Excerpt from Notes From a Diary, Vol. 1 of 2: 1851-1872 It will be Observed that I have said very little about the House of Commons, although fifteen of the years included in the portion of my notes now published were passed in that Assembly. I have done so for three reasons first, because I wished to make these pages as light as possible secondly, because I was anxious to leave behind me one of the most good natured books of its kind ever printed, and I apprehend that for a politician to write truth fully of the political struggles in which he has been engaged, without paying to some of the combatants the genuine tribute of undis sembled horror, would be a hopeless enter prise thirdly, because I had, during these fifteen years, frequent opportunities Of stating my views upon all public matters, in Parliament and out of it, opportunities of which I availed myself pretty freely. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.