ROOKS’S

Annual flew Reader Competition.

Open to all School Children in N.S.W.

For Pupils in SECOND CLASS.

Subject—“ THE OLD MAN OF THE FOREST,’’ Lesson 48 in Brooks’s New Second Reader. Competitors to Paraphrase or express the substance of the Lesson in their own words.

FIRST PRIZE, Gold Watch - -

- Value,

£

5

S.

5

d.

0

SECOND PRIZE, Silver Watch

-

,,

3

3

0

THIRD PRIZE, Books to Value of -

- -

-

2

2

0

FOURTH PRIZE „ „ „ -

- -

-

1

1

0

FIFTH PRIZE „ „ „

- -

-

10

6

SIXTH PRIZE „ „ „ -

- -

-

10

6

For Pupils in THIRD CLASS.

Subject—“ GIANT DESPAIR,” Lesson 75 in Brooks’s New Third Reader. Competitors to Paraphrase or express the substance of the Lesson in their own words.

£

S.

d.

Value, 5

5

0

3

3

0

- - 2

2

0

- - 1

1

0

- -

10

6

- -

10

6


FIRST PRIZE, Gold Watch -SECOND PRIZE, Silver Watch THIRD PRIZE, Books to Value of FOURTH PRIZE    „    „    „

FIFTH PRIZE    „    „    „

SIXTH PRIZE    „    „    „

For Pupils in FOURTH CLASS.

Subject—“THE PIED PIPER,” Lesson 55 in Brooks’s New Fourth Reader. Competitors to Paraphrase or express the substance of the Lesson in their own words.

£ s.    d.

Value, 5 5 0 ,,    3 3 0

-    -    2    2    0

-    -    1    1    0

-    -    10    6

- 10 6


FIRST PRIZE, Gold Watch -SECOND PRIZE, Silver Watch -THIRD PRIZE, Books to Value of FOURTH PRIZE    „    „    „

FIFTH PRIZE    „    „    „

SIXTH PRIZE    „    „    „

co won bTSbllf
;fP<T
loq

f'isjHiS

ìLJ


For Pupils in FIFTH CLASS.


Subject—“ HERVE RIEL,” Lesson 25 in Brooks’s New Fifth Reader.


Competitors to Paraphrase or express the substance of the Lesson in their own words.


FIRST PRIZE, Gold Watch -SECOND PRIZE, Silver Watch THIRD PRIZE, Books to Value of FOURTH PRIZE    „    „    „

FIFTH PRIZE    „    „    „

SIXTH PRIZE    „    „    „


£ s. d. Value, 5 5 „    3 3 0

-    -    2    2    0

-    -    1    1    O

-    -    10    6

-    -    IO    6


A Handsome Certificate will also be given to the winners of the above prizeSj and Certificates will be given for the three next best papers in each class.


CONDITIONS FOR BROOKS’S NEW READER COMPETITIONS.

1. All MSS. must be endorsed with the motto, and not the name, of the competitor, and must be accompanied with a sealed envelope endorsed with the same motto, and containing the following certificate, duly filled in :—


TEACHER’S CERTIFICATE.

I certify that...................-......who has entered for Brooks’s Annual

Reader competition,—

(a) Is a bona fide pupil of my..........».class.


(b)    That he (or sh e) has purchased a copy of Brooks’s New........ *

Reader, and Brooks’s Speller and Aid to same.

(c)    That the MSS. bearing the motto.................................ia his

(or her) unaided work.


Signed


.Teach«.


.School at........................Date .


2. MSS. must deal with the subject named entirely in competitor’s, own style and words. All points will count in this competition—originality, composition, writing, grammar, &c. Competitors must write only on one side of foolscap paper, and must not exceed 750 words. All competitions must be addressed post paid, to Messrs. Wm. Brooks & Co., 17 Castlereagh-street, Sydney, and must be sent in not later than 1st August, 1899. MSS. will not be returned unless accompanied by stamps.


The will be adjudged by a capable and impartial gentleman, and the (7 whole competition will be carried out in a manner worthy of the reputation of the


?B08XSfLUI«'


Ute “ Second,” “ Third,” “ Fourth,” or Fifth.”


Annual Geography Competition

Open to all School Children in N.S.W.

For Pupils in THIRD CLASS.

Best Copy of Map of New Zealand on Page 27 of Brooks’s New Standard Geography for Thiid Class.

£ s. d.

FIRST PRIZE, Gold Watch    •    -    -    Value,    5    6    0

SECOND PRIZE, Silver Watch •    •    •    ,,330

THIRD PRIZE, Books to value of    •    •    •    • 1 I O

For Pupils in FOURTH CLASS.

Best Copy of Map of British South Africa on Pago 43 of Brooks’s New Standard Geography for Fourth Class.

£ S. d,

FIRST PRIZE, Gold Watch    -    -    -    V.alue,    5    5    0

SECOND PRIZE, Silver Watch    •    -    ■ •    3    3    0

THIRD PRIZE, Books to value of    -    •    •    -110

For Pupils in FIFTH CLASS.

Best copy of Map of British Isles on Page 50 of Brooks’s New Standard Geography for Fifth Class.

£ s. d.

FIRST PRIZE, Gold Watch •    •    Value, 5 5 0

SECOND PRIZE, Silver Watch    •    •    •    „330

THIRD PRIZE, Books to value of •    ■    1    1 O

A Handsome Certificate will also he given to the winners of the above, prizes, and Certificates will he given for the three next hest Maps in each class.

CONDITIONS FOR BROOKS’S GEOGRAPHY COMPETITION.

1. All Maps must be endorsed with the motto, and not the name, of the competitor ; and must be accompanied by a sealed envelope endorsed with the same motto and containing the following certificate duly filled in :—

TEACHER’S CERTIFICATE.

I certify that...........................who has entered for Brooks’s Annual

Geography Competition

(a)    Is a bona fide pupil of my...........class.

(b)    That he (or she) has purchased and now uses in the preparation of

Home Lessons A Copy of Brooks’s New Standard Geography for........*

class.

(c)    That the map bearing the motto............is his (or her) unaided work.

Signed.............................Teacher.

School at............. ..................Date....................................

2.    Maps must be exactly copied from the maps on page given of Brooks’ New Standard Geographies, at least 8 in. x 10 in. in size, and must be sent in, postage prepaid, to Wm. Brooks and Co., 17 Castlereagh-street, Sydney, before 1st August, 1899. Maps will not be returned to competitors unless accompanied by stamps.

3.    The Maps will be adjudged by a capable and impartial gentleman, and the-

whole competition will be carried out in a manner worthy of the reputation of the firm.    •    _____

State “ Third,” Fourth,” or “ Fifth.”

THE NEW STANDARD HISTORIES, No. 3.

Englteb

'IbtijiOl'V

Stories

For FOURTH CLASS.

With 20 Illustrations.

7¡*

By S. H. SMITH,

headmaster, Superior Public School, Neutral Bay.

Art Editor :

I). H. SOUTER.

WM. BROOKS & CO.,

Contractors for the supply of Reading- Books to the Public Schools of N.S.W.

SYDNEY and BRISBANE,

Inkerman,

Brooks’s New Standard History for

FOURTH CLASS.

SECTION I.— ' welve Stories for the First

INTRODUC TORY : On the Value of Historical Study.

“ History recommends itself,” says Thomas Carlyle, “as the most profitable of all studies : and truly for such a being as man who is born and has to learn and wmrk, and then after a term of years to depart, leaving descendants and performances, and so, in all ways to vindicate himself as vital portion of a Mankind, no study could be fitter. History is the Letter of Instructions, which the old generations write and transmit to the new ; nay, it may be called the message verbal, or written which all mankind delivers to every man ; it is the only articulate communication which the Past can have with the Present, the Distant with what is Here.”

When you commenced to study history two years ago you felt interested, 1 hope, in the story of the deeds and words of the men and women who helped to lay the foundations of our England. You read the story and studied it because you felt curious to know something of the great men of our race. As you read on you felt proud, no doubt, to think of the noble progress that the race made, of the skill which our forefathers showed in adapting themselves to new conditions, of their courage in standing forth to uphold the right, of their bravery in defence of their land and its institutions, of their valiant struggles for political and religious liberty, of their self-sacrifice and their patriotism. And, while I hope you will still feel interested in it as a story—a story of the progress of a great nation, of which it is your privilege, and should be your pride, to form a part—and while you will, I trust, resolve to read as much as you can and to learn ever more and more of that marvellous story, there are some other considerations which should now lead you to take even a deeper interest in historical study.

You live under the freest form of government the world has known. In a few years you will have the right to take a part in making the laws of the land in which you live, by helping to elect the men who shall meet in Parliament to decide what is best for the state, and it may be that some of

you will yourselves be chosen to represent the views of your fellow-men in the Halls of Legislature. To you, therefore, the study of history should not be merely the reading of an interesting and entertaining story. It should have a deeper meaning. It should lead you to think of the causes and the results of the great events of the past, it should help you to more thoroughly understand the present, and it should lead you to make an intelligent use of your political privileges, so that as far as your influence extends the future may be better than the past.

“ History,” says Professor Seeley, “ has to do with the state, it investigates the growth and changes of a certain corporate society which acts through certain functionaries and

certain assemblies.....Individuals are important in

history in proportion, not to their intrinsic merit, but to their relation to the state.” The state consists of the great body of people forming the nation, and as each one of you is an integral part a unit - of the state, the history of the race must be a matter which closely concerns you, and should, therefore, be full of interest to you. It should, as you study it, constantly teach you and impress upon you useful and valuable lessons.

“ One of the first tasks,” says Mr. W. E. H. Lecky, “ that every sincere student of history should set before himself, is to endeavor to understand what is the dominant idea or characteristic of the period which he is studying ; what forces chiefly ruled it, what forces were then rising into a dangerous ascendency, and what forces were on the decline. It is only when studied in this spirit that the true significance of history is disclosed ; and the same method which furnishes a key to the past forms also an admirable discipline for the judgment of the present.”

The study of history should broaden your mind and make you able to see things from many different points of view. It should make you capable of understanding and ot sympathising with views to which you are yourself opposed. It should teach you to be tolerant, self-controlled, manly, and patriotic.

“History is never more valuable (again I quote Mr. Lecky) than when it enables us, standing on a height, to look beyond the smoke and turmoil of our petty quarrels and to detect, in the slow developments of the past, the great permanent forces that are steadily bearing nations onwards to improvement or decay.”

i.—THE GUNPOWDER PLOT.

We have now come to a period of English history during which a great question had to be decided once for all : Was the power of the King or the power of the Parliament to be the chief thing in the state ? This was a difficult question to decide, because the new King of England, James I., had a very strong belief that he was responsible to God alone tor the exercise of his power, and that it mattered little whether he did what his people desired, so long as he did what he himself believed to be right. Parliament, on the other hand, considered that the King’s duty was to carry out the wishes of the people as expressed by the members who formed the House of Commons. So, all through the Stuart period, there was a struggle between the king and the parliament. It led to much trouble ; and parliament, having tried many plans to settle the difficulty, at last decided to behead Charles I., and

Arms of James I. and the Stuarts.


rule the land without a king. But, after a ten years’ trial ot this plan, it had to go back to the old way again, and place a king at the head of the state. The new king (Charles II.) was not a very wise man, and both he and his brother (James II.), who came after him, displeased parliament, till at last it had to make another change. This time it did not do away with the office of king altogether, but it set up a new king (William III.), who agreed to acknowledge the Parliament as the supreme power in the State.

of Mary, Queen of Scots, of Henry VII., had been since his birth. He was now 37 years old, and, though a good-natured man, and very clever in some ways, he was a very different man from the dignified Tudors, who had held the throne for nearly 120 years before him. He was rough in his manners, slovenly in his dress, and uncouth in his habits. He had come from a poor country to a rich one, and he thought he might spend money freely, so


James I., who was the son and therefore a descendant King- of Scotland almost

he gave estates and large grants of money to many of his Scottish friends. He expected Parliament to give him more ; but Parliament soon showed that, unless he did what pleased them, they were unwilling to grant him supplies. King and Parliament had different opinions, not only on the subject of “the Divine right” (to which I have already referred), but also respecting the treatment of Puritans, the union of Scotland with England, and the superior wisdom of the king, in which James firmly believed.

But there was one subject upon which both king and parliament agreed fairly well—viz., the treatment of Catholics. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth many laws had been made against the Catholics ; they were to be punished for not attending the Reformed Church, for not denying the authority of the Pope in religious matters in England, and for several other such offences. They had, however, hoped that, as James was the son of a Catholic (Mary, Queen of Scots), he would at least grant them toleration - i.e., the right to worship as they wished.

There was also another class in England who had hoped for toleration from James. The Puritans were a body of men who thought that, since the English Church had now separated from the Church of Rome, it should have what they called a purer form of worship. They meant to do away with some of the church ceremonies, with the cap and surplice of clergymen, and so on. They were a fine type of men—“ just, noble, and self-controlled.” ' Elizabeth had treated them sternly ; but they had expected that James, who had been trained as a Presbyterian in Scotland, would show them some favour. When the Scottish people had thrown off the rule of the Pope in church matters, they had adopted a form of church government founded by a French reformer named Calvin. They did away with bishops altogether, and ruled their churches by assemblies of ministers and elders, or presbyters, hence their church came to be known as the Presbyterian. Though the English Puritans were not Presbyterians, they held similar views on many church questions ; such as ceremonies, surplices, etc. They thought that a Scottish King would surely grant them toleration.    #

But it was soon seen that James had determined to follow the policy of Elizabeth, and uphold the English, or Episcopal, k hurch. Some ot the k atholics and Puritans then met and arranged a plot to seize the king, and force him to grant them toleration. At the same time another plot was formed, by Raleigh, to get rid of Cecil, the king’s chief minister. The two plots, known as the Main and the Bye, were treated by the wily Cecil as if they were one, and the leaders were thrown into prison.

Many of the members of Parliament were Puritans, so James, anxious to do something to please them, called a meeting of Puritan divines and the bishops of the English Church to talk over their differences. James lost his temper during the discussion, and told the Puritans he could not make the changes they desired.

Then Parliament got angry, and James, desirous of conciliating them, now thought he had better make some efforts to oppress the Catholics, though at first he had no desire to do so. He banished Catholic priests from London, and put in force some ot Elizabeth’s laws against their religion. This led a Catholic named Robert Catesby and several of his reckless friends to form a desperate plot to blow up the king and parliament together. The day chosen for carrying out this Gunpowder Plot was 5th November, 1605, when the king and all his ministers would be assembled at the openingofthe session. It was expected that Charles and Henry, the king’s two sons, would be with him, and suffer his fate. Then the plotters thought to secure the king’s daughter, Elizabeth (who would then be heir to the throne), and train her as a Catholic. There were only 15 men in the plot, and their funds ran short. This led them to apply to some rich Catholics for help, and thus their plans became known to the king and his ministers. They had hired a coal-cellar which ran under the floor of the House ot Lords, and had stored there a large quantity of gunpowder, which they covered with wood and coal. On the eve of the 5th November this cellar was searched, and Guy Fawkes, a native of Yorkshire, who had become a soldier in the Spanish service, and had been engaged in fighting in the Netherlands, was found there. He was taken, and his fellowplotters fled ; many of them were killed, and others captured. Fawkes and all who were taken were executed.

Parliament then passed very severe laws against the Catholics. Though so few had been concerned in the plot, all suffered through these harsh measures. For many years afterwards Catholics were most unjustly blamed for almost every evil which happened in the land,

2.—RALEIGH.

Around the throne of the brilliant Queen Elizabeth there were gathered two classes of men. Some received the queen’s favour because of their large minds, their extensive knowledge of men, and their experience of state affairs ; others by flattering her vanity (for the queen was absurdly vain), by saying bright and clever and amusing things, dressing in fine garments, waiting upon the queen, and always showing themselves anxious to render service to her. Of these Courtiers, as they were called, one of the best known and most popular was the great soldier and adventurer, Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh was born on the coast of Devonshire in the year 1552. Before he was 20 years of age he had seen several years of service in the army of the French Huguenots. When he returned to England he became one of Elizabeth’s courtiers. But he had a brave and daring spirit, and only a few years later we find him, a young man of 25, sailing away with his step-brother, Humphrey Gilbert, to engage in the popular enterprise of fighting and robbing Spanish ships on their way from the New World to Europe. Many such expeditions did the young man make, and soon he had the desire to find the much-sought-for north-west passage to India, and to found English colonies on the islands and coasts of the New World.

Before he was 30 years old he had also served as a soldier in Ireland with such success that his little band of horse-soldiers had reduced a wide district to submission. To do this he had treated some of the poor Irish with barbarous cruelty. But he had pleased his queen in doing it, and his reward was the position of captain of the Queen’s Guards. When a large part of the South of Ireland had been taken by killing and starving" its inhabitants, grants of land were made to those courtiers and favourites who wished it. So Raleigh got 6,000 acres there.    _    .

His experience in subduing the alien Irish made him desire still more to acquire land beyond the seas, so he got the queen s leave to go out and form settlements in the New World, with permission to claim as his own all lands he discovered within six years. Spain had not then formed an\ settlements in the New World north of Mexico. Silver and wold were the objects of her search, and these she got in abundance in the south, but not in the north. Raleigh saw the importance of the foundation of Greater Britain, and he sent out (1585) seven ships with 100 English colonists, who formed a settlement on the East Coast of North America. Elizabeth, the Virg'in Queen, named it, in honour of herself, Virginia. But the colonists became afraid of the Indians, and they quarrelled amongst themselves, so Sir Francis Drake, who visited their settlement twelve months after its foundation, offered them a passage home, which they gladly accepted.

Raleigh lived on his Irish estate at this time. Some of his friends brought over the potato and tobacco plants from the New World, and Raleigh planted them on his lands, and there they were the first grown in Europe. When the Spanish Armada came out to attack England, Raleigh was one of those who took part in the great naval fight. After it was over he went back again to his Irish estate for a time. Close by lived the great poet Spenser, who, like Raleigh, had received a grant of land. They became friends, and doubtless Spenser’s influence did much to stimulate the poetical faculty in Raleigh.

