growth of material wealth—condition of the working classes—the charity schools—lethargy of the church—proposal to abolish subscription to the articles—a bill for the further relief of dissenters—the test and corporation acts—the efforts of beaufoy and lord stanhope—attempts to relieve the quakers—further effort of lord stanhope—the claims of the roman catholics—failure of the efforts to obtain catholic emancipation—lay patronage in scotland—the scottish episcopalians—illustrious dissenters—religion in wales and ireland—literature—the novelists: richardson, fielding, smollett, and sterne—minor and later novelists—scott—historians: hume, robertson, and gibbon—minor historians—miscellaneous literature—criticism, theology, biography, and science—periodical literature—the drama and the dramatists—poetry: collins, shenstone, and gray—goldsmith and churchill—minor poets—percy's "reliques," and scott's "border minstrelsy"—chatterton and ossian—johnson and darwin—crabbe and cowper—poetasters and gifford—the shakespeare forgeries—minor satires—burns—the lake school: wordsworth, coleridge, and southey—scott, campbell, byron, shelley, and keats—poets at the close of the period—improvement of agricultural science—arthur young—drainage and roots—improvements in road-making: telford and macadam—brindley's and telford's canals—bridges and harbours—iron railways—application of the steam-engine to railways and boats—improvements in machinery—wedgwood—manufacture of glass—collieries—use of coal in iron-works—improvements in various manufactures—scientific discoveries—music—architecture—painting—sculpture—engraving—coins and coinage—manners and customs.

the progress of great britain in commerce during the reign of george iii. had been extraordinary. at the beginning of the reign the number of british vessels of all kinds amounted to only 7,075, with a tonnage of 457,316 tons; but at the end of the reign the vessels amounted to 30,000, with a tonnage of upwards of 3,000,000 tons. at the commencement of the reign the exports were ￡14,500,000, and the imports ￡9,579,159. at the end of the reign the exports had risen to ￡43,438,989; and the imports to ￡30,776,810.

a great proportion of these results had been produced by the rapid growth of manufactures. the introduction of steam, and the inventions of the spinning-jenny and other kinds of machinery, had given such a development to manufactures, that the value of these at the end of the reign made three-fourths of the whole exports. agriculture had made considerable progress, and of this art the king was a zealous patron, especially of the improvements in the breed of sheep, importing himself merinos from spain at great cost. there were also great promoters of improvements in stock, such as bakewell, culley, and others, and the high price of corn and of all kinds of agricultural produce during the war acted as stimulants to farming. the value of land also caused the enclosure of vast tracts, and much planting of trees was done, especially in scotland, which had previously been very neglectful in that respect.

the growth of material wealth during this reign had in no degree improved the condition of the working class in any proportion to that of other classes. landlords had greatly raised their rents, and farmers, by the high price of corn and other provisions, had grown comparatively rich, many very rich. the merchants and master manufacturers had shared liberally in the benefits of a vastly increased commerce, and the wonderful spread of manufactures; but the working manufacturers, between the high price of corn and meat, and the lowness of their wages, were in a miserable condition, and frequently, as we have seen, were driven to riot and insurrection. the handloom weavers were swamped by machinery, and those working the machinery were living in wretched houses, and in a most neglected and insanitary condition. before the first sir robert peel introduced his bill for reforming the hours and other regulations of cotton mills, many of these worked night and day, one gang, as it was called, succeeding another at the spinning-jenny, in hot, ill-ventilated rooms. apprentices were purchased of parishes, either children of paupers, or orphans of such, and these were kept by mill-owners, and worked long hours, one gang having to quit their beds in the morning for another gang of these poor unfortunates to turn into them. the agricultural labourers were little better off. their habitations were of the worst description, though squires' kennels on the same estates were equal, in all sanitary conditions, to tolerable mansions. their wages remained only some eight or ten shillings a week—when the wheat which they had raised was one hundred and thirty shillings per quarter, and a stone of flour of fourteen pounds cost a gold seven-shilling piece. this drove them in shoals to the workhouse, and produced a state of things that is hardly credible. their mental and moral condition was equally deplorable. education, either in town or country, was scarcely known. there was not a school in all the swarming region[158] of whitechapel, and many another equally poor and populous region of london, much less in country towns and agricultural parishes. it was a settled maxim amongst the landed gentry, that education, even of the most elementary kind, would totally destroy the supply of servants; and it was gravely stated in parliament that the plot of thistlewood was owing to the working classes being able to read.

the charity schools throughout the country were discovered, by the operation of henry brougham's commission, to be monopolised by the landlords of the different parishes and the clergy, and the ample revenues for education embezzled by them. in some such schools there was not a single scholar; in others, as at pocklington, in yorkshire, the free grammar school, with an endowment of one thousand pounds a year, had only one scholar. this state of physical and moral destitution was made the more dreary by the equally low state of religion. the dissenters were on the increase, and, chiefly in towns, were exerting themselves to disperse the egyptian darkness of this georgian era, and methodism was now making rapid progress amongst the working classes, both in town and country. but the preachers of methodism met with a reception from the country squirearchy and clergy which has no parallel since the days of popish persecution. they were dragged out of the houses where they preached, kicked and buffeted, hauled through horse-ponds, pelted with mud and stones; and the clergy and magistracy, so far from restraining, hounded on the mob in these outrages. the lives of these preachers, and the volumes of the wesleyan magazine, abound in recitals of such brutalities, which, if they had not been recorded there, would not now be credited. what john wesley and his brother charles, and george whitefield suffered, especially in devonshire and cornwall, reads like a wild romance.

the state of the church of england was one of the most surprising deadness and corruption. vast numbers of the churches had no minister resident, except a poor curate at a salary of some twenty pounds per annum, who, therefore, was compelled to do duty in two or three neighbouring parishes at once, in a manner more like the flying tailor of brentford than a christian minister; and the resident incumbents were for the most part given up to habits of intoxication, inherited from the last reign. some of these ruling pastors held three or four livings, for the licence as to the plurality of livings was then almost unbounded.

according to returns made by the bishops in 1807, the number of incumbents in the eleven thousand one hundred and sixty-four parishes of england and wales was only four thousand four hundred and twelve, or little more than one in every third parish. in 1810 the matter had a little improved, for the whole number of residents was found to be five thousand nine hundred and twenty-five. the duty of the kingdom was chiefly done by curates, and how were these curates paid? lord harrowby stated in the house of peers, in 1810, that the highest scale of salary paid by non-residents to their curates, who did all the work, was fifty, sixty, or at the most seventy pounds a year; but that a far more usual scale of payment was twenty pounds, or even ten pounds, per annum; that this was much less than the wages of day labourers, and that the worst feature of the case was that the non-residents and pluralists were amongst those who had the richest livings, so that men drawing eight hundred or even two thousand pounds a year from their livings were often totally unknown to their parishioners, and that often "all that they knew of the curate was the sound of his voice in the reading-desk, or pulpit, once a week, a fortnight, or a month."

the consequence was that the condition of the agricultural population was as debased morally as it was destitute physically—in the almost total absence of education, the very funds granted by pious testators for this end being embezzled by the clergy or squirearchy. everything which could brutalise the people was encouraged by the aristocracy on the plea that it made them good soldiers. when the horrors and brutalities of almost universal dog-fightings, cock-fightings, bull and bear-baitings began to attract the attention of philanthropists, and it was sought by parliamentary enactment to suppress them, they were defended by windham, and others, on the ground that they accustomed the people to the sight of blood, and made them of the "true british bull-dog character."

the great struggles going on through the reign of george iii. were not so much for the advancement of religion, as to obtain release from the impositions and restrictions on both liberty of conscience and political liberty by the church of england, and its ally, the state. with the exception of the reign of queen anne, no reign since the revolution has taken so high a tone of toryism as that of george iii. we have had to detail the evidences of that fact; and it is equally true that, with toryism in the state, toryism—or what is called high churchism—prevailed coincidently in the establishment. true, the[159] indemnity acts, the suppression of convocation, the spread of dissent, and especially of methodism, had in some degree clipped the talons of the hierarchy, but these very things made it more tenacious of its still existing powers. at the very opening of the reign the church was alarmed by a proposal by one of its own members to abolish subscription to the thirty-nine articles. this question had been a matter of controversy from the time of bishop burnet's "exposition" of these articles; but in 1766 a very able work appeared, entitled "the confessional; or, a full and free inquiry into the right, utility, edification, and success of establishing systematic confessions of faith and doctrine in protestant churches." this was traced to the hand of archdeacon blackburne, of richmond in yorkshire. it produced much excitement and discussion amongst the clergy of the establishment, as well as amongst dissenters, who were entirely shut out of one of the national universities by these subscriptions, and their education at the other hampered and impeded. an association was formed amongst the established clergy, favourable to blackburne's views, and in 1771, at its request, he drew up "proposals for application to parliament for relief in the matter of subscription." the association, from its place of meeting called the "the 'feathers' tavern association," determined to address parliament on the subject, and drew up a petition, which was presented to the house of commons, in february, 1772, by sir william meredith. it was signed by two hundred clergymen, and fifty other individuals, chiefly lawyers and physicians. a keen debate ensued, but the motion for taking the subject into consideration was negatived by two hundred and seventeen against seventy-one. sir william meredith, notwithstanding, again introduced the subject in february of the following year, only to be defeated by a majority of one hundred and fifty-nine against sixty-seven; and a third attempt, the year after, was met by such an overwhelming number of "noes" that he declined to divide the house. in all these debates, burke, who now was grown excessively conservative, supported subscription with all his power.

the discussion of the question, though it was so summarily dismissed as it regarded the church, did not prevent a certain number of the dissenters from coming forward to endeavour to relieve themselves of the yoke of these articles. in the toleration act, passed after the revolution, it had been stated that this toleration was conceded to those only who were willing to subscribe these articles, with the exception of the first clause of the 20th, which asserts that the church has power to decree rites and ceremonies, and to settle controversies of faith; the 34th, which relates to the traditions of the church; the 35th, relating to the homilies; and the 36th, relating to the consecration of bishops and ministers. with these exceptions, the articles had been little objected to by the dissenters till the presbyterians of england had, for the most part, embraced unitarianism. it was chiefly from this class that the movement against these articles now took its rise; but not altogether, for the subscription to the articles included in the toleration act having for some time been little insisted on, some dissenters, who had not subscribed them, were menaced with trouble on that account by officious clergymen. amongst these dr. doddridge was mentioned as one who had been so disturbed. it was now thought fit to press the question on parliament, and in april, 1772, sir henry houghton moved for leave to bring in a bill for that object, under the title of "a bill for the further relief of dissenters." sir roger newdigate, destined for so many years to be the champion of church toryism, led the way in opposition, as one of the members of the university of oxford; and he was supported by two or three men of the same stamp. in this case, however, burke voted for the bill as only reasonable, and it passed by a majority of seventy against nine. but in the lords, the bishops came forward in full strength against it, and barrington, bishop of llandaff, pointed it out as a socinian movement, and quoted, with telling effect, some of the most objectionable passages from the writings of dr. priestley. there were cries of "monstrous! horrible! shocking!" and, amongst the utterers of these, the loudest was lord chatham. the bishop of london said that, so far from the dissenters generally advocating this measure, he had been waited on by some of their ministers to inform him that they regarded it, not as a measure to relieve dissenters from the articles of the church, but certain persons from the obligations of christianity. it was thrown out by a hundred and two against twenty-nine.

in the following session sir henry houghton brought it forward again, on the 17th of february. on this occasion a great many methodist congregations petitioned against the bill; for the methodists, though separating themselves from the church, still insisted that they belonged to it, and held all its tenets, at least of that section of it which is arminian. it again passed the commons,[160] but was rejected by the lords. finding the lords so determined against the measure, it was allowed to rest for six years, when circumstances appeared more favourable, and it was again brought forward, in 1779, by sir henry houghton, and carried through both houses, with the introduction of a clause to this effect, that all who desired to be relieved by the act should make the affirmation—"i, a. b., do solemnly declare that i am a christian and a protestant dissenter, and that i take the old and new testaments, as they are generally received in protestant countries, for the rule of my faith and practice."

in this same year, 1779, the protestant dissenters of ireland were relieved by their parliament from the operation of the test and corporation acts, and it was not, therefore, very likely that the dissenters of england would rest quietly under them much longer. these acts were passed in the 13th of charles ii., and the 25th of the same monarch, and required that no person should be elected to any civil or military office under the crown, including seats in parliament or corporations, unless he had taken the sacrament according to the rites of the church of england. on the 28th of march, 1787, mr. beaufoy, member for yarmouth, moved that the house of commons should resolve itself into a committee to consider the test and corporation acts. mr. beaufoy represented that these acts were a heavy grievance, not only to the dissenters and to the members of the established church of scotland, but to many members of the english church itself, who regarded the prostitution of the most solemn ordinance of their faith to a civil test as little less than sacrilegious. in reply, it was contended that the indemnity acts had been passed to protect such as had omitted to take the sacrament within the time specified; but mr. beaufoy and his seconder, sir henry houghton, who had carried the bill relieving dissenters from subscription to the thirty-nine articles, showed that these measures were not always sufficient, and were but a clumsy substitution for the abolition of the obnoxious acts.

the question was argued at great length. it was opposed by lord north and pitt, and supported by fox, and was rejected by one hundred and seventy-six against ninety-eight. the question was raised again in 1789 and 1790, and in both cases was defeated. on the latter occasion fox introduced the motion, and mr. beaufoy, who usually took the lead in it, seconded it. fox alluded to the very dissenters on whom bishop barrington had thrown so much odium. he acknowledged the hostility of such men as drs. priestley and price to the church, and to what had taken place across the channel against the national church there; but he treated these as warnings to the english hierarchy not to keep too tight a grasp on the obstructions which they had thrown in the way of dissenters, and contended that the church's safety depended in allowing a just participation in civil rights, and thus disarming popular resentment. the motion was opposed by pitt, burke, wilberforce, sir william dolben, and others. burke also referred to the destruction of the french church, and contended that it was not a time to give way to demands for surrender of what he called the safeguards of the english church. mr. william smith, of norwich, who continued for many years the staunch advocate of the dissenters, strongly supported the motion; but, on the other hand, a considerable number of members who had voted for the repeal of these acts had since been warned by their church-going constituents to tack about, and did so. the motion, therefore, was rejected by two hundred and ninety-four against one hundred and five, and the dissenters were so convinced of the uselessness of attempting to procure the repeal of the test and corporation acts under george iii., that the question was never again agitated during this reign. they remained in force till 1828.

but a brave and liberal member of the peerage, earl stanhope, did not flinch from endeavouring to get repealed a number of these disgraceful evidences of church bigotry, which still cumbered the statute book from long past periods. in may, 1789, a few days after mr. beaufoy's second defeat on the question of the test and corporation acts, lord stanhope proposed "a bill for relieving members of the church of england from sundry penalties and disabilities to which, by the laws now in force, they may be liable, and for extending freedom in matters of religion to all persons—papists only excepted—and for other purposes therein mentioned." his lordship had given notice of his intention to introduce such a bill in the previous february, as mr. william smith had done in the commons, when what was called the uniformity clause in the regency bill was discussed, contending that this clause, which prohibited the regent from giving the royal assent to the repeal of the act for uniformity passed in the reign of charles ii., might prevent the repeal of a preceding act, of a very bigoted character, of a previous date. the bishops, with the archbishop of canterbury at their head, opposed his intention,[161] contending that this was not a proper time for such a discussion. lord stanhope now detailed the names, dates, and characters of the acts which he had in view. they were these:—the act of 1 elizabeth, ordering every person to go to church, and imposing a fine of twenty pounds—a very large sum then—on any one above the age of sixteen absenting himself or herself from church for a month; and in case of non-payment, ordering the imprisonment of the offender till the fine were paid, or the offender conformed. in case of twelve months' absence, the offender was to be bound in a bond of two hundred pounds, with two sureties, for his compliance in future. by the 23 elizabeth these penalties were made still more rigorous, and by the 35th of her reign, all persons who absented themselves for a month were liable not only to the twenty pounds a month, but that money might be refused, if tendered, and the offender be deprived of two-thirds of his lands, tenements, and hereditaments, instead of the twenty pounds. by the 3 james i. these abominable powers were extended, and every person was made amenable for every visitor, servant, and servant of visitors to his or her house, and should be compelled to pay ￡10 per month for the non-attendance at church of each of them; and over and above all these penalties, the ecclesiastical courts might as fully exercise their jurisdiction over these offenders as if no such special acts existed.

nor did these terms contain anything like the extent of tyranny imposed on the conscience of the nation by these monarchs. by the 29 elizabeth it was provided that what right or property any person might dispose of, or settle on any of his[162] family, should still be liable to these penalties if the proprietor and disposer of them neglected to go to church. so that a son might be deprived of lands or other property settled upon him at his marriage, or at any other time, if his father ceased to attend church, though he himself went punctually; and by the 21 james i. the informers were stimulated by great rewards to lay complaints against all whom they could discover offending. and, moreover, any person was to be considered an absentee from church, and liable to all the penalties, who did not remain in church during the whole time of the service; and, also, not only on sundays, "but upon all the other days ordained and used to be kept as holidays." all these odious enactments were left in force by the toleration act, except that they did not compel every one to go to church, but to some licensed place of worship.

