Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman
by
Giberne Sieveking
Part 4 out of 7
thenceforward RESPONSIBLE for the institutions which he permits in those
States, and believes it to be his official duty to respect the old
institutions however inhuman, however against Republican
Constitutionalism, and even when a violation of a treaty with France....
It is too clear that Lincoln will be a great drag upon everything decisive
in policy, and especially where decision is most necessary, i.e. in
vesting in the coloured race _power to defend their own rights_. When the
war ends, it will be very difficult to hinder the Northern enthusiasm from
collapsing and foolish statesmen from doing necessary work by halves."
In May, 1865, Newman writes these strong words: "President Lincoln was
dead against the confiscation of estates, and bent upon restoring a
powerful landed aristocracy, with a wretched dependent peasantry free in
name only.... A far sterner nature than his was wanted, which understands
that Justice to the oppressed must go before Mercy to the guilty; and I
believe they have got the right man in Andrew Johnson."
In February of the year 1866, a great trouble and anxiety fell upon Newman
while he and his wife were staying at Hastings. For nine or ten days she
seemed to be dying. "We got her through the acute crisis.... I resigned
her a full month ago, and have since not dared to hope that she can do
anything but linger. Nevertheless her life is less distressing and more
worth having than it was. She moves from her bed into an arm-chair; sits
at table for dinner.... She talks cheerfully, and can enjoy seeing her
sisters. When I look at her I fancy she is pretty well;... yet I feel that
she might be carried off very suddenly. Indeed, this was her mother's
case, who had the very same combination of disease, and retained much
muscular strength to the last. We had two physicians at Hastings, and here
she is under Dr. Garth Wilkinson. I have no complaint against any of the
physicians: they seem to me all to have done all they could; but nothing
that anyone has done has been of any use. It was by nursing, not by
medicine, that she was saved through critical days and nights. The
physician said she could not live forty-eight hours, and so we believed:
and at her request I sent him away.... I have written so many letters that
I forget to whom I have written: and it was indeed a tumultuous existence
at Hastings. I have now a good night nurse and cannot say that I want
anything; but a great shadow overspreads me."
The Doctor had evidently miscalculated Mrs. Newman's strength and
recuperative power, however, for in June of the same year:--
"I am happy to say that she" (Mrs. Newman) "now looks very like herself,
though feebler and liable (I fear) to relapse. But she is not only in
comparative health, but gives a hope of acquiring more soundness in the
next three months. I give up this house" (10 Circus Road, N.W.) "in a very
few days, and have taken a house in Clifton--1 Dover Place--but it will
not be ready for us until 1st August."
Nearly three months later, he writes:--
"I am at last in my new home, which is very pretty, very pleasant, with
delightful prospect, and _perhaps_ may suit me well; but I have sad
trouble with a drunken house owner, who kept me twenty-three days out
later than his contract,... and has given me roof and pipes either out of
repair or insufficient, rat holes very troublesome,... cisterns and taps
all in unsatisfactory state. Last night, for the third time in ten days, I
have been inundated through two floors." But he adds more hopefully than
the case seems to warrant," If I can get these matters right my house is
very promising. ... After a few weeks here my wife's strength has
increased notably, by no other doctor than a donkey chaise, and she now
seems just what she was last summer....
"I have had a letter from Pulszky (to whom I had not written on this
subject) telling me he is convinced that Bismarck put on a mask of
fanatical reactionarism in order to win the confidence of the _King of
Prussia!_ ... It seemed to me certain, that when new States had to be
incorporated with Prussia, despotic reaction would be _impossible_, much
more if a German Parliament were summoned. And now the King himself
proposes Universal Suffrage for all men above twenty-five and of
unblemished character! This seems to make any English Reform Bill
impossible, which is not far more democratic than any practical statesman
here has yet imagined. Nevertheless, I am increasingly gloomy as to the
near future of the English Empire. The Radicals seem perfectly blind as to
its centres of danger, and the amount of foreign sympathy which
insurrection in India or Ireland will now have. Andrew Johnson seems
destined to involve the U.S. in new civil war. I grieve deeply for it."
The next letter shows Newman settled in at "1 Dover Place, Clifton." His
Anglo-Arabic dictionary is finished, though revisions are to be added
later. At the end of the letter he gives the names of those who, he hopes,
may some day form a Ministry under Gladstone.
"_12th March_, 1867.
"My dear Nicholson,
"Our correspondence is so slack that I cannot tell what or on what I last
wrote, nor where to lay hands on your last.... We have had severe weather
all this month, and the snow continues all day since last night; but I am
happy to say my dear wife is not the worse.... I remember vividly the
spring of 1836, the first year of our marriage: the season from December
to May was the severest that I take note of since the great historical
winter of 1813 (1812?). This begins to remind me of 1836.... I had hoped
that continued work at Arabic would explain to me certain fixed
difficulties in the documents which I have studied; but a number of them,
even where the printed text is quite clear, remain unsolved. I venture to
trouble you with the only words which embarrass me in a rather long and
complete narrative of the burial of Abd el Mejied and the ceremonial of
installing his brother as his successor. If you can translate the line or
half-line I shall be benefited.
"I finished my Anglo-Arabic dictionary three or four weeks ago, but I hope
to enrich and revise it. Perhaps the course of public events surprises you
as much as me. As the Whigs cannot afford to be outrun by the Tories, it
appeared to me at first that I had been wrong in expecting a tough and
lingering struggle. Yet it seems to me, in revising details, morally
impossible for either Tories or a _Russell_ Ministry to do enough to stop
and satisfy the outdoors Reform movement. If _Russell_ would retire, or
were forced to retire, and Gladstone had courage and resolution to make a
Radical Ministry, including Bright and Mill, Stansfeld, Forster, Milnes,
Gibson, etc. (to which the Duke of Argyle would adhere), and were to
dissolve Parliament if necessary--even so it would be hard to pass through
the Lords a measure adequate to stop the clamour for more, and active
agitation. I begin to relapse into my belief that there _must_ be long
conflict. Nothing seems to me worth a national Convulsion which does not
give us new principles and new persons in the Executive Government. I
incline to believe that we shall live to see Radicalism (of a grade far
beyond what is popularly so named) in high office and carrying out its
principles with energy."
It will be remembered that Lord John Russell had long tried to reform
Parliament. In 1866 he had brought a bill for the purpose before the House
of Commons. It was rejected, and with it the Ministry went out. Then, when
Lord Derby became Prime Minister, with Disraeli as leader of the House, he
found he could do nothing but introduce in 1867 a Reform Bill of a far
more marked and definite character than the one which had "gone under"
during the last year. This bill, however, passed in August, 1867, showing
how the country in the meantime had become more and more ready for such a
measure. Its conditions were that borough franchise was given to all rate-
payers, and lodgers who used rooms of the annual value of ten pounds. But
perhaps a great deal of the driving power came from the large numbers of
the working-classes which were now added to the constituencies. In 1868
Disraeli, who had now become Prime Minister, retired when he found that
the Liberal majority reached to over a hundred through the new elections.
Then came the man of the hour, whom Newman had longed to see in that
place--Gladstone, who took the office vacated by Disraeli. At once it was
seen how far stronger was this new Ministry than the last, or, indeed, one
might perhaps say than many "lasts." One of its first measures was the
always-to-be-regretted one of the disendowment of the Irish Church.
Disestablishment, which of course preceded disendowment, was in many
respects a gain. The Land Bill followed in 1870, and the next year
abolition of religious tests for admission to degrees and offices in the
Universities.
"_15th April_, 1867.
"My dear Nicholson,
"I would not have you take any particular trouble about it, but if in your
Turkish Dictionary you find (this) to mean _tax_, at your entire leisure
(no hurry at all) I should be glad to learn how to pronounce the word.
"I received on Saturday from Washington a newspaper which contains very
interesting news from North Carolina and Alabama. N. C. comes out 'square'
for the Republican party, and Alabama avows Republican sentiments. Both
accept negro suffrage and absolute equality of the races. _Coloured
orators are prominent and acceptable_.
"I also have a very interesting letter from a coloured gentleman from New
Orleans, saying that the last acts of Congress have quite quelled the
reign of terror, and brought out the White Unionists, who did not dare to
speak before; and they are much more numerous than he had believed.
Although Congress has been pusillanimous in the extreme, and always
deficient, both as to time and substance, and although the danger of
reaction is not past, still everything is turning for the better since the
last act of the thirty-ninth Congress and first of the fortieth, and I
think we may now hope that the Unionists of the South, white and black,
will be able to fight their own battles. In England I do not think _our_
agitation can be appeased by the Reform Bill of this Parliament....
"Ever yours cordially,
"F. W. Newman."
The following letter concerns Vaccination almost entirely. Newman's views
with respect to vaccination were very clearly set forth in Vol. III of his
_Miscellanies_. They come under the heading of an article called
"Barbarisms of Civilisation." [Footnote: Published in the _Contemporary
Review_ of June, 1879.] Newman owns to having no medical knowledge of the
risks or non-risks of vaccination, but from what he considers to be the
rational point of view he objects to it most strongly. He protests that
Government Vaccinators have "for many years obtained a large part of what
they called _lymph_ ... (_pus_, or matter, is the only right word) by
inoculating calves or bullocks with small-pox. The result in the animals
they are pleased to call _cow-pox_, and when the poisonous matter is
transferred back to human infants they assume that it will not produce
small-pox! But while the doctrine is orthodox in London, the Local
Government in Dublin allows no such dealing."
He adds: "Unless the _causes_ of small-pox be removed (generally some
impurity in the air or in the food), those causes will work mischief
somehow. throw an eruptive disease back into the system is proverbially
dangerous.... Moreover, what right has any physician to neglect the cures
of small-pox, by which herbalists, hydropaths, and Turkish-bath keepers
find it a most tractable disease?"
In a letter called "Compulsory Vaccination," published in 1884, he says:
"To obviate it" (small-pox) "by extirpating its causes is good sense; to
infuse a new disease without caring to extirpate the causes of the
existing disease is a want of common sense." In the letter following, the
"Harry" (Dr. Henry) is the boy who boarded with the Newmans, and left
snail-shells stuck on a board when he left! He was well known in the world
of science as Professor H. Alleyne Nicholson, of Aberdeen.
There is no date or address on this letter.
"My dear Nicholson,
"I have been pressed to make some reply to Dr. Henry's Vaccination
pamphlet; but excused myself on the ground that it was not pleasant to me
to be in public opposition to him, for he was son of an intimate friend of
mine;... I have no special knowledge. I look on it from outside the
medical art....
"Now in the contents of the pamphlet I read: 'Small-pox--never produced at
present _de novo_.'...
"I make sure that it never _could_ have spread, unless the conditions had
in all the other places been highly congenial.... Predisposing causes
cannot long accumulate and fester, without curdling into vital action. The
_provisional assumption_ with me concerning smallpox, is, that wherever
its predisposing causes exist, there the disease will not long be absent.
In new foci it may meet new influences which modify its aspect, so that
medical men do not recognize it; but that signifies not....
"Now, what is Dr. Henry's proof?...
"Is there so much as one disease, the origin of which has been recorded
scientifically? What he calls 'the primitive origin' of small-pox has not
been recorded to us scientifically: yet he does not on that account doubt
that it did once arise 'spontaneously.' I judge just in the same way, when
it breaks out now in an English country village. What does the 'scientific
record' mean? We cannot have a medical man in every room of every house at
every moment examining what is under the shirt and shift, with microscope
in hand, to see the disease come of _itself_,... Dr. Henry goes on to say,
'and it APPEARS to have spread solely by infection or contagion.' It
_appears!_ This is so modest, that the reader fancies he may grant it. But
the next words are: 'TWO CONCLUSIONS FOLLOW from this,' etc. etc. In
short, he has forgotten that it is only 'it appears,' and fancies that it
was c indisputably certain and manifest.' ... After all; if unhealthy
conditions are among the prerequisites of small-pox, we have only to
remove the unhealthy conditions, and shall not need vaccination (if it
were ever so safe): and if you do not remove unhealthy conditions, you are
sure of other diseases quite as bad however you may modify the name."
