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NOTES OF A TRAVELLER,

ON THE

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL STATE

OF

FRANCE, PRUSSIA, SWITZERLAND,

ITALY,

AND OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE,

Buring the present Century.

BY SAMUEL LAING, ESQ.,

AUTHOR OF " À JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN NORWAY," AND OF "A TOUR IN SWEDEN."

First Series.

LONDON:

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.
1854

طقة

I

Real 5-28-26 BF

PREFACE.

THE changes produced by the French Revolution in the social economy of the European people are so extensive and important, reaching downwards to the very foundation of the former feudal structure of society, that History, it may be truly said, only begins for posterity with this century. The monarchical, aristocratical, and ecclesiastical elements of the former social economy of Europe, even property, law, power, have all been altered in relations, proportions, and intensity of influence; and the living of the generation which witnessed the commencement of the French Revolution have, in fifty years, been removed five hundred from the order of things previously established. The events and personages connected with this great convulsion will, no doubt, find their historian; but the alterations produced by it in the social structure and arrangements of almost every country, are scarcely noticed by our travellers and political writers, occupied with the more brilliant scenes or novelties of the age; and the future historian or philosopher may even want materials, notwithstanding all the literature of our days, for forming a just

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