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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 1236: CONTINENTAL AFFAIRS.
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

CONTINENTAL AFFAIRS.

France this year was engaged in a war with the Emperor of Morocco, over whose forces the French troops triumphed on the banks of the river Isly on the 14th of August. The result of this battle was a treaty between the two countries, in which the Emperor of Morocco engaged to prevent troops from assembling on his frontiers for the invasion of Algeria. During the autumn, Louis Philippe and the Emperor of Russia paid a visit to Queen Victoria, and stayed a few days in England, where they were treated with all due honours. In Spain the civil war which had so long convulsed the nation was ended; but it was succeeded by a state of doubtful tranquillity, and isolated insurrections broke out in various parts of the country, which were only put down by force of arms. The same fate awaited Portugal: there was a revolt of troops at Torres Novas, headed by Count Bomfin; but the rebels having shut themselves up in Almeida, that place was invested with government troops, and finally surrendered, the leader of the insurrection taking refuge in flight. In Greece the most important event was the framing of a constitutional charter by the National Assembly, consisting of one hundred and seven articles, which was signed and ratified, after some hesitation, by King Otho. During this year the King of Prussia narrowly escaped assassination at Ischl by the Burgomaster Tschech, who fired two shots from a double-barrelled pistol in quick succession against the carriage. In the early part of the year a conference took place at Vienna of plenipotentiaries from the different German states to frame measures to secure themselves by all the means in their power against the slightest change in the existing order of things, which at this time were threatened by a formidable parly, in the different states hostile to all authority. In Sweden this j’ear witnessed the death of Bernadotte, the king of that country, the most permanently successful of all the generals who took part in the French revolution. Although of obscure birth and a foreigner, he was called upon to wear the crown of Sweden by the unanimous voice of the nation; and he so identified himself with their interests, that he reigned in peace and died universally beloved by his subjects. In Switzerland disturbances took place this year in the Valais and at Lucerne: but order and tranquillity were quickly restored by the federal troops of that country.