It was the intention of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe to introduce this work
to the British public, but I am truly sorry to learn that a severe domestic
affliction, since her return to America, has postponed the fulfilment of
her promise.

I am, however, able to state her opinion of the book, expressed in a letter
to one of her friends.

She says:--"There are points in the book of which I think very highly. The
style is simple and unambitious--the characters, most of them faithfully
drawn from real life, are quite fresh, and the incident, which is also much
of it fact, is often deeply interesting.

"I shall do what I can with the preface. I would not do as much unless I
thought the book of worth _in itself_. It shows what I long have wanted to
show; what the _free people of colour do attain_, and what they can do in
spite of all social obstacles."

I hope and trust that Mr. Webb's book will meet with all the success to
which its own merit, and the great interest of the subject, so well entitle
it. On this, Mrs. Stowe's authority is naturally of the greatest weight;
and I can only lament that this prefatory notice does not come accompanied
with her further remarks and illustrations.

4, Grafton-street, _July_ 29, 1857.

* * * * *

Note.--Since the above was written, the preface by Mrs. Stowe has been