602 



OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. (GoircouRT HARRIS.) 



published in the " Deutsche Rundschau " extracts 

 from the diary of the Crown-Prince Priedrich writ- 

 ten during the Franco-Prussian War. The object 

 was to prove that the Emperor Fried rich was the 

 real author and founder of German unity, but that 

 Bismarck had thwarted his aims to make the em- 

 pire liberal and democratic, while utilizing his ideas 

 and labors. Prof. Geffcken was intimate with Fried- 

 rich before he succeeded to the throne, and is be- 

 lieved to have drawn up the rescripts to the nation 

 and to Prince Bismarck that were published in 

 1888. He was a frequent writer on controversial 

 political subjects, and a bitter opponent of Bis- 

 marck's ideas and policy. His latest work was. 

 "France, Russia, and the Triple Alliance" (1893). 



(Joncourt, Kdinond Huot de. a French author, 

 born in Nancy, May 28, 1822 ; died in Paris, July 

 16. 1896. The brothers Jules and Edmond de Gon- 

 court, grandsons of a member of the National As- 

 sembly of l?.s<), devoted themselves to literary pur- 

 suits and made a special study of the life and 

 society of the eighteenth century. Their first essay 

 was a vaudeville play, which was refused by the di- 

 rector of the Palais Royal, who stole the plot and 

 had it more skillfully worked out by a practiced 

 dramatist. Their first book, " In 18 ," published 

 in 1851, was a failure. They joined the staff of 

 " L'Eclair," started by a cousin, and when it ex- 

 pired they all went over 1<> the new literary review 

 " Paris." The two brothers were arrested for re- 

 printing a shocking poem by an old French poet, 

 and this adventure first brought them into public 

 notice. Their first literary success they won in 



1860 with " Les Homines des Lettres," republished 

 in 1869 under the title of " Charles Demailly." It 

 was the first of their novels of observation, the pro- 

 totypes of the realistic school, and was followed in 



1861 by " Sunn- Philomene," a lugubrious picture 

 of hospital life. In ' Renee Mauperin" (1S62) they 

 gave a description of the young bourgeoisie, and in 

 "Germinie Lacerteux" (1865) they recount the sad 

 life story of a servant who was dear to them. In 

 1865 they published a book about artists entitled 

 " Manette Salomon." Their " Henriette Marechal" 

 was in that year hissed at the Conu'die Fran raise 

 for the reason that the Princess Mathilde had used 

 her influence to have it accepted. The story told 

 in " Madame Gervaisais " (1869) of a free-thinking 

 woman who was converted into a religious bigot 

 through the influence of her environment, was con- 

 ceived during a trip that the brothers took to 

 Rome. "Le Pays en Danger" was rejected at the 

 Comedie Francaise in 1869. After the death of 

 Jules in 1870 Edmond worked out the notes accu- 

 mulated from the studies and observations of the 

 brothers with the same finished style and artistic 

 expression that distinguishes the joint work of the 

 two. He published " La Fille Elisa " (1878) : " Les 

 Freres Zemganno" (1882): "La Faustin" (1882); 

 " Cherie " (1884) ; " Gavarni " ; and " Pages Retrou- 

 vees." From the romances previously written by 

 him and his brother he made three plays, entitled 

 " Renee Mauperin." in which he had the assistance 

 of Henri Ceard ; " Germinie Lacerteux," an undra- 

 matic series of tableaux ; and " Manette Salomon." 