_Letters from_ 1872 to 1882 (_to Dr Nicholson_).
The first letter of this series is dated 26th December, 1872, from Weston-
super-Mare, and is concerned chiefly with his wife's terrible fall, and
also with the movement of the peasants under the initiative of Joseph
Arch.
The name of Joseph Arch is too well known to need more than a few words in
explanation of the reason why he came to help forward this movement as he
did. He was born in Warwickshire in the year 1826, and was essentially one
of those who, having determined to rise from the ranks--_rose_. He
educated himself during the time while he was working as farm-labourer.
Those who have read Father Benson's _Sentimentalists_, and also Robert
Louis Stevenson's book on the same subject, will not fail to understand
how complete and full is the education which comes to a man through both
doors--that of physical labour, and that of mental as well. Joseph Arch
started in 1872 the National Agricultural Labourers' Union. Soon he had
freed the peasantry from many of their former disabilities. Later he went
to Canada to find out as much as he could about emigration and labour
questions. In 1885-6 he stood for the N.W. Division of Norfolk.
"_26th Dec_., 1872.
"My dear Nicholson,
* * * * *
"Did I, or did I not, tell you of my wife's mishap from a terrible fall
downstairs? Her right hand will be for a long while stiff from having been
tied for nine weeks with a splint on the inside, no finger being allowed
to move. This, I am assured, is hospital practice; but it is vehemently
condemned by others, and in her case, at least, I believe it was wrong.
Whether she will ever recover her _thumb_, I am not sure; for I fear it is
still dislocated at the base. She necessarily gives us a great deal to do;
I have to act as her amanuensis, besides oiling, shampooing, etc.
"Knowing as I do how you sympathize with rustics and disapprove our
existing Land Laws, I make sure that with me you are delighted by the
movement of the peasants under the initiative of Joseph Arch to claim
access to freehold land by purchase or equivalent payments. I never dared
to hope such an initiative from the peasants themselves, but I always
foresaw that a destruction of slavery in the U.S. would give to the States
such a desire to people their territories and the South, with English
immigrants, that our peasants, as soon as they became more wideawake,
would have the game in their own hands, and neither farmers nor landlords
could resist.... I now should not wonder to live to see ... household
suffrage extended to the peasantry-and as results, coming some earlier,
all soon, overthrow of the existing Drink Traffic, of Contagious Diseases
Act, Army Reform on a vast scale, Female Equality with Men in the Eye of
the Law, overthrow of Landlords' predominance.... I wonder whether
abolition of Foreign Embassies must precede a serious grapple with the
National Debt. I doubt whether any nominally free State ever had such an
Augean Stable left to it by forty years' eminently active legislation. "In
corruptissima Republica plurimae leges," sounds like it. Without carving
England and Ireland into States, I do not think the work can be got
through: if indeed we are to avoid new wars with Ireland and India, which
may God avert!...
"Your constant friend,
"F. W. Newman."
I quote next from a note written three years later, which ascribes his
health to the Triple alliance of his three "Anti's"--anti-alcohol, anti-
tobacco, and anti-flesh food.
* * * * *
"How many a pleasant year has run its course since I first visited you at
Penrith! It was the summer of 1842, I think, that we ascended High Street
together, a company of seventeen.
"It is my fancy that I could walk as well now: yet I believe it would make
me lazy for a week after. Moderate exertions are surely best when one is
past seventy, yet my spirits are inexhaustible, and my sense of health
perfect. Seriously I attribute this to the TRIPLE ABSTINENCE [from
alcohol, from narcotic (tobacco), and from flesh meat]....
"Your affectionate friend,
"F. W. Newman."
The same year he states in a letter to Dr. Nicholson that the Vegetarian
Society is that in which he feels most active interest, "though I am a
Good Templar and am earnest in nearly all the _Women's_ Questions." And in
another, written in August, "I here, as usual" (at Ventnor), "get the
luxury of fine fruit at this season (and the unusual luxury of mushrooms),
but I do protest that their demand of 4s. a pound for grapes is enough to
frighten Cato the elder. [Footnote: Marcus Portius Cato, born at Tusculum
234 B.C., passed his childhood on his father's farm. In later years he
wrote several works on husbandry, its rules, etc. When he was elected
Censor in 184 he made great efforts to check national luxury and to urge a
return to the simpler life of his Roman ancestors. He was very strict and
despotic as regards contract prices paid by the State, and constantly
altered those for food, carriages, slaves, dress, etc.] The price of
lodgings at Shanklin and here is much higher than two years back. It seems
to me that everything is going up, here, in America, on the Continent, and
in India; yet I do not see how to impute it to the increased supply of
gold. I think that the working classes are everywhere demanding and
getting a larger share of the total which is produced....
"Believe me your true friend,
"F. W. Newman."
Four years elapse between this letter and the next from which I shall
quote. During this interval Newman's wife died (16th July, 1876), and was
mourned long and sincerely. He was now seventy-one years of age, and had,
as his letters show, begun already to feel lack of power and health. It
was evident to himself towards the end of the eighteen months which
followed her death that he should not be able to live alone, and yet there
was no relation he could ask to come and be with him.
In December, 1879, the following letters were written by Newman to Dr.
Nicholson concerning his second marriage to Miss Williams, who had for
many years lived with his first wife, and been very devoted in her care
and attention to her.
"_29th Dec_., 1879.
"My dear Nicholson,
"I felt very warmly the kindness of your letter which congratulated me on
my remarriage, and I have often desired to write to you that you might
feel how unchanged is my regard for you, though circumstances do not at
all carry me so far north as your dwelling. I may briefly add, that a
year's experience quite justifies my expectation. The marriage was not in
my estimate an experiment, which might succeed or fail.... That my wife's
health is not robust, I certainly grieve, but she is nineteen years my
junior. Our love and trust has only increased month by month.... This
black edge" (of the note paper) "is for my only surviving sister, whose
death is just announced to me. She was my fondest object of boyish love,
and it is impossible not to grieve. On the other hand, I had long expected
it, and did not at all think she would survive _last_ winter.... I believe
she was loved and respected by _everyone_ who knew her, as truly she
deserved to be. I feel good consolation in this.... For three years our
public doings have been to me so mournful and dreadful--with no power
anywhere to stay the madness of the Court and Ministry,--that I have been
made unwilling to write about them. Retribution for such deeds seemed to
me certain, inevitable: it seems to be coming more speedily than I had
expected. Stormy controversies must in any case be here encountered. But
ever since 1856 (I might date from the day when Lord Dalhousie went to
India--1848?) we seem to have been storing up wrath and vengeance against
ourselves,--worse and worse at home as well as abroad, since the death of
Peel. I never admired Peel: he had to trim to the Tories: but I now see
how moderate Peel kept them, and in comparison how wise Peel was.
"So many are the eminently good men and women in England that I am certain
we must have a nobler future: but that may be separated from the present
time by a terrible struggle....
"I am your affectionate friend,
"F. W. Newman."
In briefly reviewing the year 1881 in its effects on nation and
Government, it is necessary to cast one's thoughts back to the time when
Lord Beaconsfield took office in 1874, in order to grasp the drift of
Newman's next letter. In 1874 the former became Prime Minister for the
second time. He had not been long in office before he made an end of
Church patronage in Scotland. The next year he was carrying forward his
design of procuring part ownership for England of the Suez Canal. He did
not attach sufficient importance to the Bulgarian atrocities to set going
any British interference. This in itself is an act which can find no
defence. He declared Turkey must be upheld as a stronghold against the
aggression of Russia. In the year 1878, Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury
attended the Berlin Congress. This at once raised the former to the
highest political importance, but it undid all the splendid work done by
the English army, which had, at the order of a blundering, mistaken
Government, been sent to obtain for England, through means of the Crimean
War, a victory rendered completely null and void a short time later by the
doings of this Congress at Berlin.
Then followed the Afghan and Zulu Wars and subsequent troubles and
upheavals: trade depression in Ireland; and finally, in 1880, came the
General Election, which restored the Liberal party to power.
"_1st Oct_., 1881.
"My dear Nicholson,
"I was glad to get your letter, but frightened when I found it open (the
gum wholly fresh) and no photograph in it. [Footnote: I believe the photo
given in this volume, of Dr. Nicholson, to be the one referred to here.] I
feared it was taken out. But next day came the real thing. It is
excellent. The slight excess of black in the left eye is perhaps quite
natural. In a three-quarter face the light does not fall alike on both
eyes, and we do not in real life compare a friend's two eyes (they move
too quick); we see only one at a time. [Footnote: Francis Newman expressed
once his theory that in the case of a photograph being taken of a man,
unconsciously to himself, the expression of the portrait will in some
curious manner change as his character changes.] The photo pleasantly
renews my old memories....
"_Immediate_ politics sicken _me_ as well as you. I do not (with a zealous
friend) groan over 1881 as unrelieved gloom, completed by the murder of an
amiable and innocent President: but I deliberately conclude we are
launched in a season of TRANSITION that _must_ have its sadness just as
has a war: and it is wise to look on beyond the troubled years.... The
course of change may largely depend on events in India which not one
Englishman in a thousand dreams of. In 1881, thus far, I rejoice in the
incipient elevation of Greece, and the probable deliverance of Armenia. I
think the great Powers _will not_ quarrel over the carcase of Turkey: and
though Frenchmen may justly make outcry against French ambition in North
Africa, yet as an Englishman and a European I do not regret it. As _I_ see
no power but Russia who can impart improved rule to Armenia and Persia, so
no one but France can give it in North Africa. My _immediate_ interest in
the politics of the High Powers is to see them combine against the Slave
Trade, in Turkey, and _in the Pacific_. In domestic Politics I care _most_
for the social and moral questions, which are painful, pressing, and
disgracefully delayed. But all will come; and the great question of Landed
Tenure will aid the best influences....
"I am your affectionate old friend,
"F. W. Newman."
On 26th Nov., 1881, Newman caused some copies of the following letter to
be printed and sent round to his friends, etc.:--
"My dear ----,
"Friends are always greedy of details concerning sudden illness. This is
my excuse for sending a printed circular.
"In short, my general health continues as excellent as usual; but I have
received a sharp warning, which I would gladly be able to call a mere
fright. After many days of close and continuous writing, I found myself
suddenly disabled in my right hand. I could not interpret it as merely
muscular. There was no inability of motion or grasping, but want of
delicacy in feeling, which made my pen slip round in my fingers. I was
forced to conclude the _brain_ involved.
"Therefore it seemed possible that I was only at the beginning of real
paralysis. Prudence absolutely required me to back out of two engagements.
This illness, such as it is, has not come on in a day, and demands time
for cure. Some ten days of cessation have somewhat (but very imperfectly)
restored my power of writing; but I must not undertake any tasks at
present. My sole remedy has been to keep the arm warm. It is still
somewhat weak. I wished, if this affection were temporary, to say nothing
about it; but that has proved impossible.
"I am, yours as ever,
"Francis W. Newman."
* * * * *
There are many allusions to this trouble of the arm in later letters.
Indeed, it is impossible not to see how very much it has crippled his
handwriting; he mentions once or twice that he finds it very difficult to
keep his hand steady.
In May, 1882, he writes to Dr. Nicholson concerning the news of the
moment--the murder of Lord Henry Cavendish and Mr. Burke, at Phoenix Park.
