RIGHT HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND 

 CHARLES JAMES, 



LORD BISHOP OF LONDON. 



MY LORD, 



I OWE it to you that I was selected for the 

 task attempted in the following pages, a dis- 

 tinction which I feel to be honourable ; and 

 on this account alone I should have a peculiar 

 pleasure in dedicating the work to your 

 Lordship. I do so with additional gratifica- 

 tion on another account : the Treatise has 

 been written within the walls of the College 

 of which your Lordship was formerly a re- 

 sident member, and its merits, if it have any, 

 are mainly due to the spirit and habits of 

 the place. The society is always pleased 

 and proud to recollect that a person of the 



