IN DAYS THAT HAVE GONE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3033, 1 May 1912, Page 73

IN DAYS THAT HAVE GONE.

THE WEEK’S ANNIVERSARIES. April 28. —Charles Cotton born, 1630. Thomas Betterton died, 1710. Title Empress of India proclaimed, 1876. Miss Nellie Farren died, 1904. April 29.—Michael Ruyte.r died, 1676. Shirley Brooks born, 1816. Harriet wrecked near Cape Egmont, 1834. Russian war ended, 1856. April 30.—Chevalier de Bayard killed, 1524. Sir H. Bishop died, 1855. Admiral Fitzroy died, 1865. Edwin Waugh died, 1880. Battle of Manila, 1898. May I.—John'Dryden died, 1700. Union of Scotland and England, 1707 Duke of Connaught born, 1850. Alfred de Musset died, 1857. Paris Exhibition opened, 1878. R. J. Seddon assumed Premiership, 1893. May 2.—George Wither, poet, died, 1667. Mrs Piozzi died, 1821. The Chantrey bequest, 1842. May 3. —Nicolas Machiavelli born, 1469. Jamaica discovered, 1494. Battle of Finisterre, 1747. New Zealand declared independent colony, 1841. May 4. —Battle of Tewkesbury, 1471. Jenny Lind’s first appearance in London, 1847. Dr Livingstone died, 1873. Charles Cotton, an English translator, poet, and wit, was born in Staffordshire on April 28, 1630. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and afterwards spent some time on the Continent. At the age of 28 he succeeded to an estate greatly encumbered through his father’s extravagance, and the rest of his life was that of a country gentleman. Cotton is the author of a good deal of verse, much of which is jocular. Though his love songs are frequently quaint and frigid, they are sometimes exceedingly gay and spirited, as are also most of his Bacchic verses. Ellen (Nellie) Farren, born in 1848, came of a family which had long included the names of distinguished actors. For many years she was famous for boy’s parts in Gaiety musical burlesques in the days of Edward Terry and Fred. Leslie. As Jack Sheppard, and in similar roles, she had a unique position at the Gaiety, and was an unrivalled public favourite. From 1892 her health failed, and her retirement, coupled with Fred. Leslie’s death, brought to an end the type of Gaiety burlesque associated with them.

On April 29, 1856, the proclamation of the peace which brought to an end the Crimean War was made in London. The total English loss during this war was nearly 24,000, and about 3000 men were disabled. It added £41,041,000 to the burden of the national debt. The French lost about 63,500 men, and th e Russians about half a million. The peace which was agreed upon admitted the right of the Porte to participate in the advantages of the public Jaw of Europe, and it pledged all the contracting parties, in the case of any fresh misunderstanding with the Turks, to resort to mediation before using force. The peace further required the Sultan to ameliorate the condition of his Christian subjects, neutralised the Black Sea, established free navigation on the Danube, set back the frontier of Russia from the Danube, guaranteed the privileges of the principalities of Wallachia, Moldavia, and Scrvia, and undertook that Russia and Turkey should restore the conquests they had made from each other during the war. Pierre du Terrail, the famous Chevalier de Bayard, was born of a noble family at the Chateau Bayard, Dauphine, in 1476. As a youth he was distinguished for comeliness, affability of manner, and skill in the tiltyard. His powers and daring became oonspicious in the Italian wars of the period, and it is said that on one occasion, singlehanded, ho made good the defence ot a bridge over the Garigliano against about 200 Spaniards, an exploit that brought him such renown that Pope Julius II sought to entice him into the papal service. When war broke out between Francis I and Charles V Bayard, with 1000 men, held Mezieres, a town which had been declared untenable, against an army of 35,000, and after six weeks compelled Nassau to raise the siege. His stubborn resistance saved Central France from invasion, and the whole country rang with the achievement. Bayard was mortally wounded when guarding the rear of his army during an Italian battle, and he hud himself placed against a tree that ho might die facing the enemy. Chivalry, deprived of fantastic extravagance, is perfectly mirrored in the character of Bayard, lie combined the merits of a skilful tactician with the romantic heroism, piety, and magnanimity of the ideal knight-errant. Even adversaries experienced the fascination of his virtues, and joined in the sentiment that he was, us his contemporaries called him, “Lo chevalier sans pern- et sans reproche.” The crowns of England and Scotland were united in James I in 1603, but it was not till 1707 that the Parliaments of the two countries were merged into one. As a result of the peaceful desires of the leading statesmen of both countries 31 commissioners on the part of each kingdom were appointed in the spring of 1706 to negotiate the terms of union. The agreement they readied, which was finally perfected by the royal assent of Queen Anne on March 6, 1707, appointed the Ist of May following as the day for the union. The act of Union provided that the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew should bo conjoined in the flag of the United Kingdom, and that the arms of the two countries should bo quartered with all heraldic honours. Scotland was to bo represented in the House of Commons by 45 members, and in the House of Lords bv 16 peers. Scotland was to retain her heritable jurisdiction, her Court of Session, and her entire system of law. The Presbyterian Church as by law established was to continue unaltered, having been indeed excluded from the, debate by the express terms of the Commission. The International Paris Exhibition of 1878 was opened by the President, Marshal MacMahon in the name of the Republic in the presence of the Prince of Wales, the Due d’Aosta, and other distinguished persona on May 1. The site of the exhibition was La two unequal parts divided: by the Seine, and the main building in the Champ de Mars covered 263,593 square yards. The total admissions while the exhibition lasted were over 16,000,000, and the gross receipts about 12£ million franca.

