human lives, and had raised the National Debt of England to £860,000,000! It was happily followed by a peace which was almost unbroken for forty years.

1820

A. D.

6. King George the Third died in the eighty-second year of his age and the sixtieth of his reign -the longest and most remarkable in English history. His 'private life was pure, and his manners and dress were homely, so much so that he was called "Farmer George." He had the good of his people at heart, and he was beloved by them in return. During the last ten years of his life he had been now and then out of his mind, and had therefore been unable to fulfil the duties of King; and his eldest son, George, had been made Regent. He now succeeded as George the Fourth.

7. Important Events. In this reign Captain Cook made three voyages round the world. He was killed at Owhyhee by a native. In 1797 a mutiny broke out in the British Navy-the seamen demanding more pay. At the Spithead they were easily pacified; but at the Nores they seized the ships, and did not return to their duty till the ringleaders were hanged.

8. Notes of Progress.-In this reign, gas was first used in the streets of London, and the first steamvessel was launched on the Clyde. The steam-engine was greatly improved by James Watt; the "spinningjenny" was invented by James Hargreaves; a spinning-machine called the "mule," by Samuel Crompton; and the power-loom, by Dr. Cartwright.

5 St. Hele'na.-An island in the tuary of the Thames, opposite Sheerness.

50. THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE.

[The battle of Corunna was fought to cover the embarkation of the British army, which had been pursued into the north-west of Spain by Marshal Soult. The French were beaten off along the whole line; but Moore was mortally wounded, and was buried at midnight on the ramparts of Corunna.]

1. Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his 'corse to the ramparts we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried.

2. We buried him darkly at dead of night,
The sods with our bayonets turning;
By the struggling moonbeam's misty light,
And the lantern dimly burning.

3. No useless coffin enclosed his breast,

Not in sheet nor in shroud we wound him;
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest,
With his martial cloak around him.

4. Few and short were the prayers we said,
And we spoke not a word of sorrow;

But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead,
And we bitterly thought of the morrow.

5. We thought, as we 'hollowed his narrow bed,
And smoothed down his lonely pillow,

That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head,
And we far away on the billow!

6. Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone,
And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him ;

But little he'll 'reck, if they let him sleep on
In the grave where a Briton has laid him.

7. But half of our heavy task was done,

When the clock struck the hour for retiring;
And we heard the distant and 'random gun
That the foe was 'sullenly firing.

8. Slowly and sadly we laid him down,

From the field of his fame fresh and gory:

We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone—
But we left him alone with his glory.

1. The Duchess of Richmond gave a 'magnificent ball in her mansion at Brussels one evening in June 1815. It was attended by nearly all the officers of the British army, then waiting to meet Napoleon in battle. At an early hour in the afternoon the

1815

Duke of Wellington, who commanded the forces, had received certain 'intelligence that Napoleon was advancing, and had told it to his leading generals and staff - officers, desiring them, however, when their preparations were all made, to dress and go to the ball, lest the ladies might suspect the truth and be alarmed.

A.D.

2. When the dancing was at its height, a careful eye might have seen officers in the rich uniform of the staff moving quietly about the ball-rooms and whispering orders to the colonels, who a little later left the gay scene and hurried away to get their men under arms.

"The midnight brought the signal-sound of strife

The morn, the marshalling in arms-the day,
Battle's magnificently stern array."

June 16.

3. The "battle" was that of Quatre Bras, or Four Arms, a place which took its name from the crossing of two roads at a point twenty miles south of Brussels; and in the conflict Wellington 'maintained his position against the attack of Ney.

On the same day Napoleon drove the Prussians back from Ligny. Next day Wellington fell back on Waterloo, which he had chosen to be the ground for a great 'decisive battle between Napoleon and

himself.

4. The night before the Battle of Waterloo was

very wet. The soldiers lay down in the meadows and the rye-fields, sheltering themselves as well as they could, and trying to keep their fires alight under the heavy rain. Before four o'clock the dawn was seen in the sky; and each army, when the mists lifted and permitted a clear view, saw the other drawn out on a ridge.

5. Between the armies there was a hollow. Down

in the low ground next the British side there was a white farm-house,1 and another stood near the crest of the French position. At the western angle of the hill occupied by the British, a chateau,3 built of red brick, formed a fortress, which was garrisoned

by many soldiers. Around these three buildings,

especially the last, the battle raged hottest.

6. There was great difficulty at first on both sides in getting the muskets ready for action, for the rain had soaked the cartridges in the June 18. loaded barrels, so that they would not fire. And when the soldiers, turning their ramroads, tried