Page:EB1911 - Volume 12.djvu/966

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HARDANGER FJORD—HARDENBERG
941

was the first president. The laws and the plan of proceedings for the British Association for the Advancement of Science were drawn up by him; and Harcourt was elected president in 1839. In 1824 he became canon of York and rector of Wheldrake in Yorkshire, and in 1837 rector of Bolton Percy. The Yorkshire school for the blind and the Castle Howard reformatory both owe their existence to his energies. His spare time until quite late in life was occupied with scientific experiments. Inheriting the Harcourt estates in Oxfordshire from his brother in 1861, he removed to Nuneham, where he died in April 1871.


HARDANGER FJORD, an inlet on the west coast of Norway, penetrating the mainland for 70 m. apart from the deep fringe of islands off its mouth, the total distance from the open sea to the head of the fjord being 114 m. Its extreme depth is about 350 fathoms. The entrance at Torö is 50 m. by water south of Bergen, 60° N., and the general direction is N.E. from that point. The fjord is flanked by magnificent mountains, from which many waterfalls pour into it. The main fjord is divided into parts under different names, and there are many fine branch fjords. The fjord is frequented by tourists, and the principal stations have hotels. The outer fjord is called the Kvindherredsfjord, flanked by the Melderskin (4680 ft.); then follow Sildefjord and Bonde Sund, separated by Varalds island. Here Mauranger-fjord opens on the east; from Sundal on this inlet the great Folgefond snowfield may be crossed, and a fine glacier (Bondhusbrae) visited. Bakke and Vikingnaes are stations on Hisfjord, Nordheimsund and Östensö on Ytre Samlen, which throws off a fine narrow branch northward, the Fiksensund. There follow Indre Samlen and Utnefjord, with the station of Utne opposite Oxen (4120 ft.), and its northward branch, Gravenfjord, with the beautiful station of Eide at its head, whence a road runs north-west to Vossevangen. From the Utne terminal branches of the fjord run south and east; the Sörfjord, steeply walled by the heights of the Folgefond, with the frequented resort of Odde at its head; and the Eidfjord, with its branch Osefjord, terminating beneath a tremendous rampart of mountains, through which the sombre Simodal penetrates, the river flowing from Daemmevand, a beautiful lake among the fields, and forming with its tributaries the fine falls of Skykje and Rembesdal. Vik is the principal station on Eidfjord, and Ulvik on a branch of the Ose, with a road to Vossevangen. At Vik is the mouth of the Björeia river, which, in forming the Vöringfos, plunges 520 ft. into a magnificent rock-bound basin. A small stream entering Sörfjord forms in its upper course the Skjaeggedalsfos, of equal height with the Vöringfos, and hardly less beautiful. The natives of Hardanger have an especially picturesque local costume.


HARDEE, WILLIAM JOSEPH (1815–1873), American soldier, was born in Savannah, Georgia, on the 10th of November 1815 and graduated from West Point in 1838. As a subaltern of cavalry he was employed on a special mission to Europe to study the cavalry methods in vogue (1839). He was promoted captain in 1844 and served under Generals Taylor and Scott in the Mexican War, winning the brevet of major for gallantry in action in March 1847 and subsequently that of lieut.-colonel. After the war he served as a substantive major under Colonel Sidney Johnston and Lieut.-Colonel Robert Lee in the 2nd U.S. cavalry, and for some time before 1856 he was engaged in compiling the official manual of infantry drill and tactics which, familiarly called “Hardee’s Tactics,” afterwards formed the text-book for the infantry arm in both the Federal and the Confederate armies. From 1856 to 1861 he was commandant of West Point, resigning his commission on the secession of his state in the latter year. Entering the Confederate service as a colonel, he was shortly promoted brigadier-general. He distinguished himself very greatly by his tactical leadership on the field of Shiloh, and was immediately promoted major-general. As a corps commander he fought under General Bragg at Perryville and Stone River, and for his distinguished services in these battles was promoted lieutenant-general. He served in the latter part of the campaign of 1863 under Bragg and in that of 1864 under J. E. Johnston. When the latter officer was superseded by Hood, Hardee was relieved at his own request, and for the remainder of the war he served in the Carolinas. When the Civil War came to an end in 1865 he retired to his plantation near Selma, Alabama. He died at Wytheville, Virginia, on the 6th of November 1873.


