Aix-la-Chapelle. Dupleix now devoted his great talents to humble the English and to turn the wars of the native princes to the profit of France. But he found a worthy antagonist in ROBERT CLIVE, who rose from his clerk's desk at Madras to save and renew the British power in India. We cannot here follow in detail the course of those events which led to the recall of Dupleix by Louis XV., and to the loss of his conquests by the convention of Madras (1754). In 1756, Surajah-Dowlah, viceroy of Bengal under the Great Mogul, took Fort William, the sole defence of Calcutta, and gave a horrid celebrity to his victory by shutting up 146 English prisoners in a dungeon 18 feet square, with only a small barred-up opening for air, during the night of the summer solstice (June 21, 1756). When the den was opened next morning only twenty-three were found alive. This outrage banished all thought of submission from the other English possessions, which united in an effort to recover Calcutta, under the command of Clive, supported by admiral Watson. Clive took Calcutta (Dec. 1756), surprised Surajah-Dowlah in his camp, concluded a treaty with him, and then, turning against the French, took Chandernagore. But this step roused the anger of Surajah-Dowlah, who assembled all his forces to crush the English, and was himself crushed by Clive in the decisive battle of PLASSEY, the first of those great victories which have been gained in India by a handful of British soldiers and sepoys against a host of Asiatics (1757). It made the English masters of Bengal, and began that career of conquest which proceeded with scarcely an interruption for exactly a century, to the time of the great mutiny of 1857. The last remnant of French power in India was destroyed by Clive's capture of Pondicherry (Jan. 16, 1761).

Such was the glorious close of the reign of George II., who died suddenly from the bursting of the right ventricle of his heart, on Oct. 25, 1760, within a few days of completing his seventy-seventh year, after a reign of more than thirty-three years. Among the acts of his reign we have still to mention the reform of the Calendar. This useful measure was introduced by lord Chesterfield. The Julian year, or Old Style as it is called, had been corrected by pope Gregory XIII. in 1582, and the New Style had been adopted by every country on the continent of Europe except Sweden and Russia. The error of the Old Style, which had now grown to eleven days, was universally admitted. In preparing the bill for the reformation of the calendar Chesterfield was assisted by the earl of Macclesfield and Mr. Bradley, two of the ablest mathematicians in Europe. By this bill the year was to commence on January 1st, instead of March 25th, and eleven days in September 1752 were to be nominally suppressed, in order to bring the calendar into unison with the actual state of the solo

year. The great body of the people, however, regarded the reform as an impious and and popish measure, and numbers were of opinion that they had been robbed of eleven days. Sweden followed the example of England in 1753; but Russia and those countries which belong to the Greek church still follow the Old Style.

In Literature the age of George II. boasts the poetry of Young, Thomson, Gray, and Collins, and the commencement of the vast influence of SAMUEL JOHNSON. The matchless oratory of the elder Pitt can be judged of only by tradition. In Art it was distinguished above every other period, before or since, by the rise of the genuine English school of painting, in which sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS, GAINSBOROUGH, and HOGARTH are the great masters; while, in music, the sublime genius of GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL may be called English by adoption. Science, as well as literature, received a new impulse from the foundation of the British Museum.

GEORGE III.

From his Accession to the breaking out of the French Revolution. A.D. 1760-1789.

WHEN George III., son of the late Frederick prince of Wales, ascended the throne, the people rejoiced in having at length a native king; and he inserted with his own hand in his first speech to parliament the words that "he gloried in the name of Briton." He was twenty-two years old, having been born on June 4, 1738. His person was tall and strong, his countenance open and engaging. His intentions were pure, his habits simple and laborious and the

active part he took in state business was a new element of power for the crown. But the obstinacy with which he clung to his private opinions and personal predilections had fatal consequences for his country. His frequent letters to his ministers prove his clear perceptions, his strong will, and his imperfect education. He married the princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sept. 8, 1761). She was insignificant in person, and of a narrow understanding. But she shared her husband's sincere piety and simple tastes; and, for the first time since the reign of Charles I., the court gave the example of a pure and happy home.

