History of Great Britain from the Revolution to the Accession of the House of Hanover

evidence actually adduced could be fuppofed infufficient, proofs without number still remain to be added.

With regard to the prefent reign, whatever appears remote from general knowledge, is related on the authority of perfons the disclosure of whofe names, however flattering to the pride of the writer,. would be highly and manifeftly improper. In this refpect therefore, the history must be confidered as an original work, the credit due to which must depend, at least for a time, upon the general reputation of the Author; who has inferted nothing but. what he had the best reafon to rely upon as authentic. In that part of the hiftory which he conceived moft liable to animadverfion-the affairs of Indiaas in the cafe of Bremen and Verden-he did not content himself with bare references, but he has corroborated his narrative by more than an hundred quotations from original authorities, in little more than as many pages-thus willingly facrificing elegance to exactnefs.

In relation to the prefent volumes, it must fuffice to fay that the Author has deviated little, if at all, from his original plan. Where he has varied from the earlier hiftories, he has not merely referred to but quoted his authorities; which are chiefly fir Jolin Dalrymple and Mr. Macpherfon; to whom the public owe great obligation for their interesting and important communications. Ralph is a vast ftorehouse of hiftoric information; and his minute and laudable accuracy as an annalift, makes ample compenfation for his literary defects, his captious comments, and perverfe paradoxes. Bifhop Burnet is, for the most part, highly entertaining, notwithftanding his vanity, his negligence, his credulity, and his prejudices. Placed in the midft of the fcenes which he delineates with a rough, not a feeble, pencil, he has evidently no referves or dif

guife and though his authority is very flender, un-
fupported by any concurrent teftimony, yet is his
history such as every fucceeding writer with caution
may greatly avail himself of. Tindal, an obfequious
whig devoted to the politics of the court, contains
very valuable materials, although thrown together
in a fort of chaotic mals at once unanimated and
unenlightened. Smollet had unquestionably talents,
but his genius was entirely turned to the low and
the ludicrous. Of the dignity and beauty of hit-
toric compofition he had no conception; and much
lefs could he boaft of poffeffing any portion of its
all-pervading and philofophic fpirit. His work is a
dull and often malignant compilation, equally def-
titute of instruction or of amufement. The parlia-
mentary debates and journals fupplied an inexhauf-
tible fund of matter; and the ftate-papers of Cole,
Hardwick, Lamberti, &c. have been confulted with
much advantage. A multitude of inferior, but by
no means unimportant, publications have alfo been
perufed with no little care and affiduity; fuch as
the Memoirs of the duke of Berwick, of the marquis
de Feuquieres, M. de Torcy, M. de Villars, M. Mes-
nager, Lediard's life of the duke of Marlborough,
duchefs of Marlborough's narrative, colonel Hook's
negotiations in Scotland, lord Balcarris's letter to
king James, &c. &c. and numerous quotations made
from them, as will appear in the courfe of the work.
If after this the prefent history be ftill cenfured as
"deficient in authorities," the Author will filently
and patiently await the public award; not being
apprehensive that any of the facts recorded in it are
likely even to be queftioned, and much less liable to
be refuted.

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