PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

T is with much pleasure that I comply with the invitation of the American publishers of this History to join my efforts with theirs to make it worthy of a reappearance in a new country. I will relate, in a few words, what has been done.

In 1846, Mr. Charles Knight, whose praises need not to be celebrated here, began the publication of this work, which he proposed to write, from end to end, himself. It was not long before he found that he had undertaken a labor too vast to be reconciled in any way with the other demands on his time and powers; and he consigned his task to Mr. Craik, now a professor in the Queen's College, Belfast. After a time, Mr. Craik also gave up, and the work seemed likely to stop at the end of the First Book; but, on Mr. Knight's stating the case to me, in great solicitude about his scheme and the work, I undertook to try what I could do. For some time I thought I must stop, too, so overwhelming seemed the subjects to be treated, and the material to be handled. I gained courage, however, as the work went on; and I was enabled to complete it without pause. I began in the autumn of 1848, and the last pages were at press before the close of 1849. These dates are mentioned as showing the standpoint from which the work is written.

I must be understood as having no concern in the FIRST Book, except that in the latest edition I prepared the short chapter on the South-American Republics. The Indian chapter is by yet another hand. Mr. Knight's portion extends from the beginning to that Indian chapter; and Professor Craik wrote the rest of Book I. For all that follows I am responsible.

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PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

As the work is now to be republished, after the lapse of years, it seems almost necessary to carry on the narrative to the end of the Peace. The only reason for closing it at the date of 1846 was that we had got no further in our experience. From the time (1854) that war had closed the period, it was absurd to stop at any earlier date. I have therefore added a sketch of the seven years which preceded the war with Russia; and thus the American edition will possess a kind of completeness which has been wanting to the English one.

There are many reasons why I earnestly desire that the edition intended for American readers should be as good as I can make it; but the chief consideration is, that the privilege of a new country and a young nation in benefiting by the experience of the old may be somewhat lessened or increased by the way of telling the story of that experience. I am anxious that any such advantage should not be weakened by fault of mine. Hence I have carefully corrected any mistakes that I could hear of, and have done my best with the supplementary chapter.

The chief embarrassments and troubles of an old nation like the British are such as a young republic can never, or ought never, to suffer from. The most prominent feature in the domestic history of this long peace is the reform of antique institutions, and of abuses scarcely less old. For the United States there is no Catholic Question, no Irish Church or Scotch Church Question; no difficulties between Church and State, or Church and Dissenters, or about National Education, on account of religious differences and claims. For the United States there is no such question of Representative Reform as convulsed Great Britain thirty-five years ago, because the Republic has not yet outgrown any of its principles of representation, as England had. For the United States there is no peril of exhaustion and decay by an inappropriate and corrupted Poor-law, such as that which was truly called the gangrene in the social life of England, which it was equally dangerous to remove and to let alone. The success with which the reform was at length accomplished may interest American readers; but it is to be hoped that there will never be reason for any closer sympathy. In the same way the United States have no colonial troubles to manage, no conquered countries territories conquered centuries before the present genera