Till-: STANDARD DICTIONARY <>F 1 A< 1 > 



DO 1783 to 1S01 iiu-iit Hi' Britain 



Pitt, tin- younger son 

 of Lor :irii only 



of age was placed as first lord of t i 



HUT. 'I he affairs 



. ami the impeachment of 



ubjects 



Mt-ntion of Pitt's ministry. 

 :i able to extort from 



Hritai: jaged in her struggle with the 



American ( li>h aninde- 



:-'iit parliament, so that from this year thriv 



vernmenls in the British 



had in the interval 



i the difficulties arising 



coordinate legi.-latures. i-ont rived once 



In 17M>. the French Revolution \vas begun. 



.1 timr tl.< 'iisiderable sympathy in 



.and with this movement: but 'as the rev- 



reme measures there 



was a reaction in Fnirlish feeling, of which Fd- 

 Burke became the great exponent, and 

 (HI of Louis XVI. gave rise to diplo- 

 which finally terminated in the 

 'ion declaring \\ar against Brit- 

 ain, on the l>t of February, 171KJ. At first Brit- 

 ain c< with Prussia, Austria, etc., 

 against and successes were gained both 

 by sea and land: but latterly on the Continent 

 - nch Republic were every- 

 where triumphant, and in 1707 Britain stood 

 in the conflict, and indeed soon found an | 

 European coalition formed against her. The 

 war was now largely maritime, and the naval 

 s of Jervis off St. Vincent and Duncan 

 iperdown were followed (when Bonaparte 

 led an expedition to Egypt, having India as its 

 ultimate object) by the victories of Nelson in 

 Aboukir Bay, and Abercromby at Alexandria. 

 In 1798, a rebellion in Ireland had to be crushed. 

 adcin 1802 by the Treaty of Amiens, 

 only to be broken by another declaration of war in 

 1803, as the ambitious projects of Napoleon 

 :ent. In spite of the efforts of Pitt 

 lied in 1806) in the way of forming and 

 supporting with funds a new coalition against 

 . the military genius of Napoleon swept 

 away all opposition on land, though the naval 

 victory of Trafalgar (1805) established England's 

 icy on the seas. Napoleon, who had 

 d the title of Fmperor of the French in 

 1805, and was now virtually the ruler of Europe, 

 rlin deer. prohibiting 

 ~.'\\ < ireat Britain wherever his 

 ied, set his brother Joseph on the 

 and occupied Portugal. But 

 tance had now taken deep root 

 in (lie British people, and in IXMX troops were 

 sent into Spain under Sir John Moore, and a year 

 'Ai-llington. then < ieneral Wellesley. landed 

 in Portugal. Then began that famous series of 



the Peninsular War) which 



back the French into their own country, 

 ami powerfully contributed to undermine the 

 immense fabric of Napoleon's conquests. The 



other chief Furopean powers having united, 



"ccupied in 1814, Napoleon v* 

 and exiled to Elba, and Louis XVIII. 

 on the throne of France. Escaping in 



1M.">, Napoleon appeared once more in the field 

 with a large army. Wellington and Blucher 

 hastened to oppose him, and at Waterloo Na- 

 poleon's long career of conquest ended in a crush- 

 ini: defeat. The restoration of Louis followed, 

 and Napoleon was sent to the island of St. Helena, 

 of her conquests Britain retained Tobago, St. 

 Lucia. Mauritius, the Cape of Good Hope, l>em- 

 erara. Fs-equibo. Berbice, Heligoland, and Malta. 

 Ceylon and Trinidad had been gained in ISUL'. 

 and Britain emerged from this long struggle 

 with a very great increase of territorial posses- 

 sions and political importance. 



Alter the termination of the wars with Napo- 

 leon many things concurred to make a troublous 

 era in the home administration. The new bur- 

 den of debt which the wars had left on the nation, 

 the bad harvests of 1816 and 1817, a succession 

 of governments which had no idea but that of 

 absolute resistance to all reforms, etc.; all these 

 contributed to increase discontent. The result 

 was a strong Radical agitation, accompanied 

 often by serious riots throughout the country, 

 more especially in the large towns, and loud 

 demands for reform in parliament and the system 

 of representation. The death of George 111. and 

 accession of George IV. in 1820 made little 

 change in this respect. From 1822 a succes- 

 sion of able statesmen, Canning, Peel, and 

 Lord Grey, gave the government a more liberal 

 turn, and did much to satisfy the popular 

 demands. The Catholics were admitted to 

 parliament; the severity of the old restric- 

 tions on commerce was relaxed; and in the 

 face of a determined opposition Earl Grey car- 

 ried the Reform Bill of 1832 {two years after 

 the accession of William IV.), which gave 

 large manufacturing towns a voting power in 

 some proportion to their importance, and prac- 

 tically transferred the center of political power 

 from the aristocratic to the middle classes. 

 The next great public measure was the aboli- 

 tion of negro slavery in every British posses- 

 sion in 1834. 



William IV. died June 20, 1837, and was suc- 

 ceeded by Victoria. The year following is nota- 

 ble as that in which the Chartists began their 

 movement for reform, which continued more or 

 less active, with popular assemblies, presenta- 

 tions of monster petitions, and occasional tu- 

 mults, till 1848, when it was without much trouble 

 suppressed. The same years saw the struggle 

 of the Anti-Co rn-law League, of which Cobden 

 and Bright were the chiefs, and which were 

 finally successful; Sir Robert Peel, the leader of 

 the Tory party, himself proposing the repeal of 

 the corn duties (1846). The principle of free- 

 trade had further victories in the repeal of the 

 navigation laws, and in the large abolition of 

 duties made during Lord Aberdeen's ministry 

 (1853). 



In 1852-53, dissension arose between Russia 

 and Turkey regarding the rights of the Latin 

 and Greek Churches to preferable access to the 

 "holy places" in Palestine. The Emperor of 

 Russia, resenting concessions made to French 

 devotees, sent Prince Menschikoff to Constanti- 

 nople to demand redress, and not being satisfied, 

 war was declared. June 26, 1853. On the plea 

 i hat it was impossible to leave Russia a free hand 



