PREFACE. 



THE reign of G-eorge III. may in some important respects 

 be justly regarded as the Augustan age of modern history. 

 The greatest statesmen, the most consummate captains, 

 the most finished orators, the first historians, all flourished 

 during this period. For excellence in these departments it 

 was unsurpassed in former times, nor had it even any 

 rivals, if we except the warriors of Louis XIV.'s day, one 

 or two statesmen, and Bolingbroke and Massillon as orators. 

 But its glories were not confined to those great departments 

 of human genius. Though it could show no poet like 

 Dante, Milton, Tasso, or Dryden ; no dramatist like Shak- 

 speare or Corneille; no philosopher to equal Bacon, Newton, 

 or Locke, it nevertheless in some branches, and these not 

 the least important of natural science, very far surpassed 

 the achievements of former days, while of political science, 

 the most important of all, it first laid the foundations, and 

 then reared the superstructure. The science of chemistry 

 almost entirely, of political economy entirely, were the 

 growth of this remarkable era; while even in the pure 

 mathematics a progress was made which nearly changed 

 its aspect since the days of Leibnitz 'and Newton. The 

 names of Black, Watt, Cavendish, Priestley, Lavoisier, 

 Davy, may justly be placed far above the Boyles, the 

 Stahls, the Hales, the Hookes of former times; while Euler, 

 (Jlairaut, D'Alernbert, Lagrange, La Place, must be ranked 



