The School and Family History of England from the earliest period to the nineteenth year of the reign of Queen Victoria ... New edition

Front matter

SCHOOL AND FAMILY. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. London : Printed by Spottiswoode & Co., New-gtreet- Sq iiar e. THE SCHOOL AND FAMILY HISTORY OF ENGLAND, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD, TO THE NINETEENTH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA ; CONTAINING A NAKRATIVE OF CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS, AND EXHIBITING A VIEW OF THE RELIGION, GOVERNMENT AND LAWS, LITERATURE, ARTS, COMMERCE, MANNERS AND CDSTOMS, ETC, ETC, OF THE DIFFERENT PERIODS OF ENGLISH HISTORY. l'l EDWARD FARR, F.S.A. NEW EDITION. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, & ROBERTS. 1856.

Preface

TO THIS EDITION. " History," writes the poet Wordsworth, " is Time's slavish scribe." As events happen in the world, it stands charged with the task of recording them for the information and benefit of posterity. And these events are manifold. It is not only the wars in which a country has been engaged that should be unfolded in the pages of history. A nation's true greatness does not consist in the victories gained by its armies ; they exhibit only its physical, not its moral and mental, strength. History embraces a far wider range of events. Besides narrating a nation's wars, both foreign and civil, and exhibiting the rise, fall, and decline of dynasties, it must present a view of the people at large in their social con dition at vajkious epochs ; of their religion, government, laws, literature, arts, science, commerce, manners and customs, &c : in a word, of their gradual progress from barbarism to civilisation.

History has, also, to delineate character : whoever has made himself a name for talents, knowledge, patriotism, valour, or great virtues, should obtain a prominent place in its pages. It is on such principles as these that the Collegiate, School, and Family History of England has been written. And such a history for the young must be considered of the utmost value ; for it will not only make them acquainted with past events and bygone characters, but it will have the effect of inciting them to emulate the deeds and the virtues, as well as to shun the faults, of their forefather?, a

PREFACE.

. VI and, by an intelligent comprehension of the past, qualify them to discharge, efficiently, all the duties of active life. In the previous editions of this history, the narrative was brought down only to the eleventh year of the reign of Queen Victoria. Since that period events of the deepest importance have followed each other with marvellous ra pidity, and it has, therefore, been deemed advisable to continue the narrative to the peace which followed the late Russian war, i. e. to the opening of the year 1856. The work has been reprinted in a new form and in a new type ; the whole body of the text has, also, been subjected to a careful revision throughout, both in style and substance; and it is hoped that the volume will be found still more worthy of the public patronage than heretofore. E. F. Iver, Nov. 10. 1856. CONTENTS.