Ten years after his attempt to found Virginia he set out to find the fabled land of El Dorado, a country where gold was so plentiful that the Indian chief rolled himself in gold dust, and appeared to his men like a dazzling golden figure. He sailed over towards the Orinoco River, and captured the Spanish Governor of Trinidad. From him Raleigh heard that such a country did exist higher up the river ; but the Indians had prevented Spaniards, whom they hated for their constant cruelties, from going to it. Raleigh went for 400 miles up the river, and entered into friendly relations with the natives, for they knew him as an enemy of Spain. They told him that it was too late in the year to go to the land of El Dorado, but if he came another time earlier in the season they would lead him there. Raleigh went home intending' to return next year. But his services were required in Europe to attack the Spaniards. He took a leading part in the destruction of the Cadiz fleet in 1596. For the rest of Elizabeth’s days he lived at court—often going out on expeditions against Spanish trading vessels, so that he grew to be the best hated and most dreaded of Englishmen.

At court he got mixed up in quarrels with Essex, and afterwards with Cecil, for he was jealous of anyone who appeared to be a greater favourite than himself. When James I. succeeded to the throne on Elizabeth’s death, Cecil

became chief minister of James. Raleigh’s jealousy led him to take part in a plot to get rid of both Cecil and James, but his treason was discovered, and he was cast into the Gatehouse prison. For the next 13 years he remained there, writing a “ History of the World,” and engaging in chemical experiments. James was just then sadly in need of money, and Raleigh took advantage of this to offer to lead an expedition over to Guiana to search for the land of El Dorado. James was then on very friendly terms with Spain, and he wished to remain so. But the idea of a gold-mine tempted him. He let Raleigh out of prison, and begging him to avoid any cause of offence to the Spanish colonists, sent him out. Raleigh failed to find the mine, and he got mixed up in quarrels through trespassing on Spanish lands. When he returned James was very angry, and to please Spain he then had Raleigh executed on the charge of treason of which he had been found guilty 16 years before.    _

The English people were indignant, for Raleigh was very popular throughout the land. His name deserves to be honoured as that of the first Englishman who saw the importance of founding a Colonial Empire.

3.-THE PETITION OF RIGHT.

Tames I. had pursued a policy of peace with Spain. This was very unpopular in England, because it interfered with English robberies of Spanish ships and Spanish settlements in the New World. But, though the Parliament did all that it could to wean James from this policy, it failed. He thought that alliance with Spain added to his greatness abroad. Towards the end of his reign, thinking to make the friendship of Spain secure, he sent his son Charles, in charge of a favourite named Buckingham, in disguise _ to Spain, £q arrange a marriage between the Spanish Infanta and the prince. ‘ A marriage treaty was agreed to, but, to the crreat ioy of the nation, it was soon abandoned, and the favourite and the prince returned to England—out of temper

and bent on a war against Spain.    .

Chari es soon afterwards agreed to a marriage with Henrietta-Maria of France. This was not so unpopular as a Spanish match would have been, but still, as the br.de was a Catholic, it was not liked.

Just at this time James died, and Charles became king. The new king was a dignified man, upright and conscientious, religious and well educated, but not frank and open in his conduct. He had been trained at his father’s court, and, like him, believed that he had a divine right to rule. He did not care whether his people loved him or not ; he was determined to rule as he liked, and to force men to obey him. I his, ot course, led to quarrels with the Parliament. Charles joined

Buckingham

Charles I.


with France in a war against Spain. He asked his Parliament for money, but it gave him very little and refused to «five more unless he dismissed and redressed other grievances. He therefore dismissed the Parliament. But in less than a year want of money forced him to call another. This 2nd Parliament commenced to impeach his favourite, Buckingham, so it was dismissed. Just after this he declared war against France, for that country had now made peace with Spain. He raised illegal taxes from his people to get money for this war. These taxes he called loans ; but when men refused to pay they were thrown into prison, and the judges, when appealed to, decided that Charles had the power to send men to prison without giving any reason. Buckingham led the English forces in a war on behalf of the French Protestants. But it was mismanaged and the leader returned to England. Charles continued to raise forced loans, to imprison those who refused to pay, to compel poor men to serve in army and navy under martial law and without pay, and to force the rich to provide food and lodging" for his soldiers. But still he could not get as much money as he required. At last he found it necessary to call a third Parliament and ask for grants of money. The

great leaders of this Parliament were Sir Thomas Wentworth and Sir John Elliot. Wentworth brought in a bill to declare that in future, acts such as Charles had recently been guilty of should be considered illegal. The king opposed this measure, and it was abandoned. Then Elliot brought in a much stronger measure, known as the Petition of Right, declaring that in the past the king had trampled

Parliament then renewed its attack on Buckingham. The king, therefore, prorogued Parliament. Just as the duke was about to set sail with the French expedition he was stabbed by a lieutenant who had been wronged by him. The people rejoiced, because they thought he had been the chief cause of most of the king’s illegal acts. I he F rench war failed, and peace was made in 1629.

Parliament met again, and now the king quarrelled with it (1) about religion and (2) about illegal taxes. Parliament, consisting chiefly of Puritans, was disgusted, because Charles sided with the high church party, that is, the men who liked those things in the prayer book which were most like the old church service, and because he advanced his friend, Laud, a member of that party, to the position of Bishop of London. Then Parliament complained that the king continued to collect tonnage and poundage and to imprison those who refused to pay such taxes, in spite of the Petition of Right. Parliament then passed a resolution declaring that those who brought new opinions or customs into the church, and who paid, or asked men to pay, taxes not granted by Parliament were enemies of the kingdom. The king then dissolved Parliament and threw Elliot and others into the Tower, and for the next eleven years he tried to govern England without a parliament.

4—THE CIVIL WARS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

During the eleven years (1629-1640) that Charles I. tried to rule England without a parliament, he raised illegal taxes, and conti* ed to punish with fines and imprisonment those who refu d to pay them. He tried, acting on the advice of his friend Archbishop Laud, to force the Scottish Presbyterians to use a prayer book like that used in England. This caused them to band togetheras Covenanters, sworn to resist Charles. He could not put them down, and when the Scots invaded England in 1640 Charles, finding he had no money to pay soldiers to fight against them, was forced to call another parliament. This was the famous Long Parliament, so called because it lasted, with various breaks, for 20 years. It took steps to condemn and execute Thomas Wentworth (now Earl of Strafford), who had been one ot the king’s advisers during the eleven years ; to abolish the illegal courts which had been set up in the land ; and to declare the taxes Charles had collected unlawful. It passed a law that it should not be dissolved without its own consent. Charles went to Scotland to try and get help, and to please the Scots, he gave them the freedom of religion they wanted. Men believed, too, that he was trying to get help from the Irish. The Parliament, therefore, to let the people know what was being done, drew up the Grand Remonstrance,” a list of all their complaints against the king during the 16 years he had reigned over the land. This was sent to the king, and printed copies of it were sent all over the country.

Type of Soldier.


Charles was, of course, very angry. He at once made up his mind to terrify the Parliament. He marched to the

House with 500 soldiers, intending to put five of the leaders (Pym, Hampden, and three others) in prison. They had been told of his coming, and had fled. “ Charles had attempted to use force to Parliament, and had done nothing. He did not get the five members into his hands, but he had shown everyone that he was ready to set aside the rights and privileges of Parliament.” War could not now be prevented. Charles went north, and commenced to raise forces. In those days there was not a standing army in England. Each county had its militia, a body of citizen soldiers very much like our volunteers. Over these the king appointed officers. Parliament now passed a Militia Bill to take this power into its own hands. I he king refused to agree to this, and then the First Civil War of the 17th

century began.    .

It was a war between the king and the Parliament, but some of the members of parliament took the side of the king. Parliament had two great grievances against the king (1) His illegal acts since the petition of right was signed ;

(2) his support of the High Church party, led by Archbishop Laud. All the members agreed in condemning Charles ior the first of these points, but opinions were divided on the second, for many members who were opposed to the Puritans believed in the king supporting the Church, and when war broke out many of them, Hyde and Falkland being the chief, went over to the side of the king.

This civil war was unlike the civil war of the 14th century in this respect, that the mass of the people took part in it. Almost every man in England was on one side or the other. 1 he parties to it were called Roundheads and Cavaliers. The latter were the friends of the king, distinguished by their gay clothing, their long curly hair, and their politeness of manner. The former were the Parliamentary party — Puritans, staid and sober men, with close-cropped hair and plain clothing. On the whole, the southern and eastern parts of England supported the Parliament, whilst the north and west sided with the king; or, again, the farmers and shopkeepers were Roundheads, whilst the higher classes, the nobles and gentry, were Cavaliers ; or, to take the division according to their religions, the Puritans supported Parliament, whilst the Catholics and High Churchmen took the side of the king. There were two classes of men among the Roundheads the Presbyterians and the Independents—differing slightly in their religious views, though both were strongly opposed to Catholics and High Churchmen. Both Cavaliers and Roundheads had many good and noble men amongst them.

The war began at Edgehill, where Rupert, the king's nephew, defeated the Roundhead cavalry, but the Earl of Essex, leading the Roundhead infantry, gained a victory over the Cavaliers. On the whole, the king' s side had the best ot the fight during the summer of 1643. By that time several small battles had been fought, and the great John Hampden had been killed on the one side, and Falkland on the other. In the winter, Parliament asked the Scots to help them, and a “ Solemn League and Covenant ” was signed, providing that, if the Scots came over to aid the Roundheads, the Presbyterian religion should be set up in England. But those of the Roundheads who were Independents did not like this. Their great leader was Oliver Cromwell. He thought that the best way to crush the Cavaliers was not to ask for Scottish help, but to train a number of good men as horse-soldiers to fight against them. So, in the East of England, he got together a band of sturdy, just, and upright men. He trained them thoroughly, they became known as The Ironsides, and, as Cromwell proudly boated, they were never beaten, in 1644 they completely crushed the Cavaliers at Mansion Moor. The result was that those who thought as Cromwell did—the Independents—now became the leaders among the Roundheads, and they determined to carry on the war to a definite conclusion. But the Presbyterians were anxious to come to terms with the king as soon as possible. So the Independents felt that they must first get rid of the Presbyterian generals, and an Act called the Self-denying Ordinance was passed, providing that no member of parliament should be an army officer. Parliament, however, permitted Cromwell to keep both positions.

And now Cromwell formed a plan for changing the militia into a force of paid soldiers, and placing it in charge of generals who were chosen not because they were men of importance in Parliament, but because they were good soldiers. And it is remarkable how many of Cromwell’s best officers were men who in private life had followed the humblest callings, such as barbers, plumbers, etc. This New Model army, as it was called, met the king and Rupert at Naseby, and defeated them utterly.

Charles could not get any more soldiers, so he tried to raise quarrels in the Roundhead army between the Presbyterians and the Independents, and men grew to dislike him more and    Cavalier, more. At last Charles saw that his cause was hopeless. He gave himself up to the Scots. They promised to help him to get his throne again if he would agree to then set up their religion in England. He refused this offer, so the Scots handed him over to Parliament, and he was kept in Holmby House, near Northhampton.

Just then the army quarrelled with Parliament, and, to make itself master of England, it marched to London and turned the Presbyterians out of the House ; and then it took possession of Charles, and removed him to Hampton Court. Charles escaped, and got away to the Isle of Wight. There he was shut up in Carisbrooke Castle.

Soon after a Second Civil War broke out, for Charles, whilst a prisoner at Carisbrooke, had secretly agreed with the Scots to set up their religion in England if they would put him on his throne once more. The Scots invaded England in the north-west, but Cromwell marched there and soon crushed them. At the same time some cavaliers raised an army in Charles’s favour in the East ; but they were put down by Fairfax, and the second civil war came to an end.

The army now felt that there would be no peace in the land so long as Charles lived. Bent on bringing him to trial, Colonel Pride, an officer, marched to the door of Parliament House with his soldiers, and kept 100 Presbyterian members from entering. The rest, about 50 Independents, usually known as The Riunp, decided that a High Court of Justice should be appointed for the trial of the king. It said that, as the king derived his power from the people, he should be forced by the people to use it aright, and punished by them if he failed to do so. Charles was brought before the High Court of Justice, found guilty of treason, and executed.

Thus the struggle between king and Parliament was settled for a time by doing away with the office of king altogether.

5.—HAMPDEN.

John Hampden was born in 1594, and was the son of William Hampden, a Buckinghamshire county gentleman. His mother was Elizabeth Cromwell, an aunt of the famous Oliver Cromwell, of whom I will tell you soon. His father died when he was very young ; but young Hampden had a good education, being sent to the University of Oxford when he was 15 years of age. After four years of university life he commenced the study of law, to enable him to act worthily as a magistrate of his county. When 27 years old he entered Parliament as the member for Grampound. His qualities were not of the brilliant order. He was not a finished orator nor a subtle debater, and thus did not attract much notice in the House at first. He was simply a true, honest, educated gentleman, who saw clearly what his duty was, and who determined to do that duty at all costs to himself. And so in James’s third and fourth, and in Charles’s first and second Parliaments, Hampden was not very well known. When, however, Charles I. dissolved his second Parliament, and proceeded to levy a forced loan, Hampden was among' the first to refuse to pay. It was at a time like this, when men were required who would act, and who would gladly risk and suffer all for a great principle, that Hampden showed his worth, nobility, and greatness. Rather than pay the paltry fine he was imprisoned in the Gatehouse at Westminster, where, you will remember, Raleigh was imprisoned before his execution. Hampden was, however, realeased in 1628. He was elected to the next Parliament, but took no active part in it, though working quietly on most of the committees ot the House. After the House dissolved Hampden retired to his country house, and lived a quiet life for five years.

In 1633 Charles found that he needed money to equip the fleet. He accordingly issued an order to the port towns on the English coast to supply him with ships, or the money for ships. These towns supplied him with the latter, and so Charles got the money he needed. Two years later (in 1635) Charles issued another Writ of Ship Money, as it was called, but, instead of demanding money only from the maritime towns, as perhaps he might legally have done, he demanded it also from all the inland towns. Hampden was, of course, expected to pay, but he objected to the king taxing the country whenever he thought proper, without reference to the Parliament of the People, and so he resolutely refused to pay. He was prosecuted (in 1637) for not paying, and, althoug'h the sum was but 20 shillings, still he contested it, for he was fighting for a principle which affected the freedom of the people of England. A verdict was returned against him, and he was forced to pay ; but he had the sympathy ot nearly all men in England, for they thought he had been unjustly treated.

Soon after this Charles summoned his next Parliament, called “ the Short Parliament,” because it was dissolved after a very short time, as it would not grant the king s demands. In 1640 the famous Long Parliament was called together, and here, where strength and constancy of purpose were needed, Hampden took a prominent part. I he Parliament, in order to lessen the king’s power, beheaded Strafford, impeached Archbishop Laud, passed a bill enacting that Parliament should meet at least once in every three years, and presented to the king the “Grand Remonstrance,” asking that the Parliament be allowed to appoint the king’s ministers to administer the affairs of state, and also a body of divines to reform the Church. So bitter was the feeling in Parliament at this time that it appeared as if the king’s friends in Parliament and the Puritans would settle their differences there and then with their swords. But Hampden calmly quietened their angry passions. The king became very angry, and he rashly went in person to secure the arrest of the five leading spirits among his opponents. These were Hampden, Pym, Hazlerigg, Holies, and Strode. They quickly got away by the river door to the city, and when the king arrived he found that the members he wanted had escaped him.

The city took up arms in their behalf, and in 1642 the Civil* War broke out. Hampden raised a regiment in his own county and became Colonel. In 1643, early in the war, he was killed in a small skirmish at Chalgrove Field, fighting courageously, and doing his duty, as he always did, to the very end.

6.—OLIVER CROMWELL.

Oliver Cromwell, the Great Protector, was born at Huntingdon in 1599, of a good and prosperous family. He left school when he was 17 years of age, and then went to the University of Cambridge. In 1628, he was elected to Parliament as member for Huntingdon. At first he did not speak much, but when he thought it is duty to do so, he spoke with great frankness, bluntness, and decision. His first speech was against a Church of England clergyman, who, he said, was preaching certain Catholic doctrines. After this Parliament was dissolved, he lived a quiet country life for about 11 years, just as Hampden had done. In 1640, however, he was returned to the Long Parliament as member for Cambridge.

When the Civil War broke out two years later, Cromwell, ever ready to act, was among the leaders on the Parliamentary side, and he was one of the strongest enemies of the king. He raised two large companies of volunteers in Cambridge, and himself supplied them with arms. In the Parliamentary army he was appointed captain of a troop of horse, and he trained, disciplined, and led these so thoroughly that the) became known all over England as “ Cromwell’s Ironsides.” He received promotion quickly, for he soon showed that he had wonderful skill as a soldier, and at length he became Lieutenant-General. At Marston Moor, and afterwards at Naseby, he led the Parliamentary army on to victory. When, in 1646, Charles, as a last resort, threw himself on the pity of the Scots, and gave himself up to their army, they, after some parleying, handed him over to the English Parliament. Having now got the king into its power, Parliament was anxious to get rid of the army, not only because it was costly to maintain, but because they differed on religious matters. The majority of the members of Parliament were Presbyterians, anxious to force their form of religion upon England. The army was composed chiefly of Independents, who favored the toleration of almost all faiths, excepting the Roman Catholic and Episcopalian. But the soldiers refused to disband till paid the money due to them, and a serious quarrel followed between Parliament and the army. Cromwell did his best to settle the dispute, but before it was settled he heard that Parliament, being now more afraid of the army than of the king, was in treaty with the Scots to bring about a Scottish invasion, and, assisted by a Royalist rising in England, to restore Charles to his throne. When Cromwell heard of this he sent Cornet Joyce and a band of cavalry to Holmby, where the king was being kept, to remove him as a prisoner of the army to London.

