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LONDON:

Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,

New-Street-Square.

ΤΟ

THE REV. WILLIAM L. BOWLES,

THIS VOLUME

IS INSCRIBED,

AS A MARK OF RESPECT FOR HIS CHARACTER,

BOTH AS A SCHOLAR AND A GENTLEMAN,

BY

THE EDITOR.

PREFACE.

In presenting to the public the sixth volume of the "Annual Biography and Obituary," some apology is necessary on the part of the Editor for the omission of the " Analysis of recent Biographical Works," and the "Neglected Biography."

The life of Napoleon Buonaparte has very materially exceeded the limits which have been prescribed by precedent in the foregoing volumes, for the necrology of celebrated persons. But the impossibility of doing justice to so extraordinary a character, in a narrower compass, must be sufficiently obvious to all who reflect on the immense variety of incidents which such a biography must necessarily comprise.

In the compilation of the memoirs of Buonaparte, a multiplicity of published works, and some private documents, have been consulted; and among other illustrations of his splendid, but guilty, career, will be found a brief summary of the origin and progress of the French Revolution; and an account of the state of parties and public feeling in France after the period of his first abdication.

If, in the detail of events in which the British arms were conspicuous, more attention has been paid to the movements of the French and their commander, than to those of the English armies, it will doubtless be remembered in excuse, that we are discussing the biography of Buonaparte, and not that of the Duke of Wellington.

The length of this article will, perhaps, account for the non-appearance of the two heads already referred to. The "Neglected Biography" will, however, be continued in the seventh volume.

A biography of the late Mr. Hargrave, King's Counsellor and Recorder for Liverpool, illustrated by many highly important original documents, and unpublished letters of Messrs. Sheridan, Grattan, Curran, Whitbread, Judge Buller, and the late Lords Camden, Thurlow, Petre, Kenyon, Mansfield, Loughborough, and other distinguished characters, will be given in our next.

Several memoirs, and, among others, those of Sir John Macpherson, (including original letters of Warren Hastings and the Archduke Charles,) Mr. John Scott, Mr. Keats, Admiral Hunter, Mr. Perry, late proprietor of the Morning Chronicle, and Mrs. John Hunter, have been prepared, but are also unavoidably delayed.

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