Born:
Charles Francois Dupuis, astronomer, 1742, Trio Chateau, near Chaumont;
George Jacques Danton,
revolutionary leader, 1759, Arcis sur Aube.
Died:
Ahulfeda, Mohammedan historian, 1331,
Syria; Samuel Puffendorf, distinguished jurist, 1694,
Berlin; Sir Godfrey Kneller, portrait painter, 1723;
Dr. Philip Doddridge, eminent divine and author, 1751,
Lisbon.
Feast Day: St. Evaristus,
pope and martyr, 112. Saints Lucian and Marcian,
martyrs, 250.
DANTON
Danton, more than any man whom the French
Revolution threw to the surface, realises the popular
idea of a revolutionist. In person he was almost
gigantic tall and muscular. His head was large, and
covered with stiff black hair, and his eyebrows bushy.
His features were bold and irregular, and were by some
called ugly; but when lit up by the fire of his
intellect, their coarseness disappeared in harmony.
His voice was powerful in the out-bursts of his
oratory, terrible and was likened to thunder and a
lion's roar. Courage, audacity, and power were
manifest in his bearing, and his career did not belie
his appearance.
He was born in 1759 at Arcis sur Aube, of well to
do farming people, and was educated for a lawyer. He
went to Paris to finish his studies, and there
commenced practice as a barrister. He sought the
acquaintance of Mirabeau, Camille Desmoulins,
Robespierre,
Marat, and others, notable for their
devotion to revolutionary ideas. He lived
economically, and spent his days in the assembly and
his nights at the clubs. He ventured to speak, and the
discerning were not slow to perceive that in the
orator a great power had arisen. Danton attached
himself to the Girondists, and, says Lamartine, 'Madame Roland
flattered him, but with fear and repugnance, as a
woman would pat a lion.'
Daily he grew in popularity, and with Marat led the
formidable club of Cordeliers. The court sought his
influence by bribes, and in the pride of his strength
he exclaimed: 'I shall save the king or kill him!' The
revolution, however, was greater than Danton. He who
would live in it was forced to run with it or be
trampled in its path. After the flight of Louis to Varennes, he advocated his
dethronement, and declared
in the assembly that hesitation in pronouncing the
throne vacant, would be the signal for general
insurrection. When Prussia, in 1792, invaded France in
vindication of royalty, and spread terror on every
side, Danton, by his brave words, gave courage to the
nation.
'Legislators!' said he, 'it is not the alarm
cannon that you hear: it is the pas de charge against
our enemies. To conquer them, to hurl them back, what
do we require? Il nous faut de l'audace, et encore de
l'audace, et toujours de l'audace: To dare, and again
to dare, and without end to dare!'
In a few weeks,
fourteen republican armies were in the field,
repelling the allied forces with a vigour and success
which set Europe aghast. For the king's death Danton
voted, but, like the Abb� Sieyes, assigned no reason.
In his defiant style, he said:
'The coalesced kings threaten us; we hurl at their
feet, as gage of battle, the head of a king.'
Under the Revolution, Danton was first a minister
of justice, and then president of the Committee of
Public Safety a body of six men, who were intrusted
with absolute executive power, and who therefore bear
the infamy of the Reign of Terror. In the course of
events, Robespierre and Danton came face to face as
rivals for the leadership of Paris, and in Paris, of
France. Danton was luxurious, reckless, generous, and
frank; on the other hand, Robespierre was ascetic,
cold, severe, cautious, and uncompromising. In
Robespierre's presence, Danton's power seemed to
desert him, as if he were a bird and Robespierre a
snake. Feeling that the contest was unequal, he
resigned office, and, with his young wife, retired to
rural privacy near his native town of Arcis. In
domestic confidence, he asserted that the reason of
his retreat was horror at the approaching fate of
Marie Antoinette.
Robespierre was of far too suspicious and envious a
temper to allow an adversary to escape so quietly.
Danton likewise had associates who keenly felt his
absence from the field of action. He was recalled from
Arcis to Paris. He met Robespierre, and was accused by
him of embezzling the public money. He retorted by
calling Robespierre a sanguinary tyrant. This dispute
fixed his doom. His wife and friends urged him to fly.
