PORTRAIT GALLERY

OF

ILLUSTRIOUS AND EMINENT PERSONAGES

OF THE

NINETEENTH CENTURY;

WITH MEMOIRS, BY WILLIAM JERDAN, ESQ. F.S.A.

M.R.S.L. M.R.A.S. ETC.

DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO

THE KING.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

FISHER, SON, & JACKSON, NEWGATE STREET.

1830.

TO HIS MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY

GEORGE THE FOURTH.

SIR,

In humbly aspiring to make the "National Portrait Gallery" as worthy as possible of its name, it may readily be conceived, that the first and most earnest wish of its Proprietors and Editor was to obtain for it the Patronage of a NATIONAL KING. They felt that without this distinguished honour, their efforts must want the only stamp which could give them authentic value; and, like unminted bullion, be unfit for the general circulation they hoped for, unless impressed with the Countenance of their gracious Sovereign.

It is, therefore, with the deepest sense of gratitude, that they acknowledge Your Majesty's unbounded condescension in permitting them to dedicate this Work to Your Majesty; nor can they ever forget the promptitude and grace with which the important favour was accorded:-but who ever knew so well as Your Majesty, how to double the sense of obligations by the manner of conferring them?