Knowledge," by publishing religious works at a cheap rate, approved of by a committee of members of the Church of England; the profits, together with the legacies and donations to the society's funds, being devoted to the diffusion of Christian knowledge and the general education of the poor; to making gratuitous grants of its publications to parochial and other lending libraries, etc., in England and Wales; and to promoting Christian education abroad by supplying natives and settlers with books, effecting translations, etc. At the close of this reign (in 1701) was incorporated "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," for the religious instruction of hist Majesty's subjects beyond the seas, and for the maintenance of clergymen in the plantations, colonies, and factories of Great Britain. "Among the founders and earliest supporters of this Society were Arbhbishops Tenison, Sharp, Wake, Potter; Bishops Compton, Roebuck, Burnet, Beveridge; Dean Prideaux, Robert Nelson, William Melmoth, John Evelyn, etc. The Rev. John Wesley was originally a missionary of this Society, and in that character proceeded to America in 1735, returning to England in 1738." THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE.-THE AUGUSTAN AGE. Anne, the second daughter of James Duke of York, by his wife Anne Hyde, was born at St. James's, in 1665. Her education was intrusted to Dr. Henry Compton (subsequently Bishop of Oxford and of London), and she was by him firmly grounded in the principles of Protestantism. The reign of Queen Anne (1702 to 1714) was as distinguished for literature as for arms; but, although her administrators numbered among them eminent scholars, her own tastes and opinions had little share in calling forth the literary genius and talent which have led to her reign being styled the Augustan Era of English Literature-on account of its supposed resemblance in intellectual opulence to the reign of the Emperor Augustus. This opinion has not been entirely followed or confirmed in the present day. Anne's reign produced Addison, Arbuthnot, Congreve, Pope, Prior, Steele, and Swift-writers of a high degree of excellence in their particular walks, but scarcely to be compared with the great poets of the reign of Elizabeth, or with a few other illustrious names of a succeeding generation, such as Milton and Dryden. Yet, Addison and Steele invented or introduced among us the periodical essay, a species of writing which has never been surpassed, or on the whole equaled, by any one of their many followers. Who can describe the lightness, variety, and urbanity of these delightful papers-the deli cate imagination and exquisite humor of Addison, or the vivacity, warm-heartedness, and perfectly generous nature of Steele? This was the age of the Examiners, Spectators, Tatlers, and Guardians, which gave us the first examples of a style possessing all the best qualities desirable in a vehicle of general amusement and instruction; easy and familiar without coarseness, animated without extravagance, polished without unnatural labor, and from its flexibility adapted to all the varieties of the gay and the serious. Next to Addison is Arbuthnot, a writer of sound English, pointed wit, and polished humor. Congreve is our most brilliant writer of comedy. Pope wrote the poetry of artificial life with a perfection never since attained; and in the hands of Swift (the most powerful and original prose-writer of the period), satire was carried to its utmost pitch and excellence; whilst Prior, in his graceful and fluent versification, reflected the lively illustration and colloquial humor of his master, Horace. Prior's patron, St. John Lord Bolingbroke (one of Anne's ministry), was so distinguished a scholar, that even his most familiar conversations, it is said, would bear printing without correction; for he was one of the most brilliant orators and talkers of his time. It is lamentable to add, that Bolingbroke from early life had cast off belief in revelation. Fortunately, his works are now but little read. Harley, Earl of Oxford, the favorite minister of Queen Anne, was not only a great encourager of learning, but the greatest book-collector of his time; and his curious books and manuscripts form the nucleus of the Harleian Library, now one of the richest treasures of the British Museum. Among the educational events of this reign may be mentioned the establishment of the Clarendon Press at Oxford, in part from the proceeds of the sale of Lord Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, presented to the University by his son. The building, by Sir John Vanbrugh, continued to be used according to its original intention until 1830, when additional room being required to supply the increased demand for books, a new building was erected opposite the Radcliffe Observatory. Among the free schools founded in this reign, one in Aldgate