The Life of Froude

by Herbert W. Paul

— * My Relations with Carlyle, p. 62. —

Calling witnesses to the character of such a man as Froude is itself almost an insult. But there is one judgment so valuable and so emphatic that I cannot refrain from citing it. The fifteenth Earl of Derby held such a high position in the political world that his literary attainments have been comparatively neglected. He was in truth an omnivorous reader and a cool, sagacious critic, who was not led astray by enthusiasm, and never said more than he felt. Writing to Froude on the 20th of October, 1884, Lord Derby described the Life of Carlyle as the most interesting biography in the English language, and added, "I think you have finally silenced the foolish talk about indiscretion, and treachery to a friend's memory. It is clear that you have done only, and exactly, what Carlyle wished done: and to me it is also apparent that he and you were right: that his character could not have been understood without a full disclosure of what was least attractive in it: and that those defects—the product mainly of morbid physical conditions—do not really take away from his greatness, while they explain much that was dark, at least to me, in his writings." Lord Derby's opinions were not lightly formed, and he was as much guided by pure reason as mortal man can be.

Froude's own judgment is given in a letter to Lady Derby, which contains also much interesting speculation on South African politics. Lord Derby, it will be remembered, was at that time Secretary of State for the Colonies.

"October 14th, 1884.—Carlyle in London comes out this week. I loved and honoured him above all living men, and with this feeling I have done my best to produce a faithful likeness of him. This is a consolation to me, if the only one I am likely to have. We shall see. I am very anxious about South Africa. I have written twice at length to Lord Derby. Unfortunately my view is the exact opposite to that which is generally taken. Lord D. is evidently being driven into active measures against his will. My fear is that there will be some half-action insufficient to crush the Dutch, and sufficient to exasperate them. He relies on the promised support of the Colonial Ministry. They may promise, but I will believe only when I see it that a Cape Ministry and Legislature will oppose the Boers in earnest. They will encourage us to entangle ourselves, as they did with the Diamond Fields, and then leave us to get out of the mess as we can. South Africa cannot be self-governed in connection with this country, except with the good-will of the Dutch population. Enough may have been done, however, to quiet Parliament (which knows nothing about the matter) in the approaching Session—and that, I suppose, is the chief consideration. Carnarvon writes to me preliminary, I suppose, to some attack when Government meets. I have told him exactly what I have told Lord D. I hope I may turn out mistaken, but the course of things so far has generally confirmed my opinion whenever I have seen my way to forming one. I shall be glad to hear what you think about the book. From you I shall get the friendliest judgment that the circumstances admit of, and if you are dissatisfied I shall know what to look for from others. The last two hundred pages are the most interesting. The drift of the whole is that Carlyle was by far the most remarkable man of his time—that five hundred years hence he will be the only one of us all whose name will be so much as remembered, while perhaps he may be one who will have reshaped in a permanent form the religious belief of mankind. Therefore he ought to be known exactly as he was. The argument will not be felt by those who disbelieve in his greatness, and the idolaters—those who pretend to worship without believing- will be savagest of all. Idols must be draped in fine clothes, and are reduced to nothing by mere human garments."

Perhaps the fullest, and certainly the least reserved, account of
Froude's own feelings about the book is contained in a letter to
Mrs. Charles Kingsley:

"I tell Longmans to-day to send you the book. If you can find time, I shall like to hear the independent impression it makes upon you. Only remember this: that it was Carlyle's own determination (or at least desire) to do justice to his wife, and to do public penance himself—a desire which I think so noble as to obliterate in my own mind the occasion there was for it. I have long known the worst, and Charles knew it generally. We all knew it, and yet the more intimately I knew Carlyle, the more I loved and admired him; and some people, Lord Derby, for instance, after reading the Life, can tell me that their opinion of him is rather raised than diminished. There is something demonic both in him and her which will never be adequately understood; but the hearts of both of them were sound and true to the last fibre. You may guess what difficulty mine has been, and how weary the responsibility. You may guess, too, how dreary it is to me to hear myself praised for frankness, when I find the world all fastening on C.'s faults, while the splendid qualities are ignored or forgotten. Let them look into their own miserable souls, and ask themselves how they could bear to have their own private histories ransacked and laid bare. I deliberately say (and I have said it in the book), that C.'s was the finest nature I have ever known. It is a Rembrandt picture, but what a picture! Ruskin, too, understands him, and feels too, as he should, for me, if that mattered, which it doesn't in the least."

