Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1816 edition. Excerpt: ... PREFACE. If ire inquire into the history of European nations, even as far back as Charlemagne, never shall we find, perhaps, an;na of more universal interest than the present, both to those nations in general, and to Great Britain in particular. The constitution of governments, like the constitution of man, must have its periods of vigour, and decline; it must rise and fall, flourish and decay; and, although it abound in physical, it may fail in moral strength, and thus perish. From this failure in the moral constitution of their government?, more than from any other source, has flowed that vast and mighty stream of desolation, which, like a torrent, swept along the face of modern nations and nearly overwhelmed them in its gloomy tide; from this has the reeent map of Europe presented so melancholy and so degenerate a picture. The iniquities of civilized man and the corruption of Courts had opened a wide and yawning abyss; nations were on the brink; the light of life and liberty had fled; the storm" was gathering; the angry eye of Heaven looked down, formed a being for the ncourge of nan, airf sent him abroad to desolate the land. What scene then did the continental mnp of Europe present? Its nations chained, as if by one common spell of thraldom; their governments, their laws, their religion trampled on; the ties of society torn asunder; the rights of thrones trodden down; their Kings degraded, and upstart vassals polluting, with their vile touch, the sacred sceptres of royalty. No longer did the age of chivalry throw its light around; that of blood, rapine, and desolation was at its zenith. a long and dreary night of Vandalism overshadowed the earth: the only light it shed was caught from the burning pile where nations lay...
