2 EARLY LIFE. 



details which I now may find it difficult to recall, 

 with that accuracy which a narrative professing to 

 be in many respects historical, essentially requires, 

 and to note down many circumstances relating to 

 myself and others which I may now find it impos- 

 sible to remember. 



My present object is to relate, as far as my mem- 

 ory will serve, some circumstances of my early life, 

 which may form a sort of introduction to my auto- 

 biography, and to my account of matters of higher 

 importance. 



;\I found amtaig my mother's papers, at Brougham, 

 tjie, , fragment -of ' -a notice respecting me she had 

 begun- 1 ' to'- wTife '-a good many years ago. I am 

 tempted to give it exactly in her own words, because 

 it accurately represents her own impressions; and so 

 little was she given to laudation or exaggeration, 

 that what she has recorded of my early years may 

 be received as perfectly impartial. I only regret the 

 briefness of her notes : 



"NOTES ABOUT HENKY." 



" BROUGHAM, Oct. 1826. 



" In putting down what may hereafter be read 

 with some interest, I feel how unequal I am to the 

 task. His years of infancy and youth passed with- 

 out my contemplating that he would fill so high a 

 place among men as he now does, or I should have 

 kept memorandums that would have preserved in my 

 memory many circumstances that would have thrown 



