John Arthur Ransome Marriott – författare

This book represents, on the one hand , the fulfilment of a long-cherished hope; on the other, an act of tardy expiation. The crime for which expiation is offered is partly collective. The reproach which lies on historians at large is considered in the Prologue. The personal crime can be confessed only through the more intimate medium of a Preface.More than thirty years ago I published a little book on George Canning (John Murray, 1903) in which I did less than justice to Castlereagh. The error was not peculier to me, and might perhaps be regarded as venial in a budding politician and inexperienced historian, who had spent some of the happiest evenings of his Oxford life in the famous club dedicated to Mr. Canning's memory. Yet all these years it has lain heavy on a conscience too tender perhaps for an active participant in politics. That participation combined with other circumstances to delay the expiation even now inadequately made. But, however inadequate, it cannot safely be deferred much longer.

This book has been written by an exile deprived by a German bomb of access to all but a fragment of his own library, and to practically the whole of his carefully collected memoranda, and is also denied by circumstances the use of any great library. The book still aims to discuss Anglo Russian Relations between 1689 and 1943.

This book has been written by an exile deprived by a German bomb of access to all but a fragment of his own library, and to practically the whole of his carefully collected memoranda, and is also denied by circumstances the use of any great library. The book still aims to discuss Anglo Russian Relations between 1689 and 1943.

This book represents, on the one hand , the fulfilment of a long-cherished hope; on the other, an act of tardy expiation. The crime for which expiation is offered is partly collective. The reproach which lies on historians at large is considered in the Prologue. The personal crime can be confessed only through the more intimate medium of a Preface.More than thirty years ago I published a little book on George Canning (John Murray, 1903) in which I did less than justice to Castlereagh. The error was not peculier to me, and might perhaps be regarded as venial in a budding politician and inexperienced historian, who had spent some of the happiest evenings of his Oxford life in the famous club dedicated to Mr. Canning's memory. Yet all these years it has lain heavy on a conscience too tender perhaps for an active participant in politics. That participation combined with other circumstances to delay the expiation even now inadequately made. But, however inadequate, it cannot safely be deferred much longer.