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PREFACE
TO
THE SECOND EDITION,
The reception with which this Work has been honored affords me a very sincere gratification. Although it presents only, as its title imports, a general and cursory view of the subject, if that view is a correct one, it fulfils the intention with which it was published. A work of minute detail and elaborate research, though more agreeable to a few readers, would probably be less useful to the professional community.
I have scarcely altered the text of the first edition, but have added a few notes at the end of the volume. I am sorry that I have no better apology to offer for the long interval which has elapsed since the sale of the first edition.
ed.
New Broad Street, Sept. 1st, 1821. �
