CHAPTER IX_Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman

LETTERS TO DR. NICHOLSON

In 1860 Sardinia, because it happened to possess the clever, far-seeing

Count Cavour, had "dreamed against a distant goal"--the goal when his king

should be made King of Italy, instead of only Sardinia. He only had to

wait one year before his wish was attained. Victor Emmanuel, son of

Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, was in 1861 proclaimed King of Italy,

and nine years later he was head of the whole united nation. This is

briefly touched on in Newman's first letter to Dr. Nicholson in January,

1860. He also spoke in strong praise of a book of Mrs. Beecher Stowe which

he and his wife (then staying at Hastings to see the new year in, as they

did the year before as well) were reading together. Mrs. Beecher Stowe

was, of course, best known by her _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, perhaps the most

popular American novel ever written. _The Minister's Wooing_ was published

in 1859.

[Illustrations: 20 WHITE ROCK PLACE, HASTINGS

1A CARLISLE PARADE, HASTINGS

WHERE FRANCIS NEWMAN OFTEN STAYED, IN 1860 AND EARLIER

From Photos taken in 1909 by Valentine Edgar Sieveking]

"1A Carlisle Parade, Hastings,

_4th Jan_., 1860.

"My dear Nicholson,

"A Happy New Year to you all! We are here, in the same lodgings as a year

ago, having begun and ended the year in them. We have begun this year with

hopes for the future brightly contrasted to anything for ten years back.

For this, among men, I thank, first of all, Cavour and Victor Emmanuel,

and secondly, Louis Napoleon. The hatred which the last incurs with the

Austrian party and the Ultramontanists is, I think, a fair measure of his

services and tendencies.

* * * * *

"I cannot get any solution from any of my books of certain difficulties in

the Arabic phraseology of _Robinson Crusoe_, [Footnote: Hiawatha and

Robinson Crusoe were very much used for Latin translations at the college

by Newman.] and I want to ask your help; but I do not like to do so until

I learn that it would not encroach too much on your leisure.

* * * * *

"We have been here reading aloud Mrs. Beecher Stowe's new tale, _The

Minister's Wooing_ with very great pleasure. I regard her as a real

'prophetess,' and am delighted at the enormous circulation of her works. I

have been stimulated to try my hand at translating into Latin five of the

most eloquent passages in the book, as a trial of the possibility of

putting such things into that language. I am pleased with the result,

although it is clear to me that without a development of the Latin

vocabulary far beyond Cicero, Livy, Tacitus, and Seneca no one could ever

be _fluent_ and free to speak on modern subjects. One has to paraphrase

and go round instead of speaking outright. I am thinking I ought to know

something more about Arnobius and Lactantius, and see what sort of

_development_ they effected; and the resolution rises in my mind that I

will look to this, being hitherto quite ignorant of them.... I suppose the

'Volunteer Rifles' are talked of at Penrith as elsewhere. I regard it as a

breach of faith to transform these Volunteers into Light Infantry, which

seems to be the darling idea of military men."

Later on, in February, there is another letter relating to Newman's Latin

_Robinson Crusoe_ and his own difficulties as to how to find out when are

the times of spring and autumn in an equinoctial climate.

"I have been (as many others) a sufferer by the weather from slight

bronchitis, exasperated by the coughs and noseblowings of the students,

and by an ill-arrangement of the class-rooms. I had nothing serious, but

enough to force me to spend my evenings in bed, from seven o'clock almost,

and keep me three entire days away from college. I have been ... busy ...

with a Latin _Robinson Crusoe_, rewritten quite freely (not a

translation), that I have not been able to get back just now to Arabic;

and have buried your letter in papers so deep that I lost much time the

other day in a vain search for it.... In writing on Robinson's island I

found my botany sadly at a loss, and have hunted the _Penny Cyclopaedia_

diligently and uselessly to learn the simplest things, such as: To an

equinoctial climate, when is the spring and when the autumn? Do the leaves

fall twice, or not at all? When is the chief cold? Is it when the sun is

lowest, or when the clouds are thickest? Or does it depend on hail and

electric phenomena, or on local relation to great mountains?"

