Bad men always hate those they have injured;—Good or great men, when they have discovered that they have been unjust, always more than repair the injury they have committed. Those who, from an acquaintance with the case, can truly interpret this volume, will _know_ that I have abstained; they will _see_ that I possess the power, though not the disposition, to avenge injury. But the same spirit which has carried me through difficulties few have encountered, at the expense of sacrifices which I hope fewer may ever be called upon to make, forbids me tamely to submit to injustice. The reader of these pages will observe that I have exposed with an unsparing pen the dishonesty of party. The modes employed by it to “discredit” and intimidate an honest man are various. If he agree with them in a principle, but differ in its application, he is called “_crotchety_.” If he cannot be induced by sophistry to vote with them against his sense of right, he is called “_impracticable_.” If, when passed over in the appointment to some office for which he is qualified by knowledge and entitled by position, he complain of the neglect; notwithstanding he continues to vote with his party, he is called a “_disappointed man_.” If, however, he has energy, and is backed by great political or professional interest, he may then secure a _present_ peerage for himself, his wife, or his relative, with a promise of better treatment when anything desirable becomes vacant. At last, having discovered that his party are sincere and united only in their desire to retain office; if his arguments admit of no refutation,—if his perception of right can be obscured by no sophistry,—if he can himself be cajoled by no flattery, seduced by no advantage, deterred by no intimidation, from expressing his real opinion upon the merits of his party: then, although he may support them whenever they are true to their principles, yet he is pronounced a “_cantankerous fellow_.” Thus bad names are coined by worse[2] men to destroy honest people; as the madness of innocent dogs arises from the cry of insanity raised by their villanous pursuers. The merit of the original conception of the present Exposition is insignificant in comparison with that of the efforts by which it was carried out, and with the importance of its practical results. To have seen from afar its effects on the improvement, the wealth, and the happiness of the people—to have seized the fit moment, when, by the right use of the influence of an exalted station, it was _possible_ to overcome the deeply-rooted prejudices of the upper classes—to remove the still more formidable, because latent, impediments of party—generously to have undertaken great responsibility, and with indefatigable labour to have endeavoured to make the best out of the only materials at hand,—these are endowments of no ordinary kind.