1 June, Wednesday – Weather: 8 to 23 C, cloudless
2 June, Thursday – W: 12 to 18 C, clouded, with a little bit of
rain
On this day
Charlotte finished writing her Anne Askew
devoir.
3 June, Friday – W: 7 to 19 C, some clouds in the morning, a
sunny afternoon
Abraham Dixon, in
Ostend, continued writing a letter to his daughter Mary, in England, begun on
31 May: “John Taylor arrived in Brussels on Friday evening last, he &
Martha arrived here on Wednesday, & yesterday (Thursday) they left for
Calais, will be in London most probably this evening, in Birmingham on Monday
& in Leeds towards the end of next week.”
The newspapers
reported about the failed attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria, on 30 May. It
was a continuing story for some time, up to the end of the trial (forced labor
in Australia, the verdict was for that man).
4 June, Saturday – W: 8 to 22 C, a very sunny day
5 June, Sunday – W: 14 to 22 C, another sunny day
Both L’Indépendant and the Journal de Bruxelles
had four extra pages, recording exactly what everyone had said in the final
debates on the 4th in Parliament on the main part of the proposed loi communale, the nomination and
appointment of mayors. The proposal of the government – the king gets the right
to do that – gets the majority of votes.
L’Indépendant reports that the people of Brussels have so far raised a sum of 11,000
francs for the victims of the Hamburg fire disaster (← 29 May).
6 June, Monday – W: 12 to 24 C, no clouds at all
It must have been
another Catholic holiday. The Journal de
Bruxelles (a day later) wrote about ‘superb’ weather during the various
processions in the city and in the faubourgs.
On this day, the
Belgian King and Queen leisurely walked through the Park for some 45 minutes,
the papers reported. Missed by the Brontës though, obviously. It would have been
wonderful to see Charlotte’s observation of that.
At nighttime a number
of young Englishmen who, no doubt drunken, “s’amusaient a briser [wreck] la
lanterne du local de la Société de la Grande Harmonie.” They were arrested and
brought to the Petits-Carmes prison.
7 June, Tuesday – W: 10 to 24 C, somewhat clouded
8 June, Wednesday – W: 14 to 27 C, fairly clouded
This day saw the
beginning of a heatwave. This June in general was a truly warm month, with 9
days of 25 C or more. Charlotte must have had these days in mind when in Villette she wrote about “the heat of
June.” (June 1843 saw no heat.)
9 June, Thursday – W: 13 to 28 C, cumulus clouds
10 June, Friday – W: 14 to 29 C, quite cloudless
The Journal de Bruxelles reported that in
the country the grain and corn plants were suffering much because of the
drought.
In the evening
another concert for the victims of the Hamburg fire disaster was to be held in
the Park, by musicians of the Réunion Lyrique. The entrance fee was 1 franc.
Because the city had just decided to open the Park to visitors in the evening
the concert was eventually held at the Waux-Hall, still attracting about 3000
people.
11 June, Saturday – W: 15 to 30 C, some clouds
L’Indépendant, for this day, reported two
days later that the Observatoire had measured “29 degrés de
Reaumur,” in the shadow. That corresponds with more than 36 C. It could indicate
that the warmth measurement in Celsius centigrades doesn’t entirely correspond
with that of nowadays, or that the centigrade measurement system had not
functioned well.
12 June, Sunday – W: 20 to 30 C, cloudless
L’Indépendant wrote that the inhabitants of the St. Gudule quarter were surprised and
dissatisfied to see that the clock of the cathedral was still not working,
after the restoration works. While, the paper added, there were few “horloges
publiques” anyway in the city, and some of these gave the wrong time, or
weren’t working at all. (→ 13 June)
In an advertisement
in the paper the General Steam Navigation Company announced a big reduction in
prices (“Grande baisse de prix”) for their ships’ journeys between London and
Belgium. This had to do with the entrance of a Belgian firm on this market, the
Société Anversoise.
13 June, Monday – W: 14 to 25 C, some clouds
The heat, that
newspaper wrote on this day, continues to be on a very unusual high level for
this time of year. Everywhere in France, Germany and Holland people complain
about the warmth. Some Dutch towns were facing drinking water problems. Luckily
though, this day brought less warm weather.
L’Indépendant also reported that one of the men who had stood trial in the plot
against the state trial in March, Pierre-Jean-Joseph Parent, had been arrested
at his home at the Rue de la Madeleine on Saturday, for a “scandalous writing.”
Parent had written a “brochure” about that trial (Le Complot et le Pouvoir – The Plot and the Power), denouncing it
as a farce. A large number of these brochures were seized by the police, but
Parent was released soon. The case was brought to court though.
The right time was
eagerly sought, in Brussels in 1842. Few people could afford a watch, and there
were few public places where one could find it. This obviously attracted
criminals. L’Indépendant (on the 17th) reported that on this
Monday, at about 10 am at the Marché-aux-Grains, a watch was stolen by a woman from
a gentleman. She had accosted him, to ask what time it was. The man, “too
confidently,” took out his watch, which was then violently gripped from him by
that woman. She ran and got away with it. (At a later time we will speak about
time and crime at more length, in a separate article.)
14 June, Tuesday – W: 14 to 25 C,
fairly clouded
The newspapers carried complaints about
naked men in ponds, in several towns around Brussels, “au grand scandale des
promeneurs.” In some towns this bid to seek some coolness, in this excessively
warm period, was followed by being arrested. But in Ixelles, the Journal
de Bruxelles complained, the
police didn’t act. A day later, L’Indépendant reported that as a result of going into the
waters several people had drowned.
