HOUSE OF HANOVER.--1714 TO 1830.
[Illustration: DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE.]
1. When queen Anne died, the crown of England went to a German
prince, named George, the elector or sovereign of Hanover, whose
mother was grand-daughter of James the First.
2. He was rather advanced in age, and being a stranger to the manners
of the people, and to the language and laws of the country, was not
likely to become a popular monarch; yet it was thought better that he
should succeed to the throne, than to let the son of James II., who
was now about six-and-twenty, be king of Great Britain.
3. But there were a great many people in Scotland who wished to see
the family of their ancient kings restored, and some of the great
men, there, raised an army, and invited prince James Stuart, who is
usually called the Pretender, to place himself at the head of it, and
go to war with George the First.
4. The Pretender went to Scotland, and two battles were fought, one
near Dumblane, and the other near Preston, in Lancashire; but the
English troops gained the victory at both places, and the prince was
glad to get back to France again.
5. A great many English had joined in this rebellion, for, as I said
before, the new king was not very generally liked; and it was mostly
the English party that fought for the Pretender at Preston, and, I am
sorry to say, all who were made prisoners were very cruelly treated.
The leaders were put to death, and those who had fought under their
command, were mostly sent to America, and sold for slaves.
6. You remember how the American colonies were first settled. Well,
they had now become large populous places, and cities had been built
there; but the people were cultivators, and had no manufactures
of any kind, for they were obliged to have all they wanted of
manufactured goods, either for clothing, or any other purpose, from
England, which was a great advantage to this country, by furnishing
employment for English manufactures.
7. Perhaps you will say, why could they not have things from other
countries, as well as from England?--but you must bear in mind that
the American states were then under British government, and remained
so till the reign of George the Third, when the Americans established
a government of their own, and went to war with Great Britain, as
you will presently read, and with the assistance of France, made
themselves independent of this country.
8. George the First died in 1727, having reigned nearly thirteen
years, and he was succeeded by his son, George the Second.
9. There had been a great change in the mode of dress since the
time of the Stuarts, for queen Anne had introduced a fashion of
setting out the gowns with hoops; and gentlemen wore coats with broad
square-cut tails, waistcoats with long flaps, colored stockings
drawn up over the knee, lace ruffles, large shoe buckles, wigs with
rows of stiff curls, three-cornered hats bound with gold-lace, and
swords.
10. Towards the close of the eighteenth century this formal
inconvenient style of dress was altered gradually; swords were left
off; the hair which, in the early part of the reign of George the
Third, was frizzed out, pomatumed and powdered, was dressed in a more
natural manner; round hats came into fashion, and people began to
look something like what they do now.
11. The reign of George the Second, which lasted thirty-three years,
was on the whole rather a prosperous one, the greater part of it
being spent in peace. There was no war for about twelve years, and
during that time improvements were going on all over the country.
12. Most of the great towns were made larger, and new manufactories
built, for the trade of England was increasing every year, and great
quantities of manufactured goods were sent out to foreign countries;
besides which, new roads were opened, waste lands cultivated, canals
formed, and new harbors made for shipping, so that there was plenty
of employment for the laboring people.
13. We had a good navy at this time, and the first war that broke
out was carried on entirely at sea. It was with the Spaniards, who
had taken possession of a great part of South America, and, as they
chose to keep all the trade to themselves, they had ships constantly
sailing about, to prevent the ships of other nations coming there,
which was all very fair; but not content with guarding their own
possessions, they interfered with British merchants, who were going
to or from other places, plundered some of their vessels, and behaved
so ill, that the British government was obliged to declare war, and
sent out a great many ships to fight the Spaniards.
14. I dare say you have heard stories about press-gangs taking away
poor men against their will, to make sailors of them. This cruel
expedient for getting plenty of sailors, was resorted to in all the
wars during the reigns of George the Second and George the Third,
when many a poor fellow, in going to or returning from his daily
labor, was met by a party of armed men, called a press-gang, and
carried off, by force, to a ship, without being allowed to go home,
or take leave of his family. Such things ought not to be done in a
free country, and I hope they never will be done again, even if we
should have the misfortune to be at war.
15. At this time, the French had large possessions in India, as well
as the English, and it seemed doubtful which of the two nations
would, in the end, be masters of the country; but this question was
decided in the reign of George the Second, for, while the war with
Spain was going on, a war broke out between France and England, about
the affairs of Germany, where our king himself commanded the army,
and fought at the battle of Dettingen; but the fighting between the
French and English in India, was of more consequence, as several
great victories were gained by a brave commander, named Clive, by
which the superiority of the English in India was quite established,
and ever since that time, we have gained one place after another, in
that extensive and rich country, until a large portion of India has
become a province of the British empire.
