PREFACE. HE History of the Reign of George III. is pregnant with the most momentous himself to his Maker and his fellow-man ; in which respect for every tie of relationship, every feeling of humanity, was cast to the winds, and a great nation, drunk with blood, and mad with every evil passion and lust that can agitate the breast of man, dared to depose the Supreme Being Himself from his place as the object of their worship, and to set up in His stead- -as if in the grimmest satire-the personification of that very Human Reason whose principles they had so amazingly outraged. We shall see in the course of this volume how the evil poison of the French Revolution extended even to our own country, in which at one time it threatened to bear dangerous fruit, had it not been happily arrested in time by the wisdom and vigilance of our rulers. Still, this period was to our country one of extreme peril and unfortunate consequences. While the nations of the European Continent had been worshipping but a marred and mutilated image of Liberty and Free Thought, a truer idea of these great principles had been growing in the breasts of our colonists on the other side of the Atlantic. It will be seen in these pages through what a series of errors, well-intentioned though they might have been, these possessions, which we had prized so highly, were alienated from the British Crown, and having shaken off the dominion of their mother country by a series of splendid successes in the field, and feeling themselves strong enough to walk alone, began their glorious career as the great republic of the United States of North America. But the troubles of England were not confined to the American war. A mistaken policy of interference with the affairs of the French nation, the cause of whose exiled dynasty we had chosen to espouse, involved this nation in the horrors of a Continental War, which lasted far on into the next century, failing, after all, of its original object, and in which the splendid victories gained by our forces, both by land and sea, scarcely half compensated the country for the prodigious loss of blood and treasure, and the crippling of her commerce, which she had to undergo. In fact, two great mistakes marked the policy of the English Government during this reign: they endeavoured to rule our colonies by coercion, and they interfered to force on the French nation a dynasty it had repudiated. In both of these efforts they were eventually foiled, and from these defeats they learned two grand principles of international law-that colonies must be left to govern themselves, if they are to be retained; and that no people has, on any pretence whatever, a right to intrude itself into the domestic affairs of another people. We have closed this volume with a careful and minute picture of the excesses of a nation renouncing Christianity. We shall open the next with the grand error of England in commencing war to replant an impossible dynasty. Monument erected to the memory of the sufferers in the Black Hole, Calcutta Medal struck in commemoration of the Battle of Plassy... Threatened arrest of Wilkes Duel between Wilkes and Martin Kiots on the burning of No. 45 of the North Briton ... Benjamin Franklin. The Printing-office in which he worked, and the House wherein he resided when Agent for Pennsylvania William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, from an authentic portrait The Princess Amelia attempting a reconciliation between George III. and Lord Bute The Stamp Act Riots at Boston, in America... 45 Lord Clive, from an authentic portrait John Wilkes before the Court of King's Bench, April 20th, 1768, from an engraving of the period 1 William Pitt, second Son of the Earl of Chat- 198 199 6 ... Monument to the Earl of Chatham in Westminster Abbey... 7 12 Washington's Camp at Valley Forge ... M. Turgot, from an authentic portrait... 204 205 210 Fancy Ball given in honour of General Howe 211 Types of the Races on the Turkish Bank of the Wintermooth Fort, Valley of Wyoming Admiral Keppel before the Court-martial Siege of Savannah, plan of King George III. and Queen Charlotte at PAGE ... 397 ... 402 403 Danube Ialta, on the Black Sea 405 408 Cossack Horsemen Quay of St. Petersburg A View on the Black Sea 411 The Fortress of Oczakow captured by the 414 234 Arrest of Mirabeau ... 235 View of Pau, birthplace of Henry IV. Marie Antoinette presenting the Dauphin to Attack upon the Bastille by the Revolutionists 276 General View of the ancient City of Paris Modern Paris-The Pont Neuf 486 487 ... 79 97 277 Lord North, from an authentic portrait ... 282 Reception of the Flag of Truce by Washington 283 90 Admiral Sir John Jervis, from an authentic portrait View of Minden, the scene of Lord George Germaine's Disaster ... ... The Boudoir of a Parisian Lady in the last Century 492 Fête of the Federation in the Champ de Mars 493 Louis XVI., from an authentic porti ait 498 289 ... 294 102 103 99 Surrender of the Garrison of Fort St. Philip, Minorca, to the united Forces of France and Spain Shandon Steeple, in Cork City... Washington's House, Mount Vernon, U.S. Jean François Galaup de la Perouse, from an authentic portrait ... 306 The Comte de Grasse surrendering his Sword to Sir Samuel Hood on board the Ville de Paris 307 General View of the Rock, Town, and Fortifications of Gibraltar The Siege of Gibraltar by the allied Forces of France and Spain Portion of the Façade of the Louvre, Paris ... 499 ... 505 Costume of Russian Peasants ... 507 507 295 ... ... 300 A Hindoo Water Seller 301 126 127 Reception of Washington and the American Army in New York 318 ... ... John Adams, first American Ambassador to the English Court, presented to King George III. ... 319 and Saguenay First House erected at Quebec Quebec, 1775 Plan of the Blockade of Boston Old South Church, Boston 133 Thomas Erskine, afterwards Lord Erskine, from an authentic portrait 135 Dunbrody Abbey, near Waterford 138 Meeting of the Irish Volunteers in the Church Death of Montgomery at Quebec Signing the Declaration of American Indepen- Thomas Jefferson, from an authentic portrait 150 Palace in the Fort of Allahabad Futtehpoor, Allahabad ... 337 ... 312 ... 145 The Great Mogul delivering to Lord Clive the right of Dominion over the Provinces of Bengal, Orissa, and Balar View in the Forests of the Gironde Danton, from an authentic portrait Meeting of the National Assembly Lighthouse of Cordovan ... East India House, Leadenhall Street, London 523 Fontenay Vendée, Department of La Vendée 529 Taking the Civic Oath View of Notre Dame from the Seine, Paris Church of St. Jacques de la Boucherie, Paris, 534 540 ... 541 ... 546 ... ... 553 ... 558 ... 559 ... 564 An expelled Priest of the Giroude preaching in the fields... 583 View of Coblentz ... ... 589 Madame de Staël, from an authentic portrait... 594 Tippoo Saib's sons delivered as hostages to the English ... 595 Perspective plan of Seringapatam, indicating severally the British possessions in 1792 and 1799 600 Marriage of II.R.II. the Duke of York, in the Chapel Royal, St. James's ... 601 Wm. Wilberforce, from an authentic portrait 606 Assassination of Gustavus III. by Ankerstrom, at a masked ball "Sans Cullottes" dancing the "Carmagnole." 613 Palace of the Tuileries in the reign of Louis 618 XVI. The populace compelling Louis XVI. to adopt the Red Cap ... ... ... ... ... 571 574 577 582 ... ... ... ... |