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.