PREFACE WITH the exception of a short appreciation of Delane's career which was contributed by my father to Macmillan's Magazine in January 1880, and the still shorter life in the Dictionary of National Biography, no account of my uncle, worthy of the name, has yet been written. It was my father's hope and intention to have expanded the article in Macmillan's Magazine into a detailed biography, but unforeseen difficulties prevented the realisation of his project. And as he did not live to make much progress with the preliminary work of arranging the extensive correspondence in his possession, it has been reserved for my much less competent pen to attempt that which he would have done so much better. The materials for Delane's life, apart from his own letters and diaries, are fairly abundant. In the Greville Memoirs there are over fifty direct references to him, and many more indirect allusions to the policy and influence of The Times during his editorship. The Life of Henry Reeve, by Sir J. K. Laughton; of Robert Lowe, Viscount Sherbrooke, by E. Patchett Martin; of Lord Houghton, by Wemyss Reid; the Memoirs of de Blowitz, Mr. George Brodrick's Memories and Impressions, the privately printed Memoir of Bernal Osborne, and Kinglake's Invasion of the Crimea, have been of great service to me in this attempt to produce a faithful portrait of Delane "in his habit as he lived." In editing the accumulated correspondence of forty years, much of it of a most delicate and confidential nature, I have endeavoured to take the middle course between undue reticence and tactless indiscretion; whilst the political opinions expressed are, for the most part, those of The Times at the dates referred to. My thanks are due to Lord Rothschild for permission to publish Disraeli's letters to my uncle; to the Earl of Clarendon for leave to include those written by his distinguished father; to the late Mr. Evelyn Ashley for placing at my disposal all Lord Palmerston's letters and papers; to Mr. W. Stebbing, Delane's able assistant-editor in his latter years, for much kind assistance during the progress of my work; to the Very Rev. Henry Wace, Dean of Canterbury; to Mr. F. C. Holland, and many other friends who have favoured me with suggestions and recollections. To my brother, Mr. J. R. Dasent, as Delane's surviving executor, I tender my especial gratitude, as also to my wife, whose ready help at every stage has greatly lightened my labours of the past two years. ARTHUR IRWIN DASENT. THE DUTCH HOUSE, |