THE BRITISH CRITIC, FOR JULY, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER, PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON, By Law and Gilbert, St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, PREFACE. ETWEEN the gloom that overhung the country, BETWEEN when we began our critical career, and the bright and brightening profpects which are now opening on every fide, there is as ftrong a contraft as the nature of human affairs can well prefent. Nor was the gloom eafily difperfed, or long before it returned. It was fucceeded by storms which fhook the whole fabric of civilized Europe to its bafe, and threatened to overwhelm all diftinction, all juftice, all liberty, under the irrefiftible preffure of military defpotifm. It would not have been eafy to bend the spirit of Britons to the yoke; but if every other power had yielded, our conteft would have been moft unequal; and, though indefinitely prolonged, could hardly have been animated by hope. But Our fentiments, our wifhes, and fears, at various periods in this tremendous ftruggle, have been frequently recorded in our half-yearly prefaces. never, in the courfe of twenty years, have we feen a moment when the return of order and of social happinefs was fo ftrongly promised, as at prefent. Under fuch circumstances, they who originally planned, fupported, and have hitherto conducted the BRITISH CRITIC, are about to retire from the charge; and they A 2 do |