The Pictorial History of England promises to supply that im-
portant desideratum in our literature, a History of the British Nation. Hitherto we have had histories of the Kingdom only ; the People have found no historian. The acts of kings, priests, and statesmen, have been recounted, with glosses as various as the political or religious opinions of the writer : but the progress of the country' from barbarism to refinement—the gradual changes in the habits, manners, feelings, and intelligence of the people— the state of society, the growth of the arts—all, in short, that constitutes the real history of a nation, has been either wholly neglected, or very imperfectly recorded. The information requi- site is scanty, and its sources widely scattered: but the researches of later writers, SHARON TURNER especially, have opened up new charnels; and had Dr. HENRY lived in this day, lie would have found materials for a much more complete account of the domestic history of the English than that he left behind him. HENRY'S work is in some respects the model of the present : but his plan has been greatly enlarged, and materially improved. The history will include Scotland and Ireland, as well as England; and is ar- ranged in separate divisions, under the heads " Civil and Military Transactions," " Religion," "Constitution, Government, and Laws," and soon : and these are to be carrieddown contemporaneously to a certain period marking an sera in the history of the country. The First Book, for instance, will comprise the British and Roman period, from B.C. 53 to A.D. 449. The work will be the joint production of several authors ; each being engaged upon that division of that subject for which his taste and knowledge qualify him ; and all working upon a given plan, under the direction of a responsible editor, appointed by the Society fur the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The introduction of woodcuts, illustrative of scenery, events, and arts of life, is a principal feature. Portraits and copies of historical pictures are likewise introduced, as 44 the Pictorial Bible; and the work will correspond with that pub, lication in size, style, and price. A more careful and extended perusal than the appearance of the First Number has afforded us, will be necessary to enable e to express an opinion of the execution of the plan. In the the time, the general accuracy and fairness that characterize the pub, lications of the Society may be taken as presumptive proof of ability. If only moderately well done, the work cannot but be universally acceptable.
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