coronet, walked down the Hall, cheered by the officers of the Guards. He shortly returned, mounted, with Lords Anglesea and Howard. They rode gracefully to the foot of the throne, and then backed out. The Hall doors opened again; and outside in twilight, a man in a dark-shadowed armour appeared against the shining sky. He then moved, passed into darkness under the arch, and suddenly Wellington, Howard, and the champion stood in full view, with doors closed behind them. This was certainly the finest sight of the day. The herald then read the challenge; the glove was thrown down. They all then proceeded to the throne."

Early in the day, Queen Caroline presented herself for admission to the Abbey, but was refused, whereupon she returned: this was the only sad episode of the day. Public entertainments were provided for the people, and about 500,000 persons shared in the festivities one way or other. The entire cost of the coronation exceeded £268,000.

DEATH OF MR. CANNING.

This enlightened statesman, who had been Prime Minister since April 10, 1827, died on August 8 following. The opposition to the new minister in the House of Commons was very formidable, but though he was labouring under anxiety and sickness, his rhetorical powers and his sparkling wit never failed him. He last spoke in Parliament on June 29. On July 5, a treaty combining England, France and Russia, for the settlement of the affairs of Greece, and of which he had been the main promoter, was signed at London: this was the last of Mr. Canning's public acts. One of the first poems he wrote in the enthusiasm of youth, was a lament on "The Slavery of Greece."

THE BATTLE OF NAVARINO.

This important naval battle took place on the 20th October, 1827, between the French, English, and Russian combined fleet on one side, and the Turco-Egyptian fleet, which was enclosed in the bay of Navarino, on the other. The English had three ships of the line and four frigates; the French, three ships of the line and two frigates; and the Russians, four ships of the line and four frigates. The Ottomans had three ships of the line and twenty-five frigates, besides smaller vessels. Admiral Codrington had the command of the combined fleet, and his object was to oblige Ibrahim Pacha to evacuate the Morea. After some fruitless negotiations, and some evasions on the part of Ibrahim, Admiral Codrington resolved to attack Ibrahim's fleet. The Turco-Egyptians warmly resisted, but were completely defeated, with the loss of three ships of the line, four frigates, and about forty or fifty smaller vessels. The rest surrendered, and a convention followed, by which Ibrahim evacu

ated the Morea, and the Greek prisoners, whom he had sent to Egypt, were restored to their country. The battle of Navarino fully attained the object for which it was fought-the emancipation of Greece. Unlike many other battles which have proved a useless waste of human lives, that of Navarino established the independence of a country, and put an end to a murderous warfare. In this respect it may be compared to the battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo in our own times, as the former may be said to have put an end to the maritime contest of France against England, and the second effectually terminated the continental war.-Penny Cyclopædia.

PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.

All progress in this reign was not comprised in ornamentation, or the art of elegance and luxury. The marvellous power of steam continued its substitutions for animal force; and, from mining and manufacturing, had been extended to road travelling, river, and sea navigation. Science in all her more gainful pursuits was zealously cultivated, not only as a source of individual opulence, but of national superiority. Chemistry and its application to agriculture, geology, mineralogy, civil engineering, anatomy, medicine, and geographical researches in Africa and the Arctic regions, constituted the just pride of the period. Among the illustrious names of the reign are Davy, Herschel, Wollaston, Dalton, Ivory, Buckland, Faraday, Babbage, Leslie, Young, Arnott, Airy, Telford, M'Adam, Brunel, and Rennie.

TEST AND CORPORATION ACTS, AND CATHOLIC

EMANCIPATION.

1828, on February 26, Lord John Russell carried his resolution in the House of Commons for the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts; and a bill was soon passed into a law, by which Municipal Corporations and offices of power and trust were open to dissenters.

The great measure of 1829 was the concession at last of Catholic Emancipation, by removing disabilities on Roman Catholics. The King, ministry, church, aristocracy, and Commons, were all adverse to Catholic Emancipation; but, led by the example of the Duke of Wellington's sterling good sense, they succumbed to the emergency: it is, however, now known that Sir Robert Peel was also convinced of the imperative necessity of the measure.

CHANGES IN LAWS.

Many important alterations of the laws were made in the reign of George the Fourth, besides the great national measures already noticed. The laws relating to the punishment and to the trial of

offences were consolidated and amended by the several Acts introduced by Mr. Peel; with measures for diminishing the sanguinary character, and increasing the certainty, of punishment. Among other legislative changes of the reign may be enumerated, the Act of 1823, abolishing the ancient custom of burying persons who had committed suicide in cross roads, with a stake driven through their bodies; in 1824, was the Act for the repeal of the Combination Laws; the Act of 1827, to prevent arrests in actions under 201.; the Metropolis Police Act of 1829; the Act of 1830, repealing the Beer Duties; and the Act of the same year, substituting the punishment of transportation for that of death, for forgery.

DEATH OF GEORGE IV.

For many years the king had been scarcely ever free from gout, but its attacks had been resisted by the uncommon strength of his constitution. Pains of the eyes, and defective vision, gout in the feet and hands, and lastly, the great malady of his family, dropsy, to which the Duke of York, and his sister the Queen of Wurtemberg, had fallen victims, befel him. In April, 1820, his malady assumed a decisive character, and bulletins began to be issued. He had reached his 68th year, a term rarely allotted to the wearer of a crown. In May a commission was appointed to fix the royal signature; the king signifying his assent by word of mouth. Before his death it was with difficulty he could whisper his verbal affirmative. About a week before he died the physician delicately announced to him the inevitable catastrophe. "God's will be done!" was the reply. The king's faculties continued unimpaired to the last. On administering to him the last sacrament, the Bishop of Chichester reminded him of the Duke of Sussex; when the king charged the prelate after his death to carry a message to the duke, saying all his offences were forgotten, and to assure him of his fraternal affection. His majesty's sufferings were very great; during the paroxysms of pain his moans were heard even by the sentinels on duty in the quadrangle. On the night of the 25th of June his cough was unusually painful, and about three o'clock in the morning of the 26th he expired, having a few minutes previously faintly ejaculated, "Oh! God, I'm dying," and "this is death."

