The reign of George the Second was disturbed both by foreign and civil war, and by some disputes in his family at home. His eldest son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, married a German princess, and they both lived in London, but they were discontented with the money the king gave them to spend, so they quarrelled with him, and he ordered them to go and live at Kew, and would not do anything kind or good-natured for them. Two children were born to them, one of whom was afterwards King George the Third, but the Prince of Wales died before his father.

I will now tell you about King George’s foreign wars, and keep the story of the civil war to the last for you, because you will like it best, I think.

The Spaniards had built a great many towns in South America; and after they had got possession of the country, and killed many of the people, they took all the gold and silver that was found in the earth there for themselves. They were therefore obliged to have a great many ships to fetch it, and brave soldiers and sailors to guard it as it crossed the seas, and so Spain got more gold and silver than any other country.

But other countries wished for some of the useful things from South America too; and some English merchants wished very much to have several kinds of wood which are useful for dyeing cloth and wool and other things of different colours; but the Spaniards attacked them and ill-used them for trying to cut the wood, and behaved in other respects very ill, so England went to war with Spain.

The war was mostly by sea, and in the course of it the Spaniards were beaten, first by Admiral Vernon, and then by Admirals Hawke, Rowley, Warren, and particularly Anson, though they none of them did all they hoped to do.

Another admiral was very unfortunate. He had to fight a great many ships in the Mediterranean Sea, and because he did not do all that the people of England desired him to do, he was shot when he came to England. His name was Byng. I do not admire this admiral, but I think he was not justly treated.

Besides the Spaniards, George the Second was at war with the French and Bavarians. The Prince of Bavaria had been made Emperor, and tried to make himself King of Bohemia, in the room of the lawful queen, Maria Theresa, and her son, who was an infant. The English and Dutch took Maria Theresa’s part, the French took that of the Prince of Bavaria, and there was a very fierce war on that account, in which the English gained some battles, and lost some others, an account of which would be very tiresome to you, I am sure.

Though upon the whole the French had rather the best of the war in Europe, Lord Clive, who had an army of English in the East Indies, to take care of our merchants and our towns there, beat the French generals, and almost drove the French from India altogether. Some time afterwards the French sent an army under Count Lally to win back their power in India; but Lally was so beaten that the French have never had more than one or two small towns in that part of the world since.

If you look at the map of the world in this place, my dear little Arthur, you will wonder that two countries in Europe, so close together as England and France, should think or sending their soldiers and sailors so far off as India to fight their battles; but you will wonder still more when you learn that, not content with this, they sent other fleets and armies to North America, where they fought till the English conquered the greatest part of all the country that the French ever had in that part of the world. But the greatest victory we gained there was the battle of Quebec, where our brave and good General Wolfe was killed. Some day you will read his life, and then you will wish that all English soldiers could be like him.

We will now think about the civil war in King George the Second’s reign. You remember that in his father’s time the Pretender, whom the Scotch call James the Eighth, came from France to Scotland and thought he could get the kingdom for himself, but he was soon obliged to go back again.

After that he went and lived in Italy, and married a Princess of Poland, and had two sons. The eldest of these was a fine brave young man: the youngest became a clergyman, and the Pope made him a Cardinal; his name was Henry. The eldest, Charles Edward, who was called the Young Chevalier in Scotland and in England the Young Pretender, thought he would try once more to get the kingdom of Great Britain from the Protestant king; so, in spite of the good advice of his true friends, he would go from Italy first to France, and then to Scotland, to make war against King George.

The King of France lent him a ship and a few men and officers, and gave him a little money, for this purpose; and the young prince landed in Scotland, among the highlands, where the people were still fond of his family. In a very short time the highland chiefs, who had a great power over the poor people, gathered a great army, and marched to Edinburgh, which you know is the capital of Scotland.

There he had his father proclaimed King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and gave titles of dukes and lords to the gentlemen who came to fight for him, and pretended to be the real Prince of Wales. And he lived in the old palace of the Scotch kings, called Holyrood House, and there he gave balls and concerts to the Scotch ladies, and they all fancied themselves sure that Charles Edward would be their king instead of George.

At first he gained two or three victories, the chief of which was at Preston Pans, near Edinburgh; and then he marched into England, where but few English gentlemen joined him; and when he got as far as Derby he found that he had better go back to Scotland, for the English would have nothing to do with him. On his way, the English army, commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, who was King George’s son, caught and beat part of his army, and took many prisoners.

From this time the French and Scotch officers of the Pretender quarrelled constantly, and the highland chiefs became jealous of the other generals, and everything began to be unfortunate for that unhappy prince, till at the battle of Culloden his whole army was destroyed, many officers were taken prisoners, and he was obliged to make his escape and hide himself till he could get back to France.

Sometimes the young prince was obliged to go many days without any food but wild berries in the woods, and to sleep in caves, or on the open ground. Sometimes he lay in bed, pretending to be a sick man, while the Duke of Cumberland’s soldiers were hunting for him, and he could hear them talking of him. Once he escaped from a great danger by being dressed in woman’s clothes, and seeming to be the maid-servant of a very kind and handsome young lady, called Flora MacDonald, who saved his life. At last he got safe away; and though he and his friends often threatened to make war in England again, they never could do any real mischief; and as he and his brother Henry both died without children, we have had no more Pretenders.

I am sorry to say that the Duke of Cumberland was very cruel to Prince Charles’s friends when the war was over. Three Scotch lords, a good many gentlemen, and a number of soldiers, were executed for having joined the Pretender.

There is nothing else to tell you about the reign of George the Second; he was a very old man when he died at Kensington. He had fought many battles in Germany, and was a brave soldier, and not a bad king; but having been brought up in Germany, like his father, he never either looked or talked like an English king.