t fy^ f-*i Mw'f ff r ni ^ vw'iH^*-H^^^MV"*™=™t^""'*"**^^^w*f*»<** "J™»" «"»'*''M<'' mSBxImSBSaB^msmiySSiSBS^ mMmMim!illM9MMl!lltmaii<^alTii^» mmm:^ {« ilHHBWH W »W » Wt " ^ ^<'™ '""M"«'<'"^ " °'™T"" ' '' '™"''"* " '' ">*W 3| | l)y#t l j)l i i | ya it )L | ) ii ji(M iiiiT«;iBnnH W'W'fH«H > niin;M w>iwinwigiP W^»WyWB r'li i^ =*^ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM '"'.A,. -^S-rrett ^-^•LIBRIS EARL A- BARRETT Cornell University Library CT788.S64 A3 1913 Selection from Goldwin Smith's correspon olin 1924 029 881 764 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029881764 A SELECTION FROM GOLDWIN SMITH'S CORRESPONDENCE GOLllWlN SMITH {Elli.'tl i- Fry) A SELECTION FROM GOLDWIN SMITH'S CORRESPONDENCE COMPRISING LETTERS CHIEFLY TO AND FROM HIS ENGLISH FRIENDS, WRITTEN BETWEEN THE YEARS 1846 AND 1910 Collected by his Literary Executor ARNOLD HAULTAIN ILLUSTBATED NEW YORK DUFFIELD & COMPANY 1913 PRINTED BY HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD., LONDON AND AYLESBURY, ENGLAND, CONTENTS No. Name of Writer. Name of Becipient. Tear. Date. Page. I G. S. Roundell Palmer (afterwards Earl of Selborne) 1846 Feb. 23 1 n j» »j j» 1847 Aug. 30 2 m 1850 April or May 5 IV jj W. E. Gladstone 1855 May 2 7 T )> 3» »» 1858 Mays 9 VI Matthew Arnold G. S. 1861 May 18 10 vn G. S. E. S. Beesly 1863 Jan. 23 11 viu J. William Riviere, R.A. 1868 Jan. 11 11 IX ,> Frederic Harrison ,, Feb. 12 13 X Mrs. Hertz ,, April 28 14 XI >t s» »» )* May 4 15 xn Frederic Harrison ,j Oct. 26 18 XIII The third Marquess of Salisbury (Prime Minister) 1870 Jan. 31 19 XIV ,) »> It ,^ Mar. 23 21 XV ,> Max MuUer ti July 18 24 XVI ", j> »> tf July 31 - 26 XVII >] ,, Aug. 8 -27 xvm )> 3» ,, Aug. 10 . 28 XIX >> »j »» ,, Aug. 23 ' 29 XX »3 it Aug. 29 • 32 XXT >> »> ,, Oct. 7 '33 XXTT >> >J Nov. 15 -^35 xxm 3» »» 1871 Jan. 8 36 XXTV >; »» »» >> Feb. 12 -37 XXV W. E. Gladstone May 14 39 XXVI >j Max Miiller >J Sept. 4 -40 xxvn >i .. 1872 Jan. 1 41 xxvin Thomas Ashton Jacob Bright 1873 July 31 42 XXIX Jacob Bright . G. S. ,, Aug. 13 44 TTYTT G. S. Prof. Rolleston 1874 Feb. 10 44 XXXT Mrs. Winkworth tt Feb. 14 46 TTXTTTT »» ») >> Mar. 7 46 XXXTTI Charles Lindsey »» AprillS 47 XXXIV J, Mrs. Hertz „ June 29 48 XXXV Max Miiller G. S. »J Sept. 23 50 XXXVI G. S. W. E. Gladstone Oct. 28 52 XXXVil William Rathbone )» Nov. 14 52 xxxvm »» Mrs. Hertz 1875 Sept. 26 54 VI CONTENTS No. Name of Writer. Name of Recipient. Tear. Date. Page. yxxTX G. S. Marquess of Salisbury 1876 Mar. 25 55 XL >» • * >» »» J* Oct. 10 56 XXJ Mrs. Hertz Oct. 12 57 XT,n »» • • »» »i >» Nov. 5 58 XT.TTT John Bright G. S. Nov. 19 59 XLIV G. S. . Mrs. Winkworth j^ Nov. 30 60 XLV Mrs. Hertz 1877 Nov. 11 61 XIYI W. E. Gladstone G. S. J9 Nov. 14 61 sxvn G. S. Mrs. Hertz 1878 Feb. 27 63 XLvm >» • ' Mrs. Winkworth »> May 20 63 xux Sir John A. Mac- donald (Prime Minister of Canada) G. S. »f Oct. 1 64 L G. S. Mrs. Winkworth ,^ Oct. 18 66 LI Mrs. Hertz ^^ Nov. 8 67 LH f » Prof. Tyndall [^ Nov. 21 68 LTTT W. E. Gladstone J, Nov. 23 70 LIV >» The Rt. Hon. J. X. Merriman (Prime Minister of Cape Colony) " Dec. 17 72 LV t> »» )» >» Dec. 23 77 LVI »» 1879 April 26 78 Lvn John Bright G. sV 9> Aug. 21 80 Lvm G. S. Mrs. Hertz ff Sept. 17 82 LIX »» Sir George Young 1880 — 84 LX >> Mr. Winkworth ft Jan. 22 85 LXI yt J. X. Merriman April 9 87 Lxn Sir John A. Mac- donald G. S. July 7 89 Lxni G. S. Mrs. Hertz Aug. 8 90 LXIV Sir John A. Mac- donald G. S. >» Nov. 9 93 LXV G. S. Percy (afterwards Sir P.) Bunting (Editor of the Gontempo- rary Review) ? Mar. 2 94 LXVI »» »» 1880 Dec. 19 95 LXVll Marquess of Lome (after- wards 9th Duke of Argyll) G. S. 1881 June 8 95 Lxvin »> )> ft }f June 14 96 LXIX G. S. Mrs. Hertz Julys 97 LXX >> j» »> >> Sept. 8 98 LXXI John Cameron (Edi- tor of the Toronto Olobe, and after- wards of the Lon- don [Canada] Ad- vertiser) Nov. 18 98 CONTENTS vu No. Name of Writer. Name of Beciplent. Tear. Date. Page. T.YTTr Sir John A. Mao- donald G. S. 1881 Deo. 23 101 Lxxm G. S. Mrs. Winkworth 1882 Jan. 24 102 T.XXTV »» • ■ • Mrs. Hertz ^ Jan. 30 103 IXXV Third Earl Grey Colonial Secre- tary) G. S. '» Mar. 104 LXXVI G. S. Percy Bunting »» Aprils 118 Lxxvn Third Earl Grey G. S. 1* April 25 118 1.XXV1I1 G. S. Prof. TyndaU j» AprU 26 120 LXXIX Edward Gibson (afterwards Lord Ash- bourne, Lord Chancellor of Ireland) G. S. ft May 13 122 LXXX G. S. Percy Bunting »> May 17 124 liXXSI J» Third Earl Grey May 30 125 T.XX-XTT W. D. Le Sueur jj June 2 128 1.x X X 1 1 1 Third Earl Grey G. S. June 5 129 LXXHV G. S. Sir Robert Collins (Comptroller of the Household of H.R.H. the Duke of Albany) June 25 132 T.Trvw Lord Ashbourne G.S, ,, June 30 134 I/XXXVI Sir John A. Mac- donald *t " Aug. 5 135 T.XXXVtE G. S. Prof. Tyndall ,j Sept. 1 136 T.V X X VIM >. tt Got. 6 137 T.XXXTX Sir Robert Collins Nov. 7 138 XO Mrs. Hertz if Deo. 4 139 XOT John Bright G.S. 1883 Jan. 7 140 xcn G. S. Lord Farrer (Perma- nent Secretary to the Board of Trade) " Jan. 14 143 xom 17 Percy Bunting >» Mar. 14 145 xorv .. Mrs. RoUeston ^j April 25 146 xov John Cameron ,^ Jime29 147 XOVI Lord Ashbourne G.S. ^^ July 14 148 xcvn G. S. Prof. TyndaU ,, Sept. 30 149 xcvm »? Sir George Young ,, Oct. 8 150 XOIX Mrs. Hertz ,, Oct. 8 151 o Lord Ashbourne G.S. jj Nov. 2 153 OI G. S. Mrs. Hertz 1884 Jan. 1 154 on Matthew Arnold G.S. ^^ Jan. 30 155 om Lord Ashbourne t> ,, Feb. 23 156 OIV ,. — — 157 ov Third Earl Grey 1884 Mar. 11 158 CVT G. S. Prof. TyndaU ,, Oct. 24 159 ovn >> Mrs. Hertz t9 Deo. 28 160 cvm yr tt 1885 Jan. 1 163 OIX Lord Ashbourne G.S. >t Feb. 28 164 VIU CONTENTS No. Name of Writer. Name of Becipient. Tear. Date. Page. OX Lord Melgund (afterwards Earl of Minto) G. S. 1885 Mar. 1 166 0X1 G. S. Percy Bunting >> Mar. 31 16» cxn Matthew Arnold G.S. June 19 170 cxni G. S. J. W. Longley (At- torney-General of Nova Scotia) " Julys 171 CXIV >> Lord Farrer ,, Aug. 17 173 cxv .; Matthew Arnold j^ Aug. 17 175 OXYI Lord Fturer G.S. Aug. 29 177 CXVII G. S. Mrs. Winkworth Sept. 30 178 OXVIII 9> Prof. Tyndall Nov. 10 179 OXIX >. » ^, Dec. 16 181 oxx Matthew Arnold G.S. 1886 Jan. 13 182 OXXT G. S. Third Earl Grey j^ Mar. 30 184 CXXII >t Lord Selbome s. May 3 186 cxxin SJ • • Mr. Hutchins May 6 187 CXXIV The third Earl Grey G.S. >» May 13 188 oxxv G. S. Sir Robert Collins ,^ May 16 189 OXXVI ji Prof. Tyndall I, July 28 190 oxxvn Third Earl Grey ^, Sept. 23 191 OXXViii The third Earl Grey G.S. >> Sept. 28 192 OXXIX G. S. J. W. Longley 1887 Jan. 15 195 oxxx >> Lord Selbome ^^ Feb. 7 196 OXXXl The fourth Vis- count Monok (Governor-Gen- eral of Canada) G.S. ?> Feb. 14 198 oxxxn G. S. Lord Selbome JS April 21 199 oxxxux j» Percy Bunting ^J May 6 201 OXXXIV »> iy >j J, July 22 201 oxxxv Lord Hartington (a fter wards eighth Duke of Devonshire) G.S. " Aug. 7 202 OXXXVI G. S. Lord Farrer >t Aug. 21 208 oxxxvn Kt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P. G.S. Sept. 13 204 oxxxvra Hiram Corson . ^^ ^^ Sept. 21 205 OXXXTX G. S. Percy Bunting JJ Oct. 19 208 OXIi j> Mrs. Winkworth >» Nov. 22 208 OXXI Lord Chief Jus- tice Coleridge G.S. Nov. 24 210 OXUl T. P. Bayard . ,, 1888 Mar. 4 212 OXT.TTT G. S. Third Earl Grey 3S Mar. 11 2X3 OXLIV The third Earl Grey G.S. Mar. 26 214 OXLV G. S. Third Earl Grey J, April 23 217 GXLVl M Mrs. Matthew Arnold >> May 9 218 CONTENTS IX No. Kame ot Writer. Name of Recipient. Tear. Date. Page. oxLvn G. S. Charles S. Smith 1889 Feb. 4 218 oxLvm Viscount Peel (Speaker of the H. of C.) G. S. " Feb. 22 220 CTT.TY G. S. Albert (afterwards fourth Earl) Grey )y April 1 221 OI. ;. Briton Riviere, B.A. t) April 18 221 CU ,, >s >» May 15 223 OLn >» Percy Bunting 1890 Jan. 16 224 CT.TTI j» F. C. Wade tr Aug. 12 224 CUV Editor of the New England Magazine Sept. 9 225 CLV jj Mrs. Winkworth j^ Oct. 20 227 OLVl >> Prof. Hosmer ^^ Oct. 25 228 OLVH Earl of Selborne Deo. 4 229 CLVUl Frederick Green- wood (First Editor of the Pall Mall Ga- zette) G. S. >» Dec. 14 231 oux G. S. Hon. James Young 1891 April 28 233 CLX >> • • W. T. Harris ,j Aug. 11 234 OIXI Frederick Green- wood G. S. 9 Oct. 9 234 otjXH G. S. Prof. Burt Wilder 1892 Jan. 1 236 CLxm Frederick Green- wood G. S. "!„ April 27 237 OLiav The third Earl Grey " " May 25 239 CLXT G. S. Lord Farrer *9 Jvme22 241 CLXVl >. June 30 242 CLXVU Lord Farrer G.'S. »> July? 243 CLXViU G. S. Lord Farrer July 19 245 CliXIX >> Mrs. Winkworth j,j July 26 246 CLXX Lord Farrer ,, Aug. 30 248 OLXXI jj Lord Mount Stephen 'J Oct. 29 248 nTYYTT Briton Riviere it Dec. 6 250 CT.xxm W. J. Wills 1893 April 17 251 CliXXIV J. ;i ,^ July 19 263 CLXXV >> Henry C. Lea »> Aug. 7 254 CLXXVl Secretary St. George's Society, Toronto Sept. 20 255 OLXXVU » Earl of Selborne ,, Sept. 25 256 OliXXVlii >> Hon. John Beverley Robinson (Lieut.- Gov. of Ontario, Canada) " Oct. 30 257 CliXXIX . Earl of Selborne ,, Nov. 23 258 CT.XXX Rev. Chas. S. Eby — ? 259 OLXXXT »s Mrs. Pruyn 1894 Mar. 23 260 ClyXXXTT The third Earl Grey G. S. " April 7 260 ci.xxxnT J> 3J ., 3i AprU 19 266 Xll CONTENTS No. Name of Writer. Name ol Bccipient. Tear. Date. Page CCLXIII Prof. p. ViUari (Vice-President of the Senate of Italy) G. S. 1900 Sept. 2 360 OOLXIV G. S. J. X. Merriman tt Sept. 5 362 OCLXV . Mrs. Hertz Oct. 29 363 CCLXVl Frederic Harrison ti Dee. 9 365 ccLxvn ») Percy Bunting Dec. 11 366 ccLxvin J. X. Merriman 1901 Feb. 21 367 CCLXIX >. Briton Riviere j^ Mar. 17 368 CCLXX Viscount Peel . G. S. )> April 6 370 CCLXXI G. S. Lord Mount Stephen May 22 372 ccLxxn >i Rev. Mr. Warnicker ty July 10 373 ccLxxin !. E. S. Beesly Sept. 12 374 CCLXXIV »» • Moberly Bell yj Nov. 30 375 OCLXXV Mrs. Hertz 1902 Jan. 14 377 CCLXXVI >y Lord Mount Stephen )} Feb. 1 378 CCLXXVH Mrs. Hertz Feb. 14 379 ccLxxvni • > Frederic Harrison 3> Mar. 2 380 OCIXXIX Lord Mount Stephen Mar. 4 381 CCLXXX >> John Ogilvy (Vice- Chairman of the Dundee Liberal As- sociation) 5S Mar. 14 382 OOLXXXI »j Lord Mount Stephen ,j April 5 385 rnT.YYTTTT Secretary of the Cobden Club S» June 25 386 ccLxxxm »» Frederic Harrison j^ July 15 387 COLXXXIV Lord Mount Stephen Jf Oct. 2 388 CCLXXXV >j John Ogilvy Oct. 10 389 CCLXXXVI j» • . Mr. Lawrence ^^ — 390 COLXXXVII Briton Riviere Dec. 23 391 OOLXXXYin i> Lord Mount Stephen 1903 Feb. 1 392 OOLXXXIX G. W. Prothero, Editor of The Quar- terly " Feb. 23 393 coxc ,, Moberly Bell »? Feb. 24 394 CCXCI >> Lord Mount Stephen tj Feb. 26 395 CCXCII Sir Robert Collins Mar. 10 396 ccxcm >j Justin McCarthy ^y April 2 397 CCXCIV jj Charles S. RoundeU ,j May 17 398 coxcv ,, J. X. Merriman jj Aug. 3 399 CCXOVI ;s )» jj j> Aug. 31 400 coxcvn s> Charles S. Roundell it Sept. 19 401 ccxovm JS The Earl of Rosebery it Dec. 16 403 CCXCIX ,, Russell G. Dingman Deo. 21 404 ceo ,, G. W. Prothero 1904 Jan. 9 405 COOI »> Earl of Rosebery j^ Feb. 12 405 cccn >j Fourth Earl Grey „ Mar. 2 406 ccom „ yt >y )> April 20 408 CCCIV J) J. E. Atkinson April 30 409 ccov J, Briton Riviere >» June 27 410 CCOVl >J John Ogilvy 5J June 30 411 CONTENTS Xlll No. Name ot Writer. Name of Eeoipient. Tear. Date. Page. cccvn ( :i. S. Frederic Harrison 1904 July 9 413 ooovni Moberly Bell tt Aug. 8 413 COCIX » t> Sept. 2 414 COOX' Lord Mount Stephen I* Sept. 19 415 OOOXI Earl of Rosebery Sept. 21 416 cooxn Henry S. Salt tt Sept. 30 417 nnnTTTTT President of the Press Club, Toronto 1* Oct. 10 418 OCCXIV Earl of Kosebery tf Oct. 26 421 ccoxv Oxford Friends G. S. J, Nov. 422 COOXVI G. S. Sir Robert Collins >» Nov. 9 423 CCOXVII J. E. Atkinson Dec. 7 425 ocoxvin John Ogilvy ■ > Deo. 27 426 COCXIX Rev. N. Burwaah, Chancellor of Vic- toria University, Toronto Dec. 29 427 ocoxx Sir Robert CoUinFi 1905 Jan. 27 429 OCCXXI P. J. O'Regan f » Jan. 30 430 ccoxxn ^ Sir Robert Collins Feb. 22 431 CCOTTXTTr W. R. Wilkinson • » Feb. 25 432 ocoxxrv " The Rev. Canon (afterwards the Ven. Archdeacon) Cody ft Mar. 3 433 ccoxxv r> Earl of Rosebery ,, Mar. 28 434 OCOXXVI Sir Robert Collins ,, Mar. 30 435 cooxxvn Henri Bourassa, M.P. jj AprU 13 436 OCOXXV'IU f» Ven. Archdeacon Cody ff May 437 COCXXiX f p Herbert Paul ft May 17 438 nnrnc-r'T Frederick Green- wood G. S. ft May 23 439 CCCXXXT G. S. George Freeman ,j June 5 441 cooxxxn »» Rt. Hon. Lewis Har- court, M.P. *t June 23 441 cooxx^nrr »» A Lady — Name un- known tl Julys 443 cccxxxiv »» • Lord Mount Stephen »» Aug. 6 443 cccxxxv Henri Bourassa ,, Aug. 30 445 COOXXXVI .. Frederick Williams »» Sept. 1 446 oooxxxvn Moberly Bell Oct. 20 447 ccoxxxvm Earl of Rosebery t* Oct. 23 448 CCCXXXIX .. »> tr »» Nov. 28 448 OOCXL »» • * tf »» Dec. 13 449 COOXTiT Fourth Earl Grey ,, Dec. 21 451 OCOXT.TI . J. X. Merriman 1906 Jan. 5 452 cccxLin ',', Earl of Rosebery tr Jan. 8 454 oooxuv Monoure D. Con- G. S. " Jan. 15 455 CCCXLV way G. S. Sir Robert Collins Jan. 22 457 COOXLVI »» Martin Griffin (Li- brarian of Parlia- 1 ment, Canada) It Jan. 26 458 XIV CONTENTS No. Name of Writer. Name oJ Beoipient. Year. Date. cooxxvu Moncure D. Con- G. S. 1906 Feb. 22 cocxLvin way G. S. Lord Mount Stephen >* Mar. 9 CCOXTJX . Phillips Thompson J» May 9 OCOL Moncure D. Con- G. S. " May 10 oocu way G. S. George Freeman May 26 OCOUI ,. Sir Edward Clarke (Solicitor-General) " June 12 cocun »> Mrs. Henry (MUlicent Garrett) Fawcett f* July 4 COOLIV Mrs. Henry Faw- oett G. S. *t July 19 CCOLV Homer B. Sprague G. S. .. S» July 24 COOLVI Sir Robert Collins IP July 25 ccoLvrt Mrs. Winkworth July 27 CCCIiViU John Robertson rt Aug. 21 OOCLIX Sir Horace Phmkett Aug. 27 CCCLX . Mrs. Winkworth fi Aug. 31 CCOT.XT Sir Edward Clarke G. S. Oct. U ar.m.irrt The Hon. An- drew D. White " »» Oct. 12 cocLxm Booker T. Wash- ington »f »» Oct. 23 COOLXIV G. S. The Hon. Senator Pulsford *t Oct. 29 COOLXV »» Prof. P. S. Campbell ^^ Dec. 4 CCOLXVI ,, J. St. Loe Strachey j^ Deo. 6 ccoLxvn Lord Mount Stephen 1907 Jan. 4 ccoLxvin j^ Sir Robert Collins fr Feb. 14 OCOIiXIX M .. Mar. 24 OCOLXX Mrs. Winkworth tt AprU 10 OOCLXXl >r If »» tt AprU 15 oooLxxrc Sir Robert Collins ty Mays OCCLXXIII ^j Frederic Harrison tf May 17 OCOLXXIV Maden Music Co. G.S. Jime 19 OCOLXXV G. S. Sir Robert Collins tt June 25 OOOLXXVI Frederic Harri- G.S. June 26 OCCLXXVII son George Martin . y> June 28 cccLxxvxn G. S. Earl of Rosebery >j Oct. 21 COOLXXIX >» ■ »» »» Dec. 20 OCOLXXX Homer B. Sprague G.S. 1908 Jan. 13 OCCLXXXI G. S. A. J. Wilson )j Feb. 20 ' COOLXXXII » Frederic Harrison Feb. 20 ' cccLxxxm »» Fourth Earl Grey ^^ Mar. 4 ' OOCLXXXIV Earl of Rosebery ,, Mar. 30 OOOLXXXV »» , Captain Fraser it AprU 2 ' 1 Homer Dixon CCOLXXXVI •1 J. X. Merriman „ AprU 4 ' CONTENTS XV No. Name of Writer. Name of Recipient Tear. Date. Page. oooLxxxvn Frederic Harri- soa G.S. 1908 AprU 23 498 cooLxxxvm G. S. Rev. W. Harris Wal- lace l» AprU 28 499 CCOIXXXIX »» TheAuthorof TheCaae Against Socialism it May 2 500 ccoxo t* • J. E. Atkinson >t May 2 501 CCOXOI it Sir Edmund Byron Walker »> July 2 502 oooxcn » J James Simpson jj Sept. 9 503 oooxcin J. X. Merriman it Oct. 8 503 CCOXOIV i. Jonas A. Rosenfield Oct. 12 505 cccxov )» A. J. Wilson *i Nov. 24 505 OCOXCVI J. X. Merriman Deo. 16 506 cccxovn »» J. Bettany >» Deo. 23 507 cocxovrn J. X. Merriman 1909 Jan. 20 508 CCCXOIX Frederic Harrison ]} Feb. 5 509 CD Earl of Cromer Feb. a 510 ODI Henry S. Salt >j AprU 7 511 ODH ,. Eev. W. Harris Wal- lace April 27 512 CDin „ Lord Rosebery j> May 4 512 CDIV >> J. X. Merriman it May 7 513 CDV ", Prof. A. V. Dicey June 8 513 CDVI The Earl of Cromer G.S. a Julys 514 CDvn G. S. W. R. Givens jj July 515 CDViU The fourth Earl of Minto (at this time Gov- ernor-General of Canada) G.S. >» July 14 516 CDIX G. S. Briton Riviere j^ Aug. 1 517 ODX . Lord Mount Stephen a Aug. 4 518 ODXI »i Sir John Gibson (Lieut.-Gov. of On- tario) i* Sept. 1 519 CDxn . J. X. Merriman it Sept. 6 519 ODxm >> ■ »> »> fi Sept. 8 520 CDXIV Rt. Hon. John Bums, M.P. »i Oct. 7 521 CDXV . Frederic Harrison jj Nov. 23 521 CDXVI " W. R. Givens a Nov. 30 522 ODXVH Rev. W. Harris Wal- lace it — 523 CDXvm Frederic Harrison 1910 Jan. 5 524 ODVTX >> Earl of Rosebery „ Feb. 10 525 CDXX It jt »f Feb. 13 525 CDTTTTr The Dean ofWelis Arnold Haultain It Mar. 8 526 ODXxn G.S. Earl of Rosebery tt Mar. 15 527 CDXXIU >» »» »» April 15 527 CDXxrv »> • * J. St. Loe Straohey >i May 14 528 CDXXV Sir Horace Plvmkett ts May 31 529 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS GoLDWiN Smith ..... Frontispiece PAQB GoLDWiN Smith when aged about Forty-six . 32 Photograph of the Portrait in the Senior Com- mon Room op University College, Oxford . 208 GoLDwiN Smith aged Seventy-nine . . . 378 INTRODUCTION 1 COULD wish that it had fallen to the lot of some one else to collect, select, and edit Goldwin Smith's letters and the letters written to him ; for I was born more than a generation after he was, and I knew him intimately only during the last twenty years of his life. However, as his legally appointed literary executor, I have considered it to be my duty to publish some of his letters and some of the letters written to him. Goldwin Smith, although he lived to the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, belongs to the middle and latter part of the nineteenth. To be precise, he was born on August 13, 1823, and died on June 7, 1910. Nevertheless, the subjects he deals with in these letters — or, at all events, a great many of them — are subjects with which we deal to-day. He was a most far-seeing man ; and he made huge generalisa- tions. And the questions which interested him were large questions. In fact, even when he was discussing little questions, such was the calibre of his mind that he discussed them from very broad standpoints. Goldwin Smith counted among his friends many of the eminent men of his time. John Bright, Richard Cobden, John Stuart Mill he knew intimately. He met and talked with Tennyson and Carlyle, and once at least sat at the same dinner-table with Macaulay. He stayed at Lambeth Palace with Tait, then Arch- bishop of Canterbury. Matthew Arnold, Viscount XX INTRODUCTION Morley, the Right Hon. James Bryce have been his guests at The Grange. Dean Stanley, Benjamin Jowett, James E. Thorold Rogers, Lord Houghton, Louis Blanc, Tyndall, Herbert Spencer, E. A. Free- man — all these he knew, some of them long and intimately. Among those to whom he wrote the letters, and among those from whom he received the letters con- tained in this volume, may be mentioned : Roundell Palmer, afterwards Lord Chancellor and first Earl of Selborne. William Riviere, the father of Mr. Briton Riviere the well-known Royal Academician. Mr. Briton Riviere himself. Mr. Frederic Harrison, the Positivist. The third Marquess of Salisbury, he who was thrice Prime Minister of England. Professor Max Miiller, the Oxford Sanscrit scholar. Professor RoUeston, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at Oxford. Sir John A. Macdonald, Prime Minister of Canada. Professor Tyndall. The Right Hon. J. X. Merriman, sometime Prime Minister of Cape Colony. Sir George Young, Bart., late Chief Charity Com- missioner. Sir Percy Bunting, Editor of the Contemporary Review. The Marquess of Lome (now the ninth Duke of Argyll). The third Earl Grey, Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1846 to 1852. Edward Gibson, afterwards Lord Ashbourne, Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Lord Farrer, sometime Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade. Matthew Arnold. Lord Melgund, now Earl of Minto, and recently Viceroy of India ; once Governor-General of Canada. INTRODUCTION Mr. Justice J. W. Longley, sometime Attor General of Nova Scotia. The fourth Viscount Monck, Governor-Genera British America. Lord Hartington, afterwards eighth Duke of De shire. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. The late Lord Chief Justice Coleridge. Viscount Peel, Speaker of the House of Commoni Frederick Greenwood, the well-known jourm first Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette. The Lord Mount Stephen. Mr. G. W. Smalley. Sir John S. Willison, now Canadian Correspon of the London Times. Sir John Mowbray, Bart. Sir George Houston Reid, High Commissioner the Conmionwealth of Australia. The fifth (the present) Earl of Rosebery, K.G. Lord Herschell (first Baron), Lord High Chanc( The first Viscount Goschen, Chancellor of the chequer from 1887 to 1892. Sir Francis Jeune, afterwards Lord St. Helier, I dent of the Probate and Divorce Court. Professor P. ViUari, Vice-President of the Senai Italy. Justin McCarthy. The Right Hon. Lewis Harcourt, M.P. Moncure D. Conway. Sir Edward Clarke, Solicitor-General from 188 1892. The Earl of Cromer. The Right Hon. John Burns, M.P. Not many letters have I been able to ob covering the earlier periods of my late Chief's and none at all to members of his own family. V ever he may have written as a boy is, so far as aware, lost. The selection in this book commences with xxii INTRODUCTION year 1846, the twenty-third year of Goldwin Smith's age, and one year after his graduation. From this date onward the letters are fairly continuous, and extend to within a few days of his death, the last letter being dated May 31, 1910, and his death occur- ring on June 7 following — only one week intervening, he being then in his eighty-seventh year. He told me more than once in conversation that before he left England for America for good (this was in 1868 — ^he was then forty -five years of age), he had destroyed " all his correspondence " : an irreparable loss. If any one who reads this could, and would, supply me with letters written by Goldwin Smith before this date, such letters, if I were per- mitted to make them public, would, I am sure, prove interesting. For, whatever one may say, and whatever one's political opinions, Goldwin Smith's intellect and Goldwin Smith's character — ^both were unique. At Oxford he was called " vastiest Goldwin " by, I think. Professor Rolleston. Assuredly he was really a great man. His intellect was one of the most powerful of his time. As these letters show — as all his writings show — few have possessed in such a remarkable degree his power of getting at once to the crux of a problem, were that problem political, religious, social, or economical. Emotions he had ; predilec- tions he had ; prejudices he had — prejudices not a few, and some of them deeply rooted. But, when all is said and done, his solutions of problems, political, religious, social, and economical, always seemed to be solutions which derived from an intellect illumined by that lumen siccum which, alas ! is all too rare. He saw far — very far ; witness his advocacy of a " moral reunion " of the two Anglo-Saxon races on the opposing shores of the Atlantic ; witness his desire for a Church freed from all constitutional (that is political — ^that is partisan) trammels ; witness his broad views on Socialism ; witness his views on Free Trade ; witness his views on Creeds, wherein INTRODUCTION he strenuously advocated a search for " tru unimpeded by the shackles of dogma ; witness decrial of the " party system " and his patl appeals to " the reason of the community." The task of collecting and selecting these lei has not been small, and I think I have in e instance asked and obtained permission to print, any one has been omitted, it is through inad tence. I should like here once more to thank pub (as I have done privately) all those friends of G win Smith, and in many cases the heirs or execi; of those friends, who have taken much trouble have shown much kindness in sending me lei or in looking over letters which I have sent to th to all of whom I feel myself to be under a del gratitude. The letters in this volume deal chiefly with ] land and English affairs. For the benefit of a younger generation perha had better here put down the chief events of Golc Smith's life. I make my recital as brief as possi Goldwin Smith was born at Reading on August 1823. He was educated at Eton. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1 After gaining numerous prizes, he graduated class in Literse Humaniores, in 1848. In 1850 and following years he acted as Secretar the two Oxford Commissions. From 1858 to 1862 he was a member of the Educa Commission. In 1859 he was appointed Regius Professor of Moi History at Oxford. This post he resigned in 1866. In 1868 he went to America and accepted a fessorship at Cornell University, at Ithaca, ] xxiv INTRODUCTION This he virtually resigned in 1871, when he went to Toronto, Canada, married, and settled down at The Grange. Here he lived tUl the close of his life, composing his numerous books, and writing for innumerable newspapers and periodicals on both sides of the Atlantic, till — He died, June 7, 1910. Arnold Haultain. A SELECTION FROM GOLDWIN SMITH'S CORRESPONDENCE 1846 G, S, to Roundell Palmer {afterwards Lord Chancellor and created Earl of Selborne). Magdalen College, Monday, February 23, 1846. My dear Palmee, Really when I consider what men you must necessarily draw round you in London, I do not know whether to feel most pleasure or embarrassment at the way in which you speak of the prospect of our being together. I can only hope that you may not be so much disappointed in my heart as you assuredly will be in everything else. The epyov which I ought to propose to myself is to warn you perpetually to spare your health and save your money. To tell the truth, I have not near so much desire to see you in the high places of the Law as engaged in politics with a comfortable fortune. I cannot help thinking that Eldondom (to use a Carlylism) is rather on the wane. I am not altogether sure that, if subject tc " the last infirmity," I would not rather launch mji name on a decent index to Shakespeare, for instance than on a Chancellorship, even with some future Lord Campbell for a Chronicler. My Lord Lyndhursl stands a chance of leaving very little behind hin which " imagination may not trace till he find ii stopping a bunghole," as your friend Hamlet says 1 2 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH But you must give up the said Hamlet, and spend an hour, when you can snatch one from your work, in breathing the fresh, bracing air of the Comedies — my constant resource in disappointment and fidgets. What a grim reahty this Indian battle is in the midst of all our conventionalities and civilised re- finements.' Wlien I went to look at the paper this morning, I thought I could almost realise the feelings with which people must have opened the gazettes in the French War, though I had no friend or brother there. What a rebuke it is to anything like literary conceit that one may have, to see all these men, possessed of so much higher than literary qualities, marching at word of command to be shot or mangled to death in an Indian jungle ! Believe me, my dear Palmer, Ever most truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 1847 II G. S. to Boundell Palmer {afterwards Earl of Selhorne). Dresden, August 30, 1847. My dear Roundell, Your first great question will be Rothschild's election — exciting in itself, as it affects the indepen- dence of the Legislature and the conduct of Lord John, which I think very bad, and deeply interesting as it affects the great Church and State problem — to my mind the one thing worth caring for in English politics. I think I could reconcile to my own mind the connexion of the Church with a Parliament con- 1 The First Sikh War. The battles of Moodkee and Ferozeshah were fought in the previous December ; Aliwal in January ; Sobraon in February. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH taining Jews as well as with one containing Diss ters. And the Church, alas ! is as yet far from be able to dispense with endowment. It would plui half our people into heathenism for two generatio But one might fill many sheets with this. Coningi and I arrived here on the 8th, after a journey tedi( but, like happy nations, without a history. We w five hours sea-sick and twenty-four in the bowels a diligence, wedged into a molten mass of jabber Frenchmen and expectorating Germans. The i of the way we had railroads. Two of our pai Sandars and Philpot, had preceded us. So we foi lodgings ready, and launched comfortably into 1 Dresden is a very nice place, with plenty of ami ments — first and foremost the picture-gallery, whi to one who has never been in Italy, is a fairylai the collection is very complete, and, if one ki anything of the history of the art, would be v instructive. I am never tired of sitting before Madonna di San Sisto. There is a glorious Holbei: you know the print, I daresay — a Virgin with a Du family worshipping. Three famous Correggios, I don't care much for him. He seems to me to in his art about what Euripides is in poetry. revel in music for next to nothing. A stall at Opera, which is about the best in Germany, c( two shillings. I wish the taste for music and facilities for enjoying it could only be as great am oiu" people as they are among these Saxons. T would be less " ripe for treason." I think converse of Shakespeare's law holds good. ' appearance of society here is certainly very tal after our agony of money-getting. " Lower pleasu lower pains " ? But I don't know. However, are still a great nation and not a Carthage, and tl is life in our Church. The Saxons, too, have t grievances. They are overtaxed to support a C( and army on their small territory, and sigh to united with Prussia. If P. becomes a repul they will be, especially as the royal family here 4 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Roman Catholics, the people Protestants, and the heir to the Crown a great bigot. I take a German lesson every day from one Professor Chalybaus. It is a very hard language : everything to learn. English does not help one at all. I see it will be some time yet before I am able to read with tolerable ease. But I have read Faust, and am disappointed. Carlyle's estimate is pre- posterous. The whole is wonderfully wrought up, and there are passages of great beauty ; but there is next to no dramatic power — it is absolutely wretched on the stage, and as to the philosophy, el fiev ■jrdvdeio'; fucpo<;, el Be fir) ■\}revBi^';, " rose-pink sentimentalism " and dilettante Deism. By the way, Tennyson is greatly indebted to Goethe. The " Two Voices " is taken wholesale. I am rather curious to read J. P. Richter. A German told me the other day that we had two Jean Paulists — Carlyle and Dickens. He seemed to think that the resemblance in the case of Dickens was so striking that he must have borrowed directly from Jean Paul. But this can hardly be. Dickens was an uneducated man when he wrote Pickwick. It must be a mere resemblance of mind and object-matter, whereas in Tennyson's case it is plain that he has taken direct from Goethe. How French society is being shown up ! I am rather glad the Duke de Praslin has escaped the law. It will disappoint the brutal passions of the Parisians of the greatest gratification they could possibly have. Every window with a view of the guillotine would have been let at an enormous price. As it is they will have to be content with a melodrama exhibiting the murder and suicide on the stage. Louis Philippism totters. I think both the King and Guizot have proved themselves scoundrels enough to be capable of seeking a war as a diversion for the tiger half of French nature, and I can't help fearing that this Montpensier business in the hands of Lord Palmerston may afford them an opportunity. Don't you think we ought to let the Cortes make fools of themselves CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH to any extent they please without interfering ' wish the Foreign Office was put down, and that had nothing but Consuls to protect our commei interests, and ambassadors extraordinary when o( sion arose. Diplomacy on the Talleyrand plan is c duplicity after all, and we are just as much infe to the French in it as we are superior to then honesty. I believe we shall be here till near the end September. The only excursion I think of mal is to Prague, which lies twenty-four hours' journej the Elbe. Stanley classes it with Venice and Oxf( as one of the cities of Europe. We made a si walking-tour the other day in Saxon Switzerlam district of rocky rather than mountainous coun on the Elbe, very pretty in its way. By the end of October I suppose I shall be at w with Templer, a pleader to whom I have enga myself for six months. I hope I shall find yot a house, although, to be sure, you will be more i from constituents in your present semi-nomad st Your borough is at a delightful distance. Ever yours affectionately, (Signed) Gold win Smite 1850 III G. S. to Roundell Palmer {afterwards Earl of Selhor OXTOED, Wednesday, if April or May 18£ My dear Roundell, In spite of my profane jesting about " Inj ites," I am really more than sorry to find myseli variance with you on a question about which we b 6 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH must feel strongly, and if I thought that this variance would lose me any of your affection, it would make me a bad Reformer. But I feel assured that it will not. My hurried words yesterday may, I fear, have too much confirmed your impressions as to my anti- ecclesiastical tendencies. Ecclesiastical is now, of course, an ambiguous word. Sacerdotalism seems to me at present to be insepara-ble from Roman Catholicism, and Roman Catholicism seems to me to be false. But I am not and cannot be actuated by any vulgar hatred towards Sacer- dotalism. As to the clerical order, to hate them would be to hate men whom I regard as the guides of my life. But their exclusive ascendancy here is, and is felt by some of the best of them to be, an evil both to the University and themselves. It is so, I think, gener- ally ; but it is so especially now, when the most in- tellectual and thoughtful of the men, and those whom it is most desirable to retain among us, are shrinking from taking orders. As to holding the mind of the place by any arti- ficial ascendancy of the clergy, it seems to me hardly possible. Frank Newman teaches here as freely and effectively as if he was Regius Professor. And if such ascendancy is attempted and fails, it fails ruinously. I wish you would do what you once threatend to do in some long vacation — write some essays on the philosophy of Christianity. They would do more than sermons. Ever yours affectionately, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 1855 IV [Private] G. S. to W, E. Gladstone. May 2, 11 My dear Sir, I hope you will not think I am going much beyond my [?] ' if I attempt to bring b you a plan for what appears to me a very u: necessity — ^the reform of the newspaper press. I need not tell you that the newspaper pre almost the sole instrument of political educatic the great body of those who share political p( Nor need I detail the evQs that arise from having education conducted either through party jom or journals which are independent, indeed, of ] and of all convictions, but which depend i pander to, and exaggerate the fluctuating opinio the House, inducing equal [ ? ] and one-sidec and more fickleness than the party journals, forming a shifting ballast which always shifts t wrong side. I need not dwell upon the capric unprincipled, and perfidious tyranny which is demoralising the nation, and which the Legisl which feels it — ^and I hope is ashamed of it — is v endeavouring to shake off by dealing with the i paper stamp. I need not tell you that if govern is to have authority in a free country, the pow sound appreciation — only to be obtained by a political education — in the people is as nece as worthiness in the ruler. The newspaper is so evident a necessity, an( combination of news and comment so natural, it would seem any great change in the pol reading of the people is not to be expected, 1 Illegible ; perhaps " last," 8 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH My idea, then, is to set up a new Joint Stock News- paper on a more honest and liberal plan. It should have a capital sufficient to contend with advantage against any private newspaper, and this capital should be raised in £5 shares, which would all be paid up at once, which would give at once a large circula- tion and a large advertising medium, and the small- ness of which would induce many to take them, merely as a subscription to a measure of newspaper reform. There should be a Committee consisting of as many names of public men of all parties, literary men, and capitalists as could be obtained. This Committee should appoint, say, three Editors, into whose hands the management of the paper should then be consigned, subject to such checks on their commercial administration as might seem expedient. The Editors should be paid by a share of the profits. The paper should have no editorial line of politics whatever, but it should give the best prices for con- tributions from the best men on both sides of every great question. On moral and social subjects the Editors should use their own discretion, it being of course understood that they would respect, and re- quire their correspondents to respect, the great principles of society and morals. Theology should be entirely excluded. Contributions should be either signed or not, as the author pleased — ^and many ambitious of political distinction might choose to sign. In all cases, how- ever, they should appear as individual contributions, though accepted by the Editors on account of their merit. The strongest guarantees should be given for moderation of tone and fairness towards individuals. There should be a first-rate literary department, perhaps under a separate Editor — ^and first-rate intelligence. In all respects, in fact, the paper should be as good as money could make it. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH I do not see why any man, even a Cabinet Minist should shirk from contributing openly to such joxirnal. The shareholders should have no control over t editorial management of the paper. If they w( discontented with its conduct, their remedy must to sell out. Detailed provisions for the appointment of n Editors, for the removal of Editors in case of inco petence or misconduct, for the election to vacanc in the Committee, etc., may be given if the gene plan seems to you practicable and good. I hope your son the other day found me not qu so formidable as the dentist, though the intervi must have been somewhat of the same kind. Believe me. Yours very faithfully, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. The Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone. 1858 G. S. to W. E. Gladstone. The Athen^ui May 8, 1858. I see a review of your Homer in the Saturc Review, with the general theory of which, as to t origin of the Greek mythology, I own I am dispos to argue in opposition to yours. The etymologic evidence seems to me decisive of the fact that t Greek gods came from the East ; and natural religi has its source in the heart of man. 10 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 1861 VI Matthew Arnold to G. S. 11, Rb&bncy Sqttaeb, Bbiqhton, May 18, 1861. Dear Goldwin Smith, You are not a dissenting school-manager, and it is to such that my introduction is mainly addressed ; but you share, I know, their dislike of State-inter- vention ; and therefore, as I believe there are few people to whom the bourgeois and ignoble spirit which tends to become rampant in our middle classes would be more distasteful than to you, I send you my plea for State action as a means of wholesomely influencing them. You shall by no means be bound to write me your sentiments on what I have said, but I should like you to read and consider it. I see Lord Shaftesbury announces another appear- ance — ^but I am afraid he will not suffer himself to be drawn into continuing his delightful correspon- dence with Pat Cumin. I thought Cumin's last letter, which appeared after I saw you, the best of the series. Lord Shaftesbury, however, is an vmdeniably effective speaker, not in Exeter Hall only ; so in the House of Lords he is not a despicable enemy, even with a bad case. I am sorry I cannot have the pleasure of dining with you on Tuesday ; I hoped to have seen you at Conington's, but you did not appear. Ever very truly yours, (Signed) M. Arnold. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 1863 VII G. S. to E. S. Beesly, Esq. Oxford, January iZ, 1863 My dear Sir, I think I never felt so much as in this matte the enormous power which the Times has, not frc the quality of its writing, which of late has been rati poor, but from its exclusive command of publici and its exclusive access to a vast number of min( The ignorance in which it has been able to keep great part of the public is astounding. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 1868 VIII G. S. to William Riviere.' Ithaca, New Yobi January 11, 1868. My dear Mr. Riviere, I was very glad to receive your letter, wh came to remind me of my friends in England wh for the first time in my life I was keeping Christn and New Year's day in a foreign land. I shall never set any more " tops " spinning English politics ; but I am still interested in 1 political fortunes of my English friends ; and 1 joiced in the election of C. Parker. But it was alm^ the only case in which a candidate in whom I f particularly interested succeeded in the electii ' The Civil War in America. * Father of Briton Riviere, R.A, 12 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH What I saw in the election campaign of the general subserviency to money and rich men made me go with a lighter heart up the side of the ship which was to carry me away from England. You will like to hear that I brought your picture of Cromwell with me to Ithaca, and made it over to Ezra Cornell, the founder of the Cornell University ; so that, if the University prospers, your picture will perpetuate your name among the students of genera- tions to come. Ezra Cornell is a man raised quite from the ranks of labour — I met the other day a man under whom he had been employed at a day-labourer's wages in putting up telegraph poles — who having, rather late in life, made a large fortune, has given this University endowments which I suppose will altogether not fall short of £200,000, and is devoting what remains to him of life to the interests of his foundation. If he had been an English millionaire he would have bought a good estate, built a house big enough for a barrack, purchased a seat in Parliament, voted with a Minister till he had been rewarded with a baronetcy, and en- tailed all his property on his eldest son. Here we have no baronetcies, no primogeniture or entail, no " founding of families," and Cornell University is the fruit. The other day I was dining in New York with Peter Cooper, a counterpart of Cornell, who has displayed the same princely liberality in founding the Cooper Institute for the education of artisans which Cornell has displayed in founding this Uni- versity. Ithaca will be very beautiful in summer. If waterfalls will make us happy, we shall be blest, for I believe we have about a score of them, of different shapes and sizes. At present we are under the siege of an almost Arctic winter. I have not felt cold, however, so much as I used to feel it at Oxford, though the thermometer is lower. The air is drier, and our houses aj-e very well warmed. All th^ CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 1; world goes about in sledges, and the little town i full of the merry jingling of their bells. To-nigh the College celebrates its founder's birthday with i reception and ball, against which some Calvinis parsons have protested in vain. Oxford news, and even gossip, will be alway welcome. Yours very truly, GoLDWiN Smith. IX G. S. to Frederic Harrison. 16, Paek Tebraoe, Oxford, February 12, 1868. My dear Harrison, I cannot thank you enough for your letter, c the people at Marylebone for their kind thought: Certainly if I go to live elsewhere, it wiU not be fc want of friends here. I have, however, made up my mind, even if I ai in England at the time of the next General Electioi not to think of Parliament. I am sure that anythin I can do would be done better out of the House. I have now very little strength for work. Tt most generous and least exacting constituency mus make considerable demands on its member's tin in the shape of correspondence, meetings, etc. Th would not leave me free enough for the great que tion. A rich man can command the help of seen taries and other appliances which set him free fro] a good deal of detail. But I am the reverse < rich. There would be all the Committee work \ the House besides. I have had no training for Parliament, and tl chances are greatly against my making up my le way at my time of life. Let a younger man, with plenty of energy ar 14 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH dash still in him, take the opening which I believe would be wasted on me. A better opening he could not have, for I am firmly convinced, with you, that these artisans, with all their faults, are likely to be loyal to merit in a sense in which no other class is. What a contrast between the men of Marylebone and the squires of a county constituency looking for the fattest representative of fat oxen. Once more, my cordial thanks, Ever yours sincerely, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. MoBTiMEB, Reading, April 28, 1868. My dear Mrs. Hertz, If your question related, as I think it probably may have done, to the deliberation which I under- stand is going on whether you shall accept the proposal of the London University to admit ladies to their matriculation examinations, or connect yourselves with Cambridge, there is one remark which I would venture to make. Even supposing the London Matriculation Examinations to be a more adequate and appropriate test of high female education than from the list of subjects before me it appears to me to be, the general advantage of connecting yourselves with such a body as Cambridge would seem to me decidedly to preponderate. The University of London is not in the proper sense a University at all. It has no body of teachers, much less of College Heads and residential Fellows, like the University of Cambridge. It is merely an examining board, conferring degrees on the members of colleges and other places of education scattered CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 15 all over the country. Its examiners are brought together from all quarters, and can have little unity or continuity of view. Surely such a body as Cambridge is much more likely to show sustained interest, attention, and sympathy, and much mor« competent to develop and mould a new system oi female education. It has a heart and brain, whereas the other is nothing but an armchair. As to competitive examinations, if they are ir question, I have always regarded them, in the cas( of men, as necessary evils, with which the growtl of duty and of interest in the subjects will in time enable us to dispense. Their extension to women is a proposal which I regard with dismay. Ever yours sincerely, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. XI G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. 16, Fabe Terrace, Oxford, May 4, 1868. My deak Mrs. Hertz, Feeling that my connexion with all thes matters would soon come to an end, I have abstainei from taking any part in the Female Educatio: Movement. I am, therefore, not a good authorit; as to " undercurrents " or anything not quite oi the surface. The men, however, of my acquaintance who ar engaged certainly cannot be suspected of any ter dency to bring female education under clerical c " traditional " influence. I believe them to b actuated mainly by a general zeal for educationf reform, in other departments of which they hav taken an active part. But if they have any specie object in this case, I should say it was, by strengther 16 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH ing the female mind, to emancipate women from the influence of the ritualistic clergy, under which they are very visibly beginning to fall. I do not say, however, that there is no ground for your apprehensions. With my own University I could hardly advise you to connect yourselves till we have quelled the clerical question, which is at present strong and almost dominant, though we have managed to keep our " Middle Class examina- tions," or, as the Cambridge people call them, " Non- gremial examinations," pretty clear of the sacerdotal influence by the help of the allies without, who in their cases strengthen (and would in your case strengthen) the hands of Ritualists within. But at Cambridge, if I mistake not, the clerical question is and has always been comparatively weak ; and there, I think, with national opinion to back you, you would be pretty safe. Of course you cannot expect to escape the general influences of English civilisation. I did not mean to charge the University of London with any shortcomings in the performance of any- thing which it undertakes, or to deny that it was undertaking very good work after its kind. I only meant to point out to you the important fact, which, from the vague use of the name University is often lost sight of, that the University of London is quite a different kind of institution from the University of Cambridge. It is no more a University in the usual sense of the term than the Board of Examiners for the Civil Service. The sentiment which makes the heart of the nation turn (as apparently it does turn) to the old Universi- ties may be partly " social snobbishness," but there is also a good deal in it that is natural and sound. If I had not thought so, I would not have struggled for the last twenty years in this very viscous element as I have done. I have just now lying before me a letter from an American, as strong an enemy of social snobbishness and lover of democracy as you CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 17 would divine, thanking me for some photographs of Oxford. He says, " You can but partially estimate their interest for us, for you can never feel that deep and pure sentiment — pure from all admixture of personal consideration, of memories half pleasant and half disagreeable, of a sense of wrong and regret which a thoughtful Englishman must experience, which an American who has a heart and an imagination feels towards the venerable and beautiful institutions of his dear old motherland. It is the ideal England that we have in our heart of hearts ; the England of the imagination, the England great in history, the England that might be, and, pray Heaven ! that may be. And of this England the Ideal Oxford is the crown and the beauty, and her tradition of centuries of learning are inexpressibly delightful to us in this new, barren, bleak, and yet dearly loved land of promise." What this man feels the majority of the English people feel, though they could not express it so well ; and I am convinced that the sentiment is ineradicable and invincible. I do not pretend to say, however, what shape the organization of female education will take in the future : very likely it will have a distinct centre of its own. Let me repeat that I am an outsider, and that I cannot speak with the slightest authority on the subject. My " epigram about the woman and the horse " is one of the " False Pearls of History." I am not sure whether it was Conington or Congreve (then in the theological-metaphysical stage of his necessary evolution) that maintained, as I rather think Mill somewhere maintains, that all sentient beings had a right to the franchise. I answered, " Then we may have you and a woman standing for the Tower Hamlets against a quadruped and a bird." Ever yours sincerely, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 18 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH XII G. S. to Frederic Harrison. MoBTiMEB, Reading, October 26, 1868. My dear Harrison, I sail for America to-morrow. I am afraid you will call me a deserter ; but if reaction ever makes a serious rally, which is possible, you will see me again in the ranks. I think, however, that you will have a gradual disintegration of feudal institutions, retarded by the power of wealth, which I have felt more than ever in this election campaign. Ithaca, the seat of the new Cornell University, to which I am going, is a rough place, and even, I suspect, rather barbarous so far as the comforts of life are concerned, but I shall have the pleasure of being employed in a work of construction ; for the higher education in America is a thing that has almost got to be created. I hope Sandwith ' is prospering in Marylebone, and if he wins it will be a triumph of purity of elec- tion. I think he ought to go straight on, making no overtures either to Harvey Lewis or to Chambers. He will get the votes of a good many malcontents from both those camps. I cannot help thinking that the working men had better concentrate their efforts on the points where there is a chance of victory. If they stand contests in a number of places and are left at the bottom of the poll, they will encourage the shopkeepers to league with the plutocracy against them. Ever yours, GoLDWiN Smith. Note by F. B. This very interesting letter was written just before the electoral struggle of November 1868, which put Mr. Gladstone in power. » Humphry Sandwith, one of the defenders of Kars. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 1 Dr. Hiomphry Sandwith, of Kars (1822-81), C.B., D.C.L., v/i candidate for Paddington on extreme Radical basis against tl sitting members, Sir T. Chambers (1814-91) and Harvey Lewi F. H. and Harry Crompton, electors, supported Sandwith, wl failed. 1870 XIII [Private] G. S. to the {third) Marquess of Salisbury, who wa thrice Prime Minister of England. 1806, Chesntjt Street, Philadelphia, U.S., January 31, 1870. My dear Lord Salisbury, As you were so great a friend of the South, th promoters of English emigration to Virginia, at th head of whom is the Confederate General Imbodei will probably bring their scheme under your notic( In case they do, I venture to commend it to yon consideration. What may be the cause, or with whom the blam may rest, matters not. The fact is that the feelin against England in the Northern States is now s strong that this is to Englishmen not only a foreig but a hostile country. I cannot help being sensibl of this, notwithstanding the kindness with which am personally received. It is desirable, therefori to turn the current of emigration, as far as possibh to a more friendly shore. To turn it to Canada is, I am afraid, only to tur it into the States through a circuitous channe Though I have never seen trustworthy statistic; I have no doubt that a large proportion of the em grants who land in Canada straggle on sooner or lat( to this country. The Canadian climate is ver severe ; the winter almost eats up the summer ; anc the soil being heavily timbered, the work of clearin 20 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH is very hard. It is, for the most part, more a country for the lumberer than for the farmer. In Virginia the climate is temperate, and the soil, as I am credibly assured, excellent — at least in the western parts of the State, and particularly in the Shenandoah Valley ; for in the east a good deal of it has been injured, though I suppose not irretrievably, by slave labour. Land, it appears, may be bought very cheaply, with buildings and fences, which, though dilapidated no doubt, are better than none. The people are thoroughly friendly and extremely anxious to receive English emigration instead of carpet- baggers with their train of emigrants of the lower class. Politically, an English community in Virginia, with that great State in so commanding a position, would be the best counterpoise to the Irish vote and the anti-English sentiment of New England ; and now at all events it is to the growth of the English element in the Union that you must trust for security against American aggression. Slavery, with everything belonging to it, is dead : the emigrants need no longer fear the anti-industrial sentiment which it produced, and which long barred the South against emigration. If the younger members of your order had in them the qualities and aspirations for which Carlyle gives them credit, I think some of them would lead an agricultural emigration to Virginia. Tory and Southerner as you are, I have sometimes, during this Anglo-American controversy, half wished that you were the representative of England ; because I believe that you would have acted with dignity, paying promptly 4nd handsomely whatever had to be paid, and repelling decisively insulting charges and demands. The Government, by first curtly refusing any reparation, and then getting on the slide of con- cession, has filled the Washington politicians with evil hopes, and I do not know how it may end. These exhibitions of ill-timed cordiality — ^the visit of Prince Arthur, and the exaggerated honours paid to Pea- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH S body — are misconstrued, or rather perhaps construe too truly, and only make the matter worse. The Annexation passion is, I fear, decidedly gainin ground. Forgive this inroad on a statesman's time. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. The Marquess of Salisbury. XIV G. S. to the {third) Marquess of Salisbury. Ithaca, N.Y., U.S., March 23, 1870. My dear Lord Salisbury, General Imboden writes : " An importar English movement is now on foot in regard to Vii ginia. Mr. Jos. Newton, of London, is here in th interest of a proposed company of capitalists wh contemplate the purchase of 100,000 acres of ov. best farming lands, to be resold at a small prof to English farmers of small means on a long credit the capitalists and colonists to be united in a c( operative association which will make all participant in the profits. I have succeeded in procuring fc them a three-months' option of all the lands the require at present, and Mr. Newton leaves for Ne York to-morrow to communicate with his employe] and await their action. I have a good deal of cor fidence in the success of this scheme, and hope will be the initial step in a very important movemer of Englishmen to Virginia." I have begged General I. to send you his paper I do not mean, however, to commend to you an particular project or any particular projector, am too much a stranger here to do so. I only wisl in case you should be taking any part in the guidanc of emigration, to call your attention to the impoj tance of Virginia. 22 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Mr. Gould, our Professor of Agriculture, and one of the best authorities in this country, speaks in glowing terms of the agricultural capabilities of the State. English colonisation of Virginia seems to me the best, if not the only chance of calling into existence a counterpoise to the forces hostile to us on this continent. If the diplomatists were to get into a mess, I should go over the line and take my chance with the Canadians. But it would be a very poor chance. The French clay would soon, under any stress, fall away from the English iron. I doubt whether they will long stand the pressure of the tariff which the Yankees are now applying to them. A leading loyalist ended a conversation with me the other day by saying that annexation would make the value of all property in Canada rise at once fifty per cent. The loyalty of the British Canadians is strong, no doubt ; but it is loyalty, not nationality, and depends very much on the presence of British officers and on hopes of assistance from the Imperial Exchequer which you will no longer be able to make good. The people at the head of affairs are good for nothing. The utmost, I am afraid, that Canada will be able in the long run to do will be to exact such conditions of annexation as will prevent her from becoming a mere addition to the power of our arch-enemy. New England. This might be done by the aid of the Democratic party, who are in favour of State Rights ; but I doubt whether the Canadian leaders have statesmanship to do it. I hope to pass next winter in Virginia. You will give me a safe conduct in case I should fall into the hands of the Ku-klux. These stories, however, are in great measure the inventions of Sumner & Co., who want pretexts for keeping their feet on the neck of the South. Depend upon it, no English colonist need be afraid of the Ku-klux. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 5 My notions of the state of England of course gro every day more dim. I am afraid the loss of affe( tion for the country of which you complain do( exist, though perhaps it is neither so extensive nc so deep as you think ; and of course it is a gres source of danger, as well as very sad and humiliatin to all Englishmen. I don't know how we shoul behave at present if we were attacked by thes people, or if we got into any other great trouble. You must try — ^it has long been my profoun conviction — ^to get out of the system of party goverr ment and get back to something like the old systei of government by the Privy Council, or rather b the Council of State ; for I suppose you will alloi that hereditary monarchy is not likely to do ver much for society in the future. The party syster is the main source of the disaffection as well as c the ephemeral character and consequent weaknes of our administrations. If you will once recognise the fact that the basi of government must be national, you may buUc believe me, on that basis as Conservative an edific as you will, especially now, while you have th remnant of power in the House of Lords whereo; to negotiate. And to take the leading part in thi process you have only to reconcile yourself to th people. A process infinitely less costly than yoi imagine. But you are an incorrigible Coriolanus. I don't know whether you have ever seen th Yankees. I think you ought to see them. Yoi would detect at once the weak, and worse than weak points of the central government and of the part; organisations which contend for it as their priz and use it as their instrument. But, on the othe hand, I think familiarity with a society which is it own policeman would give you more confidence as t political architect in the strength of your materials I speak of the coimtry generally. In the great citie problems unforeseen by De Tocqueville have no^ presented themselves for solution. 24 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Lady Salisbury would find in the department of social character and manners a harvest ripe for her sickle. And as we have now " drawing-room cars " on the railroads she might travel in privacy and comfort. Ever yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. The Marquess of Salisbury. XV G. S. to Professor Max Muller. Ithaca, New Yobk, July 18, 1870. My dear Max Molleb, Now, at all events, you and I are thinking alike and awaiting the same news ' with the same feelings. And I feel sure that we have the American people on our side. There may be some Americans whose heaven is Paris, and whose sympathies are Parisian ; but the masses are heartily for Germany. Germany is the hope at present of European civilisation. She is more than any other country under the dominion of the knowledge and the ideas on which the edifice of the future is to be built. We have all the deepest interest in her success. Union was essential to her moral development, which was fatally impeded by her division into a number of petty despotisms, while her integrity and independence were constantly imperilled by the weakness which division caused. Her consolidation threatened nobody. It was a pledge of peace and tranquil progress to Europe. No Frenchman could imagine that his country was in the slightest danger from German aggression. The part played by Prussia was indispensable. She did for Germany what Piedmont did for Italy. I do not know whether she has acted rightly in ' Of the Franco-Prussian war. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 2i everything or carried the honours of her leadershi] quite so meekly as she ought ; but without her thi new Ufe of Germany could not have begun. O course the French Emperor, in commencing a wa; the object of which is the dismemberment of Germany selects his pretext so that his quarrel may seem t( be with Prussian ambition. But the Germans musi be blind indeed if they cannot see through this. On the conduct of the French Emperor it is need less to waste words. It is of a piece with the whole o his previous coiirse of fraud, perjury, and brigandage from the coup d'^at to the Mexican expedition as well as with the whole history of the great sharpei family of Bonaparte, of whose ascendancy let ui hope that humanity will soon see the end. As to the claim of France to all the Germans or the left bank of the Rhine, whom she proposes tc seize with the territory like the cattle on a farm it is simply the claim of the robber to the purse ir the traveller's pocket. And all the Powers of Exirope, paralysed by then own fears and jealousies, have to stand by and set this outrage conunitted against public right and thf independence of all nations ! The most humiliating position is that of England, for it now evidently appears that she was used as a tool in the Luxem- bom-g affair. But she cannot help it. She is noi the England of Cromwell, or she would be standing in defence of the rights of nations at the side of hei old and natural ally. As it is, she will wait till it is her turn to be attacked by the general tyrant and spoiler, whose strength will become more over- powering by each successive act of rapine. We must be prepared for some French successes at first ; of course the French have laid their plans, and I fear the Emperor will not really command in person. But I trust we may look forward with hope to the ultimate result, if only Germans will be true to the German cause. If the soldiers of Jena still live, so do the soldiers of the War of Liberation. 26 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH At Jena, Prussia, then a small Power, fought alone with an army which had grown rusty and which, when it was overthrown, there were no means of replacing. Now France will encounter not Prussia, but the German nation. Ever yours sincerely, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Professor Max Miiller. XVI G. S. to Professor Max Miiller. Ithaoa, New Yoek, July 31, 1870. My deak Max Muller, The news of Europe which we get here is not always trustworthy, but the telegrams tell us that the North German Government and press are bitterly denouncing England and attacking her in the most sensitive point, her relations with America. Surely this is not wise. The present attitude of England may be very disappointing ; but every chance ought to be given to those (and I presume there are some, at all events) who are trying to induce her to play a worthier part. Allusions to the Alabama are especially unseason- able, though England has no real ground for fears on that account, the German vote here being quite strong enough to prevent any hostile action against an ally of Germany. I must own meantime that nothing could be more degrading to us than the alternate blustering and sneaking of the Times, and the swagger about main- taining the independence of Belgium. How could we maintain the independence of Belgium if our only military ally on the Continent were overthrown ? Yours sincerely, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Professor Max Muller. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 21 XVII G. S. to Professor Max Miiller, Ithaca, August 8, 1870. My dear Max Muller, We have just received the news of Haguenau. It is the Gettysburg of Europe — the triumph of £ real civilisation over a gilded barbarism, of th( Future over the Past. The victory, however, was morally gained fron the moment when the loyalty of Southern German) became apparent. Permanent dismemberment was thenceforth impossible, whatever might be the imme diate future of war. The enthusiasm of the Germans here has beer unanimous. Even the political exiles of 1848 stanc heartily by King William as the present head o: militant Germany, Let us hope that he and Prussia will show th( same magnanimity, and that Prussia will have great ness enough to merge herself in Germany, as Pied mont has merged herself in Italy. Otherwise ther( are dangers yet in store. The only thing that saddens me is the positior of England, standing by while Germany fights againsi the general tyrant for civilisation and the indepen dence of nations. But Germany must consider oui internal divisions, national government still struggling with but faint success, to take the place of govern ment by a class ; our dependencies and our Ireland I trust, however, that our Government will not be sc spiritless as to allow any other nation — Denmark o: Italy — ^to throw itself into the French scale. I see English journalists in the pay of France ar( addressing trade arguments to the baser part o: the English character. But suppose Germany wart broken up, would she be less a manufacturing country '■ The Germans (in the Franco-Prussian war) jscoupied Haguenai on August 7. 28 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH or less our rival in that respect than she is now ? And what would British trade say to Antwerp in French hands ? The feeling of the mass of the people here is, beyond doubt, strongly in favour of Germany. Only the Irish and the party of the slave-owners, calling itself Democratic, but which is in reality Imperialist, are on the other side. Yours sincerely, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Professor Max Miiller. XVIII G. S. to Professor Max Miiller. Ithaca, New York, August 10, 1870. My dear Max Muller, Emerson's address is "Concord, Massachusetts." As only sixteen copies of the Lectures were printed, I fear it would be impudent to beg for a copy for the library of this University. But our students would be very proud of such a gift ; and though they are, to a great extent, the sons of farmers and mechanics, and come to us pretty rough, I believe no youths can be more eager to avail themselves of any knowledge that comes in their way. The drama seems now near its close — if a new one is not opening. Jules Favre appeals, not without success, to American vanity ; but the Republic has no fleet, and the German element is strong enough to prevent mischief. I see the German press (Bismarck's organs, appar- ently) still labours to estrange England ; surely this is not wise, with Russian intervention, as it seems, impending. Our working classes appear, since the proclamation of the French Republic, inclined to go wrong. I do CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 29 not know who leads them ; and without good leaders there is no saying what they may do. However, I trust before this reaches you all dangers will be dispelled, and Europe restored to the work of peaceful progress by a treaty of peace signed under the walls of Paris. Yours sincerely, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Professor Max Miiller. XIX G. S. to Professor Max MiUler. Ithaca, New York, August 23, 1870. My dear Max Mullek, I have just had a letter from my friend, C. E. Norton, an American who is living in Italy, but who chanced to be at Marseilles at the time of the declara- tion of war. He says, " The news excites regret here ; there is no sign of even a factitious popular enthu- siasm for war. I have spoken with many persons, and have found them, without a single exception, agreed in regarding the war as a calamity forced upon them by the Emperor and his advisers. If the feeling existing here be widespread through France, it would require but a reverse in the field to turn the popular sentiment into such abhorrence of the Imperial policy as should overthrow the Ministry of puppets, if not the ruling dynasty itself." He then describes the desperate efforts made by the authorities to fire the Southern heart, and the slight effect produced ; and adds that his first impression has since been con- firmed, that the war in France is not national, but essentially Imperial and military. So much for France having " slipped through my fingers." A siege of Paris might perhaps make the war national, and this may be a danger in prospect. 30 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH As to the Italians, Norton says " they are essentially divided in sentiment. The Garibaldians, the Repub- licans (whose numbers have much diminished of late), and the more proud and generous part of the com- munity, cherish a deep dislike to the Emperor and to Imperial France ; they would gladly see a Prus- sian alliance. The high Conservatives, on the other hand, and the selfish classes, aristocratic, commercial, trading, as it may be, instinctively and logically recognise that it is important for the immediate material prosperity of the country to keep on good terms with France. They fear to make her their enemy. She may come out of the war weakened, but she will still be the most powerful nation in the Mediterranean, and her ill-will, especially in case of defeat by Prussia, would be hereafter greatly to be dreaded." I am glad you found anything in my letter of which you could make use ; but as a whole its publication would have done no good. It is amusing to see L. N. [Louis Napoleon] verifying the saying " Birds of a feather " by choosing as his mouthpiece, in speaking to England, the Hon. Francis Lawley, whose history is probably not unknown to you. Neate, I see, comes out for his Frenchmen. He coolly assumes that Spain had no right to choose her own King without the sanction of France. The Prussian Government acted quite rightly in saying that it was not for them a cabinet affair, and that the only person who could have anything to say to it on the side of Prussia was the King as head of the family. There are only two good reasons now for going to war — self-defence and the defence of public right. If England, upon the disclosure of the Emperor's villainous designs, could have recognised this as a case of the second kind, and taken her place, sword in hand, by the side of Prussia, my belief is that there would have been no war. L. N. has a superstitious dread of England. But I know our weakness ; the CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 3. government is still a class government, while it ha lost the power of a really dominant aristocracy ; th( national spirit is low ; commercial interests are all powerful ; the working-classes are bent upon thei: own trade objects ; and we are hampered wit! dependencies, one of which is at this moment demon strating its loyalty and enhancing the " prestige ' of the mother-country by demanding a compensatioi for repulsing a Fenian raid, on the ground thai Fenianism "is an Imperial and not a Canadiar question." Still we need not be false to public morality ; we need not talk about " this miserabh quarrel " when we know very well that there is nc quarrel at all, but an outrage committed by an Imperia brigand ; we need not cloak oiu' weakness and oui self-interest under a pretended belief that both side; are wrong. We shall be drawn into it after all. France wil! lose her German departments, and then she wil crave for Belgium as a compensation ; and we shal have to fight her without an ally. Gladstone is at his worst in these questions. Lore Granville is much better ; I should say he was a1 least equal to Lord Clarendon, who was given tc finesse. I suppose, as you say, France, after an interlude of provisional government, will call in the Orleanists : and Aumale would be a good King, though wher I saw him last he was gouty. The people in the provinces woidd accept any one — Aumale or Nebu- chadnezzar. They are destitute of any political faitli or sentiment whatever. But the nations, however they may cling to the Past, cannot long put off the task of founding the institutions of the Future. It is only to be hoped that Prussia will not impose a dynasty on France ; if she does, the dynasty wil] at once try to purge itself of the stain of foreigr dictation and to prove its nationality by increasing the army and disturbing the peace of the world. Opinion here continues German, and grows more 32 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH so as the tidings of German victories arrive. The World, a leading organ of the Democratic party, is French ; but this is to please the Irish, who, to our misfortune, are as strong as they are odious m the Union, and especially in the State. There can be no doubt as to the tendency of everything genuinely American. As you speak of Jowett's " success," I conclude he is Master of Balliol. I am heartily glad of it, and wish him a long and prosperous reign. The photograph of Park's End was very welcome. It was just what I had been desiring to have. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Professor Max Miiller. We have now for three days been enveloped in a dense smoke, which is supposed to come from forests burning on the Canadian side of the line. This shows you how vast these forest-fires are. XX [Private] G. S. to Professor Max Muller. Two Scandinavian papers here are very French. Ithaca, New Yoek, August 29, 1870. My dear Max Muller, I send an article which you may like to see from the New York Nation, a paper which, though it has been lapsing of late into a rather disagreeable imitation of the Saturday Review, represents pretty well the sentiment of the small cultivated class here. The article is in its better style. In another article the Nation says that the French tendencies of certain organs of the Democratic party (tendencies which, as the German armies advance GOI.DWIN SMITH WHEN AC.?:!! AHOUT FORTV-SIX (Photo Hoves, Ithaca, N. V.) CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 33 on their career of victory, become rather faint and furtive) are to be attributed not only to the influence of the Irish vote, but to the sympathy of the despots of " Tammany State " for the despot of France — I should rather say the sympathy of one scoundrel for another scoundrel. The French Emperor is the head centre of scoundrelisms throughout the world, as well as of reaction. Your point as to the absence of any mention of Holland in this guarantee treaty was good ; but the fact is, all this fuss about Belgian independence is rather hjrpocritical. The secret treaty, having been disclosed, is a dead-letter. Our Government know this ; but they think that by rushing to the rescue of Belgian independence they will decently evade the unwelcome duty of taking part against the manifest wrong-doer with the manifest victim oi wrong. I am awaiting the result of the German advance towards Paris with intense anxiety. I trust they will first make sure of any French army that may be left in the field. I trust, too, that their terms wUl be the Vosges boundary, and payment of part of the expenses of the war. Prussian interference with the French Government is now the only thing that can save the Bonapartes. Yours sincerely', (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Professor Max Miiller. XXI G. S. to Professor Max Miiller. Ithaca, New York, U.S., October 7, 1870. My dear Max Muller, I gather from some complimentary allusions in an English newspaper that you have published 8 34 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH one of my letters. Not having been written for publication, I fear it must have been scarcely in a form fit for the eye of a critical public. But this is of no consequence ; if you thought it could be of the least use to the cause, you did quite right m publishing it. I have sent a rather more complete and formal letter to Mr. Geo. Howell, the Ex-Secretary of the Reform League, to be used by him at his discretion. The Positivists appear to be leading the working men headlong into sympathy with the (probably ephemeral) French Republic. The working-men will do the German cause no harm — ^their demonstrations are on too small a scale — but they may do their own cause a good deal of harm. To the Positivists Paris is what Rome is to an Ultramontane ; all her acts are holy, all the acts of her opponents are im- pious : all her thefts are sacred — to take them back is sacrilege. There may be a party of moral and pacific Republicans in France ; but it has never influenced the conduct of the nation towards its neighbours. You are in Strasburg, and of course you mean never to go out again. My belief is that the re- annexation of Alsace and (German-speaking) Lorraine would be practically less irritating and less likely to lead to a renewal of the war than the simple occupation of the two great fortresses, which would be two most offensive and exasperating Gibraltars. The surrender of Bazaine would be welcome. It would be awkward if a strong Bonapartist were left at the head of the only remaining army of France. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Professor Max Miiller. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 35 XXII G. S. to Professor Max Muller. Ithaca, New Yoek, U.S., November 15, 1870. My dear Max Mullek, You asked in your last letter how it was that the Americans were permitting the exportation of arms to France, and whether there had been any change of feeling here. I believe, none. The com- pliments of the Provisional Government told, as you may see by the conduct of the American Am- bassador ; but those of Bismarck (who, among his various accomplishments, evidently knows how to tickle trout) are swallowed with at least equal avidity. It is simply the American view of International Law, and, I venture to think, the right view. It would be too much to expect that, whenever any two nations chose to disturb the peace of the world, all the other nations should be required to prohibit lawful trading, and to turn their Govern- ments into detectives armed, as they must be for such a purpose, with arbitrary powers. You cannot draw any real distinction between arms and other things needed by belligerents. One belligerent needs rifles, another saddlery, a third cloth for uniforms, a fourth biscuit, a fifth copper or iron. There is a special reason for not prohibiting the purchase of arms. If this were done a great advan- tage would be given, against the interests of civilisa- tion, to Powers which, during peace, employed their revenues in arming themselves for war instead of endowing professors. A moral and civilised Power, which had been benefiting humanity, would be assailed by some French Empire which had been collecting chassepots, and when it went to provide itself with the means of defence International Law would shut up the gunshop. 36 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH But Lord Granville does not write well. He ought to admit that the sale of arms is, under the circum- stances, a natural cause of irritation, and show in kind terms why it cannot be prevented. The utter- ances of all our Ministers are wretched. We shall look forward with great pleasure to the arrival of your promised gift, and be very proud of possessing it. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Professor Max Miiller. 1871 XXIII G. S. to Professor Max Miiller. RossiN House, Tobonto, Canada, January 8, 1871. My dear Max Muller, The agent announces the arrival of your gift to the library of Cornell University. As I am spend- ing the winter here, I have told the agent to send the book to our librarian, who will receive it with due honours. Bismarck and the Germans are foolish in abusing and estranging England, whose ill-will may yet do them mischief. But my countrymen are also very unreasonable and unjust. When the Sikhs invaded us in India, we did not content ourselves with repelling the invasion ; we crossed the Sutlej and extinguished the source of war. If Lahore had held out, we should have bombarded. It is insufferable that a great place of arms and a constant source of aggressive war like Paris should itself be above the laws of war. The Tories, with the instinctive sagacity of party, stick to France, knowing that, though now nominally Republican, it is really reactionary, while Germany is really progressive. Our working men know nothing CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 37 about Germany, and they are misled by the phantom of a Republic in France. The best wishes for the New Year to you and Mrs. Max Miiller. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Professor Max Miiller. XXIV G. S. to Professor Max Miiller. ToBONTO, Canada, February 12, 1871. My dear Max Muller, Your letter finds me spending part of the winter among my Canadian relatives and friends ; and I am really glad to escape for a time from the Anglophobia which rages in the States ; so that I can quite sympathise with your annoyance at the Prussophobia which rages in England. It offends not only one's patriotism but one's sense of justice. What demon has entered into my countrymen that, when they are beyond hope delivered, by a wonderful display of German heroism, and at a vast expense of German blood, from the peril which has been always impending over them, and the sense of which has caused them many times to spring to arms, they, instead of blessing, curse their deliverer ? It is needless to argue to you, who take the same view that I do, and on the same grounds ; except that I believe you were rather against taking Alsace and Lorraine, whereas I was always for it (the con- duct and character of the French being what they are), provided a good natural frontier could be found. The bombardment of Paris was a disagreeable necessity. But how could the nations allow to exist in the midst of Europe a vast arsenal and fortress where war is always brewing, itself above the laws of war ? And this because Paris makes bonnets and produced Comte ! 38 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH I do not like Bismarck ; but he has done nothing yet of which England has the slightest right to com- plain, or which justifies her in imputing to him any bad intentions. They will run England on a rock if they don't take care. She is really now left without a friend in the world. They have estranged Germany, and the French return their effusions of sympathy with un- appeasable hatred. Probably the French will before long make some attempt on Belgium. Nothing could be clearer than that if we were to have a foreign policy at all it ought to be the German alliance. However, Paris has fallen, and Germany is now the leading nation of Europe. I wish our Government had thought of getting some eminent German jurist to act for them on the Alabama Commission. I suppose the thought of such a thing would be shocking to their sense of propriety ; but it would have given them the moral support of the powerful German element in the States. Burnside was a great failure in the war. Some- times he was too timid and would not act ; at other times (notably at Fredericsburg) he butted against stone walls like a mad sheep. His character, how- ever, is respected ; but I don't think he has any political influence. I went the other day to a debate on an Education Bill in the Ontario Parliament. One of the members said, " We must take care, sir, that in runnmg away from Scilly {sic) we don't dash our heads against Charybdis." My kindest regards to Mrs. Max Miiller. Ever yours truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. I return soon to Ithaca. Professor Max Miiller, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 39 XXV [Private] G. S. to W. E. Gladstone. Ithaca, New York, May 14, 1871. My dear Mr. Gladstone, You may perhaps like to hear what has been the effect of the Treaty ' on the mind of a Httle American community which is a fair average speci- men of the general sentiment of the people. The effect, so far as I can see, is as good as possible, and such as to prove that the Treaty is entirely successful as a treaty of peace terminating what every English resident in this country must have felt to be a state of moral war between the two nations. The apology for the escape of the Alabama seems to me to be accepted in the best spirit ; I have not heard, or read in our local press, one ungenerous word ; nor do I believe that the concession has in the least degree lowered England in the opinion oi those to whose feelings it has been made. The Canadians, or rather the Maritime Provinces, seem likely to give some trouble, and the British Government may perhaps have an illustration of thf difficulties and dangers incident to the retention ir diplomatic dependence of communities which ar( otherwise independent, and which, naturally enough look to no interest but their own. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P. 1 Of Washington, settling the Alabama olainiB. 40 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH XXVI G. S. to Professor Max Mutter. Toronto, Canada, September 4, 1871. My deab Max Muller, I want you to do me a kindness. You will be doing one at the same time to that humble but promising branch of the Teutonic race — the Canadian nation, as it is now beginning to call itself. They are going to have a National Magazine — really a step towards nationality in this country, where newspapers and iTiagazines are almost the only reading of the people. They hope to stop the process which is at present going on of intellectual annexation to the United States, the magazines of which largely circulate here. Of coiu'se they must have tales, and I have recom- mended them, instead of reproducing the serials from the English magazines, to give translations from German, French, Italian, Spanish. You would be doing a great service if you would mention a few German tales which would be suitable for the purpose. They should be short, so as not to run beyond two or at most three numbers — if they were short enough to be concluded in one number it would be still better. They need not be quite new, provided they are not known in translations. I was at Berlin the other day, lecturing on the war. There is a large German settlement there doing very well. Berlin the little is about sixty miles west of this place. The Lorrainers and Alsatians pout at &st ; but this will subside. I am not the least afraid of any attempt on the part of France to take vengeance on (Germany. I fear more for Belgium. How does England like Dr. Flavigny ? Yours sincerely, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 41 1872 XXVII G. S. to Professor Max Miiller. Toronto, Canada, January 1, 1872. My dear Max Muller, The Canadian Monthly will be very much obliged to you if you will set your translator to work, looking to us for proper remuneration. We throw down the gauntlet, at whatever com- mercial risk, to sensation novels. I would not be a party to polluting with such garbage the taste of a young nation. We are just commencing the publication of some novelettes by Storm. Don't be downcast about Germany. She has delivered herself and civilisation from French ambi- tion. To do this, she has had to sacrifice her owh political progress for the time to military objects. But all will come right. I see no symptoms of such an ascendancy of the spirit of conquest as that which has dominated France since 1795. No doubt thei'e is plenty of vice in Germany — though the Germans are decidedly the best element in the United States. But that does not prevent the German cause from being the cause of mankind on this occasion. All the evidence tends to prove that the behaviour of your troops in France was, on the whole, very far better than that of the French as conquerors in Germany. Your friends in France may be very honest men ; but, as Dr. Caius says, "Vat shall the honest man do in my closet ? " I do not expect a renewal of the war. France will, I hope, have enough to do at home for some time to come ; and she will hardly get a Government strong enough to enforce the German system of universal 42 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH military training. However, she ought to have been more completely disabled from making war. The Germans of Alsace and Lorraine, after a little pouting, will become good citizens of Germany and fancy that they conquered at Sedan. The French will give trouble, of course, and their lot is hard ; but they were parties to an attempt to do to the Rhine Provinces that which, the fortune of war going against them, has been done to them. Metz was an arsenal and sally-port of French aggression, and it falls under a military law. If France had won and annexed the Rhine Pro- vinces, who would have thought of interfering ? Who thought of interfering when she annexed Nice and Savoy ? The slavish idea that French territory is sacred, and that the territory of other nations is the natural prey of France, has been rooted out in the only effectual way. Posterity will be thankful that Bismarck had a little iron in his blood. Ever yours truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Professor Max Miiller. 1873 XXVIII Thomas Ashton to Jacob Bright. Ford Bank, Didsbtjby, Manchesteb, July 31, 1873. My dear Bright, You know all the difficulties we have in finding a successor to Sir T. Bazley as representative foi Manchester when he retires at the next election, The Liberal party is strong enough to command twc of the three seats if it can be held together. Judging from the last election, and what we know of people since, I believe the Liberals are to the Tories as twenty CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 43 to twelve or thirteen. Of course this is too small a majority to enable us to run three candidates with any chance of success. Our difficulty is to select, therefore, a candidate to run with you who shall be satisfactory to all classes of Liberals, or at least so much so that he will keep out of the field any candi- date who would create a split. We must have a man for whom the working-class politicians will not only vote, but who will prevent any extreme portion of them bringing forward an extreme man. Our candi- date should be somebody of known public character who, from connection, standing, education, or previous public life, will be acceptable to the higher and more educated portions of the constituency. We have fortunately no pecuniary difficulty, and we need not seek a candidate who will pay, because, as you know, the constituency always pays the expenses, and our members only contribute if they are wealthy fellow-citizens, like their neighbours, and in their capacity as citizens. Many of us have long wished to see Mr. Goldwin Smith, not only again in England, but in Parliament. Do you know or can you ascertain when he intends to return, and can you ascertain whether he would, under favourable circumstances, become a candidate for an English constituency ? In many respects he would be a good and desirable candidate for us. His political views are sufficiently advanced — for some people perhaps too much so. He would command the sympathy of the working men, and his eloquence and power would do much to counteract what would be said against his want of practical experience. The objection would only be held amongst the class of men who take little part in politics. On the whole I am inclined to think he might be our safest candidate. Without knowing more of his intentions, it would not be wise to take many opinions, or to endeavour to ascertain the general opinion about such a candi- dature. Several friends have spoken to me about 44 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH him. Opinion, so far as I can guess, would be favour- able, and, without in any way seeking to pledge him or the party here, I wish we could learn whether he would entertain the consideration of the question of his being brought forward as a candidate. Can you help me ? Yours very truly, (Signed) Thomas Ashton. Jacob Bright, Esq., M.P. XXIX Jmob Bright to G. S. Aldebley Edge, Manchestee, August 13, 1873. Dear Mr. Smith, I beg to forward you a letter which I have received from Mr. Ashton, of Manchester. I need not add anything to it, as it explains the whole situation. I can say with sincerity that I should feel it an honour to be associated with yourself in the candidature for the next election for Manchester. In addition to what Mr. Ashton has written, I may say that the Catholics will be less friendly to us than formerly, and therefore we may be less strong. Still, Manchester should carry two men on our side of politics. Hoping to hear from you soon. Very truly, (Signed) Jacob Bright. Goldwin Smith, Esq. 1874 XXX G. S. to Professor Rolleston, M.D., etc., Oxford. Athbn^um Club, Pah, Mall, February 10, 1874. My dear Rolleston, I hope the Permissives have not smashed any Liberals ; if they have, they have done themselves CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 45 a mischief, for to all Reformers Liberal ascendancy alone keeps open the door of hope. Gladstone, whom I have just left, ascribes the defeat '■ mainly to irritated interests, above all to the brewers. It is time to teach these organised poisoners that they are not to trample national interests under-foot and make a tool of the national government. If I were now in politics I would go for the Permission Bill, or at least for some strong measure of restriction. The rumour that Cardwell is to be made a peer prevails only in Oxford. I have not heard a word about it here. If a vacancy does occur, I hope you will fight. Brodrick wotdd be in some respects a very good candidate, and there is no one whom personally I should so much like to see brought forward. But I fear he is not strong enough to have a chance against Ball [? Hale], local hold is so strong. You will have to find somebody who has something to balance it. What I said at Woodstock I meant, and you can hardly doubt but it is my right course, though you will as little doubt I shall feel the last parting. The remainder of life is too short to be divided between two countries. In Canada, literary use is made of me for a variety of odd jobs ; in England I could be put to no use whatever. Gladstone seems well and not cast down. He spoke of the approach of a period of comparative repose ; but nothing fell from him which betrayed any thought of retiring from public life. Ever yours truly, GoLDWiN Smith. My belief is that Henry Smith would have a better chance in Oxford than Brodrick. Many of the citizens have a great regard for him. * At the General Election, which had just taken place, 351 Con servativea were returned, as against 243 Liberals. 46 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH XXXI G. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. 145, Hablby Steeet, W., February 14, 1874. My dear Mrs. Winkworth, You may be quite sure that it would be a great pleasure to me to lecture before your con- gregation ; but I fear I shall hardly be in the North again. I sail when navigation is open — ^about the middle of April— taking with me (I hope) ten labourers from Woodstock, or the adjoining district, some of whom I may one day see prosperous Canadian yeomen, instead of the miserable serfs whom I saw driven to the poll by landlords and farmers at Woodstock. Poor old England ! Two centuries she has spent in advancing from Hampden, Cromwell, and Milton to Mr. Disraeli and Baron Albert Grant ! Yours ever, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. xxxu G, S. to Mrs. Winkworth. 145, Hablky Street, March 7, 1 874. My dear Mrs. Winkworth, The appointment of a regular Emigration Commissioner for Canada puts an end to my action as a volunteer. He will have a policy of his own with which I must not even appear to interfere. Nor is the man appointed one with whom I wish to get into any embarrassing relations. Otherwise I should have heartily welcomed any token of your sympathy on this or on any occasion. When John Bright comes to town I shall try to see him. Now that he is out of office one has less CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 47 compunction in calling. His despondency is, per- haps, partly physical ; yet I fear it is too well founded. Not long ago, however, if I may trust J. B. Potter's report of him, he was in a different mood, and thought that all good objects might be gained under the old forms. I replied then that a community could not be reformed against the grain, and that aris- tocracy kept the grain Tory. Every one sees in a catastrophe the confirmation of his own prophetic wisdom ; but I still hold that a really Liberal chief would have found it his best policy after the conduct of the Lords upon the Irish legislation boldly to undertake the reform of the House of Lords. He might have been beaten, but how different would now be his position and that of his party ! Bright probably does not know as much as I do about the conduct of Disraeli to Peel, and he cannot tell how thoroughly vile D. is, and how deeply the country is degraded by choosing him as its head. I shall probably see President Eliot at Oxford to-morrow, and I will give him your kind message. Wliat do Mabel and Steenie say to the enclosed photographs ? They were taken at Oxford some years ago, but were then thought good. I did not know that there were any copies remaining. Kind regards to Winkworth and love to the children. Ever yours truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. XXXIII G. S. to Charles Lindsey,^ Toronto, Canada. 15, The Cbksoent, Ojefobd, April 18, 1874. My dear Lindsey, I shall look with great interest for the promised copies of the Nation. Meantime I have the prospectus on the cover ' An dioiaent panadian author and publicist. 48 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH of the C. M. [? Canadian Monthly], by which I see that the Nation does not cover the ground which we proposed to occupy with our weekly paper. The name is not very happy : there is already a National in Canada and a Nation at New York. It is not easy at this distance to see what is going on, but I fear " Canada First " has taken the field rather prematurely, and got entangled, by its sense of its own weakness, in equivocal and compromising alliances. I hold to my intention of getting into the Pro- vincial Parliament for a session or two, if I can ; though, no doubt, it will be difficult with George Brown against me. I want to get a little practical insight into Canadian politics, without which I cannot write about them with confidence. Here I was not in Parliament, but I was thrown almost from boyhood among public men, which made up for my want of parliamentary experience, in some measure at least. You will not proclaim this, of course, but if you should have an opportunity of doing anything to open the way for me, I will ask you kindly to bear my wish in mind. I should get on very well with M. Cameron, though we may not agree about the propriety of cutting off Charles the First's head. Ever yours truly, GoLDwiN Smith, Chas. Lindsay, Esq. [Toronto]. XXXIV G. S. to Mr. Hertz. Windsor Hotel, New York, ■June. 29, 1874. My dear Hertz, Here I am, safe and well after the usual eleven days of discomfort and monotony — discomfort re- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 49 lieved during part of the voyage by calm weather — monotony broken only by the daily making-up of the log, a solitary sail now and then on the horizon, a sun-fish sleeping on the sea. Few passengers. No women — not even a gorgon. There was a pleasant young Austrian, a sybarite of Vienna, who laughed at the laborious training and arduous lives of their North German compatriots. We touched the wharf at two on Saturday. I am now in a hotel, the size, splendour, and manage- ment of which would astonish you even after seeing the best in Europe. In hotel-keeping, at all events, the Yankees whip creation. Not only ordinary hotel requirements, but every possible want (except that of a quill pen) is provided for, with the utmost completeness and on the most sumptuous scale. A traveller can hardly need anything which is not within the four walls of the hotel. Yet I should greatly prefer, to this oppressive magnificence, the privacy and quiet of a dear little country inn. I leave this place for Toronto this evening, travel- ling by night because the tropical summer of the U.S. has set in, and the heat by day is intense. I hope to be at home to-morrow evening, and to breakfast on the first of July, as I said I should, on my own veranda. The affaire Arnold-Smith in the Spectator was unfortunately cut short by my departure. As we left the wharf at Southampton, I thought I saw the form of Mrs. Jacob Bright, like the Cyclops in Turner's picture of Ulysses defying Polyphemus, towering in colossal wrath and hurling after me a ponderous rock in the shape of an article, while I spim out to sea. On Wednesday the 17th (I believe that was the day of Forsyth's motion) I thought of your ladies going down to the House to hear the debate, how crowded the cage would be, and how doubtful would be the welcome accorded by its close-packed inmates to one gifted and zealous champion of their cause. I shall learn the result when I see the large pile of 4 50 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH English telegrams at Toronto. The little recon- naissance which I made before I wrote in Macmillan (for I do not waste powder if I can help it), led me to suspect that some of the proposed friends of the Bill would be very glad to see it decently buried, and that it might not improbably be talked out. If it is, it is gone for this Parliament. I felt less compunction in opposing the women on account of their selection of Forsyth, the most con- spicuous and the most contemptible representative of the party of Intemperance, the very source from which the worst sufferings of married women in the present day flow. The harvest in the United States is universally good ; and the commercial crisis seems to be virtually at an end, though over-speculation has received a sharp check, which will in the end do good. You may be sure that you and your wife and daughter were among the first of the friends to whom my thoughts turned when England faded from view, and that the friendship and happiness which I have enjoyed under your I'oof will bring you always near to me, though you are far away. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Gold win Smith. XXXV Professor Max Miiller to G. S. Pabk's End, Oxford, September 23, 1874. My dear Goldwin Smith, I ought to have written to you before, but I waited for the second half of the story (which I have not received), and last week I was busy from morn- ing till evening in London during the Congress of Oriental scholars. I thought I had told you that the first edition of Deutsche Liebe, in which my name did CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 51 not appear, was translated by Susannah Winkworth. She applied for leave to the publisher, Brockhaus, and he gave it with my sanction. But the translation was not considered successful : a number of mistakes were pointed out to me at the time, and, though I am not a good judge, I confess I thought the book had been spoiled. In the later German editions, I made several changes and additions, and I gave my name as editor. I had been asked several times to authorise a. new translation, but I declined. Two English translations were printed privately, but not published. So, as far as the market is concerned, there is no impediment of any kind either in Canada or in England. Miss W.'s translation has been out of print for the last ten years. I myself cannot buy a copy of it. I am sorry I did not explain all this to you, but I thought I had told you all that was im- portant. The translation I gave you was made after the fourth edition, and was carefully revised by myself, and those who had seen it before I gave it to you — judges more competent than myself — thought it good. Of course, I have no wish on the subject of its being published as a separate volume, except that, if it is to be, I should have to revise it carefully, as I see several accidents have happened in the printing. It would be impossible to publish it as it stands, but if it is not to be republished at all, I am quite content. I should only ask you to send me a copy of the second half, and to return me the MS., which contains much which was not printed. I have not read Gladstone's articles on Egypt — I know he is not competent to treat such subjects, and I find one must learn the art of fmding out what books one may safely leave unread. Yours very truly, (Signed) Max Muller, Professpr Goldwirt Smith. 52 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITI XXXVI G. S. to W. E. Gladstone. MoNTBEAL (Addrea» Toronto), October 28, 1874. My dear Mr. Gladstone, Your article on Ritualism Ms being read with avidit] here as well as in England. The ecclesiastical situa tion on both sides of the Atlantic is the same. Ii the United States and Canada, as in England, th( compromise framed, mainly for a political purpose, b^ the Tudor statesmen, is being broken up by the actioi of forces which no Public Worship Bill will control and the two elements which the Anglican Churcl contains, but which are radically antagonistic, an being separated from each other. Meantime the old Gallican Church of Frencl Canada, of which the Sulpitians are the representa tives, is rapidly succumbing to Ultramontanisn pushed forward by the Jesuits. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. XXXVII G. S. to William Rathbone. TOBONTO, November 14, 1874. My dear Rathbone, You will not be surprised at my having taken a little time to deliberate on your proposal. The question raised by it is, in effect, whether the rest ol my life shall be spent in Canada or in England. As to the pecuniary part of the proposal, it is most generous on your part, but in no case could 1 have taken advantage of it. My little patrimony is ' "Ritualiam and Ritual," Contemporary Review, October 1874. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 53 enough for my wants, and I could have no excuse for encroaching on any funds set apart by your munifi- cence for pubHc objects. But the main question was not so easily decided. However, I have decided it, and made up my mind to remain here. In the first place, at my time of life it would be a mistake to change again ; in the second place, I have ties to the relatives with whom I live here which I should be very unwilling to break ; and, in the third place, I have of late been sliding, almost involuntarily, into a political position which I could hardly desert without leaving my friends in the lurch. In this country it is difficult to replace even a single pen. As to the comparative magnitude of fields of action, I am almost past thinking about it. But even if I had more of life before me, Canada would be an ample field for me. What she lacks in magnitude she makes up in hopefulness. I am afraid in England you, and men like you, are the survivors of a more public- spirited generation. It seems to me that in the former generation public spirit was almost dead, and that the universal cry was. Leave us alone to make money and enjoy it. That plutocracy would reign till it rotted, was the conviction with which I left the country. It was not that Conservative principles had triumphed, but that Reform, and movement of every kind were voted bores. The Pall Mall Gazette appeared to me to be a perfect mirror of the time. I doubt whether you will find that you have wind in your sails enough even to enable you to insist on a reform of the Universities. The tendency of your press seems to be to pick holes in the report of the Commission and deaden its effect. I should not be surprised to see sinecureism, instead of submitting to new reforms, nullify some of those enforced twenty years ago. It would have the general sympathy of sybaritism in so doing. I have, however, written to Gladstone, for whom I devilled when he framed the old Act, praying him to 54 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMIT] take the subject up again. Nobody is half so fit a he is, the ecclesiastical difficulty notwithstanding. Though your motives are public, not personal, must once more express to you my personal gratitude I assure you it is sincere and deep. Ever yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. Wm. Rathbone, Esq., M.P. 1875 XXXVIII G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. TOBONTO, September 26, 1875. My dear Mrs. Hertz, I am sure anything which deeply concerns m will interest my niore than kind friends in Harle; Street. I am going to be married— to Mrs. Boulton of thi city. A long and intimate friendship is turned into ; companionship for life. Mrs. Boulton is a few years younger than I am ; si that in age as well as in other respects we suit eacl other well. Our friends here seem all to smile on th arrangement. Report forestalled it, and the Yanke papers, always ahead of events, had an announce ment of the marriage some time ago. The engage ment existed before it could be formally made knowi to our friends, a death having recently occurred ii Mrs. Boulton's family. We are to live in my wife's house, which is calle( The Grange, and, in point of age and appearance, i really better entitled to an old English name than any thing else I know in Canada. This ends my wander ings and finds me at a distance from my Englisl friends ; but it cannot sever or weaken the tie whic] binds me to them, and I will still hope that busines or curiosity to see the New World, perhaps helped i CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 55 little by friendship, may bring Mr. Hertz, and you and your daughter with him, to Canada, and that the happy days which I spent in Harley Street may be repeated in The Grange, the mistress of which cordially unites with me in that desire. With the kindest regards to Mr. Hertz and your unconsciously theological daughter, believe me, Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. How grateful am I to Bridges, for evolving that new chapter in the Koran ! I trust it extends to the case of a second husband as well as to that of a second wife. 1876 XXXIX [Private] G. S. to the (third) Marquess of Salisbury. The Grange, Tobonto, March 25, 1876. My dear Lord Salisbury, I have just been reading your Oxford Bill. I am not going to trouble you with comments on it, which, after my long absence from the University, would not be of much value, even if you had time to read them. But I cannot help praying you not to allow Edu- cation to be too much sacrificed to the prevailing enthusiasm---which perhaps to the generation that comes after us will seem excessive — for Special Re- search. Promote special research by all means ; but I am sure that any one who had seen as much as I have of communities in which a highly-educated class is wanting, would agree with me in deprecating any neglect of the educational functions of a Uni- versity. 56 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH It is a less gracious remark — ^but I cannot help warning you to be on your guard against intel- lectual sybaritism, shirking duty under pretence of devotion to special research. It seemed to me, when I was last at Oxford, that there was considerable danger in that quarter. Over-endow a man, give him no fixed duties, and the chances are he will waste life in fancied preparations for an effort which will never come. Would it not be a good thing if you could include among your Commissioners one or two who know the Universities of other countries, American as well as European ? There must be plenty of such people in England. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. The Marquess of Salisbury. XL G. S. to the (third) Marquess of Salisbury. The Gbangb, Toeonto, October 10, 1876. My bear Lord Salisbury, Some time ago you very kindly responded to a letter of introduction presented to you from me by my friend Colonel George Denison. He is going to England again, and I venture to renew my letter of introduction. Colonel Denison, as I said before, has written with distinction on military subjects, and it is an enter- prise connected with that sanguinary department of literature that now takes him to England. He is an ultra-loyalist and a good Tory, and proposes to settle all political problems by a charge of light cavalry drawn up and armed in some improved fashion. I think you cannot fail to like him per- sonally, as well as to concur in his opinions. Since I last wrote to you I have married and CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 57 settled down ; but, my head being out of your reach and that of Lord Beaconsfield, I am " unrecon- structed " and as Radical as ever. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. The Marquess of Salisbury. XLI G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. The Gbastoe, Tobonto, October 12, 1876. My dear Mrs. Hertz, Some time ago I asked my wife to let me take her over to England and introduce her to my English friends ; she assented, and we made up our minds to go. But of late we have been in some doubt whether we should be able to carry our plan into effect at present, on account of the apparent imminence of war. We did not want to be carried prisoners into a Russian port and kept two or three years on caviare. But independently of this danger, which would not have been very great, a time of war would have been a bad time for our trip. Now, however, the conflict seems to be adjourned, and we saU from New York on the Russia on Wednesday the 25th. We shall be in England (principally at Oxford) till the middle of December, then go to Italy (which I have never seen !) for the rest of the winter, and in the early spring return to England and spend the season in London. I never thought I should set foot on English soil again, much less that I should bring such a wife with me. What a delight it will be to see you all again ! My kindest regards to Mr. Hertz and your daughter. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 58 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH XLII G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. North Westbbn Hotei,, Liverpool, Sunday, November 5, 1876. My dear Mrs. Hertz, Your note was put into my hand at Queens- town ; and most welcome it was, you may be sure, both to me and to my dear wife. To stay with you will be the greatest of pleasures ; but at present we are bound for Oxford, where we are to be till the middle of December. I will, how- ever, bring my wife to town some day in the latter part of this week (day to be fixed when I hear from my solicitor, whom I have to see on business), to introduce her to you and yours and my kinswomen in Eaton Place. We had rather a rough passage ; but, by the prudent though ignominious policy of keeping our berths during the rough weather, almost entirely escaped sea-sickness. The boat which preceded us by a day was severely mauled by a great storm, while we only came in for the swell. My wife's first experience of England has, I grieve to say, been rather a melancholy one. She had set her heart on having muffins for breakfast the first morning. It was Sunday morning ; but she would order the muffins. They came ; and you may fancy how discreditable the result was to British Institutions. That I was a woman-hater nobody ever supposed but Cobbe — certainly not Mrs. and Miss Hertz. Cobbe's shadow (politically) has grown less. I dare say she did not skip, like the little hills in the Psalms, after the last discourse on Female Suffrage. I told you they were beaten for this Parliament. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Gold win Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 59 XLIII The Right Hon. John Bright to G. S. Llandudno, November 19, 1876. My dear Goldwin Smith, I am most glad to see your handwriting, and find you again in England. I regretted much that I did not see you on your last visit. Now, I hope you may be able to stay with us. I have no copy of my speech, but perhaps I may be able to find one. It is in Hansard, no doubt, and I corrected it for Miss Beecher's Woman's Suffrage Journal, in which I may, perhaps, find it. I will write to my son who is at Rochdale, and ask him to get a copy when he goes to Manchester. I think Miss Beecher's paper is printed in Manchester. As to the Eastern question, the new Lord who is at the head of affairs seems to have learnt nothing, but I suspect his colleagues do not quite share his views, or like his talk. He, perhaps, seeks to keep the peace by attempting to bully Russia, as it was said twenty years ago that we made the war by persuading the Czar that England would not fight. Fortunately for us, we have no allies — and our cause is so transparently selfish that no European Power can sympathise with us, or will be willing to help us. It is ten times more important to Germany and Austria to be well with Russia than with England, and they therefore can have no disposition to go with us. France will be quiet : her Government is not that of Louis Napoleon, and she has no need of war to give solidity to her administration. Italy is not a " Great Power," though sometimes she is reckoned one — but she will not turn the scale in any great European question. I do not look for war, without an ally except Turkey — how can we go to war ? England has no 60 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH troops for foreign service, and a Fleet only is not enough for a great contest. My boys were only six weeks " out and home," on their recent American trip, too short a time to compensate for the crossings of the Atlantic. We remain here till Friday next, when we return home to Rochdale. When you are in Lancashire come to see us. I am always. Very sincerely yours, (Signed) John Bright. Goldwin Smith, Esq., Randolph Hotel, Oxford. XLIV G. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. Randolph Hotel, Oxfobd, November 30, 1876. My dear Mrs. Winkworth, I have come at rather an exciting crisis. But I do not think there is much reason for fearing that my Lord Beaconsfield will dare to go to war ; much less that he will be able to avert the fall of the Turkish domination and the restoration of those countries to human effort, as Carlyle says. With regard to home politics, the Conservative reaction, or rather stagnation, seems still to prevail. These people might have a long lease of power if it were not for their [?] foreign policy. But Louis Napoleon did justice on himself and disabused the world before he died ; and so, I cannot help thinking, will Lord Beaconsfield. Ever yom-s most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 61 1877 XLV G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. 15, Pabk Cbksoent, Oxford, November 11, 1877. My dear Mrs. Hertz, Evolution — considering it is evolution — seems to me to be doing pretty well. Osman Pacha will probably soon be evolved out of Plevna, and perhaps his Sultan out of Constantinople. The French also have distinguished themselves. I have read Harri- son's letters with the greatest interest, like all the world. He gives a most hopeful account of French character and prospects ; but I cannot help feeling that underneath, in the Republicans, there is a want of cosmic emotion or whatever it is that inspires self-devotion and mutual confidence among the Ultramontanes. My wife sends her kindest regards. Her home is in Canada, but she feels very deeply the kindness with which she has been received here. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. XLVI The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone to G. S. Hawabden, November 14, 1877. My dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, Though I regard with unabated interest the course of the great Ultramontane controversy all over the world, I think I have done my part in it as an active combatant, and I am indisposed to any further intervention, first, because at my years I unfeignedly desire repose, and next because cir- 62 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH cumstances have forced upon me another conflict which I did not anticipate, but from which I am not as yet able to retire. It is not, then, from any want of interest or of respect that I do not close with Mr. Lindsey's ' suggestion. With respect to the present position of Liberalism and the party, the mastery you have maintained over English politics while residing beyond the water gives great weight to what you say. But many reasons lead me to hope that you are wrong on the personal point which you have stated. In the first place, no circumstances would justify my taking any sort of step to replace myself in the leadership out of which I forced myself in a manner which gives the existing leaders the strongest claims upon me. Secondly, the health which I enjoy is, as I have constant reason to know, dependent on my liberty to study it and keep to standing measures for preserving it. In the third place, I desire rest and freedom to apply my mind in a very different direction as much as I think a man can do. And lastly, I am far from sure that in the matter of religion, where I am a decided if not stiff denominationalist — I am far from sure that I am in harmony with that average feeling of the party which, as Bright has justly perceived, ought, in equity, to guide its course. On civil questions, again, my opinions and leanings are too popular for the larger part of the aristocratic section of the party. I am extremely pleased to see, from the title of your recent article in the C. R. [Contemporary Review],* that you are working a most fruitful and important side of the Eastern question. Your lengthened stay almost leads me to hope we have you for good. Whether this be so or not, let > I think it probable that this refers to a work entitled Borne in Canada, by Mr. Charles Lindsey, of Toronto. Very likely Gold- win Smith sent Mr. Gladstone this book, asking him to notice it. ' "The Slave-owner and the Turk," Contemporary Review, November 1877. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 63 me say how happy we should be if you, I hope not alone, would pay us a visit. Sincerely yours, (Signed) W. E. Gladstone. 1878 XLVII G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. 15, Pask Crescent, OxroaD, Wednesday, February 27, 1878. My dear Mrs. Hertz, I quite agree with you that it is better at this moment of public frenzy not to hold meetings, but, as the Scotchman said, to " jowk an' let the jaw gang by." How sweet is the voice of the British rowdy, yelling for war with Rooshia ! He will get it if he does not mind. Rooshia will be goaded into opening the ball. It is neither very creditable nor very auspicious for humanity that the stress of the situation lies on Lord Derby, who, I have no doubt, sees the great fact that a disastrous, or even a fruitless and in- glorious war would be the ruin of his order. Yours niost truly, (Signed) Gold win Smith. XLVIII G. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. Richmond, May 20, 1878. My dear Mrs. Winkworth, I have seen a number of people within the last day or two, all of whom, with perhaps the ex- 64 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH ception of Gladstone, regard peace as now assured. This is a blessing, though I am afraid it is to be purchased by a partial resuscitation of Turkish rule and a consequent renewal hereafter of all these calamities and horrors. One thing draws on another. It is the possession of India that entails the necessity of dominating in the Eastern Mediterranean and sacrificing the in- terests of the people there. The Oxford people extinguished the little chance they had by their maladroit letters and explanations. Poor Bright ! I am afraid it will be a loss to us all, for, before this blow, his public energies were sinking. And there is no one coming up in his place. Kindest regard to Winkworth. Yours ever, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. XLIX Sir John A. Macdonald ' to G. S. St. Geoeqe Stbbbt, Toronto, Octobei- I, 1878. My dear Mr. Smith, You will, I know, have pardoned me for not acknowledging your notes before, considering the hurly-burly of the elections. Well, we have over- thrown the Brown dynasty, and the country seems to breathe more freely already. In the first place you must permit me to thank you with all my heart for your very kindly and very opportune mention of myself at Brooklyn. It did good service, and would have had a prodigious effect if the opportunity of making it at an earlier day had been afforded you. You must know that you are a power in the State among the educated classes, and in the long run they must win. > For many years Prime Minister ol Canada. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 6S And now as to the subject of your note of the 1st September. The local elections will not come off until next spring or summer — a Session will intervene, and. from the manner in which Mowat ' allowed himself to be mixed up in Canadian politics, i.e. Dominion politics, I fancy his Ministry must follow Mackenzie's. The rats will desert him next Session— then exit Mowat and enter M. C. Cameron. Luckily Cameron is a man above reproach, and will assemble his like about him. Now I hope you have not said your last word as to your entering the Legislature, but that you will keep it an open question. There is, you see, no hurry about it. I quite understand that your literary work should be your first consideration, and if I thought that such work would be retarded by your attendance in the Legislature, I would be the last man to press it— but it seems to me that it would be an agreeable change from the monotony of the desk to the House of Assembly. True, these local Legisla- tures are but " one-horse concerns," yet you would do much good, and would help to elevate the tone of debate, now so sadly lowered. We shall, I hope, have many opportunities of discussing this subject together. Thanks for your generous offer to aid a young aspirant to Parliamentary position, and I shall accept it in the spirit in which the offer is made. And I shall take great care that your assistance shall not be unworthily bestowed. I had not seen the Globe article mentioned in yours of the 12th until I received your note. The insinuation of the Globe that your support was given for the purpose of bringing about a fiscal con- flict with the mother-country is too contemptible to notice. But it is not more absurd or base than the staple of its articles during the recent contest. I am waiting to be summoned, Lord Dufferin '■ Prime Minister of Ontario. 86 CORRESPONDENCE OP GOLDWIN SMITI {entre noiis) having told me, when here, to keep m; carpet-bag ready. Yours very faithfully, (Signed) John A. Macdonald. Goldwin Smith, Esq., The Grange. G. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. Ithaca, New Yobk, October 18, 1878. My dear Mrs. Winkworth, I was very much obliged to you for forwarding the letter to Freeman. By that time he had no doub returned to England, for I saw one of his characteristii letters against the "Ogres," as he calls the Hungarians in the Manchester Examiner. He sometimes man his writing by violence and grotesqueness ; but h( has done really good service, not only by hard fighting which is always something when the mass of peopli are undecided and there is a strong current of wronj opinion, but by bringing out the historical and ethno graphical facts, as to which his authority is unquestion able. I am just finishing my course at Cornell. W( start for Toronto this evening. Cornell is flourishing The founder's scheme of combining manual with in tellectual labour has not come to much. Both kind: of labour draw on the same fund of nervous energy which is not sufficient to feed both. But a stam] has been left on the institution. The students ar( mostly poor, frugal, and industrious. We have lateh been invaded by the athletic mania, but I hope no in a very virulent form. Still it is rather sad to sei what currency your idle aristocracy can give to it frivolities, even in the democratic hemisphere. Things, I should say, are looking up here, both com CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 67 mercially and politically. The symptoms of reviving prosperity are visible, and though the struggle on the currency question will be severe, " honest money " is pretty sure to win. The victory in Ohio is almost decisive. The relations of the two races in the South are the grand difficulty, and will be so for many a day. A desperate effort is being made to flunkeyise Canada, and to turn her into a political outpost of the English reaction. The Genius of the New World will prevail in the end, but there will very likely be mischief and trouble in the meantime. With you the tide seems to be turning against Jingoism ; but you are going to be drawn into an act of rapine in Afghanistan. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. LI G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. The Grange, Toronto, November 8, 1878. My dear Mrs. Hertz, The fortune of the Republic has triumphed once more over Greenbackism and all the powers of darkness. These elections are decisive against re- pudiation in any form. It ought to be known, how- ever, that the movement is not one of mere dishonesty. Mortgagors and other debtors are crushed by debts which they contracted in depreciated paper and have to pay in coin. They seek relief in currency nostrums. Their conduct is at least no worse than that of the English landlords who passed the Com Law to prevent their rent from falling after the French war, throwing the people back into starvation. Flunkeydom here is prepared to throw itself at the feet of Lome and his Princess. We shall have some sickening scenes. If Mr. W. E. Forster could only 68 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITJ have his nose held to Colonial flunkeyism for a fe minutes, I think even he would be ready for Colonii emancipation. It is all in ruin. Within ten year unless some strange turn of the tide takes placi Canada will be where she ought to be — in the Unioi I wonder what our Positivist friends, who wei decidedly inclined to take the Jingo side in the Easter question, say to the aggression upon Afghanistai England will have soon to make up her mind whethe industry or piracy is to be her line for the futun War, war everywhere, actual and in prospect ! Tli truce of God is over and the truce of Congreve is nc yet come. We are just tucking ourselves up for the long, grii winter, leafless and lifeless, in which our short, tropics summer is only an episode. I have laid in a goo store of books. Last night I was at a public dinner of the Toront School of Medicine. They have given up wine, bu they stick to drinking toasts. I drank sixteen i water, and to-day I feel like an aquarium. The chaii man was a missionary, learning medicine for th purpose of performing miracles. Our very kindest regards to your husband an daughter. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. LII G. S. to Professor Tyndall. The Granqe, Toeonto, November il, 1878. My dear Tyndall, I have been reading, with the interest we a feel in everything you write or say, your paper in th Nineteenth Century on Virchow, and I come upon th passage in which you welcome the statement of Pre fessor Knight that there have been not only ind CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 69 viduals but great historical communities in which the absence of the belief in immortality has neither weakened moral earnestness nor prevented devotional fervour. I have been wondering what historical communi- ties they are. As to Greece and Rome, no one can deny, historic- ally, the truth of Polybius's words as to the close connexion of their political morality (and he might have added their general morality) with their religion. You would not build much on China — a, mere bee- hive, full of cruelty, filthy lust, and infanticide, held together by brute force, and hopelessly unprogressive. It is wonderful in its way, but the way is not that of the higher humanity. To me it seems that, historically, I will not say essentially, high and progressive morality is always connected, not with any particular form of belief in a future life, but with the belief that there is some- thing beyond this life and this world. That in the sum of things it will be well with those who choose what we call virtue, and ill with those who choose what we call vice. To put the same thing in other words, I think that human goodness and greatness, judging from the history of the race, depend on the existence of a practical desire to reach an ideal as yet unfulfilled, but in the fulfilment of which all who con- tribute to it will in some way share. Of course these ideas often present themselves in highly mythological and questionable forms. You speak of Buddha, but, supposing the character to be historical, what are the Buddhists ? What is the condition of that vast portion of the [? Eastern] races ? And then Buddhism seems to me to be a belief in a sort of negative immortality, an everlasting enjoy- ment of withdrawal from the evils of existence. Men you may find at the present day, and not a few of them, whose morality is unaffected by the intel- lectual rejection of old belief, while their characters Are exalted by science or other high and beneficent 70 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITI pursuits. But then these men have all been brough up and formed under religion, which adheres to then under the guise of " reverence for the unknown,' and always carries with it a latent belief in some sor of immortality. You must wash the vessel mori thoroughly before your experiment can be fairly tried If you want to study the effect of changed belie upon character, you should do it [in] a new country where tradition and social organisation are not s( strong, but every man is more a law to himself. I I mistake not, the results of the substitution of natura selection for the Christian theory in the States havi already begun to appear. So come here again : mj letter ends, like a long and grandiose advertisemem in a Yankee newspaper, with a practical point at last Very truly yours, (Signed) Gold win Smith. LIII G. S. to W. E. Gladstone. The Gbanoe, Tohonto, November 23, 1878. My deak Mr. Gladstone, I see you have been joining in the praise o: Lord Dufferin's " administration " and exhorting Lore Lome to follow in his footsteps. The cutting which I enclose from a Canadian pape: will give you a glimpse, and only a glimpse, of th( other side of the picture. I believe it to be belov the truth. Lord Dufferin has not been called upon for anj display of administrative ability. His energies hav( been devoted to cultivating popularity by speeche and entertainments. I believe that, while he ha; advanced his own future, he has done this country harm both by filling the people with exaggerated notions and by stimulating social extravagance an( ostentation. Instead of following his example, I hopi CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 71 his successor will use his influence to encourage what the Colony wants — sociability of a cheap and unosten- tatious kind. Lord Dufferin is lauded by the Jingoes and Tories here for having effaced the effect of the Liberal policy. But flunkeyise this country as they will, they will not prevent the ultimate union of the North American Continent. The only result of their efforts will be that, instead of coming peacefully, and with an increase of good feeling towards England, both on the part of Canadians and Americans, the union will come in some less desirable way. Do not suppose that there has been a Conservative reaction here. Conservatism had nothing to do with the late change.^ The main cause was the desire to try a new commercial policy, generated by com- mercial distress. The other causes were the incom- petence of the late Government, especially in finance, and the falsification of all its reform and purity pledges. There is no real difference of political principle between the parties, which are mere con- nexions held together by the struggle for place. The Yankees are justifying your good opinion. Greenbackism is dead or dying. The people gave their minds to the dry and difficult currency question in a way that I think was full of promise, and they have decided right. After all, there is some excuse for the Greenbackers. Numbers of people, especially in the West, are crushed by the weight of debts contracted in paper currency, and now to be paid in gold. The conduct of these people in seeking relief by legislative tampering with the currency is not much worse than the conduct of the English landowners who passed the Corn Law to prevent their rents from falling after the war. With you, the tide seems at last to be turning against Jingoism. But nothing can wipe out the 1 From a Liberal to a Conservative Government, and the institu.- tipn of a protective tariff. 72 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH disgrace.' It is about the most shameful episode in the political history of England. You have had a wholesome lesson on the latent resources of an undefined prerogative, and another on the uses to which a female sovereign may be put by a political sharper. You rebuke the Liberals for flying apart. But who is there to hold them together ? They are left to their own divisions or to the influence of men who only want to imitate Lord Beaconsfield, and have at least the moral qualifications for the part. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. LIV G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman {sometime Prime Minister of Cape Colony). Toronto, Canada, December 17, 1878. Hon. J. X. Merriman, Cape Town. Dear Sir, I have received your letter of November 3, putting to me some questions in relation to the working of Canadian Confederation, which, it appears, is pro- posed as a model for your imitation in South Africa. I will answer the questions to the best of my power. (1) Has the Canadian Constitution on the whole proved a success ? That the Canadian Constitution, with its Governor- General and Lieutenant-Governors, its General and Provincial Legislattu-es, its General and Provincial Ministries, is too complicated and too expensive for such communities as ours, and that it demands a larger number of legislators and administrators than 1 Perhapa referring to the " Jingo " war fever which prevailed ip England in this year. The Busao-Tuxkish war was in progress. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 78 we are able to supply, seems to me to be the growing conviction of the Canadian people. I have little doubt that there would at once be a movement in favour of a change, if it were not for the difficulty of dealing with the French Province of Quebec, which clings to its separate nationality and its national code of law. That difficulty it was, probably, that con- strained the framers of our constitution to acquiesce in the present system of double government, when some of them at least would have preferred a legisla- tive union ; so that our constitution as it exists may be said to be in some measure the result of an accident peculiar to our own case. The special functions of a General Government under the federal system are external defence against common enemies, the management of foreign affairs, and the maintenance of internal peace and freedom of intercourse between the States. These functions, in the case of a group of dependencies, being already per- formed by the government of the Imperial country, the main object of federation is wanting with us, and would be equally so with you. (2) Do the powers oj the General Government tend to increase or diminish ? Under the constitution of the United States all powers not expressly given to the Federal Govern- ment are reserved to the States. With us the reverse is the rule ; and as doubtful points are decided in favour of the centra] Government, the tendency of power is perhaps rather to gravitate towards the centre, though I cannot say that I have observed any important movement of that kind. Political party, as a general organisation, has com- pletely possessed itself of the Local Parliaments and Governments, which were intended to be entirely independent. The other day a Lieutenant-Governor appointed by one of the general parties dismissed the Local Ministers, who belonged to the other party, though they had a majority in their Local House, 74 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH for the purpose, as was asserted, of putting the Local Government, with its influence and patronage, into the hands of his own party on the eve of a General Election. Party, under our present system, is the great force ; and those who construct constitutions without making allowances for its disturbing influence will find that they have reckoned without their host. (3) Have collisions other than that of British Columbia occurred between the States and the General Govern- ment, and is any friction likely to increase or diminish ? No actual collision has occurred other than that with British Columbia, which still threatens secession and is appeased only by the annual expenditure of a stipu- lated sum — I think £150,000 — on public works within her territory. But other Provinces have demanded, and in some cases enforced, " better terms," that is, pecuniary concessions above the original terms of confederation, as the price of their continued acqui- escence. Eleven years are a short time ; ' but so far no great progress, apparently, has been made towards a fusion of interest and feeling. Sectionalism still reigns in everything, from the composition of a Cabinet down to that of a Wimbledon Rifle Team. The French Province seems even to harden itself in its isolation. Antagonisms are of course apt to be developed by unions which are not perfectly spontaneous. The representatives of the smaller Provinces in the General Legislature form separate interests, for the alliance of which a competition is always going on between the leaders of the two parties, which have their basis in the old Canadian Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Federation is the natural expedient of a group of small communities responsible for their own defence and pressed by a powerful enemy, as the Swiss Cantons were by Austria, the United Provinces by Spain, ' The British North America Act, by which the confederation of the Canadian Provinces was brought about, was passed in 1867. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 75 and the United States by England. In such cases the necessity is the bond. But in the case of depen- dencies already under the protection of the Imperial country neither the necessity nor the bond of union is the same. (4) Has Federation proved an expensive form oj Government ? Unquestionably it has ; and, as I said before, its expensiveness is giving rise to complaints and to a desire for change. The Toronto Mail, our chief Con- servative organ, had a strong editorial on the subject the other day. The public debt has been nearly doubled, and our financial position cannot be said now to be very much better than that of the United States, though we have had no civil war and have hardly any armaments of our own to maintain. The Americans can borrow on easier terms than we can, and their debt is being rapidly reduced, while ours is still on the increase. Federation can hardly fail to facilitate the joint execution of useful public works ; in our case it may perhaps be partly credited with the improvements which are going on in our canals. On the other hand, it has certainly led here to the expenditure of very large sums of money in public works of more doubtful utility. About five millions sterling have been sunk in the Intercolonial Railway, for the military and political purposes of the confederation, with little prospect of any pecuniary return. Four times the amount will probably be sunk in the Pacific Railway, with still less prospect of return, for the purpose of linking British Columbia to the Eastern Provinces of the Dominion. The Pacific Railway scheme in its very birth produced a scandalous development of political corruption. If you resolve to follow us by adopting confederation, I would recommend you to be careful in providing all possible safeguards against corrupt or wasteful expenditure in the Federal de- partment of public works. 76 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH (3) Has Federation encouraged log-rolling jor public works for localities ? Each of the political parties charges the other with the use of public works as bribes to localities for political support, and there is probably some ground for the accusation on both sides. Log-rolling in the ordinary sense of the phrase, with reference to railway legislation, everybody says we have ; but I am not aware that it is traceable to the Federal form of government, otherwise than as the multiplication of legislative bodies gives a larger field for intrigue of every kind. (6) Does the influence oj Provincialism tend to reduce the calibre oj the representatives in the General Parlia- ment ? As I said in my answer to your first question, this country is unable to supply the number of statesmen and legislators required for our dovible set of institu- tions. General and Provincial ; and the consequence is that the work of legislation especially is often en- trusted to unfit hands. The remark may be extended to the United States, which, however, have a larger fund of political capacity to draw on, as their popula- tion is denser than ours and they are superior to us in wealth. In conclusion I would ventvu'e to suggest that before you allow yourselves, in reliance on the supposed success of our experiment, to be committed to a total change of your system, involving not only a vast increase of political machinery and expenditure, but the danger of a great development of faction and corruption, you should send a delegation to this country and examine the working of Canadian con- federation for yourselves. Some useful results of experience could hardly fail to be obtained, whatever your ultimate decision on the main question might be. You would, at all events, ascertain the practical operation of the Fedejal systeixi under the influence CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 77 of political party, which is a widely different thing from its operation as projected on paper by the framers of Acts of Parliament in which the influence of party is ignored. I shall be happy to furnish you with any further information in my power. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. LV G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Grange, Tobonto, December 23, 1878. The Hon. J, X. Merriman. Dear Sik, Since I sent my answer to your letter, it has occurred to me that I might have mentioned that in the case of Canada there were two special causes pre- disposing to confederation. One was a political deadlock brought on by a long and evenly-balanced conflict between the Parlia- mentary forces of Upper and Lower Canada, which two Provinces, though they had been united under a Governor-General, were kept in a state of antagonism to each other by difference of race and of religion. It was hoped that their rivalry and discord might be merged in a confederation of all the Provinces of British North America. The other cause was the fear of American hostility which was excited by the Trent ' affair and the general disturbance of the relation between England and the United States at the time of the American Civil War. Confederation, it was assumed, would bring with it an increase of military strength. I am not aware ' When Mason and Slidell, commissioners sent to England by the Southern States at the time of the American civil war, were seized on iQoard the English steamer Trent by Captain Wilkes, an officer of the Northern States. This was in 1861, 78 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH that this expectation has been in any way fulfilled. The Provinces were united before under the military supremacy of the British Crown, and military men complain that the efficiency of the Colonial militia, instead of being improved, has declined, owing to a parsimony which they condemn, but which is an almost inevitable consequence of the increased cost of government. Our newspapers tell us that Newfoundland has at last made up her mind to come into the confederation, but that she will stipulate for the construction of a railway across the island, which, as a commercial enterprise, will probably be a counterpart in point of remunerativeness to the Pacific and the Inter- Colonial. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 1879 LVI G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. Thb Gbanqe, Toronto, April 26, 1879, Hon. John X. Merriman. My dear Sir, I have just received your letter of March 17th. Your first sentence seems to me to give, in few words, the gist of the whole matter. The very sub- jects for which independent communities federate are, in the case of these dependent communities, taken out of their hands by the Imperial Government and settled in the Imperial Parliament. There can be little doubt as to the connexion of your present calamities with Lord Carnarvon's amiable ambition to found a great South African con- federation. The map discloses plainly enough the motive for attempting to subjugate the territory of CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 79 the Zulus. People will be compelled in time to acknowledge that the destinies of communities are not likely to be well shaped by ignorance, residing at a distance, however benevolent the intention and however respectable in himself the operator may be. Since I wrote to you we have got into trouble about the relations between our Central and Pro- vincial Gkjvernments in connection with the case of Mr. Letellier, Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Quebec, whom the Central Government and Parlia- ment wish to remove from his office on political grounds. The Governor-General has referred the case to the Home Government, and we are now awaiting the decision. Whatever the result may be, the affair has furnished an illustration of the difficulty of work- ing so complicated a machine. British Columbia is again threatening secession, and has even named May 1st as the fatal day. Her object is to extort money, which she has already succeeded in doing to a very disagreeable extent. For the general interest of the confederation she cares not a straw. You were puzzled by what I said as to the financial position of Canada under confederation, and as to the existence of political parties. To the financial position of Canada compared with that of the United States, I pointed as showing that no great benefit in that respect has been received from confederation. Political parties we have ; but they are not based on any distinctive principles, though one calls itself Con- servative, the other Liberal or Reform ; they are merely personal combinations wrestling with each other for power and place, and entailing upon us all the evils of faction by their contest. At the present moment the Conservatives have taken up Protection, the Reformers Free Trade ; but this is merely an accident of the hour. You will greatly oblige me by any information as to the progress of political events among you. Especi- ally I shall be glad to learn the decision as to the 80 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH great question at which you may arrive. I wish you had a calmer and more propitious time for your deliberation than this, when the minds of your people can hardly fail to be agitated and their judgment disturbed by the terrors of a calamitous war.' Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. LVII The Right Hon. John Bright to G. S. One Ash, Rooedai.b, August 21, 1879. My dear Goldwin Smith, I thank you for your kind letter and invitation to your house. I wish I could accept it, but it cannot be now. I have not much expectation that I shall ever see your Continent. I do not know how the story that I was going to the States has been spread. I have received a very friendly letter of invitation from the President inviting me to be the guest of himself and of Mrs. Hayes at the White House, and Mr. Ewart also wrote me, when forwarding the Pre- sident's letter. I have been somewhat perplexed, but have only been able to come to one conclusion, and have written to decline an invitation which offered me so much that was tempting. Since my terrible bereavement of last year, I seem to have lost all spirit and energy for the voyage and for travel, and I feel myself older, and less able to meet the excitement which I could not escape if I crossed the Atlantic. I have had a visit from Mr. Pierce of Boston, Sumner's executor and biographer. He speaks very highly of the President and of the tone of his sur- roundings. One of my party acquaintances says, " The Americans are a remarkable people ; they talk a great deal of nonsense, but they act wisely." I 1 The Kaffir War^ended ten months before, and the Zulu War began ten months aftei:, this letter waa written. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 81 hope the talk may improve and the acting not become worse. I met yovir Prime Minister last week in London, only for a minute, at the Waterloo Station. I told him I could not agree with his policy or his mission. He said he thought he could convert me. I fear the Government will yield to him — they have chosen the time for the negotiation when Parliament is not sitting, and the Colonial Office will fear to get into any trouble with their most important Colonial child. Verily, we are a strange people. Only thirty- four millions here, and with more poor than some other nations, and yet we accept burdens and re- sponsibilities in every quarter of the globe. The States have fifty millions, and almost no army or navy, and no spirited foreign policy, and we fancy we can compete with them ! We have dismal weather to-day, and very wet ; hitherto we have not had a single day of real hot summer weather. The harvest must be deficient, and the condition of the farmers must go from bad to worse. There is trouble impending — it seems needful to teach our people, and especially all con- nected with the land. The Distress Commission are sending out the agricultural members of Parliament to spy out your land and the land of your great neighbour. Mr. C. Reed and Mr. Pell will have their eyes opened. You grumble from your side of the great [? water], and I grumble from mine. We must submit to what we cannot prevent, and hope that wiser people and better times may come. An election here will clear the air, and it cannot be far off. I am always glad to hear from you. Believe me Very sincerely yours, John Bright. Goldwin Smith, Esq., The Grange, Toronto 82 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMIT! LVIII G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. Tbemont House, Boston, September 17, 1879. My dear Mrs. Hertz, Your account of the distress in England heartrending. But you must not say that Bradfor or anything else is irretrievably ruined. This wav of calamity is caused by overproduction — over-prc duction of machines and factory-hands as well as c goods. It will spend its force and pass away. En^ land, however, has passed her commercial zenitl The Napoleonic war left her in an exceptional pos: tion, the sole possessor of manufactures and of mercantile marine. This could not last for ever other countries are assuming their natural place and England must relatively decline. Her mas of accumulated wealth, however, is enormous. Sh has investments which make the world tributary t her. We do not yet hear of a great number of failures Pauperism does not seem to increase very rapidlj though at certain points there is no doubt sever distress. When I was in England the watering-place were full, and the signs of wealth and luxury every where as great as ever. The value of farms in this part of the United State has fallen 50 per cent owing to the influx of grai: from the prairie lands of the West. English farm are now losing their value from the same cause and they are not likely to regain it, though they wi no doubt do something to improve their state b adapting their production to the changed demanc With its wealth, territorial aristocracy will lose it power. Perhaps some day its coronet will fall of and it will leave you under an industrial governmen which will not aggravate your maladies by fillin the world with mistrust and war. How can yo CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 88 expect at once to indulge in Jingoism and to propa- gate free trade ? If you indulge in Jingoism, you will have all over the world war-taxes ; if you have war-taxes, you will have war-tariffs ; and certainly other nations are not specially bound, in framing their tariff, to make arrangements for the increase of English wealth, if English wealth is to be the sinews of English aggression. There is a great outcry against the Canadian tariff. Not a cent of additional taxation has been imposed, beyond what is necessary to fill a chronic deficit, and the deficit is caused entirely by the Imperial connexion, by politico-military railways, constructed in the interest of the Empire, other military waste, and, above all, by the commercial atrophy which is the inevitable consequence of cutting Canada off, as an Imperial dependency, from the continent to which she belongs. The Cobden Club will find out some day that to get free trade they must have peace ; that to have peace they must persuade the nation to put down its anti-industrial government, and remove aggran- disement, and then they will have to begin at the right end. I remember that I inserted the words " peace and goodwill among nations " into their motto, which, as originally framed, had nothing in it but free trade. Toronto is just now in a paroxysm of vulgar flunkeyism, called forth by the visit of the Princess and her husband. My wife proposed to me at once to fly, and I readily consented, though I should rather have preferred to stay and stand aloof. We left all our neighbours (literally) practising presentation bows and curtseys for a monkeyish imitation of a " Drawing-room " which the Princess was to have. The other day at a State ball at Ottawa a number of people were drunk, including a Minister of State, a Chief Justice, and a Bishop. Thus does Royalty refine and elevate Colonial Society ! And the people who are debauched in this fashion are the statesmen 84 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMIT and leaders of the community, on whose characte its destinies in great measure depend. If the Color taxes English goods, it pays a pretty heavy tribu to Imperial pride. My amusement at the schism among the Comtis is almost swallowed up in my pity for Congrev whose fate is almost tragical. He began life wii high promise,*he ends it as the farcical anti-Pope of moribund conventicle. But you will see, he will d a Roman Catholic. I haVe always said he woul since he got into his present frame of mind. Comtis is essentially a travesty of Roman Catholicism, ai this schism in the papacy increases the servility the imitation. I am glad, however, that the Britii Pope had too much spirit to play second fiddle to Frenchman. Once more, all good wishes, in whic my wife heartily joins. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 1880 LIX G. S. to Sir George Young, Bart. [About 1880.; From a letter addressed to Sir G. Young: P.S. — I have always maintained that the o political grievance of a substantial kind which t Irish have is the necessity of resorting for Priva Bill legislation to Westminster, and that the be mode of remedying that grievance would be to co stitute the Irish members a Grand Committee for t purpose of Private Bill legislation, and let them at Dublin in the recess. They would have, of coun to report to the House, which would be a check jobbing in extreme cases. If they showed a te dency to take to dangerous courses, you would or CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 85 have to omit to reappoint the Committee ; no legislative repeal would be required. Some satisfac- tion would at the same time be given to Irish senti- ment by an Irish legislative assembly sitting in College Green. LX 6. S. to Mr. Winkworth. Toronto, January 22, 1 880. My dear Winkworth, In my little Italian tour I only passed Cannes on the railroad. But I went in a carriage from Nice to St. Remi, and never shall I forget that day. It was my first sight of the Mediterranean and of the South. The day was lovely, and every sensation was new to me. A squadron of French ironclads at Villafranca was the only discord ; and they were sleeping very peacefully. At St. Remi, while I was waiting for the train, I went up to the old town, a most curious monument of city life. It must have been a commune with a vengeance, and one could see how democracy was born in cities. That night I slept in an old palace turned into a hotel in Genoa, and felt myself in the land of a student's dreams. I don't suppose one would be happy where one had nothing to do, otherwise I should not have much hesitation in taking up my abode in Italy. I believe my wife would like it as much as I shoiild. Many thanks for O'Connor's life of Dizzy. I saw O'Connor when I was in England, and thought him genuine and sincere. Dizzy's life has been one vast conspiracy — the first object of which was the grati- fication of his own devouring vanity, the second the subversion of Parliamentary government. He has succeeded completely in the first object, and to a wonderful extent in the second. He has genius of a certain kind ; but he has also had the enormous 86 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMIT advantage of being an unscrupulous trickster ai liar in an assembly where everybody else was boui by the ties of honour and truth. His whole stoi has not yet come to light ; the Peel papers ha^ something to reveal. However, these machinatioi are now pretty nearly at an end. One of the most ludicrous parts of the Jingo poli( is the attempt to set up a Court here, with an ari tocracy of knights. One of the knights had been chemist, another a miller. The people call them S Bolus and Sir Bran. As to the Court and its etiquett they beggar description. At one of the State bal a number of people, including some high dignitarie were drunk. Dufferin began this system. He wi a regular limb of Jingoism, and the Liberals migl leave the Tories to reward him with ovations. A will be unavailing. Nature, who has made Canac a part of the New World, will have her way. Thei was a moment when Canada might have been made nation, perhaps to the benefit of the continent, f( two experiments in democracy are safer than on But now the certain end is Annexation, or, as it ougl to be called. Continental Union. The incorporatio of the North-West will only hasten the process, f( that territory is completely cut off by natural barrie: from Canada and belongs to the States south of i to which, when its commercial life developes, it wi inevitably be drawn. England may have what woul be tantamount to federation, for all good piu'pose commercial and general, with the whole Englisl speaking race on this Continent. But the scheme ( creating an anti-American Empire in the north of i as an outwork of European aristocracy, to prevei the triumph of democracy in the New World, is dream, though mischief may be done, and probabl will be done in the attempt. In Maine there has been a narrow escape fro: serious trouble. It is fortunate that this local expl( sion has come to warn them of the mine which wi charged under the Republic, and which might othe CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 87 wise have been fired by the Presidential election. Some day they will have to get rid of the Elective Presidency altogether and substitute a Council of State. No nation can stand the strain of this struggle every four years for the Presidency and all its patronage. If that were out of the way, things woidd go well enough. You will have a famous fight at the coming election. Opinion in England, or rather feeling, now shifts so much from day to day, that the issue defies predic- tion ; but the omens at present are against the Government. The Times labours to prove that Sheffield was a moral victory for them, but it will not do. As an old Berkshire man I watch the elec- tion there with special interest. The usurpation of the Liberal-minority seat by Walter is a gross wrong, which it is to be hoped they will have spirit to redress. The weak point on the Liberal side is that Gladstone is seventy, and there is really nobody to take his place. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. LXI G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Gbangb, Toronto, April 9, 1880. My dear Sir, The Intercolonial Railway has been constructed at a cost of $30,000,000, and is worked by the Govern- ment at an annual loss which may be said to average fully $500,000. It is likely that there will soon be a far shorter line through United States territory ; and there are some who think that the Intercolonial will then become so useless that it will have to be abandoned. The rate at which the public debt has increased 88 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH since confederation will be seen from the following table : Net Debt. Chabge on Debt, 1867 $75,728,641 — 1868 75,757,135 $5,221,022 1869 75,859,319 5,799,474 1870 78,209,752 5,513,586 1871 77,706,517 6,013,624 1872 82,187,072 6,074,247 1873 99,848,462 5,795,675 1874 108,324,965 6,503,039 1875 . 116,008,378 7,373,763 1876 . 124,551,514 7,432,002 1877 . 133,235,309 7,833,475 1878 . 140,362,069 8,486,714 1879 . 147,481,070 8,509,676 We are now getting into a very serious financial position owing to the expenditure of money in politico- military railways to connect the Eastern Provinces with Manitoba and British Columbia. Sir Francis Hincks, a strong Imperialist and Con- federationist, says in an article in his organ, the Montreal Journal of Commerce, that we " are drifting into national bankruptcy." If we are, all I can say is that, though it is a heavy price, it is hardly too heavy a price to pay for final deliverance from Downing Street interference. The great expenditure on public works has not failed to be attended by a corresponding increase of corruption. The expense of the double system of government. Central and Provincial, weighs heavily on us. The finances of Quebec and New Brunswick are in a very bad state. The Quebec imbroglio was settled by the dismissal of the Lieutenant-Governor at the instance of the Dominion Parliament, in which the party opposed to him had a majority. The proceeding is condemned CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 89 by the best authorities, and the imbroglio showed the difficulty of carrying on the double system. The smaller and poorer Provinces are still craving for financial concessions, and are discontented be- cause they are refused. Altogether I do not think that any unprejudiced observer would say that Canadian confederation was an assured success, at all events on its present footing ; and before you are induced to imitate us, I would once more suggest the expediency of institut- ing a thorough inquiry into the real results of our experiment. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Hon. John X. Merriman, Cape Town. LXII [Private] Sir John A. Macdonald^ to G. S. Ottawa, July 7, 1880. My dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, I am off for England on Saturday, with two of my colleagues. We have three substantial offers for the C.P.R.^ — not only to build but to run it as a railway company and to give satisfactory guarantees. So I confidently expect to relieve the country of all uncertainty as to cost and to retain enough land to recoup Canada for expenditure up to this time. If I succeed, I shall drop you a confidential line from England on the subject. With kindest regards to Mrs. Smith. Believe me. Yours very sincerely, (Signed) John A. Macdonald. ' At this time Prime Minister of Canada. ' Canadian Pacific Railway, 90 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH LXIII G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. [Toronto] August 8, 1880. My dear Mrs. Hertz, I sit down to write a letter with almost as much diffidence as I rise to make a speech, because in the case of the letter, as in that of the speech, I know that I have nothing to say. No life can be more uneventful than ours, especially now, when everybody but ourselves is at the seaside and Toronto is like Tadmor. We stay at home because this place is quiet and shady. We hate hotels, and the lake, which is an inland sea, though it does not give us salt air, gives us always a cool breeze at evening. Not that we have wanted cool breezes much this season ; for instead of our usual brief blaze of tropical summer, we have been having English rains and verdure. The chief events of my life really are the telegrams from England, faintly conveying the half-intelligible news of doings which you see and thoroughly under- stand. I hope my Radical friends will be cool. The future is theirs if they will wait for it. But if they throw government back into the hands of the Tories they will find it very difficult to get it out again. The inevitable conflict with the Lords, however, has come. It will be necessary to take up the gauntlet if the Lords are not to be allowed to recover an effective veto on all progress. Gladstone gone (as go he soon must), the Radicals will be without a leader. Bright was always rather an orator than a leader, and at all events he is now past playing an active part. Dilke is, I suppose, making way, but he must make a great deal of way to replace Gladstone in the allegiance of the masses. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 91 You are quite right in thinking that Morley's failure at Westminster was a blessing in disguise. He has ten times more influence in his present position. Power is quitting Parliament and passing to the leaders of opinion. If I stood where Gambetta stands I might form an opinion as to the policy of the expulsion of the Jesuits. But I think the question is one of policy alone. The Jesuits are not a religious order : they use religious teaching and education merely as engines of a political conspiracy — call it an ecclesiastical conspiracy if you will, it comes to pretty much the same thing. It was the Senate that compelled the Government to fall back on the old law. I don't think I am nearer Positivism than I was, unless by Positivism you mean merely preference of fact to fiction, in which case I always wished to be a Positivist. I don't feel any inclination to worship Space, except when I am in a crowd and somebody's elbow is in my rib. I should like, however, to be a member of the circle of Positivist Cooks. I could overlook their self-respect for the sake of their Poulet a la Clotilde de Vaux. Your account of the success of the British anti- Pope delights me. Hurrah for the flag ! Down with that heretical old Frog who does not appeal enough to the proletariat and the women ! I hope you will not think of this in sermon-time. Of course I can sympathise with Positivism, but I am firm in the belief that things are going to work out in a very different way. Near to Positivism or not, I am not very far from certain Positivists who are essentially theological. No doubt, at the Marylebone Church, when the Supreme Being saw Mark Pattison open the Book, he at once understood the nature of the ceremony and drew no unfounded conclusions in his own favour. Mark is certainly a most remarkable arch-priest of the Provisional. What a theme he would be for Carlyle ! 92 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH I wonder you can read the Bystander ' : it is so entirely Canadian in its intent and point of view. Our little affairs are coming to a head. We are in great financial difficulties, and confederation begins to show symptoms of breaking up, while Lord Kim- berley, in true Colonial Office fashion, cheers us on to increased expenditure in armaments and politico-mili- tary railroads. It seems to me that the economical forces are acting irresistibly in favour of a union of the whole of this Northern Continent, and that if I live to be seventy I shall probably die an American citizen by the incorporation of Canada with the United States. The nomination of Garfield against Grant, at Chicago, was a decisive victory of the purer and better part of the Republican party over that which had been debauched by twenty years of office. The re-election of Grant would have entailed a dynasty of jobbery. Indeed, there is no saying how much mischief some of these intrigues meant. The Demo- crats have nominated wisely. As a distinguished soldier on the Northern side, Hancock will deprive the Republicans of the war issue and probably win some soldiers' votes. But he is a mere " standard-bearer." Power will be wielded in his name by the party managers, and through them by the ruling elements of the party, that is, the South, the Irish, the Low Germans, and a set of money kings ill affected alto- gether to Republican institutions and allied as an oligarchy with a mob. The South, which is the heart of the party in spite of its reduced importance rela- tively to the rest of the Union, remains much what it was politically and socially, before the war, though the germs of a new regime, in the shape of rising manufactures, are just beginning to appear. It seems to me very likely that, if the Democratic party returns to power, an attempt will be made to reduce the balance in favour of the South by annexing Mexico ' His own little monthly magazine, written entirely by him, and published at Toronto. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 98 (which would be a fatal incorporation of disease) or by making two or three States out of the vast terri- tories of Texas. The latter expedient is one which has not yet been mentioned, but which can hardly fail to be suggested by the evil one sooner or later. At present everything looks like a Democratic victory. But the Republican party is undergoing repair after the shaking it received at Chicago. It will probably soon enter on the campaign. It has in its power the revival of commercial prosperity, about which there can be no mistake, and which will dispose many people to let well alone. The next rock ahead is a disputed election, which would be full of peril. You seem to be delightfully settled on Campden Hill. Would that this house were there ! My wife tells everybody that we are coming to England next summer, but I grow chary of time. Our kindest regards to you all. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. We are looking anxiously for tidings of your neigh- bours and our much-loved friends the Winkworths. LXIV [Private] Sir John A. Macdonald to G. S. Canada, November 9, 1880. My dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, You will have seen that our Parliament is to meet on December 9 in order to confirm, if it will, the contract with the Syndicate to build and work the C.P.R, We give $25,000,000 in cash and $25,000,000 land, finish the road from Thunder Bay to Selkirk and from the Pacific to Kamloops, and hand over one portion of the road to the railway company 94 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH when the whole C.P.R. is finished. The company is to give us one miUion of dollars as security for construction, and give us every fifth section, or five million acres (or the proceeds of the sale thereof), to remain in our hands for ten years after construction as security for the working of the whole line. If they do this for ten years, we think the perpetual working secured, and hand over the security. Until default we pay the company 4 per cent interest on the one million deposit and on the proceeds of the land held in security — as sold. There are technical and minor details, but I have told you the basis of the agreement. It is pretty clear that, if Canada chooses, it can within the ten years recoup itself for its expenditure from the sale of lands — tihat will be for future Parliaments. For the present we propose to fund the sales at interest, so as to show the people of Canada that they may, if they like, repay themselves in time for all this railway expenditure. We shall hope to see you here during the Session. Yours faithfully, (Signed) John A. Macdonald. LXV G. S. to Percy Bunting ' [afterwards Sir Percy Bunting). The Granoe, Tobonto, March 2 [undated]. My dear Bunting, You seem to be still occupied with your Irish question, and occupied with it you will be tUl you make it clear that incendiarism is a bad trade. I wish you would make haste, for you are building the frame of Agrarian Socialism all over the world, and the end, somewhere, will be social war. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. ' Editor of the Contemporary Review. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 9t LXVI G. S. to Percy Bunting. The Grange, Tobonto, December 19, 1880. My dear Bunting, I am glad you thought the article could hold water. You and Paton did me a service by youi judicious change of the title. Of the four topics which you do me the honour tc propose, the two I should like to take are Seeley's Expansion of England and Socialism. I will get about Seeley as soon as I can. I need not block the way against other writers on Socialism, because there is plenty to be said from different points of view. " Lives of Christ " is a topic which I have had for some time in my mind. Of course it is very difficult, but it is of the highest interest. I do not share your wonder at the omission of my name in the March ballot. In the first place, I am now as much a Canadian or American as an English- man : in the second place, a mere journalist has hardly a claim to rank among literary men. However, if 1 write the best articles I can and give my Editor as little trouble as I can, though I shall not have a place in Valhalla, I trust I shall escape condemnation. Yours very truly, GoLDWiN Smith. 1881 LXVII The Marquess of Lome {afterwards ninth Duke of Argyll) to G. S. Citadel, Qttebeo, June 8, 1881. Dear Professor Goldwin Smith, Many thanks for your most pleasant and in- teresting gift. Some of the Essays are old friends of 96 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH mine, and others will be companions in my mind now that you have allowed me to make their acquaintance. I have to thank you also for not discouraging the Academy ' project, and for telling me what you think are the difficulties. I hear that the Americans have already something of the kind. The management of the start may be puzzling, and I shall summon to my aid all the Scots caution I possess. The French Canadians are keen for it, and they must be assured of a fair share in the institution. The Arctic lumber village (of Ottawa) has at all events some advantages in central position and the absence of jealousy — an absence caused by its disadvantages — as a place of meeting, as compared with other towns. Believe me. Yours sincerely, (Signed) Losne. Professor Goldwin Smith- LXVIII [Private] The Marquess of Lome to G. S. Citadel, Qitkbeo, June 14, 1881. Dear Professor Goldwin Smith, I think the objections to an Academy arise much from misunderstandings of its object. I am much obliged to you for the suggestion of Quebec as an occasional place of meeting — a summer visit to Quebec might certainly be considered prefer- able to a winter visit to Ottawa. Clubs or Societies exist already. The best, perhaps, is here. What seems to me to be wanted is something "^ The proposed Royal Canadian Academy. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 97 more comprehensive. The Globe speaks to-day as if Canadians recognised their own men. At present they often do not : Frechette was never noticed until the French Academy put him on a pedestal in the eyes of his countrymen. The work of any such body as an Academy would be very definite — ^the examination and recognition of native writing. As to paucity of number, there are at least thirty good names. I shall probably have to ask your advice again, and in the meantime am going ahead. Believe me, Yours truly, (Signed) Loene. liXIX G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. 1, Cambbidoe Villas, Bboad Walk, Bttxtow, July 6, 1881. My dear Mrs. Hertz, We landed from our floating restaurant at Liverpool on Sunday, and have now taken lodgings at this place. Happily I shall find your family circle as I left it, or better. But after such absence there are sad gaps. How I shall miss RoUeston when I go to Oxford 1 What a tragic affair it has been ! It seems Mrs. RoUeston does not even now know that she is a widow. The first news I heard on landing was the shooting of Garfield. His death, which will ruin the fairest hopes of political reform, will be the direst of cala- mities. It will throw power back into the hands of the corrupt section of the Republican party, of which the Vice-President is a conspicuously evil member. The balance wavers, but seems to incline to the fatal 98 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH side. Social science, when it reigns, will not permit these accidents. I sincerely trust I shall find Bradford doing better. Kindest regards to your husband. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. LXX G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. Queen's Hotel, Richmond, September 8, 1881. My dear Mrs. Hertz, As to the Mastership of University College, I may say confidentially that overtures have been made to me ; but I have positively declined. My lot is cast in Canada. My mind is as thoroughly made up on that point as it is about Louisa. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. LXXI G. S. to John Cameron.^ 29, BEDroBD Sqttaee, Brighton, November 18, 1881. My dear Cameron, I have been thinking of writing to you for a long time, but there was nothing particular to say. You get all the news by cable, which anticipates or belies one's pen. The Liberal party has been a unit about the Irish arrests. The only exception, at least, is Cowen, a second Roebuck, full of eccentricity, egotism, and pique, whose merciful object it is to overthrow the * Editor, at various times, of the Toronto Globe and of the London (Ontario, Canada) Advertiser. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 99 Liberal Government, against which he has conceived some fantastic prejudice. He was a follower of Beaconsfield and a Jingo. The Government ' seems to me to be really stronger than ever. Some municipal and one or two Parlia- mentary elections have been lost by a coalition be- tween the Tories and the Fenians ; but these victories are worse than defeats to the Tories in the long run. The Liberal leaders have been very effective on the stump ; the Tory leaders have failed — Northcote from feebleness, Salisbury from violence. Had Salis- bury kept his temper and spoken strongly but calmly, he might have won his way to public confidence ; but his intemperate vituperation has had the reverse effect. He seems likely to be just the Tory leader that the Liberals could desire. In Ireland there will most likely be calm for a season, whUe the people are in the Land Court ; but this is not the end. A few years hence there will most likely be a fresh agitation about what remains of the rent. The landlords, with their reduced interest in the land, will be more aliens than ever. There is but one opinion about the neglect of Ireland by royalty. Even the men who wrote the defences to the press are known in private to have repressed the common sentiment. Poor royalty, however, believes its flatterers, and goes on shooting its pheasants and laying its first stones with perfect complacency while its Irish Crown is in danger. For nothing can be worse than the political feeling in Ireland. The one sentiment of the people is hatred of England. This, everybody thinks and says, might to a great extent have been prevented if the Wardens of the Crown had done their duty. When I first landed, the Protectionist movement appeared strong. It does not appear so now. The Tory leaders have flirted with it on the stump, but in so timid and hesitating a way that it is evident that, though willing to gain votes by it, they are not pre- ' Gladstone was in power. 100 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH pared seriously to take it up. Northcote almost killed it by calling it " a pious opinion." The artisans will not hear of a reimposition of the duties on food, and the farmers, on their side, will not hear of a re- imposition of the duties on anything else. Between the two conflicting interests no practical step towards Protectionism is likely to be taken. The improved prospects of trade are also reconciling the people to the existing fiscal policy. The question that has most occupied the minds of Liberals for some time past is the succession to the leadership. And this I think can hardly be urgent. I was at Hawarden the other day, and found the Pre- mier in the most vigorous health and in the highest spirits. He is the gayest and most animated of the party, does his work apparently with the greatest ease, takes long walks and at a good pace, shows in his hours and habits hardly a symptom of old age, talks with the utmost vivacity on all sorts of subjects, and seems the last to wish to go to bed. This load of care, with Ireland, the Transvaal, the East, and Egypt all at once upon his mind, must be heavy : yet it seems to sit lightly on him. Though emotional, he is buoyant, and probably his clear conscience and his strong religious feeling help him a good deal. When he does go, it is likely that there will be a Whig Ministry in which Lord Derby, the arch bell- wether of all safe men, will be a leading personage. However, a veil hangs over the immediate future. This place is full, and on every hand we see proofs that, in spite of foreign competition and commercial depression, the accumulated wealth of England is still enormous. She is the mortgagee of half the world. From what Adam ' tells me, it seems the Globe is making desperate efforts to recover its monopoly and crush the newly gained freedom of the Canadian press. Never mind, we will try to hold what we have won. When I get back my best help shall not be ' Graeme Mercer Adam, then G. S.'s private secretary. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 101 wanting, of that you may be sure. I have had various temptations here, but am resolved to return to Canada. We have received from you His Excellency the Marquess of Lome — a virtuous young person. He writes to me again about his Literary Institute. Thank goodness I shall not be there for the first meeting. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. LXXII Sir John A. Macdonald to G. S. Stadacona Hat.t., Ottawa, December 23, 1881. My DEAE Mr. Goldwin Smith, Sir Francis Hincks was in perfect accord with his colleagues when he resigned. He retired on account of ill health and advancing years. It is probable, too, that he had tempting business offers from Montreal — but this I don't know. He was defeated in 1872 when running for South Brant as Finance Minister, and took refuge in Van- couver — held office until February 22, 1873, and retired from public life on the dissolution of Parlia- ment on January 2, 1874. After his resignation he supported our Administra- tion in Parliament until the dissolution. He did not run for any constituency in 1874. So much for Hincks ! The convention and banquet at Toronto were really splendid gatherings, and will bear good fruit. You say I am investing heavily in Protection. True, and that stock is in such demand that Blake ' and the Globe are beginning to invest in it. As a Canadian I should be sorry to see England adopt > The Honble, Edwwd Blake. 102 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITI Fair Trade just now. By and by, when Canada Australia, and India are able to supply the deficienc] of England in food, a small duty on food-supply fron foreign sources might give the English market t( the Colonies. They, on the other hand, giving th< mother-country a preference by differential dutie against foreign manufactures. Until that happen I should like things to remain as they are. Ireland is certainly in a bad way, but not wors( than it has been several times in my recollection. The weakness thereby caused must hamper Eng land's foreign policy terribly. I quite agree wit! you that party government is at its worst in th( presence of a public danger like the present. Ho^ is the party system to be done away with ? Pray enlighten me, and I may try my hand at it. Believe me. Sincerely yours, (Signed) John A. Macdonald. 1882 LXXIII G. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. Bishop's Coubt, Manohestbb, January 24, 1882. My dear Mrs. Winkworth, I thank you very heartily for the kind feeling which prompted your letter. But what is the object ' — to save my reputation for religious tolerance, or t( do good to the Jews and help the solution of th( Jewish question ? I am content that my reputation for religiou tolerance should take care of itself. I have statec my principles in the Nineteenth Century ' with all th breadth and clearness that I can command. If you friends do not believe the statement to be sincere, I "The Jewish Question," October 1881- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 103 cannot help it. Probably they are strong Agnostics, who would fix the imputation of bigotry on me what- ever I might say. I do not think that any good can be done by joining in what has now become an attack on the Russian Government. That Government has a desperate problem on its hands, and is apparently trying to solve it in the only way which, if the Jews persist in their attitude and habits, can be effectual — by the separation of the races. I see no other mode of escape from these hideous conflicts. Set on foot a movement to give the Jews back their own country, and I will take part in it with all my heart. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. LXXIV G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. NoBTH Wbstebn Hotel, Livehpool, January 30, 1882. My dear Mrs. Hertz, We sail in the Gallia to-morrow, and I feel rather sentimental at taking leave of England and all my friends. You may be sure that I shall very often think of you and your household, both on my voyage and in my Canadian home. We shall correspond, I hope, though according to your philosophy we are not likely to meet again. I wish the Positivists could make haste and put a. new foundation under the national character in place of the religious one, which is being very rapidly withdrawn. The levity of the people, and their absorption in the pursuit of pleasure, are most dangerous features in the present situation. Less is thought of the Irish question than of the Australian cricketers. The men of the Commonwealth gave their minds to the great things. How lucky it was that when I looked in, quite by 104 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH chance, to take leave, I should have found you all together ! The visit to Claremont ' was pleasant and amusing. The bride is a very bright and simple little German woman. It was pretty to see her making tea for the party. I should think it a happy marriage — emin- ently so, for royalty. It was curious to find the little couple with their little Court in the monumental palace of Clive's fierce ambition, and the scene of his last tragical days. The floor of the vast drawing-room is still covered with a superb carpet which was given him by an Indian prince, and for which it is said he commanded the drawing-room to be built. His arms moulder over the portico. The present possessor was thinking of taking them down. I prayed that they might stand. Once more a warm farewell. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. LXXV The third Earl Grey {Colonial Secretary from 1846 to 1852) to G. S. HOWIOK, March 1882. My dear Sir, You may perhaps remember that so long [ago] as the year 1858 I had some correspondence with you as to the measures it would at that time have been desirable to take for improving the con- stitution of both Houses of Parliament. Having lately read your article * in the Nineteenth Century for January, I have referred to that correspondence, and I am induced in consequence to ask your con- sideration for some remarks on the views you have * Claremont was the seat of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. He was married to the present Duchess on April 27, 1882 — about two months before this letter was written. ' On "The Machinery of Elective Government." CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 105 now expressed as to what would be the best mode of organising representative government. In all that you say in the earlier part of your article, with respect to the abuses of party govern- ment, and the evils which these abuses in different forms are now producing in various nations, and especially in our own and in the United States, I most heartily concur. I believe that the dangers to which this country more especially is now exposed from this cause, are even greater than you seem to consider them. But while I agree with you to this extent, I must confess that I widely differ from you as to the arrangements you suggest for the purpose of creating a better system of representative government than is at present to be found anywhere. Within the limits of an article for a review, it would not have been possible for you fully to explain the mode of constituting a representative government which you recommend, and it is therefore probable that I may have failed to understand your views correctly upon some points ; but I hope I have rightly apprehended the general nature of your plan, and if so I think it is open to grave objections. You suggest that the government of the country should be entrusted to an Executive Council elected by the members of the Legislature. The members of this Council, if I rightly understand you, would be elected for a fixed time, and the terms for which they would hold office would be so arranged that the Executive Council would be renewed by " instalments," which you think would keep it in sufficient harmony with the Legisla- ture. You say that in this manner each of the two bodies " would be set free to perform its proper functions. The Legislature would no longer be ham- pered by the fear of overturning the Executive; the Executive would be stable, and would discharge the duties of administration and police steadily, and without fear about its own existence." In pro- posing this scheme, you seem to me to have overlooked the fact that the good government of a great nation 106 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMIT] requires that there should be complete unity c purpose and co-operation between the Executiv Government and the Legislature ; and also betwee the several departments of the Executive Govemmeni The theory, formerly maintained by most politicj writers, that the executive and legislative powers i the State should be kept distinct, and should wor independently of each other, I hold to have bee altogether a mistake, and to have been disproved b experience. In quiet times such a division of pow« may exist without serious inconvenience, but whei ever difficulties or dangers arise, it becomes absolute! necessary that the Executive Government should 1: able to rely on the full support and co-operation ( the Legislature. It must depend upon the Legisli ture (as we see at this moment with regard to Irelanc for the exceptional authority which is from time t time necessary for the maintenance of order, as we as for the power of raising money and increasing tl Army and Navy in times of war. The Legislatui must, in like manner, be able to rely on the cordii support of the Executive Government to give effe( to the measures it may pass. In short, the san views and the same spirit must guide the action « the Legislature and of the executive authority, i order that a nation may be well and vigorous] governed. So also it is necessary that there shou be unity of purpose and harmonious co-operatic among the several departments of the Executi^ Government. It would not do to have the Chancell of the Exchequer refusing the money required fi the proper maintenance of the Army and Navy, order to have the credit of bringing forward a popul budget ; nor could it be allowed that the first Loi of the Admiralty or the Secretary for War shou insist upon adding to the strength of the services th( control, without due regard to the wants of oth departments, and to the state of the finances. T. whole complicated machine of government can on be made to work well if every branch of it is guid' CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 107 by the same spirit. There is another consideration which must not be lost sight of. When several men have each a share in carrying on a government, all experience shows that they will often quarrel as to the share of power each shall exercise. The Roman Triumvirs, when they had destroyed the rival faction, soon quarrelled among themselves, and in our own country we are no strangers to the effects of divisions in the Cabinet, especially when there is not a strong man at its head. Administrations are now kept together, and the several departments are made to co-operate as they ought (though even now this is not always accomplished, and there has not un- frequently been good ground for complaining of a Government for being too departmental in its char- acter), by the influence of the Prime Minister, and by the rule that any Minister who cannot act with his colleagues must resign. But what means would exist of securing the hearty co-operation of Ministers each elected independently of the rest, and holding his office for a fixed term ? I hold the present arrangement to rest on a sound principle, and that it is right that the government should be entrusted to Ministers who can command the support of the House of Commons, and who hold power only so long as they enjoy its confidence. I believe, too, that we are likely to have better ad- ministrations, under the existing system of nominating the Ministers, than we should if they were all elected by the House of Commons. It does now virtually choose the Prime Minister, since no man who cannot get the House to follow him can undertake the task of forming an administration. The Sovereign, indeed, decides in the first instance to whom the duty is to be assigned, but this choice is of no avail unless ratified by the House. The Prime Minister thus selected will for his own sake try to form the best administration he can, and to make the best arrange- ment that circumstances will permit in order to reconcile the jarring pretensions of different cand,i- 108 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMIl dates for office with each other, and with the war of the pubUc service. This difficult task could n be nearly so well performed by the House of Coi mons, and if all the appointments were to be direct filled by its election, a field would be opened for eve kind of mischievous intrigue. Great advantage also results from the rule th Ministers shall hold power only so long as they ha' the confidence of the House of Commons, not only being the only mode yet hit upon of effectually pr venting any conflict between the two authoritie but also from its averting the inconvenience thi arises from the inevitable weakening of the hands < those to whom the powers of government are cor mitted for a fixed term, when the time for giving the: up draws near. The President of the United Stati loses much of his proper authority during the last yes of his presidency, and towards its close he can do litt more than carry on the mere routine business of tl Government. As a general rule an English admini tration can act with full authority till it becom( necessary for it to retire, and then a new one usual! takes its place in a few days. It is in my opinio a great merit of the system of government that gre up in this country after the revolution of 1688, thf it thus provides for the easy and orderly transfer ( power to new hands whenever the state of affai: and of opinion makes such a change desirable. For these reasons I hold strongly to the opinio that, in principle, our system of government has bee a good one, and that the evils from which it he never been free, which have now become almos intolerable, and which I recognise as completely s yourself, do not arise from any fundamental fault in the system, but from the conditions under whic it has been heretofore, and is now, applied. Bot before the passing of the Reform Act of 1832 an since, there have been defects in the constitution c the H. of C. which, though not the same in th two periods, sufficiently account for the fact that i CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 109 both there has undoubtedly been much amiss in the working of our government, though, as com- pared with the various forms of government that have existed elsewhere, it must be regarded as having proved highly successful on the whole, at least up to very recent days. Unfortunately there has now been a great change for the worse, and the evils under which the country is suffering, and which you have so well described, seem to me to have risen to such a height as to make it a matter of extreme urgency that some remedy should be found for them. But I do not think that such a remedy should be sought in a change in the principle of our government, or that it would be possible, even if it were desirable, to get rid altogether of the influence of party in carrying it on. Ambition is so natural to mankind, and the love of power is so strong a passion, that con- tests for power have never ceased to be carried on among men imder every form of government, in all countries, and in all stages of civilisation. They may be carried on by plots and murder, as in the despotisms of the East ; by Court intrigues, as in the milder despotisms of Europe in the last century ; by civil wars, as in our own country in feudal times ; or by strife in Parliament and on the hustings : but in some shape or other the same contests will always be carried on. Nor can it be doubted that, with all the evils they produce, they answer an important purpose in human society as constituted by divine wisdom, and form a necessary part of its wonderful mechanism, which, taking the world as a whole, is working a gradual improvement in the condition of mankind, not less surely and constantly because the progress made is slow, and hindered by many partial interruptions. The struggle for power will, therefore, I am convinced, always go on, and in countries which have free institutions it will of neces- sity take the form of party contests. Hence it seems to be wiser not to attempt to prevent such contests, but to recognise the fact that they must exist, and to no CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMIT] endeavour, as far as may be practicable, to avert c to mitigate the evils with which they are common! attended. Looking at the subject in this way, it appears t me that the unsatisfactory working of our goverr ment at the present time is to be attributed to fauH in the actual constitution of the H. of C, to the coi rection of which judicious lovers of their countr ought to direct their efforts, and that these fault may be classed under two heads. In the first plac( the system of election is not favourable to the choic of the best members for the H. of C. that might b found, or to their right discharge of their duties whe: elected ; and secondly. Ministers do not possess enoug authority in that House, or hold a sufficiently stabl position, for the successful working of Parliamentar government. When we consider how difficult a tasj is imposed on the H. of C. in having not only t( legislate for this great Empire, with its vast and com plicated interests, but also to superintend and con trol the Executive Government, we must feel ho^ truly you have said that " the first thing necessar; is to have the wisest men in the country in tha assembly which represents the will of the nation.' It can hardly be asserted that the H. of C. at an] time quite came up to this idea of what it ought t( be, still I think it must be admitted that till lateh this famous assembly deserved the high character i bore in the world, and was remarkable for the politiea knowledge, the ability, and the judgment possesse( by a large proportion of its members. Unfortunately it is but too clear that it has undergone a great chang( for the worse ; the members now returned to Parlia ment are as a rule far below their predecessors in thi most important qualifications for their high position and they are also placed in a situation far less favour able to their right performance of its duties. Th( fact that elections, in the boroughs at least, are, ai you have shown, falling more and more under th( dominion of " stump orators " and of " wire CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLD WIN SMITH 111 pullers," explains why it is that we have now so few of the " wisest men " of the nation in the H. of C, and so large a proportion of those who are most un- scrupulous in appealing to the passions, the prejudices, and the selfish interest of the most ignorant of the population. A sad deterioration has thus taken place in the average fitness for the trust confided to them of the members now returned to Parliament as compared to those who were elected to the Parlia- ments of even a few years ago. And, at the same time, members of Parliament are now, as I have said, placed in a situation far less favourable than formerly to the right performance of their duties. As has been admirably shown by Burke in his well-known speech at Bristol, the H. of C. ought to be a really deliberative assembly ; and it used to be so. By means of its debates, argument and reason exercised a powerful influence over its proceedings, and over the course of the Government. I do not mean to say that except in exceedingly rare cases the debate on any particular question affected the vote of the House upon it, but it was nevertheless found to be practically difficult, if not impossible, for a Government long to keep its majority together if it was habitually worsted in debate. The debates also exercised great influence over the opinions of members, and though they did not often go so far as to vote in a division against a Minister whom they generally supported because they disapproved of some part of his con- duct, yet the most powerful Minister was made to feel that he could not safely refuse attention to the prevailing opinion of his followers. There was also comparatively little interference on the part of their constituents with the free exercise by members of their independent judgment on the questions brought before them. Thus, up to a very recent time, the H. of C. preserved its character as a really deliberative assembly. The change to what we now see is very striking. A large proportion of the members of the House have now been brought under the control of 112 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITI local " caucuses," and these in their turn submit t( be guided by such a body as the National Libera Federation. We have lately begun to understanc how fast members of Parliament are being reducec to the condition of being the mere puppets of bodies of this kind, and how little they dare to act on theij own judgment. I am at a loss to understand how it is possible that under this system the H. of C. can be an instru- ment for securing to the nation the inestimable advantage of being wisely governed. And its fitness for this purpose is still further impaired by the second fault I have mentioned as existing in its present constitution — ^namely, that the Ministers of the Crown do not possess enough authority in it, or hold a sufficiently stable position for the good working of Parliamentary government. The Minis- ters for the time being have, indeed, only too much power in Parliament so long as they are acting as the instruments of their party to carry through it any measures, however objectionable, which the party has taken up. When so acting, they are able to discourage, and generally to put down, all attempts of the more moderate and judicious of their followers to give free expression to their real opinions ; but though in this way popular Ministers can exercise a real tyranny, they have not authority enough to ensure their obtaining effective support in following their own deliberate judgment on matters as to which no party feeling has been excited, nor is their position sufficiently stable to enable them, in the performance of their administrative and executive duties, to pursue with steadiness the policy they believe to be the best. They are placed under an almost irresistible temptation to study popularity rather than the true interests of the nation, in what they do both in and out of Parliament, because their holding their positions now depends upon the fluctuating impulses of the uninstructed multitudes, instead of upon the opinion of the more educated CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 118 classes, and of that of a H, of C. in which well in- formed and independent members exercised a pre- dominating influence. The effect of this state of things has been of late displayed in sudden and violent transfers of power in the H. of C. from one party to another, with corresponding changes in the policy of the nation. It has been shown, still more to the injury of the coimtry, in the use which each party has in turn made of its power while its ascen- dancy has lasted and in the spirit that has prevailed in the conduct of public affairs. The most serious of the evils you have described as arising from party government may be accounted for by the fact that, partly owing to the tendency of representative bodies to split into a number of parties, partly to other causes, administrations now possess so little strength independently of their temporary popularity, that, in order to maintain their position, they are almost compelled to seek by all possible means the favour of the multitudes. If office of itself con- ferred upon Ministers (as it used to do when they had the real support of the Crown) such a position in Parliament as to make them feel themselves secure from being overthrown unless the weight of true public opinion should be tm-ned decidedly against them, we should get rid of the chief cause of that misuse of power we have now so often to deplore. The evil I have endeavoured to describe is one that has grown up in our own time and is still increasing. I do not believe that it would be possible in the present state of the H. of C. for any Minister to be main- tained in office for ten years while governing the country as well as it was upon the whole governed by Pitt up to the time when he was induced to plunge the nation into the great war of the French Revolution. Still less do I believe that it would have been possible to have carried through such a H. of C. as we now have the very important and useful acts which were passed in the first six or seven years after Parliament was reformed in 1882. 8 114 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITI A remedy for these evils can only, I am persuadec be foimd in very extensive and well-considered change in the constitution of the H. of C. Such change and such a real reform as is needed it would be fa more difficult to accomplish now than it would hav been before the so-called Reform Act of 1867 ws passed. Still I do not believe it would be impossibl to do this without attempting an impracticabl recall of concessions then made to the spirit c democracy. I see no reason for altogether abandor ing the hope that, without narrowing the franchise means might be found for raising the character c the H. of C. Various changes in the mode of electin it have been suggested with this view by differen persons, and in the essay on Parliamentary Govern ment which I published in 1864, 1 have myself pointei out some which I still believe might be adopted wit advantage. But I do not wish now to discuss an; of these schemes. What I desire to urge is th extreme importance of having the principle distinct! laid down that the object to be aimed at, in an; further constitutional changes, is to render the B of C. a more efficient instrument than it is for th good government of the country. If this principl were recognised it seems to me that it must toUov as a necessary consequence, that before any nei scheme of reform is adopted, a careful inquiry ough to be instituted, by some competent and trustworth authority, as to what are the real faults of the Hous of Commons and as to how they could best be correctec The difficulty of the subject, the importance of ha via it considered without party spirit, and the dee interest the nation has in a right decision bein come to, all point to the expediency of this course. In 1858 you concurred with me in advocating a inquiry of this kind, but unfortunately the proposi met with no support. Possibly it might be receive with more favour now, and the certainty that th franchise in counties must soon be assimilated t that of the boroughs affords a strong reason for il CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 115 adoption. The obvious deterioration in the char- acter of the H. of C. which we have so much cause to lament has, I think, been mainly produced by the unfortunate lowering of the borough franchise in 1867, and if an Act were now passed simply ex- tending the present borough franchise to counties, without introducing any other change, I cannot doubt that the fitness of the H. of C. for the efficient performance of its duties must undergo a further and serious diminution. At the same time, I am well aware that the right of voting cannot be with- drawn from those to whom it has once been given, and also that to maintain for any length of time a difference in the qualifications for voting in towns and in counties is impossible. But it does not follow that the qualifications for voting now existing in boroughs ought to be adhered to, and there are good reasons for revising the law now in force on the subject. It has been shown, by a recent decision of the courts of law, that the legal effect of the Act which now regulates the right of voting in boroughs is very different from what it was intended to be, and wUl, if this interpretation should be maintained, extend the right of voting far more widely than was contemplated by Parliament. The right also is so ill defined as to lead to great doubt as to the claims to it in many cases, and to cause much trouble and expense in annually making out the register of voters. Hence it is at least worth considering whether a new and simpler test of the right of voting might not be substituted for the existing one, so as to get rid of the complicated and difficult questions which now arise as to who are and who are not entitled to be put upon the register as householders or as lodgers. Mr. Mill long ago recommended that the ancient principle, of making the right to vote in the election of repre- sentatives depend upon the payment of taxes, should be reverted to. And it has since been suggested by some one else (though I cannot recollect by whom) 116 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMIT] that this might be conveniently done by makin the income tax permanent and extending it to a persons who have any income, whether from wage or from any other source. If I remember rightly it was part of the proposal that, while the rate c tax payable out of wages should always be lowe than that charged on other incomes, it should ris and fall with the latter so as to give the labourin class an interest in public economy. And to obviat the hardship which might otherwise be inflicted o the poorest labourers, provision might be made fc their obtaining the remission of the tax on thai own application, losing, of course, the right to vot when they did so. This would deprive no man o the franchise he now enjoys if he chose to retain i subject to the slight burthen it would entail upo: him, and yet it would practically exclude from th right of voting many of those who are least capabi of using it with advantage. It would be what yoi recommend, " a sifting process," which would b " one of self-disfranchisement by refusal of equit able conditions rather than one of disfranchisemen by exclusive legislation." A further and mos important advantage would arise from the adoptioi of a franchise of this kind, inasmuch as it would d away with any need for making out every year i register of voters. Great expense and trouble ar now annually incurred in forming the register, and what is worse, the process of settling it necessaril; tends to keep up party spirit and to increase th pernicious influence of those knots of men on botl sides who seek to get the management of election into their hands. If the list of those who have pai income tax was also the list of voters, these evi] would be avoided. Without venturing to express a decided opinio in favour of the qualification for voting I have noi described, I have no hesitation in saying that at a events it is necessary, before the franchise is mad the same in counties and in boroughs, to inquii CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 117 carefully what would be the best and simplest test of the right of voting that could be ad6pted. And, for the reasons I have already given, I think the inquiry should go farther, and should embrace the whole subject of the constitution of the H. of C. The two questions, in addition to that relating to the franchise, to which attention should be more particularly directed, are those as to the manner in which the right of returning members to Parlia- ment should be distributed among different consti- tuencies, and as to the mode in which elections ought to be conducted. In seeking for a solution of these questions the object to be aimed at ought to be to improve the H. of C. by bringing into it men of generally higher qualifications than those of whom it is now composed, by placing its members, when elected, in a position more favourable to their inde- pendence, and by increasing the legitimate authority of the Ministers of the Crown. That improved, I am convinced that the H. of C. might retain with great advantage the powers it has so long exercised, and would become a more efficient instrument for the good government of the country than could be found if we were to abandon the principle of Parlia- mentary government in order to adopt some new arrangement in its place. To this most desirable result there is fair ground for hoping that we might arrive by a well-conducted inquiry, as a preliminary to any further constitutional changes ; and on the other hand, if the nation is allowed again to drift into fresh changes without any such inquiry, it is scarcely possible that it should escape from a further degradation of its government, with all the terrible evils which must flow from it. I am very faithfiilly yours, Gkey. Professor Goldwin Smith. 