Of the subsequent events down to the death of Charles you have read in the last lesson. It is only necessary to say here that Cromwell was the leading spirit in all that was done.

After the execution of the king, the House of Lords was abolished, and all power was to rest in the House of Commons —such as it was, for only about 5° members then attended Parliament. A council of state was set up to rule in the name of the people, but the real power lay in the army. _

The changes in the government were not accepted in Ireland and Scotland. The party of the king was strongest in Ireland, so Cromwell was sent over to command the army there, and as Lord-Lieutenant he subdued the country by force of arms in nine months. Cromwell, now by tar the most powerful man in England, next turned his attention to Scotland, where Charles II., eldest son ot Charles I., having signed the covenant, had been accepted as king.

He inflicted a crushing defeat on the Scots and Royalists at Dunbar on 3rd September, 1650, and, on the same date, in 1651, having followed them into England, he again defeated them at Worcester. This victory placed Cromwell at the head of affairs in England. He dismissed the remnant ol the Long Parliament, which was composed mostly ot weak and useless men, who continued to act as if they were a fully-constituted Parliament.

Cromwell and his officers, afraid to call together a Parliament in the usual way, lest it should favour the accession of Charles II., and overthrow the Puritans, then chose men to meet together to discuss state affairs. 1 his assembly was nicknamed “ Barbones Parliament,” after one ot its leading members named “Praise-God Barbone.’ It commenced to make changes at such a rapid rate that men grew alarmed and the members quarrelled among themselves, so that in five months it was dissolved. Cromwells officers then (1653) appointed him Lord Protector, for, though they would not have a king, they had now come to see that it was necessary to have one man at the head of the state.

Then Cromwell called together several parliaments, but he had to dismiss them, for they either quarrelled among themselves or proposed to do things of which he strongly disapproved. It is worthy of note that Oliver, for the first time, called to the English Parliament members to represent Scotland and Ireland, and that he made an effort to reform the mode of election. Though in dismissing his parliaments when they displeased him, he was not giving the English people the freedom they ought to have had, still Cromwell ruled the country justly and well. He was a very determined man, and when he found that he could not keep order in the country by means of magistrates, he set up major-generals, who used the army to maintain peace.

All persecution stopped, not only in England, but on the Continent, when Cromwell ordered it. All insults to England were quickly avenged, and she attained a position amongst European nations which she had never reached before. In the early days of the Commonwealth, England engaged in a successful naval war for the supremacy in trade with her rivals, the Dutch. On the Mediterranean, too, those who interfered with English trade were crushed, viz., the Pope and the Duke of Tuscany. The pirates ot Tunis were subdued, and Englishmen whom they had captured and brought into slavery were released. Spain and France were then at war, and both were anxious to get England’s help. Cromwell offered to help Spain if it would allow Englishmen to trade with the New World. This being refused, he joined with France, first insisting that the French should compel the Duke of Savoy to cease persecuting the Vaudois, or Waldensian Protestants, who lived among the Alps of Piedmont. In attacking Spain, Cromwell saw the importance of trying to take her colonies, so he sent an expedition to the West Indies to take San Domingo. It failed to take that island, but took Jamaica, the first colony England acquired by conquest. Admiral Blake engaged in many successful battles with the Spanish fleets, and on one occasion he captured a quantity of silver so enormous that 38 waggons were required to convey it to the Tower. Towards the end of Cromwell’s life he sent an English force to help the French against Spain at the battle ot Dunes, and when Dunkirk was taken from Spain it was handed over to Cromwell as payment for his assistance.

Cromwell, however, had many enemies in England, and his mind was kept in a constant state of anxiety. Perhaps the greatest feature of his rule was the toleration which he showed to all creeds, even to the Jews. He died in 1658, on the anniversary of his two great battles, Dunbar and Worcester.

Cromwell was a truly religious man. He did not boast a religion which he did not really believe. His system of government failed, because he tried to rule as the head of a religious democracy when most of the people in the land were opposed not only to his religion, but to the very idea of a democracy. He was not a bloodthirsty man, but when necessary for the good of his native land he acted strongly and promptly. He did not use Parliament as the freedom of the English people required, but he always acted for the honor, peace, and happiness of the land he loved so well.

7.—JOHN MILTON.

John Milton, the great English poet, was born in London in 1608. His father was a prosperous scrivener, that is, one who draws up law papers, and he was also a very good musician. He sent his son to the University of Cambridge when he was 16 years of age. Here Milton was known as ‘‘the Lady,” and if you look at a copy of a portrait of him painted at this time you will see the reason, for he was a beautiful, quiet, sober boy, with a smooth face, large bright eyes, and long hair. He first thought of studying tor the church, but, being disgusted with the leading clergy in England, he determined to remain a layman. When 24 years old he left the University and went home to his father’s house at Hoxton, where he spent five years in diligently studying the ancient Greek and Latin poets. Here he wrote five poems, called U Allegro, II Penseroso, Comus, Arcades, and Lycidas. In Id Allegro, which means “The Joyful Man,” Milton tells, in fresh, sweet-sounding verse, of the joy he feels in country sights and sounds. II Penseroso, or “The Thoughtful Man,” narrates the thoughts of the serious youthful scholar removed far from the noise and strife of a great city. Comus, which is one of the most beautiful poems in our language, relates how a beautiful lady, while travelling-through a dark wood, was captured by robbers, who represent sin and evil, and how she repelled them by her goodness and purity until help came. Lycidas, another fine poem, was written as a tribute to the memory of a very dear young friend who had been drowned. It also rebukes the corruptness of the clergy. This poem, though little read, contains many expressions that have now become household words :—

“ Fresh woods and pastures new ; ”

“ What boots it with incessant care ; ”

“ Strictly meditate the thankless muse “ Fame—that last infirmity of noble minds ; ”

“ Scorn delights and live laborious days.”

Had Milton’s life ended here his name would have lived as that of one of the best of our lesser poets. After writing these poems, Milton travelled on the Continent, but when in Italy he heard that there was political trouble in England, and so he returned at once.

Milton’s dearest wish was to write a great and noble poem. He felt that he had the intellect and ability to do so, and he waited anxiously for the time when his powers should be ripe enough for him to do it worthily. But now he felt that his duty was to use his knowledge and time for the good of his country ; for Milton, like Hampden, always placed duty first. He therefore used all the time, which he would fain have spent upon his great poem, in writing small treatises on political subjects, such as those on Church Reform, Education, Church Government, and the Liberty, of the Press. He was appointed Secretary for Foreign Tongues, and his duty being to translate letters of state into Latin, he was brought into contact with the great Protector.

And now again did Milton show his love for his country, his self-denial, and his nobility. The duties of his public office were arduous, and the Royalists were attacking his party most strongly; he determined to reply to them, and, if possible, crush them in argument. He was told that if he studied any more he would become totally blind. But, sinking all thoughts Gf seif—thinking only of his duty—he chose blindness. He studied very hard, and crushed the Royalists in his “ Defence of the Execution of Charles I.,” but his sight was gone for ever.

When Charles II. became king, Milton retired from public life, and spent the quiet and rest he had so well earned in composing, in spite of blindness and bodily pain, his great epic poem, Paradise Lost. This, the greatest poem in our language, is one of the three greatest heroic poems of the world, and all Milton could get for it was five pounds. It tells of the fall of man .in the garden of Eden, of the mighty war in which God and his angels conquered Satan ; and concludes with the promise of Christ, who should redeem the world from the consequences of sin. The theme is lofty, and no one was ever better fitted to attempt it than Milton.

Milton’s next poem, Paradise Regained, is similar, but shorter, and it relates the attempts of Satan to tempt Christ. In 1670 was published his last poem, Samson Agonistes, in which he relates the Bible story of Samson in the way the old Greek poets used to narrate their stories.

In 1674, at the age of 66, Milton died in great pain. He is, next to Shakespeare, our greatest poet, and his name will never die so long as England or Englishmen live.

8.-THE FIRST EARL OF SHAFTESBURY.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, afterwards the first Earl of Shaftesbury, was one of the greatest statesmen in the reign of Charles II. He was a man who did more than anyone else to carry on the good work begun by Cromwell, though, unlike Cromwell, he was not a soldier. He did not believe in securing his ends by means of an army, but through the work of parliaments, and he was the great champion of toleration at a time when most men were bitterly opposed to the idea.

Cooper was born of a good and wealthy family in 1621. His parents died when he was young, leaving him the possessor of great riches. He received a University education at Oxford, and when there showed those qualities which afterwards distinguished his political life. He was a man with an active, energetic, restless brain, of weak body, but of overpowering mind—a man to lead his fellows, and not to follow them. Unlike Hampden and Cromwell, he could not bear the peace and quiet of country life, but loved to be in the midst of political strife and turmoil. He was first elected to Charles I.’s short Parliament.

When the civil war broke out he joined the king’s side, but he soon tired of that and went over to the side of the Parliament. We next hear of him as a member of the First (or Barbones) Parliament, which Cromwell called together. He thus became very intimate with the great Protector. But Cooper, disapproving of Cromwell’s treatment of the Parliament, a body which he considered of first importance to the freedom of the people, quarrelled with his friend. This was one of the great principles of Cooper’s life; and he upheld it so consistently that all English people must now honour him for it, namely, that Parliament was the people’s great means of securing their freedom and their rights.

He next came to the front as one of the chief movers in the recall of Charles II., for he was one of those who saw that the political experiment of the Commonwealth was not working out successfully in England. When Charles came back he rewarded Cooper with a peerage and the title of Lord Ashley, and made him Chancellor of the Exchequer. The king and Parliament were bent at this time on forcing all people to worship in the Church of England. Ashley, being a very broad-minded man, was in favour of toleration, as Cromwell had been, and hence he was opposed to the Parliament on this question. The king’s chief Minister, at this time, was the Earl of Clarendon, and he brought forward a number of acts (the Clarendon Code), designed to help the king and Parliament in their aims. Under these laws, the Puritans, who had had the upper hand during the Commonwealth, were cruelly persecuted.

After the fall of Clarendon, the king did not make one man his sole adviser. He chose five men (of whom Ashley was one), whom he consulted on matters of state. These men came to be known as “ The Cabal.” Ashley did not play a very important part here, but he strongly supported Charles II. in his attempt to grant religious freedom to Catholics and Dissenters by issuing a Declaration of Indulgence in 1672. Ashley warmly approved of his action, and spoke strongly in favour of it. For this he was created Earl of Shaftesbury. When he found out next year that Charles had made a secret treaty with the King of France, and that his declaration was part of a scheme for undermining the influence of Parliament and establishing the Catholic religion in England, he boldly proclaimed that henceforth he was in favour of toleration for Dissenters only. Charles at once dismissed him from office. He then became the leader of the Parliamentary Opposition the Country Party which opposed Danby, the leader of the Court Party. In a short time he brought about the impeachment of Danby for treason, in carrying on secret correspondence with the King of France. Before this had come about, Shaftesbury had been imprisoned for a year for his attacks on the king and his minister.

A short time after this, a wicked man, named Titus Oates, invented a story of a Popish plot to destroy the king and the Duke of York. Men believed the silly tale, and there was intense excitement in England.

A new parliament was elected in the midst of this excitement, most of the members being Shaftesbury’s friends. He brought in an Exclusion Bill, to shut out the Duke of \ ork (James II.) from the succession to the throne, because he was a Catholic. In the violent discussion over this measure, the members of parliament became divided into two distinct parties, which were afterwards called Whigs and Tories. As Shaftesbury’s friends (the Whigs) seemed likely to carry the Exclusion Bill, the king, to save his brother, dismissed the parliament. Another parliament was elected ; but it followed the same course, and was likewise dismissed. The next year the Third Short Parliament was called ; this time it met at Oxford, because Charles feared a rising of the Londoners, who were mostly Whigs. Shaftesbury’s Whigs went armed to this parliament, and again brought in the Exclusion Bill. This action disgusted many men who had formerly sided with the Whigs ; for those who remembered the Civil War, 40 years earlier, were alarmed to see men going to parliament ready to use force. So, when Charles dissolved this the last of the Three Short Parliaments, the majority of Englishmen supported his action.

The king then persecuted the Whigs, and threw many of them into prison. Shaftesbury was charged with treason, but the trial was abandoned for a time. Later on, when the king was planning a fresh charge against him, Shaftesbury, knowing that he would most likely be executed, fled to Holland, and there he died (1683) a few weeks later.

The two great principles for which Shaftesbury had fought and suffered—Toleration, and the Rule of the Parliament— were adopted by England six years after his death, when William of Orange became king.

9.—WILLIAM OF ORANGE AND THE WAR OF GRAND ALLIANCE.

William of Orange, who became King William III. of England, was, through his mother, a grandson of Charles I. He had married his cousin Mary, daughter of James II. He was the President of the Dutch Republic, and since boyhood he had been engaged in fighting against Louis XIV., the brilliant and powerful King of France, who, ambitious of extending his lands, had long been attacking Holland.

When the English Parliament decided to make a change in the succession to the English throne, it was natural that they should look to William for help. He was closely connected with the English royal line, both by descent and marriage. He was a great soldier, and a soldier might be needed to enforce the changes which Parliament desired. He was the leader of the Protestant party in Europe, and one of the complaints against James was that he tried to bring the Catholic religion into England. And then he was also the great opponent of the ambitious Louis XIV., who had encouraged both Charles II. and James II. to resist the will of Parliament. So when Parliament at length despaired of settling its quarrels with the Stuart kings by peaceable means, it was decided to invite William of Orange to come over and help to free England from the power of his father-inlaw. William landed in the south, prepared to fight, but

Arms of William III.


James, deserted by all, fled to France, and tried to get Louis XIV, to put him back on his throne by force. Parliament declared the throne vacant, and, after drawing up a “ Declaration of Right,” which clearly laid down the rights of the people, they put William III. and Mary II. on the throne. Thus the Great Revolution of 1688 ended without bloodshed. It set up a new king and queen, who did not claim the throne by “Divine right,” but by the will of Parliament.

stern man.    He was

He did not win the    _

because of his sour nature, and because he gave many Dutchmen positions in England ; but his ability and wisdom won the respect of his people.    He could not

speak the English language very well, and men were willing to be ruled by a Dutchman only because, otherwise, their laws and liberties would have been trampled upon by James II. and the French king. William did not understand English ways and English politics, and the constant struggles of the different parties wearied him. His one great desire was to break down the great power of King Louis of France, and it was with the view of uniting England and Holland in that great Struggle that he accepted the position of King of England.


King William was a cold, silent, thoughtful, and wary, love of his English subjects,

As many of William’s supporters were dissenters who did not agree with the forms of worship in the Church of England, a law was passed to grant them permission to set up their own churches in the land, though the Test Act, preventing them from holding office under Government, was still kept in force. The Catholics were still prevented by law from worshipping in their own churches.

But Scotland and Ireland were not willing to accept William as their king, and in both of those countries he had to fight for his crown. The fighting, especially in Ireland, was stubborn and bitter, but, by the end of 1691, both countries had been subdued.

Before this had been brought about William had become engaged in a war with France. After the defeat of the Spanish Armada, Spain had gradually declined in power. England and Holland had then engaged in a struggle for the supremacy in trade. This had led to two or three wars between the two nations. But this struggle was ended by the marriage of William and Mary in 1677, and from that time the two countries were in alliance against France. The war which followed was known as the War of the Grand Alliance. It was the first of the seven great wars which England waged against France during the 126 years that followed the Great Revolution of 1688. In all these wars, though it does not always appear so on the surface, the underlying cause of war was the question of trade and the possession of colonies.

France at this time had designs upon Spain, and the union of France and Spain would have meant that the Spanish New World, comprising almost all the gold-producing territory and the greatest exporters of tropical produce in the world, should be under the rule of the strongest king in Europe.

Louis XIV. was king of France for 72 years (1643-1715). He had taken the government of his country into his own hands on the death of Cardinal Mazarin (1661), and he had soon afterwards married Maria Theresa of Spain. He had enlarged his dominions by conquest on all sides, and he had for a long time been trying, by underhand ways, to make England a Roman Catholic country and a dependency of France. England and Holland were the two great Protestant powers of Europe then, and they also had the strongest fleets. As Louis was sheltering James II., and treating him as if he were still the King of England, war was at last declared against France. England and Holland were soon joined by Spain and Vienna, thus forming the Grand Alliance. But Spain was so weakened by her recent troubles, and Vienna was so busy fighting against the Turks, that they could give little help.

In 1690 Tourville, the French Admiral, defeated the English off Beachy Head. Two years later Louis and James had collected a large army on the coast of Normandy, and they had a fleet ready to convey it over to invade England. The English Admiral, Lord Russell, was a Catholic and a supporter of James II., but, for all that, he was not willing that the French should get the better of the English. The battle which followed, off La Hogue, ended in the complete defeat of the French. “It was the greatest naval battle between the Armada and the battle of Trafalgar,” and it completely put an end to James’s hope of being restored to his throne by French aid.

The war on land was not very pleasing to either side. There were no very great battles, and though William was often defeated he was so skilful in his tactics that Louis g-ot little advantage from the victories he won. The war had been exhausting and expensive, so both sides at length wished to end it. In 1678 peace was signed at Ryswick. Louis agreed that he would give no further help to James, but would acknowledge William as King of England. He also gave up nearly all the lands which he had taken by conquest during the war.

10.—MARLBOROUGH AND THE WAR OF SPANISH SUCCESSION.

John Churchill, who afterwards became the Duke of Marlborough, was the greatest soldier of his age, and one of the greatest England has ever produced.

