 any bishop would desire; as much temperance, soberness, and chastity, even in his very excesses, as a gouty alderman under a regimen; and, at any rate, as little desire of doing an injury to man, woman, or child as a Lord Chancellor.

This however need not hinder the reader from exercising his own judgment, which I not only desire he may do, but also with the most critical care and nicety; and when all the circumstances, dangers, temptations, motives, and inducements, are clearly and fairly examined, if he should not acquit Sir Sidney of every thing worse than venial frailty, I must honestly take shame to myself for having palmed on the world, as an exemplary character, a mere mortal, made up of flesh and blood, and subject to wishes, inclinations, and desires, like other men.
I could say certainly that the very excellence of Sir Sidney's heart sprung from having as vigorous and turbulent passions as any rake in christendom, and never having improperly given them the reins, but once, in his life. But some of my readers may think that once too much. And as a blot at backgammon is no blot till it is hit, and a blot of ink is the easier discoverable in proportion to the whiteness of the paper on which it falls; and as an atom is not only magnified, but more deformed, by being seen through a microscope, so I fear this one fault will intrude itself on the reader's remembrance, in the very act of relieving distressed genius, or wiping a tear from the cheek of an orphan. If it should be

so, I must submit; for a reader, like a pope, is infallible, and from his fiat there is no appeal.
The story of Sir Sidney's incontinence—for incontinence it was, and such things, like murder, will out—shall be told in the next chapter, which will finish the first book of this history; and while the reader takes time to consider what heinous crime this can possibly be, let me bespeak his charity by informing him that Sir Sidney being once foreman of a grand jury, whom the judge recommended to find a bill against a murderer, because, as he said, such and such circumstances were, which could not have been yet proved, answered with an honest fervour,—
'My Lord, in my opinion the pre-judgment of an offence is half as criminal as the commission of it.'



WE are now going to enter upon action, every thing already related having happened previous to the time when
