HISTORICAL AND LITERARY TOUR ОР A FOREIGNER IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, BRITISH AND FOREIGN PUBLIC LIBRARY, CONDUIT STREET, HANOVER SQUARE. PREFACE. ONE of my publishers, who takes pleasure in reading the proofs of the books he delivers, disapproves of my entitling mine a “ Tour," &c. affirming that it bears more analogy to Madame de Staël's "Germany," than to the numerous "Tours" published yearly in France and Switzerland. He would have therefore preferred the substitution of " England and Scotland" for the title I have chosen. No one is more willing to acknowledge than myself, that it is a Bookseller's especial province to be au fait in the construction of titles,-an act of more utility than is usually supposed; but I was alive to the hazard of causing dangerous comparisons; I, therefore, adhered pertinaciously to my first opinion. I am, moreover, bound to confess, that in order to get the better of the timidity I felt in offering to the public my sketches of English literature, I 2 found it necessary to imagine myself in the act of addressing indulgent friends. This is the secret of the Epistolary form of the Work. The reader will perceive I did not carry back with me from Great Britain the Anglomania, which has been objected against the respectable counsellor of the Cour Royale. I have endeavoured to see everything without prejudice, and not to put entire faith in those Cicérones, who uniformly persuade foreigners that any given monument under actual inspection, is one of the seven wonders of the world. It has been my desire more especially, to judge for myself, and not to rely upon hearsay, except supported by demonstration. I am not sanguine enough to suppose that I have by so doing in all cases avoided being deceived; but I can affirm that my errors are never errors of bad faith; and I shall always be willing, on proper explanation, to retract my statements. I feel myself also called upon to state, that as to what regards the moral physiognomy of English Society, such as I have attempted to sketch it, my remarks apply to the period of my visit, which was paid to Great Britain under the Viziership of Lord Castlereagh, whose fatal influence prod longed its duration for some time under the administration of Mr. Canning. There was at that period, a marked contrast between the general politics of England, and the principles of morality, liberalism, and dignity, paraded by its Oligarchy. I certainly feel no inclination to pronounce Mr. Canning a man of exclusive genius; but it will be seen that as early as the period of my seeing him at Liverpool, I described him as the man of talent and tact whom England wanted, in order to extricate her from the false position in which his predecessor had succeeded in plunging her. If Mr. Canning continues as he has done, to make prudent concessions to the new interests of the people of Europe, created by twenty! five years of revolution, there cannot be a doubt that the national character of England will be raised by it, and that British prospe rity will be the result of his system. As far as concerned the immediate interest of the monarch, was it not the fact, that the anti-liberal ministry of Castlereagh daily imparted new fuel and new venergy to the inevitable re-action of radicalism, while a few simple promises and acts of Mr. Canning have brought back to the foot of the throne, a multitude of |