At the same time, I have not hesitated to pronounce a judgment on these questions, and to differ from other writers, where the evidence has seemed to me decisive.

To quote one instance, I reject the verdict of most authorities on the question of Bismarck's treatment of the Ems telegram, and of its effect in the negotiations with France in July 1870.
For the most part, however, I have dealt only with external events, pointing out now and again the part which they have played in the great drama of human action still going on around us.

This limitation of aim has enabled me to take only specific topics, and to treat them far more fully than is done in the brief chronicle of facts presented by MM.
Lavisse and Rambaud in the concluding volume of their _Histoire Generale_.

Where a series of events began in the year 1899 or 1900, and did not conclude before the time with which this narrative closes, I have left it on one side.

Obviously the Boer War falls under this head.
Owing to lack of space my references to the domestic concerns of the United Kingdom have been brief.