next came the enactments regarding fasting. by 5 elizabeth every person who ate flesh on a fish day was liable to a penalty of three pounds; and, in case of non-payment, to three months' imprisonment. it was added that this eating of fish was not from any superstitious notion, but to encourage the fisheries; but by the 2 and 3 edward vi. the power of inflicting these fish and flesh penalties was invested in the two archbishops, as though the offence of eating flesh on fish days was an ecclesiastical offence. lord stanhope showed that the powers and penalties of excommunication were still in full force; that whoever was excommunicated had no legal power of recovering any debt, or payment for anything that he might sell; that excommunication and its penalties were made valid by the 5 elizabeth and the 29 charles ii.; that by the 30 charles ii. every peer, or member of the house of peers, peer of scotland, or ireland, or member of the house of commons, who should go to court without having made the declaration against transubstantiation, and the invocation of saints therein contained, should be disabled from holding any office, civil or military, from making a proxy in the house of lords, or from sueing or using any action in law or equity; from being guardian, trustee, or administrator of any will; and should be deemed "a popish recusant convict." his lordship observed that probably the whole protestant bench of bishops were at that moment in this predicament, and that he had a right to clear the house of them, and proceed with his bill in their absence. he next quoted the 1st of james i., which decreed that any woman, or any person whatever under twenty-one years of age, except sailors, ship-boys, or apprentices, or factors of merchants, who should go over sea without a licence from the king, or six of his privy council, should forfeit all his or her goods, lands, and moneys whatever; and whoever should send such person without such licence should forfeit one hundred pounds; and every officer of a port, and every shipowner, master of a ship, and all his mariners who should allow such person to go, or should take him or her, should forfeit everything they possessed, one half to the king, and the other half to the person sueing.

to all this his lordship had to add various specimens of the canons. by the 3rd, every one asserting that the church of england was not a true apostolical church should be excommunicated. the 4th and 5th excommunicated all who declared that there was anything contrary to sound scripture in the form of worship of the church of england, or anything superstitious or erroneous in the thirty-nine articles. the 65th enjoined all ordinaries to see that all offenders, under the different acts here enumerated, should be cited and punished according to statute, or excommunicated. the 72nd forbade, under pain of excommunication, all ministers, without licence of the bishop, to attempt, upon any pretence whatever, to cast out any devil or devils, under pain of deposition from the ministry. the 73rd made it a subject of excommunication that any priest or minister should meet with other persons in any private house or elsewhere to consult upon any canon, etc., which may tend to impeach or deprave the doctrine, the book of common prayer, or any part of the discipline and government of the church of england; and by the 115th, all churchwardens are enjoined to make presentments of offenders in any of these particulars; and all judges, magistrates, etc., are bound to encourage, and not to discourage, all such presentments. lord stanhope observed that the court of king's bench, in 1737, had decided that these canons, not having ever received the sanction of parliament, were not binding on the laity; and he contended that the ratification of them by james i., not being authorised by the original statute, the 25th of henry viii., made them as little binding on the clergy. he had not, therefore, included the canons in his bill. he took care, too, to except catholics from the benefit of the bill; neither was the bill to repeal any part of the test and corporation acts, nor the 12th and 13th of william iii., "for the better securing the rights and liberties of the subject." he finally showed that these fierce[163] and persecuting acts were not become utterly obsolete; they were ever and anon revived, and might, any of them, be acted upon at any moment. it might reasonably have been supposed that the bishops would have supported the bill unanimously; that they would have been glad to have all such evidences of the odious means by which their church had been forced on the people, swept out of the statute-book and forgotten. no such thing. the archbishop of canterbury declared, if dissenters were allowed to defend their principles, the atheist and the theist might be allowed to defend theirs. but bishop horsley, then of st. david's, was the chief speaker against the repeal of these precious laws. he declared that this repeal would level every bulwark of the church; that "the christian religion would not remain in any shape, nor, indeed, natural religion!" it is needless to say that the bill was rejected; it could not attain even to a second reading.

undaunted by this display of prelatical bigotry, lord stanhope immediately gave notice of a bill to prevent a tyrannical exercise of severity towards quakers, whose principles did not permit them to pay tithes, church-rates, or easter offerings; this he did on the 3rd of july of the same year. by the 7 and 8 william iii. two justices of peace could order a distress on a quaker for tithes under the value of ten pounds; and by 1 george i. this power was extended to the non-payment of easter and other dues; but his lordship showed that of late the clergy had preferred to resort to an act of henry viii., a time when quakers did not exist, which empowered the clergy, by warrant from two justices of peace, to seize the persons of the defaulters and throw them into prison, where, unless they paid the uttermost farthing, they might remain for life. thus the clergy of the eighteenth century in england were not satisfied with the humane enactments of william iii. or george i., by which they could easily and fully obtain their demands, but they thirsted for a little vengeance, a little of the old enjoyment of imprisoning and tormenting their neighbours, and therefore went back to the days of the brutal henry viii. for the means. they had, two months before, thrown a quaker of worcester into gaol for the non-payment of dues, so called, amounting to five shillings, and there was every prospect that he might lie there for life. at coventry six quakers had lately been prosecuted by the clergyman for easter offerings of the amount of fourpence each; and this sum of two shillings amongst them had, in the ecclesiastical court, been swelled to three hundred pounds. for this three hundred pounds they were cast into prison, and might have lain there for life, but being highly respected by their townsmen, these had subscribed the money and let them out. but this, his lordship observed, would prove a ruinous kindness to the quakers, for it would whet the avarice of the clergy and proctors to such a degree that the people of that persuasion would everywhere be hunted down without mercy for small sums, which might be recovered at once by the simple process of distraint. he declared that he would have all clerical demands satisfied to the utmost, but not by such means, worthy only of the dark ages; and he therefore, in this bill, proposed the repeal of the obnoxious act of 27 henry viii. but the glutting of their vengeance was too precious to the clergy of this period, and the bill was rejected without a division.

the benevolent exertions of lord stanhope on behalf of the society of friends were, in 1796—that is, six years later—revived in the house of commons by mr. serjeant adair. he stated that seven of the people called quakers were prisoners in the gaol at york for not paying tithes, and unless some alteration in the laws on that subject took place, they might lie there till they died. in fact, one of these friends, named joseph brown, did die in the prison, and his death is the subject of a poem by james montgomery. mr. serjeant adair moved, on the 26th of april, for leave to bring in a bill to extend the provisions of the act 7 and 8 william iii., by which tithes could be recovered by distraint when amounting to ten pounds, to tithes of any amount. wilberforce, pitt, dolben, and others, usually opposed to concessions, spoke in favour of the bill. sir philip francis only opposed it on the ground that the petitioners probably did not entertain any serious objection to paying tithes, but only wanted to look like martyrs. the bill went on swimmingly till it was about going into committee, on the 10th of may, when francis rose again. a new light had burst upon him. he said that he had learnt that the bill did not proceed from the suffering individuals, but from the yearly meeting of the society itself—as if that were any solid objection, and as if a measure ought not to come with more weight from a whole suffering community than from a few individuals! the bill readily passed the commons, but no sooner did it appear in the lords than the bishops fell foul of it. the archbishop of canterbury saw danger to the church in it, and moved that it be read that day three months, and this was carried. thus the bill was[164] lost for that session. adair brought in a fresh bill for the same object, into the new parliament, in october, but this was thrown out.

man and woman of middle class parson lady and gentleman labourer and wife

but the question of the restrictions upon dissenters was again taken up by lord stanhope, in 1811. on the 21st of march he presented to the house of lords a short bill "for the better securing the liberty of conscience." it had the same fate as his former ones. ministers seemed rather inclined to abridge the liberty of conscience, for immediately afterwards, namely, on the 9th of may, lord sidmouth brought in a bill to limit the granting of licences to preach, asserting that this licence was made use of by ignorant and unfit persons, because having such a licence exempted them from serving in the militia, on juries, etc. the bill excited great alarm amongst the dissenters, and lord stanhope and lord grey, on the 17th of the month, when lord sidmouth moved for the second reading of the bill, prayed for some time to be allowed for the expression of public opinion. the second reading was, accordingly, deferred till the 21st, by which time a flock of petitions came up against it, one of which was signed by four thousand persons. lord erskine said that these petitions were not a tenth part of what would be presented, if time were afforded for the purpose; and he ridiculed the idea of persons obtaining exemption from serving in the militia by merely taking out licences to preach. lord grey confirmed this, saying that it was impossible for persons to obtain such licences, except they were ministers of separate congregations. this was secured by an act passed in 1802, and still more, the party applying for such licence was restricted from following any trade, except that of keeping a school. these regulations, he stated, were most minutely adhered to, both in the general and local militia, and he challenged lord sidmouth to show him a single instance, since the act of 1802, where exemption had been improperly obtained by a dissenter. lord grey proved from actual returns that the whole number of persons who had been licensed during the last forty-eight years had only been three thousand six hundred and seventy-eight, or about seventy-seven[165] annually on an average, and that the highest number reached in any one year had been only about one hundred and sixty. he contended that these facts demonstrated the non-necessity of the bill. it was lost.

in the following june lord stanhope again came forward with a bill to remove some of these enactments, and he showed that the literal fulfilment of several of them was now impossible; that as to compelling every man to go to church, by returns lately made to that house it was shown that there were four millions more people in england than all the churches of the establishment could contain. with respect to the church enforcing uniformity, he said that the variations between the book of common prayer printed at oxford and that printed at cambridge amounted to above four thousand. his bill was again thrown out by thirty-one against ten; but his end was gained. he had brought the injustice towards the dissenters so frequently forward, and it was now so glaring, and the dissenters themselves were become so numerous and influential, that the question could be no longer blinked. on the majority being pronounced against the bill, lord holland rose and asked whether, then, there was to be nothing done to remove the disabilities under which dissenters laboured? if that were the case, he should be under the necessity of bringing forward a measure on that subject himself. this compelled ministers to promise that something should be done; and, on the 10th of the same month, lord castlereagh proposed to bring in a bill to repeal certain acts, and to amend others respecting persons teaching or preaching in certain religious assemblies. this act, when explained, went to repeal the 13 and 14 charles ii., which imposed penalties on quakers and others who should refuse to take oaths; the 16 of charles ii., known as the five mile act, which prohibited any preacher who refused to take the non-resistance oath coming within five miles of any corporation where he had preached since the act of oblivion, under a penalty of fifty pounds; and the 17, which also imposed fine and imprisonment on them for attempting to teach a school unless they went to church and subscribed a declaration of conformity. it also repealed the 22 charles ii., commonly called the conventicle act. instead of those old restraints, his act simply required the registration of all places of worship in the bishop's or archdeacon's court; that they must not be locked, bolted, or barred during divine service, and that the preachers must be licensed according to the 19 george iii. these conditions being complied with, all persons officiating in, or resorting to such places of worship, became entitled to all the benefits of the toleration act, and the disturbance of their assemblies became a punishable offence. this bill passed both houses, and became known as the statute of 52 george iii. it was a great step in the progress of religious freedom; and mr. william smith, the leader of the dissenting interests in the house of commons, expressed his heartfelt gratification at this proof of the increasing liberality of the times.

but whilst some little freedom from restrictions for dissenters was thus forced from the church, a stout battle was going on, and continued to go on through the whole reign, for giving to the roman catholics the common privileges of citizens. on account of their faith they were excluded from all civil offices, including seats in parliament. we shall see that some slight concessions of both civil and military privilege were, in the course of this contest, made to them; but to the end of this reign, and, indeed, until 1829, the full claims of the catholics continued to be resisted. we can only cursorily note the main facts of this long-protracted struggle. in the early part of the reign a degree of relief was afforded which promised well for the cause of the catholics; but these promises were not fulfilled. in may, 1778, sir george savile brought in a bill to relieve the catholics from the provisions of the act of 1699 for preventing the growth of popery. by this act catholic priests were not allowed to enter england, and, if found there, were at the mercy of informers; roman catholics were forbidden to educate their own children, or to have them educated by papists, under penalty of perpetual imprisonment; and they were not allowed to purchase land, or hold it by descent or bequest; but the next of kin who was a protestant might take it. sir george's act passed both houses, and by it all roman catholics were restored to the privileges of performing divine service, if priests, and of holding land, and educating children, on taking an oath of allegiance, of abjuration of the pretender, and rejection of the doctrine that it was lawful to murder heretics, was right to keep no faith with them, and that the pope or any foreign prince had any temporal or civil jurisdiction within these realms. the consequence of this degree of indulgence to the catholics was the famous gordon riots in london and similar ones in edinburgh, which had the effect of frightening[166] the government out of further concessions. a similar bill was passed in ireland in 1782. the bill of 1778, however, was confirmed and considerably extended by a bill brought in by mr. mitford, afterwards lord redesdale, in 1791, and, after a long discussion, was passed by both houses in june of that year. this bill legalised roman catholic places of worship, provided they were registered and the doors were not locked during service; it recognised the right of catholics to keep schools, except in oxford and cambridge, and provided that no protestant children were admitted. it permitted catholic barristers and attorneys to practise on taking the new oath; and it removed the penalties on peers for coming into the presence of the king; in fact, it left little disability upon catholics except that of not being eligible for places in parliament, or any other places under government, unless they took the old oaths.

in the following session fox introduced a bill to grant some further privileges to the catholics, but it was rejected; but in 1793 the catholics of scotland were admitted, by an act introduced by mr. robert dundas, the lord advocate, to the same privileges as the irish and english catholics. the question appeared to rest till 1799, when there seems to have been a proposition on the part of the english government to make an independent provision for the catholic clergy of ireland, on condition that they, on their part, should enter into certain engagements. there was a meeting of roman catholic prelates in dublin at the commencement of that year on the subject, at which they agreed to accept the proposal. pitt was favourable to the catholic claims, though the irish parliament previous to the union would not hear of them. he had caused promises of catholic emancipation to be circulated in ireland in order to induce the irish to accept the union; and when he found that the king's immovable resistance to this measure would not allow him to make good his word, he resigned office. nothing was done in it during the time that he continued out, chiefly, it is said, through his influence; and when he returned to office in may, 1804, he did so without any mention of the catholics. in truth, he appears to have given them up for the sake of enjoying power again; for, when, on the 9th of march, 1805, the question was raised by lord grenville in the house of peers, and, on the 13th, by fox in the commons, pitt opposed the motion on the ground that the reasons which had occasioned him to quit office still operated against this measure, and that it was impossible for him to support it. it was negatived by three hundred and thirty-six against one hundred and twenty-four.

both pitt and fox died in 1806, and a circumstance occurred in the following year which showed the inveterate obstinacy of the king regarding the catholics. lord howick, secretary for foreign affairs, obtained leave to bring in a bill to enable catholics to hold the higher offices in the army and navy; but the king soon let him know that he should not ratify any such bill, and he agreed to withdraw it. but this did not satisfy george; he demanded from the ministers a written engagement to propose no further concessions to the catholics, and as they declined to do this, he dismissed them, and placed the duke of portland at the head of a new cabinet.

this was sufficient warning to cabinets not to meddle with this tabooed subject; but grattan continued, year after year, to bring the question forward, though often defeated by great majorities. in his speech in 1808 grattan introduced the idea of giving his majesty a veto on the appointment of catholic bishops. it appears that this proposition had the approval of the irish catholic bishops, but the irish priests made a determined stand against it. in 1810 and 1811 the motion was thrown out by strong majorities.

the continued resistance of the english government meanwhile was rousing the quick blood of ireland. the old catholic convention of 1793 was revived, and from year to year met and passed increasingly strong resolutions in dublin. in 1810 its meetings, and the agitation it occasioned throughout the kingdom, became very conspicuous. a private letter was circulated all over the country, recommending the appointment of committees everywhere in order to the preparation of a monster petition. it was resolved that as soon as the convention met, it should sit in permanence, so as to keep up an incessant action throughout the country. the government took alarm, and mr. wellesley pole, secretary of state for ireland, issued a letter to the sheriffs and chief magistrates throughout ireland, ordering them to arrest all persons concerned in sending up delegates to this convention. no sooner was this known in england than lord moira in the lords, and mr. ponsonby in the commons, adverted to the subject, and called for a copy of all correspondence by government upon it. the demand was resisted in both houses. on the 4th of april lord stanhope moved a resolution that the letter of mr. wellesley pole was a violation of the law,[167] being, in fact, a prohibition of his majesty's subjects to assemble for the purpose of petitioning parliament. this was negatived by twenty-one votes against six.

in ireland the magistrates acted on the circular, and on the 23rd of february, 1811, two magistrates proceeded to disperse the catholic committee in dublin. they were told by the committee that they were sitting simply for the purpose of petitioning parliament, and they did not venture to interrupt it. the movement went on all over ireland, the committees were numerously attended, and, notwithstanding a proclamation from dublin castle commanding the magistrates everywhere to disperse all such gatherings, in dublin the general committee, numbering nearly three hundred persons, met in fishamble street on the 19th of october. police were sent to disperse them, but on arriving they had already signed the petition, and were coming away amid a vast concourse of spectators. several persons were arrested and tried, but the juries returned verdicts of "not guilty."

on the 23rd of december the committee met again in fishamble street, and resolved to address the prince regent on the invasion of their right to petition, appointing a general committee to meet again in dublin on the 28th of february, 1812. in january, and at the commencement of february, earl fitzwilliam introduced the consideration of the state of ireland, and lord morpeth proposed the same subject to the commons, but both motions were rejected.

in january, 1812, government made another attempt to punish the catholic delegates, and they obtained a verdict against one of them, thomas kirwan; but such was the public feeling, that they did no more than fine him one mark, and discharge him. they also abandoned other contemplated prosecutions. the catholic committee met, according to appointment, on the 28th of february, addressed the prince regent, and then separated. the usual motions for catholic emancipation were introduced into both houses of parliament, and by both were rejected. it was the settled policy of this ministry not to listen to the subject, though the marquis wellesley, canning, and others now admitted that the matter must be conceded. the assassination of mr. perceval, on the 11th of may, it was hoped, would break up that ministry, but it was continued, with lord liverpool at its head. though lord wellesley this year brought forward the motion in the lords, and canning in the commons, both houses rejected it, but the lords by a majority of only one. the question continued to be annually agitated in parliament during this reign, from the year 1814, with less apparent success than before, ireland was in a very dislocated state with the orangemen and ribbonmen, and other illegal associations and contentions between catholics and protestants, and this acted very detrimentally on the question in england. only one little victory was obtained in favour of the catholics. this was, in 1813, the granting to catholics in england of the benefit of the act passed in ireland, the 33 george iii., repealing the 21 charles ii. and thus the catholics were left, after all their exertions, at the death of the old king.

