IN DAYS THAT HAVE GONE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3099, 6 August 1913, Page 74

IN DAYS THAT HAVE GONE.

THE WEEK’S ANNIVERSARIES. Aug. 3.—James II of Scotland killed, 1460. Columbus sailed on first voyage of discovery, 1492. Etienne Dolet burned, 1546. James Price poisoned himself, 1782. Arkwright died, 1792. Eugene Sue died, 1357. Otago Boys’ High School opened, !863. Joseph Severn died, 1879. Arrival of 46 Maori prisoners from North Island, 1879. Bradlaugh expelled from House of Commons, 1881. Standard Oil Company fined 29,000, OOOdol, 1907. Edward Linley Sambourne died, 1910. Aug 4. —Battle of Evesham, 1265. Calais captured, 1347. Due de Nemours beheaded, 1477. Joseph Justus Sealigcr born, 1540. . Francois de la-Nouo died, 1591. Edward Irving born, 1/92. P. B. Shelley born, 1792. Admiral Duncan died, 1804. East India docks opened, 1305. Lake Victoria Nyanza discovered, 1858. Prpfessor Aytoun died, 1865. Battle of Wissembourg, 1870. Hans C. Andersen died, 1875. Cardinal Cuiseppe Sarto elected Pope Pius X, 1903. Aug 5. —Louis 111 of Franco died, 882. Newfoundland annexed, 1583. Attempt to kidnap James VI of Scotland, 1600. Richard Lord Howe died, 1799. Milan capitulated, 1848. Launch of a floating dock at Port Chalmers, 1868. General P. 11. Sheridan died, 1888. Empress Frederick (Victoria) died, 1901. Phil May died, 1903. Aug. 6. —Matthew Parker born, 1504. Anne Shakespeare died, 1623. Ben Jonson died, 1637. Eenolon died, 1651. Dan O'Connell born,- 1775. Tennyson born, 1809. Captain Cargill died, 1860. Battles of Woerth and Forbacb, 1870. Corinth Ship Canal opened, 1893. Sir John M’Kcnzie died, .1901. Wreck of the Maori, 1909.

Aug 7. —Henry IV of Germany died, 1106. J. N. Madvig born, 1804. Queen Caroline died, 1821. Dean Farrar born, 1831. Cabul occupied, 1839. New Zealand Company wound up by Act of Parliament, 1851. First meeting Dunedin City Council, 1865. / Aug. 8. —George Canning died, 1827. Thomas Crofton Croker died, 1854. * • Victor Emmanuel entered Milan as king, 1860. Formation of Oamaru A. and P. Association, 1865. Funeral of General Grant in Now York, 1885. Aug. 9. —D.aak Walton born, 1595. Dryden born, 1631. . Thomas Telford born, 1757. Ashburton treaty, 1842. Royal assent to English Education Act, 1870. Dr Robert Moffat died, 1883. Heligoland ceded to Germany, !890. Coronation of King Edward VII, 1902.

In the beginning of August, 1879, 46 of the Maori disciples of '1 e Whiti who had been arrested and sentenced for trespassing upon and ploughing the land of Europeans were brought down to Port Chalmers oy the Government steamer Ihncmoa. Captain Taylor and a force of 28 of the men of the armed constabulary formed the escort. The Maoris gave no trouble on the passage, and were apparently resigned to their position and willing to obey orders with alacrity. Tho prisoners wore described as a fine body of men, most of them young or middle-aged and powerfully built. They were brought up to town bytrain, and on arrival at the gaol they volunteered to cut each other’s hair to save tho oflieials trouble. They were religious enthusiasts and regarded themselves somewhat in the light of martyrs. They said prayers over all their foody and on Sunday they held service, one of their number reading tho Bible to thorn. Probably tho most enormous fine over imposed by a court of law was that in which Judge Landis, of tho United States District Court, at Chicago, delivered judgment fining the Standard Oil Trust 29,240,000 dollars. This was the maximum penalty for 1462 violations of the anti-re-bate law, committed by tho Oil Trust in conjunction with tho Chicago-Alton Railway' Company. Judge Landis denounced as an abhorrent heresy the defendants’ claim that they had a right to make secret agreements respecting railway rates. He regretted that ho was unable to send the violators of the law to prison, since their actions had wounded society more deeply than counterfeiters’ coin or mail-bag thieves. Mr Hock fuller, who was playing golf v.'hcn informed of the decision, was finite unmoved, and resumed his game. Joseph Justus Scaliger, the greatest scholar of modern- times, was the tenth child of the famous scholar Julius Caesar Scaliger- and Andiette dc Rogues Lohejac. In early youth Joseph was his father’s constant companion and amanuensis, and from his father lie learned to bo not a more scholar, but an acute observer, never losing sight of the actual world, and aiming not so much at correcting texts as at laying the foundation of a science of historical criticism. After his father’s death, happy in the possession of what so few contemporary scholars enjoyed, leisure and freedom from pecuniary care, Scaliger resided in most of tho principal centres of learning in Europe drinking in knowledge from tho foremost scholars of his day, and investigating for himself tho treasures of the most famous libraries. He hated lecturing and refused many tempting offers from "universities. During the first seven years of his residence at Leiden, from 1593 to 1600, his reputation was at its highest point, and his literary dictatorship was unquestioned. He ruled tho learned world.

and a word from him could make or mar a rising reputation. His weak point, however, was his pride, and a volume which he published extolling the greatness of his family and himself drew a scurrilous but brilliant reply from Caspar Scioppius, then in the service of the Jesuits. This attack proved successful—fa.r more so than the Jesuits could possibly have hoped. It is thought that the mortification Scaliger suffered contributed to his death in January, 1609. “The aspiring spirit,” writes Mark Pattison, “ascended before the Infinite. The most richly stored intellect which had ever spent itself in acquiring knowledge was in the presence of the Omniscient.” Caroline Amelia Augusta, the queen of George IV was married to him when ho was Prince of Wales, in 1795. He disliked her and separated from her after the birth of a daughter early the following year. As she was thought to have been badly treated by her profligate husband, the sympathies of the people were strongly in her favour. On the accession of George in 1820, orders were given that the English 'ambassadors should prevent the recognition of the princess as queen at any foreign court, and her name was omitted from the liturgy. She rejected a proposal that she should receive an annuity of £50,000 a year on condition of renouncing her title and remaining abroad, and returned to England to claim her rights. A Bill to dissolve her marriage with the king on the ground of adultery, after passing the third reading, was abandoned largely on account of the popular indignation aroused in the queen’s favour. She was allowed to assume her title, but was refused admission to Westminster Hall on the coronation day. Mortification at this event seems to have hastened her death, which took place less than three weeks after, on August 7, 1821.

In 1812 Lord Ashburton was sent by the Peel Ministry to Washington as a special Minister from Groat Britain with full powers to settle the boundary, and all other pending disputes with the United States. Webster and Lord Ashburton represented alone their respective Governments, and the whole business as conducted at the American capital had an easy informal character. The Ashburton treaty, as it is called, bore the date of the day, August 9. when it was formally signed. Its two chief features were a settlement of* the boundary between Great Britain and the United States on the northeast extending westward beyond the great lakes, and a cruising convention for the mutual suppression of the slave trade. The treatv was on the whole honourable and fair to each side, and so commended itself to the Senate, that it was ratified by more than a three-fourths vote.