peat, that, under the three heads; First, of PUBLIC PAPERS; Second, of FOREIGN OFFICIAL PAPERS; and, Third, of DOMESTIC OFFICIAL PAPERS, the Political Register contains a collection such as is to be found in no other work. The total number of these documents, contained in the Eight Volumes, must astonish any one not accustomed to much observation upon the subject, there being of the first class 764; of the second, 825; and of the third, 680; making, in the whole 2269, all arranged in the chronological order of their first appearance in England, that being the order of all others best calculated to further every object of research, especially as each volume is furnished with Indexes as well as with Tables of Contents made out under an experimen-, tal conviction of their utility.It may be useful to observe, that, since the commencement of the PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES, as a separate work, the documents, of whatever description, officially laid before Parliament, have been recorded there; and, as to the Debates themselves, which must be considered as amongst the first of materials for history, I risk no con, tradiction in saying, that they are, (to say nothing of the MINUTES, which connect them with one another and which must always render the whole perfectly intelligible at the first glance) recorded with a degree of copiousness and of accuracy, hitherto unknown in similar compilations.—-—-Iudulging, as I long have, and as I yet do, the hope of being, for a few years, at least, now and then remembered as one of those, whom the spirit-stirring circumstances of these awful times have drawn forth from their native obscurity, I have never ceased anxiously to desire, that the events, amidst which I have lived, and in which I have taken so deep an interest, may be handed down to posterity undisfigured by falsehood. Actuated by this desire I have bent my mind to the securing of a faithful record of those events; and, if popular delusion and popular baseness, fed by the corrup tions of the commercial system, should continue to triumph till the very names of liberty and of honour shall be expunged from the English language, and till every man shall be brought to lead his hand to the muzzling of his neighbour, I shall still have the satisfaction to reflect, that, on my part, no effort has been wanting to prevent this consummation of national infamy.
The number of sheets in the present volume is thirty-three. Each of the three preceding volumes contain the same number; and, this is, inleed, the fixed bulk of the volumes, the annual cost being, of course, £2 15ş Botley, 28th Dec. 1805. WM. CORBETT,