Review of RevievJS. 1 1 121 IS. 



1005 



NOTABLE ANNIVERSARIES OF THE 



MONTH. 



Stirring events occurred in past De- 

 ■cembers, which have affected the history 

 Ox the world. Of these the most notable 

 were the Battle of Austerlitz, December 

 2nd, 1805, regarded as the greatest vic- 

 tory ever gamed by Napoleon. It was 

 known as the battle of the three Em- 

 perors, and resulted in the shattering of 

 the German and Russian armies. Row- 

 land Hill was born on December 3rd, 

 1795. He introduced penny postage 

 into England in 1840. "Letter, fou- 

 pence," ceased to be the cry ; the sender 

 paid the penny in cash ; a little while 

 later he cut with scissors a penny label 

 from a sheet or strip of postage stamps, 

 covered at the back with a " gelatinous 

 wash " ; for awhile he enclosed his let- 

 ter in the somewhat fantastic yet artis- 

 tically-drawn cover of Mulready, and 

 finally abandoned himself to the luxury 

 of the gummed envelopes and perfor- 

 ated or embossed postage stamps which 

 ■we have down to our day. 



The Boston " Tea-Fight, " which took 

 ]:)lace on December 1 6th, 1773, marked 

 the beginning of the movement which 

 led up to Aaierican Independence. On 

 this day a body of Americans, disguised 

 as Red Indians, boarded the English 

 tea ships lying in Boston Harbour, and 

 threw some £'18,000 worth of tea into 

 the water as a protest against the Eng- 

 lish Government levying a duty on tea 

 and other commodities. 



Richard Oastler was born on Decem- 

 ber 20th, 1789. He has been forgotten 

 by workers to-day, but they know not 

 what they owe him. He earned the 

 title of " Factory Kmg " because of the 

 reforms in facurx i> gisi.iui 1 lit iijiccd 

 from the Government. 



Lord Beaconsfield, the greatest leader 

 the Tory Party ever had, was born on 

 December 21st, 1804. He was the first 

 Jew to hold the office of Prime Minister 

 in England. The crowning work of 

 Disraeli's life is the broad national 



policy of Imperialism which he be- 

 queathed to posterity. 



On the 22nd December, 1620, the 

 Pilgrim Fathers, having crossed the At- 

 lantic in the little " Mayflower," landed 

 at Plymouth, stepping ashore upon a 

 huge boulder of rock — the Pilgrims' 

 Rock. From the little colony they 

 formed sprang the LTnited States of 

 America. 



Alexander Dumas, author of " The 

 Three Musketeers," " Twenty Years 

 After," and " Monte Christo," died on 

 December 5th, 1870. His grandmother 

 was a Haytian negress. No author, save 

 Sir Walter Scott, has ever produced 

 such an immense number of historical 

 novels in so short a time. 



Warren Hastings, the famous Gover- 

 nor-General of India, was born Decem- 

 ber 6th, 1732. Under his administra- 

 tion, the East India Company prospered 

 amazingly. On his return to England 

 he was impeached at the bar of the 

 House on three separate counts. The 

 trial, in Westminster Hall, lasted no less 

 than seven years. He was finally ac- 

 quitted on all charges, but left the Hall 

 a ruined and broken man. 



Marshal Ney, " the bravest of the 

 brave," was shot on December 7th, 181 5. 

 He was one of Napoleon's most famous 

 generals, and was executed as a traitor 

 in Paris after Waterloo for having 

 joined his old leader on his return from 

 Elba. Unlike his brother marshals, he 

 lived and died poor. 



De Ouincey, the famous essayist, died 

 in Edinburgh in 1859. His best known 

 work was " The Confessions of an 

 Opium Eater." Taking the drug at 

 first to alleviate pain, it became an over- 

 mastering and life-long habit. 



Milton, after Shakespeare, the greatest 

 Englisli ]ioet, was born m Cheai^side, 

 December 9th, 1608. Son of a prosper- 

 ous scrivener, a Puritan, but a musical 

 composer, he soon distinguished himself 



