GEORGE III.—1760 to 1820.
How George the Third, after making a general peace, went to war with
the Americans; how General Washington beat the English armies, and
procured peace; why the King went to war with France; how Napoleon
Buonaparte conquered many countries; how our Admirals and Generals
won many battles; and how there were many useful things found out in
George the Third’s reign.
The people of England were very glad when George the Third became
king after his grandfather. You read in the last chapter that his
father, Frederick, Prince of Wales, died in the life-time of George
the Second.
George the Third was born in England, and brought up like an English
gentleman. I think he was one of the best men that ever was a king;
but I do not think that everything he did was wise or right. He
reigned longer than any king ever reigned in England, and unhappily
before he died he became blind, and he lost his senses.
He married a German princess named Charlotte, and they had a great
many sons and daughters, and one of their grandchildren is our good
Queen Victoria.
You must not expect me to tell you everything that happened in this
long reign, which lasted sixty years, but you shall read of one or
two things of most consequence, and that you can understand best.
When George had been king a little more than two years he made peace
with all the world, but his reign was very far from being a peaceable
one.
There were two wars in particular of great consequence; the first was
the American war, and the second the French war. I will tell you a
little about each of them.
You will remember that in Raleigh’s time the English built some towns
in North America. Afterwards, during the civil wars in the time
of Charles the First, many more English went there and took their
families there to live, and by degrees they had taken possession of
a very large country, and had got towns and villages and fields.
These English states in America were called _Colonies_; but they were
still governed by the King and Parliament of England. The English
wanted the Americans to pay taxes. But the Americans said that, by
Magna Charta and our old laws, no Englishman might be taxed without
their own consent given in parliament. Now the American Colonies had
no members in the British parliament; so they said the Parliament
had no right to tax them. Then the king called them rebels, and
threatened to punish them; and so, after many disputes, war broke
out between the Americans and the King of England’s soldiers who
were in America to guard the towns and collect the taxes. Then the
Americans said they would have a government of their own. This war
was thought little of at first, but it soon grew to be one of the
greatest wars England had ever had. The French and Spaniards, who
had not forgotten how the English had beaten them by sea and land in
the last wars, joined the Americans; and although the English gained
several victories by sea over the French and Spaniards, yet by land
the Americans beat the English.
The chief man in America was General George Washington, one of the
greatest men that ever lived. He commanded the American army, and as
he and his soldiers were fighting in their own land for their own
freedom, and for their own wives and children, it was not wonderful
that at last they beat out the English soldiers, who did not like
to be sent so far from home to fight against men who spoke the same
language with themselves.
At last, when the King of England found the people were tired of this
long war, he agreed to make peace with America, and since that time
the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA have had a government of their own,
and have become a great and powerful nation. They have a President
instead of a king, and they call their parliament a Congress. You
will understand these things in a few years.
The French war lasted even longer than the American war. This was
the cause: for a long time the French kings had governed France
very badly, and the French nobles oppressed the poor people, and
the clergymen did not do their duty rightly, but left the people
ignorant. At last the people could bear these bad things no longer,
and King Louis the Sixteenth, who was a good king, would have made
them better if he could. But the princes and nobles would not let
him. Then a number of bad people collected in Paris, and they put the
king and queen and all their family in prison, and they cut off the
heads of the king and queen and the king’s sister, and of a great
many lords and ladies, and after that of every clergyman they could
find, and then of everybody who tried to save the life of another; in
short, I believe the French people did more wicked things in about
three years than any other nation had ever done in a hundred. The
name of the most wicked of all was Robespierre. He was killed at
last by some of those he meant to kill.
England and several other countries then went to war with the French
because they had sent armies to attack the neighbouring countries,
and had conquered many of them, and that war lasted about twenty-four
years.
France would have been mastered, I think, if it had not been for a
brave and clever but wicked man, called Napoleon Buonaparte, who,
from being a simple lieutenant, rose to be Emperor of the French.
He chose clever men for judges and generals. He conquered many
countries, and used to threaten to come and conquer England. But we
had brave sailors, and clever captains and admirals, who never let
any of his ships come near us. Lord Howe won the first sea victory
in the war; then we had Lord St. Vincent, Admirals Duncan, Hood,
Collingwood, Cornwallis, Cochrane, Pellew, and many more, who gained
battles at sea, besides more captains than I can tell you, who took
parts of fleets or single ships. But the man that will be remembered
for ever as the greatest English sailor was Admiral Lord NELSON. He
gained three great victories,—at Aboukir in Egypt, at Copenhagen, and
at TRAFALGAR near the coast of Spain. In that battle he was killed,
but he knew his own fleet had conquered before he died. When he went
into battle, the words he gave, to tell all the ships when to begin
to fight, were, ENGLAND EXPECTS EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY.
These words must never be forgotten by any Englishman.
[Illustration: Farmhouse of Hougoumont on the Field of Waterloo.]
There were no more great sea-fights after Trafalgar, but many on
land, where we had good generals and brave soldiers. The wise and
good General Abercromby was killed just as he gained a victory in
Egypt. His friend, the good and brave General Moore, was killed at
Corunna in Spain, and many other brave officers and men died for the
sake of England, but many lived to fight and to conquer. The greatest
general in our time was the Duke of WELLINGTON, who put an end to
the sad long war by his great victory over the French, commanded by
Napoleon himself, at WATERLOO. I cannot tell you in this little book
how many other battles he won, or how skilfully he fought them, or
how well he knew how to choose the officers to help him. But he will
have always a name as great as Nelson, by whose side he was buried in
St. Paul’s.
After the battle of Waterloo, Napoleon Buonaparte was kept a prisoner
in the island of St. Helena till he died, and the brother of Louis
the Sixteenth was King of France, under the title of Louis the
Eighteenth.
Our good king, George the Third, died soon after. I have told you
what kind of a man he was at the beginning of this chapter.
In his reign more things, useful to all men, were found out than in
hundreds of years before. New countries were visited, new plants
and new animals were brought to England. All the sciences received
great encouragement. The arts that are needful in common life were
improved. Steam engines were first made useful. The beautiful light
given by gas was found out, and all sorts of machines to assist men
in their labour were invented. Those arts called the fine arts, I
mean such as sculpture, painting, and music, were encouraged by
George the Third. But what is of more consequence, the science of
medicine and the art of surgery were so improved in his time, that
the sufferings of mankind from pain and sickness are much lessened.[4]