THE HISTORY O F ENGLAND, FROM The EARLIEST TIMES to the DEATH of GEORGE II. By Dr. GOLDSMIT H. IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON, Printed for T. DAVIES, in Ruffel-ftreet; BECKET and MDCCLXXI. PREFACE. ROM the favourable reception FRO given to my Abridgement of Roman Hiftory, published fome time fince, feveral friends, and others, whofe business leads them to confult the wants of the public, have been induced to suppose, that an English history writ ten on the fame plan would be acceptable. It was their opinion that we still wanted a work of this kind, where the narrative, though very concife, is not totally without intereft, and the facts, though crowded, are yet diftinctly seen. The business of abridging the works of others has hitherto fallen to the lot of very dull men; and the art of blotting, which an eminent critic calls the moft difficult of all others, has been VOL. I. A ufually 1 |