TO THE HONOURABLE 

 SECRETARY OF THE NAVY 



OF THE 



My dear sir, 

 MY official relation to you as an officer of the service over which 

 you have been lately called to preside, would seem to render it a 

 very proper testimony of my respect, to inscribe any of my literary 

 labours to you. But, if this official connexion certainly warrants, as 

 an act of courtesy to my directing officer, this dedication, other con- 

 siderations of a personal nature present a ten-fold more powerful in- 

 ducement, and add a private and real gratification, to an act of pub- 

 lic respect. 



Associated as we have been, in very early life, by the endearing 

 ties of scholars of the same institution, where an early intimacy with 

 each others characters, can be traced along with the delightful as- 

 sociations of scholastic restraint and pastimes, we have found our- 



vol. in. 2 



