66 doubted whether any of his predecessors, since Edward the sixth, has borne his faculties so meekly, or been clear in his great office." CHAP. XXIV. The reign of George IV. A. D. On the death of the late king, his eldest son, George prince of Wales, who, since the beginning of 1811, had acted as regent of the united kingdom, ascended the throne; and, on the 31st of January, George the fourth was publicly proclaimed. For nine years 1820 he had governed the kingdom; and, during that time, the period had been irradiated with military renown. No sovereign, ancient or modern, can perhaps display, within so short a time, such a series of events as occurred during the exercise of the royal functions by the prince regent. When he took the reins of government, the situation of Europe was adverse to the policy of Great Britain, and prospects were by no means cheering. The power of Napoleon seemed strongly consolidated by the subjugation of the continent; but scarcely was unrestricted authority given to the prince, than Napoleon undertook his gigantic and disastrous expedition into Russia, which led to corresponding reverses in Spain, and by successive victories of the British and Spanish armies. About this time several obscure individuals, at the head of whom was Arthur Thistlewood, entered into a conspiracy to assassinate the king's ministers, at a cabinet dinner, and for this purpose they met in a stable loft in Catostreet; but the plot having been revealed to the privycouncil by one who had been associated with them for the purpose of betraying their designs, they were apprehended, and five of them were convicted and executed. The unhappy differences that existed between the present sovereign and his royal consort, have been noticed in the preceding reign. In 1814, her royal highness embarked at Worthing, and after paying a visit to her brother at the court of Brunswick, she proceeded to Italy, every where receiving the honours due to her rank. On the approach of winter, she fixed her residence at Naples. She afterwards travelled through various parts of the conti nent, visited Jerusalem and other towns of Palestine, as well as different places in the Mediterranean. On the accession of the present king, in consequence of the manner in which she had conducted herself after leav ing England, her majesty's name was erased out of the liturgy; and she was informed, that if she returned to this country, judicial proceedings would be instituted against her; but if she would consent fo live abroad, the sum of fifty thousand pounds a year would be allowed her. No sooner, however, was this proposition made to her, than the queen immediately proceeded to Calais, accompanied by lady Anne Hamilton and Mr. Alderman Wood; and embarking on board a packet boat which lay in the harbour, she sailed for England, and on the 5th of June landed at Dover, where she was greeted by acclamations of the populace. On the day of her majesty's arrival in London, the king sent a message to parliament, requesting that an inquiry into the queen's conduct might be instituted, and that certain papers, containing the evidence which had been collected at Milan, might be examined. On this evidence, it was intended to found a bill of pains and penalties against the queen. After much discussion, a secret committee of the house of lords was appointed to examine the documents; and it was fully determined, that her majesty should be tried by the peers of the realm. During the queen's trial, which continued for forty-five days, the public mind was violently agitated, and A. D. the spirit of party extreme. It was urged against 1820 the queen, that she had raised a favourite Italian in her employment from a menial station to one of rank and honour; that she had permitted him to take familiarities with her; that, having instituted a new order of knighthood, called "the order of St. Caroline," she had decorated him with its insignia; and that she had otherwise demeaned herself in a manner unbecoming the character and conduct of a British princess. A very small majority of the lords having declared her guilty, the bill was, on the 10th of November, formally withdrawn. This year, revolutions took place both in Spain and Portugal, with little or no bloodshed; and the despotic governments in the peninsula were changed for others of a more popular form. 1 A. D. Napoleon, the ex-emperor of France, died on the 5th of May, in the island of St. Helena, where he 1821 had been detained a close state prisoner since his surrender in 1815 to the English government. On the 19th of July, the ceremony of the coro- A. D. nation of George the fourth took place in West- 1821 minster Abbey. The greatest preparations had been made to celebrate it with becoming splendour; and London never before contained such an assemblage of rank and fashion. This national ceremony was conducted with a magnificence never equalled on any former occasion, and with a degree of order and decorum highly creditable to those by whom the management was superintended. The reader has, therefore, been conducted in this volume through a period of nearly TWO THOUSAND YEARS. He found these islands inhabited by tribes of NAKED SAVAGES, and leaves them in possession of the most CIVILIZED PEOPLE on earth, renowned in ARTS, ARMS, COMMERCE, and AGRICULTURE. He has seen them a prey to ROMAN AMBITION; while, during the last war, Rome itself was captured and occupied even by a small division of British troops! He has beheld them without ships to oppose the invasions of the Romans, the Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans, and he now finds them GREAT ON EVERY OCEAN; and their commercial shipping covering all seas under the protection of a flag every where RESPECTED. He found their rude population governed by CHIEFS of SMALL TRIBES or CLANS, and has beheld these extended to SEVEN kingdoms in England, Two in Wales, ONE in Scotland, and THREE in Ireland; till, after successive contests of power and patriotism, the whole have been united under ONE SOVEREIGN, whose dominion reaches through nu merous colonies to every clime in the four quarters of the world. He was first introduced to such people as now inhabit THE WOODS of America, in a country equally covered with woods, and LIVING IN HUTS and CAVERNS; but in 1820, he finds a country of MATCHLESS CULTIVATION, abounding in all social improvements, affording examples to other nations of the ARTS of LIFE, and filled with SPLENDID CITIES, PALACES, and PUBLIC EDIFICES. He finds PASTURES in place of FORESTS, enclosed CORN FIELDS once BARREN |