BOSTON: GRAVES AND YOUNG, 24 CORNHILL. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by MASON BROTHERS, In the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. STEREOTYPED BY T.B. SMITH & SON 82 & 84 BEEKMAN-ST PREFACE. The world is now too busy to read voluminous history. The interminable details of battles, and the petty intrigues of courtiers and mistresses, have lost their interest. In this volume it has been our object to trace perspic