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Excerpt from Lives of Men of Letters and Science, Who Flourished in the Time of George III Though I could entertain no doubt that this plan was expedient, no one could more doubt than I did the capacity brought to its execution, or feel more dis trustful of the pen held by a hand which had so long been lifted up only in the contentions of the Senate and the Forum My only confidence was in the spirit of fairness and of truth with which I entered on the performance of the task; and I now acknowledge with respectful gratitude the favour which the work has hitherto, so far above its deserts, experienced from the public, both at home, in spite of party opposition, and abroad, where no such unworthy influence could have place. It is fit that I also express my equal satisfac tion at the testimony which has been borne to its strict impartiality by those whose Opinions, and the opinions of whose political associates, differed the most widely from my own. That in composing the work I never made any sacrifice of those principles which have ever guided my public conduct, is certain that I never concealed them in the course of the book is equally true nay, this has been made a charge against it, as if I was at liberty to write the history of my own times, nay, of transactions in many of which I had borne a forward part, and not show what my own sentiments had been on those very affairs. But if my opinions were not sacrificed to the fear that I. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.