It will be remembered that it happened at the end of all the obstructive
tactics used by Parnell and his Home Rule Party, which was organized to
prevent coercion being used, and also to force on England the compulsion
of legislating promptly for Ireland the measures demanded by the
Nationalists. It was not until 1886 Gladstone brought before Parliament a
measure which would give a Statutory Parliament to Ireland. Later, after
the rejection of the bill on its second reading, Gladstone appealed to the
country, and when the General Election brought back a Conservative
majority, he was defeated.
Lord Frederick Cavendish became in 1882 Chief Secretary for Ireland, in
succession to Mr. Forster. On 6th May he and Mr. Burke (his unpopular
subordinate) were stabbed in Phoenix Park.
The allusion to Newman's study of the Libyan language occurs in the letter
following, as it has done in more than one of the others about this time.
The Numidians were descended from the race from which the modern Berbers
are drawn. Their name was drawn from the Greek word Nomades--Land of
Nomads; and was given to tribes in Northern Africa by the Romans.
"_8th May_, 1882.
* * * * *
"To-day we have heard with horror of the murder of Lord Frederick
Cavendish, and with grief, if with once or twice that he finds it very
difficult to keep his hand steady.
In May, 1882, he writes to Dr. Nicholson concerning the news of the
moment--the murder of Lord Henry Cavendish and Mr. Burke, at Phoenix Park.
It will be remembered that it happened at the end of all the obstructive
tactics used by Parnell and his Home Rule Party, which was organized to
prevent coercion being used, and also to force on England the compulsion
of legislating promptly for Ireland the measures demanded by the
Nationalists. It was not until 1886 Gladstone brought before Parliament a
measure which would give a Statutory Parliament to Ireland. Later, after
the rejection of the bill on its second reading, Gladstone appealed to the
country, and when the General Election brought back a Conservative
majority, he was defeated.
Lord Frederick Cavendish became in 1882 Chief Secretary for Ireland, in
succession to Mr. Forster. On 6th May he and Mr. Burke (his unpopular
subordinate) were stabbed in Phoenix Park.
The allusion to Newman's study of the Libyan language occurs in the letter
following, as it has done in more than one of the others about this time.
The Numidians were descended from the race from which the modern Berbers
are drawn. Their name was drawn from the Greek word _Nomades_--Land of
Nomads; and was given to tribes in Northern Africa by the Romans.
"_8th May_, 1882.
* * * * *
"To-day we have heard with horror of the murder of Lord Frederick
Cavendish, and with grief, if with less horror, of Mr. Burke's. I felt
persuaded from the first that the assassins would aim only at Mr. Burke,
who has long been regarded as the perverter of every Viceroy and
Secretary; but in mere self-defence they also killed his companion,
perhaps not even knowing who he was. Lord Frederick Cavendish was almost
unknown to the Irish, and cannot have been hated by them as Mr. Forster
was.
"My second thought on this grievous affair is, that it is likely to call
out so sincere a disavowal from collective Ireland, and from the most
extreme of Irish politicians, that it may help to reconcile Irish patriots
and the Liberal Ministry. To have a common grief is a moral cement. Also
it seems to compel Mr. Gladstone to send as Irish Secretary an _Irishman_,
and one publicly esteemed as Irish patriot, as well as a sincere friend to
the English connection; and from what I have heard before this event, Mr.
Shaw seems to be a very likely man.
"Meanwhile, sad to say, Mr. Gladstone entrenches himself, and _blocks up_
business by the Rules of Procedure.
"Well, Ireland is taking a leaf out of Nihilism. It is bad enough, yet not
so bad as with the poor Czar....
"Yours cordially in old esteem,
"F. W. Newman."
"On Saturday I corrected the last proofs of my essay towards a Numidian
dictionary. Yesterday a friend sent me a scrap from Paris, in which Renan
avows that until a Numidian dictionary is compiled they cannot begin to
decipher inscriptions in the _Canaries!_ I fancy the Canary language is a
wide step off."
Each succeeding year after 1882 Newman complains from time to time, in his
letters to his friends, of increasing infirmities and physical
disabilities, which made travelling often exceedingly trying for his head,
and rendered him more and more dependent on his wife. He had for a long
time suffered a great deal from his eyes, and consequently during the last
few years of his life writing letters became a physical weariness. He was
also subject to a sudden loss of brain power, when he found himself
completely unable at times to speak consecutively.
[Illustration: ANNA SWANWICK
FROM A PORTRAIT PAINTED BY MISS V. BRUCE]
CHAPTER X
LETTERS WRITTEN TO MISS ANNA SWANWICK
(BETWEEN 1871 AND 1887)
Anna Swanwick was one of the most remarkable women of her age--one of the
most intellectual, one of the most thoughtful as regards the social
educational movements of her time, which was the early part of the last
century. Yet there is a passage in a lecture delivered by her at Bedford
College which reveals only too clearly the straitened and limited means at
the disposal of girls in those days who wished to climb the stairs of that
Higher Education so easy to men, but then so very difficult of access for
women. She says:--
"In my young days, though I attended what was considered the best girls'
school in Liverpool, the education there given was so meagre that I felt
like the Peri excluded from Paradise, and I often longed to assume the
costume of a boy in order to learn Latin, Greek, and mathematics, which
were then regarded as essential to a liberal education for boys, but were
not thought of for girls. To give some idea of the educational meagreness
alluded to above, I may mention the fact that during my schooldays I never
remember to have seen a map, while all my knowledge of geography was
derived from passages learnt by rote." I quote this from one of the most
delightful memoirs I have come across for a long time: _Anna Swanwick; a
Memoir and Recollections_, by Miss Mary Brace. [Footnote: Published by
Fisher Unwin.]
But no "educational meagreness" can keep the feet of some climbers off the
educational ladder. It may be with slow, "sad steps" they "climb the sky"
of the higher education. Nevertheless the effort is doggedly made. For in
all great men, as in all great women, there is something-call it genius,
call it what you like--which _forces_ its way through, be the impediments
what they may.
Anna Swanwick, to whom the following letters were written at various
intervals, was well known for her philanthropic and educational work among
the poorer classes, and also for her earnest endeavours for the larger
development of women's work and education. A large part of her own
education in Greek and Hebrew was carried forward at Berlin. In 1830
Bedford College was opened. Miss Bruce tells us that Francis Newman and
Augustus de Morgan, Dr. Carpenter, and other famous lecturers were among
the first to lecture there. I imagine it was here that the friendship of
forty years between Anna Swanwick and Francis Newman began. The former was
specially impressed with Newman's method of teaching mathematics. I quote
her words from Miss Bruce's _Memoir_:--
"I remember being particularly impressed by F. W. Newman's teaching of
mathematics, including geometry and algebra; he saw at a glance if one of
his pupils in algebra was not able to follow his calculations, which were
often very elaborate; on such occasions, instead of endeavouring to
explain the difficulty to a single pupil, thus keeping the entire class
waiting, he would interest them all by placing the subject in an entirely
new light, which was possible only to one who had a complete mastery of
his subject--one who, looking down from a mental height, could see the
various paths by which the higher eminence could be reached."
I cannot but mention here the supreme service Anna Swanwick was able to
render Newman at the end of his life. It was in the last letter which he
wrote to her, when he was ninety-two, that these words occur. After
stating that he wished "once again definitely to take the name of
Christian," he adds: "I close by my now sufficient definition of a
Christian, c one who in heart and steadily is a disciple of Jesus in
upholding the prayer called the Lord's Prayer as the highest and purest in
any known national religion.' I think J. M. will approve this. [Footnote:
James Martineau.] ... My new idea is perhaps with you very old.... Asked
what is a Christian, I reply, one who earnestly uses in word and substance
the traditional Prayer of Jesus, older than any Gospel--this supplants all
creeds." This letter was written shortly before his death.
Since I have been writing this memoir I had a letter from Mr. William
Tallack, who quoted these words of Mr. Garrett Horder with respect to
Francis Newman's final return to the Christian Faith. This fact had been
published in a paper in 1903.
"Not more than three or four years before Dr. Martineau's death I was
sitting in an omnibus at Oxford Circus, when Dr. Martineau, accompanied by
his daughter, got in, and took seats by my side. After I had expressed my
pleasure at seeing them, he said, c I think you ought to know that the
other day I had a letter from Frank Newman, saying that when he died he
wished it to be known, that he died in the Christian Faith.'"
To my mind no memoir would be complete with that knowledge left out--
Newman's return to his former Faith.
The first letter in the collection before me concerns one of Newman's
brothers. Perhaps most of us can count a "Charles Robert" in our
environment. Someone whose "worm i' the bud" of their character has so
completely spoilt its early flower on account of the "one ruinous vice" of
"censoriousness," of perpetual nagging, and fault-finding developed to
such a pitch that it has eaten out at last the fair heart of human
forbearance and kindness which is the birthright of everyone. Such a
person makes the true, free development of others in his proximity a
harder task than God intended it to be, for this reason: that the best
character cannot do itself justice if it is aware that all its sayings and
doings are capped promptly by wrong constructions placed there by "the
chiel amang" them "takin'" unfavourable "notes."
Such a one was Charles Robert Newman. At the date at which this letter was
written his own family had found him so "impossible" that for thirty or
forty years no intercourse had taken place between them.
_To Miss Anna Swanwick from Frank Newman._
"45 Bedford Gardens, W.
"_Tuesday, 4th July_, 1871.
"My dear Anna,
"... I look forward with hope that after my whole life has been a constant
preparation for doing--as yet very little--for the good of those who have
had fewer advantages than myself, I may perhaps be able in my very ripe
years to contribute something more; especially by aid of the noble women
who from all quarters spring up to the succour of their own sex and of the
public welfare: I trust I shall not permit _any_ literary tastes or
fancies to withdraw my energies from this and similar causes.... But every
one of us who is to do anything worthy must forget self, and, above all,
must not cast self-complacent glances on what he is, or does, or has done;
and, in truth, I have so deep a dissatisfaction with what I am and have
been, that my poor consolation is to think how much worse I might have
been.... I must add you evidently do not know that I have _two_ brothers.
The eldest, Dr. J. H. N.; the second, Charles Robert N., three years older
than myself, of whom we do not speak, because he is as unfit for society
as if insane. He is a Cynic Philosopher in modern dress, having many
virtues, but one ruinous vice, that of perpetual censoriousness, by which
he alienates every friend as soon as made, or in the making, by which he
ejected himself from all posts of usefulness. ... He has lived now more
than thirty years in retirement and idleness. His moral ruin was from
Robert Owen's _Socialism and Atheistic Philosophy_; but he presently began
his rebukes on Robert Owen himself. His sole pleasure in company seems to
be in noting down material for ingenious, impertinent, and insolent fault-
finding; hence no one can safely admit him. He formally renounced his
mother, brothers, and sisters about forty years ago, and wrote to other
persons requesting them not to count him a Newman ... because we were
religious and he was an Atheist. He had _all the same dear sweet
influences of home as all of us_; yet how unamiable and useless has he
become! still loving to snarl most at the hands that feed him. Is not this
an admonition not to attribute too much to the single cause of home
Influences, however precious? I shall be happy to attend to your
_Aeschylus_. Lovingly yours,
"F. W. Newman."
"Weston-super-Mare,
"_30th July_, 1880.
