Page:The Annals of Our Time - Volume 1.djvu/11

 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

the title-page in some measure explains the design of this book, it may assist the reader still further to mention that he is entitled to look within its pages for a notice of every event which has in any wav excited or moulded our national life during the last thirty years. Regarding the more important of these events, an endeavour has been made to exhibit them with such fulness as will, in ordinary cases, supersede a reference to any other authority. Brevity, of course, required to be studied in every instance; and for the purpose of bringing the kernel of the occurrence before the reader in the shortest space, it has been sought as often as possible to get the more important incidents narrated in the precise way they appeared to those who actually saw or took part in them. Any tendency that witnesses might have to exaggerate or misreport has been checked, as occasion required, by referring to other sources of unquestionable authority.

The main idea of the Annalist was to bring before the reader all the noteworthy occurrences which have taken place in our time, and to furnish him with such details regarding them as would enable him to comprehend the events in an intelligent manner. Every occurrence—metropolitan or provincial—which gave rise to public excitement or discussion, or became the starting-point for new trains of thought affecting our social life, has been judged proper matter for this volume. The measure throughout of the importance of an event has invariably been the extent to which it influenced our habits or recollections, not the apparent importance at the time it happened. This may be particularly noticed under the head of Accidents of certain classes—fires, shipwrecks, and colliery explosions, where, however calamitous in themselves, the details are in general so uniform, that little more than the mere facts of the occurrence were necessary to be recorded. When an incident was found to possess the requisite conditions for record, another object constantly present to the Compiler was, to let the reader see not only how important were the events of his own time, but the precise order in which the little occurrences making up the life or body of an event unrolled themselves in the great historic scroll.

In the proceedings of Parliament, an endeavour has been made to notice all those Debates which were either remarkable as affecting the fate of Parties, or led to important changes in our relations with Foreign Powers. A note has also been made of the progress of all important Bills through Parliament, and the majorities by which they were carried or rejected.

Foreign occurrences, so far as they affected the interests of this country, or even gave rise to public discussion here, have been recorded, it is hoped, with circumstan-