merits special record from its perfect adaptation to the requirements of the times. Such was the school founded by Sir John Cass, Alderman of the ward of Portsoken, in the year 1710. Sir John's father, *Arbuthnot, Pope, and Swift, in 1714, engaged to write together a satire on the abuse of human learning in every branch; but the design was not carried out, and great was the loss to polite letters. "Arbuthnot was skilled in everything which related to science; Pope was a master of the fine arts; and Swift excelled in the knowledge of the world. Wit they had all in equal measure; and this so large, that no age perhaps, ever produced three men on whom nature had more bountifully bestowed it, or art had brought it to higher perfection" Thomas Cass, Esq., of Grove-street, Hackney, had acquired an ample fortune as carpenter to the Royal Ordnance, which, upon his death, descended to his son and only child, who having been educated in the true principles of the Established Church, as he advanced in life was one of those who, in the reign of Anne, distinguished themselves for their zeal in support of her rights by contributing to turn the current of those times, when it became the prevailing fashion to discountenance orthodoxy and uniformity in religious worship, of which Sir John Cass was an exemplary pattern. On the opening of these schools in the year 1710, a sermon was preached in the parish church of St. Botolph, Aldgate, by the Most Rev. Sir William Dawes, Archbishop of York, at which were present no less than sixteen noblemen and forty members of the House of Commons, with the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, and Common Council, besides many other eminent persons. Some hundreds of children of both sexes have received an excellent education in this establishment, which is, to this day, one of the most flourishing of the City schools. REIGNS OF GEORGE I. AND GEORGE II. George I. was born at Hanover, in 1660, on the day before that on which Charles II. made his entry into London, at the Restoration, His education was grossly neglected, notwithstanding that his mother, the Electress Sophia, was the protector of the learned men of her day, and spoke five languages with fluency. The Prince's inattention to study must have been great indeed; for he never acquired even the language of the people (the English) over whom he expected to reign. After his accession to the throne, he established professorships of Modern History in the universities; and he gave the library of the Bishop of Ely, which cost the king 6000 guineas, to the University of Cambridge. He liberally patronized Vertue, the engraver; bestowed the Laureateship upon Nicholas Rowe; and encouraged Dr. Desaguliers in rendering natural philosophy popular, in a course of lectures at Hampton Court. When congratulated by a courtier on his being sovereign of Great Britain and Hanover, rather," said the King, "congratulate me on having such a subject in one as Newton, and such a subject in the other as Leibnitz." In this reign were educated Samuel Johnson, and Hume and Robertson, the historians. Of Johnson's boyhood and schooldays we shall speak hereafter. George II., the only son of George I. and his queen Sophia Dorothea, was born at Hanover, in 1683. He was educated under the direction of his grandmother, but was nowise distinguished for learning, nor in after-life felt or affected the least admiration for art, science, or literature. In his long reign, however, flourished in literature, Sherlock, Hoadley, Secker, Warburton, Leland, Thompson, Akenside, Home, Gray, Johnson, the two Wartons, Robertson, Hume, Fielding and Smollet, not to mention Swift, Pope and Young, the survivors of a former age. Yet, this and the previous reign were a blank half century in the annals of the education of the people. At the close of the reign of George II. was opened THE BRITISH MUSEUM, which may be regarded as one of the educational institutions of the country. The British Museum has been the growth of a century, between the purchase of Montague House for the collection of 1753, and the completion of the new buildings. The Museum originated in a suggestion in the will of Sir Hans Sloane (d. 1753), offering his, collection to parliament for 20,000l., it having cost him 50,000. The offer was accepted; and by an Act (26th George II.) were purchased all Sir Hans Sloane's "library of books, drawings, manuscripts, prints, medals, seals, cameos and intaglios, precious stones, agates, jaspers, vessels of agate and jasper, crystals, mathematical instruments, pictures," etc. By the same Act was bought, for 10,000l., the Harleian Library of MSS (about 7600 volumes of rolls, charters, etc.); to which were added the Cottonian Library of MSS., and the library of Major Arthur Edwards. By the same Act also was raised by lottery 100.000l., out of which the Sloane and Harleian collections