scope for the historian; but it fell in with the temper of the nation at large. It was popular with the class which commonly presses for political activity. The energy of the trading class was absorbed, for the time, in the rapid extension of commerce and the accumulation of wealth. So long as the country was justly and temperately governed, the merchant and shopkeeper were content to leave government in the hands that held it. All they asked was to be let alone to enjoy their new freedom and develop their new industries. And Walpole let them alone.

On the other hand, the forces which opposed the Revolution lost, year by year, somewhat of their energy. The fervor which breeds revolt died down among the Jacobites as their swords rusted idly in their scabbards. The Tories sulked in their country houses; but their wrath against the house of Hanover ebbed away for want of opportunities of exerting itself. And, meanwhile, on opponents as on friends, the freedom which the Revolution had brought with it was doing its work.

It was to the patient influence of this freedom that Walpole trusted; and it was the special mark of his administration that, in spite of every temptation, he gave it full play. Though he dared not touch the laws that oppressed the Catholic or the dissenter, he took care that they should remain inoperative. Catholic worship went on unhindered. Yearly bills of indemnity exempted the non-conformists from the consequences of their infringement of the test act. There was no tampering with public justice or with personal liberty. Thought and action were alike left free. No minister was ever more foully slandered by journalists and pamphleteers, but Walpole never meddled with the press.-J. R. GREEN.

In

Chièvres, who engaged Adrian, of Utrecht, as his tutor. his youth he did not display any remarkable talents, but his graceful person and manly address ingratiated him with those around him. In 1516, on the death of his grandfather, Ferdinand, Charles assumed the title of King of Spain; but the actual management of affairs in that kingdom was committed to the famous Cardinal Ximenes, whose chief policy was to break down the power of the nobles, and to exalt the authority of the Crown. By his advice, the young king resolved to pay a visit to his Spanish dominions; and, that he might do it with safety, his ministers put an end to a war with France which had been waged for some years by Maximilian and Ferdinand. In 1517, Charles embarked from the Low Countries, where his boyhood had been spent, for Spain.

On landing at Villa Viciosa, Charles was received by his Spanish subjects with the greatest demonstrations of joy. In the early part of 1519, the Emperor Maximilian died, and the succession of the empire became an object of contention between the two most powerful monarchs of Europe, Charles and Francis I. of France. Then commenced that personal

rivalry between them, which was long the leading feature of European politics. In this competition Charles was finally successful. He was unanimously elected emperor, in June, 1519, and the fact was made known to him while holding the Cortes of Catalonia. The remainder of his stay in Spain was disturbed by insurrections and violent opposition to his demands. When his ministers had calmed these disturbances to the best of their ability, Charles embarked for the Low Countries, in May, 1520. On his voyage he touched at Dover, England, and had an interview with Henry VIII., and was successful, not only in obtaining the king's favor, but in winning his ambitious minister, Wolsey, by the promise of advancement to the papal throne.

The progress of the Reformation in Germany demanded the first attention of the emperor after his coronation. In 1521, a Diet was held at Worms, at which Luther, armed with a safe-conduct, pleaded his cause before two hundred august judges, with his characteristic firmness. The result was that Charles determined to become the upholder of the Church, and immediately, on Luther's departure, issued a rescript against him, stigmatizing him as "the evil fiend in human form," and "the blasphemer," and putting him under the ban of the empire. But Luther was secluded by his powerful friends in the castle of Wartburg.

