PREFACE. ON giving these volumes to the public, it is my first duty, as it is also my greatest pleasure, to acknowledge the aid which I have received from the friends and colleagues of Lord Beaconsfield. To the MARQUIS of SALISBURY, SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE, LORD ROWTON, Mr. E. STANHOPE, SIR PHILIP ROSE (one of Lord Beaconsfield's executors), and last, but not least, to BARON DIMSDALE, late Member for Hertford, I am indebted in various degrees for assistance in the process of selection, for the revision of the proof sheets, for the communication of many interesting details, and for the key to Lord Beaconsfield's tactics in more than one Parliamentary campaign. Without these powerful auxiliaries, I could scarcely have presumed to venture on a task of so much difficulty ; even with them I am only too conscious how very imperfectly I have discharged it. T. E. KEBBEL. January 17, 1882. |