eynolds at the Royal Academy. His delicate pastel portraits obtained great
vogue in the most aristocratic circles of London. On the death of his
master, Lawrence was appointed painter to the King. He became the
fashionable portrait painter of the age. As such, Lawrence was summoned to
Aix-la-Chapelle during the International Congress of 1818 to paint the
various dignitaries of the Holy Alliance. While at Vienna he painted the
famous pastel of Napoleon's son, the little King of Rome--by all odds the
most charming of all the many likenesses of that unfortunate eaglet.
Lawrence returned to England a few days after the death of Benjamin West,
and was immediately elected to succeed him as President of the Royal
Academy. He held this office for ten years, until his death. Among the most
noted works of Lawrence, executed during this time, were the portraits of
Master Lambton and of the Duke of Wellington. Lawrence's ambitious essays
beyond the limits of portrait painting, such as his once celebrated
"Satan," obtained no lasting success. After the artist's death a number of
his best known canvases were collected for permanent exhibition in the
Waterloo Gallery of Windsor.

[Sidenote: Lister's microscope]

In this year Joseph Jackson Lister, an English amateur optician,
contributed to the Royal Society the famous paper detailing his recent
experiments with the compound microscope. Aided by Tully, a celebrated
optician, Lister succeeded in making of the microscope a practical
scientific implement rather than a toy. With the help of his own
instrument Lister was able to settle the long mooted question as to the
true form of the red corpuscles of the human blood.

[Sidenote: Conquest of Algiers]

[Sidenote: England's vain protest]

In the face of the menacing attitude of the liberal elements of France,
which had been rendered more acute by the King's increase of the Chamber of
Peers to the detriment of the Deputies, the French Government launched
forth upon the conquest of Algiers. It was believed to be an auspicious
moment. The Sultan's reluctant acknowledgment of the independence of
Greece, April 25, showed how powerless he was. The Dey of Algiers had
insulted France by his discourteous treatment of a French consul. He
refused the satisfaction demanded by France. On the failure of a blockade
to reduce the city of Algiers, an expedition commanded by Bourmont set out
for Africa in spring. A landing was successfully effected by