was mainly carried on in the Crimea. The chief actions were the victories of the Alma, September 20, and of Inkerman, November 5, and the engagement at Balaclava, October 25. During the winter the British army investing the fortress of Sebastopol, being ill supplied with food or shelter, in the bitterest weather, underwent grievous suffering and loss. The siege lasted 349 days, at the end of which time the place was evacuated by the Russians in September, 1855; and in the course of the next year peace was made. Although Great Britain was at this time on friendly terms with France, which was then ruled by Louis Napoleon, a nephew of the first Buonaparte, some years later there was fear of a French invasion, and under the influence of this feeling the Volunteer Force was formed in 1859 for the defence of the country.

6. The Indian Mutiny.-Early in 1857 the mutiny of the Sepoys, or native soldiers of the East India Company's army, excited by a mistaken idea that some interference with their religion was intended, came like a thunder-clap upon the English. The regiments at Meerut, after killing a number of English men and women, marched into Delhi, where like slaughter was made among the English residents. The mutineers proclaimed the nominal King of Delhi as Emperor of Hindustan, he being the representative of the line of Mogul Emperors who had borne rule in India when first the Company established itself there. At Cawnpore the European garrison were treacherously slain, after having surrendered on terms to the rebel Nana Sahib, who, upon the approach of General Henry Havelock's troops, proceeded to murder all the English women and children then in his hands. After occupying Cawnpore, Havelock, who had inflicted many defeats upon the mutineers, succeeded, in company with Sir James Outram, in relieving the beleaguered garrison of Lucknow. There the two generals remained until Sir Colin Campbell, afterwards

Lord Clyde, came to their aid, and forcing his way in, brought off the garrison, together with the sick, the women, and children. The mutiny, which had threatened the overthrow of the British dominion, was put down in the course of the next year, and by Act of Parliament, August 2, 1858, the government of India was transferred from the Company to the Crown. Nearly twenty years later the Queen took the title of Empress of India, by which her Majesty was proclaimed at Delhi, January 1, 1877.

7. The Colonies.-In 1791, under Pitt's administration, Canada had been divided into two provinces, the old French colony east of the Ottawa being called Lower Canada, while the English colony to the west of that river formed the province of Upper Canada. Lower Canada having long been in a state of discontent, arising partly out of the disagreements between the French colonists and the more recent English settlers, soon after the Queen's accession the French Canadians broke into open revolt. The insurrection spread to Upper Canada, where also there was strife between the old settlers, mostly descendants of loyalists who had emigrated from the United States, and the new-comers. Peace however was before long restored, and in 1840 a new system of government was established, under which the two Canadas were united as one Province of Canada. At a later period, in 1867, the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were by statute federally united into one Dominion under the name of Canada. The old provinces of Upper and Lower Canada were restored under the names of Ontario and Quebec. A constitution was given them similar in principle to that of Great Britain and Ireland, the government being carried on in the Queen's name by a Governor-General and two Houses of Parliament. An outlying district in the region of the prairies was in 1870 formed into a new province under the name of Manitoba, and

added to the Dominion of Canada, which has been further enlarged by the incorporation in 1871 of British Columbia, and in 1873 of Prince Edward Island. The Australian Colonies have during the present reign formed for themselves constitutions framed on the British model. Victoria, a settlement founded about 1836, was made into a separate colony in 1850, and named after the Queen. Another colony, Queensland, was established in 1859. New Zealand also received a representative constitution in 1852, and the Fiji Islands were brought under British rule in 1874. In South Africa, Natal—so named in the fifteenth century by the Portuguese navigators who discovered it on the natal day of Christ

-was declared a British colony in 1843. The Cape Colony has received an independent constitution, and has been gradually enlarged by the annexation of adjoining districts, the latest being the Transvaal. These three groups of colonies-Canadian, Australasian, and South African-though they owe allegiance to the sovereign of Great Britain, are practically almost independent nations. Besides these, there are a number of colonies and settlements in West Africa, the West Indies, and Asia, which remain under the control of the mother-country. Among the acquisitions of this reign may be mentioned the island of Labuan, ceded to us in 1846 by the Sultan of Borneo, and Aden, an Arabian port of which the East India Company had taken possession in 1838, and which, since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, has become an important commercial station.

8. Legislation.-In 1840 the scheme proposed by Mr., afterwards Sir Rowland Hill, for the carriage of letters throughout the United Kingdom at uniform rates, now well known as the "penny postage," was put in practice. The immediate consequence was that the number of letters sent through the post was more than doubled. In 1855 the stamp-duty

on newspapers ceased to be compulsory; the effect of which was to reduce the price of newspapers, and thereby to increase the general understanding of and interest in political matters. In 1858 an Act was passed empowering either House of Parliament to modify, in the case of Jews, the oath then required to be taken by members. The House of Commons immediately availed itself of the Act, and thereby enabled a Jew, who had already been elected, to take his seat. In accordance with a prevalent desire for further parliamentary reforms, a new Reform Bill was in 1867 brought in and carried by the Conservative ministry then in power, of which the chiefs were the late Earl of Derby and Mr. Disraeli (since created Earl of Beaconsfield). By this, which became law August 15, 1867, a vote in parliamentary elections was given in boroughs to all men occupying houses within the borough and paying rates, and also to men occupying lodgings of the yearly value of 10%, and the county franchise was greatly extended. By an Act passed in 1872, votes in parliamentary elections are to be given by ballot, instead of by open voting, as theretofore. An Act passed in 1869 shortened the term of residence required as a qualification for the municipal franchise, and extended to women the right to vote in municipal elections. In 1869 and 1870 great changes were made in Ireland by measures carried by the Liberal ministry under the leadership of Mr. Gladstone. By one Act the Irish Church was disestablished; and by another, outgoing tenants became entitled to compensation in respect of improvements made by them on their holdings. Great efforts have been made to spread education among the people. The Elementary Education Act, 1870, orders that "there shall be provided for every school district a sufficient amount of accommodation in public elementary schools available for all the children resident in such district for whose elementary

education efficient and suitable provision is not otherwise made." The school fees for children whose parents are unable from poverty to pay the same may be remitted. In districts where the public school accommodation is insufficient, "school boards" are to be elected, whose duty it is to supply the deficiency. These boards are invested with great powers, among others that of making it compulsory upon parents to cause their children between the ages of five and thirteen to attend school.

9. Discoveries and Inventions. From 1818 fresh efforts had been made to find a North-West passage, and Sir Edward Parry and Sir John Franklin explored far into the Arctic regions. Franklin's last expedition was made in 1845, and from this neither he nor his companions ever returned. After several expeditions under various leaders in search of him, in the course of which at least three North-West passages have been discovered, Captain (now Sir Leopold) M'Clintock, who went out in 1857, found at Point Victory a paper which had been left there in 1848 by the then survivors of the Franklin party, recording the death of Sir John in 1847, and the subsequent abandonment of their ice-bound vessels. In 1875 two vessels, the Alert and the Discovery, were sent out by the government on an expedition of Arctic exploration, the object being, if possible, to reach the North Pole. In this they were not successful, though the explorers planted the British flag in the highest latitude yet reached by man. The various branches of science have been cultivated with ardour and success during the present period. Early in the reign photography and electric telegraphs were brought into use; the latter have since been greatly developed, and more than one submarine cable has been laid down from Ireland to America. The power of artillery and fire-arms has been vastly increased, and, as a necessary consequence, the "wooden walls of England"