ANNUAL REGISTER, OR GENERAL REPOSITORY OF HISTORY, POLITICS, AND LITERATURE, TO WHICH IS PREFIXED The HISTORY of KNOWLEDGE, LEARNING, and TASTE, LONDON: Printed for JOHN STOCKDALE, Piccadilly. 1805. PREFACE. IT is a trite remark, that the real causes and motives of political events are never known till a considerable period after they have happened; but it is a remark, of the truth of which, since the invention of printing, and since the sources of public information have been so wonderfully augmented, we might be permitted to entertain a doubt: nor is it easy to conceive, that, at a time when every transaction of importance is committed to writing, and by some medium or other (it might be imagined) would find its way to the press, a political secret should be kept even for a month. Notwithstanding this, whoever has formed his opinions of political affairs from the information contained in newspapers, and other periodical publications, will find, when he comes to peruse this volume, that he reads a history which is, in all its most essential parts, entirely new. He has heard of the names of statesmen and generals, the |
