The Public Life of the Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, K.G., Etc., Etc

following pages, is to trace the public career of the greatest statesman England has possessed since Mr. Pitt was carried to his grave. I have had access to no private or special information. Nothing appears here that may not be found in "Hansard," or in contemporary newspapers and memoirs. The so called "lives," and "biographies," of the noble Earl have been carefully eschewed. Most of them are grossly inaccurate, and disfigured by a narrow-minded and bigoted party spirit, which makes the task of reading them anything but agreeable.

No living statesman has in fact suffered so much from misrepresentation, or has had attributed to him so frequently words which he never uttered, and sentiments which he never entertained; none has so much to gain by the promulgation of the exact truth. Even while these sheets are passing through the press I find one leading journal attributing to him the leadership of the opposition to the Bill for the removal of Jewish disabilities; and on the same day another newspaper, which would doubtless be very indignant if not also described leading," asserting that Lord John Russell and the Tory chief led their followers side by side in support of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. Wherever it has been possible, therefore, Lord Beaconsfield's own words have been used, and where his longer and more important speeches have been summarized, no pains have been spared to produce an accurate epitome, still in the speaker's own phraseology as far as possible. Over the period

of his life, which ended with the death of Lord George Bentinck, I have passed somewhat lightly. I have, however, endeavoured to show how Lord Beaconsfield thought on all principal topics, and how he acted upon all critical occasions; and to afford the necessary materials for forming an accurate judgment of his career. The earlier portion of his life is tolerably familiar, and Lord Beaconsfield has himself told the story of the great Free Trade struggle in a work so perfect in its way, that it would be sheer presumption on my part to attempt to retell it. The literary side of his career, I have taken some pains to illustrate, and I hope that I have succeeded in bringing out some obscure but interesting facts.

How far my book falls short of that ideally perfect biography which the world may some day hope to see, no one is more painfully conscious than myself, but I put it forth in the hope that it may help to clear away some misapprehensions, and some few of the miserable misrepresentations which have resulted from them. Half a century of untiring devotion to the interests of the English people demands some recognition, and such recognition can hardly fail to be accorded when the truth is known. That truth I have endeavoured to tell-it is for the

reader to say with what effect.

As regards myself, I need only say that this work has been with me a labour of love: that the illustrious subject of my book has been in no way consulted or concerned in its pre

paration, and that my personal relations with him have been confined to a formal presentation some six years ago. For the benefit of the critics, I may perhaps be allowed to add that whatever the faults of the book may be, they are not those which arise from haste. It was begun rather more than two years ago, and it has occupied every spare hour since that time.

I cannot allow these sheets to leave my hands without grateful mention of my deep obligations to the officials of the British Museum and especially to the accomplished superintendent of the Reading Room-Mr. Richard Garnett-a gentleman whose encyclopædic knowledge is only equalled by the generous courtesy with which he places it at the disposal of every applicant for information.

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