PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



A SECOND EDITION of tliis work being- called for, the Author takes 

 the opportunity of stating that no alterations have been made in the 

 new edition, the subjects treated of being such that nothing new 

 appears to have occurred in relation to them since the pubHcation 

 of the former edition ; and, as the work was then prepared with 

 great care, and after very considerable labom* and research, in 

 which no pains were spared to render it as complete as the Author 

 could hope to make it, he has not thought it either useful or 

 necessary to incur fresh labours about the present work. 



The new edition, it will be observed, is published by the Messrs. 

 Longmans, of Paternoster Row ; the publishers of the former edition 

 (Messrs. Piper, Stephenson, and Spence) having sometime since 

 dissolved partnership. 