'Whither fly?' answered he. 'If freed France cast me
out, there are only dungeons for me elsewhere. One
carries not his country with him at the sole of his
shoe.' He heard of the arrest of his friends, and that
his own warrant was made out, yet he would not move,
saying: 'They dare not, they dare not!' But he forgot
that he had Robespierre the merciless, the inflexible,
to deal with. He was denounced by St. Just as a
traitor, and on the night of the 31st March 1794, was
arrested. Brought up for trial on the 2nd of April, he
was asked by Fouquier Tinville his name and place of
abode. 'My name,' said he,' is Danton; a name
tolerably well known in the Revolution. I am thirty
five years old. My abode will soon be in nothingness,
but my name shall live in the pantheon of history.' He
defended himself with wild and scornful words, but was
silenced on the ground that he was inciting the people
to revolt. No witnesses were called against him, and
his own witnesses were refused to be heard. As a
matter of course, he was declared guilty.
In prison he affected indifference. 'They think to
do without me,' said he; 'they deceive themselves. I
was the statesman of Europe. They do not suspect the
void which this head leaves' (pressing his cheeks
between the palms of his large hands). 'As to me, I
laugh at it. I have enjoyed my moments of existence
well; I have made plenty of noise upon earth; I have
tasted well of life let us go to sleep!' In the cart
in which Ire was taken to execution, he had thirteen
companions, and among them Camille Desmoulins, the
sprightliest spirit of the Revolution, who could not
believe that he would be allowed to die. He wriggled
to get free from the cords which bound him until his
clothes came off, crying at the same time: 'Generous
people! unhappy people! you are deceived, you are
undone, your best friends are sacrificed! Recognise
me! save me! I am Camille Desmoulins!' 'Be calm, my
friend,' prayed Danton; 'heed not that vile rabble!'
At the foot of the scaffold, Danton was heard to
ejaculate: '0 my wife, my well beloved, I shall never
see thee more!' then, interrupting himself 'Danton, no
weakness!' He was the last to suffer. His last words
were to Samson, the executioner: 'You will shew my
head to the people it is well worth shewing!' As it
fell, Samson caught the head from the basket, and
carried it round the scaffold amidst the howls of the
people.
Danton died on the 5th April 1794. Robespierre
triumph was brief; his own head fell on the 28th of
July.
SIR GODFREY KNELLER
Sir Godfrey Kneller was the favourite painter of
portraits in England, from Charles II's time to the
reign of George I.
He was born at Lubeck in 1648. After having been
some time a painter, he came to England in the
ordinary course of his travels. When here, by a series
of accidents, he was employed to paint Charles II and
the Duke of Monmouth, and gave such satisfaction, by
his portraits of these personages, that he found it
profitable to remain in the country.
Horace Walpole maintains
that Kneller, had he
chosen to turn his attention to high art, would have
made an artist of the first class: as it was, he only
painted portraits, and some of those in a very
inferior manner. The reason which they assigned for
his choice of portrait painting above other branches
of art, was that of a man who cared more for his rank
on this earth than his rank in the universe. 'Painters
of history,' he observed, 'make the dead live, and do
not begin to live themselves till they are dead. I
paint the living, and they make me live.'
Certainly, so they did. Kneller lived in
magnificent style, lost �20,000 by the
South
Sea Affair, and died in possession of �2000 a year. His
accumulation of wealth bears witness to his
popularity. He had the honour of painting ten crowned
heads. These were Charles II, James II and his queen,
William and Mary, Anne, George I, Louis XIV, Peter the
Great, and the Emperor Charles VI. Besides these, he
painted many other illustrious personages; among whom
were Addison, Bishop Burnet, John Locke, Lady
Mary Wortley
Montagu, Pope, Newton, &c. He painted the
beauties of Hampton Court for King William, and
likewise perpetuated on canvas the members of the Kit
Cat Club. These celebrated portraits of the most
distinguished Whigs of that day were painted for Jacob
Tonson, the secretary of the club. Mr. Christopher
Cat, pastry cook, of King Street, Westminster, and
keeper of the tavern where the club met, was thus
immortalised.
James was sitting to Kneller at the very minute
that the news reached him of the
arrival of the Prince
of Orange. The picture was for
Pepys, who had been a
favourite and faithful servant. James told the painter
to proceed with his work, that his good friend Pepys
might not be disappointed.
Kneller was knighted in 1692 by William, and made a
baronet in 1715 by George I. He was always a vain man,
a weakness for which his friend, Pope, incessantly
ridicules him in his letters. The poet furnished an
inscription (by no means a brilliant specimen of his
genius) to Sir Godfrey's monument in Westminster
Abbey, for the erection of which the latter himself
bequeathed the sum of �300.