the movement going forward in the established church of scotland during this reign related almost exclusively to the subject of patronage. this church, though drawing its origin from switzerland, a thoroughly republican country, and rejecting bishops, took good care to vest the right of presenting ministers to parishes in the clergy. the government insisted on this right continuing in lay patrons; but for some time after the revolution the people asserted their right to choose their own pastors, and continued to carry it. but in 1698 the general assembly took the opportunity, when it had been accused by the english church of throwing the office of choosing ministers amongst the people, to repudiate all such notion on their part. they declared unanimously that "they allowed no power in the people, but only in the pastors of the church, to appoint and ordain to such offices."

the act of 1712 restored lay patronage, and then the strife began, but not between the people and the lay pastors, but between the clergy and the lay patrons. there grew up two parties in the general assembly, styled the moderates, and the more advanced, or popular party. the moderates were those who were ready to concede to the demands of government and lay patronage under a gentle protest; the more popular party, as it was called, was for transferring the right of presentation to the presbytery. the act of william iii., in 1690, gave the original and exclusive nomination to the heritors, land-owners, and elders. the person nominated was to be proposed to the congregation, who might approve or disapprove. but to what did this right amount? the congregation could not absolutely reject; and if they disapproved, the right passed on to the presbytery, whose decision was final. by this arrangement, either the landowners and elders remained the presenters,[168] or, after a vain show of conferring the choice upon the people, the appointment fell to the clergy, or presbytery. from 1690 to 1712, sir henry moncrieff says, "there does not appear the least vestige of a doctrine, so much contended for at a later period, of a divine right in the people individually or collectively, to elect the parish minister." this opinion was fully maintained by the law of william iii., in 1690, and confirmed by that of anne, in 1712. sir henry moncrieff, in confirmation of this doctrine that the people never had a right to elect their ministers in the scottish church, quotes the "first book of discipline," of 1567, which placed the election of pastors in the people at large; but this error, he says, was rectified by the "second book of discipline," in 1581. by this book the congregation could only consent—the presbyters must finally determine. this contains the law of the church of scotland, and the great schism which took place in the scottish church, in 1843—known as the disruption—arose merely from the resistance to lay patronage, but with the intention of transferring that patronage to the clergy, not the people.

in 1792 a measure of relief was passed for the episcopalians of scotland. these had fallen into disgrace for their refusal to swear allegiance to the house of hanover. the conduct of many of them during the rebellion of 1745 had increased the rigour of government against them, and an act was passed, the 19 george ii., ordering the shutting up of all episcopalian chapels where the minister had not taken the oath of allegiance, and where he did not pray for the king and royal family. any clergyman of that church violating these regulations was liable to six months' imprisonment for the first offence, and transportation to one of the american plantations for the second, with perpetual imprisonment did he dare to return thence. no minister was to be held qualified to officiate except he had received letters of orders from an english or irish bishop of the protestant episcopalian church. all persons frequenting the chapels of such unqualified persons were liable to a penalty of five pounds for the first offence, and two years' imprisonment for the second. but now, the pretender being dead, and his brother, cardinal york, being held on account of[169] his clerical character to have forfeited his claim to the crown, the scottish episcopalians came and took the necessary oaths; this bill was passed removing their disabilities, and the aristocracy of scotland soon, for the most part, became members of the church when it ceased to be in disgrace.

the various triumphs in the direction of liberty of conscience evidence a sense of civil right in the community, which forced itself on the government, rather than a sense of religion. but religion, too, was in steady growth. the dissenters had greatly increased during this period, and amongst them the names of some of their ministers had acquired a general reputation. robert hall, of leicester, and afterwards of bristol, threw a new lustre on the baptist community. he was the son of a baptist minister, was at first educated by dr. ryland, the learned baptist pastor of northampton, and afterwards took his degree of m.a. at king's college, aberdeen. he commenced his ministerial career in bristol, and subsequently resided as minister at leicester for twenty years. on the death of his old tutor, dr. ryland, he became the president of the baptist academy at bristol, and pastor of broadmead chapel, in that town. robert hall was not inferior to any of the clergy of the establishment in learning or eloquence. he was for eleven years the baptist minister in cambridge before removing to leicester. in cambridge he succeeded to a man nearly as remarkable, the celebrated robert robinson. at this university town he attracted the notice of some of the leading established clergy and professors, and of the world at large, by his "vindication of the freedom of the press," and his splendid sermon "on modern infidelity." dr. parr has left a testimony to the merits of robert hall in his will, which does honour to his liberality:—"mr. hall has, like jeremy taylor, the eloquence of an orator, the fancy of a poet, the subtlety of a schoolman, the profoundness of a philosopher, and the piety of a saint." to the same body belonged the celebrated author of "essays on the formation of character," john foster, also of bristol.

amongst the followers of whitefield became[170] conspicuous rowland hill, matthew wilks, and william huntington. of the followers of whitefield, selina, countess of huntingdon, became the patron, as she had been of whitefield himself, whom she made her chaplain. this remarkable woman founded schools and colleges for the preachers; and so completely did she identify herself with this sect that it became styled "lady huntingdon's society." perhaps the most celebrated of these preachers, after whitefield, was rowland hill, who was a younger son of sir rowland hill, of hawkstone, in shropshire. he was educated at cambridge for the church of england, but preferred following whitefield, and for many years went about preaching in the open air, like whitefield, in different parts of the country, and particularly amongst the colliers of kingswood. in 1783 his chapel, called the surrey chapel, being built, he settled in london, and continued his ministry in the metropolis till his death in 1833, at the age of eighty-eight. rowland hill was as much celebrated for his humour and eccentricity, which he carried into his preachings, as for his talents. he was also an author of various productions, the most popular of which were his "village dialogues."

perhaps a still more remarkable man of the same denomination was william huntington, originally a coalheaver, struggling with severe poverty; yet, believing himself called to the ministry, he boldly followed his conceived duty, through much discouragement and persecution. he has left an autobiography, in which his perfect faith in and reliance on god are justified by the most remarkable supply of all his wants, and support in a widely extended and useful ministry. after the death of his first wife he married the wealthy widow of sir james sanderson, a london alderman, and passed his latter years in affluence.

amongst the independents the names of john clayton and william beugo collyer, and amongst the unitarians dr. priestley, theophilus lindsey, and thomas belsham are conspicuous.

but the most remarkable growth of religion was through the instrumentality of the wesleyan methodists. these spread over all the country, through town and village, into places where the ministers of the establishment had fallen into a spiritual sleep from want of rivalry. in wales they found a great and almost unoccupied field. in cornwall, where wesley had been abused and pelted with stones, they became universal, and still continue to astonish the visitor to that county by their extraordinary numbers, almost every cornish miner being of that sect. throughout england the spread of methodism has been a most influential cause of the revival of activity and discipline in the established church itself; for it soon became evident that the church must exert itself, or the body of the people, especially in the country and in manufacturing districts, would be absorbed by the wesleyan interest.

in wales, such was the neglect of religion by the establishment, that, previous to 1804, there was scarcely a clergyman of the church of england in the principality who was a native, or could preach in welsh. the capability of a minister to make himself understood by his parishioners had been totally disregarded by those who had the presentation to livings; the exercise of patronage had alone been cared for; the souls of people went for nothing. about that time the rev. mr. charles was engaged as curate in a welsh parish. he found not a single bible in the parish, and on extending his inquiries he scarcely found a bible in wales. he made this fact known to the public, in an appeal for welsh bibles, and for this appeal and the attendant exposure of the clerical neglect he was dismissed from his cure, and could find no bishop who would license him to preach in any other parish. but his truly christian act had excited the attention of the religious public, and had the effect of establishing the british and foreign bible society in 1804.

in ireland the bulk of the population had been left to the catholic pastors, who were maintained by their flocks, the property of the catholic church having been long transferred by act of parliament to the church of england, or, as it was called, the sister church of ireland. the number of parishes in ireland had been originally only two thousand four hundred and thirty-six, though the population at that time was half that of england; but in 1807 mr. wickham stated that, in 1803, these had been consolidated, and reduced to one thousand one hundred and eighty-three. in some of these parishes in the south of ireland, mr. fitzgerald stated that the incomes amounted to one thousand pounds, to one thousand five hundred pounds, and even to three thousand pounds a year; yet that in a considerable number of these highly endowed parishes there was no church whatever. in others there were churches but no protestant pastors, because there were no protestants. the provision for religious instruction went wholly, in these cases, to support non-resident, and often very irreligious, clergymen. in fact, no truly religious clergyman ever could[171] hold such a living. the livings were, in fact, looked upon as sinecures to be conferred by ministers on their relatives or parliamentary supporters. it was stated that out of one thousand one hundred and eighty-three benefices in ireland, two hundred and thirty-three were wholly without churches; and mr. fitzgerald said, "that where parishes had been consolidated, the services rendered to the people by their clergyman had been diminished in proportion as his income had been augmented; for no place of religious worship was provided within the reach of the inhabitants; nor could such parishioners obtain baptism for their children, or the other rites of the church; and the consequence was that the protestant inhabitants, in such places, had disappeared."

measures to alter this disgraceful state of things were repeatedly introduced, but as steadily rejected. the collection of tithes seemed to occupy the chief attention of the established clergy of ireland, even where they rendered no spiritual services, and eventually led to a state of irritation and of dire conflict between the protestant incumbent and the catholic population which did not cease till after the death of george iii. the clergyman called in the soldiery to assist him in the forcible levying of tithes, and the bloodshed and frightful plunder of the poor huts of the irish in this bellum ecclesiasticum became the scandal of all christendom ere it was ended by the act of a later reign, which transferred the collection of tithes to the landlord in the shape of rent.

in literature, and the amount of genius in every branch of it, as well as in mechanical skill, few ages ever transcended that of george iii. though he and his ministers did their best to repress liberty, they could not restrain the liberty of the mind, and it burst forth on all sides with almost unexampled power. in fact, throughout europe, during this period, a great revolution in taste took place. the old french influence and french models, which had prevailed in most countries since the days of louis xiv., were now abandoned, and there was a return to nature and originality. "the reliques of ancient english poetry," collected by percy, the bishop of dromore, and the publication of the old scottish ballads by walter scott, snapped the spell which had bound the intellect since the days of pope, and opened the sealed eyes of wondering scholars; and they saw, as it were, "a new heaven and a new earth" before them. they once more felt the fresh breath of the air and ocean, smelt the rich odour of the heath and the forest, and the oracles of the heart were reopened, as they listened again to the whispers of the eternal winds. once more, as of old to prophets and prophetic kings, there was "a sound of going in the tops of the trees." in great britain, scott, wordsworth, coleridge, southey, byron, shelley—in germany, goethe, schiller, wieland, richter—in scandinavia, tegner, oehlenschl?ger, stagnelius—with a world of lesser lights around them, stood in the glowing beams of a new morning, casting around them the wondrous wealth of a poetry as fresh as it was overflowing. as in poetry, so in prose invention. the novel and romance came forth in totally new forms, and with a life and scope such as they had never yet attained. from fielding and sterne to godwin and scott, the list of great writers in this department shed a new glory on the english name. in works of all other kinds the same renewal of mind was conspicuous; history took a prominent place, and science entered on new fields.

before the conclusion of the reign of george ii. a new school of fiction had appeared. de foe had, besides his "robinson crusoe," opened up the inexhaustible field of incident and character existing in actual life in his "colonel jack," "moll flanders," "roxana," and other novels, and fielding and richardson extended it. fielding, too, died six years before the beginning of this reign, and richardson in the first year of it. but their works were in full circulation, and extended their influence far into this period. they have, therefore, been left to be noticed here in connection with the class of writers to whom they gave origin, and to whom they properly belong. richardson (b. 1689; d. 1761) seems to have originated the true novel of real life in his "pamela," which was the history of a servant, written with that verisimilitude that belongs to biography. this was commenced in 1740, and brought to a conclusion in 1741. the extra-ordinary sensation which it created was sufficient proof that the author had struck into the very heart of nature, and not only knew where the seat of human passion lay, but had the highest command over it. it was not, in fact, from books and education, but from native insight and acute observation, that he drew his power. he was born in derbyshire, and received his education at a common day-school. he was then apprenticed as a printer in london, and established himself as a master in that business, which he continued to pursue with great success. his "pamela" ran through five editions in the first year. in 1748[172] appeared his "clarissa harlowe," and wonderfully extended his reputation, which reached its full blaze in his "sir charles grandison," in 1754. in all these works he showed himself a perfect analyst of the human heart, and detector of the greatest niceties of character. though he could have known little or nothing of aristocratic life, yet, trusting to the sure guidance of nature, he drew ladies and gentlemen, and made them act and converse as the first ladies and gentlemen of the age would have been proud to act and speak. a more finished gentleman than sir charles grandison, or correcter lady than miss byron, was never delineated. the only thing was, that, not being deeply versed in the debaucheries and vulgarisms of the so-called high life of the time, he drew it as much purer and better than it was. it is in the pages of fielding and smollett that we must seek for the darker and more real character of the age. the fault of richardson was his prolixity. he develops his plot, and draws all his characters, and works out his narrative with the minutest strokes. it is this which prevents him from being read now. who could wade through a novel of nine volumes? yet these were devoured by the readers of that time with an avidity that not even the novels of sir walter scott were waited for in the height of his popularity.

fielding (b. 1707; d. 1754) began his career by an attempt, in "joseph andrews," to caricature the "pamela" of richardson. he represented joseph as pamela's brother; but he had not proceeded far when he became too much interested in his own creation to make a mere parody of him. this novel he produced in 1742, the year after the completion of "pamela." the following year he gave to the world "jonathan wild;" in 1749, "tom jones;" and in 1751, but three years before his death, at the age of only forty-seven, "amelia." but, besides a novelist, fielding was a dramatic writer, a political writer, and the editor of four successive periodicals—the champion, the true patriot, the jacobite journal, and the covent garden journal. fielding, unlike richardson, was educated at eton, and afterwards at leyden. he had fortune, but he dissipated it; and had the opportunity of seeing both high and low life, by his rank as a gentleman and his office as a police-magistrate. his novels are masterly productions. his squire western and parson adams, and his other characters are genuine originals; and they are made to act and talk with a raciness of humour and a flow of wit that might even yet render them popular, if their occasional grossness did not repel the reader of this age. it is, indeed, the misfortune of fielding, sterne, and smollett, that they lived in so coarse and debauched an epoch; their very fidelity now renders them repulsive. richardson and fielding were the dickens and thackeray of their day. in fielding, the colder nature and the more satiric tone make the resemblance to thackeray the more striking.

tobias smollett (b. 1721; d. 1771), before he appeared as a novelist, following in the track of fielding rather than in that of richardson, had figured as poet, dramatist, and satirist. originally a surgeon from dumbartonshire, and afterwards surgeon's mate on board of a man-of-war, he had then lived as an author in london. thus he had seen great variety of life and character, and, having a model given him, he threw his productions forth in rapid succession. his first novel was "roderick random," which appeared in 1748, the same year as richardson's "clarissa," and a year preceding perhaps the greatest of fielding's works, "tom jones." then came, in rapid sequence, "peregrine pickle," "count fathom," "sir launcelot greaves," and "humphrey clinker." whilst writing these he was busy translating "don quixote"—a work after his own heart—travelling and writing travels, editing the briton, and continuing hume's "history of england." in his novels smollett displayed a deep knowledge of character, and a humour still broader and coarser than that of fielding. in smollett the infusion of indecency may be said to have reached its height. in fact, there is no more striking evidence of the vast progress made in england since the commencement of the reign of george iii., in refinement of manners and delicacy of sentiment, than the contrast between the coarseness and obscenity of those early writers and the novelists of the present day. the picture which they offer of the rude vice, the low tastes, the debauched habits, the general drunkenness, and the ribaldry and profanity of language in those holding the position of gentlemen and even of ladies, strikes us now with amazement and almost with loathing.

the next novelist who appeared was of a very different school. richardson was an elaborate anatomist of character; fielding and smollett were master painters of life and manners, and threw in strong dashes of wit and humour; but they had little sentiment. in laurence sterne (b. 1713; d. 1768) came forth a sentimentalist, who, whilst he melted his readers by touches of pathos, could[174] scarcely conceal from them that he was laughing at them in his sleeve. the mixture of feeling, wit, double entendre, and humour of the most subtle and refined kind, and that in a clergyman, produced the oddest, and yet the most vivid, impressions on the reader. the effect was surprise, pleasure, wonder, and no little misgiving; but the novelty and charm of this original style were so great that they carried all before them, but not without the most violent censures from the press on his indecencies, especially considering his position as a clergyman. sterne was the grandson of that richard sterne, a native of mansfield, in nottinghamshire, who was chaplain to archbishop laud, and attended him on the scaffold. laurence sterne was the son of a lieutenant in the army, and was born at clonmel, in ireland, his grandfather having then become archbishop of york. sterne, therefore, on taking orders, was on the way of preferment, and received the rectory of stillington and the perpetual curacy of coxwold, both in yorkshire. there he wrote not only sermons, but satire, particularly his "history of a watchcoat." but it was his novel of "tristram shandy" which brought him into sudden popularity. after this, his "sentimental journey" completed his reputation; and his maria and her lamb, his uncle toby, corporal trim, yorick, doctor slop, the widow wadman, and his lesser characters, usurped for a long period the tears and laughter of the nation.

but it was not till 1766 that the public became possessed of what may be called the first domestic novel, in the "vicar of wakefield" of oliver goldsmith (b. 1728; d. 1774). the works of richardson, fielding, and smollett had been rather novels of general life than of the home life of england, but this work was a narrative of such every-day kind as might occur in any little nook in the country. it was a picture of those chequered scenes that the lowliest existence presents: the simple, pious pastor, in the midst of his family, easily imposed on and led into difficulties; the heartless rake, bringing disgrace and sorrow where all had been sunshine before; the struggles and the triumphs of worth, which had no wealth or high rank to emblazon it; and all mingled and quickened by a humour so genial and unstudied that it worked on the heart like the charms of nature herself. no work ever so deeply influenced the literary mind of england. the productions which it has originated are legion, and yet it stands sui generis amongst them all. the question may seem to lack sequence, yet we may ask whether there would have been a "pickwick" if there had not been a "vicar of wakefield?"

