( vii ) 



PREFACE. 



THE reign of George III. may in some important re- 

 spects 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 states- 

 men, 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 

 Shakspeare 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 



