A History of England, Period III. Constitutional Monarchy

This work is divided into three Periods of convenient and handy size, especially adapted for use in Schools, as well as for Students reading special portions of History for loca...

1745 German subsidies granted, 997 Campaign in Flanders, 998 =Battle of Fontenoy=, 998 =Charles Edward lands in Scotland=, 999 Cope marches against him, 1001 Charles avoids him,...

1804 Pitt offers to undertake the Government, 1245 =Addington resigns. Pitt's Tory ministry=, 1245 Preparations to resist the French invasion, 1248 The Additional Force Bill. In...

Before the Crown was absolutely offered to William, the Convention was eager to reform a number of the most prominent abuses of the last reign. It was shown by the wiser leaders...

He made a feeble struggle, and, contrary to the wish of the French and Irish, proceeded himself to the siege of Londonderry. On his march he found that the Protestants, as they...

Still it was not to be expected that Parliament, on its reassembling, should be in a better temper than when it separated. It again renewed its violent courses. The necessary su...

The capture of Preston, and the disclosure of the Jacobite plot, allowed William to go abroad, leaving the complete investigation of the treason to his ministers in England. On...

Some important steps were however taken with regard to finance. There was still a tolerably unanimous feeling in favour of the war, and money had to be procured. In the arrangem...

It was thus no longer as a beaten and unfortunate, though skilful general, that William returned to England. The Triennial Bill having come into operation, the present Parliamen...

During the critical year 1696 want of money had paralyzed the action of both armies in the Netherlands, the destruction of the French magazines at Givet had rendered it difficul...

The discontent in England was backed up by more serious discontent in Scotland. The whole of that nation might be now reckoned among the enemies of the Court. For, during the re...

No better news could have reached William. Again, as in the time of his first landing in England, his enemy had done more for him than any skill or diplomacy of his own could ef...

The position of the Emperor seemed indeed almost hopeless. While the French and Bavarians were advancing directly towards his capital on the west, the Hungarians, under Prince R...

The consequences of this victory were unexpectedly great. Brussels opened its gates to the advancing conquerors; King Charles was proclaimed King in the capital of the Spanish N...

For some years the exhaustion of France had been great. The finance ministers had been reduced to the most ruinous expedients to maintain the war, and the whole people were suff...

But Marlborough underrated the difficulty of managing a coalition. In his necessary absence abroad this difficult operation was in the hands of Godolphin, always a timid ministe...

Affairs had reached this point when Marlborough returned from his campaign. Entering into communication with his old friends the Whigs, he found that they had formed a coalition...

Having been successfully passed through the Scotch House, the Bill had now to be ratified by the English Parliament. So many changes had been made that it was possible there mig...

The battle of Preston had proved the impossibility of relying upon any formidable insurrection in England. As the royalist troops were collected and armies strengthened, the cha...

The affairs in the North of Europe were settled in a similar high-handed fashion. There too a nation, struggling to regain its old preponderance, had to be crushed. The death of...

Not that the Jacobites were as yet extinct, but they were silenced in Parliament, and had to rely upon conspiracy or foreign assistance. Their hopes in fact were at this moment...

England had been singularly fortunate in escaping the dangers which generally accompany a violent change of dynasty. The attention of the new Government is usually so constantly...

Both these treaties were arranged in accordance with the pacific views of Walpole. When the second was concluded he was absolute master of affairs in England; for almost immedia...

The Opposition, though disappointed, by no means relaxed its efforts, and found a favourable point of attack in Walpole's pacific tendencies. There were still several points of...

But Prussia had just fallen into the hands of the ambitious Frederick II., supplied by his father's care with a magnificent army and with a full treasury. He saw that the opport...

The war still continued under the mistaken conduct of the French. But neither their successes against England at Fontenoy, nor the invasion of the young Pretender which they sup...

The Duke of Cumberland, who had been detained in the south of England in expectation of a French invasion, was indignant at this defeat, and declaring that he would himself will...

In 1753 a Marriage Act, usually known as Lord Hardwicke's Act, was brought in, to decrease the number of the formal acts which constituted a pre-engagement, in which a man might...

Frederick had already entered upon the war. The appearance of hostile preparations had aroused his suspicions. He demanded a plain answer as to the intentions of the Empress Que...

