PREFACE. HE TH year we treat of, afforded much matter for History, and perhaps ftill more for Speculation. Though fruitful in great and extraordinary events, it seemed to threaten more than it exprefsly told. A war which defolated a great part of Europe, and might in its confequences have affected the political fyftem of the whole, appeared at this time, as little more than a fecondary object of confideration. Battles and fieges, the deftruction of armies and fleets, and the ruin of countries, however diftant the scene of action, would, in times of less business and importance, have nearly superseded all other matter, and have been confidered as the only objects, that demanded the care of the Writer, or that claimed the attention of the Public. In the prefent inftance it has been otherwife; and however interefting these fubjects of |