PREFACE. 



N launching his little book on the 

 uncertain tide of public opinion, 

 the author is fully confcious it can- 

 not but be amenable to many de- 

 fects. He humbly hopes, however, he may be 

 excufed for claiming in its behalf one merit , (if it can 

 be fo called ;) viz. that the fcenes and anecdotes it 

 contains, with the fubftance of the dialogues, are 

 not only not imaginative, but as compatible with 

 the ftricleft veracity, as the diftance of time that 

 has intervened fince they chiefly occurred, would 

 reafonably admit of. 



Had he felt there was infufficient in the fimple 

 tale every fly-fimer has to tell of his paft expe- 

 rience of the " gentle art " to intereft the reader, 

 without the aid of fiction to embellifh it, he for 

 one would not have adventured a fmgle line on 

 the fubjeft. 