He was the son of Sir Winston Churchill, an old cavalier who had fallen upon evil days, and lived in retirement in Devonshire. There John was born in 1650. After Charles the Second became king, the young lad became a page at the royal court. His handsome face, polite manners, glib tongue, and plucky conduct made him a great favourite. In due time he received a commission in the army, and was sent to Tangier, which had lately become an English possession, being part of the dowry of the Portuguese princess whom Charles II. married. Later on he served with the French,

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under Marshall Turenne, against Holland. He won much distinction and proved to possess all the qualities ot a great soldier—sound judgment, marked courage, a cool temper, and a steady determination. When he returned he became a great friend of the Duke of York, and on the Duke becoming King James II., Churchill was appointed Colonel in the Life Guards. It was to his skill that James owed the complete defeat of Monmouth at the Battle of Sedgemoor, and for a time he was loaded with gifts and honours. But, though he was so friendly with the king, he was disgusted with many things that James did, such, for example, as his cruel treatment of those who had taken part in Monmouth’s rebellion.

When William of Orange landed in England, Churchill was one of the first to leave James and take theside of the Prince ; and he got his wife, the beautiful Sarah Jennings, to persuade her intimate friend, the Princess Anne, to desert her father and go over to the side of William. He received an important position in William’s army, and fought for him both in Ireland Marlborough.    and on the Continent,

with such success that the king made him Earl of Marlborough. But afterwards, because he was jealous of the favour which William showed to some of his Dutch friends, he basely entered into an agreement with the late king to oppose William, and he got his wife to stir up a quarrel between Princess Anne and her sister, Queen Mary II. Eor these reasons he was dismissed from the army in disgrace.

But, ten years later, circumstances made it necessary for William to take Marlborough again into his favour, not because he trusted him, but because he knew that he himself was weak and likely soon to die, and Marlborough was the only man in England who had the skill, ability, and influence to carry out the coming war,

The War of Spanish Succession, which began in 1702 and lasted for 11 years, was the second of the great series of seven wars waged against France during the 18th century. For some years before his death William III. had been trying to settle the question of the succession to the throne of Spain. King Charles II. of Spain was sick and likely to die, and he had no children. As Louis XIV. of France had married the Spanish King’s sister, his grandson (for his son was dead) was the heir to the Spanish crown. But England thought that, if a French prince ruled in Spain, France would not only become too powerful in Europe, but would shut out England from her share of trade in the New World. Spain at that time owned Mexico and South America ; France had founded a colony in Canada, and was just forming settlements in the Mississippi Valley. Before the King of Spain died William got France to agree that the throne of Spain should fall to Archduke Charles of Austria. But when Charles II. of Spain died, in 1700, it was found that he had left the throne to Philip, the grandson of Louis XIV., and Louis broke his promise and accepted it. Though William III. wished to declare war against him, Parliament would not consent. William had all along regarded the peace of Ryswick as merely a truce. He knew the character of the French king so well that he did not trust him, and he had wished to keep a standing army in readiness to attack France, but Parliament was not willing. They forced him to disband it, and to send his Dutch guards back to Holland. And now, though Louis had proved faithless, Parliament was unwilling to renew the war. But just then James II. died in France, and Louis, again breaking his promise, acknowledged James Edward Stuart as King of England. The English then became very angry ; they saw that William had been right in his distrust of Louis. Parliament voted money for a great war, and William commenced to gather soldiers, but in the midst of the preparations he died. Marlborough took his place, not only as leader of the war, but for seven years, owing to his wife’s great influence over the queen, he practically ruled England.

The war was carried on chiefly in the Netherlands, in Spain, in the Mediterranean Sea, and in the New World. England was joined by Holland, Austria, Prussia, and Hanover.

On the outbreak of the war Louis had occupied Holland,

Marlborough skilfully drove him from the country, and occupied Liege. For this he was made a duke, and awarded a pension of £5,000 a year. Two years later Bavaria joined France, and a large army, led by Marshall Tallard, marched towards Vienna. The intention was to capture Vienna, detach Austria from her alliance with England, and then invade England and place the Pretender on the throne. Marlborough went up the Rhine, crossed the Black Forest Mountains, and marched to the Danube. He and Prince Eugene of Savoy met the enemy at Blenheim (1704 a.d.), and won a glorious victory. Tallard was slain ; Louis was, for the first time in his brilliant career, completely beaten, and the French were driven out of Germany. For several years Marlborough continued to spend greater part of his time in fighting against Louis in Holland. The greatest of his victories were those of Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet. At last he was successful in driving the French out of Holland.

In Spain, English soldiers did not get on so well, because the Spaniards, as a whole, wished to have the French prince as their king, and not the Austrian prince, whose claims England was supporting. But one conquest of great importance was made. Admiral Rooke, who was cruising off the coast of Spain, landed a small body of soldiers, and 10 days before the Battle of Blenheim, they took Gibraltar. Though many attempts have since been made to retake it, it remains a British possession to this day.

In the Mediterranean, the chief incident was the capture of Minorca. The island remained a British possession for 70 years.

In the New World, Acadie (now Nova Scotia) was taken from the French, and the Island of St. Kitts, in the West Indies, was also captured ; but an attack on Canada failed.

The war dragged on for some years ; but at last, in 1713, a treaty of Peace was signed at Utrecht. It was agreed that Philip should become King of Spain, but that the crowns of France and Spain were never to be united. Louis XIV. promised to give no further help to the Pretender. England was allowed to keep Gibraltar and Minorca, Nova Scotia and St. Kitts. And at the same time England acquired the very important right to trade with the Spanish Colonies in the New World.

“ This peace left France (which had been the leading state in the world for the last 40 years) completely crushed. Outside of her own country, only Louisiana and Canada remained to her. It left England the first state in the world without a rival. At the Armada,” says Professor Seeley, “ England entered on the race for supremacy. At Utrecht she won the race.”

11.—THE UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.

Royal Arms

during the 18th Century'


The great question which occupied the attention of the various nations of Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries was that of trade and commerce. After the discovery of the New World, men saw that peoples became wealthy, not only by procuring gold and silver from mines there, but also by bringing over to Europe the various vegetable products which the Indies afforded, and selling them at a profit. This question led to the rivalry between England and Spain, which culminated in the defeat of the Armada ; it caused the rivalry between England and Holland, which led to two great naval wars, and it was one of the chief causes of the rivalry between England and France, which led to the most important series of wars in the world’s history. And this same rivalry in trade had much to do with bringing about the union of England and kcotland.

Since the time when James I. became King of England many men had hoped for this union. James had himself tried to bring it about, but the English Parliament had not supported his view. From the days of Edward III. to the time of Elizabeth, Scotland had been in almost constant alliance with France, but that alliance came to an end at the time of the Scottish Reformation. Still, though Scotland and England were now ruled by the same king, Englishmen looked upon Scotsmen as foreigners, and by their Navigation Acts they compelled the payment of heavy duties on all goods

exported by Scotland to England and the English colonies. This was causing ill-feeling in Scotland.

Scotland, seeing the importance of trade with the New World, had, during the reign of William III., tried to found a colony on the Isthmus of Darien or Panama. I he scheme failed. Scotsmen had not set about the matter in a thoughtful way. They had fixed the place of their settlement in a most unhealthy part of the New World. It was against Spanish law for foreigners to trade in Spanish colonies, and yet this Darien colony was actually started on lands claimed by Spain for the purpose of engaging in an unlawful trade with Spanish colonists. We cannot wonder that the Darien scheme was a complete failure.

But the Scottish people thought England had done something to make Spain oppose them, and this increased their bitterness against England.

The Scottish Parliament therefore passed a law—“ I he Act of Security ”—providing that unless England allowed Scotland freedom of trade, and promised that there should be no interference with their Presbyterian religion, they would choose another ruler on the death of Queen Anne.

This caused a very angry feeling in England, and so bitter did men become that it seemed as if there would be war between the two nations. Just then, however, the wiser statesmen on both sides saw that it would be to the advantage of both countries to settle their differences by a union of parliaments. England would not then have any fear that Scotland would assist France, as she had so often done in past years. This was important to England just then, for the war of Spanish Succession was going on. Scotland would, by becoming united to England, secure the right, which England had, to trade in the New World.

After much discussion, an Act of Union was passed in 1707. It provided that Scotland should be allowed to keep her own laws and her own religion (the Presbyterian). She was to have free trade with England, and to send to the English Parliament 45 members of the House of Commons and 16 Peers.

Wales had sent members to the English Parliament since the times of the Tudors, so the whole island now became united, and the name Great Britain was conferred upon it. The union has now lasted for nearly two centuries, and it has conferred incalculable good on both countries.

12.—MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF STUART TIMES.

During the times of the Stuarts we find very various styles and fashions of dress. The Puritan, staid and sober, wore clothing of black or dark brown, devoid of ornamentation ;

Carriage of 17th Century.

whilst, in sharp contrast to him, the Cavalier wore gay coloured and richly embroidered garments of fashionable and pictur-

esque cut. Great improvements were made in the buildings, and many of the finest stone houses in England were erected during this period.    _

The drinking of warm beverages became usual in England during the 17th century. Cocoa or chocolate came into use at the time of the Commonwealth. At first it was used only as a medicine; but, after the introduction of coffee, which was brought in somewhat later, both drinks came to be largely used in lieu of beer and wine, though the latter beverages were still used in many cases to excess, and drunkenness was a common vice. Tea was brought into England later still. The new taste for warm drinks led to the establishment, in London and other large towns, of coffee-houses, which became places of resort for men of rank and fashion, and for those engaged in literature and politics—and, in fact, each class had its own favourite coffee-house. One would be the rendezvous of the Cavaliers, another of the Puritans, another of the literary men, another of the lawyers, and so on.

As men of influence frequented these houses, state affairs came to be discussed there, and thus some or them acquired political importance. From the chaste and elegant essays of the great Joseph Addison we get many a side-light on the important part they played in national life ; filling, as they did, in a large measure, the place of the gentlemen’s clubs of our day.

London, in the time of Queen Anne, was slightly larger than the Sydney of to-day ; whilst the population of England was about 5,000,000. Though the buildings, especially in the largest towns, were much improved, the sanitary arrangements were still very unsatisfactory. The streets were filthy ; many of them had open sewers running through them ; house refuse was thrown out on open squares in the middle of the towns, and small attention was given to drainage and ventilation.

Merchants lived at their places of business, for the idea of suburban residences is much more modern. The streets, even of the largest cities, were not lighted at night till, towards the end of the 17th century, the custom of hanging lighted lanterns on the outside of the houses in winter evenings came into vogue. Thieves and robbers prowled about in dark places, and there was no police system to guard life and property.

Manufactures grew in number and importance during

this period. Norwich was the chief manufacturing centre, and Bristol ranked next to London as a seaport, The great modern manufacturing towns of Leeds, Manchester, and Sheffield then had only a few thousands of people each. Iron manufactures were carried on, the smelting being done with charcoal ; for though coal had been discovered, it was only used for domestic purposes.

Farming employed four times as many men as manufacturing, and trade was becoming more and more important each year. Still, it is estimated that one-fifth of the people in the land were paupers.

Roads were badly made. In dry weather they were, in places, knee-deep in dust, whilst the mud, in wet weather, made them almost impassable. The fastest vehicle of the time was the “ Flying Coach,” capable of travelling 50 miles a day.

Science and literature made great strides during the Stuart period. Isaac Newton, the great philosopher and mathematician ; William Harvey, the eminent physician and discoverer of the circulation of blood, and many other scientists of note flourished in the 17th century.

John Milton, the poet (of whom I have already told you); Bunyan, the author of the immortal “Pilgrim’s Progress ” ; Dryden, prince of satirists ; John Locke, the philosopher ; Clarendon, the historian ; Butler, the Royalist poet and writer of the burlesque poem, “ Hudibras ” ; Addison and Steele, writers of pure, elegant, humourous and refined English, and the founders of periodical literature, all lived and wrote during the times of the Stuart kings.

|| _Twelve Stories for the Second

i.—THE JACOBITES.

After the Great Revolution of 1688, many men in England, chiefly belonging to the Tory party, wished to see James placed on the throne once more. These people came to be called Jacobites (a name derived from Jacobus, the Latin word for James). During the reign of William III. they were not very formidable.    They taunted Queen

Mary II. with having turned her father off the throne for her own advantage, and they formed several unsuccessful plots against William III. The French king took up their cause, but without success. James II. died six months before William III., and then the Jacobites transferred their allegiance to his son, James Edward Stuart, then a lad of 13, afterwards known as the Pretender.

British Grenadier.


In the reign of Anne, little occurred to give the Jacobites hope, for men’s thoughts were taken up with the quarrels between the Whigs and Tories at home, and the war with France abroad. Bol-ingbroke, one of the two Tory leaders, towards the end of Anne’^ reign, was believed to favour the Pretender ; but he had been dismissed from office, and the Whigs werer ecalled to power, just before Anne died.

When George I. came to the throne, the Jacobites became more active. In September, 1715, the Pretender’s cause was taken up in Scotland by the Earl of Mar, a Scottish nobleman, who took advantage of the widespread discontent at the union, and of the uneasy feeling caused by the riots just before, to lead the Highland clans in revolt.

The Duke of Argyll was the

leader on the king’s side. He was able to keep the rebels from leaving the Highlands, and at the Battle of Slieriffmuir, though both sides claimed the victory, the Royalist forces were not dislodged from their position. On

the same day, some Jacobites in the north-west of England were also fighting the cause of the Pretender; but their leaders were arrested at Preston, and the insurrection failed.

Towards the end of that same year the Pretender himself came over, landed on the north-east coast of Scotland, and marched to Dundee ; but he was so dull and stupid that his followers did not like him when they saw him, and, as the British Government was sending an army to attack him, he and Mar escaped to France.

Many of the rebels from the north-west of England, including Lords Derwentwater and Kenmure were executed. Lord Nithsdale would have suffered a similar tate, but his wife, who visited him on the day before that fixed tor his execution, induced him to escape in disguise, dressed in her clothing.

When the Pretender returned to France, he saw that he had small hope of getting the English throne without the aid of some foreign army.

Spain, being dissatisfied with the Peace of Utrecht, had declared war against England just before, but had been beaten off Cape Passaro by Admiral Byng. It now offered help to the Jacobites. Most of the fleet sent from Cadiz to help the Scottish Jacobites suffered damage in a storm, and had to return. A few Spanish soldiers landed at Glenshiel, on the west of Scotland, but they were easily defeated.

France gave no help just then, because the Regent the Duke of Orleans hoped to get English help to place him on the French throne in the event of the death of the sickly young French king.

The Jacobites made no further move till near the end of George IPs reign, when the country was in a ferment, caused by a financial crisis—the South Sea Bubble—and, as a son had just been born to the Pretender, a new invasion was talked of. Bishop Atterbury, of Rochester, accused of secretly helping this plot, was banished from England, and nothing came of the proposal just then.    ^

During the reign of George II. (in 1744) France was engaged in war with England—the war ol Austrian Succession. As part of her plan she stirred up the Jacobites to make another attempt to get the English throne. France supplied soldiers and stores, but the fleet which was conveying them from Dunkirk to Scotland was shattered by a storm and returned. Next year Prince Charles, the Younger Pre-

tender, now aged 25, landed almost alone in the west of Scotland to support his father’s cause. The Highlanders at first were too cautious to join him, but his eager words and his gallant bearing soon won their hearts, and within a month he had an army of 1,600. Sir John Cope, the royalist leader in Scotland, was an incapable soldier. He marched his army north to Inverness in search of Charles. Thus the prince was able to march unopposed to Edinburgh, where he proclaimed his father as King James VIII. Cope returned by sea to Dunbar. Charles marched out from Edinburgh to meet him, and at Prestonpans he put the Royalists to rout. Charles then got many new followers, and, supplied by France with money and arms, he led 6,000 men across the border at Carlisle to march south on London. They got as far as Derby, but, as the expected rising of English Jacobites did not take place, and there were large forces opposing him, he turned back to Scotland. (There had been a panic in London on Black Friday, the day he reached Derby). General Hawley met Charles at Falkirk, near the River Forth, and defeated him. Then he fell back upon Inverness. George’s second son, the Duke of Cumberland, went there with 8,000 soldiers, and encamped on Cullodeji Moor. Prince Charles attempted to surprise him, but the English had by this time become used to the Highland method of fighting, and he was completely defeated. He escaped to the Highlands. The inhuman Cumberland sent his soldiers round the field to slay all the wounded soldiers—hence his nickname, “The Butcher.” Charles was a fugitive in the Highlands for five months, and, though a reward of ,£30,000 was offered for his capture, not a Highlander would betray the “ Bonnie Prince Charlie,” as he was affectionately called. At last, Flora McDonald, a Hig'hland lady, took him, disguised as a maid-servant, to the sea coast, whence he escaped to France. He lived for 42 years after this, but his life was a sad one. England arranged that he should be expelled from France. He wandered about from country to country, finally settling in Rome, where he was known as the Duke of Albany. In later life he became a broken-down drunkard. His brother Henry, the last male descendant of the Stuarts, became a cardinal, and died in 1807.

The present King of Italy is a descendant, through the female branch (Charles IPs daughter), of the Stuart line of English kings.

2.—ROBERT WALPOLE.

Walpole.


Robert Walpole, the great Whig- minister, was the fifth ot 19 children born to a g-entleman of Norfolk. He became a country squire and land owner, and on his father’s death (1701)

Walpole, then 25 years old, succeeded him as member of Parliament. Just about that time he married the daug-hter of the    Lord

Mayor of London. On    the

accession of Queen Anne (1702) there was a new election, and Walpole became member for Lvnn. He continued to represent that borough for 40 years without a break.

Joining the Whig party, he became a friend of the Duke of Marlborough, and, owing to his influence,

Walpole filled several minor offices in the Government whilst the war of Spanish succession was in progress.

After the accession of George I., he became Minister for Finance in a Whig Ministry, of which his brother-in-law,

I ownshend, was leader. But owing to a quarrel with Stanhope, another leading Minister, concerning H anoverian matters, Walpole soon retired from office. Joining the ranks of the Opposition, he next became prominent in opposing Stanhope’s Bill to repeal the Occasional Conformity Act - a law passed in the time of Queen Anne, eight years earlier, to compel dissenters who were Government servants to attend the Church of England. Walpole failed in this, but he succeeded in throwing out Stanhope’s Peerage Bill, which, he argued, would have made the House of Lords more powerful than the House of Commons.

