1851 and 1862; the discovery of gold in Australia (q. v.) and in British Columbia; the war (1854—1856) with Russia (q. v.)iii defence of Turkey (q. v.), in which the siege of Sebastopol was the chief item; the Indian Mutiny in 1857 (see india); the Volunteer (q. v.) movement (1859); the establishment (1866) of telegraphic communication with America (see TELEGRAPH); the Abyssinian War, 1867(see theodore); the formation of the Dominion of Canada, 1867; the wars with Ashantees (1873), Zulus (1879), and Afghans (1878-80), the rising in the Transvaal; the agitations in connection with the Fenian Society (q. v.), Home Rule (q. v.), and the Land League; the passing of the Land Act (1881); and the war in Egypt (1882).

In 1848, the only disturbance in Britain was a Chartist demonstration (see chartism); while, during V.’s reign, France (q. v.) has been successively a constitutional monarchy, a republic, an empire, and again a republic. The great civil war in the United States of America (q. v.) has resulted in the extinction of slavery; the formation of the kingdom of Italy (q. v.) has been completed by the acquisition of Venetia and Rome; the unification of Germany, begun by the formation of the North German Confederation, as the result of the war between Prussia and Austria in 1866. has been consummated by the events of the Franco-Prussian War (1870—1871); and the ever formidable ‘ Eastern Question,’ raised again in 1876 by the insurrection in Herzegovina led in 1877 to war between Russia and Turkey, and to sweeping changes in the Balkan Peninsula (see turkey).

In 1876, ‘ Empress of India’ was added to the royal titles of Queen V. The premature death of the Prince-Consort (see albert) on December 14, 1861, caused the Queen to seclude herself for several years from public life. Queen V. has published two volumes—The Early Days of His Royal Highness the Prince-Consort; and Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands (1869).

‘In Queen Victoria,’ according to Macaulay, ‘her subjects have found a wiser, gentler, happier Elizabeth.’ No former monarch has so thoroughly comprehended the great truth, that the powers of the crown are held in trust for the people, and are the means, and not the end of government. This enlightened policy has entitled her to the glorious distinction of having been the most constitutional monarch this country has ever seen. Not less important and beneficial has been the example set by her Majesty and her late Consort in the practice of every domestic virtue. Their stainless lives, their unobtrusive piety, and their careful education of the royal children, have borne rich fruit in the stability of the throne, and have obtained for the royal family of England the respect and admiration of the civilized world. See Theodore Martin’s Life of the Prince Consort (vols. i.-iv. 1873-79).

The progress made by the nation in the various elements of civilization, especially in that of material prosperity, has been unparalleled (see great britain); and perhaps during no reign has a greater measure of political contentment been enjoyed.

DARWIN, CHARLES, F.R.S., an English naturalist of the highest eminence, was born at Shrewsbury, February 1.2, 1809. He was the son of Dr. Robert W. Darwin, F.R.S., and grandson of Erasmus Darwin (q. v.). His mother was a daughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the famous manufacturer of pottery. After attending a public school at Shrewsbury, he studied at Edinburgh University for two sessions, and thence proceeded to Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he took his degree of B.A. in 1831.

