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Rh of recent events, and mostly of recent lives. To have reconsidered portions of History already examined in the Encyclopædia, whatever defects there might be in the materials, or mode of treating them; or, to have attempted any material enlargement of the Biographical department, with respect to distant ages, would have occasioned encroachments upon the space necessary for inquiries more strongly called for by the objects of the work. The historical information is given chiefly in connection with the geography and statistics of the different states; and may be described, generally, as embracing all the great events and transactions of the last twenty years. For the particular history of the European states, during that period, the reader must turn to the articles under their respective names; but, under the head of Great Britain, he will find a general view of the events and results of the mighty contest in which the greater powers were engaged, from the period of the rupture of the treaty of Amiens, down to the memorable era of the battle of Waterloo. With respect to the other quarters of the world, there is an account of our wars in India, under that word; of the late war with the United States, in the general historical article just mentioned; and of the revolutions and subsequent occurrences in the Spanish American Colonies, in the articles on these countries, already noticed in this Outline.

Though some Biographical articles have been inserted, for the purpose of supplying what seemed palpable omissions in the Encyclopædia, the greater part are accounts of persons who have died during the last thirty years. The number amounts in all to about one hundred and sixty; and the subjects of them have been selected, for the most part, on account of their eminence in Science or Literature.

Of these articles, a large proportion of such as relate to men of science have been contributed by Dr Young. Valuable in many respects, as accounts of such men, written by one so deeply versed in all that they have done and taught, could not fail to be, they are recommended in a particular manner, for the purposes of a work of reference, by their accurate bibliographical notices and lists of even the smallest pieces, written by the persons whom they commemorate. Dr Young’s assistance in this department was not confined to any particular class of lives; and his account of Porson, whose acquaintance he enjoyed “for the last twenty years of his life,” is perhaps the most interesting and discriminating that has yet been published of that illustrious scholar. The work is enriched with several other accounts of