THE FOUNDER
OF MERTON COLLEGE
A codicil to the will of Walter de Merton, leaving
the residue of his property to his college, bears date
October 26, 1277. This ecclesiastic was one of the
four lord chancellors to whom Oxford is so largely
indebted. These were Walter de Merton, who founded
Merton College; William de
Wykeham, the founder of New
College; William of Waynflete, who founded Magdalen
College; and Thomas Wolsey of Ipswich, the founder of
Christ church College. Walter de Merton may be said to
have exercised the most influence of the four upon
Oxford, because it was he who introduced the
collegiate system; the others only elaborated and
extended it. In the same way Merton College must be
considered the most interesting, if not the most
beautiful, because it was the germ whence the rest
were developed. The foundation of this establishment
appears to have been a scheme to which Chancellor
Merton gave his whole heart. There were, doubtless,
halls of greater antiquity, but they consisted only of
lodgings for the scholars. The scheme of Walter
provided a chapel, with residence for chaplains, and
accommodation for a warden having charge of the
scholars, within the same premises. The endowments
speak of a strong influence exerted on behalf of his
favourite project, for the lands forming great part of
the revenue are widely scattered, marking, it would
seem, the gifts of numerous nobles. There are lands
and houses and chancels of churches beyond the Tyne,
pertaining to Merton College.
Following the rule, that the affix to a Christian
name denoted a birthplace, Walter's biographers have
mentioned Merton, in Surrey, as the place of his
nativity. This is, however, conjectural; and there is
equal probability that he was born at Basingstoke,
where it is certain his parents lived, died, and were
buried. In his after days, he founded a hospital in
Basingstoke to the memory of his father and mother.
The day of his death, and the place at which it oocurred, are as uncertain as
those of his birth; but
his will directed that he should be buried in his
cathedral of Rochester. The intermediate events of his
life are scarcely better known. He was lord chancellor
of England more than once; but whether he received the
seals of office twice or thrice, is not quite
apparent. Bishop Hobhouse considered he was chancellor
twice during the reign of Henry III; and it is certain
that he fulfilled the duties of the chancellor ship
for the two years preceding the coronation of Edward
I. When that event took place, Walter retired from
office, and accepted the see of Rochester. A view of
his life is a commentary upon his times. Scholar and
ecclesiastic, he was chosen by the most powerful
nobles in the land, who would not so trust each other,
to hold the highest post.
THE TWO BIG BENS
No other bell ever underwent such a career of
misfortune as that which was intended for use in the
new Houses of Parliament. From the time when that
immense structure was commenced, it was resolved that
both the clock and the hour bell should be the largest
ever seen in this country; but it was not till 1844
that the late Sir Charles Barry solicited tenders for
their construction. Through a course of wrangling,
which it would be of little use here to elucidate,
fifteen years elapsed before the clock was finished
and actually at work in its place; this was in 1859.
The clock is not only the largest but one of the most
accurate we possess. The ponderous weights hang down a
shaft 160 feet deep, and require winding up only once
a week. The pendulum, 15 feet long, weighs 680 pounds;
and so delicate is its action, that a small weight of
only one ounce, placed on a particular part of the
apparatus, will alter the rate of the clock one second
per week. On the four sides of the clock tower are
dial rooms, each a large apartment, traversed by
mechanism which communicates motion from the clock to
the hands. Each of the four clock dials is 221 feet
diameter; and the mere cast iron framework of each
dial weighs no less than 4 tons. The hour figures are
2 feet high and 6 feet apart, and the minute marks are
14 inches apart. The outer point of the minute hand
makes a sudden leap of 7 inches every half minute. The
hands weigh more than two hundredweight the pair; the
minute hand being 16 feet long, and the hour hand 9
feet. In order to render the dials visible at night,
each dial face is glazed with enameled or opalised
glass, with 60 gas jets behind it.
