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"In the various countries wherein I have happened to be a temporary resident, I have felt great interest in the acquisition of such knowledge as might be within my reach, with respect to the genius and the effects of their established institutions. Without the
slightest idea of publication, I continued the same line of inquiry during my stay in the Austrian dominions. Circumstances of a peculiar nature favoured my pursuit; and, on my last return to England, I found myself possessed of much information, tending to elucidate a variety of points hitherto, as it appeared to me, very imperfectly understood, and leading also to views, both as to the government and
the people, materially different from those which I had myself, in common probably with most of my countrymen, previously entertained.
The second volume comprises the notices on the social and political condition of the empire, arranged with reference to its various most important elements, - religion, education, morality, jurisprudence, feudal and municipal institutions, civil and military administrations, and domestic and foreign policy." [...]

This book is a reprint of the original published work from 1840.

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