he be supposed ignorant of the meaning of a word,
which, had it been ever so doubtful before, had a certain meaning
impressed upon it by the authority of Parliament, of which no sensible
subject can be ignorant_.

_Notwithstanding this, where our author speaks of the late King James,
he calls him the_ abdicated King, _and gives the same epithet even to
his family. Though this weak, ill-advised, and ill-fated prince, in
every sense of the word, with Romans and English, and to all intents and
purposes_, abdicated, _yet can he, in no sense, be called_ abdicated;
_unless the people's asserting their rights, and defending themselves
against a king, who broke his compact with his subjects, and overturned
their government, can be called_ abdication _in them; which no man in
his senses can be hardy enough to support upon any principle of reason
or the laws of England. Let the reader judge which this is most likely
to be, error or design_.

_These exceptions the editor thought himself bound to make to some parts
of this work, to keep clear of the disagreeable imputations of being of
a party, of whatsoever denomination, in opposition to truth and the
rights and liberties of the subject._

_These laid aside, the work will be found to have many beauties, many
excellencies. Some have of late affected to depreciate this History,
from an insinuation, made only since the author's death, to wit, that he
was never admitted into the secrets of the administration, but made to
believe he was a confident, only to engage him in the list of the
ministerial writers of that reign_.

_The falsehood of this will readily appear upon perusal of the work.
This shows he knew the most secret springs of every movement in the
whole complicated machine. That he states facts, too well known to be
contested, in elegant simplicity, and reasons upon them with the talents
of the greatest historian. And thus makes an History, composed rather of
negotiations than actions, most entertaining, affecting, and
interesting, instead of being, as might be expected, heavy, dull, and
disagreeable_.

_It is now fit to apologize for some errors, which the judicious must
discover upon a perusal of this work. It is for this, among other
reasons, much to be lamented, that this History was not published under
the author's own inspection. It is next to impossible to copy or print
any work without faults, and most so where the author's eye is wanting_.

_It is not to be im