It will be remembered that in 1859 the outbreak of the war of the Italian

liberation took place. Garibaldi--the Knight of the Red Shirt--though he

had settled down as a farmer on the island of Caprera, was summoned by

Cavour to fight for Victor Emmanuel. He and his _Chasseurs des Alpes_ went

into Central Italy as chief in command, and helped to complete the

annexation of the Sardinian territories. It was in August, 1860, that he

made his military promenade through Naples. During the next few years he

was longing to march on Rome, but he also wished to foment the rebellion

in Hungary, and not to let it come to nothing.

"10 Circus Road, St. John's Wood,

"London, N.W.

"_10th Nov._, 1860.

"My dear Nicholson,

"I believe I have never so much as written from Wales or Clifton to you,

to denote that I was not killed on the rail. In old days I suppose that

every distant journey demanded this kind of 'receipt' from a traveller;

but we now travel too much to make it natural. I am reading the Book of

Proverbs in Arabic, in order to work myself up in the vocabulary of

morals, and am pleased to find that I know nearly all the words, although

the exact _form_ of some is new to me.

* * * * *

"We may now congratulate one another on the 'definitive' fact of a

constitutional King of United Italy. Louis Napoleon, in consenting to it,

appears to me to have surpassed the limits not only of ordinary kings, but

of ordinary statesmen. I find that even able and temperate French writers,

such as Eugene Forçat, are shocked at it.... Louis Napoleon's ... enemies

outside have been Germany, Spain, Russia, Austria, Naples, and the Papacy,

and inside, all the Catholic clergy and the politicians.... Do you see

Garibaldi's renewed solemn promise that his flag shall be joined to the

Hungarian in effecting their liberation from Austria? What I hear and

_know_ of Lord Palmerston's intrigues against Hungary and _threats to

Sardinia_ if she dares to assist Hungary ... fills me with indignation and

no small alarm. No doubt all that intrigue can do is now employed to

induce Austria to _sell_ Venetia, not in order to benefit Italy (though to

this they have no objection), but in gratuitous enmity to Hungary, which

(Lord Palmerston says) the English Government _will not permit_ to be

separated from Austria. This I _know_ he avowed to the Sardinian

Ambassador, and sent the English fleet into the Adriatic as a

demonstration. Happily the war is now likely to be deferred till

Parliament meets, and our ministry may be severely checked in time. I

trust we are only at the beginning of magnificent results in Europe and in

North America....

"Your true friend,

"Francis W. Newman."

1861 was a great year for the fortunes of America. Then it was that the

Civil War between the North and South (United States) first began. The

question seemed to be, how far the United States might really interfere

with the doings of any particular State of the Union. The North determined

that they would not allow the Union to be broken up, and so they fought.

But really the true point at issue was a far bigger question than that,

for it turned out that the real dispute had to do with whether slavery was

to be allowed to continue, or whether it should be put an end to for good

and all.

The North said it must cease, and after a war lasting five-years, this was

the final decision upon which peace was made. England very nearly was

brought into this war against her colonies, but happily not quite. It was

probably due to Abraham Lincoln (who was most wise in his Presidentship)

that this war was averted.

"_14th June_, 1861.

"The interest of American affairs almost swallows up with me those of

Italy, Poland, Hungary; though I am on the whole in decided good heart as

to them all, i.e. as to everything but India. Everywhere else the tide

seems to me to have turned for the better; but in India that is by no

means clear to me. I hope our Government has discovered its error as

regards America.... The glorious patriotism and unanimity of the North

none could absolutely foresee; but that the attempt to break up the Union

would goad the pro-slavery faction of the North into intense hostility of

feeling to the South, appeared to me so clear and certain that I predicted

it in print. That their backers and merchants should so lavish their

private fortunes for the war was more than I dared to hope. I think the

Union gets a new heart from this time."

"10 Circus Road, London, N.W.

"My dear Nicholson,

"I hope that the capture of New Orleans, now fully attested, pretty well

tranquillizes your mind, and justifies us in believing that we see the

beginning of the end.

