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THE

ANNUAL REGISTER,

OR A VIEW OF THE

HISTORY,

POLITICS,

AND

LITERATURE

For the YEAR 1782.

THE THIRD EDITION.

LONDON:

Frined (ly Affignment from the Executors of the late Mr. James Dodifley)

By G. Auld, Greville-Street, Hatton Garden,"

FOR W.OTRIDGE AND SON; R. FAULDER; J. CUTHELL; R. LEA; OGILVY
AND SON; J. NUNN; J. WALKER; LACKINGTON, ALLEN, AND CO.

E. JEFFERY; AND VERNOR AND HOOD.

1800.

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PREFACE.

IT

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T has been our fortune to trace our unhappy civil diffentions down from their original causes and earliest appearance, nearly to the point of their ultimate conclufion, in the feparation of Great Britain and her colonies. In this courfe, which constantly required all the labour and attention we were capable of bestowing, we were, by degrees, unwittingly led into the execution of a work far beyond our ability and powers; and upon which we could fcarcely have ventured, had we foreseen its extent and difficulty. We were led into the hiftory of a war of fuch a magnitude, as would have afforded a full fcope to the genius of the first writers :-a war, by far the most dangerous in which the British nation was ever involved; of the first rank in point of action and event; but of still wider importance, when confidered with a view to its actual or probable confequences. It has already overturned thofe favourite fyftems of policy and commerce, both in the old and in the new world, which the wisdom of ages and the power of the greatest nations had in vain endeavoured to render permanent; and it seems to have laid the feeds of ftill greater revolutions in the history and mutual relations of mankind.

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