THE ANNUAL REGISTER, OR A VIEW OF THE HISTORY, POLITICS, AND LITERATURE For the YEAR 1791. LONDON: Printed by G. Auld, Greville-Street, for the Proprietors of Dodsley's Annual Register, PREFACE. HE year 1791 feemed aufpicious to human nature. TH In two of the greatest kingdoms in Europe, new constitutions were formed, which promised to put an end to the reign of feudal barbarifm and anarchy in the one, and of more polished defpotifm in the other. But the year had not elapsed when the profpect was overcast, tempests and storms arofe which overturned the new fabric in the one kingdom before it was well erected, and, in the other, after staining the public councils as well as the character of the nation, with multiplied atrocities, fubverted one form of government after another; which still continue to agitate the unfettled mass, and to threaten, with further changes, further distress and ruin. The revolutions and new conftitutions in Poland and in France, are vaft fubjects of reflection in themfelves, and as |