it is said that when johnson called on goldsmith to see what could be done to raise money to pay the latter's landlady, who threatened him with imprisonment, goldsmith handed the doctor the ms. of a new novel that might be worth something! this was the "vicar of wakefield." johnson recognised its merits instantly, and at once sold it to a bookseller for ￡60, with which goldsmith's rent was paid.

what a totally different species of composition was the "vicar" to the tale of "rasselas," published by his friend dr. samuel johnson (b. 1709; d. 1784), the great lexicographer, seven years before! this was conceived in the romantic and allegoric spirit of the time—"the ten days of seged," "the vision of mirza," and the like. it was laid in the south, but amid eastern manners, and didactic in spirit and ornate in style. it was measured, and graceful, and dull—too scholastic to seize on the heart and the imagination. on a nature like goldsmith's it could make no impression, and therefore leave no trace. the one was like a scene amid palm trees, and fountains, and sporting gazelles; the other like a genuine english common, on which robust children were tumbling and shouting, amid blooming gorse, near the sunny brook, with the lark carolling above them. there is no country in europe, scarcely in the world, where letters are known, which has not its translation of the "vicar of wakefield." even in england, "rasselas" is almost forgotten.

now followed a period in which many works were produced which were extremely popular in their day, but of which few now retain public appreciation. amongst these none reached the same estimation as "henry, earl of moreland: or, the fool of quality," by henry brooke. it was designed to show the folly and the artificial morale of the age, by presenting henry as the model of direct and natural sentiments, for the indulgence of which he was thought a fool by the fashionable world. the early part of the work is admirable, and the boyhood of henry is the obvious prototype of day's "history of sandford and merton;" but as it advances it becomes utterly extravagant. miss frances brooke, too, was the author of "julia mandeville" and other novels. mrs. charlotte smith, long remembered for her harmonious sonnets, was the author of numerous novels, as "the old manor house," "celestina," "marchmont," etc.; there were also mrs. hannah more[175] with her "c?lebs in search of a wife;" mrs. hamilton with her "agrippina;" bage with his "hermstrong: or, man as he is not;" "monk" lewis with his "tales of wonder" and his "monk;" and horace walpole with his melodramatic romance of "the castle of otranto." but far beyond walpole rose mrs. ann radcliffe, the very queen of horror and wonder, in her strange, exciting tales of "the sicilian romance," "the romance of the forest," "the mysteries of udolpho," "the italian," etc. no writer ever carried the powers of mystery, wonder, and suspense, to the same height, or so bewitched her age by them.

far greater, however, as the wielder of human sympathies by the recital of wrongs and oppression, was william godwin in his "caleb williams" and "st. leon." "caleb williams" is a model for narrative: lively, clear, simple yet strong, moving in a rapid career—in fine contrast to the slow, wire-drawn progress of the later three-volume novel—till it winds up in an intensity of sensation. then came miss burney, better known as madame d'arblay, with her "evelina," "cecilia," and "camilla," returning again to the details of social life. afterwards came dr. john moore with "zeluco," etc.; mrs. inchbald with her charming "simple story;" mrs. opie with "the father and daughter" in 1801, followed by various other novels; and in the same year miss edgeworth commenced her splendid career with "belinda," and in the next year "castle rackrent." to this period also belongs lady morgan with her "wild irish girl," though she continued to live and write long after this reign.

amongst the novelists of the later period of the reign we may name horace smith, author of "brambletye house," etc.; leigh hunt, the poet, author of "sir ralph esher;" peacock, author of "headlong hall;" beckford, author of the wild eastern tale of "vathek;" hamilton, author of "cyril thornton," etc.; maturin, author of "melmoth the wanderer," etc.; mrs. brunton, author of "discipline," "self-control," etc.; and miss ferrier, author of "marriage" and other novels of a high order. jane austen (b. 1775; d. 1817), author of "pride and prejudice," "mansfield park," "sense and sensibility," etc., all distinguished by the nicest sense of character, was far above any of these, and ranks with the foremost of our writers of fiction.

but far above all rose, at this period, the already popular romantic poet, walter scott. before him, in scotland, henry mackenzie had occupied for a long time the foreground as a writer of fiction, in "the man of feeling," "julia de roubigné," etc., but in a very different class of invention. as walter scott (b. 1771; d. 1832) had opened up the romance of the scottish highlands in his poems, so he now burst forth, on the same ground, in historic romance, with a vigour, splendour, and wonderful fertility of imagination and resource of knowledge which far exceeded everything in the history of literature since the days of shakespeare. we need not attempt to characterise the voluminous series of what are called the "waverley novels," which, in their ample range, occupied almost every country of europe and every climate, from the bleak rocks of orkney to the glowing plains of syria and india; they are familiar to all readers, and closed this period with a splendour from the mingled blaze of invention, poetry, and science, which no succeeding age is likely to surpass.

in history, as in fiction, a new school of writers arose during this period, at the head of which stood hume, robertson, and gibbon. david hume (b. 1711; d. 1776) had already acquired a great reputation by his "philosophical essays concerning the human understanding," his "inquiry into the principles of morals," and his "natural history of religion." in these metaphysical works he had indulged his extreme sceptical tendency, and in the "essay on miracles" believed that he had exploded the christian religion. his works on this subject did not, at first, gain much attention; but in a while were seized on by the deistical and atheistical philosophers in britain and on the continent, and have furnished them with their principal weapons. the first two volumes of history met for a time with the same cold reception as his metaphysics. he commenced with that favourite period with historians—the reigns of james i. and charles i.—because then began the great struggle for the destruction of the constitution, followed by the still more interesting epoch of its battle for and triumph over its enemies. hume had all the tory prejudices of the scottish jacobite, and the reigns of james i. and charles i. were extremely to his taste, but as little to that of the english public. hence the dead silence with which it was received. but when there had been time to read the second volume, containing the commonwealth and the reigns of charles ii. and james ii., the storm broke out. in these he had run counter to all the received political ideas of the age. but this excitement raised both volumes into notice, and he then went back, and, in[176] 1759, published two more volumes, containing the reigns of the tudors; and, going back again, in 1762 he completed his history by bringing it down from the invasion of julius c?sar to the accession of henry vii. it was afterwards, as has been mentioned, continued by smollett.

the history of hume was much over-estimated in his own time, in spite of the despotic notions which abound in it. it was held up as a marvel of eloquence and acuteness. but after times always correct the enthusiasm of contemporaries, and hume's history has been found not in every case trustworthy. when we now, indeed, take up hume, we are surprised to find it a very plain, clear narrative of events, with many oversights and perversions, and nothing more. we wonder where are the transcendent beauties which threw our readers of the eighteenth century into raptures for which language scarcely gave expression. whoever will read the correspondence of contemporaries with hume, will find him eulogised rather as a demi-god than a man, and his works described in extravagant strains of praise.

the "history of scotland, during the reigns of queen mary and james vi.," by dr. robertson, was published in 1759, the year of the appearance of hume's "history of the house of tudor." it was at once popular; and hume, writing to him, attributed this to the deference which he had paid to established opinions, the true source of the popularity of many works. this was followed, in 1769, by his "history of charles v.," and, in 1777, by his "history of america." robertson's chief characteristic is a sonorous and rather florid[177] style, which extremely pleased his age, but wearies this. his histories drew great attention to the subjects of them at that period; but time has shown that they are extremely superficial, and they have not held their place.

"the history of the decline and fall of the roman empire," by gibbon, began to appear in 1776, a few months before the death of hume, and was not completed till 1788. it consisted of six ponderous quarto volumes, and now often occupies double that number of octavos. it is a monument of enormous labour and research, filling the long, waste, dark space between ancient and modern history. it traces the history of rome from its imperial splendour; through its severance into east and west; through its decadence under its luxurious and effeminate emperors; through the ravages of the invading hordes of the north, to the period when the nations of europe began, in the dawn of a new morning, to rise from the depth of barbarism into life, form, and power. the faults of this great work are, that it is written, like hume's "history of england," in the sceptical spirit of the period; and that it marches on, in one high-sounding, pompous style, with a monotonous step, over every kind of subject. the same space and attention are bestowed on the insignificance of the feeblest emperors, and the least important times, as on the greatest and most eventful. it is a work which all should read, but a large part of it will be waded through rather as a duty than a pleasure. still, gibbon holds his own indispensable position; no other man has yet risen to occupy it better.

besides these leading histories, this reign produced many others of great value. amongst these[178] appeared, in 1763, a "history of england," by a lady, catherine macaulay, from james i. to the accession of the house of hanover; which was followed by another series, from the revolution to her own time. mrs. macaulay was a thorough-going republican; had gone to america expressly to see and converse with washington, and her history presented the very opposite opinions and phase of events to those of hume. lord lyttelton wrote a "history of henry ii.," in by no means a popular style; and the book is now forgotten. in 1776 there was published the first volume of lord hailes's valuable "annals of scotland," of which dr. johnson entertained so high an opinion. besides these may be named macpherson's "history of great britain from the restoration;" stuart's "history of the reformation in scotland," and "history of scotland from the reformation to the death of queen mary;" whitaker's "history of manchester;" warner's "history of ireland;" leland's "history of ireland;" grainger's "biographical history of england;" ferguson's "history of the progress and termination of the roman republic;" watson's "history of philip ii. of spain;" orme's "history of the british nation in hindostan;" anderson's "annals of commerce." in 1784 mitford published his "history of ancient greece," and two years later gillies published another "history of greece." in 1789 pinkerton published a "history of the house of stuart down to queen mary." in 1790 boswell published his "life of johnson," the most interesting biography ever written; in 1796 roscoe his "life of lorenzo de' medici," and, in 1805, the "life and pontificate of leo x."

the miscellaneous literature of this reign was immense, consisting of travels, biographies, essays on all subjects, and treatises in every department of science and letters. prominent amongst these are the "letters of junius," who, in the early part of the reign, kept the leading statesmen, judges, and the king himself, in terror by the relentlessness of his scarifying criticisms. these letters, which are the perfection of political writing, have been ascribed to many authors, but most generally to sir philip francis; though it is hard to speak on the subject with certainty. the writings of dr. johnson furnish many items to this department. his "dictionary of the english language" (1755) was a gigantic labour; his "lives of the poets," his "tour to the western isles," would of themselves have made a reputation, had he never written his poetry, his periodical essays, or edited shakespeare. burke, too, besides his speeches, added largely to general literature. he wrote his "inquiry into the origin of the sublime and beautiful;" assisted in the composition of the annual register for several years; and, in 1790, published his most famous work, "reflections on the french revolution." besides these he wrote political letters and essays. lady mary wortley montagu produced her celebrated letters about the middle of the century, and many other women were popular writers at this period: sophia and harriett lee, anna maria williams, mrs. lennox, mrs. catherine talbot, elizabeth carter, the translator of epictetus, mrs. montagu, an essayist on shakespeare, mrs. chapone, author of "letters on the improvement of the mind," mrs. barbauld, and mrs. charlotte smith. in theology, metaphysics, and mental philosophy, the earlier portion of the reign was rich. in rapid succession appeared reid's "inquiry into the human mind," campbell's "answer to hume on miracles," beattie's "essay on truth," wallace's "essay on the numbers of mankind," and stuart's "enquiry into the principles of political economy." but nine years after stuart's work appeared another on the same subject, which raised that department of inquiry into one of the most prominent and influential sciences of the age. this was the famous treatise "on the nature and causes of the wealth of nations," by adam smith (1776), which produced a real revolution in the doctrines of the production and accumulation of wealth. in teaching the advantages of free trade and the division of labour it has rendered incalculable services to mankind.

besides those already mentioned as distinguished in various branches of literature, there was a host of others whom we can only name. in theology there were warburton, south, horsley, jortin, madan, gerard, blair, geddes, lardner, priestley; in criticism and philology, harris, monboddo, kames, blair, sir william jones, walpole; in antiquarian research, hawkins, burney, chandler, barrington, stevens, pegge, farmer, vallancey, grose, gough; in belles-lettres and general literature, chesterfield, hawkesworth, brown, jenyns, bryant, hurd, melmoth, potter, francklin, etc.; in mathematical and physical science, black, the discoverer of latent heat, cavendish, the discoverer of the composition of water, priestley, herschel, maskelyne, horsley, vince, maseres, james hutton, author of "the huttonian theory of the earth," charles hutton, cullen brown, the founder of the brownian theory of medicine, john and[179] william hunter, the anatomists, pennant, the zoologist, etc.; discoverers of new lands, plants, and animals, commodore byron, captains wallis, cook, carteret, flinders, etc., dr. solander, sir joseph banks, mr. green.

amongst these, or in the period immediately succeeding them, some individuals demand a particular notice. benjamin franklin, though an american citizen, ought perhaps to be mentioned, as so immensely influencing science by his discoveries in electricity; and sir william jones, for his great additions to our knowledge of indian and persian literature and theology. there was a large number of translations made by pye, twining, gillies, francis, murphy, parr, tyrwhitt, wakefield, etc. by one or other of these the works of aristotle, tacitus, horace, c?sar, virgil, lucretius, etc., were wholly or partly introduced to us. monboddo's "origin and progress of language," and horne tooke's "diversions of purley" made a great sensation; paine's "rights of man" and "age of reason" a still greater, and called out elaborate answers. richard porson was equally distinguished for his classical knowledge and his drunkenness. mary wollstonecraft published her "rights of woman," as a necessary addendum to paine's "rights of man." there were also editions of shakespeare issued by dr. johnson, steevens, capell, hanmer, malone, and reed. warton, ritson, pinkerton, macpherson, and ellis revived our older poetry by new editions. the controversy on the poetry of ossian ran high during this period. in theology and morals, the works of dr. paley and bishops watson, horsley, and porteus, were most prominent. in speculative philosophy, malthus, by his "essay on the principle of population," carried to greater lengths the notions of wallace on the numbers of mankind.

in the later period of the reign some of our chief poets appeared also as prose writers in biography, criticism, and general literature: southey, as biographer and critic; campbell and moore, leigh hunt and charles lamb, in the same field; so also hazlitt, sydney smith, jeffrey, playfair, stewart, brown, mackintosh, and bentham—the last in the philosophy of law. in physical science, sir humphry davy, leslie, dalton, the author of the atomic theory, and wollaston, distinguished themselves.

periodical writing grew in this reign into a leading organ of opinion and intelligence. the two chief periodicals, according to our present idea of them, were the gentleman's magazine and the monthly review. these were both started prior to the accession of george iii. the gentleman's magazine was started by cave, the publisher, in 1731; and the monthly review commenced in 1749. the former was a depository of a great variety of matters, antiquarian, topographical, critical, and miscellaneous, and has retained that character to the present hour. the monthly review was exclusively devoted to criticism. but in the early portion of the reign a periodical literature of a totally different character prevailed—the periodical essayist—formed on the model of the spectator, guardian, and tatler of a prior period. chief amongst these figured ambrose philips's freethinker; the museum, supported by walpole, the wartons, akenside, etc.; the rambler, by dr. johnson; the adventurer, by hawkesworth; the world, in which wrote chiefly aristocrats, as lords lyttelton, chesterfield, bath, cork, horace walpole, etc.; the connoisseur, chiefly supplied by george colman and bonnel thornton; the old maid, conducted by mrs. frances brooke; the idler, by johnson; the babbler, by hugh kelly; the citizen of the world, by goldsmith; the mirror, chiefly written by mackenzie, the author of the "man of feeling;" and the lounger, also chiefly conducted by mackenzie. this class of productions, appearing each once or twice a week, afforded the public the amusement and instruction now furnished by the daily newspapers, weekly reviews, and monthly magazines. towards the end of the reign arose a new species of review, the object of which was, under the guise of literature, to serve opposing parties in politics. the first of these was the edinburgh review, the organ of the whigs, started in 1802, in which brougham, jeffrey, and sydney smith were the chief writers. this, professing to be liberal, launched forth the most illiberal criticisms imaginable. there was scarcely a great poet of the time—wordsworth, coleridge, southey, byron, james montgomery, leigh hunt, shelley, keats—whom it did not, but vainly, endeavour to crush. to combat the influence of this whig organ, in 1809 came forth the quarterly review, the great organ of the tories, to which scott, southey, wilson croker, gifford, etc., were the chief contributors. in 1817 this was followed by another conservative journal, not quarterly, but monthly in its issue, conducted chiefly by professor wilson and lockhart, namely, blackwood's magazine, in which the monthly magazines of to-day find their prototype, but with a more decided political bias than these generally possess.

in the department of the drama the fertility[180] was immense. tragedy, comedy, and farce maintained a swelling stream during the whole reign. in the earlier portion of it the chief writers of this class were goldsmith, garrick, foote, macklin, murphy, cumberland, colman the elder, mrs. cowley, and sheridan. several of these dramatists—as garrick, macklin, and foote—were, at the same time, actors. the most eminent of them as writers were goldsmith, sheridan, and colman. horace walpole wrote the "mysterious mother," a tragedy, which, however, was never acted; goldsmith his two comedies, "the good-natured man" and "she stoops to conquer," which were extremely popular; garrick, the farces of "the lying valet" and "miss in her teens." he was said also to have been a partner with colman in writing "the clandestine marriage;" but colman denied this, saying that garrick wrote the first two acts, and brought them to him, desiring him to put them together, and that he did put them together, for he put them together into the fire, and re-wrote the whole. another farce, "high life below stairs," attributed to garrick, was, it seems, written by the rev. james townley, assisted by dr. hoadly, the author of "the suspicious husband." garrick was the great actor of his time, but, as a dramatic writer, his merit is insignificant. foote was the chief writer of the comic before colman. his productions amount to upwards of twenty, the most of them farces; and amongst them are "the minor," "the liar," and "the mayor of garrat." foote was the wit and punster of the age. his satiric keenness was the terror of his time, and he dared to think of trying it even on the great essayist, dr. johnson, by introducing him upon the stage; but johnson sent him word that he would be in one of the stage-boxes with a good, knotty cudgel, and foote thought it best to let him alone.

