Dedication

To The Right Honourable Arthur Onslow, Esq;

SIR,

As you have already been pleased to honour the Parliamentary Debates of Anchitell Grey, Esq; with your Patronage, by mentioning them with Approbation from the Chair of the House of Commons, they could not, on this Account only, be addressed with Propriety to any other Person; but your long and familiar Acquaintance with the Subject, your Experience in the Business of the House of Commons, during Seven successive Parliaments, assisted by the Observations and Ex perience of your Ancestors, who had, by a kind of Hereditary Merit, represented, almost without Interruption, for more than a Century past, your native County, of which, by the same Title, you at length became the Representative; the Dignity, Integrity, and Sagacity, with which you at once filled and adorned your late elevated and important Station, to which you were advanced by the unanimous Choice of the Commons of Great Britain, could not fail to determine the Editor of this Work, without any other Motive, to give it the Sanction of your Name, and sollicit for it the Honour of your Protection.

It is still remembered with Reverence and Gratitude, by every Friend to Virtue and his Country, that in all the Rage of Party Zeal, which in the late Reign so often threatened to fill the House in which you presided with Tumult and Confusion; you sat, like the guardian Genius of the Place, repressing every irregular Sally with the calm Dignity of deliberate Wisdom, and asserting the Rights of every Individual with a Steadiness and Impartiality equally superior to Interest and to Passion.

A Work, therefore, of which, after you had perused it, you was pleased to encourage the Publication, as of general Utility and Importance, cannot stand in need of any other Recommendation.

The Editor has only to express his Gratitude for the Notice with which you have been pleased to honour him; he does not so much as attempt an Encomium upon your Character, not only because, in this, he must be anticipated by the Sentiments of every one who hears your Name, but because HE must hold the Panegyric of a Dedicator very cheap, who has received the Approbation of his Sovereign, and the public Thanks of his Fellow Subjects, in their collective Capacity, for the many and important Services which he has rendered to his Country.

I am, SIR,
With the most profound Respect,
Your most Obliged,
And Devoted Servant,
The Editor.