ecessarily be entitled to very general notice and esteem.

So numerous, indeed, have been the invaluable documents kindly tendered
to the author's acceptance, that he has not only been under the
necessity of greatly enlarging his original design; but may, probably,
at a future and no very distant period, feel encouraged to present those
who have so indulgently expressed their approbation of his present
labours, with a sort of supplementary work, not necessarily attached,
but still more minutely illustrative of many circumstances which relate
to the life and character of this greatest and best of heroes and of
men.

It is not without painful sensations, that the author feels compelled to
notice the many dishonourable insinuations which have been promulged by
bold speculators on public credulity: some of whom, by prematurely
publishing, have already sufficiently evinced their want of genuine
information; and others, after the most illiberal reflections on all
contemporaries, have found it expedient entirely to abandon their own
boasted performances, or to wait the completion of the very work which
they have thus meanly and insidiously laboured to depreciate, before
they could possibly advance.

This biographical memoir, like the character of the immortal man whom
it proudly aspires to commemorate, rests on no false claim. It offers
not any meretricious attraction to the eye; it submits itself, wholly,
to the understanding, and to the heart. Should it fail considerably to
gratify the one, and powerfully to interest the other, it will be in
vain for the author to urge, however true, that he has exerted himself,
with a due sense of the dignity of his subject, and of the difficulty of
the task, to produce a work which, though it can never sufficiently
honour the incomparable hero, should as little as possible disgrace the
kind contributory aids, and the generous patronage, which he has had the
distinguished favour to receive from so many estimable and illustrious
personages. To add a list of names, might seem ostentatious; but,
certainly, such a list would contain almost every great and virtuous
character allied to his late lordship, in the bonds of affinity as well
as of friendship. With most of these, it will ever constitute the chief
pride and happiness of the author's life, that he is also permitted to
boast a considerable degree of intimate friendship; and, in the
delightful retreat of Merton Place, surrounded by all w