battle consisted of a constant succession of attacks by | the French upon the British lines. These assaults were attended with great bloodshed, but nevertheless resisted with the utmost fortitude, till the evening, when Blucher came up on the left flank of the British, and turned the scale against the French, who had now to operate laterally, as well as in front. The failure of a final charge by Napoleon's reserve to produce any impression on the two armies, decided the day against him: his baffled and broken host retired before a furious charge of the Prussian cavalry, who cut them down unmercifully. On his return to Paris, Napoleon made an effort to restore the confidence of his chief counsellors, but in vain. After a fruitless abdication in favour of his son, he retired on board a small vessel at Rochfort, with the intention of proceeding to America; but being captured by a British ship of war, he was condemned by his triumphant enemies to perpetual confinement on the island of St Helena, in the Atlantic, where he died in 1821. Louis XVIII. was now restored, and the arrangements of the Congress of Vienna were completed. The expenses of Great Britain during this last year of hostilities exceeded seventy millions; and the national debt, which in 1793 had been L.230,000,000, now amounted to L.860,000,000. During the latter years of Napoleon, a reaction had taken place throughout Europe against the innovatory doctrines, which, by producing the French Revolution, had been the cause, innocent or guilty, of so much ruinous warfare. Encouraged by this sentiment, the sovereigns of Austria, Prussia, and Russia, had no sooner settled the new government of France, than they entered, September 26, 1815, into a personal league or bond for assisting each other on all occasions when any commotion should take place among their respective subjects. This treaty was composed in somewhat obscure terms, and from its professing religion to be the sole proper guide "in the counsels of princes, in consolidating human institutions, and remedying their imperfections," it obtained the name of the Holy Alliance. It was published at the end of the year, and communicated to the Prince Regent of England, who approved of, but did not accede to it. The reaction had also its effect in Great Britain, in fixing the power of the aristocracy, which, by composing the whole of the Upper House, and influencing the election of a major part of the Lower, might be said to constitute the government. The security of this predominating power was indicated by several acts in which their peculiar interests were consulted. In the preceding year, an act had been passed for prohibiting the importation of grain from the continent, when the price in this country should be less than eighty shillings per quarter. An attempt to continue the income and property taxes, which pressed with the greatest severity on the wealthy and landed classes, was also negatived. THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE.-POPULAR TUMULTS. In May 1816, the Princess Charlotte, only child of the Prince Regent, was married to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, a young officer who had gained her affections when attending the allied sovereigns at the British court. In November 1817, to the inexpressible grief of the whole nation, the young princess died, immediately after having given birth to a dead son. In August 1816, a British armament under Lord Exmouth bombarded Algiers, and reduced that pirati cal state to certain desirable conditions respecting the treatment of Christian prisoners. The year 1816, and the four following years, will always be memorable as an epoch of extraordinary distress, affecting almost every class of the community. The liberation of European commerce at the end of the war, produced a proportionate diminution of that trade which England had previously enjoyed, through her exclusive possession of the seas. While all public burdens continued at their former nominal amount, the prices of every kind of produce, and of every kind of goods, had fallen far below the unnatural level to which a state of war and of paper money had raised them; and hence the expenses of the late contest, which had never been felt in the fictitious prosperity then prevalent, came to press with great severity upon the national resources, at a time when there was much less ability to bear the burden. To complete the misery of the country, the crop of 1816 fell far short of the usual quantity, and the price of bread was increased to an amount more than double what has since been the average rate. Tumultuary proceedings took place in various parts of the country; and a desire for a reform in the House of Commons, which was supposed to be the only means of reducing the public expenditure, began to take deep root among the lower orders, and produced tumultuary excesses in the metropolis. The government then adopted expedients for counteracting the force of the popular spirit. They endeavoured to make it appear that an extensive conspiracy had been formed for the overthrow of the government. Of the four rioters charged with high treason, a conviction was obtained only against one. Such unanimity, however, prevailed between the ministry and the Parliament, that, at the close of February (1817), an act was passed for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. Many persons were imprisoned, and detained for some time at the will of the ministers. A temporary