Excerpt from A History of Austro-Hungary From the Earliest Time to the Year 1889 I have been asked to write something to introduce an English translation of M. Louis Leger's "Histoire de l'Autriche-Hongrie," a number of the series headed "Histoire Universelle," and published under the direction of M. Daray. The subject is one on which English readers certainly need more light than they commonly have, and M. Leger's book, which I have read in the original, seems by no means ill suited to supply them with it. It has many merits, and it is remarkably free from the usual faults of French writings. Though M. Leger has to deal with the most exciting times of modern French history, there is not in his book the slightest sign of conventional French swagger. His story is perhaps as clear as the story can be made. For it is by no means an easy task to tell the story of the various lands which have at different times come under the dominion of Austrian princes, the story of each land by itself, and the story of them all in relation to the common power. A continuous narrative is impossible. In grouping together so many different elements, no two writers would be likely to hit on exactly the same arrangement, and none could altogether avoid some measure of going backwards and forwards. There would have been more clearness and unity of design in a simple history of the growth of the Austrian power which should take for granted the history of each land up to the time when its connexion with the Austrian power began. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.