Wade's Chronology, p. 864.

The royal remains were submitted to the view of the household, in strict accordance with a wish expressed by his late Majesty, on the evening preceding his dissolution. The body was covered with a fine linen sheet, turned down, so as to expose a part of the bust. The features were neither drawn nor distorted, but appeared in that serene and tranquil state which would have induced the belief that His Majesty still slept.

PERSON AND CHARACTER.

In his youth he was, in the words of Shakspeare

66

"The expectancy and rose of the fair state,

The glass of fashion, and the mould of form,
The observed of all observers."

Eminently handsome, liberally educated, with intellect of a superior order, and great powers of conversation, he justly merited the title of the most accomplished gentleman in Europe;" and although many actions of his private life may be cited as deserving censure, as a sovereign, alike in his regency and in his reign, he will ever hold a distinguished place in English History.

Kings of England, p. 279.

Four acts of munificence distinguished the king:-in the literary mission to Portici, for expediting the unrolling of the Herculaneum Manuscripts; the endowment of the Royal Society of Literature; the grant of the library of George III. to the British Museum; and the support he afforded to the erection of St. David's College, in Wales. Under his auspices London was embellished with splendid street improvements; the outlaying of the Regent's Park; the building of Buckingham Palace, and the restoration and enlargement of Windsor Castle, were also effected in his reign.

CHRONICLE.

Queen

1820, Jan. 30. George IV. held his first court at Carlton House, and declared his intention "to maintain unimpaired the religion, laws, and liberties of the kingdom." Being Sunday, the proclaiming the king was deferred till next day, when the ceremony took place with the customary formalities. Feb. 23. THE CATO-STREET CONSPIRACY. May 1. Arthur Thistlewood and four other Catostreet conspirators executed at the Old Bailey. June 6. Caroline arrived in England to vindicate her character, and assert her rights. Nov. 10. Close of the Queen's trial; Lord Liverpool announced the intention of government to abandon further prosecution; the news that the bill was relinquished diffused a transport of joy throughout the metropolis. 25th. The Queen went in state to St. Paul's, to return thanks for her happy deliverance. Among the gentlemen attending on the queen were Sir Robert Wilson, Joseph Hume, M.P., Hon. Keppel Craven, and Mr. Hobhouse; at the entrance of the cathedral a committee of sixty ladies, dressed in white, received her Majesty. 1821, May 5. DEATH OF NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE, at the Island of St. Helena, in the 52nd year of his age. July 19. Coronation of George IV., August 7. Death of Queen Caroline, in the 53rd year of her age. In this year steamboats were first established between Dover and Calais, and London

and Leith. 1822, April. Famine in Ireland. July 19. The innkeepers on the Dover road petitioned against the adoption of steam navigation from London to Calais. August 10. The king embarked at Greenwich for Scotland. 12th. Suicide of the Marquess of Londonderry. In this year Mrs. Garrick, relict of the English Roscius, died in the 99th year of her age. 1824, April 19. Lord Byron died at Missolonghi, in the 36th year of his age. July 12. Body of James II. discovered in a leaden box, on digging the foundation of a new church at St. Germain. September 16. Louis XVIII., King of France, died in the 69th year of his age. 30th. Fauntleroy, the banker, executed for forgery at the Old Bailey. 1826. THE COMMERCIAL CRISIS. Jan. 18. Burtpore, in the East Indies, captured by the English under Lord Combermere. In this year Captain Johnson, in the Enterprise, gained a prize of £10,000, subscribed at Calcutta, as the reward to the first person who made a steamvoyage from England to India; the passage occupied sixteen weeks and three days. 1826, June 15. Destruction of the Janissaries; between two and three thousand killed, or perished by fire; those who escaped executed or banished from Constantinope, and the very name of Janissary became extinct. 1827, Jan. 5. The Duke of York died, in the 64th year of his age. Oct. 20. Battle of Navarino. 1829, April. The Catholic Emancipation. 1830, June 26. DEATH OF GEORGE IV.

REIGN OF WILLIAM IV.

FROM 1830 TO 1837-6 YEARS, 11 MONTHS, 27 DAYS.

ACCESSION OF THE KING.

The course of events during the reign of William IV. derived its direction and character from the memorable movements on the Continent of Europe with which the accession of a new king in England chanced to be coincident. The publication of the ordinances of Charles X. against the press in France took place exactly a month after King William's accession: then rapidly followed the Revolution of the Three Days in Paris, the dethronement of Charles, and the transference of the French crown to the Duke of Orleans. In another month commenced the similar revolution in Brussels, which terminated in the separation of Holland and Belgium. In England, the first symptom of widespread popular uneasiness, disaffection, and outbreak, was given by numerous incendiary fires. The new Parliament elected since the accession of the new king met on the 26th of October. The ministers next advised his Majesty that it would not be safe for him to dine with the Lord Mayor and Corporation of the City of London, in Guildhall, according to cus

tom.

The Duke of Wellington and his ministry then resigned, on