PREFACE. 



biting their power to raise the genuine glory as well 

 of individuals as of nations. 



Though I could entertain no doubt that this plan 

 was expedient, no one could more doubt than I did 

 the capacity brought to its execution, or feel more dis- 

 trustful of the pen held by a hand which had so long 

 been lifted up only in the contentions of the Senate 

 and the Forum. My only confidence was in the spirit 

 of fairness and of truth with which I entered on the 

 performance of the task ; and I now acknowledge with 

 respectful gratitude the favour which the work has 

 hitherto, so far above its deserts, experienced from the 

 public, both at home, in spite of party opposition, and 

 abroad, where no such unworthy influence could have 

 place. It is fit that I also express my equal satisfac- 

 tion at the testimony which has been borne to its 

 strict impartiality by those whose opinions, and the 

 opinions of whose political associates, differed the most 

 widely from my own. That in composing the work 

 I never made any sacrifice of those principles which 

 have ever guided my public conduct, is certain ; that I 

 never concealed them in the course of the book is 

 equally true ; nay, this has been made a charge against 

 it, as if I was at liberty to write the history of my 

 own times, nay, of transactions in many of which I 

 had borne a forward part, and not show what my 

 own sentiments had been on those very affairs. But 

 if my opinions were not sacrificed to the fear that I 

 might offend the living by speaking plainly of the 



