PRIME MINISTERS. LORD LIVERPOOL. 1816. 1817. 1818. 1819. Canning joins the Government as President of the Riots in the east of England in agricultural districts. Aug. Humiliation of the Dey of Algiers by Lord Dec. The Spa Fields riots are suppressed. [50,000 of Cobbett's Political Register are now sold Parliament is opened. Outrage on the Prince Regent. The march of the Blanketeers from Manchester. March. The "Sidmouth Circular" to the lord- Sir. F. Burdett's motion for reform is lost by 265 to 77. Dec. William Hone is tried for libel. 'He defends The suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act is repealed. The Bill of Indemnity for those who had been engaged A pro A motion for the repeal of the Septennial Act, supported by Romilly and Brougham, is lost by 117 to 42. Burdett's motion for annual parliaments and universal suffrage is rejected by 106 to 0 (Burdett and Cochrane tellers for the motion). The renewal of the Alien Bill is carried after much dis- £1,000,000 is voted by Parliament to build new churches. COLONIAL. (a) The Six Acts. Nov. 29. Introduced by the Lord Chancellor : 1. An Act to prevent delay in the administration of justice in cases of misdemeanour. Nov. 29. By Lord Sidmouth : 2. An Act to prevent the training of persons to the use of arms and to the practice of military evolutions and exercise. 3. An Act for the more effectual prevention and punishment of blasphemous and seditious libels. 4. An Act to authorize justices of the peace in certain disturbed counties to seize and detain arms collected and kept for purposes dangerous to the public peace, to continue in force until the 25th of March 1822. Dec. 3. By Lord Castlereagh : 5. An Act to subject certain publications to the duties of stamps upon newspapers, and to make other regulations for restraining the abuses arising from publication of blasphemous and seditious libels. Dec. 17. By Lord Sidmouth. Lord Castlereagh : Nov. 29. In Commons by 6. An Act for more effectually preventing seditious meetings and assemblies [out-of-doors], to continue in force until the end of the session of Parliament next after five years from the passing of the Act. 1820. Congress at Troppau, afterwards at Laybach. Revolution in Spain. (d) The Grenville Party.-Marquis of Buckingham, Lord Grenville, Thomas Grenville, Charles Wynn, Dr. Phillimore Sir George Nugent, Sir Watkin Wynn, William Fremantle. 1821. May. Death of Napoleon Buonaparte. Outbreak of insurrections in Greece, and the Danubian Principalities. Congress of Verona. PRIME MINISTERS LORD LIVERPOOL. 1819. 1820. 1821. 1822. Motions in favour of Catholic relief are defeated in the Aug. Manchester reform meeting in St. Peter's Nov. 23. Parliament is assembled. Debates on the "Manchester Massacre." Majorities for ministers (381 to 150 in the Commons). The Six Acts (a) are brought in and carried after strenuous opposition in both Houses. Lord John Russell proposes resolutions in favour of reform, which are rejected. [In this year Hunt and his followers assume for the first time the name of Radical Reformers.] Jan. 29. Death of George III. GEORGE IV. 1820-1830 (10 YEARS). Born, 1762; Married, 1795, Caroline of Brunswick. Feb. The name of the queen is omitted in the liturgy. Execution of Thistlewood and other conspirators. July. A bill of pains and penalties against the Decreasing majorities for the bill. It is abandoned Sir J. Mackintosh passed a bill by which shoplifting to the amount of 5s. ceased to be a capital crime. [See note a, p. 186.] The Catholic Relief Bill is passed by the Commons (b), but thrown out by the Lords by 159 to 120. A bill to disfranchise Grampound is carried. The two seats are given to the county of York (c). July. Coronation of George IV. The queen is refused Jan. Retirement of Lord Sidmouth from office. Feb. Parliament is opened. COLONIAL. (a) The Navigation Acts had been passed in 1651, 1661, and 1662. By them no goods of any kind might be imported into English dominions from Asia, Africa, America, Russia, and Turkey, and very few from other European countries, except in English vessels, or in vessels belonging to the country where the goods were made. Their object was to encourage British shipping at the expense of the Dutch. 1823. Spain is invaded by France and the constitution abolished. The Greeks obtain several victories. Lord Byron arrives in Greece. Lord Amherst GovernorGeneral of India (to 1828). (b) Combinations to intimidate employers were made illegal in 1825. By section 3 of the Act of that year any person who by violence shall wilfully or maliciously force any master to make any alteration in his mode of regulating business shall be liable to imprisonment with hard labour for two months. The avowed policy of the Act was to define the combinations that were legal, and to make all others illegal. 1824. Jan. The English are worsted in the Ashantee war. Death of Byron in Greece. War with Burmah. Ran goon is taken. Sept. Death of Louis XVIII. of France; succeeded by his brother, Charles X. 1825. The independence of Colombia, South America, recognised by England. Death of Alexander, Emperor of Russia, succeeded by Nicholas. PRIME MINISTERS. LORD LIVERPOOL. 1822. 1823. 1824. 1825. March 27. Canning is appointed Governor-General of Lord J. Russell's motion "that the present state of Canning's bill to admit Catholic peers to sit in the House of Lords is passed by the Commons and rejected by the Lords by 171 to 129. June. Brougham makes a motion declaring that the Aug. 12. Suicide of Lord Londonderry (formerly Sept. Canning, about to start for India is made 17,000 freeholders of Yorkshire petition for reform. Huskisson becomes President of Board of Trade. Peel's Currency Act comes into operation. May. Two moderate measures of Catholic relief pass the Commons, but one is rejected and the other dropped by the Lords. The freedom of the South American republics is now fully recognised by England. [The Catholic Association (Ireland) is formed this year.] The Acts arranging for the fixing of wages of Spitalfields weavers are repealed. The total repeal of all Acts limiting the free travelling about of workmen is carried. All laws controlling the combinations of either masters The duties on silk and on wool are largely reduced. The Catholic Association is suppressed by a bill in Sir F. Burdett's Catholic Relief Bill carried in the |