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.
CHAPTER LX.
QUEEN VICTORIA.—1837.
How Hanover was separated from England; how the Queen married her cousin, Prince Albert; how a fresh Revolution broke out in Paris, and how Louis Philippe escaped to England; how the Chartists held meetings; how we went to war with Russia; how the Sepoys mutinied in India; how the young men in Great Britain became Volunteers; how Parliament was reformed the second time, and means taken to educate the people; how there were a great many discoveries and improvements made.
The Princess Victoria, niece of William the Fourth, succeeded him on the throne. She was the daughter of Edward Duke of Kent, the next brother of the late king. Her mother, the Duchess of Kent, was sister to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, King of the Belgians.
A princess is of age to reign at eighteen; the Princess Victoria had happily attained that age a few weeks before she was called to be Queen of England.
Since the reign of George the First, who was Elector of Hanover, the kings of England had also ruled over that kingdom; but in Hanover there is a law which prevents females from reigning there; so that, when William the Fourth died, Hanover was separated from England; and at the same time that the Princess Victoria ascended the English throne, Ernest Duke of Cumberland, the fifth son of George the Third (and the Queen’s eldest surviving uncle), became King of Hanover. But Hanover has since been made part of the German Empire.
The reign of Victoria, the happiest and best that ever was for England, has yet been marked by a great deal of fighting in all parts of the world.
First, there were riots in Canada, and it was three years before they were entirely put down; then a number of people who called themselves Chartists created some uneasiness at home, but their meetings were soon stopped, and their ringleaders were transported; next, a war broke out in China and another in India, and it was eight years before all these disturbances were settled.