TOULMIN SMITH: AUTHOR, ANTIQUARIAN STUDENT, AND POLITICAL REFORMER
Among the names of those who have done most, by untiring, laborious search
among old parish registers, etc., and dusty old records, to bring to light
interesting social ordinances, details of ancient parish government, and
gems of Norse literature and archaeological research, there have been none
in the last century who have by patient work attained more knowledge of
their country's inner history than Mr. Toulmin Smith.
His name is indeed familiar to everyone as the greatest living authority
on "English Gilds." That book alone, by itself, is an invaluable gift to
the nation. By that alone has he done so signal a service to his
countrymen that no gratitude could repay it.
It is true that, owing to ill-health, Mr. Toulmin Smith unavoidably left
it unfinished at his death, but there is sufficient fulness of information
in it as it is, to make it worth more than an infinity of other finished
books of to-day.
As Father Gasquet says in his _Parish Life in Medieval England_, of the
universality of these "gilds" in this country: "Every account of a
medieval parish must necessarily include some description of the work of
fraternities and guilds.... Their existence dates from the earliest
times." Mr. Toulmin Smith, indeed, says, "English Guilds are older than
any kings of England.... They were associations of those living in the
same neighbourhood, who remembered that they had, as neighbours, common
obligations." But it was not only because of his _English Gilds_ that he
is remembered. In 1854, when he was thirty-eight years of age, he
published another very important volume, _The Parish: its Obligations and
Powers, its Officers and their Duties_. This was also a book towards the
making of which had gone many long years of the most incessant, careful
research in old documents. It was one of those rare literary buildings,
each stone of which was laid with infinite exactitude and care. There is
too much "jerry-building" to-day, both in houses and books.
To Mr. Toulmin Smith some of the shallow books of to-day would represent
literary "pariahs." He would bar the very superficial method in which they
were put together.
In _The Parish_ and in many a pamphlet he set his face steadily against
centralization. "The ruling passion, the guide of his life, the dream of
his youth, the glory of his manhood and his later years, was the
intelligent freedom of the people, based on 'the ancient ways.'"
[Footnote: _Toulmin Smith, 1816 to 1869_, by the late Samuel Timmins,
Esq., of Birmingham. From this pamphlet I have gained much information of
his life.]
It is not difficult to understand how the friendship between Toulmin Smith
and Frank Newman began. For the decentralization of the nation, better
forms of local self-government, were also, each of them, a dream of the
latter's, which he longed eagerly to see realized. There was another keen
common interest between them. Both ardently desired the freedom of
Hungary. Both wrote strongly in favour of it. Both warmly welcomed the
exiled patriot, Louis Kossuth, when he came to England to collect funds
for the revolutionary movement of his country. But long before Englishmen
had made themselves _au fait_ with the subject of the Hungarian revolt,
Toulmin Smith had, in his literary studies, understood the why and
wherefore of the quarrel, and had, by his words, roused his country to the
true recognition of how urgent was the whole question between Austria and
Hungary. It must not be forgotten, too, that all his labours amongst the
tangled undergrowths of the literary land were undertaken in the leisure
time he could spare from his profession. For he was barrister-at-law of
Lincoln's Inn, and he was also a landowner in Birmingham (his native
city), of property which had belonged to his ancestors in succession for
five hundred years. He had made himself a proficient in the Icelandic,
Danish, Norse languages, and was learned in the ancient history and
politics of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Scandinavia. [Footnote:
I quote from the pamphlet on _Toulmin Smith_, referred to before.]
Mr. Timmins tells us that "while he maintained his own convictions with
energy and power, he had a kindly regard for all who differed from him, a
large appreciation of genuine humour, and he was in private life one of
the most courteous, kindly, and genial of men. While he honoured the past
and the memory of his fathers, he was no blind adherent of a falling
cause, no obstinate opponent of the needful changes of the age.... Amid
all the worry of a London lawyer's life, when far away in the United
States and stricken down by 'grievous illness,' almost his last written
words, 'I _long_ to return to Birmingham,' express the passion of his
life."
The friendship between Toulmin Smith and Newman probably began in 1849, in
connection with the formation of the Hungarian Committee. This I am told
by Miss Toulmin Smith, to whose kindness I am indebted for permission to
use the following letters.
