e
first steamship had crossed the Atlantic. If engines could be made to
plough through the water, why might they not also be made to walk the
earth? It was thought an audacious experiment when he put this
fire-devouring iron monster on wheels, to draw loaded cars. Not until
1830 was his plan realized, when his new locomotive--"The Rocket"--drew
the first railway train from Liverpool to Manchester, the Duke of
Wellington venturing his life on the trial trip.

In the year 1782 Ireland was permitted to have its own Parliament; but
owing to conditions which are explained in a later chapter, she was
deprived of this legislative independence, and in 1801, after a
prolonged struggle, was reunited to Great Britain, and thenceforth sent
her representatives to the British Parliament.

The laws against Roman Catholics which {155} had been enacted as
measures of self-defence from the Stuarts, now that there was no longer
a necessity for them had become an oppression, which bore with special
weight upon Catholic Ireland. By the oath of "Supremacy," and by the
declarations against transubstantiation, intercession of Saints, etc.,
etc., the Catholics were shut out from all share in a Government which
they were taxed to support. Such an obvious injustice should not have
needed a powerful pleader; but it found one in Daniel O'Connell, who by
constant agitation and fiery eloquence created such a public sentiment,
that the Ministry, headed by the Duke of Wellington, aided by Sir
Robert Peel in the House, carried through a measure in 1828 which
opened Parliament to Catholics, and also gave them free access to all
places of trust, Civil or Military,--excepting that of Regent,--Lord
Chancellor--and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

There is nothing to record of George IV. except the irregularities of
his private life, over which we need not linger. He was a dissolute
spendthrift. His illegal marriage {156} with Mrs. Fitzherbert, and his
legal marriage with Caroline of Brunswick from whom he quickly freed
himself, are the chief events in his history.

His charming young daughter, the Princess Charlotte, had died in 1817,
soon after her marriage with Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. She had
been adored as the future Queen, but upon the death of George IV. in
1830, the Crown passed to his sailor brother William.

William IV. was sixty-five when he came to the throne. He was not a
courtier in his manners, nor much of a fine gentleman in h