To the RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM BECKFORD< no role > , Esq; LORD-MAYOR of the CITY of LONDON.

MY LORD,

HAVING, at the Instance and Desire of the Public, with Permission of the late Rt. Hon. Lord-Mayor, and worthy Aldermen of this City, undertaken to make the Behaviour, Confession, and Dying Words, of such Culprits as suffer the Execution of the Law, within my Precinct, known to the World, there is no Person to whom I think it so proper for me to dedicate such an Undertaking, as the first and chief Magistrate of the City of London . I therefore, my Lord, present for your Protection, not only the first Fruits of my Labour, under your Lordship's Government and Inspection, but the first Attempt I ever made to be a public Writer, as an Instance of my Respect and Duty towards you, as I was willing to think (and do presume did not think amiss) that your Lordship had a Sort of Title to the first Fruits and Labours of any who are in employ under your Banner. The Subject of this Tract (being an Account of the Behaviour, Character, and Confession, of those whose improper Conduct have brought them within the Censure of the Law, and the Walls of Newgate, with the Usage and Customs of the Place) is such, that with Propriety it should not, by my weak Pen, be addressed to one of your Lordship's Character and Station. It is a Subject too intricate and difficult to have Justice done it from any single Hand, much less from mine. All, therefore, I can pretend to hope from your Lordship is, that your Candour and Goodness will make just Allowance for the Failings, which your Sagacity will easily perceive in the Performance.

I am not, I confess, without hopes that the Disagreeableness of the Subject, the Impossibility of retaining any regular Form or Order, with