HARDENBERG, KARL AUGUST VON, Prince (1750–1822), Prussian statesman, was born at Essenroda in Hanover on the 31st of May 1750. After studying at Leipzig and Göttingen he entered the Hanoverian civil service in 1770 as councillor of the board of domains (Kammerrat); but, finding his advancement slow, he set out—on the advice of King George III.—on a course of travels, spending some time at Wetzlar, Regensburg (where he studied the mechanism of the Imperial government), Vienna and Berlin. He also visited France, Holland and England, where he was kindly received by the king. On his return he married, by his father’s desire, the countess Reventlow. In 1778 he was raised to the rank of privy councillor and created a count. He now again went to England, in the hope of obtaining the post of Hanoverian envoy in London; but, his wife becoming entangled in an amour with the prince of Wales, so great a scandal was created that he was forced to leave the Hanoverian service. In 1782 he entered that of the duke of Brunswick, and as president of the board of domains displayed a zeal for reform, in the manner approved by the enlightened despots of the century, that rendered him very unpopular with the orthodox clergy and the conservative estates. In Brunswick, too, his position was in the end made untenable by the conduct of his wife, whom he now divorced; he himself, shortly afterwards, marrying a divorced woman. Fortunately for him, this coincided with the lapsing of the principalities of Ansbach and Bayreuth to Prussia, owing to the resignation of the last margrave, Charles Alexander, in 1791. Hardenberg, who happened to be in Berlin at the time, was on the recommendation of Herzberg appointed administrator of the principalities (1792). The position, owing to the singular overlapping of territorial claims in the old Empire, was one of considerable delicacy, and Hardenberg filled it with great skill, doing much to reform traditional anomalies and to develop the country, and at the same time labouring to expand the influence of Prussia in South Germany. After the outbreak of the revolutionary wars his diplomatic ability led to his appointment as Prussian envoy, with a roving commission to visit the Rhenish courts and win them over to Prussia’s views; and ultimately, when the necessity for making peace with the French Republic had been recognized, he was appointed to succeed Count Goltz as Prussian plenipotentiary at Basel (February 28, 1795), where he signed the treaty of peace.

In 1797, on the accession of King Frederick William III., Hardenberg was summoned to Berlin, where he received an important position in the cabinet and was appointed chief of the departments of Magdeburg and Halberstadt, for Westphalia, and for the principality of Neuchâtel. In 1793 Hardenberg had struck up a friendship with Count Haugwitz, the influential minister for foreign affairs, and when in 1803 the latter went away on leave (August-October) he appointed Hardenberg his locum tenens. It was a critical period. Napoleon had just occupied Hanover, and Haugwitz had urged upon the king the necessity for strong measures and the expediency of a Russian alliance. During his absence, however, the king’s irresolution continued; he clung to the policy of neutrality which had so far seemed to have served Prussia so well; and Hardenberg contented himself with adapting himself to the royal will. By the time Haugwitz returned, the unyielding attitude of Napoleon had caused the king to make advances to Russia; but the mutual declarations of the 3rd and 25th of May 1804 only pledged the two powers to take up arms in the event of a French attack upon Prussia or of further aggressions in North Germany. Finally, Haugwitz, unable to persuade the cabinet to a more vigorous policy, resigned, and on the 14th of April 1804 Hardenberg succeeded him as foreign minister.

If there was to be war, Hardenberg would have preferred the French alliance, which was the price Napoleon demanded for the cession of Hanover to Prussia; for the Eastern powers would