tain by the vindication of my own conduct. In the anxious hope that nothing herein contained may tend to my detriment in the estimation of the public at large, I shall conclude these prefatory lines by referring my readers to the following pages for the proofs requisite to the full establishment of the positions stated at the end of the volume, and with a sanguine hope that my conduct will henceforth be regarded rather as that of an unthinking and impetuous boy than of a sordid and avaricious fabricator instigated by the mean desire of securing pecuniary emolument. CONFESSIONS OF WILLIAM-HENRY IRELAND. INFANCY, AND MR. HARVEST'S ACADEMY. As the period of my infancy can be productive of no satisfaction to the public, it will be sufficient for me to state that I was born in London, and that the first seminary to which I was sent was Mr. Harvest's, at the back of Kensington Square; to whose parental kindness I am indebted for the first rudiments of my native language, and the mechanical art of writing. B |