QUEEN VICTORIA.—1837.
How Hanover was separated from England; how the Queen married her
cousin, Prince Albert; how a fresh Revolution broke out in Paris,
and how Louis Philippe escaped to England; how the Chartists held
meetings; how we went to war with Russia; how the Sepoys mutinied
in India; how the young men in Great Britain became Volunteers; how
Parliament was reformed the second time, and means taken to educate
the people; how there were a great many discoveries and improvements
made.
The Princess Victoria, niece of William the Fourth, succeeded him on
the throne. She was the daughter of Edward Duke of Kent, the next
brother of the late king. Her mother, the Duchess of Kent, was sister
to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, King of the Belgians.
A princess is of age to reign at eighteen; the Princess Victoria had
happily attained that age a few weeks before she was called to be
Queen of England.
Since the reign of George the First, who was Elector of Hanover, the
kings of England had also ruled over that kingdom; but in Hanover
there is a law which prevents females from reigning there; so that,
when William the Fourth died, Hanover was separated from England;
and at the same time that the Princess Victoria ascended the English
throne, Ernest Duke of Cumberland, the fifth son of George the Third
(and the Queen’s eldest surviving uncle), became King of Hanover. But
Hanover has since been made part of the German Empire.
The reign of Victoria, the happiest and best that ever was for
England, has yet been marked by a great deal of fighting in all parts
of the world.
First, there were riots in Canada, and it was three years before they
were entirely put down; then a number of people who called themselves
Chartists created some uneasiness at home, but their meetings were
soon stopped, and their ringleaders were transported; next, a war
broke out in China and another in India, and it was eight years
before all these disturbances were settled.
Meanwhile the people were glad to turn their minds from these
troubles to an event that gave every one pleasure, namely,
the marriage of the Queen with her cousin, Prince Albert of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, nephew of Leopold, the wise King of the Belgians.
There were great rejoicings on this occasion, and with reason, for it
proved one of the happiest events, not only for the Queen, but for
her people.
The French had for some time been growing more and more dissatisfied
with the government of Louis Philippe, whom they had chosen, in
1830, to be their king; and every now and then they had shown their
discontent by insurrections, which led to fighting in the streets
of Paris. At length their displeasure vented itself in a complete
revolution, and Louis Philippe, in terror for his life, made his
escape and came for refuge to England.
[Illustration: The Marriage of Queen Victoria.]
The Chartists, misled by some designing persons who fancied they
might make a similar revolution in Old England, thought this would be
a good time to try and frighten the Queen and Government of England
into granting their foolish and dangerous wishes; so they collected
a very large multitude, intending to go in a body to the House of
Commons and demand what they wanted. But the people of England loved
the Queen too well, and were too well satisfied with the government
of their country, to let the Chartists do any mischief; so, at the
command of the Duke of Wellington, soldiers were placed in various
parts of London, to be in readiness if wanted; and the principal
citizens undertook to guard the City, while they spared all the
policemen to go and keep the bridges which cross the Thames. The
Chartists, when they saw that they could not gain their ends, and
that they would only bring harm to themselves if they resorted to
violence, agreed that the best thing they could do, was to disperse
and go quietly home. Thus, whereas there had been fighting between
the people and the soldiers in almost all the other great cities of
Europe, peace was maintained in London on that memorable and peaceful
day, the Tenth of April, 1848, without a single soldier being seen.
A short while after, the great Duke of Wellington, who had served
his country so long and so well, died. By the victories he had won
he had procured peace for Europe which lasted more than forty years.
