RICHARD BIDDLE (1796-1847)

Author of a Memoir of Sebastian Cabot.

From the portrait by Thomas Sully, painted in 1821.

THE following pages lay claim to the share of merit that may be due to a spirit of diligent research which took nothing at second hand where an original writer, or document, could be consulted, and would not be turned aside, by any authority, from the anxious pursuit, and resolute vindication, of the Truth. They are offered, therefore, with the confidence inspired by a consciousness of good faith. Yet the author is sufficiently aware that the public has nothing to do with the integrity of his purpose, or the patient industry with which it has been followed up, except so far as a valuable result may have been achieved.

What is now submitted made part, originally, of a much more extensive plan. But there was found, at every turn, so much to clear up, and the materials for rectification so multiplied, that it seemed impossible to treat the subject satisfactorily without giving to it, in connexion with any other, a cumbrous and disproportioned air. To hazard assertions, and to venture on the requisite plainness of criticism, without producing the evidence which justified a departure from received opinions could have effected no good purpose, and would have justly incurred the charge of presumption. Error

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