We saw the last reign close with the complete ascendency of Pitt; but now there was another power behind the throne, in the person of the earl of Bute, who had long been the favourite counsellor of the king's mother, and who was made secretary of state, without Pitt's being consulted (1761). Meanwhile the English fleets had taken Belleisle, on the coast of Brittany, and Dominica in the West Indies. Pitt seemed in a position to dictate terms of peace, and was resolved to have Minorca. But the negociations were broken off in consequence of the FAMILY COMPACT, formed by Louis XV. with Charles III. (who had succeeded his brother Ferdinand VI. as king of Spain, in 1759), and with his son Ferdinand, to whom Charles had resigned the kingdom of Naples, in accordance with the treaty of Vienna. These three branches of the house of Bourbon agreed to guarantee each other's dominions, and to regard each other's enemies as their own. Spain engaged to join France against England, on May 1, 1762, if the war still lasted, in which case France would restore Minorca to Spain (Aug. 15, 1761). Pitt felt that the compact demanded instant and decisive hostilities with Spain; but his counsel was rejected, and he resigned. He refused several offers of the royal favour, but accepted for his wife the title of baroness Chatham, with a pension of 3000l. a year for her life, his own, and their eldest son's.

As Pitt had foreseen, Spain only waited the safe return of her West India fleet to declare war (Jan. 4, 1762). The campaign which followed was successful in all quarters. While Frederick and prince Ferdinand were victorious in Germany, and Burgoyne aided Portugal in repelling the Spaniards, the English fleet and army in the West Indies, under Rodney and Monckton, took the Caribbean islands and Havannah, with great booty, and in the east the Philippine islands were captured. Meanwhile Bute, who had become first lord of the treasury, was all for peace; and at length the Seven Years' War was ended by the PEACE OF PARIS (Feb. 10, 1763). Minorca was restored to England, in exchange for Belleisle. Havannah and the Philippines were given back to Spain, for Flo

rida and Porto Rico. The West Indian islands of Guadaloupe, Martinico, and St. Lucia were restored, but England retained Tobago, Dominica, St. Vincent, and Grenada. The national debt had risen to 122,600,000l. During the last year of the war Sweden had become neutral, and Russia had been converted from an enemy into an ally by the death of the empress Elizabeth and the accession of Peter III., a devoted admirer of Frederick the Great. But the new czar soon fell a victim to a court revolution, and was succeeded by his wife, a princess of Anhalt-Zest, who has gained "bad eminence" under the title of CATHERINE II. (1762).

The peace was opposed by Pitt and was disliked by the people, who vented their feelings on lord Bute, already odious on other grounds. In many places he was burnt in the effigy of a boot-jack (John, earl of Bute). He was frightened into a resignation (April 8, 1763), and succeeded by GEORGE GRENVILLE. Henry Fox was called to the upper house by the title of lord Holland.

The new ministry were soon in trouble. JOHN WILKES, a demagogue of great talent but the most profligate character, who had contributed to the fall of Bute by scurrilous attacks in his paper, the North Briton, wrote an article against the peace and in reply to the king's speech, in the celebrated No. 45 (April 23). Grenville had Wilkes arrested by a "general warrant," that is, one not specifying any person by name. A contest ensued, which is now of little interest, except for its having settled the illegality of such warrants. Wilkes was expelled from the House of Commons, found guilty of two libels, and outlawed on his retiring abroad. His return for Middlesex in 1768 renewed the conflict with the ministry and the house; and though he did not gain his seat, he became a popular idol. He was elected an alderman of London, and afterwards distinguished himself by his courage in suppressing the Gordon riots (1780).

A far more serious imprudence was committed by George Grenville, in extending the Stamp Act to the North American colonies. 'Those settlements now consisted of thirteen states; namely, the four "New England" colonies of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island; New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. Each colony had a governor and council appointed by the crown, and a house of assembly elected by the people. They had all made rapid progress in wealth, and they had a population of about two millions of whites, and half a million of coloured people. They were not unwilling to contribute to the expenses of the mother country; but they had special objections to a stampduty, and they adopted the broad principle of no taxation without representation. The alternative which they suggested was that a ENG.

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