When the first four or five sheets of this work were put into the hands of a few eminent political characters early last year, the preceding correspondence was thought a sufficient preface. But subsequent events have made it necessary, perhaps, to explain why the present publication has been so long delayed; and also why at this period I deem it an indispensable duty to submit to the public the first of the two grand divisions of my promised work, without waiting longer for its completion.

The delay will be thought to demand an apology only by the friends of the great public cause which I wish to serve, and from them I may reasonably hope not only candour, but indulgence. I will therefore content myself with assuring them that I have not been idle, but have prosecuted this undertaking with all the assiduity that my other duties in life would permit; though the delay has certainly much exceeded my own previous estimate.

But opponents of the colonial party, will complain, perhaps, not that I am tardy, but premature. They may allege that a work undertaken in February last, might without impropriety, have been laid aside or suspended, after the debate of May 15th, on Mr. Buxton's motion, when his Majesty's government and the House of Commons became pledged for important reformations, both in the law and practice of slavery, and for the progressive termination even of the state itself.