Excerpt from England, Vol. 1: Its People, Polity, and Pursuits The object of this book has been so fully explained in the first chapter, that it scarcely seems necessary to inflict a Preface upon the reader. Yet there are some things which could not well be stated in the body of the work, and which it may not be amiss here briefly to set forth. My purpose has been to present the public in these volumes with as complete and faithful a picture of contemporary England as the limits of space and Opportunity would allow. That I might do this the better, I have devoted much time to the collection of materials, I have made several visits to different parts of the country, I have conversed with, and lived amongst, many varieties of people. The facts stated are those of observation and experience, and whatever there is of description in these volumes may, at least, claim to be a transcript Of what I have seen. While I have endeavoured to be as accurate as possible in my narrative of the general condition Of England, and in my account of the influences which are. At work among us, and which may, perhaps. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.