PREFACE. SHORTLY after the death of the late Mr. J. Sydney Taylor, a public meeting † was convened to deliberate on any measures to be proposed in regard to his memory. This meeting having been called by advertisement, was numerously as well as most respectably attended; and it was unanimously resolved, first,—to provide a public monument, with a suitable inscription: secondly,—to preserve to society a selection of his writings. In order to carry into effect these resclutions a committee was then appointed, at the head of which was his Grace the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, with whose private friendship the deceased had for many years been honoured. Sir John Chetwode, Bart. M.P., (chairman of this meeting)-magistrate of a county in which Mr. Sydney Taylor's professional talents and private virtues were well known, was also of the number; together with Admiral Mangin (another personal friend), William Ewart, Esq., M.P., several members of the bar, both of the Norfolk and other circuits, and various gentlemen-differing in their political or religious sentiments, but-all agreeing in the opinion contained in a letter of the venerable Clarkson, then read, that "Sydney Taylor ought to be placed among the most valuable benefactors of mankind :”—all agreeing in the opinion expressed at this meeting, that "Sydney Taylor's writings were the best testimonial to his character." + See p. li. iv PREFACE. Under the superintendence of a committee so constituted, As to the arrangement.of the subjects, it has been thought London, June 30, 1843. |