IN DAYS THAT HAVE GONE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3001, 20 September 1911, Page 82

IN DAYS THAT HAVE GONE.

THE WEEK'S ANNIVERSARIES. Sept. 17. —First authenticated discovery of Australian coast line, 1606. Battle of Antietam, 1862. Lander died, 1864. Mont Cenis tunnel opened, 1871. Sept. 18.—Bishop Burnet barm 1643. Dr Johnson born, 1709. Australian Commonwealth proclaimed by Queen Victoria, 19C0. Great typhoon at Hongkong, 1906. Sept. 19.—Battle of Poictiers, 1356. Brougham born, 1778. Hartley Coleridge born, 1796. Battle of Chickamanga, 1863. President Garfield died, 1881. • Maritime strike. Riot Act read in Sydney, 1890. Franchise granted to women in New Zealand, 1893. Dr Barnardo died, 1905. Sept. 20.—Battle of Valmy, 1792. 1 Vice-admiral Sir Thomas Hardy died, 1839 New Caledonia occupied by. France, 1853. Battle of The Alma (Crimea), 1854 Italian army entered Rome, 1870. Sir George Grey died, 1898. Sept. 21.—Savonarola born. 1452. , Battle of Prestonpans, 1745. Sir Walter Scott died, 1832. First license to dig for gold issued in Victoria, 1851. Sept. 22.—Chesterfield- born, 1694. K. T. Korner born, 1791. First French Republic established, 1792. ' Garden Palace, Sydney, burned, 1882. Sept. 23.—Sharon Turner borri; 1768 Battle of Assaye, 1803. Separation of Norway and Sweden agreed on, 1905. Jewish New Year, 5672.

September 17, 1606, is usually accepted as the date of the first authenticated discovery of the Australian coast line. It was then that Torres, with a ship commissioned by the Spanish Government of Peru, after parting with his companion Quiros at the New Hebrides, sailed from east to west through the strait which bears his name. At Antietam. in Maryland, U.b.. was fought a terrible battle on September 17, 1862. between the Federals under General M'Clellan and the Confederates under Lee After his victorv at Bull Run Lee had invaded Maryland, where he was immediately followed by M'Clellan On September 16 Leo was joined, by Jackson, and at 5 o'clock next morning the conflict began. About 100,000 men .were engaged, and the battle raged till night. The Federals were repeatedly repulsed; but eventually the Confederates retreated and repassed the Potomac. The Federal loss was estimated at 12.469; the Confederates at 14.000. A national cemetery was dedicated on tihe spot on the anniversary of the battle in 1867. The Mont Oenis tunnel, the first great tunnel through the Alps was solemnly opened on September 17 1871. by the passage of 22 carriages through it m 2U minutes. It is 74 miles long, and connects Savoy with Piedmont. The work of excavation was begun in August, 1857, and it 5£ it tUI Dumber, 1870 that the boring was completed. The total cost of the work was about £2,600,000 -Samuel Johnson, one of tho most eminent English writers of the eighteenth century, was born on September 18. 1709 As a man he was characterised by great muscular strength, accompanied by much awkwardness and many infirmities; great quickness of parts, with a morbid propensity to sloth and procrastination; a kind and generous heart with a gloomy and Salle temper. His life for the most cart was a hard struggle with poverty aggravated by the suffering of an unsound body and an unsound mind. Among the most famous of hie literary works, which Z both numerous and vaned. are his Dictionary. Rasselas, The Vanity of Human Wishes, the ***** J«gJJ tr. Hebrides, and Lives ot the Foots. Though the celebrity of his • writings has decided, the celebrity of the writer Sran4 to say, is as great as ever. It has been well said tbat "the memory of other authors is kept alive by their works : but the memory of Johnson keeps many of m the west of France was fought the battle between Edward ■rtwL TOnAlc Prince and John, King of France in which the English arms triumphed, on September 19 1356. The Standard of France was oversown many of her nobility elain, and her King was taken prisoner and brought to London. This wis one of the most decisive battles of tho Hundred Years* War. Tho Electoral Bill, enfranchising the women of New Zealand, went through