Francis I. of France, burning with envy that his rival should have obtained the imperial crown, sought revenge in a war, which commenced in 1521 and continued till 1525, when Francis was utterly defeated before Pavia, and was obliged to yield himself a prisoner. At the news of this success, Charles affected all the moderation of a Christian hero. He lamented the misfortune of the captive monarch, forbade all public rejoicing on account of the victory, and seemed only interested in it as it gave him an opportunity of putting an end to the calamities of war. At the same time he laid his plans for improving his advantage to the utmost extent. He proposed to Francis terms of such rigor, that the spirited king vowed that he would pass his life in captivity rather than comply with them. The royal captive was then taken to Madrid, where he was treated with studied

harshness; but when he became seriously ill, Charles condescended to pay him a visit. The negotiations were spun out to considerable length, till Charles, apprehensive of the effect of extreme persistence, reduced the harsh terms originally proposed. The treaty of Madrid was signed in January, 1526, yet even its terms were sufficiently humiliating to Francis, who not only agreed to renounce all his pretensions in Italy, Flanders and Artois, but also, after he should be liberated, to restore to Charles the Duchy of Burgundy with all its dependencies.

Soon after the conclusion of this important business, Charles married Isabella, the sister of the King of Portugal, with whom he always lived in perfect harmony. Henry VIII., of England, was disappointed that his daughter, Mary, had not been made empress. Charles was now become so formidable as to arouse the jealousy of all his neighbors. The league of the Italian States against him was headed by Pope Clement VII. But this coalition was quickly avenged by the sack of Rome by the Constable Bourbon, in May, 1527, and soon after Clement surrendered himself a prisoner. Charles professed to receive the news as a public calamity, disavowed all knowledge of Bourbon's design, put himself and court in mourning, and even ordered prayers and processions for the recovery of the pope's liberty, when all Europe knew that the emperor had only to speak the word and it would be obeyed. This, however, he soon did, and recalled his army from Rome.

A new league was formed against him by England and France. Henry VIII. challenged Charles to single combat, in consequence of his contemptuous treatment of the herald, whom he had sent to declare war. Hostilities were at length concluded by the treaty of Cambray, in 1529, in which the emperor gained the chief advantage for himself, while attending also to the interests of his friends and allies. Francis, on the other hand, with very little ceremony, abandoned his Italian allies to his rival's resentment.

The affairs of Germany, and especially its religious dissensions, next occupied the attention of the empeaor. At the Diet held at Augsburg, in March, 1530, he took extraordinary

pains to reconcile the conflicting parties, but without success. In consequence, he issued a severe decree against the Protestants, who then combined for defence in the famous League of Schmalkald. The emperor's attempt to get his brother, Ferdinand, elected King of the Romans, succeeded, notwithstanding the opposition of the Protestants. Charles, however, showed a spirit of moderation towards the Lutherans, when not inconsistent with his engagements to the Pope and the Catholics, of which indulgence they were so sensible, that when he raised an army to oppose the Sultan Solyman's invasion of Hungary, the Protestants sent to it more than their quota. In the campaign in Hungary, in 1532, Charles, for the first time, put himself at the head of his forces, and though no memorable event ensued, the retreat of Solyman to his own dominions was a confession of inferiority.

Again, in 1535, Charles undertook an expedition, the chief purpose of which seems to have been to throw a lustre about his personal character as a warrior and conqueror. Hayraddin Barbarossa, a daring corsair, son of a Greek renegade, had made himself Dey of Algiers, and carried on depredations upon the Christian states of the Mediterranean. The King of Tunis, whom he had driven out, applied for assistance to Charles. The emperor was desirous of rescuing Christendom from a troublesome foe, and resolved to invade the dominions of Barbarossa. Having fitted out a fleet of 500 vessels, with 30,000 troops on board, he set sail in July, 1535, and arriving off the Fort Goletta, assaulted and took it by storm. He then landed, advanced into the country, defeated Barbarossa's army, and marched on Tunis. deputation from the town waited upon him; but while they were treating on the terms of capitulation, the imperial troops burst in and began to plunder and massacre without distinction. This instance of military licentiousness, which Charles could not prevent, tarnished the lustre of his victory. The exiled king was restored, and a favorable treaty negotiated with him. Charles returned to Europe with 20,000 Christians whom he had released from slavery.

A

The next year, in consequence of the French king's renewal of hostilities in Italy, Charles visited Rome, and