s after the
subjugation of the Venetian mainland, the Republic of St. Mark, reduced by
cholera and famine, gave up its long struggle. The Austrians re-entered
Venice.

Having gained a free hand in her Hungarian and Italian dominions, Austria
set to work to recover her ascendency in Germany.

1850

[Sidenote: Blockade of the Piraeus]

[Sidenote: Cholera in England]

At the opening of the year the British Foreign Office determined to bring
pressure to bear upon Greece for payment of the public debts which were
owing to English bankers. A British squadron, during January, blockaded the
Piraeus. On January 17, a resolution was passed in the British House of
Lords condemning the foreign policy of the government in Greece. Later
France interposed in behalf of Greece and the blockade was discontinued.
Throughout the earlier part of the year the scourge of cholera continued in
England. In London alone the death-rate for a while was 1,000 per week.
More than 50,000 people died from the epidemic in England and Wales.

[Sidenote: Death of Wordsworth]

[Sidenote: "Lyrical Ballads" and "Peter Bell"]

[Sidenote: The "Lake School"]

[Sidenote: Wordsworth's doctrine]

William Wordsworth, the English Poet Laureate, died on April 23, at Rydal
Mount. Born at Cockermouth in 1770, Wordsworth received his academic
education at Cambridge University. Two years after his graduation, he made
his first appearance as a poet with the publication of "An Evening Walk; an
Epistle in Verse." In the same year he published "Descriptive Sketches in
Verse," inspired by a pedestrian tour through the Alps. These poems brought
the appreciation of Coleridge, and both men soon became friends. Together
with Wordsworth's sister they made a tour of Germany. On their return,
Wordsworth brought out the first volume of his "Lyrical Ballads," which won
great popularity, and the anonymous "Peter Bell," the most condemned of all
his poems. After his marriage in 1803, Wordsworth settled at Grasmere in
the lake country, where he was joined by Southey and Coleridge. This caused
the writings of all three to be classified under the generic title of "The
Lake School of Poetry" by the "Edinburgh Review." The fame of Wordsworth's
poetic productions, and especially of his sonnets, slowly grew. While he
won the immediate approbation of his countrymen by some of his stirring
patriotic pieces, his strongest appeal to the world at large and to future
generations