She believes that her father was introduced to Newman by Mr. John Edward
Taylor (of Norwich). She says she has a keen memory of Francis Newman
coming to her father's house at Highgate at that time, with Pulszky and
other Hungarians, all eager in the "efforts for reform and constitutional
freedom and local government." But later on, she adds, many difficulties
arose, and "about 1852 something connected with Louis Kossuth" (and the
Hungarian movement) "caused a coolness" between the friends, and their
correspondence seems to have come to an end after September in that year.
Newman, owing to his University College engagements probably, I think
retired from his position on the Committee in October, 1849.
_Francis Newman to Toulmin Smith._
"University College, Gower Street,
"_8th Jan._, 1850.
"My dear Sir,
"I rejoice in your ward-mote exertions, and I beg you will not think that
I am indifferent to them."
[This refers to "a series of meetings during the winter of 1849-50 in one
of the Wards of the City of London; part of a movement endeavouring to
rouse the citizens to a sense of civic local duties."] [Footnote: I am
quoting from notes _re_ these letters, kindly supplied by Miss Toulmin
Smith.]
"On Wednesday I have to attend a meeting of our Professors here which will
interfere with the Wardmote.... I exceedingly want presence of mind, if
there is any tumult, so as to remember quickly enough what is to be said.
Against a mob I could _act_ with firmness, but I could not speak with
promptitude. Moreover, I suffer physically from the air of a crowded room,
and never go to _hear_ a speech when there is a chance of my being able to
_read_ it."
The next letter I quote from is dated from Church Street, Old Eastbourne,
August, 1850. It begins with questions of canvassing at University
College, and goes on to touch on the subject about which he and his
correspondent were at one: local land reform:--
"I have been here less than a week, but was at first unsettled, and my
servant did not know whither to send my letters. It is fine air, rather
bleak downs" (this is an unappreciative criticism of those exquisitely
rounded outlines), "but with sunny days very pleasant and healthy.
"I am glad to hear of your Bristol excursion. If one could convert some
sheriff of a county, I should like to see the thing tested in some
practical form, i.e. to assemble every month a Parliament of County
Freeholders to do some real work--as, if roads, or public lands, or docks,
etc., were to be dealt with; or to protest against a Private Bill in
Parliament, and claim to have the settling of it.
"I wish you knew Tom Taylor. He is an able man, desiring Reform, and is on
the Public Health Board in some legal capacity. He heartily wishes to
develop the local powers, and will not admit that they are practically
undermining them. He fully assented to all I said in theory, but thought I
misconceived what they were actually doing.
"Believe me, sincerely yours,
"F. W. Newman."
Tom Taylor, journalist and playwriter, was born 1817 in Sunderland. For
two years he was Professor of the English language and literature at
University College. He was called to the Bar of Inner Temple in 1845. He
acted as Secretary to the Board of Health and Local Government Act Office.
After the year 1846 he devoted himself chiefly to playwriting, and in 1874
was editing _Punch_.
The following letter is dated September, 1850:--
* * * * *
"It is not Tom Taylor only who honestly believes the Sanitary Board to be
engaged in teaching Central and Local Powers to _co-operate_, and to be
anxious to leave _bonâ fide_ power of the most important kind to the
localities. Only a few days ago a friend of mine (a physician) was proving
to me this very point in them. We who are not lawyers do not understand
points rapidly enough (or cannot remember them) to see where a great
principle is violated.
"I do not care about the Sanitary Board _per se_ ... but what I think you
are most wanted to do is to show that, however much the Parliamentary
franchise needs reform, yet a _greater_ need is that of limiting the
functions of Parliament, and giving them to County Assemblies or Town
Motes.
"That word _Mote_ is almost obsolete! May not the fact itself be a text to
you? The modern substitute, 'meeting,' has no taxing powers, no legal
officers, no constitutional power any more than a mob.... The sands of the
Whigs run fast out, and it is high time for the Radicals to have a creed.
Do you find any Chartists listen to you? If you cannot convert a Sheriff,
I should be as well pleased with a hundred Chartists, for they learn from
one another by contagion."
In this year there was put forward a project for a society to make more
local government possible. This was later carried out under the name of
the "Anti-Centralization Union."
