THE following pages are put forth with much diffidence by the author, partly because his pursuits for some years past, having had more relation to the sword than the pen, have unfitted him to wield the latter with that ease and success at which his ambition aims, and with less of familiarity than formerly belonged to him; and partly, also, from a sense of the great difficulty in adequately coping with a subject of such importance as the one he has now attempted. But as the work contains a great deal of new and curious matter never before collected together, and which the author believes will be found alike useful and interesting to the lawyer, the banker, the merchant, and the general scholar, he hopes its advantages may be allowed to outweigh its defects.
And subscribes himself the public’s
Obedient servant,
THE AUTHOR
PHILADELPHIA, January, 1866
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