The Leading Facts of English History | Page 3

of Cabinet
Government (S534) 1738. Rise of the Methodists (S546) 1748. Treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle (S542) 1751-1757. English Conquests in India
(S544) *1759. The English take Quebec (S545) *1776. American
Independence (S552) *1782. American Independence acknowledged
(S553) 1784. Mail Coaches begin to run (S566) 1785. "Industrial
Revolution"; Canals; Watt's Steam Engine (S563) 1796. Vaccination
introduced (S537) 1799. First Savings Bank (S621) *1800. Great
Britain and Ireland united (S562) 1805. Battle of Trafalgar (S557) 1807.
Steam Navigation begins (S565) 1812. War with America (S558) 1815.
Battle of Waterloo (S559) 1819. The Six Acts (S571) 1829. Catholic
Emancipation (S573) 1830. First Passenger Railway (S584) *1832.
Great Suffrage Reform (S582) *1835. Municipal Reform (S599)
1837-1911. Colonial Expansion (S618) *1838-1848. Rise of Chartrists
(S591) 1839. Postage Reform (S590) 1845. First Telegraph (S614)
1845. Irish Famine (S593) 1846. Repeal of the Corn Laws (S594) 1857.
Rebellion in India (S597) 1858. Jews enter Parliament (S599) 1859.

Darwin's Evolution (S606) 1861. The Trent Affair (S598) 1866.
Permanent Atlantic Cable (S595) 1867. Second Suffrage Reform (S600)
1869. Partial Woman Suffrage (S599) 1869. Free Trade established
(S594) 1870. The Education Act (S602) *1870. Civil Service Reform
(S609) 1870. Irish Land Act (S603) 1871-1906. Trades Unions Acts
(S616) 1884. Third Suffrage Reform (S600) *1888, 1894. Local
Government Acts (S608) 1899. The Boer War (S623) *1906. Labor
enters Parliament (S628) 1908. Old-Age Pensions (S628) 1910.
Imperial Federation (S625) *1911. Parliament Act; Salary Act (S631)
THE LEADING FACTS OF ENGLISH HISTORY
FIRST PERIOD[1]
"This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand
of ewar; This happy breed of men this little world, This precious stone
set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as a moat
defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands; This
blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England." Shakespeare,
"Richard II"
BRITAIN BEFORE WRITTEN HISTORY BEGAN
1. The Earliest Inhabitants of England.
England was inhabited for many centuries before its written history
began. The earliest races that possessed the country were stunted, brutal
savages. They used pieces of rough flint for tools and weapons. From
flint too they produced fire. They lived by hunting and fishing, and
often had no homes but caves and rock shelters.
Following the Cave-Men came a race that had learned how to grind and
polish the stone of which they made their hatchets, knives, and spears.
This race cleared and cultivated the soil to some extent, and kept cattle
and other domestic animals.
[1] Reference Books on this Period will be found in the Classified List
of Books in the Appendix. The pronunciation of names will be found in

the Index. The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others are in
parentheses.
2. The Britons
Finally, a large-limbed, fair-haired, fierce-eyed people invaded and
conquered the island. They came from the west of Europe. They made
their axes, swords, and spears of bronze,--a metal obtained by melting
and mingling copper and tin. These implements were far superior to
any made of stone.
The new people were good farmers; they exported grain, cattle, and
hides to Gaul (France), and mined and sold tin ore to merchants who
came by sea from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean.
This strong and energetic race, known as Celts, eventually called
themselves Britons. By the time they had adopted that name they had
made a great step forward, for they had learned how to mine and
manufacture iron,--the most useful metal known to man; from it they
forged scythes, swords, and spears.
Such were the people Caesar met when he invaded Britain, fifty-five
years before the beginning of the Christian era. The great Roman
general called the Britons "barbarians"; but they compelled him to
respect them, for they were a race of hard fighters, who fearlessly faced
even his veteran troops.
3. The Religion of the Britons; the Druids.
The Britons held some dim faith in an overruling Power and in a life
beyond the grave. They offered human sacrifices to that Power, and
when they buried one of their warriors, they buried his spear with him
so that he might fight as good a battle in the next world as he had
fought in this one.
Furthermore, the Britons had a class of priests called Druids, who seem
to have worshiped the heavenly bodies. These priests also acted as
prophets, judges, and teachers. Caesar tells us that the Druids instructed

the youth about the stars and their motions, about the magnitude of the
earth, the nature of things, and "the might and power of the immortal
gods."
More than this, the Druids probably erected the massive stone columns
of that strange stucture, open to the sky, whose ruins may still be seen
on the lonely expanse of Salisbury Plain. There, on one of the fallen
blocks, Carlyle and Emerson