Parliament, was taken from many small unimportant places, and conferred on large towns, such as Manchester, Birmingham, and Nottingham, which had not been previously represented.

This bill met with great opposition, especially in the House of Lords, but, at last, seeing the sense of the country so decidedly in its favour, the opposition was withdrawn, and it became the law of the land.

William coming to the throne at an advanced period of life, his reign only continued seven years, when he died, purely from the decay of nature, in the seventysecond year of his age.

During his reign, New London Bridge was opened.Both Houses of Parliament, and the Royal Exchange, were destroyed by fire.

William IV. was succeeded by QUEEN VICTORIA, the only child of Edward, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of George III., in the year 1837. Soon after coming into power, Her Majesty married His Royal Highness, Prince Albert, the second son of the Duke of Saxe Coburg Gotha, one of the independent states of Germany.

The Prince Consort stands deservedly high in the estimation of the country at large; he has endeared himself to the people by his virtues, and, more especially, by his disinterested exertions to promote the welfare of the humbler classes, his name being intimately associated with most of the public, and benevolent institutions of the age.

The QUEEN'S reign was peaceful, as it regards Europe, till the year 1854, when the Czar of Russia invaded Turkey, without any provocation, with the view, it is supposed, of annexing that country to his own overgrown empire.

England, France, and Sardinia combined to put a stop to the ambitious career of Russia, and each sent a considerable army to the assistance of Turkey, and after some sanguinary conflicts, in which the Russians were invariably defeated, the allies succeeded in taking Sebastopol, the strong-hold of the Czar's possessions, bordering on the Black Sea.

The losses of Russia had been so great that she was glad to accept of peace on the terms dictated by the allies.

During the present reign the postage of a letter has been reduced to a penny.-The Thames Tunnel has been opened.-The New Royal Exchange, and the New Houses of Parliament, have been completed,-and the Electric Telegraph has been brought into general

use.

Her Majesty ascended the throne in the nineteenth year of her age, and she has ever since enjoyed the respect and affections of her people in a very high degree, and that she may have a long and happy reign, is the ardent wish of all.

LESSON XCVII.

INDIA. ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD, ABRIDGED.

Where sacred Ganges pours along the plain,
And Indus rolls to swell the eastern main,
What awful scenes, the curious mind delight,
What wonders burst upon the dazzled sight!
There giant palms lift high their tufted heads,
The plantain wide his graceful foliage spreads.

Wild in the woods the active monkey springs,
The chatt'ring parrot elaps his painted wings;
'Mid tall bamboos lies hid the deadly snake,
The tiger crouches in the tangled brake;
The spotted axis bounds in fear away,
The leopard darts on his defenceless prey.
'Mid reedy pools and ancient forests rude,
Cool, peaceful, haunts of awful solitude!
The huge rhinoceros rends the crashing boughs,
And stately elephants untroubled browse.

Two tyrant seasons rule the wide domain,

Scorch with dry heat, or drench with floods of rain;
Now, feverish herds rush madd'ning o'er the plains,
And cool, in shady streams, their throbbing veins;
The birds drop lifeless from the silent spray,
And nature faints beneath the fiery day;
Then bursts the deluge on the sinking shore,
And teeming plenty empties all her storę.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Aikin

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree's shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap, Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care;

Nor children run to lisp their sire's return,
Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield;
Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke,

How jocund did they drive their teams afield!

How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke.

Let not ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile
The short and simple annals of the poor.
Can storied urn, or animated bust,

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or flatt'ry sooth the dull cold ear of death.

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire: Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd, Or wak'd to ecstacy the living lyre.

Full many a gem

of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast,
The little tyrant of his fields withstood:
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest:
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.
Th' applause of list'ning senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,

And read their hist'ry in a nation's eyes.

Their lot forbade nor circumscrib'd alone

Their growing virtues: but their crimes confind, Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.

Far from the madd'ning crowd'e ignoble strife, . Their sober wishes never learn'd tc stray;

Along the cool sequester'd vale of life,

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. Yet e'en those bones from insult to protect, Some frail memorial still erected nigh,

With uncouth rhymes, and shapeless sculpture deck'd, Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.

Their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered muse,
The place of fame and elegy supply;

And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.

Gray.

LESSON XCVIII.

SPAIN.-PORTUGAL.-ITALY.—TURKEY.-GREECE.

SPAIN is an extensive kingdom on the west of France, from which it is separated by the Pyr-e-nees, and has a population of about fourteen millions; the face of the country is inclined to be mountainous, and the climate varies in a great degree.

In the southern provinces, the soil is very fertile, producing wheat and the finer fruits in great abundance, but the country is, in general, very indifferently cultivated.

Madrid', the capital, has a gloomy appearance, and is remarkable for nothing but its magnificent royal palace, and the number of its churches; the other chief towns, are Barcelona, Cadiz, Sev'ille, Mal'aga, and Salaman'ca.

The Spaniards are a stately, grave people; the upper classes possessing a high sense of honour; they are however, considered indolent and revengeful; their religion is the Roman Catholic, and no other is tolerated.