Poppin's Court, Fleet Street.
TO
T H E R I G H T H O N O U R A B L E
G E O R G E C A N N I N G , M. P.
HIS MAJESTY'S AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINARY TO
THE COURT OF PORTUGAL, &c. &c.
SIR;
Your absence from this country, and the observation of the historian, which I have adopted as a motto, will plead my excuse for dedicating this volume to you, without a previous intimation of my wish for that honour to my work and to myself. "The causes