118 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMIT] LXXVI G. S. to Percy Bunting. HStEL CONTINmNTAI,, Pabis, April 6, 1882. Dear Mr. Bunting, On Wednesday next I go to Oxford, where stay till I leave England. I hope while at Oxford to throw some thought into the form of a paper which may perhaps h entitled " Christendom." The paper will hardly b ready for the June number, but perhaps in you July number you will kindly try to reserve a plac for me, if the paper turns out worthy of publicatioi It is strange to see with what violence the tw opposing currents — ^the Clerical and the Anti-Cleric£ — ^are running here. What will be the end of it I trust not the complete reversion of the France c St. Louis, Pascal, and Fenelon into the image of sensual and corrupt atheist like Gambetta. I foun yesterday, in my walk, a Bibliotheque Anti-CUricale Between the stuff it contained and that which on finds at a clerical bookseller's, it would be difficul to choose. Let us hope that neither alternative wi be pressed upon us. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. Lxxvn The (third) Earl Grey to G. S. HOWIOK, LeSBTIBY, NOBTHtrMBKBI/AlfD, April 25, 1882. My dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for your letter of tl 22nd, which has only reached me this morning. 1 Probably it waa hero that G. S. bought a oomio illustrated V de Jetut — very coarse indeed. — Ed. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 119 I had observed the account of the proceedings in Canada, and had guessed that the explanation of it must be that which you give. I had likewise seen Lord Salisbury's strange sayings about public nxeetings, as to which I think as you do. I was not surprised by what he said on this subject, or on that of encouraging peasant proprietorship in Ireland (which I think not less ill advised), because, in spite of his undoubtedly great ability, I do not think there is any statesman of our times (except one) who has shown a greater want of sound judgment on almost every subject. This question of peasant proprietorship is, I think, a very serious one — did you h^pen to see an article upon it in the St. James's Gazette of Monday the 17th ? It was a very able one — ^far above the usual level of newspaper articles, and very strong against the popular notions on this subject, though the writer had obviously softened what he had to say, not to bear too hard upon Lord Salisbury. As to having any public authority of a semi-judicial character to interfere on the question of rents — I adhere still to the opinion expressed on the subject by Gladstone in 1870, when he urged very powerfully, and I think unanswerably, against the scheme he proposed in 1881. Burke, too, in his Thoughts upon Scarcity, has some very good reasoning against any interference by authority with the bargains made between farmers and labourers, and this reasoning applies quite as strongly against interference between landlords and tenants. But I have been led away from the main subject of your letter. I can hardly be said to be against you on the subject of party government, for I most cordially agree in all you have said against the very great evils it is now producing, as it at present exists, here and elsewhere. The mischief it is doing can hardly be exaggerated. Where I differ from you is as to the possibility of getting rid of party govern- ment, if you have free government at all — and with all its evils who can doubt that free government is 120 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITl better than despotism ? Party so inevitably arise from the nature of mankind, that I am not awar that there was ever any free government, in aneien or modern times, which has not suffered from part spirit, which has been the ruin of so many States All that can be done is so to organise free govern ments as to avert as far as possible the perils tha arise from party. I do not believe, for the reason I stated in my former letter, that this could be accom plished in the manner you suggested in the Nine teenth Century. What is wanted is, as I still believe, t( contrive some mode by which the legislative assembl; which, in fact, governs the country should represen chiefly the opinion of the most intelligent classe without excluding the more popular feelings of thi day from the means of making themselves heard It is the deterioration of the H. of C. which in m) opinion has produced so terrible a deterioration ii our government of late years, and this deterioratioi I attribute mainly to the extension of the franchisi in 1866, and to the subsequent adoption of the systen of ballot — ballot I am inclined to believe has don( even more harm than extension of the franchise, look forward to being able some day to discuss thii subject in an article in the Nineteenth Century, follow ing up a good deal the same lines that I have taken ii my essay on Parliamentary Government, publishec in 1864. But at present I am entirely taken up witl an article on Ireland, for which Mr. Knowles has under taken to find room in his number for June. Yours very faithfully, Grey. LXXVIII G. S. to Professor Tyndall. 26, St. OrLES Street, Oxtobd, April 26, 1882. My dear Tyndall, My wife at once took possession of your lette and put it into a book with others, to which we shal CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 121 often turn when we are divided from their writers by the Atlantic. I know that, like a large-minded man, you are tolerant of my notions about religion, and give me credit for being loyal to science, though I cling to the belief that things will work out in a different way from what some men of science think. I can truly say that when I was concerned in University affairs I always did my best to give science its due place in our system of education, as well as to abolish all religious tests and remove all barriers against perfect freedom of thought. I am heartily convinced, and try always to act on the conviction, that there is no salvation for us but in thorough-going adherence to truth. I am very glad you like what I have said about Ireland. Professors are always regarded as the type of everything that is unpractical. Yet I doubt whether 650 professors could have got either the Bradlaugh question or the Irish question into the mess into which both have been got by the 650 men of the world who sit in the House of Commons. Look at them now I Instead of doing their plain duty by enforcing the law in Ireland against murderers and marauders, they are vying with each other in a parade of sympathy for suspects, which are mere bids for the Irish vote. This is a party (Government, out of which, I more and more think, nations will have to find their way into something of a different kind if they do not wish to deliver themselves over to a progressive domina- tion of scoundrels. Stump oratory, too, is playing its beneficent part. In that game the Irishman is sure to have the best of it. Gladstone ought never to bandy words with those men. I thought Forster's soft-sawdering at TuUamore a mistake, though I did not dare to say so, as all the world applauded. If Parliament could show itself resolved, the 122 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH danger would be at an end. If it shrinks from its duty, its troubles will increase. You see what the Canadian Parliament has been doing. Those fellows are the veriest flunkies on earth ; they are always spouting loyalty and scrambling for small titles and all the crumbs that fall to them from the table of aristocracy. If you had put down the rebellion with vigour they would have cried Hallelujah ! But, seeing you so weak, they think it their best game to give you a stab in the back and thus capture for themselves the Irish vote, their hunger for which is whetted by the near prospect of a General Election. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. LXXIX [Private] Edward Gibson, M.P., afterwards Lord Ashbourne {late Lord Chancellor of Ireland) to G. S. 63, Wabwiok; Squabb, S.W., May 13, 1882, My dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, Many thanks for both your letters, which I was glad to receive. The Government Bill,' as stated, may be very useful, if it is administered with steadiness and nerve. The delay in circulating it in its complete form is open to observation, and when we have it in print it will be closely scanned to see if its provisions have been at all watered down for " conciliation " purposes. The suspension of trial by jury is necessary to lessen the existing impunity for agrarian crimes. The judges will, however, be most reluctant to accept their new proposed office, which is one attended by unpopu- 1 Probably the new Prevention of Crimes Act for Ireland, brought in by Sir W. Harcourt on May 11. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 123 larity and danger. Past experience will lead them to understand that, for each conviction by them, they will be reviled and assailed and threatened — and probably, having run this gauntlet for some time, they may then find that Mr. Gladstone recognises that the voice of Irish opinion indicates that the Irish Bench should be thoroughly " reorganised," and thus they may find that they have first incurred odium — and been rewarded by desertion and betrayal. The recent changes and vacillations have had a terribly demoralising effect all round. " The people " think that they will soon be let do what they like ; and the official and loyal classes do not know that they may not soon find themselves under the control of the mob. The new Bill may restore confidence, and ultimately law and order, and I believe that its mere introduction has already been attended by some good. Failing the Irish judges sitting alone, it is not easy off-hand to suggest the proper tribunal for trying disloyal and agrarian offences. A drastic power of changing the [? venue to] England has been suggested, and if conceded, the mere fact of its existence would be a real terror to evil-doers. No innocent man would object to being tried before an English judge and jury. It would be a less change in our methods than the abolition of the jury element altogether. I would willingly consider your idea of " a Court of trust- worthy laymen presided over by a judge," if I thought that such tribtmals could be readily constituted in Ireland. " The trustworthy laymen " would, how- ever, be jurors after all, under a different name, exposed to all the trials of terrorism and intrigue — even if free from sympathy for the crime they were investigating. I hope to see you when you are next in London. Most truly yours, (Signed) Ed. Gibson. Professor Goldwin Smith. 124 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH LXXX G. S. to Percy Bunting. 26, St. Giles Stbbbt, Oxford, May 17 [1882]. Dear Mb. Bunting, I enclose the receipt for your kind remittance. The Government, as you say, seems to have at last resolved on measures of some vigour — but every- thing will depend on the execution. A severe strain, I am afraid, will be laid on the nerve of the judges,^ who will remain personally ex- posed to odium, and perhaps to vengeance. A tri- bunal of laymen selected from the three kingdoms, with a judge presiding, would probably have been more fearless. But if I were a member of Parliament, I should, like one who writes to me on the subject, be content, rather than have any further discussion or delay, to declare for the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill. To sway the respectable classes thoroughly on the side of government, government must show itself thoroughly worthy of their support. Surely no civilised community ought to hesitate to try, at least, to make its criminal law operative and protect the lives and property of its citizens. If you cannot do this you had much better let Ireland go. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. 1 He probably refers to the trial of the nurderers of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke, who were killed in Fhcenix Park eleven days before this letter was written. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 125 LXXXI G. S. to {the third) Earl Grey. 26, St. Gilbs Sthbet, Oxtokd, May 30, 1882. Dear Lord Grey, I need not say that I have read with interest your paper on Ireland in the Nineteenth Century. I fear there is not much to be said on the other side. The only answer which the Times has to make is that it could not have been helped, which is merely a begging of the question at issue. Circumstances have certainly made the property of the Irish landlords as difficult to defend as property can well be. This perhaps is the best excuse for the Government. Whether the imprisonment of the suspects was politic or not, I cannot share your pity for their sufferings. It appears to me that every Terrorist ought to be held responsible for every crime of the Terror, and that society will have ultimately to deal with Terrorism on this principle. Those who suffered a short imprisonment might justly have been hanged. The tendency of all this land legislation is to fix on the soil a set of people whose only chance of im- proving their miserable condition, as in the case of the Sutherland Highlanders, is removal to a new country. Ireland is very poor, and is being made poorer every day by competition with American products. Eviction is the hand of nature, though harsh in its immediate operation, and my Land Act would have been a law requiring the landlords to help all the persons whom they evicted to emigrate to the other side of the Atlantic. In this there would have been nothing unjust. A landlord has hardly aright to clear his estate at the expense of the community at large. l26 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH The Government has now brought in a measure of vigour, though I cannot help thinking that, if such a course were practicable, a year or two of military rule carried out by a firm but humane hand would be more effective and less subversive of con- stitutional principle than these alterations of the criminal law. The situation, as I read it, is one of quasi-rebellion and quasi-invasion, and as such warrants military rule, though not any unnecessary severity. I cannot regard the Arrears Bill as anything but blackmail paid to Terrorism, and the result of paying blackmail, from the times of Danegeld downwards, is well known. The Arrears Bill wUl probably impair the force of the Coercion Bill, while the Coercion Bill will destroy the soothing effect of the Arrears Bill. The state of Ireland, however, serious as it is, seems to me almost a light matter compared with the state of the House of Commons which is now the supreme Government of the country. Parliament appears to be rudderless, waterlogged, and unable to do the business of the nation. At this crisis it wastes night after night in aimless babble or worse than aim- less altercation. Nor is there any apparent remedy. The personal resignation of the Prime Minister, for which some people are calling, would perhaps relieve the strain of the situation by setting at rest the bitter animosities of which he is personally the object ; but on the other hand, Mr. Gladstone's control over the majority is the only remnant of responsible authority now left in the country. A Dissolution would probably rid us of some of the sympathisers with Irish insurrection on the Minis- terial side, and increase the force of resistance to Irish aggression ; but in a change of party Govern- ment there is little hope, for no demagogue scrambling out of the gutter into place could possibly behave worse than the Marquess of Salisbury. If a man of power, and tolerably clear of narrow party connexions, would present himself in the interest of the nation, he would no doubt be followed, though I must confess CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 12?' that the moral sinew of the community does not appear to me very strong, and among the masses now invested with political power there appears to be a good deal of indifference, to say the least, with regard to the prevalence of lawless agrarianism in Ireland. Unluckily such men do not start out of the crowd whenever society stands in need of them ; nor sup- posing the deliverer to exist, is it easy to see how he could get upon the scene of action, which after all is the House of Commons. To me the situation seems disastrous, and when one considers the sudden collapse of these august institutions, almost tragical. To Mr. Hutton, of the Spectator, it appears happy and glorious. According to him the Government, by an unexampled com- bination of statesmanlike qualities, is conducting a social revolution equal in magnitude to that of France in the last century, but without any of its bad features, and especially without the burning of chateaux. I suppose he deems the condition of the House of Commons the completion of the public felicity. Such a fancy literally resembles the dreams of lunacy. Yet I wish it may be confined to the brain or the columns of the Editor of the Spectator. I do not know what right I, a mere sojourner here, have to concern myself about the matter. I can only say, with the Man in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," An exile from Northumberlaad, la Liddesdale I've wandered long, But still my heart was with Merry England And could not brook to see her wrong. In a few weeks I shall have said farewell to " Merry England " for the last time. I wish I were leaving her in a state more in accordance with her poetical designation. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith 128 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH LXXXII G. S. to W. D. Le Sueur.' 26, St. Giles Stbeet, Oxpobd, June 2, 1882. My dear Le Sueur, . . . Sir John ' is disappointing. He knows what is right, and is not without a wish to do it, though perhaps the parent of the wish is rather a desire to earn golden opinions than a Stoical love of right. But he cannot resist the solicitations of partisans, except perhaps in the case of judicial appointments, in regard to which his best sentiment is peculiarly romantic. I hope soon to see you again, for we are to be at home about the middle of next month. I leave England in a pretty pickle. The Irish question, though bad enough, is not the worst of it ; the worst is the disorganisation of the House of Commons, which is utterly deplorable, and for which there is no apparent remedy. It is truly tragical to see the sudden collapse of these famous institutions. In Ireland everybody says the outrages are a faint idea of the moral and social country. There is something more to be said about the Spencerian theory of morals. If a woman suckling a child is the most perfect instance of human morality, what are we to say of a sow suckling a litter of ten pigs? Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. ' A well-known Canadian writer. ' Sir John A. Maodonald, Prime Minister of Canada. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 129 Lxxxin The {third) Earl Grey to G. S. WOOLBBDIKO, MiDmTBST, June 5, 1882. My dear Sir, I should have written sooner to thank you for your letter of the 30th of May, had it not been that there was some delay in its reaching me, and that since travelling, and visits I have been paying, have left little time at my disposal. I am glad to hear that you were interested by my article on Ireland, and I am also glad to find by what you say that there seems to be really very little difference between your opinion and my own on the subject. I certainly do not differ from you by feeling any pity for Mr. Parnell and his friends ; on the contrary, I wish that after a fair trial they had been much more severely punished for what I think their great wickedness in encouraging the disorders of Ireland. What I regret is that the manner of dealing with them has had the effect both of preventing their punishment from being as useful as it ought to have been, and also of creating a very bad precedent. I do not like to see injustice committed even against men I regard as criminals. As to the folly and impolicy of assisting the petty occupiers of the West of Ireland to cling to their small holdings, I do not see how there can be two opinions ; but if I understand you rightly, you would wish for the adoption of more decided measures than I think would be advisable to remove these people or diminish their number. I consider it highly desirable that there should be a great change in the existing mode of occupying land in that part of Ireland, but in this, as in other cases, I am persuaded that the State should not actively interfere to accom- plish such a change, but should leave it to be gradu- ally brought about by those economic laws which, if 9 130 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH they are left to their natural operation, would effect the desired improvement more certainly and more safely than any measures which Government or Parlia- ment could adopt. The high rents which Mr. Gladstone seeks to prevent from being demanded by landlords by arbitrary enactments are the natural result of the deficiency of land to meet the wants of the population under the present system of management, and are the means by which the people are driven either to increase the productiveness of the soil by better cultivation or to leave it for other occupations. Before the Land Act of 1870, improvement was going on in both these ways — the very small holdings were being gradually consoli- dated, and new branches of industry were beginning to arise. The process was going on as fast as it could with real advantage, for it is only as a new generation comes up, fitted for a better state of society, that the evils of the existing one can be got rid of, and nothing but mischief is done by impatient attempts to force on changes too rapidly. If the real defects of the Land Act of 1860 had been corrected in the manner I have pointed out in my article, and if at the same time really firm and judicious measures had been taken for maintaining order and security, all that the State can do for the improvement of the country would have been accomplished. Any artificial stimulus to emigration, and any attempt to compel the landlords to assist their tenants to emigrate, I think would have been unwise in 1870, and would be equally unwise now. Under the pressiu-e of an advancing price of land, emigration was going on fast enough, and having had occasion, when I was Secretary for the Colonies during the famine of 1847, to consider this question very carefully, I found ample evidence to satisfy myself and those who were then my colleagues that any attempt to give direct assistance from the State to emigrate would have retarded instead of pro- moting the tide of emigration, and would have CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 131 done much harm instead of good. We came to the conclusion that all that it was expedient to do was to take precautions against abuses, and to regulate the mode of conducting voluntary emigration with that view. This was the policy on which we acted, and I think I could show you that it was completely successful. I think the same policy should now be acted upon, and that nothing should be done to give an artificial stimulus to emigration. As far as it is wanted it will go on if left to itself, but I am persuaded that the need for it is far less than is generally supposed. The natural resources of Ireland I believe to be more than ample to sustain a far larger population than the country now possesses. These resources would be sure to be made use of if the Government and Parliament would only confine themselves to their proper business of encouraging industry and the investment of capital by maintaining security. I most heartily concur with you in thinking that, bad as is the present state of Ireland, even this is a far less serious matter than the state of the House of Commons. I can see no reason for doubting that if Ireland were well governed order might soon be restored there, and that in a few years prosperity would follow, but unfortunately, with such a House of Commons as we now have, there appears to be no chance whatever that Ireland will be well governed, and too much probability that unwise measures will be taken which will sap the foundations of English prosperity, and perhaps destroy this great nation. I am quite unable to express the great alarm I feel at the prospect before us. The last Reform Act (if it is not a mockery to call it by that name) seems, together with the establishment of vote by ballot, to have absolutely demoralised both Parliament and the whole race of public men. I am not sure that ballot has not done even more harm than the change in the representation of 1867, but together the two measures have had still worse results than 132 CORRESPONDENCE OP GOLDWIN SMITH I anticipated from them in corrupting both the nation itself and the men who govern it. And what possibility is there of any improvement without some tremendous convulsion which may lead to a total change in the present system of government and of society ? I am one of those who firmly believe that the condition of the human race is certain, on the whole, to improve, but improvement on the whole is quite consistent with fearful calamities falling upon those nations which have abused the advantages and blessings conferred upon them, and I fear England is destined very soon to experience the consequences of such an abuse. But this is a topic on which I must not enter. I am sorry to hear that you contemplate leaving England for good. Yours very truly, Grey. LXXXIV G. S. to Sir Robert Collins.^ 19, Bboad Wauc, BtrxTON, June 25, 1882. My deak Collins, I have sent you two brochures, both of which have some connection with the flowery question of Ireland. The first part of the one on the conduct of England to Ireland is merely an abridgment of a little volume on Irish History and Irish Character which I wrote many years ago. In the last part I have tried to show that the claim of Ireland on England for reparation is not quite so unlimited as » Comptroller of the Household to H.R.H. the Duke, and afterwards to the Duohess of Albany. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 133 Irish incendiarism pretends and English weakness is disposed to allow. We sail from Liverpool at the end of this week, and it is not likely that you and I will meet again on this side of the Atlantic. On the other side I am sure we shall some day meet. It is sad to have seen my country in such a plight. The Irish affair is bad, but the anarchy of faction, selfishness, and demagogism in the House of Commons is worse, and constitutes the real danger of the Irish affair itself. Heaven send leaders clear-sighted enough to comprehend the situation, brave enough to do what is required, and patriotic enough to think of their country and not of their own chances at the next election ! I rather rejoice in the Clerkenwell ' discovery. It may help to dissipate English apathy, which is a very dangerous feature of the situation. The nation has gone wUd in the pursuit of pleasure, and has no thought to give to serious questions. However, there must be plenty of force left if it could only be brought to bear. From Canada comes the news that the Con- servative leaders have been trying to capture the Irish vote by Fenian appointments to the Senate and the Cabinet. Such is the " loyalty " of the Colonial politician ! It was pleasant to me, as it must be to all the friends of the Duke of Albany, to see his happiness, which is of the kind that increases with the years. My wife desires her kind regards to yon, and looks forward to seeing you again, and for a longer visit, at Toronto. She begs you to thank His Royal Highness in her name for his kind message. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith, ' There was a great seizure of arms and ammunition here about a week before this letter waa written. 184 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH LXXXV [Private] Lord Ashbourne to G. S. 63, Warwick Sqttabb, S.W., June 30, 1882. My dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, I am much obliged by your letter. The posi- tion and duty of the Opposition is now very difficult and requires much and anxious consideration. It is necessary to support the Government in all real or well-considered efforts to restore order and peace to Ireland, and at the same time to criticise and denounce their measures and actions, which we most honestly believe to be demoralising or ineffective. This latter duty — although essential — is not easy in a crisis. I believe that much might be done by firm, resolute, and unchanging administration. The vital mistake of the present Government is thinkiag that fresh legislation would either perfectly cure or substantially check a state of facts which required in the first instance more resolute action. The attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable is an impossible task. The Arrears Bill is beginning to be understood — and accordingly to be disliked. I should think that Mr. Gladstone himself hated it. It is certainly op- posed to almost everything one would imagine he most strongly held to be essential to sound legislation. It is difficult to see the outcome of the situation. I myself believe that with a iirm and steady hand Ireland would right itself in a couple of years. Egypt is now a great disturbing factor in the political world, and has grossly increased the already great difficulties of the Government. If you sometimes write to me when you return to Canada, I shall esteem it an honour. Yours most truly, (Signed) Ed. Gibson, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 135 LXXXVI Sir John A. Macdonald to G. S. R. DU LOAPENTAS, August 5, 1882. My deae Mr. Goldwin Smith, Let me welcome Mrs. Smith and you back to the Dominion. Thanks for your congratulations on the result of the General Elections. The country has approved of our national policy. It was a bold and, as it proved, a wise thing to appeal to the country on that issue. I, of course, had to meet with opposition from the weak-kneed among our friends — and especi- ally from those whose re-elections were doubtful. I am vain enough to believe that our general policy deserved, and has received, the approval of the country. Our trade and financial policy has of course been "endorsed" (how I hate that phrase !) by the people, but so has, I think, our railway -land and immigration policy. Blake made our treatment of Ontario a question of want of confidence, and Mowat and his Government rushed into the contest on the specific ground that we had done injustice to Ontario and provincial rights. Blake and Mowat are, therefore, in the ludicrous plight of having a verdict given against them by the Province whose wrongs they were going to avenge. I am trying to get some good men out for the local elections, which I think will come off next month. I should like to see you in the Legislature, were it otily to rescue educational matters from the hands of Crooks. By the way, you did the Canadian Parliament and Canadian statesmen generally but scant justice in your remarks about the Costigan resolutions and the address to the Queen on Irish matters. However, I shall reserve my criticisms until I 136 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH have the pleasure of meeting you, which I hope to be some time next month. Believe me, Sincerely yours, (Signed) John A. Macdonald. LXXXVII G. S. to Professor Tyndall. Gbanob, Tobonto, September 1, 1882. My dear Tyndall, There is reason, I fear, in the enclosed cutting from a Toronto paper. The visits of English men of science are most useful as well as delightful to us ; but, called upon to receive the British Association, Canada would " stagger beneath the too vast orb of her fate." I have thought of you sometimes as I watched the vicissitudes of the Irish question. Com- parative calm seems to have been restored for a time, partly by vigour in the Prevention of Crimes Bill, partly by paying blackmail in the form of the Arrears Bill. The policy of paying blackmail is always successful for the moment, and always fails, as we know, in the long run. The country is left swarming with unpunished murderers, and convinced that money to any extent, and concessions of all kinds, are to be got by trampling on the law. The Fenian leaders in the United States are quar- relling like dogs in the street, and accusing each other, with perfect truth, of theft, lying, and every sort of villainy. These are the people before whom England has quailed ! One act or word of vigour would have sent them flying to the four winds. Here the success of the Irish in bullying you has put all the organs of opinion on their side. I stand to my popgun, but I am almost alone. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 137 LXXXVIII G. S. to Professor Tyndall. Toronto, October 6, 1882. My dear Tyndall, There is one point on which I must set you right, though at the expense of troubling you with another letter. You cannot be more desirous of strengthening the ties of Canada with the mother- country than I am. I am a loyal and even ardent citizen of The Greater Britain, and most sincerely wish to see all children of England, including the people of the United States, linked to their parent by the bond of the heart. One of my reasons for disliking the continuance of political dependency is that it involves a constant liability to disputes. Witness the new Canadian tariff ; the claim, now ad- vanced to the power, of making separate commercial treaties ; and the action of the Canadian Parliament with regard to the Irish question the other day. I always do my best to welcome English guests, and would welcome the British Association if I thought we could make its visit a success. It [is] right to say that the Toronto Mail came out the other day with a sort of palinode, the tenor of which was that the visit of the Association would be useful in drawing attention to the advantages of our new territory in the North- West. The history of the North-West Territory itself is a comment on the system of political dependency. It was long locked up against settlement by the charter of the Hudson Bay Company. Then it was suddenly flung into the hands of the politician, and a flood of jobbery, land-gambling, and roguery was the result. The last man whom you made a knight had sold the Presidency of the Pacific Railway. My brain not being so active as yours, I suffer but 138 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH little from want of sleep. But I always have at my bedside an orange, or, if there are no oranges, an apple, which I eat if I am wakeful, and which generally sends me to sleep. The new Coercion Act works. But I wish, in place of changes of venue and special juries, they had sent a good judicial Commission to try the cases on the spot, and show the peasantry the face of justice. Depend upon it the sight would have done them good. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. LXXXIX G. S. to Sir Robert Collins. The Geangb, Tobonto, November 7, 1882. My dear Collins, We have just had cabled to us an article of the Times opposing the admission of a bust of Long- fellow to Westminster Abbey. Longfellow may not be the greatest of poets, but he is the greatest — at least the most famous — of American poets, and the rejection of the bust, now that its admission has been proposed, would have the worst effect in the United States. It would throw back that recon- ciliation of the English-speaking race which is now rapidly going on, and which the Royal Family have done much, by their friendliness and courtesy towards the Americans, to promote. No one can see much of the Americans without perceiving that even when they say bitter things with their lips they are English at heart, that our quarrels with them are family quarrels, and that they feel above everything British slights, because they appreciate above every- thing British honours. This is not a moment when England can afford to estrange her friends or give a handle to her enemies on this continent. The prolonged agitation in Ireland CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 139 has given a great impulse to American Fenianism, and though the American Government by no means wishes to do anything unfriendly, if any awkward question, such as the Fisheries question, should arise, con- siderable mischief might be done by the influence of the Irish vote. It is to be hoped that the fire in Ireland will soon be put out, otherwise it will become a general con- flagration ; for agrarian doctrines and sentiments are spreading on all sides. I remain privately con- vinced that this perilous legislation was a mistake, and that the things really needed were an extension of the Poor Law so as to provide for the relief of overcrowded districts by emigration and an alter- ation in the law of succession to land which would have severed Irish from English properties and thus diminished absenteeism. But the greatest man of the age thinks otherwise. He is now all-powerful and all-persuasive ; let us hope that he is also all- wise. Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. xc G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. Toronto, December i, 1882. My dear Mrs. Hertz, I am sending you, by way of Christmas card, a little set of doyleys, which my wife found at our Ladies' Depository, and which, we both of us think, gives a good idea of Canada. I hope they will reach you safely by the parcel post. Yesterday Canada was in the perfection of her winter beauty- — snow on the ground, with a brilli- antly clear atmosphere, gorgeous sunset, and splendid starlight. To-day comes a snowstorm from the east, with some blockades on the railways and nuisances of all kinds. To a bookworm with plenty of pabulum, 140 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH and in a warm house, it is pleasant to look out on the storm. But I always wonder that poor people ever emigrate to cold countries. In a warm climate life itself is a pleasure ; here it is a pain, palliated in their case by a very scanty amount of comfort. This is a great revolution in the United States. It is a revolt against the domination of a party which had been utterly corrupted by long possession of power and had lost its chance of reformation by the murder of Garfield. So far it is very good. But what the Democrats will do remains to be seen. Hitherto they have done nothing but exemplify the vileness of an oligarchy in alliance with a mob. The Irish element is very strong in their camp, and, if it can influence the foreign policy towards England, may lead to complications. Free Trade has not triumphed, nor will it ever triumph, in its own name ; but it has practically gained ground. The Pro- tectionists, who are powerful in the Republican party, were keeping up expenditure that there might still be need of revenue, and consequently an excuse for maintaining the import duties. Very likely reduc- tion will be applied to the internal taxes first ; but, unless artificially arrested, it must come to Customs duties in the end. So there is hope for Bradford. My wife sends her kindest regards and unites with me in best wishes for the New Year. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 1883 xci The Bight Hon. John Bright to G. S. RoOHDiXE, January 7, 1883. My dear Goldwin Smith, Forgive me for having so long neglected to thank you for your interesting letter of September CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 141 and October, and for your kind offer of hospitality if I cross the Atlantic. I have just received a letter from Mr. Evarts, with an urgent invitation from the New York Union League Club to visit the States — ^they say everything that is kind, and promise me all they can do to make my visit pleasant. If I was younger, and not fast in my party chains, I might possibly go, but now I feel to have lost all wish to travel, and what in past times would have been an intense gratification would now be only a burden grievous to be borne. I feel how much older I am become during the last four years, since my home became so desolate from the loss of my dear wife. To leave Parliament and public affairs would be a great relief, only that I fear I should suffer from want of occupation. I might travel, but to travel alone is rather dismal work when the hope and energy of youth are gone. The Egyptian War, which is said not to be or to have been " war," is a strange affair — ^not so much a crime, " with criminal intent," as a blunder or a succession of blunders. The Ministers seemed to lose their heads ; Horse- guards and Admiralty at home, and the admiral, captain, and officers in the harbour of Alexandria ; Government representatives in Cairo, and newspaper correspondents — ^all combined to create an excitement and a furore in the midst of which the bombardment took place. The Canal was never in the smallest danger. I insisted on this — but my colleagues, with the exception of two only, could not be reasoned with. The excuse of self-defence is ludicrous and wicked. The forts would not have attacked the fleet — the French were in as much danger as we were, but they did not think it necessary to bombard, and so they have no reason to make lying excuses for what was done. The war has not been popular with any party. The Liberals try to comfort themselves with the hope that Mr. Gladstone must or may be right, and 142 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLD WIN SMITH do not want to damage the Government and to restore the Tory rule. I have been silent, not wishing to make matters worse, and having made my protest by giving up my seat in the Cabinet. The Pall Mall writes in evident difficulty on Egypt. We are maintaining as ruler in that country a man incapable of ruling, and so unpopular that if our troops came away he must come with them, and this is being done by our Liberal Government, with so many so-called Radical members and supporters. Still, as you say in advance, some day, if I speak again, I may try to prove this ; but I am weary of speaking. There is now not much to attack. The minority is not, as the Whig Government of forty years ago, resisting everything. They are pledged to further amendment of our representation and of our real- property laws ; indeed, so far has opinion advanced on these questions that the Tories themselves cannot combine to withstand the public opinion in their favour. It is not possible to get up much fire on subjects on which there is no difference of opinion, and so I begin to look on — to some extent an inter- ested spectator, but not with the excited passion of a combatant, as in years that are passed. Our foreign policy creates in my mind more un- easiness than any home question. In regard to Ireland, we must wait and see the result of the Land Bill, from which I hope much — but our foreign policy and circumstances are always raising some point of anger which cannot but create anxiety. This year we shall raise in taxes about 56,000,000 sterling, to pay for wars past or preparations, it may be, for wars to come. In India 20,000,000 more are raised from the Indian population to keep it in subjection to our supremacy. These are tremendous figures, and the great Empire some day will be in difficulty, and the people of these small Islands may grow weary of the burden they now sustain. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 143 I should like to say something on this question before my tongue is sUent. Canada seems to go on well in the absence of its Governor-General — so be it. I hope it may have a long peace, or peace always. The tariff becomes a burning question in the States — ^its barbarism must offend the common sense of the nation when its eyes are turned upon it. Many thanks for your kind invitation, even if I cannot accept it. Always sincerely yours, (Signed) John Bright. Goldwin Smith, Esq., The Grange, Toronto. XCII [Private] G. S. to Lord Farrer. TOKONTO, January 14, 1883. My dear Farrer, Major Gaskell has been here ; he has met the City Charities and satisfied them, I think, as to the arrangements which he has made with the Canadian Government. Instead of being turned out after the first night, as they have been hitherto, the emigrants are now to be kept till they have an offer of employ- ment. This will make all the difference, especially if the emigration is to be on a large scale. Still I cannot help wishing that you had some sort of Consul at the chief points, to watch things and hear complaints, if it could [be] managed with- out offence to the Canadian Government. I may whisper in your ear that, under the demagogue system, the administration does not always correspond with absolute perfection to the law. We have excellent laws against burning the forests and against throwing 144 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH slabs and sawdust into rivers ; nevertheless the forests are burned, and the navigation of the Ottawa is choked with slabs and sawdust under the nose of the Legislature. Major Gaskell has made careful inquiries and will tell those who sent him all the pros and cons so far as the economical question is concerned. But there is a question of another kind which I cannot help privately asking. The Irish are the dupes and victims of political incendiarism in their own country. Why send them to be the dupes and victims of political incendiarism here ? Why multiply the deadly enemies of England on this continent and prepare trouble for yourselves in case any awkward question, such as the accursed Fisheries question, should arise ? You see the effect of the Irish vote, even on Canadian politics, from the Home Rule resolutions passed by the Canadian Parliament about the time of the Phoenix Park murders. Not one man in ten — prob- ably not one in twenty — of those who voted for the resolutions cared a rush for Home Rule. They were all truckling to the Irish, who hang together here as they do in the States, and are led either by their priests or by the greatest political scoundrels they can find. In the States the malignant influence of the Irishry has, I fear, been greatly increased by the struggle of the last three years and the successes of the League. I speak of the Northern States. In the Southern States there is no Fenianism, nor is there likely to be any. There the rolling-stock of demagogism is alto- gether on a different line. I have sometimes thought that it would not be a bad thing for the Government to run some emigrant steamers from Galway to Norfolk. A better thing still would be if the Irish could be sent to Jamaica or some other Crown Colony, where they might undergo an industrial training and be a little civilised before being entrusted with votes, which they use to their own bane and that of all CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 145 the communities into which they come, threatening with subversion every Anglo-Saxon polity on the globe. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. xcni G. S, to Percy Bunting. The Gbanoe, Toronto, March 14, 1883. My dear Bunting, I hope you understand that my reason for not replying to Mr. Spencer's ' not very mannerly charges of " misrepresentation," " perversion," " un- trustworthiness," etc., is that I am intending to take up the general question again, and that in the mean- time I do not want to have a wrangle. Tyndall told me that Spencer had " not said his last word," and I was in hopes that I should have his reply before me. When a writer, after surveying the field of morals, pitches upon a particular action as the type of " what is absolutely right," of the " perfect," and of conformity to the " ideal," one naturally supposes (in the absence of any converse) that this is his notion of what is highest in morality. " Highest " is merely a synonym for best, most perfect, nearest to the ideal. As the Spectator shows, S. used the term himself in that sense. If we are wrong, let S. give us an example of the highest kind of action. This pretended illustration from mathematics will not bear examination. Very truly yours, Goldwin Smith. ' Herbert Spencer. The reference is to hia article in the Con- temporary Review of March 1882, on " Professor Goldwin Smith as a Critic." 10 146 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH XCIV G. S. to Mrs. Bolleston. The Grange, Tobonto, April 25, 1883. My dear Mrs. Rolleston, I suppose we have now before us all the materials for a Life of your husband which are likely to be forthcoming ; and before reviewing them, including the last consignment, I am afraid I must pronounce that, in my judgment, they are insuflfi- cient for our purpose. The monument of your husband's scientific in- tellect are the papers which Professor M. has collected. The rest of his scientific activity was expended in his lectures and his general teaching, which formed a large and most noble part of the labour of his life. The monuments of this are his pupils, in whom he still lives, prosecutes his researches, and advances science. It is unfortunate that, so far as I am aware, there are no notes of any of the lectures. The Anthropological Museum which he formed is, however, another monument, and one which will always keep his name in remembrance. It was im- possible that, with so much work of the highest kind upon his hands, he should have any great amount of intellectual power or thought to spare for letters. Now and then he touches on some question of general interest, as in the letter which you last sent me; but it is only in a cursory way, and often merely for the purpose of removing some misapprehension about his own expressions. The University questions with which he dealt have been settled or shelved, and have thus lost their interest ; nor does he treat them fully in his letters. Of his conversations, all those who lived with him have the most delightful recollection ; but nobody CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 147 has taken notes. And unless notes are taken at the time, nothing of much value can ever be recovered. For myself, vivid as is my general impression, I have searched my memory in vain for any special sayings worth recording in a Life. The notices which have been sent in by friends are merely general impressions of the character, with hardly any definite facts. It would probably be found equally difficult, for the same reasons, to write a satisfactory Life of Dar- win or any great man of science. The teaching of such men is their life. Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. xcv G. S. to John Cameron. The Grange, Tobonto, June 29, 1883. My dear Cameron, The writer of your editorial [in the Toronto Globe, probably] of this morning strangely mis- understands my view of the Irish question. I have not proposed to disfranchise the Irish in Canada, or to withhold the franchise from them if they come here. I have only suggested that the British Government should, if possible, abstain from sending them to countries where, as in Canada, they will be at once called upon to exercise political power, of which, in their present condition, they are sure to make a bad use, as everybody will say who wishes to speak the truth. The insinuation that I wish to " exterminate " the Irish is really baseless. Yours very truly, GoLDWiN Smith. A large proportion of the emigrants have not possessed the franchise in their own country. 148 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH XCVI Lord Ashbourne to G, S. Cablton Ci-tjb, Pali, Mall, S.W., July 14, 1883. My dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, I was very glad to receive your letter some time ago, and to recognise the interest which you continue to keep up in Irish affairs. Every effort is being made by the Parnellite party to discredit emigration — particularly State-aided emigration ; but, notwithstanding, the people themselves are not un- friendly to it. Voluntary action of friends in America, and the work of agencies like Mr. Tuke's, will do much. I believe that no paupers without money in their pockets have been landed in the U.S. Ireland itself is now quiet, but there is still much class bitterness, and a passive feeling of expectancy as to further agrarian changes. Mr. Trevelyan and Lord Spencer are, I think, anxious to be firm and to dispel wild hopes, but there is a feeling that Mr. Gladstone is squeezable, and this causes an uneasy and anxious feeling amongst all classes who have anything to lose. The loyalist classes in the country seem willing to sink minor differences, and unite when practicable in favour of law, order, and loyalty. I read all your articles with great interest. The way the Irish in America and in Ireland affect American politics is plainly entitled to great note and weight. I suppose, as the time for the next Presidential Election ap- proaches, we shall witness pressure on one side and promise on the other. The Nationalist papers from time to time insert letters against your North-West Territory, and this, of course, discourages emigration to those great regions. The extradition questions appear to have fallen into the background, and I should think that the U.S. Government will do all they can to keep them in abeyance. Americans in this country speak fairly and well as to Irish difiicul- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 149 ties — but here they are free from immediate political pressure. Yours most truly, (Signed) E. Gibson. XCVII G. S. to Professor Tyndall. The Grange, Tobonto, September 30, 1883. My dear Tyndall, You will think I am taking time by the fore- lock with a vengeance, but I see people are beginning to make their arrangements for the visit of the British Association to this side of the water. I hope you will bear in mind the pleasure which your presence and that of Mrs. Tyndall under our roof would give. There is not much to be seen in Toronto, but perhaps, after all the meetings and banquets, you may be glad of a little rest. Now that our (government and the Pacific Railway have taken hold of the matter, I have no doubt the trip will be made very pleasant, though Canadian Science by itself could not have done much. I was expecting my old friend the Chief Justice ' the other day, but he was prevented from coming to this side of the Line by Fenian plots. I went over to meet him, and found him going through a very severe course of pleasure under surveillance as strict as if he had been a prisoner of State. Who would have thought that murder would again become a power in the civilised world ? What a mess in Ireland ! And all through weak- ness, factiousness, or worse — worse on the part of those who have throughout fostered an insurrection of savages led by scoundrels, and cut the sinews of national resistance to it, in the hope of riding into ' Lord Coleridge. 150 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH power by the help of the Irish vote. At the outset there was no real danger, and a single display of unanimity and vigour by the House of Commons would have put an end to the whole affair, so far as it was political, without bloodshed. As it is, it really seems possible that you may lose Ireland, and this great disaster and humiliation wUl be celebrated. {End of letter missing.) xcvin G. S. to Sir George Young, Bart. TOROKTO, October 8, 1883. My dear Young, That the cloud which hangs over Ireland has not yet lifted does not surprise me, for I cannot think that the right course has been taken to bring back the sun. The root of the evil, as I have always believed, is not political but economical, and is two- fold — over-population in certain districts and absen- teeism. Fixity of tenure will only increase the over- population by rooting the people to the soil ; and the landlords, by being turned, as they are by the Land Act, into mere encumbrances, will be made greater absentees and more unpopular than ever. There is no real remedy but emigration on such a scale as to clear the afflicted districts, put an end to the barbarous and beast -like subsistence on potatoes, and give the land back to pasture, or, if it is not fit even for pasture, to the waste. The political danger, which is now very great, was very small at first, and has been fostered into its present magnitude by the factiousness of the House of Commons, the consequent weakness of the Govern- ment, and the exertions of writers like my friend John Morley, who have made themselves the patrons and spokesmen of the " Irish Revolution." CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 151 I do not believe that a Parliamentary Government can now deal successfully with the problem. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. xcix G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. TOBONTO, October 8, 1883. My dear Mrs. Hertz, It was very ungracious in me not to thank you before for the likeness of Gladstone. It seems to me excellent. I wish I could look upon it at this moment with more pleasure. Never was fate more malicious than in setting him, at the close of his illustrious and beneficent career, to deal with this Irish problem — the one question with which he is least fitted to deal. It seems to me that it has now been got into a state in which it can hardly be solved by a Parliamentary Government. You will probably have to go through a convulsion or crisis of some kind in order to evolve the necessary force. Evolved the necessary force will be in the end, unless the nation is in a state of dotage or decrepitude. If only some great neutral figure would appear, clear of all connexion with Tory aristocracy and absentee-landlordism, the two things which are fatally weighing down the national cause, yet true to the Union and the nation ! One might as well wish that an angel would descend from heaven. But you must be sick of the Irish question. It is difficult, however, to get off the subject. I went the other day to meet my old schoolfellow and friend Lord Coleridge, at Buffalo, and I found him taking his pleasure under the surveillance of the military and police, who were guarding him against Fenian Thug- knives. Who would have thought that murder would again become a great power in the world ? Mr. Macdonell paid us a very pleasant and welcome 152 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLD WIN SMITH visit, and told us all about you, besides giving me an insight into the state of English opinion which it is impossible to get from the newspapers. Any friend to whom you give an introduction is sure to be wel- come — welcome as the English wayfarer used to be to the denizens of a solitary outpost in India. Toronto, intellectually speaking, is an outpost. In the States the course of intrigue for the Presi- dency is beginning again, and all the tricks, in the way of putting forward dummies, etc., are being played which were played in secret conclave at the election of the Popes. The issues of the Civil War being now fairly out of the way, the tariff question has more chance of being taken up, and Bradford may begin to look on with some interest. I doubt, how- ever, whether either party will make Free Trade " a plank in the platform." In the Democratic party, which is, on the whole, for Free Trade, there is a strong Protectionist element, which on the eve of battle always makes its influence felt ; and now manu- factures, and Protection with them, are growing up in the Democratic States of the South. But the reduction of the debt is rapidly diminishing the need of revenue, and the Protectionists see that the time is at hand when they will be no longer able to tell the people that the taxes are necessary for revenue and are laid on so as to afford incidental protection to home industry. They are accordingly doing every- thing in their power to make away with the surplus. A hundred millions will be squandered under a legislative swindle called the Pension Arrears Bill, another large sum under the Rivers and Harbours Bill, and now they are proposing to distribute a third sum among the States for the purpose of educa- tion. I shall be surprised if their game succeeds. We are just expecting our new Governor-General, Lord Lansdowne, who, if the accounts I hear of him are true, is fit for better things than cultivating Colonial flunkeyism and struggling to avert that which must come and ought to come, and which the CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 153 true interest of the English people would lead every one to wish should come — the union of Canada with the continent of which nature has made her a part. I should hardly dare to tell you what things happen at State balls at Ottawa. The Princess has had enough to make her sick of the place. She is off in a few days. I have just published the last number of the By- stander. It makes way for the Week, a weekly paper of which I am part proprietor, but of which the Editor will be Mr. Roberts.' I wanted unbroken leisure for other things. Also I grow lazy with advancing years. This house is considered one of the most venerable antiquities in Canada, and it is only a few years older than I am. So I have a right to shift my load to the shoulders of Mr. Roberts. Kindest regards to Hertz and all your party. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. [Private] Lord Ashbourne to G. S. 23, FiTzWiLLiAM Sqtjabb, Dublin, November 2, 1883. My dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, I am very pleased to learn that you are going to write something on Ireland before next Session. I have ordered Eason's Almanac for the coming year to be sent to you, as it is an admirable compilation of contrasted Irish statistics. It is very hard to formulate the previous agricultural and economic results of the recent agrarian legislation. We have had some noble harvests, which have retrieved much. The banks hold their prices in a marvellous way, and ^ Charles D. G. Roberts, who has since attained eminence in the world of letters on both sides of the Atlantic. 154 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH although the railways are down, they are not much lower than similar English lines. But land is prac- tically unsaleable. There is no real market for it. Money won't be lent on it, except at high rates. There is an anxious and increasing feeling through all the classes with anything to lose that Mr. Gladstone may give them a shake next. Sir S. Northcote's tour in Ulster did much good, in an Imperial sense. It showed in great clearness to the English mind the strength and power of the forces which would fight against Disunion and for Union ; and the Government now feel that they have to deal with a stout loyalist class — of power and numbers — that will insist on being reckoned with. I believe that the population will further diminish, and I ques- tion if the wealth of the nation will increase. If the Irish in Ireland were left alone, without aid from America and elsewhere to develop and foment new problems, the difficulty for this Empire would be perfectly workable. Pamell is calmly watchiag events, and is, I think, anxious to play in with the extreme Radical party. His more extreme followers desire to be free-lances. Yours sincerely, (Signed) E. Gibson. 1884 CI G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. The Grange, Toronto, January 1, 1884. My dear Mrs. Hertz, Christmas cards block the mail, and the views of Sonning and Shiplake did not arrive till my letter to you had been sent off. They delight me. I used to be a great deal at both places, especially at Son- ning, in my boyhood — indeed till I left England ; and CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 155 all the scenes are most familiar to me. The scenes remain, but the people are all gone. Gone are the three ancient maidens of Holme Park, and their brother the Squire. Old Mr. Howman, the rector of Shiplake, his son the vicar of Sonning, and his grand- son Knightly Howman, my schoolmate at Eton and the great friend of my boyhood. Gone, alas ! is my dear friend Pearson, who succeeded Mr. Howman in the vicarage. I don't suppose a soul I knew is left, and Holme Park, I hear, is being neo-Gothicised. A [ ] ' upon the neo-Gk)th ! The England of my youth is very rapidly passing away. I gave an artist a commission to paint me some old things from my neighbourhood, among them a bit of Old Reading. Only one bit of Old Reading, as it was in my childhood, could be found, and that was just going to be pulled down. My last relation of my father's generation died the other day, and not long ago Lady Dunkinfield, who danced at the ball at Brussels. Once more best wishes for the New Year. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. en Matthew Arnold to G. S. Univebsitt Club, St. Loins, January 30, 1884. My dear Goldwin Smith, It was a great pleasure to be met on my first arrival in this country by your kind invitation, and all through the tota discrimina rerum which I have had to encounter, I have looked forward to a visit to you as a consolation. Would it suit you if Mrs. Arnold and I came to you on Tuesday, the 12th of February ? We can only stay two nights, I fear ; 1 niegible. 156 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLD WIN SMITH but that will be better than nothing. My daughter is gone back to the gaieties of New York, and will not be with us in Canada ; travelling in the cold weather has been more trying to her than to her mother or me. With very kind regards to Mrs. Goldwin Smith, Most sincerely yours, (Signed) Matthew Arnold. cm Lord Ashbourne to G. S. [Private] 63, Wabwiok Sqtjare, S.W. February 23, 1884. Dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, I was very glad to receive your late letters, and to see by your article that you are still watching the Irish problem. We have just finished our debate on the Address, which to a large extent dealt with Ireland and the recent Ulster meetings. The Orange manifestations — no matter how people may be dis- posed to criticise them — must bring home to every thoughtful observer that Home Rule or Separation would mean civil war. I have no doubt that the extravagant Nationalist utterances will also have an effect on the Reform BUI and its projected inclusion of Ireland. It has been frequently suggested that the number of Irish members should be substantially reduced — on the basis of population and taxation — and that with a sound redistribution of seats the Irish Parliamentary problem would be brought within more manageable limits. It is, however, as yet im- possible to know how far Mr. Gladstone will proceed in this direction. A recent speech of Sir C. Dilke was susceptible of different constructions as to this subject. The sale of land has practically ceased in Ireland. The land market is not in any real opera- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWiN SMITH 157 tion. The tenants believe that they will be able to get more by waiting and squeezing. It is rumoured here that you are going to be tempted back to English University life. I hope so. Yours most truly, (Signed) E. Gibson. CIV Another letter from Lord Ashbourne — a fragment. adopt concession as their policy will rapidly come to a point where there is nothing to concede. All parties — even Morley and the Pall Mall — ^admit that they are against Separation, and yet some resolutely shut their eyes to the almost immediate consequence of the measures so loudly advocated by the " Irish party." I am glad that Lord Derby has lately at Manchester strongly reprobated loose language in reference to Home Rule — a back-hander at the Prime Minister, who will soon find that he has brought a candid friend into the Cabinet. I regard with much anxiety the suggestion that we should have new elective County Boards in Ireland. Unless the " reform " is narrowly safeguarded it will constitute in each county [out of Ulster] centres to propagate disloyalty and carry out much jobbery. The differ- ences of race and creed and the class bitterness which exist in Ireland make it nearly impossible to find a parallel in England or Scotland. The Crimes Act, on the whole, has worked well. The changes of tenure and the special juries [under its provisions] have been a good deal applied, with the result that many capital convictions have been obtained. I question if the tribunal of three judges will be constituted at all. There is a good deal of distress in the West, which is likely to increase next month. In many of these districts the distress and almost famine is chronic. 158 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Emigration is steadily making way in the popular mind, and at all events with responsible men of all parties, and will, I think, be utilised largely in the coming winter. Yours most truly, (Signed) E. Gibson. cv The {third) Earl Grey to G. S. HowiCK, Lesbuby, Noethumbebland, March 11, 1884. Dear Professor Goldwin Smith, I send you herewith by book-post a copy of an article I have lately written for the Nineteenth Cen- tnry which I should be glad if you could find time to read. You wUl find that near the end of it I have referred to the opinion you have expressed as to Parliamentary or Party Government. Reluctantly as I accept the conclusion, I am almost compelled to agree in believing that this system of government is hopelessly breaking down. With all its faults, it seems to me to have been the means of conferring very great benefits on this country. But experience seems to show that two things are necessary for its success — ^first, that the Representative Assembly to which predominant power is to be given should repre- sent the intelligent part of the nation, and not mere numbers ; and secondly, that by some means or other the Ministers actually in office should have some considerable amount of power by virtue of their position, and thus hold it on a more stable tenure than at present. Formerly, as I have endeavoured to show, both these conditions were fulfilled by the House of Commons, though the means by which the end was attained was so objectionable that it was impossible that the state of things by which the residt was secured should be permanently main- tained ; but in sweeping away the abuses which CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 159 formerly existed, nothing was done to provide for the preservation of what was good in their effect. Of course it is impossible to go back to what formerly existed, but uiiless some other mode of making the House of Commons work better than it now does can be found, I feel a very strong conviction that this great nation will be brought down to a most deplorable condition. In the essay on Parliamentary Government which I published in 1864, I suggested some changes which I believed then and believe still might at that time have been adopted with advan- tage, but in the twenty years that have since gone by things have gone so far and so fast that I fear there is no hope that by the measures I then recommended, or by any others that could now be adopted, the House of Commons could be made a body to which supreme power can be usefully conceded. To those who, like yourself, endeavour to consider public affairs, not in a party light, but with a view to the welfare of the nation, it is becoming a question of very painful interest what form the government of this country is to assume. That there must, before many years go by, be a great change of some kind or other, I am convinced, as I have said in the article I send you. I am faithfully yours. Grey. cvi G. S, to Professor Tyndall. The Gbange, Toronto, October 24, 1884. My dear Tyndall, Though I shall not see England, I watch events there with an English heart. Are you not getting into deep water ? Under the veil of an old monarchy and aristocracy, both of which are effete, you will soon have the most unregulated and unchecked democracy in the world. American democracy has its safeguards. The Irish business, too, still looks 160 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLD WIN SMITH ill. This seditious re-naming of the streets of Dublin is as clear a proof as you could have of the failure of Conciliation to conciliate. Nothing will conciliate except a decisive assurance that the Union will be maintained and that rebellion is useless. But I preach to the converted. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Gold win Smith. John Tyndall, Esq., D.C.L. cvii G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. TOBONTO, December 28, 1884. My dear Mrs. Hertz, My heart responds to all you say. Yes, the circle grows rapidly narrower, and one ought to prize and cherish more those who remain. If I have not written, it was really because I had nothing to tell you. My life here, with that of my dear wife, glides in a quiet stream of uneventful happiness. About the public affairs of Canada you can care nothing. Canada is now so closely bound up with the States, and so manifestly tending towards union with them, that their history is almost ours, and the miost notable event of late, for us as well as for them, is the election of Cleveland, in which we all rejoice as the victory of integrity over brilliant trickery and of national government over machines. There is good reason to hope that Cleveland will tread bravely the path of reform. Of course he cannot shake himself entirely loose from the ties of party ; but the Irish and Tam- many, the most corrupt and in everything the worst section of the Democratic party, bolted to Blaine as the Anti-British Candidate — at least, a good many of them did — so Cleveland owes them nothing. It is also really a Free Trade victory, or rather a victory CORRESPONDENCE OP GOLDWIN SMITH 16l of taxation for revenue only. The Democratic party ostensibly declined that issue, fearing to estrange their own Protectionists in Pennsylvania. But it was practically forced upon them by the attitude of the other party, and the result is a blow [?] to Protection. The process of change, however, will be slow : the vested interests are very strong ; and even men who are Free Traders fear the possible effects of a sudden change on the manufactures of New England. They are mistaken, and so are you. With Free Trade the United States would be far more formidable to you as competitors than they are. I used to meet Carlyle and his wife at The Grange, where the Lady Ashburton presided. I faintly re- member that Mrs. C. seemed to be rather in the background. But I strongly suspect that Froude's imagination, which particularly loves to play with matrimonial infelicities (as an old Professor at Oxford called King Henry's affairs with his wives) and other delicate matters of that kind, has greatly exaggerated the Carlyle -Ashburton scandal. You observe that Mrs. Carlyle was staying with Lady Ashburton by herself, while Carlyle was in Scotland. Whether this would have been possible, even in a case of intellectual jealousy, I leave it to Mrs. Carlyle's sex to say. Belief in Carlyle's judgment of men and things could hardly survive a day's intercourse with him. His conversation was one perpetual stream of cyni- cism, as indiscriminating as the east wind. When he called Keble a little ape and Newman a man with no more brains than a rabbit, he probably spoke from the teeth outwards, without formiing any judg- ment whatever. Look at his judgment of Panizzi, whose organising power and excellence as a librarian could be questioned by no human being. I have always thought the French Revolution and some passages of Cromwell the finest historical paint- ing in literature. But Carlyle's history is not true, in the broad sense. Though he was very conscientious in research, he does not see to the bottom of the French n 162 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWiN SMITH Revolution ; Edgar Quinet sees deeper than he does. Nor has he laid his fingers on the real cause of the catastrophe, which was the attempt of the unhappy Queen and her advisers to coerce the Assembly by bringing up the Army. The Army bolted and col- lapsed ; but in the meantime the Assembly had been obliged to put itself under the protection of the armed mob of Paris, which therefore became its master, and, the Government being centralised, master of the country at the same time. The Church was a very difficult question, no doubt : still, except for the untoward event which I have mentioned, they might have founded a constitution, under which, whatever might have been its form, the spirit of the nation being monarchical, the King would have soon regained a good deal of his power. Positivism seems to have been reduced to phil- anthropic enthusiasm. It may still be a very good thing — preached by Harrison I have no doubt it is — but it cannot be called a religion. Congreve must look on Newton Hall as mere heresy and schism. I hope Harrison appeals enough to the proletariat and to women. What has become of that old apostate to Chauvinism, Lafitte ? Won't we dig him up one day and bury him in the cemetery of the wicked ! 1 rejoice to hear that the interests of your own immortal soul have been secured by the birth of a grandchild, and heartily wish the little Positivist the happiest of all possible evolution. You are going down the rapids — political, social, economical, and religious, all at once. I wish the man at the helm of your ship may be as trustworthy as the Caughnawaga Indian who steers us down the Rapids of Lachine. If I were forced to bet, I should bet that you will come to grief. With this pleasant prognos- tication for the New Year, and with kindest regards and best wishes to all your party, in which my wife joins. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 168 1885 cvin G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. The Geanoe, Tobonto, January 1, 1885. Dear Mrs. Hertz, Your New Year's gift is lovely in itself and most welcome as a proof that I am not forgotten where I most wish to be remembered. The scenes on the Isis I thought I should never see again ; but I believe I shall. I am just recovering from a bad attack of inflammation of the lungs. My wife nursed me with the tenderest care, and I had to think what I could do to requite her. I knew that though she acquiesced in my indolent desire to spend the rest of my days at home, she longed in her heart for another summer in England. So I proposed it to her, and the proposal was eagerly accepted. We sail by the first steamer in May, and shall be at Oxford (ff.V.) by the middle of that month. We are to stay in England till October, and if you are within the four seas I shall certainly find my way to you. Most likely I shall run up to town for a day or two soon after arriving at Oxford, though we do not intend to spend any time in London. Our last month will probably be spent at Buxton, that my wife may have the benefit of the waters. You have been having a stirring time, and are, I fear, in a pretty bad way, mainly from want of honest and patriotic leaders. In England, as in all countries where the accursed system of party and demagogism prevails, the politicians are below the level of the national character. There is good stuff in England still, if it could only get to the front. The common soldier and the policeman do their duty, though the statesmen so miserably fail. There may perhaps be two opinions about the Irish question, but that cannot be the opinion about the manner in which it has been 164 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH handled. If morality requires it, I can bear to see England reduced to the dimensions of Kent ; but I cannot bear to see her wrecked by faction, poltroonery, and scoundrelism. Chamberlain seems to me very mischievous. He is doing his best to create a proletariat which will live, not by industry, but by political plunder. What a sign of the times, too, is Randolph Churchill — the spawn and ape of Dizzy ! I hated Dizzy, not for being a Tory — which indeed he was not — but for systema- tically corrupting political nxorality and public life. Here we are doing much better. Cleveland, who is not a genius but a brave, strong, upright man, treads with firm step the steep path of Civil Service Reform. I begin to hope that he has given the Spoils system its death blow. He is opposed by the corrupt wing, including, of course, all the Irish, of his own party, as well as by the enemies of reform in the other party. But I hope that good men of both parties will rally round him, and that he will soon have a strong party of his own. Tariff Reform will come, too, though slowly, the vested interests on the wrong side being very strong. I don't think it matters to you so much as you sup- pose. The East is your real market. The very best wishes for the New Year to you, your husband, your daughter, and son-in-law. Ever yours affectionately, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cix [Private] Lord Ashbourne to G. S. CaBcLTon CtrB, February 28, 1885. My dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, I deferred, until this Session had got into its work and somewhat developed, to reply to your last CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 165 letter, which I was glad to receive. An abstract reso- lution in favour of the Union would, of course, be not according to our methods, and would have no chance this Session of getting a chance for discussion. It is the last Session of a moribund Parliament returned by now superseded voters, and any attempt to pass an abstract resolution on a subject of supreme im- portance might look like an admission that we feared the new voters and their representatives would not be so ready to affirm it. Besides, the pressure of Egyptian topics and the urgency of the Distribution Bill would make great difficulties about getting the time required. The Prince of Wales's visit to Ireland in April and its experiences may throw light on matters. I should not be surprised if the Nationalists (to make a case for dropping the Crimes Act) took the matter inoffensively and with quietude. On the other hand, their press and platforms in Ireland up to this are most disrespectful and contemptuous on the subject. The alleged altered attitude of the R. C. Bishops is a cause of solicitude. They appear as a body to have to a large extent ranged themselves on the Nationalist side, and this is, of course, grave. The death of Cardinal McCabe [Archbishop of Dublin] has been a loss, and the choice of his successor is watched with much interest. The Irish problem is indeed grave and anxious, but I believe that the best men of all parties and the bulk of the nation are resolved to maintain the Union, although there are wide differences of opinion as to the amount of local self-government which can or should be granted. Mr. Gladstone, when asked as to the renewal of the Crimes Act, has given dilatory answers, and this has not improved matters. The moral defeat of the Govern- ment on the Egyptian vote of censure has weakened them all round and left them " disparaged." With kind regards. Yours most truly, (Signed) E. Gibson. Goldwin Smith, Esq. 166 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH ex Lord Melgund (afterwards fourth Earl of Minto) to G. S. [Private] Government HotrsE, Ottawa, March 1, 1885. Dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, I must apologise for not having sent you an earlier reply to your letter of the 24th, but there has been a good deal to do here lately, and I put off writing so as to avoid giving you a hurried answer. I do not think it would be possible to send a battery of field artillery from Canada that would be fit to take the field, ' or would be likely to bring credit on the Dominion, i.e. by selecting any particular battery as at present organised. It might be possible, by picking men from the different batteries, to send some- thing fairly efficient, but even then a considerable time would have to elapse before the men could be expected to work together. Artillery is perhaps the arm requiring the most organisation and instruction, and when one remembers the very small amount of either the Canadian field batteries receive, and also this fact — that some of them are still armed with antiquated guns — it would be unreasonable to expect great efficiency. In saying this, I am not referring to A and B Batteries — ^the former at Quebec, the latter at Kingston — which are both very smart, and would no doubt do well in the field. The objection to their employment, however, is I think a decisive one, viz. that they are not batteries in the usual sense of the word, but schools of gunnery, of which the battery only forms a part and is intended for the use and instruction of the men joining the schools. If the battery was sent away the organisation of the school would be com- • For service in the Soudan, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 167 pletely broken down. This appears to me to put A and B Batteries entirely out of court in the present case. The question of the employment of Canadian troops has, as you know, been exciting a good deal of attention lately, and people at home seem to imagine that Canada has offered a Canadian contingent of Militia for service in the Soudan. This is very far from being the case. What has really happened is that a certain number of individuals in Canada had offered to raise troops for service with the Imperial Army, such persons having done so entirely on their own responsibility, and it would certainly be advis- able that, before being allowed to recruit in the Dominion, their ability and qualifications for the commands which they propose for themselves should be established without doubt, or we should run the risk of sending from here a force which had been badly recruited, and would be badly commanded, and not at all what we should like it to be as repre- senting Canada — ^though it would certainly be con- sidered by the world generally as a representative force from the moment it left these shores. Though the question of assisting the Old Country with Canadian troops may have passed over for the moment, it will certainly again arise, and it is well that both the people of Canada and England should look the matter in the face. I quite agree with you that the wild statements made from time to time, as to the military support to be counted on from here, have been utter myths — I think, however, it might be possible to send a small force from this country under certain conditions which I am afraid might possibly not be very popular conditions here. Without going into detail, there appear to me to be several different plans for the formation of such a force. 1st. Sending out Militia regiments as at present organised, the best to be selected by the Militia I^epartment, 168 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 2nd, The selection by the same Department of men and officers from the different battahons to be amal- gamated into a special force for service. 3rd. The enrolment of a force the recruiting for which, and the selection of the officers, should be entirely in the hands of the Imperial authorities. Another plan also occurs to me, viz. that a certain number of men and officers in the Militia might always be engaged on the understanding that they should receive some special advantages and should be liable for foreign service when called upon; but this would require much organisation, and for the emergency of a moment is not worth considering. Now, from a Canadian point of view the first two plans ought to be the most satisfactory to the Militia Department and to Canada, as enabling her to offer her troops off her own bat, and to undertake the organisation of the force, but I regret to say, and I think every straightforward Canadian officer would agree with me, that it would be impossible under the present Militia organisation to work on the lines of No. 1 and 2 plans, and to expect a well-selected force to be the residt. The whole Militia system is satur- ated with political influence, which is the ruin of its efficiency, and now that the question of sending a force into the field arises, the fact stares one in the face that, owing to the footing on which the Militia is and to the unmilitary influences which are constantly brought to bear on it, it is practically impossible for Canada off her own bat, as I say, to send into the field a force which she would feel was the best the country could produce. The result is that the only way I see of sending a reliable force from here is by entrusting the enrolment of the men and selection of the officers entirely to the Imperial authorities. The material to be found is excellent, and a very fine small force might be so sent. Pos- sibly this may be done some day, and though I think Imperial organisation would be approved of by most CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 169 good Canadian officers, who must know that my two first plans would not succeed, still I cannot help feeling that from a Canadian point of view it would be a bitter pill to be obliged to admit that Canada is incapable of luidertaking the organisa- tion of a force of her own. Of course all this is confidential, and I hope you will forgive my having said so much, but this question is a very interesting one, and, though it may have passed over for the present, is sure to crop up again. Should ever a small force leave Canada for active service, I should like to know that men and officers were the best that could be sent. Believe me. Dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, Yours very truly, (Signed) Melgund. CXI G. S. to Percy Bunting. The Gbanqe, Tobonto, March 31, 1885. My dear Bunting, Herewith goes my little paper on the Prince of Wales's ' visit to Ireland. A duplicate will follow, to prevent accident. Would you kindly let a copy be sent to the Prince ? What you say about English good sense is happily very true. But American good sense was just as strong. Moreover, for some time after the Revolu- tion, the influence of the educated and opulent class, the gentry in a word, was almost as great as it is in England. Yet the wire-puller triumphed over all. Yours most truly, Goldwin Smith. ■ Afterwards King Edward VII. 170 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CXII Matthew Arnold to G. S. Athbn^um Club, Pail Mall, S.W., June 19, 1885. My dear Goldwin Smith, I did not write to you at once with my daughter Lucy's address, because her movements were uncer- tain ; now, however, it is settled that she comes to Europe and that we do not go this year to America ; I am very well pleased that it is settled so, because I am rather tired by my final year of school inspection, and do not wish to have the American fatigue to face again so soon. I think, too, it will be better to let another year elapse before I again try the patience of American audiences. In the autumn of next year, if all goes well, I shall probably come over for a second and last visit. Meanwhile, Lucy will be back in New York, at 12, West Tenth Street, by the beginning of October ; and will be delighted and honoured by seeing you and Mrs. Goldwin Smith, whenever you are in New York this year after that date. To-day they talk of a hitch in the ministerial arrangements, but I think Lord Salisbury will come in. I confess to a great feeling of relief in foreign affairs being taken out of Lord Granville's hands, Colonial affairs out of Lord Derby's, and the supreme direction in both out of Gladstone's. Certainly, success has not been attained by the outgoing Government's management in these departments — every one must allow that ; and, for my part, I think Lord Granville worn out, and at the same time his flux of despatches grows almost as inveterate as Gladstone's flow of speeches. I have, however, no confidence at all in the Tories, though the change may perhaps put an end to some of the fumbling CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 171 and blundering in our foreign policy. I send you the Lectures, at two of which you so kindly assisted ; I wish I could talk to you about Drummond's book, ' which has the utmost success with the religious world over here — ^they think it at last clears all difficulties, and sets orthodoxy on a firm scientific foundation. With kindest regards to your wife, I am always most sincerely yours, (Signed) Matthew Arnold. P.S. — Lucy's married name is Whitridge. cxin G. S. to Mr. Jmtice Longley [of Halifax, Nova Scotia), The Gbangb, Tobonto, July 8, 1885. My dear Sir, I very cordially respond to your kind expres- sion of a desire that we should renew the acquaintance of former days. You know my views on the subject to which your letter mainly relates. I am persuaded that the attempt to separate from the rest of the continent and weld into an anti-continental Empire, by means of political railways, this string of Provinces united by no identity of interest, geographically disjointed, and further disconnected by the interposition of Quebec between the British Provinces, is already hopeless, and that the enormous sums which are being lavished upon it are miserably wasted. I have repeatedly avowed my conviction with perfect frankness, and if more is not said upon the subject in the Week it is because the appearance of propagandism would be injurious to that journal. 1 Natural Law in the Spiritual W(yrld. 172 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Looking at the question in the interest of England, which can never be absent from my heart, I believe that the vote and influence of Canada in the councils of this continent would be of far more value to the mother-country than the retention of a dependency which could be nothing but a burden and a danger in case of war. With you, I believe that the desire to be admitted to a full share in the resources and hopes of our Continent is gaining ground among our people, though their tongues are tied by tradition and by the fear of being branded as disloyal. On the other hand, the politicians of both parties are Separatists, naturally wishing to have a Canada to themselves ; and as they have the organisation in their hands, it is not easy to see how a movement which they dislike can be set on foot. Still, if I were in public life, I should be much disposed to raise without delay the banner of Com- mercial Union, and to try to form a league of the leading men in the different Provinces who are inclined to a continental policy. Mr. Blake, I fear, will never advance. He is held back, apparently, by the timidity which is of all the most incurable, since it arises from nervousness about his own reputation and position. When Sir J. Macdonald leaves the scene, the system of intrigue and corruption by which things are at present held together can hardly fail to collapse. Then, at all events, there will be an opening of which it is to be hoped you and others of the same opinion will take advantage. The people of Canada have suffered enough from the present policy of artificial isolation. Financially, the end of the system cannot be far distant, and, as Carlyle says, great is bank- ruptcy. You are mistaken in thinking that I supported Protection. I am for commercial autonomy, for putting an end to borrowing, and for a tariff suited CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 178 (as I imagine that of 1878 to have been) to the special circumstances of this country. Believe me, Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. J. W. Longley, Esq., M.P. CXIV G. S. to Lord Farrer. TOBONTO, August 17, 1885. My dear Farrer, I have just been reading with much respect and profit Free Trade v. Fair Trade, sent me by the Cobden Club, and in which my name is once or twice mentioned. Retaliatory against the Americans the Canadian tariff was, and I never denied it. Protectionist, in the first instance, it was not. Both publicly and to me in private Sir John Macdonald positively repudiated that intention. We had a deficit, caused largely by waste of money on political railroads, the fruit of the Imperial con- nection. We could not go on year after year bor- rowing. There was nothing for it but an increase of Customs or direct taxation, at the very thought of which everybody shudders. Leading men of business, who are in principle Free Traders, said that the tariff was on the whole about the best that could be framed. The necessary amount of revenue was obtained, the deficit was filled, and our credit restored. The volume, both of imports and exports, instead of diminishing, increased. Afterwards the Government was tempted by the scent of party gain into hoisting Protectionist colours and declaring its intention, instead of reducing when 174 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLD WIN SMITH it had a surplus, of keeping on the duties for the pur- pose of Protection. Against this I at once protested, and have continued to protest. The result has been disastrous. More has been wasted in abortive manu-r facturing enterprises than has been gained by Pro- tection. Fair trade is of course only the old dog in a new doublet. But to Retaliation I can see no objection as a crowbar to force open a closed market. The active supporters of the American tariff are now, I should think, a small minority. It depends for its existence on general apathy and timidity. A tax on American grain, I suspect, would bring it down with a run. You must not forget that you also have a tariff, which, though non-Protectionist, is like every other tariff- — an interference with freedom of trade. Au reste, it seems to me a pretty dangerous tariff where- with to embark upon the sea of democracy, being, as it is, utterly unelastic, so that upon every emergency you are driven to the income tax, of which the democracy will make use with a vengeance. To us, who watch the course of your affairs from a distance, you seem to be getting iato deep water. My heart is not with either of the factions, but with the few public men who seem still to think of the country. Their number, I fear, wUl be smaller after the election, since the organisations now are in the hands of the wire-pullers with you as they are in the United States. Matthew Arnold says the ordinary Englishman does his duty as well as ever. I have no doubt this is perfectly true. But the ordinary Englishman had better get to the front if he can, and save the nation from dismemberment and ruin. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 175 cxv G. S. to Matthew Arnold. TOEONTO, August 17, 1885. My dear Arnold, I have been long in your debt both for your letters and your lectures. An extract from the lectures brightened the pages of the Week, and a notice of the book is coming soon, I hope, from the best critic Canada has. A St. Beuve she has not. What you say in your preface about the undi- minished virtue and courage of the ordinary Briton is comfortable, and, I firmly believe, true. But the sooner the ordinary Briton gets to the front the better. Unluckily it is not easy for him to do it, because the organisations on both sides are in the hands of the leaders of faction and the intriguers. I would say to you and all the wise and good. Make any sacrifice necessary to sit in the next Parliament. It will be the last chance of a reasonable constitution. After what you said about Drummond ' I read him again ; and for the second time I laid him down with the reflection that he was most ingenious, but too good to be true. The stress lies on the chapter about biogenesis, which seems to me fallacious. Suppose spontaneous generation cannot be observed, can we conclude that it does not exist ? Besides, life may have been generated by matter, in a previous stage of the world's existence, under conditions which have now passed away, and afterwards propagated by biogenesis ; in which case its origin would be just as material as if we could produce it now from an infusion of hay. An awfully momentous affair, by the way, that infusion of hay, if the truth of religion depended on the experiment made with it. Does anybody believe that Christ or St. Paul had the difference between biogenesis and spontaneous '■ The author of Natural Law in the Spiritual World. 176 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH generation in his mind ? You will find, I think, that throughout the book the doctrine of sudden con- version is assumed and is made, under disguise, to prove itself. I suppose the writer is an Irvingite or something of that kind. You said in the Fortnightly that I was too bitter against the Church., Not against the Church, but against the Toryism which a Liberal was always encountering in elections, and the Cretinism which goes with ritualism and of the dangerous character of which I think you are hardly aware. However, I am no longer fierce for Disestablishment. I would repeal the Act of Uniformity, reform Convocation, introducing a large lay element, make the bishops [?] ^ constitutionally with Diocesan Synods, put an end to private patronage, with the sale of livings, and give the election to the Vestry, subject to the approval of the Diocesan Synod. This I fancy would give sufficient stability with sufficient freedom. At the same time, I do not believe that it will be possible long to mention tithe. It is the tribute of the great landowner to his own Church, and the great land- owner will soon be a thing of the past. Everything, at least, seems to be tending that way. So Lord Houghton is gone. He told me that he looked upon himself merely as a complex phenomenon, and should not be the least disturbed if he were told that the hour of his dissolution had arrived. The cable says that Ruskin, too, is dying. A great writer and a great teacher, in his way, though I believe artists do not allow him to be a great critic. He abused me heartily, I was told, but I took care not to read his abuse. Our kindest regards to Mrs. Arnold. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. » lUegible. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 177 CXVI Lord Farrer {first Baron), Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade, to G. S. BoABD or Teade, Whitehall Gabdbns, S.W. August 29, 1885. My dear Goldwin Smith, I am not happy about the future of politics. I am altogether a Radical in desiring to see every- thing done that can be done for the many and the poor as against the rich. The rich have had too much of their own way. I am not afraid of graduated taxation. But I am afraid of promising to do for the poor more than laws can do, which I fear that our Radicals are doing, and which is the beginning of revolutions. And I am afraid of limiting production in efforts to improve distribution. I fear still more the entire absence of conviction which makes the Tories try to cap the Radicals. Last year, for the first time in my [life], I was present at one of the great meetings which are now our principal instruments of government, and the thought left in my mind was, " Here are a number of simple, well-meaning people ready to listen. How all- important that they should have good and true guides ! " The way in which they have come back to Bright after the Crimean madness shows how they will ultimately appreciate truth — if they can get it. I am glad you agree that Canada is now Protec- tionist. Lord G. Bentinck could not talk more Protectionist folly than Sir L. Tilley. Can there be a more telling argument against the beginnings of Protection than the course Canada is taking ? Taste the evil thing, give the jobbers a foothold, and you cannot tell where it will stop. As to Retaliation, can you give me a single instance where it has answered 12 178 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH the purpose of promoting Free Trade ? Every instance I know is a proof to the contrary. Believe me, Very sincerely yours, (Signed) T. H. Farree. CXVII G. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. TOBONTO, September 30, 1885. My dear Mrs. Winkworth, Absence, however, you may be sure does not diminish my interest in English affairs. Whither are these factions hurrying you ? I fear towards a very uncertain bourne. The G.O.M. at all events has no idea where he is going. His continuance in the leadership was evidently a necessity if the party was to be held together. But I have lost confidence in his statesmanship. He floats along upon the tide of his marvellous rhetoric and exercises no forecast. Public character, with a few exceptions such as Bright, Spencer, and Hartington, is weak and low. This is the great danger. The Irish rebellion could be put down in a month. Matthew Arnold says no doubt that the ordinary Englishman still does his duty bravely and well. But I wish the ordinary English- man could get to the front. Party has completely prevailed over the love of country, and the result is that we have the pleasure of seeing England put up to Dutch auction by Lord Randolph Churchill and Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. If Chamberlain gets into power he will curse you with a proletariat — a people of State paupers living not by their industry, but by their votes. The demagogues here have begun to take the same line with their Labour laws and their promises to give everybody a good house. Here, however, we are doing much better. Cleve- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 179 land ' is fulfilling his promises and treading the path of reform with a resolute step . He cannot be expected to shake off all at once the trammels of the party which elected him, but his own acts are all good, and there is reason to hope that he has given a death- blow to the " Spoils " system. I wish you had such a man. Corruption, headed of course by the Irishry of New York, is going to try a fall with him, but I think it will bite the dust. All that is best in the country will stand by him. This is the anniversary of our wedding-day. Ten years of happiness I have had with my dear wife. I hope she has been happy too. Our love to all under your roof. Yours affectionately, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CXVIII G. S. to Professor Tyndall. TOBONTO, November 10, 1885. My deae Tyndall, We have just received a telegraphic summary of your Renfrew letter, which I have read with the interest I feel in everything that comes from you. It is vain to deny that Gladstone has failed, and brought the country into great peril. With wonder- ful Parliamentary powers, he has no practical fore- cast. In the intervals of his Parliamentary activity, instead of studying political problems and shaping his policy for the future, he vents his abounding energy in Homeric studies and essays on Ecce Homo or the dawn of creation. He has got Ireland into the most desperate condition, foreign affairs into a sad mess, and blindly plunged the country into a political revolution in face of Irish rebellion and social agitations of the most dangerous kind. » Elected President of the United States in 1884 and 1892. 