 The brothers noted down their judgments and ob- 

 servations and often the confidences of fellow- 

 writers and others, and these memoranda Edmond 

 published under the title of the "Journal Gon- 

 court." The brothers aspired to be artists and 

 made sketches in Algeria before they settled in 

 Paris. Their water colors, made in Algeria, Italy, 

 and Flanders, possess individual artistic qualities, 

 and still more so their etchings. Their work on 

 Watteau was illustrated by engravings in the style 

 of that master. They published numerous studies 

 on the minor French painters of the eighteenth 



century, some of whom they first brought again 

 into notice. Their writings on the society and 

 court life of that period are voluminous. In the 

 house that they built at Auteuil they gathered a 

 great store of artistic curiosities, especially of the 

 eighteenth century. To this Edmond added a pre- 

 cious collection of Japanese objects of art. He left 

 the bulk of his fortune, estimated at 2.000,000 

 francs, to found an Academic des Goncourt, con- 

 sisting of 10 persons, who .shall award each year a 

 prize of 5,000 francs for the best prose work, and 

 each of them receive a pension of 6,000 francs. 

 Eight of them he named in the will, with directions 

 that they elect the other two. When one of them 

 dies, the survivors are to choose a successor. 



Grove, Sir William Robert, a British physicist, 

 born in Swansea, Wales. July 11, 1811 : died in 

 London, Aug. 2, 1896. He gave his attention early 

 to the study of electricity and experimental physics, 

 and in 1839 invented the powerful voltaic battery 

 that bears his name. lie devised also the gas bat- 

 tery. From 1840 to 1847 he was Professor of Ex- 

 perimental Philosophy in the London Institution. 

 As a member of the Council of the Royal Society. 

 he had a large share in its reorganization. Devoting 

 himself later to the profession of the law, he became 

 Queen's counsel in 1853. He was a member of the 

 Metropolitan Commission on Sewers and of the 

 royal commissions on patent law and on Oxford 

 University. He was elevated to the bench as a jus- 

 tice of common pleas in November, 1871, was 

 knighted Feb. 21, 1872. and in November, 1875, 

 through the operation of the judicature act, became 

 a judge of the High Court of Justice. On his re- 

 tirement from the bench, in 1887, he was made a 

 member of the Privy Council. Sir William Grove 

 made several important discoveries in electricity 

 and optics. In a lecture before the London Insti- 

 tution in 1842 he first advanced the theory of the 

 interconvertibility of the forces of heat, light, elec- 

 tricity, and mechanical energy, calling all of them 

 modes of motion or forms of persistent force. 

 This doctrine he developed in the essay on " The 

 Correlation of Physical Forces." He received the 

 medal of the Royal Society in 1847 for lectures on 

 " Voltaic Ignition " and "Decomposition of Water 

 into its Constituent Gases by Heat." He contrib- 

 uted many papers to "Transactions of the Royal 

 Society " and to the " Philosophical Magazine." 



Ham id bin Thwain bin Said, Seyyid, Sultan of 

 Zanzibar, born in 1856; died Aug. 25, 1896. He 

 was a nephew of the Sultan Ali Bin Said, and be- 

 fore he came to the throne was dependent on the 

 produce of a small clove plantation and was always 

 in debt. The English recognized him as the heir 

 to the throne, and defended his rights against his 

 cousin Said Khalid, the representative of the patri- 

 otic Arab element, when his uncle died, on March 

 6, 1893. Although Ilamid was the subservient 

 creature of the British rulers, he was a devout 

 Mussulman, learned in the Koran and strict in 

 ceremonial observances. 



Harris. Sir Aug-iistiis, an English theatrical 

 manager, born in Paris in 1852 ; died in Folkestone, 

 Jan. 22, 1896. His father was a manager of Lon- 

 don theaters, but he was trained for commercial 

 business till he went upon the stage in 1873 and 

 played light comedy parts till Mapleson made him 

 assistant stage manager of the Italian Opera Com- 

 pany and afterward left the management entirely in 

 liis hands. He went to Paris in 1876 and brought 

 over the Odeon Company to play "Les Danischeff " 

 at St. James's Theater. Pie next composed a panto- 

 mime for the Crystal Palace, introducing novel 

 stage effects. In 1879 he undertook the manage- 

 ment of Drury Lane Theater, in which previous 

 lessees had sunk fortunes. By studying the popu- 



