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The following pages have been written in the belief that a biography of Sir Henry Parkes is called for, and that it will prove interesting and instructive to all who appreciate important public services and admire great careers.

For nearly half a century Sir Henry Parkes was a conspicuous figure in Australian public life, and, for much of that period, by far the most prominent. By very many people he was regarded as Australia's greatest statesman.

Primarily the labours of his long career were for the advancement of New South Wales, the colony in which his lot was more directly cast; but many of his public acts have had a beneficial influence upon the Australasian colonies as a whole, and, in benefiting Australasia, he assisted the progress of the British Empire. Throughout his life he was loyal to the mother land. While faithful to the country of his adoption, he ever remembered that "the crimson thread of kinship runs through us all", and, foremost in the movement for Australian federation, the union he sought was a "union under the Crown."

In many respects he was a remarkable man, with an eventful history, full of incidents attractive to the ordinary reader, and of lessons useful to the student.

C. E. L.

SYDNEY,

11th November, 1896.