Crompton, who invented what is known as the mule. He was a poor weaver; when his machine was finished, he heard that mobs were gathering to break all machines. He pulled his to pieces and hid it away. When quiet was restored he began to spin. The yarn which he sold was better than any that had been known before. Manufacturers came round him to find out how he did it. The manufacturers were as bad as the workmen had been. They peeped in through the windows to see what his secret was. Poor Crompton had not money enough to pay for obtaining a patent, which would have prevented any one from copying his mule. He therefore told his secret, on the promise that the manufacturers would make a subscription to reward him for his improvement. The whole of the money subscribed by them was less than 687. The manufacturers gained thousands of pounds by the poor man's invention, which they had thus taken from him.

10. The Steam-Engine.-The invention of machi nery for spinning was accompanied by many other inventions in different manufactures. The most important of all was the invention of the steamengine. For some time an attempt had been made to use steam-engines to turn wheels and for other purposes. But they consumed so much fuel in heating the steam that they cost too much to be of use. James Watt, of Glasgow, with patient study discovered a way of getting over the difficulty. Watt's engines, after a little time, came into general use, and manufacturers found that they could not do without them. The invention of the steam-engine

All

brought about one great change which Watt had not thought of. Down to this time the North of England had been the poorest part of the country. It was more covered with wild heaths and moors than the South. The population was small, and the people were usually found on a different side from those of the South. The new ideas which came into men's minds were always to be found first in the South before they reached the North. In the reign of Henry VI. the North fought against the Yorkists. In the reign of Henry VIII. it fought to stop the dissolution of the monasteries, and in the reign of Elizabeth it fought against Protestantism. In the reign of George I. it fought for the Pretender. this is changed now. Steam-engines were put up and factories built where coal was cheap, and coal is cheaper in the North because it is dug out of the ground there. These factories drew to them a large population to work in them, or to provide whatever was needed by those who worked in them. This work demanded men who were quick-witted, and the consequence is that the people in the North are far more numerous than they used to be, and that they are very intelligent and thoughtful. Some one has said that what Lancashire thinks to-day England will think to-morrow; and though this may not always be the case, it is quite certain that no one would have thought of saying so two or three hundred years ago.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO THE PEACE OF AMIENS.

(1789-1802.)

1. Beginning of the French Revolution.-In 1789, a few days after the king had returned thanks at St. Paul's for his recovery, the French Revolution began. For a great many years the French had been governed almost as badly as was possible. Not only had the people to pay very heavy taxes, but the taxes were not fairly laid on. Poor people had to pay whilst rich people were let off. The rich people were favoured in all sorts of ways. Besides the taxes paid to the king, the peasants in the country had a great deal to pay to the nobles and gentlemen who lived in their country houses, and who very seldom did any good to those amongst whom they lived, in the way in which English country gentlemen often did. The king of France, Lewis XVI., was a well-meaning man, but he was not wise enough to know how to set things straight. He was so much in debt, and spent so much more than he received, that he was now obliged to call together an assembly elected by different classes of his subjects, which called itself the National Assembly soon after it had met. It was not long before the National Assembly began to do things that the king did not like, and the king then wanted to force it to do what he thought right. When this was known there

was an insurrection in Paris. The people took a great fortress called the Bastille, and the king was so frightened that he let the National Assembly do as it pleased. A few months later the mob of Paris went to the place where he lived and brought him into Paris. After that, though he was called king still, he was really more like a prisoner than a king. The National Assembly made a great many new laws, and abolished all the payments which had been made by the peasants to the gentlemen. Some of the gentlemen were very badly treated, and of these several left the country. The king, too, tried to escape and leave the country, but he was stopped and brought back to Paris, and was treated more like a prisoner than before. In 1792, three years after the Revolution began, the Prussians and the Austrians seemed likely to help the king and the gentlemen. The French declared war against them, and they invaded France. The people of Paris thought that the king wished the enemies to succeed, and there can be very little doubt that he did. They rose in insurrection, and drove him out of his palace. A new Parliament, as we should call it, named the National Convention, met, declared the king to be deposed, and established a Republic. They sent the king to prison, and in the beginning of 1793 they tried him on the charge of favouring the enemies of France, and condemned him to death. He was executed on the guillotine, an instrument made to cut off heads quickly.

2. War between England and France. When the French Revolution began, people in England

were much pleased. They thought that the French were going to have a quiet parliamentary government like their own, and they did not think how angry different classes of people in France were with one another, and how little likely it was that a nation which had never had a parliamentary government before should know at once exactly how to behave when they had it. When news came of disturbances and insurrections, and murders, most people in England began to think that the French Revolution was altogether bad, and when a great many of the French gentlemen took refuge in England after losing all, or nearly all their property, the English gentlemen were so very sorry for them that most of them were ready to go to war with France for their sake. For a long time Pitt did all he could to keep peace. He said that England ought not to go to war because it did not like the way in which another nation managed its own affairs. After the invasion of France, however, by Austria and Prussia, the French got the better of their enemies, and invaded the country which was then known as the Austrian Netherlands, and which was very much the same as that which is now known as Belgium. Pitt thought that it would be dangerous to allow France to join to itself a country so near England, and just as he was making up his mind. that he must try to stop the French from doing this, the news came that the king of France had been executed. A feeling of horror and anger passed over almost the whole country, and within a few days England and France were at war with one another.