The hope of engaging at this critical and arduous juncture of political affairs, so large a portion of the time of British statesmen and legislators, as would be necessary for the perusal of the work I now offer to the public, may seem idle and presumptuous; yet for their use chiefly it has been composed.

Why it was not sooner finished and published, is partly explained in my introductory chapter; and if the apologies there made are not thought sufficient, let me here claim the indulgence due to the infirmities of age. The composition of a work like this becomes laborious, in proportion as memory, in the promptness of its suggestions, declines; and my sight also having, during the last two or three years, been greatly impaired, the task of keeping up, in my reading, with the rapid growth of information and discussion in a voluminous public controversy, has been more than, consistently with official and private duties, I could easily sustain.

The best evidence of my own sincere persuasion, that such a work was wanted, is that I have at all, though feebly and tardily, surmounted those impediments, by a great sacrifice of personal ease, the enjoyment which age is most covetous of, and finds it hardest to relinquish.

The peculiar plan of my work is that, which in my own view constitutes its chief, or whole, importance; and gives me the hope of its being useful to the great cause that I advocate, with enlightened and influential minds.