ed down and
$18,000,000 worth of property was consumed. Chief Justice Marshall of the
United States Supreme Court died during this year, eighty years of age. As
a member of Congress, a Cabinet officer, and the foremost jurist of the
United States, Marshall won lasting distinction. His ability as a writer
was conspicuously displayed in his popular "Life of Washington."

[Sidenote: Ferdinand, Emperor of Austria]

[Sidenote: Wilhelm von Humboldt]

[Sidenote: Andersen's Fairy Tales]

In Europe, in the meanwhile, there had been some significant changes. On
March 2, Emperor Francis of Austria died at the age of sixty-seven. The
succession of Archduke Ferdinand to the throne produced no change in the
national policy. Metternich was retained at the head of affairs. Almost of
more moment to Germany was the death of Karl Wilhelm von Humboldt, the
diplomat, and brother to Alexander, the great German explorer and
philosophic writer. Besides his services as a statesman at the time of the
international conferences at Paris and Vienna, he is distinguished for his
philological researches in the Basque and Kauri languages. About the same
time Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish author, published his first
collection of fairy tales. The book had an immediate success, and after its
translation into German achieved a world-wide reputation. Various
translations from the German version and from the original had large sales
in England and America.

[Sidenote: Artistic activity in France]

[Sidenote: May riots of Paris]

[Sidenote: Fieschi's infernal machine]

[Sidenote: Second campaign in Algiers]

In France, too, notwithstanding political disturbances, fine arts and
letters flourished. New creations appeared from the pens of Lamartine,
Victor Hugo, Balzac, De Vigny and Alfred De Musset. Theophile Gautier
brought out his masterpiece "Mademoiselle de Maupin." Among the musicians
at Paris, Meyerbeer, Auber, Berlioz, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Spontini,
and Schapa were at the height of their activity. Politically it was a year
of disturbances for France. The opening of the State trial of last year's
conspirators before the Chamber of Peers was followed by diatribes in the
press. The liberties of the press were further restricted. Riots again
broke out in May. After all, but one man was condemned to death. Most of
those who were implicated were sentenced to transportation. New laws for
the repression of sedition were proposed by the C