library' was opened by William Hutton-the future celebrated Dr.-at Birmingham, in 1745. At that time there were only twenty-eight printingoffices in all the corporate towns of England. In 1766, the first private 'book-club' for the squires and clergy, was formed at Coleshill: the subscribers "took in all the new things they chose.”

Salmon.-Defoe says the early supply was brought from the river Derwent to the metropolis, by post-horses, which travelled day and night : it was sold at from 2s. 6d. to 48. per lb. Billingsgate was made a free market in 1699.

Salt was produced in very early times; a duty of forty times its value was imposed in the reign of William III.,—the injudicious tax on salt was not abolished till 1823; its abolition caused salt to become an essential element of chemical manufacture,-hence, too, the produce of soda, and a great change in the components of soap. The first bed of 'rock-salt' was opened at Nantwich, in 1670.

Science. In the early part of this period, physical science was in a very imperfect state; however, the incorporation of the Royal Society, as well as of that very excellent institution called the 'Society of Arts'-the patron alike of art, science, and literature, and a powerful medium of reforming and expanding the taste of the people-tended to popularise scientific studies and inquiries,-to bring into exercise, higher aims to the industry of the people,-ultimately leading to the increased civilization and prosperity of the kingdom,—and presenting an astonishing contrast between England of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. In lord Bacon, sir Isaac Newton, and Locke, England had the honour of producing three of the greatest geniuses that ever arose to adorn and instruct mankind in these branches of knowledge.

Social evils.-During the greater part of the period under review, the moral state of society was deplorable; but little effort was made by either clergy or laity to apply the necessary remedies. Mr. Knight [vol. v., p. 60] says, "Our Saviour's reproach, 'I was sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not,' was unheeded; London, and all other great towns, were swarming with destitute children, who slept in ash-holes, and at street-doors,-they were left to starve, or to become thieves, and in due course hanged. The Church, in 1701, established the 'Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,'-the worse than heathen at home, were left to swell the mass of sin and sorrow, until the whole fabric of society was in peril from its outcasts, and no man's life or property was safe; one-fifth of the population were paupers." The stemmers of the torrent were Defoe, Addison, and Steele, and subsequently Dr. Johnson,-their practical knowledge, benevolent hearts, and kindly sympathies, made them, in the fullest sense, efficient lay-preachers to all classes of society. (See also Mr. Knight-vol. vii., pp. 109-12).

Taxation.-Just principles were, in practice, not understood;-in the nineteenth century, we are approaching the recognition of the true

principle, which is a very plain one-that, whatever amount of revenue is required, it should be obtained in such a manner as not to cripple any branch of the national industry; and with as little cause of irritation and complaint to the people as possible.

Tea and Coffee.-At the beginning of the eighteenth century, it is stated, as an illustration of the luxury of the age, that the usual breakfast repast of water-gruel and milk-porridge, was changed to tea and coffee. Bohea tea was sold, in 1710, at twelve, sixteen, twenty, and twenty-four shillings per lb.; the cheapest green tea, at twelve shillings.

Woollen.-The clothing manufacture of England is a very ancient one, having been practised previous to the arrival of the Saxons; it was considerably extended by Edward III. The chief seat of the manufacture was, till recently, in the West of England. In 1700, the annual value of wool was taken at two millions, and the woollen manufacture at eight millions. The Cloth-hall of Leeds, for the sale of the manufacture of this district, was built in 1711. The present annual home-produce of wool, is nearly one and a half million of lbs.; in addition to which, half-a-million of lbs. is annually imported.

House of Hanover.

(51.) GEORGE I., surnamed GUELPH.

Birth and Reign.-The Protestant succession to the crown having been firmly established by several acts of parliament, George, elector of Hanover or Brunswick, mounted the throne without opposition, on the death of Anne. He was the eldest son of Ernest Augustus and Sophia, grand-daughter of James I.; (Sophia died, May 28, 1714). George was born at Hanover, May 28, 1660; crowned at Westminster, Oct. 20, 1714; and reigned till 1727.

Marriage.-George married his cousin, the princess Sophia Dorothea, daughter of George William, duke of Brunswick and Zell. The king was very deficient in the domestic virtues ; he unjustly confined his wife in prison at the castle of Aldhen, in Hanover, for forty years, preventing even her children from seeing her; after many efforts to escape, she died there, on Nov. 13, 1726.

Issue.-George, who succeeded him as George II.; and Sophia, married to the king of Prussia: she became mother of Frederick the Great.

Death. The king frequently visited his German dominions, -a regency was appointed during his absence;-on June 3, 1727, he embarked for Holland, and arrived at Delden, apparently in good health. On resuming his journey, he had a paralytic stroke; his carriage was ordered to stop; one of his hands was motionless,-his tongue began to swell,-he expired on the following day, June 11, at Osnaburgh; and was buried at Hanover.

Character.-Plain and simple in his person and address; reserved and repulsive in his deportment, though familiar in his hours of relaxation; he was about the middle size, his countenance deficient in expression; he had no sympathy with English customs, and, though king of Great Britain, was unable either to write or speak its language. He possessed great firmness of mind; was just, frugal, and punctual in business. Lockier, a personal friend of the king, says, “The late king, I am persuaded, would not have stirred a foot, if there had been a strong opposition to his ascending the throne; indeed, the family did not expect this crown,—at least nobody in it but the old princess Sophia."

