marched into Italy to put down a rebellion which had resulted in establishing a parliament in Naples, and soon after Canning came into office a French army marched into Spain to put down a rebellion which had had the same result at Madrid. The French restored the government of the cruel Ferdinand VII., and Ferdinand VII. then wanted to send Spanish soldiers to Portugal, because Portugal had established a parliament. Canning sent British soldiers to the help of the Portuguese, and the Spaniards left Portugal alone. Without going to war Canning did much to help the weak against the strong. There had been a long struggle in America, in which the Spanish colonies, Mexico, Peru, Chili, and others had been striving to free themselves from Spain. Canning came forward to treat them as independent states, as they really were. In the east of Europe, too, a bitter conflict was being waged. Greece was striving to set itself free from the brutal Turks. Most of the governments of Europe did not like this, and thought that the Greeks were setting a bad example of rebellion. Canning was unable to do anything for the Greeks, but he let them understand that he wished them well.

3. Peel; Reform of the Criminal Law.-Peel had become Home Secretary almost at the same time that Canning had become Foreign Secretary. He had to look after the affairs of the people at home. He set himself at once to do useful work. He took up the task which Romilly, who was now dead, had begun, and persuaded Parliament to do away with a great number of laws inflicting the punishment of

death for very slight offences. At the beginning of the century there were no less than two hundred crimes which were punished by hanging. Any one, for instance, who stole fish out of a pond, who hunted in the king's forests, or who injured Westminster Bridge, was liable to be hanged. The House of Commons had again and again voted that men should no longer be put to death for such things, but the House of Lords had been obstinate. Peel insisted that a less punishment than that of death should be imposed on those who had been guilty of at least a hundred of these small crimes. The House of Lords gave way, and it became known that there was at last a man in the Government who could be trusted to make wise improvements.

4. Huskisson's Commercial Reforms. – - Another member of the Government, Mr. Huskisson, began to diminish the payments made when foreign goods. were brought into the country. It was a commencement of freedom of trade. People began to see that they would be better off by making trade with foreign nations as easy as possible, instead of making it as hard as possible. What was done was indeed only a beginning, but this, and all the other useful things that the Government was now doing, helped to put an end to all that ill-feeling which had caused such trouble a few years before. There were now no Manchester Massacres or Cato-Street Conspiracies, because Government and Parliament were doing their best to help the people, instead of merely doing their best to keep them down.

5. The Catholic Association.-There had been

formed in Ireland a society known as the Catholic Association. Its object was to obtain for Catholics the right of holding offices and sitting in Parliament. At its head was Daniel O'Connell. He was a most eloquent speaker, and he had a good cause. The Catholic Association became so powerful in Ireland that many people in England were frightened lest it. should bring about a rebellion. A law was passed to put an end to it, but the law was so badly made that the Association was able to go on just as if there had been no law at all. Fortunately there were men in Parliament who could understand that what the Association asked ought to be granted. The House of Commons passed a Bill for giving to the Catholics their rights. Canning was in favour of this. Peel was against it. The House of Lords rejected the Bill, and nothing more was done for some years.

6. The Representative System.-Another matter about which there had been much discussion was

Parliamentary Reform. There were many great towns in England, such as Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds, which sent no members to Parliament. There were many little villages which sent two members apiece. Of course the villagers did not really choose the members to please themselves. They had to give their votes to the man who was recommended to them by the great landowner on whose estates they lived. Sometimes even there were no villagers to vote. One borough sending members to Parliament was only a ruined wall in a gentleman's park. Another was a grassy

mound.

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Another had for some centuries been under the sea. In Scotland matters were even worse. the county of Bute there were only twenty-one electors. On one occasion only one of these appeared at the time of election. He voted for himself, and so became a Member of Parliament. The noblemen and gentlemen who were able to make the voters elect whom they pleased considered the votes of these men as their own property. If they were in want of money they got it by selling the post of Member of Parliament to any one who would pay them for it. There were places where there was a large number of electors, and where they really chose whom they liked. But they very often liked to choose those who bribed them most highly.

7. Parliamentary Reform.-Before the French Revolution attempts had been made to alter this state of things. When the French Revolution came it was impossible to induce Parliament to listen to any plan of reform. Because the French had violently done away with their bad government, Englishmen were afraid to improve their good one. They were too frightened to be reasonable, and they fancied that if they put an end to a few rotten boroughs, as the little villages which returned members to Parliament were called, they would somehow or another pull down the king's throne, and bring a Reign of Terror into England. By the time which we have now reached this feeling had passed away. Men of ability and education were ready to ask whether things might not be improved. A majority in the House of Commons had already resolved to do justice to the

men

Catholics. But it was easier to do justice to the Catholics than to reform Parliament. There were so many members who found it easy to get into Parliament by getting the favour of a Duke or Lord, who would not find it easy to get in if they had to get the votes of the inhabitants of a large town. Besides this there were others who objected to the change for better reasons. Even Canning, who was in favour of the Catholics, was against Parliamentary Reform. He thought that if noblemen and gentlewere no longer able to name members of Parliament, there would be fewer men of real intelligence and ability elected. Whilst this feeling prevailed, there was no chance that the House of Commons would listen to any scheme of Parliamentary Reform, unless some one was found to propose it, who would be content to ask for only a slight change at first. Nobody who asked for universal suffrage, or for anything like it, would get any one to follow him. Fortunately a young man, Lord John Russell, took the matter up. Even before the death of George III. he had persuaded the House of Commons to disfranchise four boroughs where the votes were openly sold; that is to say, to take away from them the right of electing members of Parliament. As usual, the Lords refused to assent to the change. After that Lord John Russell got one little Cornish village disfranchised. He proposed to give the right to Leeds. The Lords gave it to Yorkshire. After this some time passed before anything more was done.

8. The Canning and Goderich Ministries.-In