HE 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 expressly 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 secondary 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 fuperfeded 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 present inftance it has been otherwife; and however interesting these fubjects of GENERAL LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. THE Hagerman Collection OF BOOKS RELATING TO HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE BOUGHT WITH MONEY PLACED BY JAMES J. HAGERMAN OF CLASS OF '61 IN THE HANDS OF Professor Charles Kendall Adams IN THE YEAR 1883. |