revival of prosperity occurred in 1818, but was quickly followed by renewed distress. In the autumn of 1819, the misery of the working classes had reached its greatest height, and still parliamentary reform was demanded as the only measure which could permanently improve their prospects. On the 12th of July, at a public meeting in the unrepresented town of Birmingham, an attorney was elected to proceed to Westminster, and openly claim to be received as a member of Parliament. On the 16th of August, a vast body of operatives assembled at Manchester, in an open space of ground called St Peter's Field, for a similar purpose, though professedly to petition for parliamentary reform. As they came in regular array, bearing banners with inscriptions, the magistrates professed to consider the meeting as dangerous to the public peace, and accordingly, ere the proceedings were far advanced, a body of troops, consisting chiefly of yeomanry, dashed into the mass, trampling down many persons of both sexes under the horses' feet, and killing and wounding others with their sabres. The meeting was dispersed by these means, and Messrs Hunt and Johnston, the principal orators, were apprehended. The tragic nature of this event, and its appearing as an invasion of the popular right of meeting for redress of grievances, produced some marks of public resentment; but the magistrates who conducted the attack received the immediate and cordial thanks of the government. When Parliament reassembled in November, there was an evident increase of attachment to the ministry; and, in addition to the strong measures already taken for suppressing popular discontent, acts were passed to suppress unstamped political publications, to prevent secret training to arms, and to restrict the right of calling a public meeting to magistrates. The year 1819 was remarkable, among other things, for the provision made, by act of Parliament, for the resumption of cash payments at the bank. On the 20th of January 1820, George III. died at Windsor, in his eighty-second year, without having experienced any lucid interval since 1810. The Prince Regent was immediately proclaimed as GEORGE IV.; but there was no other change to mark the commencement of a new reign. A few days after the decease of George III., the Duke of Kent, his fourth son, died suddenly, leaving an infant daughter, Victoria, with a very near prospect to the throne. MISCELLANEOUS CIRCUMSTANCES FROM 1790 To 1820. Owing to the superiority of Britain at sea, she was able to preserve her commerce during the war, while that of France was comparatively ruined. This circum-selves up as a provisional government. On the 23d of stance, combined with the remarkable effects of machinery in various manufactures, and the great improvements effected in agriculture, maintained the prosperity of the country during a contest which otherwise must have sunk her as low as it did Austria and Prussia. The value of the exports, which had been fifteen millions in 1760, and had only advanced to twenty in 1790, was, in 1802, forty-six millions. This period is above all things memorable for the introduction of the use of steam in navigation. A model vessel, with a small steam engine on board, was tried in 1788 by Mr Patrick Miller of Dalswinton in Dumfriesshire. Soon after, a vessel on a larger scale was exhibited in perfect action on the Forth and Clyde Canal. The idea fell asleep for a few years, but was revived by Mr Fulton, an American, who, in 1807, set agoing a steam-vessel on the Hudson River, the first in the world which was regularly employed in conveying passengers. In 1812, Mr Henry Bell of Helensburgh launched a similar vessel on the Clyde, being the first seen in Europe; and from that period steam-vessels quickly became numerous. Their superiority, in propelling vessels without regard to wind or tide, was in time universally acknowledged; and ultimately they have been used in voyages across large oceans. In this period, considerable efforts were made for the more general education of the people. Sunday schools, first suggested by Mr Raikes of Gloucester, overspread the whole country, and proved the means of instructing many children who otherwise would have remained altogether ignorant. A plan of teaching great numbers of children, by employing the best pupils as monitors or assistants, was originated by Dr Bell and Mr Joseph Lancaster, and widely introduced. Two great societies were formed for the purpose of setting up and supporting schools in the districts where they were most needed. This period also beheld the rise of various societies, whose object it was to send missionaries to convert the heathen in distant lands, and to disseminate Bibles both at home and abroad. Great efforts were at the same time made in Britain to put an end to slavery in the West India colonies. The latter part of the reign of George III. was also distinguished by great improvements in the dress and social condition of the people. Old fashions gradually disappeared, and the more simple and agreeable costume of the present day came into use. In the year 1750, cocked hats, wigs, swords, and buckles, were generally worn, and all gentlemen used hair powder. From the year 1790 to about 1800, these and many other oddities completely disappeared. Speedy travelling by stage-coaches, and the rapid transmission of letters by mail-carriages, became at the same time general in all parts of the United Kingdom. At no period did a more brilliant class of