THIS WEEK’S ANNIVERSARIES

Evening Star, Issue 19841, 14 April 1928, Page 16

THIS WEEK’S ANNIVERSARIES

APRIL 8. la 1898 the battle _ of Atbara was fought. This brisk little engagement enhanced the reputation lor efficiency already gained by Sir Herbert Kitchener (as he then was). The dervishes, followers of the Mahdi, wore encamped in a zareba built among the scrub on the banks of the river Atbara. They were attacked by the Anglo-Egyptian force, consisting of one brigade of British infantry and three of Egyptian infantry. According to Kitchener’s plan, the leading battalion, the Cameron Highlanders, tore gaps in the zareba, which was entered by the other troops as well. A sharp encounter followed, for the dervishes fought bravely, but they had no chance. Many were killed and the others fled across the river. Mahmud, the Mahdi’s general, who was in command, was captured. The AngloEgyptian losses in killed were thirtyfour officers and 525 men. General Gataere, who commanded the British Brigade, will be better remembered for his later failure at Stormberg in the South African War than for his success on this occasion. Graphic descriptions of this campaign are to be found in G. W. Steevens’e ' With Kitchener to Khartum.’ Incidentally, names that arrest the eye are those of Bimbashi Haig and Lieutenant Beatty, both ot whom were to take leading parts in the great drama that was staged in 1914 APRIL y. . Francis Bacon died in 1G26, His sixty-five years of life were crowded with incident. He was a connection by blood of the Cecil family, which has had more than the average share of brains and distinction. His father was a friend of Queen Elizabeth, and the young man’s course seemed sot fair. But the death of Sir Nicholas Bacon altered his prospects and ho had to fend for himself. He had a hard time at first. He incurred the displeasure of the Queen, his projected marriage with the wealthy Lady Hatton fell through, and he was arrested for debt. When James I. ascended the throne fortune smiled. Ho had the intriguing and, it is said, quite unscrupulous mind. He obtained in succession desirable and high offices, and was made Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans, Afterwards lie was fined on charges of bribery and corruption and lodged in the Tower. The King forgave him and he retired from public affairs. That was one side of his life. His lasting achievements wore in another direction, and it is conceded that his mind was one of tho most Inmnoiis among England’s great intellectuals — in quality on a plane wfith those of Shakespeare and Newton. Rare Ben Jonson, his true friend in adversity as well as in prosperity, paid him this tribute: “His bearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss. ... Ho seemed to me by his worth one of tho greatest men and most worthy of admiration that had been in many ages.” Bacon ranks as the very first of°English philosophers, and hia literary abilities were equal to his profound sagacity. A claim on his behalf that is widely accepted is that he was “one of tho originators of the whole existing plan, design, and fabric of science, whose position is for ever assured.” Many people at one tifiie thought, and a few still hold to the belief 5 that his was the only intellect of the. period capable of tho authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. APRIL 10. There was a certain amount of revolutionary talk at the time of the late general strike in England, but few people felt that there was any real danger in that aspect of the trouble. Probably the most perilous social period in modern times so far as Great Britain was concerned was to be found in the Chartist movement, which culminated in a great demonstration in London on April 10, 1848. To us today the six demands of the Chartists do not seem to be very extravagant. They were abolition of the property qualification lor members of Parliament, payment of members of Parlia,mont, vote by ballot, manhood suffrage, equal electoral districts, and annual Parliaments. When the People’s Charter was launched in 1838 iffiese planks were declared to be revolutionary, and were repudiated With contempt and bitterness. Tho ten years from 1838 to 1848 marked a period of great unrest in England. Unemployment and poverty were acute, Queen Victoria had not achieved popularity, and revolutionary movements in Europe had infected a section of the British people. The Chartists were divided into two camps—those who were for physical force, and those who believed in moral suasion. At intervals there was rioting and some loss of life. The culmination was tho decision to march over Westminster Bridge to the House of Commons in hundreds of thousands to present to Parliament

