WILLIAM I., 1066.-WILLIAM II., 1087.-HENRY I., 1100.- EDWARD I., 1272.-EDWARD II., 1307.-EDWARD III., 1327.- RICHARD II., 1377.- - HENRY IV., 1399.-HENRY V., 1413.- HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER I. FROM 55 B.C. TO A.D. 1066. I AM going to present, as shortly and as plainly as I can, a general view of the history of this land that we inhabit; and I think no subject could be chosen more likely to be either entertaining or instructive. For, surely all men must be curious to know as much as possible about their predecessors,—how they acted, how they felt, and in what respect they resembled or differed from ourselves? I suspect we shall find, if we inquire carefully into the past, that matters went on then pretty nearly as they do now. The outward forms are perhaps changed, as the manners and modes of thinking have altered; but, you may depend upon it, the root is the same in us all. Men cheated, robbed, lied, loved, fought, contended, and quarrelled on the same subjects, and for the same objects as now. Let us hope that the discovery of their evil and of their good, may induce us to avoid the one, and to imitate the other. It will be a pleasing task to us to watch the course of events, and trace the growth of this great people, from the time when our island of Great Britain was looked upon, by the Greeks and Romans, as we now look upon Owhyhee or the Marquesas,to follow our progress from those periods of darkness and barbarism, till we see this land the queen of arts and arms,—the arbiter of nations in all quarters of the world-the foremost in civilization, as in power,-the enlightener no less than the con queror of India,-the mother of missions, to spread the peaceful light of Christianity among the heathen, no less than the owner of fleets and armies to execute justice, and sustain her empire over land and sea. "I will make the name of Englishman,” said Oliver Cromwell, "more honoured than was ever that of Roman!" and at this hour the statement of that great ruler has ceased to be a boast. "From Greenland's icy mountains" to the hot shores of the Indus, the name of Englishman is a passport to the respect and honour of all who hear it. It is an inheritance-this honour-which we have received from our fathers, and which it must be our duty and our privilege to transmit, undiminished, to our children. Let us now turn our telescopes back, and through the mists and darkness of about two thousand years we shall see this island, very indistinctly to be sure, but still we shall see something of it, as for the first time it looms into human ken. When Julius Cæsar, the Roman-a greater conqueror than Napoleon Bonaparte-had taken possession, after ten years of hard fighting, of the whole of Gaul, or, as it is now called, France, including, however, Holland and Belgium, he was, like all other heroes of the sword and spear, very anxious to have a fight with somebody else. He had beaten the Gauls and had taken their towns and fields, and one day he must have been greatly delighted to hear, that a few miles across the sea was an immense island, with glory to be gained and people to be killed in it. Accordingly the trumpets were sounded, swords sharpened, and the word given, and Cæsar and twelve thousand of his soldiers got on board their vessels, and landed somewhere in the neighbourhood of Sandwich. The natives were no little surprised to see such a number of strangers; and not being so polite as the present inhabitants of Kent, instead of sending porters to carry their luggage, and the waiter to ask them what they would have for dinner,-not to mention the bill next morning,—they set on the Romans with all their might, and killed and drowned as many of them as they could. A set of poor naked savages they were, with no |