macklin was the author of "the man of the world," a most successful comedy, as well as others of much merit. he remained on the stage till he was a hundred years old, and lived to a hundred and seven. george colman had distinguished himself by the translation of terence's plays and horace's "art of poetry" before he commenced as a dramatist. his vein was comic, and his comedies and farces amount to nearly thirty, the best being "the clandestine marriage," already mentioned, "polly honeycomb," and "the jealous wife." arthur murphy was a native of cork, and was brought up a merchant, but his bent was to the drama, and he quitted his business and went to london, where he wrote two successful farces, "the apprentice" and "the upholsterer." he next wrote "the orphan of china," a tragedy. he then studied for the bar, but had not much practice, and returned to writing for the stage. "the grecian daughter," "all in the wrong," "the way to keep him," and "the citizen," were very successful, and raised him to wealth and distinction. not satisfied with being a popular writer, he desired to act as well as write, like garrick and macklin, but failed. besides his dramatic productions, he translated tacitus and sallust, and wrote the life of garrick. richard cumberland, also an irishman, was a very voluminous as well as miscellaneous writer. his comedy of "the west indian" made him at once popular, and he wrote a great number of productions for the stage, amongst the best of which were "the fashionable lover," "the jew," "the wheel of fortune," etc. he was employed by government as an envoy to lisbon and madrid, and by it refused the payment of his expenses. this reduced him to sell his hereditary property, but he retired to tunbridge wells, and continued to write plays, novels, essays, criticisms, etc., till nearly eighty years of age.

there was a number of lady dramatists of this period. mrs. cowley wrote "the runaway," "the belle's stratagem," "more ways than one," etc.; mrs. brooke, miss marshall, mrs. lennox, and miss sophia lee, all wrote successful plays; mrs. sheridan, the author of the eastern story, "nourjahad," was the writer of the successful comedies of "the discovery" and "the dupe." but the chief dramatist of this period was richard brinsley sheridan, her son (b. 1751; d. 1816). he was equally distinguished as a politician, an orator, and a critic. like murphy, macklin, and cumberland, he was an irishman. his dramas placed him at the head of all the writers for the stage of his time. they abounded with humour, wit, the smartest action, and knowledge of life and human nature. his splendid comedy of "the rivals," written when he was not twenty-five, did not at first augur much success; but "the duenna," which appeared the same year, carried with it at once the highest public favour; and his "school for scandal," acted in 1777, raised his reputation to the utmost. he also wrote the farces of "the critic," "the trip to scarborough," and "st. patrick's day." all these were issued before 1780, and after that he was too much involved in political affairs to renew this style of writing. amongst his other labours for the theatre was the adaptation of "pizarro," one of[181] kotzebue's numerous plays. sheridan first appeared before the world as the translator of "arist?netus."

comedy and farce occupied the middle portion of the reign, but neither of them rose to the height of sheridan. in tragedy, murphy's "arminius," godwin's "antonio," and madame d'arblay's "edwy and elgiva," were the best. amongst the comedies, holcroft's "road to ruin," morton's "speed the plough," mrs. inchbald's "wives as they were, and maids as they are," and colman's "sylvester daggerwood," were the most popular.

in the latest period scarcely any acting dramas were produced. amongst the unacted tragedies, or such as were acted with no great success—being better fitted for private study—were coleridge's "remorse" and "zapolya;" shelley's "prometheus unbound" and "the cenci;" byron's "cain," "manfred," "sardanapalus," etc.; maturin's "bertram," "manuel," and "fredolpho;" joanna baillie's "plays on the passions," "the family legend"—the last acted with some success at edinburgh, through the influence of sir walter scott, in 1810—charles lamb's "john woodvill," milman's "fazio," and walter savage landor's "count julian," "andrea of hungary," "giovanni of naples," "fra rupert," "the siege of ancona," etc., all masterly dramas, constituting a blaze of dramatic genius which, had it been adapted to the stage, would have given it a new grandeur at the close of this reign.

the new spring in poetry broke forth as brilliantly in this reign as that in prose. in the earlier portion of it, indeed, this was not so visible. the school of pope seemed still to retain its influence. this school had produced a host of imitators, but little real genius since pope's time. almost the only exception to this mediocrity was collins, whose odes were full of fire and genius. he died just before this period, and gray,[182] shenstone, and goldsmith opened it with many of the exterior characteristics of that school. but, in truth, notwithstanding the mere fashion of their compositions, there were in them unmistakable evidences of new life. shenstone was the least vigorous and original of the three, but his "schoolmistress" possessed a natural charm that still gains it admirers. he belongs, however, rather to the past period than this, for he died but three years after the accession of george iii., and had ceased to write some time before. gray's "elegy in a country churchyard" showed that he had deep feeling and a nice observation of nature; and his "long story" that he possessed real humour—a quality abounding in his prose, but, except in this piece, little visible in his poetry. his odes are extremely vigorous, but somewhat formal. his "bard," his "ode on eton college," and his "fatal sisters," are all full of beauty, but somewhat stilted. in the "fatal sisters" he introduced a subject from the "scandinavian edda" to the english reader, but in a most un-scandinavian dress.

goldsmith was in his poetry, as in his prose, simple, genuine, and natural. his "deserted village" and "traveller" were in the metre of pope, but they were full of the most exquisite touches of pathos, of truth, and liberty; they were new in spirit, though old in form. charles churchill, the satirist, was full of flagellant power. he has been said to have formed himself on dryden; but it is more probable that his models were lucian and juvenal. he was a bold and merciless chastiser of the follies of the times. he commenced, in the "rosciad," with the players, by which he stirred a nest of hornets. undauntedly he pursued his course, attacking, in "the ghost," the then all-powerful dr. johnson, who ruled like a despot over both literary men and their opinions. these satires, strong and somewhat coarse, were followed by "the prophecy of famine," an "epistle to hogarth," "the conference," "the duellist," "the author," "gotham," "the candidate," "the times," etc. in these churchill not only lashed the corruptions of the age, but the false principles of nations. he condemned the seizure of other countries by so-called christian powers, on the plea of discovery. it was only to be lamented that churchill, who was a clergyman, in censuring his neighbour's vices did not abandon his own.

amongst other authors of the time, then very popular, but now little read, were armstrong, author of "the art of preserving health;" akenside, of "the pleasures of imagination;" wilkie, of "the epigoniad;" and glover, of the epic of "leonidas." falconer's "shipwreck" and beattie's "minstrel" are poems much more animate with the vitality of grace and feeling. then there were anstey, with his "bath guide," half descriptive and half satiric; stephenson's "crazy tales;" mason's "isis," a satire on the university of oxford, and his tragedies of "elfrida" and "caractacus," which, with other poems by the same author, enjoyed a popularity that waned before more truly living things. then there were the brothers joseph and thomas warton. both of these deserve to be mentioned amongst our first-rate prose writers—joseph for his excellent "essay on the genius and writings of pope," and thomas for his "history of english poetry," and this is merely a fragment, coming down only to the reign of queen elizabeth. but that which, at this period, produced a thorough reform of our poetry was the publication of "the reliques of ancient english poetry," by bishop percy. these specimens of poetry went back beyond the introduction of the french model into england—to the times when chaucer, and still earlier poets, wrote from the instincts of nature, and not from scholastical or fashionable patterns. in particular, the old ballads, such as "chevy chace," "the babes in the wood," and the like, brought back the public taste from the artificial to the natural. the simple voice of truth, pathos, and honest sentiment was at once felt by every heart, and the reign of mere ornate words was over. after the reliques came "the border minstrelsy" of scott and completed the revolution. these ancient ballads, in both percy and scott, were found, in many instances, to be founded on precisely the same facts as those of the swedes and danes, collected seventy years before, thus showing that they were originally brought into great britain by the scandinavians—a proof of their high antiquity. a similar return to nature was going on in germany and the north of europe, showing that the very collection of percy's "reliques" originated in some general cause, and that cause, no doubt, was the universal weariness of the artificial style which had so long prevailed in literature.

about this time two publications occurred, which produced long and violent controversies—those of the pretended "poems of rowley," by chatterton, and "ossian's poems," by macpherson. chatterton, who was the articled clerk of an attorney at bristol, a mere youth, pretended[183] that he had discovered rowley's poems in the muniment room of the church of st. mary redcliffe, bristol. these poems, written on yellow parchment, and in a most antiquated style, by a boy of sixteen, were palmed upon the world as the genuine productions of one thomas rowley, and took in many well-known authors and literary antiquaries, very wise in their own conceit. as the productions of a boy of that age these poems are marvellous, and nothing besides which chatterton, in his short, neglected life, produced approached them in merit. this, too, was the case with macpherson, who professed to have collected the poems of ossian, an old bard of morven, in the highlands, and simply translated them into english. he was warmly accused of having written them himself; but as chatterton, so macpherson, steadily denied the authorship of the poems thus introduced, and as in chatterton's case, so in macpherson's, no other compositions of the professed collector ever bore any relation to these in merit. there can now be very little doubt that macpherson founded his ossianic poems on real originals to some extent; but that chatterton, if he received rowley's poems from rowley, did so by inspiration.

for some time after the revival of true poetry the old forms still hung about what in spirit was new. the last of the old school of any note may be said to have been dr. johnson and dr. darwin. johnson was too thoroughly drilled into the dry, didactic fashion of the artificial past, he was too bigotedly self-willed to be capable of participating in the renovation. in fact, he never was more than a good versifier, one of that class who can win prizes for university themes on the true line and square system of metrical composition. his "london," a mere paraphrase of the third book of "juvenal," and "the vanity of human wishes" are precisely of that stamp. johnson lived at the time of chatterton's appearance, but he completely ignored him, and he ridiculed the simplicity of the poems introduced by bishop percy by absurd parodies on them, as—

i put my hat upon my head,

and walked into the strand;

and there i met another man,

with his hat in his hand.

and,

if the man who turnips cries,

cries not when his father dies,

'tis a sign that he had rather

have a turnip than his father.

as for the poems of ossian, he made a violent attack upon them in his "tour to the western isles."

dr. erasmus darwin assumed the hopeless task of chaining poetry to the car of science. he was a physician of derby, and, like sir richard blackmore, "rhymed to the rumbling of his own coach wheels;" for we are told that he wrote his verses as he drove about to his patients. his great poem is the "botanic garden," in which he celebrates the loves of the plants, and his "economy of vegetation," in which he introduces all sorts of mechanical inventions. amongst the rest he announces the triumphs of steam in sonorous rhymes—

soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam! afar

drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car.

and he celebrates the compass in equally imposing heroics—

hail, adamantine steel! magnetic lord!

king of the prow, the ploughshare, and the sword!

true to the pole, by thee the pilot guides

his steady helm amid the struggling tides;

braves, with broad sail, the immeasurable sea;

cleaves the dark air, and asks no star but thee!

this style of verse was thought very magnificent by anna seward, of lichfield, who was intimate with darwin when he lived there in his earlier career, and who herself was a poetess of some pretension. miss seward, however, showed better judgment in being amongst the first to point out the rising fame of southey and scott. the verse of darwin brought pope's metre to the highest pitch of magniloquence; and the use of the c?sura gives it a perfectly darwinian peculiarity.

the poets who most retained the robes of the past, without disguising the divine form within, were the rev. george crabbe and cowper. the poetry of crabbe, all written in the metre of pope, is, nevertheless, instinct with the very soul of nature. it chooses the simplest, and often the least apparently lofty or agreeable topics, but it diffuses through these, and at the same time draws from them, a spirit and life that are essentially poetry. nothing at the time that it appeared could look less like poetry. the description of a library, the dirty alleys, the pothouses, the sailors, and monotonous sea-shores in and about a maritime borough, struck the readers of the assumed sublime with astonishment and dismay. "can this be poetry?" they asked. but those who had poetry in themselves—those in whom the heart of nature was strong, replied, "yes, the truest poetry." nature smiles as the rude torch flickers past, and shows its varied forms in its truest shape. in his "tales of the hall" crabbe entered on scenes which are commonly deemed more elevated; he came forward into the rural village, the rectory,[184] and the manor-house; but everywhere he carried the same clear, faithful, analytical spirit, and read the most solemn lessons from the histories and the souls of men. crabbe has been styled the rembrandt of english poetic painting; but he is not merely a painter of the outward, he is the prober of the inward at the same time, who, with a hand that never trembles, depicts sternly the base nature, and drops soothing balm on the broken heart.

william cowper (b. 1731; d. 1800) combined in his verse the polish of pope with the freedom and force of churchill. he possessed the satirical strength of churchill with a more gentle and christian spirit. in cowper broke forth the strongest, clearest sense that had distinguished any writer in prose or verse for generations. he painted nature like a lover, but with the truth of a great artist, and he flagellated the vices of society in the very highest quarters with unshrinking boldness; at the same time, with equal intrepidity, he advanced the assertions of a perfect faith in the religion of the gospel, in the face of the hardest scepticism of the age.

it is a curious fact, that whilst cowper was haunted by the most agonising terrors of a nervous temperament, even to despair, his poetry breathes the most consolatory tone. whilst his mind was often wandering in insanity, there is no composition so sane and so sound in intellectual substance as his. though seldom indulging in high flights of imagination, yet his verse frequently rises into a richness and nobility of voice nearly equal to the prophetic. the "lines on his mother's picture" exhibit the deep feeling of cowper, and the ballad of "john gilpin" the genuine mirth which often bubbled up in a heart so racked and tried with melancholy.

contemporary with cowper was mrs. tighe, the author of "psyche," an allegorical poem, in which the beauty of the sentiment made acceptable that almost exploded form of composition. but there was at this period a number of writers who had much more false than true sentiment. the euphuism of the reign of queen elizabeth broke forth in another fashion. a kind of poetical club was formed at batheaston, the residence of lady miller, near bath. she and her guests, amongst whom was miss seward, wrote verses, which they published under the title of "poetical amusements." a still more flaunting school set themselves up amongst the english at florence, one of whom, a mr. robert merry, dubbed himself "della crusca," whence the clique became known as the "della cruscan school." amongst the members of it figured mrs. piozzi, the widow of thrale the brewer, boswell, johnson's biographer, mary robinson, the younger colman, and holcroft, the dramatist, with others of less name. they addressed verses to each other in the most florid and extravagant style under the names of "rosa matilda," "laura maria," "orlando," and the like. the fashion was infectious; and not only were the periodicals flooded by such silly mutual flatteries, but volumes were published full of them. gifford, the editor of the quarterly review, and translator of juvenal, attacked this frenzy in a satire called the "baviad," and continued the attack in the "m?viad," which, however, was more particularly a censure on the degraded condition of the drama. this put an end to the nuisance, and gifford won great fame by it; though, on referring to his two celebrated satires, we are surprised at their dulness, and are led to imagine that it was their heaviness which crushed these moths of literature. gifford had himself a great fame in his day, which was chiefly based on his formidable position as editor of the quarterly review.

but whilst gifford was thus demolishing an outbreak of bad taste, a much more remarkable evidence that those who lay claim to good taste frequently have it not was given by the appearance of several new plays and other documents attributed to shakespeare. the chief of these was "kynge varrtygerne," a tragedy, edited by samuel ireland. numbers of persons of high name and pretension, as dr. parr, boswell, pye, the laureate, chalmers, the editor of an issue of "british poets," pinkerton, a writer of all sorts of things, etc., became enthusiastic believers and admirers of these pretended discoveries. they turned out to be impudent forgeries by the son of the editor, named william henry ireland, and are in reality such trash that they are a melancholy proof of how little value, from some learned persons, is the adoration of shakespeare. malone, in an "inquiry" into the authenticity of these writings, in 1796, completely exposed their spuriousness. pinkerton, one of their most zealous advocates, himself perpetrated a similar forgery of a volume of scottish poems, issued as ancient ones. he enjoyed the particular patronage of horace walpole.

a number of satires and other poems appeared at this time which deserve only a mere mention. these are "the pursuits of literature," by thomas james mathias; "anticipation," by richard tickell, being an anticipation of the king's speech, and the debates of parliament; "an heroic epistle to sir william chambers," by mason, under the assumed name of malcolm macgregor; "the rolliad," also a political satire, in 1785. to this succeeded "probationary odes," from the same party. these were eclipsed by the publications of dr. john wolcot, under the name of peter pindar, who for twenty years kept the public laughing by his witty and reckless effusions, in which the king especially was most unmercifully ridiculed. wolcot had the merit of discovering opie, the painter, as a sawyer in the neighbourhood of truro, and pushing him forward by his praises. of the royal academicians he was a relentless enemy, and to them addressed several odes, of the most caustic and damaging kind. later on came the inimitable poems of the "anti-jacobin," written by canning, hookham frere, and others, among which it is sufficient to recall the "needy knife-grinder," and the satires on the addington administration. but now there came a voice from scotland that filled with envy the crowd of second-rate poets of london, and marked the dawn of a new era. a simple but sturdy peasant—with no education but such as is extended to every child in every rural parish of scotland; "following the plough along the mountain side," laboriously sowing and reaping and foddering neat; instead of haunting drawing-rooms in bob-tailed coat and kid gloves, dancing on the barn-floor, or hob-nobbing with his rustic chums at the next pot-house—set up a song of youth, of passion, of liberty and equality, so clear, so sonorous, so ringing with the clarion tones of genius and truth, that all britain, north and south, stood still in wonder, and the most brazen vendor of empty words and impudent pretensions to intellectual power owned the voice of the master, and was for a moment still. this master of song was robert burns (b. 1759; d. 1796). need we say more? need we speak of the exquisite beauty of the "cotter's saturday night"?—of the fun of "tam o' shanter"?—of the satiric drollery of his laughter at antiquarian and other pretenders?—of the scathing sarcasms on sectarian cant in "holy willie's prayer," and a dozen other things?—of the spirit of love and the spirit of liberty welling[186] up in his heart in a hundred living songs?—of the law of man's independence and dignity stamped on the page of eternal memory in the few words—"a man's a man for a' that"? are not these things written in the book of human consciousness, all the world over? do not his fellow-countrymen sing them and shout them in every climate under heaven? at the time when they appeared the poems of robert burns clearly showed that true poetry was not altogether extinct, and effectually put an end to that fatal rage of imitation of the artificial school of johnson and pope which then prevailed.

