The kindness with which the public received the first edition of this work has rendered a second edition necessary within a period which, having regard to the nature of the book, must be pronounced short. We were at first in hopes that this circumstance would have enabled us to recast the whole work, in order to attenuate, so far as might be, the journalistic element which was inevitably conspicuous in a book which appeared almost the day peace was signed. It was, however, found that this object could not be attained without rewriting and rearranging the work — a'task which for many reasons it was not possible for us to undertake. We have therefore con tented ourselves with large omissions when the matter contained in the first edition seemed merely Of temporary interest, with some not unimportant additions, and with very many cor rections, which the suggestiveness of critics, or our own Observations, have enabled us to make.
