the hands of noisy agitators outside Parliament, who cried out for a ‘Radical Reform’, and got the name of ‘Radicals’.
His first ministry, 1783–1801.The ten years that followed the peace of 1783 were years of great prosperity in Britain. The Americans continued to trade with us as before, though, of course, we could no longer compel them to do so. Our Indian Empire.Our Indian Empire had been enormously increased since 1761 by Clive and Warren Hastings, and by a long line of heroic soldiers and statesmen. The East India Company was now a sovereign power, and the greatest military power in India. Parliament had begun to take notice of it, not always favourable or wise notice, and passed laws to help it to govern its territories. The Crown now appointed a Governor-General, a council and judges for British India. One of the favourite tricks of the Whigs was to accuse the Company and its agents of cruelty, extortion and so on. The first Governor-General Warren Hastings was so accused, and though he was acquitted, his trial dragged on for many years. Discovery of Australia, 1774–6.Still farther away the voyages of Captain Cook had recently revealed to Europe the huge continent of Australia, the islands of New Zealand and numerous other islands in the Pacific Ocean. Our first colonies began to be planted in Australia in 1787.
The Industrial Revolution.At home great changes were beginning which were going to turn Britain from a corn-growing and wool-growing country into the workshop of the world. These changes have got the name of the ‘Industrial Revolution’. They took more than a century to work out, and the result of them has been that we now buy nearly all our food from distant lands, and buy it with the goods which we make in our great cities, principally
