PRINTED FOR BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY; J. OTRIDGE; J. CUTHELL; LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN; E. JEFFERY AND SON; LACKINGTON AND CO.; J. BELL; J. ASPERNE; AND SHERWOOD, NEELY, AND JONES. 1824. prmaw Collection PREFACE. HE year 1791 seemed auspicious to human nature. TH In two of the greatest kingdoms in Europe, new con stitutions were formed, which promised to put an end to the reign of feudal barbarism and anarchy in the one, and of more polished despotism in the other. But the year had not elapsed when the prospect was overcast; tempests and storms arose which overturned the new fabric in the one kingdom before it was well erected, and, in the other, after staining the public councils as well as the character of the nation, with multiplied atrocities, subverted one form of government after ano ther; which still continue to agitate the unsettled mass, and to threaten, with further changes, further distress and ruin. The revolutions and new constitutions in Poland and in France, are vast subjects of reflection in themselves, |