In the morning, between 8 and 9, several
convicted criminals were paraded to and exposed to the public at the Grande
Place, in straightjackets.
15 June, Wednesday – W: 14 to 21 C, clouded
The newspapers had
more about the unrest in Ireland, “driven by hunger,” which had started a few
days earlier. On Monday they had already reported that two people were shot
dead by the police, in Clare. Now they wrote that more people, had been shot
dead, on Saturday. The papers quoted (the still renowned) Daniel O’Connell, MP
for Clare and Lord-Mayor of Dublin, who warned of unrest and immense poverty
among the Irish in the Manchester and Glasgow areas. The biggest problem was
unemployment, he said. In Ireland people were also suffering from three failed
harvests, and this was even one or two years before the potato blight disease
entered the country, which led to the Great Famine. The Belgians obviously felt
sympathy for the Irish, Catholics too.
16 June, Thursday – W: 10 to 21 C, quite bright
The Journal de Bruxelles reported that in
the Park two new marble busts were being placed, “representing two warriors of
our national history: one of Ambiorix, chief of the Eburons, the other of
Cingetorix (Vercingetorix), chief of the Treviriens during Ceasar’s fourth
campaign against the Gauls.” One of them was sadly vandalized some years ago.
17 June, Friday – W: 12 to 19 C, quite clouded
A Dutch newspaper (Algemeen Handelsblad) quoted a
correspondent in Flanders who stated that the “misery is now getting so great
here in these areas that each day one can see in each village hundreds of
miserable people, barely clothed, begging.” The Dutch papers also had reports
about large groups of unemployed labourers roaming around and causing unrest.
There is very
little sign of such unrest and distress in the Brussels newspapers though.
18 June, Saturday – W: 9 to 19 C, clouded, some rain in the
evening
19 June, Sunday – W: 13 to 21 C, pretty clouded
20 June, Monday – W: 13 to 24 C, somewhat clouded, and finally
a good amount of rain
The Belgian King
and Queen left for Ostend, by train, on their way to the annual visit to
England and Queen Victoria (he was her uncle). Next day at 8 am the ship they
were on left Ostend, and on Wednesday at 11.20 am they arrived at Buckingham
Palace.
21 June, Tuesday – W: 15 to 21 C, clouded, with a lot of rain
between 11 am and 4.30 pm
Crucially, for
agriculture, and any plant and tree, it had finally rained again. Without it
the harvests would have been disastrous.
Amidst reports of
more unrest in Ireland (in Galway there was “general anarchy and the people die
from hunger”), the papers reported that manufacturers in Yorkshire, Lancashire
and Scotland were convening to call upon Parliament to do something about the
“distress of the working class.”
22 June, Wednesday – W: 13 to 23 C, sunny morning, then clouds
and rain beginning to fall by late afternoon
23 June, Thursday – W: 11 to 20 C, fairly bright
On this day
Charlotte finished writing (as it turned out, the first version of) her devoir
named Portrait: Pierre l’Hermite. It
is interesting that again she finished a devoir (← 2 June) on a Thursday, a half-holiday. Would she
have used that free time to work on them? Or would she have worked hard to
finish them by the end of the morning to be able to enjoy that afternoon off?
L’Indépendant wrote about the rumour that an independent republic of Catalonia had
been proclaimed. While this turned out not to be true, there was clearly some
separatist unrest. In December 1842 Barcelona was bombarded by Spanish troops.
24 June, Friday – W: 14 to 23 C, clouded, and windy
25 June, Saturday – W: 13 to 22 C, clouded
26 June, Sunday – W: 14 to 20 C, clouded, rain all night till
about 11 am
27 June, Monday – 10 to 18 C, sunny morning, somewhat clouded
afternoon
28 June, Tuesday – 11 to 22 C, sunny, with some cumulus clouds
29 June, Wednesday – W: 12 to 27 C, very sunny, and very warm
again
It was a Catholic
holiday, that of the Apostles Peter and Paul.
L’Indépendant had a lengthy piece about the Park. The paper supported the idea that
it should have an iron gate around it, rather than the hedges that were now
used to fence it off. In the plan that had been drawn up the three “grand
portes du Parc” would be preserved and some more would be created (opposite the
palace for instance). The newspaper donated 25 francs to the public funding.
The Journal de Bruxelles had alarming
figures on child labour. In Gent for instance, they wrote, a third of the
30,000 labourers were children, the youngest being only six and a half years
old. The paper pleaded for a minimum age of 10, and children must be able to
read and write before they were allowed to work.
30 June, Thursday – 15 to 29 C, quite clouded
The Journal de Bruxelles that all of western
Yorkshire was in turmoil because of the raising of import tariffs by the German
Zollverein for foreign linen and cotton. The main manufacturers had convened
in Bradford to address the problem.
The paper also
reported that St. Gudule cathedral now had some new stained glass windows.
Sometime in June
Emily wrote her devoir Portrait: Le Roi
Harold avant la Bataille de Hastings. "Héger’s version, Portrait: Harold la veille de la Bataille de
Hastings, also dated “Juin [18]42,” is clearly a later revision” (Sue
Lonoff, The Belgian Essays, p. lxxx).
Eric Ruijssenaars
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