a petition containing 5,000,000 names. Tho procession was forbidden, and, with the Duke of Wellington in charge of the military arrangements, the idea of having one was abandoned, though a great meeting was held on Kennington Common. Internal strife in the Chartist ranks, the repeal of the Corn Laws, and more prosperous times were all factors in the disruption of tho Chartist movement, and its adherents henceforth attached themselves to Radicalism and to movements of social reform. APRIL 11. On Sunday, April 11, 1886, the Union Company’s steamer Taiaroa left Wellington for Lyttelton, During the evening, which was dark, but not stormy, she went ashore at Waipapa Point, at the to the Clarence River, and almost midway between Kaikoura Peninsula and Flaxbourne. There were few passengers on board, the total of the ship’s company being forty-eight. After the ship struck heavy • sqas set in, and thirtyfour lives were lost through boats capsizing. Two of the crew who were drowned had their homes in this city. These were Chief Officer R. B. Monkman and Fireman Morrison. Their bodies_ wore recovered and brought to Dunedin. They were given a public funeral on the Sunday afternoon. The procession was a lengthy one, and an immense crowd gathered at the cemetery. The coffins were borne to tho graves by seamen of the Union Steam Ship Company, and the joint burial service was read by tho Rev. R. Waddell and Mr A. Bruntou. At Morrison’s grave afterwards the funeral service of the Druids was road. The Taiaroa was a small steamer of 299 tons register. Her master (Captain George Thomson) was among the saved, and was afterwards in the Otago Harbor Board’s service as pilot and harbormaster. He is now living in retirement at Port Chalmers. APRIL 12. This was tho day in the year 1713, when a few European disputes were adjusted. As will be seen, England was deeply interested in what took place. The treaty that was signed was called the Peace of Utrecht. France ceded Newfoundland, Acadia, or Nova Scotia, tho district around Hudson Bay, and St. Kitt’s to Great Britain, which had conquered thorn, and Spain handed over to her Gibraltar and Minorca. Among other important points in the treaty was the recognition by Louis XIV. of the Protestant succession, and his promise to give no further aid to the Stuarts. Great Britain and France also concluded a commercial treaty. Prussia, which has since played many parts in European dramas, was put more definitely on tho map, being recognised as a kingdom. The Crown of Spain was given to the French claimant, Philip V., but the precaution was taken of stipulating that the same person should never bo king both of France and Spain. This ended what was called the war of the Spanish succession. Philip’s Austrian rival, the Emperor Charles, received as consolation prizes Naples, Milan, Sardinia,, and the Spanish Netherlands. Those who sat at this conference in the Netherlands town represented Great Britain, France. Savoy, Portugal, Prussia, the Dutch Republic, and Spam. APRIL 13. This day recalls another of Britain’s minor wars. The scene of the fighting was Abyssinia, an ancient land, whose history is overlaid with legend and myth. Abyssinian tradition dates its Royal house from the meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, but it is not agreed that the lady who came from the “ utmost parts of the earth ” to hear the wisdom of Solomon had her home in Ethiopia, which is Abyssinia’s official name. Views are divided on the point. The mystery land of the fabled Prester John is reputed_ by some writers to have been Abyssinia. Long before the Christian era there was intercourse between Egypt and Ethiopia, and then for many centuries it was a case of “tho world forgetting, by tho world forgot.” In 1805 Britain came on the scene, when Abyssinia was visited by a mission under Lord Valentia, and friendly relations were established, but in the reign of King Theodore HI. that monarch turned against the British officials and imprisoned them in chains. With a force of 16,000 troops, Sir Robert Napier, who had distinguished himself at Lucknow, marched on Magdala, which was stormed and taken on April 13, 1868. Theodore committed suicide. Abyssinia is an independent if very backward kingdom, though it is a member of the League of Nations. Under an agreement signed in 1906 Britain, France, and Italy undertook to respect and endeavor to preserve the integrity of Abyssinia. It is a land rich in natural resources, and the American money kings have been casting eyes in that direction of late. APRIL 14. During a visit to tho theatre at Washington on April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot in the presence of his wife by a dissolute fanatic, an actor named Booth, and tho national rejoicing over the return of peace was turned into grief for the martyred President. Washington is called the father of his country. Lincoln is regarded as the saviour of his country and the liberator of a race. This son of a shiftless Kentucky farmer and Nancy Hanks was handicapped well behind scratch in the race of life, yet he stands to-day unchallenged as one of the world’s immortals. In turn farm laborer, storekeeper, postmaster, surveyor, he experienced failure, but acquired knowledge, and became lawyer and politician, and, inspired by a great cause, won a high place in the realms of statesmanship. He was 6ft 4in in height, thin to emaciation, with a squeaky voice. He possessed few of the graces that inspire the multitude. Yet he was as a rock when the great storm swept over his country. An inspired leader, he remained calm and inflexible when the people were war weary, and compromises were suggested. So intense was the feeling against him, even in the North, that it was remarkable that ho was allowed to live till victory was achieved. Once hostilities ceased he devoted his energies unsparingly to reconstruction and reconciliation. It was in the midst of this work that ho was struck down. Incorruptible honesty, iron fortitude, and the ability to pick and work with good men (General Grant, for example) are characteristics attributed to him. In addition, he exhibited a generous and humorous attitude to Ins enemies, persecutors, and slanderers.