(I.) Victoria is the last queen and Mary was the first queen [Exclusion between first and last, or Ex.], and Mary, first queen, was preceded by the last Edward, or Edward VI. [Ex.] And Mary, the first queen, was followed by the the first and only Elizabeth [In.] And the first and only Elizabeth was followed by James the First, or I. [In.] Again, Queen Elizabeth was followed by King James, making a clear case of Ex. Again, Anne, the third queen, was preceded by Wm. the Third, or III., and Mary [In.]‌ And these two co-equal Sovereigns were preceded by James the Second, or II. [In., between cardinal number two and the ordinal number Second]. This series of Queens concludes with Victoria the fourth Queen, who was preceded by William the Fourth, or IV. [In.], and William the Fourth, or IV., was preceded by George the Fourth, or IV. [In.]; and George IV. by George III., and he by George II., and he by George I.,—a concurrence reversed, and William IV. was preceded, as we have seen, by William III. and Mary—and William III. by William II., and William I. at the very beginning of the series—Con.

Now let us recall in the forward and reverse order what we have learned so far. William I., William II., Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth, James I., James II., William III. and Mary, Anne, George I., George II., George III., George IV., William IV., and Victoria, and the order reversed is Victoria, William IV., George IV., George III., George II., George I., Anne, William III. and Mary, James II., James I., Elizabeth, Mary, Edward VI., William II., William I.

(II.) Disregarding for the moment the four periods of what is usually called the Commonwealth, we see that between Elizabeth and William III. and Mary, are four monarchs, the two James and the two Charles. We have already learned that Elizabeth was followed by James I. and that William III. and Mary were preceded by James II. Hence we see that the two Charles must come between the two James, and, of course, that Charles I. must precede Charles II., and that the order of these four monarchs must be James I., Charles I., Charles II., and James II.—a plain case of Con. reversed. We saw that there were two of these four monarchs before the Commonwealth; there must then be two after it, making James I. and Charles I. before the Commonwealth and Charles II. and James II. after it.

On the day that Charles I. was executed (January 30, 1649), the Parliament (the House of Commons) abolished the kingly office and House of Lords, and appointed a Council of State of 41 members, which with the House of Commons was to be the government. Intermediate then between Charles I. and Charles II. there came—

Here we see there was a Council of State and Parliament at the beginning and close of these intermediates, and between them came Oliver Cromwell and his son, Richard Cromwell. Charles I., followed by Council of State and Parliament, made a case of Exclusion and the Council of State and Parliament, followed by the Protector Oliver Cromwell, gives another example of Ex. and a case of In. between Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard, who inherited the protectorate, but a case of Ex. again between the powerful Oliver and his weak son Richard, and another example of Ex. between the protectorate of Richard Cromwell and the Council of State and Parliament, and another between the latter and the full-fledged monarchy of Charles II.

Now review what we have learned so far and we have William I., William II., Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., Council of State and Parliament, Oliver Cromwell, Richard Cromwell, Council of State and Parliament, Charles II., James II., William III. and Mary, Anne, George I., George II., George III., George IV., William IV., and Victoria. Reverse the recital and we have Victoria, William IV., George IV., George III., George II., George I., Anne, William III. and Mary, James II., Charles II., Council of State and Parliament, Richard Cromwell, Oliver Cromwell, Council of State and Parliament, Charles I., James I., Elizabeth, Mary, Edward VI., William II., and William I.

(III.) We now proceed to learn the eighteen kings intermediate between William II. and Edward VI. We notice at once that the first and last of these intermediates are the first and last Henrys [Ex.], viz., Henry I. and Henry VIII. We see also that Henry the First, or I., is followed by Henry the Second, or II. [Con.], with the first and only Stephen as the first single intermediary [In.]. Returning to Edward VI., we see that he, the last Edward, is preceded by Henry VIII., or the last Henry [In.] We also notice that Edward VI. is preceded by Henry VI., and‌ Henry VI. by Henry III., or the half of six [In. by W. and P.]. Finally we observe that between William II. and Mary, there are three series of kings completed—eight Henrys, six Edwards, and three Richards. Making the three Richards reference points we can easily fix the residue of the eighteen kings for we see that Richard I. or the First, is preceded by Henry II. and followed by Henry III., with the first and only John as the second single intermediary [In.] and that Richard II. is preceded by Edward I., Edward II., and Edward III., or three Edwards, and followed by Henry IV., Henry V., and Henry VI., or three Henrys, and that Richard III. is preceded by Edward IV. and Edward V., or two Edwards, and followed by Henry VII. and Henry VIII., or two Henrys.

Recalling the succession from William I. to Edward VI., we have William I., William II., Henry I., Stephen, Henry II., Richard I., John, Henry III., Edward I., Edward II., Edward III., Richard II., Henry IV., Henry V., Henry VI., Edward IV., Edward V., Richard III., Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI. Reversing the order, we have Edward VI., Henry VIII., Henry VII., Richard III., Edward V., Edward IV., Henry VI., Henry V., Henry IV., Richard II., Edward III., Edward II., Edward I., Henry III., John, Richard I., Henry II., Stephen, Henry I., William II., and William I.

We conclude with the recital both ways of the thirty-seven Sovereigns from William I. to Victoria.