It is necessary to say a few words about the war carried on under Frederick's own eye. The plan of the campaign was much the same as the last. The Russians advanced to gain the...

Bute, while thus obtaining peace, though in a way so irritating to our German friends that England stood henceforward absolutely without allies, had been carrying on his vindict...

For this purpose he called in the assistance and experience of his uncle the Duke of Cumberland, whose upright and consistent conduct had given him an authority and importance w...

The incompetency of the ministry was indeed becoming obvious. In the first place it was divided within itself. The Prime Minister, with the Chancellor and some others, were remn...

From such comparatively trivial matters as royal marriages and misconduct it is necessary to turn to what forms one of the darkest passages in the political history of Europe. E...

Washington at once hurried to the seat of war, but before he arrived another battle had been fought. A narrow channel separates Boston from another town of the name of Charlesto...

The session closed with another effort on the part of the Opposition. On this occasion it was Lord Chatham who led the attack. He returned, after two years of illness, and still...

But even Ireland was by no means the last of Lord North's troubles. The feeling against government by influence had been steadily on the increase. With characteristic selfishnes...

The first warlike event of the year was an expedition under General Arnold (who had obtained a command from his new masters) directed against Virginia, in the hope that such a d...

Very different was the case with the French; when the basis of the Treaty of 1763 was proposed it was absolutely refused. It was plainly asserted that the very object of the war...

In the midst of the prevalent dissolution a new and most dangerous rival of the English Company arose. This was the French Company which had been established under Louis XIV., a...

The interest which has hitherto centred upon Clive is now transferred to the career of Warren Hastings. An Indian statesman by profession, and thoroughly acquainted with the wan...

The great Whig party and the great following of Lord North being thus removed from office, it became a question where a ministry was to be sought. The only party remaining was t...

Another question which now arose, and which was in the next year to be of the greatest importance, was the conduct and character of the Prince of Wales. True to the traditions a...

But it was not only in its political position that England had developed with extraordinary rapidity after the American War. The whole condition of those industrial arts which g...

After its removal to Paris in October 1789, the Assembly, now under the influence of the Jacobin Club, and watched by the Parisians, proceeded rapidly in its work of destruction...

Some slight pretence was still kept up on the part of the French of a desire to keep the peace. M. Maret, well known afterwards as the Duc de Bassano, was sent over to take M. C...

In the autumn of 1794 De Puisaye betook himself to England and laid his plans before Pitt. It was suggested that 10,000 British troops should be joined with the corps of emigran...

Such demands upon the public purse seemed very badly timed, when the working classes were suffering very heavily from depression of trade, from famine produced by two bad harves...

The idea of invasion was a well-timed one; at no time in the war, either before or after, was England in so critical a condition or its existence so precarious. It had become pl...

There is one thing, however, which tends to throw a certain light upon the conduct of the Government of England during these years of difficulty. Pitt and his more intimate frie...

Suddenly the hopes of the Irish party received an unexpected impulse. In the year 1794 the Duke of Portland and the Whigs joined the Cabinet. Their point of union was the war on...

Cornwallis' experience, although it did not diminish his self-confidence, seemed to force on him one fact, the necessity of the Union. He detested the Castle party by whom he wa...

The weary war therefore continued, and before the year was over the position of affairs abroad had so changed that England was no longer able to maintain the haughty tone which...

Although the preliminary treaty had been signed, it cost some time and much anxious negotiation before its final ratification in the March of the following year. These negotiati...

The declaration of war called Pitt from his retirement, for the war, in the form it had now assumed, seemed to demand the co-operation of all patriotic men. Pitt therefore again...

The loss of his able Foreign Minister added fresh difficulties to his negotiations. In December 1804 Lord Harrowby was disabled by an accidental fall, and had to resign the Fore...

The character of Alexander gave indeed to Napoleon an opportunity which he ought to have seized. He was full of high-flown notions for the regeneration of Europe, for the more e...

It was shortly after this that Pitt died and Fox entered office. There were left of the coalition England and Russia, with whom Napoleon had now to deal. Fox felt, as any honour...

The temporary annihilation of Austria at Austerlitz, and the complete overthrow of Prussia at Jena, had made Napoleon master of nearly the whole of Europe. Nothing is more remar...