literary men exist. Poetry assumed new and attractive forms in the works of Campbell, Moore, Southey, Wordsworth, Byron, and Scott. The novel or fictitious tale was advanced to a dignity it had never known before, in consequence of the production, by Sir Walter Scott, of a series of such compositions, in the highest degree dramatic and entertaining. In the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, periodical criticism acquired an importance it never before possessed. At the same time, the more grave walks of divinity, history, and travels, were filled by a respectable body of writers. The name of Sir Humphry Davy stands pre-eminent in science, which was also cultivated with distinguished success by Wollaston, Leslie, Playfair, and Robison. In philosophical literature, the names of Dugald Stewart and Thomas Brown ask for peculiar respect. REIGN OF GEORGE IV. At the time when George IV. commenced his reign, the Manchester affair and the recent proceedings of the ministry, had inspired a small band of desperate men with the design of assassinating the ministers at a cabinet dinner, and thereafter attempting to set them February 1820, they were surprised by the police in their place of meeting, and, after a desperate resistance, five were seized, among whom one Thistlewood was the chief. These wretched men were tried for high treason, and executed. Nearly about the same time, an attempt was made by the workmen in the west of Scotland to bring about some alteration in the state; and two men were executed. On the accession of the king, his consort's name had been omitted from the liturgy. This and other indignities induced her to return from a voluntary exile in Italy, June 1820, to the great embarrassment of the king and his ministers. Her majesty, who had long been befriended by the Opposition, was received by the people with the warmest expressions of sympathy. Whatever had been blameable in her conduct was overlooked on account of the greater licentiousness of life ascribed to her husband, and the persecutions which she had suffered for twenty-four years. The king, who had established a system of observation round her majesty during her absence from the country, caused a bill of pains and penalties against her to be brought (July 6) into the House of Lords, which thus became a court for her trial. Messrs Brougham and Denman, who afterwards attained high judicial stations, acted as counsel for her majesty, and displayed great dexterity and eloquence in her defence. The examination of witnesses occupied several weeks; and nothing was left undone which might promise to confirm her majesty's guilt. But no evidence of criminality could soften the indignation with which almost all classes of the community regarded this prosecution. Though the bill was read a second time by a majority of 28 in a house of 218, and a third time by 108 against 99, the government considered it expedient to abandon it, leaving the queen and her partisans triumphant. In July 1821, the coronation of George IV. took place under circumstances of great splendour. On this occasion, the queen made an attempt to enter Westminster Abbey, for the purpose of witnessing the ceremony, but was repelled by the military officers who guarded the door; an insult which gave such a shock to her health, as to cause her death in a few days. During the mouth of August, the king paid a visit to Ireland, where he was received with much cordiality by all classes of that excitable people, notwithstanding his known hostility to the Catholic claims. In September, he paid a visit to the kingdom of Hanover. In August of the ensuing year, he completed this series of visits by a voyage to Scotland, where, owing to the novelty of the occasion, and the historical associations which it was the means of awakening, he was also received with extreme kindness. During his absence in Scotland, his leading minister, the Marquis of Londonderry (formerly Lord Castlereagh) put an end to his own life, in consequence of a morbid sense of the difficulty of his position in regard to continental affairs. The successor of the Marquis of Londonderry in the direction of foreign affairs was Mr George Canning, who had quitted the cabinet two years before on account of the prosecution of the queen, and was at this time preparing to leave the country as governor-general of India. Mr Canning was a statesman of enlightened and humane spirit, and, among other popular qualities, possessed a rich and classical style of parliamentary eloquence. JOINT-STOCK MANIA.-COMMERCIAL EMBARRASSMENTS. The two ensuing years were characterised by an extraordinary activity in almost all departments of trade and commerce. Mr Huskisson, an able commercial minister introduced by Mr Canning, originated several measures highly important; especially the repeal of all duties on goods passing between Great Britain and Ireland-an alteration in the duties affecting the silk manufacture-the repeal of the combination laws, and of the law against the emigration of artisans; while the executive formed commercial treaties, on the reciprocity system, with various countries of Europe, and, acknowledging the independence of the revolted Spanish colonies in America, drew them as additional customers into the British market. Capital now so far exceeded the ordinary means of its employment, that many joint-stock companies were formed, as a means of giving it a wider range than that to which it was usually limited. Some of these