In that large portion of my work which is altogether new I propose to follow with regard to the debates on questions of great national importance the plan adopted in my History of the Reform Bill of 1832. I have given the report of the speeches which throw most light on the question, and on the manner in which it was received and regarded by different parties, in a very shortened form. Exordia, perorations, flights of rhetoric, even flights of eloquence, have been remorselessly pruned away, and the residue has been greatly condensed; but the style, and, as far as possible, the very words, of each orator have been carefully preserved.

I am aware that there are other histories which cover a portion more or less considerable of the ground over which this work is intended to extend; but their point of departure is different, and so also are the presiding ideas under which they are written.

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