COLLECTION OF BRITISH AUTHORS TAUCHNITZ EDITION. VOL. 1089. HISTORY OF ENGLAND 1701-1713. BY EARL STANHOPE. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. TAUCHNITZ EDITION. By the same Author, THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, FROM THE PEACE OF UTRECHT 7 vols. PREFACE. THESE VOLUMES have been written, in accordance with the wish expressed to me by several persons, as a connecting link between the close of Lord Macaulay's History of England and the commencement of that from the Peace of Utrecht, which I published while still bearing the title of Mahon. It is to be observed, that Lord Macaulay did not live to complete, as was hoped, the reign of William the Third. It is sometimes supposed that he did so, since his final volume, as published by his family, contains an excellent account of the last illness and decease of the King. But this is only a detached passage which stands separate from the rest. Of the last part of that reign, a period of between one and two years, there is unhappily with one other exception no record from his pen. That deficiency has here to be supplied. In the reign of Anne the main figure in war and politics-around which it may be said that all the |