ANNUAL REGISTER, OR GENERAL REPOSITORY OF HISTORY, POLITICS, AND LITERATURE, PAC For the YEAR 1811 TO WHICH IS PREFIXED The HISTORY of KNOWLEDGE, LEARNING, TASTE, and PREFACE. AT length the peace, but, we are doubtful whether we can add the independence, of Europe, is restored. How much Britain has contributed towards this event, which, to the hope and foresight of man, a very few years ago, seemed barely possible, the pages of our Register have recorded: it may be, that she stirred up the contest against revolutionary France at first, without due and just provocation on her part, and that, more than once, she urged on the powers of the continent to an unequal and unfortunate contest,; when they had been exhausted by their previous efforts: -for this she may be censured; but she has deserved (we wish we could say, with confidence, or even with much hope, that she will receive) the gratitude of Europe, for her perseverance, for the sacrifices which she has made, and for the comparatively small degree of selfishness and ambition which she has exhibited in all she has done and suffered. The sacrifices which Britain has made, the sufferings she has undergone, are yet but imperfectly known even to herself;-they are, however, beginning to be felt; she is reduced to the necessity of a 2 either |