them to offer a prize for the best locomotive. Four inventors sent engines to be tried. Stephenson's, which was called 'The Rocket,' was the only one which would move at all. The other inventors asked to be allowed to try again, but they did not succeed on the second day any better than they had on the first. "The Rocket' set off at the rate of thirty-five miles an hour. After that nobody doubted that the line must be worked by steam, and before long there was scarcely a town in England which did not want to have a railway. Yet there were exceptions. The people of Northampton, for instance, preferred to stick by the old ways, and that is the reason why travellers from London to Northampton have to change carriages at Blisworth and go by a branch line which was made after the inhabitants of Northampton had repented of their folly, too late to bring the main line of the London and North-Western Railway through their

town.

CHAPTER XLIV.

REIGN OF WILLIAM IV.

(1830-1837.)

1. The End of the Wellington Ministry.-In 1830 George IV. died. His brother William IV. was the new king. He had only been on the throne a few weeks when there was another Revolution in France. The king, Charles X., tried to govern against the

wishes of the people. There was an insurrection in Paris, and the king was forced to fly from the country. His distant cousin, Louis Philippe, became king of the French. This news caused a good deal of excitement in England. People began to

WILLIAM IV.

think that if foreign nations could do so much, Englishmen might try to get rid of the rotten boroughs, and to send members to Parliament who would really represent the people, instead of representing the great landowners. The Whigs were in favour of Parliamentary Reform. Many of them

were themselves owners of boroughs, but they were ready to give them up for the good of the nation. A new Parliament was elected in which there were many more Whigs than in the old one. They would perhaps have been contented at this time without making any very great change, if the Duke would have agreed to do something. But the Duke declared that there ought to be no reform at all. Whilst this dissatisfied the Whigs, the Tories were still angry with. him because he had displeased them by what he had done for the Catholics. The majority of the House of Commons declared against him, and he resigned office.

2. The Reform Bill.--The next ministry was composed of Whigs and of the followers of Canning. The Prime Minister was Lord Grey. He and his colleagues resolved to bring in a Reform Bill. The bill was introduced into the House of Commons by Lord John Russell. Neither friends nor enemies expected him to propose so great a change as he did. Sixty small boroughs returning 119 members were to be disfranchised entirely. Fortysix more were to return only one member instead of two. Most of the seats thus at the disposal of the ministry were given, in almost equal proportions, to the counties and the great towns, a few being reserved for Scotland and Ireland. Both in towns and counties a large number of persons were to be allowed to vote who had never had a vote before. If the bill passed, the government of the country would be controlled by the middle classes, and no longer by the great landowners, as had been the case before. Inside the House of Commons the Tories

were strong. When the House was asked whether it approved of the Bill or not, the majority which approved of it was only stronger than the minority which disapproved of it by a single vote, and after this a majority voted that it should be altered in an important particular. The Government resolved to withdraw the Bill and to dissolve Parliament, in order that the electors all over the country might say what they thought.

3. The Reform Bill rejected by the Lords.-There was very little doubt what the electors would think. Even under the old system of voting there were the counties and large towns which voted as they pleased, and in times of great excitement the towns of a middle size would refuse to vote as they were bidden, whilst some of the very small towns were under the influence of Whig landowners. From one end of the country to the other shouts were heard of 'The Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill.' The new House of Commons, unlike the last, had an enormous Whig majority. The Reform Bill was again brought in and was carried through the House of Commons. The House of Lords rejected it.

4. Public Agitation. The news was received with a torrent of indignation. Meetings were everywhere held to support the Government, and in some towns there were riots and disturbances. In the House of Commons, Macaulay, a young man, afterwards famous as the historian of the reigns of James II. and William III., called on the House of Commons to stand forward to prevent the excitement degenerating into deeds of violence. 'In old times,'

he said, 'when the villeins were driven to revolt by oppression, when a hundred thousand insurgents appeared in arms on Blackheath, the king rode up to them and exclaimed "I will be your leader," and at once the infuriated multitude laid down their arms and dispersed at his command. Herein let us imitate him. Let us say to our countrymen "We are your leaders. Our lawful power shall be firmly exerted to the utmost in your cause; and our lawful power is such that it must finally prevail." Outside Parliament there were men who thought that nothing but force would bear down the resistance of the Lords. At Birmingham a great meeting was held by a society called the Birmingham Political Union, at which those who were present engaged to pay no taxes if the Reform Bill were again rejected. At Bristol there were fierce riots, houses were burnt, and men were killed.

9

5. The Reform Bill becomes Law.-Fortunately the Government and the House of Commons were as earnest as the people. A third Reform Bill, slightly altered from the former ones, was introduced as soon as possible, and carried through the Commons. Some of the Lords thought that they had resisted enough. It was known too that the king had consented to create new peers who would vote for the Reform Bill. Upon this many peers stayed away from the House, and in the spring of 1832 the Bill was accepted by the Lords and became law.

6. Abolition of Slavery, and the new Poor-law.— After so great a change the two parties began to take new names. Instead of Whigs and Tories,