GEORGE 111. 
189 
by the assassination of its chief promoter, the Czar Paul of Russia. 
His son and successor, Alexander, was a warm friend of England, 
and hastened to restore relations of peace. 
42. The great European war was for a short time suspended by the 
Peace of Amiens, signed on March 25th, 1802. "The parties to this 
arrangement were Great Britain, France, Holland, and 
Spain. The terms were disadvantageous to the first- Peace of 
. Amiens, 
named country, as she had to restore all her colonial 
captures except Trinidad and Ceylon. France, on the other hand, was 
allowed to retain a large part of Holland, and to make the Rhine her 
eastern boundary. It soon became clear that the Peace of Amiens 
was only a truce, not a permanent settlement of the dittieulties which 
distracted Kurope. 
43. We have already alluded to the Irish Rebellion of 1798, That 
event was followed by the execution of some of its leaders, such as 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Robert Emmett. It was 
now resolved to unite the kingdoms under one Legisla- Union of 
hrirc ]l as one Sovereign, A Bill for the Zegislative Great Brit- 
lNrO as We. g g ain and 
union of the countries passed the British Parliament in Ireland. 
May 1799. A year later, this measure received the as- 
sent of the Irish Parliament, and on January 1st, 1801, the Union took 
effect. In the Parliament of the United Kingdom of (ireat Britain 
and Ireland the latter country received a representation of 100 mem- 
bers in the House of Commons and of 32 peers in the House of Lords, 
While the measure of union embraced some features of substantial 
velief to Ireland, the great majority of whose inhabitants were Roman 
Cutholics, Mr. Pitt, the Prime Minister, wished to go much further 
in that direction. He not only desired to have the penal laws com- 
pletely annulled, but advocated also the repeal of the Test and 
Corporation Acts, so that Catholics might freely practise their religion, 
and have opened up to them seats in Parliament and in public offices 
generally. "Che King obstinately refused to assent to these fair and 
liberal proposals. Mr. Pitt forthwith retired from office, and was 
suceseded by Mr. Addington, a man by no means fitted to cope with 
;he difficulties that surrounded England. 
44. The Peace of Amiens left both of the chief parties to it in an 
Sxcited state. England was dissatisfied with the con- h 
cessions she had ınade; France was eager for further con- War wir 
quests, The former charged Buonaparte with violating renewed. 
the treaty by keepinz his troops in Holland, and on this 
ground declined to give up Malta, which had been taken from France 
in 1800. "Then Buonaparte, now First Consul for Life, grossly insulted 
the British Ambassador in public; and England declared war on May 
18th, 1803. Bu maparte seized ten thousand British subjects who were 
living or travelling in France, "These were detained in exile for eleven