ires some legal knowledge for its
full appreciation. I am no lawyer; and I should have considered this
fact to be a sufficient reason for silence, had it been essential to
give any adequate estimate of the labours in question. My purpose,
however, is a different one. I have wished to describe the man rather
than to give any history of what he did. What I have said of the value
of his performances must be taken as mainly a judgment at second hand.
But in writing of the man himself I have advantages which, from the
nature of the case, are not shared by others. For more than sixty years
he was my elder brother; and a brother in whose character and fortunes I
took the strongest interest from the earliest period at which I was
capable of reflection or observation. I think that brothers have
generally certain analogies of temperament, intellectual and moral,
which enable them, however widely they may differ in many respects, to
place themselves at each other's point of view, and to be so far
capable of that sympathetic appreciation which is essential to
satisfactory biography. I believe that this is true of my brother and
myself. Moreover, as we were brought up under the same roof, I have an
intimate knowledge--now, alas! almost peculiar to myself--of the little
home circle whose characteristics had a profound influence upon his
development. I have thought it desirable to give a fuller account of
those characteristics, and of their origin in previous circumstances,
than can well be given by any one but myself. This is partly because I
recognise the importance of the influence exerted upon him; and partly,
I will admit, for another reason. My brother took a great interest, and,
I may add, an interest not unmixed with pride, in our little family
history. I confess that I share his feelings, and think, at any rate,
that two or three of the persons of whom I have spoken deserve a fuller
notice than has as yet been made public. What I have said may, I hope,
serve as a small contribution to the history of one of the rivulets
which helped to compose the great current of national life in the
earlier part of this century.

I could not have attempted to write the life of my brother without the
approval and the help of my sister-in-law, Lady Stephen. She has
provided me with materials essential to the narrative, and has kindly
read what I have written. I am, of course, entirely responsible for
everything that is here said; and I feel th