ANNUAL REGISTER, OR A VIEW OF THE HISTORY, POLITICS, AND LITERATURE, For the YEAR 1800. LONDON: Printed by T. Burton, No. 31, Little Queen-ftreet, for the Proprietors of Dodjley's Annual Register, W.OTRIDGE AND SON; R. FAULDER; J.CUTHELL; OGILVY AND SON; E. JEFFERY; AND VERNOR AND HOOD. PREFACE. FROM a feries of incidents, to which mortality is at all times liable, and all men must sometime encounter, the Annual Register had fallen more and more back in the time of publication. It was not an easy matter to remedy this defect, and to overtake time, in such eventful years as the last decade of the Eighteenth Century; amidst multiplied political intrigues, internal convulfions, and wars so wide in their extent, and complicated in their operation. This, however, has now been completely accomplished. We close the century, without being one volume in arrears; we conclude the volume for 1800, without leaving any event to be recorded in the next, that could, with any degree of propriety, be introduced and related in the present volume: so that, at the commencement of the century on which we have just entered, we fet out, in our historical inquiries and narratives, without any encumbrance. The We congratulate our readers on that great, though fomewhat unexpected, event, which so aufpicioufly marks the commencement of the present æra.* Temple of Janus is shut; it is not unreasonable to hope that it will be long before it be again opened. A dreadful but falutary experiment, in the course of the * For a summary review and character of the Eighteenth Century, and more especially at its close, see the conclufion of the History of Europe, in this volume, laft |