In November, 1850, decentralization was again to the fore in the minds of
Newman and Toulmin Smith, as is shown here; and what the former says he
puts very trenchantly, forcibly:--
"7 Park Village East,
"R.P., _Oct. 16th_, 1850.
"My dear Smith,
* * * * *
"I can speak with much freedom and energy (but no _wit_) on a subject on
which I have information and feel interested: but I cannot make an after-
dinner speech of compliment, nor talk on a subject which I do not feel I
have very maturely considered.... In regard to _local government_, I think
you would disarm the fears or scruples of many excellent and wise persons
if you made prominent that you do not wish to return to the Middle Ages,
or disown that progress of society which has knit England into a single
State. I think it high time to make an outcry against a system of infinite
legislation, in which we are subjected to laws too numerous for anyone to
be acquainted with; yet I doubt whether we shall get a hearing with the
most influential minds unless we make it clear that we fully understand
that the progress of society forbids our returning to the simplicity of
law which the good Saxons had under Alfred and his successors. The gap is
vast, and there is _no danger whatever_ of our becoming too simple; yet
this fanatical aim will be so surely imputed to us (in days when such men
as Lord John Manners in Politics and the Puseyites in Church are afloat)
that it is not needless to disown it even to candid and strong-headed
hearers.
"I am asking Froude to dine with me on Tuesday, the 29th instant, at 6
o'clock, to meet you and _some other friends_ whom I want to bring
together: as I believe he will then be in London....
"_Thursday, 6 o'clock_.--I have just got Froude's reply, _Yes_: so please
to say Yes, too.
"In haste, sincerely yours,
"F. W. Newman."
As to the real meaning of the word "Democracy" Newman deals with it
thus:--
"_What is_ Democracy?... Show that if one town governs itself by universal
suffrage, that _is_ Democracy, so long as the people really exercise
interest in their public concerns; but that if a whole country, as France,
elects an Assembly, that is _not_ Democracy, but Empire delegated to an
Oligarchy, because the people at large cannot understand, follow, and
control public measures.
"I do not mean to dictate this, or any one mode; but I feel strongly that
you must put a sharp curb on all invective _until_ you have fully
developed the difference between the common Radicalism and your own views.
Pulszky says he is satisfied you were not _understood_ at the Radley Hotel
dinner. Radicals are almost as slow as Tories to admit a new thought.
"I should also like to have the question brought out: 'What has been,
historically, the Service performed by Monarchy and Centralization?' The
answer is: 'It has formed nations into larger masses, and lessened or
destroyed _border war_.' The inference is, that the great and peculiar
function of the Central Government is, in fact, what the American Congress
does, viz. to maintain peace at home between the several States, and make
the country _One_ in resisting hostile attack. To do more than this,
should be rather exceptive, and confined to subordinate matters, else
Centralization becomes mischievous...."
And again, later in the year, in answer to a letter from Mr. Toulmin
Smith:--
"What I said of 'Democracy' was meant as _argumentum ad hominem_ to that
side, not as intending to identify myself with it, but I see the danger
you speak of. Query: Would 'popular government' do? Even Conservatives
wish for a Commonwealth and for _Constitutional_ Government. No doubt
_Unity_ is the true word, not Centralization; but I think this Unity
without Centralization would never have been coveted by kings, so that in
fact we have bought the advantage of Unity at the expense of submitting to
(more or less of) Centralization."
Twelve years later, John Ruskin put forth a method which cannot fail to
commend itself to every reasonable mind; a method which, if treated from
the decentralization point of view, seems to offer good solution to the
crux of English pauperism, at any rate, if dealt with under the aegis of
_Local_ government. That "_bona fide power of the most important kind to
the localities" as Newman said, should be conceded; that the "Government
schools" of which Ruskin speaks should, in each place, be directly under
Local Control.
The passage to which I am alluding is from _Unto this Last_:--
"Any man, or woman, or boy, or girl out of employment should be at once
received at the nearest Government School" (training schools, at which
trades, etc., should be taught) "and set to such work as it appeared, on
trial, they were fit for, at a fixed rate of wages determinable every
year; that being found incapable of work through ignorance, they should be
taught; or being found incapable of work through sickness, should be
tended; but that being found objecting to work, they should be set, under
compulsion of the strictest nature, to the more painful and degrading (?)
forms of necessary toil; especially to that in mines, and other places of
danger (such danger being, however, diminished to the utmost by careful
regulation and discipline), and the due wages of such work retained, cost
of compulsion first abstracted, to be at the workman's command so soon as
he has come to sounder mind respecting the laws of employment."
