"How nations sink, by darling schemes opprest Vanity of Human Wishes. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR RIDGWAYS, 170, PICCADILLY; By T. Davison, Lombard-street, Whitefriars. 1816. Edwards 12-27-37 35263 2 val. PREFACE. THE following letters are composed from the same journal which furnished the writer with the materials of a very active and detailed correspondence with several of his intimate acquaintance, some of whom, being members of the legislature, were interested in receiving intelligence more correct than could be obtained through the usual channels, at a time when the total perversion of some facts, the partial selection of others, and the unfair construction put upon such as found their way to the public press, aided a delusion, to which, in a greater degree perhaps than to the exertions of ministerial influence, must be attributed the parliamentary majorities that enabled the government to undertake the late war against France. |