"My dear Anna,
"... I am made very melancholy these two days by the news from
Afghanistan, not that anything comes to me as new: I have dreaded it all
along, ever since I discerned that the Gladstone ministry would not_ act
on the moral principles which Mr. Grant Duff definitely professed, which,
indeed, Mr. Gladstone so emphatically avowed in his book on _Church and
State_, and in every grave utterance. Ever since Sir Stafford Northcote so
boldly taunted the (then) Opposition, in the words: 'You call our policy
_crime_; but will you dare to pledge yourselves to reverse it if you come
into power? No, you will not dare.' And none of the Opposition said
frankly, 'We _will_ reverse it'; it was clear to me that they had not the
moral courage. Accordingly I warned friends who asked my judgment, that it
is _in the Russo-Turkish affairs_ the Liberals (so called) would reverse
_the policy, but in Afghanistan and S. Africa_ they would act precisely as
Lord Beaconsfield would act; would accept the positions which they had
condemned; would appear to the natives as continuing the same course of
wicked aggression; would do justice only _so far as compelled_, and _no
sooner_; which is exactly what Lord Beaconsfield was sure to do.... We now
see that a new war opens upon us both in Afghanistan and, it is to be
feared, from the Basutos with the Liberal party in power, and their great
leader to bear the main responsibility!! It is a frightful outlook.... We
had only to say frankly to the Afghan chiefs: 'We always opposed the war
as unjust: we bitterly lament it: we cannot restore the dead or heal the
crippled, but _we will repay you whatever sum of money a Russian
arbitrator may award to you against us_. (!) We will withdraw from your
country in peace as fast as we can, and leave you masters in your own
land.'"
It will be remembered that so far back as 1838, Sir James Outram
[Footnote: Named by his great friend, George Giberne (later on Judge in
the Bombay Presidency), the "Bayard of India."] did great services in the
first Afghan War. It was thought by many that had he remained in the
Ghilzee country many of our disasters might not have occurred. But Lord
Ellenborough--one of the many mistakes placed by our Government in
authority in India during a critical time--never recognized in any way his
services.
"It is certain they would have seen this to be sincere, and would have
been delighted to get rid of us without more bloodshed.... It is pretended
that it would be _cruel_ to leave Afghanistan without first securing to it
a stable government, when obviously we are without moral power there to
add stability. Our presence makes enmity among them.... Alas! once more I
find Mr. Gladstone fail of daring to act according to his own moral
principles. He ought not to have accepted office.... It makes me very sad
for what must come upon England, and perhaps on all English settlers in S.
Africa, to say nothing of India and Anglo-Indians.
"I am, yours ever affectionately,
"F. W. N."
The next letter is dated 31st Dec., 1880, and treats mostly of agriculture
in the fens, in connection with a writer on the subject in some current
paper.
"He" (the writer) "says that if a general move were made in the fens to
stamp out the weeds (which would require an immense expenditure of money
in wages), 'very different results would be obtained from what we now
see.' No doubt they would. But what then? The landlord would raise the
rent, and the farmers would have spent their capital without remuneration.
_Nothing but a security against the rise of rent_ can encourage the
farmers to make sacrifices. He justly says ... that fruit might be more
profitable. But if a farmer plant a fruit tree, it becomes his landlord's
property at once, though it may need thirteen or thirty years to come to
its fullest value.... The writer treats a _lowering_ of rent as out of the
question. Yet from 1847 up to about 1876 it was constantly _rising_. Now,
forsooth! to go back is _impossible!!!_ And why, because _recent buyers
have bought at so high a price_ that they only get three per cent. They
are to be protected from losing, and that, though many have bought at a
fancy price to indulge other tastes than properly agricultural. Mr.
Pennington [Footnote: An old friend of Newman's.] told me he had farms
under his own management and despaired of not losing by them, unless he
could drive down the need of _paying wages_. This is what the farmers
find. Up to 1875 rents kept rising, and wages rose too, yet prices rising,
the peasants were not much better off. In 1873 the peasants claimed more
still, and the farmers could not give it. They are ground between two
millstones--higher rents and higher wages. This seems to me a fundamental
refutation of the peculiarly English system. _Fixity of rent is the first
necessity._ The landlord must not pocket the fruit of the tenants'
labour."
The following letter has to do almost entirely with politics, and with
English misrule of Ireland.
It will be remembered that from 1880, when Gladstone came into office,
until 1885, when his Prime Ministership ended, wars were the order of the
day constantly--wars in the Transvaal; war in Afghanistan; war in Egypt,
and General Gordon left to die in Khartoum. Besides all these, that which
came upon us constantly, the care of countries nearer at hand over which
we tried experiments.
"Weston-super-Mare.
"Sunday night, _20th Feb_., 1881.
"My dear Anna,
"Many thanks for your kind interest in the approval of my writings.
"I have come to a pause in another matter. My Libyan dictionary is as
complete as I can make it.... What next? I ask myself; for _to be idle is
soon to be miserable_. I do not quite say with Clough, '_Qui laborat,
orat_' No! An eminent vivisector may be immensely laborious. We must
choose our labour well, for then it may help us to pray _better_. But
Coleridge is surely nearer the truth: 'He prayeth well who _loveth_ well.'
I put it, Qui _inferiora_ recte diligit, Superiorem bene venerabitur.
"But I turn to your question, What do I think of the Coercion Bill? It is
hard to say little, and painful to speak plainly. I immensely admire _very
much_ in Mr. Gladstone; so do you: of possible leaders he is the best--at
present! and it is a bitter disappointment to find him a reed that pierces
the hand when one leans on it. I fear you will not like me to say, what I
say with pain, that only in European affairs do I find him commendable. In
regard to our unjust wars he has simply _betrayed and deluded_ the
electors who enthusiastically aided him to power.... He has gone wholly
wrong towards Ireland, equally as towards Afghanistan, India, and South
Africa.... He knows as well as John Bright that Ireland is not only
chronically injured by English institutions, but that Ireland has every
reason to distrust promises.
"Those of William III in the pacification were violated; so were those of
Mr. Pitt in 1801.... The very least that could soothe the Irish and give
them hope is a clear enunciation _what_ measures of relief Mr. Gladstone
is resolved _to propose_. But he is incurably averse to definite
statements, and seems as anxious as a Palmerston might be to reserve a
power of shuffling out.... He tells the Boers of the Transvaal that if
they will submit unconditionally, they shall meet 'generous' treatment. If
the injured Basutos submit, their case will be _carefully considered_....
Nothing was to me more obvious than that as soon as he saw a beginning of
unruly conduct in Ireland, he should have pledged himself to clearly
defined measures, and have insisted on the existing law against
lawlessness. But 'Boycotting' is _not_ lawlessness. Lynch-law against
oppressive landlords or their agents cannot be put down by intensifying
national hatred.... Has the Coercion been wisely directed and reasonably
guarded from abuse? I am sorry to say, flatly and plainly, No; and that
Mr. Gladstone himself, as well as Mr. Forster, seems to have gone more and
more to the wrong as the Bill moved on.... Mr. Forster's tone has been
simply ferocious, out of Parliament as well as in, and Mr. Gladstone has
borrowed a spice of ferocity.... To imprison (for instance) Mr. Parnell,
and _not tell him why_, may cause an exasperation in Ireland, followed by
much bloodshed.... Meanwhile, Ireland is made more and more hostile, and
foreign nations more and more condemn us.... It seems to be forgotten that
we have an army locked up at Candahar. _That a severe spring may be its
ruin_, deficient as it was known to be long ago in fodder and fuel, and
lately of provisions also. Cannon are of little use when horses are
starved. And what may not happen in India, injured and irritated as it is,
if that army were lost!... John Stuart Mill wrote that if we got into
civil war with Ireland about Landed Tenure, no Government would pity us,
and 'all the Garibaldis in the world' would be against us....
"Your affectionate friend,
"F. W. Newman."
The following letter concerns the Transvaal war, and is dated March 2nd,
1881:--
* * * * *
"Since Mr. Gladstone cannot have _changed his judgment_ concerning the
Beaconsfield policy in Afghanistan, in India, or in South Africa, the only
inference is that (from one reason or other which I may or may not know)
_he is not strong enough to carry out his own convictions of right_. If he
was not strong enough to give back the Transvaal to the Boers, though he
pronounced the annexation all but insanity, when he entered office, and
_had a power of stipulating_ on what terms alone he would be Premier, much
less is he strong enough now. Not Tories only, but Whigs (to judge by
their past) and the whole mass of our honest fighters, and certainly the
Court, will find it an unendurable humiliation to do justice _by
compulsion of the Boers_. Their atrocious doctrine is, that before we
confess that we have done them wrong, we must first murder enough of them
to show that we are the stronger. It is awful to attribute sentiment so
wicked to the Premier, or to John Bright and the rising Radical element of
the Ministry; but the melancholy fact is that they act before the public
_as if_ this were their doctrine.... The Coercion Bill and its errors are
past and irrecoverable.... How will it now aid us to hold up to the public
Mr. Gladstone's irrecoverable mistakes? That is what I cannot make out. He
has destroyed public confidence in all possible successors to the
Premiership, if confidence could be placed in any. I know not one who
could be trusted to INSIST on stopping war and wasting no more blood. Yet
the longer this war lasts, the greater the danger (1) that all the Dutch
in Orange State, in Natal, in Cape Colony will unite against us; (2) that
an attack on us in retreat from Candahar, where Mr. Gladstone has
'insanely' continued war, if moderately successful, may make even yet new
'vengeance' of Afghans seem 'necessary to our prestige'--such are the
immoral principles dominant among Whigs as well as Tories; (3) any such
embroilments may animate Ireland to insurrectionary defiance; (4) further
Afghan fighting may lead to Indian revolt.... The nation has found that no
possible Ministry will make common justice its rule. Penny newspapers make
us widely different now from thirty or forty years ago. The masses _abhor
war_, and will only sanction it when we seem forced to it in defence of
public freedom. ... The internal quiet of France has stript Republicanism
of terrors to our moneyed classes. Not the thing, but the transition to it
is feared: with good reason, yet perhaps not rightly in an intelligent
people.
"Some sudden change of events may put off Republicanism yet for thirty
years; but great disasters may precipitate it.... We, the people, can do
nothing at present that I see except avow with Lord John Russell (1853-4),
'God prosper the Right' which now means 'May we be defeated whenever we
are in the wrong.' This is the only _patriotic_ prayer.
"F. W. N."
Again, in October, Newman is reviewing Gladstone's political character,
and regretting that it has not fulfilled its first high promise.
* * * * *
"We must make the best we can of all our public men, and eminently of Mr.
Gladstone, and be thankful for all we get from him. Yet I cannot help,
when I remember his undoubtedly sincere religion and moral professions,
expecting from him _a higher morality_ than from Palmerston, Wellington,
or Peel. Peel was a valuable minister, and better every five years. I
counted and count his loss a great one. Yet his first question in
determining action or speech was, "How many votes will support me?" a
topic reasonable in _all minor questions_, but not where essentially Right
or Wrong are concerned. I grieve if you rightly attribute to Mr. Gladstone
that he would have arrested Mr. Parnell earlier, only that he did not
think the English public _ripe_ for approving it. The public is now
_irritated_ by Mr. P.'s conduct. If it is against law, he ought to be
prosecuted by law, informed of his offence, and allowed to defend
himself.... The whole idea of _lessening crime_ by passing an Act to take
away the cardinal liberty of speech enjoyed by Englishmen (and M.P.'s) and
deprive them not only of Jury, but of _Judge_ and _Accuser_, while
REFUSING to prohibit evictions in the interval between the passing of the
Violence Bill (coercive of guilt it is not) and the passing of the
Conciliation and Justice Bill, is to me amazing.... I rather believe the
fact is that he" (Gladstone) "carried his Coercion Bill against the
scruples and grave fears of all the most valuable part of his Cabinet.
Instead of earning gratitude from Ireland, he has intensely irritated both
the landlords and the opposite party, and certainly has not diminished
crime, nor aided towards punishing it.
