TO

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS

THE

PRINCE REGENT.

SIR,

It must be regarded by every person as a very distinguished honor to me to have been selected by your Royal Highness for the arduous and important charge and direction of restoring to light the contents of the celebrated Herculaneum manuscripts.

Before my departure from England in 1800, I was most graciously permitted to represent the whole scope of this literary mission in a printed