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|PREFACE.
power in Europe of that security which was founded in treaties, alliances, common interest, and public faith. It seems to throw nations collectively into that state of nature in which it has been supposed, that mankind separately at one time subsisted, when the security of the individual depended singly upon his own strength, and no resource was left when it failed.
To delineate these matters in their proper colours, to describe their immediate nature and tendency, and point out their more remote consequences, would have required the greaest historical and political abilities. Unequal to the talk, as we are in every degree, it will afford us much satisfaction, if we are the means of preserving a memorial of events, which may be of use to the future of historian in his researches, and if our readers are of opinion, that however we have failed in the execution, we have not been deficient in pains and industry.
THE|
|THE
ANNUAL REGISTER,
For the YEAR 1772.
THE
HISTORY
OF EUROPE.
CHAP. I.
Revolution in the political system of Europe. Ballance of power. In what respect other states may probably be affected by the dismemberment of Poland. Germanic body. The two northern crowns. France. Maritime powers Revolutions in Sweden and Denmark. Mysterious appearance of the nothern politcks. Troubles in different parts of America. Insurrection of the slaves in the Dutch colony of Surinam. Insurrection in the Brazils. Insurrection on the coast of Chili.
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|THE year of which we are now to treat, though it adds but little to the splendour of history, abounds with those materials which form the most serious and important parts of it. It presents us with a revolution as unexpected as important, in that general system of policy, and arrangement of power and dominion, which had
VOL. XV.|
|been for some ages an object of unremitting attention, with most of the states of Europe. It shews us the ruin of one great and ancient state, and an, almost, unparalleled revolution in the internal government of another. While the statesman may ere behold, the inefficacy of treaties, guaranties, and sanctions, the philosopher and citizen [A]|
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