CURIOSITIES OF CHRONOLOGY.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2537, 22 February 1877, Page 3

CURIOSITIES OF CHRONOLOGY.

(PKOM THE PAMCi MAI/D GAZETTE.)

Macaulay, as his biographer informs us, loved to remember that he was born 011 the day of Agincourt, and his countrymen have thus another reason for marking the 36th of October with a white stone in the national calendar. Were we still living under the superstitions of ancient Greece or Rome, our generals would receive special orders to w attack the enemy on that day, sovereigns would perhaps be crowned, and writers would love to begin a new work on the same auspicious morn. For the 25th October is not only memorable as the date of Agincourt and Balaclava, but as the birthday of Alfred. On that day, too, Stephen died, and the dreariest period of our annals came to an end when the first Plantagenet became King of England. On the 25th of October, moreover, George 111. ascended the throne, and loyalty to the pfirson of the Sovereign once more became a fashion with country gentlemen, with the University of Oxford, and with the rest of the community. And if the day brought us union, it must have brought us strength as well. If there are more things in heaven and earth than dreamed of in our philosophy, it may ■well be that times and seasons have their mystic power. Certain it is that recurring days and periods seemed to be fraught with blessings or with ills to men or to peoples, according to their appointment. Thus, though we are beginning to forget it, the sth of November was once famous, in the language of the old Prayer-book tervice, " for the happy deliverance of King James I. and the three Estates of England from the most traitorous and bloody-intended massacre by gunpowder : and also for the happy arrival of His Majesty King William on this day, for the deliverance of our Church and nation." The sth of November, on which the Prince of Orange landed at Torbay, is propitious to the Protestant religion and the liberties of England; it is also the day of Eosbach, which'almost made Germany a nation, and did as much as Sedan to •stablish the line of Protestant Csesars; and it is yet dearer to England as the anniversary of Inkerman. Our Crimean successes, indeed, were all won on memorable days. On a 20th of September were fought the battles of Valmy and the Alma—both good blows struck for civilisation against the powers which opposed it in 1792 and 1854. Sixteen years after this second date it appeared that the lucky star of that day had not deserted it; and on the 20th of September, 1870, for the last time in history, as one has a good hope, an Italian army marched triumphant into Borne, and the long temporal despotism of the popes came to a close.

Here is another day famous in English chronicles—the Ist of August—for the accession, of the House 6f Hanover, for the battle of the Nile, and for the cessation of slavery throughout the British Empire. The first of June again, is still known as " glorious" from Howe's victory, and is equally so for another gallant feat of arms of more importance at the time than it may seem now. For there, was a dark time in the great war when we were fighting Imperial France and the United States at the same time; and our resources were severely taxed, so that we could not spare many ships for the American station, and these of less powerful construction than the American ships. Hence a series of petty disasters which made foolish people at home institute diverse ill-judged comparisons, till Captain Broke accepted the famous challenge from Boston harbor, and the Chesapeake, American frigate, 60 guns and 376 men, struck to the Shannon, British frigate, of 38 guns and 330 men, after an action which lasted a quarter of an hour, Ist of June, 1813. Eleven minutes elapsed between the firing of the first gun and the boarding, and in four n»inutes more the Chesapeake was the Shannon's prize; an event that silenced a good many persons in Boston and nearer home. The Ist of May is a day of peaceful triumphs of the union between England and Scotland, and of the first International Exhibition, from which the generation of 1851 hoped'so much.* A sterner day, but prolific of nobler results than a weak sentimentalism, is the 3rd of November,! on wffich two of our greatest Parliaments assembled-^-the one in 1530, the other in 1640. The. first severed the connection between this country and Eome ; the second is immortal as the Long Parliament.

' The dies nefasti, again, are numerous for England and the world. The 29th of May, 1660, is still remembered as having inaugurated the shameful reign of Charles 11., for ever associated with the loss of Dunkirk, the sound of hostile cannon heard in London, and a host of other sorrows and disgraces brough on the country by its ■«• Nell-Gwynne-Defender," as Mr Carlyle has termed him. But ifc is not so generally known that on the 29th of May, 1453, may be said to have been laid the foundation of the Eastern Question, with its perennial crop of wars and rumors of wars: for on that day Constantinople was taken by the Turks. Fatal to the Teutonic race is the 14th of October, day of Jena, and *Hochkirchen, and Senlac, which our fathers called Hastings. Fatal to the House of Bourbon is the 14th of May, marked in 1610 by the assassination of Henri IV,, and in 1643 by the death of his son and successor. Fatal to "the Religion,'' as in heroic times the faith of Luther and Calvin was oalled by its defenders, is the 24th of August, the Saint Bartholomew of France, and of England too, though the cruelties of 1662 cannot be mentioned in the same breath as those of 1572. Nevertheless, one cannot but look back without bitter regret on the ejectment of those two thousand clergymen for nonconformity to Articles which not a human, being in his senses would now be prepared to accept without innumerable reservations. ( That act of injustice continues to render the question of national education more difficult after the lapse of upwards of two centuries. There are days, again, on which the powers of good and of evil seem to contend —now one, now the other overcoming. Cromwell's lucky day became, as everyone knows, the day of his death ; and though the 3rd of September, which took away the Protector from the scene of his earthly triumphs, may have been a happy one for him, it was fraught with disaster to the Commonwealth. "What inspiration of Ate induced the Pretender to set up his standard at Braemar on the on the anniversary of that day in the. year 1715? Perhaps the same which made Napoleon 111. declare war against Prussia on the same day as that on which his

