ter.
Return of Gladstone to power.
His second administration.
Parliamentary defeat of Gladstone.
The Irish Question.
Death.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME X.

Bismarck at Versailles
_After the painting by Carl Wagner_.

William IV., King of England
_After the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence_.

Sir Robert Peel
_From the engraving by Sartain_.

Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield
_From a photograph_.

Camillo Benso di Cavour
_From a photograph_.

Assassination of the Emperor Paul I. of Russia
_After the painting by H. Merte_.

Czar Nicholas I.
_After the painting by Horace Vernet_.

Capture of Napoleon III. at Boulogne
_After the painting by R. Gutschmidt_.

Louis Napoleon III.
_From a photograph_.

Bismarck
_After the painting by Franz von Lenbach_.

Count Von Moltke
_From a photograph from life_.

Proclamation of King William of Prussia as Emperor of
Germany, at Versailles
_After the painting by Anton von Werner_.

William Ewart Gladstone
_After a photograph from life_.

BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY.

WILLIAM IV.

1765-1837.

ENGLISH REFORMS.

On the death of George IV. in 1830, a new political era dawned on
England. His brother, William IV., who succeeded him, was not his equal
in natural ability, but was more respectable in his character and more
liberal in his views. With William IV. began the undisputed ascendency
of the House of Commons in national affairs. Before his day, no prime
minister could govern against the will of the sovereign. After George
IV., as in France under Louis Philippe, "the king reigned, but did not
govern." The chief of the ascendent political party was the real ruler.

When William IV. ascended the throne the Tories were still in power, and
were hostile to reform. But the agitations and discontents of the latter
days of George IV. had made the ministry unpopular. Great political
reformers had arisen, like Lords Grey, Althorp, and Russell, and great
orators like Henry Brougham and Macaulay, who demanded a change in the
national policy. The social evils which stared everybody in the face
were a national disgrace; they made the boasted liberty of the English a
mockery. There was an unparalleled distress among the laboring classes,
especially in the mining and manufacturing districts. The price of labor
had diminished, while the price of bread had increased. So wretched was
the condition of the poor that there were constant riots and
insurrections, esp