He now volunteered to go as naturalist in H.M.S. Beagle, commanded by Captain Fitzroy, R. N-, and started for a survey of South America, and a circumnavigation of the globe, Dec. 27, 1831, returning to England Oct. 2, 1836. His entire life, so far as his health permitted, was afterwards devoted to scientific researches. D., who was a fellow of the principal scientific societies, obtained the Royal Society’s medal, and the Wollaston medal of the Geological Society.—His earliest well-known work, The Voyage of a Naturalist (2d ed. 1845), is a most interesting and beautifully written work. In 1839 was published his Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the various Countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle; in 1840—1843, the Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, published by government, to which D. contributed the introduction and many of the notes; in 1842, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Beefs; in 1844, Geological Observations on Volcanic Islands; and in 1846, his Geological Observations on South America. He also wrote many papers in the Transactions of the Geological Society. In 1851—1853, appeared his valuable Monograph of the Cirripedia; and in 1859, D.’s name became ‘ familiar as a household word ‘ to the mass of educated and semi-educated Englishmen, through the publication of his work, The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle of Life- In the Origin of Species, D. contends that the various species of plants and animals, instead of being each specially created and immutable, are continually suffering change through a process of adaptation, by which those varieties of a species that are in any way better fitted for the conditions of their life survive and multiply at the expense of others. So potent and universal does this process of natural selection seem to be, that D. considers it capable, with other less important causes, of explaining how all existing species may have descended from one or a very few low forms of life. This theory excited fierce controversies, but it has been embraced by many of the ablest naturalists, and has induced great changes in the method of biology and kindred sciences. See DARWINIAN THEORY; also SPECIES. Other works are : Fertilization of Orchids (1862); Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication (1867); The Descent of Man and Selection in relation to Sex (1871); Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1873); Insectivorous Plants (1875); Climbing Plants (1875); The Effects of Cross and Self-fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom (1876); Different Forms of Flowers in Plants of the same Species (1877); The Power of Movement in Plants (1880), a work in which it was proved that every growing part of every plant is always moving round or ‘ circumnutating,’ as D. calls it: The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881). The latter work, which excited great popular interest, showed that part of the mould which covers the globe is the work of earth-worms, having been voided by them as worm castings. D.’s knowledge was not less remark^ able than his caution’ in statement. He received many high distinctions, such as the Prussian order Pour le Merite (1871), degrees from Leyden and Cambridge, and the membership of the French Academy (1878). He died April 19, 1882, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

JANSEN, Cornelius, a celebrated divine, born of humble parentage in 1585, at Akkoi, near Leerdam, in Holland, from whom the sect of jansenists derives its name. He was nephew of the well-known biblical commentator, and Bishop of Ghent, of the same name. The studies of J. were divided between Utrecht, Louvain, and Paris. Having obtained a professorship at Bayonne, he devoted himself with all his energy to scriptural and patristic studies, especially of the works of St. Augustine. From Bayonne, he returned to Louvain, where, in 1617, he obtained the degree of Doctor, was appointed Lecturer on Scripture, and took a prominent part in the affairs of the university, especially in a contest with the Jesuits, on occasion of which he was sent upon a mission to the court of Madrid. In 1630, he was appointed to the professorship of Scripture; and having distinguished himself by a pamphlet on the war with France, Mars Gallicus, he was promoted, in 1686, to the see of Ypres. In this city he died of the plague, May 6, 1638, just as he had completed his great work, the Augustinus, which proved the occasion of a theological controversy, the most important, in its doctrinal, social, and even political results, which has arisen since the Reformation. Its main object, in which it coincided with the scheme of doctrine already condemned in Bajus (q. v.), was to prove, by an elaborate analysis of St. Augustine’s works, that the teaching of this Father against the Pelagians and semi-Pelagians (q. v.), on Grace, Free-will, and Predestination, was directly opposed to the teaching of the modern, and especially of the Jesuit schools (see molina), which latter teaching he held to be identical with that of the semi-Pelagians. In the preface, he submitted the work to the judgment of the Holy See; and on its publication, in 1640, being received with loud clamor, especially by the Jesuits, and at once referred to Home for judgment, the Augustinus�together with the antagonist publications of the Jesuits�was prohibited by a decree of the inquisition in 1641; in the following year, it was condemned as heretical by Urban VIII. in the bull In Eminenti. This bull encountered much opposition in Belgium; and in France, the Augustinus found many partisans, who were animated by a double feeling, as well of doctrinal predilection as of antipathy to the alleged laxity of moral teaching in the schools of the Jesuits, with whom the opposition to the Augustinus was identified. See jesuits. The most eminent of the patrons of the Augustinus were the celebrated association of scholars and divines who formed the community of PORT ROYAL (q. v.), Arnauld, Nicole, Pascal, &c. Nevertheless, the syndic of the Sorbonne extracted from the Augustinus seven propositions (subsequently reduced to five) which were condemned as heretical by Innocent X. in 1653. Hence arose the celebrated distinction of ‘right’ and of ‘fact.’ The friends of the Augustinus, while they admitted that in point of right the live propositions were justly condemned as heretical, yet denied that in point of fact these propositions were to be found in the Augustinus, at least in the sense imputed to them by the bull.

