The late work of Lacretelle-his Histoire de France pendant le XVIII. Siècle, will supply every information necessary for the general reader, and in a very agreeable manner.

The Financial Disputes and the Ecclesiastical Disputes, both making up the disputes between the Court and Parliaments, are the chief points; these disputes with the new opinions, uniting to produce the late French Revolution. The Foreign Politics may be gathered from Voltaire and Coxe's Austria in a general manner.

See also Duclos.

PELHAM ADMINISTRATION.

SCOTCH Rebellion in 1745-History of it, by Home, the book not thought equal to his fame, but it tells all that need now be known, and is in many places very interesting-Melcombe's Diary-Belsham.

GEORGE III-OPENING OF THE REIGN.

ADOLPHUS-Belsham (neither without the other)-Melcombe's Diary— Burke's Thoughts on Present Discontents.

AMERICAN WAR.

SPEECHES in the two Houses-George Grenville-Pitt-Governor Pownall, &c. &c. See Cobbett's Parliamentary History-Examination of Mr. Penn -Dean Tucker's Tracts (the third particularly) and his "Cui Bono"Pamphlet by Robinson, brother to the Primate; Ditto, by Dr. Johnson, Taxation no Tyranny-Burke's Speeches-Dr. Ramsay's History of the American War-Annual Register-Pain's Common Sense-Paper to have been presented to the King in Burke's Works-Gibbon's Memoirs-Notices of the American Contest in his Letters,-Bentivoglio-Speeches in the Spanish Council on the subject of the Low Countries, by the Duke of Alva, &c.-Washington's Letters-Marshall's Life of Washington-Belsham and Adolphus (neither without the other)-Parts of the Works of Franklin, and of his Correspondence.-The great Magazine of Information is the Remembrancer, a work of 20 volumes, drawn up by Almon, an opposition bookseller at the time, and the Remembrancer therefore chiefly offers to the remembrance such speeches and documents as are unfavourable to the councils of Great Britain-Gordon, 4 thick 8vo. volumes, full of facts, and impartial, but with no other merit.-The Legal History of the Colonies may be found in Chalmers, a book which may be consulted, but cannot be read.-Stedman wrote a History of the American War, an actor in the scene, and a sensible man, but with ordinary views.

Many histories and many political subjects have been passed by, but they who would look for more, or would think it advisable to turn aside from the course here proposed, may consult the volumes of the Modern Universal History, and they will find, either in the text or the references, every historical information they can well require.

Catalogues of great Libraries (the Catalogue, for instance, of the Royal

Institution in London) will give the Student an immediate view of all the valuable Books that refer to any particular subject of his inquiry.

Biography, though dealing too much in panegyric, is always more or less entertaining and instructive, often affording at the same time historical facts and traits of character, that are by no means without their importance, though they may have escaped the general historian; these may be also often found in the histories of countries.

Since this Syllabus was first drawn up, many Works have appeared, which should now find a place in it.

Hallam on the Middle Ages-Sismondi-Brodie-vols. of Lingard's History-more valuable editions of Clarendon and Burnet-entertaining and instructive Works by Miss Aikin and Lord J. Russell-a work on the Times of Charles I. and the Republic, by Godwin-a valuable Selection of the State Trials, by Phillips-a most important work on the Constitutional History of this Country, by Hallam, &c. &c.-A History of our own Revolution, by a French writer, Mazure, and a History of the Times of Charles I. by Guizot, a short History of Spain by Mrs. Calcott, a continuation of the Histories of Hume and Smollett, drawn up with diligence and ability by Mr. Hughes, of Cambridge, and valuable Publications by Coxe, Life of Marlborough, &c., and a History of Ferdinand and Isabella, by Prescott, the American historian.

On the subject of the French Revolution, the following Works have been recommended as a short Course.

Mignet-Thiers-Mad. de Stael-Account of Revolution in Dodsley's Annual Register-Histoire de la Révolution Française, par deux Amis de la Liberté--To these may be now added, Sir Walter Scott's two first volumes of his Life of Napoleon.

MEMOIRS On the subject of the French Revolution are now publishing by the Baudouin Frères at Paris. The following may be more particularly mentioned:-Memoirs by M. de Ferrieres-Mad. Roland-Bailly-BarbarouxSur les Journées de Septembre-Weber-Hué-Cléry-Louvet-Dumouriez -Memoirs and Annals of the French Revolution, by Bertrand de Moleville, &c. &c.

The Speeches of Mirabeau should be looked at, and Necker's Works, for the earlier periods of the Revolution.-There is a democratic Work by Bailleul, written in opposition to the Considerations of Mad. de Stael.-There is a Précis of the Revolution, begun hy Rabaut de St. Etienne and continued by Lacretelle.

