( 219.) 
CHAPTER III, 
oh 0 ee 
HISTORY, POLITICS, 
AND 
DA LIS PE C'S. 
THE publications of the last year that come under the department of civil 
history and politics, though equal in numbers, are, upon the whole, inferior in 
importance to those recorded in our former volume. The anti-revolutionary 
war which was terminated by the peace of Amiens, has found a historian in Mr. 
Steevens, whose ponderous volumes are principally, however, taken up with the 
exploits of the British, the documents of which were at hand, than with those of 
our continental confederates, which would have required the previous collation 
and study of French and German authorities, The last years of this eventful 
contest, commencing from the interrupted negotiations at Rastadt, have also been 
related by Mr. Ritchie, but without communicating to us much novel information. 
Dr. Bisset has executed an ample, accurate, and instructive account of the 
reign of George the Third, highly flattering to a Sovereign of whose personal 
opinions it is perhaps too much the mirror. Mr. Coote has continued his History 
of England to the peace of Amiens, in the concise form and liberal spirit of his 
former volumes. The late Professor Millar’s History of the English Government 
is a work of no common value, though rather to be numbered among the theories 
of philosophy than the records of experience. 
The History of Ireland, especially since the accession of the house of Stuart, 
has been detailed by Mr. Plowden with voluminous generosity. He exhibits the 
English government as a penitent in a confessional, and, by the allowed dedication 
of his work to the Prince of Wales, may be considered as the harbinger and pledge 
of a more just and honourable sway. Mr. Hay has communicated in a manner 
no less candid than interesting, the ineffacable horrors and disgraceful excesses of 
the promoters and quellers of the Wexford Ynsurrection. 
Mr. Adolphus has compiled a meritorious history of France: we are indebted: 
to the Chevalier Tinseau for an English version of the late statistical survey of 
the Freneh empire and her dependent provinces; and Miss Williams has cast an’ 
additional interest round the character of Louis XVI, by the publication of his 
confidential letters. 
Towards relating the local fortunes of the West Indies, Mr. Dallas has con- 
tributed his History of the Maroon War, and Mr. Chalmers his Narrative of 
Transactions in San Domingo. 
Mr. Card has presented the English public with a convenient and condensed 
Abridgement of the Annals of the Russian Empire; and Mr. Turner has brought 
down his History of the Anglo-Saxons to the forcible intrusion of the Norman 
dynasty. 