The Chantrey Bequest was the tortune left by Sir Francis Chantrey, the famous sculptor, to the Royal Academy for the purchase of works of art for the nation and for other purposes. At the death of his wife in 1875 about £3OOO a year accrued to the academy from this source. In 1889 the Court of Appeal upheld the decision that the works ot sculpture purchased under the bequest must bo finished in marble or bronze and not models. Off Cape Finisterre, on the North West of Spain, Admirals Lord Anson and Warren, with a much superior English fleet, defeated and captured a French fleet under De la Jonquiexe on May 3, 1747. In 1839 the boundaries of the Colony of New South Wales were extended by official proclamation to include New Zealand, and Captain Hobson was appointed Governor of the newly added portion. The following year the House of Commons decided* to detach New Zealand and make it a separate colony, and in April, 1841, the documents arrived authorising Captain Hobson to declare New Zealand a separate colony with himself the Governor of it. On May 3 the necessary ceremony was performed in Auckland, with befitting display. The charter also defined the methods of conducting the affairs of the colony by the Governor and two councils. In April, 1471, at the close of the Wars of the Roses Henry VI was defeated at Barnet, again taken prisoner, and sent back to the Tower. His dauntless Queen, however, Margaret of Anjou, who had landed with a body of French allies on the very day of the disastrous fight, refused to submit. Cornwall and Devon were true to her cause, and gave her an army, with which she fought the last battle of the war at Tewkesbury, in Gloucestershire, on May 4. She was defeated decisively and taken prisoner, her young son slain —whether in the battle or after is unknown —and her long contention ended on that bloody field. The Queen was conveyed to the Tower of London, where King Henry expired soon after this fatal engagement, being, as is generally supposed, murdered by the Duke of Gloucester. The Queen was ransomed in 1475 by the French King, Louis XI. In 1847 Lumley, the manager of Her Majesty’s Theatre, succeeded in introducing Mile. Jenny Lind, the famous Swedish singer, to make her first visit to England. In spite of her dread of penalties threatened for breach of contract on the Continent, she appeared in London on May 4 in “ Robert, le Diable.” Her debut had been so much discussed that the furore she created was a foregone conclusion. Still it exceeded anything of the kind that had taken place in London or anywhere else in the genuine enthusiasm the singer made. The suffering and struggles of her welldressed admirers who had to stand for hours to get into the pit have become historical.