Stephenson. Having first laid a foundation consisting of the branches of trees, he poured a large quantity of rubbish and earth into the shaking bog, and made it a dry and firm path, on which he laid the rails.

10. When the line was nearly finished, there arose a question as to the kind of engine which was to be used for drawing the carriages-whether a locomotive or a stationary engine. Stephenson advocated the use of locomotives; and when the directors of the line offered a premium of £500 for the best engine, that would run ten miles an hour and not weigh more than six tons, he made an engine called the Rocket which went at the rate of twenty-nine miles an hour on the opening day!

11. This event happened in the autumn of 1830, during the recess of Parliament; and most of the chief statesmen assembled to go on the

1830

A. D. trial trip. It cost one of them his life; for during a stoppage of the train, Mr. Huskisson (the Colonial Secretary) and the Duke of Wellington, who had got out of the carriages to talk, and were standing on the line, heard a rattling noise and a sudden shout, and turning, saw an engine coming quickly down on them. Wellington got out of the way; but Huskisson, who had been ill, was weak and nervous, and did not move fast enough. The engine caught him, threw him down, and crushed one of his legs so severely that he died the same night.

dis-solved', ended.

ex-per-i-ments, trials. in-clined, sloping.

lo-co-mo-tive, an engine that moves

mod-el, copy.

[on wheels.

ob-sta-cle, hindrance.
pre-vi-ous-ly, formerly.
pur-suits', occupations.
re-pair-ing, mending.
sta-tion-a-ry, standing.

1 Killingworth.-Five miles north- of "Outram-roads;" so called after east of Newcastle-on-Tyne. their inventor (1800), Mr. Benjamin Outram, the father of Sir James Outram, the Indian General. (See chapter 71, § 9.)

2 Tram-roads.-Roads with wheeltracks formed of wood, stone, or iron. The name is said to be an abbreviation

56.-WILLIAM IV.

1830 to 1837 A.D.-7 years.

1. William the Fourth was son of George the Third and brother of the late King. He married Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. The two chief events of his reign were the 'passing of the Reform Bill, and the setting free of all slaves in the English colonies.

1832

A.D.

2. The object of the Reform Bill was to make the House of Commons better 'represent the people. The right to vote at 'elections was given to many who had not had the right before. Towns that had lately grown 'populous received the right of sending members to Parliament; while members were taken away from small towns which had lost their importance. While this 'measure was being hotly disputed in Parliament, great riots took place at Bristol, Nottingham, and other large towns.

1833

A.D.

3. In 1833 all the slaves in the British colonies were set free. Twenty million sterling was granted by the nation to pay the slave-owners. Eight hundred thousand slaves thus became free men. William Wilberforce, who, forty-six years before, had proposed this measure, and had laboured hard since that time to bring it to pass, just lived

long enough to see the desire of his heart fulfilled. He died in 1833.

4. William the Fourth died in the seventy-second year of his age, leaving no children. By his kindness of heart, and his constant regard for A.D. the good of his people, he gained the noble

1837

title of "Father of his Country."

5. The first railway was opened, between Manchester and Liverpool, in 1830, when Mr. Huskisson, a member of the Government, was knocked down by an engine and was killed.

dis-put-ed, discussed.

pass-ing, making law.

e-lec-tions, choosing of members of pop-u-lous, to contain more people.

Parliament.

ful-filled', carried out.

meas-ure, Reform Bill.

rep-re-sent', show the minds of.
right, liberty; power.

vote, choose.

57. THE SLAVE TRADE.

Thus lived the Negro in his native land,
Till Christian 'cruisers anchored on his strand:
Where'er their grasping arms the spoilers spread,
The Negro's joys, the Negro's virtues, fled;
Till, far amidst the wilderness unknown,
They flourished in the sight of Heaven alone:
While from the coast, with wide and wider sweep,
The race of Mammon1 dragged across the deep
Their 'sable victims, to that Western bourne 2
From which no traveller might e'er return,
To blazon in the ears of future slaves
The secrets of the world beyond the waves.

When the loud trumpet of eternal doom3
Shall break the mortal bondage of the tomb;

When with the mother's pangs the expiring Earth
Shall bring her children forth to second birth,-
Then shall the sea's 'mysterious caverns, spread
With human 'relics, render up their dead:

Though warm with life the heaving surges glow
Where'er the winds of heaven were wont to blow,
In sevenfold phalanx shall the rallying hosts
Of ocean-slumberers join their wandering ghosts,
Along the melancholy gulf that roars

From Guinea to the Caribbean shores.4
•Myriads of slaves that perished on the way,
From age to age the shark's appointed prey,
By livid plagues, by lingering tortures slain,
Or headlong plunged alive into the main,
Shall rise in judgment from their gloomy beds,
And call down vengeance on their murderers' heads!
Yet small the number, and the fortune blest,
Of those who in the stormy deep found rest,
•Weighed with the unremembered millions more
That 'scaped the sea to perish on the shore,
By the slow pangs of solitary care,
The deep devouring 'anguish of despair,
The broken heart which kindness never heals,
The home-sick passion which the Negro feels,
When toiling, fainting in the land of canes,5
His spirit wanders to his native plains :
His little lovely dwelling there he sees,
Beneath the shade of his paternal trees,
The home of comfort;-then before his eyes
The terrors of captivity arise.

'Twas night: his babes around him lay at rest,
Their mother slumbered on their father's breast:
A yell of murder rang around their bed;

They woke; their cottage blazed; the victims fled :

Forth sprang the ambushed ruffians on their prey;
They caught, they bound, they drove them far away :
The white man bought them at the mart of blood ;7
In pestilential barks they crossed the flood;
Then were the wretched ones asunder torn,
To distant isles, to separate bondage borne ;
Denied, though sought with tears, the sad relief
That misery loves-the fellowship of grief."

am-bushed, concealed. añ-guish, torture.

bla-zon, show forth; display. bond-age, slavery.

cruis-ers, ships watching for captives. myr-i-ads, vast numbers.

JAMES MONTGOMERY.

mys-te-ri-ous, secret; dark.
pes-ti-len-tial, causing a plague.
pha-lanx, compact body.
rel-ics, remains.
sa-ble, dark-skinned.
weighed, compared.

1 The race of Mam'mon.-Lovers | plantations of the West Indies, in of gain; the worshippers of the god of riches.

2 That Western bourne.-America.

3 Eternal doom.-The day of judgment; referring to the revelations which will then be made of the cruelties perpetrated by the slave-dealers.

4 From Guinea to the Caribbean shores.-Between the coast of Africa and the West Indies.

which the slaves worked.

6 'Twas night.-This passage describes the common method by which slaves used to be seized.

7 The mart of blood.-The slavemarket.

8 Pestilential barks.-Ships which were hot-beds of infectious disease.

9 Denied...the fellowship of grief.-Members of the same family were forcibly separated and sent to

5 The land of canes.-The sugar different parts of the world.

58.-VICTORIA. (PART I)

1837 A.D.

1. Queen Victoria ascended the throne June 20, 1837, in the nineteenth year of her age. Her Majesty is the daughter of the late Duke of Kent, who was a brother of William the Fourth and fourth son of George the Third. She was born at Kensington Palace,1 May 24, 1819.

2. Her Majesty married her cousin, Albert of