PREFACE. 



1* ROM a series of incidents, to which mortality is at 

 all times liable, and all men must sometime encounter, 

 the Annual Register had fallen more and more back in 

 the time of publication. It was not an easy matter to 

 remedy this defect, and to overtake time, in such event- 

 ful years as the last decade of the Eighteenth Century ; 

 amidst multiplied political intrigues, internal convul- 

 sions, and v^^ars so wide in their extent, and complicated 

 in their operation. This, however, has now been com- 

 pletely accomplished. We close the century, without 

 being one volume in arrears ; we conclude the volume 

 for 1800, without leaving any event to be recorded in 

 the next, that could, with any degree of propriety, be 

 introduced and related in the present volume : so that, 

 at the commencement of the century on which we have 

 just entered, we set out, in our historical inquiries and 

 narratives, without any encumbrance. 



We congratulate our readers on that great, though 

 somewhat unexpected event, which so auspiciously 

 marks the commencement of the present aera.* The 

 Temple of Janus is shut : it is not unreasonable to 

 hope that it will be long before it be again opened. 

 A dreadful but salutary experiment, in the course of 

 the last ten years, has been made by the nations. The 



• For a suniinary review and character of the Eighteenth Century, 

 and more esi«:cially at its cloec, see the conclusion of the History of 

 Europe, in lliis volume. 



rulers 



