WILLIAM FORSYTH, M. A., Q. C.,

AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF CICERO," "CASES AND OPINIONS ON CONSTITUTIONAL LAW,"

ETC., ETC.;

LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON & COMPANY,

549 & 551 BROADWAY.

1871.

.

PREFACE.

I BEGAN this work intending to amuse the idleness of a long vacation; but a severe and dangerous illness, caused by an accident, entirely baffled my design, and I was obliged to finish the task when I had much less leisure. I do not say this to deprecate criticism-if the work is to be criticised at all— but merely state the fact, which may account for shortcomings that are very likely to be discovered. But I hope that the book will be judged by what it professes to be, and not by what it is not. It is not a history of the works of fiction of the last century, which would have required much more copious detail, but a view of the manners and morals of that century, as gathered principally from hints and descriptions in