WITH PORTRAITS OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS OF THE AGE,

AND

ILLUSTRATED BY MAPS, PLANS, AND CHARTS.

VOL. I. -

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW;

AND JAMES HARPER, 46, FLEET-STREET,

BY EDWAND BAINES, LEEDS.

1818.

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PREFACE.

Of all the studies which occupy the attention of the statesman, or employ the leisure of private individuals, that of history justly claims the pre-eminence in dignity and in utility: to the statesman it furnishes the most important lessons of political wisdom, and the private individual may hence extract maxims for the improvement of his understanding, and rules for the regulation of his conduct. This remark, though applicable to history in general, applies with peculiar force and cogency to the transactions of that period which this work embraces.

If the importance of events be estimated by the magnitude of their effects, and the extent of their influence on the happiness of mankind, we shall be compelled to confess that this portion of the history of the world is infinitely more interesting than any that has preceded it. The period of the last five and twenty years, commencing with the dawn of the Revolution in France, has given birth to events which fix the attention by their novelty, gratify curiosity by their variety, and overpower the imagination by their magnitude-events which powerfully interest the heart, by the astonishing influence they have exerted, not merely on the fate of monarchs and of empires, but over the domestic circle of the most retired individual; and it is no exaggeration to assert, that there is scarcely a single inhabitant of Europe that has not been affected by these tremendous occurrences, either in his own person, in his family, or in his

near connections.

If time were measured by events instead of years, centuries might be said to have passed during the age in which we live. To compress the records of these transcendently important occurrences into a moderate compass; to narrate them in a connected and lucid order; and to furnish a memorial, not merely instructive and interesting to his con

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Directions to the Binder for placing the Plates, Maps, &c.

In VOL. I. GEORGE III... ........................... to face the Title In VOL. II.-PRINCE REGENT, .....................to face the Title

Cancel the "ADVERTISEMENT" before the Introduction, and substitute for it the "PREFACE," which is to be placed immediately after the Title in the First Volume.