BY LADY MORGAN. Chaque jour de ma vie est une feuille dans mon livre. PRINTED FOR HENRY COLBURN, PUBLIC LIBRARY, CONDUIT-STREET, HANOVER-SQUARE. 1817. DE PREFACE. I OFFER the following work to public notice, with feelings of great intimidation and distrust. To an undertaking, at once arduous and delicate, I have brought none of those advantages most favourable to the mechanism of authorship; and in a series of narrated observations, over whose dryness the graces of fiction shed no extraneous charm, I have unavoidably been denied the time for leisurely composition. For it was necessary, from the nature of the work (intended to reflect the changeful images of the day, and in their true character and colouring, "To catch, if I could, the Cynthias of the minute),” to preserve the passing fact in the strength of its original occurrence; to forestall anecdote and anticipate detail, ere the rapid current of public events should force them through the various channels of society, and lessen their value by extending their circulation. Starting from the post with many abler competitors, my object was, if possible, to |