Little Arthur's history of England

As King George the Fourth left no child to succeed him, his brothers were the next heirs to the throne. The Duke of York, the second son of George the Third, died three years before George the Fourth, and left no child; so William Henry, Duke of Clarence, the third son of George the Third, now mounted the throne. William the Fourth, who had been brought up as a sailor, was at this time sixty-four years old; he was married to an excellent German Princess, named Adelaide of Saxe Meiningen, and he had had two daughters, but they both died in early infancy.

This reign was a short one, but several important changes took place in it, one of which was the passing of the Bill for a reform in the House of Commons. You know how it was settled by King Edward the First that all the large towns, which in his reign were called burghs, should choose one or two persons to go to Parliament and help to make the law. This was nearly six hundred years ago; and since that time a great many little hamlets and villages had grown into large towns, and a great many of the old burghs had dwindled away until only a few houses were left in them, or even none. The people, who were now living in the towns that had grown so large, thought it very hard not to be able to send members to Parliament to tell what was wanted in their towns; and they also thought it was useless for the little burghs, where only a few people lived, to continue sending members. So it was proposed that the large towns or boroughs should be allowed to send members to the House of Commons, according to the number of people in each town, and that the little decayed towns should leave off sending members. This new plan was called the “Reform Bill.” It was talked over a long time in Parliament before it was agreed to; for, although there were a great many people who wished for the change, there were many others who thought it would be dangerous to the welfare of Old England, and both sides had to tell all their reasons for what they thought. At last it was put to the vote whether the Bill should pass or not; and as the greatest number were for making the change, the Bill became law. But I shall have to tell you of another Reform of Parliament under Queen Victoria.

Nearly the next thing that was done was to put an end to slavery in all the colonies belonging to England. A good man, named William Wilberforce, had tried to do this many years ago, in George the Third’s reign; but it was not an easy thing to do, because all those persons who had large estates in the colonies, and who had bought slaves to cultivate the land, had paid a great deal of money for their slaves; and the masters were afraid they should be ruined if the slaves were set free, as there would be no one to sow and dig their fields.

There is no doubt the Parliament and people of England acted wisely in wiping away so great a disgrace as slavery is; and in order to do this with justice they paid a very large sum of money—twenty millions of pounds. When this was at last done, the slaves were made free.

There was a very sudden revolution in France at the beginning of this reign. It only lasted three days, and was called the “Three Days’ Revolution.” Charles the Tenth, the King of France, was expelled, and came over to this country; his cousin Louis Philippe was then chosen by the French people to be their king, and was called the King of the French.

The example of France was followed in Belgium, a country which had been joined to Holland, so as to make but one kingdom, over which the Dutch king reigned. The Belgians fought hard, and succeeded in completely driving away the Dutch; after which they invited Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg to be their king. Although Prince Leopold would not be King of Greece, he accepted the kingdom of Belgium; and he afterwards married the Princess Louise, daughter of Louis Philippe, the new King of the French. He reigned a long time and wisely, and was succeeded by his son, Leopold the Second.

I will now tell you of some improvements that were made in this reign, the principal of which is perhaps the forming of railways. The first that was opened in England was one between Liverpool and Manchester; and it was a very useful one. You know that the people at Manchester weave great quantities of cotton; so much, indeed, that the town is full of factories, where thousands of spinners and weavers are constantly at work. After the railway was opened, the work went on faster than ever, for as soon as the raw cotton arrived in bales from America to Liverpool, it was sent off by rail to Manchester; and as fast as it was spun and woven at Manchester, a great deal was sent back by rail to Liverpool, to be shipped off to America and other parts of the world. This kept a great many people at work, and as this railway seemed to do so much good, railways were very soon carried from one end of Britain to the other.

Amongst the sad events of this reign, may be mentioned the appearance of the cholera in England, and a great fire which destroyed the Houses of Parliament at Westminster.

William the Fourth died, after a reign of seven years, at the age of seventy-one; and his widowed queen, who then became Queen Dowager, survived him about twelve years, when she died, much loved and respected by the English people.