 He occupied a considerable part of his retirement writing a substantial work of autobiography, published in three volumes under the title "Retrospect of an Unimportant Life".Both at the time and subsequently many of his friends and admirers regretted his publishing the work; they thought he had done his reputation a disservice.Despite what Williams calls the "peculiar interest and vivacity" of the books, his survey of his many campaigns and controversies, seemed to others to be self-justifying and wilfully to deny many changes of stance that he had manifestly made during his career.