LECTURE LIII.-SLEEP AND WAKING.

The Whigs and Walpole. Decline of enthusiasm. Foreign wars. Disasters and despondency. The elder Pitt. Canada and Wolfe. India and Clive. The Methodists.

1. GEORGE II. was not much more interesting than his father, nor was his private character any better. Though he could at least speak English, he did not feel like an English1727. man, but took far more interest in Hanover. The George II. Whigs continued to govern England, with Sir Robert Walpole as prime minister. Walpole was a shrewd, sensible man, and the country became more and more pacific under his influence. The Tories and the Church grew reconciled to the new dynasty; the Dissenters were placed in a better position. In order to enable them to hold offices in their towns as mayors, aldermen, &c., from which the Test and Corporation Acts shut them out, a law was passed called the Indemnity Act, which excused them from receiving the sacrament of the Church of England. The same Act was passed again and again, until about fifty years ago, when the Test and Corporation Acts themselves were repealed.

2. Both Whigs and Tories learnt to act with more moderation, and not to regard each other as mortal enemies. But though Walpole sincerely desired the good of the country, Walpole. he did a great deal to degrade its character. The principal means by which he kept everything so quiet, and was able to get his own way, was by bribing people, right and left. The high spirit of English gentlemen was sunk so low that many, even members of parliament, would sell their votes for Walpole's bribes. Sometimes he bribed them by giving them places and offices with comfortable salaries attached; sometimes by presents of good hard money, which were delicately called "gratifications." In this way he could nearly always get majorities in the House of Commons.

3. The government had also a great deal of influence in the

elections. It was almost worse now than it had been in the days of Jack Cade. In many places the government could make people elect any one whom they chose to appoint; in others great noblemen could do the same. Some places, which in old days were rich and important, and used to send members to represent them in parliament, had now dwindled away into poor little villages, or much less than villages, where there might be only a few sheep and shepherds left. Still they went on sending members to parliament. These came to be called "rotten boroughs." Other places which had formerly been insignificant hamlets had now grown into large towns, with thousands of inhabitants; these might not send any members at all.

4. Thus it was evident that parliament did not fairly represent the opinion of the country. Walpole knew this very well; he knew too that it was his duty to act according to the sense and will of the nation; and however well he might have bribed the parliament, and however sure he might be of a great majority in the House, if the people outside really cared about the matter, and showed that they objected to his plans, he always gave way.

1741.

Foreign

wars.

5. George II., being a brave man and a good soldier, was fond of interfering in Continental wars, with which England need not have been burdened. These wars are very confusing, and have not much to do with English history. The first of them is called the War of the Austrian Succession, and it was not popular in England, because the people believed that the king took part in it for the good not of England, but of Hanover, of which they were jealous. William Pitt, a patriotic young member of parliament who was just rising into note, and afterwards became the most eminent man in England, said, "It is now too apparent that this great, this powerful, this formidable kingdom is considered only a province to a despicable electorate." The king liked war, and he loved Hanover, so he hated Pitt for this saying. One of the politicians in this reign, who had succeeded Walpole as prime minister, summing up in a few words his own ideas about the foreign wars, called it "a noble ambition to knock the heads of the kings of Europe together, and jumble something out of it which may be of service to this country."

6. The principal advantages which resulted to England out of the "jumble were not in Europe at all, but in Asia and America. England had long possessed large colonies in America, but Canada, the part which at present belongs to us, was at that time colonized by the French. Our colonies were part of what

are now called the United States. Though those States are now a republic, they belonged to England, and were under the English kings and queens till about 100 years ago. Many of them are still called after those former rulers: Virginia after the virgin Queen Elizabeth; Maryland after Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I.; the Carolinas after Charles II.; New York after the Duke of York, James II.; Georgia after George II.

7. There were often disputes between the French and English colonies about the boundary lines. At last they came to open hostilities. The mother countries joined in the dispute, and there was soon war both in Europe and America. At first everything went very ill for England. Horace Walpole, the son of old Sir Robert, and one of the witty writers of the day, says in a letter to a friend, "If it were not for the life that is put into the town now and then by very bad news from abroad, one should be quite stupefied." Plenty of that "life" was put into

1756. Disasters.

the town. The French kept the upper hand in America, and in Europe the English lost the island of Minorca, which was considered a terrible disaster. So enraged were the people of England, that Admiral Byng, who had failed to relieve Minorca, was brought to trial. Though no charge could be brought against him, at the very worst, but that he had made a mistake, such as any man might have made, nothing would pacify the nation but his execution.