then came the lake school, so called because the poets lived more or less amongst the lakes of westmoreland and cumberland; but which would have been more correctly called the natural school, in contradistinction to the artificial school which they superseded. the chief of these were wordsworth, coleridge, and southey. wordsworth and coleridge had travelled in germany, when few englishmen travelled there, and all of them had more or less imbibed that spirit of intense love of natural beauty and of mental philosophy which prevails in germany. in southey this evaporated in ballads of the wild and wonderful, with a strong tinge of teutonic diablerie. in wordsworth and coleridge these elements sank deeper, and brought forth more lasting fruits. but there was another cause which went greatly to the formation of wordsworth's poetic system. he was thoroughly indoctrinated by his early friends, charles lloyd and thomas wilkinson, members of the society of friends, with their theory of worship and psychology. they taught him that the spirit of god breathes through all nature, and that we have only to listen and receive. this system was enunciated in some of his lyrical poems, but it is the entire foundation of his great work, the "excursion." in his earliest poems william wordsworth (b. 1770; d. 1850) wrote according to the manner of the time, and there is nothing remarkable in them; but in his "lyrical ballads," the first of which appeared in 1798, there was an entire change. they were of the utmost simplicity of language, and some of them on subjects so homely that they excited the most unmeasured ridicule of the critics. in particular, the edinburgh review distinguished itself by its excessive contempt of them. the same fate awaited his successive publications, including his great work, the "excursion;" and the tide of scorn was only turned by a series of laudatory criticisms by professor wilson, in blackwood's magazine, after which the same critics became very eulogistic.

samuel taylor coleridge (b. 1772; d. 1834) published his earliest poems in association with his friends, wordsworth, charles lloyd, and charles lamb. but his contributions, especially of the "ancient mariner," soon pointed them out as belonging to a genius very different. in his compositions there is a wide variety, some of them being striking from their wild and mysterious nature, some for their elevation of both spirit and language, and others for their deep tone of feeling. his "geneviève," his "christabel," his "ancient mariner," and his "hymn in the vale of chamouni," are themselves the sufficient testimonies of a great master. in some of his blank verse compositions the tone is as independently bold as the sentiments are philosophical and humane. besides his own poetry, coleridge translated part of schiller's "wallenstein," and[187] was the author of several prose works of a high philosophical character. southey was as different from coleridge in the nature of his poetical productions as coleridge was from wordsworth. in his earliest poems he displayed a strong resentment against the abuses of society; he condemned war in his poem on "blenheim," and expressed himself unsparingly on the treatment of the poor. his "botany bay eclogues" are particularly in this vein. but he changed all that, and became one of the most zealous defenders of things as they are. his smaller poems are, after all, the best things which he wrote; his great epics of "madoc," "roderick, the last of the goths," "the curse of kehama," and "thalaba," now finding few readers. yet there are parts of them that must always charm.

since the appearance of the waverley novels the poetry of scott has been somewhat depreciated, but his metrical romances, if not of the highest class of poetry, are always fresh, from their buoyancy and the scenery in which they are laid. they are redolent of the mountain heather and summer dews; and the description of the sending of the "fiery cross" over the hills, and the battle in "marmion," as well as other portions, are instinct with genuine poetic vigour. campbell, who won an early reputation by his "pleasures of hope," is more esteemed now for his heroic ballads "hohenlinden," "the battle of the baltic," and his "mariners of england;" moore, for his "irish melodies," than for his "lalla rookh;" byron, for his "childe harold," rather than for his earlier love tales of the east, or his later dramatic poems. amongst the very highest of the poets of that period stands percy bysshe shelley (b. 1792; d. 1822), the real poet of spiritual music, of social reformation, and of the independence of man. never did a soul inspired by a more ardent love of his fellow-creatures receive such a bitter portion of unkindness and repudiation. john keats, of a still more delicate and shrinking temperament, also received, in return for strains of the purest harmony, a sharp judgment, in no degree, however, equal to the severity of that dealt out to shelley. in his "ode to a grecian urn," and his "lamia," keats left us examples of beauty of conception and felicity of expression not surpassed since the days of shakespeare. in his "hyperion" he gave equal proof of the strength and grandeur to which he would have attained.

the distinguished poets still thronging the close of this period would require voluminous space to particularise their works: the vigorous and classic savage landor; the graceful, genial leigh hunt; charles lamb, quaint and piquant; rogers, lover equally of art and nature; john wilson, tender, but somewhat diffuse; hogg, the ettrick shepherd, linked in perpetual memory with his "kilmeny" and the "bird of the wilderness;" allan cunningham; macneill; grahame, author of "the sabbath;" james montgomery, amongst the very few successful poets of religion; tennant, author of "anster fair;" kirke white, sotheby, maturin, procter (barry cornwall), milman, joanna baillie, miss mitford, mrs. hemans, mrs. howitt, richard howitt, elliott the corn-law rhymer, whose most beautiful poems had been for twenty years steadily ignored by the whole english press, till they were accidentally discovered by sir john bowring.

in all those arts which increase the prosperity of a nation england made the most remarkable progress during this reign. a number of men, springing chiefly from its working or manufacturing orders, arose, who introduced inventions and improvements in practical science, which added, in a most wonderful degree, to the industrial resources of the country. agriculture at the commencement of the reign was in a sluggish and slovenly condition, but the increase of population, and the augmented price of corn and cattle, led to numerous enclosures of waste lands, and to improvements both in agricultural implements and in the breeds of sheep and cattle. during the thirty-three years of the reign of george ii. the number of enclosures averaged only seven per annum, but in the first twenty-five years of the reign of george iii. they amounted to forty-seven per annum. during that period the number of enclosures was one thousand one hundred and eighty-six, the number each year rapidly increasing. the value of the produce also stimulated the spirit of improvement in tillage as well as enclosure. many gentlemen, especially in northumberland, kent, norfolk, and suffolk, devoted themselves to agricultural science. they introduced rotation of crops instead of fallows, and better manuring, and also cultivated various vegetables on a large scale in the fields which before had generally been confined to the garden, as turnips, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, parsnips, etc. their example began to be followed by the ordinary class of farmers, and the raising of rents greatly quickened this imitation. at the opening of the reign the rental of land did not exceed ten shillings per acre on an[188] average; the rental of the whole kingdom in 1769 being sixteen million pounds, according to arthur young, but in a few years it was nearly doubled. this gentleman, who has left us so much knowledge of the agricultural state of the kingdom in his "tours of survey," tells us that, northward especially, the old lumbering ploughs and other clumsy instruments were still in use, instead of the improved ones, and that there was, therefore, a great waste of labour, both of man and beast, in consequence. but still improvement was slowly spreading, and already bakewell was engaged in those experiments which introduced, instead of the old large-headed and ill-shaped sheep, a breed of superior symmetry, which at once consumed less food and yielded a heavier carcase. it was at first contemptuously said by the old race of farmers and graziers, that bakewell's new herd of sheep was too dear for any one to purchase and too fat for any one to eat. as he was pursuing his improvements in leicestershire, culley prosecuted similar ones in northumberland in both sheep and cattle.

under the management of these enlightened men the disproportionate mass of bone was reduced, and flesh increased, and the whole figure assumed a regular and handsome contour. the quality of the meat was as greatly improved.

under the operation of the corn laws the price of wheat rose to one hundred and fifty-six shillings a quarter in 1801, and the enclosure of waste lands kept pace accordingly; and upwards of a million of acres were enclosed every ten years. from 1800 the amount of enclosure in ten years was a million and a half of acres. the rapid increase of population, through the growth of manufactures, and the introduction of canals, as well as the fact that the people at large began to abandon the use of oats and rye in bread, and to use wheat, promoted the growth of that grain immensely. in 1793 sir john sinclair established the board of agriculture, which was incorporated, and received an annual grant from parliament. the indefatigable arthur young was elected its secretary, and agricultural surveys of the kingdom were made. the reports of these were published, adding greatly to a comprehension of the real state of cultivation. in 1784 young had commenced the publication of the "annals of agriculture," by which invaluable information was diffused, and new prizes were offered by the board for improvements, and great annual sheep-shearings were held at woburn and holkham, by the duke of bedford and mr. coke, afterwards lord leicester, which tended to stimulate the breed of better sheep. the king himself had his model farms, and introduced merino sheep from spain. it was long, however, before the better modes of ploughing could be introduced amongst the farmers. the scots were the first to reduce the number of the horses which drew the plough, using only two, whilst in england might still be seen a heavy, clumsy machine drawn by from four to six horses, doing less work, and that work less perfectly.

on the arrival of peace the fall of agricultural prices ruined great numbers who had pushed their speculations and land purchases beyond their legitimate means; but the corn laws again buoyed up both farmers and landlords, and the progress of improvement continued. draining strong lands, manuring light ones with lime and marl, and the introduction of artificial grasses, added incalculably to the produce of the country. turnips enabled the farmer to maintain his cattle and sheep in high condition during the winter, and the introduction of the swedish turnip and mangel-wurzel extended this advantage till rye, rye-grass, sainfoin, and clover became plentiful. before the end of the reign rentals had doubled, and lands, even in hilly districts, where it had been supposed that nothing but oats would grow, and where the reapers were often obliged to shake the snow from the corn as they cut it, were seen producing good wheat, and, from the better system of husbandry, at a much earlier period of autumn.

with the reign of george iii. began the real era of civil engineering. with respect to our highways there had been various parliamentary enactments since the revolution of 1688; but still, at the commencement of george iii.'s reign, the condition of the greater part of our public roads was so dreadful as now to be almost incredible. acts of parliament continued to be passed for their amendment, but what was their general state we learn from the invaluable "tours" of arthur young. he describes one leading from billericay to tilbury, in essex, as so narrow that a mouse could not pass by any carriage, and so deep in mud that chalk-waggons were continually sticking fast in them, till so many were in that predicament that the waggoners put twenty or thirty of their horses together to pull them out. he describes the same state of things in almost every part of the country—in norfolk, suffolk, wiltshire, and lancashire. some of them had ruts four feet deep by measure, and into these ruts huge stones were dropped to enable waggons to pass at all; and these, in their turn, broke their axles by the horrible jolting, so that within eighteen miles he saw three waggons lying in this condition. notwithstanding, from 1785 to 1800 no fewer than six hundred and forty-three acts of parliament regarding roads were passed. but scarcely a penny of the money collected at the toll-bars went to the repair of the roads, but only to pay the interest of the debt on their original construction. whatever was raised was divided amongst the members of the body known as the trustees for the original fund; and though many acts of parliament limited this interest, means were found for evading the restriction.

in lancashire and cheshire the principal roads were paved; but as there grew a necessity for more rapid transit of mails and stage-coaches, we find, from a tour by adam walker to the lakes in 1792, that a better system had been introduced; the paved roads were in many places pulled up, and the stones broken small; and he describes the roads generally as good, or wonderfully improved since the "tours" of arthur young. except in the county of derby, the highways were excellent, and broken stones were laid by the roadsides ready for repairs.

but it was not till the days of telford and macadam that the system of road-making received its chief improvements. the reform in roads commenced in scotland. those which had been cut through the highlands after the rebellions of 1715 and 1745, chiefly under the management of general wade, set the example, and showed the advantage of promoting communication, as well as of enabling the military to scour the mountains. in 1790 lord dare introduced the practice of laying out roads by the spirit-level, and they were conducted round hills instead of being carried over them. in 1802 a board of commissioners for roads and bridges in scotland was established, and thomas telford was appointed the engineer. this able man had now a full opportunity for showing his knowledge of road-making. he laid out the new routes on easy inclines, shortened and improved the old routes by new and better cuttings, and threw bridges of an excellent construction over the streams. where the bottom was soft or boggy he made it firm by a substratum of solid stones, and levelled the surface with stones broken small. attention was paid to side-drains for carrying away the water, and little was left for the after-plans of macadam. yet macadam has monopolised the fame of road-making, and little has been heard of telford's improvements, although he was occasionally called in where macadam could not succeed, because the latter refused to make the same solid bottom. this was the case in the archway road at highgate. macadam's main principle of road-making was in breaking his material small, and his second principle might be called the care which he exercised in seeing his work well done. for these services he received two grants from parliament, amounting to ten thousand pounds, and the offer of knighthood, the latter of which he would not accept for himself, but accepted it for his eldest son.

telford, under the commission for scotland, thoroughly revolutionised the roads of that country. from carlisle to the extremity of caithness, and from east to west of scotland, he intersected the whole country with beautiful roads, threw bridges of admirable construction over the rivers, and improved many of the harbours, as those of banff, peterhead, fraserburgh, fortrose, cullen, and kirkwall. the extent of new road made by him was about one thousand miles, and he threw one thousand two hundred bridges over rivers, some of them wild mountain torrents.

the next step in the increase of means of traffic was the construction of canals. the rivers had previously been rendered more navigable by removing obstructions, deepening channels, and making good towing-paths along their banks; but now it was projected to make artificial rivers. in this scheme, richard brindley, under the patronage of the duke of bridgewater, was the great engineer; and his intrepid genius dictated to him to carry these canals over hills by locks, over rivers by aqueducts, and through the heart of hills by tunnels. these enterprises at that moment appeared, to the ordinary run of civil engineers, as rash experiments, which were sure to prove abortive. as all new ideas are, these ideas, now so commonplace, were ridiculed by the wise ones as little short of madness. mr. brindley's first great work was the formation of the duke of bridgewater's canal, from worsley to manchester. in this he at once proved all his plans of locks, tunnels, and aqueducts. he conducted his canal by an aqueduct over the river irwell, at an elevation of thirty-nine feet; and those learned engineers who had laughed at the scheme as "a castle in the air," might now see boats passing over the river at that height with the greatest ease, while other boats were being drawn up the irwell against the stream and under the aqueduct with five times the labour. at worsley the canal was conducted into the very heart of the coal-mine by a tunnel, with branches, which conducted the boats up to the different parts of the[191] mine, so that the coal could be loaded on the spot where it was dug. the immediate effect of this canal was to reduce coals in manchester to half the former price; and the canal being extended so as to connect it with the mersey, at runcorn, it reduced the freight of goods from manchester to liverpool to the same extent, from twelve shillings to six shillings per ton, the land carriage having been forty shillings. brindley was next engaged to execute the grand trunk canal, which united the trent and mersey, carrying it through birmingham, chesterfield, and to nottingham. this was commenced in 1766, and exhibited further examples of his undaunted skill, and, as he had been laughed at by the pedants of the profession, he now in his turn laughed at their puny mediocrity. one of his tunnels, at harecastle hill, in staffordshire, was two thousand eight hundred and eighty yards long, twelve feet wide, nine high, and in some parts seventy yards below the surface of the ground. this tunnel, after half a century's use, was found too confined for the traffic, and a new one, much wider, was made by telford. by this time the art of tunnelling had made great progress, and whilst brindley required eleven years to complete his tunnel, telford made his much larger one in three. many causes intervened to check for a time the progress of canals, so that from 1760 to 1774 only nineteen acts were passed for them; but in the two years of 1793 and 1794 no fewer than thirty-six new bills were introduced to parliament, with others for extending and amending rivers, making altogether forty-seven acts, the expenditure on the canals of these two years' projection amounting to five million three hundred thousand pounds. the work now went on rapidly, and investments in canal shares exhibited at that day, in miniature, the great fever of railway speculation at a later period. lines of canals were made to connect the thames, the tweed, the severn, and the mersey; so that the great ports of london, liverpool, hull, and bristol were connected by them, and put into communication with nearly all the great inland manufacturing towns. in 1779 a ship-canal was completed from the forth to the clyde—a work proposed as early as the reign of charles ii. this canal, thirty-five miles in length, had thirty-nine locks, which carried the canal to a height of one hundred and fifty-six feet above the sea, and it crossed the river kelvin by an aqueduct eighty-three feet from the bed of the river to the top of the masonry. a few years later a much larger ship-canal united gloucester to the severn, and wonderfully increased the trade and growth of that city.

