WILLIAM IV. A.D. 1830--1837.
George IV. had, as you know, no child living at the time of his death.
His next brother, Frederick Duke of York, died before him, likewise
without children, so the crown went to William, Duke of Clarence,
third son of George III. He had been a sailor in his younger days,
but was an elderly man when he came to the throne. He was a dull and
not a very wise man, but good-natured and kind, and had an open,
friendly, sailor manner; and his wife, Queen Adelaide, of Saxe-
Meiningen, was an excellent woman, whom everyone respected. They
never had any children but two daughters who died in infancy: and
everyone knew that the next heir must be the Princess Victoria,
daughter to the next brother, Edward, Duke of Kent, who had died the
year after she was born.
King William IV. had always been friendly with the Whigs, who wanted
power for the people. Those who went furthest among them were called
Radicals, because they wanted a radical reform--that is, going to the
root. In fact, it was time to alter the way of sending members to the
House of Commons, for some of the towns that had once been big enough
to choose one were now deserted and grown very small, while on the
other hand, others which used to be little villages, like Birmingham
and Brighton, had now become very large, and full of people.
The Duke of Wellington and his friends wanted to consider the best way
of setting these things to rights, but the Radicals wanted to do much
more and much faster than he was willing to grant. The poor fancied
that the new rights proposed would make them better off all at once,
and that every man would get a fat pig in his sty and as much bread
as he wanted; and they were so angry at any delay, that they went about
in bands burning the hay-ricks and stacks of corn, to frighten their
landlords. And the Duke of Wellington's great deeds were forgotten
in the anger of the mob, who gathered round him, ready to abuse and
pelt him as he rode along; and yet, as they saw his quiet, calm way
of going on, taking no heed to them, and quite fearless, no one raised
a hand. They broke the windows of his house in London, though, and he
had iron blinds put up to protect them. He went out of office, and
the Whigs came in, and then the Act of Parliament was passed which was
called the Reform bill--because it set to rights what had gone wrong as
to which towns should have members of their own, and, besides, allowed
everyone in a borough town, who rented a house at ten pounds a year,
to vote for the member of Parliament. A borough is a town that has a
member of Parliament, and a city is one that is large enough to have a
mayor and an alderman to manage its affairs at home.
Several more changes were made under King William. Most of the great
union workhouses were built then, and it was made less easy to get help
from the parish without going to live in one. This was meant to cure
people of being idle and liking to live on other folk's money--and it
has done good in that way; but workhouses are sad places for the poor
aged people who cannot work, and it is a great kindness to help them
to keep out of them.
The best thing that was done was the setting the slaves free. Look at
the map of America, and you will see a number of islands--beautiful
places, where sugar-canes, and coffee, and spices grow. Many of these
belong to the English, but it is too hot for Englishmen to work there.
So, for more than a hundred years, there had been a wicked custom that
ships should go to Africa, and there the crews would steal negro men,
women and children, or buy them of tribes of fierce negroes who had
made them captive, and carry them off to the West Indies Islands,
where they were sold to work for their masters, just as cattle are
bought and sold. An English gentleman--William Wilberforce--worked
half his life to get this horrible slave trade forbidden; and at last
he succeeded, in the year 1807, whilst George III. was still reigning.
But though no more blacks were brought from Africa, still the people
in the West Indies were allowed to keep, and buy and sell the slaves
they already had. So Wilberforce and his friends still worked on
until the time of William IV., when, in 1834, all the slaves in the
British dominions were set free.
This reign only lasted seven years, and there were no wars in it; so
the only other thing that I have to tell you about it is, that people
had gone on from finding that steam could be made to work their ships
to making it draw carriages. Railways were being made for trains of
carriages and vans to be drawn by one steam engine. The oldest of all
was opened in 1830, the very year that William IV. began to reign, and
that answered so well that more and more began to be made, and the
whole country to be covered with a network of railways, so the people
and goods could be carried about much quicker than ever was dreamt of
in old times; while steam-ships were made larger and larger, and to go
greater distances.
Besides this, many people in England found there was not work or food
enough for them at home, and went to settle in Canada, and Australia,
and Van Dieman's Land, and New Zealand, making, in all these distant
places, the new English homes called colonies; and thus there have
come to be English people wherever the sun shines.
William IV. died in the year 1837. He was the last English king who
had the German State of Hanover. It cannot belong to a woman, so it
went to his brother Ernest, instead of his niece Victoria.