Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman

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 limite

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,

they "climb the sky" of the higher education. Nevertheless the effort is doggedly made. For in all great men, as in all great

ation. 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 fi

h 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

ristian," 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

ng this memoir I had a

se words of Mr. Garrett

eturn to the Christian F

in a pap

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 t

ould be complete with

urn to his f

ce" 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 pro

ter was written his own family had found him so "impossible" that f

Swanwick from

ford Ga

, 4th Ju

dear

e 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 hi

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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

ayard 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 o

ng 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 h

s ever affe

W.

s mostly of agriculture in the fens, in connection

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 unde

s to do almost entirely

isrule of

the order of the day constantly-wars in the Transvaal; war in Afghanistan; war in Egypt, and General Gordon left to die in Khart

n-supe

ght, 20th

dear

kind interest in the a

e. 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

m 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 h

ledged 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

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rns the Transvaal war, and

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nough 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

it.... We, the people, can do nothing at present that I see except avow with Lord John Russell (1853-4), 'God pros

W.

one's political character, and regretting tha

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ntially 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

sm of the country, he was bound by honour and common sense to carry out his own avowed policy, not that of weak fr

n, in No

r. 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,

ctors. 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 ref

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reased-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 suff

e Lords can c

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 imagina

f 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 groun

ted 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. T

(Miss Bruce tells us in the former's own words) "to

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ing 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

n to the

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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 Prota

anguage 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 l

make if we could but bring our present system

as 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 Ire

May

dear

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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

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 pa

red, 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

d of in English history; and from a pretended Liberal leader would have seemed incred

stone's wonderful folly do_ break down this ... sy

our aff

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mplains of temporary paralysis in his left-hand fingers and

niquity 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

e 1356, at independence from the hated power of Greece, when "Almost" she and Servia were "persuaded"

a 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 Ale

to Bulgaria, yet he felt it was in vain to strug

wman to be in failing health

-Mare, "7th O

dear

ter 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

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

k 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 th

critical a spot for the European Powers to yield up to any secondary State. If it is to be

rs to desire union, but makes the great Powers ashamed of

hey 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 th

r 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

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in favour of some form of Local Government for Ireland, though not of the same kind as was being pressed forward by Mr. Parnell,

'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 b

ure 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 th

his matter I cannot underrate, warns Mr. Gladstone that to dissolve agai

reason 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. Un

th; and one new election will suddenly precipitate the struggle. I do not fear that any Irish s

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o-day-the Drink Traffic-they are very clearly and definitely stated in an article he wrote

was the key-note, as he fi

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

restrictions, so as to prevent the fraud of wine mer

est 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, whi

ing of the nation" in the matter of the Drink Traffic, "To him our thanks and our honour will b

when the success does not come in the exact form for which its champion was contend

Anna Swanwick, in which he re

loy be removed, we must calculate on frightful d

and from going ou

g waste of 135 millions per

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 indefinit

rt in bringing a Bill to

east?) one travelling c

, people will n

m the collection so kindly lent me by Miss Bruce, is dated

y, 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

s 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 wer

ear F

hat 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 on

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

concerning you, what a certain Psalmist says of the Most High: 'I

while

t ask more of

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tatement 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