THE REVOLUTION.--1689 TO 1714.
[Illustration: DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.]
1. The changes made in the government by taking the crown from James
the Second, and giving it to William the Third, was called the
Revolution, and was a good thing for England, as it was then settled
that no sovereign, in the future, should follow his own will, or act
contrary to the laws of the country; that all new laws should be
proposed by the parliament, and not by the king; who was only to
have the power of giving or refusing his consent to them; which is
very different from being able to make laws without asking any one,
as the kings and queens of England had hitherto often done.
2. The way, now, is this:--when a gentleman of the House of Commons,
or a nobleman of the House of Lords, thinks of any thing that will be
good for the nation, he mentions it to the rest and they all consult
about it, every one giving his opinion whether he thinks it good or
not; and if the greater number think it will be good, it is settled
that it shall be done, if both Houses of Parliament and the sovereign
agree to it; for whichever House of Parliament begins and agrees to a
measure, it is sent to the other House for approval:--this is called
passing the bill.
3. When both Houses have done what they consider good and necessary,
it is submitted to the queen or king, who generally approves of it
also; and then it becomes a law.
4. Another rule made at the Revolution was, that the parliament
should meet every year, and that there should be a new election at
least once in three years, to give the people an opportunity of
choosing other members, if they had not approved the votes of the old
ones; but, in the reign of George the First, this arrangement was
altered to seven years, and so it has continued ever since.
5. It was also agreed that none but a Protestant should ever be king
or queen of England; and all these, with many other regulations, were
written down, and signed by king William, and this is called the Bill
of Rights.
6. No one was to be persecuted on account of his or her religion;
but the Catholics were not allowed to hold landed property, or to
be members of parliament; and it was not till the reign of George
the Fourth that people of the Catholic faith were restored to their
ancient rights and privileges.
7. Soon after William was made king, he had to go to Ireland, to
fight against James the Second, who had landed there with a French
army, thinking the Irish would assist him to recover the throne. But
he was defeated in a battle fought on the banks of the river Boyne,
and obliged to go back to France, where he lived in retirement for
the rest of his life.
8. His daughter, Mary, the wife of king William, was a very amiable
woman, and much beloved by the English. It was she who induced the
government to convert the palace at Greenwich into an asylum for
poor old sailors; and the king gave money for the purpose.
9. The East Indian trade was very much increased during this reign,
so that all things that came from China and India, such as tea, silk,
cotton, spices, porcelain or china ware, and many other beautiful and
useful things, became more easy to be procured in this country.
10. I must also tell you that the Bank of England was now first
established, for the purpose of raising money for the government to
carry on war against Louis the Fourteenth, of France; and this was
the beginning of what you will sometimes hear called the National
Debt; for when people put money into the bank, it is the same as
lending it to the king or the government; and as long as they choose
to lend it, they are paid so much a year for doing so, and this is
called their dividend, which they go to the Bank twice a year to
receive.
11. The war in which king William was engaged, had nothing whatever
to do with the English, but was only for the sake of helping the
Archduke of Austria, to fight out his quarrels with the king of
France; yet, after William’s death, these wars were carried on during
the whole reign of queen Anne, who succeeded William the Third, in
the year 1702, after he had reigned thirteen years.
12. These wars caused great distress in England, where the taxes were
increased, to pay the expenses of the soldiers, and trade was much
injured, as we were at war with both France and Spain.
13. There was a duty, for the first time, laid upon many things that
people have to use every day, such as soap, starch, and paper, so
that all these articles became much dearer.
14. The meaning of a duty is this:--The parliament says, no person
may make any paper, unless he give to the government so much money
for every ream he makes; so the paper-makers pay the money, and
charge more for their paper to the shopkeepers, who buy it of them;
then you and I, and everybody who uses paper, must pay more for it
than if there was no duty; and the same with all things on which
there are duties. So you see the expenses of war fall upon every one,
in some way or other.
15. Queen Anne was a daughter of James the Second, but as she was
a Protestant, no objection was made to her accession, although her
brother was excluded from the throne, as being a Catholic.
16. The most important event that took place in the reign of queen
Anne, was the complete union of England and Scotland, for although
they had been governed by one king, since the time of James the
First, they had separate parliaments, and different laws; but it was
now settled that a certain number of the Scottish lords and commons
should sit in the English houses of parliament, and that all the laws
about trade, and every thing that did not interfere with the habits
or religion of Scotland, should be the same.
17. This union of the parliaments took place in 1707, from which time
England and Scotland have been one country, called Great Britain.
18. There was a celebrated General, the Duke of Marlborough, who
won some famous battles in Germany in the reign of queen Anne; and
there was a brave Admiral, Sir George Rooke, who took the fortress
of Gibraltar, which was a conquest of some importance to England,
because it stands at the entrance of the Mediterranean sea, and may
be said to command the passage taken by ships trading to the Grecian
islands, Egypt, Turkey, &c. Queen Anne died in the year 1714, having
reigned twelve years.
QUESTIONS.
1. What was meant by the Revolution?
2. What were the changes made in the government?
4. How was the duration of parliaments settled?
5. What was the Bill of Rights?
7. What was the battle of the Boyne?
8. Who was the wife of William the Third?
10. When was the Bank of England established, and why?
11. What was the object of the wars, and how long did they last?
16. What union was effected at this time?
17. When did it take place?
18. When did queen Anne die?