THE

HISTORICAL CLASS BOOK;

OR,

READINGS IN MODERN HISTORY,

CHRONOLOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL,

FROM THE

REFORMATION IN 1517, TO THE ACCESSION OF

QUEEN VICTORIA,

IN 1837;

WITH NOTICES OF THE MOST REMARKABLE INVENTIONS
AND DISCOVERIES,

AND

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES OF CONTEMPORARY
SOVEREIGNS.

BY JOHN DAVENPORT,

PART COMPILER OF PETRONJ AND DAVENPORT'S ITALIAN, French, AND
ENGLISH DICTIONARY; AUTHOR OF THE LIFE OF ALI PACHA,
TRAITE SUR LA PRONONCIATION ANGLAISE,
SOUVENIRS AUX ETRANGERS, ETC.

LONDON:

RELFE AND FLETCHER, 17, CORNHILL.

MDCCCXXXIX.

LONDON:

J. UNWIN, BUCKLERSBURY.

NOTICE.

The object of the present work being set forth in the preface, a few words will suffice to explain its plan.

The first division of it is into centuries, commencing with the sixteenth, the Era of the Reformation.

Each century is preceded by a chronological table of contemporary sovereigns, and a general view of the then state of the civilized world; and closed by a brief retrospect of manners, customs, &c., and a list of inventions, discoveries, &c. &c.

The subdivisions consist of the different reigns of the English Monarchs.

The whole of the subject matter is further divided into Readings of easy length.

By this arrangement the student will not only acquire, in an agreeable manner, the knowledge of many of the most interesting events which have occurred in foreign countries, but will also be enabled to refer them, with

accuracy, to the reign of the British Monarch then upon the throne.

The selections have been made with the most scrupulous care, both as to purity of thought and propriety of diction, in order that the work may be placed, with the utmost confidence, in the hands of youth of both

sexes.

In the few instances in which words above the comprehension of juvenile readers occur, the difficulty has been removed by a synonyme or else by periphrase.

PREFACE.

THE works hitherto known by the names of English Class Book, Diurnal Readings, &c., &c., may be considered as of two descriptions-such as consist of a series of extracts taken from various authors, and strung together without the least regard to connection either as to matter or style, and such as treating professedly of the History of England, confine their information exclusively thereto.

The least reflection will suffice to show the inconvenience, not to say mischief, of works of the former kind. The youthful mind cannot be too early accustomed to the systematic arrangement of a subject, to a just and natural succession of ideas; how, otherwise, can it be expected to enter, with any prospect of success, upon the severer study of the mathematical sciences, or to acquire that precision and accuracy of thinking so essential in every profession of life? An object so important can never be attained by allowing the tyro to indulge in a desultory course of reading like that which we have described.