J. A. Hammerton & Arthur Mee 
Harmsworth History of the World [PDF ebook] 

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. It is impossible in private affairs to trace such distant causes of mere accidental events, of no apparent importance at the time; but in these great public results we see how continuous is the cause and its effects, and how impossible it is to get away from the results of acts which do not even depend on great or conscious decisions.