details of which must necessarily be included in a history of the country, but which neither resulted from his policy nor immediately affected his fortunes, have been very briefly noticed. It seems a plain and obvious proposition, that a biographer can have no higher duty than to tell the truth, and that he who volunteers to inform the public is bound to fulfil his engagement strictly. And yet there are some who appear to think that the biographer's duty to the public is subordinate to that which he owes to the chosen subject of his memoir. Adopting a language borrowed from fiction, they speak with praise of him who has "raised" the character of "his "hero," and blame the biographer who has "lowered him," by revealing errors which had not been generally known. This tone has been promoted by the relation in which biographers have often stood towards those of whom they wrote. When the near relative or attached friend brings forth a record of departed greatness, we feel that death has not absolved him from the obligation to utter only the language of attachment and respect; and we willingly forget that, in assuming the task of a biographer, he is subjecting himself to sterner duties, perhaps incompatible with the ties of kindred, of confidence, or of affection. the case of those who have been long dead, time In exempts even the lineal descendant from this conflict of opposite duties. But the principle, when once established, is often applied where it is quite unsuitable; and many expect that every biographer shall deem it his duty to elevate "his hero." It is, therefore, not unnecessary to state that such is not my view of the duties of a biographer; that it is my aim to produce an impartial memoir, and not an ingenious vindication; that I have proposed to myself as an object not the establishment or refutation of any particular theory, but only to show what, after careful inquiry, I believe to be the truth, respecting one on whom more praise and censure have been unduly lavished, than, perhaps, on any other character in the whole circle of English history. I have, with few exceptions, abstained from replying directly to the numerous attacks in various works, both old and recent, aimed at the character and writings of Lord Clarendon, content with stating what I consider true, and allowing my contradiction to be collected from the tenor of my narrative. I have so abstained in no spirit of disrespect towards any assailants of Lord Clarendon; but, because the acceptance of every challenge of this kind would have given to my work a controversial tone unsuitable to the character of biography, tending to impede the course of narration, and swelling to an undue bulk a memoir unavoidably rendered long by the very numerous facts which it was necessary to record. For any errors which may be found in this work I cannot plead the excuse of haste. Almost the whole was written, subject to revision, before the autumn of 1836; and it might certainly have been published before the end of that year, if public duties, which devolved upon me in August, 1836, had not necessarily engrossed so much of my time as to preclude the possibility of its earlier completion. April 16. 1838. LIST OF WORKS REFERRED TO, OF WHICH THERE IS MORE THAN ONE EDITION; Showing to which Edition reference is made. Biographia Britannica, 7 vols. fol. London, 1747. Burnet's History of his Own Times, with the suppressed passages, 6 vols. 8vo. Oxford, 1823. Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, with the suppressed passages, 8 vols. 8vo. Oxford, 1826. Clarendon (Life of), and Continuation, with the suppressed passages, Hague, 1719. Flassan, Histoire Générale et Raisonné de la Diplomatie Françoise, 8vo. Paris, 1811. Hallam's Constitutional History of England, second edition, 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1819. Harris's Lives of James I., Charles I., Cromwell, and Charles II., 5 vols. 8vo. London, 1814. Hume's History of England, 8 vols. 8vo. London, 1793. Hutchinson's Memoirs, third edition, 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1810. Lingard's History of England, second edition, Svo. London, 1829. Louis XIV. (Œuvres de), 6 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1806. Ludlow's Memoirs, 3 vols. 8vo. Vevay, 1798. Marvell's Works, 3 vols. 4to. London, 1776. May's History of the Parliament, 1 vol. 4to. 1812. May's Breviate of the History of the Parliament, in Masere's Tracts, 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1826. North's Lives of the Lord-Keeper Guildford, and Dudley, and John North, 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1826. |