associations professed objects which were by long-established usage the proper business of individuals alone, and others involved hazardous and visionary projects, which were to be carried into effect in remote countries. The depressed state of trade in 1821 and 1822, had led to a diminished importation and production of goods, and been succeeded by an advance of prices in 1823. The consequence was a sudden and unusually active demand, and a powerful reaction of supply, which did not cease till production had far exceeded the bounds of moderation. Through the facilities afforded by large issues of paper money, the delusion was kept up longer than it would otherwise have been. The first symptom of something being wrong, was the turning of the exchange against England. A diminution of issues at the bank followed. Merchants began to feel a difficulty in answering pecuniary obligations. Then took place a run upon the banks, some of which, both in London and in the country, were obliged to stop payment. Between October 1825 and February 1826, fifty-nine commissions of bankruptcy were issued against English country banks, and four times the number of private compositions were calculated to take place during the same period. While the merchant and manufacturer were without credit, their inferiors were without employment, and distress reached almost every class of the community. Some liberal pecuniary measures on the part of the Bank of England, helped in a short time, rather by inspiring confidence than by actual disbursement of money, to retrieve, in some measure, the embarrassed circumstances of the country. MR CANNING'S ADMINISTRATION.-CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. In spring 1827, the illness of Lord Liverpool (followed soon after by his death) opened the way for Mr Canning's promotion to the first place in the administration; on which occasion, for various reasons of a personal as well as political character, the more uncompromising class of Tories resigned their places, leaving the reins of government in the hands of a comparatively popular party. Mr Canning, however, sank under the new load imposed upon him, and died in the ensuing August. His friend Lord Goderich succeeded as premier; but resigned in January 1828, when the Duke of Wellington was appointed in his place, with Mr (afterwards Sir) Robert Peel as secretary for the home department. The ministry soon after received an alarming proof of the growing force of the question. Mr Vesey Fitzgerald had vacated his seat for the county of Clare, on becoming president of the board of trade. He was a friend to emancipation, and possessed great influence in the county; but he was also a member of an antiCatholic administration. As an expedient for annoying the ministry, the Catholic Association, and all the local influences on that side, were set in motion to procure the return of Mr Daniel O'Connell, the most distinguished orator of the Catholic party. To the surprise of the nation, Mr O'Connell was returned by a great majority. It was even surmised that the laws for the exclusion of Catholics from Parliament would be unable to prevent him from taking his seat. The Duke of Wellington now began to see the necessity of taking steps towards a settlement of this agitating question; and the first, and most difficult, was to overcome the scruples of the sovereign. At the opening of the session of 1829, in consequence of a recommendation from the throne, bills were introduced by ministers for removing the civil disabilities of Catholics, and putting down the Catholic Association in Ireland; and, notwithstanding a great popular opposition, as well as the most powerful exertions of the older and more rigid class of Tories, this measure was carried by a majority of 353 against 180 in the House of Commons, and 217 to 112 in the House of Lords. REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. The agitations respecting the Catholic Relief Bill had in some measure subsided, when, June 26, 1830, George IV. died of ossification of the vital organs, and was succeeded by his next brother, the Duke of Clarence, under the title of WILLIAM IV. About a month after, a great sensation was produced in Britain by a revolution which took place in France, the main line of the Bourbon family being expelled, and the crown conferred upon Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans. By this event, a great impulse was given to the reforming spirit in Britain, and the demands for an improvement in the parliamentary representation became very strong. The consequence was the retirement of the Wellington administration in November, and the formation of a Whig cabinet, headed by Earl Grey. The agitations of the time were much increased by a system of nocturnal fire-raising, which spread through the south of England, and caused the destruction of a vast quantity of agricultural produce and machinery. The Whig ministry came into power upon an understanding that they were to introduce bills for parliamentary reform, with reference to the three divisions of the United Kingdom. These, when presented in March 1831, were found to propose very extensive changes, particularly the disfranchisement of boroughs of small population, for which the members were usually returned by private influence, and the extension of the right of voting in both boroughs and counties to the middle classes of society. The bills accordingly met with strong opposition from the Tory, now called