PREFACE. It is the duty of the proprietor and editors of an Annual Register to present to their readers, at an early period, a historical detail of every thing interesting in politics, in general history, in literature, and in the progressive improvements and discoveries in the arts and sciences. This they presume they have now performed for the year 1807. it The facts recorded in the present volume are in every respect important. The politician, who has been accustomed to regard with reverence that system to which statesmen have, for the last century, referred under the phrase of the "Balance of Europe," must deplore the ravages made upon by him whose ambition seems to know no bounds, and whose good fortune appears to keep pace with his most gigantic projects. Kingdoms and empires, resisting his power, have, one after another, fallen victims either to their own want of union, or to a reliance a 2 reliance on representations held out by the conqueror, which in a short space of time have proved delusive and fatal, It is difficult now, with the exception of Sweden, to find a single spot on the vast continent of Europe which is not in some way or other subject to the decrees of the French emperor: every sovereign is either of his creation, or apparently dependent on his will. The changes and revolutions which have brought about this disposition of affairs have been distinctly described in the volumes of the New Annual Register. The historians would have rejoiced had it been their good fortune to have recorded a different order of things; but they have no choice, they can merely enumerate facts: and their only consolation is, that there is an overruling Providence, who can effect the happiness of his creatures by events apparently the most unfavourable and disastrous. Britain is still free, subject to no control; and he little deserves the advantages resulting from his birth in these islands, who will not devoutly exclaim "Esto perpetua!" We are not blind to errors, in our own system, that call for correction, nor ignorant of defects that might be usefully reformed: but we abhor abhor the idea of foreign interference; and we feel proud of the distinction of being the citizens of a country, which appears to stand almost alone in defence of the rights of independent states. She has hitherto, under the protection of a beneficent Providence, successfully resisted the encroachments of the common enemy; defied his power; and, in some degree, has been enabled to say, "Hitherto thou mayest come, but no further." And we trust that the courage and unanimity of a free people will ever continue them in this high situation among the nations of the world; and that they may eventually, and speedily, under the auspices of Heaven, obtain for themselves a solid and honourable peace. The remaining sheet of the Map of India is now presented to the public. Neither pains nor expense have been spared in the execution of it; and though, during the last two years, the events in India have been comparatively of less importance than usual, yet the vast extent of our possessions in that quarter of the globe, will, it is feared, be perpetually productive of events, and wars, the scourge of man, that must render a complete and accurate chart of them highly interesting to those who study the history of their own country and its dependencies, with a due regard to critical accuracy. The proprietor begs leave to assure his readers that it will be his endeavour at all times,, as it has been in the present instance, to bring out the volumes of the New Annual Register at such periods as shall give them a just claim to pre-eminence, as the most early, as well as the most complete and faithful record of whatever relates to politics, local and neral; and to literature, domestic and foreign: ren- dering them in every respect a register of history, |