brow, by which she was sometimes taken for an ally by her political opponents; and thus, like a privateer under false colours, she often sunk the enemy by an unexpected broadside. At the theatre the female Whigs and Tories sat upon opposite sides of the house; and those who remained neutral in politics patched both sides of the brow, and occupied the middle boxes. The men met to discuss politics in club-, coffee-, and chocolate-houses; and club-houses were so numerous, that there was one for almost every parish, in which the people met to regale themselves and to find fault with the management of public affairs. In these places politicians were wont to meet to settle questions concerning the balance of power in Europe, to crown and depose kings at pleasure, and to prove that England was on the brink of ruin. The tradesman and the merchant forsook the shop and the warehouse to take care of the state and harangue upon the misconduct of the ministry, without thinking of their own; and, as a necessary consequence, the approaches to a club-house served as an ambush for bailiffs and bailiffs' followers; and it frequently happened that financiers, after they had satisfactorily cleared off the debts of the nation, were carried to the sponging-house for being unable to settle a small private bill. Education at this period was very superficial; and the substance of a finished education for a young gentleman was a little Latin and less Greek. When a youth had been whipped through the parts of speech and was able to construe a few "nonsense verses he was considered qualified to shine equally in the senate or at a masquerade. To these he added the accomplishment of dancing, and perhaps a little music; and the grand finish to his education was the tour of Europe, whither he was sent, as it were in leading strings, to gaze ignorantly at streets, mountains, rivers, and trees. The state of female education was equally deplorable. In boardingschool advertisements it was professed young women should be soberly educated, and taught all sorts of learning fit for them. A young lady's education was indeed made short work of; for by the time she was fourteen she was usually introduced into society, and taught to show off her personal attractions, in order to obtain a good marriage; and, thus launched into life, it is no wonder that the characteristics of both sexes were lightness and frivolity, and that they were often led into errors that blighted their prospects for life. This defective state of education led of course to great evils in the community; and the annals of the day are filled with descriptions of eccentric and unprincipled men, by whose turbulent conduct the peace of society was outraged. There were fellows who, assuming the dress and titles of military officers, cheated coachmen, thrust themselves into the theatres gratis, and forced quarrels upon the peaceably disposed at public places; there were Darby captains who attended gaming-houses; there were Tash captains, whose occupation was too infamous to name; and there were Cock-andbottle captains, whose vocation consisted in beating bailiffs and doing such other exploits for hire. Of all the turbulent ruffians of this period, however, none were so distinguished as the Mohocks. These fellows assumed the name and outdid the atrocities of a tribe of Indian savages. They acted under a president, whom they styled Emperor of the Mohocks; and their aim was to excel each other in wanton outrages upon the peace of society. Their brutalities were, as may be supposed, generally committed under the influence of liquor, of which they drank to excess. One favourite sport was to attack watchmen, who at that time were generally weak, brokendown old men unable to make any successful resistance; another, to make people cut capers, by thrusting swords into their legs; and they took a particular delight in placing women in empty barrels, and then rolling them down Snow-hill. Lives were of course often endangered by the outrageous conduct of these Mohocks; and Swift, in his letters to Stella, says that while he was in London he was frequently fearful of being maimed or even murdered by them. Another evil arising out of the defective state of education was that of superstition. Almost every mansion was believed to be haunted by a ghost, and every parish tormented by a witch. Fortune-telling was a most thriving occupation, both in town and country; the customers of the seer or sibyl not being merely people of low degree, but also those of the highest rank. Even the wise and the learned, it appears, had not yet shaken themselves loose from such unintellectual thraldom; for Dryden calculated nativities, Steele nearly ruined himself in seeking after the grand Magisterium, and Whiston not only believed in the miracle of Mary Tofts, who was said to have brought forth a warren of rabbits, but endeavoured to prove that she was announced in the prophecies of Ezekiel. These hallucinations continued to linger even among literary men, until they were finally laid with the Cock-lane ghost. Among the amusements that illustrate the character of this period, watering-places may be first mentioned. Medicinal springs had long been known, to which the diseased, the hypochondriacal, and idle had flocked; and as the healing waters increased in reputation, it became fashionable to spend the summer season in their neighbourhood. Bath was one of the chief places of resort; and next to Bath, Tunbridge