Such is the magnificent clock, for which suitable
bells were sought to be made. The original scheme was
for 'a clock that would strike the hours on a bell of
eight to ten tons, and chime the quarters upon eight
smaller bells.' It was afterwards decided that there
should be only four bells for the chimes, in addition
to the great hour bell. In the four corners of the
bell room these bells are placed; the first with a
weight of 4' tons, and yielding the musical note B;
the second, weight 2 tons, and note E; the third,
weight l � ton, and note F#; and the
fourth, weight l � ton, and note G#. By
varying the order in which these are struck, they
produce four chimes or partial melodies, at the four
divisions of each hour; and at the full or completed
hour, the whole sixteen sounds form a simple but
beautiful melody in the key of E major. These four
bells were made and hung nearly in the manner first
designed; but the fifth the king of the belfry, that
was to hang in the vacant space between them has not
been so fortunate. It was to have been about 9 feet in
diameter, 9 inches thick at the sound bow, and to
weigh 14 tons nearly three times the weight of the
great bell of St. Paul's Cathedral; it was to be
struck by a hammer of a ton weight, and was then to
yield the note E, one octave lower than the E of the
chimes, and forming a musical chord with the whole of
them.
The bell was designed by Mr. E. B. Denison, who, as
an amateur, has displayed considerable skill in the
theory of clock and bell work. After much disputing
between commissioners, architects, and others, it was
cast in August 1856, at Stockton on Tees, in
Yorkshire. The mould was six weeks in preparation. The
metal was melted in two furnaces, each containing ten
tons. Eighteen out of the twenty tons of molten metal
were poured into the mould, producing a bell about 8
feet high and 9� in diameter at the
mouth. When turned and trimmed and finished, it
weighed about 15 tons a little more than had at first
been intended. The ponderous mass was then carefully
conveyed to London, and placed for a time at the foot
of the clock tower, where it was visited by multitudes
of persons. Every Saturday it was struck a certain
number of blows, that the quality and loudness of the
sound might be tested.
On one occasion, the E was found to be a dull and
uncertain sound; and this leading to a close scrutiny,
it was found that, owing to a flaw in the metal, the
bell was practically useless, and would ultimately be
broken by the blows of the hammer. It was deemed a
fortunate circumstance that the discovery was made
before the bell had been raised into the tower.
Officially, the bell was to have been named 'St.
Stephen;' but a random sobriquet used in the Times, 'Big Ben,' caught the taste
of the public; and in
October 1857, it was known all over the country that 'Big Ben was cracked.'
There then ensued another
series of disputations, accusations, and counter
accusations. Another bell was cast by another
bell-founder; it was somewhat less in weight than the
former, but was made to yield the same tone. In
October 1858, it was raised into its place, a task
requiring very perfect appliances; for the weight,
raised to a height of nearly 200 feet, was not less
than 25 tons, or 56,000 pounds including bell, cradle,
chains, and tackle.
Thus was Big Ben the second cast on the 10th of
April, taken out of the mould on the 24th, sent to
Westminster on the 31st of May, tried as to tone by
Dr. Turle on the 18th of June, and finally raised to
his destined place in October. During November, Big
Ben underwent a long series of blows with hammers
weighing from 4 to 7 hundredweight each. The clock was
put up in its place, and for some time the inhabitants
of the metropolis heard the chime bells every quarter
of an hour, and Big Ben every hour. But another
misfortune arose: Ben the second cracked like Ben the
first. Then ensued an accusation, a bitter
controversy, and a lawsuit; and then fragments of Big
Ben were analysed by Professor Tyndall and Dr. Percy;
while Professor Airey tried to ascertain whether the
bell might still be used, though cracked. The subject
of Big Ben became almost ludicrous. Not only was the
deep E of the bell not to be heard, but the other four
were silenced also, and the clock was stopped;
insomuch that Earl Derby, in June 1860, said in the
House of Lords.
We all know the circumstances under which we have
been deprived of the doubtful advantage of hearing the
tones of the great bell; but when a clock ceases to
address itself to the sense of hearing, that is no
reason it should decline to present itself to the
sense of sight. One of the hands has disappeared
altogether, and the other stands at twelve; so that it
has the merit of being right at least once in the
twelve hours. The earl spoke of the 'doubtful'
advantage of hearing the bell. It appears that the
tone, when very slowly repeated, had a melancholy and
depressing effect on many persons, and was not much
liked by those who were attending parliament, or the
courts in Westminster Hall. Earl Grey, speaking after
the Earl of Derby, 'rejoiced that the great bell had
been cracked, and trusted no attempt would be made to
make the clock speak to their ears again in the old
tones.'
The two Big Bens cost the country nearly �4000, all
expenses included. One was broken up and remelted; the
other was condemned on account of faults and
fissures; and the lowest or deepest of the four chimes
or quarter bells, was thenceforward used as the hour
bell.