CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



this last year of hostilities exceeded seventy mil- 

 lions ; and the national debt, which in 1793 had 

 been ^230,000,000, now amounted to the vast sum 

 of j86o,ooo,ooo. 



The reaction in Europe during the latter years 

 of Napoleon's reign against revolutionary doctrines, 

 which led on the continent to what was styled a 

 ' Holy Alliance ' between Austria, Russia, and 

 Prussia these powers agreeing to help each other 

 in the event of another crisis like that of the French 

 Revolution had also its effect in Great Britain, in 

 fixing the power of the aristocracy, which, by com- 

 posing the whole of the Upper House, and influ- 

 encing the election of a major part of the Lower, 

 might be said to constitute the government. 



THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE POPULAR TUMULTS. 



In May 1816, the Princess Charlotte, only child 

 of the Prince-regent, was married to Prince Leo- 

 pold of Saxe-Coburg, a young officer who had 

 gained her affections when attending the allied 

 sovereigns at the British court. In November 

 1817, to the great grief of the whole nation, the 

 young princess died, immediately after having 

 given birth to a dead son. 



In August 1816, a British armament under 

 Lord Exmouth bombarded Algiers, and reduced 

 that piratical state to certain desirable conditions 

 respecting the treatment of Christian prisoners. 



The year 1816, and the four following years, 

 have a melancholy reputation as a period of extra- 

 ordinary distress, affecting almost every class of 

 the community, and caused chiefly by the libera- 

 tion of European commerce at the end of the 

 war, and the consequent diminution of the trade 

 which England had previously enjoyed through 

 her exclusive possession of the seas. In the 

 autumn of 1819, the misery of the working- 

 classes had reached its greatest height, and parlia- 

 mentary reform was then urgently demanded, as 

 the only measure which could permanently im- 

 prove their prospects. On the i6th of August, 

 a vast body of operatives assembled at Man- 

 chester, in an open space of ground called St 

 Peter's Field, professedly to petition for parlia- 

 mentary reform. As they came in regular array, 

 bearing banners with inscriptions, the magistrates 

 professed to consider the meeting as dangerous 

 to the public peace, and ere the proceedings were 

 far advanced, a body of troops, consisting chiefly 

 of yeomanry, dashed into the mass, trampling 

 down many persons of both sexes under the 

 horses' feet, and killing and wounding others with 

 their sabres. The meeting was dispersed by 

 these means, and Messrs Hunt and Johnston, the 

 principal orators, were apprehended. The tragic 

 nature of this event produced some marks of pub- 

 lic resentment, but the magistrates who conducted 

 the attack received the immediate and cordial 

 thanks of the government ; and when parliament 

 reassembled in November, in addition to the 

 strong measures already taken for suppressing 

 popular discontent, acts were passed to suppress 

 unstamped political publications, to prevent secret 

 training to arms, and to restrict the right of calling 

 a public meeting to magistrates. 



On the 2gth of January 1820, George III. died 



at Windsor, in his eighty-second year, having 



been insane since 1810. The Prince-regent was 



immediately proclaimed as GEORGE IV. ; but there 



170 



was no other change to mark the commencement 

 of a new reign. A few days before (23d) the 

 decease of George III. the Duke of Kent, his 

 fourth son, died suddenly, leaving an infant 

 daughter, Victoria, with a very near prospect to 

 the throne. In 1772 had been passed the Royal 

 Marriage Act, which incapacitated the descend- 

 ants of George II. from marrying without the 

 consent of their sovereign. 



MISCELLANEOUS CIRCUMSTANCES FROM 1790 

 TO I82O. 



This period is especially memorable for the 

 introduction of the use of steam in navigation. 

 A model vessel, with a small steam-engine on 

 board, was tried in 1788 by Mr Patrick Miller of 

 Dalswinton, in Dumfriesshire. The idea fell asleep 

 for a few years, but was revived by Mr Fulton, 

 an American, who, in 1807, set agoing a steam- 

 vessel on the Hudson River, the first in the world 

 which was regularly employed in conveying pas- 

 sengers. In 1812, Mr Henry Bell of Helensburgh 

 launched a similar vessel on the Clyde, being the 

 first seen in Europe ; and from that period steam- 

 vessels quickly became numerous. 



The latter part of the reign of George III. was 

 distinguished by marked improvements in the 

 dress and social condition of the people. In the 

 year 1750, cocked-hats, wigs, swords, and buckles 

 were generally worn, and all gentlemen used hair- 

 powder. From the year 1790 to about 1800, these 

 and many other oddities completely disappeared. 

 Speedy travelling by stage-coaches, and the rapid 

 transmission of letters by mail-carriages, became 

 at the same time general in all parts of the United 

 Kingdom. 



At no period did a more brilliant class of literary 

 men flourish in Britain. Poetry assumed new and 

 attractive forms in the works of Campbell, Moore, 

 Southey, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, 

 and Scott. The novel or fictitious tale was advanced 

 to a dignity it had never known before, in conse- 

 quence of the production, by Sir Walter Scott, of 

 a series of such compositions, in the highest degree 

 dramatic and entertaining. In the Edinburgh and 

 Quarterly Reviews, periodical criticism acquired 

 an importance it never before possessed. The 

 name of Sir Humphry Davy stands pre-eminent 

 in science, which was also cultivated with distin- 

 guished success by Wollaston, Leslie, Playfair, 

 and Robison. In philosophical literature, the 

 names of Dugald Stewart and Thomas Brown 

 merit peculiar respect ; and in art occur the great 

 names of Reynolds, Lawrence, Gainsborough, and 

 Wilkie. 



REIGN OF GEORGE IV. 



At the time when George IV. commenced his 

 reign, the Manchester affair and the recent pro- 

 ceedings of the ministry, had inspired a small 

 band of desperate men with the design of assas- 

 sinating the ministers at a cabinet dinner, and 

 thereafter attempting to set themselves up as a 

 provisional government On the 23d of February 

 1820, they were surprised by the police in their 

 place of meeting in Cato Street, London ; and, 

 after a desperate resistance, five were seized, 

 among whom one Thistlewood was the chief. 

 These wretched men were tried for high treason, 

 and executed. Nearly about the same time, an 



