THE BATTLE, &c. MAN, AN, as an intelligent animal, is continually in queft of events, and marks them with value according to their magnitude. Some of the most interesting we know are military contests. Very few pieces of history demand more attention than the description of a battle. When the lives of thousands, the change of property, and the fate of empires are at stake, no wonder our thoughts are captivated. It follows, the more material the action, the more faithful ought to be the descrip tion. B Battles Battles are fingular periods; productive of strange events. Much may depend upon a trifle, the effects of a trifle may be victory, and the effects of victory, everlasting. The battle of Bofworth was the laft of thirteen between the houses of York and Lancafter; and though it was one of the leaft, it was of more confequence than the other twelve; nay, the revolutions it caufed, were of greater moment than those of any other, fince the conqueft, for it produced a change in the constitution. Villanage was abolished, the feudal fyftem overturned, commercial treaties were ratified, a spirit of industry encouraged, a flow of wealth was the refult, and a kind of equality was established among men. don for troubling him with a battle after a lapfe of three hundred years, and which has been described by a multitude of hiftorians. He may reasonably suppose, all that can be faid upon this fubject, has been faid ages paft.-But if he perufes with attention, the various authors upon this important point of English hiftory, the fol lowing obfervations will naturally occurThat this battle was never described by an eye witness; nor is it at all furprising, for the private men were as illiterate as the Wednesbury colliers, and perhaps but few of the officers were able to write their names, ignorance, and its companion preju dice, were the characteristics of the day That, as it originally was fabricated upon hearsay, every subsequent writer, without much enquiry, followed his leader-That it never was described in any age, by one who B 2 |