the Conservative party. By a dissolution of Parliament, the ministry found such an accession of supporters as enabled them to carry the measure through the House of Commons with large majorities; but it encountered great difficulties in the House of Lords, and it was not till after a temporary resignation of the ministry, and some strong expressions of popular anxiety respecting reform, that the bills were allowed to become law. From the year 1805, the Catholic claims had been a prominent subject of parliamentary discussion, and since 1821 they had been sanctioned by a majority in the House of Commons. Almost despairing of their cause, while left to the progress of mere opinion in the English aristocracy, the Irish Catholics had in 1824 united themselves in an association, with the scarcely concealed purpose of forcing their emancipation by means of a terrifying exhibition of their physical strength. An act was quickly passed for the suppression of this powerful body; but it immediately reappeared in a new shape. In fact, the impatience of the Catholic population of Ireland under the disabilities and degradation to which they were subjected on ac- During the few years which followed the passing of count of religion, was evidently becoming so very great, the Reform Bills, the attention of Parliament was chiefly that there could be little hope of either peace or public occupied by a series of measures which a large portion order in that country till their demands were conceded. of the public deemed necessary for improving the instiThough the English public lent little weight to the agi-tutions of the country, and for other beneficial purposes. tation, and the king was decidedly hostile to its object, Catholic emancipation rapidly acquired importance with all classes, and in all parts of the empire. In spring 1828, a kind of preparation was made for the concession, by the repeal of the test and corporation oaths, which had been imposed in the reign of Charles II. The most important of these, in a moral point of view, was the abolition of slavery in the colonies, the sum of twenty millions being paid to the owners of the negroes, as a compensation for resigning a right of property which had long been a disgrace to humanity. By this act, eight hundred thousand slaves were (August 1, 1834) placed in the condition of freemen, but subject | upon reforming measures. In a new House of Comto an apprenticeship to their masters for a few years. mons, his party was strengthened by nearly a hundred new votes; but he was still in a minority. After bringing forward a variety of measures of a reforming character, being defeated on the question of devoting some part of the Irish church revenues to education, he was compelled to resign (April 8, 1835), and allow the Melbourne ministry to be replaced. In the same year, an act was passed for amending the laws for the support of the poor in England, which had long been a subject of general complaint. One of the chief provisions of the new enactment established a government commission for the superintendence of the local boards of management, which had latterly been ill conducted, and were now proposed to be reformed. The able-bodied poor were also deprived of the right which had been conferred upon them at the end of the eighteenth century, to compel parishes to support them, either by employment at a certain rate, or pecuniary aid to the same amount: they were now left no resource, failing employment, but that of enter-wise than by the established clergy; and another for a ing poor-houses, where they were separated from their families. The contemplated results of this measure, were a reduction of the enormous burden of the poor-rates, which had latterly exceeded seven millions annually, and a check to the degradation which indiscriminate support was found to produce in the character of the labouring classes. On the renewal of the charter of the East India Company in 1834, the government deprived it of its mercantile privileges, and extended the right of trading with China to the community at large. The ancient policy of not allowing Europeans to settle in Hindostan was also departed from, under some restrictions of inferior importance. Some reforms, equally advantageous to the public, were effected in the administration of the law, and in the privileges held by the Bank of England. In 1833, a reform took place in the mode of electing the councils and magistracies of the Scottish boroughs. Instead of regulations which took their rise in an early age, and had been found productive of mismanagement, the parliamentary constituencies were empowered, in all except a few cases, to choose the requisite number of councillors, to whom then belonged the duty of appointing the requisite number out of their own body to act as magistrates. In 1835, the English municipal corporations were reformed, upon a principle similar to that applied to Scotland, except that the rate-payers and freemen were designed to form the electoral bodies, and that the councils in most cases were to consist of a greater number of members. A modified reform of the same kind took place in Ireland, by virtue of an act passed in 1840. During the summer of 1834, the ministry endeavoured to carry through Parliament a bill to enable them to take unusual measures for restraining turbulence in Ireland. In consequence of a difficulty experienced in passing the measure, Lord Althorp and Earl Grey resigned their situations. The earl, who