A Life of Ali Pasha was published, in French, by M. Beauchamp, shortly after the fall of the Albanian chief. It was translated into English, something was added, and it went through two editions. To reprint this translation, corrected and enlarged, was at first the intention of the Proprietor of the Family Library. On examining it, however, I found it so inaccurate and incomplete in its statements, and so defective in its arrangement and composition, that I resolved to substitute a new work in its stead. It must be owned, that some of its faults were unavoidable—at the time when it was written the materials were so scanty, that it was impossible to form from them any thing but an imperfect narrative. Many documents on the subject have since been given to the world; and these I have carefully consulted. I hope that the reader will derive such a portion of amusement and information from my labours as will induce him to consider them as not wholly thrown away.