The English had cause to lament his loss, not many years after, when
they engaged in a terrible war with Russia. The Russians, whose
country, you know, is the largest in Europe, tried to get possession
of Turkey, and of the mouths of the River Danube, and the rich corn
countries on its banks. Several of the other European countries
thought it was not fair for Russia to tyrannize over Turkey, and
they also thought it would not be safe for the rest of Europe, that
the Emperor of Russia should rule from the Baltic to the Black Sea
and Mediterranean, as he certainly would do if he succeeded in
overpowering the Turks. So the English and French, and afterwards
the Sardinians, joined in helping the Turks to drive back the
Russians into their own country. This war lasted two years, and half
a million of lives were lost in it, far the greater number on the
side of Russia. The allied armies, as those who joined the Turks were
called, fought hard, and suffered a great deal from cold, illness,
and fatigue, but they succeeded at last in freeing the Turks from
their Russian enemies. The fighting took place chiefly in the Crimea,
where the Russians had a very strong fortress and a large harbour
for their ships of war, at a place called Sevastopol. The Russians
strove with all their might to defend the fortress; but, after it had
been besieged for twelve months, it was taken at last, with great
difficulty, by the Allies, and was destroyed.
This war was scarcely over when a dreadful mutiny broke out in
India amongst the Sepoys. The Sepoys are Indians whom the English
have trained to be soldiers. They make very good soldiers, and are
sometimes very faithful; but their religion makes them see some
things in a very different light from that in which Christians look
at the same things; and one of the supposed grievances of the Sepoys
was that their cartridges were greased with the fat of cows—animals
which are sacred amongst the Indians. The Sepoys turned upon the
English, who were few in number compared with themselves, and killed
numbers of them, with their wives and children, without mercy. The
massacre was dreadful, but the English were not daunted, and they
everywhere showed the greatest courage and presence of mind in the
midst of these scenes of horror, until at length the officers and
soldiers, sent from England to relieve and defend them, entirely
put down the rebellion. The chieftain of the mutineers was one Nana
Sahib, who disappeared, and is supposed to have been slain; and
amongst the brave men who subdued the mutiny were General Havelock,
Sir Henry Lawrence, and Sir Colin Campbell, afterwards Lord Clyde.
The year after this mutiny the rule of the East India Company was
entirely done away with, and an Act of Parliament declared that all
those parts of India which had been conquered by the English should
in future be governed by the Queen.
I am afraid I should never finish if I tried to tell you all that was
done in this reign; but I cannot leave off without speaking of one
thing which shows how much the British people love their Queen and
their country, and how determined they are to defend them. It was
thought at one time that the Emperor Napoleon, who ruled in France
after Louis Philippe, had some intention of invading England. As soon
as ever this was thought possible, nearly all the young gentlemen,
and men of every class throughout the country, came forward of their
own accord to be trained as soldiers, and drilled, and they continued
steadily practising until they made themselves good soldiers. The
invasion did not take place, but such resolution and unity of feeling
on the part of Great Britain must make all foreigners see what
reception they would meet with, if they came to our land as enemies.
I might tell you long stories of the wonderful wars and changes that
have happened all over the world since this time; but they hardly
belong to the History of England. And the reason for this is one to
make us very thankful. You have seen all through this little book
how British freedom has been always growing; so that the people are
governed according to their own wishes, and all needful changes can
be made without violence. And we have been able to have nothing to
do with the great wars abroad, except to send help to the wounded
soldiers and the starving people.
In our good Queen’s long reign many new laws have been made; but
I need only tell you now of one or two. There was another Reform
of the House of Commons, giving a vote to nearly all people who
live in houses and lodgings and pay their share of the expenses
of government. And, as people cannot be good citizens, or good at
all, without being well taught, Parliament has provided for the
_education_ of all the children in the country.
The discoveries and improvements of this reign have been greater and
more numerous than have ever been made in the same space of time
since the world began; so I can only tell you some of the chief of
them.
For two hundred years and more, English sailors have been striving to
find a shorter way of going to India and China, than by going either
round the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. They hoped to be able to
do so, by sailing through the seas at the North Pole, along the
north coast of America. But these seas are filled with ice, which is
quite fast in winter, and breaks up only a little in summer; so that
the brave men, who sought a passage through them, nearly always got
blocked up in the ice, and had to spend the winter in the dark. One
of the bravest of those who tried to find this passage was Sir John
Franklin, who, unhappily, never returned; and after many years it was
found by those who went to seek him, that he and all his companions
had died of cold and starvation. Before his death, however, he had
pushed through the ice far enough to prove that the ocean extends
all along the north coast of America, from Baffin’s Bay to Behring
Straits; though he could not take a ship through. So the North-West
Passage was at last discovered, and it shows how daring English
sailors are, and what difficulties they will overcome.
