PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION.

66

FOR many years Lord Shaftesbury resisted every appeal that was made to him to allow his biography to be written. No one can do that satisfactorily but myself," he said, "and I have neither the time nor the inclination." Towards the close of his life, however, it became apparent to him that a biography was, to use his own word, “inevitable," and it was then his wish that it should be written with his co-operation. "If the story, such as it is, must be told," he said, "I should like it to be told accurately. That cannot be done unless I furnish the means."

He accordingly placed at my disposal a mass of material, and, in addition, he was good enough to allow me for many months to be in frequent personal communication with him, when, pen in hand, I took down the record of his life as he narrated it. His memory to the very last was surprising, and as the scenes of his earlier life passed before him, he would recall facts and figures, dates and words, with such accuracy that although, at his request, I subsequently verified them, it was almost unnecessary to do so.

The conditions imposed upon me were simple and explicit, and were expressed as nearly as possible in these words :

"I will give you every assistance in my power; place letters, books, and documents, in your hands; give you introductions to those who know most about me; and tell you, from time to time, what I can remember of my past history. I will answer any questions and indicate all the sources of information available to you. But I will not read a word of your manuscript, nor pass a sheet for the press. When the book is issued to the public I will, if I am alive, read it, but not till then. All I ask is, that the story of my life be told in its entirety-political, social, domestic, philanthropic, and religious."

I was aware that Lord Shaftesbury had kept voluminous Diaries, and from the first was anxious that these should be placed in my hands. "They are of no value to any one but myself," was his reply; "they have never been seen by anybody, and they never will be. They are a mass of contradictions; thoughts jotted down as they passed through my mind, and contradicted perhaps on the next page-records of passing events written on the spur of the moment, and private details which no one could understand but myself."

In these circumstances I felt that I could not urge Lord Shaftesbury to