history of "The Protestant Association."-Repeat the anecdote of Lord Mansfield.

What was the object of the English essayists who wrote in this age?-In what form did these essays appear?—Name and describe the author of "Gulliver's Travels."-Name some of the poetical works written during this period, and give their authors.—Who wrote "Robinson Crusoe ?”—What novelists lived in the eighteenth century? What famous historians?-What were the "Letters of Junius ?"-What is remarked of Dr. Johnson?-What celebrated law book was published in this century?—Name some of the female writers of this time.

CHAPTER LX.

CONDITION OF ENGLAND DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

THE MINISTRY-OLD AND NEW STYLE-ARCHITECTURE-PAINTING-MUSIC

-MANUFACTURES-TRAVELLING-AGRICULTURE-COMMERCE-MANNERS

AND CUSTOMS-AMUSEMENTS.

TOWARDS the close of the preceding century the king's chief officer, who was the lord treasurer, received the name of premier, or prime minister. In the course of time, this minister became the first executive officer in the realm. By him all the principal departments of government are filled. The men at the head of these departments, with the premier, are called "the ministry," and to them the administration of public affairs is intrusted.

Towards the close of this century, that important change in the method of reckoning time, known as "the New Style," was introduced into England. In "the Old Style," which had been used since the days of Julius Cæsar, there was found a difference between the real and apparent year, amounting, during the lapse of ages, to some ten or eleven days. An act of parliament passed in 1752, provided that the latter number of days should be left out of the calendar, the 3d of September being reckoned as the 14th. This

alteration excited, at first, a great commotion among the common people. They declared that it was equivalent to shortening the period of their natural lives by that amount of time; mobs carried through the streets, placards, on which were inscribed: "Give us back our eleven days!"

On the 25th of February, 1723, Sir Christopher Wren closed his long and useful career. At the advanced age of ninetyone, this great architect was laid in his tomb in the crypt of St. Paul's Church. On a tablet is the following expressive epitaph: "Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice." Reader, if you would inquire for my monument, look around you." To Wren succeeded Vanbrugh, the most magnificent monument of whose fame is Blenheim House—the palace which a grateful nation bestowed on John, Duke of Marlborough, for his victories on the continent. In the tenth year of Queen Anne's reign, an order for the building of fifty new churches in London and its neighborhood, gave an impulse to architecture, and produced many beautiful edifices. During the early part of the century, flourished Sir Godfrey Kneller, the court painter of Queen Anne's reign. Ten years after Kneller's death, appeared Hogarth, of whose original and unrivalled genius his country may well be proud. His reputation first began as an engraver, but his "pictured morals," the vivid and forcible representations of real life depicted on his canvas, have secured his greatest and most wide-spread fame. There are few who have not enjoyed the inimitable humor of "The Enraged Musician" Hogarth died in 1764. Four years later was founded "The Royal Academy of Arts." Its first president was Sir Joshua Reynolds, who may be called the founder of the English school of painters. It was on the occasion of Reynolds's inauguration as president of the Royal Academy, that George III., himself a liberal patron of the fine arts, conferred on the distinguished painter the honor of knighthood. Among the founders of the Royal Academy were West, Wilson, and Gainsborough, all honored names in the history of art. West was an American by birth.

To the sister-art of music, in nearly every department, new charms were added, and this century is particularly rich in beautiful collections of church music. The Oratorio, that noble triumph of musical genius, was brought out in the year 1720, by Frederick Handel, a German by birth, but who made England the country of his adoption. The Italian Opera was introduced early in the century, but no English production was performed until the year 1727, when Gay's composition, "The Beggars Opera," was brought out at Drury Lane Theatre, with great success.