Wars.-(1.) The direct heir to the throne of the Stuarts, James Edward-who was called the Pretender, or Chevalier de St. George, son of James II.—again asserted his claims to the throne. A reward of £100,000 was offered to any one who should apprehend him on landing; a rebellion, headed by the earl of Mar, broke out in Scotland, but the insurgents were defeated at Sheriffmuir, in Perthshire, Nov. 13, 1715, and on the same day the rebel forces in the south of Britain, headed by the earl of Derwentwater, were vanquished at Preston, Lancashire. The earl of Ormond and lord Bolingbroke having joined the Pretender, he arrived at Peterhead, in Aberdeenshire, and reached the camp at Perth on Jan. 16, 1716; but being pursued by the king's troops, he retired to France. For this rebellion many noblemen were executed, their titles forfeited, and numerous estates confiscated.

(2.) War with Spain, when a great naval victory was obtained by Byng, off Cape Passaro, in Sicily, Aug. 11, 1718.

These wars added £14,025,424 to the National Debt, the total amount of which was £47,350,971.

Mem. Events.-In consequence of the king's ignorance of our language, his presence at the meetings of the cabinet council was dispensed with; the sovereign's absence from these assemblings has since become a rule of state. The sitting

of the Church in convocation was suspended by the government in 1717. In 1722, the nation was again alarmed by another conspiracy in favour of the Pretender; Atterbury, bishop of Rochester, was deprived of his see, and banished for being engaged in it for thirty years, the bishop had been celebrated as the most impressive of preachers, and the keenest of controversialists; his estate was not confiscated; he went to France in June, 1723, and died in Paris in 1732. The order of knighthood of the Bath, after having been in abeyance since the days of Charles II., was revived in this reign as a reward for military officers.

The king displayed a strong partiality for the Whig party, who during his reign filled nearly all the situations under government. The Riot Act was passed in 1715, for preventing tumultuous assemblies. The earl of Oxford and others were impeached for high treason; lords Derwentwater and Kenmure were executed on Tower hill, Feb. 24, 1716,—they each asserted their belief that James III. was the rightful sovereign; lord Nithisdale was to have suffered with them, but, aided by his wife, he escaped in female attire the previous night. After remaining in the Tower two years, the earl of Oxford was tried and liberated; the duke of Ormond and lord Bolingbroke escaped to the Continent, their names were erased from the peerage, and their estates forfeited to the crown. Bolingbroke was restored in 1721.

In 1716 an act was passed extending each parliament to seven years' duration, revoking the act of William III., which made it triennial. The treaty called 'The Quadruple Alliance,' signed.

The government being in debt, the South Sea Company proposed, in 1720, to take these debts into their own hands, on receiving in return great commercial monopolies and privileges, the company undertook to provide seven millions and a-half to buy up the government annuities;-sir John Blunt was the chief mover in this calamitous scheme of national delusion; the £100 shares of July, went up in August to £1,000; so great was the daily crowd at the bank, that it was necessitated to place a set of tables and clerks in the

streets. It was calculated that the total value of the stock (at the current prices) of this and other companies, was £500,000,000. On Sept. 29, shares had fallen to £175. Many thousand families were ruined; some died of broken hearts; others withdrew to remote parts of the world, and never returned. Had it not been for the energetic measures, in 1721, of sir Robert Walpole-a man of consummate ability in financial matters-this and numerous other mad and fraudulent schemes must have involved the nation in ruin. The directors of the South Sea Company were prosecuted for their complicity in these transactions, their estates, valued at £2,000,000, were confiscated for the relief of the sufferers.

The annual expenditure of the state was £7,000,000. The Sanctuary in Westminster, so noted in our annals, was pulled down in this reign. Innoculation for the small-pox was tried on criminals, with great success. Naval Society at Portsmouth founded, 1722; Woolwich Military Academy, 1741; the foundation of Guy's Hospital commenced in 1721, by John Guy, a wealthy bookseller in Cornhill; Downing College, Cambridge, founded by sir John Downing in 1717.

Names of Note.-The Pretender, James Stuart, the son of James II. (1688-1765); lord Bolingbroke, author and politician (1678-1751); sir Robert Walpole, statesman (1676-1745); Francis Atterbury, bishop of Rochester (1662-1731); sir Isaac Newton, mathematician and astronomer (1642—1727); Mr. John Law, projector of the Mississippi and South Sea schemes (1681-1729); Dr. Samuel Clarke (16751729) traveller; archbishop Potter (1674-1747), Dr. Prideaux (1648— 1724), Dr. Lowth (1661-1732), bishop Lowth, his son (1710-1787), Dr. Waterland (1683-1740), Dr. Berkeley (1684-1753), Dr. I. Watts (1674-1749), Dr. N. Lardner (1684—1768), divines; Gay (1688— 1732), Congreve (1670-1729), Parnell (1679-1717), poets; sir J. Thornhill (1676-1734), painter.

(52.) GEORGE II.

Birth and Reign.-He was the only son of the late king; was born at Hanover in 1683, created prince of Wales in 1714, crowned at Westminster, and reigned from 1727 to 1760.

Marriage. He married Caroline Wilhelmina, daughter of John Frederic, margrave of Anspach. She died in 1737, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.