* * * * *

"Events have not even yet taken the scale from the eyes of deluded people

here. I still hear on all sides the doleful lament that 'the successes of

the North are much to be regretted, since they _can only prolong the

war_.' Mr. Gladstone [Footnote: Then Chancellor of the Exchequer.] has

just printed his recent Manchester speech, in which he sympathizes with

the South, because he does not trust the soundness of the North in the

cause of freedom!... I am calmly told that it is not for the _interest of

England_ that America should be so strong, and it is better for herself,

and for us, that she break up! England may have all India, but the United

States may not have one Mississippi, or keep the mouth of her own river. I

have never felt so unutterably ashamed for my own country, for it affects

public men and the press of London _on all sides_, with exceptions which

may be easily counted. Are you not delighted with the progress of India

for the better? It appears in the public news in many ways; but besides, I

have papers from Oudh and Calcutta which interest me extremely, and give

me the most cheerful hopes of the future. The change introduced by the

extinction of the Company's rule is prodigiously beyond what I ever dared

to expect in so short a time. I am beginning to print (for very limited

circulation!) a Latin _Robinson Crusoe_--chiefly to please a lady-teacher,

my favourite pupil. It is not a translation, but an imitation. My wife is

just returned from Brighton, where I spent Easter--but did _not_ go to the

rifle review. I feel unable to take interest in it, until Secret Diplomacy

is abolished. At this moment there is no security that Lord Russell is not

intriguing against Hungary, while possessing liberal views for Italy."

It is necessary here, I think, to add that the Hon. East India Company

had, so long ago as 1833, been deprived of its commercial privileges; but

still its directors practically ruled India under the Board of Control,

which Pitt originated. Later, in 1858, Lord Palmerston brought in a bill

which was its death-blow. The Company was to be abolished, and the Home

Government reigned in its stead in India.

In July, 1863, Newman severed his long connection with University College,

and evidently looked forward with great pleasure to uninterrupted time for

writing and studying.

"I am finally severed from University College, but do not as yet know how

much difference that means, since this is my natural vacation. I suppose

that next October I shall begin to realize the greatness of the change for

good or evil. (The enclosed photogram makes my face dirty, and one eye too

dark; yet seen through a magnifier it is really good.) I seem to have an

Augean stable to cleanse in reducing my papers to simplicity, and burning

accumulations of thirty years. I am not likely to write less, but perhaps

more, in anonymous ways, which impedes one's concentrating oneself on one

subject, if that be desirable: as to which I cannot make up my mind. The

danger of overworking the brain I see to be extreme if one has one subject

and that all paper work and private work.

"I have now got my house, to keep on with right to leave at a quarter of a

year's notice."

As the following letters make much mention of the struggle through which

the United States was passing, it is perhaps as well to give, briefly, a

few details of the happenings which were then taking place.

In 1856, when the Republican army was first started to put an end to the

extension of slavery, Lincoln, who was the most prominent man against the

pro-slavery party, took the lead as the most active servant of the cause.

But there was another, working perhaps more quietly, but quite as

resolutely against slavery, whose name should never be forgotten. William

Lloyd Garrison--a man of the same age as Newman--started in 1831 a paper

called _The Liberator_, with no capital or subscriptions. This paper he

carried on for thirty-five years until slavery was abolished in the United

States, although he received constantly letters threatening his

assassination. He came to England in 1833, and on his return he started

the American Anti-Slavery Society. Before that was accomplished, however,

in every way possible he had spread over the whole of the States pamphlets

etc., urging on his people the pressing need of the abolition of the slave

trade. Then in 1863 (July) General Grant's success in capturing Vicksburg

gave back to the Union the full control of the Mississippi river. By 1864

Grant was in full command of the Union Army. But _the_ aim of the

Abolitionists had been triumphantly attained before then, for on 1st Jan.,

1863, President Lincoln declared that all slaves in the States then in a

state of rebellion should be free. Only two years later this man, who had

done so much to rid his country of a degrading trade, was assassinated.

The following letter is dated 4th Aug., 1863:--

"... I hope that you now, with me, believe that the era of Southern

'successes' (i.e. hard and HOPEFUL _resistance_) is finally past. I

believe nothing now remains but the resistance of despair, which cannot

long animate the masses. Hatred of the free negro may awhile move them.

