the clerk of the green cloth,
and some other unimportant sinecures, were abolished.

[Sidenote: Parliamentary Reforms.]

[Sidenote: Reform Questions.]

The first attempt at that great representative reform which afterwards
convulsed the nation, was made by William Pitt. He brought forward two
resolutions, to prevent bribery at elections, and secure a more
equitable representation. But he did not succeed; and Pitt himself,
when his cause was advocated by men of a different spirit,--men
inflamed by revolutionary principles,--changed his course, and opposed
parliamentary reform with more ardor than he had at first advocated
it. But parliamentary reform did not become an object of absorbing
interest until the times of Henry Brougham and Lord John Russell.

No other great events were sufficiently prominent to be here alluded
to, until the ministry of William Pitt. The American Revolution first
demands attention.

* * * * *

REFERENCES.--Belsham's History of the Reign of George III.
Walpole's Memoir of the same reign. Holt's Private and
Domestic Life of George III. Lord Brougham's Statesmen of
the Reign of George III. Smyth's Lectures. Thackeray's Life
of the Earl of Chatham. Correspondence of the Earl of
Chatham. Annual Register, from 1765 to 1775. Debret's
Parliamentary Debates. Stephens' Life of Horne Tooke.
Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors. Macaulay's Essay
on Chatham. Burke's Thoughts on the Present Discontents.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

[Sidenote: The American Revolution.]

The American Revolution, if contemplated in view of its ultimate as
well as immediate consequences, is doubtless the greatest event of
modern times. Its importance was not fully appreciated when it took
place, but still excited a great interest throughout the civilized
world. It was the main subject which engrossed the attention and
called out the energies of British statesmen, during the
administration of Lord North. In America, of course, all other
subjects were trivial in comparison with it. The contest is memorable
for the struggles of heroes, for the development of unknown energies,
for the establishment of a new western empire, for the triumph of the
cause of liberty, and for the moral effects which resulted, even in
other countries, from the examples of patriots who preferred the glory
and honor of their country to their