by Antony, Lepidus, and Octavius. The deposition of Lepidus, and the death of Antony, left Octavius the sole master of the Roman empire (B.C. 27). He assumed the name of Augustus, and the style of emperor; and thenceforth almost every trace of the old republican institutions was extinguished. Soon the vigorous government of the emperors degenerated into a crushing military despotism, for the legions, at first the support of arbitrary power, became the masters of the

emperors.

3. "Name the principal provinces of the Roman empire at its greatest extent, and the countries of modern times which are included in each."

4. Lusitania

5. Britannia

6. Dacia...

7. Dalmatia 8. Mysia

9. Pannonia-Illyricum

15. Græcia

11. Rhotia

...

12. Noricum

.Portugal.

England & part of Scotland. . Hungary & Transylvania. The northern and greater part of Turkey. ..Sclavonia and Croatia. .Greece & southern Turkey. Austria.

13. Asia Minor, &c...... Turkey in Asia.

14. Syria and Judæa

15. Africa Propria, Mauritania, & Numidia S

16. Egyptus

.Syria and Palestine.

Morocco, Algiers & Tunis, or the States of Barbary.

..Egypt.

The foregoing is a list of the principal Roman provinces before their partition into the Eastern and Western Empires.

SECTION III.

1. "When did the division between the Eastern and Western Empire take place; and what was the line of separation between them?"

Constantine the Great first divided the sovereignty of the Roman empire, A.D. 337; but his grandson, Julian, reunited the separate governments in 362. Valentinian began his reign (364) by associating with himself in the government of the empire his brother Valens, to whom he gave the government of the East. In 392 the empires were again amalgamated under Theodosius the Great, who bequeathed to his sons, Arcadius and Honorius, the separate sovereignties of the East and the West, in 395, after which they were never again united.

The extent of these empires fluctuated from time to time; but the original provinces of each were 1st. For the Western-Italy, Illyria, Africa, Spain, Britain, and Gaul. 2nd. For the Eastern-Thrace, Macedonia, Dacia, Asia Minor, Pontus, Armenia, Assyria, Media, and Egypt.

2. "Which of the northern nations possessed themselves of the greater portions of Britain and Gaul on the decline of the Western Empire ?"

Britain became the prize of the Saxons and Angles, two Germanic tribes, who formed the Saxon Heptarchy in the fifth and sixth centuries.

The Visigoths compelled Honorius to cede them the southern province of Gaul, but were expelled by the Franks, a confederacy of German tribes, who inhabited the country lying along the lower Rhine and the Weser. Clovis, king of the Franks, after many collisions with the Visigoths and Burgundians, in his frontiers, finally consolidated his kingdom, and made Paris his capital, A.D. 510.

3. "When was Constantinople taken, and what effect had its capture upon the literature of Western Europe?"

Constantinople had been frequently threatened, and its adjacent territory gradually encroached upon by the Turks, who, under their Sultan Mahomet II., at length captured the metropolis of the Eastern Empire, A.D. 1453. On the fall of their capital, and the subversion of their empire, many learned Greeks sought refuge in the countries of Western Europe, and carried with them a knowledge of philosophy and literature.

SECTION IV.

1. "In what countries did the Reformation become firmly established; and what is meant by the Edict of Nantes, and its revocation?"

The Reformation obtained a permanent footing in England, Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Northern and part of Central Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and, to a partial extent, in Ireland and France.

The Edict of Nantes was an enactment extorted by the French Protestants from their opposition king, Henry IV. By it the Protestants had guaranteed to them the possession of all the churches then (1598) in their hands, and equality with Catholics in civil and religious privileges. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes was a repeal of that act of toleration, and the substitution of a rigorous system of persecution against the Protestants. Their worship was denounced, their churches demolished, their ministers banished, and the laity forbidden, under great penalties, to quit the kingdom. Vast numbers contrived to escape, of whom many settled in England, and many were assassinated, or compelled to abjure their faith.

2. "What countries have been colonized from Europe, and by what nations?"

The United States, British America, and Newfoundland, are chiefly occupied by people of English descent. The exceptions are, that Canada, Louisiana, New Orleans, and a few other districts and towns, received their first inhabitants from France; and small colonies of Germans and others have settled in some districts. The French have left traces in respect to language and institutions likely to be permanent, but the English is the predominant language.

The English, and their fellow-subjects of the United Kingdom, have likewise colonized New Zealand, many parts of Australia, and Cape Colony (originally a Dutch settlement, but many English have gone thither since its conquest by us in the last war).

The Portuguese colonized Brazil, the Madeiras, the Canaries, the Azores, and the Cape Verde Islands. The Spaniards have perpetuated their race and language in Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, and La Plata.

The French have colonized Algeria, Bourbon, and some provinces and islands that have been wrested from them in time of war.

The foreign possessions of some European nations are of vast extent, sometimes greatly exceeding their home territory and colonies.

The Dutch have Java, Sumatra, part of Borneo, many smaller islands, and Surinam, on the north coast of South America.

&c.

The Spaniards have the Philippine Islands, Cuba,

Our Indian Empire is ten times greater than all the British Islands.

3. "What gave occasion to the American war of independence, and to the French Revolution of 1789?"

For the American War, see History of England, Section iv.

The French Revolution of 1789 is referable to the concurrent operation of many causes. Of these the primary one was the disgust and exasperation of the people at the burdensome exactions of a vicious government, at the vehement opposition of the privileged classes to any retrenchment in their exclusive privileges and exemptions, and at the misappropriation of public money. The aid rendered by the French to our revolted American colonists aroused public attention in France to questions of constitutional right and political freedom, whereby notions were engendered of a character greatly at variance with the existing state of things. Famine prompted to sedition, and goaded to desperation, each concession of government to the reasonable demands of the people became the prelude to greater and greater encroachments on the prerogatives of royalty and the distinctions of classes. Soon the excesses of a wild democracy gave a lesson to the world of the danger of sudden political enfranchisement to a nation with whom the idea of a rational freedom has not been made familiar by a participation in its blessings. The tardy growth of wisdom in nations. and governments is illustrated by the recurrency, in February, 1848, of a similar French Revolution, and consequent to like cause, to that which convulsed the world in 1789. That it will not be accompanied by such wide-spread evils and disastrous consequences is at present a fair theme for gratulation to individuals and to nations.