Excerpt from Lives of Eminent British Statesmen, Vol. 5 In, in making a selection from British statesmen, those only were taken to whom the character of Hero may be ascribed, we should have but scanty volumes. If every politician were included who has been im portant in his own day, we should have a library interesting only to the minute historian. Preserving the distinction between biography and history it is desirable to give such Lives as illustrate each succeeding age: such biography will not supply the place of his tory but, without it, history will be less perfectly um derstood and remembered. I have said, of one of the statesmen whose lives occupy this volume, that he was neither a'hero nor a genius; and the same remark is applicable to the other. This want of a distinctive character, nay, even the absence of fanaticism, political or religious, has greatly augmented my difficulty in writing, and will probably lessen the interest in reading, the Lives of Cecil and Danby. 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.