The Evolution of an Empire: A Brief Historical Sketch of England

Will the readers of this little work please bear in mind the difficulties which must attend the painting of a very large picture, with multitudinous characters and details, upon a very small canvas! This book is mainly an attempt to trace to their sources some of the currents which enter into the life of England to-day; and to indicate the starting-points of some among the various threads--legislative, judicial, social, etc.--which are gathered into the imposing strand of English Civilization in this closing 19th Century.

The reader will please observe that there seem to have been two things most closely interwoven with the life of England. RELIGION and MONEY have been the great evolutionary factors in her development.

It has been, first, the resistance of the people to the extortions of money by the ruling class, and second, the violating of their religious instincts, which has made nearly all that is vital in English History.

The lines upon which the government has developed to its present Constitutional form are chiefly lines of resistance to oppressive enactments in these two matters. The dynastic and military history of England, although picturesque and interesting, is really only a narrative of the external causes which have impeded the Nation's growth toward its ideal of "the greatest possible good to the greatest possible number."

M. P.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Ancient Britain--Caesar's Invasion--Britain a Roman Province--Boadicea --Lyndin or London--Roman Legions Withdrawn--Angles and Saxons-- Cerdic--Teutonic Invasion--English Kingdoms Consolidated

CHAPTER II.

Augustine--Edwin--Caedmon--Baeda--Alfred--Canute--Edward the Confessor--Harold--William the Conqueror

CHAPTER III.

"Gilds" and Boroughs--William II.--Crusades--Henry I.--Henry II.-- Becket's Death--Richard I.--John--Magna Charta

CHAPTER IV.

Henry III.--Roger Bacon--First True Parliament--Edward I.--Conquest of Wales--of Scotland--Edward II.--Edward III.--Battle of Crecy--Richard II.--Wickliffe

CHAPTER V

House of Lancaster--Henry IV.--Henry V.--Agincourt--Battle of Orleans-- Wars of the Roses--House of York--Edward IV.--Richard III.--Henry VII. --Printing Introduced

CHAPTER VI

Henry VIII--Wolsey--Reformation--Edward VI--Mary

CHAPTER VII

Elizabeth--East India Company Chartered--Colonization of Virginia-- Flodden Field--Birth of Mary Stuart--Mary Stuart's Death--Spanish Armada--Francis Bacon

CHAPTER VIII

James I--First New England Colony--Gunpowder Plot--Translation of Bible--Charles I--Archbishop Laud--John Hampden--Petition of Right-- Massachusetts Chartered--Earl Strafford--Star Chamber

CHAPTER IX

Long Parliament--Death of Strafford and Laud--Oliver Cromwell--Death of Charles I.--Long Parliament Dispersed--Charles II.

CHAPTER X

Act of Habeas Corpus--Death of Charles II.--Milton--Bunyan--James II. --William and Mary--Battle of Boyne

CHAPTER XI.

Anne--Marlborough--Battle of Blenheim--House of Hanover--George I.-- George II.--Walpole--British Dominion in India--Battle of Quebec--John Wesley

CHAPTER XII.

George III.--Stamp Act--Tax on Tea--American Independence Acknowledged --Impeachment of Hastings--War of 1812--First English Railway--George IV.--William IV.--Reform Bill--Emancipation of the Slaves

CHAPTER XIII.

Victoria--Famine in Ireland--War with Russia--Sepoy Rebellion--Massacre at Cawnpore

CHAPTER XIV.

Atlantic Cable--Daguerre's Discovery--First World's Fair--Death of Albert--Suez Canal--Victoria Empress of India--Disestablishment of Irish Branch of Church of England--Present Conditions

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER I.