It would prove an essential benefit to the history of our own, or any other Country, and at the same time would form an invaluable legacy for those who come after us, if some official, or national institution were created, purposely to record the Biography of those contemporaries who have distinguished themselves in their respective professions. Had the lives of great men been at all times recorded in or near their own times, while the means of obtaining authentic documents existed, we should not at this period have to regret the many instances of their biography being so often imperfectly transmitted to posterity. Although the gallant exploits, and glorious death, of so great a man as Sir Edward Spragge, in Charles the Second's reign, procured his remains interment amid the British heroes in Westminster Abbey; yet neither tomb, monumental inscription, nor written testimony, indicate the place of his birth, the family whence he arose, nor the various services by which he attained preferment.