There is an useful work, Revue Chronologique de l'Histoire Française, from 1787 to 1818, by Montgaillard, now expanded by the same writer into a regular History.

There is a History by Toulongeon.

LECTURES ON HISTORY.

INTRODUCTORY LECTURE.

1809.

MUST avail myself of the privilege of a prefatory address to enter into some explanations with respect to the lectures I am going to deliver, which could not well find a place in the lectures themselves.

I must mention to you the plan upon which they are drawn up.

And I think it best to give you at once the history of my own thoughts in forming this plan, because such a detail will serve to display the general nature of the study in which you are now to engage, and will lead to observations that may afford to these lectures their best chance of being useful.

My first impressions, then, with respect to a scheme for Lectures on Modern History, were these—

That, in the first place, all detail, all narrative were impossible.

That the great subject before me was the situation of Europe in different periods of these later ages-the progress of the human mind, of human society, of human happiness, of the intellectual character of the species for the last fifteen centuries. Every thing therefore of a temporary nature was to be excluded; all more particular and local history; all peculiar delineations of characters, revolutions, and events, that concerned not the general interests of mankind. That the history of France or Spain or England was not to be considered separately and distinctly, but only in conjunction, each with the other; each, only as it affected by its relations the great community of Europe. That, in short, such occurrences only were to be mentioned, as indicated the character of the times-such changes only, as left permanent effects. That a summary, an estimate of human nature, as it had shown itself, since the fall of the Roman empire, on

B

the great theatre of the civilized part of the world, was, if possible, to be given.

I must confess that this still appears to me to be the genuine and proper idea of a course of lectures on modern history. But to this plan, the obvious objection was, its extent and its difficulty.

The great Lord Bacon did not find himself unworthily employed when he was considering the existing situation, and contemplating the future advancement of human learning; but to look back upon the world and to consider the different movements of different nations, whether retrograde or in advance, and to state the progress of the whole from time to time, as resulting from the combined effect of the failures and successes of all the parts-to attempt this, is to attempt more than was effected even by the enterprising mind of Bacon; for it is to appreciate the facts as well as to exhibit the theory of human society-to weigh in the balance the conduct, as well as the intelligence of mankind, and to extend to the religion, legislation, and policy of states and to the infinitely diversified subject of their political happiness, the same inquiry, criticism, and speculation which the wisest and brightest of mankind had been content to extend only to the more particular theme of human knowledge.

Such were the first impressions produced upon my mind. by the plan that had thus occurred to me.

It is very true, that when they had somewhat subsided, I became sufficiently aware that objections like these must not be urged too far. That a plan might be very imperfectly executed, and yet answer many of its original purposes, as far as the instruction of the hearer was concerned, and that this was on the whole sufficient. The effect upon the hearer being the point of real consequence, not the literary failures or successes of the lecturer.

This scheme of lectures, however, I have not adopted, for though I might fairly have been permitted to execute it in a slight and inadequate manner, I was persuaded that lectures would be expected from me in this place long before I could have attempted to execute it, in any manner, however imperfect and inadequate to my wishes.

Having mentioned this reason, it is unnecessary to mention

others, which might also have induced me to form the same resolution.

But a plan of this sort, though rejected by me as a lecturer, should always be present to you as readers of history. By no other means can you derive the full benefit that may and should be derived from the annals of the past.

Large and comprehensive views, the connexion of causes and effects, the steady, though often slow and, at the time, unperceived influence of general principles; habits of calm speculation, of foresight, of deliberative and providing wisdom, these are the lessons of instruction, and these the best advantages to be gained by the contemplation of history; and it is to these that the ambition of an historical student should be at all events directed.

The next scheme of lectures, that occurred to me, was to take particular periods of history and to review and estimate several of them, if possible, in a connected manner. The period, for instance, of the Dark Ages, of the Revival of Learning, of the Reformation, of the Religious Wars, of the power and enterprises of Louis the Fourteenth, of the prosperity of Europe towards the close of the last century.

These periods could not be described and examined without conveying to the hearer a very full impression, not only of the leading events, but of the general meaning and importance of modern history. All the proper purposes of a system of lectures would be therefore by these means very sufficiently answered; and as the plan is somewhat confined and brought within a definite compass, it has the important merit of being practicable.

But after some deliberation, this plan, also, I have thought it best to reject; chiefly, because to attempt it, would be rather to attempt to write a book, than to give lectures. I do not say that those pages, which now make a good book, can ever have made bad lectures. But a lecture is, after all not a book; and the question is whether the same lecturer might not have improved his hearers more by a less elaborate mode of address.

Instead, then, of endeavouring to draw up any general history of Europe since the overthrow of the Roman empire in the west, and instead of attempting any discussion of