LETTERS TO MRS. KINGSLEY
"Weston-super-Mare,
"_4th Nov._, 1877.
"Dear Mrs. Kingsley,
"I hurried home from Manchester to meet an expected widow friend here, who
has just left me. Somehow or other she and her little girl engrossed me
much, and made me neglect my intended warm thanks for your very kind
letters, and for your phrases even of affection, to which, be assured, I
am not inattentive or apathetic, though I imperfectly know how to respond
to that which I do not seem to have duly earned.
"Your children were as kind and attentive to me as you could have been
yourself; but I much regret not to have met you and Mr. Kingsley, to whom
I beg you to give my kind regards, and believe that it is always a
pleasure to meet you, and that I am necessarily proud of having made so
_fruitful_ a convert ... though our severe ones will remind me that you do
not wholly abstain from fish!
"Believe me, yours heartily,
"Francis W. Newman.
"I am bringing out a _dreadful_ pamphlet!"
"28 Cumberland Terrace,
"Regent's Park, London,
"_25th May_, 1878.
"Dear Mrs. Kingsley,
"Concerning the controversy about increase of population, I forgot to add
what I think has moral weight, that the theory which makes men bewail
every increase on the ground that _at length_ the earth will be overfilled
would be in argument just as powerful if the size of the earth were
increased to that of Jupiter, or to that of the sun. It simply deduces
from the axiom / _fact_ that any finite area whatsoever will at length be
overfilled by a constant unchecked increase--a reason why we should
actively check the increase NOW and HERE--a deduction wholly void of good
sense.
"Again, I did not mention what reduces John Mill's school to something
worse than negative error, the certainty that their doctrine will not be
obeyed by any but those whom we would desire to have the peopling of the
earth, viz. the people of most intellect. If the highly intelligent and
conscientious obey John Mill, we evidently must look forward to the
peopling of every land by the most backward and least intelligent part of
the nation.... Malthus was shocked by the system of encouraging very early
marriage and large families for the mere sake of getting men as food for
gunpowder: but if people marry (say young men at 27 or 28, not at 17 or
18) he denounces as unnatural and unimaginable that society or law should
frown upon a family as being too numerous. In every moral aspect of the
case, John Mill is opposed to Malthus, and his followers have no right to
call themselves Malthusians. I feel confident that human population would
waste _if_ every man adopted the doctrine _either_ of John Mill _or_ of
certain American theorists....
"With best regards to all yours,
"I am, yours most sincerely,
"F. W. Newman."
"15 Arundel Crescent,
"Weston-super-Mare,
"_12th Feb_., 1880.
"Dear Mrs. Kingsley,
"Your kind letter, yesterday received, gives me great concern. I never
wept through simple grief, but once in my life through grief at
ingratitude; and I think I never felt so painful a pang in my heart. I can
well imagine that a sense of another's ingratitude may terribly overthrow
anyone's health. I believe my dear sister, whose death you so kindly
mention, suffered _in part_ from excess of anxiety through being made
executrix to her husband's will, involving great perplexity, but _also_
from the fraud of an old and trusted clerk. Her husband had several small
strokes of paralysis, and for two and a half years before his death
probably had not his mind always perfect. He delegated many confidential
writings and documents to the clerk, who with his wife was much respected
by the whole family. After his death his accounts were inexplicable. Three
of his sons worked hard at them for weeks together, and at last discovered
frauds, by which the clerk had not only embezzled money-how much they know
not, but counted above the thousand-and had depreciated the property in
selling it by representing it as having been for years a declining
business: this was to hide his pilferings. When charged with it, the man
_became raving mad_. Lawyers knew not how to recover property from a
maniac who could not defend himself: and my sister was in such grief for
the man's wife, that she knew not whether to wish to recover a farthing.
How the matter stood she either did not know or did not like to tell me-to
the last; but the mysterious disease which ate away her strength, I in my
private mind ascribe to anxiety from this affair and her sudden and
strange responsibility as trustee for ladies.
