i 



PREFACE. 



When any one offers his own Memoirs 

 to the world, it is very natural to afl^: what 

 are his claims to the notice of the Public ? 

 To this the Author of the following fheets can 

 juftly reply, that perhaps there exifts not an- 

 other individual who has been io much the 

 play-thing of Fortune as him.felf ; and he can 

 boldly add, that few have been fo unju/lly 

 calumniated. With fliame he acknowledges 

 that there have been parts of his life he can 

 neither juftify, nor means to defend; but this 

 Work, the truth of which refts not upon his 

 own teftimony only, but upon that of cha- 

 racters whom fufpicion itfelf would not dare 

 to doubt, will prove that his life has been, by 

 no means, a feries of difgraces. 



uch 



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