some particulars in my next.


[1] [Several Notes in this volume having reference to MONS. CRAPELET, a
Printer of very considerable eminence at Paris, it may be proper to
inform the Reader that that portion of this Tour, which may be said to
have a more exclusive reference to France, usually speaking--including
the notice of Strasbourg--was almost entirely translated by Mons.
Crapelet himself. An exception however must be made to those parts
which relate to the _King's Private Library_ at Paris, and to
_Strasbourg_: these having been executed by different pens, evidently
in the hands of individuals of less wrongheadedness and acrimony of
feeling than the Parisian Printer. Mons. Crapelet has prefixed a
Preface to his labours, in which he tells the world, that, using my
more favourite metaphorical style of expression, "a CRUSADE has risen
up against the INFIDEL DIBDIN."

Metaphorical as may be this style, it is yet somewhat alarming: for,
most assuredly, when I entered and quitted the "beau pays" of France,
I had imagined myself to have been a courteous, a grateful, and, under
all points of view, an ORTHODOX Visitor. It seems however, from the
language of the French Typographer, that I acted under a gross
delusion; and that it was necessary to have recourse to his sharp-set
sickle to cut away all the tares which I had sown in the soil of his
country. Upon the motive and the merit of his labours, I have already
given my unbiassed opinion.[A] Here, it is only necessary to observe,
that I have not, consciously, falsified his opinions, or undervalued
his worth. Let the Reader judge between us.

[A] Vide Preface.