ADVERTISEMENT.

WHEN the Spirit of the Public Journals

for 1797 was published, several judi

cious perfons regretted that the Editor had not carried his researches farther back than 1793, as by fo doing he might have redeemed many exquifite pieces of wit and humour from total oblivion. In conformity with this fuggeftion, recourse has been had in the compilation of the prefent Volume to publications antecedent to that period, and, in fome few inftances, of rather a remote date. This practice will be continued in the formation of future Volumes ; and, it is hoped, will make the annual collection more rich and various, than if it depended upon the produce of a fingle year; the harvest of wit being ever fcanty and precarious, and, from the particular constitution of