GREAT BRITAIN 



2590 



GREAT BRITAIN 



its reserve and special reserve, and the terri- 

 torial force, which, contrary to its name, is 

 intended for home defense and is under no 

 obligation to serve abroad. The strength of 



the armies of Great Britain, as compared with 

 those of the other powers, is given in the 

 article ARMY, subhead British Army. In this 

 connection see WAR OF THE NATIONS. 



History of Great Britain 



The Union with Scotland. Although, as 

 pointed out in the article ENGLAND, that 

 country and Scotland had had one ruler since 

 the accession of James VI of Scotland to the 

 throne of England in 1603 as James I, the two 

 countries had retained their separate legis- 

 latures, and were thus not really one country. 

 In 1707 the Scottish Parliament was given 

 up, and Great Britain as a political unit came 

 into being. A new flag was adopted the 

 Union Jack, made by combining the white 

 cross of Saint Andrew with the red cross of 

 Saint George. At first there was a strong 

 popular feeling in Scotland against the union, 

 but gradually there arose the realization of 

 the fact that the interests of the country were 

 better conserved than under the old dual 

 arrangement. 



Accession of the House of Hanover. Queen 

 Anne was the last Protestant Stuart, and when 

 she died in 1714 the Crown passed, not to her 

 half-brother, the Catholic son of James II, but 

 to George, Elector of Hanover, a descendant 

 of James I. The new king had no interest 

 in i England ; he had been a German all his 

 life, and a German he intended to remain. He 

 was perfectly willing, to be sure, that the new 

 kingdom should minister to his support and 

 furnish him funds for his enterprises on the 

 Continent, but as for the government, that 

 could be attended to by the leaders of the 

 Whigs, the party which had brought him to 

 power. It was this very indifference on the 

 part of the king which made possible the estab- 

 lishment of the present form of government, 

 for Sir Robert Walpole, the Whig leader, was 

 in reality the first Premier, though he did not 

 assume that title ; and he it was who began the 

 custom of selecting from his colleagues an 

 advisory body, the Cabinet. The king did not 

 even attend their meetings; why should he, 

 when he could not understand a word of Eng- 

 lish, and did not care to learn the language? 



During this reign occurred the insurrections 

 in the interests of James Edward Stuart 

 (which see), the "Pretender," and the failure 

 of that gigantic enterprise known as the South 

 Sea Company (which see), which involved in 

 its disaster great numbers of people and seri- 



ously embarrassed the government. Only the 

 genius of Walpole served to bring a certain 

 measure of order out of this crisis. Another 

 important event, as beneficial as this was dis- 

 astrous, was the introduction of the practice 

 of inoculation for smallpox. This meant the 

 conquest of one of the worst scourges of 

 Europe, for even in years when there was no 

 epidemic the disease killed off about one per- 

 son out of ten in England, and a proportionate 

 number in other countries. 



Growth of Colonial Interests. George II, 

 who came to the throne in 1727, was much like 

 his father in his indifference to English inter- 

 ests. He hated Walpole, but was wise enough 

 to keep him in power, interfering with him 

 little except by attempting to induce him to 

 involve England in the various struggles 

 which were taking place on the Continent; for 

 George II was above all things a soldier. In 

 1739 1 the country became so incensed over 

 certain barbarities of Spain toward English 

 traders in the West Indies that Walpole was 

 forced against his will to declare war, and .the 

 result was far from favorable for England. 

 This war was a sign that the New World, as it 

 was then called, and England's trading and 

 colonial interests there were becoming of greater 

 importance. In the next war in which Eng- 

 land took part the War of the Austrian Succes- 

 sion George II led the British troops in per- 

 son, the last English king to take part in a 

 battle. 



But the great struggle of the reign was the 

 Seven Years' War, which in its American 

 phase was known as the French and Indian 

 War. By it England's colonial interests were 

 decidedly advanced at the expense of France, 

 for Clive (which see), by the great battle of 

 Plassey, established British rule in India on a 

 firm foundation, and Wolfe won Canada by 

 his victory over Montcalm at Quebec. Indeed, 

 at the close of the war England was supreme 

 over the North American continent from the 

 Atlantic to the Mississippi. 



The reign of George II witnessed another 

 movement less spectacular but as lasting in its 

 results the rise of Methodism. Such a reli- 

 gious revival was sorely needed in an age 



