Transcribed from the 1847 Aylott and Jones edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org [Picture: Public domain book cover] [Picture: Silhouette of George Mortimer, signed: Yours truly affectionate George Mortimer] THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF THE REV. GEORGE MORTIMER, M.A. RECTOR OF THORNHILL, _IN THE DIOCESE OF TORONTO_, _CANADA WEST_. COMPILED AND PREPARED BY THE REV. JOHN ARMSTRONG, B.A., BRITISH CHAPLAIN OF MONTE VIDEO, SOUTH AMERICA. “I bear the greatest veneration for the memory of that man (Archbishop Leighton) that I do for any man; and reckon my early knowledge of him, and my long and intimate conversation with him, among the greatest blessings of my life; and for which I know I must give an account to God, at the great day, in a most particular manner.” _Bishop Burnet_. * * * * * LONDON: AYLOTT AND JONES, PATERNOSTER ROW * * * * * MDCCCXLVII. * * * * * LONDON: J. UNWIN, BUCKLERSBURY. * * * * * PREFACE. THOUGH I feel it to be really a privilege to be the instrument of introducing to the public the life and correspondence of the most intimate friend, especially of my early life, that I have ever possessed, and of one of the truly excellent in the earth; yet, from an unfeigned consciousness of my incompetency for the task, I would most willingly have left it to other hands, and to other hands I offered it, and urged upon them my earnest desire that they would undertake it; but from all I received excuses as to themselves, and pressing invitations to myself to engage in the work. They conceived that I might possess more materials for the purpose than any other person; but they knew not the slenderness of my capacity to prepare the memoir of one whose general character, talents and excellences, merit a much abler pen than mine, to set them forth with perspicuity and advantage. His old friend and associate at Wellington, the Rev. John King, now Incumbent of Christ Church, Hull, to whom I wrote on the subject, thus addressed me:—“But independently of all considerations of this kind, I believe you would be much better qualified than myself, or than any other person I know, to do justice to the excellent yet peculiar character of the departed. Let me beseech you, therefore, to arrange your correspondence and materials with a view to publication.”