16. While these wars were going on abroad, there was another great
rebellion in Scotland; for prince Charles Edward Stuart, the son of
the old Pretender, being now a man, had come there to make another
attempt to recover the throne for his father; and being joined by
some of the Highland chiefs, and numbers of Scotch people, as well as
by many English who were discontented with the government, he went
to Holyrood house, the old palace of his ancestors, at Edinburgh,
where he held a court, and behaved as if he had been sovereign of the
country.
17. Of course, an army was sent from England, to put down this
rebellion, which caused a great deal of misery; for, besides the
numbers of brave men that were killed in the several battles which
took place, many were afterwards executed as traitors, which must
have been more dreadful for their families than if they had fallen in
battle.
18. If Charles Edward had any good feeling, I think he must have been
very sorry for the mischief he caused. He was finally defeated at the
battle of Culloden, and obliged to escape, like Charles the Second,
after the battle of Worcester, and his adventures are very similar,
but more full of suffering, than those of the merry monarch. This is
usually called the Rebellion of ’45, because it was in the year 1745.
19. There is only one thing more of importance to mention in the
reign of George the Second, and that is the conquest of the large
country of Canada, in North America, which had belonged to the
French, who had settled there as the English had in the United
States, and built several good towns, one of which was Quebec.
20. There had frequently been quarrels between the French and
English in America, respecting their possessions, which, at length,
occasioned a war there, and soldiers were sent out both from France
and England, the French wanting to conquer the British states, the
English to gain possession of Canada.
21. This war had lasted about five years, when the renowned General
Wolfe gained a great victory at the battle of Quebec; after which,
the French gave up Canada, which has belonged to England ever since,
and is a very useful possession, supplying abundance of fine corn,
and timber for building.
22. General Wolfe was killed on the field of battle, just as the
victory was won, and his death was much lamented in England, where
the news of the conquest arrived a few days before the death of
the king, which happened in October, 1760, after he had reigned
thirty-three years.
23. The eldest son of George the Second was dead, but he had
left a son, named George, who succeeded his grandfather, and was
about twenty-two years old. He was a very good man and was highly
respected, although many people say he was more fitted for a country
gentleman than a king.
24. He married a German princess, whose name was Charlotte, and they
had many children, some of whom are yet living. Our queen is the
grand-daughter of George the Third.
25. About two years after the new king came to the throne, peace was
made with France and Spain, and there were no more wars for thirteen
years, when the Americans became dissatisfied with the English
government, and resolved to have a government of their own.
26. But let us see what useful things were done in England during
that thirteen years of peace. First of all, the manufacture of China
ware was begun in Staffordshire, by a gentleman, named Wedgewood, who
built large factories and employed a great number of people in this
new branch of art. Then a machine was invented for spinning cotton,
by which we were enabled to manufacture cotton goods in much larger
quantities than before, and as they could be sold abroad, this was a
great benefit.
27. It was also discovered how very useful steam engines might be
made; but I fancy nobody then imagined that we should ever travel by
steam, or print by steam, or do many other wonderful things, that are
now done by that means.
28. Turnpike roads were established all over the kingdom, and
travelling thus rendered safer and more expeditious. People were in
general much better educated than in the preceding century, and all
arts and sciences were greatly improved.
29. And now I will tell you something about the American war. The
quarrel began about some taxes which the British government imposed
on the Americans, to help to pay the expenses of the wars with France
and Spain, which the Americans thought they had nothing to do with;
and considered it unjust that they should have to find money towards
paying for them.
30. British troops were sent out, to force them to obey the orders of
the government; but instead of complying, all the colonies agreed to
join together and fight for their liberty; and a very brave and good
man, named General Washington, took the command of the American army.
31. This war lasted many years, and the French and Dutch assisted the
Americans with troops, ships, and money.
32. There were many gentlemen in the English parliament who wanted to
put an end to the war, by giving up all control over the Americans;
but others would not consent, the king was unwilling to do so, till,
at last, finding there was little chance of success, the English
government gave up the contest, and the American colonies became
independent of England, and took the name of the United States.
33. This event took place in 1783, after which, there were a few more
years of peace, and then the long wars with France were begun, which
lasted above twenty years, and were ended by the famous battle of
Waterloo.
