s
of intimacy with many of the most active politicians of his
times, in both the leading parties in the State, although he
strictly belonged to neither of them, and was wholly indifferent
to mere party interests.

Mr. Greville himself, in communicating a portion of his
manuscripts to one of his friends, wrote of them in the following
terms:--

You will find the greater part political, not often
narrative; mostly allusions and comments on passing
events, the details of which were not notorious and
accessible; some miscellanea of a different description,
personal, social, official; you will find public
characters freely, flippantly perhaps, and frequently
very severely dealt with; in some cases you will be
surprised to see my opinions of certain men, some of
whom, in many respects, I may perhaps think differently
of now. Gibbon said of certain Pagan philosophers, that
'their lives were spent in the pursuit of truth and the
practice of virtue.' I cannot boast of having passed my
life in the practice of virtue, but I may venture to say
that I have always pursued truth; and you will see
evidence of the efforts I have made to get at it, and to
sum up conflicting statements of facts with a sort of
judicial impartiality.

But although I am of opinion that the time has arrived when a
further portion of these Journals may without impropriety be
published, yet I am sensible that as the narrative draws nearer
to the present time, and touches events occurring during the
reign of the Sovereign who still happily occupies the throne,
much more reticence is required of an Editor than he felt in
speaking of the two last reigns, which belong altogether to past
history. There were in the records of those reigns topics of
scandal and topics of ridicule, already familiar to the world,
which cast a shadow over those pages, and the more so as they
were true. In narrating the earlier passages of the reign of
Queen Victoria, no such incidents occur. The Court was pure; the
persons of the Sovereign and her Consort profoundly respected.
The monarchy itself has been strengthened in the last forty-eight
years by a strict adherence to the principles of moral dignity
and constitutional government. Nothing is to be found in any part
of these Journals to impugn that salutary impression; and they
will afford to future generations no unworthy picture of those
who have played the