In Napoleon's army there was a fine body of horsemen, with cuirasses or breastplates, armed more like ancient knights than modern dragoons. They made one attack, and did considerable execution on some of the allied troops, especially those who supported the little garrison stationed in a farm house called La Haye Sainte, but they were driven back by the life guards. After these events the main bodies of the two armies stood towards each other nearly as they did before. with the exception of terrible losses, chiefly on the French side. The hollow between the armies, which had so often been filled by the French attacking masses, was for a time clear. All around, however, the battle was still raging in detail. There was a ceaseless discharge of cannon balls and shells. Besides La Haye Sainte, there was another large farm building of more importance, called Hougomont, the garden walls and outhouses of which made a sort of fortification. In the middle of a great battle it was of as much consequence to have the advantage of this citadel as on other occasions of a strong fortress. It remained in the hands of the allies, but only by being obstinately defended against many furious attacks. About three o'clock in the afternoon, a general inotion appeared along the French ranks, and again the hollow was filled by the advancing masses of their cavalry, headed by the mail-clad cuirassiers. The British were immediately formed in squares. By this arrangement, one line of men may be presenting their bayonets while another fires over their heads. Whenever cavalry advance on infantry, they are met in this manner: the square bristles with a front on every side, and when the men are steady, these compact bodies have been able to defy the most formidable charges of horse. The cannon of the allies ploughed through the enemy, but they still advanced, and as the gunners could not defend themselves, they were instructed to retreat within the squares. On these the whole force and fierce ardour of the cavalry could produce no impression, and as they retired, the gunners returned to their cannon and fired on the retreating masses. Again the front was clear, and the mere miscellaneous war went on as before; but evening was approaching, and with it a new ally was expected in Blucher, who was toiling through almost impassable roads to join the British. The distant boom of his advancing cannon was at last heard through the near roar of battle, and if Napoleon wished to succeed in his favourite project of beating first the one army and then the other, there was no time to be lost. About seven o'clock another movement was observed along the French line. This time the old guard-the pride of France-who had not yet been engaged, were to join in the general charge on which the fate of the empire and the peace of Europe rested. It was now resolved that the policy of the British army should no longer be that of passive enduring resistance. As the vast mass came onwards the French could see but little of their formidable foe, for the infantry had been ordered to lie down, so as to keep the ridge of the hill between them and the cannon and musketry of their assailants. It was just as the advancing host were clearing this ridge that the Duke of Wellington is said to have issued his command in the laconic sentence, "Up guards and at them." Then it was that a new army arose as it were from the earth before the astonished foe, on whom they swept forward in a general charge which was irresistible. All now on the French side was flight and ruin. The sun, newly broken through the clouds, showed near at hand the leading columns of Blucher's advancing force. The charge became a pursuit, but it was not carried far by the exhausted British troops, who left the less heroic task of butchery and plunder to the Prussians, who had a long catalogue of wrongs to avenge. 6. Napoleon, often as he had rallied his troops after heavy losses, was totally unable to make head with the scattered remnant left by the bloody victory of Waterloo, and after witnessing his capital once more in the possession of the allies, he was banished to St Helena, an island in the Atlantic, where he died in 1821. The affairs of Europe were definitively settled by the Congress of Vienna, and three of the powers (Russia, Prussia, and Austria) afterwards formed what is popularly known as the Holy Alliance. Thus terminated the longest and fiercest war recorded in history. Except in extending her colonial possessions, England gained little besides an honourable name in Europe, and the glory of being the protector of the weak against the strong, of the oppressed against the tyrant, of right and order against violence and injustice. Since the declaration of hostilities in 1793, her national debt had increased from £260,000,000 to £885,000,000. In the last year of the war her military expenses exceeded seventy millions: the supplies for the navy amounted to twenty-two millions, and for the army and ordnance to nearly fifty millions. With these sums 207,000 regular soldiers were maintained, with 80,000 militia and 340,000 local militia, in all nearly 630,000 men under arms, besides fifty-eight ships of the line in commission. The whole expenditure of the year, including subsidies to foreign powers, reached the unparalleled sum of £107,000,000. The ALGIERS BOMBARDED.