intolerable vanity; an imputation little likely to be diminished by the
consideration, that other writers, over whom a decided preference is
claimed, may have previously occupied the same subject.
A Life of Lord Nelson, however, replete with original anecdotes, many of
them from the mouths of his lordship's nearest and dearest relatives and
friends, with whom the author has, for many months, been honoured with
an almost constant communication; and abounding in a profusion of
interesting letters, and extracts of letters, written by the hero
himself, which have generously flowed in, from all quarters, to aid the
biographer; he may surely, without the charge of presumption, these
facts being self-evident on the slightest inspection, be allowed to
assert, must necessarily be entitled to very general notice and esteem.
So numerous, indeed, have been the invaluable documents kindly tendered
to the author's acceptance, that he has not only been under the
necessity of greatly enlarging his original design; but may, probably,
at a future and no very distant period, feel encouraged to present those
who have so indulgently expressed their approbation of his present
labours, with a sort of supplementary work, not necessarily attached,
but still more minutely illustrative of many circumstances which relate
to the life and character of this greatest and best of heroes and of
men.
It is not without painful sensations, that the author feels compelled to
notice the many dishonourable insinuations which have been promulged by
bold speculators on public credulity: some of whom, by prematurely
publishing, have already sufficiently evinced their want of genuine
information; and others, after the most illiberal reflections on all
contemporaries, have found it expedient entirely to abandon their own
boasted performances, or to wait the completion of the very work which
they have thus meanly and insidiously laboured to depreciate, before
they could possibly advance.
This biographical memoir, like the character of the immortal man whom
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