PRESENT STATE AND RESOURCES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM BY HENRY WHITE, B. A. TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, M. A. AND PH. DR. HEIDELBERG, WITH A MAP OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. EDINBURGH : OLIVER & BOYD, TWEEDDALE COURT. MDCCCXLIX. [Price Three Shillings and Sixpence bound.] Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München ENTERED IN STATIONERS' HALL. Printed by Oliver & Boyd, Tweeddale Court, High Street, Edinburgh. PREFACE. THE following pages are intended for the instruction of those whose time at school is limited, or who have not the means of purchasing larger works containing the histories of the three kingdoms which compose the British Empire. The best and most recent authorities have been followed, and the narrative of events has been carefully brought down to the present period. The questions appended to each division should be answered orally after every lesson, and from time to time the more important ones may form the subject of a written exercise. In neither case is it desirable that the reply should be given in the very words of the text, such examinations being designed, not to test the memory, but the understanding of the youthful student. Too much stress cannot be laid upon the study of Chronology and Geography,—the two eyes of History. For the former some technical chronology should be selected; and from the benefit my pupils have received from Mrs Slater's Sententiæ Chronologica, I cannot forbear recommending her unassuming little work. Should it be too expensive, the intelligent teacher will find no difficulty in adapting her system to such dates as he wishes to fix in the memory of his pupils. For all purposes of geographical reference, the Map of the British Isles, prefixed to this volume, will be amply sufficient. The pupil will form, however, a very imperfect notion of the geography of his native land, and of the influence of locality upon habits, language, and national character, if he carries his studies no farther. The physical geography of the United Kingdom is of more importance than its political geography; and the directions of its hills and mountains, of its rivers, the position of its mineral beds, the shape of its coast-line, its situation with respect to other countries, &c., alone furnish the key to many of the anomalies in our history. Much miscellaneous information has been given in this volume, which, it is hoped, will not only render it acceptable to learners, but present to them a faithful picture of our country in times past. It is more important to know how the people lived and what they thought, than to be familiar with the secrets of cabinets or the marches and countermarches of armies. The one concerns us all, in our homes and in our markets; the influence of the other is transitory, fading away almost before the grass covers the graves of the slaughtered soldiery. OCTOBER 1849. HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. THE FABULOUS HISTORIANS. 1. THE history of a nation, to be really instructive, should contain nothing but the truth. We are naturally inclined to believe what we read in books without questioning its accuracy; and historians, taking advantage of this disposition, have sought to gratify their own prejudices and the national vanity by misrepresenting facts, or by exaggerating the antiquity and warlike achievements of their ancestors. Thus succeeding writers, adopting without examination the tales recorded by their predecessors, and even adding to them, have in many cases either entirely obscured the truth, or supplied its place by fable and falsehood. As very little is known of the early inhabitants of this island for nearly a thousand years after the birth of Christ, most readers, and the young especially, take little interest in a narrative which does not enlist their sympathies by the heroic exploits of great men and the triumphs or reverses of the nation. Encouraged by this feeling, our earlier historians have sought to relieve the dryness of a general account by the invention of particulars that have little or no foundation in fact. Although this volume will contain |