PREFACE 



TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. 



THE following work is the translation of two vo- 

 lumes which have been published by the Govern- 



P- 

 ment at Vienna, they being an abstract of the Re- 

 ports presented to Parliament by various Commis- 

 sioners appointed since the passing of the Reform 

 Bill to inquire into the state of the country. It 

 has not been possible to refer to every passage of 

 the English original from which the extract is taken 

 in the French, in order to give the exact words 

 of the Report, and to ensure the sense not being 

 altered by a double translation ; and this is the 

 more to be regretted, because, in some instances, 

 the French compiler has mistaken the sense of 

 the original ; but in every case in which the ori- 

 ginal could be ascertained, the words themselves 

 have been used, without noticing the way in which 

 they have been rendered into French. 



The object of the French author was to show to 

 the continental nations the folly of supposing that 

 it is commerce and manufactures, rather than agri- 



