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quite true. The French nation, and especially the military men, were not inclined to settle quietly down under the government of Louis the Eighteenth, a prince of advanced years, whose pacific virtues they did not value. And no sooner did Bonaparte show himself, than some of the very generals who had promised Louis the Eighteenth that they would defend his throne, turned against him.

On the 20th March, 1815, Louis fled to the Netherlands, and Bonaparte once more took up his abode in the palace of the Tuileries. But this second empire lasted only two months. All the kings who had made war upon him before took up arms against him now. The first armies which were ready were those of the English, under Wellington, and the Prussians, under Blucher. These gathered on the frontiers of Flanders, and Bonaparte, with one hundred and twenty-five thousand men, hastened to overwhelm them, as he hoped, before the troops of other nations should be in the field. On the 16th June, he attacked the Prussians at Ligny, and drove them back after terrible slaughter. On the same day, at Quatre Bras, one of his marshals attacked a portion of the English army, and was not repulsed until there had been great loss of life on both sides.

The following day, the English commander withdrew his men to the field of Waterloo. There, on the 18th June, Bonaparte and Wellington met in battle for the first and last time. Bonaparte had under his command seventy-five thousand men, and three hundred and fifty pieces of cannon; Wellington had not nearly so many guns. His soldiers

almost equalled the French in numbers, but half of them were foreigners, not accustomed to fighting in the British army, and so unwilling to face the French that some of their regiments ran away as soon as they were ordered to go into action. The rest of the foreign troops behaved bravely, but the chief brunt of the battle was borne by the twenty thousand British infantry, who stood firmly, hour after hour, receiving the tremendous charges of the French. The loss of life was frightful, but those brave men never wavered, and when, after eight hours, the signal was given to advance, and the whole British force rushed forwards, the French army never waited to receive them. It broke into utter confusion. Bonaparte saw it, and fled, and his troops fled too, horse, foot, and artillerymen, all mingled together. The Prussians came up just in time to see their foes flying, and undertook the pursuit, which the English were too weary to follow up.

This defeat was much more than the loss of a battle to Bonaparte: it was the loss of an empire. He had escaped to Paris, but the French would have no more fighting to keep him on the throne. He went to Rochefort, and tried to embark for America, but the harbour was watched by British ships, and his only resource was to surrender himself a prisoner to the captain of one of the men-of-war. He wanted to live in England, but the allied sovereigns had determined that his next place of abode should be one from which he could not again escape to disturb the peace of Europe. The island of St. Helena was appointed for his residence, and a thousand pounds a month granted for his household expenses. He lived

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six years longer, and spent them in complaining of this ill-usage, and in endeavouring to vex and insult the Governor of the island. Thus ignobly ended the days of one of the mightiest conquerors whom earth has ever seen.

When the victory of Waterloo was made known in England, the exultation of the people was greater than for all former successes; partly because an English army had now met the very emperor himself, face to face, on the field of battle, and vanquished him; but chiefly because the sad work of slaughter was over at last. There would be no more such battles, now that Bonaparte's power was entirely broken up. It was only this thought, the Duke of Wellington said, that at all consoled him for the death of the brave men who had fallen on that field.

We must now go back several years to relate some events which had taken place since the beginning of the century. On the 1st of January, 1801, Great Britain and Ireland were united, as Scotland and England had been in the reign of Queen Anne. Up to this time, Ireland had had a separate parliament, but it was now ordered that twenty-eight Irish peers should be elected to the British House of Lords, and one hundred and five members to the House of Commons.

In the year 1810 a great affliction fell upon the good old king. His youngest daughter, the Princess Amelia, a very lovely and amiable young lady, died after a lingering illness. She was especially dear to her father, and his grief at her loss brought on total

blindness and alienation of mind. He lived nine years longer, but never recovered his reason excepting for a few very short intervals. During one of these, he heard a bell toll, and asked who it was for. On being told it was for the wife of a tradesman in Windsor, "I remember her," he said; "she was a good woman, and brought up her family in the fear of God. She is gone to heaven, and I hope I shall soon follow her." Musical instruments were placed in his apartments, on which he was sometimes heard to play hymns and sacred airs; and his attendants often overheard him praying for himself, his family, and the nation. At other times he imagined himself to be already dead, and conversing with heavenly companions. Though blind, he was not helpless or inactive, but the powers of life were slowly wearing out, and death came at last, a gentle and welcome visitor.

He breathed his last on the 29th of January, 1820, being then eighty-one years of age; he had reigned nearly sixty years. Queen Charlotte died two years before her husband. His fourth son, Edward, Duke of Kent, had died six days before him, leaving an only child, our present beloved Queen.

During the long reign of George the Third, Great Britain had lost her oldest colonies in America, but she had gained great accessions of territory in other quarters of the world: Ceylon, and large possessions in India-the island of Mauritius-and the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. Australia also was first settled in this reign.

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CHAPTER LXXXIV.

GEORGE, PRINCE REGENT.-HIS MARRIAGE.-DEATH OF THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE.-WAR WITH AMERICA, FROM 1812 TO 1815.-BOMBARDMENT OF ALGIERS, 1816.-GEORGE IV. KING, 1820.-REPEAL OF THE TEST AND CORPORATION ACTS, 1828; AND REMOVAL OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC DISABILITIES, 1829.-DEATH OF GEORGE IV., JUNE, 1830. AFTER George the Third became insane, his eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, was appointed Regent of the kingdom. The prince was at that time fortyseven years of age. He possessed fine abilities and remarkably polished manners, but from youth upward he had made it his chief care to amuse and enjoy himself. In order to do this he had surrounded himself with dissipated companions, and had incurred such extravagant expenses, that at thirty-two years of age his debts already amounted to much more than half a million of money. The king, whom these excesses greatly grieved, had tried in vain to induce him to change his way of life. His debts were paid for him, and he was persuaded to marry; but the wife chosen for him, Caroline of Brunswick, was by no means a suitable person. The marriage proved a wretched one, and after the birth of the Princess Charlotte, their only child, the prince and his wife separated.

Their daughter grew up a most sensible high-principled woman, and her manners and appearance were so engaging that every one loved her, and was pleased to think of her being queen some day. In 1816, she married Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg, and in the following year, to the deep grief of the whole nation, she died, at the age of twenty-one.

Besides the long wars of which we have been reading in the reign of George the Third, there were two short

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