may be almost termed an official quarter, (probably from motives which we would be the last to impugn,) to monopolize every possible source of information, obstacles of no ordinary kind have been interposed to the collection of the necessary materials. These, by perseverance and exertion, have been for the most part successfully overcome, and it is hoped the Memoir will be found to contain every fact of importance and interest which distinguished the character and chequered the career of the illustrious individual who is the subject of it. It may be added, that being perfectly unbiassed and unrestrained by all feelings of personal friendship or propinquity, which might suggest the adoption of the " de mortuis nil nisi bonum," the author has felt himself at liberty to notice many facts, particularly in the private history of the illustrious deceased, and those with whom he was connected, which others, differently circumstanced, cannot, for obvious reasons, be expected to advert to. Edinburgh, March 1834. From his appointment as Clerk of Session to the publication of " Vision of Don Roderick," 251 |