had now passed his seventieth year, was anxious for other reasons to retire from more active life, in order to spend the remainder of his days in the bosom of his family. He withdrew with the admiration of all parties, his whole career having been marked by consistency and sincerity. His place was supplied by Viscount Melbourne, and Lord Althorp was induced to resume office. The Irish Coercion Bill, with certain alterations, was then passed. On the 10th of October in this year, the two Houses of Parliament were burnt by ac cident. In the session of 1836, the ministry were defeated, by majorities in the House of Lords, in attempts to carry several important measures of reform, but succeeded in passing an act for commuting tithes in England into a corn rent-charge payable in money; also in an act for enabling dissenters in England to be married othergeneral registry of births, deaths, and marriages. They likewise reduced the stamp-duty on newspapers to one penny, by which the circulation of that class of publications was very largely increased. From this time, there was a marked diminution in the zeal which had for some years been manifested for changes in the national institutions. Early in 1837, the ministry again introduced into the House of Commons a bill for settling the Irish tithe question; but before this or any other measure of importance had been carried, the king died of ossification of the vital organs (June 20), in the seventy-third year of his age, and seventh of his reign, being succeeded by his niece, the Princess Victoria, who had just completed her eighteenth year. The deceased monarch is allowed to have been a conscientious and amiable man, not remarkable for ability, but at the same time free from all gross faults. COMMENCEMENT OF THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA. The commencement of the reign of Queen Victoria has been marked by no signal events, and may as yet [February 1841] be rather considered as a period of promise than of performance. Meanwhile, her majesty appears to have given unmixed satisfaction to her people by her marriage to Prince Albert of SaxeCobourg, and the birth of a princess-royal. MISCELLANEOUS CIRCUMSTANCES FROM 1820 TO 1840. This period is remarkable for the great efforts which were made to diffuse knowledge more generally amongst the people. Mechanics' Institutions were formed in most considerable towns, for the purpose of instructing that class of the community in mechanical and natural science. Various periodical works were also set a-going, for the purpose of communicating science and other branches of instruction, in such forms as to be intelligible to the less educated classes. At the same time, considerable efforts were made to still farther extend education by means of ordinary schools. Amongst the individuals who sought to promote these objects, the most conspicuous was Lord Brougham, who filled the office of Lord Chancellor in the Grey administration. In this period, the national energies were chiefly turned towards the arts of peace, and accordingly the prosperity of the country made, upon the whole, great advances. Though agricultural produce had ceased to bring the high prices it realised during the war, the farmers paid rents nearly equally high; and this they were enabled to do in consequence of the soil having been so much improved as to produce much larger crops. During this period steam navigation was immensely increased; ordinary roads were greatly im proved by the mode of paving invented by Mr Macadam; and railways began to overspread all parts of the country, for the conveyance of goods and passengers by means of steam locomotive carriages, the common speed of which is about thirty miles an hour. These circumstances form the fair side of the picture: on the other, we behold discontents pervading large sections of the working population, on account of the low wages of labour, and other real or imaginary grievances. In November, the death of Earl Spencer caused the advancement of his son Lord Althorp to the House of Peers, and the ministry was then left without a leader in the House of Commons. The king, who had for some time inclined to the Conservative party, took advantage of this circumstance to dissolve the cabinet. The Duke of Wellington was again called into office, and a messenger was dispatched to Italy to bring Sir Robert Peel home from that country, in order to accept the premiership. Sir Robert hastened to London, and on the 10th of December, the new ministry was constructed, chiefly of the individuals who lost office in 1830. Sir Robert, though sensible of the difficulty of conducting public affairs at such a time, resolved to do Printed and published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, Edinburgh. the utmost to conciliate popular favour, by entering | Sold also by W. S. Orr & Co., London. CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF CHAMBERS'S NUMBER 12. NEW AND IMPROVED SERIES. PRICE lad. CONSTITUTION AND RESOURCES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. THE British Empire consists of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (including a number of minor islands around their shores), and colonies and other dependencies in different quarters of the world. The most remarkable peculiarity in the political condition of the British empire, is the high degree of civil and religious liberty which all classes of subjects practically enjoy. Slavery exists in no quarter