modified by successive enactments, continued usage, or other circum

stances.

The mass of matter that is available in Parliamentary Reports and other printed documents, for such purposes as have been here indicated, is such as no other nation ever possessed; as indeed no other has ever established an Empire that embraces so many remote countries, so many varied interests. These materials have been used for this work, so far as the limits of it rendered it possible to use them efficiently.

Some of the articles in this Dictionary have been reprinted from the 'Penny Cyclopædia' with little or no alteration, and some have been reprinted with such alterations as were required by the changes that have taken place within the last ten years. Many articles are entirely new, and treat of important subjects which have never, so far as we know, been presented to English readers in the form of a cheap Dictionary, or indeed in any other form.

It is perhaps hardly necessary to observe that most of the articles which are of a legal and historical character apply only to England; and, in some cases, to England and Ireland. Several however have been inserted in order to explain such of the institutions of Scotland as are matters of general interest.

In conclusion it may be stated that this is the only work of the kind in the English language. It contains a large amount of information on most political subjects which cannot be found in any other book adapted for general use; and though it does not profess to be a Law Dictionary, nor to be free from the errors which are unavoidable in work of the kind, it contains legal information, both more copious and more exact than is given in some works which are entitled Law Dictionaries.

any

The Index contains the heads or titles of all the articles comprised

in the work, as well as many to which there are no separate articles corresponding, but as to which something is said under the heads referred to.

In presenting this new edition the Publisher feels called upon to state, that it is an exact reprint of the previous one published by Mr. Charles Knight, at £1 16s., and that the only alteration is in the title and price.

York Street, Sept. 1848.