FORE:Notwithstanding these checks at Emsdorf and Warburg, the French obtained possession of G?ttingen and Cassel. Ferdinand attempted, but in vain, to dislodge them from G?ttingen, and the hereditary Prince, attempting to surprise the Marquis de Castries at Wesel, was repulsed with a loss of one thousand two hundred men at Closter-Campen, near that town, and was compelled to retreat. This closed the campaign, and the French took up their winter quarters at G?ttingen and Cassel.Meanwhile, the attention of the Western Powers was called to the constitutional monarchy of Spain. For, whatever were its merits in comparison with the systems that preceded it, it had not the merit of securing good government, protecting life and property, and maintaining public tranquillity. During the summer of 1836 that country, always more or less disturbed, was the scene of fresh tumults and insurrections, breaking out at different points, at Malaga, Cadiz, Seville, and Cordova. The Constitution of 1812 was proclaimed, and provincial juntas were established in defiance of the queen's authority. Madrid was also the scene of insurrection, which was repressed, and the city was put in a state of siege. Soon afterwards a more determined demand was made for the Constitution of 1812, when a regiment of militia forced themselves into the apartments of the queen regent, in spite of the remonstrances of the French and British Ambassadors, and extorted from her a promise to accept that Constitution. This daring act was the signal for a general rising in the capital. The Prime Minister, Isturitz, fled to Lisbon, and there took ship for England. He was fortunate in escaping with his life, for had he fallen into the hands of the enraged populace he would probably have shared the fate of General Quesada, the military governor of Madrid, who was caught about three miles from the capital and killed. Order was at length restored by the queen regent proclaiming the Constitution, subject to the revision of the Cortes and by the appointment of a decidedly Liberal Administration, which commenced by calling for a conscription of 50,000 men to carry on the war against the Carlists, who were still in active rebellion. The Constitution so imperatively demanded by the people was first proclaimed at Cadiz in 1812, and again by Riego in 1820. It now was brought forward once more, and on the 24th of February, 1837, adopted by the general Cortes assembled for the purpose, having been previously revised by a committee.
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FORE:In Ireland Roman Catholicism was represented by Archbishop Murray and Dr. Doyle, the eloquent Bishop of Kildare. The majority of the Irish Churchmen were Evangelical, and hence came often into collision with Archbishop Whately, who was a powerful supporter of the system of mixed education. The Scottish Churches at that time possessed a number of ministers of great power and eminence, each exerting in his own denomination extensive influence. Dr. Andrew Thomson, a mighty spirit, had reached the meridian of his great popularity. Dr. Chalmers was rising fast to the commanding position he so long occupied. Among the Baptists the most important names were those of two laymen, James and Robert Haldane, who not only preached throughout Scotland, but organised a vast missionary scheme for India. In the United Presbyterian Church the ablest man was Dr. John Brown, of Edinburgh, wielding great influence as a theological professor, and as the pastor of a large congregation in that city. In Glasgow the Rev. Greville Ewing had founded the Independent Church, then new to Scotland. Associated with him was a man not less gentle in spirit, but with intellectual power much more[429] commanding, and of the highest cultivation as a theologianDr. Wardlaw, who during his life continued the foremost man among the Scottish Congregationalists. Dr. Russell, of Dundee, possessing an intellect of great force, with an energetic temperament, contributed his share to the great controversy which continued for a number of years to agitate the whole Scottish nation, till it issued in the disruption, and in the establishment of the Free Church. That movement had already begun, and the decision of the House of Lords in the Auchterarder case had made the schism inevitable. Among English Nonconformists the greatest names of the Independents were those of Dr. Fletcher, of Finsbury Chapel, John Burnet, of Camberwell, John Angell James, of Birmingham, and William Jay, of Bath. John Williams was preaching the Gospel to the Melanesians, and Dr. Moffat in South Africa. The Baptists could boast Robert Hall, and the essayist John Foster; their greatest missionary was perhaps Dr. Carey. Of the leading Wesleyans we may notice the names of Dr. Bunting and Dr. Adam Clarke. The two chief events which affected that body during the period werethe secession in 1834, when Dr Warren and his followers, called "Warrenites," separated from the Conference, and the last secession, when 100,000 broke off, forming a new community. All the seceding bodiesthe Kilhamites, or New Connexion Methodists; the Bible Christians, or Bryanites; the Wesleyan Methodist Association, formed in 1835; and last, the Wesleyan Methodist Reformersseparated on the alleged ground of the tyrannical powers exercised by the Conference, and the exclusion of the laity[430] from their due share in the management of the body.In balancing accounts at the Congress at Paris, there was a resignation on the part of Great Britain of the colonies which she had won with so much cost of money and men. Our statesmen never thought of placing some of the enormous sums we had bestowed on the Powers we helped against the islands we had conquered. We had dearly purchased them. But Great Britain gave back to France all the colonies possessed by her in 1792, except Tobago, St. Lucia, and the Isle of France. Still more absurdly, we returned Pondicherry, in the East Indies, as a focus for fresh annoyances there from the French, whom we had expelled at such cost for their meddling and exciting the natives against us. We restored to the French, under certain conditions, the right of fishing on the bank of Newfoundland, as they had enjoyed it in 1783; conditions which they boldly violated, and which the British Ministry did not venture to insist on being observed. We gave back also to Spain several islands and colonies; and the same to Hollandnamely, Demerara, Essequibo, Berbice, the immense island of Java, and the rich one of Sumatra, retaining only the Cape of Good Hope and the settlements in Ceylon.
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