talents, and by study in the intervals of toil, rose to a distinguished position. He was in England before the war began, and tried his best to effect a reconciliation, but failing in this he returned home to assist his brethren.

The other won deservedly as dear a name as patriot can-the father of his country. George Washington was born in Virginia, in 1732, the son of a gentleman possessing a large estate there. Many will remember hearing how, when he was a little child, he innocently tried the merits of his new hatchet on a highly prized pear tree, and killed it. Then when he heard his father demanding, in great displeasure, who could have been guilty of the act, he said, with a beating heart,—“ Father, I cannot tell a lie. I cut it with my hatchet." His father forgot all his vexation and disappointment on receiving this confession, and exclaimed that he would rather lose a thousand trees than have his son a liar.

That good father died when George was but eleven years old, leaving him to the care of a wise mother. We are told that when she was asked in after-years how she had trained her son, she replied, "I only required obedience, diligence, and truth." That child who "could not tell a lie," whose parentage was so excellent, became the greatest citizen of the United States.

He early displayed ability as a statesman and a soldier, and the Congress of 1775 appointed him commander-inchief in the war with England, which it was felt had begun at Lexington. In June of this year there was a closely contested engagement at Bunker's Hill, near Boston, in which the British troops suffered severely, and the advantage remained with the Americans, who were greatly inspirited thereby.

In 1776 they took a decisive step. Believing that there was no hope of reconciliation, they gave to the world on the 4th of July, the document called the Declaration of Independence, wherein they solemnly and for ever separated from England, and pronounced themselves free and independent, setting forth also the

principles on which the United States-as they named the colonies-should be governed.

Through this year success was generally on the side of the British, and it seemed as if the time might not be far distant when the Americans would have to lay down their arms; but in October, 1777, the tide turned. An able English officer, General Burgoyne, advanced with a large number of troops from Canada, in pursuance of a well-concerted plan of united action with other bodies of the king's army. At first he overcame the many obstacles which hindered his march, but in spite of gallant resistance he was overpowered in two battles, and finally, when hemmed in and famine-stricken, he was forced to surrender with all his men at Saratoga.

This event caused much anxiety at home, and showed the great disadvantage at which the English soldiers were placed, as invaders of such an immense territory, so far from their own land. Lord Chatham said, "I know that they can achieve anything except impossibilities. But the conquest of America is an impossibility." In 1778 Great Britain sent commissioners thither to offer terms of accommodation, but they were such as would not then be accepted. The position of England was a harassing one, and the countries that had a grudge against her took the opportunity to manifest more or less decided enmity.

Through the mediation of Franklin, France concluded an alliance with the United States, and gave assistance in ships and men. The Marquis de la Fayette, afterwards distinguished in the French Revolution, was among those who lent their personal help to the young Republic, with a generous zeal.

This miserable war dragged on till the latter part of 1783, when in October of that year the exhausted troops under Lord Cornwallis, being surrounded, were compelled to yield themselves prisoners of war to General Washington, who had been the soul of the struggle in which his country was engaged.

This was the last important action in the war. By the treaty of Versailles, Great Britain acknowledged the independence of the United States, which thenceforth took its place among the great nations of the earth.

Nothing, perhaps, in modern history is more remarkable than the rapidity with which the United States have grown in wealth and population. At the close of the last century, the entire population did not exceed 4,000,000; now, it is ten times that number. The city of New York alone has a million inhabitants, and Philadelphia nearly three quarters of a million; while Brooklyn, Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, and Cincinnati have each over two hundred thousand citizens. St. Louis, near the junction of the Mississippi and Missouri-not many years since a mere border station visited only by trappers and Indians-has now a population of over three hundred thousand; while Chicago, the great centre of the western corn trade-a town of yesterday, with less than thirty thousand inhabitants in 1850-bids fair to exceed half a million.

An increase of seven and a half millions in ten years has made the Republic one of the largest of the nations. None of the countries of Western Europe equal the United States in population. Nor does this growth show any tendency to abate. The thirty-nine millions of 1870 will probably be fifty millions in 1880. The desolations of a frightful civil war have all been obliterated; the grass is green over its million graves; the cities do not miss their dead, for a yet greater tide of the living sweeps through the streets. Ten years of peace, of wise government, and of just laws, may make the United States the largest, if not the richest, of the free nations of the world.

QUESTIONS.-What was the cause of this war? On what grounds did the colonists oppose the payment of taxes to the Imperial Government? What men took a leading part in the struggle? What were the chief engagements? When and how was the war ended? Give some idea of the rapid growth of the United States.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

PART I.

THE French Revolution of 1789, with its tremendous crimes and unequalled horrors, can only be rightly understood by a knowledge of the period which preceded it, and sowed the seeds from which sprang that terrible harvest.

The reigns of two kings filled the time between 1643 and 1774. The first of these was Louis XIV., called the Magnificent. Stately in his bearing, splendid in the pomp that surrounded him, mighty as a sovereign both at home and abroad, he put the finishing stroke to the policy which made the monarchy of France an absolute one. Taught from his childhood that nations were meant to be the slaves and tools of princes, we cannot be surprised that he acted on this idea in after-life. Self-aggrandisement," he said, "is at once the noblest and the most agreeable occupation of kings,"-forgetting that it might not be equally agreeable to those whom they governed.

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Louis XIV. engaged in wars on as large and grand a scale as his other enterprises. He had a turn at persecution too, for he relentlessly harassed the saintly Roman Catholic recluses of Port Royal; and after he had revoked the Edict of Nantes, he treated the Huguenots with such barbarity that numbers fled from their native land, thus depriving France of some of her most intelligent and valuable citizens. He lived to see the failure of his most cherished schemes, and left to his country poverty and moral degradation as the result of his enormous expenditure of blood and money.

Matters only grew more hopeless under his grandson Louis XV., whose court was sunk in indescribable vice and profligacy. During his long reign he wasted twenty millions sterling on persons and pursuits of the worst description, and thus he did his part in hastening the advent of that day of wrath which was sure to come.

A few facts will help us to realize the pitiable state to which France was reduced. The king was despotic, and could imprison any one who offended him or his courtiers, without a trial, by signing an order of arrest called a sealed letter. Under Louis XV. there were 150,000 of these orders issued. The nobility and clergy were the privileged classes, and almost wholly exempt from taxation, which fell with crushing weight on those of lower station who were all included under the name of the third estate.

It was they who supplied the vast sums which were squandered on reckless wars, on court pageants, and on grasping favourites. It was they who had to furnish yearly 60,000 men for forced military service. They had to keep the public roads in repair. They dared not touch the wild boar and other game which sometimes deprived them of their crops. Nay, there were times when cutting hay and weeding were forbidden on account of the partridges. There was rarely justice for the poor in any court of law; and the peasant groaned under a system which took from him two-thirds of his earnings in the form of taxes.

Oppression, cruelty, and extortion on the part of the higher classes; misery, brutality, and ignorance among the lower, were too often the rule, though of course there were very many exceptions. The causes here mentioned were enough to produce revolution, but they were not all. Seeing the laws of God perpetually outraged in His name, there were those who turned to a dreary atheism, and their destructive teaching found ready acceptance. Moreover, the American War of Independence excited much interest in France; and theories of liberty and equality, which were carelessly talked over in her palaces, met with stern consideration from those who knew too well the meaning of tyranny.

To the throne of such a kingdom Louis XVI. succeeded in 1794, at the age of nineteen, to be a sufferer for the sins of others. He was a well-intentioned king,