Ac mihi quidem videntur hue omnia effe referenca ab iis qui præfunt aliis, Beneficio quàm metu obligare homines malit; exterafque gentes fide ac focie DUBLIN: PRINTED AND SOLD BY MARCHBANK, CHANCERY-LANE. 1802. PREFACE. THE Volumes of this History fubfequent to the Brunfwic acceffion, now arrived, through the unexpected favor of the Public, at a third and enlarged edition, have by Cenfors, to whofe judgment refpect is due, been objected against as "deficient in authorities." To this accufation it is obvious to answer, that nothing would have been eafier than to fill the margin and a great part of every page with historical references and citations. But this parade of authorities would too evidently have fwelled the fize without adding to the value of the work; for the author pretended not to the merit of making new difcoveries. The events and occurrences contained in the hiftory were never difputed; why then oftentatiously labor to establish what no one was difpofed to controvert? If any thing can be confidered as novel in the hiftory of the two elder monarchs of the Brunswic line, it is the frequent and pofitive affertion that Bremen, Verden, and Mecklenburg were the true fprings of the foreign or continental politics of the court of London for almost twenty years. This is not indeed confirmed by marginal references, but by a statement of known and acknowledged facts, combined with original documents, blended and confolidated with the narrative, fo as to enforce conviction on the most stubborn incredulity. If the evidence a 2 |