Just then there was a great financial crisis in England, brought about by the failure of the South Sea Company. It caused widespread distress, and involved the honor of the Government, since its scheme had received the sanction of Parliament. Throughout the land there was a general feeling that the only man who could restore public credit and help to

assuage the misery caused by the crisis was Walpole. So, in 1721, he was made Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury. Just then the English people were beginning to learn that their country might be governed by ministers instead of by the king. King George could not speak English, therefore he remained away from meetings of the Cabinet (i.e., the body of King’s Ministers). It became necessary, therefore, that one of the Ministers should act as chairman or leader of that body, which, now that its members were all chosen from the one party in Parliament, was beginning to be called The Ministry. Hence the leading member of the Ministry came to be known as the first or Prime Minister (sometimes abbreviated to Premier). Walpole was the first man to take this title. He retained office for 21 years.

Walpole was a man of very even temper, skilful in managing men, and very clever in dealing with finance. He was not a great scholar—he took little delight in reading ; nor was he a great orator ; but he was a splendid man of business, and had plenty of common sense. He was rough and uncouth in his manners, and very jealous of men who were cleverer or more powerful than himself.

During the 21 years that he was Premier, his great aim was to keep himself in power. In order to do this, he had (like other politicians of his time) to pay for his support. Ambitious members of parliament were rewarded with offices and honours, poor members got gifts of money. Men endured this corrupt system only because they feared that if the Tories came into power they might attempt to restore the Pretender to the throne.

Walpole’s two great services to his country were the successful care of its finances and the maintenance of peace at home and abroad. England was exhausted just then. She had been drained of much of her money and many of her best men by the two great wars in which she had recently been engaged (Grand Alliance and Spanish Succession), and what she most needed was peace to recover her exhausted energies and to develop her partly neglected resources. Walpole adopted the motto, “ Let sleeping dogs lie.” He knew that if another foreign war broke out there would be a new Jacobite rebellion, therefore his foreign policy was one of peace. His home policy was one of moderation. He did not propose any violent changes in the existing laws, and when his schemes

met with opposition he was willing- to withdraw them for the time being or to modify them, so long as he was allowed to retain power.

Jealousy of their superior ability caused him to dismiss two of his ministers, Carteret and Pulteney. They joined in opposition to him, and though they were assisted by a number of the younger Whigs, led by a young man (William Pitt) who was afterwards to fill a large place in history, they failed to displace him.

When Walpole had been six years in power, George I. died. George II. wished to dismiss the Premier, but his queen, Caroline, much abler and more sensible than himself, influenced him to retain Walpole’s services.

In dealing with finance, Walpole had observed that the revenue suffered much loss from the common practice of smuggling. Customs duties were also expensive taxes to collect, for a whole army of coast-guards had to be paid to guard the coasts and attempt to keep down the smuggling. Walpole proposed to get over these two difficulties by imposing an excise duty, to be paid by goods as they left the warehouse, instead of as they entered the country. His Excise Bill, however, met with so much opposition that he tactfully followed his usual plan and withdrew the bill, rather than risk loss of office.

In carrying out his policy of peace he was greatly helped by the fact that France was then ruled by a great minister, who also had a great desire for peace. But, in 1733, the nations of Europe were all involved in a great Polish war, during which Spain and France fought on the same side. While the war was proceeding these two nations agreed to a treaty providing that they would help one another against Austria and England. Spain was angry with England because of the smuggling which still went on in the New World. Walpole heard of the alliance between France and Spain, but he would not, though most of the English people desired it, declare war. He was annoyed at the doings of British traders and smugglers in the Spanish colonies, and, though Spain cruelly treated Englishmen whom she caught breaking her laws, and all England was crying out for vengeance, for a long time Walpole would not move.

At last Parliament forced him into a Spanish war. It was not very successful, and Walpole was blamed for its failure, and, at last, in 1742, he was forced to resign.

He was appointed to the House of Lords as Earl of Orford, but in three years he died (1745), JLlst a ^ew months before the young- Pretender landed in Scotland.

Under Walpole’s rule England became settled and contented, the house of Hanover became firmly established on the throne, and the government of England passed out of the hands of the king into those of the ministers chosen from the strongest party in the House of Commons.

3.-THE WAR OF AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION.

This war, which lasted for nine years (1739-1748), occurred in the reign of George II. It was the third of the series of seven wars between England and France over the question of colonies and trade.

It began as a war against Spain. The old troubles in the New World were now becoming more acute. Englishmen were still smuggling goods into Spanish colonies, so Spain claimed the right to search all English vessels found in American waters, and she treated English sailors very cruelly. There was also a dispute as to the boundary line between the Spanish Colony of Florida and the English Colony of Georgia. Englishmen were anxious for war, but Walpole firmly declined. At last a ship’s captain named Robert Jenkins had his ear cut off during a quarrel with some Spanish officers over in the New World. He brought his severed ear home to England, and told men that he “ had commended his soul to God and his cause to the country.” This cry was taken up by Walpole’s enemies, and he was at last forced to declare war against Spain in the New World. Admiral Vernon took Portobello, but a few months later a large British force was beaten back from Cartagena. The war was not a success, but there was one incident pleasing to Englishmen of that time. Commodore Anson, who was sent out to attack the Spanish Colonies of Peru and Chili, seized many ships, and, returning home via the Philippines, he took a Manilla galleon, and reached England, after four years’ absence, with £1,250,000 in gold.

This colonial war with Spain gradually merged into a great European war, in which England and France once more met as enemies. Charles of Austria died in 1740, leaving his dominions to his daughter, Maria Theresa, Before his

death, he had got nearly all the European powers to sign a Pragmatic Sanction, binding themselves to uphold Maria’s claim. But now only England and Holland stood true to their promise. Frederick the Great of Prussia seized Silesia. The Elector of Bavaria took the title Duke of Austria, and was carried by a French army to Vienna. George II. went over to Europe to support Maria Theresa’s claims, and, with a large army of British, Hanoverians, and Dutch, he crushed the French and Bavarians at Dettingen. France then declared war against England, and persuaded the Jacobites to renew their attempt to get the English throne. Prince Charles Stuart therefore crossed over to Scotland (1745), and raised the rebellion of which you have already read. England then induced Maria Theresa to conclude peace with Prussia, and her husband, Francis of Lorraine, got the Austrian throne. Then the war was almost entirely between England and France. The English, led by the Duke of Cumberland, were defeated by the French at Fontenoy. The French then occupied Flanders, and the English armies returned home for a time to help in crushing the Jacobite rebellion of 1745.

Meanwhile English ships had been successful in the New World, and Cape Breton Island was taken from the French.

After the young Pretender had left Great Britain, Cumberland returned to carry on the war in Europe. B"t after two years, during which time France had gained a few small successes on Land, and England had won a few small engagements at sea, a peace was agreed to. By the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, all conquests were restored, and whilst Frederick the Great was allowed to keep Silesia, Maria Theresa got all the rest of her dominions. The peace only lasted for eight years, and even during that time the fighting between Englishmen and Frenchmen in the colonies went on almost incessantly, till, at last, it led to the outbreak of the great Seven Years’ War in 1756.

4.—THE GREAT COMMONER AND THE SEVEN YEARS’ WAR.

William Pitt, who became known as the Great Commoner, and later as Earl of Chatham, was born in 1708. He was the grandson of a man of the same name, who had served as a governor in Madras, and, on being retired,

had settled in the south-west of England, and bought wide estates there, on one of which was the rotten borough of Old Sarum. The Great Commoner was first elected as member for this borough in 1735. He had been educated at Trinity College, Oxford, but did not remain there long enough to take a degree, for, owing to ill-health, he had had to leave college. His father had died, and Pitt had not been left well off, but he was able to travel in Europe before settling down as an officer of the army, a position which he subsequently abandoned for a seat in Parliament.

Pitt was a born orator, able to speak brilliantly, and express himself clearly, without preparing' his speeches beforehand. He was a tall, slight, young man, erect in posture, with a small head, thin face, long, sharp nose and piercing eyes. That which made him notable amongst men of his own age, and of all time, was his love for England. No matter whether England was right or wrong, Pitt was always loyal to her, and always anxious to serve her interests. In an ag'e when most men in Parliament could be bribed to vote against their convictions, Pitt, poor though he was, sternly refused to bribe or be bribed.

In Parliament he first came into notice by his attacks on    The Great commoner.

Walpole. He was one of a

number of young men, called by Walpole the Boys, who thought that the Premier was responsible for most of the wrongs they saw around them, and who felt disgusted at the way parliamentary affairs were carried on. They called themselves the Patriots. Walpole laughed at them. He said that when they grew older they would come to understand that members could not be managed without bribery; but, though some of the Patriots did in time fall away as he had predicted, Pitt remained to the end pure

and true—“ The first statesman since the Restoration who set an example of a purely public spirit.”

At the time of the affair of Jenkins’s Ear, Pitt took up with much vigour the popular cry for a war against Spain; because he believed that England had the right to trade anywhere, and that Spain’s claim to the right of search was an insult to England. But when Walpole lost office he was disappointed in not being asked to join the new ministry. Two years later the Pelhams formed the Broad-Bottomed Ministry, so called because every member of parliament who was likely to attack them was offered a place in it. They wished Pitt to take office ; but the king, who disliked him because of his attacks on Hanover, refused to have him. In two years’ time, when the young Pretender’s rebellion was at its height, the king was forced to give way and admit Pitt to office. (This was the first occasion on which Parliament was able to force a King to accept a minister.) Pitt became paymaster of forces. By this time, though not rich, he was somewhat better off, for the Duchess of Marlborough had left him ^ 10,000, because of his attacks upon Walpole. Though paymasters before him had grown rich by bribery, Pitt refused to accept any money above the regular salary of the office.

There were in those days no newspaper accounts of the doings in Parliament, and no public speaking outside of it ; but gradually men got to know of his uprightness, and he became very popular all over the country—perhaps the most popular man who ever held office. But in Parliament the members did not like him, for many of them expected to be bribed, and, after being in office for eight years, he was thrown out in 1754.

In 1756 the Seven Years War broke out. It was the fourth of the great series of seven wars between England and France. For one reason or other most of the countries of Europe were engaged in it. As far as England was concerned, the war grew out of the quarrels between English and French colonists in America and India. France took up the fighting in Europe against Frederick the Great of Prussia, whilst, on the sea and in the colonies, she fought against England. The war opened badly, for Prime Minister Newcastle was incapable of directing a great war. The French took Minorca (then a British possession), and Admiral Byng, who failed to defend it because the attacking French fleet was larger than his own, came home in disgrace. Newcastle was afraid that

the mob would want to hang- him for his incapacity, so he resigned.

Pitt then came into office. He was called the Secretary of State, but he was in fact, though not in name, Prime Minister. He had not been long in office till he quarrelled with George II., and he was then dismissed. But they could not get on without him. All over England the people rose to do him honour ; they “ rained gold boxes” on him, and lovingly called him the Great Commoner. He was at the height of his popularity—the idol of the nation —and the people would have no one but him. “ I know,” said he, “that I can save this nation, and no one else can.’ He was recalled to power, and he at once took charge of the war.

The Duke of Cumberland had just returned from Europe in disgrace, after being defeated by the French in trying to defend Hanover. Pitt commenced by choosing the best generals he could get. He dismissed the incompetent officers who had got their positions through influence and bribery, and appointed in their places young men of proved worth and capacity.

Pitt appointed Ferdinand of Brunswick to the command of Cumberland’s army in Europe, sending over English money and soldiers to help. Among the soldiers sent over were some Highland regiments, composed of men who only a few years before had fought for the Pretender against the English, but who now, and on many an occasion since, gave valiant help to the English forces. Ferdinand drove the French from Hanover, defeating them at Crefeld. They fell back upon Frankfort, but in attempting to dislodge them there, he was beaten at Bergen, near the River Maine. Next year, however, Ferdinand inflicted on them a crushing defeat at Minden, whence they fled, leaving 7,000 dead on the field.

France hoped to land an army in England, but her three fleets, stationed respectively at Havre, Toulon, and Brest, were defeated in turn. Admiral Rodney won off Havre, Admiral Hawke off Brest, and Admiral Boscawen crushed the Toulon fleet off Lagos.

In 1758 Pitt sent to America a fleet commanded by Boscawen, conveying an army under Amherst and Wolfe. The army was landed in America, and it soon took the French Fort Duquesne. Its name was changed to Pittsburg. The fleet was equally successful, for Guadaloupe, Cape Breton Island, and the Island of St. John (re-named Prince Edward

Island, in honour of George’s grandson) soon passed into English hands. By Pitt’s orders, General Wolfe next attacked Quebec, and though that brave young officer was killed in the battle, the French were defeated on the Heights of Abraham, and next year all Canada was conquered.

Fighting was meanwhile going on under Clive in India, but with that Pitt had little to do.

In the middle of the war George II. died (1760). He was succeeded by his grandson, George III., who also disliked Pitt. The new king, in less than a year, lost the services of the great minister. Pitt had heard that Spain had agreed to join with France in the war against England. He advised George to declare war at once against Spain. The king would not accept his advice, so he resigned. His wife was made Baroness Chatham, with a pension of ^.3,000 a year, for Pitt himself refused to accept these marks of royal favour.

Spain declared war, as Pitt had expected, but England continued to win in the Spanish colonies. George, however, wished to end the war, and soon the Peace of Paris was signed (1763). England kept Canada and four West Indian islands, but restored all her other conquests. These were considered poor terms, after all England’s glorious victories, and the peace was unpopular throughout the country.

Five years later Pitt was recalled to power. There had been three Ministries in the meantime, but they were too weak to last long. Now, in 1766, Pitt joined the Duke of Grafton’s Ministry, but he took the title Earl of Chatham, and went into the House of Lords. He became ill, and retired to Bath, leaving other ministers to carry on. They foolishly continued an attempt to place taxes on the American colonies, so Pitt resigned in 1768. By the beginning of 1770 he had become well enough to return to his place in Parliament. He strongly attacked Lord North (who had in the meantime become Premier) for insisting on taxing the colonists. Then, though Chatham did all that he could to avert it, the war of American Independence soon broke out. France joined with the colonists in 1778, and the ministers favored the acknowledgement of independence. Chatham was aghast at the proposal. He had done much to build up and enlarge the Colonial Empire, and could not consent to its dismemberment. Though ill, he went to his place in the House of Lords to speak against it. Whilst doing so he fell back in a swoon. He was carried home, and died a month later (1778), in the 70th year of his

age. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and Parliament, remembering his splendid services during the Seven Years’ War, settled an annuity on the Earldom of Chatham for ever.

7.—ROBERT CLIVE.

Robert Clive, the great and courageous founder of British rule in India, was the son of a small landholder ol Shropshire, where he was born in 1725. At school he was an idle, troublesome boy, always backward at his lessons, but ever ready to take part in any sort of mischief. He became so unruly that, when he was 18 years old, his father was very glad to get rid of him by sending him out to India as a writer or clerk in the service of the East India Company.

At that time the company owned only a few trading stations on the coast of India, the chief of which were Madras, acquired by purchase in the time of Charles I. ; Bombay, given to England by Portugul when Charles II. married the Princess Catherine; and Fort William (which has since grown into the splendid city of Calcutta), founded in the reign of William III. These settlements were fortified in order to protect them from the natives, and in each of the forts a few soldiers were kept, merely to protect the warehouses (or factories') and to prevent any interference with trade ; for the company wished only to trade—not to conquer or to govern.

Portuguese, Dutch, and French East India Companies had formed similar settlements round the coast.

Clive became a clerk at Madras. His life there was very sad and lonely. He was poor, he did not like the work of a clerk, he was shy and did not mix much with his fellow-men, and he was homesick. Twice he tried to shoot himself, but the pistol failed to go off. It is said that he then threw it down, remarking that he must be meant for something great.

When England and France were engaged in fighting in the War of Austrian Succession at home, there was much ill-leeling between the English and French traders in India. The Governor of the French settlement at Pondicherry, near Madras, was at that time a clever man named Dupleix. It was he who first got Sepoys, or native soldiers, together to drill them in the European fashion. Just then India was in a state of disorder ; for many of the native races were engaged

in fighting with one another. Dupleix formed the idea of getting the upper hand in India by helping one native ruler against another. When the English Company saw that the French were gaining ground, it commenced to raise an army.

Clive in India..

The action of the French had practically forced the English to take up arms in self-defence.

Clive offered his services as a military officer. He was then placed in charge of a force of British and Sepoy soldiers. He

had already gained a name for bravery, coolness, and courage. Once he had quarrelled with an officer with whom he was playing cards. He had called the officer a cheat. This led to a duel between them. Clive’s pistol failed to go off, and then the officer came forward, held the loaded pistol in his face, and asked him to withdraw the charge or he would fire. “ No," said Clive ! “I said you cheated ; and I say so still.” The officer threw down the weapon, and declared that Clive was mad.

When Clive took charge of his small force, the French had almost gained possession of the Carnatic (a district in the South-East of India) by setting up a Nabob who would act under their direction. Clive, with 500 men, 3oo being Sepoys, marched upon Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic. A terrific thunderstorm was raging at the time, and the Sepoys in the French army were so terrified when they saw the English marching upon them that they ran away, and Clive took the city without a struggle. The French then besieged Arcot. While Clive kept them at bay, his Sepoys saw that the provisions were getting low, so the faithful fellows begged that he and the English soldiers should use what rice was left, whilst they existed on the thin gruel formed by the water in which it had been boiled.

At last a native chief, who was in Clive’s pay, but had held back till he saw how the struggle went on, came to help the English. Then Clive attacked the besieging French, and, after a fearful battle, lasting 18 hours, he drove them off. Many battles followed, and time and again the French were defeated, until, at last, Dupleix was recalled to Europe. In J753 Clive, worn out and ill, returned to England. The company had not gained any territory, but they had subdued many native princes, who looked up to them as masters, and England was supreme in all the south-east. So great an impression had Clive made upon the natives that they called him Sabat Jung (the daring in war).

