Publisher's Synopsis
The writer of this singular autobiography was my cousin, who died at the --- Criminal Lunatic Asylum, of which he had been an inmate three years. He had been removed thither after a sudden and violent attack of homicidal mania (which fortunately led to no serious consequences), from --- Jail, where he had spent twenty-five years, having been condemned to penal servitude for life, for the murder of -- --, his relative. He had been originally sentenced to death. It was at -- Lunatic Asylum that he wrote these memoirs, and I received the MS. soon after his decease, with the most touching letter, appealing to our early friendship, and appointing me his literary executrix. It was his wish that the story of his life should be published just as he had written it. I have found it unadvisable to do this. It would revive, to no useful purpose, an old scandal, long buried and forgotten, and thereby give pain or annoyance to people who are still alive.
