HISTORY. 237 



ledge, it doubtless admits of being enlarged and 

 vivified by being made a more complete portraiture of 

 the millions ruled, as well as of the ruling few, who 

 leave their impress on each successive age. 



In relation to this latter point much may be 

 looked for in England from those multitudinous State 

 records which, entombed hitherto in various dusty re- 

 positories, have recently been collected, catalogued, 

 and rendered easy of access by the judicious energy 

 of the present Master of the Eolls. Though devoted 

 largely to the objects I have named as the main ma- 

 terial of all history, they collaterally afford much 

 illustration of the social state of the country at differ- 

 ent periods. For the period in which we are now 

 living, enriched even to incumbrance by the produc- 

 tions of the press, the future historian of England will 

 find his chief embarrassment in the multiplicity of 

 materials before him. His office will be, not so much 

 to seek for facts as to sift and condense them a 

 remark applying to all future European history, as 

 well as to that of the new world in the West. 



