MEMOIRS

OF

SIR THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON,

BARONET.

WITH

SELECTIONS FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE.

EDITED BY HIS SON,

CHARLES BUXTON, ESQ.

"The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference between
men, between the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant, is
energy, invincible determination -a purpose once fixed, and then death or
victory. That quality will do any thing that can be done in this world; and
no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities, will make a two-legged creature
a man without it."-(Extract of a Letter from Sir T. Fowell Buxton.)

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

PREFACE.

At

A GENERAL and very reasonable objection is made against memoirs written by near relatives, and yet the danger to be apprehended from their partiality is not perhaps quite so great as it might seem. any rate it is not wholly avoided by transferring the task to a stranger. It has been well observed, that "biographers, translators, editors, all, in short, who employ themselves in illustrating the lives or the writings of others, are peculiarly exposed to the disease of admiration."* Now a near relative may

be especially liable to this infirmity; but then he is especially on his guard against it. He cannot eulogise he must state facts, and leave the reader to draw conclusions for himself.

The task of compiling my father's memoirs was placed in my hands by his executors, partly because those whose literary abilities would have pointed them out as fitted for the task were not at leisure to undertake it; and partly because it involved the perusal of a large mass of private papers, which could not well have been submitted to the inspection of any one not a member of his family. I could hardly refuse so interesting, though responsible, a duty.

A considerable portion of this work relates to the

• Macaulay's Essays, vol. ii. p. 146.

emancipation of the slaves in the West Indies; and I cannot help feeling some anxiety lest it may give a false prominence to my father's exertions in the accomplishment of that event, which was, in fact, achieved by the strenuous efforts of many men, working in very different spheres. It was not for me to attempt to write the history of that extensive movement. The object set before me was to show, as plainly as possible, what sort of person my father was, so that the reader should feel as if he had been one of his most intimate friends. I was bound, therefore, to confine my narrative to his individual proceedings, excluding whatever did not bear, directly or indirectly, on the elucidation of his character. Hence it has resulted that very slight notice is taken in these pages of the exertions of my father's coadjutors, in achieving the downfall of British slavery.

I cannot conclude without gratefully acknowledging the valuable contributions I have received from several of my father's friends, the advice and assistance given by others, and the documents and papers put into my hands by those who were in intimate communication with him, before I was of an age to share in that privilege.

March, 1848.

23. St. James's Place, London.