POSTSCRIPT TO PREFACE.

Since the following sheets were sent to press, various changes have taken place in the political relations of Italy. Parma, Modena, and Tuscany, having expelled their former sovereigns, have been annexed to Sardinia; while, by way of compensation, Savoy and Nice have been ceded to France. Still more recently, the Sardinian general, Garibaldi, having successfully raised the standard of revolution in Sicily, has crossed the Strait of Messina, and overrun the entire Neapolitan territories, which, together with the Pontifical States, have been transferred to the allegiance of Victor Emmanuel, now the sovereign of the "Kingdom of Italy." Meanwhile, the Pope, protected by a French army, retains possession of Rome, while Francis II. is closely besieged in Gaeta. In regard to other countries, the principal items requiring correction are the following: By the census of 1860, the population of the Russian empire is now 68,931,728, including 20,174,158 serfs. The new census of the United States, not yet fully completed, gives the population at about 32,000,000, including Oregon, now admitted into the Union with the full privileges of a State. In British India, the Punjab and North-West Provinces have been erected into separate Presidencies; while in October 1860, British Kafraria was proclaimed a distinct colony.