Excerpt from Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England, From the Earliest Times Till the Reign of King George IV, Vol. 1 of 3: First Series, to the Revolution of 1688 IN presenting to the public a Second Edition of my First Series of the lives OF the lord chancellors OF england, I would rather expose myself to the imputation of vanity than of ingratitude and I must therefore express my warm thanks for the favour with which the book has been received. I may truly say, that within a few weeks after its publication it was on every table, and almost on every toilette. Though founded on historical records, and having solid instruction for its object, it has been as generally read as popular works of fiction, aiming at nothing beyond amusement. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.