Produced by Tom Allen, Charles Franks, David Gundry and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE 1792-1878 BY C. A. FYFFE, M.A. Barrister-at-Law; Fellow of University College, Oxford; Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society POPULAR EDITION With Maps PREFACE. In acceding to the Publishers' request for a re-issue of the "History of Modern Europe," in the form of a popular edition, I feel that I am only fulfilling what would have been the wish of the Author himself. A few manuscript corrections and additions found in his own copy of the work have been adopted in the present edition; in general, however, my attention in revising each sheet for the press has been devoted to securing an accurate reproduction of the text and notes as they appeared in the previous editions in three volumes. I trust that in this cheaper and more portable form the work will prove, both to the student and the general reader, even more widely acceptable than heretofore. HENRIETTA F. A. FYFFE. London, November, 1895. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. The object of this work is to show how the States of Europe have gained the form and character which they possess at the present moment. The outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1792, terminating a period which now appears far removed from us, and setting in motion forces which have in our own day produced a united Germany and a united Italy, forms the natural starting-point of a history of the present century. I have endeavoured to tell a simple story, believing that a narrative in which facts are chosen for their significance, and exhibited in their real connection, may be made to convey as true an impression as a fuller history in which the writer is not forced by the necessity of concentration to exercise the same rigour towards himself and his materials. The second volume of the work will bring the reader down to the year 1848: the third, down to the present time. London, 1880. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION OF THE FIRST VOLUME. [1]