"This dear sister was the fondest object of my boyish affections; and
through life she was the self-sacrificing, devoted character which from
earliest years she displayed. Five sons, one daughter, and two daughters-
in-law were present at her death, all fervent in love and duty. Her
husband was one of ten children, and all that family were singularly
united. Her only daughter will now live with two of her aunts, who have
been almost at her side since birth. My sister was so long in a very
precarious state that I did not expect her to survive the winter of 1878-
9, and at last death came as a relief and release.
"It has always troubled me that I have so little power to promote the
industrial interests of friends. When I was a professor in London I used
to be entreated to find pupils for tutors (when I had not half as many
pupils as I desired for myself) and to recommend others to publishers and
editors, when I could neither get a publisher to risk a shilling on what I
wrote, nor more than one editor to accept an article from me. Now, I would
most gladly recommend ---- ----; but it is well to say frankly that no one
ever asks me, nor do I _at all_ know who wants anything, nor can I guess
in what direction to inquire. But be sure I shall not forget, if the
occasion opens.
"I yesterday heard awful tidings of widespread murrain in the sheep of
these parts (Somerset and Monmouth and all between) ascribed to last
summer's wet. One farmer (as a specimen) has lost 1000 sheep; the hotel-
keepers are bidden to _beware of mutton._ This I have from an associate of
our society.
"Indoors I am happy; but I am so gloomy for the prospects of the country
that I do not like to talk about them. Kind regards to Mr. Kingsley.
"I am, most truly yours,
"F. W. Newman."
"Weston-s.-M.,
_19th Oct._, 1880.
"Dear Mrs. Kingsley,
"Behold me (in imagination, as I really am) still at home on our great
vegetarian day.
"I warmly thank you for your kind letter, and was purposing to write, but
in heaps of letters could not find yours with the new address, which I
have now entered in my book.
"I have finally resolved not to bustle about so late in the year, and have
resigned my place as President in consequence. But it is reported to me
that the Executive will prefer to exempt me from attendance in this
month....
"Public affairs make me very melancholy. Mr. Gladstone is not to blame for
the state of Ireland; but both in Afghanistan with India and in South
Africa, I think he has allowed his colleagues to neutralize his public
professions, and has made compromises most calamitous.
"The ministry seems to me not worthy of the Parliament. I do not doubt
that the plutocracy in the next ten or even five years will have a heavy
and deserved fall, but with how much convulsion and suffering in Ireland,
in India, and in South Africa, all inflicting miseries on us--you will
live to see: I fear it cannot be small, and that our institutions, called
Fundamental, will be very gravely shaken.
"I honour your Piscarian position, and with our society would recognize
it; but the discovery that you all eat fish forbids me to glory that I
have converted a family to our Rules! With kind regards to Mr. Kingsley
and the rest, I am,
"Your sincere friend,
"F. W. Newman."
"Weston,
"_26th April_, 1883.
"Dear Mrs. Kingsley,
"... I am apparently assuming the position of one who (like the Pope)
makes an ALLOCUTION to all _who will listen._ Each of us may imitate him.
I have given away eighty copies to make my allocution known. I suppose I
ought to have sent one to you, but circulation is hard work. Alas, it
costs a shilling! Can you get it put into any Manchester Library? (Trübner
my publisher.) It is called _A Christian Commonwealth_ and is as much
against our unjust wars as a Quaker could desire.
"In haste, ever yours,
"F. W. Newman."
"Kind regards to all yours."
"Weston-super-Mare,
_9th April_, 1884.
"My dear Friend,
"... My dismay and disgust at the proceedings of a ministry, of which Mr.
Gladstone must bear the _full responsibility_--which indeed he accepts by
defending all its atrocious proceedings--have disinclined me to write,
more than I must, on any but private or literary topics....
"A new struggle is made by this unscrupulous ministry to retain the
execrable C.D. Acts.
"I am sorry that the Bishops have again turned the scale in the
unrighteous retention of the law against a man's marriage to his deceased
wife's sister. When do the Bishops rally against sanguinary injustice and
dire oppression? "I have just had two hundred and fifty copies struck off
of the enclosed leaflet, which aims to suggest to the haters of unjust
war, especially Quakers, in what direction they ought to work, viz. to lay
the foundation of an _entirely new_ political party. No candidate for a
vote could complain that he was humiliated by being required to profess
himself a VOTARY OF JUSTICE.
