all kinds of employments had offered to form volun. teei regiments, to be ready to resist invasion if it came. Every encouragement was given to them, and the Rifle Volunteers were established as a permanent part of the British army.

5. The Commercial Treaty with France.-In Palmerston's ministry the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that is to say, the minister who had to make all arrangements about taxation, was Mr. Gladstone. Year after year he tried to carry out the work which Peel had left uncompleted, of improving the system of taxation by removing burdensome duties. He did not like to see the growing risk of a quarrel between England and France, and he gladly forwarded a plan for inducing the Emperor of the French to agree to a commercial treaty, by which English goods should be admitted into France upon payment of no more than a low duty, and French wines and other articles should be admitted in the same way into England. The treaty was arranged by Cobden, who went to Paris to talk it over with the Emperor. He and Mr. Gladstone hoped that if the two nations traded with one another more, they would be less inclined to quarrel.

6. The Civil War in America. Whilst the treaty with France was being made, events beyond the Atlantic drew the attention of every one in Europe. The United States of America were divided into two parts. In those of the South some millions of black slaves worked for their masters, mostly in producing sugar and cotton. In the North there were no slaves. There was a vast amount of rich, wild land

open to emigrants from both sections, and sometimes slaveowners thought they would be better off if they could go to fresh soil further west, and carry their slaves with them. The free states were willing that they should keep their slaves where they were already, but not that they should take them anywhere outside the slave states which already existed. In 1860 there was an election of a new President, the officer who stands at the head of the American Republic for four years. This time Abraham Lincoln was elected, a man who was determined not to allow the fresh land outside the slave states to be cultivated by slaves. The Southern States declared themselves independent, and formed a government of their own under the name of the Confederate States. The Northern States kept the old name of the United States, and resolved that the Confederates should not be allowed to separate. A terrible war followed, which lasted for four years.

South, to prevent any Many merchants in steamers as blockade

7. The Blockade Runners and the Privateers.English feeling took different sides. The upper classes and the merchants were mainly on the side of the South. The Northern navy was strong, and blockaded the ports of the goods being carried in. England fitted out quick runners, to carry arms and powder and shot and other stores to the Confederates. In time the Confederates thought that it would be an excellent thing if they could buy from their English friends armed ships, and have them sent out from English ports. The English merchants did as they were asked, took

the money, and sent out these ships to plunder and to burn the merchant vessels of the United States. One of the most famous of these was the Alabama. It did an enormous amount of damage, for which England had afterwards to pay, as the English Government had not stopped the vessel's sailing, as it ought to have done.

8. The Cotton Famine. To one part of England the American War brought terrible suffering. Masses of men in many of the large towns in the north depended for their daily bread upon making cotton goods. The cotton used in this manufacture came at that time almost entirely from the Southern States. There was no possibility of bringing it from those states, as the blockading ships of the North would have stopped it on the way. All that could be done was done to get together supplies of cotton from Egypt and India and other parts of the world. That which came from these sources was not nearly so good as the American cotton had been, and even of the bad cotton there was not enough. The cotton famine, as it was called, stopped the mills, or caused them to work at short time. Thousands of persons ready to work to earn their livelihood were thrown out of work through no fault of their own. In many a house there was want and hunger. That want and hunger were nobly borne. Not only were the sufferers patient under their misfortune, but they were not to be tempted to speak evil of the Northern States, whose blockade was the cause of their misery. They believed that the slaveowners of the South were in the wrong, and that if the war went on long

enough the men of the North would win, and that when they won they would set free the slaves. The working men of the north were right. After four years of hard-fought war, the North won the victory, and the slaves were set free. The English working man had done something for himself without thinking of himself at all. He had shown that he was capable of standing up for that which he believed to be a righteous cause, however much he might suffer through it. It was impossible to deny to such men as these the rights of citizens. They were surely worthy of having votes to send members to Parliament to make the laws, after showing that, under the most trying circumstances, they knew how to obey the laws. A Parliamentary Reform which should reach them could not now be long in coming.

9. The Last Days of Lord Palmerston.-It was well known that Lord Palmerston would not hear of

Parliamentary Reform. Mr. Gladstone, however, declared in its favour, and Mr. Gladstone was likely to have great influence soon. In 1865 a new Parliament was elected. Before it met Lord Palmerston died. He was eighty years of age, and kept brisk and active to the last. He was the most popular man in England, always cheery, and ready to speak a friendly word to every one. But there was work now to be done which needed the hands of younger

men.

10. The Ministry of Earl Russell.-The successor of Lord Palmerston was not a young man. Earl Russell, who had once been the Lord John Russell

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who had advocated Parliamentary Reform not long after the Battle of Waterloo was fought, and who had had much to do with the first Reform Bill, became Prime Minister, to advocate a second Reform Bill, the object of which would be to give votes to the working men, as the first Reform Bill had given votes to the tradesmen. Mr. Gladstone was the chief

person in the House of Commons. A Reform Bill was proposed, but the House of Commons did not care about it, and would not have it. The Ministers at once resigned office. They thought that it was so important to reform Parliament that they would not keep in office unless they could do this. Lord Palmerston had stayed in office after proposing a Reform Bill, but they cared about reform, and Lord Palmerston did not.

11. The Conservative Ministry and the Second Reform Bill.-A Conservative Ministry came into office. The Prime Minister was Lord Derby, but the most important minister was Mr. Disraeli. All at once it appeared that though the greater number of the members of the House of Commons did not care about Reform, the working men did. There were meetings held in different parts of the country in its favour. In London a large body of men made up their minds to hold a meeting in Hyde Park, to make speeches about Reform. The Government tried to shut them out. They broke down the railings and held their meeting. The Government found out that it had no right to shut them out. Mr. Disraeli saw that the working men were now in earnest, and that they were determined to have