180 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH And now, while Rome is burning, he plays his theo- logical fiddle. He has been for some years a king, and, like other kings, is screened from unpleasant truth, which I suspect seldom gets beyond his Private Secretary. However, the main object now, as it seems to me, is to save the nation from dismemberment, to the very verge of which it has been brought by the unspeakably base bidding of the two factions for the patronage of Parnell. If the nation is dismembered, good-bye to all your enterprise in Egypt or elsewhere, and to all your greatness — ^you will sink into a second-rate Power. If you could only see the gleaming eyes and hear the exultant voices of your enemies over here ! I see no way of saving the Union but by giving one of the British parties (for neither of which have I the slightest affection) a decided majority over the other party and Parnell. Therefore I should vote for the Liberals, who are sure to have a majority over the Tories alone, and trust that Hartington, Spencer, and other men of that kind would be able to keep the party out of the hands of Chamberlain and his set. I cannot conceive anything viler or more ominous of every sort of base concession than the conduct of the Tories to Lord Spencer. What a scene it is ! What a collapse of old English worth and honour ! It is like seeing a famous ship, after all her storms and battles, go down in a dead calm. But I cannot help hoping that there is good stuff still in the nation, and after some convulsions the right man will come to the front and put faction and scoundrelism under his feet. The Army and Navy, I trust, are still sound. I have done my best, in my small way, for England here. But it is difficult to get a hearing against the demagogic falsities which Chamberlain, Morley & Co. pour out about Ireland's wrongs and England's ill- treatment of her. I hope if the revolution goes on CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 181 these fellows will come to grief ; but that won't save England. Pray don't take the trouble to acknowledge this rigmarole. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Gold win Smith. cxix G. S. to Professor Tyndall. TOBONTO, December 16, 1885. My dear Tyndall, If there was any truth in the cable report, what was most to be feared is going to happen. In the senile craving for power which he veils, I suppose, from himself, under constant profession of a longing for retirement, Gladstone is going to surrender to Parnell and grant an Irish Parliament, with conditions and restrictions not worth the paper they are written on. The question now is whether a combination to defeat this attempt can be formed among moderate and patriotic men on both sides. Upon the answer to that question it depends whether England is henceforth to be a first-rate or a second-rate Power. I do not say that Hartington is a Hercules. But he gave up pleasure for duty. He has risen to his part. He shows, in some tolerable measure, the manly spirit in which the [?] who leads him is so miserably deficient, and he dhes not lie. Depend upon it, to support him and strengthen his hands is about your best chance. (Joschen has, I think, a firm as well as a good purpose, though he may not be a great force or a commanding figure. Salisbury may have reprobated Churchill's language, but he must have been cognisant of the understanding with the Pamellites by which their support was to be bought with the abandonment of the Crimes Act 182 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH and the repudiation of Lord Spencer. The Marquess has been truly described as a reed painted to look like iron. Lord Lansdowne, I am sorry to say, tells me that Lord Spencer is inclined to take Gladstone's line. This would be a heavy blow. I enjoy Huxley on Gladstone. It did not come in his way to point out the absurdity of the theory that a divine revelation was made to the man of the Quaternary period, but withheld from publication, or not written down, till the time of Solomon. When we are twenty years younger and have our political frolic, I hope a part of it will be putting Herbert Gladstone under the pump. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 1886 cxx Matthew Arnold to G. S. Pain's Hili. Cottage, Cobham, Subebt, January 13, 1886. My dear GotDwiN Smith, I have often thought of you, but I have never answered yoiir last letter. I have been busy, for this is my last year of inspecting. I resign in May. I shall lose two or three hundred a year, but the pension to which I become entitled in May is my full pension. I have had five and thirty years of inspect- ing, and I should like to retirefrom it before I drop. One or two things in verse which all my life I have wished to do I am now probably too old to do well ; but on this point I hope the inward monitor will inform me rightly if I nfiake the attempt to do them. One of them is a Roman play, with Clodius, Mile, Lucretius, Cicero, Caesar in it ; Arthur Stanley was aways interested, dear soul, in this project. I can CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 183 hear him now saying to some one, " You hear he is going to bring in Caesar and Cicero." But I am probably too old, as I said. Renan's [?] dramas seem to me a mistake : the personages are mere masks to utter his own epigrams ; and his epigrams are better given when he writes history. I have had an interesting six weeks in Germany ; the Grovernment asked me, in this my last official year, to go and find out for them the real truth about free instruction in the schools for the people on the Continent. In a humble mission of this kind one gets a sight of local life and administration which is very interesting ; people on grand political missions stay in capitals and see only swells. I heard Bismarck speak three times in one afternoon, and he has pro- mised to receive me when I go back to Berlin in February. He speaks badly, but one contrasts his powerful character with the fertile tongue of one adored William, not to our advantage. With oiu" William everything is possible ; stiU his Home Rule plans I cannot believe in till he produces them. As now attributed to him:, they have every conceivable vice which a plan for Ireland can have : they merge Ulster in Celtic Ireland, when, in any plan for local government, it should be kept distinct as a centre of natural Englishism and loyalty ; they withhold some usual powers of local government, and will thus give occasion for ever-renewed complaint and agitation ; and they rely on guarantees from Parnell to make them workable. Yours was an excellent little letter in the Times, but you should write a longer one. Fitz-James Stephen is not worth much, though he has a style of vigour. But merely to renew the Crimes Act is poor and barren advice. There was more goodwill to England in Germany than I expected to find : much of the enmity to Gladstone there is because he is really felt to be damaging it ; much of the favour to Salisbury, because he is really felt to be bringing it out of the mess. I was particularly interested in what you said in your last letter to me 184 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH about the Church of England : about your wish being at present for Church reform rather than Church abohtion. Will you let me use those sentences in print if I ever touch the subject again ? I have no present intention of doing so, but perhaps I may touch once more on Church matters before I hold my tongue about them for ever, and with political matters the same. Do not lose sight of my Lucy on your great continent. I think the American press, the great danger of the nation, grows worse and worse, from all I can see. The Times, Standard, Post, Manchester Guardian, Leeds Mercury, Scotsman, and so on, are real causes for satisfaction here in Great Britain, and forces of conservation. But my paper is ended. My cordial remembrances to Mrs. Goldwin Smith. Affectionately yours, (Signed) Matthew Arnold. P.S. — We shall probably come over in May and return in August or September. I cannot face another lecturing tour. CXXI G. S. to {the third) Earl Grey. Toronto, March 30, 1886. Dear Lord Grey, Your deliverance on the Irish question has been cabled to us and I need not say has been read by me with interest. Feeling is warm on the subject here. If colonists think less than those at home about the interests of the mother-country, they think fully aS much about her honour. " Party," indeed, has done it : and there could hardly be a more tremendous lesson on the necessity of finding a way out of that system than the prostration of England at the feet of a set of Irish bullies combined with American Invincibles, and her too probable submission to dis- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 185 memberment by their hands. A strong and patriotic leader, independent of party, might yet save you, but of course he is not to be found. Apart from the effects of faction, however, the House of Commons, in which all the powers of govern- ment now centre, is manifestly unfit to govern. You are almost on the verge of anarchy. Siu-ely the first object (supposing the Bicameral System to be retained) is to infuse new life into the Upper House and enable it to act as a curb on the House of Commons and the rallying-point of Conser- vatism. This can only be done by adapting the House to the ideas and exigencies of an era of demo- cratic government. Otherwise you will probably have to go through some convulsion by which new governing forces will be evolved. What Irish moonlighters want is not self-govern- ment — ^that is, free murder and outrage — but a firm and civilising rule. If, however, self-government is to be conceded, I should be for four Provincial Councils. This would save Ulster from political submersion. I would give the Councils represen- tation in the House of Lords, in place of the repre- sentative peerage, thus introducing the principle of election by two degrees which has produced the American Senate, the one clear success of the American system. I see they go on talking of Canada as a precedent for Irish Home Rule. Canada is distant from the mother-country, is friendly to her, and practically enjoys legislative independence. In herself she is a group of Provinces under a Federal Government elected by them all, and bears no analogy to a yoking of two nations together such as the advocates of an Irish Parliament propose. You are, I fear, in the most unsafe hands. Mr. Gladstone's high moral tone conceals his want of a strong sense of responsibility ; and nobody who has not read his lucubrations on mythology and cos- mogony knows what vast theories he can buUd upon 186 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH nothing and how totally he can be deserted by common sense. I enclose a clipping from the New York Evening Post, which is a trustworthy authority. Though the native Americans are friendly to England and have no sympathy with the Irish, I have little doubt that the Irish Parliament, if it declared itself independent, would be recognised by the politicians under the pressure of the Irish vote. I am about to pay a short visit to England, but I almost wish I could change my plan : for I fear I shall have the pain of witnessing a great disaster and a descent of my country in the scale of nations. Believe me, Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith, CXXII G. S. to (Roundell Palmer, first) Earl of Selborne. North Western Hotel, Liveepool, May 3 [1886 ?] My dear Lord Selborne, About the first thing which meets my eye on landing is your letter to the Times. Your words are the words of wisdom ; but unhappily in this case, while all the wisdom is one side, the numbers, under the leadership of a morally impressive but unscru- pulous demagogue, are on the other. Gladstone's moral aspirations are no doubt very high, but his sense of responsibility is low ; there are few who are so sensitively conscientious and few whose conscience is worth so little. The Irish difficulty, though bad, is not the worst of it. Worse is the state of the House of Commons, which is now the only Government, yet no more fit to govern than a street mob ; worse still is the state of the nation, which is loose from its old moorings of principle, much shaken in moral fibre, and in a fever CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 187 of revolutionary excitement. If you do not pull up, you will slide into a revolution. Gladstone's Bill seems to me to extinguish the sovereign power. Before the Act of Union sovereign power resided in each of the two Parliaments, with the Crown. Since that Act, it has resided in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Gladstone does not repeal the Act of Union, though he makes an attack upon it which, on the part of a Prime Minister dealing with the foundations of our polity, can only be called profligate. Sovereign power, therefore, does not revert to the Irish Parliament, while, if it remains legally in the British Parliament, Ireland being no longer represented there, the power cannot be used and is morally extinct. Who is to amend the Irish Constitution, or to deal with any part of the arrangements between the two countries that may require alteration ? The scheme has been got up since the result of the election made it apparent that Parnell's support would have to be pui-chased in order to bring Gladstone's party back to power. No wonder it is full of flaws. But what cares faction ? Gladstone's manifesto is an unprincipled appeal to party spirit, but I am afraid it will succeed. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CXXIII G. S. to Mr. Hutchins. Clarendon Hotel, OxrOBD, May 6, 1886. My dear Hutchins, I have been smarting under the consciousness that you must have thought me most ungracious in not answering your letter. The fact is, I unluckily lost your address and had no means of recovering it. So I had to comfort myself with the recollection of 188 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH your mammoth good nature in our Magdalen days, and with the hope that it would suggest some excuse or palliation for the apparent neglectfulness of your old friend. I have come over with my wife to spend a few months, probably for the last time, in England. We are, as you see, at Oxford, and here we shall most likely remain till the end of Term. I hope something may bring you to the Alma Mater while we are here. Our old Magdalen circle is by this tinae terribly thinned. But I have still a good many friends here whom I formed in a later state of my academical existence, and the place has become socially most pleasant. Wonderfully unlike it is to the old Oxford of the Dons and of celibacy. The Heads of Houses are now brisk young sparks. Do you remember Radford, the Head of Lincoln in our day, patting his great stomach as he shambled along, and repeat- ing, " It's a very wet day " ? One thing I regret — the old Common Room life, which was very pleasant in its way, and has been extinguished by the irrup- tion of marriage. What a state the country is in ! Worse than the Irish difficulty is the condition of the House of Commons, and worse than all the political temper of the country. It really seems to me as if you were on the verge of revolution. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cxxiv The (third) Earl Grey to G. S. HOWIOK, LESBUEY, NOKTHTJMBBEIiAini, May 13, 1886. Deae Professob. Goldwin Smith, I have not sooner answered your very inter- esting letter of March 30, because you said in it that you were about to come over to England, and I have only to-day learnt how to address a letter to you here. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 189 Since you wrote this letter things have advanced very much towards that great crash, not only in Ireland but here also, which I have long believed to be coming. It seems now to be quite impossible that we can go on long without some great change in our whole system of government. Whether that change will be for the better or for the worse, and whether it will be accomplished peaceably or be brought about by some terrible convulsion, I cannot guess, but I feel convinced (and I believe this is your opinion also) that Parliamentary government, with a House of Commons under the exclusive dominion of the uneducated classes, cannot work, and that some far larger change in our whole system than has yet been even talked of must take place, unless the country is to be brought to ruin. What changes would be desirable, and how much of what in itself would be so can be hoped for, are very difficult and important questions, to which men's minds ought to be turned without loss of time, but I fear there are no signs that any of our leading politicians recognise either the serious nature of the present crisis or the necessity of proceeding upon sound principles and with boldness in any reforms that are attempted. In the meantime I trust we have now every reason to hope that the mischievous bills so wickedly brought forward by Gladstone will be refuted. Believe me. Very faithfully yours, Gkey. cxxv G. S. to Sir Robert Collins. Clabendon Hotel, Oxpobd. May 16, 1886. My dear Collins, Pray present our best acknowledgments to the Duchess * for her invitation, and say that as soon as » Of Albany. 190 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH we find ourselves in London we shall most gladly obey Her Royal Highness's kind command. I have just returned from a visit to a political friend in London, where I was in the centre of the cyclone. The [Home Rule] Bill is dead and buried fathoms deep, if all who are against it have the courage of their convictions. But have they ? Party ties are strong, patriotism is weak, and the Caucus is plying its [?] with all its might. The country is in peril when its interests are placed by popular idolatry absolutely in the power of one man,' who, as his oldest friends admit, is intoxicated with popularity, surrounded with flatterers who treat doubt of his infallibility as treason, too imperious to regard any opinion but his own, and too old either to put off the cravings of ambition or to feel the full measure of personal responsibility for the result. Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. CXXVI G. S. to Professor Tyndatt. 29, BbDFOED SQtTAEB, Beighton. July 28, 1886. My dear Tyndall, If you were sorry to miss seeing me, you may be sure I was not less sorry to miss seeing you, especi- ally as I fear we are not likely to meet again ; for this will probably be my last visit to England. I earnestly hope the air of the glaciers will give you fresh life. In any event, you have the happiness of thinking what an immense work you have done. Yes, by a dead-lift effort, Dagon has been over- thrown. Nor do I think that he will easily set him- self up again ; for in his rage at the opposition to his will he has not only made himself special enemies of powerful classes and interests, but personally out- * Gladstone. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 191 raged the men on whose goodwill his chance of restoration depends. Still there is no small capacity for mischief in him, and what he has already done is almost irreparable. I do not much like the turn things have taken. The Government will be very weak just when it ought to be very strong. The new Premier ' himself is, I am afraid, not morally a strong man, though he is a man of great ability ; and if he allows Lord Randolph Churchill to have his way we are not safe even against the most infamous intrigues with the Parnellites. However, for the present let us rejoice : Dagon is overthrown. With kind regards to Mrs. Tyndall, believe me. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cxxvn G. S. to {the third) Earl Grey. North Wbstebn Hotel, Livebpool. September 23, 1886. Dear Lord Grey, I sail on Saturday for Canada, and I do not think that anything is likely to bring me to this side of the water again. I leave England strongly impressed with the mag- nitude of the political danger and with the incapacity of an unorganised democracy for self-government, much more for the government of an Empire. The first consequences of the blind extension of the franchise, against which you often raised a voice of warning, are a narrow escape from Dismemberment and the appearance, in the person of Mr. Gladstone, of Demagogism in its most powerful, its most malig- nant, and its most destructive form. Nothing can be either more tragical or more terribly instructive than this man's moral fall. How the election was carried against Mr. Gladstone's 1 Lord Salisbury. 192 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH influence, and the nation was saved from the peril, nobody can exactly say. Probably it was in great measure through the personal exertions of a number of men who were stimulated to extraordinary efforts by the greatness of the stake, but whose exertions cannot always be sustained, while the wire-puller will be steadily at work. Mr. Hamerton in his Round My House gives an account of a French election in which the votes of the peasantry were turned by their anger at finding that a Papal coin which had got into circulation among them was under weight. I do not believe, from what I have seen and heard, that your newly enfranchised democracy in the rural districts, or in the poorer quarters of the towns, is much more rational or more fit to be entrusted with the destinies of an Empire. The old Constitution of King, Lords, and Commons, with all its safeguards, has departed ; no Constitution or set of safeguards has taken its place. You have nothing but vast masses of people, most of them either ignorant or ill-informed, entrusted with the direct exercise of supreme power and called upon to decide questions which they cannot possibly under- stand. Your only remaining Conservative insti- tution, of a practically effective kind, is the non- payment of Members of Parliament, which keeps the representation for the most part in the hands of the wealthier class ; and this is already marked by Mr. Gladstone's axe. I do not think you can go on long in this way. Very truly yours, GoLDwiN Smith. cxxvin HOWIOK, LeSBUET, NOBTHTTMBEELAin). September 28, 1886. Dear Professoe Goldwin Smith, I am much obliged to you for your letter of the 23rd. It takes a very gloomy view of the present CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 198 political state of this country and of our prospects for the future, but unfortunately not only is all you say on the subject fully justified by the facts of the case, but the truth is, in my opinion, even worse than what you say. It seems to me that this country can only be saved from the greatest calamities by something little short of a miracle. The madness of having thrown supreme power into the hands of the most ignorant classes, without any effective check on the use they may make of it, is already beginning to produce its natural effects, and the wisdom of the great writers of antiquity who have described the evils of unbridled democracy is be- coming more and more apparent. Very dangerous and destructive doctrines are apparently gaining complete possession of the new electors, and this is the more serious from its also becoming apparent that men of much higher position are willing to flatter their prejudices, either from their desire to promote their own party interests, or from their being very often as ignorant, or almost as ignorant, of the true principles of politics as those whom they address. The ignorance which prevails among the members of both Houses seems really astonishing, and their leaders often show themselves to know little more than their followers. Lord Salisbury, for instance, in many of his speeches and proposals, constantly shows either that he has not read, or dis- regards, what has been written by our wisest political philosophers. And Gladstone, with all his classical learning, constantly shows how much he lacks any clear knowledge of the principles of legislation and political economy. I think of his moral character much as you do, except that I doubt whether there has been such a change in it for the worse as you suppose. Circumstances prevented his faults being so openly displayed in the earlier part of his career. But in his recent career I think a want of a clear understanding of the principles of sound legislation, and of the danger of departing from these principles 13 194 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH in the delusive hope of securing some temporary advantage, has contributed to the mistakes he has made, as well as his indifference to right and wrong. He has, for the present at least, been foiled in his attempt to dismember the United Kingdom, and we have a better H. of C. than we had a right to expect under our new constitution, but there are plenty of signs that even this House, with its strong body of Conservatives, is little likely to make it possible to carry on the Government wisely, and very danger- ous proposals will be made, and I fear some of them carried. I think our best chance is that Parliament, as it is now constituted, will be found so entirely unequal to its duties that some much greater change than has yet been thought of will of necessity have to be attempted. I believe party government with the present franchise wUl prove itself quite impractic- able. I wish I could see, among the generation now coming forward to conduct our affairs, any sings of there being any man of sufficiently high intellectual and moral power to guide the coming changes in a right direction. Nor can I at all see what changes there are which could now be made in our constitu- tion which would enable it to work : I have nothing but some very dim visions as to what might be done. The almost if not quite insuperable obstacle to any real improvement in our system of government is the prevalence of party spirit. Do you observe that Gladstone is now doing his best to reduce Wales to the condition of Ireland ? Pray write to me from time to time what you think of political affairs. The constitution of the United States seems to me to work little better than our own. Yours very truly, (Signed) Gbey. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLD WIN SMITH 195 1887 CXXIX G. S. to Mr. Justice Longley.^ TOHONTO, January 15, 1887. Dear Mr. Longley, Be not disquieted. Your Pole-star is still true. If you have observed any " leanings," they have not been mine, but those of the Editor, who, I believe, is a decided Conservative. For my part, I care no more for Sir John Macdonald than for Mr. Blake, nor for Mr. Blake than for Sir John Macdonald. The Prime Minister's system is undoubtedly one of corruption, and I fear it is demoralising the people. The only excuse for it is the difficulty, not to say impossibility, of holding this heterogeneous and ill- cemented mass together in any other way. On the other hand, what can be less respectable than Mr. Blake's alliance with Rielism,* especially after his conduct on the occasion of Kiel's first rebellion and his speech at London the other day ? I have ex- pected nothing grand from him since the day when, under the lash of the Browns, he deserted " Canada First " and left his friends to the tiger. I cherish more, perhaps, than ever the moral bond which unites us to the Old Coimtry, and more than ever regard the political bond as worse than worthless. I am also more than ever convinced that the only real assistance which Canada can ever give to England is her friendly vote in the councils of our own con- tinent. There, also, I am just as I was. Imperial confederation I regard as a mere chimera, and one which is fast becoming mischievous. Though as fond of red-coats as a nursery-maid, I do not look to them for political wisdom. ' Sometime Attorney-General of Nova Scotia. ' Louis Kiel was the leader of the Canadian Half-Breed Rebel- lion in 1884-85. 196 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH I wish you would give us something for the Week. The present Editor is just leaving us, though I do not wish it mentioned at present. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. cxxx G. S. to the (first) Earl of Selhorne {formerly Boundell Palmer). The Gbanqe, Toeonto, February 7, 1887. My dear Loud Selbokne, I hope you received the Toronto Week, the little paper to which I contribute, with a short notice of the book of which you were so kind as to send me a copy. If you read the notice you would see that I do not think the ground which you take in defence of the Church property practically quite so strong as you do, and that I should be more inclined than you seem to be to compromise without delay. Rough times are coming. I was surprised to hear that the agricultmral labourers generally were saying, " Parson, he must come down." In the cities the zeal of the High Church clergy seems to have made way. You are rid, I hope, of Randolph [Churchill], who has fulfilled my most sanguine expectations. Now let the Conservative party, renouncing for ever the fatal heritage of Beaconsfieldian intrigue and leger- demain, go back to the old English paths of truth and honour, and try to make itself a rallying-point against revolutionary and unpatriotic Radicalism for all who are opposed to revolution and love the country. The division henceforth will be between Liberals and Radicals. The Conservative party, since the extension of the franchise, is not, and never will be, strong enough to govern by itself. Salisbury, I must say, has behaved nobly and has entirely re- deemed what I thought his weakness in giving way before to Randolph Churchill. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 197 We are in the midst of a great faction fight here. The Macdonald Government is so infamously corrupt, and its influence in every way is so pernicious, that one ought to desire its overthrow. But the Opposi- tion, for the sake of the Irish vote, has been hypo- critically allying itself with Nationalism, as well as with the kindred element of Rielism in this country, and moving resolutions of sympathy with Gladstone. So my sympathies, or I should rather say my anti- pathies, are divided. I had to decline the invitation of my friends in Manitoba to stand as an " Independent " there. The chances were good, the other man being very weak and discredited. But a personal canvass was indis- pensable, and this I could not undertake in mid- winter. The settlements are widely scattered, there are no accommodations, the conveyances are of the roughest, the cold is arctic (sometimes 40 below zero), and the storms are dreadful. My medical man positively said No. I am not sorry, for Ottawa is unattractive, and my appetite for work does not increase with years. Moreover, my conviction is that the doom of the Ottawa Government is fixed. The ultimate union of the whole English-speaking race on this continent seems to me as certain as the rising of to-morrow's sun. When it comes, I believe it will be an unmixed blessing to England, which has no longer any political interest here, while the only sort of assistance that Canada will ever lend the mother-country is her friendly vote in the councils of her own continent. I hope your Government will take good advice before it gets into trouble about this wretched Fisheries question ; above all, before it allows itself to be drawn into making any menacing demonstra- tions in these waters, by which, be assured, nothing but mischief can be done. Ever yours affectionately, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 198 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CXXXI The {fourth) Viscount Monck to G. S. 78, Bblobavb Road, S.W. February 14, 1887. My dear Me. Goldwin Smith, I am much obliged for your letter. I think if you and I were seated at a table — I should not be particular as to the shape of it — ^we should find that we do not differ materially in ovir opinion as to what should be done in Ireland. I am quite indifferent as to the " satisfaction of national aspirations," with which, in the fu-st place, I have no sympathy, and which appear to me abso- lutely ridiculous in the mouth of any person who sup- ported Mr. Gladstone's scheme. I know there is also the danger, pointed out the other day by Lord Derby, that if you create any Legislature for Ireland, separate from the Imperial Parliament, it will immediately be assumed in Ire- land that that Legislature, and no other, is compe- tent to make laws for Ireland. I confess mine is very much a " policy of despair." I do not believe that a majority of the House of Commons will steadily back any government in a permanent system of " resolute administration " in Ireland, and if I am right in this supposition, the attempt and failure would, in my opinion, only land us in even a more disastrous position than that which we now occupy. I should be quite satisfied, as far as I am indivi- dually concerned, with [?] plan of a Grand Com- mittee of the Irish members meeting in Dublin, and appointed by sessional order. If the Irish only want to have the management of their own affairs, that plan ought to satisfy them ; but I fear they aim at a great deal more than that, and that sooner or later we shall have to face the alternative of Separa- tion or actual fight. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 199 My knowledge of public opinion in Canada has now become ancient history — but when I knew it I always thought that the exuberant loyalty which appeared so strong on the surface would not continue to exist if it were subjected to the strain of any material sacrifice. There was then, however, no indication of any desire to identify their future with that of the United States. Believe me to be. Most truly yours, (Signed) Monck. cxxxn G. S. to the (first) Earl of Selborne. New Yobk, April 21, 1887. My dear Lord Selborne, The ship of State has, by the division on the Crimes Bill,' been carried safely over one more reef, but she is always scraping bottom and, I fear, is still in extreme peril. Happily, she is a little better manned than she was. I cannot say, however, that I like the form of these Crimes Acts. Changes of the venue look like sub- terfuges and beget a not unreasonable suspicion of removal to a partial, as well as a distant, tribunal. Jury trial has broken down in Ireland and is no longer able to afford the security against crime which is the object for which all forms of procedure exist. Recognise this fact. Form, to meet the special emergency, a panel, say of five hundred persons of unquestionable character, from all parts of the United Kingdom, and send down a jury of them, chosen by lot under a judge of indisputable integrity, to try the case upon the spot. You will, besides assuring a * It was carried by 370 votes to 269 on the second reading. — Lord Salisbury was at the head of the Gpvermnent. 200 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH righteous verdict, do the Irish peasantry great good by letting them see the face of inflexible and incor- ruptible justice. I find that Americans friendly to England, who do not like the bill in its present form, cordially approve what I propose. The Irish have one real political grievance — ^the necessity of coming to Westminster for all their private-bill legislation. Might not this be redressed, and a safe satisfaction given to Nationalist sentiment at the same time, by constituting the Irish members a Grand Committee for Irish private-bill legislation, and letting them sit at Dublin during the recess ? The Committee would be reappointed each Session and, if it grew fractious and tried to make itself a centre of disaffection, you would only have to omit the reappointment. At the same time there would be an Irish Assembly, sitting in College Green, and settling purely local questions for Ireland. I find that this proposal also commends itself to the sentiments of Americans who are well-wishers to England. Goschen says the Grand Committee would job. No doubt they would ; but that is the look-out of the Irish. The vices of Irish patriots are less dangerous than their virtues. If the job was very flagrant, the House of Commons, to which, of course, all the reports of the Conamittee would be formally submitted in the ensuing Session, might investigate the particular case. At the pass to which we have come, and with a great English party demanding a Parliament for Ireland, some concession must be made to sentiment, not only Irish, but English and Scotch, and perhaps even foreign. I have been talking to a number of Americans in three or four great centres. They are misrepre- sented by the rabid Parnellism and Anglophobia of their press. What Gladstone calls " morality " and " humanity " is nothing but spite against Eng- land and fear of Irish subscribers and the Irish vote. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 201 To defer to such pretended " opinion " would be mere folly and dishonour. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CXXXIII G. S. to Percy Bunting. The Geanob, Tobonto, May 6. 1887. My dear Bunting, With regard to the Lives of Christ, my hand has been stayed by the fear that your readers might be shocked by the negative character of my con- clusions, and by exhibiting to them, as I could hardly help doing, the extent to which the merely historical evidences have crumbled away. Very truly yours, Goldwin Smith. cxxxiv G. S. to Percy Bunting. The Geangb, Toronto, July 22, 1887. My dear Bunting, Many thanks for the cheque. The next thing I write for you shall be something in religious philosophy, if you agree. If by Canadian " sentiment " you mean merely goodwill towards the mother-country, I hope we are not wanting in it. But if you mean a willingness to pay or sacrifice anything for British connexion, do not lean upon it in your hour of necessity, for you will find it a bruised reed. There are now nearly a million of persons of Cana- 202 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH dian birth on the south of the Line. You know what that means. Very truly yours, GoLDwiN Smith. cxxxv Lord Hartington to G. S. 8, King's Gaedbns, West Beiohtok, August 7, 1887. Dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, I am very much obhged to you for your kind and interesting letter of the 20th July. I think that there is no doubt that events are tending in the direction of a more complete coalition, and that, at all events, both sections of the Unionists are far more prepared for it than they were a few months since. Up to a very recent date I do not believe that a coalition Government would have had the hearty support of the whole of the Conservatives or Liberal Unionists, but I think that now opinion is nearly prepared, and almost any event might bring about the fusion. I am afraid that the agrarian question is nearly insoluble. I conceive that the depression of prices would have swept away a large number of embarrassed landlords if economical causes had been allowed to have their full operation. But now their extinction will appear to be the act of the State, and any pur- chase plan which recognises the real facts of the case as to the value of much of the land in Ireland will have the appearance of a fresh act of confiscation and will be resisted accordingly. I remain. Yours sincerely, (Signed) Hartington CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 203 CXXXVI G. S. to Lord Farrer. Winnipeg, Manitoba, August 21, 1887. My dear Farrer, Your letter has followed me hither. I have come partly to look after some business, partly and principally to breathe the prairie air, which is most invigorating and delicious. Your paper about Cardwell, together with the other papers which I used for the sketch, was sent before my departure from England, to Lady Card- well. I suppose it is now with the other papers in the hands of the executors. Charles Parker will know. I am glad you agree with me about the question between this Province and the Canadian Pacific Railway. To get rid of railway monopoly is abso- lutely vital to the interests of this settlement, which cannot prosper by itself, much less in competition with Minnesota and Dakota, if it is to be saddled with railway monopoly and at the same time with the protective tariff, from which, as a new agricul- tural country without manufactures, it suffers more, perhaps, than any other part of the Dominion. Freights are assessed by the arbitrary power of a privileged railway company, while the people have to pay very heavy taxes on their farm implements (if bought where they are made best), their clothes, their canned provisions, and their fruit. Fruit cannot be grown here, and the denial of it is greatly felt. The absurdity of the tariff is most glaring where, along a tract of 800 miles, there is nothing to divide two sections of a population absolutely identical but a political line ; and where one part of a village or even of a house may be in Canada, and the other in the United States. A strong movement in favour of Commercial UniQn 204 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH with the United States is now on foot in all parts of the Dominion except Quebec, where the dominant priesthood opposes everything that is likely to bring the people more into contact with the liberalising influences of the Republic. If Commercial Union is defeated, its defeat will only make way for a move- ment in favour of annexation, which sooner or later must come. I have suggested to the people here that before anything violent is done they should appeal to the Queen-in-Cotmcil to restrain the Governor-General in the exercise of the veto on the ground of con- stitutional right. They seem inclined to adopt the suggestion. They cannot be satisfied with a merely departmental decision of the Colonial Office. Lord Lansdowne evidently deems it his duty to be entirely passive in the hands of Sir John Macdonald, whose political fortunes are bound up with the interest of the Canadian Pacific Railway as well as with that of the protected manufacturers. All this is an instructive comment on the proposal to adopt the relation between England and Canada as a precedent for the reconstruction of the United Kingdom. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CXXXVII The Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain to G. S. HiGHBTTBY, MOOE GbBEN, September 13, 1887. Dear Me. Goldwin Smith, I am very much obliged to you for your kind letter of the 1st instant, and if I come to Canada, as I hope I may be able to do, I shall look forward with pleasure to the opportunity of seeing you. At present my arrangements are incomplete, and the only thing CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 205 which is settled is that I shall go straight to Washing- ton in the first instance. I am of course imperfectly informed as to the internal policy of the Dominion. I have followed with some interest the inadequate accounts of the movements for Commercial Union. If, as I understand, what is proposed is a sort of Zollverein, between the United States and Canada, which would involve absolute Free Trade as between the Dominion and the States, while an identical tariff was imposed by both countries against all others, I can only say that it appears to me that this must inevitably be followed at no long date by a political union and the separation of Canada from Great Britain. I am carefully studying the question of the Fisheries, but it would, of course, be improper that I should express any opinion on the subject at present. With kind regards, Believe me, Yours very truly, (Signed) J. Chamberlain. cxxxvni Professor Hiram Corson^ to G. S. Casoadilla Cottage, Ithaca, September 21, 1887. My dear Professor Smith, I have received your favour of September 19, and your lecture, which I have read with deep interest, on " The Schism in the Anglo-Saxon Race." I think you must be mistaken in regard to the extract from Malone. In his An Attempt to ascer- tain the Order in which the Plays of Shakespeare were mitten, he says : " Mr. Holt conjectured ' that the • Sometime Professor of English Literature at Cornell University, Ithaca, U.S.A. — an old coll^ague of G. S. there. * Observations on " The Tempest" p. 67. Mr. Holt imagined that Lord Essex was tmited to Lady Frances Howard in 1610 ; but he wa3 mistaken, for their union did not take place till the next year. 206 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Masque in the Fifth Act of this comedy was intended by the poet as a comphment to the Earl of Essex, on his being united in wedlock, in 1611, to Lady Frances Howard, to whom he had been contracted some years before.* "Even if this had been the case, the date which that commentator had assigned to this play (1614) is certainly too late : for it appears from the MSS. of Mr. Vertue that ' The Tempest ' was acted by John Heminge and the rest of the King's Company, before Prince Charles, the Lady Elisabeth, and the Prince Palatine Elector, in the beginning of the year 1613." Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, in his Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare (5th edition, 1885, pp. 193, 194), says : " The comedy of ' The Tempest,' having most likely been produced at one of the Shakespearian theatres in 1611, was represented before King James and the Court at Whitehall on the evening of the first of November in that year, the incidental music having been composed by Robert Johnson, one of the royal ' musicians for the lutes.' The record of the perform- ance included the earliest notice of that drama which has yet been discovered. It was also acted with success at the Blackfriars Theatre, and it was one of the plays selected early in the year 1613 for the entertainment of Prince Charles, the Lady Elisabeth, and the Elector Palatine." In his Illustrative Notes to this passage. No. 152, H.-P. says: "That 'The Tempest' was originally written with a view to its production before the Court may perhaps be gathered from the introduction of the Masque, and from the circumstance that Robert Johnson was the composer of the music to 'Full Fathom Five ' and ' Where the Bee Sucks,' the melodies of which, though rearranged, are preserved in Wilson's Cheerful Ayres or Ballads set for three Voices (1660). Johnson is mentioned, in the Treasurer's accounts for 1612, as one of the royal musicians ' for the lutes.' . . ■ ' January 5, 1606-7. The Earl continued abroad four years fjrom that time ; so that he did not cohabit with his wife till 1611, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 207 " No. 153. The evening of the first of November. — In The Booke of the Revels, extending from October 31, 1611, to November 1, 1612, a manuscript in the Audit Office Collection, there is a page con- taining a list of plays acted during that period before the Court, two of Shakespeare's being therein men- tioned in the following terms : " ' By the King's players Hallomas nyght, was presented att Whithall before the Kinge's Majestie a play called the Tempest. The Kings players the 5th. of November, a play called the Winters Nightes Tayle.' This list is considered by more than one experienced paleographer to be a modern forgery ; but, if this be the case, the facts that it records were, in all probability, derived from a transcript of an authentic document. Speaking of ' The Tempest ' in the Account of the Incidents, 1809, p. 39, Malone dis- tinctly says : ' I know that it had a being and a name in the autumn of 1611 ' ; and he was not the kind of critic to use these decisive words unless he had pos- sessed contemporary evidence of the fact." I have copied these passages, thinking you may not have convenient access to them. I haven't see Prof. Fiske's In Memoriam volume. He sent it to three ladies here, Miss Curtis, Mrs. John McGraw, and Mrs. Gauntlett, I think he is still attached to the University. All our Professors who visit Florence receive a cordial welcome at his villa. He might, perhaps, have been managed by the authorities in a way to have avoided this law-suit. Mrs. Corson unites with me in kindest regards to yourself and Mrs. Smith, and I am. Faithfully yours, (Signed) Hiram Corson. Professor Goldwin Smith. 208 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CXXXIX O. S. to Percy Bunting, The Grange, Torohto, October 19, 1887. My dear Bunting, Many thanks for the cheque. I am afraid you are premature in supposing the dispute settled. They must take care what they are about. In the population of Manitoba the British element is hardly predominant, and of Imperialism I should think there is almost none. If the Province is driven to Secession, nobody here will raise a finger to coerce it. If it is to be coerced at all, you will have to use British troops. Then there will be a quarrel with the Americans, on the wings of which Blaine and the party hostile to England will ride into power. How the G.O.M. is behaving ! England, I fear, is in great peril ! Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CXL G. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. The Grange, Toronto, November 22, 1887. My dear Mrs. Winkworth, I am glad you liked the Lecture.' Its sumptu- ous form was not my taste, but that of the Canadian Club of New York. Things are tending in the direc- tion in which it points. Nothing stands in the way of a reconciliation between the two branches of the Anglo-Saxon race, except the malignant influence of the Irish, of whom, and of their dynamite and blather- skite, I hope the Americans grow weary, though the appearance of sympathy with them is kept up by the cowardice of the politicians and the press. ' On " The Schism in the Anglo-Saxon Kaoe." PHOTOGRAPH OF THK POKTRAir IN IHI': Sl:NIOK C'O-MMON ROOM OF UM\'EKSITV COLLI-(.i;, OXFORD CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 209 What you say about Steenie interests me greatly. I hope he will take a line of some kind, otherwise life will not be worth much to him when his tennis days are over. There is not much use in playing with any calling or study which you do not mean to pursue. " Reading a little law " comes almost to nothing. A knowledge of commercial business may be useful for commercial legislation. But surely the right thing for a yoimg man of fortune, unless he has a special taste for science or art, or for philanthropic effort of some kind, is public life. It is an immense advantage to a public man to be placed above caring for office or for immediate success in an election. This vile Schnadhorstian machine is crushing the conscience out of English public men, and political independence is more than ever a rare and priceless tribute to the country. Besides, the English gentry must cease to be mere men of pleasure, and prepare themselves to do their political and social duty if they would avert a catastrophe. There are very dark clouds on your political horizon. I have no idea what Steenie's political opinions are, or whether he has yet formed any. If his opinions were at all like my own I coidd very likely give him some introductions which might be useful. But he will have no difficulty in finding admission, whatever his party may be. Mr. Chamberlain has made a bad start, and it is doubtful whether much will come of his mission. I hope not, if he means to put a veto on free trade between Canada and the United States, which to Canada is of the most vital importance. If British statesmen could only see it, their true policy is to leave the internal relations and affairs of this con- tinent alone and cultivate friendship with the whole of it. But they allow themselves to be influenced by railway projectors, himters after titles, and other untrustworthy people. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 14 210 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CXLI Lord Chief Justice Coleridge to G. S. 1, Sussex SQtrABB, W. November 24, 1887. My dear Smith, I was delighted to see your handwriting. A letter from you is always a real pleasure. I wish the answer could be made in kind. The matter, however, which was the origin of your letter, settled itself without any interference on my part in the sense which you desire. Indeed, except on the score of nationality, I cannot conceive there being a question as to Longfellow's right to a niche in Westminster Abbey. I do not myself think him as original a poet as either Bryant or Poe, but he was a beautiful, graceful, musical writer, just level to the capacities of the average reader of poetry, and with an English popularity I believe in excess even of that which he enjoyed in America ; and on the score of country, just when Americans are subscribing to the statue of Stanley, it would have been indeed ungracious to raise a question. The Prince of Wales has some uses, and he put an end at once to any possible opposition. No doubt you are absolutely right about America. I felt exactly as you describe at the time of the Civil War, when indeed they had much to bear from what is called " society " here, which let out, as it thought safely, its intense hatred of freedom and independence, its detestation of " the people," no m.atter where. It is not quite safe now to indulge in open hatred here — but in America " society " thought they had a safe object to hate openly and behave accordingly.— I used to hear that Cornewall Lewis, the Duke of Argyll, and Lord John on one side, and I am bound to say Dizzy and Stafford Northcote on the other, kept the House of Commons quiet. You may perhaps have seen by the English papers CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 211 that I have had a sharp and painful illness, which has happily passed away. It has left me very weak, but I hope with no permanent bad effect. I shall see how I am by and by, but if I am pretty well, I really hope to come to America next Long Vacation if I live so long. I was asked some years ago, when I was in fresh sorrow, and when Cookham was alive. Then I put it off ; but the invitation has been renewed now in a kindly and generous spirit, and so much has been made of it, both by Americans and English- men, that I do not like to refuse. It is a bore of an ultra-erymanthian magnitude ; and, at my age, to lose a quiet summer on the hills and vales of Devon- shire is something which implies some self-denial to acquiesce in. But after all the end is near, and if it pleases any one else what does it signify to me ? Only that I could wish some younger and happier man, with more of the spring of life in him, and more hope for the future, was going in my place. De meipso nimis. But you may depend if I come I will offer to invade you, and if we could see Niagara together it would be a very great pleasure. You and my dear old friend the Bishop of Fredericton are the only two persons I care to see out of the States. Philadelphia and Boston contain many friends. New York a few. Elsewhere in America I am not conscious of a personal acquaintance. I do not think I had read your book through when we parted at Oxford. I cannot tell you how it interests me, and how much I admire it. You spoke perhaps of publishing it. I wish you would ! There is no book I so constantly want to give away ; and I cannot but believe it would have a very great sale here. No one who has seen it but agrees with me, both in my opinion and my wish. How I wish, too, I could write such a style as yours ! — but that is less attainable than to get you to publish. Tait is going after all. He will be a loss in many ways — a great one to those who knew him as I did — for he was a warm-hearted, simple man, and a steady 212 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH friend ; but he will be a public loss too. For though he let every real question drift, and though in public he thought only of what would do, i.e. do for society and Parliament, yet he was in some ways a statesman. I don't think I liked Dizzy better than you but I own I would rather he had had the making of an Arch- ^Mv'very kind regards to Mrs. Smith. •^ Yours most truly, (Signed) Coleridge. 1888 CXLII T. F. Bayard to G. S. 1413, Massachtoetts Aveitoe, Washingxok, D.C. March 4, 1888. My dear Mr. Smith, It gave me much pleasure to receive your very kind letter, and just at a time when the conclusion of the treaty had relieved me from a great deal of tension and anxious labour. You see that the treaty is a resolution for neigh- bourly conduct in respect of the mixed rights of Fishery, which needed a less one-sided and more liberal interpretation. , • 4.1. It is too early to say what its fate is to be m tne Senate, but I hope the sober judgment of that body wUl not defeat the conciliatory spirit m which the treaty was framed. The expressions of the Opposition press are, as usual, petty in spirit, and very ignorant as to facts. Nothing would be more delightful next summer than to get a glimpse of your home on the lakeside, and enjoy the hospitality of Mrs. Smith and yourself so temptingly held forth. I am so thoroughly impatient with those who wouia implant discords and differences between Canada CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 213 and the United States, that, with such a settlement as the treaty affords, the talk of Retaliation seems wicked in the extreme. If you publish anything about the treaty, I would like very much to receive it. Political events are very uncertain in the time they occupy, but certain it is the small fibres [?] through which the vital forces of men and nations pass are — with the laws, or against the laws of the congresses — making a single existence of the two peoples. This I am sure is silently, but potently, approaching its results, if mischievous and evil passions do not check or thwart it. With kind respects to Mrs. Smith I am. Most truly yours, (Signed) T. F. Bayard. Professor Goldwin Smith, &c., Toronto. CXLIII G. S. to {the third) Earl Grey. The GRAnaB, Toronto, March 11, 1888. My dear Lord Grey, Accept my best thanks for your volume on the Irish Question, which I have read, I need not say, with the greatest interest. I hope it will receive the attention it deserves ; but wisdom might almost as well preach to madness as to factions struggling for power. That the world will have to find its way out of party government if it wishes to escape great disasters, is my strong and increasing conviction. There can be no shadow of doubt that the best thing for Leinster, Munster, and Connaught would be suspension of Parliamentary representation and government on the footing of a Crown Colony for at least ten years. Not only would this be the best policy, but I believe it would be really welcome to 214 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLD WIN SMITH almost all but the village bullies who have now the hopeless country in their hands. The House of Commons, however, is not up to that mark. I tell Mr. Goschen that he has a Conservative Parliament, and he had better use it, or he will never have another. He replies that the Parliament is not Conservative, since the members for large, popular constituencies, though they may be Unionist, are nervously afraid of the masses and dare not for their lives do anything contrary to democratic aspirations. The truth is, the Irish question is the least part of the danger. You are in face of a general revolution- ary movement, and unless some man appears strong enough to control events, instead of yielding to them in the spirit of fatalistic weakness which seems to prevail, a catastrophe there must be. This sudden collapse of public character in England is one of the saddest things in political history. As to Mr. Gladstone, his wickedness — ^for the ability of his speeches shows that wickedness it is, and not insanity — is astounding ; and he goes from bad to worse. Very truly yours, GoLDAViN Smith. CXLIV The {third) Earl Grey to G. S. HOWIOK, LeSBUBY, NOBTHtrMBEBIiAUD, March 26, 1888. Dear Professor Goldwin Smith, I have to thank you for your letter of the 11th, which I received yesterday, and also for your address to the Canadian Club of New York, which reached me lately, and which I have read with much interest. I agree with you in thinking that the time is come in which, for the welfare of the world, it is become indispensable that its nations should be relieved CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 215 from party government. This is a conclusion I have reluctantly come to, as I am still at a loss to discern any mode of carrying on free governments except by party, or of accomplishing a change. I do not believe that the necessity for such an experiment would have arisen, in this country at least, if twenty- five years ago the leading politicians on both side had been less selfishly bent upon using the question of a reform of the House of Commons for their own personal and party objects, and would have joined in an attempt to accomplish a reform which would have made the House of Commons a really good deliberative as- sembly, instead of utterly degrading it by what are called the Reform Acts of '67 and '85. But now that by these mischievous measures a real monopoly of political power has been given to the uneducated classes, and every day shows more clearly how unfit they are to use it, there seems no chance of escaping some great calamity without a complete change in our whole system of government. And it is not here only that party government, with political power in the hands of the mob, is working badly ; even in the United States it seems to be very far from answer- ing the purposes of good government, though, from the character of the people, and the fortunate circum- stances in which they are placed, they are not suffer- ing as other countries are. In this country I am persuaded that a complete change of system must take place at no distant period, but I fear it is very unlikely to be accomplished in time to avert some great calamity ; it is more likely to be the consequence of such a calamity brought on by the faults of our system. What you tell me Mr. Goschen says of the present Parliament is in accordance with the opinion I had formed of it from the general tone of the proceedings ; its members who call themselves Conservatives are little if at all less disposed than the Radicals to support all the foolish schemes which find favour with the mob. With regard to my book, I am glad to find you agree 216 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH with me, at least to some extent, as to the necessity of suspending representative government in Ireland for some time, but I must remark that, if this were to be done, it must be so in Ulster as well as in the other Provinces. It would never do to make a difference in the mode of governing the different parts of Ireland. The maintenance of one uniform system of law and of government in the whole island is of vital importance, and besides, it is not less necessary in Ulster than elsewhere to have a strong authority to keep the opposing factions in order: witness the riots which even within the last year have taken place between Orangemen and Roman Catholics. I must also remark that I should deprecate the government of Ireland as what is called a " Crown Colony." In a Crown Colony the Governor is under the control, in all he does, of the Secretary of State. The conse- quence is that very often the judgment of the Governor, both in the exercise of his patronage and in his administrative measures, is over-ruled by the Secretary of State in the interest of the Ministry, and still more frequently the Opposition attacks perfectly proper acts of a Colonial Governor in order to damage the Home Government under which he has served, as when Gladstone made his venomous attack on Lord Torrington for the vigorous measures by which he put down the attempted insurrection in Ceylon, which in all probability would have led to much bloodshed if it had not been thus promptly checked. It was this consideration which induced me in my book to recommend that the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, though liable to removal for misconduct, should be quite independent of the Ministry of the day so long as he held his office. Yours very truly, Grey. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 217 CXLV G. S. to {the third) Earl Grey. New Yobk, April 23, 1888. My dear Loed Grey, I did not mean to say that Ireland should be made a Colony in the technical sense of the term, but only that there should be a suspension of represen- tative government, for which government as a Crown Colony seems to have become a euphemism. Surely there would be both injustice and danger in including the loyal part of the island in the suspension of political liberties occasioned by rebel- lion. I am afraid, in the condition into which affairs have been brought, you will have to look to Ulster as a garrison for some time to come. There is obstruction in Congress as well as in the British House of Commons. They have just had six days of it, with one all-night sitting. Legislative paralysis prevails, and even the necessary Appro- priation Bills cannot be passed. Decidedly Parlia- mentary government is on its trial. Your Local Government Bill vdll very likely give a fresh impulse to the revolutionary movement. The Radical Caucus in each district will soon take the elections in hand. If there are any safeguards, they will be swept away as soon as the Radicals get into power. I lived a good many years in an English county without hearing a single complaint against the administration. But all your statesmen, even the most Conservative, seem to yield to some- thing which they take for fate, and which will soon become fate if they continue to yield to it. Lord Salisbury does not try to control events, nor, as I believe, has he the clear and settled convictions which would enable him to do it. A crash, as you say, there will probably be, since there is nobody to puJl up the runaway steeds. You 218 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH can only try to provide a plan of government which, when the crash is over, the community may at once adopt and thus be spared a long interval of chaos. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. CXLVI G. S. to Mrs. Matthew Arnold. The Gbanob, Toeonto, May 9, 1888. Dear Mrs. Arnold, The very day before the cable announced to us your husband's death ' I had written to him a letter, destined, alas ! never to reach his hands. If it reaches yours, will you kindly return it to me. I need not tell you how I have mourned his loss. On public grounds, the loss is greater to us on this side of the Atlantic than even on his own side, because we on this side needed his teachings more. There is no one now left who like him can bend the Silver Bow. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. If you have destroyed the letter — all right. 1889 cxLvn [Private] G. S. to Charles S. Smith. The Gbanoe, Toronto, February 4, 1889. Charles S. Smith, Esq. My dear Sir, The Tory Government of Canada and the commercial interests adverse to Continental Free 1 He died on April 15, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 219 Trade, which are allied with the Government, have evidently nailed their Separatist colours to the mast ; and they are doing their utmost, through all their organs and by all their means of influence, to stir up anti-American feeling among our people. In the cities, especially among the lower part of the popula- tion, they have had some success, but none, I think, in the rural districts, where the desire for extended trade relations with the United States manifestly gains ground and begins, in spite of the inveteracy and stiffness of our party divisions, to show its influence in the by-elections. It seems desirable that this should be known to your statesmen and journalists, both in order to prevent them from taking an artificial excitement for a spontaneous outburst of public feeling, and in order to warn them against playing into the hands of the enemy by counter-manifestations of hostility towards Canada. I cannot help being sorry that Mr. Blaine, instead of Mr. Sherman, is to be Secretary of State. Mr. Sherman's policy, I venture to think, is premature, and based upon imperfect information as to the difficulties still to be encountered here ; but his tone is that of a statesman desirous of minimising friction, and it strengthens the hands of those who are desirous of kindly relations here. After all, it is to the leaders of commerce in the United States that I look with the greatest hope. If they are favourable and will steadily exert their influence, we shall in time — ^perhaps at no very distant time — ^reach the goal. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 220 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH cxLvni Viscount Peel (once Speaker of the House of Commons) to G. S. House of Commons, February 22, 1889. Dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, You have conferred a favour upon me by writing the letter which I have just received — for I value very highly any advice you may be disposed to give on the subject of my father's life and letters. You will say that what is contemplated is neither one nor the other, but a combination of both in very unequal proportions ; that the running commentary which is to link the letters together is not sufHcient for the general public, and does not give scope enough for literary work, and for the due history of the life and character of the man. My only reply must be that it was impossible to find the " workman," and that in his absence, we — I mean the trustees — were compelled to look out for an Editor who would undertake to present the " correspondence " in the shape which would be most readable by the present generation, while giving all that is really important for the illustration of the life of the statesman. At the same time, I, speaking for myself, have tried to give Parker the fullest latitude within the limits just mentioned, and, if he considers himself too cramped in his efforts to bring out material points or to give a popular or adequate explanation of the circumstances surrounding a particular letter or series of letters, I can only say that I think he will find little to complain of on the part of the trustees. I have not seen Parker since he sent the proofs to you, and I shall be most anxious to hear from him any suggestions which either you may have been good enough to make directly to him or which he may CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 221 originate himself in accordance with your general advice. With a sense of obligation to you, I remain, Very sincerely yours, (Signed) Arthur W. Peel. CXLIX G. S. to Mr. Albert {afterwards the fourth Earl) Grey. COBNELL UnIVEBSITY, ItHAOA, N.Y. April 1, 1889. Dear Mr. Albert Grey, I hope you will take a little truth about Canada home with you for the benefit of much- deluded England, though Ottawa is not exactly the Castle of Truth. Try to satisfy yourself what is the real state of Canadian defences, and whether there is the slightest hope of getting Canada, under any cir- cumstances, to contribute to Imperial armaments. I am afraid it is useless to exhort you to test the value of Canadian loyalty. I wish I dared to commit to paper the real history of the Canadian movement against Parnellism and O'Brien. Things seem to be going but indifferently in England. Salisbury is going to take hold of the skirts of the women to save himself from falling, and pass female suffrage, thus, for the sake of a small temporary relief, adding permanently to the elements of confusion and peril. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CL G. S. to Briton Riviere. Cornell University, Ithaoa, April 18, 1889. My dear Riviere, Your letter announcing that the pictures are on their way finds me at Cornell University, to 222 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH which, having taken a humble part in the commence- ment of the enterprise, I come every year, under pre- tence of giving a lecture on history, to renew old associations. You may imagine how curious and interesting is the contrast between this youngest of American Universities and old Oxford. I return to Toronto to-morrow, and hope to find the pictures awaiting me. My dining-room is full of Puritan heroes, so I can afford to give a part of the drawing-room to the Restoration. I wonder whether a copy of Gainsborough's Blue Boy is attainable. It is, as you know, in Grosvenor House. I fell very much in love with it when I saw it there. I should think it would not be a very hard picture to copy. Copies, of course, are all that we can aspire to in Canada. England has no political interests on this continent except the friendship of all its English-speaking in- habitants. She has not a shadow of power left, for the Governor-General has abandoned (ignobly as I shall say) the last remnant of prerogative and the last vestige of control over the roguish tricks of Colonial politicians. Nothing remains to you but dangers and liabilities. Canada never has given and never will give — she has, in fact, emphatically refused to give — a penny to Imperial armaments, and she herself, relying on Imperial protection, is totally without the means of defence, and, in case of war, would be a dead weight on England's arm. In fact a maritime war would to a moral certainty terminate the political connexion, and in a very unhappy way. You are all misled upon this subject by Canadian touters and title-hunters. I am glad to hear that the Unionists are not losing heart. Still the situation is extremely critical, when you consider the character of the masses in whose hands the destiny of the country is. That courteous person, Mr. Frederic Harrison, the Deputy High Priest of Humanity, tells me in the Contemporary CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 223 that my utterances are those of old age and dis- appointment. Of old age they are, but otherwise I am happy in all things, except in seeing my country cast down by the hands of British factions, allied with Irish savagery, from her place among the nations. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CLI G. S. to Briton Riviere. The Gbangb, Toronto, May 15, 1889. My dear Riviere, Let me assure you that I think most " defi- nitely" about the Blue Boy, and that if ever an opening presents itself, I shall be infinitely obliged to you to get a copy made for me by any artist whom you may select, and at the price you may deem proper. I do not know the Duke, and if I made such a request his answer would probably be a snub ; but it is just possible that at an Academy dinner, or some other favourable moment, you may have a chance of sounding him on the subject. The copy would never leave Canada. It could go at my death to a public institution. I can easily understand, though I know nothing about these matters, that the Blue Boy is more difficult to copy than the Lelys. Still I should think it was copiable. There is nothing in it — ^nothing at least discernible by the ordinary eye — ^which would inevitably evanesce. I cannot fancy a copy of a Turner or a Reynolds, or of a picture like your own Circe and the Swine. Once, when I had come over to England, I was dining with a friend at Bolton. I was talking about your works, and lamenting that I had never seen Circe and the Swine, and was never likely to see it, since I heard that it had passed into private hands. 224 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH " Turn round ! " said my host. I turned, and lo ! the picture hung behind me. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 1890 CLII G. S. to Percy Bunting. The Gbanoe, Toeonto, January 16, 1890. My dear Bunting, Divorce is a subject which I should be afraid to handle. So much special knowledge is required. The best authority on it, so far as the United States are concerned, is Rev. Samuel W. Dike, Auber- dale, Mass. To him I would advise you to apply if you want a good account of marriage and divorce in America. The family is a subject about which Bryce has said very little in his American Commonwealth. Per- haps he was not called upon to say much. But there are some very serious things to be said. Yours most truly, Goldwin Smith. CLIII G. S. to Mr. F. C. Wade. The Grange, Toeonto, August 12, 1890. My dear Wade, I have to thank you for a chivalrous defence of Bystander in the Free Press and Sun. The Free Press of course rejoices in the demise of Bystander; By- stander would have lived to little purpose if it did not. You may rest assured that in bringing out Bystander again my only object was to fill a dangerous gap in CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 225 the advocacy of Continental Free Trade, a measure which I have always believed to be essential to the prosperity of Canada in general, but absolutely vital to that of Manitoba and the North-West. You may also rest assured that the only motive for withdrawal is that, the special exigency being over, I wished to devote myself without interruption to other work. The Bystander has been doing as well, to say the least, as its friends could possibly expect. In a community like ours, and with a constituency so limited, to keep anything of a literary and non- partisan kind alive is very difficult. If expenditure of money and labour, and sacrifice of other work, to make this an intellectual centre, affords any proof of patriotism, I can hardly be said to have been wanting in loyalty to my adopted country. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. F. C. Wade, Esq., Winnipeg. CLIV [Private] G. S. to the Editor of the " New England Magazine." The Gbangb, Toronto, September 9, 1890. Dear Sir, The ladies of my family, who are sure to be critical judges, are very much pleased with the por- trait in the New England Magazine, as we all were with the view of this old house. I have to thank you personally for the kind remarks which accom- panied them. You seem to think that there is some- thing strange in my having taken up my abode in Canada. But I am sure you do not suspect that the cause was discreditable or equivocal, as most Cana- dians do me the honour to insinuate whenever I have the misfortune to differ from them in opinion. The 15 ^26 CORRESPONDENCE OP GOLDWIN SMITH mystery is easily solved. In 1868, when I left Eng- land, I was greatly broken both in health and spirits by family affliction. I needed change, and at the same time some restorative in the way of interesting and congenial occupation. Four years before, I had paid a short visit to the United States and had been greatly interested with what I had seen, and formed the wish to see more. My thoughts were turned in this direction when Andrew White, meeting me in London, proposed that I should take part with him in the building up of Cornell University, which was then being founded by Mr. Ezra Cornell. This was the very thing for me. I spent two years in light work amid pleasant associations at Cornell, and was thoroughly refreshed and restored, though when I first came I had been too weak even to lecture stand- ing. The two years having passed and the University being fairly established, I felt a desire for a more domestic life, and came over to join a branch of my family already settled in Canada, retaining, as I do still, my honorary lectureship at Cornell and my close and affectionate connexion with the University. Not very long after my arrival here, I married the lady to whom this old house belonged, and with her made it from that time my home. She had around her a circle of relations and connexions which thence- forth became mine. There was nothing, therefore, equivocal or even fanciful in my choice of Canada as a permanent residence. That I was driven from England by a quarrel with my party, as my assailants here constantly assert, is absolutely false. At the moment of my departure I had before me the formal offer of a nomination for a constituency in which my party had a certain and a large majority. I have received similar offers since I settled here, and when I was last over there the Liberal Unionists wished to bring me out for an important constituency against a member of Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet. It is unneces- sary, I am sure, to deny to you, what my bitterest enemies here have not ventured to assert, that my CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 227 expatriation was caused by anything affecting my character. I say to you, in response to your kind words, what I have never said and never should say in pubhc. There are some calumnies which it is degrading even to notice ; and every man of sense and refinement shrinks from engaging in public con- troversy about incidents in his private life. Yours most truly, (Signed) Gold win Smith. P.S. — I take the liberty of sending you a little volume of translations from the Latin poets ' which will show you that my exile from Oxford does not prevent my reading the classics. CLV G. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. The Gbange, Toronto, October 20, 1890. Dear Mrs. Winkworth, This McKinley Bill ' is a sad relapse and a great disgrace to democracy, though it is not the only proof that the foUy and wastefulness of the people can out-Herod the folly and wastefulness of kings. The Americans will squander in this one year more than the total cost of Versailles in army pensions, given partly for an electioneering purpose, partly, and principally, to get rid of surplus revenue and evade the reduction of duties. The fact is that the government of the world has by the extension of the suffrage been taken, for the time at least, out of the hands of intelligence, and narrow-minded cupidity, worked upon by political intrigue, is undoing the work done for humanity by Turgot, Pitt, Peel, and Cavour. At the same time it is right to say that Protectionism in the United States is kept up as much by sheer dint ' Bay Leaves. MoKinlejc's highly protective tariff bill waa passed by Congress on the thirtieth of September. Missing Page Missing Page 230 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH of her statesmen, at the feet of a rebellion which a single battalion would have scattered to the winds. While statesmen have been thus disgracing them- selves, not a soldier or a policeman in Ireland has failed in his duty. Gladstone is unspeakable. He may treat Pamell as a sinner ; but is Parnell's offence really greater than that of the man who, to recover power, or if you will to carry a favourite measure, sets society on fire by the four corners, awakens provincial enmities which have slumbered for centuries, sets the masses against the classes, makes the vilest and most men- dacious appeals to the most malignant passions, and incites an ignorant and inflammable peasantry to defiance of the law. That is his sole excuse. All this stuff that he is publishing about cosmogony, mythology, and other things which he does not under- stand, is intended as a display of the extraordinary versatility of his genius. He has been flattered into taking himself for a sort of political Messiah. Since you wrote has come Parnell's smash. This gives us a chance, though it is not pleasant to have the country saved in that way, and the less said on our side, it seems to me, the better. A statesman above party, if he could manage to touch the heart and win the confidence of the country, might even now save you from going over Niagara. But there is no such man, and over Niagara, I suppose, you will go. Home Rule is now the least part of the matter. It is merely an item in Socialistic revolution. Salisbury is a great diplomatist and debater. But I fear he has not given his mind to the problems which he is now set to solve. His idea seems to be saving the House of Lords by concessions to Social- istic revolution which will only whet the appetite of the tiger. He is going to give free education and he sanctions this Land Bill, which is fraught with trouble to come ; for how is a Parliament, split into factions and controlled by the Irish vote, to recover the public money from the Irish, who will certainly repudiate CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 281 the debt ? Balfour has done well, but he is now out of his depth. After this jeremiad I fall back on the hope that there is still saving force and virtue in England and that they will be evoked by extreme need. I sent you some time ago a little volume of trans- lations from the Latin poets, entitled Bay Leaves, but I believe there was no card with it and nothing to mark that it was mine. My wife unites with me in kindest regards and best wishes. She has not forgotten the days which she spent at Blackmoor. Ever yours affectionately, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Mark that Parnell is the man whose word we were to take for the finality of Gladstone's measure of Home Rule. He betrayed Carnarvon's confidence just as he has now betrayed Gladstone's, but that was no sin. cLvni Frederick Greenwood to G. S. 19, Abgyi,!, Road, Kbnsinoton, December 14, 1890. Dear Mr. Smith, Your letter was very gratifying to me for many reasons, not the least of them the sanction I find in it to my comparatively unimportant opinions. Since you wrote, what a change in the whole aspect of affairs ! The Gladstonian newspapers affect confidence that all will go well with their cause and their chief, but it is but a trembling affectation, and though Mr. Gladstone has not lost his buoyancy, and is resolved to carry on again the line so rudely interrupted (this is what I hear from some of his nearest friends), his lieutenants are smitten with hopelessness. In private they admit that there is no prospect of recovery from this shattering blow. They see, like other people. 232 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH that Parnell is pretty sure to win in Ireland ; that the Government poUcy thereupon wUl probably be to dissolve Parliament, as they could fairly do upon the ground that there is no Ireland in the House of Commons to deal with now, but only a set of brawling factions ; that if Parnell is the favourite in Ireland, he will come back leader of the Irish party (Fenian- ised) ; and that with him so returned, it would be impossible for Mr. Gladstone to act ; and that it would be palpable then that all's up with Home Rule as a winning cry. The English Gladstonians are, of course, disgusted with Home Rule (many of them) now, and still more with the Irish Home Rulers. Seeing the part which the Irish bishops and clergy are playing on behalf of a faction which, equally with the other, means disruption and revenge, this disgust is all the greater : and it is the English constituencies which will decide the next election. We may suppose, too, that the latent opposition to the Land Purchase Bill on the Conservative benches (where it is generally and strongly disliked) will come out now ; and it seems to me not improbable, therefore, that the Government may dissolve without proceeding to its Irish legislation, except that which affects " the congested districts." But there is no knowing. There are some who think that the Government will push themselves forward as the real friends of Ireland, by rather enlarging than narrowing their " policy of concession." It would be a wild thing, however, to set up a 33,000,000 land-purchase scheme in the midst of such enlightening turmoils as these — vividly as they reveal the hazards of such a measure. As you will have divined, late events have made a great stir amongst the Unionist Liberals : with some of whom the question of the day is, whether the explosion of Home Rule does not remove the only barrier to rejoining their old party. Why not form up, and go upon a programme of land reforms for the people of England, Scotland, Wales ? That is the very natural question with some of the Liberal Unionist CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 233 leaders — with Chamberlain I know it is ; and he has become very pushing in that direction. The main obstacle is W. E. G. at present ; but the ascertained ascendancy of Parnell in Ireland, dissolution, and a beating at the polls (or even a Gladstonian return to power by a small majority, including Parnell-Ied Parnellites) would remove that obstacle, perhaps. The prospect, therefore, seems to tell us this : that if you were right in saying, before this row began, " Home Rule is now the least part of the matter — it is against Socialistic revolution you have to fight " — ^you are much more surely right to-day. If the Gladstonian party (Laboucherian largely) is compelled to give up Home Rule as its main dependence, the sooner and the more vigorously will they pass to the Socialist- Radical line of conflict. Pardon this too-long sneer ; spite of which, Believe me, Truly yours, (Signed) F. Greenwood. I hope to see something from your pen in the English press before you receive this. It is thought that Lord S. will drop his Free Education Bill at present. The theory is that he wanted to do something to secure his Church schools before going out at the next elections : but if there is little chance that he will go out, so much reason the less for pushing a measure which is strongly opposed amongst his own partisans. 1891 CLIX G. S. to Hon. James Young. The Gbangb, Tobonto, April 28, 1891. My dear Mr. Young, You say in your address on Canadian Nation- ality, if the Globe reports you rightly, that I have 234 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH described Canada as " rough, raw, and democratic." This is an old but not a true story. It had its origin, I believe, in a malicious distortion of some words in the editorial of a paper, of which, though a writer, I was not the Editor. Believe me, I have never uttered or penned a disrespectful or an unkind word of my adopted country. Believe me, dear Mr. Young, Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. Hon. James Young, Gait, Ont. CLX G. S. to W. T. Harris, Boston. The Geange, Tobonto, August 11, 1891. Dear Sir, Accept my best thanks for your pamphlet, in which I find much that is interesting and important, especially with regard to the average amount of rent. What Mr. Herbert Spencer's earlier views may have been I do not feel sure, but I hardly think he now holds that there can be no private ownership in land without essential injustice to mankind ; at least I do not think he holds this in the sense in which it is held by Mr. George. Yours truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. W. T. Harris, Esq., Boston. CLXI Frederick Greenwood to G. S. 5, John Stbekt, Adelphi, W.C. October 9 [1891 ?] Dear Me. Smith, Your letter (for the printing office) came just too late for use this week, but it is in type for next publication : my thanks for it, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 235 What you were told of the political prospect here is, I believe, the truth ; and if it seemed very probable last week — ^all but certain — ^that the Radical Opposi- tion will ride over us at the next elections, far more likely is it this week. Mr. Parnell's death will strengthen Mr. Gladstone's supple, mischievous hands by a great deal : the news of the [?]'s fall was as oil and wine to the whole of the Gladstonian party. It smoothes away many difficulties for them. For the Conservative side the news has been a discourage- ment more heavy than is at all likely to find expres- sion, and it seems to me now that only the departure of another statesman to the place appointed for him, or a really alarming (panic-making) development of foreign affairs, will keep the Gladstonians out of office more than a year longer. And the adventurous Em-opean Powers look for their best chances of open- ing fire to Mr. G.'s return to Downing Street : this is certainly the belief abroad. Wherefore (you will perhaps think this a far-fetched speculation) it would not siu-prise me if Lord Salisbury forced those European troubles to a head : partly, perhaps chiefly, [from] a sincere and patriotic belief that the withholding of the bolt till Mr. Gladstone comes into office will be ruinous for England. What you say of the use which the Conservatives have put their power and their opportunities to, is perfectly and wretchedly true. Not only Conserva- tives but the left-centre men in England feel it and scorn it. You well choose their government-of- London scheme as an example of the kind of fatuity that has marked a course of legislation which was never meant to be wise so much as to look " generous." The man who drew and who coached that scheme through the House of Commons (Mr. Ritchie) is about the most maddened of all Conservatives with the outcome of it. Believe that I do not vn-ite compliments when I tell you that the revelations you have been good enough to write about for my little paper have added 236 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH greatly to your influence on the public mind in Eng- land. I constantly meet men who say, " I confess I thought Goldwin Smith wrong-headed about Canadian affairs, but we see now ! " What you say about Macdonald is like too much that one hears of the men who control our destinies — hears and knows. If none but wise and honest men had the " gift of the gab," what a different world it would be ! Yours very truly, (Signed) F. Gkeenwood. 1892 CLXII G. S. to Professor Burt G. Wilder {of Cornell University). The Grange, Toronto, January 1, 1892. My dear Wilder, Overleaf you will find a copy of a letter which I will leave my executors, to be opened " immediately on my decease." I will add, if you please, " or when my death is known to be approaching." I would rather that you did not give publicity to the arrangement. It might get into the Canadian papers and shock my wife, especially as she knows that my strength has been rather failing and that the time for the performance of my promise may not be very remote. Ever yours most truly, Goldwin Smith. My brain is promised for scientific purposes to my friend. Professor Burt G. Wilder, of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. It is my earnest desire and injunction that this promise be fulfilled. It is the only service that it will ever have been in my power to render to science. I am told that the operation can be per- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 237 formed without disfigurement. Let Professor Wilder be at once notified of my death. If he receives the notification at once he will give directions ; otherwise let the operation be performed by some s\irgeon of Toronto, and let the brain be sent to Professor Wilder. [To this Professor Wilder adds :] The above was his written embodiment of the verbal declaration made on the 20th of April, 1891, at my rooms in CascadUla Place. I had not asked him for his brain, but the matter was under discussion ; he added that he would as soon I shoxild have his brain as his old hat, and that he wished he had ten of them for me. CLXin Frederick Greenwood to G. S. 19, Abgyil Road, Kensington, April 27 [1892 T] My dear Mr. Smith, I have asked one or two of Gladstone's near friends whether they have heard of any such intention or proposal as you speak of in your last letter (of course without a hint that the question was inspired by anything but my own speculations), and discovered nothing but ignorance on that point. G. keeps his counsels very close — as some who are reputed to be his favourite captains say ; raying [ ? ] them out in intimations (when he speaks of them at all) too mysterious to found a confident belief upon. For my own part, I cannot think that he would either propose or consent to a combination with the chiefs of the other party to frame a scheme of self-government for Ireland ; though your own suggestion, that he may ask the country at the next General Election to affirm the Home Rule principle, promising that if the prin- ciple is affirmed he will take the Tory [ ? ] leaders into his counsels on framing details, seems quite in 238 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH accord with the subtle surprise of his tactics. It is so hke him, indeed, that I think we may credit any- close friend of his who says that that is the line of conduct he is at present bent upon. What is more, I think (as you seem to think) that it would be for him a judicious and successful line to take — eminently " dishing." The Irish would have to put up with it ; and his character and position are such that he could either give them comfortable private assurances or take their leaders by the throat in a private room and ask them what they hope to get without him, and how they would like a redistribution of seats that would reduce their membership to due proportions ? The belief grows that the Government will dissolve when the hay harvest is in and before the corn crop makes the farmers busy again. Saunderson, the Ulster champion, told me some weeks ago that he felt sure that was the intention ; which probably accounts for holding these Ulster conventions at the present time.' They would be premature if the dissolution were six months off. We never hear a word about the Irish Local Government Bill, and it is to be supposed that there is no serious intention now of forcing it against the wishes and opinions of so many Conservative members. Of course, if Gladstone takes the line suggested in your letter, he will dash the argument that if he comes in he must plunge into Home Rule schemes at once, without having any time to devote to the fulfilment of New- castle programmes. That, too, would be a great advantage to him, obviously. He will come in, and I don't think he will be got out again so easily as they imagine who think, and think that everybody else thinks, of nothing but Home Rule. And then we shall begin to see " movements " abroad, probably ; and there will be agitations on the foreign stock market unapprehended at present. It is all the more 1 The Ulster Convention was proposed on April 8, 1892, and met on June 17. Resolutions in opposition to Home Rule were passed. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 239 good, therefore, that we are out of the Behring Sea trouble. Don't you find it difficult to maintain a fighting interest in political affairs in these times ? I do, I confess ; but we ought not to give it up — ^there are roaring days to come. Believe me. Very truly yours, (Signed) F. Geeenwood. I don't find that the Ulster Convention is much approved by the friends of the Government in any class. CLxrv The {third) Earl Grey to G. S. HOWIOK, Lesbtjuy, Nobthttmbebland, May 25, 1892. Dear Professor Goldwin Smith, I am much obliged to you for your letter of the 6th, which I received a few days ago. It suggests to me many remarks, but I will content myself with a very few, as to do more would require me to write a longer letter than you would have patience to read. I hope things in Canada are less bad than you think, and that there are more honest and sensible men there than you seem to suppose, and that con- sequently there is better chance of their rousing themselves with success to insist on the reforms, both financial and political, which are so obviously required. On the other hand I think you greatly under-rate the evils of the United States Government. The manner in which both the executive and legisla- tive powers are exercised I regard as simply dis- graceful to a civilised nation. In the legislation of Congress there is not a trace of its being guided either by sound judgment as to what is the true 240 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH interest of the nation, or by any desire to promote that interest when it interferes with party interests. Both the great parties in the country seem equally intent on their own party interests and equally destitute of any honest care for the public welfare. And with regard to the Executive Government, its character is chiefly manifested in diplomacy, and can anything be more grossly dishonest than U.S. diplomacy ? The appointment of such a man as Egan to be their Minister in Chili at a very critical moment, and the support given to him in his ques- tionable proceedings, are alone sufficient to stamp the Government with disgrace. And we have also, I think, good grounds for believing that there is more chance of a successful struggle to bring about a better state of things in Canada than in the U.S., though unfortunately you are but too clearly right in believing that Canada cannot now expect the assistance in improving her Government from this country which she ought to have. I must add that I am convinced (and I infer that in this also I agree with you) that the faults of all our statesmen are in a great measure the fruits of the most unwise changes which have been made in our con- stitution since Disraeli gave the first impulse to the democratic deterioration of our constitution by wil- fully at the head of his party leaving the House of Commons during Lord John's administration when the question of an extension of the franchise was brought forward, and thus causing the Government to be defeated on this by its own supporters. Nothing could be more dishonest than this proceeding, or more unjustifiable than the manner in which the question of reform was subsequently dealt with by both parties, with the result that complete and unchecked power has been thrown into the hands of the ignorant mob. As the government of a great Empire like ours requires to be conducted with real knowledge of what is for its welfare, what can we expect when it is guided by fools and demagogues ? CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 241 Bad days are, I fear, coming, and the glory of England is departing. Grey. I have been writing in haste, and, looking over my letter, I am sorry to see what blunders I have made ; but I carinot write it over again, and it substantially expresses my opinions. CLXV G. S. to Lord Fairer. Thb Gbanob, Tobonto, June 22, 1892. My dear Faerer, Commercial Union with the States, if we could have got it, would have brought Free Trade in its train. It would have so enlarged the protected area as to have destroyed the value of the monopoly, and it would have annulled the patriotic agreement, which at present has great weight with the Americans. But the train has passed that station. Political union with the States is the next issue, and apparently it is not far off. This movement in favour of preferential trade, an Imperial ZoUverein, or whatever it is to be called, is a mere ruse so far as Canada is concerned. It is a device of our protected manufacturers to divert the mind of the people from free trade with the United States. If these people mean business, let them frame their tariff, instead of vapouring about generalities. They are like the Imperial Federationists who are always exhorting you to embrace their principle with- out asking whether it is capable of being put in practice. Mr. Howard Vincent is in a fools' paradise ; he took mere curiosity or courtesy for assent to his theory. The only serious support he received was the sinister support of our protected manufacturers, who, as I have said, want to play off the phantom 16 242 CORRESiPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH proposal of an Imperial ZoUverein against American Reciprocity, which is the immediate object of their fear, but who, if it came to the point, would be just as unwilling to open their ports to British as to American goods. We had a little economical incident here the other day which showed that political economy is not yet altogether relegated to Saturn. Certain members of our City Council, studious of popularity, got a mini- mum rate of wages fixed for labourers on the City Works. The consequence was that all labourers whose work was not worth that minimum were dis- charged by the contractors and thrown out of work altogether, while the promise of a high rate of wages attracted men from the outside and glutted the labour market. Your Eight Hours men will have to put a clause into their bill compelling all employers to give ten hours' wages for eight hours' work, whether the eight hours' rate be worth the ten hours' wages or not, and another clause precluding the influx of labourers from abroad. This will find you in the midst of the political fray. I know that you are an execrable Gladstonian and will say no more on that head. But Home Rule is now the least part of the matter. To carry Home Rule, Gladstone has evoked the spirits of Socialism from the vasty deep. You and I are old men, but the next generation will see some sport. Ever yours sincerely, GoLDWiN Smith. CLXVI G. S. to Lord Fairer. TOBONTO, June 30, 1892. My dear Farrek, Tupper is notorious here. He ought, as the envoy of the whole Canadian community, to be non- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 243 partisan ; instead of which he is the most thorough- going of partisans. I use a very mild expression. Our North-West has a great expanse of wheat- producing country ; but, as you probably know, the harvests, owing to late and early frosts, are very precarious. If you depended on them you might be exposed to famine. These Canadian Boards of Trade are very imperfect and unfair exponents of Canadian interest. They are in the hands of the manufacturers and others who profit by Protection. This is notably the case with the Board of Trade of Toronto. I say again, let these people, instead of indulging in vague declaration, frame their tariff and see with what reception it will meet. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CLXVII Lord Farrer to G. S. AbESTGEE HAUi, DoBKrfTG, July 7, 1892. My dear Goldwin Smith, Canada is with me on all sides. I have been speaking in that queer assembly, the Associated Chambers of Commerce, against Sir C. Tupper's absurd proposals, and to-morrow I am going to see Mr. Erastus Wiman, who has written to me about Canada's commercial relations. Even the Chambers of Commerce have, at length, I am glad to see, de- clared against this revival of Protection, and it hardly needs the figures, etc., contained in this pamphlet I am sending you to defeat it. At the same time I do not pretend to foresee the final result. There seem to me to be great cons as well as pros in the matter of political union between Canada and the States, and, different and scattered as Canadian populations are, it is not easy for an 244 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH outsider to gauge the strength and effect of popular sentiment. What I wish is that both Canada and the U.S. would give up their Protectionist follies, and open their doors to one another, to us, and to the whole world. Political attractions and repulsions would then take their own course independently of commercial jobbery and tariff intrigues. Canada must settle these things in her own way, and whilst I should like to see her enjoy free commercial inter- course with the U.S., I should, as an Englishman, be very sorry if she were to do so and at the same time to shut her doors on England. One thing we can do, viz. to avoid entanglements such as Tupper and the present Canadian Government desire or pretend to desire. I object to them quite as much because they involve future quarrels with Canada as because they reintroduce Protection here. We are in the throes of the election — Gladstone will not sweep the board as he expected. Though I am an " execrable Gladstonian," I do not believe that the bulk of the constituencies care very much about Home Rule, and I believe that very few share the old man's enthusiastic belief that it will convert that unhappy island into a " Garden of the Blest." People are blas^ about it, and tired of it. For myself, I believe it the best chance, and almost a necessary consequence of our modern democracy ; and I believe that if Gladstone does not do it (the " it " being a very elastic quantity) the Tories will do something very like it. But what people are really caring about are labour questions, and there is, as you say, a great deal of Socialism afloat, encouraged as much by the Tories as by their opponents. Indeed, Gladstone has spoken much more openly about the difficulties and evils of variovis tyrannical proposals than any one, except perhaps John Morley, in the gas-and-water sense. I sympathise myself with Socialism, and I also sympa- thise with much that is proposed in the way of taxa- tion. But we are a long way yet from the abolition CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 245 of capital and property, and I am more afraid of labour injuring labour than I am of the attacks of labour on its employers. What you say about the Toronto Council is striking, since we are doing just the same thing in London, and I believe it will have the same effect. Another evil I fear is the refusal of the democracy to recognise the value of brains. They over-pay muscle and under-pay brains. But this is an immense subject, and I must stop. I am getting tired of fighting. I mean to enjoy life in a garden and with books. Ever yours sincerely, (Signed) T. H. Farrer. CLXVIII G. S. to Lord Farrer. The Geanob, Toronto, July 19, 1892. My dear Farrer, The enclosed cutting from the Toronto World thoroughly expresses the sentiments of the Canadian Protectionists who have the Ottawa Government in their grasp and put Tupper where he is. Their yearning for closer relations with the mother-country are flam ; what they yearn for is the exclusion of American goods which our farmers want to buy, giving their barley, eggs, and horses in exchange. I have no doubt that Free Trade gains ground in American opinion. The present platform of the Democratic party is far more outspoken than the last and shows the conviction of the leaders that a declaration in favour of Free Trade has become safe. The danger now, I think, is from the Socialists or semi- Socialists, to whom Free Trade, like everything else free, is hateful. And here you English Radicals are rather in a dilemma. If my neighbour may make me pay for the schooling of his children or for his three acres and a cow, why may he not make me pay for 246 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH the encoviragement of his industry ? I stick to Adam Smith, and am relegated to Saturn in his company. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CLXIX G. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. CuaroN Place, Niagaba, July 26, 1892. My dear Mrs. Winkworth, It is very pleasant to know that you still feel an interest in us, as we shall never cease to feel an interest in you and yours. Our little household goes on much as it did when Steenie and Mabel were with us. It has, however, received two notable additions. The first and most important is Miss Louisa Crooks, who now lives with us and whose presence adds greatly to our happiness. She is the niece of Adam Crooks, who was our Pro- vincial Minister of Education. My wife rather felt the need of a companion to be with her while I was in my study, and she now has one of the most amiable and agreeable kind. The second addition is " Flossy," " Miss Flossy," as the servants call her, a very beautiful little Skye terrier with white head, dark body, and hair so silky as well to justify her name. My wife treats her almost like a child, and to-morrow when they meet again there will be a very touching scene. I write from the house of our friend, Mrs. Bush, which looks down on the Falls of Niagara. Whoever wishes to see Niagara unspoiled, or not wholly spoiled (for it is half-spoiled already by the hotels and fac- tories) had better lose no time. Commerce has laid her hand on it and is going to convert it into a water- power. Protest will be as vain as was Wordsworth's protest against the railway through the Lakes. Just as I had written those words came from the rocks CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 247 on the other side the sound of an explosion of dyna- mite where commerce is blasting for her tmmel. Commerce enriches but does not beautify. Does she beautify spiritually much more than architecturally and physically ? Would not Yorkshire and Lanca- shire be happier as well as lovelier if their wolds were wolds still and their burns ran unpolluted to the sea ? Assuredly they would be more English. The wolds and burns are gone for ever. But it is possible that some day cotton may be worked up where it grows, that the coal and iron of this con- tinent may supersede those of England, and that the great manufacturing centres of England may become as silent as Ghent and Bruges. They will not be so lovely in their decay ! The subject of my Biographical Essay,' if he were now alive, would have much to perplex and grieve his soul. The negro problem in the South is very far indeed from a satisfactory solution. Lynchings of negroes are still terribly frequent, and there have been several cases of burning alive. The other day a negro, having committed an outrage on a white woman, was tied to a tree, his clothes having been soaked with petroleum, and set on fire, the woman herself applying the match. This was done in the presence of six thousand spectators. There is no redress. Of the two political parties, the Democratic owes its strength to the solid vote of the Southern Whites, and the Republican, though it protests, shrinks from effectual interference. The negroes at the South, though legally enfranchised, are not allowed to vote, or their votes are not counted, so that they have no political influence. It must be owned that as yet they have shown no aptitude for politics, or indeed for anything above raianual labour or handicrafts of the pettiest kind. Curiously enough, they have a genius for whitewashing. As to that very interesting paragraph of your * The Moral Crusader, William Lloyd Garrison : a Biographical Eiiay ... By Goldwin Smith. Toronto : Williamson & Co., 1892. 248 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH letter which relates to Mabel, I can only say " happier is the rose distilled." But I suppose some roses manage to be " blessed " though " single," and I daresay Mabel, with her interests and accomplish- ments, is one of them. I cannot help suspecting that co-education, whatever may be its glories and beati- tudes, is not particularly favourable to marriage. I perceive that our boys at Cornell rather shrink from the " co-eds," as beings not of the softer sex; indeed I can hardly imagine a boy with nerve enough to make love to a Senior Wrangler. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. I am afraid you will see old age in my handwriting. CLXX G. S. to Lord Farrer. The Gbanob, Tobonto, August 30, 1892. My deae Farrer, You see the Washington Government is not molli- fied by the accession of Gladstone. The truth is that American sympathy with Gladstone means absolutely nothing but antipathy to England. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CLXXI G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen, Toronto, October 29, 1892. My dear Lord Mount Stephen, A strange novel by Marie Corelli, introducing royalty under a thin disguise, sets going again the CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 249 story of a " Morganatic " marriage contracted by the Prince of Wales ' as Duke of York with the daughter of a British naval officer. When I am questioned I reply confidently that the story is baseless ; the junior members of the Royal Family are too watchfully guarded. There were stories about the King, when, as Prince of Wales, he was at Oxford, believed by many people, but absolutely baseless. " Morganatic " is absurd. No such thing as a Morganatic marriage is known to English law or custom. If such a marriage took place it would be absolutely void under the Royal Marriage Act, though morality might not smile upon a second union. It is wonderful what tenacity of life the scandal has. I was assured the other day that the woman was living in California, with a chUd, and receiving a pension. The state of things in the Cape Colony and in South Africa seems to show that opposition to the war was not the extreme of folly or treason. Had the wisely temporising policy of Sir Hercules Robin- son been pursued, the two races would have settled their differences in time as they have here, and gone together to the smoking-room. But the all-wise Milner, with his grand policy and his intemperate partisanship, has brought this avalanche of calamity on the country. I am told, by those who know the Dutch well, that they will never forget ; nor is it likely that they could ; nor should we. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. There is not a more dastardly act in history than the destruction of those two little Republics. * Afterwards King Edweurd VII. 250 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CLXXII G. S. to Briton Riviere, R.A. The Geaitge, Toeonto, December 6, 1892. My dear Briton Riviere, I am very sorry that you should have had any qualms of conscience on my account. I had myself almost laid aside the idea of getting a copy of the Blue Boy. I thought you had probably found that the Westminster collection is not accessible to copyists. I had also pretty well filled my own walls. How- ever, there would always be room for the Blue Boy. I think I must screw up my courage to write to the Duke. It is a pity we have not some arrangement like that of the Greeks, who wrote out their prayers and affixed them to the knees of the gods. As to the G.O.M., you see that since your letter was written there has been what looks like a con- tradiction of your view as to his imperviousness to adverse criticism, but is really a confirmation of it. His letter to me was written, you might observe, a week after the appearance of mine in the Times. As he goes off at half-cock, this is a pretty sure proof that he did not read the Times, but had his attention called to my letter afterwards by some friend. You might observe also that he passes by the important part of the letter like the old parliamentary hand that he is, and fixes upon a minor statement, which he thinks he can upset, though I believe he was de- monstrably wrong. I was rather tempted to rehearse the other misstatements which he has made about the Union and the statesmen concerned in it, reminding him that he had taken no notice of the confutations ; but I thought it best to keep to the single point. You are getting into a very serious condition, and I am afraid Salisbury is not the man to get you out of it. He is a diplomatist, not a politician. He ought to have used his great majority to revise the Constitution CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 251 and to restore its balance, instead of spending his time in spinning diplomatic webs, which will be scattered to the winds by the first blast of the cannon. Balfour, too, I am afraid is showing weakness with his female suffrage and his bi-metallism. The sinew of English politics seems to be fatally weakened. I hope you are stronger than you were, and when the Academy opens we shall have tidings of some grand picture. The illustrated papers now give us very tolerable ideas of the conception of a painting, though of course not of the execution. With many thanks for your kindness. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. P.S. — The picture of Lord Surrey at Hampton Court used to strike me as rather fine — ^the Holbein I mean — and I suppose it might be copied ; but, like the Blue Boy, it depends a good deal on colour. 1893 CLXxni G. S. to W. J. Wills. The Geangb, Toronto, April 17, 1893. Mr. W. J. Wills, Stainborough. Dear Sie, As to the first of the questions on which you ask my opinion, I can give it without difficulty. There can be little doubt about the untrustworthiness of the statesman who first brings in a bill, the leading principle of which, as he himself declares, is the exclu- sion of the Irish from the British Parliament, and that having been thrown out, a few years afterwards brings in a bill framed on the very opposite principle. Had Mr. Gladstone succeeded in forcing his first bill down the throat of the nation, you would, by his own present showing, have been led into fatal and irre- 252 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH vocable error. How can you be sure that, in allowmg the second bill to be forced down your throats, you will be following an infallible guide ? That the Irish should be represented in the British Parliament, which they would control by their sectional vote, while the British are to have no representatives in the Irish Parliament, is a proposal so flagrantly unjust and insulting to the people of Great Britain that it is hard to understand how any Englishman who has not lost his self-respect as well as his good sense can listen to it with patience. Mr. Gladstone found that he could regain power and revenge himself upon his political enemies only by bartering British interests and honour for the votes of the Irish, with whom, behind the back of England, he has concocted this measure. England has had nothing to say to the scheme. It was withheld from her till after the election. England, Mr. Gladstone thinks, by giving a majority against him, has rejected a political Mes- siah. He is at no pains to conceal his feelings towards her ; he repudiates his connexion with her race ; he traduces her in the foreign press, and wel- comes libels on her history. How can any English- man who has not renounced his country blindly follow such a guide ? American opinion about Home Rule, which is your second subject of inquiry, is not, in general, very enlightened ; the Americans being commonly under the impression that Home Rule is something like their State right, to which — the United Kingdom not being, like the United States, a confederation — it bears in reality no resemblance. But I may safely say that every enemy of England on this side the water, whether native, American, or Irish, is a friend to Mr, Gladstone ; while Americans friendly to England with whom I have conversed speak of him with hearty detestation. The Irish in America, of course, are on his side, believing, with very good reason, that his policy is serving their revengeful hatred against England. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 253 It is Mr. Gladstone's strategy to mix up the Home Rule question with a number of other questions, and thrust them all together upon the nation. He knows what the vote of the United Kingdom on the ques- tion of Home Rule by itself would be. But before you allow your country to be irrevocably dismem- bered, you ought at least to insist upon the sub- mission of the question of Home Rule, as a single and distinct issue, by plebiscite to the vote of the people. If Mr. Gladstone has so much confidence, as he says he has, in the good sense of the people, he will not refuse this test. An Englishman on this side of the Atlantic, whose heart is still with England, though it may not be likely that he will ever set foot upon her shore again, cannot help being filled with anguish when he sees the calamity and shame which are being brought upon his country by self-worshipping and self- deluded ambition. The consequences of political dissolution, and of the commercial disturbance which will probably ensue, are sure to be felt first, as they always have been, by the working class. The im- mediate result will very likely be a rush of labour from disorganised Ireland into the English market, which is already overstocked. But the bad effects, even in a commercial and industrial point of view, of a political convulsion will not end there, and the English artisan, if we may trust experience, will rue the day when he allowed his head to be put under the heel of Irish conspiracy, instead of standing by the interest and honour of the country. CLXXIV G. S. to W. J. Wills. The Grange, Toronto, July 19 [1893 ?]. Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for sending me the Telegraph with the report of the " gag de- 254 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH bate ! " In reply to your question whether I think the American people would put up with such a pro- ceeding, I can assure you that no change can be made in the American Constitution without ample notice to the whole nation, and a fair submission of the specific question to the national suffrage. The pro- cess of constitutional amendment is fenced with all possible securities for full information and deliberate action. Mr. G.'s mode of proceeding has involved deception as well as violence, since his scheme, not only in its details, but in its leading features, was withheld from the knowledge of the people till after the last General Election. I may add that the American people, unless I greatly misread their character, have too much spirit to allow themselves and their highest interests to be put under the heel of a conspiracy like the band of Irish agitators for the support of which Mr. G. is bartering the integrity, the greatness, and the safety of the British nation. Yours faithfully, GoLDWiN Smith. CLXXV G. S. to Henry C. Lea. The Gbanqe, Toeonto, August 7, 1893. Deae Me. Lea, Accept my best thanks for your pamphlet on The Spanish Inquisition, which I have just been reading with great interest. Might not the history of the Inquisition in the South American Colonies of Spain form a subject for an Essay ? I suppose there are some records. According to Florenti there was an auto-da-fi at Mexico so late as 1815. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 255 CLXXVI G. S. to the Secretary of the St. George's Society, Toronto. The Gbanoe, Toronto, September 20, 1893. Deae Sik, I am shortly leaving for England, and, before my departure, I think it best formally to retire from my life-membership of the St. George's Society of Toronto. Some years ago, having reason to apprehend that political animosities of which I was an object had found their way into your branch of the St. George's Society, I practically withdrew and was received into another branch. I did this with reluctance, as an Englishman who had always cherished English ties and associations, and not least my connection with the St. George's Society of Toronto. Not wishing to create any unpleasant impression, I abstained from the formal withdrawal of my name. But, as you are aware, I from that time ceased to take any part in the proceedings of the Society. In March last political enemies, who had long been assailing my character in other ways, took advantage, during my absence from the country, of the retention of my name upon your list to attempt the infliction upon me of the social brand and insult of expulsion. This I felt bound, in the interests of society at large and of charitable institutions, as well as in that of my own character, to resist. Had I been approached in a way not injurious to my self-respect and reputation, on behalf of the charity, and by members qualified to represent its interests, there would have been no difficulty in obtaining my resignation. More than six months having now elapsed, since the attack on me was made, without any intimation of its renewal, I feel that I shall be liable to no mis- construction in giving effect to my original inclina- 256 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH tion. I beg leave accordingly to resign my life- membership and withdraw from your Society. I am, Dear Sir, Yours faithfully, (Signed) Gold win Smith. CLXXVII G. S. to the (first) Earl of Selborne. The Gbange, Tobonto, September 25, 1893. My dear Loud Selborne, I must tell you with how much pleasure I have read your speech in the Lords on the Home Rule Bill. It is the most crushing of all. Of course they will not try to deal with your arguments ; dealing with arguments is not in their line. Gladstone is religious, and I suppose manages to justify his conduct to himself ; but he seems to have parted company with conscience and a regard for truth. There have been worse men, no doubt, in English public life, but none of them have brought such calamities on the country. Nor is Pandora's box yet closed. Apparently Gladstone's game is next Session to come out with a general revolutionary programme, which will confuse and excite the minds of the people, and thus enable him to carry his Home Rule Bill on a set of false issues. Of this design his followers seem to speak with perfect moral complacency. Public morality may be less coarse than it was in the days of Walpole ; it is not so clear that it is essentially higher. Your speech was welcome to me also as showing that age has not impaired your vigour, for it was as forcible and as clear in style as it was conclusive in its reasoning. Yours affectionately, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWiN SMITH 25f CLXXVIII G. S. to the Honourable John Beverley Robinson {some- time Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario), President of the Toronto Athletic Club. The Grange, Toronto, October 30, 1893. Deae Mr. Beverley Robinson, I am leaving Toronto for a long visit to Eng- land, and before I go I think it right to retire from the Board of the Toronto Athletic Club, and make way for some one who will be here to do his duty as Director. I have the pleasure of thinking that the undertaking has now surmounted the difficulties with which, partly owing to the pressure of the times, it has had to con- tend, and that the building will soon be opened. I am sorry to think that I shall miss the opening. To dilate on the value of athletic exercise is need- less, and were it needful it could be better done by other members of our Board. The connexion of b6dily with mental and moral health, denoted by our motto, Vis, Vigor, Virtus, is now recognised on all hands. The interest which I personally have felt in the organisation of the Club is rather of a social kind. Every one who has seen the life of a young man in a city where he has no home, must know to what trials and temptations he is exposed, and how good a deed it is to provide him with desirable society and means of healthy amusement. Relaxation and enlivenment of some kind a young man, occupied most of his time in dull and laborious work, must have. The question is, of what kind shall it be ? We need not disparage the efforts of the preacher of religion or morality ; but, practically, to the desire of unhealthy pleasure, healthy pleasure is the antidote. To help in supplying it is a kind act. In the present case the act will be gracious as well as kind. We are speaking with just pride of the 17 258 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH soundness of our financial institutions, and especially of the firmness with which our banks have stood against the storm which has been raging on the other side of the Line. But while we pay the deserved meed of praise to the manager, let us not forget what is due to the staff. Heavy responsibilities are often laid on these young men. Their work is hard, and such as must create a thirst for some enjoyment to relieve it. Their pay is small. They are thus ex- posed to considerable temptation. Yet, large as their number is, very few, during the twenty-five years which I have spent in Canada, have been the cases in which a bank clerk or a member of the staff of any financial institution has betrayed his trust. Those who have profited, either as managers or as stock-holders, by the probity and industry of this body of young men, especially those who have thus made large fortunes, and have attained high social position, owe, I think, a debt of gratitude which they can hardly pay more appropriately than by doing whatever is in their power to promote the success of such institutions as the Toronto Athletic Club. Yours faithfully, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CLXXIX G. S. to the {first) Earl of Selborne, CiABENDON Hotel, Oxfoed, November 23, 1893. My dear Lord Selborne, Beaconsfield is the original author of all this mischief. It began when, to open for himself the way to leadership, he induced the Conservatives to throw out Peel's Government by a coalition with the Whigs and Radicals against a Coercion Bill. The crisis ' is serious indeed, and calls for courage 1 Gladstone's second Home Rule Bill was carried through com- mittee in the Lower House on July 27 ; the House of Lords threw it out on September 8. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 259 as well as discretion. Your House, it seems to me, ought to refuse to pass anything till the Irish Bill has been submitted as a plain and simple issue to the nation. But more of this when we meet. Yours affectionately, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CLXXX G. S. to Rev. Charles S. Eby, Toronto, Zion Congre- gational Church [Undated.] Dear Sir, This effort to draw Canada into a militarist policy in which she has no interest, but of which she would share the cost, is not really Canadian in its origin. No audible voice has been raised for it among our people. Its real birthplace is on the other side of the Atlantic, in the political conclaves and the public dining-halls of England. Let the Canadian people insist on a fair review of it here. Let them stipulate at all events that, if Canada is ever to be drawn into a war, the cause of the war shall be truly stated. This was not done in the case of the Boer War. The cause of that war, stated to the Canadian people and entered in the records of the Canadian Parlia- ment, was that the Transvaal, being under the Suze- rainty of Her Majesty, was oppressing Her Majesty's subjects. The authors of that statement must have known that the independence of the Transvaal Re- public had been solemnly conceded by convention, had been recognised by one British Minister after another, and laid down by the Lord Chief Justice as the ground for bringing the Jameson Raiders to trial under the Foreign Enlistment Act. Would the Canadian farmer have been quite so ready to kill his brethren in the Transvaal and burn their homes, had he been told the truth ? England, by claiming the empire of the seas, as she does, and teaches her dependencies to do, provokes an 260 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH angry attitude on the part of other maritime Powers. It would surely be wiser and not less dignified on her part to speak as a member of the family of nations ? Only those who have studied history know what war has been to civilisation and the progress of humanity. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 1894 CLXXXI G. S. to Mrs. Pruyn. Chaifonte Hotel, Atlantic City, March 23 [1894!] >if Dear Mrs. Pruyn, It is doubtful, I am told, whether the resolution of the House at Albany ' will pass the Senate. I should hope it is still more doubtful whether it will be ratified by the people. The examples of Wyoming and Colorado are those of new western States, the circumstances of which are widely different from those of New York. Be- sides, let New York wait and see the result of the experiment. Let her wait and see the female politi- cian fully developed and the effect produced when faction has thoroughly installed itself in the home. Success to your efforts. The future of the State and the home depends on them. Yours most truly, Goldwin Smith. CLXXXII The (third) Earl Grey to G. S. HowioK, Lbsbixby, Northtjmbebland, April 7, 1894. Dear Professor Goldwin Smith, I have only lately had an opportunity of read- ing your article on " The Impending Revolution," 1 On behalf of Woman Suffrage. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 261 in the Nineteenth Century for March, and I have not yet seen the sequel to it which I learn from the news- papers has appeared in the April number of the same review, but I will send for it, and hope to read it soon. But without waiting for it I am anxious to call your attention to a mistake into which I think you have fallen just at the close of the first article, with which I otherwise concur. At the very end of your article you say that " the first care of anti-revolutionary statesmanship in future will be to reorganise the House of Lords on a rational basis and make it a real safeguard, like the Senate of the United States." I am far from differing from you as to an improvement in the constitution of the House of Lords being highly desirable, but I am convinced that no reform that could be made in it would have any material effect in securing for the nation the improvement in the management of its affairs it so sorely needs, so long as the House of Commons remains in its present condition. Assuming that it were possible to accom- plish the best change in the Lords that could be desired, it would remain without the power of per- manently resisting the various unwise measures of legislation which the other House, as now constituted, would be certain to try to force upon it. Such being the state of things, I am of opinion that it would be inexpedient to attempt at present any change in the House of Lords. The immediate object of those who desire to avert from the nation the calamities which seem to be impending over us from faults in the ex- isting constitution of our government, ought to be to bring under public notice the true character of these faults and the frightful consequences that must follow if a well-considered effort is not made to correct them. With this view an endeavour ought, I think, to be made to bring together, in such a form as to have a fair chance of commanding public attention, the evidence (of which there is unfortunately only far too much to be found) of the great evil the country has for many years now been suffering from the in- 262 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH ability of Parliament (meaning by Parliament both Houses) to discharge its proper duties efficiently. In an article I contributed to the Nineteenth Century of March 1884 I gave an account of some of the most striking evils which the state of the House of Commons had at that time produced ; in the ten following years these will have been greatly aggravated by further changes in our system of representation, and it has become more evident than it then was that the House of Lords has no small share of responsibility for the mistakes that it has made in its manner of meeting the questions raised for its consideration by some of the measures of the House of Commons. These faults of the House of Lords, though they have in my opinion been chiefly owing to the want of judgment and of a proper sense of public duty in the leaders it has followed, are, I think, partly to be attributed to defects in its constitution. In the early part of Lord Mel- bourne's administration the difficulties arising from this cause were becoming so serious that I believed the necessity for some change in its constitution was about to be forced on the consideration of the Cabinet, and I have reason to believe that others of its members besides myself were fast coming to the same con- clusion, and in that belief I drew up a paper suggesting a mode of effecting the change if it became impossible to avoid attempting it. This paper I showed to Lord Lansdowne, and to my great surprise I found that he was less opposed than I expected to the adoption of this proposal if the state of things should become so grave as to make it necessary, though he thought (as I also thought myself) that so hazardous a course ought not to be taken so long as it could possibly be avoided. Fortunately the danger of our being com- pelled to take it was averted mainly by the wise conduct of Sir R. Peel. The subject on which an open quarrel seemed likely to arise was that of muni- cipal reform. It was clear that the country would not acquiesce in the rejection of the bill for effecting this reform (which the Governrnerit had carried CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 263 through the House of Commons) by the Lords, and would be equally determined not to consent to amend- ments being made in it quite inconsistent with its object and spirit, while amendments of this character seemed likely to be insisted upon by the Lords. This serious danger was averted, and the Lords ultimately allowed the bill to pass in a shape which was accepted as sufficiently satisfactory by the Government and by the country. This result was said at the time (and I have no doubt truly) to have been brought about by strong remonstrances addressed by Sir R. Peel to those of his former colleagues who had been most active in demanding inadvisable alterations in the measure. I have referred to this fact, which is now generally forgot, because I am convinced that the necessity for a reform of the House of Lords, which was so nearly arising near sixty years ago, cannot now be long averted, and that it is most important that any reform which is carried should be of a moderate character and should not be determined by the result of a party struggle. What has happened with regard to the alterations that have been made in the Reform Act of 1832 is instructive upon this point. So long ago as the year 1858, I pointed out in an essay I then published, on the subject of Parliamentary Reform, that if the practice, first begun by Mr. Disraeli seven years before, of using this question as an instrument of party warfare, were continued, it would be sure to end in the adoption of some unwise and dangerous measure of constitutional change. This result could, I contended, be only averted by the leaders of opposing parties concurring in an attempt to arrive at an amicable settlement of the question, which I believed might be accomplished by an impartial and careful inquiry as to what were the real faults in our system of representation, and by what means they could best be corrected and the House of Commons rendered a more successful instrument for securing good government. My suggestion that an attempt should 264 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH be made to arrive at a settlement of this question by the concert of the great poHtical parties met with no support, and the result has but too sadly proved the justice of my fears as to the evil that must follow from adopting a different course. In an article on the House of Commons, in the Nineteenth Century for March 1884, I have given an accoimt of the proceed- ings, so discreditable to all the parties concerned, by which Parliament was led to establish a system of representation which none of these parties, and no considerable portion of the nation, either desired or approved, and which is now the source of such evil to the country. If you could find time to look back at the article to which I have referred, I think you would find in it a warning of the extreme danger of allowing constitutional changes to become the subject of mere factious contests, as well as a suggestion of a mode by which this might be avoided. And this is a matter which at the present time deserves most serious attention. I am convinced that any attempt to bring about a reform of the House of Lords without previous inquiry, and without the aid of that large part of the most intelligent of our countrymen who do not usually take an active part in political affairs, would lead in the end to the adoption of some measure as unwise as the changes that have been made in the constitution of the House of Commons. The above is, I am aware, a most imperfect explana- tion of my reasons for not concurring in your state- ment that to reorganise the House of Lords ought to be the first care of anti -revolutionary statesmanship. I heartily concur with you in considering this to be an object to be aimed at as of the very highest im- portance, and I believe it can only be attained by approaching it in a different manner. I think the first care of those who are earnest in anti-revolutionary opinions ought to be to convince the nation of the urgent need there is for a reform, not of the House of Lords but of Parliament. This I am inclined to think rnight best be done through the press. It require^ CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 265 to be shown that the affairs of a great Empire can only be well conducted by an authority guided by sound judgment and by experience, that Parliament as now constituted utterly fails in this respect, and that a revision of our representative system is the first step which requires to be taken for this purpose, but that the House of Lords also requires reform. The suggestion might then be added that an inquiry by a small number of able and competent men would afford the means most likely to prove successful for coming to a right conclusion as to the changes that ought to be made in the constitution of both Houses, especially with a view to prevent conflicts between them. I have said that I think an attempt to act upon these views might best be made through the press, and you perhaps could do more in that way than any other person I know of, and this is my excuse for troubling you with so long a letter. I must, however, add that I think a good deal might be done through the House of Lords, if even a few of the younger peers could be induced to throw off their bondage to party leaders on both sides and act in concert and press upon the House the advantage as well as the duty of being guided in their decisions upon all questions by a consideration of what is really best for the country, instead of by a desire to win popularity and gain votes in Parliamentary elections. I need not say that Lord Salisbury's conduct, both as Prime Minister and since as chief of the Opposition, has been of a precisely opposite character. You have pointed out in your article some examples of his measures tending to assist the revolutionary party, and the number of the cases in which he is open to this censure might be largely increased. Again apologising for the length of this letter, I am, Yours very faithfully. Grey. P.S. — Sunday. — Not laiowing your London ad- 266 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH dress, I send this letter to the care of the Editor of the Nineteenth Century. I was not able to finish it in time for Friday's post, and as there was no post to London yesterday I have kept it till to-day.^ — G. CLXXXIII The {third) Earl Grey to G. S. HowiOK, Lebbuby, Noethumbeblajstd, April 19. 1894. Dear Peofessor Golbwin Smith, I have to thank you for your letter, which I have received to-day. I am sorry to hear that you are compelled to resort to dictation for your letters, but I wish I had the power of using the same means of getting help in writing mine. But I never was accustomed in early life to dictate letters of any con- sequence, and though I have tried to do so of late, I have found that I did it so ill that I have given up the attempt, though writing with my own hand is now a slower and more fatiguing process than it used to be, and, what is worse, I cannot avoid making frequent mistakes in what I write, as you must prob- ably have observed in my last letter. . . . Taking this view of the men who are likely to exercise most influence in public affairs in the present and coming time, I naturally am evenmore despondent than you are as to the future of the nation, and I en- tirely concur in your worst anticipation as to the evils which threaten it. Where I differ from you is as to what it would be desirable to do in order to have even the slight chance there is of averting the calamities I dread for our nation. For this purpose I remain of the opinion I expressed in my former letter, that even if we could hope to carry the best measure that could be suggested for improving the House of Lords, it would do no appreciable good in the conduct of our government while the House of Commons remains g,s it is, and I must add that in my opinion the ^.ttempt CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 267 to improve the House of Lords alone would be almost sure to end in making it worse instead of better than it is, because the same rivalry between conflicting factions in trying to outbid each other in seeking for popularity, which led to the passing of a most mis- chievous instead of a wise alteration of the Reform Act of 1832 in 1867, would again go on. Hence I hold that the course, for those who wish to do the best that can be done to bring the country safely out of its present dangers, is to abstain for the present from proposmg any change in the Constitution, but to endeavour to force upon public attention the utter failure of Parliament, as it now exists, to fulfil its duties, and the consequent expediency of instigating by some means or other a careful inquiry by a few of the ablest men whose services could be obtained, as to what would be the best means of improving the constitution of both Houses so as to obtain for the nation the benefit of wise and good government. In the meantime I am convinced that what would do most to maintain the authority of the House of Lords and increase its power in the country would be for its leaders to cause it to decide all the questions which come before it, and on which it may differ from the Commons, upon their real merits and without regard to the effects that this action might have on party interests. Lord Salisbury has shown but too plainly that this is not the policy on which he has hitherto advised the Lords to act, and we cannot, therefore, expect he will adopt such a line in future. I ought to apologise for having troubled you again with such a long letter, but I will not abandon the hope that you may come to a similar conclusion with myself as to what ought to be the conduct of true friends of the country, and that you may recommend it to the public. Yours very truly. Grey. Friday. — On reading over to-day my letter, which 268 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH I was uiiable to finish in time for yesterday's post, I find I have omitted to mention, as I had intended, that I consider Lord Salisbury's last administration, though it was very useful to Ireland, to have done more harm in this country, by giving a more ultra-Radical character to the Government, than would probably have been accomplished in the six years by an avowedly Radical administration. — G. CLXXXIV G. S. to Evelyn Abbott. The Grange, Toronto, May 24, 1894. Dear Mr. Evelyn Abbott, As a rule I do not keep letters, and I find I have kept none of Jowett's. In the last I had from him there was, I remember, a strong expression of faith in the destiny of man. There was also a sen- tence to the effect that Home Rule was dead, that Democracy was thoroughly alive, and was going to do something very distasteful to the owners of property. You say that we have heard too much of the Oxford Movement and too little of the Libei'al party at Oxford in these days. The fact is that the Oxford Movement carried Oxford Liberalism in its womb, and brought it forth on the day on which Newman seceded and the break-up of his party ensued. I was an undergraduate at the time, and remember the Hall at Magdalen crowded by the incumbents and non-resident members who had come up to vote for the condemnation of Ward. There were even then some Liberals in the Uni- versity. There were Stanley and Jowett, though Jowett had not then become conspicuous. There was my old friend Congreve of Wadham, then an Arnoldian, afterwards the leader of the Positivists, and his friend Blackett of Merton, afterwards M.P. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 269 for Newcastle, a politician of the Whig school. There was Hampden, who had undergone academical martyrdom for his heresies, though his Liberalism was not robust, and when he had been made a bishop became extremely weak. There was Hamp- den's shieldbearer, Hay ward Cox. There was Liddell, whose sermons. Liberal in their tone, were raising high expectations. There were two or three scientific Liberals, such as Baden-Powell and Daubeny, evan- gelicals you would not count as Liberals, though they were opposed to the High Church reaction. Other- wise the mental activity of the place was absorbed by Newmanism and the controversies to which Newman gave rise. If it had not been for the Class List, which kept a certain number of us working at classics and mathematics, the University would have become a mere battlefield of theologians. Newman's romantic picture of the mediaeval Church carried away the young, who had before them nothing but high-and- dry Anglicanism, with its social and political accom- paniments. But Newmanism, though ecclesiastical and reactionary, was at the same time revolutionary in its way. It was a revolution against the old high- and-dry regime. It cut active minds loose from their traditional moorings, and launched them on a sea of speculation over which they at last floated to a great diversity of havens. It was understood to be Ward's regular practice, in attracting youthful proselytes, to begin with a destructive process, which was to be followed by reconstruction and, in some cases, as in that of Clough, when the destructive process had taken effect, the reconstruction miscarried. Nor was Newmanism politically Conservative. On the contrary, it sneered at Conservatism, which was closely connected with Protestant orthodoxy, and a particular object of its hatred and contempt was Peel. Ward, if I remember rightly, professed himself a Radical. Then came the crisis, brought on by the condemnation of Ward, which was followed by the secession of New- man. Those who refused the leap recoiled more or 270 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH less from the brink. Some of them, such as Mark Pattison, recoiled, as you know, the whole length of thorough-going Liberalism and tacitly coalesced with the knot of original Liberals, though they were rather liable to mental irresolution, and to recurrences of asceticism in a new form. In some of us Liberalism soon took the practical shape of an effort to reform and emancipate the University, to strike off the fetters of mediaeval statutes from it and from its colleges, set it free from the predominance of ecclesiasticism, recall it to its proper work, and restore it to the nation. The out- come was the Commission of Inquiry in 1850, fol- lowed by the Executive Commission of 1854. But this story has been already told. Believe me. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CLXXXV G. S. to Rev. J. T. Morgan. The Gbanqb, Tobonto, July 14, 1894. My dear Sir, I am very much obliged to you for your kind expression of willingness to give me the results of your observation on the subject of the High Schools. A Royal Commission on secondary — i.e. high- school — -education is sitting in England. I was asked by Mr. Bryce, a member of the Cabinet, to give evidence before it on the Canadian system. I re- plied that I was just leaving England, and that, more- over, not being in any way connected with education here, I was ignorant of the working of the system. But I promised to send the Commission in writing any information or evidence that I could collect. It is, I think, of great importance that the British Government, which, under the political and social CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 271 influences now predominant, is strenuously pushing the State system, should have independent evidence as to the working of the system where it has been for some time established. Anything which your experi- ence may lead you to say as to the operation of our high schools, in their educational, moral, social, or economical bearing, would be of value. The effect of the high schools in estranging those who frequent them from the farm and from non- intellectual labour generally, and leading them to crowd into the cities, is an important point ; so is the effect of an extensive and ambitious curriculum ; so is the influence on character of a system uncon- nected with religion, and without a definite moral basis ; so is the co-education of the sexes ; so is the employment of female teachers. But points are sure to occur to you which would not occur to me. Any- thing that may strike you as important is sure to be instructive to the Commission, which I am sure will be grateful to you for your assistance. I am. Sir, Yours truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. To the Rev. J. T. Morgan, Barrie. CLXXXVI G. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. The Qbanqe, Toronto, July 24, 1894. Dear Mrs. Winkworth, I ought long ago to have acknowledged your kind present of Mr. Drummond's Ascent of Man. As you say, he has adopted my title. It is pretty evident also that he has seen my articles. The book raises interesting questions ; gives some impor- tant facts ; and is in parts suggestive. I am very much obliged to you for bringing it to my notice. 272 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH But I cannot persuade myself that it solves the great mystery of our existence. It seems to me, like Mr. Kidd's theory, to be a crude fancy which dazzles and will pass away. Crude and fanciful theories of the universe multiply apace, as it is natural at this crisis that they should. I rather question the statement that reproduction is a struggle for the life of others. Among the Mammalia, at all events, the offspring is necessary to the mother. In the savage state, or in the early stages of civilisation, offspring are necessary to the parents as the support and protection of their old age. In the advanced stages of civilisation, among the people of the wealthier class, at any rate, the glories of motherhood begin to pale, and a numerous offspring at all events is less desired. I also doubt the existence of " altruism," if by that term is meant action entirely devoid of self- regard. The most disinterested affection surely looks for requital and will die when it despairs of it. The most disinterested patriotism and the most dis- interested philanthropy identify themselves with their country and their kind, and feel that they will share, however indirectly, the benefits which they confer ; perhaps that they will receive a meed of approbation and gratitude. I don't think that any of us would be willing to sacrifice ourselves, or even to go without our dinners, for the benefit of the inhabitants of the planet Mars. Since I wrote to you last we have had an industrial storm in the United States of which I am not sur- prised to see enemies of American institutions in England are making the most. The disturbance looked bigger than it was, because, occurring, as it did, at a great railway centre, and causing wide- spread inconvenience and loss, it made itself so generally felt. The real quarrel, I take it, was rather with the Pullman Company as landlords of the model village of Pullman, the Saltaire of the United States, than as makers of railway carriages. There CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 273 is friction at Pullman, as there was at Saltaire; and it ought to warn the f ramers of socialistic Utopias what the consequences of a system of regulative meddling are likely to be. The President did well, and was well supported by public opinion. The Senators, having a long tenure and being thus comparatively independent, also on the whole did well. The House of Repre- sentatives, the members of which are elected for only two years, showed great weakness. The small regular army behaved admirably. Civilisation has not yet done with the soldier. The violence at Chicago, as well as in the Pennsylvanian coal-strike, was almost, if not entirely, foreign. Chicago is hardly an American city. The Pennsylvanian miners are Hungarians, Poles, and Irish. At Chicago there was a congestion of labour which had been collected and afterwards discharged by the World's Fair. This, when the strike commenced, broke out into destructive riot. On the whole we have got through it well, and I think the air is cleared. But the brutality of these trade unions and the blindness with which the men follow the worst leaders make one shudder to think that civilisation may fall under their power. If I believed that Debs & Co. were to rule the world I shoiJd be inclined to rejoice that I had passed my seventieth year. Thank you for so kindly responding to my intro- duction of President Schurmann. I hope you will see him, for I think you will find him interesting. I ventured afterwards to write a letter of introduction to you for Mr. Charles Pope, the son of the former American Consul here, who is a nice young fellow, a graduate of Yale, and a great lawn-tennis player. But by the time he would call you must have left town. Ever yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. 18 274 CORRESPONDENCE OP GOLDWIN SMITH CLXXXVII G. S. to 0. A. Rowland, M.P.P., Toronto. The Grange, Toronto, July 26, 1894. My dear Rowland, You are reported as having made an eloquent speech at the Lundy's Lane Celebration. I infer that you feel an interest in the memories of that historic spot, and that you are in a position to com- municate with the President of the Lundy's Lane Historical Association and others who specially share your sentiment. There has long been talk of a monument, but hitherto nothing has been done. A monument there surely ought to be, and in my opinion it ought to be, like the monument to Wolfe and Montcalm at Quebec, in honour of those who fell on both sides, and to bear an inscription in harmony with its double dedication, expressive of present and future amity and concord. To the erection of such a monument I should be glad to devote the proceeds of my book on American History. The sum would, I believe, be sufficient to defray the cost of a respectable though not sumptuous memorial. I should wish myself to supply the inscription, though in preparing it I should be perfectly open to suggestions, especially from you. I hardly know how to go about the matter ; under whose auspices the monument should be erected — whether those of the Historical Association or those of the Municipality ; or how the site should be obtained. Give me your counsel on these points. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. O. A. Howland, Esq., M.P.P., Toronto. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 275 cLxxxvm G. S. to Briton Riviere, R.A. The Gbanoe, Toronto, August 3, 1894. My dear Riviere, The copy of the Blue Boy which you gave us has been framed and gives much pleasure. I ought to have taken a note at the time of what you told me about it, instead of trusting to my failing memory. It is taken, 1 believe, not from the Duke of West- minster's picture, but from that which we saw the other day in the Old Masters. If you chance to be writing again tell us by whom it is painted. Your political outlook is gloomy, and I am afraid the Socialistic Radicals will win the next election unless something or somebody turns up. The strike affair in the States was not quite so bad as, from the great loss and inconvenience, it looked ; and the result has been a tolerably decisive victory of order. But the world, under demagogic government, is getting into a dangerous state. Very truly yours, (Signed) Gold win Smith. CLXXXIX G. S. to G. W. Smalley. The Grange, Toronto, Canada. October 2, 1894. My dear Smalley, I read what you say with the greatest interest. I hope it finds its way back to England. Reconstruction of the House of Lords on an elective basis, which alone in the present day can give it strength, is their one chance of escaping a crash. A crash, I suppose, maddening as the party 276 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH game is, Lord Rosebery wishes to avoid. He is an Imperialist, and how can he think ochlocracy com- patible with Empire ? The Duke of Devonshire would probably acquiesce. Lord Salisbujy probably would not ; an hereditary House of Lords, I take it, is his one fixed object of policy. If he has another it is Church Establishment. The titles and social rank of the Peers would remain and would probably give them a preference in elections, and in that way a good deal of real power, whereas they are ostracised in an impotent House of Lords. The American Senate has, I am afraid, rather lost credit and influence as an example in the wrangle about the tariff which it seemed good to the Demo- crats to bring on in the middle of a financial crisis, thereby aggravating and prolonging the disturbance. But at the same time the power of an elective Senate has been demonstrated, since the large Democratic majority in the Lower House has had, on important points, to give way. Is it possible that such a man as Lord Rosebery can wish to put civilisation absolutely into the hands of poverty and ignorance ? The people on our side will have to take care how they hand over the reins to Chamberlain. His old Socialism hangs about him, and his Irish policy, if it points to four provincial Coimcils with one central Assembly, is fraught with danger. Give Ireland a central Legislature, no matter under what name or with what nominal powers, and you will have a struggle for independence. Not that the people want independence ; what they want, and have wanted all along, is the land. But the political adventurers want government, patronage, and a treasury to themselves. You know the English press. Is there a single journal open to the truth about the Canadian ques- tion ? The wilful blindness of the English people on this subject reminds me of the eve of the American CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 277 Revolution. They believe the Times, I suppose, when it tells them that Canada is 35 per cent of the British Empire and that the exodus from Canada to the States, comprising the flovsrer of our youth, is the elimination of the weak wfho are unable to bear our bracing climate. The Times seems to think we have no stoves. They are going to spend money on fast steamers, etc., to make Canada the military route to India. The other day the upper waters of the Eraser River rose fifty feet, owing to the sudden melting of the snow, sweeping away the Canadian Pacific Railway for miles ; and this, or a destructive ava- lanche, or a great landslip may happen any day. The North- West does not fill up. Sir John Macdonald said there wouJd be a million of people there by 1891, and that the receipts from the sale of lands would be seventy millions. There are now not more than two hundred and fifty thousand people, and the sales have not paid for surveys and management. They want us to get up an Ai'my. Do they think Canadians are going to fight their own kinsmen, of whom there are about a million on the south of the Line, and perhaps the same number of the children of these ? Do they think the French of Quebec are going to fight the French, of whom there are hundreds of thousands settled in the north-eastern States, and that in an English quarrel ? Do they think ^ that the Irish of Montreal are going to fight the Irish of Chicago ? There is an agitation now going on among the farmers for the abolition of the Militia as a waste of money. The Canadian farmer, by the way, is anything but pleased at the idea of paying subsidies to steam- ship lines for the purpose of bringing Australian products into more active competition with his in the British market. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 278 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH cxc G. S. to (the fourth) Earl Grey. The Gbange, Tobonto, November 16, 1894. Deae Lord Grey, I send herewith your uncle's ' letters. I should have liked to ask your uncle, when he advocated extension of Empire in Africa, whether he thought that Empire there or anywhere could be governed by such a democracy as Lord Rosebery, in his desperate eagerness to win the political Derby, is preparing to introduce in England. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cxci G. S. to Signer Gabrieldi. 1894 [November !]. Sir, I wish that in response to your invitation it were in my power to suggest to the readers of the Acropolis a cure for the political evils which you deplore. The tendency of the election and party system of government, on its present footing, seems to be every- where to stimulate the vanity and cupidity of the idle or unworthy and to draw them from honest industry into political life, which thus, instead of being the noblest of callings, becomes the vilest of trades. Why the evil should make itself specially felt in Greece is a problem which I must leave to be solved by those who are better acquainted than I am with the char- acter and economical circumstances of your people. I have sometimes thought that a strict law against ' The third Earl Grey CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 279 public corruption, with adequate penalties, an im- partial tribunal, and liberty for any citizen to initiate proceedings, might, in some measure, check the plague. The punishment of corruption by the Legislature or Government itself is hopeless where party reigns. Nothing, I am afraid, short of a radical change of system in countries under parliamentary government will work a complete cure. Yours faithfully, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Signor Gabrieldi, Morley's Hotel, London. CXCII G. S. to Wm. Gay. December 1894. Dear Sir, I have just received your letter of November 20th in which you do me the honour to ask me my opinion on the subject of Australian Federation. Un- fortunately I have never visited Australia, and I do not feel that my knowledge of your circumstances derived from books is a sufficient basis for a practical judg- ment. All must depend on the predominance of the centripetal on the centrifugal forces, of which those on the spot alone can judge. To motives for Aus- tralian union may now, I presume, be added the development of Japanese and Chinese power. The chief difficulty which presents itself to my mind is that connected with the application of party government to your proposed confederation. On what will the parties be founded, and by what means, consistent with political purity, will they be held together ? Canadian experience shows that if the party system is to prevail you will have carefully to limit the power 280 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH of the Central Government to expend federal money for local works or other public objects. You will otherwise be in danger of sinking into the corruption which, if accounts of late events in Canada have reached you, you will know to have been rife here, and which, there is reason to apprehend, has seriously impaired the political character of the Canadian people. If there is any particular point in which my know- ledge of Canadian or European politics may be of use to you, I shall be happy to answer such questions as you may propose. Yours faithfully, (Signed) G. S. Wm. Gay, Esq., East St., Kilda, Melbourne. 1895 CXCIII G, S. to Clement Shorter. The Gbangb, Toeonto, April 22, 1895. My dear Clement Shorter, I send my review of Parkin. You will see what it is like, and use it or not just as it suits you. I think, however, that you will do a service by moderating the puffing advertisements of Canada which have been going the round. They are not unconnected with commercial enterprise. English money has been pouring into Canada at a dangerous rate, and our Law Societies are surcharged with it. The value of farm property has fallen 30 or 40 per cent ; and in the case of some of the farms the margin must be small between the value and the mortgage. The other day we had four thousand houses vacant CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 281 in Toronto. The North-West is stagnant ; there is little or no immigration ; and my agent advises me to throw up some land which I hold, and which is well situated in Manitoba, rather than pay any more taxes upon it. In illustration of the last paragraph I may say that the Secretary of the Continental Union Associa- tion tells me that applications for " annexation " literature come up sometimes at the rate of forty a day, and applicants attest a widespread though conventionally suppressed feeling among the rural population, which suffers most from commercial separation from the continent. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cxciv G. S. to J. S. Willison {now Sir J, S. W., Editor of the ToroMo " News," ex-Editor of the Toronto " Globe "). May 9, 1895. Dear Willison, In re Bourinot : It seems to me that we are allowing ourselves to fall too much under the ascend- ancy of these Ottawa pundits. They are making a factitious mystery of their constitutional law. There is nothing here like the heritage of constitutional pre- cedent and tradition in the breast of a British states- man or Speaker of the House of Commons. The Canadian Constitution is a document not thirty years old, which every man capable of construing a legal document may interpret for himself. Alphaeus Todd was the first hierophant of this occult knowledge, and Bourinot seems to aspire to the succession. The tendency requires watching, because, as in the case of the Delphian Oracle of old, politicians sometimes get behmd the shrine. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 282 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH cxcv G. S. to John Cameron. The Grange, Tobonto, July 2, 1895. My dear Cameron, Of this I feel perfectly confident, that in Ireland itself not one man in twenty has any definite desire of political change, much less any distinct con- ception what the change should be. The movement, so far as it is active and spontaneous, is almost purely agrarian. The tenant farmers want to take the land away from the landowners and to give more of it to the labourers, whom they grind at least as ruthlessly as any landlord grinds them. The political movement has its main seat, and the source of almost all its supplies, in the United States. In Ireland it is kept up only by turning agrarian dis- content to the purpose of political agitation. Hatred of England and the English has been cultivated with success ; but is blind and seeks no intelligible reform. It is my firm and heartfelt conviction that there is no longer any political grievance of a serious kind, unless you regard the Union as one ; and the repeal of the Union would be a grievance with a vengeance to all the English and Scotch Protestants, who would be left to Celtic mercy. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. cxcvi G. S. to ?. The Grange, Toronto, Axigust 3, 1895. Sir, I have received a copy of your journal of Thursday last, in which my attention is directed to CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 283 what you designate as the " steady and splendid " increase in the attendance at the Catholic Schools. I am myself as far as possible from being an enemy to religious schools, whether Catholic or of any other denomination. The only thing to which I object is privilege, to whatever denomination it may be ac- corded. Yet Catholics take their stand on the broad ground of parental duty and right. Let them say that it is every man's duty to educate as well as to feed and clothe his own children, and every man's right to have his children brought up in the way which he conscientiously deems best. Let them say that the State has no right to deprive a man of the means whereby to give his children a religious educa- tion by forcing him to pay for a system of which he cannot conscientiously avail himself and to which his convictions are opposed. They will then occupy a position which it will be extremely difficult to assail, and the sympathy of Liberals of the old school, who are favourable to individual freedom, will incline to their side. But if we have the public-school system and the school tax, I do not see how we can allow any one Church to be recognised by the State to the exclusion and disparagement of the rest. Yours faithfully, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cxcvii G. S. to Briton Riviere, R.A. The Gbangb, Tobonto, August 10, 1895. My dear Riviere, It is indeed a surprising victory.' I had ven- tured to predict a majority of a hundred and sixty. They provoked and united against them all existing ' The Govemment, under the Prime Ministership of Lord Rose- bery, resigned In June of this year, and by the General Election which followed, the new House of Commons consisted of 411 Unionists, 177 Home Bulers, and Irish Nationalists 82. Lord Salisbury formed a coalition Ministry. 284 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH interests in their attempt to raise the wind by pro- mising a long list of revolutionary measures. More- over, Local Veto Bill probably had its effect. No doubt also his Budget cooled the real men of his own party ; all of them, at least, who were not on the look- out for titles like that Jewish rascal to whom the late Government sold a peerage. But the very magnitude of the majority, being so unexpected, ought to be a warning of its uncertainty. The next wave of popular opinion or fancy may wash you back again. Violent oscillation seems to be the law of these vast constituencies. The same thing is seen in the United States, where the two last elections to Congress have been complete overturns. Any craze will suffice to swing over to the other side the masses of agricultural labourers and artisans. This, then, is the appointed season. Let us not have Lord Salisbury again allowing his majority to run to waste and spending his time, not in studying and devising means of counteracting the domestic danger, but in weaving diplomatic webs which will be scattered to the winds by the first blast of the cannon. The reorganisation of the House of Lords, so that it may become a rallying-point and bulwark of rational Conservatism against Socialistic revolution, is the duty and the pressing necessity of the hour. British statesmen are unworthy of the name if they fail to undertake the task. Before I received your letter I had sent one to the Times, but I shall not be sur- prised if it is not inserted, for no doubt they are flooded with these things. Another thing that presses and ought to be done without delay is the reform of the representation so as to reduce Ireland to her proper number of members. The present inequality is shameful. I hope also that the verdict of the nation against Dismemberment will be registered in the form of a strong Unionist resolution. This would in some measure nullify the disgraceful vote of the last Parlia- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 285 ment in favour of Home Rule, which otherwise, re- maining uneffaeed on the record, will be a standing warrant for Disunionist agitation. Ever very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CXCVIII G. S. to C. White Mortimer. The Grange, Toronto, September 26, 1895. Dear Sir, It would give me much pleasure to answer your question, but I have some difficulty in doing it, as I do not know upon what scale you intend to take up the study of history. I could, of course, give you a long and expensive list of works, not only in English but in other languages. Assuming that your scale is moderate, and that you confine yourself to works in the English language, I should say, for ancient Greece, Curtius, translated by Ward, 5 vols. ; for ancient Rome, Mommsen's History of the Republic, translated, and Merivale's History of the Empire ; for France, down to 1624, Kitchin, in 3 vols. ; for England, Bright, in 4 vols., and perhaps Green's larger History ; for Italy, Sismondi's Italian Republics, translated ; for Spain and Portugal, Durham ; for the Middle Ages generally, and for the constitutional history of England, Hallam ; and for Europe during the revolutionary period, Allison. For American history you will need no advice. Yours truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. To C. White Mortimer, Esq., British Vice -Consul, Los Angeles. 286 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CXCIX Lord Ashbourne to G. S. HowTH Castle, Howth, Co. Dublin, November 26, 1895. My dear Me. Gold win Smith, I had the pleasure of receivmg your letter of 23rd July last, and deferred my reply until a little of our official life had been run and some small experi- ence of this tenure of Lord Salisbury's Government had been acquired — i.e. so far as Ireland was con- cerned. Of course the experience up to this has been slender, but it has been satisfactory. I think that the people are heartily tired of agitation and are most anxiously awaiting the administration and legislation of a Government to whom they look for measures of social reform, and to improve and develop the industrial resources of Ireland. I think that with the great mass of the people there is a desire not to waste time over great political discussions, or talk about Home Rule or any other organic changes. Then the immense and bitter differences in the ranks of the Nationalist leaders tend to discredit the agita- tion of mere political topics. In fact, the most burning political questions wonH burn. I think that the Home Rule debates in Parliament did much to disillusionise the people on the subject. The nearer it came, the worse it looked. It is the thing to cry out for it when well out of reach — quite another thing to cry out for it when nearly in. I think that the rejection was made on all sides with a feeling of genuine relief. Your idea of a resolution in the new Parliament against Home Rule is not, I think, now necessary. The question is so discredited that a resolution would be like an effort to disinter a corpse to give it a funeral. Our leaders boldly asserted their views on every platform and proclaimed their faith in the Union on every housetop, and now that Gladstone has retired CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 287 I do not expect to see the question stirred for many a day with any real insistence or power. Most truly yours, (Signed) Ashbourne. cc G. S. to Lord Farrer. The Grange, Toronto, December 4, 1895. My dear Farrer, The two immediate parties to this copyright question — that is to say, the British novelists and the people here who want to pirate British novels — have arrived at a sort of settlement. But I doubt whether this is the end of the business. The retail booksellers are already up in arms against the prohibition to import editions printed in England. They have good reason for their protest, especially as printing here is inferior. I rather doubt whether the proposed new Act will pass the Canadian Parliament. If it does, I fancy there will be trouble in its application. The fright of the Colonial Office was ridicidous. No- body here cared to know anything about the matter except the half-dozen printers — publishers they can- not be called — who got up the Act for their own benefit and engineered it through a careless Parlia- ment. The writers, when their attention was called, were against the Act, and so, I believe, was the public generally, though very faint interest was taken in the question. If Chamberlain had disallowed, with the proper forms of diplomatic courtesy, there would have been no disturbance whatever. August and powerful Empire which quakes at the threats of half a dozen scheming printers ! It is all a part of the utterly hopeless attempt to cut off from the north of this continent its broken rim, turn it into a separate nation, and treat it as belonging to a different hemisphere from the rest. 28g CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Chamberlain's Jingoism is stirring up the tail- twisters at Washington, and I should not wonder if, in the end, he stirred them up to some purpose. Whether steamers can be run at the rate of twenty miles an hour on the St. Lawrence is more than I know. Experts here say that they cannot. But if the object is military, and connected with the military use of the Canadian Pacific Railway, let me tell you that I very greatly doubt whether the Americans will ever allow you to use the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Grand Trunk — which are as much American as Canadian lines — for the purposes of war. They have the lines practically under their control, and could lay an embargo without giving you any formal cause for quarrel. Joe is evidently trying to make up to his new Tory friends for his socialistic Radicalism of former days. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cci G. S. to General Lloyd Bryce. The Geauoe, Toronto, December 7, 1895. Dear General Lloyd Bryce, I have already sent an article to the Saturday Review on the Monroe doctrine, and I don't think I have anything more to say on it. It is, moreover, a rather ticklish subject for a Canadian to handle. We, as a community on this continent, come within its purview, and it is ipore than possible that in case of war a serious question as to the use of our railroads for military purposes might arise. My general view is the same as that expressed by Hazeltine in your current number. Gladstone must have learned to compress himself in an extraordinary degree if he is going to take no CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 289 more than foiir numbers.' However, unless you like me to appear at the same time with him, which prob- ably you will not, there seems to be an end to that question. I fancy a good many of your clerical readers are in secret with me on the subject of the Old Testament, in which case they will not kick. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 1896 ccn G. S. to the Bight Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Grakge, Toeonto, [1895 or 6 7] My dear Me. Merkiman, The eyes of all the British world are now ' turned very anxiously in yom* direction ; and if it is not giving you too much trouble, or asking too great a favour, I shovdd be very much gratified by a line from you. The impression which I have formed, whether rightly or not I know not, is that those communities would probably settle their affairs peaceably if Mr. Cecil Rhodes and the music-halls would let them alone. England must have secure possession of Cape Town as her port on the route to India in case of the closing of the Suez Canal by war. I really do not see what else she wants, except freedom of emigration and commerce, neither of which, apparently, is likely to be denied her. The fancy of Anglo-Saxon domination at present fills all heads. But it is a fancy after all, and is too likely to prove an expensive one. There are troubles at present elsewhere, in other quarters than yours. France is in a highly volcanic ' On articles on " A Future State." ^ The Jameson Raid took place on January 1, 1896. 19 290 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH state. Her Government may think it expedient to find a vent in enterprise abroad/ for the military passions which are seething at home. There is the perpetual sore about the Newfoundland Fisheries questions, besides the boundary questions in Africa. There is also an awkward boundary question in Alaska. They are beginning to talk of conscription. The nation is being overstrained. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCIII G. S. to Sir John Motvbray, Bart, The Gbanqe, Tobonto, February 3, 1896. My deak Mowbray, It is, of course, difficult to see here clearly what is going on in England ; but it looks as if there were symptoms of a turn of the tide. No one can say when or how, in these vast and passion-tossed demo- cracies, the tide may turn. Therefore you cannot afford long to put off the question of the House of Lords. A House of Commons elected, as that House now is, and unchecked either by an Upper House or by a written Constitution, might vote you to ruin. What do you say to a Bill in three clauses enacting : I. That no one shall be qualified to take his seat in the House of Lords, unless in addition to his peerage he shall have been a member of the House of Commons, shall be holding or have held one of a certain list of offices, political, diplomatic, or colonial ; or shall have attained certain professional distinction, making the enumeration as liberal as you please. II. That no Peer shall be disqualified from taking his seat in the House of Lords by reason of his peerage being only for his own life. • The French, by force of arms, instituted a Protectorate over Madagascar in 1895. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 291 III. That no one shall be disqualified for election to the House of Commons by reason of his being a Peer. This would leave the social status of the Peers unchanged. It would give the Upper House a quasi- elective basis, since, under your elective system, the offices, etc., which are to form the qualifications for a seat in the House of Lords are practically bestowed by popular vote. A House of Lords so constituted would, I should think, be effective and an available rallying-point for rational Conservatism. The two Houses would be linked together without prejudice to their mutual independence. (Signed) G. S. CCIV [Private] G. S. to A. J. Wibon, Editor of the " Investors^ Review.'^ ToEONTO, Canada, April 16, 1896. Dear Sib, It seems that the Canadian Government — that is. Sir Charles Tupper — ^has offered you a regiment of Canadian Militia for the Soudan. How far the offer is bona fide, you may judge from the enclosed article of the Toronto Globe. The " Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry," which Sir Charles offered the [British Government some time ago, is merely a collective name for four " Schools " of Infantry in different parts of the Dominion, number- ing in all about 450 men, and not really available for foreign service. It is, of course, expected that Great Britain will pay for the regiment, and perhaps that her Government will do something for those from whom the loyal offer emanates. (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 292 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH ccv G. S. to Lord Farrer. The Gbakqb, Tobonto, June 19, 1896. My dear Farrer, All this vapouring about Imperial ZoUvereins, though it has come and will come to nothing in itself, is by no means without effect. It adds considerably to the strength of the ultra-Protectionist party in the United States. They can point to it both as an im- pending declaration of commercial war on your part, calling for countervailing measures on their part, and as a renunciation of Free Trade by the great Free Trade nation. So, if you can collar the thing, do. McKinley is now pretty sure to be the next Presi- dent of the United States, and he is only a name for the high tariff. The people reason, in their usual way, that because they happen to be prosperous in the high tariff times, it was the high tariff that caused their prosperity. The Democrats made a mistake in undertaking to revolutionise the whole tariff at the time of the financial crisis. On the other hand I think Silver is beaten. The Yankees generally show their good sense at the last. It is to be hoped that " Joe " knows nothing about Canada. Otherwise he could hardly be backing Tupper. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. ccvi G. S. to Lord Farrer. The Grange, Tobonto, July 28, 1896. My dear Farrer, By all means send me some more copies of your tract. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 293 We have disposed of Tupper, as you see, and with him probably of " Joe," so far as Canada is concerned ; though you must not imagine Canada has ever called for a ZoUverein, or anything of the kind. The Imperial Federationists never had the slightest authority to speak on behalf of the Canadian people. The French Canadians abhor the very thought, and were disposed to receive the late Governor-General coldly, because they fancied he had countenanced the scheme. Imperialists leave the French Canadians out of the reckoning. They are fond of repeating that Sir George Cartier called himself an Englishman, speak- ing French. So he did, and it cost him his election. Chamberlain ought to have been pulled up for interfering in the Canadian election. His letter lauding Tupper as a great statesman was manifestly intended to be used as a campaign document. A great crisis is impending in the States. Bi-metal- lism is the least part of it, and even repudiation is not the greatest. All the forces of social disaffection and anarchism are being combined under the Nebras- kan demagogue for an attack on the Commonwealth. How it will end Heaven knows. This time I suppose the Commonwealth will win. Protectionism is largely to blame for bringing on this convulsion. It has sacrificed the interests of the West to those of the East, and, in baling out the surplus to prevent a reduction of the tariff, by the infamous Pensions Arrears Bill, and other waste of public money, it has thrown the national finances into disorder. Good citizens shrink from voting for McKinley, while they abhor Bryan, and this consti- tutes no small part of the present dangers. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 294 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWDI SMITH CCVII Lord Farrer to G. S. IHTGLEBOEOUOH, LaHCASTEB, August 9, 1896. My dear Goldwin Smith, What you say is very interesting, especially as regards the French Canadians, of whom little is heard here. As regards the U.S., I sometimes think that it is the worst-governed country in the world — a splendid constitution versiis an amazingly bad system of hygiene. It is impossible to sympathise with any party. Even the honest money men have been hum- bugging about bi-metallism and doing much mischief here. It is one merit of the present state of parties that it forces these people to a direct issue. These things are very strange. Much as I dislike Socialism, I think the doings of the present Govern- ment, religious, commercial, financial, are so bad as to show that privilege, bigotry, and protection are greater dangers, because more powerful, than the aggressions of trade unionism. John Burns is a better politician than Chaplin, the bishops, and Joe Chamberlain. We are growing very old, and the millennium is not yet. Ever yours sincerely, (Signed) Farreb. ccvni G. S. to Lord Farrer. The Grange, Tobonto, September 22, 1896. My dear Farrer, I see that Mr. Sidney Low in the Nineteenth Century has been dancing on what he fancies to be the grave of Free Trade. He says that Protectionism CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 295 is coming in with a flood which shows no sign of ebb, One little sign of ebb it has shown here, for the result of the last election was a condemnation after eighteen years' experience of Protectionism — National Policy, as it is styled here. There can be no doubt as to the effect of Protectionism in the United States in embarrassing the finances and setting the West at variance with the East. I rather think before long you will see an ebb there too. They certainly will not return to the McKinley tariff. So I am told by those who know the counsels of the Repub- lican party well. The Presidential election seems now to be pretty well decided. The only question is as to the amount of the majority. Mr. Atkinson, of Boston, whose name as an economist is no doubt known to you, tells me that there never was a time when the best American securities could be bought to greater ad- vantage. He feels sure of the result of the election. On the other hand, it will be some time before they crawl out of their financial difficulties. The Senate is in a bad state and will obstruct remedial measures. Their banking system also is on an unsound basis, owing to the pestilent notion that banking is a function of government, and there will be trouble in that quarter before long. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. ccix G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Gbange, Tobonto, Canada, September 22, 1896. Dear Mk. Merriman, Accept my best thanks for the Jameson Raid Report. I was very glad to hear from you again. I used to hope, when you were planning confedera- tion, that you might come here and inspect the 296 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Canadian system in person ; and that I might have the pleasure of receiving you as my guest. It has always appeared to me that there can be no moral doubt as to the connexion of Mr. Rhodes with the raid. In the present state of feeling in England he might reasonably reckon on a favourable verdict there. It is only surprising that a con- viction of Jameson and his fellow-raiders should have been obtained. Public sentiment was evidently with them, and had they been successful they would probably have gone scot-free. Jingoism is evidently rampant in England. The chief sower of the seed was Disraeli, whose character, I am glad to see, you justly estimate, and whom the Daily News correctly calls the greatest charlatan of the age. It is surprising that his Hebrew flashi- ness should have so dazzled a practical nation. I suppose he amused them ; but they have paid pretty dearly for their amusement. It is almost incon- ceivable that they should have accepted Cyprus, which is absolutely worthless to them and which they could not attempt to hold in case of war, at his hands as a magnificent acquisition. The world is becoming embroiled in all quarters and upon all questions. Everybody shrinks from the unknown and dreads possibilities of a war with the new weapons and ships. This dread now keeps the peace. But the tension cannot last for ever. Somebody must break in the end ; and when any- body breaks the conflict can hardly fail to become general. So it seems at present, though I cannot help cherishing a hope that reason and humanity may prevail. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 297 ccx G. S. to Alex. Steven. The Gbange, Toronto, November 1896. Dear Sir, The Royal Marriage Act was passed in 1772 in consequence of marriages of disparagement which had been contracted by two members of the Royal Family, the Dukes of Gloucester and Cumberland. It restrains members of the Royal Family under the age of twenty-five from marrying without the consent of the King. When above twenty-five they may, after a twelve months' notice to the Privy Council, marry without the consent of the Crown unless both Houses of Parliament express their disappro- bation. It has always appeared to me that as long as this Act restraining the matrimonial liberty of the Royal Family remains in force, they will be fairly entitled to dotation by the State. Yours faithfully, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. ccxi 6?. S. to Prof. Maurice Hutton, Principal of University College, Toronto. The Gbauge, Tobonto, November 19, 1896. My dear Hutton, Be the historical character of Herodotus : You will find (vii, 190) four hundred Persian ships at least are lost in the gale ; fifteen are captured off Artemisium (vii, 194) ; thirty are taken in the battle of Artemisium (viii, 11); two hundred are lost in sailing round Eubcea (viii, 13); there is great loss in the second battle of Artemisium (viii, 16). Not- withstanding all this, Herodotus tells us (viii, 66) 298 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH that the losses were made up from the islands, and that the number of the Persian fleet was as large when it arrived at Salamis as it had been at Ther- mopylae. Here is evidently a monstrous mis-state- ment on a point well within the writer's knowledge. The numbers of the Persian army are evidently fabulous : a continent could hardly have fed such a host. The account of the battle of Marathon is plainly untrustworthy. What became of the Persian cavalry ? If the Persians were so completely defeated as Herodotus says, why were they allowed to re- embark without molestation ? I have little doubt that the stories of Croesus, Polycrates, and many others are full of fable. This does not prevent Herodotus from being a charming writer. I read him throxigh again the other day and liked him better than ever. But I agree with the heretics who think he is not a historian. Your reference to my little speech at Princeton was very kind. The reception, however, was a great deal more important than the speech. But this is the East, and the better class of Eastern people. If the West and South got hold of the Government, with Canadian Jingoism to help them, you would very likely have war. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCXII G.^^S. to Clement Shorter. The Gbange, Toronto, December 3, 1896. My dear Clement Shorter. I read, you may be sure, with interest and pleasure your little notice of my reply to Principal Grant.' You are right in saying that I have borne a good deal in silence. Some of these people, under the ' In the Canadian Magazine of October 1896, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 299 cover of " loyalty," are apt to gratify propensities of a very different kind. If you wish to know what Canadian — perhaps I should rather say Torontonian — Jingoes are, read the enclosed article by one of them on the Venezuelan settlement and look at the cartoon, which, at the critical moment of the negotiations, they circulated, as they boast, by tens of thousands, scattered over the United States, and thrust under the noses of the American politicians. Judge whether you can safely allow these men to shape your policy ! They will get you iato a war if it is possible ; and it will be possible, all ties of race notwithstanding, if the West instead of the East should get possession of the Ameri- can Government. You know me well enough to feel sure that the interest and honour of England have the first place in my heart, and that if I look forward to the reunion of the race on this continent under the auspices and with the goodwill of the common mother-country, it is because I firmly believe that both the interest and the honour of England would greatly gain by that consummation. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 1897 ccxm G. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. Tke Gbangb, Tobonto, January 26, 1897. Dear Mrs. Winkworth, You may be very sure that any gift coming from you will be welcome as a proof that you had not forgotten us. Border Essays, no doubt, would be more interesting to any one who is on the scene or likely to be there again. Still it is a pleasant little volume. 800 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH The last Essay made me smile. Ever since Eng- land has voted against Gladstone he has been wanting to deprive her of the glory of his birthplace and make himself out to be a Scotchman. The last time I was in England I read the correspondence between him and the old English and Tory Duke of Newcastle, through whose patronage he, an alumnus of English Eton and Oxford, was first returned to Parliament. I have sent you a little book ' of my own which probably is in your hands by this time. I told Macmillan that it would probably fall dead, as those who did not agree with me would not read it, and those who agreed would say they knew it all before. However, as there had been inquiries for the Essays, I let it go. For you perhaps it may have a certain interest as the work of your friend. You speak of the American school histories as irritants of American feeling towards England. That was certainly the case when I first knew the United States. But the other day, seeing the remark made, I sent for the principal school histories, and on looking them over found that their tone was greatly im- proved. There was hardly anything to which excep- tion could be taken. The feeling among the intelli- gent class in the Eastern States is now not at all unkind towards us. The other day, at a great banquet at Princeton University, when I appealed to their gratitude towards the mother-country, they all stood up and cheered. In the West there is more of the old bitterness, as plainly appeared when President Cleveland launched his Venezuelan message. Anglophobia will never cease to exist, nor, in my opinion, will any arbitration treaty extinguish the causes of irritation so long as Canada remains a political and military outpost of Great Britain on this continent. There will be a collision some day, make what arbitration treaties you will. If Scotland were a political and military outpost of the United States, there would be the same irritability in Eng- • Essays on Questions of the Day : Social and Political, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 301 land. Our Canadian Jingoes take care that the ques- tion shall not sleep. The American Commonwealth has weathered the storm for the present, but Bryan polled a very large vote, and unless some people mend their ways this will not be the end. Bryan, or at least the move- ment headed by him, would have deserved sym- pathy if the attack had been confined to abuses such as the corrupt influence of commercial companies at Washington or in the municipalities, instead of ex- tending to the soundness of the currency, the authority of the Supreme Court, and Civil Service reform. Pros- perity has not yet revived because confidence has not yet been restored. The finances are still in a very critical state, and the balance of the parties in the Senate is still so close that it is doubtful whether measures of recuperation can pass without paying blackmail to the Silver gang. McKinley, I am afraid, is not a strong man : he has hardly been known, except as the author of a protectionist tariff. A re- lapse into protection I fear is inevitable. Ever yours sincerely, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. ccxiv G. S. to Mr. Hutchim. The Geange, Tobonto, May 26, 1897. My dear Hutchins, I hope your agreement with my article on the House of Lords may be taken as a sign that the thoughts of reflecting men are being turned that way. Unless the House of Lords is reorganised in time, so as to make it a stronghold and rallying-point of rational Conservatism, there is serious danger ahead. You are now drifting to the uncontrolled domination of the House of Commons, elected by universal suffrage, without even the safeguard of a written constitution. I do not see how any thoughtful man can contemplate 302 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH such a prospect without fear ; especially when it is considered that the sphere of government in your case is not a nation only, but an Empire. The masses in the United States are on the whole decidedly more intelligent than your masses, yet they make rather questionable work of self-government, and nobody can imagine that they would be able to govern an Empire. However, the tide is all running at present in the other direction, thanks to Gladstone, who broke up the old Liberal party. I suppose the reactionary tendency will be enhanced by this Jubilee, which is evidently a Tory and Imperialist demonstration. As to my little book, Guesses at the Riddle of Exist- ence, let me assiu-e you that if I am driven on any religious question to negative conclusions, it is not because I do not prefer positive conclusions, or am not eager to accept them whenever they appear well founded. But there is no use in clinging to fig- ments. Even their supposed political use is at an end, since the masses, or at least the more quick- witted part of them, have now broken through the illusion. We must accept the results of science and criticism. Amidst all these perplexities our only salvation is steadfast adherence to the truth, wherever it may lead us. I hope this avowal on my part will not divide us from each other. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goudwin Smith. ccxv G. S. to Lord Farrer. The Gbanob, Toeonto, September 14, 1897. Dear Farrer, Do you know anything good about the econo- mical or financial history of England during the French war, 1793-1815 ? Alison is full of fallacy and twaddle. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 303 As you gave Laurier a medal, I suppose you are satisfied about his policy. I doubt whether he very clearly understands its tendency himself. He is an honourable and most attractive, but I should think not very strong man. His moods have certainly varied. Before his reception in England no one would have imagined that he was an Imperialist. We have a perfectly open frontier of 3,500 miles. It would surely be rather difficult under such condi- tions to enforce a differential system. The Dingley Tariff, I need hardly say, has nothing to do with the return of commercial prosperity to the United States, except in so far that any settle- ment is better for commerce than the uncertainty in which it has been so long kept. The tariff, however, will get the credit. Nevertheless, I cherish the belief that this recurrence of Protectionism will be the last. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith, ccxvi G. S. to Lord Farrer. The Gbakgb, Tobonto, October 7, 1897. My dear Farrer, Accept my best thanks for yourself and Mr. Tedder. I know almost all the books he mentions, but not one of them is satisfactory. The economical and financial history of the great French war would be an excellent subject for an essay. It would put in issue almost all the great questions in a very practical and vivid way. Your cimning [?] treatment of Laurier has been so far successful that the Protectionists here are every day flinging the Cobden Medal in his teeth. I don't think he has any fixed opinions. He is an honour- able and attractive, but very flexible, man ; and I imagine knows not much about economical or financial questions. 304 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Canada is now wavering between Protection and Free Trade. The balance was turning to the side of Free Trade. The farmers, with a large section of whom I am in communication, have become thor- oughly sick of Protection. But now the people are being persuaded by politicians, who have been in bad company in England, that you are inclining to an Imperial ZoUverein, or a preferential system of some kind, and that our farmers will thus be favoured in the British market. I don't know whether you would think it worth whUe, or whether you would like, to write me just a few lines which I could put in a farmer's journal, with an explanation of the quarter from which they came, telling us what, I suppose, is a fact, that an Imperial ZoUverein or preferential system is out of the question. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCXVII G, S. to Lord Farrer. The Gbange, Toronto, October 30, 1897. My dear Fareer, I was very glad to get your letter, and I hope it will save some of our farmers from having their heads turned and their industry misdirected. You have had a curious whiff of bi-metallism from the Governor of the Bank of England, set on, I sup- pose, by Balfour. You are no doubt aware that in 1835 Mr. Cayley, member for the North Riding of Yorkshire, moved the appointment of a Select Committee (based on the parliamentary declaration of agricultural distress) " to inquire if there be not effectual means within the reach of Parliament to afford substantial relief to the agriculture of the United Kingdom, and especially to recommend to the attention of such Committee the subject of a silver standard or a conjoined standard CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 305 of silver and gold." It is the distressed agriculturist, I presume, who is moving for bi-metallism now. Of scientific or theoretic bi-metallism there is very little, I fancy, in the United States. The owners of silver-mines, who started the movement, want to raise the price of silver. Debtors want to pay in silver what they borrowed in gold. There is a vague desire of " cheap money." There is a hatred of gold as the money of the rich, especially of the commercial mag- nates of New York. The South voted with the Democratic party, not so much, I fancy, for silver as because that party is their shelter against interfer- ence with their political suppression of the negro ; though I daresay they would not be sorry to pay the Pension List in silver. Besides, there is the invariable pandering to anything that has a vote, which, I fear, must be taken as the account of the President's equivocal conduct on the subject. I hope somebody will soon be making head against Jingoism, which has greatly affected us here. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCXVIII G. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. The Grange, Toronto, November 8, 1897. My dear Mrs. Winkworth, I am now in my seventy-fifth year, and have barely time left for one or two things, which I should like to finish before I go. They have made me under- take a sketch of the political history of England, on which I am now engaged. I am really too old for the work, and I wish I could leave it to come out when I am gone, and my ear is deaf to the critics. Thank you for the review of the Wilberforce letters. The quotations from Pitt, so far as they go, are favourable to his character. I am glad to see his assurance that he was always in favour of peace. 20 506 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH With Napoleon peace was not to be made. He was perfectly faithless, and he was bent on universal rapine. But Pitt ought to have left himself and, as far as he could, others out of the war with the Revolu- tion. He ought to have treated and persuaded the other Governments to treat France as a lunatic, and waited till her fit passed off. I have just been refreshing my memory of the Memoirs of Sir Samuel Bomilly, a very interesting book. He speaks of the Jubilee of George III. as a " political engine." So it was, and so was the Jubilee of Victoria. An impetus has been given for the time to Jingoism here ; I suppose with you also. But the fever is now, I hope, beginning to abate. Your Jingo Government appears to be losing ground. It is pleasant to see that there is a protest, though a faint one, against this " punitive expedition," ' for which the music-halls have been howling, to chastise people who owe us no allegiance for trying to keep their independence. The child that bears the name of William Wilber- force is bound to be a great benefactor of humanity. My wife sends her best love. You must excuse the fickleness of my handwriting — my hand is rheumatic. I am lucky in having no worse complaint at seventy-five. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. ccxix G. S. to Lord Farrer, The Grauob, Tobonto, November U, 1897. My dear Farrer, Rosebery's speech is first-rate ammunition. I at once put it into my gun. 1 To Benin. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 307 But if Rosebery wants an Empire of Peace, he had better administer something soothing to the Canadian Jingoes. At present everything possible is being done to inflame them and thus to increase the proba- bility, already sufficiently great, of something very unpleasant when in the United States the West and South get into power. Your War Office is now pandering to their military appetite by striking medals for the " veterans " of the affair with the Fenians at Ridgeway in 1866 and the Red River Expedition in 1869. Something might be said about the good taste and policy of raking up an old quarrel with the Irish more than thirty years after the event ; or even of rubbing the sores of the French half-breeds in the North-West, who are now perfectly loyal. But what was there ever to call for medals ? At Ridgeway two regiments of Canadian Volunteers, the Queen's Own and another, encountered a rabble array of Fenians, which had farcically invaded Canada. The Volunteers, being, it seems, naishandled by inexperienced officers, broke and fled, losing a few men, killed or taken prisoners, in their flight. The Fenians, on the approach of Regulars, decamped. There was no necessity for imputing any want of courage to the Volunteers, but this was hardly a case for medals. The Red River Expedition was a bloodless pro- menade. The Half-Breed Rebellion, if it could be dignified with the name, had collapsed. Surely to give medals in these cases, and so long after date, is to cheapen military honour. Nor, to repeat, is this stimulation of mock-military Jingoism among us by any means free from danger. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 308 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH ccxx G. S. to G. B. Barton, Sydney, N.S.W. The Gbanqb, Toronto, Canada, November 26, 1897. Deae Sik, You may be sure that I read with interest your notes on Australian Federation. You wish to know whether Australia can " safely or wisely adopt the constitution of the United States as a model or framework." Does Australia intend to adopt party government ? If she does, the American Constitution will not suit her. A constitu- tion under which the Ministers have no seats in the Legislature and no control over legislation, general or financial, does not lend itself to party government. I send herewith a paper in which, if you care to look at it, you will find this more fully set forth. The present state of things in the United States is a striking illustration of the misfit. Mr. Re id,' who paid us a too brief visit to Toronto, seemed to assume that you would have party govern- ment, and he named a basis for the parties which seemed to him sufficient, though I confess it did not at once commend itself as such to me. Confederation is a difficult undertaking. In the historic cases of the Achaean League, the Swiss Bund, the United Netherlands, and the American Union, it was enforced by the necessities of a struggle for the common existence ; though in the case of American union even that force almost proved too weak. You very rightly say that the Canadian Dominion is not, properly speaking, a case of confederation. The two Provinces, Ontario and Quebec — Upper and Lower Canada, as they then were — were united by the power of the Imperial Government. Afterwards the '■ Afterwards Sir George H. Reid, High Commissioner for the Commonwealth of Austraha. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 309 Maritime Provinces, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, were drawn in — Nova Scotia by the hair of her head. Manitoba and the North-West Territories were purchased. British Columbia was brought into the Dominion, after long hesitation, by means of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was constructed on her demand. Newfoundland still holds aloof. In the very act of centralisation all the centrifugal forces are called into play. They almost wrecked American union in port, overwhelming as the induce- ments to it were. If you have two houses, and each with power, it is impossible to provide against deadlock. In Canada, as you know, the Senate has no power. In England the House of Lords is nowadays expected to give way. Mature deliberation, if that is the object, can be secured by rules of procedure without the bi- cameral system. For my part, were I an Australian I should be inclined to try in the first instance a simple federal council, elected by the colonial Legislatures, and charged only with strictly federal functions, in which I should include coinage, marriage laws, commercial laws, copyright and patent, post-office, and naturalisa- tion. War and peace, military and naval command, of course, belong to the mother-country. I would not give the federal council power of taxation, but only of requisition for the payment of necessary federal expenses, leaving each colony to raise its quota in its own way. This plan would be quiet and cheap ; I fear it would be deemed timid. I can only heartily wish you success with a grander scheme. Yours very truly, (Signed) G. S. G. B. Barton, Esq., Sydney, N.S.W. 310 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CCXXI G. S, to Mr. [afterwards Sir) George H. Reid. The Gbahgb, Toeonto, Canada, December 1, 1897. Dear Mb. Reid, Mr. G. B. Barton of your city has been so good as to send me some notes on Australian Federation, printed by order of your Legislative Assembly. You may perhaps remember that we had a brief conversa- tion on the subject when you paid a too flying visit to my house. It is one of the greatest mterest for political students. In dealing with the question it seems necessary to bear in mind the essential difference between a federation proper and a nation with a federal The United States, during the war with the mother- country and till the adoption of their present con- stitution, were a federation proper. They have since been a nation with a federal structure. The general object of federations proper has been mutual defence. The American Colonies federated in 1774, as the Swiss Cantons and the Provinces of the Netherlands had before them, for mutual defence against a powerful enemy. In a federation proper the States remain independent and sovereign, though combined. The authority of the federal government is strictly limited to the objects of the federation. It has not the power of taxation, but only of requisition for federal expenses, each State being left to furnish its quota in its own way. This last point is evidently of the highest importance, as the chief causes of dispute and of possible disruption under the federal system are likely to be connected with taxation. The American Commonwealth since the adoption of its constitution has been, as I have said, a nation with a federal structure. The political life of the CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 311 States has been dominated by that of the nation. The pohtical parties are national, and they prevail in State as well as in federal elections. There are political antagonisms such as those between North and South, or between one commercial area and another ; but these are not antagonisms between States. That the federal government has not only the power of requisition but that of taxation, and has exercised the power with the most momentous results, you do not require to be told. The Canadian Dominion is a nation with a federal structure. With us also the political parties are national ; they dominate provincial politics ; and the Dominion (Jovemment has, and exercises to our cost, the power of taxation. I may remark by the way that our confederation was not in its inception spontaneous, but was the act of the Imperial Govern- ment, which after the rebellion of 1837 dictated a union of Upper and Lower Canada, now Ontario and Quebec. For my part, I confess, were I an Australian I should be disposed to try, in the first instance at least, a federation proper, with a federal council elected by the Legislatures of the several Colonies. I would let the council elect its own President. Presidential elec- tions are the bane of the United States ; they convulse the country with faction, disturb commerce, and bring every question to a dangerous head. One of them kindled the fire of civil war. If, however, you decide on making Australia a nation with a federal structure, and frame a con- stitution with that view, you must have a motor for your political machine. The general motor at present is party, which, however, seems to me to be through- out the political world in a state of final dilapidation, the parties everywhere breaking up into sections and ceasing to afford any stable foundation for a Gtovem- ment. Party government is an accident of British history, not, as some people seem to think, an inherent attribute of political humanity. You mentioned to 812 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH me what you thought would be a sufficient and per- manent basis for political parties in Australia, but I should have been disposed to question you further on the subject if you had been able to afford me the time. If you adopt party government you must adopt the British system, with a responsible Ministry sitting in Parliament. The builders of the American Con- stitution took no account of party, or regarded it as a transient disease ; and as a machine for party government their Constitution is a manifest misfit. Legislation and finance have been left without guid- ance or control. To get some sort of guidance and control the House of Representatives is driven to the strange expedient of making its Speaker act as a party leader, while in the Senate there is no leader- ship of any kind. The evil consequences are particu- larly visible in the department of finance, which, for want of responsible control, has drifted into its present situation. If you have two chambers with co-ordinate powers, it is impossible to guard against deadlock. Neither the House of Lords nor the Canadian Senate has co- ordinate powers. The power of the House of Lords is at most suspensive, the Canadian Senate has almost none. If mature deliberation is the only object, it might be secured by the regulation of procedure, or possibly by giving suspensive power to a minority forming a certain proportion of the council. It might be well to provide for a revision of the Constitution, whatever it might be, after a certain term. This would help to give it a patient trial. Circumstances change, and institutions must change with them. As Bacon says, " What man does not alter for the better, Time, the great innovator, alters for the worse." Time has greatly altered for the worse the American Constitution, the immobility of which, owing to the excessive difficulty of amendment, is a very serious evil. Whatever course you adopt, may your undertaking CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 318 be successful and open a new era of prosperity for Australia ! Yours very truly; GoLDWiN Smith. The Hon. George H. Reid, M.P. CCXXII G. S. to Rev. Arthur G. Whatham. December 24, 1897. Deak Sib, I return the correspondence between you and Dr. Workman with many thanks for your kindness in sending it for my perusal. I am at this moment too deeply occupied with a difficult subject to attempt to write on the special points in controversy, but my judgment is entirely with you on the general issue. I cannot imagine how anybody can contend that the early narrative of Genesis was intended by the writer to be taken allegorically, or that it has not, up to this time at all events, been taken as literal fact by the great body of the Churches and their ministers. The whole dogmatic structure of incarnation and redemption, which the Churches and their ministers still maintain, is clearly based on the literal interpretation of the narrative of the Fall. Dr. Workman and the other theologians of his school are sliding down an inclined plane on which no sure and permanent footing is to be found. I may remark that Dr. Workman represents me as attacking the Jewish system of sacrifice as irra- tional. What I have really said (p. 88) '■ is, " Worship (among the Jews) was sacrificial, and all sacrifice is irrational. But there was no human sacrifice, and the scape-goat was a goat, not, as among the polished Athenians, a man." ' Oi Quesaes at the Biddh of Existence. . . NewYork and London: Maomillan, 1897. 814 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH This is not an attack, but comparative phrase. It gives me pleasure to find that I have the sym- pathy of a Christian Minister and a learned scholar at least to the extent of recognising my intentions as honest and not irreligious. I have convinced myself that there is no use in upholding figments, or in further withholding the plain truth from the people. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Rev. Arthiu- C. Whatham, Way's Mill, Quebec. 1898 CCXXIII G. S. to Moritz Heim. The GEANaE, Toronto, Cahada, January 25, 1898. Dear Sir, If the American Commonwealth has presently to fight for its life, as there is much reason to fear that it will, its peril will be due, as I believe, in no small measure to the general indignation and sus- picion aroused by corrupt dealings with municipal franchises and by the scandalous rapacity of the corporations which get the franchises, too often by corrupt means, into their hands. Anything that your citizens can do, therefore, in framing your new charter to provide safeguards against abuses of this kind will be a vital service rendered, not only to your own and other cities, but to the Republic at large. An American friend writes me that in his city some leading men of New York City bought out the Gas Corporation for $5,000,000, and immediately organised a new Corporation with $7,000,000 in CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 315 bonds, and $7,000,000 of stock, on which the con- sumers of gas in the city are expected to pay dividends. We cannot be surprised if such transactions over- tax the patience of the people and breed general tendencies to revolution. Yours faithfully, G. S. Moritz Heim, Esq., Counsellor-at-Law, Sec. of United Organisations for Mass Meeting, St. Paul, Minn. ccxxiv G. S. to John Cameron. TOEOKTO, June 2, 1898, My dear Cameron, When Garrison,* after his lifelong course of rotten eggs, was presented with a complimentary watch, he said that if it were a rotten egg he should know better what to say to it. I had a sensation of the same kind when I read your article. Praise is so unwonted that it gives me a sort of shock. However, I am too near my end to be much spoiled by it, and the goodwill which dictated it gives me pleasure without alloy. I trust this wretched war^ is near its end, and that it AvUl burn out without setting the world on fire. Spain must be near her last gasp, and enough has been done for Castilian honour. Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. • William Lloyd Garrison, the American " Abolitionist." * The Spanish-American. 316 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH ccxxv G. S. to the Hon. Sydney Fisher {sometime Minister of Agriculture for Canada '). The Gbangb, Toeonto, June 3, 1898. Dear Me. Sydney Fisher, In this question of the Copyright Law, whUe Canadian printers and publishers have been con- sulted, Canadian writers seem to have been left entirely out of consideration. I cannot learn at least that any of them have ever been heard in the matter. Nevertheless they have an interest, and it is by no means identical with that of the printers and publishers who compose the Copyright Association. It will be a curious illustration of the unity of the Empire if a British writer or a Canadian who publishes in England is to be liable to deprivation of the fruits of his industry by Canadian law. A Canadian writes an important book in Canada and publishes it in England and the United States. He cannot afford to print a separate edition for the small ntiarket of Canada. But if he does not, he will be liable, as I understand the proposed arrangement, to having his book pirated by any publisher in Canada who chooses to bring out a cheap and inferior edition, which would probably find its way, if not to England, at all events to the United States. Are you sure that American pirates will not take advantage of exceptional facilities afforded here ? Canadian literature surely deserves the fostering care of the Legislature as well as the Canadian printing press. It only asks, however, for justice. Yours truly, G. S. The Hon. Sydney Arthur Fisher, Minister of Agriculture, Ottawa. 1 Copyright in Canada is taken out in the office of the Minister of Agrioulture. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 317 CCXXVI G. S. to the Rev. Septimus Jones, Toronto. The Gbanqe, ToBO^fTO, June 12, 1898. [On the re-marriage of divorced persons.] Deak Mr. Septimus Jones, I do not know whether the subject of the marriage which you performed, while I signed the Register, is hkely to be brought up directly or in- directly at the coming Synod of our Church. If it is, the line ought clearly to be drawn between the legal and the moral or social question. With the legal question the Church can in no way be concerned ; it lies wholly within the province of the State. The clergyman who performs the cere- mony, in so far as he confers the civil status of marriage with its incidents, is a State official, and the State's licence is his sufficient warrant, I might say his sufficient mandate, since he is bound to do his office. The legal question in the present case was one of domicile, which, if the habits of the person have been migratory, it is sometimes difficult to determine. With regard to the religious, moral, or social ques- tion, there can in the present instance be no shadow of difficulty or doubt. The lady strictly kept her marriage vow under trying circumstances ; her con- duct was unimpeachable ; and the necessity for the divorce was overwhelming. If, therefore, the rule of any Church were opposed to re-marriage, in this case it would be manifestly at variance with Christian equity. I can truly say that no one can be more deeply impressed than I am with the necessity of strictly enforcing the marriage vow as the great security for our purity and happiness. I have never touched social questions as a writer without insisting on that 318 CORRESPONDENCE OF|GOLDWIN SMITH view. Nothing would have induced me to attend a re-marriage against which reasonable objection could lie. In this case there was absolutely none. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. CCXXVII G. S. to Percy Bunting. The Grange, Toeonto, June 21, 1898. My dear Bunting, I have been reading with the greatest pleasure Dr. E. J. Dillon's article on " The Ruin of Spain," which throws a flood of light upon the subject. I wish the people of the United States could see it. The passage in it which I should be most inclined to dissent is that in which it is said that the United States " were preparing [for war] with a vengeance, and that, to those who were acquainted with the United States, it was clear long before the Maine exploded that the people were the arbiters of peace and war," and that the feeling of the people was strongly in favour of war. I was in the United States for the two months immediately preceding the outbreak of hostilities, and I did not meet a single person who was in favour of war, and very few who thought that war was coming. The same thing was reported to me from the West, the supposed seat of the war spirit. War was forced on Spain by a set of un- principled politicians for their own ends. The people would have been glad enough to see Spain got out of Cuba by pacific means, but I don't believe they wanted war. They were maddened at last by the blowing up of the Maine, which they were made to believe had been done by the Spanish authorities. My belief is that it was an accident caused by spon- taneous ignition, in a very hot and moist climate, of the coal-bunkers, which heated the wall of the CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 819 magazine. Exactly the same thing happened the other day to another American ship, the St. Paul, under the same commander, which narrowly escaped the fate of the Maine. The whole affair, seen from this point of view, has been in every way revolting, while the spirit of Jingoism which it has excited is full of danger to the American Republic and perhaps to the world at large. Cultivate American friendship by all means ; but if you go into partnership with the men who have made this war, you will be led neither to safety nor to honour. I see that General FitzHugh Lee, the late Ambas- sador of the United States at Havana, and author of one of the most preposterous versions of the Maine fable, is bringing out a book on Spanish misrule in Cuba. It is pretty sure to be full of blatherskite. I hope Dr. Dillon will look out for it and take it in hand. All the world seems to be going mad with Jingo- ism : where will it end ? Yours most truly. Gold WIN Smith. CCXXVIII G, S. to the Hon. Sydney Fisher. The Geanoe, Torokto, July 7, 1898. Dear Mr. Sydney Fisher, I send you herewith some matter which I think will be useful to you in the consideration of the Copy- right question : (1) a Memorandum by Mr. Morang, a publisher in this city, giving what I may call the Canadian protectionist view, but in a liberal spirit, and I believe with perfectly legitimate aims ; and (2) a letter from Mr. Ridout, a Toronto barrister, who has carefully studied the legal aspect of the question, embodying some criticisms of the bill drafted by Mr. Hall Caine. 320 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH The points to which I would call your attention on my own part, are : (i) The limited extent of the Canadian market. Rarely could it be worth the while of a British author to print a special edition for us. (ii) The " manufacturing clause " subjects the interests of literature and science to those of mechan- ical production, surely an inversion of the real order of importance. The manufacturing clause in the American Act was undoubtedly pressed upon the Legislature by the Labour party. Though the British author unquestionably gained by an arrange- ment which put an end to unlimited piracy, I have always, for my part, wished that the British Govern- ment had held out, cost what it might for the present, against anything so derogatory to the interests and dignity of literature and science. (iii) The Canadian Act [of 1889] was passed solely at the instance of the publishers and printers ; at least, if any author or reader desired it, I have yet to learn his name. (iv) It should be borne in mind, in considering the relative claims of the British and Canadian publishers, that the British publisher takes the whole risk of bringing out the book, whereas the Canadian pub- lisher waits upon assured success. (v) If entire self-government in the matter of copyright is conceded to Canada, it must be conceded to all the other Colonies, and you will have to con- sider what the consequences may be. Surely, if the unity of the Empire means anything, it means Imperial Copyright. (vi) Great Britaia is in the Berne Convention. But if you accede what is demanded here, your Colony — perhaps all your Colonies — ^will be taken out of it. (vii) I do not see how it is possible to prevent books printed here from getting into the United States, and infringing the copyright of the British author there. Smuggling of all kinds goes on along our vast, open frontier, and passengers in railway trains can always CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 321 take books with them. The geographical and general relations of the two countries are a constant source of perplexity in attempts to deal with them com- mercially as separate nations. (viii) By the United States Act importation of plates is forbidden. It should be considered how far the transmission of plates to Canada in advance of publication in England would suffice to give the Canadian publisher a reasonable amount of protection. (ix) Mr. Morang complains of the fraudulent action of certain well-known firms in London. Is there not power to restrain these firms by law without altera- tion of the copyright system ? (x) Sir John Thompson seemed to have been im- pressed with the idea that there was a formidable agitation in Canada on the subject, and that any inter- ference on the part of the Imperial Government would be deeply resented by the Canadian people. No signs of anything of the kind have ever reached my eye or ear. Nor did I, or any one to whom I have spoken, know anything about the Canadian Act until it had slipped through Parliament almost un- noticed, as I believe it did. Yours very truly, GoLDWiN Smith. ccxxix G. S. to the {fifth — the present) Earl of Rosebery. The Grange, Tobonto, July 11, 1898. Dear Lord Rosebery, I cannot help expressing to you the satisfaction I felt at seeing that you were disposed to maintain a cautious and dignified attitude towards this sudden burst of Anglo-American sentiment and passion for "alliance."' ' An. Anglo-American Association for the cultivation of more cordial relations between Great Britain and the United States was established as early as 1871 ; but an impetus was given to the movement and a league formed on July 13, 1898. 21 322 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH I have declined, though I am a thorough Anglo- American, to join the Anglo-American Committee. There seems to be something a little grotesque in a Committee to organise a friendship. There is danger of compromising the dignity of the country as well as its neutrality and its authority in case of mediation. Above all, approbation is implied of a war which appears to me unjustifiable and fraught with evil consequences to the American Commonwealth and the world. You could not go into partnership with these men without being carried far from the paths of safety and honour. You would have to accommodate your foreign policy to their party game. It would be liable to change at the end of each presidential term. Nicaragua is supposed to be their next mark. If you cross them there or elsewhere, I suspect it will be " To hell with Great Britain! " as it is now "To hell with Spain!" Aggressive violence is now rampant, and vents itself in the most cynical and revolting language. Still, the party of moderation is large, though silenced by the bludgeon of the war press. The balance wavers. Let not British sympathy be cast into the wrong scale. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 1899 ccxxx G. S. to John Cameron. Toronto, February 9, 1899. My dear Cameron, Sir W. Gregory, Disraeli's intimate friend, says that Disraeli was through life " a charlatan." So he was. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 323 Not long after Peel's death, I was allowed by his executors to read his papers for a literary pur- pose. I found among them the letter ' which has now come to light. I might have used it with some effect in reply to Disraeli's often quoted attack on me. Nor was I, strictly speaking, under any pledge of secrecy. But I thought it wrong to refer to a paper which was not before the public. Disraeli abused me in the House of Commons for advocating Colonial Independence ; but we now know from the Malmesbury correspondence, and Sir W. Gregory's Memoirs, that he had the same opinion himself and held it to the end of his life. Yours very truly, GoLDWiN Smith, ccxxxi G. S. to John Cameron. The Gbange, Tobonto, February 18, 1899. My dear Cameron, I have now received the last two volumes of the Peel Papers, from which it appears that Disraeli applied not only to Peel, but to Sir James Graham, a member of Peel's Government, for patronage, and that he applied for a place for his brother at the end of 1843, when he had broken his party allegiance to Peel. He fawned upon Peel, both publicly and pri- vately, in a most Oriental style. From an incident told me by the Duke of New- castle, I think it not unlikely that Peel had the letters before him in his bag when Disraeli uttered his denial. This is not for publication, because I am not sure about the facts. If it was so, a touch is added to the picture of Peel's forbearance. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. ' To Peel, dated September 5, 1841. 324 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CCXXXII [Private] G. S. to Lord (first Baron) Herschell (Solicitor-General and afterwards Lord Chancellor). The Gkange, Toronto, February 23, 1899. Dear Lord Herschell, We were very sorry to see that you had met with an accident which is likely to detain you at Washington. The work of your Conference having ceased for the present, your thoughts may be reverting to the sub- ject of copyright, which you have happily taken into your hands. It is not a matter in which I have much personal interest, but I shall be very glad to see it reasonably settled. An Association of Canadian authors has been formed here, with Mr. Ross, the Minister of Education for this Province, in the chair. It will, I hope, presently submit a fair proposal, accepting your Bill as the basis, with the insertion of some provisions in favour of the Canadian publishers. The two points for which I care most are that the Act should be Imperial, and that there should be no " manufacturing clause." Imperial unity has little meaning if there is not to be unity in copyright. The " manufacturing clause " is an unworthy subjection of the intellectual to the mechanical interests. I was even sorry that the American arrangement, with such a clause, was accepted by Great Britain. The exact bearing of any clauses which it may be pro- posed to insert in the interest of the Canadian publisher, I, not knowing the mysteries of the trade, cannot pretend to forecast. British authors and publishers will look to this part of the matter for themselves. Some rather fervid language has been held about the " sovereign right " of Canada in regard to copy- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 325 right legislation. But I believe you may rest assured that there neither has been nor is likely to be any popular excitement on this subject. Not a word, so far as I have observed, has been said by anybody but those directly interested in the question. The Canadian Act of 1889 slipped unnoticed through Parliament. I was not myself aware that it had passed. Due deference will, of course, be paid in this, as in other Imperial legislation, to colonial interests and feelings. If you can effect a reasonable and amicable settle- ment, we shall all be very grateful. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. CCXXXIII G. S. to the (fifth) Earl of Rosebery. The Gbange, Toronto, May 17, 1899. Deae Lord Rosebery, You ask me why I do not collect and reprint my transitory Essays. I will answer your gracious inquiry by a parable. The other day I had been read- ing in the Times the obituary of one of the members of my old circle, and was thinking that I was about the last leaf left on that tree, when I received an en- graving of the portrait of another member. I wrote to thank him, and to say how much pleased I was to find that the members of the circle were still alive. An answer came from his son, whom I remembered as a comparative youth, saying it was he, not his father, who had sent the portrait ; that he was him- self seventy, and that his father, if he had been alive, would be a hundred and two. I am trying, before I go, to finish a short political history of England. I have been reading your Pitt, much to my edification. I have talked to Addington about Pitt ; I wish I had talked with him more. 326 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH In the last three months I have been in the States. You are in some danger, I think, of trusting too much to Anglo-Saxon fraternisation. The more you court the party in power, the more you get the party out of power against you. While you are cultivating American friendship, you are cultivating Jingoism in Canada ; and Jingoism in Canada means hostility to the United States. (I should be sorry to think that you had seceded from the House of Lords. It seemed to me that you were destined to mend it. You have had a series of crude extensions of the franchise, without what ought to have accompanied them — a revision of the Constitution.) I heard a good deal about the failure of the Anglo-American Conference. I suspect the Canadian Ministers were afraid of their own Protectionists. You clothe them with Imperial authority in these negotiations ; but they naturally think of their interests alone. You will have to rectify, or at least to define, your relation with Canada and other self-governing Colonies ; and to determine whether the relation is Imperial, federal, or only that of a league. Yours sincerely, GoLDWiN Smith. ccxxxiv G. S. to the (first) Viscount Goschen. The Grange, Toronto, May 23, 1899. Dear Goschen, TheLaurier Government went into poweronFree Trade, to which our farmers, finding Protectionism a failure, had turned. It is believed, however, that there was at the same time some sort of covert under- standing with the protected manufacturers. At all events, the new Government went over at once from CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLD WIN SMITH 827 Free Trade to " stability of tariff." Its Protectionist friends have been pulling hard at its skirts throughout these negotiations, and it is, to say the least, not incredible that political fear overcame it, and that it backed out of Reciprocity, riding off on the Alaska Boundary question. You will some day have to rectify, or at least define, your relations with Colonial Governments. At pre- sent you are clothing with Imperial power Govern- ments which do not feel Imperial responsibilities, but are swayed by their own political necessities. At this very time Ontario and British Columbia have been passing Acts inimical and offensive to the Americans, which, though one of them is certainly, and both are probably, unconstitutional, the Govern- ment at Ottawa is afraid to veto. I have just been passing three months in the United States. Everything there is adrift, the President and his Cabinet emphatically included. The anti- Expansionists believe that they have a majority. I think it not improbable that they have ; certainly they have all the best people on their side. But the power is in Expansionist hands, the Republicans, who are the party of Expansion, having now a safe majority in both branches of Congress. The Demo- cratic party is to all appearances hopelessly divided on the Silver question, so that the Republicans are pretty sure to carry the day in 1900. In 1904 you may expect a change. I wUl not say that Anglo-Saxon fraternisation has come to nothing. But, of course, in proportion as you gain the goodwill of one of the factions you lose that of the other. Van Wyck, a possibly Democratic candidate for the Presidency, has been making a strongly anti-British speech. It is doubtful whether you will have gained anything which will pay you for having incurred the enmity of Spain, helped, as I fear you have, to develop on this continent a great power of violence and rapine, and incurred the taint of moral complicity with the set of men at Washington 828 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH who for their poHtical ends have trampled on inter- national right and disturbed the peace of the world. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. ccxxxv G. S. to the Right Hon, J. X. Merriman. The Grange, Tokonto, September 12, 1899. My dear Mr. Merriman, Thanks to the intervention of Lord Salisbury, to which I always looked with hope in the last resort, the cloud lifts again, and you have one more chance of peace. I should not wonder if behind Salisbury were the Queen, who is known to have a great horror of war.^ If President Kruger thought so, he might be some- what softened. If President Kruger is wise, he will grasp the olive branch held out to him and make all the concessions in his power. Peace made, the troops will be with- drawn, the pressure will cease, and the President will be at liberty to take any measures compatible with his treaty engagements for the preservation of Trans- vaal independencies. Even supposing the war were to open in President Kruger's favour, it is impossible that he should ultimately prevail against the united forces of the Empire. In the end his military supplies would fail. The war, rekindling the flame among the native races, would probably make a hell of South Africa for years to come. It is doubtful whether Sir Wilfrid Laurier ^ would of his own accord have moved the resolutions." He ' Prime Minister of Canada. " Upholding the Suzerainty of the Queen of England over the Transvaal. See also G.S.'s letter to Merriman, dated April 4, 1908. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 329 probably feared the action of the Opposition. A bad reason, but such are party politics ! Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCXXXVI G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. TOEONTO, September 19, 1899. Deak Me. Merriman, You were right as to the agency which had been employed against your policy here. The man you named it was that crept to the ear of Sir W. Laurier and persuaded him to move the resolutions,' threatening, if he refused, to get them moved by a member of the Opposition. Sir Wilfrid ought to have sent the fellow about his business ; but after all he is a politician. I believe you may feel assured that the feeling is not prevalent here. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCXXXVII G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Gbangb, Toeonto, October 4, 1899. My dear Mr. Merriman, By the time this reaches you, war will probably have begun. Otherwise, I should say once more, let President Kruger make all possible concessions, so that the troops may be withdrawn. The agitation in England will hardly reach the boiling-point a second time. Attention will probably be diverted from South Africa by complications elsewhere. ' See G. S.'s letters to Merriman dated September 12, 1899, and AprU 4, 1908, 330 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH What the Canadian Government will do is at this moment doubtful. It probably feels itself in a dilemma. There is certainly a strong undercurrent of feeling among our farmers against participation in the war. Very likely, by way of compromise, no effective force, but a nominal contingent, will be sent. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCXXXVIII G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. The Yates, SYBACtrsE, N.Y., November 9, 1899. My deae. Mrs. Hertz, Seeing the date " Syracuse," you may think that I write to you from Sicily ; but Syracuse is one of a number of classical and republican names with which the American magnate who laid out this dis- trict dotted it over, and which includes " Pompey " and " Ovid," but of course not " Caesar." I am on my way, however, with my wife to Italy for the winter. I am now in my seventy -seventh year, and I feel the bitter Canadian winter. I leave directions with my publisher to send you a copy of a short political history of England ' which I have had the rashness to produce at an age when I probably ought to have laid down my pen. I was pressed to write it ; and if it is a fiasco, it wiU not have spoiled much paper. I am really glad to be at sea for the next ten days and to hear nothing of this vile war, which, with the spirit which the people have shown, has estranged me from my country. Who can believe that a nation which has a House of Lords and is holding in subjection three hundred millions of Hindoos has undertaken a crusade for the diffusion of political 1 The United Kingdom (London and New York : Macmillan). CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 331 equality ? Is the human race, after struggling so far, going to fall at last under the dominion of a few great predatory Powers, self-elected as the missionaries of civilisation ? If the members of the House of Commons want to take up the " White Man's Burden," let them step out into Whitechapel. The hypocrisy is almost more disgusting than the rapine. If the war party in England thinks it is allying itself with the American people, it will find itself mistaken. The President, a weak man, and the violent men who control him, want the countenance of Great Britain for their own rapine in the Philippines. But there is a strong anti-Imperialist party, headed by the best men in American public life, the leaders of which speak to me with great confidence of ultimate success, though the war fever at present prevails. I hope in England, too, there are more than seven thousand left who have not bowed the knee to the Jingo Baal. Give my kindest regards to your daughter. You two are among the very few old friends I now have left in England. Yours affectionately (Signed) Goldwin Smith. ccxxxix G, S. to Briton Riviere, R.A. The Gbange, Tobonto, November 24, 1899. ^? ] My dear Riviere, If it is a pleasure to you to read my lucubra- tions, it is not less a pleasure to me to hear from you again, and to know that I am not forgotten by an old friend in England. The number of old friends in England is growing very small. I hardly open an English paper without seeing that somebody with whom I was connected, personally or politically, is gone, 332 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Yes, the world will have to get out of the party system or it will come to serious grief. The bidding of the parties against each other is now threatening the vital interests of the State ; it may possibly go on to threaten the foundations of society. Of course people will not be converted all in a moment, but the wreck of the Liberal party ought to set them thinking. A wreck it is. Campbell-Bannerman may be, and I believe he is, a good tactician. But tactics are not principle, and real principle of union the party now has none. If it is tempted to agitate social questions in order to give itself a factitious unity, this will not improve the case. Your letter helped to encourage me in following up my letter to the Times. I suppose they will insert me again, as they have done so hitherto. As to Gladstone, I could not help wondering that people who had been denouncing him for trying to climb into power by the dismemberment of the realm, stirring up old provincial antipathies, and setting class against class, should, when he died, have sud- denly taken to eulogising him and strewing flowers on his grave. I think they might as well have been silent. My good friend Morley, if I mistake not, has taken a serious job in hand, if he means to show that the G.O.M. was a political seraph. Your " Charity " hangs opposite to me as I sit in my library, and constantly reminds me of the artist. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCXL G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. C/o Cook & Co., Naples, December 1, 1899. Dear Mr. Merriman, The date of my letter will show you why my answer to yours of October 10 has been so long in coming. I am in Italy for the winter. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 383 The hateful war, impending when you wrote, is now raging. The result might, as you say, be doubt- ful were it not for the fatal inferiority of the Boers in artillery and projectiles. As it is I am expecting every day to hear of their decisive overthrow. They have, however, made a most gallant fight, and they will leave an impression. I doubt whether England has been put in a worse moral position since the burning of Joan of Arc. The issue, as you say, has been changed from poli- tical enfranchisement of Uitlanders to British supre- macy in South Africa, while the most fundamental object of aU — ^the goldfields for Mr. CecU Rhodes — - still remains decorously veiled. But who could ever beheve that a nation with an hereditary House of Lords, a limited franchise, a State Church, and holding in subjection three hundred millions of Hindoos, had undertaken a great crusade in South Africa for the propagation of political and religious equality ? The President ^ of the United States, like the politician that he is, lends his countenance to the British Government in its attack on the Transvaal Republic, and was supposed to be intending to send men-of-war to South Africa. His approbation is cited by Lord Salisb\iry as " impartial," but the motive is obvious enough. The Presidential Election in November next will be a fight between a plutocracy which is allying itself with the Tory aristocracy of England and a democracy which preserves American principles and traditions. The plutocracy is Imperialist and militarist, the democracy the reverse of both. The plutocracy, though it is probably in the minority, will put forth the full power of its immense wealth. Much depends upon the turn which things may take in the Philip- pines and the continuance or subsidence of the war fever, which is still high. With a view to this struggle in particular, a good political history of the Transvaal war would be most i Mr. MoKinley. 334 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH invaluable. Its lesson would be all the more telling from being indirect. Could not you give it us ? You must have the facts at your fingers' ends. The action of Canada is called spontaneous. Chamberlain through Minto ' pressed Laiuier, who is a good, but not a strong man. The " enthusiasm " was pretty much confined to Toronto, which is the special seat of Imperialism, militarism, and every- thing of that sort. Nine-tenths of the French Pro- vince were certainly the other way. I should not wonder if Laurier were to suffer by a compliance which was evidently contrary to his o^vn judgment. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCXLI G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. H6tbl Bbitanotque, Naples, December 25, 1899. My dear Mr. Merriman, You will read in the English papers that the applications of Mr. Chamberlain to Canada for aid in the Transvaal War are received by the Canadians " with unanimous enthusiasm." From Canada itself I learn that " there is a lull in Imperialist talk " ; that there has been the greatest difficiilty in collecting a sum pledged to insure the lives of the Volunteers ; and that Mr. Bourassa, a French-Canadian member of Parliament who resigned his seat to appeal to his constituents against the sending of contingents with- out the consent of Parliament, has been returned by a large majority. I may add that a weekly paper, in which week after week I have been putting forth the views which I hold in common with you, and in great measure on your authority, has been rapidly increasing its circu- lation. ' Governor-General. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 335 Sir Wilfrid Laurier, I cannot help suspecting, is acting against his better judgment. He has been spoiled by the Jubilee, which was an Imperialist and militarist demonstration, and by his knighthood. The war damns itself. The belligerency of the Transvaal has been recognised from the outset. Recognition of belligerency implies recognition of independence, and what right could Chamberlain have to interfere with the domestic institutions of an independent State ? At this moment there is a lull, the three relieving expeditions having stuck fast. I am afraid Kruger is not the man to take advantage of it, as he well might, after the advantages which he has gained, by a pacific manifesto. What is to be the outcome of this huge crusade in favour of equal political rights ? It must be a military Government, which, besides the scandal, will probably cost England an army of occupation of twenty thousand men. Roberts, I should hope from his book, is a man of some breadth of mind, who may see that the restora- tion of harmony and prosperity is the main object. Kitchener, from what I hear of him, I am afraid is very much the reverse. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. ccxLn [Private] G. S. to E. S. Beesly. H6tbl Bbitannique, Naples, December 26, 1899. My dear Beesly, I thought more than once of writing about the [Boer] War ; but it seemed to me that I should only be pouring a few drops of oil on a raging flame. From 336 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH what you now tell me, it appears doubtful whether what I write would have found insertion. This is the fell advantage of a war party. Nothing will move Jingoism, or abate its ascend- ancy, but its reverses. It will come out of the struggle with its moral force impaired by having had to expend its entire force in overcoming the resistance of a petty State. The Boer must presently succumb ; his resources will fail ; but he has put in a telling caveat against the assumption that the world is the property of a few great Powers, and in favour of the community of nations. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith, CCXLIII F. H. Jeune {afterwards Lord St. Helier) to G. S, Aklinoton Manok, Newbtiby, Bkbk8, December 26, 1899. My dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, I am extremely obliged to you for your kind- ness in directing your publisher to send me your book. It has been a very pleasant occupation to read it in these Christmas holidays. I always hoped that in some form you would deal with English history as a whole, and I have no doubt that the form you have selected is as complete and effective as a formal narration of the facts of English history could have been. But you set one thinking what is to come next. Is this democracy, which has been so long in maturing, going to descend into Socialism and newspaper hysteria, or is [it] going to suffer a reaction into one- man rule, or is it itself capable of directing the des- tinies of a nation and an Empire ? I suppose that the next century will tell the next generation that. I wonder if you are as much engrossed in the war as we are. Here it is the one subject of writing, reading, and talking, and even ecclesiastical subjects, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 337 which seemed likely to dominate Parliament and elections next year, are in the background, though I suspect they will emerge with unexpected energy at the next General Election, whenever that may be. The general feeling I believe is that we are going to win somehow, as the North believed that somehow it should defeat the South ; but that does not blind any one to what are thought to be the shortcomings of our generals. Some one expressed the general feeling by starting the report that the Boers have given strict orders to their people on no account to shoot the English generals. This rapid depreciation and distrust is, I suppose, the counterpart of the extra- vagant honours heaped on any soldier fairly successful. I only hope it is encouraging to its objects. Perhaps when we develop a general we shall also develop a Tyrtseus. At present Alfred Austin and Rudyard Kipling hardly satisfy, though the latter draws money. My wife wishes me to send her kindest regards to you and Mrs. Goldwin Smith. And with mine. Believe me. Yours very truly, (Signed) F. H. Jeune. 1900 CCXLIV G. S. to E. S. Beesly. Hotel Royai,, Rome, January 7, 1900. My dear Beesly, Your editorial of January 1,' which I have just read, is excellent. The end of the war seems now to be near. Though the resolution of the Boers is not exhausted, their resources probably are. Their efforts to run am- ^ la the Positivist. 22 338 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH munition and food through Delagoa Bay show that they are in need of both. Soon, too, apparently the British commanders wOl have troops enough to mark the Boer positions and outflank them. To this it was sure to come. But the Boer will have given Jingoism a severe, perhaps even a mortal wound. It seems that the Opposition is looking forward, when the war is over, to attacking the Government on its policy. A debate on that subject will be merely historical. A Government with a large majority at its back easily parries a motion of retrospective closures. The majority has been thoroughly com- mitted to the policy of the Government. So I fear have two-thirds of the nation. The practical question for which the Liberals ought to be prepared will be the settlement of South Africa. In advocating a generous policy you will have on your side the sympathies of all Europe and, what probably will be more effective with the Jingoes, the not inconsiderable danger of provoking a Boer rebellion. At first, I presume, there must be military govern- ment. Nothing else can keep peace and order in such a raging chaos of race antipathy and general devilry as the (Government policy has produced. I am told, on what appears respectable authority, that Cecil Rhodes undertook to assure the (Govern- ment that there would be no fighting ! The second Canadian Contingent, I learn from Canada, is made up chiefly of drafts from the Mounted Police or from our small corps of regulars. There is great doubt whether a second Contingent, equal in number to the first, could be made up of Volunteers. The canvasser of a farmers' paper in Ontario reports that the majority of farmers are against participa- tion in the war. You may be sure that nine-tenths of the French Canadians are, notwithstanding all the flummery that is talked about their loyal devotion to Great Britain. So at heart, I feel pretty sure, is Sir Wilfrid Laurier himself, though he weakly CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 38& yields to the pressure of the Colonial Office and to his fear of being outbid by the Opposition. He was thoroughly demoralised by his title and Jubilee. Titles have a terrible effect on colonial virtue. The conduct of a large section of your working classes seems to have been very disappointing. How do they think they will fare when their food and raw materials are cut off by a European war, into which Jingoism is sure m the end to run ? Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCXLV G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. Hotel Royal, Rome. January 25, 1900. My dear Mr. Merriman, The last independent voice in the English daily press, I learn from England, has been stifled. The Editor has been coerced and has resigned. But I am very credibly assured that there is a great deal of silent dissatisfaction. The leaders of the Peace party, with whom I am in correspondence, will do their best to stop the war. It is to be hoped that the Transvaal Government will strengthen their hands by its moderation. It can hardly hope to come out ultimately victorious in a struggle with the whole British Empire. By moderation now it will be pro- viding itself with friends who, in the last event, will help it to favourable terms. It has the future before it, and, after what has happened, the legions will hardly be sent a second time. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. I go hence to Florence, and sail for Canada on April 5. I was thinking of paying a short visit to England ; but the Jingoism there would sicken me. a40 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CCXLVI Frederic Harrison to G. S. 38, Westeotjbne Tehbace, London, W. January 27, 1900. Dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, I have observed with much sympathy and great admiration the powerful protests that you have made against the prevalent Imperialism — the great moral plague of our time, it seems, on both sides of the Atlantic. And I am studying with pleasure and profit your latest and most important work on English history. It is not a time for those who are struggling against the torrent to remain opponents. I happened the other day, in looking over some old letters of John Ruskin, to find a letter of yours to myself on the eve of your departure for America. You said then, " If reaction ever makes a serious rally, you will see me again in the ranks." The reaction has reached a form worse perhaps than either of us imagined. Under these circumstances, and at the age to which we both have arrived, it is not well that personal differences or bitter words should for ever remain indelible and unforgotten. I will only say that, if I have used language by which you may justly con- sider yourself affronted, I regret it, and withdraw those words. I am, faithfully yours, (Signed) Frederic Harrison. CCXLVII G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. Rome, January 31, 1900. My dear Mr. Merriman, Morley and Bryce, with whom I correspond, are, I believe, going to make an effort to stop the CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 341 war. I have sent them one or two things from your last letter. I fear there is little chance of their being able to stem the torrent of mad passion,, especially with the press in such a state. I hope you see the S'peaker ; it is a bright star in a dark night. Chatham tried to stop the war with the American colonists in its course, on the very ground on which you insist, saying that it would plant undying hatred in colonial breasts. Our last news is the retreat of Buller from Spion Kop, about which there is a good deal of mystification, but which must have been more or less of a defeat. Jingoism itself would hardly now have the effrontery to accuse of treason to the interest or honour of England those who thought that South Africa had better be left to settle its own affairs, as, if let alone, it would in time have done. It seems not impossible that even the Boers might ultimately have come into a con- federation of mixed races with a bilingual Parliament, under which their local liberties and customs would have been perfectly secure. It is the passion for imposing the " Queen's supremacy," that is British domination, upon everybody, that has done the mischief. People will presently begin to reflect. Settlement and reconciliation ought now to be the aim of statesmanship, if any statesmanship is left. Mr. Chamberlain has none of it ; he is an amazingly clever but a shallow and vulgar politician. Nor has MUner, cleverly as his despatches are written. The only available instrument is the present Cape Ministry, which alone can approach the Boers as a friendly and mediatorial power. The Boer strikes me as being, both in the good and bad parts of his character, very like the Calvinistic Scotch farmer of two centuries and a half ago. Kruger also, with his force, his narrowness, and his cunning, closely resembles the Scotch politicians as they were in those days. What does the Jingo mean to do with the Boers when he has conquered them ? He cannot extermin- 342 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH ate them. He cannot reduce them to helotage with- out maintaining an army to hold them down. If he forces them to become British citizens and gives them votes, how does he expect that the votes will be used ? Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCXLVIII G. S. to Arnold Haultain. Hotel Royai, Rome, February 3, 1900. My dear Haultain, In the copyright question, the Canadian publishers are likely just now to have their own way, if the Colonial Office can give it them. Everything will be given to a Colony which sends Contingents. To me personally, as you know, it matters nothing. " Buller's advance " has taken place and failed. The Boer must in the end succumb. His powder, though not his resolution, will fail, and he will be fatally outnumbered ; he is already outnumbered, according to Balfour, by three to one. But he has made an ever-memorable fight for independence and the rights of the weak. The hearts of the people in all nations are deeply stirred. England can well afford the expense ; she cannot well afford the odium. Very truly yovu-s, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCXLIX G. S. to Sir Robert Collins. Flobenok, February 18, 1900. My dear Collins, The date of my letter will apologise for my long silence. Yours gave me the liveliest pleasure. Present to H.R.H. [the Duchess of Albany] the assur- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 343 ance of my respectfxil appreciation, and tell her that, though old age forgets many things, mine has not forgotten Claremont. The young Duke could not renounce his destiny. There will be more to do in Germany than taking the chair at public dinners. German unity, however, is so clearly the dictate of nature and policy that it can hardly be in danger. Growth is more likely than dissolution. While all eyes are turned to the Transvaal, Austria is appar- ently going to pieces. The common fear of the Turk which bound those heterogeneous and discordant elements together has long passed away, and appar- ently the only bond now remaining is the personal influence of the Emperor, which must soon end. The German Provinces will gravitate to Germany. What will become of Bohemia ? What will become of the rest ? There may be work for the young Duke. It is a pity to lose Eton, though Eton in my day, while it was a good place of social training, was a bad place of education. No attempt was made to teach anything but classics, and most of the boys learned nothing. But I know things are greatly improved there. I came here for a mUd winter. But I am really glad to escape from the brutal passions of this de- plorable [Boer] war, made more brutal by colonial vulgarity. Most repulsive is the sight of Volunteers going, mainly from love of sport and excitement, or for the sake of the medals for which they extrava- gantly crave, to slaughter people who have done them no wrong in a cause about which they know nothing. The Boer on the other hand is fighting for the best cause known to man. It is absiird to talk about his being forced to fight " by a corrupt oligarchy." What corrupt oligarchy ever was able to command such enthusiasm or self-sacrifice ? Now that the full forces of the Empire have been brought to bear, the end, we may hope, is near ; and England will find that she has reaped another meed 844 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH of the glory which she gained by the burning of Joan of Arc. The hearts of the people are against us everywhere, even here. No truly great and high-minded British statesman would have brought the country into this situation. We have fallen into vulgar hands. What a close to the Peelonian era ! What a sequel to the Jubilee ! But the Jubilee was not celebrated like the harvest-home of a peaceful reign. The great naval demonstration kindled the arrogance of the nation and opened its heart to the practices of evil men. If Jingoism is to prevail, what a world, in the next generation, it will be! I well remember the Reform Bill of 1832, with its golden hopes of a reign of reason and peace. The young Duke will hardly remember me. BJay his career in the new land be not less honourable and prosperous than it is likely to be important ! Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith, CCL G. S to A, F. Jury {of the Immigration Department of Canada). Florence, February 22, 1900, Dear Me. Jury, Your letter found me after some wanderings. I am spending the winter in Italy for the sake of a mild climate, and I am not sorry at the same time to escape from the unpleasant moral atmosphere of the passions excited by this most iniquitous war. The most disappointing part of the business is the conduct of a part — I fear a large part — of the British artisans. That the aristocracy and the Forces should be for Imperialism and militarism is intelligible enough. But what does an artisan expect to gain by this playing into the hands of his political enemies CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 345 or by crushing the independence of a little Republic ? These men, I suppose, are maddened by the war fever; but they will find out their mistake in the end. Canada and the other Colonies fancy that they have, done something very noble in falling upon a little Conmionwealth when it was struggling for its life against the overwhelming forces of the aggressor. But it may be doubted whether this will be the judgment of history. I am glad you like the line the Sun is taking. Our paper is doing well, and its progress is one among many proofs that the " enthusiasm " of Canada for the war is not so " universal " as newspaper corre- spondents represent it. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCLI G. S. to Frederic Harrison. Florence, March 2, 1900. My dear Haerison, I take with all my heart the hand which you generously hold out to me. It is, indeed, a time in which those who are for morality against the reign of force should stand by each other. Let them be as united as they will, they will hardly be able to stand the current. With your letter came the news of Cronje's sur- render. This no doubt ends the business. The Boers have no reserves. So it was sure to be, when the full force of the Empire was brought to bear. You will have an unpleasant quarter of an hour in the midst of the brutal yells of Jingo exultation which this victory will call forth. The storm centre will now be in the United States The next Presidential Election will be a crisis for the American Commonwealth and all that depends on 346 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH it. The real issue will be Imperialism. " Silver " will figure in the Democratic Platform, but only as a formal tribute to consistency, and as a practical issue. Bryan, I am assured, though far from being a satisfactory champion of a great cause, is sincerely anti-Imperialist. The Republican party is now at once that of Imperialism and corruption — ^to which may be added plutocracy ; for the wealth, especially that of New York and the East, is on that side. What the result will be it is impossible at present to say. Anti-Imperialism would, I think, have a good chance if the nation could be fairly polled. But to prevent the nation from being fairly polled an immense sum, to which all the corrupt interests will contribute, will be put into the hands of Hanna, the Chairman of the Republican Committee. The influence of money increases, and the only counteracting in- fluence, that of the Declaration of Independence, loses ground. I don't know what wUl come of it. Perhaps I am lucky in being seventy-seven. Yoiu-s most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. Note hy F. H. Great gap [in our correspondence], owing to grievous differences as to Positivism, Ireland, etc., etc. Keconoiliation. Letter from Florence, March 1900. CCLII G. S. to E. S. Beesly. FtOBEISrOE, March 8, 1900. My dear Beesly, You can probably tell me where I shall find the full text of the treaty, or instrument, whatever it was, on which the controversy between MUner and Kruger turned. Not that I am disposed to rest the case much on anything diplomatic. The Boers had a right to the CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 347 home which they had gone forth to make for them- selves in the Wilderness, and their independence ought to have been respected. You will observe that in this war the British Govern- ment has never presumed to treat the Boers as rebels, or as anything but a foreign nation with which it was at war. This seems to be an implied recognition of independence. The Jingo plan seems to be to turn the two Re- publics into Crown Colonies, with despotic governors supported by an army of occupation. Of restoring independence there is no hope. But Liberals might propose, in opposition to the Jingo scheme, a federa- tion of all the South African communities, under the sovereignty of Great Britain, with a full measure of State Right— what I should call a federation proper in contradistinction to a nation with a federal struc- ture such as the United States or Canada. Your newspaper correspondence, like your press itself, is evidently under strict Jingo censorship, and perhaps you have not heard of the disturbances at Montreal ; but if you have, you will see that I was right in telling you that " the French subjects of Her Majesty in Canada " were not unanimously in favour of the policy of Her Majesty's Government. President McKinley seems rather anxious to dis- claim the alliance which Chamberlain presses on him. He and his party apparently are quaking. They have reason, though I fear, when November comes, corruption will decide the battle in their favour. Much, however, depends on what may happen in the meantime. McKinley is bad in the worst way. He is a hypo- crite, half deceived by his own hypocrisy. His Pre- sidency is a misfortune to the world. I begin to think that Socialism is the only force capable of coping with Jingoism. It is unquestion- ably gaining ground here. Very truly yours. (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 348 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CCLIII G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. Flobence, March 12, 1900. My dear Lord Mount Stephen, You say most truly that diplomacy was at fault, and that the object, after the Jameson Raid, ought to have been to allay suspicion. But there were people who did not want suspicion to be allayed ; and into their hands the business was allowed to fall. The Prime Minister ought not to take a department. He ought to be at liberty to control all the depart- ments. Had Lord Salisbury controlled the Colonial Office we should not have had this war. The press is " saturated with Rhodesian influences " indeed. Those influences have been everywhere. Laurier was approached, and threatened, by a Rhodesian emissary. The quality of Mr. Rhodes's patriotism is proved by his having tried to bribe the Irish, with a subscrip- tion of £10,000, to the dismemberment of the United Kingdom. South Africa for the time wrecked ; the seeds of lasting hatred sown among its races, and a sacrifice of money which, all expenses and losses taken into ac- count, will probably not fall short of eighty millions, besides the bloodshed, was a pretty heavy price to have paid for a ratification of the Transvaal franchise in the interest of the gold-seekers of Johannesburg. If this is statesmanship, what is folly ? It seems that of these interesting "British subjects," a good many are Jews of all nationalities and of the lowest order ; while of the others who are not British, a good many have shown their sense of the intolerable tyranny of the Transvaal Government by enlisting in the Transvaal army. From what you tell me as to the real state of opinion in London, it may be hoped that resettle- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 349 ment will be on more rational lines than Jingo violence or revenge for Majuba Hill. " A Crown Colony " is, in this case, a soft name for military despotism, which would cost you an army of occupation with a tolerable certainty of rebellion on the first opportunity. I am afraid Jingoism is stronger than you think in England. But it is not so strong as the newspaper correspondents would lead you to believe in Canada. Anti-Imperialism, I am assured, is showing a strong front in Quebec, and Conservatives as well as Liberals are taking part. You see there has been a collision. I have thought all along that the effect of the Jingo policy would be, instead of sealing the union of the races, to revive their division ; and so it is. For all this arming of the nations and perpetual danger of war, the necessities of British policy are largely responsible. The Roman Empire, which haunts people's fancies, though vast, was in a ring- fence. That of Great Britain is scattered over the world. She has consequently to keep up a Navy which will make her mistress of the seas. Other nations object to her domination. Hence the ruinous race in Navy-building. Some day the tension will become intolerable, and somebody will break. Then it is likely to go hard with the nation which has only a couple of months' food in itself, imports the raw materials of its greatest industry, and has a thousand millions in foreign investments. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCLIV G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. Floeencb, March 14, 1900. My dear Lord Mount Stephen, I am much obliged to you for Lecky's speech or article, whichever it is. The last paragraph wipes out the rest by showing that the war has left the 850 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH state of affairs worse than ever. You have seen what the Boers are; Lecky recognises their indomitable character and their force ; you cannot annihilate them ; you have sown the seeds of deadly hatred in their breasts ; and they will probably take the first opportunity of throwing off the yoke. You cannot be always sending 180,000 men to South Africa. It is absurd to talk of the war as inevitable. States- manlike conduct after the Raid could have averted it. " Fate " is the subterfuge of folly. Lecky speaks of the discovery of gold in the Trans- vaal as " unfortunate." But he does not see that here was the real motive for aggression. He was a Tory, I think, who said that the Boer might have been let alone, had he not been sitting on a pile of gold. The Boer had gone out, gun on shoulder, and made his home in the wilderness. He had a right to it, and to all that it contained — as good a right as the English have to their own country. Among the disadvantages of the course which has been adopted is one which, it seems to me, British statesmen ought to consider more than they do. England has drawn upon herself the execration of mankind. She has scarcely any one on her side, except the Anglomaniac plutocracy of New York. Among the Americans generally, I am assured, the Pro-Boer feeling has been rising. Indeed, the attitude of their Government shows that it has. However, I must not drag you through this con- troversy again. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 351 CCLV G. S, to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. Florence, March 20, 1900, My dear Mr. Merriman, New books are not likely to find their way to you just now. I therefore send you a passage which you ought not to miss of Lecky's newly pub- lished Map of Life. Lecky, as you know, is member for the University of Dublin, a highly Tory and Im- perialist constituency, and he is himself evidently Imperialist. The outlook is black enough at present. But I don't think Kipling and his crew will have their way. Lord Salisbury, whom I knew well in former days, is honourable and right-minded, though not very strong ; and, as this will be his last act, he will not wish it to be one which will leave a dark shadow on his fame. Nor, if Lord Rosebery has anything to say to it, do I think that he will do anything outrageous, though no doubt he is a Jingo. Chamberlain will no doubt like to gratify the violence of his pack ; but Lord Salisbury will probably muster force to control him. He must know what Chamberlain is. Lord Mount Stephen, who, as a Colonist Peer, is sure to be Imperialist, tells me that if I came to London I should find more sympathy with my opinions than I think, and in unexpected quarters. English character is no doubt greatly changed : but it can hardly have been reversed all at once ; a bitter element must still exist, though its voice has been drowned in the storm. Even if the resettlement is bad, the troops must in time be withdrawn, and your local forces, political and of all kinds, will again come into play. Jingoism will hardly send its legions a second time. It has had a sickness, in spite of its bluster and brag. It 352 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH shows this by its abject fawning on the Irish, who can hardly fail to see and despise the game. What you tell me about the mobbing of the Dutch widow has had its full counterpart in Canada, at least in the way of ruffianly demonstration. There is nothing in the universe lower than the colonial snob who apes the English gentleman. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCLVI G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. Florence, March 22, 1900, My dear Lord Mount Stephen, If you thought, as you probably might, that I used an exaggerated expression in my last letter, read Theodor Mommsen's article in the North American Review. You will see what he says about German feeling. Feeling in France is still stronger. No wonder, when the British press, instead of friendly and respectful remonstrance about the Dreyfus case, has been pouring vitriol, year after year, on all that is dearest to French pride. Though I am not a German or a Frenchman, but a loyal Englishman, the brutal arrogance of the British Jingo and his frantic yells of exultation over his ignoble victory, combined with the Government's breach of faith as a party to the Convention of 1881, whereby it guaranteed to the Transvaal " complete self-govern- ment " in internal affairs, have almost estranged me from my country. All the world will agree with Mommsen in saying that the war is a repetition of the Jameson Raid. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Kruger cannot fairly be said to have begun the CORRESPONDENCE OP GOLDWIN SMITH 853 war. Demands were made upon him clearly incon- sistent with the complete self-government of his State, and troops were advanced to his frontier in support of those demands. He demanded that the troops should be withdrawn. The British Government refused, and that refusal was virtually an act of war. War was plainly coming out ; Kruger was not bound to wait for your reserves. CCLVII G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. Floeenob, March 30, 1900. My dear Lord Mount Stephen, I have told Macmillans to send you a book which, if you look into it, will show you that the question of party government is not raised by Mr, Courthope for the first time. But his object appar- ently is to extinguish the Liberal opposition, and leave the Conservatives to rule alone. An organ of Waldorf Astor is sure to reflect the character and sentiments of its master. In referring to Mommsen's article, I did not mean that I wholly agreed with him. But he shows the feeling which the attack of a vast Empire on two little Commonwealths, and their heroic defence, have naturally excited in the breasts of other nations. Jingoes revel in the general hatred. It is dangerous notwithstanding. It is true that Governments have a certain right of protecting the persons and property of their subjects in foreign nations. But they have no right of insisting that their subjects shall have the franchise of a foreign country. In this case, too, it was perfectly understood that the franchise would be used by the "British subjects," many of whom were vagabond 28 S54 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWiN SMITH Jews, for the purpose of subverting the local govern- ment and bringing about annexation. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith, CCLVIII G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. Floeenoe, March 31, 1900. My deae Lord Mount Stephen, Looking again at your last letter, I see there is a point I forgot to notice. What you say about Kruger is perfectly true. He managed his case ill. But we must remember that after the Jameson Raid the attitude of the Colonial Office, instead of being carefully reassuring, continued unfriendly ; that the relations, if not of its chief, of its subordinates with Rhodes and Co. had transpired, and that the language of the British press continued menacing. So, I am informed, was the attitude of the loyalists at the Cape. I maintain that a statesman like Pitt or Peel would have made allowance for all this, and kept steadUy in view the main object, which was the pre- servation of peace and harmony among the popula- tions of South Africa. The Chartered Company (if that is its right name) and the Times office would not have been allowed to interfere, or have any in- fluence whatever. If the set of people of whom Kipling is the worthy Laureate are indulged in their policy of revenge, you will draw upon yourselves universal detestation. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith, It was a Foreign Office, not a Colonial question. Lord Salisbury ought to have taken it into his own hands, especially as he must have known what his CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 355 Colonial Secretary's connexions and sympathies were. If he had there would have been no war. I correspond with a politician at the Cape, an Englishman, but on the side of peace. To him I sug- gested that, if Kruger could give way about the fran- chise, he might, when quiet returned, take legislative precautions against its use for the subversion of his Government. After all, Kruger is nearly eighty, and would soon have been out of the way. Mules will be mulish, and Kruger is a mule. CCLIX G. S. to Frederic Harrison. Tke Grange, Tobonto, Canada, May 9, 1900. My dear Harrison, I have never become a disciple of Comte, but I have learnt greatly to respect him as a thinker, and still more as a servant of humanity. A tribute to his memory in that respect could not be more seasonable than it is now. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCLX G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Grange, Toronto, May 9, 1900. My dear Mr. Merriman, I have a letter from a Liberal M.P. in England describing the state of things there. The war fever rages, and in a very repulsive form. The favourite toy is " the dying Boer," which emits under pressure sounds like the moans of a dying man. 356 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH My friend at the same time desires me to under- stand that there is a great body of sentiment on the other side, though at present it is mute because the Jingoes break up the meetings against the war. The Government is pouring out blood and money to strengthen the unity of the Empire ; at the same time it is breaking the bond of citizenship at home and infecting its own country with the passions of civU war. My friend the M.P. tells me that the missionaries have done much to mflame the war feeling by the charges they have been making against the Boers. I have ceased to subscribe to missions. I have been moved to take part in the debate in England. But I think it better to be content with doing the little that I can here in Canada to help in keeping the more rational section of our people loyal, even though silently loyal, to humanity and justice. I am sorry to say, whatever may be the reason, we are greatly wanting in political courage. The policy of vengeance, for which some of the vUer sort at the Cape seem to be calling, would bring eternal disgrace on England. The British Govern- ment will not be mad enough to adopt it. Govern- ment by the sword would be almost as scandalous, and would involve an army of occupation and constant danger of rebellion. As to the Boers, they have been treated as belligerents and cannot possibly be punished personally for the war. I can see nothing for it but a very lax federation, allowing to each Province a large increase of internal self-government. This would keep the Boers apart from the British, and perhaps enable the two races to live peaceably side by side. Of the restoration of independence, the victor having grasped his prize, I see no hope. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 357 CCLXI Frederic Harrison to G. S. 38, WESTBOtTBNE TeBKAOB, LONDON, W. May 22, 1900. Deab Goldwin Smith, I received your letter and contribution to the Comte Memorial with great satisfaction. You are quite right in supposing that those who take part in the memorial do not thereby declare themselves disciples of Comte. The movement is one to show respect for him as an independent thinker on moral and political grounds. In that sense, thousands of men eminent in science and philosophy have joined in the object in all parts of Europe and America. Indeed, the only opposition to the project has come from Dr. Congreve and his immediate followers, who will take part in no mark of respect to Comte unless strictly as the founder of a new religion. We are quite prepared to accept a general respect for his efforts to improve the political and social tone. In France there has been, of the last few years, a re- markable interest in his writings. No less than five serious works by French students have just appeared, dealing with his system of Utopias. At present he has been taken in France to represent two principal ideas — first, resistance to the Ultra- montane reaction; secondly, condemnation of the international aggression and vainglory now rampant over the world. Both in England and in France, Positivists are now recognised as specially active in a cause which all the Churches are so flagrantly betraying. Here we are struggling on against great diiJiculties — ^mainly those of organised suppression of opinion. We cannot obtain a hall anywhere to meet and address the public. And the press will not print either speeches, lectures, or letters. An ad- nairable letter, addressed to Lord Salisbury by Leonard Courtenay in the name of our Conciliation Committee, 358 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH has been suppressed by the Times, which burns or mutilates letters in explanation or correction of matters of fact. I have sent to the Positivist Review for June an article on Lord Salisbury's Primrose speech. Our Committee will try to hold a private ticket meeting on Friday, but we can get no report. And next week 2,500 women are to meet in the Queen's Hall, but the proprietors bar all males, for fear of a free fight. I am not sure that even women are safe from violence. Such is " Free England " — but we shall struggle on. Believe me. Yours very trxily, (Signed) Frederic Harrison. P.S. — Your history, I find, receives most hearty praise and approval from all the best judges of political and literary ability. CCLXII G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Gbauge, Tobonto, June 6, 1900. My dear Mr. Merriman, The fall of Pretoria ' must be the end. Once more, and probably not for the last time, in this imperfect world might has triumphed over right. Nothing, I should say, in English history since the burning of Joan of Arc has been so ignoble as the attack of the Empire, with all its dependencies, on those two little Republics. The celebration of the victory in England and in Toronto (I do not say in Canada) has shown the change which has taken place in English character, the sobriety and dignity of which seem to be lost. * The British troops entered Pretoria on the day before this letter was written. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 359 I joined in advising the Boer Envoys, when they had received the inevitable answers from the Wash- ington Government, to leave the country ; as by going about and speaking they would become en- tangled with American politics, set one of the political parties against them, and perhaps evoke violent abuse of Great Britain, which would weaken the hands of the Liberal party there. My friend, Mr. Bourke Cockran, who sympathises with them very heartily, did his best to convince them, but failed. What they will do now I cannot tell ; but I am sure they had better depart. I suggested that they should publish a parting address to the American people, temperately and carefully worded, as it would be by Mr. Bourke Coekran's hand. It occurs to me that the feelings of these people might be somewhat changed for the better if they could see a picture of the Boer homes during the war. If anything of that kind appears at the Cape, you would do me a great favour by sending it to me. My little organ, the Toronto Weekly Sun, which has steadily opposed the war and expressed sympathy with the Boers, has suffered of course, but it has weathered the storm. The increase of its circulation has been somewhat checked, but it has not lost ground. Apparently the next scene of butchery and havoc under the name of propagating civilisation will be China. The tiger seems to have fairly broken loose, and to be likely for some time to have the run of the world. The pandering of the Churches to the war spirit is very notable and very revolting. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith, 360 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH ccLxni Professor P. Villari {Vice-President of the Senate of Italy) to G. S. BHLLtTNO, September 2, 1900. My dear Professor Smith, I thank you very much for your very kind letter, which is a proof of your large and human sympathies. I received your letter when I was in Rome, where I went to assist at the funeral of poor King Humbert, and at the accession of the new King. The emotion was really great, universal, and profound — beyond all description. We were for several days without a King, still there was not the slightest attempt at any disorder. All over the country, in every class of society, there was one feeling. In the Italian Dolomites, where I went back to my wife, the feeling was just the same as in Rome. All this is a proof that the monarchy has in Italy really profound roots. The impression which everybody received from the new King is excellent. But there is the other side of the medal. The assassination of the King is a shame and a humilia- tion for Italy. We have given too many assassins to the world. Everybody feels that, and many believe that it is the consequence of an unsettled state of society and of moral disorder. But what is worse, it is not easy to find a remedy. You seem to think that we could do without the Army and the Navy, and so easily put our budget in order without so many taxes. But there are two great objections. The Army is the best institution we have. It is a powerful instrument of order, dis- cipline, unity, and popular education. In any case of internal or external danger it is our only hope. And we must not forget that we are not like the CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 861 United States of America. We have on the one side Austria, on the other France — both ready to attack us. Austria cannot forget the past, and cannot forget that Trento and Trieste wish beyond any- thing to be annexed to Italy. France has always considered Italy as an appendix of la grande nation. She cannot forgive Italy {la nation que nous avons creie) for wishing to be independent of her orders. We must be a Republic because she is a Republic, and we must be dependent on her. Then the Clerical party is very powerful there, and a great enemy of Italy, because it wishes to re-establish the Temporal Power. The Vatican is now under the influence of France ; all there is French, and all against us. Who can tell what may be the political feeling of France towards Italy to-morrow ? The consequence is that if we are allied with Germany and Austria we must have an Army, and if we are not with them we must have a still larger Army, because the danger is greater. But there is something else which is unfortunately still worse — the opposition between Church and State. This is a real and great misfortune. Consider for one moment what it means to be in such a con- dition that what the State, the fatherland, declares noble, generous, heroic, religion declares, in the family, in the school, in the church, immoral, dam- nable. That is real anarchy. To get out of such a state of things would require a religious reformation, and a religious reformation is now impossible in Italy. But fortunately logic is not mistress of the world, and so we hope against hope. Industry, commerce, agriculture in the last ten years have made really wonderful progress. The public wealth increases every day. Public education and science make progress. There are also visible signs that the moral feelings are making real progress in the nation and in Parliament. So we hope for the future. I assure you that your conversation and your 362 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH books are amongst the most grateful and happy remembrances of my life. Yours truly, P. ViLLABI. CCLXIV G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Gkanoe, Tokonto, September 5, 1900. Dear Mr. Merriman, The Times announces a history of the South African war in five volumes. This is a direct challenge to you to give the world the true version. It will be a help to you also. I think Sir Joshua Reynolds was right in saying that a model was a help even if you entirely departed from it. The wolves in London are howling for Boer blood. None louder than the organ of Mr. Waldorf Aster. They are gloating over the idea that the annexa- tion of the Transvaal having been proclaimed, the Boers may be treated as rebels. This is what Maxi- milian did in Mexico, and for doing which he was put to death, amidst grand pity, but without protest on any side. Napoleon had conquered Spaia and established his government at Madrid ; yet the guerillas kept the field, and we accepted them as allies. The resistance of the Tyrolese after the formal annexation of the Tyrol to Bavaria was heartily applauded in England and, if my memory does not deceive me, drew a special letter of sympathy from the Government of George III. If Chamberlain could feel for a brave enemy, the war would have been at an end before this. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 363 CCLXV G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. The Grange, Toeonto, October 29, 1900. My dear Mrs. Hertz, In one sense I certainly may be called " vener- able," for I entered my seventy-eighth year the other day. I have since had a bad fall, broken my arm, and given myself a shock which, as repairs do not go on rapidly at seventy-eight, has made me feel more venerable ever since. I perceive that my good English household thinks it hardly safe to let me go alone. In the theological line I am prepared to give up a good deal, though perhaps not quite so much as you may think ; and I am dead against clinging, on grounds of policy, to the untenable. I assuredly do not cling to the Churches. How they have disgraced themselves in this business ! The Anglicans, of course, have .been the worst. They wound up their Synod here with three cheers for Roberts. The Baptists here have kept themselves comparatively clean. The Methodists have been almost as bad as the Anglicans. The R.C. Church, its people being French or Irish, was not tempted to pander to British rapine. Have you seen Dean Farrar's article in the North American Review ? It is positively sickening. His "Life of Lives " was one of the most dishonest books I ever read. Archbishop Temple puzzles me. He wrote in Essays and Reviews ; and though [there] was hardly anything heterodox in his essay, he must have shared the rationalistic design of the set. He is a man of strong mind, not likely to drift. But there he is, enacting the highest orthodoxy and framing hideous appeals to God to patronise rapine and carnage in South Africa. I should have thought^him much too honest to t?ike the shilling 364 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH We must be prepared, I am afraid, for an apparent triumph of Imperialism in the United States in the re-election of McKinley. He has the entire pluto- cracy with him, and its wealth will be unscrupulously employed ; but he would be beaten if the anti- Imperialists had a better candidate than Bryan, who sticks to his Silver craze and persists in making speeches which set not only the plutocracy but all commerce against him. Destiny has seldom played us a shabbier trick than in putting that man where he is at this crisis. A junction of American with British Jingoism for the purpose of aggrandisement would be very disastrous. Chamberlain openly seeks it ; McKinley and Hay are disposed to it. I cherish the hope that the better sense of the American people will prevail. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. P.S. — If Bridges wishes to understand the Canadian question, he should use the physical, not the political map. He would then see whether it is possible for ever to separate this scattered line of Provinces, severed from each other as they are by desert, in- land sea, and mountain range from each other, from the rest of the habitable continent. The popu- lations are already fused. Nothing divides them but the political line. Connexion with you is the bane, political, social, and commercial, of these Provinces, and you will presently see what their influence, with their sycophant and title -hunting politicians, is likely to be on you. I used to believe in an inde- pendent Canada ; I have long since given up that dream. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 865 CCLXVI G. S. to Frederic Harrison. The Grangb, Tobonto, December 9, 1900. My dear Harrison, I am very sorry you cannot come to the Dominion. We should have been so glad to receive you here. Not that there would be anything very bright or comforting in Canada to show you. I will not say that I have been crying in the wilderness. But I have been crying in an apparent wilderness. My little organ the Toronto Sun, and a still smaller organ, the Bobcaygeon Independent, have been the only two British journals in Canada opposed to the war. There is a certain amount of feeling on our side of which I have had proofs sufficient to make amends for all the unpopularity and abuse ; but it is cowed and silent. I am at the same time not without hope of an approaching reaction. The attempt is now being made by our Jingoes to draw Canada into the mad race of armaments. Our people, especially the farmers, may start back. The re-election of McKinley is a great misfortune. A number of anti-Imperialists were misguided enough to vote for him from fear of Bryan's currency theory, to which, if Bryan had been elected, he never could have given effect. They flattered them- selves that having supported McKinley they would be able to control him. I fear they wUl find them- selves very much mistaken. He and his crew have now four years to work their will, and it is too prob- able that they will do immediate mischief. The most hopeful thing in the election was the vote of Massachusetts, which showed that anti- Imperialism was strong in the great Republican State. 366 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Nothing is more to be dreaded than the alHance of American with British Jingoism, which I fear, under McKinley, may take place. In view of this, the differences about the Alaska Boundary and the control of the Nicaragua Canal are not altogether to be deplored. What could be more strange or more disastrous than this sudden relapse of humanity ? If you, at seventy, are not likely to see the end, still less am I at seventy-eight, I send a little article of mine in the Atlantic Monthly.^ My weekly writings in the Toronto Sun would be stale and worthless when they reached you. The little pamphlet " which you say you liked was not published, but distributed to furnish points to friendly speakers and writers in the Presidential campaign. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCLXVII G, S. to Percy Bunting. The Geauqe, Tobonto, December 11, 1900. My dear Bunting, I have received the Contemporary with my article.' It does not, I hope, tend to " nothing- ness," but to the frank abandonment of that which is nothingness or worse than nothingness, and a serious effort to put, if possible, something sub- stantial in its place. Look at Mr. Peyton's article on " The Crucifixion and the War of Creation." How can the religious and moral world rest upon such fancies ? Supposing that in some cases suffering has a moral effect, what ^ " War as a Moral Medicine," in the December number. ' Probably Commonwealth or Empire. By A Bystander. Partly reprinted from the Toronto Weekly Sun. Toronto : Tyrrell, 1900. * "Genesis and the Outlook of Religion." December, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 367 moral effect has it in the case of animals ? or of those who die in childhood ? The religious structure at present rests on the belief that man was created in a state of innocence ; that his fall brought death into the world ; that to redeem him a Being who fills eternity and infinity became an embryo in the womb of a Galilean maiden and suffered death upon the cross. Is there any proof of this ? If there is none, what good can come of continuing to pretend that there is ? Perfectly free though reverent inquiry seems to me our only hopeful course. As to the social danger of free inquiry, we are past it. Popultis non vult decipi. Scepticism is spreading rapidly among the masses. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. 1901 ccLxvni G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Gbanoe, Tobonto, February 21, 1901. My dear Mr. Merriman, By this time I fear you have found that my forebodings were true. If you had to deal with Canning or Peel, something might be done. But you have to deal with Mr. Chamberlain. If you try to save your country from guUt and shame, he thinks you are a pro-Boer and a traitor. They have filled the British mind with the belief that Kruger began the war. Milner began the war when he put forward demands totally subversive of Transvaal self-government as guaranteed by the Convention, and massed troops in support of them. Kruger was not bound to wait for his enemy's reserves. Too much has been said and thought about Kruger ; too little has been said or thought about the heroic 368 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH defence by the Boer of the home which he had made for himself in the wilderness, and which no one had a right to take from him. Such patriotic enthusiasm could not have been evoked by Kruger or by any President or potentate who ever lived. Once more, in the chequered history of this world, right fails and wrong prevails. But a memorable resistance has been made to the oppression of weak nations by the strong, which threatens to become the general law. I, as you know, at the outset was, like you, an advocate of concession ; but history will probably say that the Boer chose the better part. You and your friends at the Cape at all events may feel that you did your best to save South Africa. I am proud even of my small share. Our Volunteers seem to come back less bellicose and Boer-hating than they went. Yours most truly, (Signed) Gold win Smith, CCLXIX G, S, to Briton Riviere, R.A. The Laurel Hottse, Lakewood, New Jebsey, March 17, 1901. My dear Briton Riviere, Your letter was very welcome. I cling to my English friendships all the more perhaps because it is not likely that I shall ever see England again. The last of my Oxford contemporaries, I believe, has just passed away in the person of Bright, the Professor of Ecclesiastical History. I have still some professional pupils remaining as heads, or in other permanent positions. I must deduct largely from your praise of my book on the account of friendship, which I do the more willingly, because I value the friendship more than praise. I am very glad, however, to fiad that you CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 869 like The United Kingdom. It will not commend itself to the judgment of the prevailing school of writers of history, who are all for minute research. But the ordinary reader has not time or taste for minute research. There is no use in giving him pages of notes full of references to documents to which he will never refer. He needs something com- pendious, something that he can read without painful effort, something that will stay in his memory. I have the highest possible respect for Stubbs, but the ordinary reader, if he could get through the book at all, would read it with a painful effort, and probably carry little away. My warning that the book was the work of extreme old age was anything but needless. I am now in my seventy-eighth year, and my powers of work are failing me. My memory especially, which used to be pretty good, shows its weakness, and I have constantly to refer to books for things which I used to carry safely in my head. I am always afraid of slips. I am thankful that the critics have not discovered more of them. I had a bad fall the other day, broke my arm — fortunately my lep arm — and gave myself a shock which did me more harm than the fracture. I begin very sensibly to feel the approach of the end. I have had, in every sense, more than my share of life. We are staying at a winter watering-place to which we fly from the dire February and March of Canada. Lakewood used to be quiet, but it is now annexed by the fashionable world of New York. One of the multi-millionaires has built a palace here, in which he reigns with powder-headed footmen and all the para- phernalia of aristocracy. Into the hands of these men the world is falling. It is to be hoped that we are now at the end of this wretched war. In Canada it has stirred up the vilest passions. Of the justice or injustice of the cause, there has been no thought. The bearing of the women has been particularly repulsive. I am told by English 24 370 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH correspondents " that it was very sad, but that it was inevitable." I do not believe in inevitability. AVhat forced England to break the covenant guaran- teeing to the Transvaal " complete self-government " ? Besides, what folly ! Kruger was seventy-eight, and at his death a change was sure to come. I have an excellent correspondent at the Cape, who has no doubt that if Lord Rosmead's policy of patience had been pursued all would have been well. I am sincerely sorry that you have cause for anxiety in your home. May it soon depart ! Ever yoiu-s most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith, CCLXX Viscount Peel {ex-Speaker of the House of Commons) to G. S. The Lodge, Saitdy, Beds., April 6, 1901. Dear Goldwin Smith, It interests me, as always, to hear from you, and such remarks as you may find time to give me on the questions of the day will never fail to have their weight and influence with me. I hope that even on the subject of the South African War we naay agree in thinking that the Boers were very ill-advised in rejecting terms which I do not think that any other country would have accorded to a conquered enemy. There is considerable activity in England, Scotland, and Wales, in favour of efficient reform of our licensing laws, and of the way in which they are administered. But there are a number of extreme sections which it is very difficult to bring into line, and which by standing aloof will prevent the unity which is necessary before any real and permanent improvement can be effected. For my own part, I am with others endeavouring CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 371 to persuade temperance advocates that the reforms which are recommended in the Report, and especially in the Minority Report, of the recent Commission, are good in themselves, and ought to be supported on their own merits, and also as leading the way to further reforms in the direction of some form or other of popular control. Though individually I may not believe in a veto which shall exclude the sale of intoxicating liquor, yet there are many degrees of exercise of local option short of that extreme measure, and our object is to deal with existing evUs connected with liquor traffic in such a way as may attract moderate men — ^and at the same time not put any impediment in the way of extreme reformers who go much farther than we do. If the reforms which we propose prove effectual, much will be gained; if not, then, failing other remedies, let the people be the judges in a case which concerns them so closely. If the United Kingdom Alliance, and some extreme Scottish associa- tions corresponding to that body, could be brought to see that no surrender of their principles is involved, nor any " compact with hell," to use an expression contained in a memorial which has just been sent me from the North, then we may hope for the one essential condition of success — united action. But Scylla and Charybdis are on the one side and on the other, and steering is difficult. One can only act for the best in what appears to be best, and persevere in the attempt to reduce the excessive number of licensed houses and to purify the administration of such laws as may be passed. But I assure you that your warning does not fall upon unheeding ears. I hope that Parker, after concluding Sir James Graham's Life and Letters, in which he is now engaged, may find time to undertake the " biography and works" of the late Duke of Argyll. The Duke showed me, shortly before he died, his autobiography, which I read through with the greatest interest. 372 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH only regretting that it came down to no more recent period than the close of the Crimean War. He had expressed a wish to me that I should advise as to its publication. I hope literature will profit by Parker's failure to return to Parliament. Believe me to remain, Most truly yours, (Signed) Peel. CCLXXI G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. TOBONTO, May 22, 1901. My dear Lord Mount Stephen, I have not been unmindful of the question you asked me to help you in solving ; and the other day I consulted Hewitt, who is a good authority on the subject. He suggested a club-house for working men which he said would keep them from objectionable places in which they now hold their meetings. He proposed means of innocent amusement and temper- ance refreshments. For my own part I cannot help thinking that healthy lodgings for the poor, in place of the filthy dens in which they fester, are about as beneficent as anything that can be devised. In the way of libraries, Carnegie is doing all that is needed, perhaps more. I see he has now taken to endowing Universities. He must mind what he is about. There are far too many students in Uni- versities already. A good block of lodgings for the poor would be not only useful, but to some extent monumental, which I think a consideration, if secondary, not to be despised. There are symptoms of the approach of an economical crisis here. The extension of the Trusts seems likely to be met by a counter-extension of unions, so that we shall have strikes for the whole continent. I sup- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 378 pose we shall manage to rub along, but there may be a lively quarter of an hour. The wretched war, let us hope, is now near its end. I have entreated my American friends not to invite Kruger over here to add to the ill-feeling. Nothing in history is more tragic than the destruc- tion of those two little Commonwealths, evidently full of high promise ; nothing in history is more heroic than their struggle for independence. The Jingoes, I see, are talking of treating guerillas as brigands. The Spanish guerilla chiefs were pre- sented vidth honorary swords and pistols by the Prince Regent, and Wellington accompanied the gift with a flowing letter of thanks. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCLXXII G. S. to Rev. Mr. Warnicker. The Gbanqe, Toronto, July 10, 1901. Deak Me. Warnicker, I return the work of Professor George Adam Smith which you have been so kind as to lend me. He had apparently not seen the passage in my book to which he makes a not very courteous allusion. The passage is : "At the English Church Congress, held in 1895 at Norwich, Professor Bonney, Canon of Manchester, made a bold and honourable attempt to cast a mill- stone off the neck of Christianity by frankly re- nouncing belief in the historical character of the earlier hooks of the Bible." Professor George A. Smith deals with the historical character of the earlier books of the Bible not less rationialistically than Canon Bonney did, or than I 374 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH have done ; and he can hardly deny that the irra- tional treatment of those books, bringing Christianity into fatal collision both with science and with his- torical criticism, has been a millstone round the neck of Christianity. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCLXXIII G. S. to E. S. Beesly. The Gbanqe, Tobonto, September 12, 1901. My deak Beesly, I was glad to see your article on the Colonies in The Positivist. It hits the nail on the head, and the nail was one which wanted hitting. You may depend upon it that the influence of the connexion on British politics will be wholly reactionary and Tory. It is not with the people of the Colony that you are brought into contact, but with the politicians, who crave for titles and social recognition. The people know nothing about your questions. Nothing meets their eyes but the Crown. You have by this time probably assured yourself that I did not mislead you with regard to the political character and aims of Sir Wilfrid Laurier. I am trying to get information about the working of elective government in the great English munici- palities as a guide to the treatment of the question here. Things have come to a terrible pass in Phila- delphia, and they are bad enough in Toronto. I wish The Positivist would give us something on that subject. This proclamation of the intention to make an unlimited use of hired barbarians in war is surely a monstrous outrage on humanity. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 875 P.S. — ^You are right as to the extent of the Canadian contribution — " sacrifice," as it is called — ^to the war. Canada only paid for the transportation of the troops ; and I suppose we must have recouped our outlay by the sale of horses and provisions for the war. Moreover, our Contingent came away long before the close of the war, if the war can be said now to be closed. It is a wide step from this to an equal share in the expense of British armaments and all British wars, such as Imperial Federation would imply. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCLXXIV G. S. to Moherly Bell. The Gbaitge, Tobonto, November 30, 1901. Dear Mr. Moberly Bell, One consequence of this [the Boer] war was sure to be the revival of the Disunionist movement in Ireland, which the Times deserved the principal credit of defeating some years ago. Irish National- ism was certain to be rekindled by the sight of a struggle for independence against British rule. Nor can I say that the Irish patriot is without excuse, though his behaviour in the House of Commons is Hibernian. I am no more pro-Boer than I am pro- Patagonian, but I fail to see either the wisdom or the justice of this war ; and I can well understand the feelings of an Irishman who, even if he acquiesces in the Union, may say that he does not wish to be dragged over the world fighting for objects in which he has no interests against people who have done him no wrong. Had you remained at peace and settled the agrarian question in Ireland (which, by the way, might have been done much more cheaply forty years ago) the 876 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH political agitation would probably have died out. Apart from the agrarian agitation it has never had much force. What the people want is the land. I studied the Irish question in Ireland under excellent masters. Now things again look serious. The last action of the Irish verges upon civil war. If you resort to extreme measures of coercion, civil war you may have, and probably with foreign intervention. Irish influence and Fenian activity in the United States were dying out when they were revived by this war. Why has British statesmanship always neglected this vital question at home while it was grasping at objects in the moon ? It seems that you were scandalised at the report that a Canadian Minister had attended a Redmond meeting and lunched with Redmond. At the time of the Home Rule struggle our politicians almost to a man voted for a resolution of sympathy with Home Rule, for which they were rebuked by your Govern- ment. Notwithstanding the rebuke, the Ontario Legislature, under Mr. — now Sir Oliver — Mowat, passed a resolution condemning your Government for a renewal of the Crimes Act. When Mr. O'Brien made his political raid upon us, a little Association, of which I was President, was formed to counteract the raid. We held a great open-air meeting in the Park at Toronto, and pretty well succeeded in our object. But the politicians all skulked. Of the small fund which we sent to the Unionists in Ireland, a large proportion came from one purse. A Canadian who has since been made a Peer sent us a subscrip- tion, but showed his fear of the general sentiment by stipulating that his name should not be mentioned. These Contingents,' I believe, are filled more by love of adventure than by any political motive. I am told that in the North-West many of the ' The contingents of troops Canada sent to South Africa to take part in the Boer Wai. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 377 Volunteers were young Englishmen who had failed, as young Englishmen too generally do, as settlers. The Canadian Government reckoned that there had been not less than 40,000 Canadian enlistments in the American Army during the Civil War. In Quebec the Conservative leader is speaking against Imperial Federation. There can be no doubt as to the sentiments of nine-tenths of the French on the whole subject. Yours very truly, GoLDWiN Smith. 