Lord Melbourne's Papers (Classic Reprint) - William Lamb Melbourne

Excerpt from Lord Melbourne's Papers
I have been asked to write a Preface to this volume, partly in order to make known that the letters contained in it have been selected with my sanction and approval from those in my possession, and partly in hopes that my relationship to Lord Melbourne and my early recollections of him may enable me to throw some light upon his personality. I wish with all my heart that the last reason was as good as the first; but I fear that the task of drawing his character is above my capacity, and that my relationship and the early recollections which are its consequence are in my way rather than otherwise in making the attempt.
I can only myself remember him when I was a boy, and after he had been attacked by his first paralytic stroke, and I have visions of a somewhat massive though not corpulent figure reclining in an arm-chair, a white or nearly white head, shaggy eyebrows, and a singularly keen and kindly eye, fits of silence occasionally broken by an incisive and rather paradoxical remark, accompanied by a genial laugh and a rubbing of the hands together. I remember also noticing how easily the tears came into his eyes, not so much, as I have heard it said, at anything tender or affecting, as at the expression of a noble or generous sentiment.
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