In the North, then, the Treaty of Tilsitt had produced the effect which Napoleon had desired. Advantage had been taken of the bombardment of Copenhagen, which was held to be a f...

From his central position the Emperor was able to concentrate his chief force now on his right, now on his left. In a rapid succession of victories Lefèbvre and Soult destroyed...

Soult had informed Joseph of his great plan. All the King had to do was to remain quiet, and check the advance of the English till Wellesley was caught in the trap. But there wa...

Yet events were occurring in Europe which allowed Wellington still to hope. Already, as early as the beginning of 1810, the appropriation by Napoleon of the estates of the Duke...

The negotiations which had terminated in the abdication of Napoleon had, as far as England was concerned, been carried on by the same ministry which had had the duty of conducti...

The same motive of class aggrandizement which detracts from the virtue of the foreign policy of this ministry underlay the whole administration of home affairs. There was an inc...

Before the conclusion of these questions Castlereagh had been compelled by the meeting of Parliament to return to England, and the Duke of Wellington had taken his place at Vien...

The completion of the settlement of Europe had been carried out during the recess of Parliament. From July 1815 to February 1, 1816, the Government had been able to act entirely...

The system pursued by the Tories, though for the time it was successful in keeping up a general dread of popular violence, and thus temporarily hushed the agitation for reform,...

But, at the very time that their position as ministers was in danger, their lives were threatened by a conspiracy which in its atrocity and feebleness gives a fair measure of th...

It was in presence of these disturbances that the true principles of the Holy Alliance began to show themselves. The three Eastern powers seemed to consider themselves authorize...

The duties on wool, which came next into consideration, were of newer creation. In 1803 it had been subjected to a tax of a halfpenny a pound, raised by Mr. Vansittart in 1819 t...

In Ireland, meanwhile, the question had naturally become the watchword of parties, and, like every other political question in that country, had assumed a national form and was...

The cause of Greek independence had already excited enthusiasm in England, many volunteers had joined the armies, and money had been subscribed for them. In this enthusiasm Cann...

Peel, the most influential member of the ministry next to the Premier, had already, since the Clare election, arrived at the conclusion that the solution of the question could n...

Their ill success in the elections reduced the ministers to a dilemma. They must either resign or again meet a hostile Parliament, or (a third alternative) proceed in some uncon...

The duty which this ministry undertook was by no means a light one; for though it was plain that reform in some shape or other could no longer be delayed, its introduction was b...

But although the change effected by the Reform Bill at first sight appears to have been political, it was in fact social. It was the introduction of a wholly new class of societ...

The last renewal of the Bank charter had been in 1800; since then events of the greatest importance with regard to currency and credit had taken place,--the resumption of cash p...

Seeing the impossibility of forming a distinctly Tory ministry, the King was persuaded by Lord Brougham to send for Lord Melbourne, whom he instructed to give effect as far as p...

The Whigs were thus again triumphant. The history of their weakness and their difficulties belong to a period of history which lies beyond the limits of this work. But one measu...

Lord Cornwallis' second tenure of office, interrupted by his speedy death, was too brief to allow him to reverse his predecessor's policy, as seems to have been his intention. N...

[Footnote 20: Lord Stanhope gives in his Life of Pitt the following list of the broad administration as planned by Mr. Pitt:--Treasury, Mr. Pitt; Secretaries of State, Lord Melv...

Commerce, injured by French privateers, 838; loss of the Smyrna fleet, 841; the East India trade, 860-862; the Darien scheme, 865-867; commercial advantages at the Peace of Utre...

Huskisson, Secretary of the Treasury, 1247; President of the Board of Trade, 1377; his Liberal views, 1378; changes the Navigation Act, 1379; improves the silk trade, 1380; the...

Philip V., his claim to Spain, 863, 869; becomes King, 870; marries Princess of Savoy, 877; supported by the Castilians, 890; proposal to dethrone him, 894, 902; retires from Ma...

Wellington, in India, 1224; his genius, 1290; Secretary for Ireland, 1290; lands in Portugal, at Rorica, 1291; at Vimiero, 1292; thwarted by Burrard, 1293; in command, 1298; vic...