But, the Mississippi once open, the N.W. has no longer a party favourable

to the South; and the exhaustion of the South is so marked and undeniable

that the real end may be much earlier than the people think.... General

Neal Dow (now a prisoner at Richmond) in his last letter to England

observed that the moral end served by the prolongation of the war had

notoriously been the immediate legal emancipation of the negroes in the

Gulf States; but the further prolongation of it is to determine the future

internal government and possession of landed property in these States as

the guarantee for the future. But it is a hard wrench on the politicians

of the North to consent to this. Lincoln and Blair evidently would still

much rather export the negroes _if they could_. Lincoln will not do

anything against the will of the blacks; but it is evidently his weak

point to deprecate them as equal citizens."

In September, 1863, Newman and his wife were spending their holiday at

Windermere. From there he writes:--

"I fear that the projects of Louis Napoleon in Mexico, and the consequent

sympathies of the United States with Russia against Poland and France,

make an imbroglio fatal to Poland. Now that, if the Russian Empire were

organized into States possessed of substantive interior nationality (as

the French plan is), this would seem to be a very lamentable result. The

two Western Cabinets have so acted as to ensure that Russia and the United

States shall each desire the aggrandizement of the other; and if Russia

take a lesson of imperial liberality from America, her empire may terrify

our grandchildren with excellent reason. But I believe that the interest

of the nations, of the true people everywhere, will prevail over Cabinet

ambitions as soon as slavery is effectually uprooted in America."

Never do the words "a" and "the" light up so vividly the significant gulf

which lies between the absence and the presence of Fame than when the

first qualifies in the first instance the name of some man at a time when

he is not specially distinguished; and then, much later on, the second

prefaces it as the mouthpiece of Fame. In 1863 Newman's mention of "_a_

Mr. Grace, the _recent_ celebrated victorious cricketer," proved that his

world-wide fame had but then been in its initial stage.

Newman's counsel to Dr. Nicholson in _re_ cigars as injurious to appetite

and inflaming to the eyes, reminds one that though, as I have shown by his

speech to Mr. Butler's family, he was "anti-everything," including smoke,

yet he mentions constantly in his _Personal Narrative_ that in Syria

during his missionary journey there in 1830-3, the fact was that he

himself smoked in the fashion of the country, and by no means disliked it

in his own young manhood. He begins on the Temperance and Teetotal

question thus:--

"Llandudno,

"_17th Sept._, 1863.

* * * * *

"I am reminded of it, by seeing to-day a statement made concerning

cricketers, that no first-rate cricketer takes beer, ale, or spirits,

which (it is said by the enthusiastic narrator) inevitably 'jaundice the

eye,' nor tobacco in any form, (!) which induces a kind of stupefaction or

negligence. The recent celebrated victorious cricketer, a Mr. Grace, it is

said, will not take even _tea_; but prefers water. (I hope the water is

better than that of Windermere!) Two months ago I was reading from a

sporting newspaper about a rowing match on the Thames, and there learnt

that if a rower is known to take beer or ale, it lowers the bets in his

favour. In fact, no habitual drinker, though he drink _only_ for health

and strength (as he thinks), is regarded to have a chance of the highest

prize.

"I cannot help thinking that both wine and alcohol and tobacco lower the

vital powers, and that men are strong _in spite_ of them, not by reason of

them.

"Will you forgive me for suspecting that cigars lessen your appetite

(which is less keen surely than it ought to be), as well as inflame your

eye?"

Newman goes, in his next letter, to a much more intricate subject: i.e.

cuneiform inscriptions.

He had been studying them for two months. Emanuel Deutsch, one of the

great authorities on cuneiform inscriptions, gives us the following

information as regards them:--

The writing itself resembles a wedge, and it has been proved that it was

used by the ancient peoples of Babylonia, Assyria, Armenia, and Persia, as

well as by other nations. It was inscribed on stone, iron, bronze, glass,

or clay. The stylus which impressed the inscriptions on them was pointed,

and had three unequal facets, of which the smallest made the fine wedge of

the cuneiform signs. The first cuneiform writing of which we know dates

from about 3800 B.C.

