Letters upon the unhappy Maori war have been purposely omitted; and,
as far as possible, such criticisms on living personages as it seemed
fair towards the writer to omit. Criticisms upon their publications
are of course a different thing. My desire has been to give enough
expression of Bishop Patteson's opinions upon Church and State
affairs, to represent his manner of thinking, without transcribing
every detail of remarks, which were often made upon an imperfect
report, and were, in fact, only written down, instead of spoken and
forgotten, because correspondence served him instead of conversation.

I think I have represented fairly, for I have done my best faithfully
to select passages giving his mind even where it does not coincide
completely with my own opinions; being quite convinced that not only
should a biographer never attempt either to twist or conceal the
sentiments of the subject, but that either to apologise for, or as it
were to argue with them, is vain in both senses of the word.

The real disadvantage of the work is my own very slight personal
acquaintance with the externals of the man, and my ignorance of the
scenes in which the chief part of his life was passed. There are
those who would have been far more qualified in these respects than
myself, and, above all, in that full and sympathetic masculine grasp
of a man's powerful mind, which is necessarily denied to me. But
these fittest of all being withheld by causes which are too well
known to need mention, I could only endeavour to fulfil the work as
best I might; trusting that these unavoidable deficiencies may be
supplied, partly by Coleridge Patteson's own habit of writing
unreservedly, so that he speaks for himself, and partly by the very
full notes and records with which his friends have kindly supplied
me, portraying him from their point of view; so that I could really