During a study of this period for an earlier work published in the "Cambridge Historical Series," I ascertained the great value of the British records for the years 1795-1815.

It is surely discreditable to our historical research that, apart from the fruitful labours of the Navy Records Society, of Messrs.

Oscar Browning and Hereford George, and of Mr.Bowman of Toronto, scarcely any English work has appeared that is based on the official records of this period.

Yet they are of great interest and value.

Our diplomatic agents then had the knack of getting at State secrets in most foreign capitals, even when we were at war with their Governments; and our War Office and Admiralty Records have also yielded me some interesting "finds." M.Levy, in the preface to his "Napoleon intime" (1893), has well remarked that "the documentary history of the wars of the Empire has not yet been written.