PREFACE. 



Xn committing to the press this new volume of " The 

 Annual Register,'' the Editor feels the anxiety of one 

 who looks to the favourable reception of his work, as 

 the best reward for so much industry and labour 

 bestowed upon it He is sensible both of the diffi- 

 culty and importance of the task he undertakes. 

 The greatest of modern philosophers, himself an his- 

 torian of no vulgar class, has ranked such publications 

 as this among the most valuable of the materials of 

 history : — and those labours which Lord Bacon var 

 lued, what other man shall venture to depreciate ? 



The Compiler of these annual records of the 

 politics, the literature, and the manners of the British 

 empire, does not, indeed, aspire to the station of an 

 historian. — Time must complete the lesson ; — Expe- 

 rience compare it ; — and Wisdom impart its method, 

 before these materials can assume the shape of " Phi- 

 losophy teaching by example." Yet the Editor of 

 this work, (raised by the merit of those who have pre- 

 ceded 



