For the defects of the book now submitted to the Subscribers and to the Public, the Writer alone is responsible. Such merits as it may be thought to have belong, in a large measure, to the Friends and Correspondents, at home and abroad, who have generously contributed much of the information on which it is based.

But a long list of names, set out in a Preface, might seem to partake as much of ostentation as of gratitude. I have preferred to acknowledge my obligations in footnotes, at the various sections of the work to which they more specifically relate. If omissions have occurred, they were unintentional, and will be regretted.

Whilst the book has been in preparation, many portions of its subject-matter have been in rapid growth. I have striven to keep pace, to the best of my ability, with new information; but, unavoidably, some sections are brought down to a later date than others. The endeavour has entailed on the Printer an additional amount of exertion, which has been so kindly and efficiently put forth as to merit my hearty acknowledgements. The Reader may, perhaps, notice with some surprise that a book almost wholly written, and entirely revised, in England, has been printed in Saxony; but assuredly he will not find that its typography has suffered, by being entrusted to a House of European renown in that department.