"I throw these leaflets in this and that direction as _feelers._ Of course
more can be printed when wanted....
"With best regards,
"I am, yours,
"F. W. Newman."
"15 Arundel Crescent,
Weston-super-Mare,
"_3rd Jan. _, 1887.
"Dear Friend,
"You need not think me dead yet; but you easily might, so estranged am I
to Manchester.
"Yet I at least have life enough to be able to wish all welfare and
blessing to you and yours in this New Year. The accumulation of letters
has always thwarted me when I have tried to find your last letter.... I
seem to remember that you then told me of the marriage of your eldest
daughter and of the literary efforts of another. Since then we have had
the overthrow in the W.K. of the Safe-Harlot-Providing Law, and indeed it
must have been as early as 1885; and the episode of Mr. Stead and his
prosecution was later! A great moral change has been wrought (for the
better, I say) in our ladies by that wickedness of our ruling classes with
the aid of wicked medical theories provoking indignant protest. To drag
printed matter into daylight is no doubt very offensive; but without
sweeping it away no sound health is to be expected. The ladies, I fancy,
will now, more _perseveringly_ than men, keep in activity the Purity
Society. And if some of them seem a little _too_ active--I ask, how _can_
this odious system of sin, crime, and cruelty be crushed without hot
enthusiasm? And where was enthusiasm hot without partial error? Fire
burns!
"This reminds me of my sending you (at your request) a load of anti-
vaccination literature, and I am wondering whether you were able to turn
it to service. THAT monstrous iniquity _must_ come down; but the medical
schools and _your Irishmen_ block out our movement.
"I wonder how you and Mr. Kingsley look on Mr. Gladstone. I never
condemned his _measure_, though I have always (for years back) declined to
aid a Parliament for all Ireland and _still more_ the expulsion of Irish
deputies from the English Parliament.... But I did not intend here to
enter Irish politics further than to indicate that while I am anti-
Gladstonian, I cry 'Ireland for the Irish,' 'India for the Indians,'
'Egypt for the Egyptians,"--_come what may_ to the English 'Empire'! [But
I have never read in history of any empire being ruined or harmed by
Justice, Mercy, or Purity.]
"I suppose I must say, 'Alas!' that the older I become [81 last June] the
more painfully my creed outgrows the limits of that which the mass of my
nation, and those whose co-operation I most covet, account _sacred_. I
dare not (unasked) send to friends what I print, yet I uphold the _sacred
moralities_ of Jew and Christian [Hindoo and Moslem] with all my heart.
Two mottos, or say _three_, suffice me:--
"The Lord reigneth.
"The righteous Lord loveth righteousness.
"The Lord requireth Justice, Mercy, and Sobriety of thought, not
ceremony or creed.
"Accept for all of you my warm wishes.
"Your Vegetarian friend of old,
"F. W. Newman."
[No date. Probably _1st March_, 1888.]
"My dear Friend,
"What a violent winter it has been in very many places! Nor is it all
over. After the awful 'blizzard' in New York, and its minor horrors
elsewhere, and the many fatal avalanches, I see this morning fresh
inundations in Hungary from sudden melting of snow. The sudden chill which
smote your husband was but a mild type, it seems, of the death fatal to so
many. Other deaths from cold, reported to us, have reminded us of your
great and sudden loss; yet what had I to say to you? I have thought that
the echo from your son in Calcutta may have made your grief break out
afresh.... I trust that time, which has not yet at all had softening
powers, has not added any fresh bitterness on a fuller realization....
"Affectionately yours,
"F. W. Newman."
"Alas! my dear friend, that your generous son Leonard had not more
experience how vain is a man's swimming power against the current of an
_ordinary_ river. I have known this in the Tigris, in the Nile, and even
in the Thames, though the bathing men in several places called me a first-
rate swimmer. Longfellow in 'Hiawatha' has touching and powerful lines on
_disasters never coming singly_, but as vultures accumulating round a huge
carcass.
"Wisdom comes too late for the individual; yet it is not useless for
_others_ to inquire after causes. Did your husband pride himself on not
wearing a specially thick coat in winter and _roughing_ it as do some
vegetarians?... I rather believe that man is a tropical animal, hairless,
made for a climate warmer than ours, and needing much aid from clothing.