of the British dominions: personal freedom, with liberty to come and go, unquestioned and unimpeded, is assured to all, without respect of birth, rank, language, colour, or religion. The cumstances, and constantly protected by free institutions, that we are mainly and most immediately to look for the source of the greatness of the British empire. FORM OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. peace. Historians point out the accidents which effected conspicuous changes; but, while the feebleness and wickedness of a John may have been the immediate cause of the Magna Charta, and the passion of Henry VIII. for a beautiful woman the proximate cause of the reformation of religion, there must have also been something in the people pressing them irresistibly towards liberty of person and of conscience, and enabling them to overcome all obstacles to the accomplishment of those objects. It was in the nature of the people to establish free institutions-and they were established. A people so active and so ingenious could not fail to Britain, while in population and some other respects take advantage of the natural facilities which they ensurpassed by several other nations, possesses a degree joyed for manufactures and commerce. They made the of wealth and political influence which may be said to best of blades in the days of Coeur de Lion, and in the place her at the head of all nations. This unprece- time of Elizabeth their sails whitened every neighbourdented affluence and power appears to have taken its ing sea. Arts, driven out of other countries by ruthrise in a fortunate concurrence of favouring circum- less bigotry, found refuge and flourished amongst a stances, some of a physical and others of a moral cha- people who eagerly grasp at every kind of employment racter. which promises to be useful. It is to their persevering The first of the physical causes in importance is un-industry, exercised by favour of so many natural cirquestionably the insular situation, at once protecting the country from the destructive invasions which have so much depressed and retarded many continental states, and furnishing opportunities for a ready commerce with all the shores of the civilised world. second of these causes is to be found in the natural ferThe government of the United Kingdom is constitility of a large portion of the United Kingdom, and tutional, or possesses a regular form, in which the civil the temperate climate enjoyed by it, favouring the pro- rights of all classes are acknowledged and guaranteed. duction of the food necessary for a large population. The constitution is a monarchy, in which the sovereign A third cause is the large amount of the mineral wealth accepts of his dignity under an express agreement to of England, furnishing her with the means of prose- abide by certain prescribed forms of government accordcuting manufactures to an extent beyond all which the ing to the laws of the realm, and to maintain inviolate world has ever before had experience of. Thus Britain the Protestant religion, with all the rights and privihas been naturally qualified to become the seat of a leges of the church. The sovereign is the head or digreat agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial na-recting power in the executive of government, the fountion, and must always, from the nature of things, have tended to assume that character. Moral causes, it is true, might have been unfavourable. Had a branch of the Ethiopian or Mongolian races possessed the country, its natural advantages would probably have remained unused. But the stock of the British population chances to have sprung from the Teutonic branch of the Caucasian variety, a race who have in many countries proved the superiority of their intellectual and moral organisation. The idea of trial by jury, and of arranging public affairs by a representative body, hit upon at an early period by this race, show that it possesses a natural aptitude for forming improved political institutions. Its concern in the most important modern inventions shows its ingenuity in the arts. Its maritime enterprise and mercantile intrepidity were testified at a time when other nations were engaged only in feudal broils. Planted in England in the fifth century, and probably in Scotland many centuries before, we see this people making a continual advance ever since in political institutions and in the arts of tain of all honours, and the watchful guardian of the interests of the state: he is held to be incapable of doing wrong; and if an unlawful act is done, the minister instrumental in that act is alone obnoxious to punishment. The legislative part of the government is composed of two deliberating bodies-the House of Lords and the House of Commons, both of which consist of individuals belonging to the United Kingdom only, the colonial dependencies of the empire having no share in the general management. House of Lords.-The persons who compose the House of Lords form a separate class or rank, which is called collectively the Peerage, whose members enjoy certain exclusive privileges and honours. The members of the House of Lords are either lords spiritual or temporal. The spiritual lords are archbishops and bishops, and hold their seats for life in virtue of their ecclesiastical office; the temporal lords enjoy their seats from hereditary right, or in virtue of being elevated to the peerage. In 1837, at the meeting of the first Parliament of Queen Victoria, the number of |