It may naturally be supposed that he who can sit down, in his eighty-third year, to write a volume of 500 pages, must have been urged on by some powerful motive to undertake such a task at so advanced a period of life; when the faculties of mind and body may be expected, in a certain degree, to have become impaired. I had a double motive for setting about the task:—the first was to gratify what I knew to be the wish of my family; the second, to gratify myself, by taking a wide range in recalling the remembrances of long by-gone years; quite certain that by so doing I should be able to realize the motto of my “hæc olim meminisse juvabit” But I may also allege a third motive of gratification: that of expressing publicly the many acts of kindness and consideration I have experienced from numerous friends, especially from those to whose patronage I am indebted for the good fortune that has attended me through life.

To me, indeed, the labour of putting together the present volume has proved rather a delightful exercise, by affording the opportunity of recalling to my memory the youthful companions of early days, and the friends of maturer age, together with the many agreeable associations that crowd into such recollections. If an excuse were wanting for this volume, it might be suggested that, as the lives of so many excellent characters have passed under my review, it is but reasonable that I should take a review of my own, though less distinguished; and I promise it shall be a true and a faithful one.