of France, Spain, and Holland, indisposed the public
to the American war, and the persons by whom it was conducted; the
representatives of the people, followed, at a slow distance, the changes
of their opinion; and the ministers who refused to bend, were broken
by the tempest. As soon as Lord North had lost, or was about to lose, a
majority in the House of Commons, he surrendered his office, and retired
to a private station, with the tranquil assurance of a clear conscience
and a cheerful temper: the old fabric was dissolved, and the posts
of government were occupied by the victorious and veteran troops of
opposition. The lords of trade were not immediately dismissed, but
the board itself was abolished by Mr. Burke's bill, which decency had
compelled the patriots to revive; and I was stripped of a convenient
salary, after having enjoyed it about three years.

So flexible is the title of my History, that the final aera might be
fixed at my own choice; and I long hesitated whether I should be content
with the three volumes, the fall of the Western empire, which fulfilled
my first engagement with the public. In this interval of suspense,
nearly a twelvemonth, I returned by a natural impulse to the Greek
authors of antiquity; I read with new pleasure the Iliad and the
Odyssey, the Histories of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, a large
portion of the tragic and comic theatre of Athens, and many interesting
dialogues of the Socratic school. Yet in the luxury of freedom I began
to wish for the daily task, the active pursuit, which gave a value to
every book, and an object to every inquiry; the preface of a new edition
announced my design, and I dropped without reluctance from the age of
Plato to that of Justinian. The original texts of Procopius and
Agathias supplied the events and even the characters of his reign: but a
laborious winter was devoted to the Codes, the Pandects, and the modern
interpreters, before I presumed to form an abstract of the civil law.
My skill was improved by practice, my diligence perhaps was quickened by
the loss of office; and, excepting the last chapter, I had finished the
fourth volume before I sought a retreat on the banks of the Leman Lake.

It is not the purpose of this narrative to expatiate on the public or
secret history of the times: the schism which followed the death of the
Marquis of Rockingham, the appointment of the Earl of Shelburne, the
resignation of Mr. Fox, and his famous coal