It was used first in Mesopotamia, and then in Persia, and the districts

north of Nineveh. When it became extinct, for nearly sixteen hundred

years, its very existence was absolutely forgotten. It was not until the

year 1618 that Garcia de Sylva Figuëroa, ambassador of Philip III of

Spain, on seeing them, felt convinced that these inscriptions, in a

writing to which no one in the wide world possessed a key, must mean

something. Therefore he had a line of them copied. In 1693 they were

supposed to be "the ancient writings of the Gaures." Hyde, in 1700,

trifled with them, and gave them credit for being nothing more than the

architect's fancies. Witte saw in them nothing but the disfigurations of

many generations of worms. Others had their own speculations as to their

meaning. But Karsten Niebuhr took a big step higher and nearer to their

real meaning. He made out that there were three cuneiform alphabets,

because of the threefold inscriptions at Persepolis.

In 1802 Grotefend, of Hanover, put before the Academy of Göttingen the

first cuneiform alphabet. Then, among other great investigators, followed

Rawlinson.

The first of these alphabets is Persian; the second the Median; the third

the Babylonian.

Deutsch tells us that, originally, the cuneiform signs were pictures of

objects drawn in outline on a vegetable substance, known by the native

name of _likhusi_. He thinks it probable that the supply of this was not

equal to the demand, for early in the Babylonish history clay was used

instead of _likhusi_.

(This letter is undated.)

"My dear Nicholson,

"I cannot remember the longitude or latitude of my hearing from you or

writing to you, and do not know whether I have to apologize for neglecting

you, so absorbed (it seems) have I been. I cannot even tell whether I told

you of my two months' devotion to Cuneiformism, and my study of the Medo-

Persian and Scythian inscriptions as _promeletemata_ of an article in the

November _Fraser's Magazine_.

"I found the Assyrian useless to dabble in: it is so vast, so fragmentary,

so embarrassed by dogmatic hypotheses and assertions, and deterring

complications, that one must give oneself _wholly_ to it for any chance of

getting to its foundations. But I feel on perfectly solid ground in Medo-

Persian or Scythian. Difficulties in them are like difficulties in Greek

or Sanscrit: that is all. In the Assyrian, I do not yet know whether to

believe at least half of the characters, and many fundamental alleged

principles; and I get no satisfaction in what I read....

"The eight millions in the U.S. who are to be educated, stimulate me. I am

dying to get into relations with some who will be practically engaged in

it.... I was very gloomy about American affairs four or six weeks ago. The

President seemed running fast to ruin. But his plans have happily broken

down so early and so decidedly, that he is probably himself ashamed of

them, and the people have rallied to oppose them. I now trust that all

will come right."

"Benner, Dolgelley,

"_20th Aug._, 1864.

"My dear Nicholson,

"I dare say you duly received a copy of my Iguvine Inscriptions [Footnote:

There is a town in Central Italy, Gubbio, which was anciently known as

Iguvium or Eugubium, which possessed many medieval palaces (the

Brancaleoni), and well-known Eugubine Tables.] which I directed to be sent

to you. For the first time in my life I have published with the secret

hope of what some call 'fame,' i.e. with the desire of gaining 'credit,'

because such 'credit' is of first importance to aid me in pushing on my

schemes in regard to modern Arabic literature in European type.... To put

forward an Easy Instructor in modern Arabic and an Anglo-Arabic

Dictionary, in European type, _with advantage_, I should greatly wish

another journey to Turkey, but as I have no children to leave with my

wife, and she would be killed with ennui if I took her, and would more

than double the expense, I have not seen how to do it. Besides, I want

money to publish my books.... General Grant's position between Petersburg

and Richmond is become terribly anxious (my last news was his loss of six

thousand men in attacking the fortresses behind the one which he blew up),

and unless ultimately successful, the longer he tarries, the more complete

will be his disaster.... I have always been despondent as to the Northern

scheme for forcing its way through Eastern Virginia; and am not the better

reconciled to it by Grant's campaign. There is no sound success for the

North now, unless they put the 'coloured' race politically on equal terms

with the 'whites,' and not to do so when 'colour' is legally undefinable,

and when the only loyal citizens in loyal provinces are 'coloured,' is an

alarming infatuation. I suppose they must suffer more and more, until they

resolve that the slave owners of Kentucky, and the colour bigots of

Illinois and Pennsylvania, shall be forced to yield to patriotic

necessities. Perhaps until they put down Slavery and serfdom within their

own limits, they are not to be allowed success against the rebels. Mr.

