it is his monstrous injustice and cruelty towards his wives, the mothers of his children, who were to be the future sovereigns of the people; of these, two were beheaded, two were divorced, one died in child-birth, and one, Catharine Parr, survived him.

During this reign, a great change took place in the religious institutions of the country, Henry, throwing off the authority of the Pope, and taking upon himself the title of the Supreme Head of the English Church; this change is usually termed the REFORMATION.

In the latter part of Henry's reign, his sufferings were great; his body became so unwieldy that he could not walk about, and at the same time, he was afflicted with a most painful and incurable ulcer in his leg; death, however, at last put an end to his sufferings, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, having reigned thirtyeight years.

Henry VIII. was succeeded by his only son, EDWARD VI., in the year 1547, when in the tenth year of his age; the Duke of Somerset, a nobleman of great prudence, was appointed protector, and under his authority, a committee of bishops and divines, composed the Book of Common Prayer, nearly as it now exists.

As Edward approached towards manhood, several fatal symptoms of consumption began to appear, and he himself, being sensible of his approaching dissolution, spent much of his time in prayer; he died in the sixteenth year of his age, much regretted by the nation at large.

Edward VI. was succeeded by his eldest sister, MARY, in the year 1553. The Duke of Northumberland, from ambitious motives, placed Lady Jane Grey, who was married to his son, on the throne, but after

ten days' reign, she was deposed, the nation, at large, being in favour of Mary, who was undoubtedly next in

succession.

Lady Jane, and her husband, Lord Dudley, were tried for high treason, and being convicted, were condemned to die; their lives would probably have been spared, but an insurrection in their favour taking place, they were both beheaded.

Mary was by no means popular when she came into power; being naturally of a morose disposition, and strongly attached to the Roman Catholic religion, she completely lost the favour of such of her subjects as were zealous for the Reformation.

This ill-feeling was much increased by Mary's cruelty to the Protestants, great numbers of whom were burnt at the stake, because they would not subscribe to the Catholic faith; thus, her unbounded zeal for one religion, led her to use cruelties to those professing another, that will ever leave a black stain on her character.

The latter part of Mary's life was far from being happy; she was married to Philip, the eldest son of the King of Spain, and he treated her with contempt; she was sensible that she had lost the affections of her subjects; and she was labouring under a bad state of health.

During her reign, which continued five years, the Roman Catholic religion was again established.Coaches were first used,-and Glass was first made in England.

LESSON LXV.

COAL.-IRON.

By mineral is meant something dug out of the ground; the most valuable one we possess is coal, which among minerals, may be considered much in the same light as iron among metals-much the most useful.

Coal did not come into general use for fuel, before the reign of Charles I.; previous to that period, wood and peat were chiefly used, and in the present day, the latter still forms the principal article of fuel in Ireland, and many parts of Scotland, and even in some districts of England.

In former times England was very thinly peopled, and a considerable part of the land, that is now cultivated, was then forests, consequently wood was plentiful; but when the country increased in population, it became necessary to clear a great part of the forests for the purpose of raising food, when wood became less plentiful, and coal was introduced as a substitute.

Coal is not only of great use for domestic purposes, but it is the great source of our manufacturing greatness; almost the whole of the machinery used in munufacturing is kept in motion by steam, and without an abundant supply of coal, that could not probably be obtained.

Coal is supposed originally to have been the remains of forests, overturned by some great convulsion of nature, at a very distant period of the world, and brought to their present state by some process of chym istry operating through countless ages.

* Ma-she-ner-y. ↑ Kim'-is-try.

To procure coal the miners dig very deep holes, called shafts, in the ground, till they meet with the coal bed or seam, when it is obtained in large masses; perhaps the best coal is found in seams of about six feet deep, but in some parts of the country the seams are several yards in depth.

These mines extend miles under ground, but when the distance becomes too great, a new shaft is made; these shafts vary very much in depth; when the seam is near the surface, they are not more than fifteen or twenty yards deep, but the seam in some parts of the country is found at a great depth.

The deepest coal mine known is at Monk'wearmouth, in the county of Durham; it measures five hundred and thirty yards in depth, and what is remarkable, this coal bed has been wrought a considerable distance under the

sea.

Coal is obtained in various counties, but especially in those towards the north of England; the coal fields of Durham and Northumberland are wrought more extensively than those of any other counties, because they are well situated for shipping coal to London, and to those places in the south where no coal is procured; these counties also export large quantities to France and various other countries.

Although we export so much coal, and consume an immense quantity at home, yet there is no danger of soon exhausting our stock, it being calculated that the coal beds of Durham and Northumberland, will continue their present supply for considerably more than a thousand years.

The employment of a coal miner is often attended with great danger; where the mines are deep, sometimes, from the want of fresh air, a particular kind of gas accumulates in the mine, and, if exposed to the

flame of a lighted candle, it takes fire, and explodes like gunpowder, destroying all within its reach; in some of these explosions great numbers of the workmen have. lost their lives.

Iron, the most useful of all metals, is found in almost every part of the world, but no country is more highly favoured in this respect than Great Britain; the counties in England most noted for iron mines, are Staffordshire, Glocestershire, Shropshire, and Yorkshire; Wales is also rich in iron ore, and it abounds in some parts of Scotland.

There are two kinds of iron, namely, forged or malleable, and cast iron, but these are the same article, only' differently prepared; the malleable iron is chiefly used in blacksmiths' work; when heated it becomes soft, and may be hammered and formed into any shape.

Cast iron is of a brittle nature, and used by the foundery man, who, after melting it, runs it into moulds formed in fine sand; in this way cannon, stoves, ovens, pipes, and other cast iron articles are made.

Steel is iron refined by a particular process, and extensively used for knives, razors, scissors, axes, and other cutlery, also for ploughshares, some parts of steam engines, carriage springs, watch springs, and numberless other articles which could not be made of any other metal.

The consumption of iron in this country is immense, especially in forming railways, in constructing engines, and the various machines required in our manufactures, and within these late years, it has been much used in forming the hulls of ships instead of wood.