I have now arrived at the close of my little history. The events which
succeeded the famous Revolution of one thousand six hundred and
eighty-eight, would neither be easily related nor easily understood in
such a book as this.
William and Mary reigned together, five years. After the death of his
good wife, William occupied the throne, alone, for seven years longer.
During his reign, on the sixteenth of September, one thousand seven
hundred and one, the poor weak creature who had once been James the
Second of England, died in France. In the meantime he had done his
utmost (which was not much) to cause William to be assassinated, and to
regain his lost dominions. James’s son was declared, by the French
King, the rightful King of England; and was called in France The
Chevalier Saint George, and in England The Pretender. Some infatuated
people in England, and particularly in Scotland, took up the
Pretender’s cause from time to time—as if the country had not had
Stuarts enough!—and many lives were sacrificed, and much misery was
occasioned. King William died on Sunday, the seventh of March, one
thousand seven hundred and two, of the consequences of an accident
occasioned by his horse stumbling with him. He was always a brave,
patriotic Prince, and a man of remarkable abilities. His manner was
cold, and he made but few friends; but he had truly loved his queen.
When he was dead, a lock of her hair, in a ring, was found tied with a
black ribbon round his left arm.
He was succeeded by the Princess Anne, a popular Queen, who reigned
twelve years. In her reign, in the month of May, one thousand seven
hundred and seven, the Union between England and Scotland was effected,
and the two countries were incorporated under the name of Great
Britain. Then, from the year one thousand seven hundred and fourteen to
the year one thousand, eight hundred and thirty, reigned the four
Georges.
It was in the reign of George the Second, one thousand seven hundred
and forty-five, that the Pretender did his last mischief, and made his
last appearance. Being an old man by that time, he and the Jacobites—as
his friends were called—put forward his son, Charles Edward, known as
the young Chevalier. The Highlanders of Scotland, an extremely
troublesome and wrong-headed race on the subject of the Stuarts,
espoused his cause, and he joined them, and there was a Scottish
rebellion to make him king, in which many gallant and devoted gentlemen
lost their lives. It was a hard matter for Charles Edward to escape
abroad again, with a high price on his head; but the Scottish people
were extraordinarily faithful to him, and, after undergoing many
romantic adventures, not unlike those of Charles the Second, he escaped
to France. A number of charming stories and delightful songs arose out
of the Jacobite feelings, and belong to the Jacobite times. Otherwise I
think the Stuarts were a public nuisance altogether.
It was in the reign of George the Third that England lost North
America, by persisting in taxing her without her own consent. That
immense country, made independent under Washington, and left to itself,
became the United States; one of the greatest nations of the earth. In
these times in which I write, it is honourably remarkable for
protecting its subjects, wherever they may travel, with a dignity and a
determination which is a model for England. Between you and me, England
has rather lost ground in this respect since the days of Oliver
Cromwell.
The Union of Great Britain with Ireland—which had been getting on very
ill by itself—took place in the reign of George the Third, on the
second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight.
William the Fourth succeeded George the Fourth, in the year one
thousand eight hundred and thirty, and reigned seven years. Queen
Victoria, his niece, the only child of the Duke of Kent, the fourth son
of George the Third, came to the throne on the twentieth of June, one
thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven. She was married to Prince
Albert of Saxe Gotha on the tenth of February, one thousand eight
hundred and forty. She is very good, and much beloved. So I end, like
the crier, with
God Save the Queen!