BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE HISTORY OF TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 1856-1880 Volumes I. and II., 1856-1870 HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE CONCLUSION OF THE GREAT WAR OF 1815 TO 1858 Six Volumes Crown 8vo, 6s. each LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO., 39 Paternoster Row, London New York, Bombay, and Calcutta OF TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 1856-1880 BY SIR SPENCER WALPOLE, K.C.B. AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE CONCLUSION OF THE GREAT WAR IN 1815' PREFACE IN 1904 the late Sir Spencer Walpole published the first two volumes of his History of Twenty-five Years' (1857-1880), and the volumes now issued bring the narrative down to the date which he had assigned to himself as its limit. The chapters in these two final volumes were almost completed by the author before his death. He intended, as will be seen. from a Note appended to the last page, to insert at least two additional chapters; and it is much to be regretted that he did not live to finish them; though the final paragraphs, to conclude the whole history, had been written, and will be found in their place at the end. Sir Spencer Walpole's manuscript required, therefore, no more than some re-arrangement, such as the division of the chapters and the allocation of certain portions to their proper places; but otherwise the book has been printed as the author left it, with the general revision that he himself would have made before publication. In undertaking the work, which has been entrusted to me by Lady Walpole, of superintending the passage of these volumes through the press, I conceived my duty to be restricted to correcting misprints, slight errors, and manifest oversights, which 292630 |