In the industrial arts this period was one of wonderful progress. Improvements were made in the production of nearly every useful article of life. Hitherto the woollen manufacture had been the one of greatest importance. Says an English writer in 1694: "Nine parts in ten of our exported commodities doth come from the sheep's back, and from hence alone is the spring of our riches." We now enter upon a century in which this statement ceases to be true, and the cotton manufacture becomes the great source of British wealth. As the cotton yarn was spun by hand, great difficulty had been experienced in getting a sufficient supply for the purposes of weaving. The little that could be procured from the most industrious spinners was used only in the woof, it not being strong enough for the warp of any fabric. About the year 1764, James Hargreaves invented the spinning-jenny, which spun first eight, and soon twice that number of threads at a time. The ignorant spinners, fearing their occupation would be gone if the fast-spinning jennies took the place of hand labor, destroyed these useful machines wherever they could find them.

A few years later Sir Richard Arkwright, at first a poor barber, gave to the world his invaluable invention of spinning by rollers. In this machine the cotton is drawn swiftly and carefully between a pair of rollers, thus reducing it to a coarse thread. This thread being drawn between a second set of rollers, revolving more quickly than the first, is madę

proportionably finer; a third part of the machine twists the threads as they advance, and thus by this system of artificial thumbs and fingers, the cotton yarn is supplied not only in sufficient quantity for the weaver's use, but also of so strong a fibre that he need no longer hesitate to employ it for the warp as well as the woof of his manufacture. Cromford, on the river Derwent, has the honor of being "the nursing-place of the factory opulence and power of Great Britain." There, in 1771, Arkwright erected the first spinning-wheel worked by water-power.

But another power was soon to be applied to cotton spinning, which was immeasurably to increase the value of this manufacture. This was the steam-engine, invented by James Watt, and first used in the cotton factories in 1785. The silk manufacture increased and improved greatly, especially when the revocation of the Edict of Nantes had brought many skilful French artisans into England. Early in this century the Silk Weavers' Company reported the manufacture in England as twenty times greater in extent than in the year 1664, and the silk equal in quality to that imported from France. Until the year 1715 the weavers were dependent upon Italy for their supply of silk thread, in which country the machinery for its manufacture had been brought to great perfection. In the above-named year an English silk merchant went to Italy, determined to learn the secret of this superior machinery. After much difficulty he obtained employment in an humble capacity in one of the Italian mills. Pleading great destitution, he was permitted to sleep in the work-room. Here he employed his nights in making drawings of the machinery. After obtaining the requisite information, he left his Italian employers, returned to England, and in 1719, established at Derby, in connection with his brothers, the first English silk-factory.

In the manufacture of porcelain and earthenware, the most useful discoveries and improvements were made during the course of this century. In 1763, Wedgewood produced the beautiful article known as queensware. It was of a delicate

cream color, coated with a fine and durable glazing, and so cheap that in a very short time it came into universal use.

The manufacture of cutlery had been established at Sheffield as early as the fourteenth century. In 1761, there were forty thousand persons employed in the making of hardware. At Birmingham, too, fifty thousand were busy in every variety of steel and iron manufacture. During this century many large and valuable iron works were established in England, which were greatly aided by the vast improvements made in machinery, especially by the invention of the steam-engine. The coal-mines were greatly indebted to this valuable agent for their more effective and extended working.

Travelling, even as late as the middle of the eighteenth century, presented none of those facilities which now render the tour of England a journey of pleasure. Turnpikes had been introduced, but they were little used, and seldom or never kept in good repair. From the report of a tourist who wrote in 1770, there seems to have existed no idea of the proper construction of a road. "The turnpikes," he exclaims, CC as they have the assurance to call them, and the hardiness to make one pay for," are mere rocky lanes full of hugeous stones as big as one's head, and abominable holes." The same traveller complains of the ruts being four feet deep, flooded with mud, and the roads in some places so narrow that a mouse cannot pass by any carriage. The method of transportation by canals was introduced about the middle of this century. The first was the Bridgewater Canal, constructed in 1755 by the Duke of Bridgewater, for the purpose of carrying coals from the mines at Worsley to Manchester. This new and easy mode of conveyance produced so great a reduction in the charge of transportation of goods, that it soon obtained the preference over land carriage. Brindley, the architect of the earliest canals in Great Britain, cut through a hill in Staffordshire a tunnel nearly three thousand yards in length. This was on the Trent and Mersey, or Grand Trunk Canal. It was considered a wonderful achieve

ment in those days.