A further condemnation was therefore issued by Alexander VII. in 1656, which was rigidly enforced in France, and generally accepted; and in 1668, peace was partially restored by Clement IX., at least all overt opposition was repressed by the iron rule of Louis XIV. The more rigid Jansenists, however, and at their head Antoine Arnauld, emigrated from France, and formed a kind of community in the Low Countries. On the death of Arnauld in 1694, the controversy remained in abeyance for so me years; but it was revived with new acrimony by the well-known dispute on the so-called ‘ case of conscience,’ and still more angrily in the person of the celebrated Quesnel (q. v.), whose Moral Reflections on the New Testament, although published with high ecclesiastical authority, at various intervals from 1671 till his death, 1710, was denounced to the pope, Clement XI, as a text-book of undisguised Jansenism. This pope issued in 1713, in the constitution ‘ Unigenitus,’ a condemnation in mass of 101 propositions extracted from the Moral Reflections, which, however, met with great resistance in France. The death of Louis XIV. caused a relaxation of the repressive measures. The regent, Duke of Orleans, was urged to refer the whole controversy to a national council, and the leaders of the Jansenist party appealed to a general council. The party thus formed, which numbered four bishops and many inferior ecclesiastics, were called, from this circumstance, the Appellants. The firmness of the pope, and a change in the policy of the regent, brought them into disfavor. An edict was published, June 4, 1720, receiving the bull; and even the parliament of Paris submitted to register it, although with a reservation in favor of the liberties of the Gallican Church. The Appellants for the most part submitted, the recusants being visited with severe penalties; and on the accession of the new king, Louis XV., the unconditional acceptance of the bull was at length formally accomplished, the parliament being compelled to register it in a lit de justice. From this time forward, the Appellants were rigorously repressed, and a large number emigrated to the Netherlands, where they formed a community, with Utrecht as a center. The party still remaining in France persisted in their inveterate opposition to the bull, and many of them fell into great excesses of fanaticism. See CONVULSIONARIES. In one locality alone, Utrecht, and its dependent churches, can the sect be said to have had a regular and permanent organization, which dates partly from the forced emigration of the French Jansenists under Louis XIV., partly from the controversy about Quesnel. The vicar-apostolic, Peter Codde, having been suspended by Clement XI. in 1702, the chapter of Utrecht refused to acknowledge the new vicar named in his place, and angrily joined themselves to the Appellant party in France, many of whom found a refuge in Utrecht. At length, in 1723, they elected an archbishop, Cornelius Steenhoven, for whom the form of episcopal consecration was obtained from the French bishop Vorlet (titular of Babylon), who had been suspended for Jansenist opinions. A later Jansenist Archbishop of Utrecht, Meindarts, established Haarlem and Deventer as his suffragan sees; and in 1763, a synod was held, which sent its acts to Rome, in recognition of the primacy of that see, which the church of Utrecht professes to acknowledge. Since that time, the formal succession has been maintained, each bishop, on being appointed, notifying his election to the pope, and craving confirmation. The popes, however, have uniformly rejected all advances, except on the condition of the acceptance of the bull Unigenitus, and the recent act of the Holy See, in defining as of Catholic faith the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has been the occasion of a new protest. The Jansenists of the Utrecht Church still number about 6000 souls, and are divided over 25 parishes in the dioceses of Utrecht and Haarlem. Their clergy are about 30 in number, with a seminary at Amersfoort. The Jansenist Archbishop of Utrecht has recently consecrated a bishop for the Old Catholic (see dolhngeR) community in Germany.

FILLMORE, MILLARD, an American statesman, ex-president of the United States, was born on 7th January 1800, at Summer Hill, in the state of New York. Born of English parents, in rather straitened circumstances, all the education he received was the very imperfect instruction furnished by the village school.

At the age of fifteen he was sent to the county of Livingston, there to learn the drapery trade, and soon afterwards was bound apprentice to a wool-carder in his native village.