In 1755 the company appointed Clive governor of Fort St. David, a small factory near Madras, and he returned to India.

When the Seven Years’ War broke out in Europe, the French urged Surajah Dowlah, Nabob of Bengal, to attack Calcutta. He did so, and, capturing 145 English he shut them up in a small room 18 feet by 14. It was midsummer night in one of the hottest regions on the earth. Next morning only 23 came

alive out of the Black Hole of Calcutta. When Clive heard of this he at once went north with an army of 2,400, only goo of them English. He took Calcutta, and then marched towards the Nabob’s capital — Moorshedabad. Dowlah with 50,000 native soldiers, met him on the road there at Plassey Clive gained a splendid victory, and thus “ began a century of British conquest in India. ’ He set up a native ruler who was friendly to Engiand, and made the English supremacy in Bengal secure.

Meanwhile the French, under Lally Tollendal, were successfully attacking- the English in the south, but at last Sir Eyre Coote defeated them at Wandewash, and made England supreme there. By this time Clive had again returned to England. He was raised to the peerage as Lord Clive, and was elected to the House of Commons.

Things went wrong in India, and in 1765 Clive was sent out to restore order. For two years he acted as Governor of Bengal, and he made this perhaps the most glorious period of his life. Nearly all the Company’s servants and army officers had been enriching themselves by extorting money from the natives. Clive put an end to this, but in doing so he had to face a mutiny in the army and the strongest opposition from the clerks. Worn out with worry, Clive at last returned to England. His strict rule in India had gained him many enemies, and he was attacked in the House of Commons for having received presents from native princes just after the Battle of Plassey, 10 years earlier. His health was ruined, and, under the strain of the charges brought against him, he put an end to his life.

Since the time of Clive, India has gradually been brought under British rule. There have been many wars, but England, though she gained India with the sword, tries to rule it for the good of its people. And, though there are only 100,000 Europeans out of a population of 287,000,000, England is able to exercise over the jewelled east a “beneficent despotism” unique in the history of the world.

6.—THE WAR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

When the g-reat American rebellion commenced, England owned 13 colonies along the eastern seaboard of North America. They were Virginia (founded in the reign of James I.), Maryland (named from Maria, the wife of Charles I.)

that time. Their products were timber and corn, from New England ; tobacco, from Virginia; rice, maize, and indigo, from the Southern States. Each of these 13 states had a governor (in some cases appointed by the crown, in others elected by the people) and two Houses of Parliament (the elected Assembly and the Council, sometimes elected, in other cases nominated). They were growing daily in wealth and population.

The New England States (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, settled by the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620), The Carolinas (settled in the reign of Charles II.), New York (taken in the reign of Charles II. from the Dutch, who had called it New Netherlands, New Jersey, and Delaware, which were parts of State of New York), Pennsylvania (settled by Quaker Penn in 1682), and Georgia (founded in the reign of George II.). I heir white population in the middle of the 18th century was less than the present population of New South Wales and was about one-fourth

the population of England at


Royal Arms

(From Battle of Waterloo to the Accession of Queen Victoria).


Just before this Canada, to the north of them, had been conquered by Britain, and was now a colony of Frenchmen under British rule. The French to the west of them had also been subdued. They had petty quarrels among themselves, but on the whole they all loved their motherland (England). Almost their only grievance against England was the Navigation Act, the object of which was to compel the colonies to trade only with the home land. But a great deal of smuggling went on in America, and though England knew of this she did not interfere until George Grenville came into power in 1763. He insisted on the Navigation Act being strictly carried out. This irritated the colonists. Grenville also thought that it was necessary to keep English soldiers in the colonies to defend them against

possible attack by the French. He thought it fair, too, that they should pay part of the expense this step involved, so he passed through the English Parliament a Stamp Act, requiring the colonists to place stamps on certain legal documents, just as we do in this colony to-day. By this means about one-third of the expense of maintaining soldiers in the colonies would have been met. But the colonists objected to pay. They said : “We object to pay any taxes to England unless we are allowed to have representatives in the British Parliament.” The next year a new minister was in power, and he repealed the Stamp Act.

Soon after this Lord North became Prime Minister. He was a very easy-going man, one who did exactly what the king wished him to do. Chatham had been a minister just before, but he was so ill that he could not attend Parliament. While he was away ill the ministry placed taxes upon goods sent to America. The Americans still objected to pay them, so the Government of Lord North took off all the duties except one of 3d. a lb. on tea. Chatham had said all along that it was wrong to tax the people of America. But the king thought it right to force the Americans to pay, and, it must be said, that most of the people of England thought with the king. In 1773 some tea was sent to Boston, in America. The people there refused to allow it to land, because if the duty on it had been paid and it had then been sold in America the people would indirectly have paid the taxes to which they objected. They asked the Governor of their colony to send the ships back to England with the tea. When he refused to do so a number of men, dressed like Indians, went on board the ships, broke open the chests of tea and emptied their contents into the harbour. Forces were sent over to reduce the colonies to obedience, and in 1775 war began.

The 1 ^ colonies each sent men to a great meeting called the Congress, where George Washington, a good man and a brave general, was chosen to lead the army of the colonists. The fighting began at Lexiyigton, where Colonel Smith, in attempting to destroy a magazine belonging to the colonists, was driven back with great loss. At the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, near Boston, the English drove the Americans off, but could scarcely claim much of a victory. Next June the Congress, having again met and discussed the matter, drew up and signed, on the 4th of July, 1776, the Declaration of American Independence. Chatham, who had all along

objected to the taxes laid on America, still more strongly objected to granting them independence. He came down, ill though he was, to the House ot Lords, and strongly opposed the proposal.

The fighting went on in America. England held New York. She had the advantage over the colonists for about a year, until General Burgoyne and all his army were torced to surrender at Saratoga.    1 hen England was willing

to come to peace with America on any terms short of independence. But just then France made a treaty with America, acknowledging it as a separate country, so that from this time the war had to be fought against France also. Many Frenchmen went over to help in America, and England’s only hope of winning was to keep command of the sea, and prevent the Colonists getting supplies from Europe. The war went on vigorously, for Spain and Holland joined with France. Then, to make matters worse, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia entered into a league to prevent the English searching their vessels on the road to America. Nearly all Europe was now opposed to England.

France and Spain now besieged Gibraltar, but so skilful and gallant was Governor Elliott’s defence of this fortress, that all attempts to take it during' the next three years ended in complete failure. Rodney gained a naval victory over the Spaniards off Cape St. Vincent, and next year he took San Eustatius (West Indies) from the Dutch ; but it was soon taken by the French, and, in 1782, Spain took Minorca. Later on Rodney won a glorious naval victory over the French admiral, De Grasse, in the West Indies.

But before this the final land battle of the war had been fought. Lord Cornwallis and his army were surprised and besieged by the Americans in the seaport of Yorktown. The b rench fleet assisted on the sea-side, and the whole army was forced to surrender. Men saw that it was useless to struggle any longer, and the king consented to peace, which was signed at Versailles in 1783. The Independence of America was acknowledged, but England retained the provinces which now form British North America. Minorca and Florida were restored to Spain.

7.—THE WAR OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE WAR AGAINST NAPOLEON.

The greatest event in European history in the 18th century was the French Revolution, which broke out in 1789. Unlike England, France did not possess a parliament which was able to keep the king and nobles in check ; so that the poor were oppressed and heavily taxed, whilst the rich went free. There was misrule in the land, and it led, at last, to national bankruptcy.

King Louis XVI., in this dire extremity, called together an assembly elected by various classes of people to decide what was "best to be" done. They called themselves the “National Assembly.” When they commenced to say and do things which displeased the king, he used force to make them do his will. Then an insurrection broke out, and the Bastille—the state prison—was stormed. When he saw this Louis allowed the people to have their own way. They made new laws, and treated the gentry so harshly that many of them left the country. Louis attempted to go, but he was brought back and imprisoned. In 1792 the French people had reason to believe that Austria and Prussia would help to restore Louis to his throne. A new National Assembly met, and proclaimed France a republic. Louis XVI., charged with seeking support from Austria and Prussia against his people, was sent to the guillotine.

' In England the same struggle between the people and the ruling classes had taken place 400 years before—at the time of"the peasants’ revolt—but it had been carried out without very much violence. So that at the end ot the 18th century, the English peasants were better off than those of any other nation at that time. But, just before the outbreak of the revolution in F ranee, there had been a great Industrial Revolution in England, caused by the invention of the steam engine, of improvements in spinning and weaving machines, and of new modes in smelting iron. This had increased the number of English artisans, and these men were becoming discontented with the Government, especially as they had no voice in the election of members of Parliament. At the time of the French Revolution some of the English artisans unwisely spoke ot carrying out a similar rex olution in England. This made the middle and upper classes more than ever determined to resist all attempts to change the laws of England.

On land the French got the better of their enemies ; but England won on the sea. Spain and Holland had joined France, and their fleets were about to unite for an invasion of England. But the Spanish fleet was beaten off St. Vincent, and the Dutch off Camperdown. The war had been costly, and there was much discontent and want in England, so Pitt tried to arrange peace with France ; but he could not come to terms, and the war went on.

The Premier of England just then was William Pitt, second son of Chatham. He had become chief minister in 1783, and, being anxious to carry out reforms in home affairs, he did not wish to interfere with doings in France. Like most of the people in England, he sympathised at first with the French people’s desire for reform ; but when they commenced to execute the nobles, and at last the king and queen, all sympathy was gone, and a feeling of horror took its place ; and when he heard that the Prussians and Austrians were being beaten, and that France had taken possession of Flanders (Belgium), had beheaded Louis XVI., and published a decree offering to help any nation which wished to get rid of its king", he felt bound to join in the war.

Then England entered on a war against the French Republic—the sixth of the great series of seven wars against France. Pitt formed a coalition with Austria and Prussia on the continent ; for he preferred to pay them to fight on land, whilst England led the attack on the sea, and especially in the colonies.


During the war, a young Corsican general named Napoleon Buonaparte had distinguished himself in the south of France, and afterwards led a splendid campaign in northern Italy, whence he expelled the AusNapoleon,    trianS.

He now had an idea of driving the English out of India, and establishing a great

Eastern Empire, including Egypt, Syria, and India. With this object he set out in a fleet for Egypt.

On the way he captured Malta. Landing in Egypt, he defeated the Mamelukes (soldiers who governed the country) in the battle of the Pyramids. Nelson, meanwhile, destroyed the French fleet which had brought Napoleon over, at the Battle of the Nile. Napoleon, being foiled in his efforts in Egypt and Syria, returned to France, and persuaded the people to make him First Consul, and, practically, master of the country.

After the naval battle of Copenhagen, where Nelson crushed the Danes, who had joined an alliance of the northern powers against England, and the battle of Alexandria (Egypt), where Abercromby defeated the army which Napoleon had left behind when he returned to France, England, exhausted by the long struggle, and weary of war, agreed to peace ; which was signed at Amiens, 1802. Britain kept Ceylon, taken from Holland, Trinidad, from Spain, but gave up all her other conquests. Malta was to be given over to its knights.

Barely 15 months had elapsed before England was engaged in war with Napoleon—the final war of the great series. After the peace of Amiens, Napoleon commenced to annex countries on the west border of France, and England, believing that he intended to reoccupy Egypt, refused to give up Malta. Napoleon complained of the attacks made upon him by English newspapers, and he also felt aggrieved because England allowed exiles from France to live there. England declared war (1803). This was a different war to that against the French Republic, which had just ended ; for the object now was to put down the despotic rule of Napoleon, which threatened the liberties of Europe.

Napoleon began by imprisoning 10,000 English tourists, who had crossed over during the time of peace. Then he planned a great invasion of England. He collected his army at Boulogne, and boats were being built to convey it across the channel. Englishmen rose up to offer their help in defence of their country. Soon 380,000 volunteers were being drilled and got ready to assist the regular army in repelling the expected invasion. William Pitt, who had left office in 1801 because of a quarrel with the king on the subject ot Catholic emancipation, was now by the general wish of the people re-called to power (1804) to take charge ot the war.

He formed an alliance with Austria, Russia and Sweden, but it was not successful. On the sea, however, England made several brilliant and successful attacks upon the French fleet. The French decoyed Nelson to the West Indies, but they were beaten on their return by Calder off Finisterre, and finally by Nelson at Trafalgar (1805). After Trafalgar there was no more serious fighting on the sea, tor Napoleon had then abandoned all hope of invading England.

Napoleon was now bent on the conquest of all Europe. He marched against Austria. Russia came to her help, but the combined army was completely overthrown at Austerlitz, six weeks after Trafalgar. It is said that when Pitt heard ot Napoleon’s brilliant victory over Austria he remarked bitterly, “ Roll up the map of Europe ; it will not be wanted these ten years.” It seemed the ruin of all his hopes, and he died, broken-hearted, shortly afterwards. He had guided England for nearly 20 years.

Napoleon next marched against Prussia, won the battle of Jena, and took Berlin. Thence he issued a decree, forbidding other nations to trade with England, hoping to thereby destroy England’s trade, the source of much of her wealth. England then issued Orders-in-Council forbidding any trade with ports from which she was excluded. Then, hearing that Napoleon was about to seize the fine navy of Denmark to use it against England, Canning, the Prime Minister (a friend and disciple of William Pitt) sent a fleet to bombard Copenhagen. The Danish navy was then captured, and England kept the ships in her charge till the end of the war. All Western Europe, except Spain and Portugal, was now in Buonaparte’s power. He seized those two countries in 1808. They asked England for help. Armies were sent over under Arthur Wellesley, (afterwards Duke of Wellington). The French were defeated by him at Vimeiro, and forced to leave Portugal. Then he commenced to take steps to expel them from Spain. Step by step Marshall Soult, who was in charge of the French Army (for Napoleon was busy elsewhere) was driven back. Badajos (1812), Salamanca (1812), Vitoria (1813), and Toulouse (1814) were the chief battles won by the great Iron Duke. Napoleon had, in the meantime, marched upon Moscow for the Russians, resenting the interference with their trade with England, had risen against him. He found Moscow a heap of smouldering ruins, for its people had set it on fire as the French approached. Most of his magnificent army

perished of cold and hunger on the return journey. Prussia and Austria had by this time risen against him. They joined with Russia, invaded France, and forced him to abdicate. He retired to the Island of Elba, and the brother of Louis XVI. occupied the throne of France once more.

Next year Napoleon left Elba, and came to Paris. The soldiers welcomed him, and he became Emperor again. He was soon leading an enormous army. England and Prussia would have no peace with him. Wellington led the English, and whilst in Belgium waiting for Blucher and the Germans to join him Napoleon crossed the border to attack him, but he was defeated at the great battle of Waterloo. He fled to Paris. The allied armies followed him, and he surrendered. He was sent away as a prisoner to St. Helena, where he died six years later.

The Peace of Paris was signed at the end of 1815. Britain kept the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon and British Guiana, which she had taken from the Dutch ; Mauritius and other Indian Ocean and West Indian Islands, which had been taken from France ; also Malta and Heligoland.

Russia and Prussia enlarged their boundaries, but France gave up nearly all lands she had taken since the outbreak of the Revolution.

8.— LORD NELSON.

Horatio Nelson, the greatest of English sailors, was born in 1758. His father was a clergyman of Norfolk. As a boy Nelson was sick and weakly, but when he was 13 he joined the Royal Navy and got an appointment to a ship commanded by his uncle. He worked hard and steadily, so that he rose higher and higher in the service, and before he was 21 he had become a captain. While the War of American Independence was going on he was sent over to America. When he arrived there the Admiral told him that New York was the best station, because there he might capture merchant ships. “ No,” replied Nelson ; “ I would rather be where the fighting is to be done. Honour, and not prize money, I seek, and that I would best gain in the West Indies.’ After the American war Nelson rested some years, but when the war against the French Republic broke out he was appointed to the charge of one of the ships of Lord Hood’s fleet for service in the Mediterranean. While assisting at the capture

of Corsica he lost an eye. Soon after this he was made a commodore, that is, a captain having the charge of other ships besides his own. His next great engagement was with Admiral Jervis off Cape St. Vincent (1797). Spain had joined France in the war, and Holland was also ready to assist. Jervis attacked the Spanish fleet to prevent it sailing north and joining the French ships in order to convey soldiers into England. Jervis’s fleet consisted of 15 vessels in all, while the Spanish fleet had 40 much larger vessels. Nelson, against the Admiral’s orders, sailed four English ships into the middle of the Spanish fleet. He boarded and captured two of the largest of them, forcing the officers to give up their swords. There were so many that Nelson could not hold them all, so he gave them to one of his sailors, who tucked them under his arm. Just after this there was a mutiny among the sailors on many of the British ships, but Nelson treated his men so well that they loved him dearly, and there was no thought of mutiny on his vessel.

Type of Sailor in time of Lord Nelson.


Subsequently he was made a Rear-Admiral and sent to take the Spanish island of Tenerijfe. Nelson failed on this occasion and lost his right arm during the engagement.

In 1778 he was sent to follow Napoleon, who had started for Egypt ; he caught Napoleon’s fleet in the Bay ot Aboukir, at the mouth of the Nile. The night before the battle he said to his officers, “To-morrow I shall win a peerage or a monument in Westminster Abbey.” The battle commenced late in the afternoon. Nelson sent half his fleet in between the French ships and the shore, and he then attacked them on each side. Late that night the French flagship was set on fire. Nelson sent out boats to rescue the French sailors, who were throwing themselves into the water. Among those who perished on that dreadful night was young Casabianca, the taithtul son ot a French captain, who stuck to the post assigned to him after his father had been killed. Only two French ships escaped. All the others were either burned or taken. The importance of this great victory lay in the fact that Napoleon and part ot

his army were imprisoned in Egypt, and thus shut off from the main part of the army in France. While the fight went on, Nelson was wounded, and when the surgeon rushed up to attend him he refused help just then. “ No,” said he ; “ let me wait my turn with my brave men.”    ,

When people in England heard of this great victory their joy was unbounded, and the brave commander was at once raised to the peerage as Lord Nelson of the Nile.

