BEFORE THE RESTORATION.

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in tlieir imagination may talk of degeneracy and decay: but chap.

no man who is correctly informed as to the past will be dis--

posed to take a morose or desponding view of the present.

I should very imperfectly execute the task which I haveundertaken if I were merely to treat of battles and sieges, ofthe rise and fall of administrations, of intrigues in the palace,and of debates in the parliament. It will be my endeavour torelate the history of the people as well as the history of thegovernment, to trace the progress of useful and ornamentalarts, to describe the rise of religious sects and the changesof literary taste, to portray the manners of successivegenerations, and not to pass by with neglect even the revolu-tions which have taken place in dress, furniture, repasts,and public amusements. I shall cheerfully bear the reproachof having descended below the dignity of history, if I can suc-ceed in placing before the English of the nineteenth centurya true picture of the life of their ancestors.

The events which I propose to relate form only a single actof a great and eventful drama extending through ages, andmust be very imperfectly understood unless the plot of thepreceding acts be well known. I shall therefore introduce mynarrative by a slight sketch of the history of our country fromthe earliest times. I shall pass very rapidly over many cen-turies : but I shall dwell at some length on the vicissitudes ofthat contest which the administration of King James the Se-cond brought to a decisive crisis. *

Nothing in the early existence of Britain indicated the Britaingreatness which she was destined to attain. Her inhabitants, Romans!'

* In this, and in the next chapter, I have very seldom thought itnecessary to cite authorities: for, in these chapters, I have not detailedevents minutely, or used recondite materials; and the facts which Imention are for the most part such that a person tolerably well read inEnglish history, if not already apprised of them, will at least know whereto look for evidence of them. In the subsequent chapters I shall carefullyindicate the sources of my information.

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