BLACKWOOD'S EIGHTEENPENNY BIOGRAPHIES OF REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY. PROSPECTUS. ACCURATE and authentic facts about recent history are, in many respects, much more inaccessible to the ordinary run of readers, than information about events which have occurred centuries ago. The student who wishes to acquaint himself with the facts of the Thirty Years' War, the English Rebellion, or the American Revolution, can lay his hands at once upon authorities stamped as classical and accurate. But no one who cannot command the resources of a rarely furnished library, can inform his mind with the leading features of such recent transactions as the Trial of Queen Caroline, the Reform Bill, or the Agitation for Free Trade. In one respect, it must be allowed, literature has supplied works bringing down the history of England and of Europe to a recent date. Such books describe, historically, the course of events in the years between Waterloo and the Great Exhibition. But their ponderousness and high price put them beyond the reach of the many, and they leave the biographical field untouched. The most popular-probably the most instructive-form in which history can be cast, is to select as the central object of interest some REPRESENTATIVE MAN, and to group around him the successive events and fellow-workers associated with him in his career. There is thus formed a combination of that personal interest which the biography shares with the romance, with that solid element of instruction which is common to the historical work, and every other kind of work which deals with facts. This is the object which the series of "BLACKWOOD'S EIGHTEENPENNY BIOGRAPHIES OF REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY" is designed to supply. Although the volumes which constitute its separate parts will be published serially and at regular intervals, each work will be complete in itself, and independent of the others. The cheap price at which "BLACK WOOD'S EIGHTEENPENNY BIOGRAPHIES" will be issued, will bring them within the reach of all. While they will be studiously written in a popular and attractive manner, no trouble will be spared to search original authority for the facts to be narrated. Every one will acknowledge the existence of the want which this series is designed to supply. It will be the object of the publisher, and those whom he has associated with him, to fill the admitted void with credit and satisfaction. These volumes will be published at intervals of Three Months; the first to appear on May 15th, 1861. Each volume will contain about two hundred and fifty pages, well printed on good paper, and bound strongly and tastefully. I-MAY 15TH. THE LIFE AND DARING EXPLOITS OF LORD DUNDONALD. Lord Dundonald is chosen as a fit representative of the heroic element in the national character. II. AUGUST 1ST. THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF LORD BROUGHAM. The Second of the Series will be a Biography of Lord Brougham; than whom no man, living or dead, more appropriately typifies the general social progress of the years in which he has lived and worked. III. NOVEMBER 1ST. THE LIFE OF LORD PALMERSTON; With a Sketch of the Foreign Policy of England from the Peace of Amiens to the Present Day. In the life of no one more suitably than Lord Palmerston's, can the general, and especially the foreign politics of the period be expounded. The Subjects of the Succeeding Volumes will be from time to time announced. JAMES BLACKWOOD, PATERNOSTER ROW. AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. PREFACE. IMMEDIATELY upon the death of Lord Dundonald the author of this book began to collect the materials which are condensed in the succeeding narrative. He undertook the task, believing that few illustrious English warriors of our own and our fathers' times, and few of those who have within the same period taken a foremost part in the advancement of the national liberties, present a more instructive and attractive theme for a cheap popular biography. Very soon after the work was commenced, it was discovered that much longer time must be bestowed upon its preparation than had been anticipated. There was a large number of years to traverse, most of them crowded with important incidents. This of itself was enough to prevent the possibility of hasty workmanship. And besides, each leading event of Lord Dundonald's life has been made the subject of very keen dispute; and the conflicting materials on the comparison of which must depend the judgments of the |