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ary of America and the West Indies; that my work was published in 1814, in five volumes quarto, and that it embraced, in addition to the translation, all the authentic information then extant, or which, through the most respectable patronage, could be obtained up to that period: I may be permitted to add, that I went out as Secretary to His Britannic Majesty's Mexican Commission, of which Mr. Lionel Hervey was chief, in 1823; and had the advantage of witnessing and being confidentially acquainted with the difficult and delicate circumstances in which the Commission was occasionally involved; and which the nice tact and energetic decision of its chief so mainly contributed to counteract or turn in favour not only of that republic, but of the country for whose interests he was the more immediately concerned. I had also the satisfaction of being there under Mr. Morier, when that gentleman, of whose talent in diplomacy it would be as unbecoming in me as it would be useless to speak, compiled