INTRODUCTION. 



It is usual for authors, I know not why, to begin 

 tlieir work with an Introduction, intimating to 

 hoped-for readers the contents of the consecutive 

 pages, briefly, but still in a manner to disclose the 

 object and design of the author. If sensation be 

 the object, the pen assumes to be dipped in tears, 

 love and murder balance in the scale, and the onh' 

 thing kept out of sight is, whether happiness or 

 horror is to kick the beam. 



My last work but one went to its second 

 edition on the evening after the morning of its 

 birth, — so that, at least, appears to iiave been a 

 thriving bantling of the brain. My next work, 

 ' Tales of Life and Death,' met with a flattering 

 reception, though the guardian to whose care the 

 infant was- entrusted ^^flew in the face of the 

 family," — to quote Lord Eldon's dictum on another 

 matter, — ^' neglected the interests of the minor," 

 and, by so doing, according to that puisne Judge, 



