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INTRODUCTORY ORATION. Delivered 20th of March

Gentlemen, HE following Oration is calculated for your amuſement and my benefit, and if either one or both of us miſs of our aim, no doubt we have cauſe to complain; But if I can be able, for 15 minutes, to harangue you to the purpoſe, I am in that event to be thought more worthy than thoſe of my profeſſion, who hold forth during the pregrination of an half hour glaſs, ſtill talking about it, and about it, without ever adventring to come to the point in queſtion. Theſe Orators, Gentlemen, have a handſome annual ſalary, and do not in the leaſt depend on the affluence or bounty of their audience, conſequently may be leſs careful to entertain them properly. But the caſe is quite reverſe with Claudero, who has his ſole dependance on the benevolence of individuals; Therefore it may reaſonably be expected, he will exert every faculty of his ſoul, in order to acquit himſelf to the univerſal ſatisfaction of thoſe Gentlemen, who do him the honour to attend his Orations.