PREFACE.

THE present volume, designed for private instruction as well as for schools, is offered as a comprehensive outline of British History, such as may remain upon the mind of any intelligent person after having studied a larger work. It unites the History of the Three Kingdoms; the Editors being convinced that, by having their history presented separately, the natives of one of the countries are apt to remain in ignorance of the others, and thereby to possess no means of counteracting those antipathies, or at least imperfect sympathies, which still prevail amongst the various nations combined under the British Empire, and which lead to more important consequences, perhaps, than is generally supposed.

A novel, and, it is hoped, useful feature, has been added, in a view of the Institutions, the Commerce, Manufactures, and existing Resources of the Empire.