To the Right Honourable

JOHN Lord SOMMERS,

BARON of Evesham.

MY LORD,

SHOULD not act the part of an impartial Spectator, if I dedicated the

following papers to one who is not of the moft confummate and most acknowledged merit.

VOL. I.

“A

None

None but a perfon of a finished character, can be the proper patron of a work, which endeavours to cultivate and polish human life, by promoting virtue and knowledge, and by recommending whatsoever may be either useful or ornamental to fociety.

I know that the homage I now pay You, is offering a kind of violence to one who is as folicitous to fhun applaufe, as he is affiduous to deferve it. But, my Lord, this is perhaps the only. particular in which your prudence will be always disappointed.

While juftice, candour, equanimity, a zeal for the good of your country, and the most per

fuafive