34. The cause of the war was this. There had been a great revolution
in France. The people rose up against king Louis the Sixteenth,
who was made prisoner, and beheaded; just as Charles the First was
treated here, and for much the same cause. Then a number of persons
took the government into their own hands, and governed without a
king, and declared war against the king of Great Britain, and also
against the stadtholder of Holland, and the king of Spain, for
disapproving of what the French people had done.
35. The Spaniards and Dutch were afterwards obliged to join the
French, and many battles were fought both on land and at sea, and
some naval victories were gained by the British Admirals Duncan,
Howe, and Nelson, and other officers.
36. The greatest man in France at this time was Napoleon Bonaparte,
an artillery officer, who raised himself to the head of the state,
just as Cromwell did here, by getting the soldiers to side with him.
He was called consul, at first, but afterwards he was made emperor,
and he conquered a great part of Europe, and he made the governments
of those countries which he did not conquer do just as he pleased,
except England, for he had the largest armies of any sovereign in the
world.
37. The most celebrated of our generals in the war against Bonaparte,
were Abercrombie, Sir John Moore, and the Duke of Wellington, the
last of whom won a great many battles in Spain, and at last, with the
assistance of the Prussians, gained the great victory at Waterloo,
near Brussels, on the 18th of June, 1815, after which, Bonaparte
surrendered to the English, and was banished to a small island,
called St. Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean, where he died in a
few years. The fall of Bonaparte was followed by a general peace.
38. George the Third was still living, but he had been out of his
mind, and blind, for some time, so that his son George, prince of
Wales, had been made regent in the year 1810, and conducted the
government with that title, till his father’s death, which happened
in the year 1820, he having reigned above fifty-nine years, when
George the Fourth became king, instead of regent.
39. But I must now go back some years to tell you of something that
was done at the beginning of this century. You have been told that
Ireland had been subject to England, ever since the time of Henry the
Second; but there had constantly been quarrels and warfare between
the native Irish, and the new Irish, who were the descendants of the
English, who had settled there, after the conquest.
40. Then the new Irish were just as ready to quarrel with new English
settlers, as the old Irish were with them; and, till the last fifty
years, little had been done to make the people of Ireland a better or
a happier race. They had a parliament of their own, but it did not
encourage the people to be industrious, so they were, of course, very
poor.
41. A few years after the war with France began, there was a great
rebellion in Ireland, and soldiers were sent from England, to put a
stop to it, which I am afraid was not done without a great deal of
cruelty; but it was in consequence of this rebellion that the English
government resolved that the parliament and country of Ireland should
be united to that of England; as the parliament and country of
Scotland had been, and this union took place on the first of January,
1801, which you will easily remember, because it was the first day of
the nineteenth century.
42. Many good laws have been made since then, for the benefit of
Ireland, and much been done to improve the country; but numbers of
the Irish people still remain in a very distressed condition, and
some of them wanted to have a separate Parliament again; and this is
what is meant by Repeal of the Union; but this feeling is now fast
dying away.
43. In the reign of George the Third, there were National and Sunday
schools established in almost every part of England, so that the poor
people might be able to have their children taught to read and write,
which was a great blessing to them; for although there had long been
charity schools in London, there were few in the country, and many of
the shopkeepers in country towns, who had become quite respectable
people by their industry, were so ignorant that they could not even
make out their own bills, or keep their own accounts.
44. There were two more great improvements before the death of George
the Third; the one was the invention of gas lights, which make the
streets much lighter at night than the dim oil lamps that were
formerly used; and the other was the introduction of steam boats,
which had lately been invented in America.
QUESTIONS.
1. Who succeeded queen Anne?
3. Who was the Pretender?
4. What was the Rebellion?
5. How did it end?
6. What was the state of the American colonies at this period?
8. Who succeeded George the First?
12. How was the country improved in this reign?
13. With whom did the English go to war, and why?
14. How were sailors forcibly obtained?
15. Were there any other wars in this reign?
16. What was the Rebellion of ’45?
18. Where was the final battle fought?
19. What great conquest was made in this reign?
20. What gave rise to the war?
21. What battle decided the contest?
22. Which of our Generals was killed in the moment of victory?
23. Who succeeded George the Second?
29. What was the cause of the American war?
30. Who was the leader of the Americans?
32. How did the war terminate?
34. What gave rise to the last war with France?
36. Who was Bonaparte?
37. What victory put an end to the war?
38. Who ruled in England at this time?
41. When did the Union with Ireland take place?
42. What other improvements took place during the reign of George
III.?