PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR,

By S. Hamilton, Falcon-Court, Fleet-Street;
AND SOLD BY G. KEAR'S LEY, NO. 46, IN THAT STREET:

1344

TO THE MOST NOBLE

1

THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE.

MY LORD,

Your

great ancestor, sir William Petty, was one of the early advisers of a consolidation of the English and Irish parliaments : sensible of its expediency, he recommended it by strong arguments. As, with his fortune and talents, you inherit his predilection for such a measure, a work which traces the progress and relates the completion of the late scheme of union may with obvious propriety be inscribed to your lordship.

Your judgement, on a perusal of this history, may induce you to disallow the pretensions of the author to the praise of literary merit'; but your politeness will excuse the freedom of the dedicator. If the performance should be entitled to approbation, your lord

ship