"I attribute it all to the fact that he has not understood that when
pressed into the highest post by the enthusiasm of the country, he was
bound by _honour_ and common sense to carry out _his own avowed policy_,
not that of weak friends and bitter opponents. The attempt to _count votes
beforehand_ is fatal where great moral issues are involved."
And again, in November:--
"Have we yet the measure of what we are to suffer from the continuance of
the Afghan war? I believe a million and a half per month does not exceed
the cost--that is, about fourteen millions _since Mr. Gladstone came into
power_; but if the winter continue severe, the whole army may be lost, in
spite of our bravery and military science. We seem to forget how the
Russian winter ruined Napoleon, and in the case of the Transvaal how much
our armies suffered in the war against our American colonists from the
vastness of distances, and the skill of shooting almost universal to the
colonists.
"I regard Mr. Gladstone as the best Premier by far now possible to us....
There is no shadow of responsibility left in a cabinet if we do not impute
all its errors to its _Head_; and I regard it as a terrible fact, pregnant
with possible revolution, that _he has betrayed the Electors_. The country
hushed its many and various desires of domestic reform for one
overwhelming claim, PEACE. They bore him into power on that firm belief.
Instead of peace we have war--war which may spread like a conflagration.
His clear duty was (and John Bright's too) _to refuse to take office_
except on the condition of instantly reversing all the wickedness and
insanity which he denounced when out of office. He and he only could have
stayed these plagues. We are now hated for our acts, and despised for our
affectation of Justice and Philanthropy.
* * * * *
"I am thoroughly aware that my judgment of Mr. Gladstone may be wrong, and
to myself it is so painful that I expect a majority of his supporters will
differ from it. But when I say he has increased--immensely increased--ALL
HIS DIFFICULTIES, I marvel how you can deduce from my judgment that I
_underrate_ his difficulties.... If Ireland be in chronic revolt, and
India seize the opportunity, few Englishmen are likely to suffer less from
it than I. Probably Mr. Gladstone, by the fear lest the Tories now seek to
ride back into power on the shoulders of Ireland, will resolutely make
_household suffrage for the counties_ his main effort.
"But there the Lords can checkmate him."
Before quoting from the next letter before me, written to Anna Swanwick in
February, 1884, which treats of the best method of teaching languages,
ancient and modern, that practice should precede the scientific study in
this matter; and that the "popular side should go first," I think a
quotation from Newman's article (_Miscellanies_, Vol. V) on Modern Latin
as a Basis of Instruction, would fitly come in here. The article makes a
great point of popularizing the study of Latin. That it should practically
be made an interesting subject not devoid of romance and imagination. He
condemns the old fashion (still, alas! in vogue in many schools) of
committing to memory an enormous amount of matter quite unworthy of being
retained in the mind. He urges the need of a "Latin novel"--a Latin
comedy; one that would set alight the imagination of young scholars.
In Miss Bruce's _Memoir and Recollections_ of Anna Swanwick, there is
mention of the fact that the latter often mentioned the insight she
herself obtained in the intricacies of the Greek language through help
given her by Frank Newman. She also quotes his words with regard to
geometry, showing that the same need in teaching it prevailed as with the
study of Greek. That the imagination must be stimulated. A sense of beauty
must be cultivated. That the whole secret lay in the _way_ a thing was
presented to the mind of the student. For unless the sense of beauty and
symmetry had been aroused in him, he would of necessity find far more
difficulty in retaining the, so to speak, statistical Blue-book of the
groundwork and rules of any science. Newman himself was an adept at
putting a subject in an entirely new light, when some pupil failed,
perhaps, to follow his calculations or explanations. In relation to the
teaching of Greek, the following words of Miss Swanwick's (in the _Memoir_
to which I have just referred) show how thoroughly she and Newman were in
accord.
"Deeply interested as I was in the study of Greek, and intense as was the
pleasure of its acquisition, I yet hesitate to recommend it as a part of
the curriculum of boys and girls, unless it can be taken later, and with
more concentrated determination to master the extremely difficult grammar,
than is usually given to school lessons.... It is to be remembered,
moreover, that in the literature of Greece and Rome there are no words
adapted expressly for the young. The ancient classics, written by adults
for adults, are beyond the intelligence of immature minds, whilst in
regard to the moral lessons to be drawn from them, the superiority, in my
opinion, is vastly in favour of more modern writers."
Anna Swanwick's original desire to learn Greek was (Miss Bruce tells us in
the former's own words) "to be able to read the New Testament in the
original."
I quote now from Newman's article:--
"Children can learn two languages, or even three at once; and this, if
these are spoken to them by different individuals, without confusion and
without being less able to learn other things. Memory is aided because
imagination connects the words with a person, a scene, or events; and,
little by little, the utility of speech calls forth active efforts in the
learner.... In general the old method was one of repetition: _it dealt
immensely in committing Latin to memory_.... Nothing is easier to boys
than such learning, even when the thing learned is uninteresting... yet...
means should be taken of making it interesting and instructive and
rhythmical.... It seems to me that we want what I may call a Latin novel
or romance; that is, a pleasing tale of fiction, which shall convey
numerous Latin words, which do not easily find a place in poetry, history,
or philosophy.... If anyone had genius to produce, in Terentian style,
Latin comedies worthy of engaging the minds and hearts of youth (for I can
never read a play of Terence to a young class without the heartache), I
should regard this as a valuable contribution." [Footnote: Mr. Darbishire
says in a letter to which I have had access: "One of his" (Newman's)
"special endeavours was to accustom his students to deal with Greek as a
spoken language, as he and we did in reading Greek plays."]
To return to the letter.
"Weston-super-Mare,
"_16th Feb._, 1884.
"My dear Friend,
"The late Professor George Long (my predecessor in University College),
editor of the _Penny Cyclopaedia_ was originally professor of Greek and a
student of Sanskrit. He maintained that German, studied as it ought to be,
prepared the mind for other work as effectively as could Greek, and, as
Dr. W. B. Hodgson (and I too) independently alleged, that the study of
_modern_ languages and learning to _talk_ them ought to _precede_ the
study of Greek. To make Greek the basis of an entire school and force it
on all is with me cruelty as well as folly. Five out of six women and men
would not learn it enough to _retain_ or _use_ it. If you place ancient
languages and all that cannot be learned by _talking_ at the END, only
those will study who have a special object, and these will duly _use_
them. I think that is the only wise and _just_ way. Further, I think it a
grave mistake to teach the scientific _side_ of any language first, and
try to proceed through science to practice. The popular side should go
first. Greeks talked rightly before Protagoras, but Protagoras first
taught that Greek had three genders.... _After_ a full acquaintance with
the substance of a language, its laws and relationships come naturally and
profitably. In a dead language we are _forced_ to bring on the science
earlier: that is the reason for deferring such study till a riper age; and
best if delayed until _after_ learning several _modern_ languages (by
talking, if possible), the more different from one another the _better_.
English, German or Russian or Latin, and Arabic would be three very
different in kind.
"Our English Professor Latham used to talk much error, in my judgment, of
the supreme value to the intellect of studying FORM. This word was to
include the 'accidence' of language with the fewest possible words;
algebra with the least possible arithmetic ... Logic without real
proposition.... Now, in my belief, and that of _De Morgan_ and the late
Professor Boole, nothing so ruins the mind as to accustom it to think that
it knows something when it can attach no definite ideas to the symbols
over which it chatters."
To-day, what educational strides should we not make if we could but bring
our present systems of teaching into line with these of Newman's!
It will be remembered that in March, 1886, Gladstone caused great
dissension in his own party by bringing in his measure for giving Ireland
a statutory parliament. The bill was rejected at its second reading, and
when Gladstone made his appeal to the country, the general election showed
he had lost its confidence. He had based his belief that Ireland was ripe
for some measure of Home Rule, on account of the fact that the election
under the new Reform Bill had proved that out of 103 Irish members 87 were
Nationalists.
"_5th May_, 1885
"My dear Anna,
* * * * *
"The Irish question, as now presented, is in a very sad imbroglio. After
our monstrous errors of policy and the infliction on Ireland of miseries
and degradation unparalleled in Europe, to expect to bring things right
without humiliation and without risks of what cannot be foreseen, seems to
me conceit and ignorance. Evildoers _must_ have humiliation, _must_ have
risks, when they try to go right. Opponents will always be able to argue,
as did Alcibiades to the Athenians: 'We hold our supremacy as a despotism;
therefore it is no longer _safe_ for us to play the part of virtue.' In so
far, I may seem to favour Mr. Gladstone's move; and I think I do rejoice
_that it has been made_. Probably those are right who say, 'Henceforth it
becomes impossible to go back into the old groove.' I do not believe that
a Parliament elected on new lines will endure it.
"But neither would the Democratic Parliament in any case have endured it.
A new civil war against Ireland seems morally impossible. Therefore Mr.
Gladstone is _ruining_ a measure which might have been good, by his
preposterous dealing with it. Lord Hartington said (as indeed did John
Bright) the very truth, that the Liberal Party cannot so disown its own
traditions, and its wisest principles, as to allow an _individual_,
however justly honoured, to concoct _secretly from his old and trusted
comrades_, a vast, complicated, and far-reaching settlement and make
himself sole initiator of it (as _I_ have kept saying, reduce Parliament
to a _machine for saying only Yes and No_).... It is a vile degradation of
Parliament. But that is only a small part of the infinite blunder. He
pretends that everything has been tried and has failed, _except_ what he
now proposes.... In 1880 no one forced him to bring in an Irish measure:
he chose to do it, _and did it in the worst possible way,_ by treating the
Irish members as ENEMIES, and refusing to consult them. [The Scotch
members have _never_ been so treated on Scotch questions.]
"Down to last September Mr. Gladstone declared that the Irish members were
men, who, by a conspiracy of _rapine_, were seeking to _dismember_ the
empire. He carried '(?)' against Ireland during his unparalleled
supremacy, acts of despotism unequalled in this country, and that, though
they _had no tendency to lessen crime_; and he joined them with
_imprisonment against Mr. Parnell_. Only his monstrous incompetency to see
right and wrong, made his well-intentioned measure all but fruitless. Peel
and Wellington did mischief, long since deplored, in teaching the Irish
that England cared nothing for justice, but very much indeed for the
danger of a new civil war; but now Mr. Gladstone has been teaching them
still more effectually. In September last he denounced Parnell and his
friends as bent on dismembering the empire, deplored the danger of
consulting them, begged for votes to strengthen him _against_ them; but as
soon as the country, from various and very just discontent with his
WARLIKE POLICY, and his utter neglect of our moral needs, showed in many
of the boroughs their deep dissatisfaction, and he found Mr. Parnell
_twice as strong_ as in the Old Parliament ... he gave notice that he was
ready to capitulate to Mr. Parnell. And he _did_ virtually capitulate; Mr.
Parnell _understood_ him, and defeated Lord Salisbury, and Mr. Gladstone
in accepting the power _to which Mr. Parnell invited him,_ insulted all
his trusting comrades by keeping them in total ignorance of his scheme,
while he concocted it by consultation with the very men whom just before
he had _maligned_ as conspiring to _break up_ the empire.
"Such conduct from a Tory minister sounds to me more extreme than anything
I ever read of in English history; and from a pretended _Liberal_ leader
would have seemed incredible, if predicted. I suppose he was _predestined
(vir fatalis)_ to break up his Party.
"I shall indeed rejoice and praise God if Mr. Gladstone's wonderful folly
do_ break down this ... _system of legislation._--There's a long yarn for
you!!
"Ever your affectionate
"F. W. Newman."
In the next letter, in November of the same year, Newman complains of
temporary paralysis in his left-hand fingers and stiffness in that arm "as
though it had a muscular twist."
The actual putting on of an overcoat now becomes no slight undertaking,
and he finds that reading now tires his eyes much more than does writing.
