Burmese destroying everything in their retreat which could afford sustenance to the invaders.

At this period Mr. Canning, one of the most able ministers that England ever produced, was endeavouring to introduce more liberal ideas into the administration than it had hitherto entertained. He laboured to obtain the abolition of the monopoly of grain, the emancipation of the catholics, and a Parliamentary Reform suitable to the exigencies of the time. These plans, however, were at first frustrated by the opposition of the Tories. A corn bill was passed by the Commons, but rejected by the Lords; a plan for the emancipation of the catholics experienced a similar fate; and the measure for Parliamentary Reform was not even entertained by the Commons, while the hostility to which Mr. Canning was exposed had a fatal effect on his constitution; and enfeebled by it, he fell a prey to a disease from which he might otherwise have recovered, and died in August 1827.

In the same year occurred the decease of the Duke of York, then heir presumptive to the crown. His royal highness had been for some time seriously ill, and his disease finally assumed the character of dropsy, which resulted in death, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. His royal highness was succeeded as commander-in-chief by the Duke of Wellington. On the demise of the Duke of York, the Duke of Clarence became heir presumptive to the crown, and ministers embraced this opportunity of adding 6000l. per annum to his income, as well as 30007. as a jointure to his consort. This increase was strongly opposed by several members, on the ground that great distress prevailed in the country; to relieve which a royal letter had been issued to the bishops, exhorting them to use all their exertions in promoting charitable contributions for the needy and distressed.

Canning was succeeded in the administration by Lord Goderich, with a ministry composed partly of Tories and partly of Whigs, but which did not stand long, as there was a want of union among its members. Early in 1828 the Goderich administration was dissolved, and the Duke of Wellington became premier. All the friends of Canning were now removed, and the cabinet was composed wholly of Tories, among whom were the Earl of Aberdeen, who was charged with foreign affairs, Lord Ellenborough, Lord Bathurst, Lord Palmerston, Lord Lyndhurst, Earl Dudley, Mr. Huskisson, and last and greatest of all, Mr. Peel. All these had been decidedly opposed to the measure of Catholic Emancipation brought forward by Mr. Canning, and most of them had eloquently lifted up their voices against it; now, however, their sentiments on this subject underwent a complete change, and a bill for the emancipation of

the catholics was brought in under their auspices, passed both Houses, and in April, 1829, was sanctioned by the king. By this bill Roman Catholics were allowed to sit in both Houses of Parliament.

This measure, however, was not sufficient to satisfy the people: they had gained one great point, but they wanted another to be conceded. A Reform of Parliament was more decidedly demanded every day; but on this point the Wellington ministry was inexorable. Several attempts were made in the years 1829 and 1830 to amend the representation; but every succeeding attempt proved a failure. In the latter year a bill was brought in and passed for repealing the duty on beer, a measure intended to benefit the people, but which appears rather to have proved injurious to the morals of the lower orders, and to have increased their habit of frequenting public houses. It is now emphatically true, that

"Pass where we may, through city or through town,
Village or hamlet, of this merry land,

Though lean and beggar'd, every twentieth pace
Conducts the unguarded nose to such a whiff

Of stale debauch, forth issuing from the sties

That law has licensed, as makes temperance reel."

During the session of 1830 business was interrupted by the illness and death of the king. His majesty's health had for a considerable time been in a precarious state; but the first bulletin was not issued till the 15th of April. At the latter end of May the state of his disorder afforded a hope of his recovery; but this hope proved delusive: the disease returned and increased; and on the night of the 25th of June death once more visited the palace of the kings of England. The death of George IV. excited a less lively sensation among the people than commonly follows that of English monarchs; for although he well understood the art of government he was by no means one of the most popular monarchs in English history. Perhaps one of the chief reasons of this was, the circumstance of his standing in immediate contrast with the "good old king," his father. The people remembered his failings, and, though they did not rejoice at his death, exhibited no such signs of mourning as at the death of his predecessor. But if George IV. had his faults, there were some redeeming qualities in his character. He betrayed no desire unduly to extend the prerogatives of the crown, or to curtail the rights of his subjects; and he was a munificent patron of literature and the liberal arts; praise which can scarcely be given to any member of the house of Hanover who had reigned before him. As Regent, his name will ever be associated with the most splendid triumphs in the annals of British history.

WILLIAM IV.

As soon as the death of the king was known, his next brother, William Henry, Duke of Clarence, was proclaimed by the title of William IV. On his accession no immediate change took place in the government. All the judges and other great officers were reappointed to the places which had become vacant, and his majesty signified to the members of the administration that he wished to retain their services. A change, however, took place in the feelings of their indispensable supporters, the Whigs, which, added to the national distress that prevailed, and the disturbed state of public sentiment, soon occasioned not only their retirement from office, but the greatest change in the British constitution that had taken place since the Revolution of 1688.

The Whigs had supported the cabinet out of gratitude for the concession of Catholic Emancipation, and they seem to have expected that as they had conceded this point, the ministers would also yield to the cry for Parliamentary Reform. In this, however, they were disappointed. The Duke of Wellington boldly averred, in the House of Lords, that, in his opinion, Parliamentary Reform neither ought to be conceded, nor was required by the thinking and respectable portion of the people. From that hour a determined opposition to the Duke's government commenced, and it soon became manifest that he could not long retain his power.

