[Sidenote: Chopin]

[Sidenote: Liszt]

[Sidenote: Georges Sand]

[Sidenote: Death of Ampere]

In France, great strides had been made in music, art and literature.
Giacomo Meyerbeer, whose real name was Jacob Beer, surpassed the success of
his "Robert le Diable" with his greatest opera "Les Huguenots," produced on
February 20, at the Paris Opera House. The success of this masterpiece so
disheartened Rossini that he resolved to write no more operas, and withdrew
to Bologna. Charles Francois Gounod, on the other hand, now began his
musical career by entering the Paris Conservatory. Frederick Chopin, the
Polish composer, at this time was at the height of his vogue as the most
_recherche_ pianist of Paris. He was the favorite of a circle of friends
consisting of Meyerbeer, Bellini, Berlioz, Liszt, Balzac, and Heine. It was
during this year that Liszt introduced Chopin to Madame Dudevant, better
known as Georges Sand, the famous French novelist. Their attachment was the
talk of Paris. Andre Marie Ampere, the noted French mathematician and
physicist, died during this year at sixty-one years of age. He was the
inventor of the electrical unit of measure which bears his name.

[Sidenote: Thiers Prime Minister]

[Sidenote: Algerian reverses]

[Sidenote: Thiers resigns]

[Sidenote: Fiasco of Strasburg]

[Sidenote: Louis Napoleon exiled]

[Sidenote: Amnesty acts]

Politically it was a turbulent year for France. On the question of the
budget the Ministry was defeated in January and had to resign. The new
Ministry called in went to pieces on February 22, when Guizot and De
Broglie retired from the Cabinet. Thiers was placed at the helm. On June
26, another attempt to assassinate the King was made by Louis Alibaud, a
former soldier of the south who had taken part in the revolution of July.
The military expedition to Algeria under Marshal Clauzel and the Duke of
Orleans first met with distinguished success. The French army occupied
Mascera. But later the unfortunate issue of an expedition against the town
of Constantine caused the retirement of Marshal Clauzel as Governor-General
of Algeria. Commander Changarnier at the head of a French battalion was
beaten back step by step by an overwhelming body of Achmet Bey's cavalry of
the desert. The question of French intervention in Spain resulted in the
downfall of the Ministry of Thiers. King Louis Philippe, ever since Lord
Palmerston's chilling reply to his overtures for joint