During the next two years Nelson was in charge of a small fleet in the Mediterranean, chiefly assisting to keep the French away from Naples. In the year 1800 he came back to England. In 1801 Russia, Sweden, and Denmark formed the Northern League, to prevent British vessels searching their ships to see if they were carrying goods to and from the , French. A fleet was sent to the Baltic to break up the league. Sir Hyde Parker was in charge, and Nelson second in command. Nelson was ordered to attack Copenhagen. After the battle had gone on some time, Parker thought that the Danes seemed to be getting the best of it, so he hoisted a signal for Nelson to drawoff. Nelson put the telescope to his blind eye, and said he really could not see the signal. He gave orders that his own signal to keep on fighting should be nailed to the mast. The Danes were soon defeated, and Nelson treated their wounded soldiers so kindly that when he landed the people received him with cheers. He then told the Regent that the Danes were the brothers, and ought to be the friends, of the English. For this “ glorious disobedience,” Nelson was raised to the Tank of Viscount.

Next year the war against the French Republic came to an end. But in 1803 the war against Napoleon begap. Nelson was again sent to the Mediterranean, and for ¡indarly two years his chief business was to prevent the French fleet at Toulon sailing out to join the fleets at Cadiz and Brest. Napoleon hoped, by combining these fleets, to keep the British navy at bay whilst he landed his French soldiers in England across the unguarded channel. At last the French admiral escaped from Toulon, joined the Cadiz fleet, and sailed for the West Indies, hoping that Nelson would follow him there and waste time searching for him, while he quickly returned to Brest. Nelson did follow him, and the French admiral, evading him, turned back, but, before reaching Brest, Admiral Calder met him and defeated him in the Bay of Biscay. The French fleet made off to Cadiz. Nelson returned

to England, but he was sent off to attack the French again. In his flagship, the “ Victory,” he led 17 vessels down to the Spanish coast. He found the French fleet near Cape Trafalgar. There, on the 21st October, 1805, he engaged in a stubborn battle. Before the fight began he sent up his famous signal, “ England expects every man to do his duty.” In the middle of the battle Nelson walked the deck of his flagship with the stars and medals of the various honours which had been given to him displayed upon his breast. A sailor in the rigging of the French flagship fired a musket ball at him, and he fell mortally wounded. He was carried to his cabin. The surgeon hurried to attend him, but he asked to be left alone, so that others whose wounds were not mortal might have the benefit of the surgeon’s services. Before the battle was over the fleets of Spain and France were almost entirely destroyed, and Nelson’s dying moments were cheered by the news of the glorious victory. All thoughts of an invasion in England were abandoned by Napoleon, and during the rest of the war England had no further trouble from the fleets of her enemies.

When the news of this glorious victory reached England it is doubtful whether the joy of the people was greater than their sorrow at the loss of their “darling hero.” He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and the nation delighted to honour all who were related to him.

9.—THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.

Just about the time that Captain Cook discovered our land there was silently going on in England that remarkable Revolution, which was destined to bring about many changes, not only in the industrial, but also in the social and political life in England. Down to the end of the 15th century England was chiefly an agricultural country, though even in the earliest days there were some rough manufactures. Two of the greatest services which the coming of the Normans (1066) rendered to England were the introduction of foreign artisans who set up improved weaving looms in the land and the extension of trade with European countries which they then brought about. From these small beginnings England has gradually grown to her present eminence as the greatest manufacturing and trading nation of the world.

England’s foreign trade increased greatly after the

Crusades, for Englishmen were then brought more into contact with eastern nations. During the 14th and 15th centuries trade with Flanders, the great manufacturing nation of those days, greatly increased and England exported wool, agricultural products, tin, and lead to that country in exchange for the products of its looms. The friendly relations between the two countries led at different times to the immigration of Flemish weavers to England. In the days of Henry I. and of Edward III. we have the most noticeable instances of this.

Towards the end of the 16th century (1567) the persecution in Flanders drove many weavers over to England, and just about the same time the sea-captains of Elizabeth’s reign were greatly extending England’s foreign trade, not in a very creditable way, perhaps, but still they were preparing for the advance in commerce upon modern lines.

As Spain declined the Dutch got the leading position in foreign trade ; but by the time of the Great Revolution of 1688 England had supplanted the Dutch and had become the greatest trading nation. Ever since then every great war in which England has taken part gave her increased opportunities for extending her trade.

But, whilst England had thus been making progress in trade, there had not been nearly such marked progress in the manufacturing industry ; so that in the middle of the 18th century she was still chiefly a nation of farmers and merchants.

The cotton trade had begun in Liverpool, and the other industries were gradually g'oing ahead with the old, clumsy tools of more than a century before. Men worked in their own homes, weaving cloth, in the old style, and combining that industry very often with farming. The English artisan of the day was, on the whole happy, comfortable and prosperous. He worked most of the day on his farm ; meanwhile, his wife and daughters employed the afternoon in spinning by hand the cotton threads, which he with his hand-loom subsequently converted into fabrics. In lonely spots, beside running streams, many water-mills had been set up, and there woollen fabrics were woven. Men had begun, however, to divide labour ; and merchants now often bought wool from the farmer, gave it out to one set of villagers to be combed, then to another set—usually young women (spinsters)—to be spun, then hand-weavers would come to get the warp and

weft, which they would take home to convert into cloth, and subsequently another lot of men would be employed to undertake the dyeing-.

In this domestic system of manufacture, as it was called, the machines employed were as primitive as those of India.

But, between 1767 and 1785, a series of remarkable inventions caused a great chang-e in the whole process of manufacture, which is known as the Industrial Revolution.

Cotton commenced to be used in England in the 18th century. In the year 1738, Kay invented a flying shuttle, which made weavers able to produce double as much work as before; so that hand-spinners could not keep pace with them. In 1767, James Hargreaves, an English weaver, invented a spinning-jenny, which enabled one person to spin several threads at once. He could at once do eight times as much work with it as without it. Many persons were thus thrown out of employment ; and there were riots among them, which led to the smashing of the jenny, whilst Hargreaves had to flee for his life.

In 1769, a barber named Richard Arkwright invented a method of spinning by rollers, called a “water-frame,” because it was driven by water power ; and, in 1779, a neighbour of his, Samuel Compton, a spinner, invented the “ spinning-mule,” which combined the good features of the jenny and water-frame.

Whilst these inventions did away with the hand spinner and increased the power of making yarn, it was not till 1785 that the Rev. Dr. Cartwright invented the power-loom, which enabled the yarn to be woven into fabrics, and did away with the hand-weaver.

The same year (1785) the steam-engine, which had been improved by James Watt so that it was no longer a clumsy colliery pumping machine, was first introduced into weaving factories. This was the final deathblow to the domestic system, and henceforth the factory system of manufacture became general. Thus the great Industrial Revolution was complete.

As a result of this remarkable revolution, the population became transferred from the south to the north of England. Thus the north, hitherto the poorest, became one of the most prosperous parts of the country. Iron manufacture went ahead, for iron was required for machinery, and the discovery that it could be smelted with coal, instead of, as formerly, with charcoal, led to the removal of smelting works from the south (in the vicinity of the large forests) to the north (in proximity to the coalfields).

Just then, fortunately, great improvements were made in the construction of roads and canals, thus enabling the products of England’s increased manufactures to be distributed more cheaply and rapidly than ever before. (It was not till 40 years later that Stephenson invented the locomotive.) This led to an enormous increase in trade, and consequently in wealth.

Population also grew rapidly. At the beginning of the 18th century England had 5,000,000 inhabitants. By the middle of the century this number had increased to 6,000,000, and by the end (1800 a.d.) to 9,000,000. (Now there are 29,000,000 people.) Fortunately, whilst there was such a vast increase in the manufacturing industry to employ this expanding population, there was also an agricultural revolution, which enabled England to increase her production of grain sufficiently to feed her increased numbers. New systems of drainage and manuring and improved methods of agriculture enabled her to nearly keep pace with the growing demand for food supplies.

10.—THE FIRST REFORM ACT.

A Parliament is a meeting of all classes of men in the country, either personally or in the person of their representatives, for the purpose of making laws. It was Earl Simon, in the reign of Henry III., who first called representatives of the towns to meet with other classes of men in Parliament, but it was Edward I., the greatest of the Plantagenets and one of the best kings England ever had, who called together in 1295 his Model Parliament, in which all classes of the nation met together to discuss its affairs. Ever since that date (1295) every Parliament has contained representatives of every section of the people. There has not been any important change in this respect, but as time went on two questions presented themselves for solution (1) what men should have the franchise (i.e., the right to vote), (2) what towns should have the right to elect members.

Men soon began to feel that reform was needed in both these matters. Oliver Cromwell was, perhaps, the first Englishman to make any serious attempt at Parliamentary reform. He saw that many towns which had recently grown large had not the right to elect a member,

while many places which had grown smaller had that right. Cromwell allowed the new cities to elect members instead of these decayed towns, but after his death men went back to the old practice.

It was not till the reign of George III. that the matter was again seriously taken in hand. By that time there were many large cities, such as Leeds, Manchester, and Birmingham, which did not send a member to Parliament ; while many ancient and decayed towns (rotten boroughs, as they were called), with only six or seven voters—sometimes indeed with only one sent one or two members to Parliament. Perhaps the worst of these cases was Pitt’s old borough, Old Sarum, which had two members, though the only man who had a right to vote was the keeper of an ale-house. Then again, those towns which had the right to elect members differed in their franchise ; for example, in Bath the only men who could vote were the mayor and aldermen ; in Buckingham voting was confined to the bailiff and 12 burgesses, whilst in other towns all landholders had the right.

Both Chatham and William Pitt had seen the need for reform. Three times William Pitt, the younger, brought the    question forward,    but the great    wars caused    the

matter to remain in abeyance for some years. After the Battle of Waterloo there was peace in England ; but there was much distress also, for money,- instead of being spent in trade and    manufactures, had    been expended in    war materials ;    and

now    that many soldier's    were thrown out    of work, there    was

less money to be expended in their employment. Whilst distress was very common throughout the land, riots broke out    in many places.    But the wisest    of the workmen

commenced to agitate for Parliamentary reform. They thought that if they had the right to elect Parliaments, means might be taken and laws passed to better their condition. They were greatly encouraged in this view by the Twopenny Register, a newspaper written by a very clever and able, though violent, political writer named Cobbett. This paper was widelv circulated in the manufacturing towns, and artisans there formed Hampden Clubs to secure Parliamentary reform. Before the death of George III. Lord John Russell brought in a bill to disfranchise—that is, deprive of the right to vote—four boroughs where voters openly accepted payment for their votes.

The House of Commons passed Lord Russell’s Bill, but it was thrown out by the House of Lords. Russell did, however, pass a bill which disfranchised a small Cornish borough. He wished to give Leeds the right of sending a member in lieu of this little town. The House of Lords, however, would not give the right to Leeds, but they gave it to Yorkshire, the county in which Leeds is situated.

All through the reign of George IV. the people continued to agitate for reform. The Whigs were strong supporters of the idea, but, though they wished the middle classes to have the right to vote as well as the great land-owners, they were not in favor of givingthat right to the poor and laboring classes, because they thought such people were too ignorant and uneducated to use it properly. The great Duke of Wellington was opposed to reform, and soon after William IV. came to the throne he was thrown out of power because of this.

The new Whig Ministry of Earl Gray contained Lord John Russell as Home-Secretary. He saw that a very drastic change was absolutely necessary. The question had been delayed so long that nothing less than a wholesale change would meet the case. He determined to bring in a bill to provide that every man who sat in Parliament should really represent the people, and that such representatives should be fairly and justly elected. On the ist March, 1831, Lord John Russell brought forward his famous bill. It proved a surprise not only to the Tories, but to many of the Whigs also. Few people expected him to try to do so much at once. His bill aimed at doing away with rotten boroughs, giving representatives to the large manufacturing centres, and making the franchise equal.

It proposed (1) to reduce the total number of members of the House of Commons from 658 to 596, a loss of 62 ; (2) to deprive 62 boroughs, returning 119 members, of the franchise, to reduce from 2 to 1 the representation of 46 boroughs ; (3) to give these powers of election to the various centres of population throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland ; (4) to give the right to vote to all farmers who paid ^50 a year in rent, and to all townsmen who paid a rental of ¿”10 a year. This meant that half a million people who had never before voted were now to have that right. As most of the new voters belonged to the middle classes, their power in the land became much greater than it had been before. The landowners, who had formerly been able to persuade the towns to

elect those whom they wished, were no longer able to do so, and thus they became less powerful.

The bill passed the House of Commons by 302 to 301 votes. The Tories tried to change the bill ; they became so troublesome that Grey had Parliament dissolved, and appealed to the country. Thebattle-cry of the Whigs was “ The bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill.” The Whigs beat the Tories at the General election, and in the new House of Commons they had a majority of 136 votes. Still the Lords refused to pass the bill. Then there were riots in many places ; the people in all parts of the land held meetings in support of the Government. At last, after it had passed three times through the House of Commons, the Lords had to accept it, and it become known as The First Reform Act of 1832. The manufacturing districts, henceforth having the larger population, had more power than the agricultural districts, which had formerly been by far the most powerful. Reform Bills for Ireland and for Scotland were soon afterwards passed. When the Reformed House of Parliament met it passed many very important laws for the betterment of the people, such as the Abolition of Slavery Bill, the Education Act, the Factory Act, the New Poor Law, and the Municipal Reform Act.

Mr. Disraeli (afterwards Earl of Beaconsfield), in 1867, passed a Second Reform Act, which gave the right of voting to the householders in the towns ; and Mr. Gladstone, in 1884, passed a Third Reform Act, which extended the right of voting to farm labourers. Thus political power gradually passed into the hands of the masses.

n.—THE INDIAN MUTINY.

The great peninsula of India is inhabited by various races which differ among themselves much more than the races of Europe differ from one another. They differ in religion and in language, as well as in blood.

During the 18th century, as you have already been told, Robert Clive helped to drive the French out of India, to use one set ot native people against another, and to undertake, on behalf of the Company, the government of Bengal. Later on the three great provinces of Bengal, Bombay, and Madras were united, and a great man named Warren Hastings became their Governor-General. Hastings kept order in India

with an iron hand; but, in doing- so, he did some things which were not right. For instance, he hired out some of the Company’s soldiers to a native prince, who wished to subdue his own people.

When these things were known in England, people became very angry. Parliament impeached Hastings, and passed a law providing that the government should be taken out of the hands of the East India Company and handed over to men appointed by the British Government, while the Company confined itself to trade. Still, the Company had to fight many battles, for the disorder in the native states greatly interfered with their trade. Thus it came about that gradually one after another the native states passed under the rule of the Company. To keep order in their lands, they had regiments of British soldiers, which they hired from the British Government, and large numbers of Hindoo soldiers, or Sepoys, were also paid to assist in keeping order. By 1856, the Company had come to be acknowledged as the chief power in India. Their soldiers were trained to use rifles, and other implements of war, just like Europeans.

Just then a new rifle (the “ Enfield”) had been supplied to the soldiers. These rifles required cartridges which, it was said, were made up in paper greased with ox-fat. Now, the Hindoos thought that this was an insult to them, because their religion taught them that it was a sin to use any part of the flesh of a cow.

Some of the native princes, who were displeased with the English, because they had forced them to rule justly, to live rightly, and not to unduly tax their people, encouraged this idea, and urged the Sepoys to rise in rebellion. At Meerut the troops suddenly rose, murdered their Colonel, and several other English officers, men, and women, and marched to Delhi, where they forced the old native king to become their nominal leader. They proclaimed him Emperor of India. The Delhi Sepoys joined them.

Governor-General Canning sent a large army from Calcutta to seize Delhi and stamp out the mutiny. The army besieging the city contained many ot the Sikhs, who, on 1} a few years before, had themselves been reduced to submission. But in the meantime the Sepoys of Lucknow had also risen in mutiny, and a little while after those of Cawnpore joined. At Cawnpore a thousand men, women and children, less than half of them soldiers, were shut up by Nana Sahib, a native ruler,

who was angry with the English because they had kept him in order. When he heard that General Sir Henry Havelock was approaching he offered to allow the English, who had already suffered dreadful hardships, to leave in boats. When they entered the boats they were cruelly shot down by the Sepoys gathered on either bank. Only four persons escaped to tell the woful tale.

At Lucknow the English, under Sir Henry Lawrence (brother of Sir John Lawrence, who was then assisting at the siege of Delhi) were driven into the residency, and, though their leader was soon afterwards slain, they continued to hold out until relief arrived. The brave and pious Havelock, having taken Cawnpore and crushed the mutineers in several smaller places, marched towards Lucknow. General Outram, who had been sent out to take charge of Havelock’s soldiers, met him near to Lucknow. He told Havelock that it was hardly fair that he should take the army and win the glory for which Sir Henry had done and suffered so much, Outram, therefore, served under Havelock, and together they brought about the Relief of Lucknow. Delhi had been taken by Sir John Lawrence a week earlier. But though Havelock relieved Lucknow, his army now under the charge of Outram, was shut in, for it was not powerful enough to crush the besieging Sepoys. The new Commander-in-chief, Sir Colin Campbell (afterwards Lord Clyde) then marched through the valley of the Ganges, with a large army specially brought out from England, and after much severe fig'hting the mutiny was at last put down.

The English Parliament then took away all the political power of the East India Company, and it was disbanded after 257 years of existence. A Governor-General was appointed to carry out the wishes of the British Government, under a secretary of state for India, who is a member of the British Cabinet. Queen Victoria then took complete control of the country, and in 1877 she was proclaimed, at Delhi, as Empress of India.

12.—THE CRIMEAN WAR.

