and the subjects treated of, are general in their nature, and confined to no section of any country, or to any particular nation. Some entirely new chapters have been added, others re-written in great part, and much industrial, historical, and statistical matter, which was exclusively English and local, has been omitted, and replaced with information of a like character drawn from American sources. The majority of the original engravings with which the book was illustrated, have, for a similar reason, been replaced by others.
If it be objected to by any, that the work, notwithstanding its revision, is too English in character, it may be urged in reply, that as respects the past, British history, previous to the eighteenth century, is the common heritage of both the Englishman and the American, and that their ancestors were also our ancestors; for the present, we need not remind the reader that the industrial pursuits of both countries are so closely associated and united, that whatever pertains to the interests of one, also affects in a greater or less degree the interests of the other.
"Without attempting," says Mr. Knight, "to give to the volume the formal shape of a treatise on political economy, it is the wish of the author to convey the broad parts of his subject in a somewhat desultory manner, but one which is not altogether devoid of logical arrangement. He desires especially to be understood by the young; for upon their right appreciation of the principles which govern society will depend much of the security and happiness of our own and the coming time. The danger of our present period of transition is, that theory should expect too much, and that practice should do too little in the amelioration of the condition of the people."