were paid for 10,250l. to Lord Halifax for Montague House, and 12,873. for its repairs; a fund being set apart for the payment of taxes and salaries of officers. Trustees were elected from persons of rank, station, and literary attainments; and the institution was named THE BRITISH MUSEUM. To Montague House were removed the Harleian collection of MSS. in 1755; other collections in 1756; and the Museum was opened to the public January 15, 1759. EDUCATION OF GEORGE III. How various the fortunes under which the royal youth of England have been reared for her rule and government may be seen by a glance through the preceding pages. The retrospect will be interesting and instructive, in showing the storm and sunshine, the promise and blight, amid which have been reared the princes of This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, Shakspeare, Richard II. As we approach the close of the long line, such violence and trouble as beset the infancy of our earliest sovereigns is no longer to be recorded of the lives of their successors: we have no longer to chronicle how the heir to the crown drew his first lessons, safe only in the strength of the fortress; or how the course of his early studies was broken by shifting from castle to castle, as the only security amidst the fierce contentions of civil war. Such chances of evil have long ceased to beset the infancy of our kings; but they have been succeeded by troubles of a milder kind-though of almost equal ill-promise for the welfare of princes-in the political difficulties which have too often attended their early lives, and beset their training for the kingly office. The boyhood and youth of George III. were clouded with such disadvantages, which, however, the strong natural sense of the prince, in great measure, enabled him to overcome. Whatever may have been the defects of his own training, it must be acknowledged that the King was- -what many influential persons of his time were not-" an avowed friend to the diffusion of education, and certainly was not afraid that his subjects should be made either more difficult to govern, or worse in any other respect, by all classes and every individual of them being taught 66 to read and to write." His reign is perhaps to be placed above every other of the same length in modern history, for the accessions to almost every department of knowledge by which it was signalized; and even the latter half of the period, notwithstanding the wars and political confusion by which it was disturbed, was at least as distinguished for the busy and successful cultivation of science and literature, as the quieter time that preceded. George Willliam Frederick, the eldest son of Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, and Augusta, daughter of Frederick II., Duke of Saxe-Gotha, was born in 1738, at Norfolk House, St. James's-square.* The nation were elated at the birth of the heir presumptive to the throne; and on the first anniversary of his birthday, he was congratulated by a company of 60 Lilliputian soldiers, all under twelve years of age, who were received by the infant prince wearing an uniform, hat and feather; and next year he was present at a masque written by Thompson and Mallet, to commemorate the accession of his family to the British throne. At the age of six, the prince was placed under the care of Dr. Francis Ayscough, afterward Bishop of Bristol, who, writing to the pious Dr. Doddridge, says: "I thank God I have one great encouragement to quicken me in my duty, which is the good disposition of the children intrusted to me; as an instance, I must tell you that Prince George (to his honor and my shame) had learnt several pages in your book of verses, without any direction from me.” The Prince of Wales was a liberal patron of men of letters. He paid great attention to the education of his son, for whose use he commissioned Dr. Freeman to write the History of the English Tongue. On the first appearance of the Rambler, by Dr. Johnson, he also sought out the author that he might befriend him; the Prince also greatly encouraged Vertue, the engraver; and upon one occasion he sent the poet Glover a banknote of 500l. to console him in his affliction. To accustom the young Prince and his brothers to rhetoric, plays were got up at Leicester House; when Prince George filled the character of Portius, in Cato, and recited the prologue. The instruction of the young actors was intrusted to Quin, the comedian, who, many years afterward, on hearing of the graceful manner in which George III. delivered his first speech from the throne, said, with delight, "Aye! 'twas I that taught the boy to speak." With Lord Harcourt and Lord Waldegrave successively as governors, and Dr. Hayter, bishop *The room of the old mansion in the rear of the present Norfolk House is preserved ; and the bed in which the prince was born is at Worksop, Notts. |