wore stockings of that color. When he absented himself, his loss was so sensibly felt by the rest of the company, that they were wont to say: "We can do nothing without the blue stockings." QUESTIONS.-Describe the position of the prime minister.—What do you understand as to time by the terms Old and New Style?— What gave an impulse to architecture in Queen Anne's reign?Name the most distinguished painters of this period. What manufacture became the source of great wealth?-Name some of the inventions which gave importance to this manufacture. -Relate the account given of the silk manufacture.-By what means was the art of making the silk thread introduced into England? What is said of the Sheffield manufactures?-Of those at Birmingham?-What branches of industry were especially benefited by the discovery of steam power? Describe the highways of this time.-When were canals first used? -Repeat the account given of agriculture, gardening, and greenhouses.-Describe the accomplishments necessary to a fashionable woman during this period.-Describe the condition of the lower classes. Describe the manner of life of the country gentlemen of this period. In what way did country ladies pass their time?-Mention the striking peculiarities in the dress of these times.— What incident gave rise to the naval uniform?-Name some of the amusements of the eighteenth century.-State the origin of the appellation, "Blue Stocking." PART XI. ENGLAND DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. GEORGE III-GEORGE IV.-WILLIAM IV. VICTORIA. "That name which scattered by disastrous blare Napoleon-from the Russias west to Spain ! And Austria trembled-till we heard her chain." E. B. BROWNING. CHAPTER LXI GEORGE III.-THE LAST TWENTY YEARS OF HIS REIGN. THE ARMED NEUTRALITY-TRAFALGAR-PENINSULAR WAR-WATERLO0 WAR WITH AMERICA-BARBARY PIRATES. AT the opening of this century a confederacy hostile to the commercial interests of Great Britain was entered into by the northern powers of Europe. The governments of Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, instigated by France, committed acts of hostility, and showed a determination to make England yield her naval supremacy. Resolved to strike a blow against the "Armed Neutrality," as this confederation of her enemies was called, Great Britain sent a fleet to the Baltic. An envoy was dispatched to Copenhagen to obtain by negotiation, if possible, the demands of the British government. He was unsuccessful however, and the English fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir Hyde Parker and Lord Nelson, advanced to the attack of the capital. 1801. On the morning of the 30th of March, eighteen English ships of the line, and a number of smaller vessels, entered the narrow sound which separates Denmark and Sweden. Before them frowned the battlements of the three old fortresses of Helsinborg, Cronenberg, and Elsinore, while beyond, the stately capitol of Copenhagen rose proudly from the water's edge. The shore was lined with multitudes who beheld the novel spectacle of a fleet bearing past the castle of Elsinore without lowering its topsails to the flag of Denmark. All the patriotism and valor of the land had rallied to defend its shores. Ramparts were raised and manned with the bravest hearts; a formidable line of ships, floating batteries, and gunboats were provided, and the buoys were removed from a channel famous for its shoals and sand-banks. Notwithstanding all these obstacles, Lord Nelson, with only twelve line-of-battle ships, anchored on the 1st of April within two leagues of Copenhagen. Sir Hyde Parker remained with the rest of the fleet at the entrance of the sound. At 10 o'clock, on the morning of the 2d of April, the battle began, and raged furiously for three hours. At 1 o'clock, the cannonade from the Danish batteries and ships being still kept up, and three of the best English vessels, unable to join in the engagement, having grounded on the shoals, Admiral Parker gave the signal to withdraw. Nelson was in the thickest of the fight when this signal was reported to him. Instead of obeying it, he exclaimed to one of his captains: "What think you, the admiral has hung out No. 39.* You know I have only one eye; I have a right to be blind sometimes." Then putting the glass to his blind eye, he continued, "I really don't see the signal. Keep mine for closer battle, still flying." Such was the intrepidity that won a battle of which the hero remarked: "I have been in above a hundred engagements, but that of Copenhagen was the most terrible of them all." This decisive blow had the effect, in conjunction with *The signal for breaking off the action, another important event, of putting an end to the Armed Neutrality. The latter event was the death of the emperor of Russia, and the accession of a new czar, Alexander I., who immediately entered into friendly negotiations with Great Britain. In the spring of 1802, the treaty of Amiens was signed between France and England. It made but a brief pause in the fearful contest raging throughout Europe. War was renewed in 1803, and continued its destructive course until the sun of Napoleon went down on the field of Waterloo. To dwell minutely on these scenes of strife would be unnecessary; we will therefore only glance at the more important events in the history of the struggle. Napoleon had returned to Europe in the year 1799, leaving his generals to pursue the conquest of Egypt. In March, 1801, the French general Moreau sustained a severe defeat in a battle fought near Alexandria, and a few months later he was besieged in that city by the united English and Turkish forces under General Hutchinson. Moreau, finding no prospect of relief, surrendered; and, before the close of the year, the French were compelled to abandon Egypt. On the 18th of May, 1804, Napoleon was declared Emperor of the French, and during the following year carried on a successful campaign in Northern Italy and Austria. On the surrender of the old Austrian town of Ulm, by General Mack, on the 20th of October, 1805, Napoleon gazed upon an array of sixty thousand prisoners of war as they defiled before him. He exclaimed: "I must have greater things than these ships, colonies, commerce! these are what I want!" The morrow's sun shone down upon the battle of Trafalgar, by which these much-coveted advantages were confirmed to his enemies, and the hope of their acquisition was for ever crushed in the mind of Napoleon. The battle of Trafalgar, gained by Lord Nelson, on 1805. the morning of the 21st October, 1805, will be ever memorable in the annals of Great Britain's naval history; memorable for the bravery with which an English fleet of twenty-seven sail encountered and almost annihilated the combined squadrons of France and Spain; memorable for the death of the gallant Lord Nelson, who fell in the moment of hard-earned victory; but more memorable still for the last signal which that brave hero made to his fleet on going into action, and which was responded to with enthusiasm by every ship in the line. Those simple words, "England expects every man to do his duty," animated with rapturous enthusiasm the men who fought at Trafalgar, and their sentiment availed in many a succeeding conflict to turn the field of battle on which Englishmen strove, into a field of victory. In the year 1808, Napoleon was at the height of his power and glory. All continental Europe lay prostrate at his feet. He had seized the thrones of Holland and Naples for two of his brothers, Louis and Joseph, and for a third had erected Westphalia into a kingdom. He now sought to transfer Joseph Bonaparte to the throne of Spain, providing for the vacant crown of Naples by placing it on the head of Murat, one of his bravest generals. This attempt, resisted by Spain, in alliance with Portugal and England, resulted in the long and disastrous Peninsular War. In July, Sir Arthur Wellesley (soon afterwards Duke of Wellington) was sent out with a force of ten thousand men. At Vimeira, in 1808. Portugal, he gained a victory over the French marshal Junot; but the generals who immediately superseded Wellesley, instead of pursuing this victory, entered into an agreement by which the French, on terms in the highest degree favorable to themselves, abandoned Portugal. This agreement, the Convention of Cintra, as it is called, gave great dissatisfaction in England. The generals who had concluded it were summoned home, and Sir John Moore was appointed to the command of the English forces in the Peninsula. This general advanced into Spain, but Napoleon had entered that country with near 200,000 men, defeated the Spaniards in several engagements, taken Madrid, and being now with fifty thousand men in pursuit of the English, Sir |