3 O AN. AUTO-BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF SIR JOHN BARROW, BART, LATE OF THE ADMIRALTY; INCLUDING REFLECTIONS, OBSERVATIONS, AND REMINISCENCES AT HOME AND ABROAD, FROM EARLY LIFE TO ADVANCED AGE. "Hæc olim meminisse juvabit." LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1847. 52467.4 1860, July 13. London: Printed by W. CLOWES and SONS, Stamford Street. 3297 PREFACE. Ir may naturally be supposed that he who can sit down, in his eighty-third year, to write a volume of 500 pages, must have been urged on by some powerful motive to undertake such a task at so advanced a period of life; when the faculties of mind and body may be expected, in a certain degree, to have become impaired. I had a double motive for setting about the task:-the first was to gratify what I knew to be the wish of my family; the second, to gratify myself, by taking a wide range in recalling the remembrances of long by-gone years; quite certain that by so doing I should be able to realize the motto of my book, and say "hæc olim meminisse juvabit." But I may also allege a third motive of gratification: that of expressing publicly the many acts of kindness and consideration I have experienced from numerous friends, especially from those to whose patronage I am indebted for the good fortune that has attended me through life. To me, indeed, the labour of putting together the present volume has proved rather a delightful exercise, |