"Ever yours,
"F. W. Newman.
"Herewith I return your interesting scraps.
"_21st March_, 1888."
_Extract from a letter, 7th Jan_., 1889.
"More and more I believe, that as our clearest DUTY is in _this_ world, it
is wholesome that our most eager interest (_if unselfish_) should be in
this world and not (with Count Tolstoi) so full of eagerness for
immortality, that it is an effort with him to refrain from suicide! I
_accept with grateful_ submission whatever of after-life the Supreme Lord
gives--or does not give. My desire cannot affect His actions, and in fact
I _never_ have been able to work myself into _any_ desire for a future so
undefined and unimaginable. This will show how ill I deserve a little of
(shall I say) praise or compliment in your last.
"With kind salutes to your daughters,
"I am, your sincere friend,
"F. W. Newman."
"The Firs, West Cliff Gardens, "Bournemouth,
"_17th Aug_., 1889.
"My dear Friend,
"How extraordinary you must have thought my silence, after your kind
letter from this place. Perhaps you imputed it to illness. That is not
true. Yet it may be called half true: for illness of my wife is one topic,
and increased _weakness_ makes me slower in the smallest matters--such as
handling a book, or duly buttoning a shirt or coat: while I have been
dealing with proof-sheets from always two printers, sometimes four. My day
is cut short at each end--for in the colder months I cannot sit at my desk
until my fire is lighted, and my eyes are wearied before evening
candlelight. Meanwhile my unwilling correspondence has rather increased
than lessened....
"I am achieving a long hoped for work, in which of course I have to pay
the printers--i.e. to leave in some connective available form whatever
miscellaneous important printing I have ever published, ethico-political,
theological, economical, historical, aesthetic, critical, mathematical:
indeed, the mathematical is all new, not reprint.
"I take as vivid an interest in all that concerns public welfare, of
England, Ireland, and foreign countries, and hope I ever shall. More than
ever I see that our best work for God is to work for God's creatures, not
excluding gentle brutes.
"Is it possible that you are even now _here_? That would be very good
news.
"Your lazy friend, with much apology,
"F. W. Newman."
"Northam, near Bideford,
"_19th May_, 1890.
"My dear Friend,
"Your two letters were indeed doubly welcome, and brought me virtual
pardon for two neglects, of which the worst was, the keeping locked up
(and still in prison!) the letters which you bade me to return...
"The _chief_ want of Cornwall, I was told by an old resident, is _soil_;
the rock is too near the surface. Herein art will do much in a few
generations. Attica and Palestine--stony soils--bore plentiful pine fruit.
Our Channel Islands utter the same thing. In England the _landlord_ is the
effectual starver of the soil. Bishop Stubbs, a first-rate authority on
agriculture, explains the immense excess of crops raised acre by acre
under _peasant_ culture, 'because the farmers' land is labour-starved.'"
* * * * *
"_15th July_, 1891.
"... The state of Ireland under existing factions would much have
discomposed your patriotic husband. As for me, who cannot pretend Irish
patriotism, things now look better.... But the aspect on the whole is to
me far more encouraging than alarming. The reign of false aristocracy is
fast declining; the rising powers everywhere ask for _justice_ between
orders and (as never before) between the two sexes, and the power of women
is about to signalize itself in most valuable directions--for the benefit
of _both_ sexes, and for the first time to claim nationally that moral and
Christian Right shall be the aim of Law.
"But I confess if we wish to attract ancient nations to Christianity, we
have first to reconsider our creed fundamentally, a terrible summons to
Protestants as well as Catholics....
"I have not with me _your last_, and I hope I do not evade any question.
"With best wishes to you and all yours,
"I am, your earnest friend,
"F. W. Newman."
"_27th Nov._, 1891.
"My dear Mrs. Kingsley,
"So many of my juniors die, that my friends when they do not hear of me
may well fancy that I am decrepit and declining. That is not true; only my
muscular strength is less. I cannot walk so far nor work so much, but no
vital organ seems to fail; nor can I write so much or so long....