telford succeeded to brindley, with all his boldness and skill, and with much extended experience. he executed the ellesmere canal, which occupied a length of upwards of a hundred miles, connecting the rivers severn, dee, and mersey. in the construction of this canal telford introduced a bold, but successful, novelty. in aqueducts, instead of puddling their bottoms with clay, which was not proof against the effects of frost, he cased them with iron, and adopted the same means when he had to pass through quicksands or mere bog. some of telford's aqueducts were stupendous works. the chirk aqueduct passed, at seventy feet above the river, on ten arches of forty feet span, and cost twenty thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight pounds. the aqueduct over the dee passed at a height of one hundred and twenty-one feet above low water, and consisted of a great trough of cast-iron plates, supported on eighteen piers, and having a towing-path of cast-iron, supported on cast-iron pillars. this aqueduct took ten years in building, and cost, with its embankments, forty-seven thousand pounds. tunnels much larger than that at harecastle hill were executed. that at sapperton, on the thames and severn canal, executed by mr. whitworth, was nearly two miles and a half long, ran two hundred and fifty feet below the summit of the hill, and was large enough for boats of seventy tons burden. this was completed in 1788. these daring enterprises led to the design of a tunnel under the thames, from gravesend to tilbury; but this was abandoned for want of capital. in 1804 a like attempt was made at rotherhithe, but stopped from the same cause, and was not completed till 1843 by sir mark isambard brunel. between 1758 and 1801 no fewer than sixty-five acts of parliament were passed for making or extending canals. at the end of that period canals extended over upwards of three thousand miles, and had cost upwards of thirteen millions sterling. in fact, the bulk of canal work was done by this time, though not some few works of great importance. the leeds and liverpool canal, begun in 1770, but not completed till 1816, opened up connection with a vast manufacturing district; and the rochdale, huddersfield, and hull canals gave access for the baltic traffic into the heart of lancashire. the paddington and regent's canals wonderfully promoted the intercourse between the interior and the metropolis. in the highlands, the caledonian canal, connecting the[192] string of lakes between inverness and the atlantic, gave passage to ships of large burden. at the end of this reign the aggregate length of canals in england and wales was two thousand one hundred and sixty miles; in scotland, two hundred and twelve; in ireland, two hundred and fifty; total, two thousand six hundred and twenty-two miles. the attention paid to roads and canals necessitated the same to bridges; and during this reign many new structures of this kind were erected, and much improvement attained in their formation. in 1776 a totally new kind of bridge was commenced at coalbrook dale, and completed in 1779; this was of cast-iron, having a single arch of one hundred feet span, and containing three hundred and seventy-eight and a half tons of metal. telford greatly improved on this idea, by erecting an iron bridge over the severn, at buildwas, in 1796, having an arch of one hundred and thirty feet span.

half the london bridges were built, or rebuilt, during this period. waterloo bridge was begun in 1811, and completed by its designer and architect, john rennie, on the 18th of june, 1817, having cost upwards of a million sterling. it is not only the longest of the thames bridges, but was pronounced by canova the finest bridge in the world, and is justly universally admired. rennie built southwark bridge, an iron one, at a cost of eight hundred thousand pounds, and completed it in 1819, its erection occupying five years. sir john rennie, his son, built the new london bridge from the designs of his father; but this was not begun till six years after the death of george iii., nor finished till 1831, at a cost of five hundred and six thousand pounds.

iron suspension bridges were also introduced towards the end of this reign. chain bridges had been erected in china for nearly two thousand years, and rope bridges in india and south america still earlier. in england a foot-bridge of iron chains was erected at middleton, over the tees, in the middle of the eighteenth century. in 1816 a bridge of iron wire was thrown across the gala water; and another, on a different principle, the following year, was erected over the tweed, at[193] king's meadows. but now much greater and more complete works of the kind were to be executed. captain (afterwards sir samuel) brown introduced many improvements into these structures. he substituted iron ropes for hempen ones, thereby forming cable-chains, like those used in wales on quarry tram-roads, and these he applied to suspension bridges. in 1819 he was commissioned to construct an iron suspension bridge over the tweed, near kelso, called the union bridge, which he completed in 1820, at a cost of five thousand pounds. in 1827 the first suspension bridge was thrown over the thames by mr. william tierney clarke; and in 1818 telford commenced his great work of throwing a suspension bridge over the menai strait, near bangor, which he completed in 1825. the main opening of this stupendous work is five hundred and sixty feet wide, and one hundred feet above high-water mark. the length of the roadway of the bridge is one thousand feet. the cost was one hundred and twenty thousand pounds. this was telford's chef-d'?uvre. but the same neighbourhood was destined to see a more stupendous structure span the strait from the welsh shore to anglesey. this was the tubular railway bridge, connecting the london and holyhead line, within view of telford's elegant suspension bridge. this was erected by robert stephenson, from his own design, greatly improved by suggestions from william fairbairn of manchester. it was completed in october, 1850, at a cost of six hundred and twenty-five thousand eight hundred and sixty-five pounds. further description of this great work is not proper here, as it belongs to a later date, but it seemed fit to mention it in passing, as an evidence of the progress of the engineering science in the reign of victoria.

great improvements were made during this reign in the harbours, especially by telford and rennie. telford's harbour work in scotland we have already mentioned; rennie's formations or improvements of harbours were at ramsgate, london, hull, and sheerness; he also built the bell rock lighthouse, on the same principle as the eddystone lighthouse, built by smeaton,[194] a self-taught engineer, just before the accession of george iii.

the mechanical invention, however, destined to produce the most extraordinary revolution in social life was that of railways, which during this reign were progressing towards the point where, combined with the steam-engine, they were to burst forth into an activity and strength astonishing to the whole world. tram-roads—that is, roads with lines of smooth timber for the wheels of waggons to run upon—had been in use in the newcastle collieries for a century before. in 1767, at the coalbrook dale iron works, iron plates were substituted for wood, and by this simple scheme one horse could, with ease, draw as much as ten on an ordinary road. in 1776 iron flanges, or upright edges, were used at the collieries of the duke of norfolk, near sheffield, and after this time they became common at all collieries, both above and below ground. in 1801 an iron railway, by a joint-stock company, was opened from wandsworth to croydon. three years before iron railways had been introduced to convey the slates from lord penrhyn's quarries, in carnarvonshire, to the menai strait for shipment, and they were attached to canals for the conveyance of goods to and from them. at the end of this reign there were two hundred and twenty-five miles of iron railroads in the neighbourhood of newcastle-on-tyne, and upwards of three hundred miles in the single county of glamorgan.

before the termination of the reign there were active preparations for putting steam-engines on all iron railroads. so early as 1758, watt, who afterwards did so much in the construction of steam-engines, had an idea that locomotive engines might be put on such roads. in 1770 such an engine was actually made and worked by john theophilus cugnot, in paris, but he had not discovered sufficient means of controlling it. in 1802 messrs. trevethick and vivian exhibited such an engine running along the streets in london. in 1805 the same gentlemen again exhibited one of their engines working on a tram-road at merthyr tydvil, drawing ten tons of iron at the rate of five miles an hour; and in 1811 mr. blenkinsop was running an engine on the middleton colliery, near leeds, drawing a hundred tons on a dead level at the rate of three and a half miles an hour, and going at the rate of ten miles when only lightly loaded. blenkinsop had made the wheels of his engines to act by cogs on indented rails; for there was a strong persuasion at that period that the friction of plain wheels on plain rails would not be sufficient to enable the engine to progress with its load. the folly of this idea had already been shown on all the colliery lines in the kingdom, and by the engine of trevethick and vivian at merthyr. the fallacy, however, long prevailed. but during this time thomas gray was labouring to convince the public of the immense advantages to be derived from steam trains on railways. in five editions of his work, and by numerous memorials to ministers, parliament, lord mayors, etc., he showed that railroads must supersede coaches for passengers, and waggons and canals for goods. he was the first projector of a general system of railroads, laid down maps for comprehensive general lines for both england and ireland, invented turn-tables, and very accurately calculated the cost of constructing lines. for these services he was termed a madman, and the edinburgh review recommended that he should be secured in a strait jacket. in his "life of george stephenson" dr. smiles takes exception to the statement that thomas gray was the originator of railways, and transfers that term to stephenson. let us be correct; gray was the projector, stephenson the constructor of railways. but it is not to be supposed that gray had sold five editions of his work without stephenson, and perhaps every engineer, having read and profited by it. yet, so little had stephenson any idea of the real scope and capacity of railways, that it was not till five years after the running of his engines on such lines, by dr. smiles's own showing, that he ever imagined such a thing as their becoming the general medium of human transit. he tells us mr. edward pease suggested to him to put an old long coach on the darlington and stockton line, attached to the luggage trucks, and see if people might not wish to travel by it. gray had demonstrated all this long before. he stood in the place of the architect, stephenson only of the builder who carries out the architect's design. seven years only after the death of george iii. the railway line between manchester and liverpool was commenced, and from its successful opening, on the 15th of september, 1830, dates the amazing development of the present railway system.

the earliest idea of a steam-engine was that given by the marquis of worcester, in his "century of inventions," in 1663, which idea he obtained from de caus, and reduced to action in london. the next step was to papin's digester, and then to savery's so-called "atmospheric engine." this, improved by newcomen in 1711,[195] was introduced to drain mines in all parts of the kingdom, but especially in the coal-mines of the north and midland counties, and the copper mines of cornwall. by its means many mines long disused through the accumulation of water were drained and made workable, and others were sunk much deeper. smeaton, in 1769, greatly improved this engine, which, from its rapid working of a horizontal beam, was called by the miners a "whimsey," as having a whimsical look. watt, then a student in the university of glasgow, commenced a series of experiments upon it, which, between 1759 and 1782, raised the engine to a pitch of perfection which made it applicable not only to draining water out of mines, but, by the discovery of the rotatory motion, enabled it to propel any kind of machinery, spin cotton, grind in mills of all kinds, and propel ships and carriages. watt was greatly aided in his efforts by mr. matthew boulton, and their engines were manufactured at soho works, near birmingham. they did not, however, enjoy the fruits of their patents for protecting their inventions without many most unprincipled attempts to invade their rights by masters of mines and others, by which they were involved in very harassing law-suits. the first application of the steam-engine to the machinery of a cotton-mill was at papplewick, in nottinghamshire, in 1785, and the first mill built for the employment of machinery driven by an engine was in manchester, in 1789. the first application of the engine to propel a vessel was at dalswinton, on the clyde, in 1788, the boat being constructed by patrick miller, james taylor, and william symington. in the following year these inventors made a second experiment on the forth and clyde canal at the carron works, with perfect success, the vessel going at the rate of nearly seven miles an hour. symington was probably the real machinist in this firm, and in 1802 he made a tug-boat on the forth and clyde canal, under the patronage of lord dundas, which was worked extremely well by its engine. in 1807 fulton followed up these experiments by launching a steam-boat on the hudson, in america, after having in vain solicited the patronage of the british and french governments for his enterprise. the proposal of fulton, submitted to the academy of paris, was received with a burst of laughter, and napoleon abandoned the project in deep disgust at having been, as he supposed, made a dupe of by fulton. we have pointed out on the preceding page the period of the first application of the steam-engine to railways.

by the marvellous aids of canals and steam-engines manufacturing power became most immensely augmented in all directions, but especially in the spinning and weaving of cotton goods. the machines invented by wyatt and paul in 1733, and improved by arkwright in 1767, if not invented anew, without knowledge of wyatt and paul's plan of spinning by rollers—a moot point; the spinning-jenny with seven spindles, invented by james hargreaves, a weaver near blackburn, in 1767; and the mule-jenny, combining the working of the machines of arkwright and hargreaves, by samuel crompton, in 1779, completely superseded spinning cotton yarn by hand. these machines were first worked by water power, but steam power was used after the steam-engine had been invented; and the growth of cotton-spinning became rapid beyond conception, spreading over all lancashire and the midland counties in a marvellous manner. the cotton-mills of robert peel, in lancashire and staffordshire; of the strutts, at belper, in derbyshire; of dale, at new lanark; of robinson, at papplewick; and arkwright, at cromford, which raised these gentlemen to vast wealth, being only the leviathans amongst swarming concerns of less dimensions.

to these, in 1785, the rev. dr. edmund cartwright introduced a loom for weaving by water or steam power, which soon superseded hand-loom weaving. in 1803 mr. h. horrocks greatly improved this, and from this germ has grown up the system of weaving cottons, silks, and woollens by machinery. add to this the application of similar machinery to calico-printing, and the like to weaving of lace, invented by robert frost, of nottingham, or by a working mechanic of that town named holmes, which afterwards received many improvements, and we have the varied means by which the manufacturing power of england was raised far above that of all the world; and which, reaching other countries in spite of legislative impediments, soon established similar manufactures in france, belgium, germany, switzerland, and america. in great britain alone the importation of raw cotton was increased from 4,764,589 lbs. in 1771 to 151,000,000 lbs. in 1818; and such was the spread of trade of all kinds from the use of machinery, that our exports of manufactured goods in 1800, when the european nations were incapacitated for manufacturing by napoleon's general embargo, amounted to ￡116,000,000.

almost every other manufacture shared in this surprising impulse from machinery and the[196] spirit of invention. it was an age of new creations and of unprecedented energies. in 1763 josiah wedgwood, of the staffordshire potteries, commenced that career of improvement in the biscuit, form, and printing of porcelain which constituted a new era in the art. at that time the french fine pottery was so much superior to the english that it was extensively imported. in fact, it was a period when taste in every department of art was at the lowest ebb. wedgwood, being a good chemist, not only improved the body of his earthenware, but, being a man of classical taste, introduced a grace and elegance of form before unknown to british pottery. he invented a new kind of composition so hard and marble-like that it resisted both fire and acids; and in this he moulded statuettes, cameos, and medallions from the greek originals, of great beauty. sir william hamilton having brought over from italy a quantity of antique vases, etc., wedgwood benefited by them to introduce fresh forms and colouring in his wares, and probably on this account called his pottery-works etruria. he had the aid of mr. chisholm, a practical chemist, in his researches into the best composition and colours for his porcelain, and his improvements laid the foundation of the great pottery trade of staffordshire.

many improvements were made also in the glass manufacture during this reign, and more would undoubtedly have been made but for the very heavy duties upon it to help to support the ruinous wars of the period. in 1760, the first year of the reign, crown glass is said to have been introduced. in 1763 the first glass plates for looking-glasses and coach-windows were made at lambeth. in 1779 flint-glass was first made; and about that time plate-glass. the duties on different kinds of glass at that date were about one hundred and forty thousand pounds per annum. so oppressive were those duties that, in 1785, the st. helens plate-glass company petitioned parliament, stating that, in consequence of the weight of taxation, notwithstanding an expenditure of one hundred thousand pounds, they had not been able to declare a dividend.

the introduction of the steam-engine, railroads, and canals enabled the coal-miners during this reign to extend the supply of coals enormously. in 1792 the coal-mines of durham and northumberland alone maintained twenty-six thousand two hundred and fifty persons, and employed a capital of three million one hundred and thirty thousand pounds—a very small amount of both people and money as compared with the workers and capital engaged in the trade since the expansion of the manufacturing and steam systems. the coal-fields of durham and northumberland extend to nearly eight hundred square miles, but the beds in northumberland, durham, yorkshire, the midland counties, south of scotland, and ireland, are still immense and not yet fully explored. fresh strata are discovered as steam power enables us to go deeper. in 1817 sir humphry davy perfected his safety-lamp, which, by means of a simple wire gauze, enabled the miner to work amid the most explosive gases. these lamps, however, were not able to protect the colliers from their own carelessness, and most horrible destruction, from time to time, took place amongst them from neglect.

with the reign of george iii. commenced a series of improvements in the manufacture of iron, which have led not only to a tenfold production of that most useful of metals, but to changes in its quality which before were inconceivable. towards the end of the reign of george ii. the destruction of the forests in smelting iron-ore was so great as to threaten their extinction, and with it the manufacture of iron in britain. many manufacturers had already transferred their businesses to russia, where wood was abundant and cheap. it was then found that coke made from coal was a tolerable substitute for charcoal, and, in 1760, the very first year of the reign of george iii., the proprietors of the carron works in scotland began the use of pit-coal. through the scientific aid of smeaton and watt, they applied water-, and afterwards steam-power, to increase the blast of their furnaces to make it steady and continuous, instead of intermitting as from bellows; and they increased the height of their chimneys. by these means, dr. john roebuck, the founder of these works, became the first to produce pig iron by the use of coal. this gave great fame to the carron works, and they received large orders from government for cannon and cannon-balls. it was some time, however, before enough iron could be produced to meet the increasing demand for railroads, iron bridges, etc.; and so late as 1781 fifty thousand tons were imported annually from russia and sweden.

the employment of pit-coal had not reached perfection, and in 1785 the society of arts offered a premium for the making of fine bar iron with pit-coal. this object was accomplished by mr. cort, an iron-founder of gloucestershire, by exposing the pig iron on the hearth of a reverberatory furnace to the flame of pit-coal. this process was improved into what was called puddling, in puddling or reverberatory furnaces. cort also introduced the drawing out of iron between cylindrical rollers; but he became ruined in his experiments, and other iron-masters of more capital came in to reap the profit. many years passed before a pension was conferred on some of his children for his services. in 1755 the whole population of carron was only one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four; in 1795 the workmen alone employed in the works were one thousand, the population four thousand, when the foundry had five blast furnaces, sixteen air furnaces, three cupola furnaces, and consumed one hundred and thirty-six tons of coals daily. it supplied to the government eleven thousand tons annually of cannon, mortars, shot, shells, etc.; to the east india company six thousand tons; and to all customers together twenty-six thousand tons. the growth of the iron trade in great britain, through these improvements, may be seen from the fact that in 1802 there were one hundred and sixty-eight blast furnaces, producing two hundred and twenty thousand tons of iron; in 1820 the annual production of iron was four hundred thousand tons; in 1845 the production was calculated at twice that amount—that is, in twenty-five years the production had doubled itself. in 1771 the use of wire ropes, instead of hempen ones, was suggested by m. bougainville, and this was made a fact by captain brown, in 1811. before this, in 1800, mr. mushet, of glasgow, discovered the art of converting malleable iron, or iron ore, into cast steel; and in 1804 samuel lucas, of sheffield, further extended the benefit by the discovery of a mode[198] of converting any castings from pig iron at once into malleable iron, or cast steel, so that knives, forks, snuffers, scythes, and all kinds of articles, were converted into steel, "without any alterative process whatever between the blast furnace and the melting-pot." in 1815 it was calculated that two hundred thousand persons were employed in manufacturing articles of iron, the annual value of which was ten million pounds.

with the war the manufacture of guns and arms of all kinds was greatly increased, and several important improvements were made in the construction of gun-barrels and their breeches. all kinds of cutlery were improved, but, at the same time, both government, by contractors, and foreign countries, by merchants, were imposed on by articles that had more show than use, to the serious injury of the british reputation. knives and razors were sent out of mere iron, and our pioneers and sappers and miners were often supplied with axes, picks, and shovels more resembling lead than iron.