and Epsom wells were in the greatest repute; but as the luxuries of these places were as expensive as they were fashionable, people of moderate fortunes contented themselves with the more accessible mineral springs of Islington, to which they repaired with their families, and where they imitated the amusements of the more fashionable watering-places. Playgoing was still frequent, without the theatre having undergone any moral improvement; and the same sort of plays were acted, and the same license in behaviour tolerated, as had prevailed during the reign of Charles II. Balls were held in halls or taverns for the entertainment of the lower classes. Hampstead was a noted place for such merry meetings; and the excesses to which they led were so infamous, that at one time no respectable tradesman cared to be seen in that beautiful suburban village. Shooting-matches were at this time common in the outskirts of London; but the chief outdoor sports were football, bowls, skittles, and cricket: but prize-fights were also frequent, at which the common weapons were broadsword, sword, dagger, or the single-stick. These gladiators mangled each other for the amusement of the crowd, and devoted themselves to their savage calling as to a regular trade, subsisting upon the subscription purses or admittance fees. Public fairs were more attended at this period than they had ever been in England; and that of Bartholomew was, in particular, a noted place of resort, every parish in the metropolis discharging its population into Smithfield when the fair commenced as into a vast reservoir. The noble and the mean mingled there to take their fill of pleasure, while pickpockets and sharpers prowled about to take advantage of their folly. The amusements of gentlemen in the country differed of course from those of gentlemen in London ; their chief domestic entertainments were anniversary festivals, which the progress of fashion had as yet left almost untouched. Other amusements out of doors were hunting, shooting, and fishing; and in doors, card-playing, dancing, and music. As for the manners of the peasantry, they still exhibited much of the simplicity by which they had been characterised in the days of Elizabeth. The toils and occupations of the rustics continued to be enlivened chiefly by wakes and fairs, which were thronged with puppet-shows, pedlars' stalls, raffling-tables, and drinking-booths; while the peasants themselves contended with each other in wrestling, grinning through a horse's collar, cudgel-playing, and foot-racing. There were also trials in whistling, where the person who could whistle through a whole tune without being put out by the drolleries of a merryandrew that were played off before him, was the victor. Contentions of this nature were frequent during the celebration of the annual church festivals, and especially at Christmas; and very often seasons which should have been kept holy were used only as occasions for the display of mummery and buffoonery. GEORGE III. PART I. GEORGE II. was succeeded by his grandson; who, upon the death of his father Frederick, Prince of Wales, had become heir-apparent to the throne. His Majesty's first care, after his accession, was to assemble the Parliament, to whom he made a speech, in which he laid great stress upon his being born and educated a Briton; and from this circumstance, and from the general tenor of his speech, the people conceived the fondest hopes of a happy reign. Few sovereigns, indeed, ever ascended the throne of England under more auspicious circumstances. The kingdom was in a flourishing state, victorious and happy on the whole, though engaged in war. The king called this war a war “for the Protestant interest," and asked the assistance of Parliament to prosecute it with vigour; but it was soon found that in his own mind he was favourable to peace. In 1661 Pitt discovered that a private treaty had been lately entered into between France and Spain, termed the "Family Compact; " and he proposed in council that a fleet should be sent to intercept the Spanish flotilla, or to block up Cadiz. When this proposal was overruled, Pitt, together with Lord Temple, resigned office, a pension of 3,000l. per annum being settled on the former for three lives, and a peerage conferred on his wife and her issue. In 1761 George III. was married to Charlotte, Princess of Mecklenburgh-Strelitz, a small but sovereign German state. Their Majesties were crowned at Westminster Abbey on the 22nd of September. This coronation could boast of one very unusual and curious spectator; namely, Charles Edward Stuart, the young Pretender, who came over in disguise to witness the coronation of a king on the throne which he considered to be by right his father's or his own. It has been said that the king knew he was in the capital, and that he would not have him molested: a proof of humanity of disposition as well as of his feeling himself secure in the hearts of his people. The close of the year 1761 left the affairs of Europe, both military and political, in a very remarkable situation. Endeavours had been made to bring about a peace; but they had served only to increase the animosity of the contending nations; and Great Britain has seldom been in a more critical situation than at this time; for she was engaged in a war with all the great continental powers, and the greatest part of the maritime strength of Europe: success, however, attended her arms, both by sea and land. In the month |