He touches on the Burmese war, "which seems likely to be even worse than
the Egyptian and Sudanese iniquity in its results to us." And he adds, "We
have now without any just cause of war, or even the pretence of any,
invaded this province, which is subject and tributary to China, and
lawlessly act the marauder upon it, claiming it as ours, and treating the
patriots who oppose us as rebels and robbers. The Emperor of China now
finds our frontier, if we succeed, pushed up to his own, and, whenever
convenient to him, he can send in his armies against us, especially if
India were to revolt."
In October, 1886, matters in Bulgaria were at their highest tide. At last,
after all her efforts, since 1356, at independence from the hated power of
Greece, when "Almost" she and Servia were "persuaded" to form a great
Slavonic State together, she seemed near attainment of her constantly
prolonged efforts.
In 1872 the Bulgarian Church was again able to break her fetters, which
she abhorred, which bound her to Greece. Then, in 1876, the atrocities
committed by the Turkish inhabitants of Bulgaria took place. The Porte,
when besought by the Constantinople Conference to make concessions,
refused point-blank. Then Russia stepped in and declared war, and proposed
themselves to make a Bulgarian State. England and Austria promptly refused
to lend themselves to this scheme, and a Berlin Congress was summoned. The
Berlin Treaty in 1878 arranged the limits and administrative autonomy of
this State, and the Bulgarians chose Prince Alexander of Battenberg,
cousin of the Grand Duke of Hesse, and he became in 1879 Alexander I of
Bulgaria. Eventually the recognition of him by the Porte as Governor-
General of Eastern Roumelia followed. In 1886 Russia made herself felt
unexpectedly. Alexander was kidnapped by order of the Czar and carried to
Russia.
The upshot of it all was that, though he returned to Bulgaria, yet he felt
it was in vain to struggle against Russian animosities, and so abdicated.
The letter following shows Newman to be in failing health and under
doctor's treatment:--
"Weston-super-Mare,
"_7th October,_ 1886.
"My dear Anna,
"... My brief London visit which ought to have come off is forbidden
positively, and I doubt not wisely, by medical command, _not_ because I am
ill, _but_ because I had formidable threatening of illness, like a black
cloud which after all does not come down. The threat consisted in my left
hand losing all sense and power. This is now the sixth day. On the third I
regained power to button, though clumsily, and to use my fork. Of course I
am ordered to use my _brain_ as little as possible, and in future to
change my habits. I must leave off all letters and other writing much
earlier in the evening. But frequent short walks I hold salutary to my
brain; and my feet have not failed me.
"... You ask what I think of the Bulgarian outrage.... In the present
instance the one thing primarily to be desired, and eminently difficult to
attain, was cohesion of the little Powers. As of old, Sparta and Athens
could not coalesce, and therefore after weakening one another they ill-
resisted Philip, and were overpowered by Alexander armed from Macedonia
and Thrace, and under-propt by gold from Asia; so now the little States--
Servia, Bulgaria, Roumania, Greece--each envied the other, perhaps was
ready for hostility, but all looked up to Russia with more than fear.
"But this atrocious kidnapping of a reigning Prince has given just _the
external compression which was wanted_ to make the little States desire
union, and the greater Powers to think that such union is for European
benefit. Not only has it reconciled Servia and Bulgaria, late in actual
war, but it has elicited public outcry in Roumania for federation with
these two States. Whether Greece can lay aside her jealous enmity against
Bulgaria is not yet clear. Her ambition is to acquire Macedonia and
Constantinople ... perhaps ... Albania.
"... To me it seems a wonder that the Greek statesmen do not see that
Constantinople is too critical a spot for the European Powers to yield up
to any secondary State. If it is to be under European protection, Greece
would find her power in Constantinople merely nominal....
"The brutality of the Czar not only drives the little Powers to desire
union, but makes the great Powers ashamed of it, and it seems, though
reluctantly, they will oppose him.
"_This is the first time that a Hungarian statesman has initiated European
movement._ If in Europe they are forced to displease Russia, so much the
more will they wish to keep Russia in better humour by not thwarting her
projects in Armenia, which projects I believe to be just, philanthropic,
and necessary under the circumstances; since the inability of the Sultan
to rescue the Armenians from marauders has been proved, and _no_ Power but
Russia can do the needful work....
"It is to be feared that Germany cannot add any real strength to control
Russia, while Russia knows that the insane vanity of French politicians is
preparing a war of vengeance against Germany. Until the masses of the
people have a practical constitutional plebiscite to _veto_ war
_beforehand,_ it seems as though horrors which seem dead and obsolete must
rise anew. _Perhaps_ this is the lesson which the populations all have to
learn. The earliest great triumph which the old plebeians of Rome won was
the constitutional principle that wars could not be made without previous
sanction of the popular assembly. England, alas! has not yet even demanded
this obvious and just veto. The men whose trade is war, whose honours and
wealth can only be won by war, will make it by hook or by crook, while
their fatal and immoral trade is honoured.
"Affectionately yours,
"F. W. Newman."
In April, 1887, the Irish question was again to the fore, and part of the
letter from which I quote shows clearly that Newman was in favour of some
form of Local Government for Ireland, though not of the same kind as was
being pressed forward by Mr. Parnell, who had urged on his countrymen
agrarian agitation and boycotting as the screw which was to force the hand
of the Home Government.
"My opinion is unchanged (1) that Grattan's Parliament was foolishly,
mischievously, and immorally subverted by English double-dealing; (2) that
in one hundred years things are so changed in Ireland and _in Rome_ that
we cannot go back to that crisis and heal old wounds by reinstating
Grattan's work without making new wounds; (3) I deeply blame Orangemen in
Belfast as (apparently) bent on promoting animosity, and on convincing us
that they will rather rush into civil war than endure a Parliament in
Dublin supreme over all Ireland: but however much this may be suspected as
the bluster and cunning of a minority in Ulster, to ignore it totally may
be unjust as well as unwise. And besides, I think that Ireland needs the
practice of Local Government, varying locally, before that of a Central
Irish Parliament. This forbids my desiring a complete triumph to Mr.
Parnell.
"You are aware that I have long desired Provincial Chambers for all three
kingdoms, and can see nothing to forbid them now for Ireland if Mr.
Gladstone were to take that side. If he did it would be carried against
Mr. Parnell by a vast majority of votes. No mere political measure can
cure famine and rackrent or insecure tenure; but if the agrarian evil be
appeased, no hatred of England on the part of Irish leaders will suffice
to make Ireland discontented. If Mr. Gladstone fixedly opposes, if he says
'Honour compels me'--his Midlothian defence of the Egyptian war!--I should
not the less say he had made a wrongful treaty. But 'a fac is a fac':
_someone_ hitherto makes this settlement impossible. If now the Tories
miscarry, apparently Gladstone will come in again, and not Oedipus can
tell us whether he will dissolve Parliament.
"It is supposed that he will; and Mr. W. S. Caine, whose prediction in
this matter I cannot underrate, warns Mr. Gladstone that to dissolve
_again_ will bring on him redoubled failure,--an immense lessening of
supporters.
"The new voters, at the last election, had not had time to learn a
thousand things. After such a transformation of the constituencies, I not
only _expect_--I _desire_--the break-up of the Liberal Party. Little by
little they have adopted the Tory idea of 'follow your leader': never
think for yourself. In the Parliament, in the Newspapers, in Arguments of
Foreign War, at the Hustings, they treat it as 'Treason to the Party' not
to do whatever the Premier says they _must_ do, or he will resign and
wreck the party.... I see only one sunbeam through the clouds ever since
the fatal Egyptian war; and that is the recent Peace-Union of _Germany,
Austria-Hungary and Italy_. I look on it as the inauguration of the future
European Confederacy which is to forbid European wars, and become a
forcible mediator. Under its shelter Roumania, Servia, and Bulgaria seem
likely to consolidate a union of defence; and as soon as all the Powers
understand that the Triple Alliance is based on permanent interests, the
Alliance will not need to keep their armaments on foot; to _train_ them,
as the generations grow up, will suffice. The royalties everywhere will
struggle for actual armies: the burdened peoples will murmur.
"Meanwhile we need long patience, I suppose, while Irish rent wastes to
smaller and smaller worth; and one new election will suddenly precipitate
the struggle. _I_ do not fear that any Irish success will make Irishmen
desire the burden of undertaking their own military and naval defence.
"Affectionately yours,
"F. W. Newman."
* * * * *
As regards Newman's opinions on one of the national questions which so
closely concern us to-day--the Drink Traffic--they are very clearly and
definitely stated in an article he wrote in the year 1877, and which
appeared in _Fraser's Magazine, in re_ Sir Wilfrid Lawson's Bill.
Here again decentralization was the key-note, as he firmly believed, of
the remedy.
"The palace-like jails which now disgrace our civilization, and cause
expenses so vast, are chiefly the fruit of this pernicious trade.... What
shadow of reason is there for doubting that such sales as are necessary...
will be far more sagaciously managed by a Local Board which the ratepayers
elect _for this sole purpose_, than either by magistrates... or by an
_irresponsible_ and _multitudinous_ Committee of Parliament? Finally, a
Board elected for this one duty is immeasurably better than the Town
Councils, who are distracted by an immensity of other business....
"Such a Board should have full power to frame its own restrictions, so as
to prevent the fraud of wine merchants or chemists degenerating into
spirit shops....
"To secure sufficient responsibility, no Board should be numerous: _five_
or _seven_ persons may be a full maximum, and no Board should have a vast
constituency. Therefore our greatest towns ought to be divided into areas
with suitable numbers, and have Boards separately independent. With a few
such precautions, the system of elective Licensing Boards, which can
impose despotically their own conditions on the licences, but without
power to bind their successors in the next year, appears to be a complete
solution of the problem...."
He adds, that to Sir Wilfrid Lawson "is due more largely than to any other
public man the arousing of the nation" in the matter of the Drink Traffic,
"To him our thanks and our honour will be equally paid, though the name of
another mover be on the victorious Bill"--whatever it may be.
"Noble efforts for a good cause are never thrown away, are never
ineffectual, even when the success does not come in the exact form for
which its champion was contending. It may hereafter be said: 'Other men
sowed--we reap the fruit of their labours.'"
I quote now from the letter to Anna Swanwick, in which he refers to this
question in 1887:--
"Unless at a very early day the causes of Un-Employ be removed, we must
calculate on frightful disorder. Evidently two measures are indispensable.
"1. To stop our land from going out of cultivation.
"2. To stop the demoralizing waste of 135 millions per annum on pernicious
drink.
"Only a most stringent change of law, perhaps very difficult to pass, can
effect the _former_ and when passed, the good effect cannot be
instantaneous. The _second_ topic has been before the nation for thirty-
four years; could be passed, if there were a _will_ in _either_ ministry,
in a single fortnight, and when passed, the benefit would be sensible in a
single year. Yet these topics are indefinitely postponed. The Tories do
not even talk of them. _Some_ 'Liberals' round Mr. Gladstone are eager for
the stopping of Drink Bars, but the eloquent leader _talks_ (in general)
rightly, but never _acts_.
"Alas! He showed his heart in bringing a Bill to enact that every Railway
Train should have (at least?) one travelling carriage with a Drink Bar.
When it is told, people will not believe it."
The final letter from Francis Newman to Anna Swanwick, from the collection
so kindly lent me by Miss Bruce, is dated 17th April, 1897, "15 Arundel
Crescent, Weston-super-Mare."
It is not written by himself. By that time he was too feeble to be able to
write, and of course it was only a few months before his death. This
letter was written in response to one from Anna Swanwick. To me, I must
frankly own, it breathes of the past tragedy, of those doubts and fears by
which Newman's religious life had been beset. Even now, notwithstanding
his statements to his two lifelong friends, Martineau and Anna Swanwick,
that he wished it to be known that he died in the Christian faith, the
uncertainty by which, according to the following letter, he was very
evidently governed as regards the question of immortality, suggests a
submissive mind indeed, but one devoid of the splendid force of conviction
as regards his faith in "the life of the world to come."