Dr. Livingstone made great discoveries in Africa, where he found
rivers and great lakes, whose names were before unknown; and other
travellers have traced nearly to its source the celebrated river of
Egypt, the Nile.
In the part of the globe opposite to us, the great _Australian_
colonies have grown up—greater than those we lost in America under
George the Third. And an immense quantity of gold has been discovered
there. But you must know that _gold_ is only useful to help people in
exchanging one useful thing for another; and times of abundant gold
have always been times of great prosperity for the world. And now
_meat_ is brought all the way from Australia for us to eat. And we
have colonies in the two great islands of _New Zealand_, which are
almost the _Antipodes_ to us. This word means that the people there
stand right on the other side of the round world, with their feet
pointing to our feet. In North America, too, the colonies that we won
from the French under George the Second have been formed into a great
united state, called the Dominion of Canada. It would take me much
too long to tell you how rich Great Britain has grown during this
reign by its trade with all the world.
The postage of letters was made so cheap, that all people can
write to their friends as often as they like. Railroads were made
everywhere, even, as you know, under the streets of London. Electric
telegraphs were invented, and made to carry messages to almost every
part of the world, not only overland, but even across the bed of the
seas. Most ships are now made of iron instead of wood, and by the
help of steam are able to cross the seas to America and to go round
the world; and railways have been made in almost every country upon
the earth.
The Thames Tunnel was finished and opened; the Royal Exchange, which
had been burnt down, was re-built, and opened by the Queen; the Great
Exhibition, a vast house of glass half a mile long, was built at the
suggestion of the Queen’s husband, the Prince Consort, and all the
people of the world were invited to bring all the best things their
countries could produce, and display them in it. The new Houses
of Parliament, one of the grandest buildings in the world, have
arisen; many new streets of splendid houses for the rich, and many
new lodging-houses for working people have been made; and instead of
burying dead people in churchyards in the middle of towns, cemeteries
(that is, “sleeping places”) have been formed outside the towns for
all people to be buried in.
But what I think the most useful of all are the improvements made in
_printing_ books and newspapers. Great machines have been invented to
print several thousand of sheets of paper in an hour. New materials
have been used for making paper. Besides this, the taxes have been
taken off paper and newspapers; so that I can now buy a newspaper
for one penny, for which I used to pay seven-pence half-penny when
I was little Arthur’s age. I might tell you a great deal more about
the taxes that have been taken off all manner of necessary and
useful things, and how we have now bread and tea and coffee and
sugar and salt and spice and wine, and bricks and timber and glass,
and gloves and boots and silks and ribands, and even toys, and many
other things, much cheaper because they are not taxed. And yet the
Government has plenty of money, because the people can better afford
to pay other taxes.
This work of lightening the burdens of the people was begun after
the battle of Waterloo, when the great Duke of Wellington was Prime
Minister to George the Fourth. Indeed, more taxes were taken off in
the ten years before the Reform Bill than in the twenty years after
it.
I must now tell you a few sad things which have happened in this
reign.
There was a terrible famine in Ireland, caused by a disease, before
unknown, which destroyed the potato crop. The potato is the chief
food of the poor people in Ireland, and, when the potato rotted in
the ground, there was nothing for them to live upon. The rich people
of England did all they could to help the poor creatures, and a great
deal of money was sent from this country to buy food and clothes for
them; but, notwithstanding all that was done, thousands and thousands
died of disease and starvation. This was a dreadful visitation; but
it has providentially led to some good; for more care has been taken
since then to cultivate land in Ireland, and everything done to try
and keep off such a misfortune in future.
