A POPULAR

MODERN HISTORY.

BY

MATTHEW BRIDGES, Esq.

LONDON:

BURNS AND LAMBERT, PORTMAN STREET.

SADLIER AND CO., NEW YORK.

MDCCCLV.

The right of authorising Translations of this Work is reserved.

223. C. 4.

PREFACE.

SUCH a volume of Modern History as is presented in the following pages to the public can be little else than a compilation, claiming no other merits than those of succinctness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness. Without hesitation or limit, the Author has freely made use of other men's labours; comparing them diligently, however, with original authorities, and arranging the results in a correct perspective, of course according to the honest convictions of his own mind. He has looked upon the visible world as an arena provided by Providence, in which the Church of Almighty God is to be erected; and as the narrative of events had necessarily to be compressed within the smallest possible compass, references and discussions are omitted, and summaries substituted for details. At the same time, the writer has endeavoured to render his work interesting to general readers; aiming sometimes at panoramic sketches, with a variety of lights and shadows, so as to alike avoid