viii PREFACE. 
in this Work, will aid us in our undertaking. They as. 
sumed an alarming appearance in 1791; and as Great 
Britain became a principal party in the war as early as 
February 1793, the impartial history of the preceding year 
1792, is peculiarly interesting as well as important. A con- 
test then commenced, which has already extended its 
bloody and convulsive struggles to the opposite sides of 
the globe; which still subsists in all its force, and which 
has threatened, in their turn, the subversion of every state 
and every religion. It is by examining its commence- 
ment, and the springs that gave it activity, that its progress 
can be best estimated, and the period of its duration most 
probably ascertained. 
Instead of fatiguing our readers with a detail of the in- 
cidents that occasioned the publication of the present vo- 
lume, before that of 1791, we shall only say, that this last 
is now in the press, and that it will be published in the 
course of a few months. 
For the late appearance of these volumes it will, we: 
hope, be deemed some compensation by our intelligent 
readers, that we have availed ourselves of those lights. 
which have been thrown on our subject by the progress 
of time: which have also presented opportunities of en- 
quiring and obtaining new information from the most 
authentic sources, respecting the original springs of the 
great drama of Europe. 
1793. 
EXPLA- 
