FALLACY OF POPULAR OPINION. Si 



turf. It is far from my intention to attempt to dis- 

 prove anything that has been written concerning 

 himself, his actions, his honour, or his honesty. I 

 may find it needful and serviceable to correct certain 

 errors of fact, such as that into which Admiral Rous 

 fell concerning the weight carried by Tripoli for the 

 Feather Plate at Newmarket. But I may be allowed 

 to say that not a little has appeared on the subject of 

 the doings of this nobleman, which, far from being 

 literally true, would bear a very different significance 

 if the circumstances connected with them were 

 thoroughly understood. 



I may say, at the outset, that I do not intend for a 

 moment to expatiate in exaggerated terms on the 

 matter, or to paint the facts in any other than their 

 true colours. If it be my fate in what I have to tell 

 to run counter to the preconceived notions of the 

 attributes of this patrician, I must say in excuse that 

 a glowing eulogy on all that he did or said would be, 

 in the present day, an outrage to common-sense. But 

 just as Johnson tells us that 'no man can teach others 

 anything of which he himself is ignorant,' I hold I 

 shall not be trespassing beyond common fairness if I 

 write of the man only such things as, in my opinion, 

 may serviceably instruct or interest a later generation ; 

 whilst beino- careful to advance nothing as an ascer- 

 tained fact for which I have not the voucher of either 

 personal experience or unassailable authority ; remem- 

 bering, too, I hope, that lesson which tells us : 



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