You must not expect me to tell you everything that happened in this long reign, which lasted sixty years, but you shall read of one or two things of most consequence, and that you can understand best. When George had been king a little more than two years he made peace with all the world, but his reign was very far from being a peaceable one. There were two wars in particular of great consequence; the first was the American war, and the second the French war. I will tell you a little about each of them. You will remember that in Raleigh’s time the English built some towns in North America. Afterwards, during the civil wars in the time of Charles the First, many more English went there and took their families there to live, and by degrees they had taken possession of a very large country, and had got towns and villages and fields. These English states in America were called _Colonies_; but they were still governed by the King and Parliament of England. The English wanted the Americans to pay taxes. But the Americans said that, by Magna Charta and our old laws, no Englishman might be taxed without their own consent given in parliament. Now the American Colonies had no members in the British parliament; so they said the Parliament had no right to tax them. Then the king called them rebels, and threatened to punish them; and so, after many disputes, war broke out between the Americans and the King of England’s soldiers who were in America to guard the towns and collect the taxes. Then the Americans said they would have a government of their own. This war was thought little of at first, but it soon grew to be one of the greatest wars England had ever had. The French and Spaniards, who had not forgotten how the English had beaten them by sea and land in the last wars, joined the Americans; and although the English gained several victories by sea over the French and Spaniards, yet by land the Americans beat the English. The chief man in America was General George Washington, one of the greatest men that ever lived. He commanded the American army, and as he and his soldiers were fighting in their own land for their own freedom, and for their own wives and children, it was not wonderful that at last they beat out the English soldiers, who did not like to be sent so far from home to fight against men who spoke the same language with themselves. At last, when the King of England found the people were tired of this long war, he agreed to make peace with America, and since that time the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA have had a government of their own, and have become a great and powerful nation. They have a President instead of a king, and they call their parliament a Congress. You will understand these things in a few years.