uncle delivered himself up to a British officer (July 15,1815-70.) But the most remarkable anniversary in the history of the French Revolution and Napoleon, so inseparably entwined together, is the sth of May. In 1589 it saw the StatesGeneral meet at Versailles; in 1821 it saw Napoleon die at St. Helena. In the short space of 36 years the Revolution seemed to have run its course, produced its greatest man, raised him to the summit of human power and glory, and left him miserably to perish. On the other band, the coincidence of the dates of the coronation of Napoleon 1., of the battle of Austerlitz, and of the coup d'etat which established the Second Kmpire (Decem« ber 2, 1804, 1805, 1851) was not unintentional, at least with regard to the last of these events ; for belief in the sun of Austerlitz is common to every loyal Bonaparte. But not every one can turn an anniversary to account. Lord Paglan may have secretly augured of success when on the fortieth anniversary of the glories of Waterloo, quorum pars viagna fv.it, he directed the attack on the Redan, j But in 1855 the 18th of June refused to favour us, though it is worth noting that the failure of the assault was mainly occasioned by General Mazan mistaking a blazing fusee sent up from the Brancion redoubt for the rocket signals which had been agreed on as the notice for a general adrance. On such a day the stars in their courses would fight against our brave allies, and we were involved in their ill fortune. The day of Waterloo was also the day of Kolin- 1757, " a day, which if the Greek superstition still retained its influence, would be held sacred to JN emesis, a day on which the two greatest princes of modern times were taught, by a terrible experience, that neither skill nor valour can fix the inconstancy of fortune." The 18th of June, it should be .added, has not always been fortunate for England ; for it was on that day, in 1429, that Talbot was defeated and taken prisoner by Joan of Arc. Admirers of America and Garibaldi may be interested to learn that the general was born on the 4th of July. Jefferson died on the same day, in 1826, having thus lived to witness the fiftieth or jubilee anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, as well as a few other things perhaps not equally satisfactory to a patriotic statesman. Months, too, have their properties—that of January being to disagree with kings, Charles the I. coming to signal grief on the 30th and Louis XVI. on the 21st. On the other hand, one is bound to admit that February is not much more propitious, as the deposition of James 11. by the Act of the Convention in 1689 (February 13) and the abdication of Louis Philippe in 1848 (February 24) may testify. The year 1689 naturally, recalls 1789, and this is only one of the numerous instances in which history seems to arrange its _chronology neatly, and with the kindly intention of helping human memory. Similarly, 1215,1415,1815 show a harmonious progression of centuries and events ; Magna Charta, Agincourt, Waterloo. Our de-, scendants may look out for great events in 2615 —possibly the millennium, which appears to be a good 800 years off at the present moment. In 1888 expect a great but not irremediable disaster, if you at all acknowledge the subtle influence of numbers. In 1555 the Marian persecution was at its height, Ridley and Latimer being burned that year ; 1666 is marked by the Great Fire of London; 1777 by the sursurrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga. Other instances of natural memories tech' nicct are the deaths of. our three first Edwards in 1307,1327, 1377'; while 77 helps one to remember '99 of the same century, when the curse of the bards on the posterity of the ruthless King was fulfilled, and the third Edward's grandson died (perhaps) of starvation. Or we may connect the feeble Richard 11. with his lion-hearted namesake, and note that the one died in 1199 and the other in 1399.. By stretching a point, again, one can make the Thirty Years' Peace end in 1848 as the Thirty Years' War ended in 1648. For the peace can hardly be said to have begun till 1818, when the armies of occupation marched out of France, and 1848 certainly broke up the Vienna settlement. But the diligent may find many and better instances than these of the lore that figures conceal. We will conclude with a little fact—may it be of happiest omen. Her Majesty; whose name itself signifies victory, was proclaimed Queen on the anniversary of the battle of Vittoria (21st of June, 1813-37). So appropriate a concidenc'e, in name and fact, was the fit herald of conquest, and the boundaries of the Empire have been pushed well forward since 1837. One can only hope that the Queen may reign many more years over us, and that her name may long continue the symbol of victory.