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INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR.

HESE "Passages from the Auto-biography of a Man of Kent"" were written at the request of a large circle of friends, and in the brief intervals of leisure, extending over a period of seven years, which the writer could snatch from an increasingly active life.

The manuscript has been placed in my hands, as an old friend, with a request that I should say something by way of introduction. I have yielded most willingly to the request, and in looking over the pages have done little more than occasionally draw my pen through a few passages, which, from family allusions, or otherwise, would not be understood by the general reader.

Some account of the writer, in addition to that which he has himself supplied, may not be out of place here, and will moreover enable the reader to form a better conception of the idiosyncrasies of the "Man of Kent."

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My friend has been known to me for more than a quarter of a century, and scarcely a day has passed during the greater part of that period without my meeting him either in business, or at the fire-side.

The "Man of Kent" is a Nonconformist; not by birth and education, but upon principle and deliberate choice, as he has told us in the following pages; and although he is one of the noble few who

"Reverence his conscience as his King,"

he is nevertheless ready at all times, where compromise of principle is not expected, to co-operate with all denominations of Christians in everything calculated to benefit the commonweal.

In politics he was, in early life, what is termed an out-and-out Radical; but thought and observation have in a great measure corrected and modified the theories of his younger days, and he has become in what may be called the afternoon, if not the evening, of life, a moderate and progressive Reformer. I remember hearing him upon one occasion at a Debating Society, stand out most determinately for the "People's Charter;" but though he believes the leading principles laid down in that able document to be the natural right of every well-conducted citizen, he sees also that education and moral training must prepare the

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millions of our still unenfranchised countrymen for that which undoubtedly must shortly be conceded to them.

The "Man of Kent" is distinguished by a love of justice, and is a thorough hater of everything mean and dishonourable. I have sometimes thought that my friend must have been born under the influence of the planet Mars, as he has a fiery disposition, ready in an instant to meet an opponent. He is a bold, resolute, and fearless man, and would have made a good soldier, had not a hesitation in his speech have been the means of turning his early career into another channel. He is rather choleric and hasty, with a dash of sarcastic humour, and a certain impetuousness of temperament, that not unfrequently make him in danger of being misunderstood. I fear he has sometimes given offence to those who do not know him well, by his vehement manner, and the strong language he makes use of when excited. He is an intense man, and possesses an unconquerable will that sometimes appears to defy all opposing forces. He is rather impatient of reproof; but gentle remonstrances from a friend of whose intention and kindness he is assured, and whose judgment he approves, have often great weight with him. He is always ready for the arena of conflict, and when he is thoroughly convinced of the injustice of any wrong, he will advance

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again, and again, and yet again, until he has conquered.

There is a marked individuality in the "Man of Kent;" he can, when the occasion requires it, say the most bitter and withering things; he has, however, a good deal that is genial and tender in his nature, and can comfort the sorrowful, as well as encourage the timid. As a visitor of the sick, in the later years of his life, he has always been welcome, having himself suffered repeatedly from illness. Before ill-health had told upon him he was a man of great energy and quickness.

My friend would have been an orator, but for the defect in his speech acquired in his youth; which, however, he so far corrected in his riper years as to be able to address a public assembly, when it would have been difficult to detect a vestige of what he calls his "old enemy." The "Man of Kent" never gets up to speak without being thoroughly in earnest, and, as he feels his subject intensely himself, is an effective speaker. We recollect once hearing him deliver a lecture "On Public Speaking and Reading Aloud, with Illustrations from the Throne, the Senate, the Pulpit, the Poets, and the Bar," before a large gathering, when he succeeded beyond the expectations of his friends.

The "Man of Kent” is endowed with considerable powers of persuasion; is witty and piquant in

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