It

SOME five-and-twenty years ago, the Author of these
present volumes wrote for Dr. Lardner's "Cabinet
Cyclopædia" a Compendious History of France. The
space there assigned for the work did not render the
careful consultation of original sources requisite.
has ever since been his aim, and more or less the object
of his study and thought, to write a History of France
from the ample original materials which the care of the
French Government and learned bodies have collected,
and which so many of their able historic philosophers
have elucidated. The First Volume of a History of
France, thus composed, is now presented to the public.

Although no original narrative or document of these times has been left unconsulted by the Author, he has still refrained from multiplying references at the bottom of each page. The materials of French history, or at least of its earlier centuries, have been formed into collections, for the most part in chronological order. Each volume is amply furnished with indexes and tables of contents. And nothing can be more easy than for the student to refer to any epoch, test any opinion, or

verify any assertion, should he entertain a doubt of the correctness or good faith of the modern historian.

The Author may perhaps be taxed with presumption for undertaking what has already been achieved by several eminent writers of that country whose progress, character, and fate are to be depicted. But French history is in a great measure English history: both are bound up together, and opinions entertained respecting the one necessarily react upon the other. This renders it desirable to have a History of France written from an English point of view. We of course prefer our own institutions, our social and political organisation. Local freedom, representative government, individual rights are the Penates which we worship; whilst the French are ever ready to accept absolute monarchy provided it be glorious, or democracy provided it be energetic, and are apt to appreciate religions and institutions less for their being based on truth or conducive to general happiness, than for the efficiency with which they promote the unity and grandeur of the nation, with the regularity, power, and compactness of its government. The French and English mind are in fact placed at two different poles, and if attracting each other, do so from diversity. They proceed from different principles and arrive at opposite conclusions. Such variance need not be enmity; on the contrary, it may prove the source of mutual admiration and respect. No two individuals are born alike; and it were not to be expected or desired that

two great nations should be allowed by Providence to grow up and occupy rival eminences, for the mere sake of copying each other, or producing in the same way the same results. Each country must be a warning and a cause of reflection, not a model, to the other. And, certainly, the most interesting and useful object of study and contemplation in the world, to an Englishman, must be France,—and, to a Frenchman, must be England.

PARIS: July 1858.