A few years after publication the Reminiscences ran out of print, and Froude was anxious to bring out a corrected edition. Mrs. Alexander Carlyle, however, wished for another editor. The copyright was Froude's, and no one could reprint the book in Great Britain without his consent. At that time there was no international copyright between the United Kingdom and the United States. A distinguished American professor, Mr. Eliot Norton, was invited by Mary Carlyle to re-edit the book beyond the Atlantic, and he undertook the task. Froude always thought that Professor Norton should have communicated with him, and the public will probably be of the same opinion. In the end, however, Froude voluntarily assigned the copyright to Mrs. Carlyle, who then had possession of the papers, and Mr. Norton's edition appeared in England, published by Macmillan, six years after Carlyle's death. It proved to be very like the first, though some errors of the press were corrected and also some slips of the pen. The disputed memoir was not omitted, nor was anything of the slightest interest added by Mr. Norton to the book. In his Preface he attacked Froude for fulfilling Carlyle's own wishes, of which he seems to have known little or nothing, and, by way of further justification for his interference, he added the following paragraph:

"The first edition of the Reminiscences was so carelessly printed as to do grave wrong to the sense. The punctuation, the use of capitals and italics, in the manuscript, characteristic of Carlyle's method of expression in print, were entirely disregarded. In the first five pages of the printed text there were more than a hundred and thirty corrections to be made of words, punctuation, capitals, quotation marks, and such like; and these pages are not exceptional."

This looks like a formidable indictment, and in the literal sense of the words it may be true. I have compared the first five pages of the two editions, and there are a good many changes in the use of capitals and italics. But except one obvious misprint of a single letter, "even" for "ever," there is nothing which does "grave wrong" to the sense, or affects it in any way. "And these pages," as Mr. Norton says, with another meaning, "are not exceptional." The later reminiscences were not easy to decipher. Carlyle's handwriting was seriously affected by age, he wrote upon both sides of very thin paper, and I have seen several letters of his which bear out Froude's assertion that, after his hand began to shake, "it became harder to decipher than the worst manuscript which I have ever examined." In preparing the book Froude had to use a magnifying glass, and in many cases the true reading was a matter of opinion. In one case, however, it was not. Sir Henry Taylor, the most serene and dignified of men, found himself charged in Carlyle's sketch of Southey with the unpleasant attribute of "morbid vivacity," and not only with morbid vivacity simpliciter, or per se, but "in all senses of that deep-reaching word." Mr. Norton restored the true reading, which was "marked veracity," though, on the other hand, he replaced the statement, omitted by Froude, that Taylor, who had died between the two editions, was "not a well-read or wide-minded man." It must be admitted that in this instance Froude allowed a proof which made nonsense to pass, and that Mr. Norton did a public service by correcting the phrase. Froude's occasional carelessness in revision is a common failing enough. What made it remarkable in him was the combination of liability to these lapses with intensely laborious and methodical habits.

Although Froude's legal connection with Carlyle's family ceased with the assignment to Carlyle's niece of the copyright in the Reminiscences, the names of the two men are as inseparably associated as Boswell's and Johnson's, Lockhart's and Scott's, Macaulay's and Trevelyan's, Morley's and Gladstone's. Some readers, such as Tennyson and Lecky, thought that Froude had revealed too much. Others, such as John Skelton and Edward FitzGerald, believed that he had raised Carlyle to a higher eminence than he had occupied before. Froude himself felt entire confidence both in the greatness of Carlyle's qualities and in the permanence of his fame. That was why he thought that the revelation of small defects would do more good than harm. A faultless character, even if he himself could have reconciled it with his conscience to draw one, would not have been accepted as genuine, would not have been treated as credible. The true character, in its strength and its weakness, would command belief, and admiration too. If Froude were alive, he would say that the time had not yet come for a final judgment, and might not come for a hundred years. Still, I think it will be conceded that the twenty years which have elapsed since he accomplished his task are a period of growth rather than decadence in the number and zeal of Carlyle's admirers. This is no doubt in large measure due to Carlyle's own books. He has been called the father of modern socialism, and credited with the destruction of political economy. I am too much out of sympathy with these views to judge them fairly. But I suppose it cannot be denied that Carlyle fascinates thousands who do not accept him as an infallible, or even as a fallible, guide, or that they, as well as his disciples, devour the pages of Froude.