achievements which will carry your name and the glory of the British Empire down to the latest posterity, it will not form the least part of your Grace’s renown, that you have exercised and concluded a command, unexampled in its character, with the concurrent voice of approbation from all whom it could concern.”[125] ----- Footnote 125: Earl Bathurst to the Duke of Wellington, Nov. 27, 1818: _Supplementary Despatches, etc._ , xii. 851. ----- CHAPTER IV. FIRST PART OF THE LONG EUROPEAN PEACE. Distress in England after the war—Reductions in the Army and Navy—Stations of the Brigade—French Eagles captured, deposited in the Chapel Royal, Whitehall—Reforms in interior economy—Death of George III., and Accession of George IV.—Cato Street Conspiracy—Trial of Queen Caroline—Coronation of George IV.—Guards in Dublin—Distress in 1826—Death of the Duke of York—Changes in uniform—Death of George IV.; succeeded by William IV.—Political agitation at home, revolution abroad; the Reform Act—Coronation of William IV.—First appearance of cholera—Death of the King, and Accession of Her Majesty Queen Victoria—Changes and reforms introduced during the reign of William IV. The defeat of Napoleon brought about a period of peace in Europe, which, lasting till 1853, almost entirely undisturbed by the clash of arms, is chiefly conspicuous in history for the internal changes, and for the popular and national ideas that were then developed, both in England and on the Continent. This period, containing necessarily, as far as the Coldstream is concerned, few of those stirring incidents which invest the annals of a regiment with public interest, marks the introduction to our present modern society, and exhibits a rapid growth in the British Empire, and a great improvement in the material lot of the people. But it opened inauspiciously, and was at its commencement tinged with gloom.