Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

Bell-man's Verses.

127

We shall go to Church to-morrow, (suppose it is Saturday, otherwise you must choose something else) make the sign for we, pointing at all those who are present, who will go to Church, and, instead of pointing to each separately, as if you were counting them, move your hand round at once. The sign for Church, put your hands together as if praying, and seem to be looking at a high tower or steeple. Then the sign for to-morrow, as I have directed.

I will tell you a little more about this in my next letter. Meantime, do not be discouraged, if you cannot yet put in practice all I have told you in this, but go on teaching him, by degrees, the list of words which I have sent, and he will have done very well, if he gets them perfect before next month.

I am your sincere friend,

D.D.

BELL-MAN'S VERSES.

"

We have before mentioned the Northampton Parish Clerk's Annual Verses *, and have given some very beautiful ones which the Poet Cowper furnished him with. The following are by the same Author.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Death and Judgment, Heav'n and Hell,

These alone, so often heard,

No more move us than the bell,

When some stranger is interr'd.

IX.

O then, ere the turf or tomb
Cover us from ev'ry eye,

Spirit of instruction come,

Make us learn, that we must die !

Letter from a Father to his Son.

129

Letter from a Father to his Son, an Apprentice Boy.

MY DEAR BOY,

WHEN I first began to write to you, and to give you such pieces of advice and instruction as I thought might be useful to you, I never supposed that we should have made up any thing in the shape of a regular history. And indeed we must not now pretend to call our letters by such a name; but, as you seemed to take a pleasure in gaining some knowledge on these points, I have sent you, from time to time, what I thought to be the principal heads of English History, as well as I could manage to put them together. If you continue to be as fond of reading as you are now, and find time for it, you may perhaps have opportunities of getting more particular information on these subjects, from regular books of history.

In my last letter I got as far as the death of George the Second, and we must now look at the reign of George the Third. The reign of this good king was the longest we read of in our history; he came to the throne in the year 1760, and continued, as you know, till the year 1820. I am old enough to remember a good deal of what happened in the early part of George the Third's reign, and we all of us remember his latter days. The great length of this reign, and the knowledge which we have of all the particulars, would make a regular account of this reign a great deal too long for me to attempt to write; I must therefore be content with sending you such portions as seem most worthy of your notice.

You must remember that George the Third was not the son of George the Second, but the grandson, his father, Frederic Prince of Wales, having died before the old king. George the Third was

married, on the 8th of Sept. 1761, to a German Princess. This was the excellent Queen Charlotte, who lived to a great age, and died, as we all remember, but a little while before the king.

It was about the year 1766, that the power of the English in the East Indies began to increase in a wonderful manner under Lord Člive.

About the year 1768, we hear of the commotions excited by the election of John Wilkes for Middlesex; he seems to have been an unsettled violent sort of man ;-but we need not trouble ourselves about him now.

In the same year, the Royal Academy in London was established by the king, to encourage skill and diligence among artists: and there is still a great shew of pictures exhibited by them every year at Somerset House.

You have often heard of Captain Cook; it was in this year that he set out on his voyage round the world. You know that the world is roundlike an orange-so that if a person sets off in one direction, and goes straight forward, he will come, in time, to the place from which he set off. Captain Cook finished his voyage round the world in about three years.

In 1772 he made another voyage and returned in 1775. About this time the first battle was fought between the English and the Americans. By this war we lost much of our power in America. I believe, however, we are quite as well without it. In the year 1776, the Americans declared themselves independent of the crown of England. General Washington was the great commander of the American army. In the year 1778, the French joined the Americans against the English. About this time died the Earl of Chatham, who had been for many years a man of great weight and importance in the state. He was the father of Mr. Pitt, whom we all so well remember.

Letter from a Father to his Son:

131

About the year 1779 the Spaniards acknowledged the independence of America, and joined them against us, so that we had to fight against France, and Spain, and America all at the same time. In this year Captain Cook, in his third voyage, was killed by the native savages of Owhy hee, an island in the Pacific Ocean.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

في

You have often heard me talk of the riots in the year 1780, which happened when I was a boy. The mob was supposed to have been collected together and encouraged by Lord George Gordon, in opposition to the parliament, for having granted some indulgencies to the Roman Catholics. This mob pulled down all the Romish Chapels in and about London; they also burned the prisons of Newgate, the Fleet, and the King's Bench, and many private houses besides; and they would probably have demolished the Bank, if they had not been stopped by the volunteers of the city of London and some regular troops which were called in. About two hundred of the rioters were killed or wounded. Lord George Gordon was tried for this, but was acquitted, as it could not be proved that he had encouraged the mob to any of their savage violence.

[ocr errors]

In the year 1782, Admiral Rodney rose to great fame; he gained a great victory over the French by sea, and was made a Lord, as a reward for his courage and success. In America things went badly with us.

I think I have already told you something about Gibraltar. You know that it lies just at the south point of Spain, and that it has long been in possession of the English. The Spaniards, we may be sure, do not much like us to have this place, and, about the time we are writing of, they tried to take it from us; but they could not manage it, for General Elliot, the Governor, with his boldness and his red-hot balls, put an end to all their attempts.

« ElőzőTovább »