HISTORY

OF THE

REGENCY AND REIGN

OF

King George the Fourth.

BY WILLIAM COBBETT.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY MILLS, JOWETT, AND MILLS,

BOLT-COURT;

PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM COBBETT, 183, FLEET-STREET.

1830.

29.

PREFACE.

1. THE proper business of a Preface is twofold; first, to tell the reader why the work is written and published; and, second, to describe to him the manner in which it is done, and to apprize him of other circumstances the want of a previous knowledge of which might produce inconvenience to him.

2. With regard to the first, the why is, that we may have, at once, a record of the acts and character of the king in question, while these are all fresh in our minds, while a great part of the actors are still alive, while official and other documents are within our reach, while the field. is fairly open for controversy on the matters stated, and, above all, that the history may

be of use; that it may afford us an example of what we ought to follow, or warn us against what we ought to shun. Of what use to us of this day is the history of the tyrant, Henry VIII., or that of his racking and ripping-up daughter, Elizabeth, compared to what it would have been to our fathers, if written at the close of their savage reigns? And, of what use would the history of the transactions of the late regency and reign be to our great grandchildren, compared to the use that it must naturally be to us? In short, history, like all other writing, is valuable in the proportion in which it is calculated to produce good effects; in proportion as it is calculated to stimulate men to useful exertion, or to make them shun that which is mischievous; in proportion as it is calculated to have a practical effect in the affairs and on the condition of men. To have these effects it must come, not only before the nation have forgotten the transactions and characters to