Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Burns'' Select Library, and was written at the suggestion of the proprietor of that series. Circumstances which have since occurred have caused it to appear in another form, and be transferred to another publisher. These would not have been alluded to even in this brief manner, had it not seemed advisable to account for the delay thus caused in the publication of a work which was advertised full two years ago, and the manuscript of which was actually complete in January, 1848. And still more, the circumstances under which the work originated, and those which have since occurred, have had a considerable effect upon the character of the volume itself.