IN DAYS THAT HAVE GONE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3030, 10 April 1912, Page 82

IN DAYS THAT HAVE GONE.

J THE WEEK'S ANNIVERSARIES. ; April 7.—Francisco Xavier born, 1506. Sir William Davenant died, 1688. Dr Hugh Blair born, 1718. Lord Chatham died, 1778. Archbishop of Canterbury born, 1848. Phineas T. Barnum died, 1891. April B.—Lorenzo de Medici died, 1492. Gaetano Donizetti died, 1848. Battle of Atbara, 1898. April 9.—Edward IV died, 1483. Jacques Necker died, 1804. National Gallery opened, 1838. M. Chevreul died, 1889. April 10.—Hugo Grotius born, 1583. Queen Hortense born, 1783. Battle of Toulouse, 1814. Great uprising of Chartists, 1848. New Zealand Exhibition opened at Christchurch, 1882. Father Damien died, 1889. April 11.—Treaty of Utrecht, 1713. George Canning born, 1770. Stanislaus Poniatowski died, 1798. Chios massacre, 1822. American Civil War began, 1861. Bishop Selwyn died, 1878. April 12.—Edward Young died, 1765. Henry Clay born, 1777. Church 'Missionary Society founded, 1799. Dr Charles Burney died, 1814. Lord Rodney's naval victory, 1782. Rowland Hill, preacher, died, 1833. H.R.H. Duke of Edinburgh, arrived in Wellington, 1869. Charles Reade died, 1884. April 13.—Edict of Nantes, 1598. George Cheyne died, 1743. Sir D. Currie died, 1909. Sir W. Q. Orchardson died, 1910. Francisco Xavier, surnamed the " Apostle ai tho Indies," came of a '■ noble Navarrose family, and was born at i the foot of the Pyrenees on April 7, 1506. I As a young man at the University of j Paris he came under the powerful spell ! of Ignatius Loyola, who set himself to ; win Xavier as an associate in his vast J schemes. Xavier was one of the little I band of seven who took the original Jesuit vows and founded the company. After obtaining complete recognition from the Pope, he sailed from Lisbon with the Portuguese Governor of India, and reached Goa more than a year later. Ho laboured with considerable success in the surrounding country for some years, till lie met in Malacca a Japanese exile named Han-Siro, whose conversion fired him with zeal for the conversion of Japan. After revisiting the scenes of his former labours, he made his way to Japan with HanSiro, and there preached in different ' centres of population, till, in 1551, he fell he could safely leave the work in otl.er hands, and determined to attempt j next tlie conversion of China. With ' great difficulty he reached San-chan, an island no great distance from Canton, and made all arrangements to complete the journey to Canton. But he was attacked by fever, and died on December 2, 1558. ! llis body was later transferred to Malacca, '■: »*ftd thence to Goa, where it now lies. Xavier was beatified by Paul V in 1619, and canonised by Gregory XV in 1621. Gaetano Donizetti. the celebrated Italian operatic composer, was born at ' Bergamo m 1798. He early devoted him-

self to the study of dramatic music, but family disputes "led him to enlist in the army. While his regiment was quartered at Venice the young composer's first dramatic attempt, an opera called " Enrico Comte di Borgogna," saw the light in 1818. The success of this work and of a second opera brought out in the following year established Donizetti's reputation. He obtained his discharge from the army, and henceforth his operas followed each other in rapid and uninterrupted succession at the rate of three or four a year. Among these were "jAuna Bolena," "Lucia di Lammermoor," "La Fille du Regiment," "La Favorita," and "Don Pasquale." In 1843 a fatal disease, caused to a great extent by overwork, began to show itself. A paralytic stroke the following year deprived him of his reason, but for four years he lingered on in a state of mental and physical prostration. He reached his native place onlv to die there in April, 1848.

