DAYS THAT HAVE GONE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3145, 24 June 1914, Page 81

DAYS THAT HAVE GONE.

THE WEEK’S ANNIVERSARIES. June 21. —Battle of Vinegar Hill, 1798. W. A. Aytoun born, 1813. Battle of Vittoria, 1813. Income Tax imposed, 1842. Froebel died, 1852. Baltic Ship Canal opened, 1895. June 22.—Battle of Morat, 1476. Cornish rebels defeated at Blackheath, 1497. C. W. Von Humboldt born, 1767. South Kensington Museum opened, 1857. Wallace GaUery opened, 1900. June 23.—St. Albyn martyred, 286. Battle of Plassey, 1757. Empress Josephine born, 1763. Mark Akenside died. 1770. Tasmania declared a British Possession, 1803. Rising of the Red Republican Party in Paris, 1848. Hume, Australian explorer, died, 1.873. June 24. —Battle of Bannockburn, 1314. John and Sebastian Cabot discovered Canada, 1497. John Hampden died, 1643. Alexandre Dumas born, 1803. Battle of Solferino, 1859. Royal Albert Docks, London, opened, 1880. Grover Cleveland died, June 25 —John Horne Tooke born, 1736. Wm, Smellio d*cd, 1795. Expulsion of Jesuits from Italy decreed, 1873. Visit to Dunedin of Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (now King and Queen), 1901. June 26.—Pizarro assassinated at Luna, !54!. George Morland born, 1763. * Lord Kelvin born, 1824. George IV died, 1830. Corn Importation Bill passed, 1846. Navigation Act repealed, 1849. June 27. —Cairo retaken, by British, 1801. Massacre at Cawnpore, 1857. Harriot Martineau died. 1876. John Murray died, 1843. Carlotta Patti singer, died, 1889. Bishop Cowie died, 1902. Frederick Froebel, philosopher, philanthropist, and educational reformer, was born in a village of the Thuringian Forest on April 21, 1782. After a short term at school ho was apprenticed to a forester, and, left to himself, he began to study Nature. Without scientific instruction he obtained a profound insight into the uniformity and essential unity of Nature’s laws. No training could have been better suited to strengthen his inborn tendency to mysticism, and when he left the Forest, at the early age of 17, he seems to have been possessed by the main ideas which influenced him all his life. He spent a short time with his brother at the University of Jc.a, but was compelled to return home owing to lack of funds. On the death of his father he had to shift for himself. While in Frankfort-on-the-Main he became, acquainted with the director of a model school who had caught some of the enthusiasm of Pestalozzi. Ho worked for two years at the school, and from 1807 to 1809 he studied under Pestalozzi himself. Froebel completed the reformer’s system, and thus ho attained to the conception of true human development, and to the requirements of true education. During the campaign of 1813, in which Froebel took part, he taught his two mates his theory After the war they set about realising his idea of the new education. FrOebel’s system grew in popularity, and the Swiss Government sent large numbers of young teachers to study under him. In 1826 he published his great work, “The Education of Man,” which deals chiefly with the child up to the ago of seven. Tri 1837 he opened the first kindergarten (Garden of Children) at Blaakeriburg. It was to the first stage of life that Froebel paid the greatest attention, and it is over this stage that his influence has extended so widely. From 1848 to 1852 Froebel was engaged in lecturing in various parts of the Continent and in the instruction of young teachers. His eevcnt’cth birthday was celebrated with great rejoicings in April, 1852. but ho died on June 21 of that year, and lies buried at Schweina, a village near his last abode, Marienthal. Froebel’s influence is not limited to the Kindergarten. His conception of education cannot but affect the thoughts and practice of all teachers who will be at the pains to understand it. Events on the main Continent of Europe compelled Napoleon to withdraw many old and valuable soldiers from Spain, and while fight'ng for his very existence in the north, he could not but regard the war in .Spain as a secondary concern. A vigorous insurrection had arisen in the northern Spanish provinces. This decided Wellington’s course of addon. . While leaving troops to occupy the attention of the French in the valley of the Tagus, he intended to march northwards, connect himself with the northern insurgents, and directly threaten the communications with France. As he had expected, the French had to fall back before him. Their positron was turned, and they retired to the basm of Vittoria. Across the plain of the River Zadora, and through Vittoria, runs the high road to Franco, the only one in the neighbourhood suffic'ently large to allow of the retreat of the French army, encumbered with all its stores and baggage and the accumulated -wealth of some years of occupation in Spain. While Wellington forced the passage of the river in front, south of the breat bend, and drove the Frenchmen back to the town of Vittoria, Graham, beyond the town, closed this road. The beaten enemy had to retreat as best they could towards Salvatrerra. leaving behind all the artillery, stores, baggage, and equipments, which fell into the hands of the British on Juno 21, 1813. The Empress Josephine, first wife of Napoleon I, was born in the Island of Martinique, whore her father, Tascher do la Pagerie, was captain of the port of St. Pierre. She had only an indifferent colonial education. When about 15 years of age she came to Franco, and married a few years later Viscount Alexandre Beauharnais, who 'perished during the Reign of Terror. A daughter of this marriage. Hortonse, Oueon of Holland, married Louis, brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, and became mother of the Emperor Napoleon 111. In her thirty-sixth year. Josephine was married to Napoleon, then iust beginning his mighty career. There is a web-known storv that a fortune-teller had predicted to her many year« before in her inland borne that elm would one clay be more than a queen and less Ilian an empress. She accompanied her martial husband in his Italian cam-

paign, and exercised a great influence in restraining him from measures of violence and severity. At Malmaieon, and afterwards at the Tuileries, she attracted around her a brilliant society, and by her charming personality and amiability contributed not a little to round off the rough edges of her husband’s conduct, and to make his reign more acceptable to the people. To her and Napoleon’s great grief, the marriage proved unfruitful, and, owing to the conqueror’s vehement wish to have a son to succeed him, there came about the celebrated divorce, and his subsequent marriage to the proud Maria Louisa, of Austria. It is said, however, that the fallen Empress still retained the supreme place in Napoleon’s affections, and was often visited by him. , In the year 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian sailor with his son, Sebastian, set sail with an English fleet from Bristol. . “ They discovered that land, which no man before that time had attempted, on the 24th of June, about 5 of the clock, early in the morning. John Cabot called the land ‘ Prim a'\ Vista ’ —that is to say, ‘First Seen’ because, as I suppose, it was that part thereof they had the first sight from the sea. That island, which lieth out before the land, he called the Island of St. John upon this occasion, as, I think, because it was discovered upon the day of John the Baptist.” The above is taken from a contemporary account. The Island of St. John alluded to is supposed to be Prince Edward Island. He discovered part of the eastern coast of North America, from Newfoundland southward. John Cabot is often confounded with his son Sebastian, who sailed in” search of a north-west passage. The restrictions or. the importation of corn into England were felt about 1770 in consequence of the increase of manufactures. They were, in consequence, somewhat relaxed, but not sufficiently to prevent riots and other disturbances taking place periodically. In 1838 the Anti-corn Law League was formed for the abolition of the duty on corn. Its members included Charles Villiers, Richard Cobden, and John Bright, who carried on an active campaign in the interests of Freotrade. At length the Conservative Premier. Sir Robert Peel, became a convert to their views, and in 1846 a measure was granted to put an end to the Corn Laws. By this act the duty on corn was at once greatly t reduced, and ceased altogether in 1849, -with the exception of a registration dutv of Is per quarter, which terminated in 1869.