All matters of a temporary nature are omitted... The Editor has found it necessary to use great caution with respect to the articles in BIOGRAPHY and TOPOGRAPHY, for many of the former are written in a hasty manner, and though curious as detached notices and memoranda while remaining in their original state, are scarcely worth reprinting: many of the latter, to say the least of them, are of very doubtful authority. These observations are applicable to the omission of many of those on other subjects. The articles are classed under their appropriate heads; a method which the Editor conceived would be more convenient and pleasant to the reader, than if they had been presented to him in an indigested mass, in no other order than according to their priority of publication in the original work. The date of the Magazine from which each article is taken, is noticed at the end of it, by which means the reader, should he think proper, will be enabled, without trouble, to refer to the original; which will always retain its value, and which cannot be superseded by any selection or abridgment. For the greater facility of finding any particular article, or any subject noticed in any article, there is given a Table of Contents at the beginning, and a full Index at the end of each volume. Those who are conversant in the Gentleman's Magazine will recollect that a work of a similar nature to that now presented to the public, was sug gested, some years ago, by the author of the " History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," to Mr. Nichols*, who was prevented from undertaking it by other and more important avocations; a circumstance which must be considered as an apology for its being arranged and sent into the world by the present Editor. J. W. NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD, * Extract of a Letter from Mr. Gibbon to Mr. Nichols, dated Lausanne, February 24, 1792, which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1794. "I am tempted to embrace this opportunity of suggesting to you the idea of a work, which must be surely well received by the public, and would rather tend to benefit than to injure the Proprietors of the Gentleman's Magazine. That voluminous series of more than threescore years now contains a great number of literary, historical, and miscellaneous articles of real value: they are at present buried in a heap of temporary rubbish; but if properly chosen and classed, they might revive to great advantage in a new publication of a moderate size. Should this idea be adopted, few men are better qualified than yourself to execute it with taste and judgment." CONTENTS I. A DEBATE between the COMMITTee of the House of COMMONS IN 1657, and O. CROMWELL, upon the humble Petition and Advice of the Parliament, by which he was desired to assume the title of King II. Inquiry into the Death of CARDINAL WOLSEY III. Some account of the Articles exhibited against CARDINAL WOLSEY in Parliament, by whom they VI. Strange Incident in the Life of HENRY V. explained VII. The Proclamation for celebrating the Coronation and IX. A particular and authentic account of the Escape of CHARLES EDWARD STUART, commonly called X. Historical Anecdote from a manuscript of Sir XI. The Triumphs of the Muses: or, the grand Re- ception and Entertainment of Queen ELIZABETH at Cambridge, in 1564, by Dr. Nicholas Ro- binson, Chaplain to Archbishop Parker, and XII. Queen ELIZABETH's Speech to the University of Cambridge, alluded to in the preceding article XIII. An attempt to prove the precise Day when JULIUS Page |