—The Mediterranean Sea had for ages been infested by pirates from the ports of the Barbary States, and particularly from Algiers, who did not confine themselves to plundering the merchant vessels, but carried their passengers and crews into slavery. England at length determined to put an end to this practice, and a strong squadron under Lord Exmouth was sent to Algiers to negotiate for the surrender of all Christian slaves, and failing that, to enforce his claims by the thunder of British cannon. dey rejected every proposal of accommodation, and the city was attacked on the 27th August 1816. After a tremendous cannonade, which continued six hours, the enemy's batteries were destroyed, his navy and arsenal burnt, and 7000 killed and wounded. The result of the contest was favourable tc humanity a great number of captives were liberated, and christian slavery was abolished. In 1824, England was forced to interfere again to obtain reparation for an insult offered to her consul, which was not granted until Sir H. Neale threatened to bombard the city. 7. The reaction from a state of war to peace brought with it a depression in the political body, similar to that which follows any extraordinary excitement in the human frame. A period of almost unexampled distress, increased by the failure of the wheat crop in 1816, followed close upon the cessation of hostilities. The suffering people readily listened to those who loudly proclaimed that the corrupt state of the representation was the root of every social and political evil, and that reform in parliament would alone regenerate society. Tumultuous meetings took place in several parts of the country, which the government put down with a high hand. The act of habeas corpus was suspended in 1817, and numerous individuals were detained in prison on the mere warrant of the ministers. The prosperity of the country rallied a little in 1818, but again in 1819 meetings of a formidable nature were held in the northern counties of England. One of these, which took place at Manchester on the 16th of August, with the professed object of petitioning the regent "for a radical reform in parliament," was not dispersed without bloodshed. The government maintained that all these meetings were of a seditious and dangerous tendency; and when parliament met at the close of the year, it sanctioned various acts of a nature to strengthen the hands of ministers, and enable them to suppress all public assemblies not called by the authority of the magistrates. On the 29th of January 1820, George III. closed his earthly career, his fourth son, the Duke of Kent, having died only one week before him. He was bereft of his consort, Queen Charlotte, in November 1818, and just twelve months before the queen's death, his granddaughter, the Princess Charlotte, "England's pride and hope," was hurried to a premature grave. George III., though he cared neither for literature nor the arts, conferred marks of his favour on distinguished many men. He was fond of agriculture, and on this account he was sometimes called "Farmer George." Among the poets who added fresh and brighter laurels to the English wreath during his long reign, were Burns, Cowper, Beattie, Campbell, Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Moore, Byron, and Southey; the chief prose writers were Johnson, Robertson, Hume, Gibbon, Goldsmith, Lowth, Warburton and Paley, Adam Smith, Hartley, Stewart and Reid. Sculpture and architecture were cultivated by Chambers, Adam, Soane, Rennie, Chantrey, Nollekens, and particularly by John Flaxman. The artists of the Flemish and Italian schools found rivals in Reynolds, Gainsborough, Lawrence, Romney, West, and Wilkie. Banks, Davy, Rumford, Cavendish, Pennant, Winslow, Cheselden, Pringle, Cullen, Priestley, the great circumnavigator Cook, and a host of others, by their useful and admirable labours, added to the increasing reputation of Great Britain, and concurred with the exploits of her soldiers and sailors to raise her influence and prosperity to the highest point. EXERCISES. 1. What coalition did Mr Pitt organize? What nations were arrayed against it? What victory was gained by Nelson? Who succeeded Pitt? Mention the principal foreign expeditions which took place at this time. What minister replaced the whigs? What was the conduct of the new ministry to the Danes? 2. Describe Napoleon's conduct towards Spain. What operations did Britain undertake in Spain? What general was slain when victorious at Corunna? What was the result of the Walcheren expedition? Describe the political excitement produced by the inquiry regarding it. Give an account of the Peninsular War. 3. What took place in regard to the king and his son in 1810? What were the circumstances of the assassination of Percival? Who succeeded him? What was the nature of the Berlin decree and of the orders in council? How were their deleterious effects on trade mainly obviated? What war did they produce? 4. What events brought about the retirement of Napoleon to Elba? What occasioned a renewal of the war? In what part of Europe was the new war carried on? Who was made commander of the allied forces? Where were the British troops when the news of the French crossing the frontier reached them? What was the result of the battle of Ligny? What was the result of the battle of Quatre Bras? 5. When was the battle of Waterloo fought? What are supposed to have been the numbers of the two armies? What was the general system pursued on the British side as compared with that of the French? What kind of troops were the cuirassiers? How did the squares of infantry act? Give a general account of the battle. 6. What was the result of the battle of Waterloo? What nations formed the Holy Alliance? What was the effect of the war on the resources of Great Britain? What did the cost of the last year of the war exceed? How much had the national debt increased since 1793 ? 7. What led to the bombardment of Algiers? What occasioned sufferings among the people? Describe the occurrences which were considered dangerous to the peace of the country. What course did the government pursue? When did George III. die? Mention the names of some eminent poets in his reign. Of some eminent prose writers. Of some eminent painters, sculptors, and architects. Of some other eminent men. CHAPTER XXXVI. GEORGE IV., a. d. 1820—1830. The Cato Street Conspiracy-The Queen's Trial-King's Visit to Ireland, 1. GEORGE IV., who now succeeded to his father's throne, had for the preceding ten years exercised nearly all the functions of royalty. Within a month of his accession, a most atrocious plot was discovered, by which a set of indigent men of the lowest rank had designed to assassinate the ministers at a cabinet dinner; and then, after opening the prisons and firing London in several places, so as to distract and divert public attention, they were to form themselves into a provisional government. On the very eve of their frantic under |