Anna Swanwick always declared, we are told, that his was a "deeply
religious nature," yet throughout the greater part of his life he was
unable to take hold of the dogmas of Holy Scriptures. He was always trying
to make a "new" religion, compounded of all the best parts of the faiths
professed in various parts of the world. Yet even were this done it might
interest, but could never become, like the Christian Religion, once for
all delivered--a faith to be _sure_ of, a faith Divinely inspired, not
man-made.
"My dear Friend,
"I have read your letter this morning with deep interest and thanks. I do
not intend to oppose it at all, but to add what it now seems to need.
First, that I have always dreaded to involve another mind in my own doubts
and uncertainties; only when I saw death not far off I thought it cowardly
towards one who has shown me so much love to leave you ignorant of my last
creed. For this reason alone did I send you my inability to maintain
popular immortality.
"Next, it is not amiss to let you know the talk which passed between me
and the Rev. James Taylor--Martineau's co-partner. He asked me my own
belief concerning known immortality, and I replied that the Most High
never asked my consent for bringing me into this world, yet I thanked Him
for it, and tried to glorify Him. In like manner He never asked my leave
to put me after my death in this world into any new world, and if He
thought fit to do it I am not likely to murmur at His will. But not
knowing His will, nor what power of resistance He allows me, I do not
attempt to foresee the future. I seem to remember J. J. Taylor's remark,
that he thought I went as far as anyone could be expected to go. And now,
my dear Anna, I still wait to know how far I am straying from the man whom
you and I are expecting something from--Dr. Martineau.
"Accept this kind remark, and be sure that I can use, and do use,
concerning you, what a certain Psalmist says of the Most High: 'I will
praise Him as long as I have any power to praise in my soul.'
"Yours while I exist
"(You will not ask more of my weakness),
"F. W. Newman."
One wonders--but that wonder remains unsatisfied--what "that something"
was which he and Anna Swanwick were then "expecting" from Martineau.
Probably it was some statement as regards religion which Newman longed for
from the man who had been permitted to help him now in his old age (when
he distrusted more and more his own old judgments and former convictions)
once more on to the old paths, led by that "kindly Light amid the
encircling gloom," which now was fast closing in upon him.
CHAPTER XI
THE STORY OF TWO PATRIOTS
England possesses, as a rule, a memory of decidedly insular proportions
and proclivities. On the tablets of our country's memory are chalked up
many names which have figured in the history of her own concerns, or at
any rate in concerns with which she has some connection. Perhaps it will
be said that this is inevitable. Perhaps it will be said that this way
Patriotism lies. Perhaps it will be said that our interests as English
citizens and citizenesses are bound to be local, or we could not impress
the seal of our empire upon other nations' memories.
And if it _is_ said, it is no doubt in great measure true. It is
inevitable that we remember, in sharp unblurred outlines, the names and
deeds of our own great men. It is this way that the soil of Patriotism is
kept well manured for fresh crops of doughty deeds. We _are_ bound to
impress our individuality, as a nation, upon other countries; for if we
did not, we could never exist for any length of time as an empire at all.
But when all this is owned up to, there still remains another great
necessity which can never with safety be disregarded. And this is the
cultivation of our--so to speak--_foreign_ memory. We cannot afford to
pamper our insularity. It is true it must exist, but it is equally true
that English interests can never be--at least, _ought_ never to be--the
sum total of our mental investments. Patriotism is a fine thing. It is an
eminently inspiring thing. But it is also a thing that needs to take walks
abroad to keep itself in good mental health. There is a certain sort of
cosmopolitanism without which no nation's life can be complete--nay,
without which it cannot go on at all.
It is the cosmopolitanism of recognizing greatness outside our own
borders. The cosmopolitanism of owning that there are as good fish in
foreign seas as ever there were in the English Channel. The
cosmopolitanism of a human brotherhood, whether it hails from the Sandwich
Islands, from France, from Finland, or from Hungary; which recognizes as a
salient truth, big with vital issues, that, after all is said and done, it
is not the soil which matters, but the man whose feet are upon it now, at
this present day, though by birth he may own natal allegiance to a far
distant shore.
There are two names to-day which are practically forgotten by modern
England. Yet it is only half a century ago that the men who owned them
were making a gallant stir for patriotism's sake.
How many Englishmen to-day remember the story of Kossuth and Pulszky? Yet
fifty years ago their names sounded loudly enough in the political arena.
Fifty years ago they had struck the drum of fame with a boom which
reverberated through many a European country.
Yet here is a curious instance of the uncertainty which attends a nation's
memory in regard to foreign heroes. Some quite unaccountable factor seems
to rule their choice of whose achievements shall be nailed to the door of
their memories, like British trophies of old, and which shall be
completely forgotten. Garibaldi and Kossuth were patriots of the same
decade--one of Italy, the other of Hungary. Yet to-day in England the "red
shirt" of the Italian patriot still casts a flaming glow on the English
memory, while the struggle of Kossuth for his country is almost dead to
us, as far as our remembrance of it is concerned.
Nevertheless in the history of his country, what Kossuth achieved for her
of independence and freedom was in no way less fine than Garibaldi's
exploits.
In Francis Newman's _Reminiscences of Two Wars and Two Exiles_, the story
of the Hungarian reformer and _patriot_ stands out clearly before us. He
gives as his reason for writing it that when, in 1851, Kossuth and
Pulszky, his brother agitator, came to England, he himself became their
close friend. He says: "When ... Kossuth and Pulszky quitted England in
1860, Pulszky told me they were glad to leave behind in _me_ one
Englishman who knew all their secrets and could be trusted to expound
them." He goes on, however, to say that he was never able to be of so much
service to them as Mr. Toulmin Smith, "a constitutional lawyer ... and a
zealot for Hungary."
1848 was the year when the affairs of Hungary were at their most crucial
point. For long the situation had been growing more and more strained
between Austria and Hungary. Austria had been trying her hardest to force
Hungary into entire subservience to herself--to force her to give up her
separate individuality as a nation and become fused into the Austrian
empire. But Hungary made a gallant stand against all these attempts which
aimed at destroying her independence. She had always been a constitutional
monarchy, with power of electing her own kings. Austria had always
practically been considered to be a "foreigner" as far as Hungarian laws
and offices were concerned.
The London Hungarian Committee in 1849 quoted Article X, by Leopold II, of
the House of Hapsburg, in 1790, which definitely stated that "Hungary with
her appanages is a free kingdom, and in regard to her whole legal form of
government (including all the tribunals) independent; that is, entangled
with no other kingdom or people, but having her own peculiar consistence
and constitution; accordingly to be governed by her legitimately crowned
king after her peculiar laws and customs."
This statute, however, was no sooner made than fresh attempts were made to
nullify it. Hungary's needs, as a country, were many. Her taxation
required alteration; her peasants had still feudal burdens to bear,
instead of being freehold proprietors of land. Religious toleration was
not enforced, and free trade was an unknown quantity, for Austria insisted
on the produce of Hungary being sent only to her market. Fresh roads and
bridges and agricultural improvements were imperatively necessary, but the
need was passed by, by Austria.
To every nation, as to every individual, when the hour of worst need
strikes, the hand of the man or woman who brings rescue is upon the latch
of the door. In the present instance Kossuth was in readiness to redeem
his country from the yoke of Austria.
In March, 1848, the Opposition in the Hungarian Diet, with Kossuth at
their head, carried a vote "that the Constitution of Hungary could never
be free from the machinations of the Austrian Cabinet until Constitutional
Government was established in the foreign possessions of the Crown, so as
to restore the legal status of the period at which the Diet freely
conferred the royalty on the House of Hapsburg." This vote paralysed the
Austrian authorities.... The Hungarian Diet immediately claimed for itself
also a responsible ministry.
Prompt measures were now taken by the Hungarians to restore the old status
of the country, and laws were made which conferred upon the peasants
freeholds of land and all other reforms for which they had for so long
been agitating.
The London Hungarian Committee, to whose paper I have before referred,
tells us that before the French Revolution had broken out this Bill had
passed both Houses. "The Austrian Cabinet, seeing their overwhelming
unanimity, felt that resistance was impossible"; consequently this Reform
Bill of April, 1848, was considered by all Hungarian patriots as their
Magna Charta.
Nevertheless it was their fate very shortly after to appreciate the truth
of this hard fact, that it is one thing to make a Charter and another
thing to keep it. Austria had many ways up her sleeve of breaking the
spirit of the letter. First she saw to it that Hungary had no properly
equipped home regiments for her defence, and next she dissolved the
Hungarian Diet, and again tried to fuse Hungary into the Austrian Empire.
Then at last the Hungarians determined at once, by force, to end the
contemptible, practical joke which Austria was engaged in playing off upon
their country. They gathered an army together, but their utmost efforts
could only raise one not half the size of that of their opponents, and
consequently the result of the battle was defeat for themselves. Later on,
when Kossuth had managed to collect more arms and men, battles on a much
larger scale were fought; and after the Austrians had been defeated more
than a dozen times, the whole of their armies were driven ignominiously
out of Hungary. It was after this series of victories that Kossuth was
made his country's governor, and the whole nation declared as one man that
the House of Hapsburg had for ever forfeited any claim to the Crown.
It was now that, had England attempted mediation for Hungary (according to
Francis Newman), "we should have saved Austria from the yoke of Russia,
and have at least _put off_ the Crimean war," because, when Russia had
come to the assistance of Austria in her final difficulties with Hungary,
after she had been driven out of that country, "if England and France had
not fought it, nothing short of an equivalent war must have been fought
against Russia by other Powers ... because the security of _all Europe_ is
endangered by the virtual vassalage of Austria to Russia... for Austria is
now so abhorred in Hungary that she cannot keep her conquest except by
Russian aid." [Footnote: _Reminiscences of Two Wars and Two Exiles._]
In 1848 Kossuth's envoy, Pulszky, was sent to England, and, quite ignorant
of the wheels within wheels which hampered the political movements of Lord
Palmerston, was amazed that he himself found a repulse awaiting him at the
English Minister's hands. Lord Palmerston asserted that the rights or
wrongs of Hungary were practically a dead letter to England, who had never
thought of that country as existing apart from Austria. He considered "a
strong Austria was a European necessity"; but notwithstanding all he said
then and later, the impression made itself felt on men's minds that there
was a "power behind the throne" in all his speeches, and none knew what
that hidden power was. To-day we all know that it was the foreign
counsellorhood of Baron Stockmar, who advised Prince Albert in those days.
As Newman says: "It is now open to believe that Stockmar and his Austrian
policy ... sometimes drove Palmerston to despair, and our diplomacy into
heartlessness."
[Illustration: LOUIS KOSSUTH]
This elucidation of the whole puzzle throws fresh light on that attitude
of Lord Palmerston which so completely mystified Kossuth.
"I cannot understand," he said, "what is the policy of Palmerston's
_heart_. He talks one way, yet acts another way--always against the
interests and just rights of Hungary."
Kossuth's next step was to take refuge in Turkey, and here he at once set
to work to learn the language, and succeeded so well that he wrote a
grammar, which was afterwards used in the Turkish schools. It was said to
have been due to Lord Palmerston, by the way, that the Sultan refused to
give him up to Austria and Russia. But at any rate the Sultan seemed to
owe the decision which guided this refusal in large measure to his own
loyalty to those who had sought shelter with him during civil war. At any
rate, Kossuth reported that he certainly said, "I will accept war rather
than give up the Hungarian fugitives." Eventually an American ship
conveyed Kossuth out of Turkey, and he landed at Marseilles. Of course, by
then the monarchy had been overthrown in France, and Louis Napoleon-with
whom Kossuth was later on to be closely connected--was President.