This great war lasted from 1853 to 1856. The Turks who occupy a large part of the Balkan Peninsula are a cruel and barbarous race. They came over from Asia in the 15th century and took possession of the European country, which now bears their name. They are of the Mohammedan faith and are one of the most barbarous and ignorant of Mohammedan races. Mohammed told his followers that they were to spread his religion with the aid of the sword, and no race has more earnestly sought to carry out this injunction than “the unspeakable Turk.”

Among the other nations which live in the Balkan Peninsula are several Christian peoples, some of which belong to the same section of the Christian Church, and are of the same race as the Russians.

Fifty years ago Turkey ruled over all the Balkan Peninsula, and many of the Christians there (as they still are in Armenia in Asia) were subjected to horrible cruelties by their Mohammedan rulers.

Russia was anxious to protect these Christians from this harsh treatment, and she claimed the right to interfere. Unfortunately this question became mixed up with another, namely, Russia’s desire to extend her territory.

Nicholas was then Emperor of Russia. When he asked of the Turks permission to protect the suffering Christians, the Sultan refused, and Russia then sent her troops to occupy the Danubian Principalities (now known as Roumania). Soon after this Turkey declared war. England, France, Austria, and Prussia had joined in supporting Turkey, but they wished to avoid a war. Their object in thus giving support to Turkey was to present Constantinople falling into the hands of Russia, for, although none of the European nations have much love for Turkey, they would rather see Constantinople in Turkish hands, as it has been for the last four hundred years, than in the hands of any of the great powers. When the war broke out in 1853 the Turks were successful all along the Danube. England ordered Russia to take her troops back across the River Pruth before the month of April, 1854. Russia failed to do so, and France and England declared war and sent troops to the Black and Baltic Seas.

When British troops first went to the Black Sea, they made an attack upon the Crimean Peninsula. The Russians had a strong fortress there known as Sebastopol. The object of the allied armies was to take Sebastopol. They first landed to the north of it at Eupatoria, the English being in charge of Lord Raglan, the French of St. Arnaud.

Accompanied by a small Turkish force, the^ marched southwards to Sebastopol. Six days after landing they came to a small river called the Alma. Russian forces lined the hills on each side ; but the allied armies forced their way through, and crossed the river, after winning the great Battle of Alma. If they had known how weak the defence of Sebastopol was, they might have marched upon it at once ; but, believing its defence to be strong, they decided to attack it from the south.

They took up a position on the sea-coast ; and, in an attempt to take the fortress, one month after the battle of Alma, they were driven back by a number of Russians, led by Gortschakoff. They fell back upon Balaclava, a small seaport town on the south coast, and laid seige to the Russian fortress. A vigorous attack was made upon them by a large body of troops, but the allied armies won the day.

It was during the Battle of Balaclava that the famous charge of the Light Brigade occurred. Six hundred men had, owing to some mistake, been ordered to recapture some guns. Though it meant riding through a valley, each side of which was lined with Russian soldiers, the men rode along, while—

“ Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them,

Volleyed and thundered!”

They sabred the gunners, and then rode back ; but only 198 of them survived the dreadful mission.

Just before daybreak, on the 5th November, the Russians attacked the British at Inker man.    A drizzling rain was

falling, but the British infantry made a stubborn and glorious resistance (though opposed by an enormous force of Russians) till the French came to their help, and the most severe battle of the whole war was won.

“ And men from Inkerman swarmed onwards,

Who made the dark fight good—

One man to nine, till their thin line Lay where at first it stood.”

The Siege of Sebastopol lasted for nearly a year longer. It was a terrible winter, wet, cold, and miserable. The trenches in which the soldiers worked were knee-deep in mud and water. Their camps, pitched in a marsh, were also surrounded by water. Their only beds were wet straw ;

sickness broke out amongst them ; they were in want of food,, for the store-ships had been wrecked in the storms of the Black Sea, and the mismanagement at home was so bad that proper supplies of warm clothes and comforts were not sent out. The soldiers died in thousands.

When the people at home heard of these things, there were terrible disturbances, and the Government was thrown out of power. The new minister, Lord Palmerston, took the matter in hand more ably. Miss Nightingale and a staff of nurses went out to attend the sick, and an hospital was set up at Scutari, opposite Constantinople. This was the first time that ladies had devoted themselves to the task of tending the sick, and many soldiers were nursed back to health by the kindness of Miss Nightingale and her friends.

Palmerston reformed the arrangement of the war, and the siege of Sebastopol still went on. After the winter was over, the allies made an attack on the Redan and Malakoff batteries. At first they were beaten back; but, after a month’s incessant bombardment, the Russians were forced to leave Sebastopol ; and, in the dead of one night, they marched away, leaving their wounded, but blowing up their batteries, and setting fire to their town, just as they had done at Moscow, in 1804.

Peace was signed at Paris, in 1856. Russia received a part of Roumania, but agreed to keep her fleet out of the Black Sea. This greatly weakened her power for the next 20 years.

But for this war it is probable that ere now the Turks would have been driven out of Europe. Recent events afford strong indications that within the next generation Turkey will cease to exist any longer as an empire.

QUEEN VICTORIA’S REIGN (SINCE 1837).

Of all the reigns in the history of our England, that of Queen Victoria is the longest and by far the most glorious. Our queen came to the throne on 21st June, 1837, and, as you may remember, in June, 1897, a great gathering took place in London to commemorate the “Diamond Jubilee” of her reign. That loyal and enthusiastic celebration did not signify to thoughtful people merely that the queen had reigned for 60 years ; it showed the joy of the nation at the survival of one whose personal influence had been so marked ; and had been used in such a manner that the lives of the people generally had become better and purer, that the condition of the lower classes had been improved to a marvellous degree, and that the wealth, progress, and prosperity of the whole nation had been increased to an extent unequalled in the history of human progress.

cen-

The spirit of selfishness which characterised both masters and servants at the beginning ot the century had given place, in a large measure, to a feeling of brotherliness, of mutual sympathy and respect. The personal influence of the Queen, and, during his life, of the Prince Consort, had had much to do with this. They took such a deep and sympathetic interest in the welfare of the masses, and they worked with such tireless energy for the freedom of the people, that the tone of the higher classes was raised, and men of ability and integrity, actuated by the same desire as the sovereign, gathered round the throne.

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the rich landowners, estates. Those who farmers then became dependent on rich landlords, and as these landlords were, in the main, selfish, grasping, and mean-spirited, the English farm-labourers became more downtrodden than ever before.

After the Industrial Revolution workmen became gathered together in factories, and as the rich men who employed them were often rough, uneducated, hard men of business, who cared little for the health and comfort of those whom they employed, their state became quite as bad as that of the farmers. They were herded together in small, dark, dirty, unhealthy rooms, where men, women and children were forced to work from


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In the early part of the tury great changes took place in the condition of the farming and manufacturing classes. The farming lands in the ^ counties had, by slow degrees, been bought up from the small farmers in this way acquired very been small landholders and

daylight till dark. Laws prevented them from combining- in trades unions for mutual 'defence and support ; but made no provision for guarding their interests, their health or their welfare. They were poor, ignorant and miserable, and they had neither power nor influence in the state, for they had no voice in the election of members of Parliament.

But when the farming and artisan population had thus sunk to this deepest depth of degradation, a great writer named Thomas Carlyle came forward, in the early years of the reign of Queen Victoria, and by his stern, blunt, unswerving criticisms, and fierce and fiery denunciations roused the higher classes to a sense of their duty to their poorer fellow-countrymen. He appealed only to the educated classes, but his influence with them was marvellously great. He put forward a plea for the working classes, not that any favor should be shown to them more than to any one else, but that they should have justice, and that they should be treated just as their masters were treated. Following Carlyle, and to a large extent under his influence, came three other great and noble men, whose writings had much the same effect as those of Carlyle. John Ruskin, the most powerful of them, had great influence on the educated classes. He wrote in bitter condemnation of the rich masters, whose only aim was the increase of their own power and riches, regardless of the welfare of their neighbours and of their workmen. Ruskin asked for and pleaded for unselfishness with all the power, passion, and persuasiveness which he so amply possessed.

Charles Dickens and Charles Kingsley worked for the people by means of their novels, and they appealed to all classes. They drew true, terrible and touching pictures of the state of the times, and demanded that love and brotherliness should be shown by all men, and especially that masters should show kindness and sympathy to their servants.

Amongst other great men who helped in bringing about this changed attitude the greatest were three poets : Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson and Matthew Arnold. They dealt with social questions by drawing pictures of an ideal state of affairs, and by exhorting and encouraging their fellow-countrymen to strive to live up to this hig'h ideal.

The practical result of this teaching has been seen in the Factory Act of Peel (1844) ; the legislation introduced by Earl Shaftesbury ; and Cross’s Factory and Workshop Act of 1878, which placed restrictions upon the

employment of women and children, and improved the condition of the working men. Trades unions have been formed by the various artisans, and thus they have helped themselves to a better social position. The Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884 improved their political position and gave them a voice in making the laws under which they live.

Thus during the reign of Victoria there has been a marked and general betterment of the condition of Englishmen, so that now the artisans are better fed, better clothed, better educated, better governed and better paid than ever before.

The reign has also witnessed great progress in invention. Though both steamships and locomotives had been in use a few years before Victoria’s accession they have since been so improved and perfected that there are now 300,000 miles of rail roads (there were only no miles in 1837) on the earth’s surface, whilst 10,000,000 tons of steam-driven shipping belong to Britain alone, and not only are the “ wooden walls of England ” fast becoming a thing of the past, but sailing vessels are gradually being supplanted by steamships.

Electric telegraphs have been invented during the Victorian era, and though the first cable was laid only in 1850, to-day Britain alone owns 15,000 miles of cable, and there is no place of any considerable size on the earth’s surface that is not connected by wire with all parts of the civilised earth.

In every department of life new inventions have done, and are still doing, much to make the conditions of life happier. Scientific research has brought to light many improved methods of avoiding and of curing disease.

To sum up briefly:—(1) Much has been done to improve the condition of the masses ; (2) the dignity of labor is more fully recognised, and labour is more adequately remunerated, so that many of the comforts of life are now within the means of the humble and the comparatively poor ; (3) the state now recognises its obligation to care for the health and education of all classes of men ; (4) government is interesting itself in social problems, and is gradually finding out means to secure the more equal distribution of wealth ; (5) men generally are recognising the duty of striving to be good and true, and of assisting their fellows to be the same.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE OF TO-DAY.

The most striking event in the world’s history during the past two centuries has been the gradual spread of the English-speaking races over the surface of the earth.

In the course of these stories you have read of the English people coming across from their old home on the east coast of the North Sea, and founding petty kingdoms in Britain. You have seen that these petty kingdoms fought with one another, and gradually the stronger got the mastery over the weaker, till at last one king became an overlord over all the minor kings. Later on the kingdoms were welded together into one country, ruled by one king. Foreign kings came over and conquered the land, and helped to make the union of the people more complete.

Then in course of time Wales and Scotland became united with England to form Great Britain, and subsequently Ireland entered the union, and thus completed “The United Kingdom.”

But even before this had been brought about, Englishmen had commenced to settle beyond the seas. The English were not the first nation to found colonies in distant lands. Soon after the discovery of the New World, in the 15th century, Spain had founded colonies in Mexico and Peru, whence she obtained gold and silver. She was soon followed by Portugal, and both countries formed settlements in the West Indies, whence tropical products were obtained. France soon followed. Holland had already settled in the Malay Archipelago, and she was sending her ships there for the various tropical products, which she distributed throughout Europe. England was the last of the five to commence the foundation of colonies. Now she has outstripped them all, and her colonies to-day have an area four times as great as all the others put together. At first the English Government did not found colonies at all, but Englishmen did. Many men, in the early part of the 17th century, left England, for various reasons, and went to the eastern shores of the New World, where they settled down, not to look for gold or silver mines or to get tropical products, but to found new homes, where they might live and labour undisturbed by the political and religious struggles of the old land. By the time of the Commonwealth Englishmen had founded several settlements on the coast of North America, and had occupied the Bermudas (1609), and

the island of Barbados (1625) in the West Indies. Cromwell, you will remember, took part in a war against Spain. He attempted during that war to take possession of their richest West Indian island, San Domingo. In this he failed, but he took Jamaica (1655), which was the first colony England gained by conquest.

You have read in earlier stories in this book of the great series of seven wars which England waged against France between 1689 and 1815. In each of these wars England made the conquest of colonies her chief aim. All of them had the possession of colonies and the question of trade as their underlying cause. So that by 1815 England had acquired by conquest : Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Gibraltar, Canada, several West Indian islands, Trinidad, Ceylon, Malta, Mauritius, British Guiana, Cape Colony, and the beginnings of the Indian Empire.

But she had also lost, during the fifth war of the great series, her first Colonial Empire. The British colonies on the eastern seaboard of America had become an independent country—the United States. They subsequently extended their dominion to the Pacific coast and to-day they form an English-speaking race of 63,000,000 people whilst their country covers an area of 3,600,000 square miles.

New South Wales had been settled in 1788. It is the only large colony which was acquired by settlement between 1689 and 1815. Since the Battle of Waterloo England has acquired by settlement all the remaining colonies of Australasia. She has also added to the Empire some Pacific islands, various parts of Africa, and some settlements in Asia, such as Singapore, Hongkong, Aden, Burma, etc.

The British Empire differs from the great empires of antiquity (Assyria, Egypt, Persia, and Rome) in this important respect, that it is an empire of people of the one race—all speaking the same language, whereas their empires were partly made up of conquered races, which, in many cases, retained their own languages and institutions.

To-day the whole Empire—consisting of the United Kingdom, Greater Britain, our Indian Empire, and various naval, military, and trading stations—has an area of about 11,000,000 of square miles, and a population of 380,000,000 people (38 millions in the United Kingdom, 55 millions in Greater Britain, and 287 millions in our Indian Empire).

1.—THE UNITED KINGDOM.

The United Kingdom has an area of 121,000 square miles, and a population of 38,000,000.

2—GREATER BRITAIN.

(«) The Australasian Group of Cglonies has an area of 3,076,000 square miles, and a population of 4,400,000 persons. It consists of the seven Colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Westralia, Tasmania, and New Zealand.

(b)    British South Africa has an area of 812,000 square miles, and a population of 3,000,000. It consists of Cape Colony, Natal, British Bechuanaland, and Basutoland ; the Protectorates of Bechuanaland, British Central Africa, and Zululand ; together with Rhodesia, the territories under the control of the British South African Chartered Company.

(c)    British North America has a total area of 3,600,000 square miles, and a population of 5,000,000. Jt consists of the Federal Dominion of Canada and the Island of Newfoundland, with its dependency Labrador.

(d)    British West Indian Group, including the two mainland colonies of Guiana and Honduras, has a total area of 130,000 square miles, and a population of 1,675,000 people. It includes the Bahama Islands, Jamaica, the Federation of Leeward Islands, the Windward Island Federation, Barbados, Tobago, Trinidad, and several smaller islands ; British Guiana, in South America ; and British Honduras, in Central America.

(e)    The Naval, Military and Trading Stations, scattered the wide-world over, viz.—(1) In the Pacific Ocean : Fiji Islands and Rotumah, British New Guinea, Hongkong, and Kowloon. (2) In the Indian Ocean : The Straits Settlements, Ceylon (and Maidive Islands), Mauritius (with Rodriguez, Seychelle, and Amirante Islands, Chagos and Oil Islands), Aden (with Perim, Kuria Muria Islands, Socotra and the British Somali Coast). (3) In the Mediterranean : Cyprus, Malta, Gozo, Comino, and Gibraltar. (4) In the Atlantic : Bermuda Islands, Ascension, St. Helena, Falkland Islands (and South Georgia), Trinidad, and Tristan d’Acunha. (5) On the African Coast : Gold Coast Colony, Dagos, Sierra Leone, Gambia, and Walfisch Bay.

III.—OUR INDIAN EMPIRE.

Our Indian Empire consists of eleven provinces and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (making altogether 1,016,000 square miles, with 203,000,000 people) under direct British rule ; and fifteen native states, some of which pay tribute to the British Indian Government, and all of which are indirectly under its control. (These feudatory states have a total area of 645,000 square miles, and a population of 67,000,000).

Attached to the Empire, but not really forming a part of it are several

SPHERES OF INFLUENCE.

The spheres of influence are of three classes : (a) Protectorates ;    (¿>) Administrations of British Chartered Trading

Companies ; (c) Places occupied by British troops, but not declared British Territory.

(<7) The Malay States, North Borneo and Labuan, Tonga,, Zanzibar, Pemba, and the Niger Coast.

(b)    The Royal Niger Company’s Territory (West Africa), and Ibea (East Africa), also Rhodesia included in the South African group.

(c)    Egypt, Suakin and Eastern Soudan, Afghanistan, part Baluchistan, Samoa.

86    BROOKS’^ NEW AUSTRALIAN SCHOOL SERIES.

DATES TO BE LEARNED BY FOURTH CLASS.

The Stuart Period—1603-1714 (111 years).

James I. —1603.

Charles I. —1625.

The Petition of Right—1628.

The Long Parliament—1640-1660.

The Commonwealth—1649-1660.

Capture of Jamaica—1655.

Charles II. —1660.

James II. —1685.

The Great Revolution of 1688.

William III. and Mary II. —1689.

Beginning of the Great Series of Wars—1689. Queen Anne—1702.

Blenheim and Gibraltar—1704.

Union of England and Scotland—1707.

Peace of Utrecht—1713.

The Hanoverian Period—1714-1899 (185 years).

George I.—1714.

First Jacobite Rebellion—1715.

George II. —1727.

War of Austrian Succession Began—1743-Battle of Plassey—1757.

Canada Won—1760.

George III.—1760.

The Industrial Revolution—1767-1785. Declaration of American Independence—1776. The French Revolution Began—1789.

N.S.W. Settled—1788.

Battle of Waterloo—1815.

George IV.—1820.

The First Reform Act—1832.

William IV.—1830.

Victoria—1837.

Crimean War—1854.

Indian Mutiny—1857.

Federation of Dominion of Canada—1867. Queen became Empress of India—1877.

[End of History Stories for Fourth Class.]

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