great attention during this reign was devoted to the manufacturing of clocks and watches. to such eminence had the english manufacture of watches arrived, that in 1799 it was calculated that the value of watches and marine chronometers alone manufactured in and around london amounted to a million of money yearly. in 1762 john harrison claimed the reward offered by act of parliament for a chronometer which would ascertain the longitude within sixty, forty, or thirty miles. for the least accurate of these the reward was ten thousand pounds, for the next more accurate fifteen thousand pounds, and for the best twenty thousand pounds. harrison produced a chronometer which, after two voyages to the west indies, entitled him to the highest prize, but a fresh act of parliament was passed, refusing him more than two thousand five hundred pounds until he had made known the principle of his invention, and assigned his chronometer for the public use. even when these new terms were complied with he was only to receive ten thousand pounds, and the remainder on the correctness of the chronometer having been sufficiently tested. harrison very justly complained of these new stipulations, and of the delays thus interposed; but in 1767, nine years before his decease, he obtained the full amount of the premium. in 1774 a premium of five thousand pounds was offered by act of parliament for a chronometer that should ascertain the longitude within one degree of a great circle, or sixty geographical miles; seven thousand five hundred pounds for one that would ascertain the longitude within two-thirds of that distance; and ten thousand pounds for one that would ascertain it within half a degree. this called out the efforts of various competitors—harrison, meadge, kendal, coombe, and numbers of others. in 1777 meadge produced two, which were submitted to the test of the astronomer-royal, dr. maskelyne, and pronounced unfavourably upon; but meadge petitioned parliament against this decision, and, on the report of a committee on his chronometers, he was awarded a premium of two thousand five hundred pounds.

in 1783 the english carriage-builders, who had before been considered inferior in elegance to the french makers, began to receive large orders from paris itself. in 1759 walter taylor and son introduced machinery for cutting blocks, sheaves, and pins for ships. saw-mills were also introduced into great britain, in 1767, by mr. dingley, of limehouse.

in the art of printing, the process of stereotyping (originally invented by william ged) was re-invented by mr. tulloch, in 1780. in 1801 lithography was introduced into england from germany, but was not much used till mr. ackermann began to employ it, in 1817. in 1814 steam was first applied to printing in the times office.

the art of coining received, like other things, a new facility and perfection from the application of the steam-engine. messrs. boulton and watt, at the soho works, set up machinery, in 1788, which rolled out the metal, cut out the blanks, or circular pieces, shook them in bags to take off the rough edges, and stamped the coins—in higher perfection than ever before attained—at the rate of from thirty to forty thousand per hour.

to this prolific reign belongs also the discovery of coal-gas. in 1792 william murdoch, an engineer, lighted his own house with it in redruth, in cornwall. the same gentleman illuminated the soho works of messrs. boulton and watt with it at the peace of amiens, in 1802; and in the year 1804 some of the cotton mills in manchester began to use it. in 1807 it was used in golden lane, in london; in 1809 mr. winsor, a german, lit up pall mall with it; and in 1813 the first chartered gas company was established in london, and gas soon spread through all the large towns.

in astronomy, herschel discovered the planet uranus in 1781; in 1802 he published, in the "philosophical transactions," his catalogue of five[199] hundred new nebul? and nebulous stars; and in 1803 announced his discovery of the motion of double stars round each other. in chemistry, sir humphry davy, in 1807, extracted their metallic bases from the fixed alkalies; in 1808 demonstrated the same fact as it regarded the alkaline earths; in 1811 discovered the true nature of chlorine; in 1815 invented his safety lamp; and in 1817 (as already mentioned) brought it to perfection. in 1804 leslie published discoveries of the nature and properties of heat; in 1808 dalton announced his atomic theory; and in 1814 wollaston completed its development and proof.

amongst the fine arts, the first to which we direct attention, that is, music, was warmly patronised by the royal family, and therefore maintained the status which it had acquired in the last reign, though it produced no great original genius. church music continued to be cultivated, and the anthems of kent, published in 1773, and those of nares, published in 1778, were of much merit. to these we may add the services and anthems of doctors hayes, dupuis, arnold, cooke, ayrton, and of mr. battishill. the "shunamite woman," an oratorio by arnold, appeared at a later date, as well as the anthems and services of dr. whitfield.

in the early part of the reign the english operas of augustine arne, "artaxerxes" and "love in a village"—the former principally a translation from metastasio—were much admired. for the rest, there were numbers of lovers and professors of the art, both in sacred, operatic, and glee music. the catch club was formed in 1761, and zealously supported, as well as the concerts of ancient music in 1776. under the patronage of this society, and particularly of his majesty, took place the celebrated handel "commemoration" in westminster abbey, in may and june of 1784. during the early part of the reign, too, appeared several distinguished works in this department. at the head of these stood the "histories of music," by sir john hawkins and dr. burney; dibdin's "musical tour;" dr. john browne's "dissertation on poetry and music;" the "letters" of jackson, of exeter; and mason's "essays on church music." in the later portion of the reign there was much love of music, but little original composition, except for the stage, where arnold, shield, storace, and dibdin produced the most delightful compositions. arnold's "castle of andalusia," "inkle and yarico," "the surrender of calais," and "the mountaineers;" and shield's "rosina," "the poor soldier," "the woodman," and "the farmer," are universally admired. the sea songs of charles dibdin are as imperishable as the british navy, to which they have given a renown of its own. he wrote about one thousand four hundred songs, thirty dramatic pieces, "a musical tour," and a "history of the stage," and was allowed, after all, to die in deep poverty, after charming the world for half a century. during the latter part of the reign music was in much esteem, and musical meetings in various parts of the country—in london, the opera, ancient concerts, and performances by foreign composers, such as handel's "messiah," beethoven's "mount of olives," mozart's opera of "don giovanni," etc.—were flocked to, but little native genius appeared.

during this reign architecture was in a state of transition, or, rather, revolution, running through the palladian, the roman, the greek, and into the gothic, with a rapidity which denoted the unsettled ideas on the subject. at the commencement of the reign james paine and john carr were the prevailing architects. worksop manor, since pulled down, and keddlestone, in derbyshire, were the work of paine; but robert adam, an advocate for a roman style, completed keddlestone. carr built harewood house, and others of a like character, chiefly remarkable for grecian porticos attached to buildings of no style whatever. the woods, of bath, employed a spurious grecian style in the crescent in that city, queen's square, the pounds, etc., which, however, acquired a certain splendour by their extent and tout ensemble. to these succeeded robert taylor, the architect of the bank of england and other public buildings, in a manner half italian, half roman. sir william chambers, of more purely italian taste, has left us somerset house as a noble specimen of his talent. robert and james adam erected numerous works in the semi-roman semi-italian style, as caenwood house, at highgate, portland place, and the screen at the admiralty. in portland place robert adam set the example of giving the space necessary for a great metropolis. james wyatt, who succeeded chambers as surveyor-general in 1800, destined to leave extensive traces of his art, commenced his career by the erection of the pantheon, london, in the classical style, and then took up the gothic style, which had begun to have its admirers, and in which james essex had already distinguished himself by his restoration of the lantern of ely cathedral, and in other works at cambridge. wyatt was employed to restore some[200] of the principal colleges at oxford, and to do the same work for the cathedral of salisbury and windsor castle. in these he showed that he had penetrated to a certain extent into the principles of that order of architecture, but was far from having completely mastered them. a greater failure was his erection of fonthill abbey, for beckford, the author of "vathek," where he made a medley of half an abbey, half a castle, with a huge central church tower, so little based on the knowledge of the gothic architects that in a few years the tower fell. wyatt, however, was a man of enterprising genius. co-temporary with wyatt, george dance made a much less happy attempt in gothic in the front of guildhall, london; but he built newgate and st. luke's hospital in a very appropriate style. one of the most elegant erections at this period was the italian opera house, by a foreigner, novosielsky, in 1789. nor must we omit here the publication of john gwynn's "london and westminster improved," in 1766, by which he led the way to the extensive opening up of narrow streets, and throwing out of fresh bridges, areas, and thoroughfares, which have been since realised, or which are still in progress.

sir john soane, who had been a pupil of dance, holland, and sir william chambers, introduced a more purely greek style, and his achievements may be seen in dulwich gallery and trinity church, marylebone. the most eminent disciples of this school were william wilkins and sir robert smirke. wilkins was a servile copyist, and the national gallery is the chief monument of his skill, or want of it. sir robert smirke was of a higher order, and his erection of covent garden theatre, the mint, the post office, the college of physicians, the law courts at gloucester, lowther castle, etc., speak for themselves. nash, the contemporary and successor of these architects, has left us abundance of his gr?co-romano-italian medleys in the church in langham place, regent's park, and buckingham palace. the great merit of nash was, that, like the brothers adam, he gave us space, and showed, as in regent's park, what was needed for an immense metropolis. towards the end[201] of the reign gothic architecture was more cultivated, and one of wyatt's last works was ashridge house, in buckinghamshire, a vast and stately gothic pile, imposing in general effect, but far from pure in style. still less so was eaton hall, in cheshire, built by william pordon; but the real anglo-gothic was now receiving the true development of its principles by the works of james bentham, carter, john britton; and, finally, thomas rickman, in 1816, published his "attempt to discriminate the styles of english architecture," which placed these principles perspicuously before the public.

under sir joshua reynolds a perfect revolution in the art of painting, as practised in england, was effected. he threw aside past traditional fashions, and returned to nature; and his portraits at once excited the consternation of the painters of the day, and placed him in the very first rank of artists. in 1768 was established the royal academy, and amongst its foreign members were benjamin west and angelica kauffmann. west produced all his great works in england, and, however much they may now be criticised, they showed an advance on past art in england, and had the merit of introducing modern costume for modern heroes, as in the "death of general wolfe," contrary to the advice of even reynolds himself. barry made a spasmodic attempt to lead the public back to what he deemed the classical, but in vain; and the successive appearance of wilson, gainsborough, and opie, in different styles, but all genuinely english, established the public in its attachment to the true english school. wilson, during his lifetime, indeed, was neglected, and died in poverty; but the next generation made the amende to his fame, though too late for his own enjoyment of it. to[202] paul sandby we owe the origin of the water-colour school, which afterwards grew so extensive and so rich in production. amongst eminent painters of this portion of the reign we must mention wright of derby, mortimer, stubbs and sawrey, animal painters, and copley, who, though an american by birth, produced most of his works in england.

of water-colour painters who extended the fame of the school were payne, cozens, glover, girtin, and turner; but turner soon deserted water for oil. in 1804 the water-colour society was established, and turner was not amongst its numbers, having already gone over to oil-painting; but there were varley, barrett, hills, rigaud, and pocock. wild and pugin were exhibitors of architectural drawings at its exhibitions. afterwards came francia, westall, uwins, de wint, mackenzie, copley fielding, robson, prout, gandy, and bonington. in their rear, but extending beyond the reign, appeared a brilliant host.

in general art the names of fuseli, northcote, and stothard stand eminent, and were the foremost contributors to alderman boydell's celebrated shakespeare gallery. there were also hoppner, beechey, morland; in scotland, sir william allan and sir henry raeburn. in caricature gillray was a worthy successor to hogarth.

in 1805 a great step in british painting was made by the establishment of the british institution; and in 1813 this institution opened the national gallery. the annual exhibitions soon became enriched by the consummate works of hilton, etty, haydon, briggs, sir thomas lawrence (in elegant portraits), phillips, shee, carpenter, harlow, wilkie, mulready, turner, calcot, collins, landseer, martin, danby, howard, cooper, leslie, and hone. no age in england had produced so illustrious a constellation of painters, as varied in character as they were masterly in artistic power.

the art of sculpture, like that of painting, took a new spring in this reign, but the early part of it was encumbered by the tasteless works of wilton, read, and taylor. it remained for the genius of banks, nollekens, bacon, baily, behnes, and chantrey, to place sculpture on its proper elevation in england.

to the art of engraving woollett and strange gave a first-rate eminence, and were successfully followed by browne, byrne, rosker, and major. in mezzotint m. ardell admirably rendered the portraits of sir joshua reynolds; and smith, green, thomas, and watson also excelled in this class of engraving. in engravings for books heath and angus stand pre-eminent; and boydell's "shakespeare" spread the taste, though his illustrations were chiefly done in the inferior style of dot engraving. in line engraving the names of sharp, sherwin, fittler, anker smith, neagle, lowry, turrell, scott, and others, are of high repute. in landscape engraving no names, in the middle period of the reign, stood more prominent than those of middiman, watt, angus, milton, pouncey, peak, and taylor.

there arose a second school of mezzotint engravers, the chief of whom were earlom, reynolds, daniell, sutherland, and westall. the strange but intellectual blake was both painter and his own engraver, in a style of his own. towards the end of the reign flourished, chiefly in architectural illustrations, le keux, john and henry, pupils of bazire, roffe, ransom, and scott; in landscape, william and george cooke, william and edward finden, byrne, and pye; in portrait, charles and james heath, john taylor, skelton, burnet, bromley, robinson, warren, and lewis.

in wood engraving, thomas bewick, of newcastle-on-tyne, revived the art, and threw such fascination into it by the exquisite tail-pieces in his "natural history," that his name will always be associated with this style of engraving.

of the coinage of this reign little is to be said. it was of the most contemptible character till boulton and watt, as already mentioned, struck the copper pence in 1797 in a superior style. in 1818 was issued a gold and silver coinage, which was entrusted to a foreign artist, pistrucci, and which was turned out of very unequal merit. flaxman would have produced admirable designs, and there was a medallist of high talent, thomas wyon, who would have executed these designs most ably. in fact, the best part of the silver coinage was produced by wyon, from the designs of pistrucci.

in the early portion of the reign the manners and customs differed little from those described in the preceding one. there was great dissipation, and even coarseness of manners, amongst the nobility and gentry. it was the custom to drink to intoxication at dinners, and swearing still garnished the language of the wealthy as well as of the low. balls, routs, the opera, the theatre, with vauxhall and ranelagh, filled up the time of the fashionable, and gaming was carried to an extraordinary extent. amongst our leading statesmen charles fox was famous for this habit. duelling was equally common, and infidelity amongst fashionable people was of[203] notorious prevalence. george iii. and his queen did what they could to discourage this looseness of morals, and to set a different example; but the decorum of the court was long in passing into the wealthy classes around it. an affluent middle class was fast mingling with the old nobility, and this brought some degree of sobriety and public decency with it. amongst the lower classes dog-, cock-, and bull-fights were, during a great part of the reign, the chief amusements, and the rudest manners continued to prevail, because there was next to no education. wesley, whitefield, and their followers, were the first to break into this condition of heathenism. robberies and murders abounded both in town and country, and the police was of a very defective character. for the most part there was none but the parish constable. the novels of fielding and smollett are pictures of the rudeness and profligacy of these times. the resources in the country of books and newspapers were few, and the pot-house supplied the necessary excitement. the clergy were of a very low tone, or were non-resident, and the farmers, getting rich, aped the gentlemen, followed the hounds, and ended the day with a carouse.

gradually, however, a more refined tone was diffusing itself. the example of the head of the nation had not been without its effect. the higher classes abandoned ranelagh and vauxhall to the middle and lower classes, if they did not abandon their theatre, opera, and rout. but the theatres, too, became more decorous, and the spread of what had been called methodism began to reach the higher classes through such men as wilberforce, and such women as the countess of huntingdon and hannah more. the most palpable drawback to this better state of sentiment and manners was the profligacy of the prince of wales and his associates. but towards the end of the reign a decided improvement in both manners and morals had taken place. the momentous events passing over the world, and in which great britain had the principal agency, seemed to have rooted out much frivolity, and given a soberer and higher tone to the public mind. the spread of a purer and more humane literature baptised the community with a new and better spirit; art added its refinements, and religion its restraints. the efforts to introduce education amongst the people had begun, and the lowest amusements of dog-fighting, cock-fighting, and bull-baiting were discouraged and put down. the new birth of science, art, literature, and manufactures was accompanied by a new birth of morals, taste, and sentiment, and this, happily, was a true birth; and the growth of what was then born has been proceeding ever since.

in the opening of the reign the gentlemen retained the full-skirted coat, with huge cuffs, the cocked-hats and knee-breeches of the former period. pigtails were universal, and the more foppish set up their hair in a high peak, like the women. the ladies had their hair turned up on frames half a yard high, and this hairy mountain was ornamented with strings of pearls or diamonds, or surmounted with a huge cap edged with lace. they wore their waists as long as possible, with a peaked stomacher, and hanging sleeves of mecklenburg lace. their gowns were of the richest silks, satins, and brocades, their skirts flowing; and the fan was an indispensable article.

in the army the cocked-hat and pigtail at first prevailed, but these were soon dismissed, as well as the great jack-boots of the cavalry. with the employment of the hessian soldiers in the american war, and afterwards on the continent, there prevailed amongst english gentlemen the hessian boot; instead of the queue, cropped hair and close-fitting small hats became the vogue. powdering became profuse, both amongst ladies and gentlemen, till pitt taxed it, when it vanished, except from the heads of particularly positive old gentlemen and servants.

during the french war, when the paris fashions were intercepted, much variety in the fashion of dress took place amongst both gentlemen and ladies; but before the peace had arrived the most tasteless costumes had become general, and the waists of both sexes were elevated nearly to their shoulders. the tight skirts and short waists of the ladies gave them the most uncouth aspect imaginable; and the cut-away coats and chimneypot hats of the gentlemen were by no means more graceful. the military costume had undergone an equally complete revolution, and with no better success.

the changes in furniture were not remarkable. during the french war a rage for furniture on the classic model had taken place; but on the return of peace paris fashions were restored. rosewood superseded mahogany, and a more easy and luxurious style of sofa and couch was adopted. there came also pembroke tables, argand lamps, register stoves, venetian and spring blinds, a variety of ladies' work-tables and whatnots; and a more tasteful disposition of curtains and ornamental articles purchased on the continent.