Page:EB1911 - Volume 02.djvu/672

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ARNICA—ARNIM
  

the effects of his wound received before Zutphen. The French took the town in 1672, but left it dismantled in 1674. It was refortified by the celebrated Dutch general of engineers, Coehoorn, in the beginning of the 18th century. In 1795 it was again stormed by the French, and in 1813 it was taken from them by the Prussians under Büllow. Gardens and promenades have now taken the place of the old ramparts, the last of which was levelled in 1853.

ARNICA, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Compositae, and containing 18 species, mostly north-west American. The most important species is Arnica montana (mountain tobacco), a perennial herb found in upland meadows in northern and central Europe (but not extending to Britain), and on the mountains of western and central Europe. A closely allied species (A. angustifolia), with very narrow leaves, is met with in Arctic Asia and America. The heads of flowers are large, 2 to 21/2 in. across, orange-yellow in colour, and borne on the summit of the stem or branches; the outer ray-flowers are an inch in length. The achenes (fruits) are brown and hairy, and are crowned by a tuft of stiffish hairs (pappus). The root-stock of A. montana is tough, slender, of a dark brown colour and an inch or two in length. It gives off numerous simple roots from its under side, and shows on its upper side the remains of rosettes of leaves. It yields an essential oil in small quantity, and a resinous matter called arnicin, C12H22O2, a yellow crystalline substance with an acrid taste. The tincture prepared from it is an old remedy which has a popular reputation in the treatment of bruises and sprains. The plant was introduced into English gardens about the middle of the 18th century, but is not often grown; it is a handsome plant for a rockery.

ARNIM, ELISABETH (BETTINA) VON (1785–1859), German authoress, sister of Klemens Brentano, was born at Frankfort-on-Main on the 4th of April 1785. After being educated at a convent school in Fritzlar, she lived for a while with her grandmother, the novelist, Sophie Laroche (1731–1807), at Offenbach, and from 1803 to 1806 with her brother-in-law, Friedrich von Savigny, the famous jurist, at Marburg. In 1807 she made at Weimar the acquaintance of Goethe, for whom she entertained a violent passion, which the poet, although entering into correspondence with her, did not requite, but only regarded as a harmless fancy. Their friendship came to an abrupt end in 1811, owing to “Bettina’s” insolent behaviour to Goethe’s wife. In this year she married Ludwig Achim von Arnim (q.v.), by whom she had seven children. After her husband’s death in 1831, her passion for Goethe revived, and in 1835 she published her remarkable book, Goethes Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde, which purported to be a correspondence between herself and the poet. Regarded at first as genuine, it was afterwards for many years looked upon as wholly fictitious, until the publication in 1879 of G. von Loeper’s Briefe Goethes an Sophie Laroche und Bettina Brentano, nebst dichterischen Beilagen, which proved it to be based on authentic material, though treated with the greatest poetical licence. Equally fantastic is her correspondence Die Günderode (1840), with her unhappy friend, the poet, Karoline von Günderode (1780–1806), who committed suicide, and that with her brother Klemens Brentano, under the title Klemens Brentanos Frühlingskranz (1844). She also published Dies Buch gehört dem König (1843), in which she advocated the emancipation of the Jews, and the abolition of capital punishment. Among her other works may be mentioned Ilius Pamphilius und die Ambrosia (1848), also a supposititious correspondence. In all her writings she showed real poetical genius, combined with evidence of an unbalanced mind and a mannerism which becomes tiresome. She died at Berlin on the 20th of January 1859. Part of a design by her for a colossal statue of Goethe, executed in marble by the sculptor Karl Steinhäuser (1813–1878), is in the museum at Weimar.

Her collected works (Sämtliche Schriften) were published in Berlin in 11 vols., 1853. Goethe’s Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde has been edited by H. Grimm (4th ed., Berlin, 1890). See also C. Alberti, B. von Arnim (Leipzig, 1885); Moritz Carriere, Bettina von Arnim (Breslau, 1887), and the literature cited under Ludwig von Arnim.

ARNIM, HARRY KARL KURT EDUARD VON, Count (1824–1881), German diplomatist, was a member of one of the most numerous and most widely spread families of the Prussian nobility. He was born in Pomerania on the 3rd of October 1824, and brought up by his uncle Heinrich von Arnim, who was Prussian ambassador at Paris and foreign minister from March to June 1848, while Count Arnim-Boytzenburg, whose daughter Harry von Arnim afterwards married, was minister-president. It is noticeable that the uncle was brought before a court of justice and fined for publishing a pamphlet directed against the ministry of Manteuffel. After holding other posts in the diplomatic service Arnim was in 1864 appointed Prussian envoy (and in 1867 envoy of the North German Confederation) at the papal court. In 1869 he proposed that the governments should appoint representatives to be present at the Vatican council, a suggestion which was rejected by Bismarck, and foretold that the promulgation of papal infallibility would bring serious political difficulties. After the recall of the French troops from Rome he attempted unsuccessfully to mediate between the pope and the Italian government. He was appointed in 1871 German commissioner to arrange the final treaty with France, a task which he carried out with such success that in 1871 he was appointed German envoy at Paris, and in 1872 received his definite appointment as ambassador, a post of the greatest difficulty and responsibility. Differences soon arose between him and Bismarck; he wished to support the monarchical party which was trying to overthrow Thiers, while Bismarck ordered him to stand aloof from all French parties; he did not give that implicit obedience to his instructions which Bismarck required. Bismarck, however, was unable to recall him because of the great influence which he enjoyed at court and the confidence which the emperor placed in him. He was looked upon by the Conservative party, who were trying to overthrow Bismarck, as his successor, and it is said that he was closely connected with the court intrigues against the chancellor. In the beginning of 1874 he was recalled and appointed to the embassy at Constantinople, but this appointment was immediately revoked. A Vienna newspaper published some correspondence on the Vatican council, including confidential despatches of Arnim’s, with the object of showing that he had shown greater foresight than Bismarck. It was then found that a considerable number of papers were missing from the Paris embassy, and on the 4th of October Arnim was arrested on the charge of embezzling state papers. This recourse to the criminal law against a man of his rank, who had held one of the most important diplomatic posts, caused great astonishment. His defence was that the papers were not official, and he was acquitted on the charge of embezzlement, but convicted of undue delay in restoring official papers and condemned to three months’ imprisonment. On appeal the sentence was increased to nine months. Arnim avoided imprisonment by leaving the country, and in 1875 published anonymously at Zürich a pamphlet entitled “Pro nihilo,” in which he attempted to show that the attack on him was caused by Bismarck’s personal jealousy. For this he was accused of treason, insult to the emperor, and libelling Bismarck, and in his absence condemned to five years’ penal servitude. From his exile in Austria he published two more pamphlets on the ecclesiastical policy of Prussia, “Der Nunzius kommt!” (Vienna, 1878), and “Quid faciamus nos?” (ib. 1879). He made repeated attempts, which were supported by his family, to be allowed to return to Germany in order to take his trial afresh on the charge of treason; his request had just been granted when he died on the 19th of May 1881.

In 1876 Bismarck carried an amendment to the criminal code making it an offence punishable with imprisonment or a fine up to £250 for an official of the foreign office to communicate to others official documents, or for an envoy to act contrary to his instructions. These clauses are commonly spoken of in Germany as the “Arnim paragraphs.”  (J. W. He.) 


ARNIM, LUDWIG ACHIM (JOACHIM) VON (1781–1831), German poet and novelist, was born at Berlin on the 26th of January 1781. He studied natural science at Halle and