ars,
relating to the history of England. The first work which he published
was "A Dissertation on the Origin and Nature of the English
Constitution." It met with great success, and went through many
editions, besides being translated into nearly all the continental
languages.

He next proceeded with his great work, "The History of England."
During his residence in Ireland and England, he had read with great
interest all books relating to the early history of the Government of
England. He began with, the history of England after the Norman
Conquest; but he found that he must begin at the beginning. He studied
the history of the Anglo-Saxons, but found it "like a vast forest,
where the traveller, with great difficulty, finds a few narrow paths
to guide his wandering steps. It was this, however, that inspired him
with the design of clearing this part of the English history, by
removing the rubbish, and carrying on the thread so as to give, at
least, a general knowledge of the earlier history." Then he went back
to Julius Caesar's account of his invasion of Britain, for the purpose
of showing how the Saxons came to send troops into this country, and
now the conquest which had cost them so much was at last abandoned by
the Romans. He then proceeded, during his residence in England, with
his work of reading and writing; but when he came to the reign of
Henry II. he was about to relinquish his undertaking, when an
unexpected assistance not only induced him to continue it, but to
project a much larger history of England than he had at first
intended.

This unexpected assistance was the publication of Rymer's "Foedera,"
at the expense of the British Government. The volumes as they came out
were sent to Rapin by Le Clerc (another refugee), a friend of Lord
Halifax, who was one of the principal promoters of the publication.
This book was of infinite value to Rapin in enabling him to proceed
with his history. He prepared abstracts of seventeen volumes (now in
the Cottonian collection), to show the relation of the acts narrated
in Rymer's "Foedera" to the history of England. He was also able to
compare the facts stated by English historians with, those of the
neighbouring states, whether they were written in Latin, French,
Italian, or Spanish.

The work was accomplished with great labour. It occupied seventeen
years of Rapin's life. The work was published at intervals. The first
two volumes appeared in November, 1723. During th