In October, 1851, Kossuth crossed to England. Newman tells us that though
"he was enthusiastically received by the whole nation," yet that "he was
slandered, feared, despised, and disliked by those esteemed highest and
noblest in England." But, at any rate, he was given a hearty welcome in
America, for he did not stay long in England when he saw that those in
authority did not warmly espouse his cause.
It is necessary here to remember that in 1851 Louis Napoleon had stepped
on to the top of the Republic, whom he had previously served as its
President, and had made himself Emperor of the French. It is necessary
also to remember that there was a very general sense of alarm throughout
England as to his plans regarding an invasion. He was thought to be
collecting a fleet destined to attack us. But, later, it was proved that
we had been exciting and disturbing ourselves quite unnecessarily. Louis
Napoleon wanted something of us, it is true. But that something was
alliance.
By this time Kossuth was back in England. One day, Francis Newman says,
"Kossuth called suddenly on me with an English Blue-book in his hand, and
abruptly said: 'We foreigners look to you to explain your own Blue-books.
Please to tell me what does this strange sentence mean?' I read carefully
these words from the despatches of the Western Powers to the admirals of
their fleets in Constantinople: c You must clearly understand that you are
not sent to fight against the Emperor of Russia, but to save the Sultan
from _religious enthusiasm and fatal auxiliaries_'! He pointed out these
last words.... '_Religious enthusiasm_ is the diplomatic phrase for
Turkish patriotism; _fatal auxiliaries_ mean Hungarians.... Because
Austria dreads lest exiled Hungarians fight in the Turkish ranks, and the
object of the Western Powers is to please Austria and not to aid
Turkey.... They are angry with the Turks for defending themselves against
Russia.'" [Footnote: Reminiscences of Two Wars and Two Exiles.]
[Illustration: This certificate is dated the year after Kossuth's first
visit to England, and is in possession of Edward G. Sieveking, Esq. of the
firm of Sieveking, Podmore, and Wright, Gracechurch Street, E.C.]
In 1848-9 the Whigs and Tories in England mistook the whole meaning of the
disturbances which were going forward abroad. Macaulay (whom Newman
quotes) distinctly asserts that in Hungary and Italy "kings were fighting
in the cause of civilization, and nationalities were rising to destroy it
in the cause of anarchy."
Comment on this is, of course, quite needless when one remembers how
misinformed were the English ministers as to the nature of the struggle
for liberty which was then going forward in both countries, and how
treacherously and cruelly the people had been treated by those in
authority over them: and what efforts had been made constantly against
their rights as citizens. In 1854 Kossuth was again doing his best to
rouse interest on behalf of his country in England. He called on Newman to
enquire what would be the best and quickest way of collecting
subscriptions. He wanted for immediate national use L5000. Newman referred
him to a printer who "was a Zealot for Hungary," and who would supply him
with the names of the richest men who had "spoken vigorously for Hungary."
Kossuth proceeded to write out a circular to be sent to these Englishmen,
asking for subscriptions. A little later Newman found out that the result
of this fishing in English waters was L400, and he had wanted L5000 to
enable him to carry out his projects for Hungary!
The following letter from Francis Newman to Professor Martineau (about
whose friendship with him I shall have more to say later) is dated
November, 1854, and concerns his opinions _in re_ the Crimean War:--
"As to the war, while it is always thought rash to have any strong
military convictions, I have always believed that if they would go
straight to Sebastopol early in the season they would take it with little
difficulty. We have been juggled partly by Austria, partly by the too
great age of our military men, partly by clashing counsels of allies. The
fortification of Gallipoli I regarded as stupid infatuation: our old
military men said it was necessary for _safety!_ We lost all our time
while Russia had her hands full on the Danube, we let in Austria to hinder
the Turks pursuing the retreat, we delayed ten weeks longer to make
preparation, and landed, leaving all our preparations behind. This _delay_
has been the mischief.... The climate is now my fear, not the enemy. But I
look on all this as a part of the providential or fatal necessity which
determines that war shall not be decided by regular armies. If we _will_
do things in a 'slow and sure' way, Russia will beat us, for she cares
nothing for the lives of her men; to us it is agony. But to yield is to
make her omnipotent. I expect, therefore, that the harder we fight, and
the poorer our success, the more will Austria show Russian sympathies, and
the more will the Western Powers be forced to call up Poland and
Hungary.... I suppose nothing but severe suffering and vain effort will
reconcile Louis Napoleon or the English aristocracy to the revolution in
Europe, which alone can permanently cripple Russia.
"Ever yours affectionately,
"F. W. Newman."
And in August, 1855, he wrote again:--
"I do not think you see truly the _treachery_ of our Government (I cannot
use a weaker word), nor know truly what Kossuth has always demanded. To my
first question, 'Do you expect us to drive Austria into hostility?' he
replied (probably in November, 1853), 'Certainly not; but I claim that you
shall not _try to hinder_ our fighting our just and necessary battle
against Austria.' This is the turning point. We did try to hinder it,
hoping thereby to seduce Austria to our side. To whisper to Austria the
words 'H. P. I.' would not have been to stir up those countries to
insurrection, but to _compel Austria not to threaten Turkey with her
armies_. Our Government encouraged her in it, and aided her to occupy the
Principalities, forcing the Sultan to take pliable Ministers.... We reap
the bitter fruit, as Kossuth from the beginning told us we should. I,
however, still hope that we shall regain a morally right position, and
that if we fare the worse Hungary may be the better; for _then_ Austria
might have been neutral, now she will be our enemy."
Kossuth suffered greatly in his political aims and endeavours from lack of
funds. Indeed, from his first journey to England until he finally gave up
coming over here, he was terribly hampered by want of money. Newman, too,
was out of pocket owing to his efforts to push forward the Hungarian
cause. I have before me now a letter from Kossuth written in January,
1854, from 21 Alpha Road, Regent's Park, to E. Sieveking and Son, members
of my family, who were keenly interested in Hungarian politics, and who
transacted many business arrangements for Kossuth from time to time while
he was in England. The letter is on behalf of a friend of his, a Mr.
Ernest Poenisch, and is written in German:--
"Honoured Sir,
"Would you not do me the kindness to give a favourable reference about the
honourability [_sic_] of Mr. Ernest G. Poenisch if anyone should happen to
make enquiries of you about him?
"Mr. Ernest Poenisch is a merchant in the city, a German by birth, and was
a merchant of importance, and as he often has commercial business of
importance to look after for me, you will be doing to me myself, a
kindness if you would give him a good reference in a general way, should
opportunity occur.
"Renewing my request to you, I sign myself,
"Respectfully yours,
"L. Kossuth.
"To E. Sieveking and Son."
In June, 1855, Francis Newman writes to Dr. Martineau, in answer to a
letter from him:--
"I do not write in support of the oppressed nations _because_ 'I have
confidence in the stability and morality of a continental democracy,' but
because the _foreign_ kings who now trample nations down _neither have nor
pretend to have_ any right but that of armies; it is a pure avowed robber-
rule, essentially in morals, and all will extol the nations as patriotic
whenever they throw it off. ... Certainly I maintain that Hungary and
Poland are nations; so in fact is Italy: but Austria is only a Court and
Army, not a nation. We have had public relations with Hungary as a nation;
we violated our duty to Hungary in 1848-9; and complain we are still
allowing Austria to get the benefit of our wrong. So also to Poland, I
feel we have grossly neglected our duty, and still neglect it.... We know
that Hungary (Poland, Italy) is in the right; but though called on to say
so, we will not say it; nor even mediate, _for_ it will lead to
republicanism. Again, I call it immoral to argue: 'We know that Austria is
giving Turkey just cause of war; but we must _not allow_ the Sultan to
resent it by declaring war; _for_ it will give the nationalities an
opportunity of throwing off the Austrian yoke.'... Then, my dear friend,
do you forget that I approved of the _French_, and disapproved of the
_Austrian_ alliance?... Not to ally with Louis Napoleon is not to join him
_against the French nation_; while to ally with Francis Joseph was to join
him _against the French nation_, which his armies are trampling down.
Again, we did not catch Louis Napoleon engaged in a scheme with Nicholas
(Emperor of Russia) to dismember Turkey, and bribe Louis Napoleon to join
us by the promise or hint that he should still get his slice of Turkey. We
_have_ done this to Austria, and have used our severe pressure on the
Turkish Government to get Austria admitted into the Principalities.... I
fear this summer will be as deadly to our army as the winter was; my only
comfort will be, that I shall make sure that Austria will the clearer show
her true colours.
"Hoping you are all well, I am,
"Ever yours affectionately,
"F. W. Newman."
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM KOSSUTH TO MESSRS. SIEVEKING
JANUARY, 1854]
"Hungary and Poland are nations; so in fact is Italy: but Austria is only
a Court and Army, not a nation." Here is practically the gist of the whole
matter, as far as Francis Newman is concerned. Throughout all his writings
one comes again and again upon this note. "The People! The People!" is his
ever-recurring thought. What are "the People" suffering; what are _their_
needs, their wrongs which call for justice? The People is the living
nation; the Court and the Army may be inevitable adjuncts of a nation's
being, as things at present are constituted; but they are artificial
adjuncts; the People are the very life essence of the Nation, its real
motive power. Let their voice be heard, and the soul of empire at once
springs into being.
In the next letter from Newman to Martineau, 9th June, 1856, from which I
shall quote, it is shown that our Colonial Office was enraged against
Kossuth because he had "mischievously _hindered_ the Austrian Government
from getting troops to put down Italian insurrection." Newman goes on to
show how the treachery of Austria in her dealing with other nations was a
potent fact, and he adds, "Hungary was bound" (according to Kossuth's
views) "to assist Austria against foreign attack, and therefore against the
_King of Sardinia_; but in the interval, before this could come to any
practical result, the intrigues of the Austrian Court with the Serbs were
brought to light; Austrian officers with the Emperor-King's commission in
their pockets were made prisoners from among the Serb ranks, and the
internal danger of Hungary, as well as the treachery of the Court, made it
simply impossible to carry out, or wish to carry out, the Protocol. But
Kossuth was still the King's Minister, and could not say this openly.
Unless he would have taken the first step to civil war, he was bound to
throw a thin veil over it in public speech and action. The measure which
he then promoted was ... that no Hungarian soldier should leave the
country until the internal rebellion was thoroughly subdued. That no
Hungarian regiments should fight against Italians until the Italians had
had from Austria the offer of national institutions and freedom under the
Austrian Crown, putting them on a par with the Hungarians."
Nothing could have been fairer than these conditions, and this was very
shortly recognized when it became known that Latour and the Court were
employing all their energies for long after this date in stirring up the
Serb rebellion. Yet they were shameless enough to complain of Kossuth
having incited the Hungarians to revolt. Writing the next day to Dr.
Martineau, Newman openly avows his belief that "every nation in the world
is grasping and unjust in its foreign policy in exact proportion to its
power, _England not being at all an exception_." The italics are my own.
Have we not proof positive of this before our very eyes to-day? We cannot
look at India and say "no," for by our charter of 1833 we bound ourselves
over to hold India only until the education, which we had made possible
for them, should enable the Indians to take a share in the government of
their own country. But when we look at the India of to-day, we cannot but
plead guilty to not having kept that charter honestly before our eyes.
There is but _one_ office to which natives are admitted on equal terms
with Englishmen to-day!
To go back to the letter:--
"England has no great European army, and cannot _covet_ and subdue any
portion of the European continent. That is no great credit; but in Asia,
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