The London National Gallery began with the purchase by the British Government of the Angerstein collection of 33 pictures for £57,000 in 1824. The collection has been increasing ever since, both by gifts and purchases. The present edifice in Trafalgar square, designed by Mr Wilkins. was completed and opened on April 9, 1838. Huig Grotius, in his native country Hing Ivan Groot, but known to the rest of Europe by the Latinised form of the name, was one of the mast famous men of the 17th century, almost equally eminent for public services and as a writer. In the annals of precocious genius there is no greater prodigy on record than Hugo Grotius, who was able to make good Latin verse at nine, was ripe for the university at 12, and at 15 edited the encyclopaedic work of Marcianus Gapella. In 1603 the United Provinces appointed Grotius as their histriographer, though he was then only 20, and had not offered himself for the post. He became a leader in the ca.use of liberty in the theological and political struggles of his day, but in 1618 he was arrested and condemned to imprisonment for life, and the confiscation of his property was_ also ordered. He was closely confined in the fortress of Lovestein, _ but his devoted wife obtained permission to share his captivity with him. Her address and ingenuity devised a mode of escape by concealing him in a linen chest, and he succeeded in making his way safely, first to Antwerp, and then to Paris. Grotius continued to increase his fame in other countries, but the bitterness of theological rancour prevented him from ever being recalled to the service of his own. He was a great jurist, and his "De jure belli et pacis " entitles him to the honour of being held the founder of the modern science of the law of nature and nations. In the beginning of 1814 Soult, with his French army in the south of France, was being constantly driven back by Wellington. He was defeated at Orthes. lest Bordeaux, and was finally driven eastwards towards Toulouse. On the heights to the east of Toulouse, for Wellington had brought his army across the Garonne, was fought with somewhat doubtful result the great battle of Toulouse, on April 10. The victory has been claimed by both parties; the aim of the English general was, however, won, the Garonne was passed, the French position taken, and Toulouse was evacuated and occupied by the victors. The triumph, such as it was, had cost the victors 7000 or 8000 men, a loss of life which might have been spared, for Napoleon had already abdicated, and the battle was entirely useless. The treaty of Utrecht, which terminated the wars of Queen Anne, was signed by the Ministers of Great Britain and France and all tihe other allies except the Ministers of the Empire on April 11, 1713. This treaty secured the Protestant succession in England, the separation of the French and Spanish Growns, the destruction of the works of Dunkirk, the enlargement of the British colonies, and x'hintations in America, and a full satisfaction for the claims of the allies. Chios, the chief city of the island of the same name lying off the west coast of Asia Minor, was on April 11, 1822, the scene of the most horrible massacreof modern times. It had been besieged by the Turks, who followed its capture by the slaughter of no fewer than 40,000 inhabitants. H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh landed in Wellington from his vessel, the Galatea, on April 12, 1869. The day was observed as a general holiday, and the Duke was received by the Governor, Ministers, Mr Justice Johnston, and the Reception Committee. The superintendent presented an address from the citizens, as well as one from the Natives belonging to six tribes. At a levee subriequently held, immense enthusiasm was displayed, and there were fully 6000 pec\ le present. Charles Reade. who died on \pril 11, 1384, hold a high and distinctive place among the English novelists of the third quarter of the 19th century. He was a dramatist first and a novelist afterwards, not merely chronologically, but in his aims as an author, always haying an eye to stage effect in scene and situation, as well as in dialogue. He first achieved popularity in 1856, when he produced " It's Never Too Late to Mend," a novel written with the purpose of reforming prison abuses. His most popular novel, and the one regarded by the majority of critics as his masterpiece, is " The Cloister and the Hearth," but in his own opinion " Griffith Gaunt'' was the best of his novels. The edict of Nantes, which was signed bv Henry IV of France on April 13, 1598, is "a somewhat long and complicated document. Tor the benefit of Protestants its cardinal concession was liberty to dwell anywhere in the roval dominions, without being subjected to inquiry, vexed, molested, or constrained to do anything contrary to their conscience. As respects public worship, while perfect

equality was not established, it was brought within the power of any Protestant to meet with his fellow believers for worship, at least from time to time. The seandal and inhumanity exhibited in the refusal of burial to the Protestant dead, as well as the disinterment of such bodies as had been placed in consecrated ground, was henceforth precluded by this edict. The masterful will of the King bore down all opposition, aaid the edict was finally accepted as the law of the land. It was revoked by Louis XIV in 1685.