This was so great a mortification to her, that she died in the following month.

Immediately after his coronation the King visited his dominions in Hanover, Ireland, and Scotland, and wherever he went he was received with the greatest joy and with marks of loyalty and affection.

In the year 1827, in consequence of the refusal of the Turks to come to terms of peace with Greece, their fleet was destroyed by the English in the harbour of Navarino.

His

In the beginning of 1830 the King's health began to fail; and after a lingering illness he expired on the 26th of June, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. latter years were spent in great retirement. He lived chiefly in what was called The Cottage, or Royal Lodge, in Windsor Park, and one of his principal amusements was to drive about the neighbourhood of Windsor in a pony phaeton.

WILLIAM THE FOURTH.

1830-1837.

GEORGE IV. was succeeded by his brother, William Henry Duke of Clarence, who at this time was in his sixty-fifth year.

William had entered the navy when he was fourteen years of age. He was in the fleet sent to relieve the fortress of Gibraltar when besieged by the French. He gradually rose, till, in 1820, he was appointed Lord High Admiral. In 1818 he married the Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. His habits, and those of his good and pious Queen, were quiet and simple.

He retained through life the plain and blunt habits of the sailor. He was in his manners frank and hearty; he was very fond of his people, and in return was much beloved by them.

The reign of William, though short, was marked by some most important events.

For a long time it had been evident that the system of sending members to represent the nation in Parliament was not just. Many large and populous towns returned no member, while barren hills where towns had formerly stood, but whose population had dwindled away, sent two or more members. To rectify this unequal state of things, on the 1st of March, 1830, the "Reform Bill" was brought into the House of Commons by Lord JOHN RUSSELL. It met with much opposition from the Tories, or Conservatives, as they were now called; but the Bill, after having been twice rejected by the House of Lords, received the Royal assent on the 7th of June, 1832. By this Bill various large towns, such as Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, and Leeds, were now for the first time represented,

and eight additional members were given to London.

Another great reform in William's reign was the abolition of slavery. The connexion of England with the slave-trade had its beginning in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The system continued, and the nation became more involved in this shocking traffic. In the reign of George III. the slave-trade was abolished, that is, no more slaves were permitted to be taken from Africa, but still there were many slaves in the West Indian islands. WILBERFORCE, CLARKSON, BUXTON, and other good and great men, determined that there should not be any slaves in the British possessions. There was much opposition to this. Twenty millions of money were required by the owners of the slaves as compensation for the loss of their property. The British nation nobly determined to pay that