TO THE FOURTEENTH VOLUME

THE thirteen Columns we have raised, will hereafter be often pilfered, to set off the works of those, who ‘would otherwise search in vain for such materials. Such were the words with which we concluded our last Preface, and very fully has the truth of them been confirmed, by what has since taken place; for never was any poor devil so plucked, and pulled, and gutted, as our Chronicle has been, since the lamented death of our illustrious Hero, Lord Nelson. Some of the public Prints, particularly the Oracle and The London Chronicle, were liberal enough to acknowledge, the source, whence they had derived the only authentic materials that exist respecting this renowned Officer. At our request; which Mr. M'Arthur communicated to his Lordship, he was pleased to send us a Memoir of his professional life, in his own hand writing, on three sheets of letter paper—an invaluable relic, which is still in Mr. M'Arthur's possession; and from this document Lord Nelson's biographical memoir was composed by the Rev. J. S. Clarke, conjointly with the above gentleman. The whole of what has appeared since, as far as relates to the period which our memoir embraced, whether published in separate Volumes, or in the public prints, has been pilfered from the Naval Chronicle.