8. This cruel act, of course, brought no consolation and no remedy. Everything seemed to be going ill; the nation was utterly ashamed and disheartened; there seemed no one to be trusted, no one who could do anything, but the one man whom the king hated, William Pitt. "I am sure," he said, "that I can save the nation, and that no one else can." The nation was sure of it too, and the king was obliged to make him prime minister.

1757. William Pitt.

9. Pitt, who was afterwards created Earl of Chatham, was a man of wonderful genius; he was perhaps the greatest prime minister that England ever had. There was something grand and lofty about him which seemed to raise the spirit and character of the whole nation as much as Walpole had lowered it. He was a very poor man when he began life; his whole private fortune was about £100 a year; but he did not love money; he scorned bribes and corruption, and kept his hands and heart pure to the last day of his life. He had also a wonderful eloquence. Horace Walpole, after describing the fine speech of another great orator,

breaks off with "What could be beyond this? Nothing but what was beyond what ever was, and that was Pitt." What so often happens if people, being fallen from a higher level to low, poor, worldly ways, see once more a noble example rise before them, happened now. The spirit of honour, disinterestedness, and self-sacrifice in one man kindled the same in those who beheld it. They began to feel the stirring of a nobler life within them. Pitt became the nation's idol. Englishmen woke up from their torpor, their love of selfish ease and profit; they showed once more a self-sacrifice, courage, and patriotism worthy of their fathers of old.

Canada.

1759.

10. Now everything began to change. Pitt was skilful in choosing men. He did not appoint them only because of their age or rank, but according to their qualities. He sent a very gallant young general to Canada, James Wolfe, who quickly turned defeat into victory, but whose career was soon ended. In taking the city of Quebec from the French he fell mortally wounded, but he did not die till he heard the enemy were vanquished. "They run," he overheard some one say. "Who run?" asked the dying man, lifting himself up. When they told him it was the French, he sank down again, saying, "Then I die happy." His victory put an end to the French power in America, and gave to England that fine colony of which we are so proud.

11. It was Pitt's clear eye which perceived how to turn the noble qualities of the wild Highlanders to account. Since the rebellion of 1745 the chiefs of many of the clans had been sent into banishment, and the people were left as sheep without a shepherd. Their main ideas of life had always been devotion to their chiefs and love of fighting. Pitt formed two Highland regiments, which were soon some of the finest in the whole army. The soldiers became as devoted to their regiment as they used to be to their clan, and were as proud of fighting for king and country as they used to be of fighting against both. Scotland continually improved in civilization and prosperity, order and safety.

12. Soon too England began to lift up her head in India. The French and English were rivals there also. Neither had

any dominion, but each had some commercial inter- India. ests. There was a company in London called the

East India Company, which had been established simply for trading purposes. They had some little settlements on different parts of the coast of India, consisting of a few square miles, for which they paid rent to the natives, and where the merchants lived.

NN

These settlements had a few poor little forts, and a few soldiers to protect them. The merchants grew rich, but they never thought of wanting possession of the country.

13. The most important of these little establishments was at Madras. Not very far south, at Pondicherry, the French had a similar one. As the two countries at home were at war, the rival merchant settlements were soon at war too. Here also the French were successful at first, and the English were reduced to great danger and distress. It seemed as if all would Clive. be lost, when Clive, a young merchant's clerk, who had been a great scapegrace in his youth, began to show such wonderful courage and genius that he was appointed to command the little English army. All his daring plans succeeded, to the amazement of French, English, and natives. The greater part of the natives in those parts, thinking the French were sure to be victorious, had taken part with them; but Clive with his handful of troops defeated them all. When he had completely triumphed in Madras he went north to Bengal. The nabob, or ruler of that province, had taken possession of a settlement which the English had at Calcutta, and had made himself for ever infamous by shutting up his prisoners in the den so well known now by the name of the Black Hole.

14. Clive was sent with a small army to punish the nabob. He had about 900 English troops and 1500 natives. The nabob's army consisted of nearly 60,000. "On this occasion,"

says Macaulay, "for the first and for the last time, his dauntless spirit, during a few hours, shrank from the fearful responsibility of making a decision. He called a council of war. The majority pronounced against fighting, and Clive declared his concurrence with the majority. Long afterwards he said that he had never called but one council of war, and that if he had taken the advice of that council the British would never have been masters of Bengal. But scarcely had the meeting broken up when he was himself again. He retired alone under the shade of some trees, and passed near an hour there in thought. He came back determined to put everything to the hazard, and gave orders that all should be in readiness for passing the river which separated the English from their foe on the morrow.

15. The morrow came, the river was crossed, and in little more than an hour the nabob's great army was put to flight. This is called the Battle of Plassey. From that time the English gained ever more and more power and influence in India, till it has now almost entirely

1757. Battle of Plassey.