And there have been rebellions in Ireland, because many of the people
want to have a separate government of their own. But this would do
them more harm than good, for they have a full share in making laws
for the United Kingdom; and the Irish have equal liberty with the
English and the Scotch. All three countries help one another; and
there have been natives of all three among the great and good men who
have raised the united BRITISH ISLES to power and prosperity. So it
is foolish and wicked to want to divide them again.
Another sad thing was the return of the cholera, which carried off
great numbers of people; but this misfortune has also led to some
good, for, although it is not known what brings the cholera, it has
always been found that fewer people die of it where towns are kept
clean, and houses are airy, and where people live on good food and
wholesome water. So more care has since been taken of these things,
and it may be that not only cholera, but fevers and other illnesses,
may have been kept off by the care that is taken. But a great deal
more has to be done to keep the air pure and provide plenty of pure
water for our towns.
There was very great distress for some time in Lancashire, where
so many thousands of people live by weaving cotton. The reason of
this was, that a civil war broke out in America, where the cotton
was grown. As long as there was fighting in America, no cotton came
from that country to this; and there was no work for the weavers
to do, so that they were in the greatest distress. They bore their
troubles patiently and well, and nearly every one in the country, and
even some of the Americans themselves, sent money and clothes for
the suffering workpeople, and did everything possible to help them
until they could go to work again. And since then, a rich American
merchant, Mr. Peabody, has given hundreds of thousands of pounds to
build proper houses for workmen and poor people in London.
But of all the sad events of this reign, the one which has been
longest and most deeply felt is the death of the Prince Consort, the
good and beloved husband of the Queen. Until he died, the people
themselves did not know how needful he was to her in relieving her of
the cares of governing, how much good he had otherwise done them, and
how truly he loved them. Many of the improvements made in this reign
were owing to him: he planned better houses for the poor to live in;
he encouraged farmers to cultivate their land more carefully and to
rear good cattle; he patronised and encouraged Arts and Sciences; in
short, I cannot tell you how wise and prudent he was, and how many
good things he did, nor how much and how sincerely he is regretted.
Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort had nine children; the eldest
of whom, the Princess Royal, is married to the Crown Prince of
Prussia; the second, the Prince of Wales and heir to the throne,
is married to the Princess Alexandra of Denmark; and the third,
the Princess Alice, who was married to Prince Louis of Hesse, died
in 1878; the Princess Helena is married to Prince Christian; the
Princess Louise, to the Marquis of Lorne, son of the Duke of Argyle;
the Duke of Edinburgh is married to the only daughter of the Emperor
of Russia, and the Duke of Connaught to the daughter of Prince
Charles of Prussia; Prince Leopold, and Princess Beatrice.
And now, dear Arthur, before I end the story of what has happened
thus far in our beloved Queen’s reign, I have to add something that
seemed likely to be one of its saddest events, but I trust may prove,
by God’s blessing, one of the happiest. Just ten years after the
death of the good Prince Consort, the Prince of Wales was seized
with the same sort of fever, at the age of thirty. He was so ill
that prayer was made for him in all the churches; but three days
afterwards he began to get better. The love shown by the Queen and
all the Royal family in watching round his bed made them dearer than
ever to the nation; and the deep anxiety of all the people for their
Prince gave such a proof of their loyalty as I scarcely remember.
I want my dear Arthur to learn well the great lesson of _loyalty_
as well as _liberty_. It is our happiness always to enjoy a settled
government, not subject to change, under a royal family, kept quietly
and regularly at the head of the state; so that we may show love and
honour to our country by loving and honouring _them_; and especially
when we have a Queen and royal family whose virtues deserve all our
love and loyalty.
But it is time to finish our little History, which I hope you will
remember; and I also hope that it will help you to understand larger
and better histories by-and-by.
THE END.
Transcriber’s Notes
pg 2 Changed: they had coarse earthern bowls and pitchers
to: they had coarse earthen bowls and pitchers
pg 51 Changed: WILLIAM III.—1087 to 1100.
to: WILLIAM II.—1087 to 1100.
pg 142 Changed: CHAPTER XXXVII.
to: CHAPTER XXXVIII.