' both Houses finally in September, 1893. At noon on t'h-o 19th of that month his Excellency the Governor signed the fateful document that had for a time so perturbed the local political world. It was a singular fact, which the cynics did not fail to note that when the supreme moment arrived for which women were said to have been for years yearning and I striving, there was not a. single occupant of the ladies' gallery. This was accounted ! for by the fact that there was a fashion- ' able marriage in an adjacent church. After the Franco-German war the French could, of course, no longer maintain their position as champions of the temporal power of the Pope in Italy. King Victor Emmanuel again, therefore, attempted to induce Pope Pius IX to come to terms and accept the positionj at once dignified' and independent, wlhich the Italian Government was anxious to secure to him. But the Pope still unflinchingly adhered to the position he had taken up. A feint of resistance was made, but on September 20, 1870, the Royal troops entered Rome, and the tricolour was mounted on the palace of the Capitol. So soon as might be a plebiscite was taken. The numbers were significant for the King, 40,788; for the Pope, 46. . Sir George Grey the great colonial Governor and 1 statesman, was born in Lisbon in 1812, eight days after the death of his father at the storming of Badajoz. As Gbvernor of South Australia his energy and determination .were so striking that when in 1845 the little settlements in New Zealand were found to be involved in a native war, and on the verge of ruiln. he was sent to save them. The Governor gained the veneration of the Maori tribes, in whose welfare he took a close personal interest, and of wihose legends and myths he made a valuable and scholarly collection, published in New Zealand in 1855, and reprinted 30 years afterwards. After eight years of despotic, but successful rule, Grey was transferred to Cape Colony, where his remarkable successes continued. In 1861 he was again entrusted with the Governorship of New Zealand, and, when a few years later war could not be averted, he himself, as an example to generals he criticised, attacked and captured Weraroa, the strongest of the Maori stockades, with a handful of militia. In 1867 he received curt intimation from the Duke of Buckingham that he was about to be superseded, and thereafter his career as a servant of the Empire ceased. _ Later he was for many years a prominent figure in New Zealand 1 politics, and when in 1894 he returned to London he was called to the Privy Council at the age of 82, and graciously received by Queen Viotoria on his visit to Windsor. He died in London on September 20, 1898, and was given a public funeral at St. Paul's. The roll of Italian great men contains few grander names than that of Savonarola, and the career of this patriot-priest, reformer, and statesman is one of the strongest pages of Italy's history. He was born at Ferrara on September 21, 1452, and was a precocious child. An unsuccessful love affair in early life caused 1 him to devote himself with the utmost _ fervour and humility to a rigorous monastic life. In Florence .he gradually came to wield a tremendous power as a stern and uncomprising preacher with extraordinary oratorical gifts. When warned to adopt a more conciliatory tone towards Lorenzo de Medici, "the magnificent," who was then at the height of his power and popularity, Savonarola returned the characteristic answer, "Tell your master that; albeit I am a humble stranger, he the lord of Florence, yet I shall remain and he depart." Later as prior of St. Mark's, though ho held 1 no official post in the Commonwealth he had created, i Savonarola was the real head ■oi the state, the dictator of Florence, and guarded the public weal with extraordinary political wisdom. The pathetic and terrible story of the. reformer's doom with all tho complicated plottings of his bitter enemies cannot be compressed into short oornpass. It must suffice, to say that as the result of his strenuous and unflinching denunciation of papal corruptions, his popularity was ingeniously and maliciously destroyed till it was possible to have him, after protracted torturing, burned in the public square aimid the ferocious yells of triumph of the mob. On September 22, 1792, began the first French Republic, fo<r on the previous day the Convention had decreed the abolition of loyalty in France and proclaimed the Republic. To the National Convention which made this historic proclamation Paris sent the chief Jacobins; the Girondists sat on the left and had a large majority; below sat the timid Moderates, who lent towards the Girondists. Paris was behind all, fierce and bloodstained, supporting the Jacobins. On September 23. 1803. General Arthur Wellesley (afterwards Duke of Wellington) won his first great battle in India. He had entered the Mahmtta States on the south previously, and captured the fort of Ahmed'ru.ggur. At Assaye, on the above date, he met and defeated Scindiah and the Rajah of Rerar. With only 9600 men he opposed 40,000 of the enemy, who fled, leaving their artillery and equipment behind them.