During the four years he labored at this occupation, he used every means at his disposal to cultivate his mind, devoting his evenings to reading and study. In his nineteenth year he made the acquaintance of a lawyer named Wood, who discovering in the young man talents worthy of a loftier sphere, took an interest in him, and offered him a situation in his office, at the same time supplying him with funds for the prosecution of his studies foe the legal profession. The attention bestowed upon him by his benefactor was not thrown away. He entered with ardor upon the course marked out for him, and in order that he might not be too great a burden upon his friend, devoted a part of his time to conducting a school. He removed to Buffalo in 1821 in order to complete his studies, and in 1823 was admitted a member of the bar. A brilliant career was thus opened up for him, and he delayed not to pursue it. He gradually acquired both means and reputation. In 1829, he began his political career, being in that year chosen as a representative of the county of Erie in the Legislature of New York, where he entered the ranks of the Whig party, at that time in opposition. Here his probity and modesty soon gained him universal esteem. He was mainly instrumental in procuring the abolition of imprisonment for debt in the state of New York. In 1832, F. was elected a member of Congress, and such were the statesman-like qualities displayed by him, that lie was several times re-elected; but in 1844 he resumed his profession of advocate. In 1847, however, he again returned to public life, being elected by a large majority to the post of comptroller of New York; and in the following year he was made vice-president of the United States. The unexpected death of General Taylor in July 1850, leaving the office of president vacant, F. was raised to that high office, which he held till 1853. His presidency was marked by the passing of some very salutary measures, notwithstanding that his party were in the minority. He promoted as far as he could the progress of exploration and discovery, at home and abroad. In 1855, F. visited Europe, and on his return in 1856, he was again nominated for the presidency, but was not returned. F. took no active part in the civil war; though nominally he sided with the Union. After the expiry of his term of office, be retired to Buffalo, where he died in 1874.

AMLETH, or HAMLETH, Prince of Jutland, is said to have lived in the 2d c. B.C. According to Saxo-Grammaticus, he was the son of Horvendill and Gerutha; and after the murder of his father by his uncle Fengo, who married Gerutha, he feigned himself a fool, to save his own life. Saxo relates a number of little things regarding A., which are a curious medley of sharp and lively observation, and apparent madness. We are told that, on one occasion, when he visited his mother, suspecting that he was watched, he commenced to crow like a cock and dance idiotically about the apartment, until he discovered, hidden in a heap of straw, spy, in the person of one of Fengo’s courtiers, whom he immediately stabbed; he then so terrified his mother by his reproaches, that she promised to aid him in his intended revenge on his father’s murderer, and, according to the old chronicler, really did so. Scandinavian traditions confirm the existence of a prince of this name. A field is still pointed out in J�tland with a tomb bearing the name of A. In. the vicinity of Elsinore is shown the spot where the father of A. was assassinated. Saxo himself does not mention the manner or circumstances of his death; but his French translator says that he was murdered at a banquet. Most of the recent historians of Denmark consider the history of A. fabulous, but M�ller thinks there is a substratum of fact in the old myth. It is the source of Shakspeare’s tragedy of Hamlet and thus possesses a perennial interest for all the civilized world.

RAPIN DE THOYRAS, PAUL DE, a French historian of England, was descended from a Protestant Savoyard family, which settled in France in the 16th c., and was born at Castres, in Languedoc, March 25, 1661. He studied at the Protestant college of Saumur, and passed as advocate in 1679, but had no liking for the profession; and when the Edict of Nantes (1685) forced him to leave France, he sought employment first in England (where he was unsuccessful), and afterwards in Holland, where he enlisted in a corps of volunteers at Utrecht, formed by his cousin-germain, Daniel de Rapin. With his company, he followed the Prince of Orange to England in 1688, was made ensign in the following year, and distinguished himself by his bravery at the siege of Carrickfergus, the battle of the Boyne, and the siege of Limerick, where he was shot through the shoulder by a musket-bail. In 1693, he was appointed tutor to the Earl of Portland’s son, with whom lie traveled in Holland, Germany, and Italy, after which he took up his residence at the Hague; but in 1707, withdrew with his family to Wesel, in the duchy of Cleves, where lie devoted the remaining 17 years of his life to the composition of his great work. The severity of his labors is believed to have shortened his days. He died May 16, 1725. R.’s Histoire d’Angleterre was published at the Hague in 8 vols., the year before his death. It was undoubtedly, as Voltaire has said, the best work on English history that had until then appeared : full, minute, careful in citing authorities, clear, rapid and accurate in narration, methodical in the arrangement of its materials, comparatively impartial in spirit, and yet betraying on the part of the author an honorable reverence for law and liberty. B. begins with the invasion of Britain by the Romans, and ends with the death of Charles I. The work was continued to the death of William III. by David Durant (Hague, 2 vols., 1734). The best edition of the Histoire in its augmented form is by Lefebvre de Saint-Marc (Hague, 16 vols., 1749 et seq.). The original was translated into English by the Rev. Nicholas Tindal, M.A. (Lond. 15 vols., 1725�1731), and subsequently by John Kelly, barrister (in 2 vols. fol.).