"The longer I live, the more hopeful and more interesting I find the whole
world. In spite of crime, folly, and misery, the massive nations seem to
improve. The good--i.e. our sounder party--become wiser and stronger, as
well as in proportion more numerous. Our worst misrule has been in Ireland
and in India. The crisis in Ireland seems to me turned for the better.
Misrule in India is met not by insurrection, but by constitutional and
loyal, widely demanded Reform, such as, I feel convinced, the enlarged
franchise in England will support too warmly for the old routine to
resist. All the churches are seeking _moral_ reform.... Reforms lately too
great to think of, we now calmly contemplate as certainties of a near
future. Lord Herschell, an ex-Chancellor, pronounces that the legislative
power of the House of Lords is an evil unbearable. Scotland and Wales are
ready to demand abolition of the State Church. The English party called
Liberal (I think miscalled) desire the same, and within the last ten years
I come to think, rightly. Other reforms, too numerous to detail, cannot be
trifled with or the nation be blinded. While I wonder at all this, I see
that Scandinavia and Germany, even Belgium and France, are moving for
_moral_ objects, and also against war.
"Is there not plenty in all this to draw forth hope, joy, and
thankfulness, and in every conviction, that amidst all our tumult the Lord
reigneth? I rejoice that I have lived to see this day, and expect to
rejoice more while I live.
"How you have fared this year I seem not to know, but believe that you
have my earnest good wishes for you and yours.
"I am, yours most truly,
"F. W. Newman."
"Bournemouth (undated).
"My dear Friend,
"Your letter of July 12th from Margate has reached me here, to which place
I came because my wife five years ago gained such health here, and all the
year and past autumn she has never felt sure of health at home. I cannot
think she manages herself rightly, yet she believes, with no small reason,
that I am not a safe traveller without her; yet of the two _I_ seem the
stronger. She is better here, perhaps, because she is more in the outer
air. I must add, I too have recovered from my fall, and am fairly well,
though I do not pretend to be strong yet (as the French would say), _Que
voulez vous?_ when I am past 88.... I am glad to learn about your
children. I have good hope concerning the coming future, though the foes
of progress call us faddists because we think _national morality_
paramount to vicious routine. May but the Good prevail!
"... I now argue _for_ Fish-food as not to be forbidden or frowned on, but
do not lessen my esteem of our Manchester V. E. M. Society, nor lessen my
contribution to it, though they can only receive me as an outsider.
"I turn a vegetarian argument against them on the Fish question, but I
have no time now for it.
"I am bringing out another volume on Paul of Tarsus, which, when complete,
I hope to send you.
"With warm salutes, I am yours,
"Francis Wm. Newman.
"My wife desires her kind thought to be named."
"_1st Nov._, 1892.
"My dear Madam,
"I have not time nor strength to search out your last kind letter, which
perhaps informed me when your two sons from India were expected and when
they were to leave you....
"I do fairly well, if I potter on in my old solid routine. My 88th year
makes pretension to _strength_; but when so many moans are heard about
_neuralgia_, not to say influenza, I feel myself much favoured by the
total absence of pain, except merely what is incidental to a thin body
with some sharp bones. In rising from bed I am aware of small discomforts,
which I shake off on standing upright, and similarly after sitting in one
posture. I have not enough suffering to claim pity. I can wish the same to
all my friends, especially to my wife.
"To my judgment the world ... is in an entirely novel state, which
forebodes a wholly new future, and requires new thoughts, new policy in
our rulers, _with much higher_ MORALITY if grave overthrow is to be
averted.
"The United States of America _ought_ to be our leader in chief, but
mainly through ... the dreadful colour war that is year by year waxing
worse. The only thing clear to me is, that their _home_ calamity must for
a long while hinder their giving aid to the world. The policy in Russia is
so fatal, and its result presages an overturn of the scale of the France
of 1793. This makes all foresight impossible, except that every State is
safest which least violates the laws of universal morality. That England
can avoid great retribution seems to me scarcely probable. But as soon as
morality is allowed to speak loud in high places, I believe our main
dangers will quickly disappear. The prospect cannot be defined, but is to
me of intense interest. Britain seems to me immensely superior to its own
ruling classes in goodness, and the good is sure _at length to prevail_,
to the benefit also of your Ireland.
"With kindest best wishes, I am,
"Most truly yours,
"F. W. Newman."