Lincoln's gratuitous establishment of serfdom in Louisiana, and

recognition of the pardoned rebels, as the only citizens worthy to hold

power, has filled me with despair of him. It is now clear from his own

avowals, that he will do no more justice to the coloured race than he is

_forced_ to do."

In a letter dated 24th November, 1864, he says:--

* * * * *

"I much rejoice that the Americans have made the Presidential election a

trial of principles, not of persons. Such a victory as 213 to 21 seems to

imply that the old 'democratic' party is henceforth killed, while the

Abolitionists, who have voted for Lincoln and Johnson, are left quite free

not to attack the Government as severely as they pleased for any

shortcomings. I hope you have seen, or will see, the speech of Andrew

Johnson at Nashville, proclaiming liberty 'full, broad, and unconditional'

to every person in Tennessee. It is in so hearty and outspoken a tone as

to double its value. '_Loyal_ men alone, _whether white or black_, shall

rule the destiny of Tennessee.' 'All men who are _for equal rights_ are

his friends.' Now that he is Vice-President-elect I cannot but hope a

great change for the better in Mr. Lincoln's policy towards the free and

freed negroes, for Johnson and Lincoln have been in intimate relations

from the beginning.... Have you read details about the U.S. Sanitary

Commission? It is a magnificent development of high historical importance

to the future of wars, carrying out Florence Nightingale's ideas and

wishes on to the vastest scale, and adding to it the tending of sick and

wounded enemies."

Newman's next communication to his friend alludes to the Permissive Bill,

and assures him that there is no fear that it can ever "hinder _legal_

methods of getting liquor (for medicine, for chemistry, for art)." He

adds: "The sole question is, whether by an agent of the public authority,

who makes no gain by an increased sale (which we think the sound mode), or

by a trafficker who gains by pushing the sale."

As regards America: "I now understand that the darkest moment for the

North--the repulse of Burnside at Fredericsburgh--was the _only_ thing

that at last decided Mr. Lincoln to issue his proclamation of freedom....

He has been born and bred under a slave-owner's interpretation of the

Constitution and of the negro-temperament, and ... seems to persist in his

publicly avowed preference of _gradual_ abolition. Could he have had his

way, I predicted, and would still predict, twenty years of misery,

confusion, with probably new war unfavourable to the North. Garrison has

done his worst to aid the President, but Sumner and Wendell Phillips have

(as I now take courage to believe) checkmated him. He will NEVER get his

Louisiana and Arkansas reconstruction approved by Congress, and _colour-

legislation_ will be declared to be a violation of 'Republicanism.'... Yet

Mr. Lincoln is a better President every half-year, and I fully count will

at last give way to truth and necessity with a good grace.

"I have been actively working up my _Handbook_ of Arabic. I also design a

_skeleton_ dictionary of Arabic-English. I have got a valuable book from

Algiers (if it had but vowel points!). But I cannot publish until I have

money to spare. Meanwhile I work hard to mature and perfect."

Late in September, 1864, he is again writing on American turmoils:--

"_Next June_, 1865, the debt of the U.S. will be about 400 million

sterling, only half of what England had at the end of the great French

War, when her population was not two-thirds nor her means one-fifth of the

U.S., who (if once freedom and order is established over the whole Union)

will be a focus of immigration three times as attractive as ever, with

wealth multiplying twice as rapidly as ever.... I have no anxiety about

anything _but the policy which is to prevail in victory_.... It is

frightful to me to hear President Lincoln avow that (against the morality

of his heart) his official duty is to do nothing for the coloured race

except under compulsion and to save the whole Republic from foundering. He

knows they are subjects of the Union, and _owe allegiance_ to it, to the

point of laying down their lives for it; yet he does not know that those

who owe allegiance have an indefeasible right to protection. He is

conquering rebellious States, and does not know that the conqueror is

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.