Circumstances both foreign and domestic, favoured the views of the opposition. In France, this year, a great revolution took place. A royal ordinance had been recently published there, abolishing the liberty of the press, cancelling the existing system of representation, and fashioning for the kingdom a new system of election, which would produce a chamber of deputies more subservient to the royal will. All Paris rose in arms against these decrees; Charles X. was dethroned, and his descendants excluded from the succession. The French crown was then presented to the Duke of Orleans, who readily "took the oath" to the charter and the glorious revolution; and these events were hailed in England by the Whigs with applause, as the dawning of a new era in the history of man. At this time there was a dissolution of Parliament, consequent upon the demise of the late king, and the excitement produced by these events acted in the new elections very unfavourably to ministers. The question of Parliamentary Reform now assumed a more prominent and remarkable shape than it had hitherto done. The force of example was added to the existing motives for change; and the notion of merely transferring the privileges of this or that corrupt borough to an unrepresented

populous town was discarded as insufficient, and a radical change in the representation was loudly and boldly demanded. Meetings, petitions, and addresses were got up in every direction in order to bring about such a change, and threats were even uttered that a refusal would lead to a general convulsion, in which the privileged orders might possibly be compelled to yield more than was now required. Disturbances took place throughout the country. Incendiaries lit up conflagrations night after night, in which much property was consumed; and bands of men, still more daring than the incendiary, attacked machinery of all kinds, especially the agricultural, the use of which became so unpopular that insurance offices refused a policy to those who kept it on their premises. Government attempted to put down these outrages by the strong arm of the law; the military force was increased in the disturbed counties, and a proclamation was issued, offering rewards for the conviction of incendiaries; but this only increased the evil: some of the rioters were captured, but outrage and violence still continued.

It was under these circumstances that, on the 26th of October, the first Parliament of King William met for the despatch of business. Notices were given early in the session, that a change in the representation would be demanded, which ministers declared their intention to oppose; but their embarrassment was greatly increased by a domestic occurrence. Some time before the meeting of Parliament the king and queen had promised to honour the lord mayor's feast, at Guildhall, with their presence. Great preparations were made by the citizens on the approach of the festival; but two days before it was to take place, the lord mayor received a note from the home-secretary, stating that his majesty had resolved, on the persuasion of his ministry, to postpone his visit to a future opportunity. The reason given was that, from information recently received, there was cause to apprehend that, notwithstanding the devoted loyalty and affection borne to his majesty by the citizens of London, advantage would be taken of the occasion to create tumult and confusion, and thereby to endanger the lives and properties of his majesty's subjects. This announcement filled the metropolis with alarm. It was conceived that some atrocious conspiracy had been brought to light, and that the crisis of the constitution and the country had arrived. The funds fell three per cent. and in the country it was generally expected that the next mail would bring intelligence that London was in a state of insurrection. All, however, remained calm: the circumstance which led to the decision of his majesty was simply that the Duke of Wellington had been warned by the lord mayor elect to come guarded to the festival, as information had been received by him that a set of desperadoes intended to attack his grace's person on

his approach to the hall. Such was the explanation given in Parliament, when ministers were called upon to declare the grounds upon which they had acted; but this was not deemed sufficient reason for the postponement of the king's visit to Guildhall. Ministers had been unpopular before, and their unpopularity was increased a hundredfold by this circumstance. It was obvious that the Duke's administration had received a shock from which it could not recover; and the opposition made a final and successful attack upon it on the 15th of November. On that day the chancellor of the exchequer stated to the house his arrangements for the civil list, which he proposed to raise to the annual sum of 970,000l. This was opposed as extravagant; and a motion was carried against ministers, by which a select committee was to be appointed to take into consideration the estimates and accounts, presented by command of his majesty. This was fatal to the Wellington administration: and on the following day it was announced in both Houses that ministers had resigned, and that they continued to hold office only till their successors should be appointed.

The task of forming a fresh administration was committed by his majesty to Earl Grey, and the new ministry was complete in about a week, and consisted of Whigs, and of former adherents of the deceased premier, Canning. The Duke of Richmond was the only leading member of the old Tory party who entered the new Cabinet, and he became postmaster-general. The other members of the government were the Duke of Devonshire, Lords Althorpe, Holland, Palmerston, Goderich, Auckland, and Lansdowne; the Honourable Agar Ellis; Sir Edward Paget and Sir Robert Spencer; and Messrs. Denman, Howe, Thompson, Ellice, Rice, Grant, and Wynne. Mr. Brougham, who had distinguished himself in the opposition to the Wellington ministry, was created a peer, and became lord-chancellor.

At the opening of the session the speech from the throne had recommended a Regency Bill. This was under consideration when the late cabinet was dissolved; and the first act of the new ministry was to pass such a measure. The bill provided that in the event of a posthumous child of the present king, her Majesty, Queen Adelaide, should be guardian and regent of the kingdom; and that if such an event did not occur, then the Duchess of Kent was to be guardian and regent, during the minority of her daughter, the Princess Victoria, the heiress presumptive to the throne of Great Britain.

The new ministry stood pledged to apply themselves forthwith to what was termed the reform of Parliament; that is, to strengthening and enlarging the democratical part of the constitution. This great measure was introduced by Lord John Russell, on the 1st of