PREFACE
WHATEVER else may be said of this work, I can confidently declare that it was neither written with the remotest idea of supplying a want long felt, nor undertaken at the solicitation of enthusiastic friends. I confess to being as sceptical of the existence of such long felt wants, as I am with regard to the statements which we so frequently read, when a man eminent in the political world, or a celebrity in the Church, the Law, or a great General or Naval Commander is removed from the scene, that his loss is irreparable. Inexorable time shows in a
