Little Arthur's history of England

by Lady Maria Callcott

In our good Queen’s long reign many new laws have been made; but I need only tell you now of one or two. There was another Reform of the House of Commons, giving a vote to nearly all people who live in houses and lodgings and pay their share of the expenses of government. And, as people cannot be good citizens, or good at all, without being well taught, Parliament has provided for the education of all the children in the country.

The discoveries and improvements of this reign have been greater and more numerous than have ever been made in the same space of time since the world began; so I can only tell you some of the chief of them.

For two hundred years and more, English sailors have been striving to find a shorter way of going to India and China, than by going either round the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. They hoped to be able to do so, by sailing through the seas at the North Pole, along the north coast of America. But these seas are filled with ice, which is quite fast in winter, and breaks up only a little in summer; so that the brave men, who sought a passage through them, nearly always got blocked up in the ice, and had to spend the winter in the dark. One of the bravest of those who tried to find this passage was Sir John Franklin, who, unhappily, never returned; and after many years it was found by those who went to seek him, that he and all his companions had died of cold and starvation. Before his death, however, he had pushed through the ice far enough to prove that the ocean extends all along the north coast of America, from Baffin’s Bay to Behring Straits; though he could not take a ship through. So the North-West Passage was at last discovered, and it shows how daring English sailors are, and what difficulties they will overcome.

Dr. Livingstone made great discoveries in Africa, where he found rivers and great lakes, whose names were before unknown; and other travellers have traced nearly to its source the celebrated river of Egypt, the Nile.

In the part of the globe opposite to us, the great Australian colonies have grown up—greater than those we lost in America under George the Third. And an immense quantity of gold has been discovered there. But you must know that gold is only useful to help people in exchanging one useful thing for another; and times of abundant gold have always been times of great prosperity for the world. And now meat is brought all the way from Australia for us to eat. And we have colonies in the two great islands of New Zealand, which are almost the Antipodes to us. This word means that the people there stand right on the other side of the round world, with their feet pointing to our feet. In North America, too, the colonies that we won from the French under George the Second have been formed into a great united state, called the Dominion of Canada. It would take me much too long to tell you how rich Great Britain has grown during this reign by its trade with all the world.

The postage of letters was made so cheap, that all people can write to their friends as often as they like. Railroads were made everywhere, even, as you know, under the streets of London. Electric telegraphs were invented, and made to carry messages to almost every part of the world, not only overland, but even across the bed of the seas. Most ships are now made of iron instead of wood, and by the help of steam are able to cross the seas to America and to go round the world; and railways have been made in almost every country upon the earth.

The Thames Tunnel was finished and opened; the Royal Exchange, which had been burnt down, was re-built, and opened by the Queen; the Great Exhibition, a vast house of glass half a mile long, was built at the suggestion of the Queen’s husband, the Prince Consort, and all the people of the world were invited to bring all the best things their countries could produce, and display them in it. The new Houses of Parliament, one of the grandest buildings in the world, have arisen; many new streets of splendid houses for the rich, and many new lodging-houses for working people have been made; and instead of burying dead people in churchyards in the middle of towns, cemeteries (that is, “sleeping places”) have been formed outside the towns for all people to be buried in.

But what I think the most useful of all are the improvements made in printing books and newspapers. Great machines have been invented to print several thousand of sheets of paper in an hour. New materials have been used for making paper. Besides this, the taxes have been taken off paper and newspapers; so that I can now buy a newspaper for one penny, for which I used to pay seven-pence half-penny when I was little Arthur’s age. I might tell you a great deal more about the taxes that have been taken off all manner of necessary and useful things, and how we have now bread and tea and coffee and sugar and salt and spice and wine, and bricks and timber and glass, and gloves and boots and silks and ribands, and even toys, and many other things, much cheaper because they are not taxed. And yet the Government has plenty of money, because the people can better afford to pay other taxes.

This work of lightening the burdens of the people was begun after the battle of Waterloo, when the great Duke of Wellington was Prime Minister to George the Fourth. Indeed, more taxes were taken off in the ten years before the Reform Bill than in the twenty years after it.

I must now tell you a few sad things which have happened in this reign.