PREFACE. WHEN the Manuscripts, preserved at Hagley, were entrusted to me for publication, one of two modes seemed open for my adoption-to print the letters in the order of their dates, or to interweave them into a biographical sketch of Lord Lyttelton, to whose correspondence, with the exception of those set forth in the introductory chapter, they exclusively belong. I trust that I have not erred in preferring the latter, which is of course infinitely the most laborious, to the former method; it seemed to me to combine the advantages of being the most satisfactory to the Lyttelton family, and the most attractive to the general reader, because it presents to him each letter, if I may use the expression, set, however inartificially, in the history of the time to which it refers. We learn from Lord Bacon, that "History, which may be called Just and Perfect History, is of three kinds, according to the object which it propoundeth, or pretendeth to represent: for it either representeth a time, or a person, or an action. The first we call Chronicles, the second Lives, and the third Narrations or Relations; of these, although the first be the most complete, and absolute kind of history, and hath most estimation and glory, yet the second excelleth it in profit and use, and the third in verity and since rity for history of times representeth the magnitude of actions, and the public faces and deportments of persons, and passeth over in silence the smaller passages of men and matters. But such being the work hang the greatest weight manship of God, as he doth upon the smallest wires, maxima è minimis suspendens,' it comes therefore to pass, that such histories do rather set forth the pomp of business, than the true and inward resorts thereof. But Lives, if they be well written, propounding to themselves a person to represent, in whom actions, both greater and smaller, public and private, have a commixture, must of necessity contain a more true, native, and lively representation."* "If they be well written," is indeed an awful condition of the usefulness of Memoirs. In the present instance, the intrinsic difficulty of the task has been much increased by the absence of any journal kept by Lord Lyttelton, and I am painfully conscious of many imperfections in my execution of it; but still I venture to hope, that these volumes will be found a contribution not without its value, in illustrating the Political, Literary, and Social condition of England, during the period over which they extend. *Second Book of the Advancement of Learning. 42, CLARGES STREET, June, 1845. ROBERT PHILLIMORE. From 1742 (Resignation of Walpole), to 1744 (Government of the Pelhams). The Carteret, or "Drunken Administration." 209 |