regard for religion which had entitled him to the character of a Christian king.

The coronation of George IV. was celebrated with great magnificence; and he was crowned not only in England but in Hanover too, when he visited that country soon after his accession, He went also to Ireland and Scotland, and was well received in both. England was at this time in a very prosperous state; trade and commerce flourished, for there were no desolating wars now to impoverish the country, and to check the vigour and activity of business. But during the course of this reign, hostilities broke out in distant parts of the world, notwithstanding the peace at home. In 1824 there was a war in India, between the English and the Burmese. This war lasted about four years, and occasioned much suffering to the British Army, both from sickness, and from the attacks of the enemy. It ended however very advantageously for our country; and our possessions in that part of India were secured by the peace which followed.

Not long after, another great battle was fought in a country nearer home; but this was for the protection of others, rather than for the benefit of ourselves. Perhaps you will guess, from the lines at the beginning of the chapter, that this battle had something to do with Greece, and you may feel interested in it

on that account. No doubt, you are acquainted with the early history of Greece. We have all loved to read that history in our younger days, and have pored over the accounts of wars and battles, and the lives of the poets and philosophers, the statesmen and soldiers, of those times, with the pleasure which the recollection of great men and great deeds always excites. You will remember how the former inhabitants of that little territory resisted the aggressions of foreign powers; and how vigorously, and successfully too, they resisted the attempts made against them by the kings of Persia, and their great armies. Those times have long since passed away. The glory of Greece, like that of other countries, came to an end; and instead of being free and independent, she fell under the power of nations greater or stronger than herself. We cannot think of this fallen greatness without a feeling of sorrow; and were we to visit the shores of Greece, and to gaze on the ruins which might remind us of her former prosperous days, we might well mingle with that feeling of sorrow, a serious reflection or two on the changes of time, and the transitory nature of all earthly things.

The eternal surge

Of time and tide rolls on, and bears afar
Our bubbles; as the old burst, new emerge,
Lash'd from the foam of ages; while the graves
Of empires heave but like some passing waves.

But to return to the affairs of Greece. That country had long been in the possession of the Turks. The remains of the free spirit of olden times however, was not quite extinct in the modern Greeks; they resisted and rebelled; and the Turks, in order to reduce them to subjection again, carried on a cruel warfare against them. At last, England, France, and Russia interfered, and attempted to make a negociation with the Sultan, and to persuade him to give the Greeks their liberty. But this negociation did not succeed; and so the combined fleets sailed up the Mediterranean, under the command of Admiral Codrington, and blockaded the Turks in the Bay of Navarino. The Turks fired; the fire was returned; and thus a battle began; and a very fierce one it was, for it proved almost the destruction of the Turkish fleet. This victory was of great importance to the Greeks; for it obliged the Sultan to acknowledge their independence. It was some time before the affairs of Greece were settled; but at last, in 1833, the crown was accepted by Otho, the present king.

And now we must return to England, and mention some matters that were going on there at this time, things which it is necessary for you to know, though they may not be so interesting as the accounts of foreign wars and conquests. One of these was the passing of a

bill in Parliament, for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. Those acts, which had been made in the reign of Charles II., rendered it necessary for every one who accepted any office under government, to receive the communion according to the rites of the Church of England. This of course excluded dissenters from holding any such offices. But when those acts were repealed, the Roman Catholics, who were always anxious to get into power, and to have some influence in the concerns of state, tried very hard to gain for themselves still farther privileges; and so, not long after, those who favoured the Romish party, proposed another bill, which was called the Catholic Emancipation Bill. The object of this was, to remove the disabilities which had hitherto prevented the entrance of Roman Catholics into the British Parliament.

While this bill was under consideration, the whole country was in a state of great excitement, and petitions, for and against it, were sent to the government by both parties. Most Protestants considered the proposal for Catholic Emancipation to be a very dangerous measure. Some indeed favoured it, because they hoped it might have the effect of conciliating the people of Ireland, and so preventing a civil war with that country. The king himself was at first opposed to the bill. He remembered that, in

his father's reign, a similar attempt had been made by the Roman Catholics, and that George III. had strenuously resisted it, considering that such a measure would be inconsistent with his coronation oath. But George IV. was prevailed upon to yield to the wishes of his ministers, and so the bill, having passed through the two Houses of Parliament, received the royal assent in the month of April 1829.

This measure, however, was far from having the effect of tranquilizing Ireland, as some had hoped it would. It was followed by new agitations on the part of the Roman Catholics, who now demanded further concessions. While these agitations were going on, the king, who had been for some time declining in health, became dangerously ill; and his death took place in the summer of 1830. He was succeeded by his younger brother, William, Duke of Clarence, who was as different from his predecessors, as George IV., had been from their royal father. George IV., had been styled, as I said, the most accomplished gentleman in Europe; but William IV., was called the sailor king, for he had spent much of the early part of his life on board ship, and had acquired many of those habits and feelings which generally characterize the British sailor.

The chief event in this short reign was the passing of the Reform bill. This has led to