should ever arise, it will be when governments have performed their duties. Governments have something more to do than to provide for the trial and punishment of criminals-for taxation -for regulating the rights and uses of property-for keeping arms to preserve peace, or wage wars of aggression and defence. It is their duty, also, to guard against the commission of misdemeanors and crimes, and to prepare approaching manhood to understand and respect a sound morality, as the best means of security and welfare. No one will say, that society is more safe from violence and confusion when only a few are instructed in social rights and duties. It is then the least safe, as some of these few will yield to the temptation of acting on the general ignorance, to secure benefits inconsistent with the general good. Society will be safe only when all its members are instructed, and when all are competent to judge of the just and beneficent exercise of power, and of its perversion and abuse. It is not by prohibitory statutes that society can be made safe and prosperous, but by the prevalence of enlightened public opinion. Such opinion will prevail when Governments use their trust, in unison with individuals, to teach, universally, the rights and duties of human life.*
To know what can be done, it must be known, first, how this capacity has been used, neglected, or perverted. This volume is intended as a contribution to that object.
First. The state of society is examined at the close of the
fifth century, when a new condition arose among nations on the
fall of the Roman Empire of the West.
Second.
social, and political condition, are treated of separately and
Events which had permanent effects on moral,
continuously, as to each nation.
Third. International events are treated of in the territories
in which they principally occurred.
Fourth. The order of treatment is to begin with the most westwardly of European nations, and proceed thence through each nation to the eastern end of Asia.
Fifth. To preserve the connexion of events, it has been necessary, sometimes, to transcend the limits of these ten centuries.
There remain, as the subjects of another volume, causes and effects among European nations, and their colonies, during the last three centuries.
"A BOARD OF EDUCATION" has been established (in 1837) by legis lative authority, for the instruction of the young in common schools. This system is going into full effect under a wise and faithful administration, and is every where gratefully and respectfully received. There is better hope, from these measures, that rational civil liberty may be preserved, than from any thing done since Massachusetts became a Sovereign State.