288 ROBERTSON. 



and that he reckoned 'two years more sufficient for its 

 completion. In this he was deceived, whether it be that 

 he underrated the labour required by the portion of his 

 task still before him, or that he was interrupted in it (as 

 has been supposed) by the fierce dissensions which during 

 that period raged in the Scottish Church, and which 

 must no doubt have occupied some portion of his leisure, 

 though with so severe an economist of his time, and a 

 mind so little liable to be disturbed, there seems little 

 reason to think that these proceedings could seriously 

 distract his attention from his studies for any consi- 

 derable portion of the year. At length the public im- 

 patience was gratified by the appearance of the work 

 in 1769, exactly ten years after his ' Scotland/ Its 

 success was not a matter of doubt, and it fully an- 

 swered the expectations which had naturally been 

 formed. The prevailing opinion places this work at 

 the head of his writings ; and certainly, if the extent 

 and importance of the subject be regarded, and the 

 great value be considered of a clear and distinct narra- 

 tive, embracing the history of Europe during the 

 period when its different states assumed the position 

 with relation to each other in which they now stand, 

 and most of them also adopted the political system 

 which is established for the government of their several 

 affairs, there can be no comparison between this and 

 any other of his works ; to which must doubtless be 

 added, the far greater difficulty of executing so vast a 

 plan, tracing the complicated parts of the great Euro- 

 pean commonwealth in their connexion with each 

 other, and drawing, as Mr. Stewart has happily ex- 

 pressed it, a meridian line through modern history, to 



