crown as soon as I would the Duke of Somerset, or the least soldier in my army; and I will treat every man as a traitor who shall dare to fight against him in the field.' Thus ended all negociations, and the Earl of Warwick commenced the onset. The battle lasted but an hour, for the King's army was pent up in the narrow streets of the town. Henry, who stood under his royal banner, was wounded in the neck with an arrow. He remained at his post until all was over. He then quietly walked into a baker's shop, where the Duke of York came and bade the King rejoice, 'for the traitor Somerset was slain.'

20. QUEEN JUDITH.

Alfred's father had married, for his second wife, a daughter of Charles, Emperor of the Franks. This young lady, whose name was Judith, had been carefully educated in all the learning of the south of Europe. She understood several languages, and possessed a taste for poetry, music, and painting; and was a patroness of all who practised these elegant accomplishments.

She was very little older than her husband's children, and must have been surprised and shocked to find them so ignorant of everything that young persons of a much humbler rank ought to have known. However, she was very amiable and good-humoured, and had a great desire to win their affection and regard. So, instead of finding fault with them she laboured to improve, and directed their minds to more ennobling things than the rude sports and pastimes in which they had hitherto consumed their precious hours.

21. PITT.

A succession of victories raised to the highest point the name of the minister (Pitt) to whom the conduct of the War had been entrusted. In July, 1758, Louisburg fell. The whole Island of Cape Breton was reduced. The fleet to which the Court of Versailles had confided the defence of French America

was destroyed. The captured standards were borne in triumph from Kensington Palace to the City, and were suspended in St. Paul's Church, amidst the roar of guns and the shouts of an immense multitude. The year 1759 opened with the conquest of Goree; next fell Guadaloupe; then Ticonderoga; then Niagara. The Toulon squadron was completely defeated, by Boscawen, off Cape Lagos. But the greatest exploit of the year was the achievement of Wolfe on the heights of Abraham. The news of his glorious death, and of the fall of Quebec, reached London in the very week in which the Houses met. All was joy and triumph. Whigs and Tories vied with each other in extolling the genius and energy of Pitt.

22. BROTHER AND SISTER.

Time passed; and three years of it certainly were not unprofitably spent. Anderson had instructed me well. I could read, write, and cipher, and, what the reader will consider of more consequence, I was well acquainted with the Bible, and duly admonished by my preceptor of my duty towards God and man. Nor was my sister Virginia neglected; my mother sent her, as soon as she was seven years old, as day scholar, to a young lady's seminary, where she was well taught, although the style of the school was much above my sister's situation in life; but my mother would not allow her to go anywhere else, although there were several schools more appropriate. She declared that Virginia should not mix with the vulgar, ungenteel girls of the place; and that, if she had demeaned herself by marrying below her rank, at all events her daughter should be brought up as she ought to be. The neighbours laughed at her, but my mother did not care; she worked hard, and always was ready to pay the quarter's bill for schooling whenever it was due.

23. FAIR AGRICULTURAL WAGES.

It is time that this description of the England which Charles the Second governed should draw to a close. Yet

one subject of the highest moment still remains untouched. Nothing has as yet been said of the great body of the people, of those who held the ploughs. Nor can very much be said. The most numerous class is precisely the class respecting which we have the most meagre information. The press now often sends forth in a day a greater quantity of discussion and declamation about the condition of the working man than was published during the twenty-eight years which elapsed between the Restoration and the Revolution. But it would be a great error to infer from the increase of the complaint that there has been any increase of misery.

The great criterion of the state of the common people is the amount of their wages. Sir William Petty, whose mere assertion carries great weight, informs us, that a labourer was by no means in the lowest state, who received for a day's work fourpence with food, or eightpence without food. Four shillings a week therefore were, according to Petty's calculation, fair agricultural wages.

24. WARWICK'S MESSAGE.

Securing the door by a heavy bolt, Warwick gave orders to his squire to attend to the comforts of the prisoner; and then, turning to his closet with Marmaduke, said: 'I sent for thee, young cousin, with design to commit to thy charge one whose absence from England I deemed needful. That design I must abandon. Go back to the palace and see, if thou canst, the King before he sleeps. Say that this rising in Lincolnshire is more than a riot, it is the first burst of a revolution; that I hold Council here to-night, and every shire, ere the morrow, shall have its appointed captain. I will see the King at morning. Yet stay. Gain sight of my child Anne; she will leave the Court to-morrow. I will come for her; she and the Countess must away to Calais; England again hath ceased to be a home for women!' 'What to do with this poor rebel?' muttered the Earl, when alone, 'release

him I cannot; slay him I will not. Hum enough in these walls to enclose a captive.'

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25. NAPOLEON I. AND ENGLAND.

there is space

In a public Court at the Tuileries (March 14, 1803), in the presence of the whole diplomatic circle, Napoleon publicly insulted Lord Whitworth, the English Ambassador, by addressing him thus in a loud and angry tone: 'So you are determined to go to war? We have already fought for fifteen years. I suppose you want to fight for fifteen more. The English wish for war; but if they are the first to draw the sword, I shall be the last to put it in the scabbard. They have no respect for treaties. Wherefore these armaments? Against whom these measures of precaution? I have not a single ship in the harbours of France; but if you arm, I shall arm also. You may destroy France, but never intimidate her. If you would live on terms of good understanding with us, you must respect treaties. Woe to those who violate them! They will answer for the consequences to all Europe!'

26. THE FOUNDATION OF ANCIENT ROME.

Numitor being thus in quiet possession of the kingdom, his grandsons resolved to build a city upon those hills where they had formerly lived as shepherds. The king had too many obligations to them not to approve their design. He appointed them lands and gave permission to such of his subjects as thought proper to settle in their new colony. Many of their neighbouring shepherds also, and such as were fond of change, repaired to the intended city, and prepared to raise it. For the more speedy carrying on this work, the people were divided into two parts, each of which, it was supposed, would industriously emulate each other. But what was designed for an advantage proved nearly fatal to this infant colony; it gave birth to two factions, one preferring Romulus, the other Remus, who themselves were not agreed upon the spot where the city should stand. To terminate

this difference, they were recommended by the king to take an omen from the flight of birds, and he whose omen should be most favourable should in all respects direct the other.

27. KING WILLIAM AND HIS ENGLISH SUBJECTS.

At first all was harmony and satisfaction; but William had not long been king of England before he and his new subjects became discontented with each other. William, a thorough soldier, had been accustomed to the implicit obedience which is paid in camps to the authority of the general. He found the management of a free people extremely troublesome; and was so much harassed by the mutual jealousies of the different parties into which England was split, that once, in a moment of disgust, he was very near resigning a throne, which he found encompassed by so many cares and vexations. The English, on their side, were equally out of humour with a monarch who, instead of living amongst his people in that sort of social way to which their former kings had accustomed them, spent most of his time either alone in his closet, or at a camp which he had formed at Hounslow. And when he did show himself in his court, which was very seldom, he appeared sullen and out of humour. After a time, finding that this secluded way of life made him very unpopular, he tried to rouse himself, and, on various public occasions, exerted himself so far as to conduct himself with affability to those about him.

28. DR. LIVINGSTONE'S WELCOME..

As I advanced slowly towards the white man I noticed he was pale, looked wearied, had a grey beard, wore a bluish cap with a faded gold band round it, had on a red-sleeved waistcoat, and a pair of grey trousers. I would have run to him, only I was a coward in the presence of the mob-would have embraced him, only, he being an Englishman, I did not know how he would receive me; so I did what cowardice and false pride suggested was the best thing-walked deli