1902 CCLXXV G, S. to Mrs. Hertz. The Geanoe, Toronto, January 14, 1902. My dear Mrs. Hertz, If I were in danger of being unduly elated by your kind words, I should have plenty of correc- tives here. You may imagine that Jingoism in a colony is not more temperate or refined than it is with you. I must say, however, for the Jingoes here that though we have had plenty of strong language and uproar in Parliament and elsewhere, we have not had anything like the physical outrage which there seems to have been in England. The excitement here has been blind. The people have not been told nor have they learned anything about the history or the rights of the case. There seems to be a slight subsidence of the tidal wave of Jingoism, but it is still running pretty high. Bemg now in my seventy-ninth year, and decidedly dilapidated, I am not likely to see the end. Perhaps I should have done more wisely if I had refused to mingle in the strife. But my friends in England wished me to write, and such of the people here as 878 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH clung to justice and humanity had no rallying-point but such as I could afford them. Some of them have thanked me. The Churches have behaved badly. Of the Anglicans one expected nothing else. But one did expect something else of the Methodists, who have been pandering to the lust of war. The Baptists have on the whole been pretty true to their principle. I delivered a lecture the other day from one of their pulpits, against unnecessary war, which seems to have had some effect. The coming generation will probably see great changes. I wish I [could] look in thirty years hence. Ever yours affectionately, GoLDWiN Smith. CCLXXVI G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. The Gbastge, Tobonto, February 1, 1902. Dear Lord Mount Stephen, I was on the Education Commission, commonly called the Duke of Newcastle's Commission, the Duke having been its chairman, in 1861. The part of the inquiry relating to Charitable Foundations was put into my hands, and I drew that part of the Report. The inquiry comprised not only educational foun- dations, but charitable foundations generally, it being thought the revenues of some of them might be properly diverted to education. If you will read the Report it will help to show you to what misdirection and abuse pecuniary bequests for charity are liable after the death of the founder. You will perhaps be led to be cautious in instituting such things as old-age pensions, or pensions of any kind. A fine building for a public purpose is not liable to misdirection or abuse. It preserves the memory GOLDWIN SiMlTH IN Uj02 (AGRD SEVENTV-NINE) {Photo /^i.von, 'foi-oiitoj CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 879 of the founder and preaches munificence to posterity. To a city or crowded district a public park or garden is a very welcome donation and can hardly be per- verted from its proper use. In providing endowments for Scotch Ministers you run the risk of having your benefaction swept away by theological revolution. You see the dis- tractions of the religious world. Darwin has proved that there was no fall of man. If there was no fall, how can there have been an incarnation or a redemption, and what becomes of the whole edi- fice of orthodox Christianity ? To help the existing Ministers, if they are worthy and depressed in circumstances, is of course quite right and safe. So it is to subscribe to a hospital or to add to its endowment. So it is to do anything that is kind and liberal towards the employes of a [rail-]road ; though in this case I should keep the fund in my own hand. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCLXXVII G. S. to Mrs. Hertz. The Grange, Toeonto, February 14, 1902. Dear Mrs. Hertz, I was taken up with other things when the Letters of John Chinaman arrived, but I have now read the book with interest and a good deal of sym- pathy. It must have occurred to most of us to doubt whether sixty miles an hour was perfect happiness, especially if you consider not only the passengers but the engine-drivers and brakesmen. It is not impossible that in the next generation there may be a change from progress to repose. ^The book is of course one-sided. It says nothing 380 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH about the Taeping Rebellion or about the horrors of Chinese criminal law. One great blessing, the absence of militarism, the Chinese will have to resign. They will have to arm if they mean to be secure against the aggressions of the great robber Powers. The South African war must now be near an end, though the moral consequences will not end with the war, while the disgrace will be never-ending. If you want an historical parallel, look up in Charles Greville's Memoirs the account of the Crimean War, and of the fever which it set on foot, and which has a poetic monument in Tennyson's ' ' Maud. ' ' Who now says a word for the Crimean War ? Where is the regeneration of Turkey promised by Palmerston ? Yours affectionately, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCLXXVIII G. S. to Frederic Harrison. The Grange, Toeonto, March 2, 1902. My dear Harrison, I rejoice to see that you have taken up the question of martial law, and in the most effective way. What is martial law but a way of getting rid of all the securities for justice ? You remember the case of William Gordon,' who was carried into the martial-law district, and there put to death by a court of officers, inflamed with the passion of race, upon evidence which the Royal Commission, bent on whitewashing as it was, pronounced wholly in- sufficient to support the charge. 1 In the " Morant Bay ' or "Governor Eyre" affair in Jamaica in 1865. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWiN SMITH 381 Lord Rosebery is evidently a jurist of the Jeffreys breed. I see it stated that he was counsel for Eyre. Very truly yours, GoLDwiN Smith. Note by F. H. Letter of March 1902 — during the late Boer War controversy, F. H., active member for the South African Conciliation Committee 1900-1902, published for them an essay on Martial Law. See his National Social Problems, pp. 225-245. CCLXXIX G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. The Geanoe, Toeokto, March 4, 1902. My dear Loed Mount Stephen, You are safe enough in saying to me that you think we are doing too much already for what is called education. I have been saying the same un- heeded for many years. Old Cornell told me once that he hoped the day would come when there would be five thousand students in his University. I answered that if the day did come, instead of being a great benefactor, he might be thought to be rather the reverse ; that there would not be a market for the five thousand graduates ; and that the balance would be unprovided for, and perhaps dangerous to society. Too much money is being given to Universities, and young men are being tempted away from the humbler, and for them happier callings to which they were born, and for which they are fit. In my humble judgment, Carnegie is making a very doubtful use of his money, by multiplying popular libraries, which will multiply fast enough of themselves, and which circulate about seventy-five per cent of novels. But if I were to tell him this, I should run the risk of im- pairing our friendship. The Americans boast with some reason of the in- fluence of their public schools. But what would they 382 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH do if they could not import the coarser kinds of labour from abroad ? You say you do not care to be a founder. And, as I said before, nor would I recommend pecuniary founda- tions, or anything liable to perversion when you are gone. But I think monuments of beneficence are good and pleasant things for society. They link the generations together and preach regard for humanity. I hope you are now near the end of this hateful war. . . . Gladstone hit the mark in saying that Chamberlain was your first Yankee politician. May he be your last ! I have been long away from England, and shall never set foot in her again. But I cannot bear to see her made to appear before the world as a power of injustice and to have her honour dragged in the mire. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCLXXX G. S. to John Ogilvy {Vice-Chairman of the Dundee Liberal Association). The Grange, Tobonto, March U, 1902. Dear Sir, British politics and the tactics of British parties are rather beyond the range of my vision here. Moreover, the Times correspondent whom you quote is no doubt right in saying that an old man is too apt to cling to his old ideas. I am conscious of clinging to the ideas that righteousness is the founda- tion of the State ; that nationality is better than Empire ; that the greatness and happiness of England are in herself ; and that for a commercial and in- dustrial nation, dependent on foreign supplies for its food and raw material, the wisest policy is one of moderation and peace. Just now there is a tidal wave of sentiments opposed to these ; but I am old CORRESPONDENCE OP GOLDWIN SMITH 388 enough to have stood more than once on the dry shore where a tidal wave had been. I have, however, no doubt that were I now in England I should be heartily supporting Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman as the representative of genuine Liberalism, on the South African question among others, and a leader who in a desperately difficult position has played his part wonderfully well. We should be glad to see Lord Rosebery at his side. But a party cannot be based upon a mere personality, however brilliant and fascinating, without definite principles or aims. Nor could a hollow compromise on the great question of the day lead to anything but aggravated disruption. If, by saying that the " Little Englander " finds no standing-ground in Canada, the Times correspondent means that nobody would accept an opprobrious name, he is certainly right. But British sentiment of every kind is confined to the British Canadian. It does not extend to the French, who form a very large and increasing portion of our population ; to the Americans, who are pouring into British Columbia and the North- West ; or to a number of immigrant nationalities ; probably not to the Irish Catholics. Some years ago we had a rebellion of the French half-breeds in the North-West, led by Louis Riel. The feeling of the French on that occasion was mani- fest. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, then Mr. Laurier, gave fervent expression to it in Parliament, and denounced the execution of Riel. The French Canadians are content, provisionally at least, with British institu- tions. But if they have an aspiration, it is not Anglo- Saxon Empire, but a French-Canadian nation. Their flag is the Tricolor. Nine-tenths of them would have been opposed to the sending of a Contingent if a Frenchman had not happened to be Premier. Even of the British population, though all feel most kindly to the mother-country, I will venture to say that not 10 per cent are what you would call Im- perialists or inclined to surrender any part of their self- 884 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH government to a central power. That tendency is confined to limited social circles in two or three of the cities. There are the same speakers at all the Empire League meetings. Nor do I think it probable that Canada will be disposed to enter into your military system and become contributory to your vast armaments. On what footing could this be done ? You cannot undertake the defence of the Canadian frontier, stretching all across the continent and for the most part open, against a neighbour whose power is overwhelming ; while, on the other hand, blended as Canadian with American interests now are, in spite of the tariff, Canada would never be permitted to embark in any British quarrel by which she would bring war into this continent. Canada has on this occasion given you facilities for recruiting, and paid for the transportation of the Contingents. It is doubtful whether she would ever do ntiore. The talk of an Imperial Zollverein goes on, but nobody has yet attempted to frame a tariff which shall suit the geographical and commercial circumstances of communities scattered over the whole globe. Even in the case of this war, though the war fever has been strong in the British centres and the war party has been dominant and overbearing, it would be a mistake to think there has been no standing- ground for Canadians who held the same views as the Liberal party in England. I have plenty of assurances on that point. You must not be misled by the war fever, or take it for the proof of settled tendencies. Propose Im- perial Federation or Military Amalgamation to the Canadian people, and see what the result will be. Yours faithfully, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. To John Ogilvy, Esq., Vice-Chairman, Dundee Liberal Association, 57 and 58, Dock Street, Dundee, Scotland. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 385 CCLXXXI G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. Hotel Bttdou, Atlantio Crrr, N.J., April 5, 1902. My dear Lord Mount Stephen, I have directed to be sent to you a leaflet of mine on the subject of the pubhc-school system, which, though so firmly established that it is hardly worth while to criticise it, has long seemed to me by no means free from objection. There is now a certain reaction against it in Toronto. Voluntary schools are growing up. The public-school system fails in morality and manners. The manners of the Toronto boys are very bad. I have seen things which I should almost be ashamed to recount to you. About the only moral principle, in fact, which the system teaches, is that it is miserable to remain and do your duty in the station in which you were born. This may be a spur to talent, and, so far, a benefit to the community. But, in the mass, it must be apt to produce unsatisfied restlessness. We cannot all climb over each other's heads. It must involve, also, a displacement of industry, withdrawing it from manual callings. It is very well to eulogise the American school system, but what would the United States do if they did not draw rough labour from abroad ? How many Americans would work in the mines, or on railroads, or go into domestic service ? There is likely soon to be a great influx of American population into the North-West. The mines have also brought an influx into British Columbia. This will in time produce political as well as economical results. The collapse of religion is sure to be felt in the dis- turbance of morality. When this is combined with 25 386 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH hunger for gain and luxury, the next generation is hkely to see lively times. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCLXXXII G. S. to the Secretary of the Cobden Club. The Geange, Toeonto, Canada, June 25, 1902, Dear Sir, The publications of the Cobden Club have reached me regularly, and I always receive them with gratitude. In the United States it seems to me there is in- creasing hope of a change. The people are certainly beginning to see through the fallacy of Protection. The enormous fortunes made by monopolists at the consumers' expense have helped popular perception of the truth. Still, it cannot be denied that the ring of monopolist interests is very strong. Of this the treatment of the Cuban question is a deplorable proof. In Canada the Laurier Government went into power on a strong Free Trade platform, but having got into power, it before long declared for " stability of tariff " ; and its present relations with the protected manufacturers can, I fear, hardly be doubted. It would be practically better for Free Trade if the other party, which is openly Protectionist, were in power. The manufacturers are calling for further Protection, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who is an almost avowed opportunist, might be inclined from political motives to yield to their demand, but he will hardly venture to do this, as he naust know that the farming com- munity is now decidedly for Free Trade. On the whole, and looking not to the present political situa- tion, but to the growth of economical opinion outside the legislative halls, I am inclined to think that on CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 387 this continent the winter of Protection is breaking up, and that the spring of Free Trade, if not immedi- ately at hand, is not very far off. G. S. ccLxxxni G. S. to Frederic Harrison. The Gbangb, Tobonto, July 15, 1902. My dear Harrison, I am much obliged to you for so readily acceding to my request. I hold back the Pamphlet ' a little, that we may get over the return of the Volun- teers and some other disturbing influences, including the adjourned coronation. Martem et Circenses — how they are trying to befool the people with military excitement and shows ! How great, one must sorrow- fully add, has been their success ! We have had a very painful revelation. It is needless to say that I do not think of casting on you the slightest responsibility for anything in my pamphlet ; but I only want to have the benefit of your remarks, especially on any point on which my distance from the scene might lead me astray. Things do not look well in the United States. They are getting more and more deeply entangled in the Philippines. This may, however, divert them from expansion southwards, to which the Isthmian Canal is otherwise likely to be a lure. So Chamberlain is not Premier. I thought old Conservatism and commerce, which must quake at his bounce, would have their say. My little paper the Weekly Sun fought hard against the Boer War, but lost about half its circulation ; ' In the Court of History : an Apology for Canadians who wera opposed to the Boer War. By Goldwin Smith. Toronto : Wm. Tyrrell & Co., 1902. 388 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH though I don't believe a hundred people in Canada knew what the war was about ; a direct falsehood, as I have said, was told them by their Government. I am now half through my seventy-ninth year, and have latterly been feeling my old age very much. Of course I cannot look forward to seeing England or my English friends again. Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. I hope you will be happy in your new home, and enjoy the evening of life, the shadows of which must, I suppose, be beginning to fall. With me, they are days, for in a few weeks I shall enter my eightieth year. Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. Note by F. H. In reply to letter from F. H. announoing that he had ceased to reside in London and was settled at Elm Hill, Hawkhurst, Kent, from June 24, 1902. F. H. then seventy. CCLXXXIV G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. The Gbauge, Tobonto, October 2, 1902. My dear Lord Mount Stephen, I can only clap my hands at your munificence, which is undoubtedly well bestowed. The endow- ment will evidently be sufficient, and you will thus avoid the only danger which can threaten an endow- ment of hospitals, that of insufficient endowment, which is apt to repel subscriptions. My friend, Doctor Ackland, used to complain that the Oxford Hospital was starved by its reputed endowment. You are doing better, I think, than my friend Carnegie, who is spending his money in planting a number of libraries which would grow fast enough, possibly even too fast, of themselves. He has CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 389 managed, moreover, to make people feel that they are receiving alms from him. This seems to have led to some kicking. He had better have built a set of baths and wash-houses on the most magnificent scale, rivalling those of Caracalla or Diocletian, for the poor of Pittsburg or New York. I have entered my eightieth year, and I had made up my mind to spend the rest of my days at home, where my household take the utmost care of me. But we are in danger of being obliged to shut up the house during the winter by dearth of fuel ; our coal-man having disappointed us and no hard coal, at all events, being yet in sight.' There can hardly fail to be great suffering among the poor. The labour world is getting into a very threatening state, and there is no visible power to grapple with the danger. If we are forced to leave home, our choice will be between Florida or one of the Southern States and the Isle of Wight. As we are both pretty good sailors, we shall probably prefer the latter. How- ever, the President is trying his hand at mediation. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Behold the Unity of the Empire ! About five -sixths of the population are black or coloured ; and they are being treated as aliens or worse than aliens by the legislators of Australia ! CCLXXXV G. S. to John Ogilvy. Thb Geauoe, Tobonto, October 10, 1902. To John Ogilvy, Esq. Dear Sir, As to Home Rule, you may I think rest assured that no member of the political circle to ' There was a coal strike lasting 158 days in the United States. 390 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH which I once belonged, and of which John Bright was the chief, ever desired to sacrifice the welfare of Ireland to the self-interest of Great Britain. We had convinced ourselves — I under the teaching of some of the best of Irish Liberals — that the separation of the Irish from the British Parliament would be injurious to the interests of both countries alike, and would probably result in such a conflict as would bring round again the cycle of Irish woes. I am bound, however, to admit that recent events seem to have furnished Irish Nationalism with a plea which it had not before. The Irishman might be content to remain a citizen of the United Kingdom, due consideration being shown for Irish interests ; at the same time he might object to being a subject of an Empire which was carrying on, partly at the expense of his country and against the sentiments of its people, a policy of territorial ambition in other parts of the world. This reckless war was sure, among other conse- quences, to excite Irish sympathy with the communi- ties whose independence was being attacked, and thus to revive the Irish trouble. It was not only the line taken by Mr. Asquith and his associates respecting the war, but their language and bearing throughout the affair, that seemed to me to preclude the possibility of union between them and the Liberal party. Yours faithfully, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCLXXXVI G. S. to Mr, Lawrence. The Gbanqb (1902). Dear Mr. Lawrence, I am not very sure that you and I are aiming at the same object. My ideal, though I do not CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 391 expect to see it realised in my lifetime, is the relin- quishment of State subvention to education, except in Special cases, such as that of the Technical Schools is alleged to be. CCLXXXVII G. S. to Briton Riviere, R.A. The GBAuaE, Tobonto, December 23, 1902. My dear Briton Riviere, It was very pleasant to hear from you again. The number of my old friends in England diminishes very fast, and I proportionately cherish my con- nexion with those who remain. I gather from what you say that Sewell of New College is still alive. His age must be more than patriarchal. There is very little left now of the Oxford that was when you lived in Park Town and I at Park End. My house, I suppose, since Max Miiller's death, again has a new tenant. These demises reconcile one to the prospect of one's own speedy departure. There would be little pleasure in living into a strange generation. My interest, however, in English affairs does not decrease. Indeed, we have had dire reason for keeping it up of late. The war fever here was worse probably than it was with you. Your people had a cause, or fancied they had a cause ; and this might somewhat redeem their ferocity. Our people in Canada hardly fancied they had a cause. With them it was unredeemed ferocity. This effect on national character is the retribution. The Boer widow who weeps pure tears of sorrow really suffers less than the fine Canadian lady who chuckles over the weekly " bag " of Boers. American character has suffered in the same way as a consequence of American atrocities in the Philippines. It is won- derful how rapidly the poison has coursed through the veins of the nation, 392 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH As to the Irish question — had the Church been disestablished and the land question settled on a liberal basis fifty years ago, the political agitation for Home Rule would probably have died out. It never had much force in itself. It came to nothing under Smith O'Brien and Young Ireland. What the people wanted was the land. But in the course of the long struggle a separated and Nationalist feeling has been developed which it will now not be easy to allay— which certainly will not be allayed by any number of Coercion Acts. Something in the way of concession to this feeling will have to be devised if Irish disaffection is not to be a perpetual thorn in the side of Great Britain. What the some- thing is to be it is very difficult to say. If you have two Parliaments you must have two nations. The old Irish Parliament was kept in uneasy and queru- lous union with the British Parliament only by systematic corruption. Gladstone has made the case more difficult by his wild impetuosity and by shattering, as he did, the Liberal party. The attack on the independence of the South African Republics was sure to set the Irish agitation going again, as it has done. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 1908 CCLXXXVIII G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. Toronto, February 1, 1903. My dear Lord Mount Stephen, I see Lord Roberts finds recruiting bad. Has any country ever had an army without a strong rural population to draw on ? Has not your surplus rural population been destroyed by flocking into CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 393 the cities and emigration ? Emigration tells on the character of your population, taking the young and able-bodied men, leaving the infirm and the women. You will have to cultivate the arts of peace. Your forecast for South Africa is probable. But be the future what it may, it cannot remove the stain of broken faith and cowardly oppression of the weak from the escutcheon of England any more than it can quench the fire which burned Joan of Arc. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCLXXXIX G. S. to G. W. Prothero {Editor of the " Quarterly "). [Reply to an invitation to review Morley's Life of Gladstone in the Quarterly Review. '\ Thb Geanob, Tobonto, February 23, 1903. Dear Sie, I have just received your very kind and flatter- ing invitation. ... I am now in my eightieth year, and the infirmities of age grow upon me so fast that I do not ventiire to pledge myself to anything of importance in advance. It is needless, therefore, to ask whether I should be quite the right man for the Quarterly Review. Not that I was a worshipper of Gladstone. I looked upon Gladstone as a man of extraordinary, almost unique powers and generous impulses, as well as of great personal virtues. But he always seemed to me to be too much under the in- fluence of impulse and of the turns of the political war to be a really great and forecasting statesman. I should not have been at all surprised, when the Peelites were hovering between the two parties, at his choosing the Conservative instead of the Liberal side. Indeed I was inclined to think that this is 394 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH what he would have done had Disraeli been out of the way. In the Home Rule struggle he became, to use an expression of Lord Selborne in a letter to me, almost " morally insane." He appealed recklessly to all the forces of discord and disruption, social as well as political and provincial. His bill, giving Ireland a Parliament of her own and at the same time eighty members in the British Parliament, certainly verged upon moral insanity. It could not have passed the Commons had not members felt that it would be thrown out in the Lords. I strongly sympathise with Gladstone's champion- ship of independence in opposition to a policy of Imperial aggrandisement. Here, I am afraid, I might hurt the feelings of subscribers to the Quarterly Review. My friend John Morley is sure to produce an ad- mirable and most interesting work. He saw Glad- stone, of course, on the brightest side, and in the later period of his career, when he had become thoroughly Liberal and the varying impulses which had marked the early part of his career had ceased. Gladstone, though little open to argument, was very open to infusion ; and I have always believed that Morley had a great hand in infusing into him Home Rule. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. G. W. Prothero, Esq., Litt.D. ccxc G. S. to Moherly Bell. The Gkanoe, Tobonto, February 24, 1903. Dear Mr. Moberly Bell, My best thanks are due to you for sending me Mr. Hugh Chisholm,' with whom I had a very 1 Editor of the tenth edition of the Encyelopcedia Britannioa, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 395 pleasant and instructive chat last evening. Send me more Mr. Chisholms if you can. Such visitors are very instructive as well as very pleasant to me. He talked about municipal government, on which a Committee is about to be formed here. Whether anything will come of the attempt is uncertain. It is to be feared that the Ward Politician, who of course prefers the present state of things, will be too much for us. However, we can but try. It has always seemed to me that a more unwise thing was never done than the bestowal of an elective government instead of a skilled administration on an area of population so vast and so totally wanting in unity and in the power of selecting its representa- tives as London. I am glad to learn from Mr. Chis- holm that there is to be a Commission of Inquiry. Yours very truly, GoLDvriN Smith. ccxci G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. The Gbange, Tobonto, February 26, 1903. Dear Lord Mount Stephen, Accept my best thanks for the Life of Sir Donald Stewart. I have no doubt I shall find it interesting. A horrible business was the Mutiny, and not less horrible was the suppression. You get a glimpse of it in an obscure little book entitled Up Among the Pandies, and in the Life of Lord Elgin, who, like a good man, was filled with horror. [Here follows a passage, anent the Boer war, to the effect that " England seems to think that when she has deprived people of their independence ; burned their homes ; laid their country waste ; decimated their families in pestilential prison camps ; let loose the soldiery upon them under the guise of martial 396 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH law ; hanged them by scores without fair trial, driv- ing their friends to see the hangings ; disfranchised, fined, and imprisoned them by hundreds — she can make all smooth by rhetorical blandishments and laying an orchid on a Boer general's grave. That business is by no means finished. We are going tb have an offset of it in an attempt to curtail self- government here."] Yours most truly, (Signed) Gold win Smith. The Australians, I see, will not allow British work- men to land under contract. Such is the unity of the Empire ! CCXCII G. S. to Sir Robert Collins. The Geange, Tobonto, March 10, 1903. My dear Collins, I did not know your German address, but I thought " Claremont " would find you. Claremont, with its memories of Clive, its majestic trees, and its kind and gracious lady ' making tea for us on the lawn, I shall not see again, but they will always be fresh in my memory. I am now in my eightieth year ; the infirmities of age come fast upon me, and I am not likely again to go far from home. If Germany annexes Holland, France will annex Belgium, and Antwerp will be in French hands. This, as well as the forcing of the Dardanelles by Russia, will be the consequence of the buccaneering raid of Great Britain on the South African Republics, and the exposure of her weakness in that war. AVhen India was transferred from the Company to the Army, some of us had misgivings about the 1 H.B.H. the Duchess of Albany. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 897 possible effect on the constitutional government of England. Those misgivings seemed at first to have been imfounded ; but since the assumption of the Imperial title, in conjunction with this outbreak of Imperialism and megalomania, reason for apprehen- sion has appeared. There is evidently a tendency to allure the King into the assumption of a new character with the new title. If he yields to it, his descendants may have reason to wish that he had been contented with his constitutional crown. Whatever may be the fancy of the hour, the world is not going back to the Middle Ages. Present my respects and affectionate regards to the Duchess of Albany. May the reign of her son, whom I remember a little boy at Claremont, be crowned with all the honotu- and happiness that power worthily exercised can bestow. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith ccxcni G. S. to Justin McCarthy. The Grange, Tobonto, Canada, April 2, 1903. My DEAR Mr. Justin McCarthy, I write from the bed of a sickness, which, at my age, makes me feel that this may be a parting word on the Irish question. I heartUy rejoice to hear that the unnatural union of Irish Nationalism with Toryism against Liberalism, with which we seemed to be threatened, is not to be. Irish temper, to tell the truth, has something to answer for. For years it was hardly possible to get the Irish to act cordially with the Liberals. They were always flsang off on the Galway Pacquet con- tract or some such lure. My conviction remains fixed that the happiest state for the two islands is that of perfect union. All the schemes of imperfect union, federal or with a statutory Parliament for Ireland, I have convinced 398 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH myself are impracticable, and would lead only to a renewal of strife, rupture, and perhaps reconquest, with a recurrence of the cycle of Irish woes. But looking to all that has happened, at the pass to which we have come, and the spirit of nationahty which this long struggle has developed in Ireland, I think I should be prepared now to vote for the one feasible measure of Home Rule — ^the independence of Ireland, subject to certain restrictions in regard to foreign relations and questions of peace and war, such as two nations, otherwise independent, may by covenant impose upon each other. A peaceful parting may lead hereafter, through the mediating influences of kindly intercourse and commerce, to something like a spontaneous reunion. I have not strength to go further into the question, or to give my reasons against the various schemes of federation and statutory Parliaments. Gladstone's proposal of a separate Parliament for Ireland, with a representation of Ireland in the British Parliament, is the most untenable of all. It is needless, I hope, to repeat my assurance that I, and those at whose feet on this and other questions I sat, were never actuated by any but right feeling towards the Irish people ; that we never desired that their interest should be sacrificed in any way to those of British ambition : but whether we were right or wrong, we were true, or did our best to be true, to the cause of justice and humanity. Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. ccxciv G. S. to Charles S. Eoundell. The Gean&e, Tobonto, May 17, 1903. My dear Roundell, Your letter was fully appreciated both by my wife and by myself. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 399 I have now got over everything but weakness. One does not spring up from the bed of sickness at eighty as one did at eighteen. However I have had a warning to wind up and put my affairs, literary and of other kinds, in order, which I am proceeding to do. 's ' election is a gleam of hope. But I am afraid the Liberal party is still in a very shattered state. Here politics are absorbed in the labour war. The tyranny of the unions is certainly getting beyond bounds, and the coal-strike, which threatened the whole continent with a fuel famine, shows the extent of the danger. We are at the same time having a great exposure of political corruption, in which we rival our neigh- bours, though on a smaller scale. Democracy has pretty well run its necessary course of demolition. Something in the constructive way must now be done if Lincoln's words are to be fulfilled and government of the people, by the people, and for the people is not to perish from the earth. Yours ever most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. ccxcv G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Geakoe, Toeonto. A'ugtt^t 3, 1903. Deae Mr. Merriman, I don't know whether you happen to have noticed this paragraph in Truth. You see Glad- stone's view of Mr. Chamberlain coincided with mine, so that I was not unsupported in the strong epithet which I once used. Depend upon it. Cham- berlain is also, with all his cleverness, shallow and devoid of foresight. At the same tii]ie he is an 1 Illegible. 400 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH arch-intriguer. Probably he is pulling the wires of Sprigg.' Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. Mr. Labouchere says in Truth : " Any one making any arrangement with Mr. Chamberlainmust notonly havea very, very long spoon, but he must count upon being tricked by him — ^no matter what he may promise — if he deems this to his advantage. He should bear in mind the follow- ing observation, which Mr. Gladstone made to me when Mr. Chamberlain was still his colleague, but was intriguing against him : ' I do not wish to say any word against Mr. Chamberlain, for he is my colleague ; but I feel grateful to think that I have had in the past only to deal with colleagues who were gentlemen.'" ccxcvi G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. Thb Geanoe, Tokokto, August 31, 1903. My dear Mr. Merriman, I am sorry to see that you are having trouble again with your Sprigg. But be of good cheer. Chamberlain will not get his mandate from Canada.' Without getting his mandate from Canada his policy must collapse ; and if his policy collapses he appar- ently must fall. The Montreal Conference of Traders ended in a mongrel resolution. The French Canadians are kicking against Imperialism and militarism. The protected manufacturers have shown plainly ai oi they will not come into any plan for the repeur^ci' the duties on British goods. Sir Wilfrid La * Sir J. Gordon Sprigg, Prime Minister of Cape Colony, * For an Imperial preferential teirifi. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 401 has so far come off the fence as to protest against the surrender of any part of our self-government, our fiscal self-government, it is to be presumed, mcluded. Our farmers are not Protectionist. They want the market of the United States ; and an active movement in favour of Reciprocity is now on foot on the other side of the Line. Even the Jingo press is lukewarm, its love of Chamberlain being no doubt restrained by the protected manufacturers who control it. According to present appearances there can hardly fail soon to be a change of government in England. Sprigg would then, no doubt, veer. I should not even despair of seeing Milner recalled. The Argyllshire election is a heavy blow, and the Report of the Army Commission, though the system rather than the present Government is responsible, will tell in popular opinion against those who were in power. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. P.S. — It seems to me that the system of govern- ment in England is approaching a critical change. I do not see how it is possible any longer to keep in existence the division into two great parties under their respective leaders which is indispensable to the working of the party system. CCXCVII G. S. to Charles S. Roundell. The Geanob, Tobonto, September 19, 1903. My DEAR Roundell, Your Irenicon might have commanded atten- tion in itself, as well as by the spirit in which it was proffered, had not the combatants been already heated by the fray. I think I told you before that I make some allowance for a clergy which, being established and salaried for the purpose of bringing 26 402 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH up the nation on certain religious principles, claims, as necessary to the fulfilment of its duty, control over the education of the young. Disestablishment, in a word, is my policy, and it seems to me that the sooner it comes the better. Among other reasons, because if it come soon the operation may be tem- perately and considerately performed. Difficult the operation must no doubt be, when the fibres of the establishment have become so much intertwined with the social structure of the nation. However, when I was in Italy the other day it seemed to me that disestablishment there had worked well. For the present you will be all absorbed in this Ministerial crisis. Chamberlain's reason for resig- nation is sufficient. He could not carry Balfour with him ; perhaps indeed he did not wish to carry Balfour with him, but preferred to go forth on a career of his own. He evidently thinks that he is master of the situation and of the country. I doubt the cor- rectness of his forecast. He is an extremely clever, but, as I believe, really shallow-minded man. He has played all sorts of games, caught by anything which seemed popular for the hour. Why Ritchie and George Hamilton should have resigned is not so clear. Retaliation is not in principle antagonistic to Free Trade. In principle, as a way of making a bargain, it differs not from the making of a commercial treaty. But Ritchie and George Hamilton would have a very good reason for resigning in the imbecility of Balfour, the weakest Prime Minister that England ever had, at all events since the Duke of Newcastle in the time of George II. ; for Spencer Perceval, though narrow-minded, was not exactly weak. At the same time I confess I prefer Balfour, with all his feebleness, to Asquith, Fowler, & Co., who as Imperialist Liberals kill Liberalism with its own sword. Our kindest regards to Mrs. Roundell. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 403 CCXCVIII G. S. to the (fifth) Earl of Rosebery. December 16, 1903. My dear Lord Rosebery, The harvests of our North- West of which you have been speaking, and on which Preferentialists rely as the all-sufficient granary, are wonderfully abundant but rather precarious, there being always danger of frost at harvest time. I have been there twice at harvest time, and witnessed the anxiety which prevails. In war-time transport from the Colonies would be cut off. Not only so, but the sources of foreign supply would have been reduced by exclusion from the British market. So that the effect of the prefer- ential system would be rather to starve than feed you. I think Chamberlain will be beaten here. Not by argument, which is powerless against blatherskite and promised showers of manna, but by the resis- tance of our protected manufacturers and reductions of duties on British goods ; the counter-move of reciprocity with the United States which is showing force ; and the anti-Imperialism of the French Canadians, who are alarmed for their nationality and have found a leader in Bourassa. What Laurier would do nobody can say, least of all Laurier himself. But he dares not break with the French. You say that I look at things from a point of view different from yours. Probably you refer to the South African War. I could not have believed that men bred in a school of honour would have brought such dishonour on the country by breach of the most solemn covenants and sinister machinations. There is no greater blot, it seems to me, on our historic escutcheon. Chamberlain I understand. I have 404 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH seen his whole career. He is shaking your system of government as well as your fiscal system. He will avenge the Boer. When a nation which subsists by manufacture, trade, and mercantile marine enters on a course of ubiquitous aggression and defies general enmity, the end, unfortunately for that nation, though fortunately for humanity, can hardly be doubtful. The Americans also are taking the courses alien to their republican ideal and fraught with danger to the unity of the Republic. They are partly misled by a servile wish to vie with European Powers. However, the forces of resistance are still strong. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. ccxcrx G. S. to Russell G. Dingman. The Grange, Toronto, December 21, 1903. Dear Sie, It was the total loss of unity, territorial and of other kinds, entailed by the extension of the Dominion to the Pacific Coast that killed my hope of Canadian nationality. The cause remaining, the effect on my mind, I am sorry to say, remains. Yours truly, Goldwin Smith. To Russell G. Dingman, Esq., Toronto. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 405 1904 ccc G. S. to G. W. Prothero. The Geanoe, Toronto, Janvary 9, 1904. Dear Mr. Prothero, I send you herewith my article ^ on Morley's Gladstone which the American editor cut in two, rather to its detriment, since the second part is needed to balance the first. . . . Morley's work has great and conspicuous merits, biographical as well as literary. But I can hardly accept the last part as historical. . . . Yours very truly, GoLDWiN Smith. ccci G. S. to the {fifth) Earl of Rosebery. February 12, 1904. My dear Lord Rosebery, Do not concern yourself about the resolution of the Manitoban Legislature in favour of Mr. Cham- berlain's polity. Not the slightest importance is ascribed to it here. Mr. Chamberlain is no nearer to a Canadian " mandate." On the other hand it becomes increasingly evident that our protected manufacturers will resist further reduction of duties on British goods, and in some cases would like even an increase of the duties. Reciprocity gains ground in the United States. It will presently become a practical question here. Mr. Chamberlain seems to be retiring from the field for the present. I never thought him so very ' In the North American Review. The first part appeared in December 1903, the second in the month following. 406 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH formidable. His whole career has been that of a plunger, smart and daring, but not deep. It seems he believed " those fellows would not fight." I had a trustworthy correspondent at the Cape who assured me that the fellows would fight, just as they did. You have been rather hard on your War Office. It put far the largest army that England has ever had on a far distant battlefield without much miscarriage. The War Office of Xerxes did very well ; but he encountered the three hundred. * Sir Wilfrid Laurier has been making an elegant and shifty oration. But he said nothing in favour of Chamberlain. Of that which we call opportunism and our rude ancestors called by another name, Sir W. is the paragon. Canada, it seems, will now have Japan instead of Russia for her maritime neighbour over the way. How far will the Japs go ? Will they set a Jap dynasty on the throne of China ? The East may now repel the West. No more spheres of influence for predatory Powers. What is the ultimate outlook for Australia or even for British Empire in India ? Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cccu G. S. to {the fourth) Earl Grey. The Grange, Tobonto, March 2, 1904. My dear Lord Geey, The enclosed clipping [on Temperance legis- lation] from the New York Sun may interest you. This, you see, is what happens. The people vote for the law ; then they vote for the man who will make it inoperative. There are prosecutions, and almost all of them fail. The municipalities here are untrustworthy ; there CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 407 is little use in putting anything into their hands. You might even help to perpetuate that which would otherwise die out. So far as Canada is concerned, only the cities call for restriction. The farmers and the country people generally are very sober. The spontaneous improve- ment, everybody says, has been very great within the last generation. The feeling against intemperance is very strong, and its social and industrial penalties are sure. If the consumption of alcohol has increased, or not diminished, that proves not that there must be more intemperance, but that more people are able to afford the luxury. The taste is coeval and co-extensive with humanity. High licence, with a deposit to be forfeited in case of disorder, seems to me about the best we can do in the way of legislation here. War again ! The raids on Cuba and the Transvaal have let the demon loose, and nobody can tell now how far it will go. I have lived long enough in the world to have come decidedly to the conclusion that there is quite enough in it of pain, misery, sorrow, and bereavement without adding to them wantonly by war. But humanity and righteousness for the present are at a discount. Violence and rapacity, under fine names unknown to Timiu' and Genghis Khan, are going to have their day. I am not a statesman or a diplomatist ; but I fail to see the policy of heading Russia off at the Pacific to throw her back, as she probably will be thrown back, on the Mediterranean. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 408 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CCCIU G. S. to {the fourth) Earl Grey. The Gbange, Toeonto, April 20, 1904. My dear Lord Grey, Your [Temperance] plan will, I do not doubt, work under your social conditions. I have more doubt as to its working under ours [i.e. Canadian]. We have no philanthropic magnates here correspond- ing to those whose names appear on the first page of your Report. Our counties have no Lords-Lieu- tenant, no squirearchs, no men holding high ofiicial positions. Even in the cities we should find it very difficult to get a good supply of administrators and trustees. Our leaders of commerce are very com- mercial. It is extremely difficult to interest them in philanthropic imdertakings. Canada does not seem to me to be much in need of drastic legislation. Spontaneous motives and influences have been doing their work. A generation or two ago farmers often went home drunk from market. Now not only temperance but abstinence generally prevails in the rural districts. There is more intemperance in the cities, but immigration would probably account for some of it. There is a general abhorrence of the vice, and its social penalties are strictly enforced. Temperance agitators put forth statements of the prevalence of intemperance and alcoholic disease, which are monstrous exaggera- tions. The Prohibitionist agitation here is a nuisance. It leads to a good deal of fanaticism and hypocrisy ; is used as an instrument by designing politicians ; and perverts the sense and the aims of political party. We had some time ago Local Option for the counties. It was carried at first in many counties by large majorities ; but on the next occasion repealed, and by majorities in some cases even larger. It was CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 409 found to have clearly done more harm than good. It disclosed a danger against which I dare say you are on your guard, the development of a contraband trade. I don't know whether the remark is specially germane to this subject, but I have sometimes thought that on political questions we avail ourselves too little of experiment, committing ourselves at once to a sweeping measure instead of trying it at first on a small scale. This is party. We have other ends in view than that of sure-footed progress. On such a question as that of Suffrage we " take a leap in the dark " to " dish the Whigs." There were some kind words at the end, not of your last letter, but of your last but one, which my senile forgetfulness failed to acknowledge at the time. I felt them nevertheless. Yours most truly, (Signed) Gold win Smith. I am sure to enjoy your book on Ireland when it comes, for I am just now at work on the subject. Agrarian reform in Ireland had better be cautious how it exterminates the gentry and leaves those people without local and social leaders. ccciv G. S. to J. E. Atkinson, Editor of the Toronto " Star." The Geaugb, April 30, 1904. Dear Me. Atkinson, Would it not be possible, and if possible very desirable, to bring out at this provincial election one Labour candidate, unconnected with Socialism or antagonism of class ? It seems to me that this might be both a healing measure and one very desirable in itself. The election of Bums to the British Parlia- ment has certainly been very useful. 410 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH I believe I have never myself, either in England or here, failed to east a vote for a respectable Labour candidate who had any chance of success. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cccv G. S. to Briton Riviere, B.A. The Gbaitge, Tobonto, June 27, 1904. My dear Briton Riviere, My feeling of friendship for you, if it needed anything to revive it, would be revived every morning when I sit down to work by the sight of your " Charity " which hangs in my study. You are a good deal younger than I am, and I hope will surmount the malady. Your friend, having entered his eighty -first year, is, as you may suppose, dilapidated, but still rubs along, his surroundings in his old age, conjugal and of every other kind, being as happy as possible. Growing deafness is his only serious complaint. It is a nuis- ance, but not so bad as failure of eyesight would be, and my eyesight remains very good. My old friend Robert Lowe, the most caustic of wits, saw a man in the House of Commons who was deaf, holding up his ear-trumpet. He said, "Look at that fool, throwing away his natural advantages." This was cynicism, but, as I have said, deafness is a less evil than blindness. It gives me rather a pensive feeling when I think that I shall never see Oxford again. However, saving the buildings and the gardens, I should pro- bably find myself in a very changed place. I doubt whether they have done very wisely in the matter of the Rhodes scholarships. It seems to me that they ought not to lend themselves to the promotion of a certain type of political character, which is CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 411 evidently Rhodes's aim, or to the recognition of non- academical subjects such as social popularity and athletic prowess. However, I may perhaps be rather swayed by my opinion about Rhodes himself and the effect of his exploits on the real interests and honour of the country. What you say apprises me that my old friend Raper is still at Oxford. I must write to him. We were very intimate in former days. I fancy I could count easily on the lingers of my two hands the friends that I have still left at Oxford. I was shocked to hear the other day of the almost sudden death of George Brodrick. He was in the happiest, as I should have thought, of all positions ; yet he was not happy in it. He always pined for the House of Commons, in which I do not think that he would have won distinction, though he would have been one of the worthiest of members. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCCVI G. S. to John Ogilvy. The Gbaitge, Toeonto, Canada, June 30, 1904. My deab Sir, You write in a despondent tone about the re- construction of the Liberal party. Your chief fear seems to be that there will be a fatal dissension on the subject of Home Rule. The question of Home Rule must be settled. Better were downright separation than the perpetual presence in the British Parliament of an unassimilated and politically hostile body, playing on the balance of British parties, and distracting British councils for its own ends. My view of the Irish question was formed in Ireland, by intercourse with Irish patriots of the stamp of 412 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Lord O'Hagan, Sir Alexander McDonnell, and I think I may add my much esteemed friend, Dr. Russell, Principal of Maynooth, who, while they were ardent advocates of justice to Ireland, were firmly convinced that her true interest pointed to union. Two Parliaments, two nations. So it must be if both Parliaments were free. Before the Union collision between the two Governments was with difficulty averted by means of rotten boroughs, an intrusive English Episcopate, and systematic cor- ruption. Create a vassal Parliament in Ireland, and you wUl almost certainly set on foot a struggle for legislative independence^ — perhaps, if Great Britain has enemies, with an appeal to them. The proposal to give Ireland a Parliament of her own, and at the same time a representation in the British Parliament to control it in her interest, though it passed the House of Commons, will not bear dis- cussion. Not less untenable, though less monstrous, is the proposal to take the United Kingdom to pieces in order to supply materials for a federation. Disestablishment and reform of the land law, had they been carried earlier, might have sufficed to ex- tinguish Disunion. But it seems that, in the course of the long struggle, there has been developed a spirit of Irish nationality for which, unless Ireland is to be ruled by force, some satisfaction will probably have to be found. An Assembly of some kind, held not at Westminster, but in College Green, may be required to satisfy the Irish heart. Perhaps as safe a satisfaction as any might be an annual session of the Irish members of Parliament at Dublin for legislation on purely Irish questions, subject to ratification by the united Parliament at Westminster, in which the representation of Ireland would continue as at present. Such a solution might not be altogether free from difficulty or danger. But a solution of some kind must be found. The CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 413 British Parliament cannot be left in its present state, distracted and dragooned by the Irish vote. Yours very truly, GoLDwiN Smith. CCCVII G. S. to Frederic Harrison. The Gbangb, Toronto, Juhj 9, 1904. My dear Harrison, The situation here remains the same. There is sympathy in certain quarters with Chamberlain's Imperialism and Protectionism, but no visible dis- position to embrace his policy. Our protected manufacturers are still dead against reduction of duties on British goods. There is nothing here to which Chamberlain can appeal. The election of Roosevelt, which I take now to be almost certain, will be a disaster. He will carry the United States, if he can, with Imperialism and part- nership with the great robber Powers. But Cleveland, though out of office, still has a good deal of influence, and the moderates will rally round him. Chamberlain talks wildly, a sign that he feels the day is going against him. I am only afraid of some coup like the South African War to mend his fortunes. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCCVIII G. S. to Moberly Bell. The Gbangb, Tobonto, August 8, 1904. Dear Mr. Moberly Bell, I must modify what I said about the Peel papers. There is a box full of Royal correspondence, 414 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH which, seeing the nature of its contents, I refrained from exploring. There may be something in it relating to Disraeli. The Prince Consort disliked him, but he and his set hated the Prince Consort. You will not forget Disraeli's organ, the Press, in which it was understood he wrote a good deal himself. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. cccix G. S. to Moberly Bell. The Gkahoe, Toronto, September 2, 1904, Dear Mr. Mobeely Bell, Can you tell me when it is likely that your Disraeli will appear ? I should like to wait for it, before writing a concluding chapter to a little work of mine on The United Kingdom. Morley has given me Ahriman ; I want Ormuzd. You are sending us Grey.' A good man wasted. If he listens to the Sirens who tell him to show his art in the management of men, he will be apt to tumble into the same pit as Dundonald. You may have noted that of the monstrous American Pension List $360,000 came to Canada. Much more probably goes to Canadians settled in the United States, Sir John Macdonald told me that he had ascertained that there were 40,000 Canadian enlist- ments in the American army in the course of the Civil War. So you see it was probably as much by the love of military adventure as by Imperialist feeling that our Contingent was raised. Redmond is trying to stir up Fenianism in the United States. But the Irish influence there has evidently declined. In all the gossip about the Presidential Election I have not seen a single allusion ' The fourth Earl, as Grovernor-General of Canada. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 415 to the Irish vote. The Irish power in the United States, in fact, to a great extent fell with the slave- owner, its ally and patron. Leaders of the Democratic party from whom I hear speak hopefully about the Presidential Election. Parker has evidently gained ground since his appear- ance in person on the scene. But Roosevelt will probably have the West entirely with him. His " strenuous life " and " big stick " were sure to be popular in that quarter. We shall have the Archbishop ' here to-morrow. He seems to be making a very good impression. But he should have come disguised as a commercial traveller if he wanted not only to be seen but to see. Great anxiety about the harvest in the North-West. It will not do for you to trust to a single granary. Very truly yoiurs, GoLDwiN Smith. cccx G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. The Geangb, Toronto, September 19, 1904. My dear Lord Mount Stephen, My little brochure on Gladstone hardly rises to the dignity of a book. It is, in fact, merely a revised reprint of an article on Morley's Gladstone in the North American Review. Your remark and illustrative anecdote undoubtedly hit a weak point. Gladstone had what I call the vanity of versatility. Perhaps in strictness I ought to have said this, but I rather wished to avoid any- thing harsh. Title weak point of Morley's generally excellent book is the third volume, which is not historical. Morley was then completely under Gladstone's in- fluence. ' Bandall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury. 416 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH The character was a curious compound of extra- ordinary powers with singular weaknesses. You can hardly imagine what nonsense there is in his Homeric and theological disquisitions. He was unfortunate in the last chapter of his life in having no strong adviser left. Spencer, though an excellent man, had nothing like force enough to control Gladstone. Still less could Morley put on the brakes. I don't think that on the Irish question he con- sulted with Selborne or Bright. I met Bright at dinner at Selborne's. There were only us three and Lady Selborne. When Lady Selborne left the room, Bright and Selborne had a long conversation about the Irish question. It is possible that they then made up their minds about the matter. How- ever, I don't think that either of them had been consulted by Gladstone. You will have to settle the Irish question in some way. It will not do to let the councils of the nation be for ever distracted by an Irish contingent in the House of Commons playing on the balance of parties for the object of its own game. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cccxi G. S. to the {fifth) Earl of Rosebery. The Gkange, Toeonto, Canada, September 21, 1904. My dear Lord Rosebery, The Toronto News, in which the enclosed article appears, is now the leading organ in this Pro- vince of the Protectionist party. It has been recently set on foot by a leading man of that party, who is pushing it with all the force of his wealth. You will note the words in the last paragraph. Our protected manufacturers, while they talk Imperialism, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 4lt dislike the competition of British goods just as much as that of foreign goods. Mr. Chamberlain's fiscal crusade seems to have collapsed for the present. But he has gained what I suspect were his real objects. He has diverted attention from the consequences of his South African policy, and he has made himself master of the Con- servative organisation. His fiscal policy he can easily drop on the plea that the Colonies are not yet ready. But he will remain master of the Conserva- tive organisation. Mr. Howard Vincent has just been lecturing here. He does not seem to be hand-in-glove with Chamber- lain. He may not much like having the movement taken out of his hands. We expect Redmond in a few days. If I talk with him I shall point out to him that he has no chance of getting an extreme measure through the House of Lords or of having the House of Lords coerced by the country. Gladstone's attempt at coer- cing the Lords ended in smoke. His best course might be to introduce a moderate measure in the House of Lords. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith, CCCXII G. S. to Henry S. Salt. The Granqe, Tobonto, Cakada, September 30, 1904. Deak Sir, I thank you for your kindness in sending me the Humanitarian Essays. I need hardly say that I entirely sympathise with their general spirit. Our Humane Society here is doing what it can for the cause. Against vivisection especially I feel very strongly. I have never seen really convincing proof that ths 27 418 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH practice is necessary to the advancement of medical science, while the cruelties to which it is apt to lead are undeniable. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. To Henry S. Salt, Esq., Hon. Sec. The Humanitarian League, London. CCCXIII G. S. to the President of the Press Club, Toronto. The Gbanoe, Tobonto, October 10, 1904. Dear Sik, It has been proposed to found a college for the training of journalists. It seems doubtful whether the proposal is feasible. Journalism is not a special profession, like law or medicine. The mis- cellaneous and largely practical knowledge for which it calls could hardly be compressed into a curriculum ; while its special aptitudes no lecturer could impart. Still, journalism is a profession, and one which may claim, like other professions, to have its code of honour which can hardly be enforced without some- thing in the nature of a court. Nobody supposes that any court could enforce general principles such as veracity, equity, loyalty to the public good. But there are special points with regard to which a professional verdict might be useful. Respect for private and social confidence is one. My old friend, Mr. Dana of the New York Sun, though I by no means shared all his opinions or his personal prejudices, which were very strong, had a genuine feeling for the honour of journalism, which he showed when an appeal was made to him on this point. In England, when something said in the freedom of conversation was published in a news- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 419 paper by one of the party, the man whose confidence had been betrayed, rising to explain his words, was stopped at once and told that the betrayal of social confidence was an offence which society took into its own hands. There ought if possible to be some check to false reports of interviews. Being in the United States just after the North-West Rebellion, I found very injurious beliefs prevalent about the conduct of our Government not only to the half-breeds, but to the Indians. Thinking I could do no harm by con- tradicting them, I allowed myself to be interviewed by an apparently trustworthy reporter. The next morning, taking up his paper, I found myself not only reported as saying the very contrary of what I had said, but made to add a third charge, of which I had never heard, and to quote in its support a letter which I had never seen. Some persons who had come over with the British Association had a dispute with the managers of an exposition in the United States. I took up an American paper and found that I had written a letter to a Canadian journal denouncing these people in the strongest terms. I wrote to protest that I had never written or thought of writing anything upon the subject, and my protest appeared weeks after the date on which ntiy protest was written. I took up in the States a Canadian newspaper, and found that it had been wired that I had expressed at a place where I had not been for some time my intention of calling on the President- Elect of the United States, and urging him to annex Canada, as though I could be guilty of such an indecency as approaching the President -Elect of the United States on any political question whatever. A distinguished friend of mine, being at New York, was surprised at reading some severe comments which he was reported to have made on the fire service of that city, a subject which had not entered his mind. In a case like mine, these things are of little moment. But there are cases in which they might be of great 420 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH moment ; and do not raise the character of the press. There are three things to which every citizen has a right : personal security ; property ; and repu- tation — the last not the least precious of the three. For his reputation, he must, if he is at all conspicuous, be dependent to some extent on the equity of the press. In case of actual libel the law provides a remedy. But it is an awkward remedy, for the practical result is apt to be that the person libelled is tried on his general character rather than the libeller for his libel. Nor is it really open to all in need of justice. An eminent judge once warned a person who, on account of his political opinions, was the object of personal attacks, against attempting a vindication of his character in court, on the ground that there would be appeals to political feeling which the court would be unable to control. Those who are familiar with the management of newspapers will be better able than I am to say whether questions are likely to arise between one office and another, about the title to intelligence or any other matter, in settling which arbitration might be of use. However, for the all-important points — veracity, justice, fidelity to the public good — the journalist's court of honour must be in his own breast. Hard enough it will be for him to obey its sentence against secret and sinister influences, commercial temptations, or the stress of popular passion not less tyrannical than the despot and the censor. In the opinion of the best and calmest judges, popular government has reached a critical point in its existence. Its salvation wUl depend largely on the integrity of the press, and we cannot help trembling when we think how sinister and how powerful are the influences to which the integrity of the press is exposed. The Club may in itself constitute an informal court of opinion. Anything which seems questionable will be canvassed in conversation among the represen- tatives of the different journals. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 421 I am very sorry that it will not be in my power to attend your meeting this evening. cccxiv G. S. to the (fifth) Earl of Rosebery. The Gbange, Tobonto, October 26, 1904. My dear Lord Rosebery, I ought to have said that Gladstone " did not write his speeches " ; but " notes " is used here, perhaps, as a euphemism for the written speech which the orator hands to his reporter. For a Budget speech a financier must of course have notes. But the language of Gladstone's speeches bears no trace of literary composition. You are taking up the Canadian question. Pray get a physical map. The political map is a red fiction. You will see whether it is very likely that the northern margin of the habitable and cultivable continent, stretching over three thousand mUes, and broken by great spaces or barriers of nature, will become permanently the abode of a separate nation. The populations are mixed. Hardly anything remains to separate them but the political and fiscal line. There are 1 ,200,000 Canadians in the States, and Americans are pouring into our North-West. There are in Canada 2,429 men in receipt of American pensions. Churches and societies of all kinds join hands across the line. Intermarriage is frequent. You might find, as Sir Richard Cartwright said, whole tracts of Canada in which there would be few who had not a connexion in the United States. American capital is being largely invested here. The periodical literature of the United States is ours. The Customs line is a pure nuisance, and some day must go, though Protectionists and Imperialists together may hold out long. As to the political line, nature has probably made up her mind ; and if she has, she will have her 422 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH way. The action of the great forces, as you know, is often suspended by that of secondary forces, as in the case of the German and Itahan union ; but the great forces prevail at last. I am not sure that if you could spend a few years in a Colony you would think the perpetuation of Colonialism worth a great struggle against nature. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cccxv Some old Oxford friends {and others) to G. S. [November 1904.] Thirty-six years have passed since you left Oxford, and not many remain of those with whom you lived then, and who were wont to look to you for light and counsel. But we who are left desire to take the occa- sion of your having passed your eightieth birthday to assure you of the sense we retain of the services you rendered to the University when you were among us, of the undiminished affection which we bear to you, and of the admiration we feel for the energy and freshness of mind which have enabled you to fill your later days with work in which we find all the qualities which delighted us at the time when you lectured here. We hope you may have many years left in which to instruct and to inspire with high ideals, not only your contemporaries, but the younger generation which has grown up since your fame became established as a national possession. We are, in old and true friendship — David B. Monro, Provost of Oriel, V.C. J. France Bright, Master of University. T. Herbert Warren, President of Magdalen College. Albert Watson, M.A., formerly Principal of Brasenose College* CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 423 Thomas Fowler, President of Corpus Christi College. C. Henry Daniel. Provost of Worcester College. Charles L. Shadwell, Oriel. Edward Chapman, Fellow Magdalen College, M.P. J. L. Strachan-Davidson, Fellow of Balliol College. L. R. Phelps, Fellow of Oriel. A. G. Butler, Fellow of Oriel. Briton Riviere, R.A., Oriel [for] James Bryce, M.P., P.C. [by request]. R. H. Collins, Lincoln College. R. W. Raper, Trinity College. With true regard, and mindful of your friendship for my husband, Helen, Duchess of Albany. cccxvi G. S. to Sir Robert Collins. The Grange, Tobontoj November 9, 1904. My dear Collins, It was a great pleasure to me to hear from you again, and to be carried back in memory to the pleasant hours which I spent with you under the roof of the kind Duchess of Claremont. I am now in my eighty-second year, naturally dilapidated, and pretty well confined to home. Curi- ously enough, though in the New World, it is a very English home. This house is, in fact, the only char- acteristically English house that I know on this side of the Atlantic. It is just like the little mansions in the outskirts of English county towns in which some of Miss Austen's characters lived. Having been built in 1817, it is an antiquity among mushrooms. The city has encircled it, but has left it with ample 424 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH grounds for me to toddle about, like Mr. Wodehouse in Emma, in my old age. One of my few trips of late has been to Cornell University, in the founding of which I took a minor part. I went to lay the comer-stone of a new build- ing, dedicated to the " Humanities," which are having rather a hard struggle for life against the practical sciences in the system of American Universities. It was in 1868 that, on a dark and dreary November morning, having arrived by the night train from New York, I found myself on the plateau where the Cornell University stands. There was then on the plateau only a single block of a very poor building. When I visited it the other day the plateau was covered with academical buildings, and there were 3,000 students in the University. You see how the Yankees go ahead. My old friends and acquaintances drop off fast. Now Harcourt is gone. He and I were together on the original staff of the Saturday Review when Beres- ford Hope and Douglas Cook were its proprietors. Terribly changed now is the Saturday Review. In those days, instead of being peppery and snappish, it was Epicurean. It was said of us that whereas, in the time of the Reform Bill, everything was new, everything was true, and everything was of the highest importance, now nothing was new, nothing was true, and nothing was of any importance what- ever. I believe Hemming and I are now the only survivors of the staff. I have had Bryce and Morley^here. It is well that leading Englishmen should come and see Canada for themselves. Your opinions are too much swayed by the Canadian Jingoes who perambulate England and hold forth on platforms and at public dinners. Chamberlain's name has become a watchword of Imperialism and Protectionism among men of that party here. But his fiscal policy has made no way ; Canadian Protectionists are, and avow themselves to be, as much against the free admission of free CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 425 British as of free foreign goods. They would with- draw the preference if they could. They say it has ruined the woollen trade. This is a most hideous war,' so hideous that one would suppose it would give the world a lesson in humanity. Yet people seem to be as bellicose as ever. There were a number of people in England appar- ently ready to hurry the Government at once into war with Russia. Happily the Government was cool and firm. Why is there this passionate determination to keep Russia, a great inland Empire, from getting to an open sea ? What harm would she do in the Mediterranean ? Why should she be more the enemy of England there than are the other Mediter- ranean Powers ? When I was in the United States, at the time of their Civil War, I saw the contents of a field hospital after an engagement. If I had been a Jingo the sight would have cured me. Kiss the Duchess's hand for me. I hope the son who was a boy when she made tea for us on the lawn at Claremont is now a good and strong man, the pride of his mother, and the blessing of his people. Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. CCCXVII G. S, to J. E. Atkinson. The Geanqb, December 7, 1904. Dear Mr. Atkinson, Age does not improve memory, and the only article of mine in the Saturday Review which I can now remember is one in the first number on the war passages in " Maud," my memory of which has been revived by subsequent occurrences. 1 The Russo-Japanese. 426 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH I must confess that I should not much like to specify articles, even if I were able. We worked in common, and personal identification would hardly be fair. The Times laid down the law, rightly as I thought, upon this point. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. P.S. — My contributions, I believe, were chiefly editorial, as I was one of the regular staff, which Green and Freeman were not. If you light upon any pungent review, it probably is not mine. I remember the Editor saying, when I brought him back a lame book unreviewed, that while others. . . .' cccxvin G. S. to John Ogilvy. The Grange, Toronto, December 27, 1904. Dear Mr. Ogilvy, I heartily reciprocate your good wishes for the new year. It opens, in England, under happier auspices, politically speaking, than the last. I am too far from the field of action to judge who would be the best leader of the Liberal party. Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman seems to me to have borne himself well. Nobody has handled Mr. Chamberlain with sufficient moral force, especially when he traduced the motives of honourable opponents and accused such a man as Sir Wilfrid Lawson of " being the in- variable friend of the enemies of his country." You say Mr. Chamberlain's sun is setting. Here the sun of his policy has never risen, though his name is popular with Imperialists and Protectionists. Was the success of his fiscal policy his chief aim ? He has turned away the eyes of the nation from the wreck which he has made in South Africa. He has captured • Best wanting. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 427 the Conservative organisation and the great journal of the party. May he not be playing over again, under Mr. Balfour; the part which he played under Mr. Gladstone, and which led Mr. Gladstone to call him the first English politician of the American type ? When he has made himself master of the party, he may slip out of his Protectionism as easily as he slipped out of the red-hot Radicalism of his earlier days. Do you think any such operation would be difficult to a man who could tell you that the Empire was falling to pieces for want of a preferential tariff and that the Transvaal was under the suzerainty of the Queen ? I see it stated that while you are spending all these millions in Jingoism, a fifth of your people have not bread enough to keep them in health and strength. Let them only do as Mr. Chamberlain tells them. Let them " think Imperially;" and they will be fed. Yours very truly, GoLDWiN Smith. cccxix G. S. to Rev, N. Burwash, Chancellor of Victoria University,^ Toronto. The Gbange, December 29, 1904. Dear Mr. Chancellor Burwash, I am sorry to say I must beg your permission to withdraw my acceptance of your invitation to your meeting to-morrow. The weather confines me to the house. You and your friends have only too much reason for an anxious consultation respecting the political state of the Province. If we could put up with such things as have been done of late, we should hardly be worthy of free government. ' A Methodist College in affiliation with the University of Toronto. 428 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH The root of the evil is the party system, which we have learned to regard as the necessary foundation of free government, whereas it is an accident of English history, the offspring of the struggle in the eighteenth century between the Stuarts and their constitutional opponents. In this Province there is absolutely no permanent division of principle on which party can be rationally based. Our questions are almost wholly administrative, not political. The tyranny of party has taken such hold upon us, and we have become so blindly devoted to our Shibboleths, that there is little immediate prospect of thoroughgoing reform. Things, it is to be feared, must be worse before they will be better. But there is one change which seems to me not impracticable, and which might, by reducing the power of the nomin- ating conventions, rescue us in some degree from the yoke of the machine. Suppose instead of one ballot we had two : the first to sift the candidatures ; the second for election ; and any one duly qualified were allowed to send in his name for the first ballot. This might give us, at all events, a greater freedom of selection, which would be a step in advance worth having. The machines would not welcome such a change ; but if the people were decidedly in favour of it, and the press would give utterance to their desire, it might be carried. The process seems simple enough. The principle I believe is already applied in France. I take the liberty of commending this suggestion to the consideration of your meeting. I should be very happy to see any member of your convention who would favour me with a call. Very truly yours, GoLDwiN Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 429 1905 cccxx G. S. to Sir Robert Collins. The Grange, Tobonto, January 27, 1905. My dear Collins, A terrible crash in Russia ! ' I pity the poor Czar. The bloodshed was deplorable, and civil blood does not easily sink into the ground. But when Paris shrieks, let her remember the days of June '48. The movement seems to be a strike exploited, perhaps set on foot and financed by revolution. De Witte's policy of forcing industries is very likely to have led to a crisis. Besides, there is the distress caused by the war. I abhor violent revolutions. The work of states- manship is to make the past glide smoothly into the future. A violent revolution in Russia would probably be a weltering anarchy. The Tolstois could not guide it. A vast army would be set adrift, and who can say what it would do ? Germany with her Posen, and Austria with her Galicia, must be feeling anxious. Order must of course be restored. Then let the notables be called to council and go to work on the practical reforms of which there is most crying need. It is to be hoped that the responsible Ministers will be allowed to act. Mr. Arnold Forster should surely be cautious. I am not a statesman, but I cannot help thinking that the anti-Russian policy of the last fifty years will some day be thought to have been a mistake. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. ^ strikes, riots, incendiarism, and massacres frequent in Riissia in thia month of January. 480 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CCCXXI G. S. to P. J. O'Regan, Wellington, N.Z. The Gbange, Toronto, Canada, January 30, 1905. Dear Sir, I have received your letter, with copies of the New Zealand Times. Accept my best thanks for your kindness in doing me justice. The London Times, at my instance, inserted a correction. I should be very sorry to have my name connected with so gross a misrepresentation of the sentiments of my old political friends. In all my years of intimacy with Bright, Cobden, and others of that circle, I can truly say that I never heard a word said which could have hurt the feelings of any colonist. Of colonial self-government my friends were strong advocates ; and they heartily supported measures tending in that direction. But the only man who spoke dis- paragingly of the Colonies, and evidently despised them, was the great Jingo Disraeli, to whose letter addressed to Lord Malmesbury you have referred. Disraeli's intimate friend, Sir W. Gregory, says that Disraeli held the same language in private to the end of his life, though his language in public was Imperialist. I am very glad to hear that Jingoism is not uni- versally prevalent in your Colony. It rose to a high pitch here at the time of the South African War, but has since, I think, considerably subsided. There is little inclination to contribute largely to British armaments or to be drawn into British wars of aggres- sion. The mass of our people are here, not to engage in schemes of world-wide ambition, but to make their bread. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 431 CCCXXII G. S. to Sir Robert Collins. The Gbanoe, Tobonto, February 22, 1905. My dear Collins, With the kind word, heartily prized, from Oxford, came a pleasant demonstration from Cornell. Cornell is rather afraid of becoming too much a stithy of Vulcan and too little a temple of the Muses. So she builds a new hall for the Humanities, and she invited me to lay the first stone. Hence this booklet, which may show you how a Yankee University is built. The story of my connexion with Cornell and my settling on this side of the water has been travestied by a hostile hand, but is very simple. I had settled for life on my Oxford Professorship and built my house in the Parks. I was called away and obliged to resign my Chair by domestic duty. My father was suffering from a malady, in consequence, I believe, of a railway accident, which at times affected the brain, and I had to be there and watch him. That sad duty having after a year and a half come to a sad end, I had the world before me, I was in need of a change, and I thought of this side of the water, where, having visited the United States at the time of the Civil War, I had many friends, while I had also relatives in Canada. Just then I fell in with Andrew White, who was helping Ezra Cornell to found Cornell University. He asked me to lecture on history there. This exactly suited me. I spent two years very happily in helping to launch Cornell, and Cornell having been prosperously launched, I took up my abode with mj'^ relatives in Canada. This is a terrible business in Russia. There is no saying how far the fire may spread. A revolution cannot be entrusted, nor can the world be given 432 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH over, to murder-clubs, which, apart from poUtical reform, have a fascination for mahgnant natures. If England and Russia had remained friends, English influence might have had a good effect on Russia ; and friends England and Russia might have remained had it not been for the machinations of three men — Palmerston, Stratford de Redclifte, and Louis Napoleon, each of whom had a personal motive, and who, pulling together, drew us into the Crimean War. I lived a good deal with men who had seen that business. Palmerston's Russophobia was followed by Disraeli's Orientalism, and so the quarrel was kept on foot. Why is not Russia, a great inland Empire, to be allowed access to an open sea ? It is the determination to deny her this that has really led to this Russo-Japanese war, and if Russia pulls herself together again will lead to a war between her and Great Britain. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cccxxin G. S. to W. B. Wilkinson. The Gbanoe, Tobonto, February 25, 1905. Dear Sir, In answer to your inquiry, I would say that, while I cannot pretend to be an authority on any legal question, it appears to me clear that under the 93rd section of the British North America Act, each Province has full power to make its own edu- cation laws saving certain privileges which existed at the time of the Act and are specifically reserved therein. Nor does the subsequent Act of 1871, empowering the Dominion Parliament to establish new Provinces, name education among the objects of government CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 483 for which the Dominion Parliament is empowered to provide. It should be borne in mind that the term " separate " [schools] in this connexion practically means Roman Catholic, and that what is proposed is that the new Province shall be bound for ever to recognise, main- tain, and propagate the Roman Catholic religion. The assumption that a provisional arrangement made for a Territory in tutelage to the Dominion Government must be carried on to a Province in- vested with legislative powers on the subject seems to be manifestly untenable. That any one can be entitled to insist on a continuance of that arrangement or bound to submit to it, surely it is impossible to contend. Yours faithfully, GoLDwiN Smith. To W. R. Wilkinson, Esq., Berlin, Ontario. cccxxiv G. S. to the Rev. Canon {afterwards the Venerable Archdeacon) Cody. The Grange, Tobonto, March 3, 1905. Dear Canon Cody, I am glad to see what you say about the Separate School question. " Separate " School means practically Roman Catholic School. What Sir Wilfrid Laurierasks us to do in a Free Church country is to recognise, subsidise, and perpetuate the religion of his Church. I call this a Free Church country, and so, I think, since the secularisation of the Clergy Reserves, it must be taken to have been. Mark that the claims of the Church of Rome extend beyond the purely religious sphere. By the Syllabus of 1864 that Church, as Morley in his Life 28 484 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH of Gladstone (vol. II., p. 516) says, " condemns free speech, a free press, liberty of conscience, toleration of nonconformity, the free study of civil and philo- sophic things independent of Church authority, marriage unless sacramentally contracted, and all defmition by the State of the civil rights of the Church." These would seem to be contradictions even of the civil principles of our Commonwealth. It is hard that we should be called upon to endorse them. The special exigencies of Quebec, recognised on political grounds, cannot be reasonably extended to a new Province. We wish to do all that is right and kind to our Roman Catholic fellow-citizens. But then we wish them to be really our fellow-citizens, upon a footing of perfect equality, and not a privileged section. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cccxxv G. S. to the {fifth) Earl of Rosebery. March 28, 1905. Deae Lord Rosebery, I should like to know upon what this statement of Lord Minto rests. I have seen nothing except a general sympathy of the Protectionist party in Canada with the Protectionist sentiments of Mr. Chamberlain. No disposition has been shown to lower the duties on any British goods which compete with Canadian manufactures. Such disposition as has been shown has been quite in the opposite direction, I do not know what the " difficulty " means. There was none, nor was there the slightest indi- cation of any tendency to break away from the mother-country in default of a preferential system, when Mr. Chamberlain stirred this question. I have always suspected that Mr. Chamberlain's CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 435 object was partly at least to divert attention from the results of his South African War. We were first told that the union of the Empire had been gloriously confirmed by the participation of the Colonies with the mother-country in that war ; then we were told that the Imperial bond was being loosened, and that there was a tendency in the Colonies to break away for want of a preferential tariff. Mr. Cham- berlain's move has at all events in one respect been successful. The red-herring of preferential tariff has been effectually drawn across the South African scent. Yours truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cccxxvi G. S. to Sir Robert Collins. The GBANaE, Toronto, March 30, 1905. My dear Collins, I heartily wish the Duke, who was a little boy when I last saw him, and his affianced bride, all that maternal affection can desire for them. May their wedded life be a long honeymoon of mutual love and domestic happiness ! Russian despotism is very bad, and calls for radical reforms. But are we blameless, who for the last fifty years have been upholding Turkish despotism, taking Cyprus as our retaining fee ? However, the thing to be considered is not the form or the general character of Russian governnaent, but the present situation. What would be the conse- quences of a murderous anarchy of 140 millions ? What might be the consequences, not to Russia only, but to Europe, which is full of inflammable matter ? The Government must be upheld. There is abso- lutely nothing to take its place. If Louis XVI., at the critical moment, instead of 436 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH throwing the reins on the neck of the nation, had grasped them firmly, or put them in the hands of those who would have grasped them firmly, and ceased to give ear to the follies of the Queen and her camarilla, there would probably have been no French Revolution. The finances were not irretrievable. At all events they could not have upset the Govern- ment. Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. CCCXXVII G. S. to Henri Bourassa, M.P. Thb Gbanoe, Tokonto, April 13, 1905. Dear M. Bourassa, I am very sorry to find myself on the side opposed to yours upon this Schools question.' History has taught me strenuously to uphold the great principles of a separation of the Church from the State, and equality of all religions before the law. No Church, I believe, has suffered more by connexion with the State, or gained more in spiritual dignity and influence by separation from it, than yours. A glance over her annals may, I think, convince you of this. Nor can I see how the State can confer privileges on the schools of a particular Church with- out a violation of principle. Personally, I have always been inclined in favour of the voluntary system, under which, of course, any or all of the schools may be religious. I can fully sympathise with the desire of religious education. But the State system is our lot, and the State must be impartial. You will, I am sure, acquit me of the slightest feeling against Catholicism other than inevitable dissent. I dislike Ultramontanism, Jesuitism, and ' State-aided Roman Catholic schools in the two new Canadian Provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 487 the Syllabus, on grounds irrespective of religious belief. But I have no feeling but that of respect for the Catholicism of Pascal, Montalembert, and Lacor- daire. You must remember the Syllabus, the claims of the Church to temporal power therein put forth, and her political action in France and elsewhere. With any prejudice of race you know well that I have not the slightest fellow-feeling. French Canada at the present time is in my eyes a Conservative force of great value, helping to save us from absorption in the Imperialism and militarism which now prevail. The legal question the lawyers must decide. For my part I fail to see how a purely provisional power, such as that with which the Dominion Government is invested for the administration of a Territory, can legally prolong its edict beyond the term for which the power is held, and make it perpetually binding on the Province, in face of the plain words of the British North America Act, assigning to the Pro- vince exclusively the subject of education. It would seem that we are bound at all events to take a judicial opinion on that point. Left doubtful, it would be the seed of future trouble. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCCXXVIII G. S. to the Venerable Archdeacon Cody. TOBONTOJ May 16, 1906. If you care to look into the booklet. The Founder of Christendom, which I send herewith, you will see, I hope, that though far from orthodox, I am not de- structive, or an " atheist." I represent a set, how numerous I cannot tell, who want, while they resign dogma and miracle, to challenge the extreme pre- tensions of materialism, and save, if Truth will permit, a foundation of conscience and spiritual life. 438 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH May 29, 1905. Thanks are due to you for saying a strong word about betting. It is a great and growing evil. Its increase is probably due, in part at least, to the strange mania for athletics. May 22, 1906. The betting ring, I suppose, you might suppress, but I am afraid you could not suppress betting, which, in England at least, goes on in taverns and other places of resort, or through agencies, as much as on the race-course. I had a valet in England, an excellent servant, brought up under the eyes of my family, who turned dishonest, stole money given him to pay small bills, and forged receipts. He had lost money in a tavern in betting on races. He had never seen a horse-race. Betting is, of course, merely a kind of gambling, and gambling seems ineradicable. Bridge is just as rife as betting on races. It is reckoned that £100,000 a day changes hands at bridge in the United Kingdom. cccxxix G. S. to Herbert Paul. The Gbakob, Toronto, Canada, May 17, 1905. Dear Sir, In the third volume of your History, which I have just been reading with great pleasure and profit, you refer to Disraeli's allusion to me in Lothair. I meant to let the matter sleep, or only to leave a cor- rection in my Reminiscences ; but an American book firm has brought out, and is strenuously pushing, an idition de luxe of Disraeli's works, with a key to the personal allusions furnished, as the prospectus states, by Disraeli's secretary. Lord Rowton. This has moved me, though very reluctantly, to CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 489 send the enclosed to the New York Nation, a paper read both in the United States and in England. The charge of " social parasitism," which I am sure any of my social contemporaries would pronounce abso- lutely baseless, was likely and was no doubt intended to injure me socially in the United States, where my habits and character were not known. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cccxxx F. Greenwood to G. S. 6, BOBDEB CbBSOEKT, SYDENHAM, May 23, 1905. Dear Mk. Goldwin Smith, It is most gratifying to be remembered by you so kindly. The occasion that prompted you to write has been really joyful to me for this one thing — the evocation of affectionate feelings from old friends on the other side of a long drift of years, and friendly words from old and well-proved captains like yourself. In England the character of journalism is certainly falling. I don't even think that there is as much good writing as I can remember in the Saturday Review, the Spectator and the Guardian all going on together, and perhaps I may add the Pall Mall Gazette to them when Mr. Stephens, and Herman Merivale, and Strangford, and Maine, and Huxley, and Tyndall, and Earthy. St. Hilaire, and J. Morley, and half-a-dozen other self-respecting penmen were at work upon it. But where, I think, the newspaper press sinks lowest is in its dealing with news. There is far more of selection, repression, maiming, and focussing of news than was thought decent forty years ago. The most respectable journals admit rumours with every mark of invention upon them, but with the recommendation of being sensational or of con- 4.40 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH firming the views of the paper ; and it often happens that news of that kind, reported with a quahfying " it is said here " to-day, is dwelt upon to-morrow in a leading article as a highly significant matter of fact. This practice is of course favoured by a much greater proportion of thoughtless and uncritical readers, and is most daringly employed by newspapers with the largest circulation. All the causes of degradation that you speak of are active with us, but not yet so openly as elsewhere. Syndicates in possession of three or four or half-a-dozen newspapers work upon " purely business principles," and the amalgamation of some of these is quite to be expected. Purely business prmciples suggest editorial assistance to adventures — every appearance of which used to be jealously avoided, and is now a common practice. Meanwhile the influence of Parliament, its actual power in the State, has greatly diminished, and the press gains what Parliament loses. Yet I think we may believe that, though the people have few good leaders, and too readily lend themselves to traders in enthusiasm, they are still sound at bottom and thor- oughly capable of edification : though almost immedi- ately above the "masses," and so upwards, we see at work the corruption and enfeeblement of luxury. At this moment all good Englishmen are hoping that Canada will make no preparation for another Colonial Conference in London till after a convincing General Election has been held. I have been venting a positive opinion that the Canadian Government will take that course : and I am perfectly sure that the greater number among us will be grateful (which is more than being contented) if in some way a deter- mination to put off conferring till the predominant opinion here has been ascertained can be published from Canada. Believe me, Sincerely yours, (Signed) F. Greenwood, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 441 CCCXXXI G. S. to George Freeman, New York. The Grange, Toronto, June 5, 1905. Dear Mr. Freeman, The term " anti-Semitic " is applicable to me if it means simply fear of political, social, and financial influence, without the slightest shadow of religious antipathy, from which I can truly say that I am absolutely free. However, it appears to me that the Jewish mono- theism, even if it were absolutely identical with ours, which it hardly is, is so bound up with the other ele- ments of Semitism or Judaism — call it which you will — ^that it would be impossible to disentangle it, and to make it the foundation of a united Church. I should despair of seeing such a consummation even if in my hour-glass there were more sand to run. We must be content, I think, with spontaneous and informal approximation, which will lead gradually to unity of action — possibly, in the end, of religious profession. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. I hope we shall soon see you here. cccxxxn G. S. to the Right Hon. Lewis Harcourt, M.P. The Grange, Toronto, CAxtAOA, June 23, 1905. Dear Mr. Harcourt, I hope I am addressing properly, though I do not know what title, by the time this reaches you, may be yours. I have never kept a diary, and when I left England 442 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH I destroyed my private correspondence. I have therefore nothing to consult but a memory weakened by old age, and this, though it vividly reproduces a commanding and brilliant figure, has preserved no particular acts or sayings. Your father ^ and I were together members of a reading party one summer at Thorpe Arch, with Bode of Christ Church for our tutor. Your father was preparing for Cambridge, I for my degree. We hardly met again till I, having taken my degree, came to London. We were together on the staff of the Saturday Review. I think your father was on the original staff. Of this I am not quite sure. He had for his fellow-contributors George Venables, Sir Henry Maine, Lord Robert Cecil, T. CoUett Sandars, Hemming, Scott of Hoxton, and myself. The Editor was John Douglas Cook, a good manager and a good comrade, though rather rough, and of the old school. The proprietorship was shared between Douglas Cook and Beresford Hope. Your father at all events early acquired a name as a powerful and trenchant writer. We used to meet in society ; among other places at Strawberry Hill. Afterwards, when I was resident on my Professorship at Oxford, having political connexions in the city, I received a request from your father to introduce him to the electors as a candidate. I obeyed with alacrity, and, as you know, he was elected. I heard him speak at a great political dinner at Oxford, and I thought, and still think, that as a popular speaker he was first- rate. I heard him speak in the House of Commons, but I don't think I ever heard him make a great speech there. He and Roundell Palmer were not very sympathetic ; but Palmer expressed to me a very high opinion of your father as an administrator in the Home Office. This really is about all that my memory supplies, beyond the general impression with which my letter begins. Perhaps, if you were here to interrogate me, ' The Right Hon. Sir William Vernon Harcourfc, Who was Chanoellor of the Exchequer in 1892. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 443 some cell of memory might open. Any question you may send me I will do my best to answer. We met under Gladstone's roof at Hawarden, but I have taxed my memory for any relics of the con- versation in vain. Your father was always brilliant in conversation as well as in public speaking. Yours verv truly, G. S. CCCXXXIII G, S. to a lady, name unknown. The Geange, July 8, 1905. Dear Madam, Accept my best thanks for your kind letter, which I have read with much pleasure. I am glad that you see, what nny angry critics do not or will not see, that though I accept the results of modern research, and cease to uphold anything of which the proof has failed, I am not opposed to Christianity in the vital sense of that name. Very truly yours, (Signed) Gold win Smith. cccxxxiv G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. The Geangb, Toronto, Axiguat 6, 1905. My dear Lord Mount Stephen, In some cases the Succession Duty might per- haps be avoided by making over the property to the intended legatees in trust to allow the owner to draw the income, or as much of it as he required during his life. What adds to the bitterness of spoliation here in 444 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Ontario is that the need is created not, as with you, by a vast mihtary and naval expenditure, but by the misconduct of the Grit Government. The overthrow of those people by popular indignation, the other day, was about the most hopeful sign that we have had for many years. On the other hand we have had a most disgraceful Session at Ottawa. It is impossible to doubt that many of the members voted against their principles and convictions, in expectation of the salary-grab. Popular resentment is general and strong, but it will evaporate, and the offenders will go unpunished. The worst of it is that all respect for Government is de- stroyed. We have not here, as you have in England, a class of men able and willing to serve the country for itself. The leaders of commerce cannot afford to go to Ottawa. If they do, it is for some object of their own. There is no independent gentry. Politics become a trade. Nor is there any basis of principle for the parties, which are mere factions wrestling for power with their villainous " machines." The parliamentary system of Great Britain has been extended to the Colonies, without the things necessary to make its working rational and pure. Hold on to the non-payment of members. It is your last effective Conservative institution. If Russia survives — and it takes a good deal to kill a nation — you will have war with her. She can never forget the wrong that England has done her. She has never meant to attack your Indian Empire, but you are yourselves setting in action the force that will cause its fall. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 445 cccxxxv G. S. to Henri Bourassa, M.P. The Gbauoe, Toeonto, Augutt 30, 1905. Dear M. Bourassa, In writing to you about French Canada, I feel my want of accurate knowledge as much as I do in writing for your journal ; which, with its French grace and point, has in me an admiring reader. But in writing to you I can at all events be frank. I can fully sympathise with the aspirations of French Canadians with regard to French Canada. In the North-West they can hardly be expected to prevail against the tide of British, European, and above all American immigration. The character of your people attracts by its simplicity, its courtesy, its domesticity, its freedom from American push. Above all, I look now to French Canada as a conservative power, saving us from being swept away by the tide of Imperialism and Jingoism ; though unhappily, in the matter of the Contingent, the personal influence of Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the patronage of which he is the dispenser were allowed to prevail over what I must believe to have been the general opinion and sentiment of your people. Only two French Cana- dians on that occasion showed integrity and courage. But we cannot help fearing the connexion of your national aspirations with those of an ambitious and aggressive priesthood, whose manifesto is the Syllabus declaring war against freedom of opinion and the fundamental principles of modern civilisation. You tell me that you have had intercourse with a Jesuit, and found him liberal. You will find them all so. But you know what they have done, including the part they played in bringing on the Franco-German war, and their incessant conspiracy against the French Republic. Your people are, I fear, practically under the con- 446 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH trol of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, whom, on his accession to the Premiership, I welcomed as a French gentle- man, likely to keep the path of honour. But he has proved an opportunist pure and simple. He goes now to set up his machine in the North- West, and politically pervert that young communitj'' at its birth. May the powers which watch over the Liberal cause bring his design to naught ! Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cccxxxvi G. S. to Fred Williams. The Geangb, Toronto, September 1, 1905. Dear Sir, My opinion as to the passage of the Autonomy Bill ' through Parliament, briefly expressed, is that there has been a deplorable abandonment of Liberal principles on the part of men who bear the Liberal name, and that the increase of the salaries of all members of Parliament and the grant of a salary to the leader of the Opposition, hurried through at the end of the Session without notice to the public, lend an aspect still more questionable to a transaction disheartening enough to all true Liberals in itself. There is still reason to hope that the question as to the legality of the School clauses in the Provincial Autonomy Bill may be brought before the Privy Council. Yours truly, Goldwin Smith. To Fred WiUiams, Esq., The News, Toronto. * Giving provincial govermnent — and " separate Bohoola " — to Alberta and Saskatchewan. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 447 CCCXXXVII G. S. to Moberly Bell. Thb Grange, Toronto, October 20, 1905. Deak Mr. Moberly Bell, I suppose the enclosed ' is correct. If it is, it shows you on what foundations your vast Imperial structure will be built. The same thing took place here. To propitiate the Irish vote, our Parliament has more than once passed resolutions in favour of Home Rule. Once it was smartly rebuked by the Home Secretary for so doing. Sir Oliver Mowat, the Premier of Ontario, a great professor of loyalty, passed, under the same influence, a resolution of censure on Lord Salisbury's renewal of the Crimes Act. When William O'Brien came over here on his Home Rule crusade, threatening to drive the Governor- General out of Ottawa, we got up an Association (of which I was Chairman) and a movement against him. But the politicians one and all crept into their holes. Again I say, consider on what foundations Imperial Federationists are building. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. 1 Home Rule for Ireland : favoured by Australia. — Melbourne, Victoria, October 19. — The Federal House of Representatives to-day adopted, by 33 to 21 votes, a motion to petition King Edward to grant Home Rule to Ireland. This success of the Home Rulers is attributed in a large measure to William Redmond's recent cam- paign in Australia. The motion had been hotly debated, and the Labour party and Liberals supported the Home Rulers. The Federal Premier, Alfred Deakin, in the course of the debate promised to vote for the Home Rule principle as a necessary pre- liminary to the federation of the Empire, but he would have pre- ferred a resolution simply expressing the opinion of the House to a petition which might lead to an unwelcome answer from the Bdfour Government. The Senate, by a vote of 16 to 11, adopted a motion to the effect that Home Rule should be granted to Ireland. 448 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CCCXXXVIII G. S. to the {fifth) Earl of Rosebery. Tss Gbanqe, Tobonto, October 23, 1905. Dear Lord Rosebery, Mr. Wise may be safely challenged to produce a single endorsation of Mr. Chamberlain's policy so far as Canada is concerned. An impulse, though a fleeting one as I think it will prove, has been given to Protectionist and Imperialist sentiment in certain quarters. If we are goaded to military and naval expenditure, the result will be an increase of taxation and of im- port duties, with no exception in favour of British goods, I see your faith in the party system of government is beginning to be shaken. I wish you could witness its operation here. Yours very truly, (Signed) Golbwin Smith. cccxxxix G. S. to the (fifth) Earl of Rosebery. November 28, 1906. Dear Lord Rosebery, I am sending you a booklet on Irish History and the Irish Question,^ in which, if you care to open it, you may hear the voice of Irish Liberals of the moderate school from whom the writer imbibed his sentiments a generation or two ago. You will probably thiak my Home Rule proposal weak. Nothing in the way of Home Rule from a decided Unionist is likely to be strong. But a point would be gained if you could draw from a body representing 1 Irish History and the Irish Question. By Goldwin Smith' London : T. C. & E. C. Jack. Toronto : Morang & Co., Ltd., 1905. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 44Q the whole of Ireland a statement of her case and of her specific demands. This has not yet been done. We are constantly told that Ireland must be ruled according to her own ideas. What are those ideas ? We want in the first place authentically to know. Something will surely have to be done to satisfy the Nationalist aspirations and cravings, to the justice of which it cannot be forgotten those who voted for Gladstone's bills are in some measure committed. The business has been miserably mismanaged, and faction, stylmg itself party, has been the cause. Very truly yours, GoLDwiN Smith. CCCXL G. S. to the {fifth) Earl of Rosebery. The Gbange, Tobonto, Canada, Decemher 13, 1905. My dear Lord Rosebery, The new Premier ' has put together his diffi- cult piece of patchwork very well.' But for reasons extending beyond his limited object, I am glad you are not one of the pieces. You showed in one of your recent speeches that you were beginning to be aware of the weakness and the perils of party government. These are manifest enough in England. But they are still more manifest in a Colony where there has never been any rational ground for the division of the community into parties, and where ' Mr. Balfour resigned on December 4, and Sir H. Campbell- Banuerman was appointed First Lord of the Treasury on the day following. * The following were the more important members of the Ministry : Home Secretary, Mr. Herbert Gladstone ; Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey; Colonial Secretary, Earl of Elgin; War Secretary, Mr. R. B. Haldane ; Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. H. H. Asquith ; President of the Board of Trade, Mr. D. Lloyd George ; President of the Local Government Board, Mr. John Burns. 29 450 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH we have not the class of men who have hitherto with you preserved government of faction and demagogism from its extreme results. What say you to a Liberal Minister who smoothes the way for a measure, probably unconstitutional, through Parliament by an increase of the sessional salaries of all the members and the grant of a salary to the leader of the Opposition, which the Minister styles an " extension of the Constitution " ? The same Minister appoints to a Chief-Justiceship one of his party Cabinet, one who has been in politics and out of legal practice for more than twenty years. He is now inoculating with his politics and their influence on public character the infant Provinces of the North-West. The other day we in Ontario, by a dead-lift effort, for the success of which we were mainly indebted to the farmers, threw off the yoke of a Liberal party, the last effort of which, in its struggle to retain place, was the offer of $4,000 to a member of the Legislature to change sides. Our people are good, and worthy of self-government. The evil is in the party machines, which, however, cannot fail to affect the character of the people. In the United States good men struggle gallantly against the inherent evils of the party and dema- gogic system. But the evils, having a professed army of intrigue and corruption on their side, inevitably prevail. Meantime that which, in speculation, is Socialism, in action Maratism, extends its hold over the suffering or discontented classes. The germs of it are visible even here. It is becoming more international, more enlightened after its kind, better equipped with argument, more expert in conspiracy, and more formidably armed. Its terrible victory in Russia has sent a thrill of excitement and hope through all its members. We cannot tell what the limit of the agitation will be. It is as well, therefore, that one British statesman of the first rank should be standing outside the CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 451 party fray, clear of its ephemeral necessities and free to forecast the future. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith, CCCXLI G. S. to {the fourth) Earl Grey. The Grange, Toronto, December 21, 1905. My dear Lord Grey, I rejoice in all Canadian laurels,' and I am not jealous of McGill, though it is the rival of Toronto. Rose, I presinne, is a Rhodes Scholar. The Rhodes Scholars seem to be getting on well at Oxford. I was not a Craven Scholar. The Craven, I think, in my day was a family scholarship, though my memory is not very clear upon this subject. I was an Ireland Scholar. The Ireland and the Hertford Scholarships were the two classical prizes in my day. I am not siire that I look back upon my prize- winnings at Oxford with entire complacency. I have often thought that I should have taken a happier line in life without them. I was on the point of going into the Indian Civil Service, and I rather think I had better have done it. If you look into my booklet on Ireland, you will find there the opinions of Irish Liberals of the moderate school. Those with whom I used to con- verse are all gone, but I wished that in this, which I suppose is the final crisis, their voice shotdd once more be heard. If Redmond is cool and plays his cards well, he will have those men who voted for Gladstone's bills at a great advantage. But he will not be cool or play his cards well. Ireland wOl have a lively Lord-Lieutenant in Lady Aberdeen. ' Mr. Rose, a Canadian, a " Rhodes Scholar " at Oxford, had just won the Craven Scholarship there. 452 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH We have a liquor fight here. A sweeping reduction of licences is proposed. I wish we could get the calm opinion of some impartial expert on our real con- dition, to correct the enthusiasm of the Zenana and the impetuosity of the pulpit. I am rather provoked by the coolness with which reformers propose to treat as criminal a calling specially licensed by the State, and to cut off the livelihood of all these tavern-keepers without com- pensation ; thus offering, as it seems to me, the unclean tribute of injustice. My wife unites with me in offering all the compli- ments and good wishes of the season to yourself and Her Excellency. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. 1906 cccxLn G. S. to the Bight Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Geangb, Tobokto, January 5 [1906 ?], Dear Mr. Merriman, A letter from you is most welcome to me as a proof that our intercourse continues. I watch your affairs with the greatest interest. The storm-centre seems to be shifting from the Boer to the Native question. But it is all the consequence of the infamous intrigue which brought on the war. Is it not heart-rending to think that a political gambler could do all this as a stroke in his game and not suffer, but rather profit, by his crime ? People in England have now evidently come to their senses about the war, as they did about the Crimean War as soon as it was over. But politicians have managed to smother responsibility for South Africa in this new piece of charlatanerie about the tariff. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 453 The issue of the election in England is certain. Chamberlain has forced Balfour on the rocks, know- ing that the immediate result will be a wreck, but hoping that he will get command of the vessel, as he has already made himself master of the party organ- isation and the organ, and that the election after next will bring him in as head of the Government. He is pretty old for such a game. The danger of the new Government is Home Rule, and this it is evident was evaded for the present by a bargain of some sort with Redmond. Campbell-Bannerman is the right man to hold a motley Government together. But a very motley Government it is : Home Rulers and anti-Home Rulers ; Imperialists and anti-Imperialists ; Capital- ists and Labour men ; Feminists and anti-Feminists ; moderate Liberals and extreme Radicals, looking with anything but favour on each other. You are too well justified in regarding with sus- picion such men as Asquith and Haldane. Nothing in the whole miserable business disgusted me more than Asquith's speech in favour of the Boer War, But if Campbell-Bannerman goes to the Lords after next session, as it seems to be supposed he will, Asquith will lead the Commons and be practically Prime Minister. I know nothing of the new Colonial Secretary. If he keeps the tradition of the Lord Elgin who was Governor-General here he will do well. Chamberlain's policy has fallen perfectly flat here. He has an emissary at present vainly tryiag to make out for him that it has not. All that he has done has been to lend a stimulus to Protectionism, which has been clamouring for an increase of duties, not by any means excepting those on British goods. Laurier, who has long since shuffled out of the strong Free Trade opinions which won him the Cobden Club medal, has been feeling his way to a change in the tariff, probably in the interest of his Protectionist friends, by sending about a Commission of Inquiry ; 454 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH but the farmers, who are Free Traders, as well they may be, have shaken off their usual apathy and shown such a front that Laurier will beware. They are now trying to push us into military and naval expenditure. The result is not unlikely to be, in a milder way, like that of George Grenville's, to make the American Colonies pay for an Army. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. I am growing deaf and generally dilapidated. CCCXLIII G. S. to the (fifth) Earl of Rosebery The Gbangb, Toronto, January 8, 1906. Dear Lord Rosebery. The British footman thought blue absurd for a uniform except in the Artillery and the Horse Guards Blue. Are we not rather like him when we assume that the universal and only possible form of responsible government is that accidentally evolved by the conflict between the Jacobites and the Whigs ? Questions of principle, however important, in time get themselves settled. The dividing line of principle then disappears, and the conflict of parties becomes a demagogic faction - fight for office — with you, bad and growing worse ; here, as you would say had you witnessed the last Session of the Canadian Parlia- ment, unspeakable. I do not see what answer there can be to this objection. Look at the Campbell-Bannerman Government. Read John Burns's manifesto. What is the principle that makes it natural and moral for a man to be combined with the aristocrats and the moderate Liberals of the party ? Burns, by the way, hits the nail on the head in declaring for the payment of members. Non-payment of members is the one strong Conservative institution that you have left. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 455 Only a national Government has any chance of settling this Irish question. While there are factions to be played upon, it will never be settled — at least in the right way, for these doles of money and tem- porising concessions are not right. How a national Government can be formed it is for statesmen like yourself to say, and you person- ally, I repeat, being out of the faction-fight, have a fair chance of doing an immense service to the country. I have sometimes thought that the old and still [?] legal Constitution, with a standing Privy Council, might furnish a starting-point, though of course extensive change would be needed. How- ever, no statesman in my time has been in so good a position for a revision of the Constitution as you are now. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCCXLIV Moncure D. Conway to G. S. 22, East 10th Stbbet, New Yobk, January 15, 1906. My dear Pkofessor Goldwin Smith, I read your letters in the Sun with a certain personal sentiment, and with as much agreement as can be expected between minds that have had their own mental and religious histories. In reading yesterday the letters about you in the Sunday Sun (14th) it occurred to me that you must feel depressed at finding in columns of a leading paper " teachers " not yet in the rudiments of religious knowledge. Here is a rector who does not even know that the last twelve verses of Mark are spurious, and that the three-witness text, 1 John v. 8, as cited by him, has long been abandoned by biblical scholars of all Churches. And then comes poor Thompson ^ith his antediluvian notion of an allegorical Genesis, 456 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH not seeing that the sanctity of the Sabbath would be destroyed by the belief that the " six days " of Genesis are not meant as days of twenty-four hours. My dear friend, you are among such people a " lion in a den of Daniels ! " As to the Januarius controversy, have you noticed that the saying of Horace, "Credat Judseus Apella non ego," refers to a liquefaction of blood by a way- side conjuror on the road to Brindisi — perhaps near Naples ? Apella is probably a mere latinisation of " circumcised." That the defence of the dogmas and superstitions labelled " Christian "-—so similar to those Jesus tried to disperse — should have fallen into such hands as your New York antagonists, is for me one of many signs that the said defence has now become profes- sional. The independent, unrestrained, unofficial intellect and culture of France, Germany, England, and America, abandon the field to the vulgar revi- valists, who, however, would rather have one Goldwin Smith than a million of such converts as they get increasingly because the brains have retreated. The result of the breakdown of supernatural hopes and fears will perhaps not affect the morals of the masses much in the way you apprehend, but may make conventionalised " morality " more tyrannical over personal freedom. Guizot described himself as a republican who could not support any republic : " the republic begins with Plato and ends with the policeman." Protestantism begins with the right of private judgment and ends with Sabbatarian oppression — and, by the way, if you realised the extent of this oppression in this country, I believe you would not have spoken favourably, in this latitude, of the Sunday. But I am writing you a tedious letter, and hope you will not take the trouble to reply, but forgive the intrusion because of the friendship and esteem which inspire it. MONCURE D. CoffWAY. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 457 CCCXLV G. S. to Sir Robert Collins. The Grange, Tobonto, Jarmary 22, 1906. My dear Collins, That accounts of Russian atrocities are exag- gerated, as you say, you may convince yourself by reference to the Blue Book containing the reports of the British Consuls, 1882, on the anti-Jewish riots of the preceding year. The European press, as you are no doubt aware, is largely in the hands of Jews. The worst in Russia seems now to be over. It is to be hoped that the Czar will not throw the reins on the neck of an Assembly elected by universal suffrage, totally ignorant of politics, full of wild hopes, and sure to have all the firebrands among its members. The autocracy wants letting down, but the less revolutionary the way in which this is done the better, not in the interest of order only, but of liberty ; for violent revolutions are always followed by violent recoils. How could people have expected any good from the triumph of a frenzied anarchy impelled by a murder-club ? The lava would have overflowed from that volcano on other countries. As it is, an impulse has evidently been given to the Socialist movement throughout the world. One sign of this, I take it, is the great number of Labour candidates elected to your Parliament. Your new Government evidently will have a very large majority. But, to avert danger, its majority ought to be large enough to make it independent of the Nationalists, the Labour party, and the personal following of Chamberlain combined. The Nation- alists and the Labour party, both being revolutionary, are pretty sure to pull together. Party government — party being in ordinary times simply a name for faction — can hardly go on for ever. You should see its operation here, where we have 458 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH payment of members and the social restraints are weak. Incredible things were done in our last Session of Parliament, and by a man whom, when he came to the leadership, I had hailed as likely to keep the path of honour. Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. Kiss the Duchess's hand for me and tell her that it gives me the greatest pleasure to feel that she still thinks of the guest who spent those happy days at Claremont. CCCXLVI G. S. to Martin Griffin, Librarian of Parliament, Ottawa. January 26, 1906. My dear Griffin, I will get the Life of Randolph Churchill. It would take a good deal of literary dressing to make me look upon him as a great man. His policy was a re-hash of Disraeli and would have come to nothing. I am not sure that when he suddenly threw up he did not himself suspect the hoax. There was nothing in his speeches but an occasional hit. His general demeanour was that of a hot-headed school-boy. Nobody ever impressed me less in conversation. The second instalment of Wemyss Reid, when it comes, will probably throw some light on the history of the Irish question. I saw enough of the extrusion of Forster from the Cabinet to feel pretty sure that there was questionable work. Salisbury, of whom at one time I used to see a good deal, was not quite what Bismarck called him, " a reed painted to look like iron," but he was not strong ; if he had been he never would have succumbed as he did either to Disraeli or to Randolph Churchill. You would have escaped the pro-Turkish policy. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 459 The Irish question has been the sport of faction, which will probably bring it to a bad end. You are now apparently going to have Home Rule by instal- ments, each of which the agitators will swallow, and then demand more. What they seek is separation and a national field of ambition for themselves. They say that they want constitutional relations changed to fit Irish ideas. Why have they not been challenged themselves to put their ideas into the form of a bill, which, when brought into the House, should be duly considered ? All this agrarian legislation I cannot help suspecting will prove to be a fight against nature. You cannot change Irish soil, still less Irish skies. You can shake the security of property and the faith of contracts. Socialism under the guise of Labour has now fairly raised its head in English politics, and the leaders of faction will begin to intrigue with it. Octogenarians will miss some lively work. Very truly yours, (Signed) G. S. cccxLvn Moncure D. Conway to G. S. 22, East 10th Street, New York, February 22, 1906. My dear Professor Goldwin Smith, To-day I came upon a curious French book, which I bought on its publication (1876) — U Arsenal de la Devotion (pp. 387). The learned author, Paul Parfait, expresses his surprise that Catholicism, " austere et simple a ses debuts," has increased " d'age en age son bagage de superstitions." I think that in New York the tendency of all the Churches (Romanism included) is to obtain temporal power and to enforce their " morality " (much of it immoral) by police. 1. To puritanise the Sabbath; 2, to prohibit drinking and card-playing; 3, to prevent 460 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH divorce; 4, to make atheism penal. The combination of Churches is formidable ; there would be more liberty if one were established. Cordially, (Signed) Moncure D. Conway. CCCXLVIII G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. The Gbajtob, Tobonto, March 9, 1906. My dear Mount Stephen, This payment of members is a serious matter, apart from the dignity of Parliament, which it seems to me greatly to impair. I have always looked upon non-payment as a great Conservative safeguard. I should wish Labour to be represented, and have made a practice of voting for good Labour candidates. But government by the Trades Unions would be alarm- ing, especially if Women Suffrage is carried and the constituencies are flooded not only with political ignorance but with irresponsible emotion. Campbell-Bannerman's speech shows that, though a skilful party manager, he is not a statesman. The Colonies, with their comparative freedom from class antagonism and the simple nature of their policy, are no guides for a nation like England, with its class divisions, its foreign policy, and all its complicated affairs. What is still more important, our colonial politics are unhappily as far as possible from being a success. Of this Canada has recently had disastrous and shameful proof. The worth of the people sustains the commonwealth. Give up Protection. You cannot carry it. It has been utterly defeated by the strenuous resistance of the farmers here. Reorganise the Conservative party on its true basis — resistance to revolutionary legis- lation. Get a man of honour for your leader. The country, it seems to me, is in real danger. Its safety CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 461 ought not to be sacrificed to the party game or to the ambition of such men as Chamberlain. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCCXLIX G, S. to Phillips Thompson. The Geange, May 9, 1906. Dear Mr. Phillips Thompson, I have read Mr. Eugene V. Debs's manifesto in the Appeal to Reason. The incitements to violence and in a certain sense even to murder which I find in it seem to me to strain the principle of free publication, which is as much cherished by me as it is by you. Mr. Debs, calling himself, I suppose, a Socialist, is in fact a Maratist. So are all the Socialists of his type. If they got the upper hand they would do what Marat did, and leave the world much worse than they found it. Such is my personal conviction, which a perusal of Mr. Debs's fulminations does not shake. That there are Socialists of another kind I am well aware. I hope and believe you are one of them. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCCL Moncure D. Conway to G. S. 22, £asx 10th Stbeet, Nkw York, May 10, 1906. My Dear and Honoured Goldwin Smith, Your book In Quest of Light is gratefully received, and has been read — including parts pre- viously read — ^always with sympathy and interest, often with agreement. I am burdened with proof of 462 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH my coming (October) volume, My Pilgrimage to the Wise Men of the East, and I cannot now write the many thoughts stirred in me by your suggestive pages. Especially impressive are your thoughts on immortality. We all feel impelled to the future, both in this life and beyond the grave, but my "Wise Men of the East " — Zoroaster, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus — and even the greatest of later genii, the great Greeks and Romans, and Boccacio, Rabelais, Mon- taigne, Shakespeare, Goethe, do not appear to have thought that the future held for them anything better than what was around them, whether on earth or in heaven. Can a " Lo here and Lo there " world produce for us another Jesus or another Shakespeare ? I wish you had said more about the new morality. As the great believers are called infidels, the great moralists are called immoral — comrades of publicans and sinners, wine-bibbers, etc. I am sending you soon a copy of my oration at the inauguration of Conway Hall. Cordially, (Signed) Moncuke D. Conway. CCCLI G, S, to George Freeman, New York. The GBAiJOE, Toronto, May 26, 1906. My dear Freeman, Is there such a thing as a paper or periodical which is not controlled by the Jews or afraid to print the truth, temperately expressed, about them ? They seem to be behind the press everywhere, or at least to be able to muzzle it. Meantime the Semitic influence grows, and not entirely for good. I hope we shall see you here again some day. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 468 CCCLII G. S. to Sir Edward Clarke {Solicitor-General from 1886 till 1892). The Qeamge, Toronto, Caitada, June 12, 1906. Dear Sie Edward Clarke, I see you have for the second time suffered the penalty of honesty amidst intrigue, and of patriotism in the midst of a faction fight. You have no doubt an abundant source of consolation in yourself. If the Conservative party, or the party which occupies its place, were now led by a man like Peel, it would soon recover from its defeat and improve its position by appealing to all classes of the nation against the narrow sectionalism and socialistic ten- dencies of the extreme " Labour " party. But it is led nominally by a man of straw, really by a political gambler who has never looked to anything but his game, and is carrying it away from its true policy into his short-sighted intrigues. Mr. Chamberlain's policy makes no way here. Our Protectionists call for increase of duties, but on British fuUy as much as on other goods. As to the luiification of the Empire, can anything be devised more likely to breed disputes and lead to division than a tariff convention made binding on all the scattered members of the Empire, without regard to the special circumstances of each, and unalterable except by consent of all the parties, whatever the change of fiscal requirements in any case might be ? By this time I suppose it is seen that you were in the right about the Boer War. But people hate one all the more for having been right when they were wrong. Yours most truly, GoLDwiN Smith. 464 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CCCLIII G. S. to Mrs. Henry Fawcett. The GBAnaB, ToBOirro, Canada, July i, 1906. Dear Madam, I may probably take the number of the Women's Tribune which I have received with your article in it as an intimation that you, among others, have received from Macmillan's a copy of my Essays on Questions of the Day, with an essay on the question of women's suffrage. The book has been sent to you, and to some other persons of your way of think- ing on the subject, by mistake, the newly-appointed agent of Macmillan's in this place not having been familiar with my intentions. The fault was mainly mine. You must have been surprised ; I trust you were not offended, if you looked into the essay, by anything which it contained. The arguments, no doubt, were perfectly familiar to you, and have long since been fully met in your mind. In company with John Bright I signed John Stuart Mill's first petition, though both of us were led afterwards to change our views. The political crisis in England seems to me very serious, so that it might be specially dangerous to flood the electorate with an untried element. This it was that led me to direct my publisher to send out some copies of the Essays to persons likely to take part in the discussion. Accept my best apologies for what I fear must have appeared like an intrusion. Yours truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. To Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, LL.D., London, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 465 CCCLIV Mrs. Henry {Millicent Garrett) Fawcett to G. S. 2, GowBB Street, July 19, 1906. Dear Sir, I am much obliged to you for your courteous letter of July 4th. I had been a little puzzled by the receipt of your Essays on Questions of the Day, but your letter quite explains how it came to be sent to me. We hold such very different opinions on the subject of women's suffrage that I fear it is useless for either of us to seek to convert the other. Since your essay was written, Colorado and two other States of the American Union have adopted women's suffrage, and the example of New Zealand has been followed by all the Australian Colonies (except Victoria) and by the Federation of Australia. The legislation directly promoted by the women's vote has been directed towards the object of strengthening and preserving the home, giving greater protection to the young of both sexes, and so forth. I have never claimed that women will make no mistakes, but I do claim that to give the suffrage to that part of the population whose experience and interests lie mainly in the home will tend to strengthen and elevate home life rather than the reverse. It is a mistake to suppose we want to be like men : we wish to bring the result of our women's experience and occupations to contribute to the general sum of national life in representation just as we do in the social and industrial world. Believe me, Yours faithfully, (Signed) M. G. Fawcett. Goldwin Smith, Esq. 80 466 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CCCLV Professor Homer B. Sprague to G. S. The Evans, Newton, Mass., July 24, 1906. Professor Goldwin Smith, D.C.L. My dear Friend, I have just finished reading your In Quest of Light, and I must thank you for the valuable sugges- tions you make on the most important of subjects, and for the candour and frankness you manifest on every page. It goes without saying that your lucid thinking finds fit expression in your characteristic faultless style. I am not competent, without much longer and more careful study than I have been able to give, to pror nounce upon the soundness of some of your conclu- sions ; but I am sure that whoever seeks the truth must attach great weight to your judgment. In the central doctrines, which you emphasise, of the Universal Brotherhood and the Divine Fatherhood, with all that these two fundamental ideas imply, a sufficient religion in harmony with science may be evolved. If men could bring themselves to believe fully in those basic principles, and could then allow entire freedom to any one to superadd any faith not tending to antagonise such belief, they could co-operate harmoniously for the common welfare, and face without dismay present ills and all the possibilities of the future. With affectionate regard, in which Mrs. Sprague cordially joins, I am ever. Sincerely yours, (Signed) Homer B. Sprague. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 467 CCCLVI G. S. to Sir Robert Collins. The Gbangb, Toronto, July 25, 1906. My dear Collins, The King's reply to the invitation ' seems to have satisfied everybody here. Besides, would it have been prudent just now to bring him into the neighbourhood of Chicago ? It is surely hard to see how any sober reformer can sympathise with a revolution of anarchism and dynamite. The Russian house was old and badly needed repair, perhaps reconstruction. But dyna- mite is not constructive. If this conflagration spreads it may be formidable to other nations. There is plenty of political gunpowder lying about. The rupture with the Douma was probably in- evitable. The Douma was sure, like the National Assembly in France, to grasp at the sovereign power. Was it not a mistake in this case, as it was in that of France, to entrust a revolution to an Assembly elected by universal suffrage, totally ignorant of politics, fired with wUd hopes, and sure to contain all the firebrands ? Would it not have been wiser to call a Convocation of Notables selected in a liberal way ? Now all depends on the fidelity of the Army, the defection of which, in the case of the French Revolu- tion, was fatal. There is evidently danger of mutiny ; but we cannot trust the reports. I should like to have a look at the world twenty years hence ; but I should then be 104. Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. I had the satisfaction the other day of setting up the effigy of Alfred, as the father of Anglo-Saxon civilisation, in the new Hall of Cornell, the youngest 1 Probably to visit Canada. 468 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH of the great American Universities. Anti-British feeling in the United States is almost dead. A certain circle tries to keep up anti-American feeling here, but the fusion of the two populations goes on. Nothing divides them now but the political line. CCCLVII Cr. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. The Gbanob, Tobonto, July 27, 1906. My dear Mks. Winkworth, The Essenes, of whom Mr. Rodd speaks, are people difficult to locate chronologically or theo- logically. They have been the subject of a deluge of conjectural dissertation. But I think it is clear that they were ascetic, which Christianity was not, and they were not propagandist, which Christianity was. The surroundings, social and physical, of pastoral Galilee, with the Jewish writings (not by any means including the Book of Esther), with possibly the repellent influence of Pharisaism, were, I should surmise, the chief teachers of Jesus. But we have no certain knowledge on the subject. We have the character and the words, and we know what these have done. This apparently will find you in the Tyrol, in wan- dering over which I with two companions passed a pleasant summer many years ago. We were then nearly the only Englishmen in Tyrol ; now I suppose there is a swarm. I almost preferred Tyrol to Switzerland. The contrasts were so pleasant. You come off the Unserfrau glaciers into the vale of Meran, abounding in peaches and fireflies. On the Unserfrau glaciers I and my companions narrowly escaped a bad accident. A violent snowstorm came on when we were at the top of the pass. A guide lost his head, took to his schnapps bottle, and fell down dead drunk. Luckily we had another guide, and the man was got CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 469 off. A snowstorm at the summit of the Alps is be- wildering and appalling. I did not know that you had so strong an interest in the success of the Tribune. I will try to write something for it. The editorial which you have sent me supplies me with a peg. The action of the Campbell-Bannerman Government may be all right. But it seems to me rather to betray a tendency to flatter confiscation and mendicity. I should rather like to see the Conservative party led by a statesman and a man of honour. Dear Hattie ^ is wonderfully well, and promises, I am happy to say, to survive me. Yours affectionately, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. I am afraid my handwriting betrays my increasing weakness. CCCLVIII G. S. to John Robertson. The Gbange, Toronto, August 21, 1906. My dear Sir, First let me thank you for your kind con- gratulations. The fourscore years will not in my case be pain and sorrow while I have so many kind friends. It was to Gladstone's second bill, giving Ireland a Parliament of her own and at the same time repre- sentation in the British House of Commons, that I applied the epithet " insane." That Bill would hardly, I believe, find now a single defender. Gladstone's party will certainly never think of disinterring it. " Morally insane " was the phrase used to me at the time by the most eminent of Gladstone's supporters and one who had been politically and personally his life-long friend. Mr. Gladstone was a great and * His wife. 470 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH good man, but he was apt when opposed to be carried away by his feelings. Moreover, he did not know Ireland ; he had only been there for a few weeks, and not at a good point of view. Had he studied the question more deeply I think he would have seen that, whatever might be the ambition of the leaders, the masses of the people did not, apart from the land question, crave for a political revolution. I was in Ireland at the time when the Nationalist movement was at its height under Parnell. And I can testify that the Government had to take its choice between strenuous measures of repression and virtual abdication. I have always been against entails in land. It was one of the things for which Disraeli bitterly attacked me. But a great land-owner, if he really does his duty, like Coke of Norfolk, may have his uses, both economical and social. The result of peasant-owner- ship in France, especially in the South, does not appear to be high civilisation. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. To John Robertson, Esq., Baldwin Avenue, Brantford, Ont. CCCLIX G. S, to Sir Horace Plunkett. The Grange, Tobonto, August 27, 1906. Dear Sir Horace Plunkett, I send you herewith the New York Nation of August 24, 1905, containing a full account of the Amana Society, which is now, I should think, the only survival of the communistic or semi-communistic societies of the United States. It may perhaps throw a little light on the tendency of co-operation to CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 471 reconcile the people to country life and counteract the tendency, which is hardly less strong here than it is with you, to leave the country for the city. The temporary success of some of the communistic societies hitherto has largely been due to celibacy, which was conducive both to saving and to union ; and you will observe that the Amana Society, though it does not prohibit, discourages marriage. When our North- West was opened it seemed to me that it was likely to present a field for farming on the largest scale, and that a change in farm life would follow ; that each farm would require a large staff ; perhaps, also, that the conditions of a long North- West winter would nxake company especially attractive. The experiment was tried in the case of the great Bell Farm, where I spent a day, and where I saw one wheat-field of fourteen hundred acres. But the result was failure, owing, I should think, largely to the expense of keeping a large staff unemployed through the long winter. I am afraid here education is in some measure chargeable with the set of population towards the cities. It carries with it, to a certain extent, ambition and love of excitement. If this is the case, I do not know how we can separate the good from the evO. The attractions of the city are constantly increasing, and are being more and more brought by the press under the notice of the farmer and the farmer's wife. Toronto must have doubled in size during the thirty years I have been here, in some measure from immi- gration, but far more, I should think, at the expense of the agricultural country. I had hoped to have seen some American friend or friends who might have given me more information and hints about rural life in the United States. But I do not leave home now, and nothing worth mention- ing has come to me. I should hope a good deal, not from communism, but from co-operation, which would bring the farmers together personally as well as unite them in interest. 472 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH I suppose next Session you will have the Irish problem again. That the fundamental question is agrarian, not political ; that the people, apart from the agitators, have never wanted a political revolu- tion, and that it was a mistake to tender them one, has always been my conviction, and I feel assured that you are on the right line. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCCLX G. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. The Geanqe, Toronto, Canada, August 31, 1906. Dear Mrs. Winkworth, I do not know whether the terms I used, " confiscation " and " mendicity," were the most appropriate or expressive. But it could hardly be doubted that there is a visible tendency of the class which has many votes to use them for the purpose of mulcting, under the guise of taxation, the class which has few. As to the danger of mendicity adherent to pension systems, look at the pension list of the United States, which will this year amount to a hundred and forty-eight millions of dollars for wars, the principal of which ended forty-six years ago. Everybody knows that this is an enormous fraud. Yet both the political parties emulously uphold and applaud it for their demagogic purposes. One honest farmer indignantly refused his pension the other day. I think there is need of circumspection ; I will not say more. Yours affectionately, (Signed) Goldwin Smith, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLD WIN SMITH 473 CCCLXI Sir Edward Clarke {sometime Solicitor-General) to G. S. Union Castlb Line, R.M.S. " Kbnilwobth CastiiE," October 11, 1906. Dear Goldwin Smith, I beg you to forgive the familiarity of this address, but for me you have long passed the title of " Mr." or " Professor." You have for years been one of our classics, and it would seem to me an impertinence not to address you as one. Your letter came to me at a time of much dis- appointment and of a feeling as near depression as I have ever experienced. To be conspicuous (that is where vanity comes in) and useful in public life has been my passion for many years. During the twenty years of my membership for Plymouth, I believed I was gradually securing a position which would give me power to serve my fellow-countrymen through their confidence in my honesty of purpose and freedom from a merely per- sonal ambition. But in 1899-1900, because I said what I thought on a great public question, my con- stituents flung me out of Parliamentary life and public influence, with the apparent approval of the great mass of popular opinion. It was a great blow to me, but I was still not too old to hope that at some later day, when the immediate cause of my expulsion had passed away, I might come back to share the fortunes, in no obscure place, of the party for which I had fought and worked. I had reason to believe that the opinions I held on fiscal questions were exactly those which were held by Mr. Balfour. It is true that his speeches had been elaborately obscure, but the policy which was defined and de- clared in Parliament as that of his Government was one which I cordially accepted. Within a few days of my election for the City of London, where my 474 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH opinions were quite clearly declared, he surrendered to Mr. Chamberlain, meekly submitting to the dis- astrous policy which had caused his owii and his party's defeat at the polls, and which I am absolutely certain condemns that party to exclusion from office as long as it is persisted in. What could I do ? If I had held my tongue I should have been an accom- plice in this shameful betrayal, and must have accepted the duty of upholding the proposals which Mr. Chamberlain, displaying his ignorance of economic science in every speech he made, had forced upon his feeble rival. I could not do this, so, knowing beforehand what the cost might be, I made the speech, a copy of which I now enclose. Then came the organised attack upon me by the Chamberlainites in the City. They are not a majority of the City Electors, and if it had only been a City question I should have fought them and beaten them. But the real trouble was in the House of Commons. I could not have continued to sit on the front Opposition bench, although it was at Mr. Balfour's wish that my speech, the character of which he knew beforehand, was made from the box at which the spokesman of the Opposition usually stands ; and if I had moved to a seat elsewhere I must have become the centre of a separate Parliamentary group. This was too great a responsibility to accept, and the strain of the situation completely broke me down. So I had no option but to say a final farewell to all hopes of Parliamentary influence. The trip from which I am now returning has entirely restored my health, and I hope I may yet in some way or another be of use. Your most kind letter was a great comfort and consolation to me in what I have felt to be a heavy trial. I thank you most sincerely for the kindness which prompted it, and beg you to believe me. Your obedient servant and your faithful friend, Edward Clarke. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 475 CCCLXII The Hon. Andrew D. White to G. S. October 12, 1906. Professor Goldwin Smith, LL.D., etc., The Grange, Toronto, Canada. My dear Goldwin Smith, I have been enjoying greatly your book on Ireland. It seems to me very interesting from every point of view — indeed, I can see no falling-off either in matter or in style from your books, which in former days gave all thinking men among us so much profit and pleasure. On one page I note one matter in which, perhaps, an additional explanation of an interesting fact might have been made. Toward the bottom of page 193 you say, of the Irish immigrants entering the United States, " They fall almost invariably into the Democratic party. The name may have at- tracted them." Now, I have always supposed that it was not their liking for the word " Democratic " which influ- enced them in this matter, but their hatred of the word " Whig." In the thirties and forties, when the main tide of immigration started, the party opposing the Democracy was the Whig party, which, as you will remember, elected its President, General Harri- son, in 1840, and was again successful in 1848. Is not the real cause, then, of the fact you mention the Irish dislike of the appellation " WTiig," rather than liking for the word " Democratic " ? Of course, once in the Democratic party, they stood by it, and adherence to it became almost a matter of fanaticism, and, to my own knowledge, some Irishmen who became Whigs or Republicans were to a certain extent ostracised and ill-treated. 476 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH One curious instance illustrating this. When I was " stumping " the senatorial district of which Syracuse was the main centre, about 1863, I had as my fellow-speaker for a time the member of Congress from the Onondaga district, Dennis McCarthy, a man of good education who had been very successful in business, who had rendered great services to the Irish of the county, and to whom, up to that time, they had been constantly loyal. But he had become a " War Democrat " and, finally, a Republican. The result was that at a very important meeting where we both spoke, the Irish appeared in great numbers, listened to me with the utmost kindness and respect — even, at times, giving me applause — but received McCarthy, who followed me, with every insult that could be devised. I remember his telling me next morning that the Irishmen really cared more for the Democratic party than they did for the Catholic Church. I also learned that at times he received " coffin letters " and all that sort of thing And now to another matter. You will be glad to know that the building which bears your honoured name is fully finished and occupied, and that the grounds about it have been put in beautiful order. Everybody is far better pleased with the edifice than anybody expected to be while it was building. It turns out to be an admirable addition to our means of instruction, in every respect. Your bust, with its beautiful pedestal, has arrived from Rome, and is greatly admired by all who have seen it, and the memorial inscriptions in bronze letters, inserted into the marble slabs, will soon be in place. I assure you that it gives me constant pleasure to think that we have the honour to possess such a memorial of you . Will you please present assurances of my sincere respect to Mrs. Goldwin Smith, and I remain, my dear friend, Yours faithfully, Andrew|D. White. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 477 CCCLXIII Booker Washington to G. S. The Tuskeqbk Normal and Industbial Instituti;, October 23, 1906. Mr. Goldwin Smith, Toronto, Canada. My dear Mk. Smith, I want to let you know how very much I appreciate the suggestion which you made in the New York Sun some days ago as to the effect foreign emi- gration will have on the South. For a number of years I have had the same idea. In fact, I am quite sure, judging from what I have seen, in proportion as we can get in the South an element that has never been associated with the days of slavery and coloured prejudice, that conditions will be very much modified. Then, of course, it is difficult for one who does not actually reside in the South to understand actual conditions. The worst that takes place gets into the public press, the best that takes place is very seldom heralded through the country. The enemies of the Negro race are known far and wide, while its friends in the South are seldom known outside of the immediate community. Yours truly, Booker T, Washington. CCCLXIV G. S. to the Hon. Senator Pulsford, Sydney, N.S.W. The Gbanoe, Tobonto, Canada, October 29, 1906. Dear Sir, Accept my thanks for your courtesy in sending me your tract on the Preferential Proposals of the Deaicin Government. My own fixed opinion is that neither the Deakin Government nor any other Govern- 478 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH ment can make the commercial and fiscal circum- stances of all these scattered communities the same, and that unless this can be done an attempt to enforce a procrustean uniformity of commercial and fiscal polity will end in failure, and not improbably in disruption. The tie of the heart which binds all the communities of our race together is self -adapting, and elastic as well as strong. Let us be content with it. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. To the Hon. Senator Pulsford, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia. CCCLXV G. S. to Prof. p. S. Campbell. The Geanoe, December i, 1906. My dear Sir, Accept my best thanks for your kindness in writing me so fully on a subject of the deepest interest to both of us. I am not sure that we are practically far apart. I cherish the belief that we are not. In the Christian morality as the rule of life I have not ceased to believe ; though I find it impossible to cling, against the revelations of criticism and science, to the authenticity and historical infallibility of the Gospels. It is surely not irrational or impious to presume that, had belief in the authenticity and historical accuracy of the Gospels been a condition of salvation, perfectly satisfactory proof of them would have been vouchsafed to us. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. To Professor P. S. Campbell, Toronto. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 479 CCCLXVI G. S. to J. St. Loe Stracbey, the Editor of the "Spectator." [Private] The Grange, Tobonto, December 6, 1906. Dear Sir, You ' appear to be hesitating on the subject of Old Age Pensions. I do not wish to be too often intruding pubhcly on your columns. But privately I would call your attention to the history of the Pension List of the United States. At an early stage of that system I was present at the discussion by a party of American politicians of the probable expense and duration of the Pension List. They reckoned the annual expense loosely at 25,000,000 dollars, and thought that decrease would be rapid. Last year, forty years after the end of the last great war, the Pension List was 140,000,000 dollars ; the Congres- sional Record is still full of private Pension Bills. Neither political party dares protest ; both affect to approve. I do not overlook the difference between the military and the civil pension. Nor do I deny that the pension, strictly regulated, may be better than the poor-house in the case of old age. But the question is whether strict regulations, either as to amount or conditions, would continue to be enforced if the class which demands the concession were in possession of political power. The gospel of Karl Marx has taken hold of the mind of the artisan and persuaded him that he would be only redressing a great wrong in using political power now in his hands for the purpose of transferring wealth from the possession of those who have usurped it into his own. 1 By " you " he means the British nation, not the Editor of the Spectator, a use of the second person not uncommon in Goldwin Smith's letters to Mr. Strachey. 480 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH The passage of the Labour Disputes Bill through both Houses appears ominous. Yours faithfully, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. To the Editor of the Spectator, London. 1907 CCCLXVII G. S. to Lord Mount Stephen. The Geauob, Toronto, January 4, 1907. Dear Lord Moxjnt Stephen, You will hardly believe that, at our Mayoralty election the other day, 8,000 votes were polled for the enclosed Manifesto, which, you will see, is Anar- chist rather than Socialist, appealing in the most truculent way to the worst passions, and gloating over the prospect of violence and confiscation. Of the 8,000, a great part, no doubt, were voting on by- issues. Still, the effect is very bad. The candidate of the Manifesto, Lindella, is a Finn, and probably brings his principles from those latitudes. You will observe that two more of the seven names are also evidently foreign. If you could get an English paper to write some- thing pretty plain on the subject, it would be a warning to careless people here more effectual than any Toronto journalist could give. Our press, I am sorry to see, behaved miserably. Chamberlain is out of the way. So I hope soon will be Balfour. Let the party return to its old name and functions, call itself Conservative, and put a man fit to command the confidence of the country at its head. Let it then appeal to all who care for social order and the rights of property against the CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 481 enemies of both. Depend upon it, it would very soon gain ground. Accept our best wishes for the New Year. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith, cacLXviii G. S, to Sir Robert Collins. The Gbauge, Toronto, February 14, 1907. My dear Collins, The cable reports to us the violent utterances of extreme reformers against the House of Lords. The Attorney-General is reported to have gone the length of exulting in the prospect of a revolution. He may bring on a revolution very different from that of which he dreams. The House of Lords is not a usurping power, such as would justify this language. It is a survival of the feudal era, lacking adaptation to the present. Since it has lost its support in the Commons especially, it has ceased to be qualified to play its part in the Constitution as a moderating and revising power. But the change should be made not by party passion but by calm wisdom and true statesmanship, in the interest of the whole nation. Who is to lead ? Lord Rosebery seems resolved not to leave his lonely furrow. The King's name has been unwarrantably asso- ciated with one of the parties. But surely in such a case as this, to save the vital interests of the nation from the fury of faction, there is ample justification as well as a loud call for the moderating influence of the Crown. Yours most truly, Goldwin Smith. 81 482 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CCCLXIX G. S. to Sir Robert Collins. The Gbangb, Toronto, March 24, 1907. My dear Collins, Your letter was, as your letters always will be, very welcome. I am still entirely an Englishman, and greatly like to know how things are going on in my own country. Labour everywhere is in revolt against its lot, and bent on using its political power for the purpose of social revolution. It has ceased, or is rapidly ceasing, to respect the present order of things as the Divine will, or to wait for compensation hereafter. You will need a Second Chamber on which the reason of the community can heartily and trustfully rally in resistance to Socialistic revolution. The tactic of the revolutionary party is not abolition, but hollow reform, of which the result would be impotence. Party is not a good instrument of constitutional reform. It is a pity you cannot, like a Greek republic, call in an impartial Solon. Now comes the Irish question. I studied it, as I believe, under the best masters. My conviction is that the Irish people, apart from the political agi- tators, have never wanted Home Rule. That move- ment never had any force till Parnell combined with it the agrarian movement. O'Connell's Repeal agita- tion collapsed, though he had the priesthood behind him. That of Smith O'Brien collapsed still more ignominiously. For the people the thing most wanted was the presence of royalty. No King of England visited Ireland except as an invader before George IV., who had an enthusiastic reception, in which O'Connell joined. Don't press revolution on the Irish : let them state their political grievances, if they will, and submit a measure. We are told that Ireland is not CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 488 governed in accordance with "Irish ideas." Let us know what these ideas are. The Czar seems to be weathering the storm. But he made a fatal mistake in calling into existence an elective Assembly which was sure, instead of co-operating with him in practical reform, to struggle with him for supreme power. He had better not make martyrs of Anarchist murderers by shooting them, but send them to Siberia. The Russian fire spreads, as it was sure to do. This rising in Roumania and Moldavia is not anti- Jewish in a religious sense, but it is in the sense of resistance to Jewish intrusion and oppression. If you want to understand that question, read the Consular Reports on the anti-Jewish disturbances at Odessa and elsewhere some time ago. Kiss the Duchess's hand for me. It is very pleasant to think of her pursuing her gentle work of benevolence amidst all these storms and convulsions. Yours most truly, GoLDwiN Smith. I grow very weak, as I am afraid my handwriting shows. Sad is the loss of old friends. In two days I got news of the death of three of them and a death- bed letter of farewell from a fourth ! CCCLXX G. S. to Mrs. Winkworth. The Qbanoe, Tobonto, April 10, 1907. Dear Mas. Winkworth, I have been rather out of sorts and lazy of late. I now write rather tardily to thank you for Naboth's Vineyard, and to say how glad I am to find that you take interest in my economical booklet' '■ Probably Labour and Capital : A Letter to a Labour Friend (London and New York : Macmillan, 1907). 484 CORHESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH If you should care to have any more copies of the booklet, present the enclosed at Macmillan's. If we may judge from the temper shown here by Labour and its champions, there is ample need for every sedative that can possibly be applied. Nothing can exceed the virulence of the appeals to antagonism of class. Bryce and his wife have just been our guests. Bryce spoke several times, always very well, and I have no doubt he has made a good impression. I am glad, for his sake, that he is out of the Irish business. On that subject, looking at it from my point of view, the Liberal party has been led into a desperate situation by following a man who at that time was described to me, truly as I think, by one of the most eminent and attached of his political friends and associates, as " morally insane." I hope your health has been improving. I have been feeling of late as if I were going rather fast down the last hill. But the winter has been against me. Yours affectionately, (Signed) Gold win Smith. CCCLXXI G. S. to Mrs, Winkworih. The Geanqe, Tobonto, April 15, 1907. Dear Mrs. Winkworth, I have to thank you for the Life of Will Crooks. If all the leaders of his class here were like him there would not be much to fear. But this is very far from being the case, and the consequence is that the out- look here at present is pretty black. The leaders of the Labour movement in your case probably mingle with men of a different class and are softened by intercourse and infiuence. I am afraid rough times may be at hand. The artisan sees that by the use of his political power he can transfer wealth from CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 485 its present possessors to himself and rid himself of labour. He does not see, and can hardly be expected to see, what will follow. However, I suppose a way will be found, as in the Gemmi Pass, where the way seems to be always closed against you, but when you step forward opens out again. I am curious to see what the Government is going to do with Ireland. Yours affectionately, GoLDwiN Smith. CCCLXXII G. S. to Sir Robert Collins. The Geange, Tobonto, May 8, 1907. My dear Collins, The Irish Bill stirs us here, where we have many Irish, Catholic and Protestant. It is hard to say precisely what the bill is, but at all events it is an instalment. For that we have the word of C.-B.^ and the Chancellor, as well as those of the Irish leaders. Is it not strange to see Great Britain grasping at the ends of the earth and in danger of disruption at home ? Why press political revolution on the Irish people ? They have not asked for it, though the politicians may. The people have asked for their holdings. The political agitation never got force till Parnell united the agrarian movement with it. Fenianism was political, but its centre was in the United States, where, by the way, the Irish vote has greatly lost power. The Irish people would like to see more of their King. George IV. was the first King of England who visited Ireland as a friend. He was rapturously received, O'Connell taking the lead in the demon- stration. * Campbell Bauoerman. 486 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Let the Irish, if they have grievances to be redressed, frame their bill and bring it in as the Scotch would. Then you would have something definite and final ; as it is you are sliding into disruption. The present situation is the result of Gladstone's desperate effort to regain power. He persuaded himself that he had been converted to Parnellism. He could persuade himself of anything. The consequence of Separation would be mutual hostility, and the consequence of mutual hostility would be reconquest. So I told Redmond the other day. The Conservative party in England is miserably led. It ostracises Hugh Cecil ! Kiss the Duchess's hand for me. Ever yours most truly, GoLDwiN Smith. I am afraid the handwriting of eighty-four is very weak. CCCLXXIII G. S. to Frederic Harrison. The Gbanob, Toronto, Canada, May 17, 1907. My dear Harbison, Can you tell me where, if anywhere, I can find the Positivist view of the ultimate goal and con- summation of human progress ? I suppose Posi- tivists believe in a consummation, not a catastrophe. I have just laid down The New Theology, which seems to have made a great stir. I do not see much in it but old Pantheism, and there is a good deal, I should say, of sheer nonsense. However, it shows that thought is moving. I read with great pleasure your strong words about Napoleon. And the Russian expedition, with all its slaughter and destruction, was made by the CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 487 sole will of that man, everybody else not only not desiring, but abhorring it ! The outlook at present here is not very bright. The unions are inclined to abuse their new-born power, and the working class seems to be severing itself more and more in sentiment, as well as in interest, from the rest of the community. This is a dangerous tendency. The Governments, both that of the United States and that of Canada, are in a bad state. All real difference of principle between the two parties is at an end, and the struggle has become simply one for power, and place, in which corruption — " graft " as these people call it — splays an increasing part. It seems doubtful whether demagogism and faction can for ever govern the world. The subject of emigration requires more careful attention, both on your account and on ours. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCCLXXIV The Madden Music Co. to G. S. New Yo»s; Citt, June 19, 1907. Prof. Goldwin Smith, Toronto, Canada. Dear Sir, I have been informed that you have achieved some success in a literary line, and as I am in search of poems that can be set to music, I take the liberty of addressing you. I wish you would kindly co- operate with me at once, for by so doing I feel confident that both of us will be materially benefited. Therefore I ask that you send in your manuscript without further delay, for right now is the time of the year that the big music publishers of this city are looking for next season's successes, 488 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH Trusting that you will give this matter your immediate attention, and hoping to have the pleasure of seeing some of your work within a very short time, I remain. Respectfully yours, Edward Madden. CCCLXXV G. S. to Sir Robert Collins. The Gbauoe, Toronto, Canada, June 25, 1907. My dear Collins, Waterloo Day has revived the question about the room in which the Ball was held at Brussels. I used to hear the story told by my connexion Lady Dukinfield, who was one of the last survivors. But the question about the room had not then arisen. I believe it was the intention of Prince Leopold, to whom I repeated Lady Dukinfield's story, to call on her and hear it from her own lips. If he did, and left notes, a reference to them, with the kind permission of the Duchess of Albany, would settle the question. The Irish question we may hope has fallen into a long sleep ; though Campbell-Bannerman and the Chancellor must have done harm by committing themselves as they did. Nobody seems to forecast the state of Ireland if she were turned loose to be scrambled for by Belfast, Maynooth, and a set of politicians who, though they court Maynooth for their present purpose, have not been brought up on Suarez, and are likely to have in them more of the demagogue than of the devotee. The financial exactions of the Church are, I fancy, beginning to be felt by the Irish as the payment of tithe and fabrique is by the French Canadians. The Czar is creeping out of the position into which he had got himself by disregarding the warning CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 489 example of Louis XVI., and calling together an Assembly grossly ignorant of politics, full of revo- lutionary frenzy, and sure to struggle with him for supreme power. His Cossacks have proved more faithful than the Gardes Fran§oises, fortunately, not for him alone, but for Europe, where there is plenty of gunpowder lying about. The poorer classes everywhere, no longer reconciled, as they were, to the Dispensation by religion, are more or less in a state of insurrection against their lot. The Americans, I think, are alarmed on the Japanese question ; perhaps not without some reason. TUl the Panama Canal is opened, which it is by no means certain that it will ever be, and which it cannot be for some years, the Japanese Navy will command those seas. Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. (Autograph.) Kiss the Duchess's hand for me. I hope she is well and happy. Though I shall never see England again, I am often at Claremont. CCCLXXVI Frederic Harrison to G. S. Elm Hill, Hawkhdbst, June 26, 1907. Dear Professor Goldwin Smith, The Positivist view of man's ultimate consum- mation is the subject of Comte's whole Volume IV. of his Positive Polity, translated by Richard Congreve. A summary sketch of it may be found in Chapter VI. (the last) of the General View of Positivism, translated by Dr. J. H. Bridges, Volume I. of the Positive Polity, and separately by Reeves. You may see, if you look at the Positivist Review for this year, that I have treated of The New Theology in several articles. And I have done so in my new 490 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH book, The Creed of a Layman, in which I reprint the article on " Neo-Christianity." I have also read and reviewed Benn's remarkable work on English Rationalism. I heartily agree with all you say about The New Theology. Dogmatic Christianity on the orthodox lines is really extinct in the educated world of England. I return from France with many gloomy thoughts as to the issue of the social war there and indeed in Europe. As Comte always said, the great struggle is coming on between Capital and Labour, and both are inspired with horrible selfishness and materialism. My son's letters in the Observer tell the same tale for Germany. I read your letters in the Spectator with interest, and rejoice to see that you continue to follow political and social crises with such energy and give to the men of to-day such weighty warning. The danger of our age is the insurrection of the young against the wisdom and experience of the old. I feel this daily, and never more than at Oxford. I go to- morrow to Oxford, to Wadham, where I was elected scholar in Midsummer 1848, and am still on the Foundation. Yours sincerely, (Signed) Frederic Harrison. CCCLXXVII George Martin to G. S. 64, Bbvbblby Steebt, Tobokto, June 28, 1907. GoLDWiN Smith, Since I seen you I have discovered what electricity is, hence the foundation of all life. To be brief, I will express it in few words, namely : Benumbed sensation, the result of multiplicity of vibration, which flows into a current. (Signed) Geo. Martin, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 491 P.S. — If you wish me to be more explicit, please write, and we will make a special appointment. CCCLXXVIII G. S. to the (fifth) Earl of Rosebery. October 21, 1907. Dear Lord Rosebery, I rejoice to see that you are taking up the reins. To do this at present you alone are qualified. There is still evidently in the country a great amount of Liberal -Conservative and Conservative-Liberal sentiment, which only wants statesmanship to lead it. Give the country an Upper House on which it can reasonably and heartily rally. Do not, in re- constructing the fabric, leave in it the dry-rot. The situation is grave. Religion is fast ceasing to do anything which it may hitherto have done in the way of reconciling the masses to their lot. Most heartily do I wish you health and success. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCCLXXIX G. S. to the (fifth) Earl of Rosebery. The Grange, Tobonto, December 20, 1907. If you will not save the State, who will ? There is not a really strong man on either side of the House. You seem to think you can put off the Second Chamber question till to-morrow. There may be no to-morrow. A shadow is creeping over the scene. The masses have hitherto believed, though in a hazy way, that the present order of things, with all its inequalities, was providential, and that there would be compen- 492 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH sation hereafter. That belief apparently is dying. You are in face, not of the Socialism of Plato or More, but of a growing tendency towards confiscation. No measure could be more thoroughly demagogic than this of Old Age Pensions. Payment of mem- bers, universal suffrage, and female suffrage will probably follow. Then where will you and your Empire be ? Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. P.S. — The manufacturers, selfish as usual, are ready to wreck the hope of a moderatist combination, provided they can raise the tariff. They will not gain their end here. 1908 CCCLXXX Professor Homer B. Sprague to G. S. 809, Gband Vdbw, Los Anoeles, Oal., January 13, 1908. Professor Goldwin Smith, D.C.L., The Grange, Toronto, Canada. My dear Friend, I have just read with the deepest interest, in the October North American Review, Chamberlain's " Some Conclusions of a Free Thinker," and your " Reply." Chamberlain was a particular friend of mine. He was my pupil in Latin and Greek, the first that I prepared for college. I persuaded him to go to Yale, and I followed him with affectionate regard through his checkered career. His religious belief or unbelief may not have made him unhappy, but I always noted a sombre cast in all his experiences. My special object in writing now to you is to ascertain where I can see in print the document to which you refer at the bottom of p. 196 in the North American Review, when you say, in speaking of Cham- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 498 berlain's probable " belief that motive is the sole antecedent of action," " I have ventured elsewhere to submit that there are really two antecedents, motive and volition." I have read with care such of your disquisitions and brief essays on religious subjects as I have been fortunate enough to light upon, and I should much like to know your views on Necessarianism or fatalism. If our volition is strictly under the laws of causation, and we must say not only — Pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas, Begumque turres — but also, as you put it, " If death ends all, it levels not only the most virtuous with the most depraved " — then must we not say with the poet Campbell ? — Let wisdom smile not on the conquered field, No rapture dawns, no treasure is revealed. With great respect and never-failing admiration, wife joining, I remain always. Sincerely yours, (Signed) Homek B. Spbaque. CCCLXXXI G. S. to A. J. Wilson, Esq. The Gbanqe, Tobonto, Canada, February 20, 1908. Dear Mr. Wilson, You may be sure I have read with pleasure your warning article on Pensions. The step, once taken, would be irrevocable. Socialism, finding it can do 494 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH little or nothing in its direct line as a reconstruction of society, is gliding into confiscation. Yours very truly, (Signed) Golbwin Smith. To A. J. Wilson, Esq., Editor of the Investor's Review, London. CCCLXXXII G. S. to Frederic Harrison. The Gbauoe, Tobonto, February 20, 1908. My dear Harrison, Your notice of my booklet in the Positivist you may be sure was very pleasant to the author. Still more pleasant was the assurance which it implied that our two lives, once somewhat antagonistic, were closing in perfect amity and sympathy, if not in perfect unity of opinion. Even in opinion, however, we are much nearer to each other than once we were, though I have not yet learned to find much comfort in Comte. The programme of the new government for Ireland seems to be Home Rule by instalments, each of which will meet with a surly reception by the leaders, and be followed by a demand for something more. What the leaders want is not Home Rule, but Separation. What the people want, and have wanted all along, is improvement of their material condition, which I am afraid these doles of public money for the pur- chase of land, and the creation of a peasant pro- prietary, will not eventually produce. Let Ireland — not only the agitators — say what are the political disabilities under which she labours and what are the constitutional changes which she needs. Let the demand be put in an intelligible form, and give it your candid consideration. But this, I sup- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 495 pose, is a process hardly possible under a govern- inent of faction. When will government by faction and demagogism come to end ? Either it must, or democracy will. That is the moral which I draw from what I see here and over the Line. The people are generally intelli- gent and honest ; their character sustains the commonwealth ; but the politics are vile. They are about at their nadir just now, imder the " Oppor- tunist " Government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier. I began with a University Commission. With a University Commission I am ending — the University being that of Toronto, which has been brought into a tangled condition partly by the attempt to import English forms into an institution of the New World. The English University has hitherto been a finish- ing school of cultm'e for a wealthy class and for the clergy. But what the New World demands is an emporium of the knowledge which will lead to wealth. We must try to keep a little culture, while we yield, as yield we must, to the utilitarian tide. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith, CC CLXXXIII G. S. to (the fourth) Earl Grey, The GBANaB, Tobonto, March 4 [1908 ?] My dear Lord Grey, I trust you will give England the benefit of your guidance about immigration, which is becoming a serious question. The Salvation Army has done much good in its own way ; but immigration is hardly in its own way. I believe I ventured to warn you that in Quebec French feeling is not extinct, though Sir Wilfrid no doubt can control it. I could give you striking proof. How strange is the chain of events I England, to rid 496 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH New England of a dangerous neighbour, conquers Quebec, expecting, no doubt, an outburst of colonial loyalty. Instead of that, the Colony strikes for in- dependence. France, to avenge her loss of Canada, goes into the war, thereby ruining her finances, which had before been retrievable, and might have been retrieved by Turgot. In a fatal hour the French King calls States General, a blunder which the Czar was near repeating the other day, and thereby brings on the Revolution. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCCLXXXIV 6. S. to the (fifth) Earl of Rosebery. The Gbahoz:, Tobonto, March 30, 1908. Dear Lord Rosebery, Evidently all is over for the present. The next chance of making a stand will be in the Lords. If they will show courage, I believe the nation will stand by them, as it did in the case of Home Rule. By the way, ought not reform of the Lords, having been announced by the Premier, to take precedence of other grave measures ? Asquith may not like his Socialists ; but he will have to pander to them as well as to his Irish. Socialism, by the way, is a misnomer. These people do not, like More or the Owens, propound a visionary scheme of social reconstruction ; what they propose is redistribution of property. The source of all is simply discontent ; of which there are too many causes in this mysterious world, and which is deasing to be allayed by belief in Providence or a hope of a hereafter. It is to be hoped that you will continue to act as you have been doing, as a mentor in the interests CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 49'f of moderation ; though I wish you were something more than a mentor. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCCLXXXV G. S. to Captain Fraser Homer Dixon. The Geanqe, Tobonto, April 2, 1908. My dear Fkasee, I am glad the book suits you. As I told you, I was with Grant at the end of his last campaign. He told me that in the wooded country in which he had been operating he could not see the length of a brigade. I presume cavalry could not be formed ; nor could there be effective pursuit. Once, in the Wilderness, I believe, he attacked without recon- noitring ; was repulsed, and could not get his men to advance again. However, the book will give you authentic information. Yours affectionately, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCCLXXXVI G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Gbanob, Toronto, Canada, April 4, 1908. My deab Meebiman, I sent a brief notice of your accession to the Premiership, which appeared in the little Toronto Weekly Sun, a paper which I rescued from death some time ago, that there might be one independent organ, however small, in our press, and which alone in Canada stemmed the torrent of Imperialism during the Boer War. It is frightful to see, as in the course of my lifetime I have four times seen, how popular war is, irrespectively of its cause. I don't suppose 32 498 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWiN SMITH there were a hundred people in this Province who really knew or cared what the Boer War was about. The cause assigned for the vote, and now standing on the records of the Canadian Parliament, stating that the Transvaal was under the suzerainty of the Queen, is, as you know, a shameless falsehood.^ Politics in England are in a strange and, as I believe most people feel, perilous state. What they need is a moderate Liberal party. This the tariff men and the driveller who is at the head of that party prevent from being formed. Don't forget that you are to write a history or memoir of the Transvaal affair. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwtn Smith. CCCLXXXVII Frederic Harrison to G. S. EiiM TTtt.t. , Hawkhubst, April 23, 1908. Dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, I am much gratified and indeed honoured to have received so very interesting a letter from one who is now, I believe, far the senior survivor of the mid- Victorian intellectual forces. It was from the moral and social teachers of the fifties, the sixties, and the seventies that I learned all that in my old age I really value and honour. I am in my seventy -seventh year, and am still striving to keep alive the torch of social morality, justice, and honest thought, which you — now, alas ! alone of the comrades of Bright and Mill and Darwin and Spencer — ^remain to applaud. We see with wonder and pride that at eighty-five you still send warnings week by week. I, too, am full of doubts and fears as to the future of our country. The race for armaments is becoming an intolerable burden, and yet, with all the increasing ' See also G. S.'s letter to Merriman, dated September 12, 1899. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 499 dangers of our huge, amorphous Empire, to reduce our fleets at least is to invite a crushing attack. I have just finished Lord Cromer's book, and have written on it in the May number of our Positivist Review, which I beheve you see. And on the 28th inst., Macmillan's are to pubhsh my National and Social Problems, the true subject of which is rather Empire and Sociahsm. For the future of both, I look forward with fear, and almost with despair. I thank you for the North American Review, which I read with deep interest. Had you been living in England of late years you would have put many things even more strongly. To us, in the midst of it, it seems the old orthodox prejudices have melted away and the old intolerance is unknown. We, who live in a quiet, Tory, old-fashioned world in the Weald, are perfectly at home with our neighbours, and our best friends are the clergy of the Establish- ment, though we do not enter their churches. But I say no word on religion. I, my wife, and our chil- dren are perfectly happy in our human creed. Per- sonally, I dwell perhaps overmuch on thoughts of death, but without a shadow of a wish to retain con- sciousness when my work is done. I am. Gratefully and sincerely yours, (Signed) Frederic Harbison. CCCLXXXVIII G. S. to the Rev. W. Harris Wallace, Pastor of the Beverley Street Baptist Church in Toronto. The Gbange, April 28, 1908. My dear Pastor, The Baptist Church I see is protesting against the performance of the Mass on the battlefield of Quebec. Why consecrate battlefields at all ? Wars there will be till the world becomes Christian, and 500 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH honour will be due to the memory of the soldier who has fought and died in the cause of his country. There is nothing that I used to venerate more than an artillery jacket that bore the stains of Waterloo. But why glorify war ? Why consecrate the ground on which centuries ago fellow-Christians slew each other, and made each others' wives and children widows and orphans, perhaps on some slight or false issue ? If the people of Canada had only known the interest in which, and the means by which, they were drawn into the Boer War ! Over the fields of war bygone let the harvests of peace wave — that is the best celebration. Yours most truly, GoLDwiN Smith. To the Rev. W. Harris Wallace, Toronto. CCCLXXXIX G. S. to the Author of " The Case Against Socialism." The Gbanoe, Tobonto, Canada, May 2, 1908. SiK, I have been reading with the greatest interest your Case Against Socialism. It reveals the working of a most dangerous spirit ; a spirit, not of recon- struction, however chimerical, but one entirely of class-hatred and universal rapine. How unlike the spirit of More's Utopia ! I once spent two days with the Oneida Community. But inspection taught me nothing. Absolute leader- ship and celibacy had done all. The Community when I was there had become the owner of three factories, which it conducted with labour hired in the ordinary way. I fear your state is critical, and likely, if political change goes on, to be more so. Why did not Mr. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 501 Balfour join in an effort to form a moderate Liberal Government, to which the sane part of the nation would almost certainly have adhered, instead of flying off to Protectionism, by which he has only increased the danger ? Yours faithfully, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cccxc 6r. S. to E. J. Atkinson. The Gbaitoe, May 2, 1908. Dear Mb. Atkinson, I am glad to see that you are inclined to smile on my little project. My desire is, as I hope you see, to do what I can, even on the smallest scale, towards allaying the fell spirit of class-hatred and war. I have just been reading a long series of Socialist utter- ances. Not in one of them was there a plan, or the shadow of a plan, for a happy reconstruction of society. Destruction, hatred, pillage were the key- note of all. Widely different, this, from the spirit of the kind author of the Utopia ! These enemies of all classes but their own have no right to the title of " Socialist," which rightly belongs to such men as Sir Thomas More. It seems to be thought that all the property-owning classes will surrender their property in obedience to the ballot-box. They will fight, and, being more military, will probably win. I am glad I shall not be there to see. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. P.S. — I was intimate with leading men of the extreme movement in the last generation. Their aims might be revolutionary, but they showed nothing of this devihsh spirit. 502 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CCCXCI G. S. to Sir Edmund Byron Walker. [Private] The Gbaitob, July 2, 1908. My dear Byron Walker, I see you were a very liberal contributor to the Quebec Celebration.^ My reason for holding back is not that I do not appreciate the brilliancy of the victory or the character of Wolfe ; but that history has taught me that war is the mortal enemy of progress, and that I do not like to revive and glorify its memories. It leads to things worse than the carnage of the battlefield. The capture of Quebec, which seemed so glorious, led, as shrewd observers at the time saw that it would, to the rebellion of the Colonies, in which a spirit of inde- pendence had been forming. France went in for revenge. She thus made herself bankrupt, which she had not been before, for though her finances had been in a bad state, they were not desperate ; Turgot could have set them right. The result of her bank- ruptcy was the fall of the Monarchy and the French Revolution, the torrent of evil consequent on which has not yet ceased to flow. The black list might be carried even farther. Had the Colonies not broken away from the mother-country when they did, the Slave States would have been included in the Imperial Emancipation Act. Slavery would have ended, and there would have been no Civil War. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. P.S. — I think I have evidence before me that a great part of Quebec, after all, is not more English or less French than it was before its capture. 1 The tercentenary celebration of the founding of the city of Quebec. The battlefield upon which Wolfe and Montcalm both lost their lives was purchased by voluntary subscriptions to the amount of £90,000, and acquired for the public. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 503 CCCXCII G. S. to James Simpson, The Gbanoe, September 9, 1908. Dear Mb. Simpson, I am looking with interest for the election manifesto of Labour. If it proves, as I hope, to be an appeal to the whole community, free from social enmity and antagonism of class, I shall heartily welcome and support it. Such, so far as I have taken any part in public affairs, has been the constant tenor of my life. Yours truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. To Mr. James Simpson, Secretary of the Labour Temple, Toronto. CCCXCIII G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Grange, Toronto, October 8, 1908. My dear Mebkiman, You see I persist in addressing you as a familiar friend, though we have never met, and alas ! shall never meet. I have passed my eighty-fifth birth- day, and feel the rapidly increasing infirmities of age. I shall leave the world in an interesting situation. I feel like the Scotchman who, being on his deathbed at the time of O'Connell's trial, bade his minister pray for him that he might live a little longer just to see what would become of O'Connell. You have a hard job of Constitution-building. 504 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITIT May not the difficulty be increased by a supposed necessity of following the British model ? Kaffirs are not Englishmen, nor, I should think, qualified to legislate, even for themselves, much less for the English. How many, indeed, even in England are really qualified to legislate ? The Constitution of the Protectorate, with its President for life and its standing CouncU of State sharing power with the Parliament, is worth attention. It did wonders in a desperately difficult time. How- ever, it was national, not federal, as your Constitution is to be. Don't rush into Old Age Pensions. Asquith is a demagogue, as he showed in the case of the Boer War. The system is pretty sure to be a demagogic lure and tool. We in Canada are just going into a General Election, and plenty of mud is flying ; much of it with too much reason, for we have been terribly corrupt. Laurier will, I fear, keep his place. He was amongst those politicians who drew Canada into the Boer War by putting on the rolls of Parliament the lie, as they must have known it to be, that the Transvaal was under the suzerainty of the Queen, and that her subjects in it were being oppressed. Pray keep the records of these transactions to be read in the court of history. Milner has come here to propagate Imperialism, and probably with an eye to the Governor-General- ship. It is about time we had done with that office, which serves only to breed flimkeyism, while it masks in some degree, without controlling the action of an unscrupulous Minister, as has just been strikingly shown in the Cobalt case,' a report of which will probably reach you. What a volcanic eruption in Europe ! If it leads bo war, England and the Colonies will have to look ' A complicated case, involving the ownership of certain mining eights in the Province of Ontario. See Goldwin Smith's Bemin' iscencea, pp. 458, 459. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 505 to the questio Imperial countr and the Cape ? to the question of Imperial Defence. Will the Imperial country undertake the defence of Canada Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cccxciv G. S- to Jonas A. Rosenfield. The Gbakoe, Tobonto, October 12, 1908. Dear Sir, In answer to your question I will say frankly that it has always seemed to me an unhappy thing that a race ' should be wandering without a country. However high its gifts may be, prejudice cannot fail to be excited. The nations will be sure to feel, as they do, that the wanderer comes rather to live upon them than with them. This estrangement, I am persuaded, has been the main source of all that we have had to deplore. Religious antipathy can now in civilised communities be hardly said to exist. By the exercise of its gifts, the Jewish race has done much for which the world must be grateful ; but socially the sense of estrangement almost inevitably prevails. Yours faithfully, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. To Jonas A. Rosenfield, Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. cccxcv G. S. to A. J. Wilson. The Gbanoe, Tobonto, November 24, 1908. Dear Sir, I see Mr. Birrell is bringing in a colossal measure of agrarian relief for Ireland. It might be 1 The Jews. 506 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH worth his while first to inquire into the industrial history of the Celtic Irish on this side of the water, and learn whether farming is their line. From what I have seen or heard I should rather doubt it. Yotirs faithfully, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. To A. J. Wilson, Esq., Editor of the Investor's Review, London. cccxcvi G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman, The Gbanoe, Toronto, Canada, December 16, 1908. My dear Merriman, Your way of settling the franchise question seems undoubtedly the best, if demagogism seeking a party victory would only let it alone. Both of party and of demagogism surely there must in time be an end. Look at the state of parties now in England, where the Liberal party, as it calls itself, is split into five sections ; Liberal, Radical, Labour, Socialist, and Home Rule. Now they will have woman suffrage. The section which favours it, though it may be a minority, will gain its end by playing on the balance of the party. Some day both party and demagogism will have to give way to something more like a national council. Never was a greater fallacy uttered than the assertion at the opening of the Declaration of Inde- pendence that " all men are created equal." They are created unequal in every respect, whether of capacity, character, or circumstance which can effect their fitness for the exercise of political power. We are here, I am sorry to say, steeped in the grossest corruption. There is no difference of 'principle CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLD WIN SMITH 507 between the two parties. At the late election not one political issue was raised. It was a struggle of party machinery and corruption. The Premier is also a tool of the Papacy, which is strong through the French-Canadian vote. He thrusts separate Catholic Schools on the new Provinces ' by bribing both Houses of Parliament with an increase of their sessional indemnities, creating a number of pensions, and giving a salary to the leader of the Opposition. If a member shows independence, the local " bosses " of the two parties combine to turn him out of his seat, and the Premier applauds the action. The Lords in England seem to be taking for a time the place of the Conservative party, which has been led to ruin by Chamberlain and Balfour. They will probably get a good deal of Moderatist support. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CCCXCVII G. S. to J. Bettany, Esq. The Grange, Tobonto, December 23, 1908. My dear Sir, Accept my best thanks for your kind letter, which has given me great pleasure and is very welcome as a set-off against things less friendly which come from other quarters. I try, as a friend said of me the other day, to keep the principles of the old Radical party, especially opposition to war, the passion for which has still too great a hold upon the world. Preparations for war are stiU everywhere going on, and the first spark that falls will fire the mine. My working day is very nearly at its end. I am in ' The North-West Territories of Canada were constituted into the two Provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. 508 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH my eighty-sixth year, and scarcely one of my old political friends is left. Very truly yours, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. My hand-writing dwindles terribly. 1909 cccxcviu G. S. to the Right Hon, J. X. Merriman. The Gbange, Tobonto, January 20, 1909. My dear Mekbiman, You have a hard piece of work on your hands in framing a Parliamentary Constitution for such a population as yours. I have often doubted whether perfect wisdom was shown in giving the depen- dencies, without reference to their special circum- stances or the character of their people, counterparts of the British Constitution as it has been moulded by changeful ages of history as well as by the native tendencies of the British race. I should be disposed to try, with such a people as yours, instead of a Parliamentary government with a monarchical figure- head, a President or Protector for life, with a standing Council of State, and a single House of Parliament, elected on a substantial qualification for membership, and without General Elections. The blacks have not as yet shown any qualifi- cations for popular government. Hayti is a failure. Liberia is a failure. I suppose in Jamaica and Barbadoes the whites manage to keep things pretty much in their own hands. The blacks, so far as I can learn, have produced no man of political or intellectual mark except Toussaint-Louverture, who I suppose was a real Negro, though I could never hit upon his pedigree. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 509 Party government, now practically the British Constitution, when there is no broad issue between the parties, becomes a mere faction-fight for place and pelf, by demagogism and corruption. Such is the phase which it is assuming here. It is to be hoped that the Colonies will be frank with the mother-country about this question of colonial armaments. How could the Colonies under- take to maintain a sufficient force ? How could our forces be concentrated at the moment of need ? As to Canada, not above half her population is now English. A full third must be French, and it is almost as thoroughly French as ever. When the French half-breeds rose at Batoche two French battalions were formally called out, but they were not sent into action, and one of the Colonels left his command. I am now half-way through my eighty-sixth year, and have been rather out of sorts of late. My working day draws to a close. Yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. cccxcix G. S. to Frederic Harrison. Thb Grange, Tobonto, February 5, 1909. My dear Harrison, Would the enclosed do for the Positivist ? If it would, will you kindly send it in ? Before the Transvaal outbreak, I had been in correspondence with Merriman, the present Premier of South Africa, who consulted me about a point in the framing of their Constitution. By him I was warned that an agent of the commercial company, a man of very bad character, was at the ear of the Canadian Government. I transmitted the warning to our Prime Minister, Laurier, from whom I received 510 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH a shuffling reply, which showed me at once the state of the case. I wrote immediately to Merriman, pray- ing him, if he had access to Kruger, to warn the old man of his danger and urge him to avert it by con- cession. Merriman unfortunately had not access to Kruger. After the breaking out of the war, I was warned by a friend in the United States that an organisation was on foot to stump the countrj^ in favour of the Boer. At my friend's instance, I earnestly interposed, and that which would have aggravated the situation did not take place. At the last I expressed, in a quarter where I thought it might have influence, my hope that whatever terms Lord Roberts proposed — ^he being a high-minded soldier and independent — should be accepted. This was, if possible, to shut out Milner, your estimate of whose character probably is the same as mine. [Some pages missing.] Note by F. H. Letter of February 1909, enclosing the article on " Deolarationa of War," published in Positivist Review, April 1909, CXCVI., p. 73. CD G. S. to the Earl of Cromer. The Gbanqe, Tobonto, Canada, February 11, 1909. My Lord, I have taken the liberty of requesting Messrs. Macmillan to send you a little volume of essays on political subjects published in 1893, and including one on woman suffrage, which had been brought forward by Mr. John Stuart Mill. Mr. Bright, the leader of our old Radical party, at first supported Mr. Mill, but presently changed his mind. The question is now mooted here, and a woman's agitation is on foot. But I do not see much appear- CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 511 ance of sympathy with the movement. However, there is no knowing what agitation may produce. It is an unfortmiate feature of the party system of government that minorities may gain their end by playing on the balance of party. Witness the success of the Home Rulers in changing the course of Mr. Gladstone. I am one, I hope, of many who heartily thank you for the moral courage which you are showing in leading the Opposition to a movement, the success of which, as we think, would be injurious alike to the commonwealth and to the home. I am, my Lord, Yours faithfully, (Signed) Goldwin Smith, To the Earl of Cromer, London. CDI G. S. to Henry S. Salt. The Gbanoe, Tobonto, Canada, April 7, 1909. 1)eab Sir, I have received your brochure on the Eton Hare Himt. I do not recollect anything of an inhuman kind as having been practised during the five years that I spent at Eton. I really think that in those days it would have been precluded, not only by its cruelty but by its vulgarity. Yoiirs truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. To Henry S. Salt, Esq. 512 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH CDII G. S. to the Rev. W. Harris Wallace (Pastor of the Beverley Street Baptist Church, Toronto). The Obakqe, Toeonto, April 27, 1900. Dear Mr. Wallace, It would not be wonderful if the Baptist Church were to play an important part in the revo- lution, or rather evolution, which seems to be at hand, and which it is to be hoped will not ruin Christendom, but transfer it from a traditional to a rational and enduring basis of belief. Yours very truly, GoLDWiN Smith. Rev. W. Harris Wallace. cmii G. S. to the {fifth) Earl of Eosebery. May i, 1909. Dear Lord Rosebery, If wealth is openly confiscated, as it is by the Budget, will it continue to be sought and stored ? If wealth is not sought and stored, what will be the consequence to production ? This question seems to be raised by the Budget. Is not taxing devolution in its effect taxing production and accumulation ? The reason why devolution should be taxed more than any other transmission does not appear. How- ever, it is idle to talk to party about consequences. The Budget will secure the vote of envy at the next General Election. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 518 CDIV G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Grange, Toronto, May 7, 1909. My dear Merriman, I am sorry, but not surprised, to see that you have difficulties. The Boer War, amidst its other blessings, must have enhanced them. Might it be well, if they prove at present insurmountable or likely to recur hereafter, to begin by something of a less formal and legislative union, such as an annual con- ference of the States ? Perhaps feeling might thus in time gently subside and the States be drawn on to union in time. I cannot help thinking that we rather blindly extend the political system of England, which, after all, is very much the result of a series of accidents, to all the Colonies, with too little regard for local char- acter and circumstance. I suspect that some of them would be better ruled by a standing Council of State than by the present system of party Cabinets, which seems to me to be everywhere showing its radical defects. (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CDV G. S. to Professor A. V. Dicey. The Grange, Toronto, June 8, 1909. Dear Dicey, You were right in thinking that I should be interested in hearing that you had announced your intention of resigning your Professorship. But my interest is of a mournful kind. I am sure Oxford will not easily replace you. Do you think yourself 83 514 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH superannuated at seventy-four ? Here am I still spoiling a lot of paper at eighty-six. The lecture to which you refer about Louis XV. and the Church of France has quite fled my memory ; nor can I now remember the source from which I got so piquant a piece of scandal. Saint-Simon lived into the reign of Louis XV. It might be worth while to try him. There is something about Madame du Barri approaching the subject in one of Horace Wal- pole's Letters of 1769. {Letters. Ed. Cunningham, vol. v., p. 190.) The party system seems to me to stand funda- mentally condemned. Agitators of all kinds, Irish and Socialist, have learned to play on the balance of the parties. The woman-suffrage party will do this at the next General Election, and will thus carry female suffrage, and in the end representation of women in Parliament. You may well be filled with alarm at the present Budget. Its tendency is pretty manifest. Were they not warned by the American Pension List ? Surely it is political as well as financial, and on that ground might be blocked by the House of Lords, which, if it cannot amend, might report the special grounds of the veto. Ever yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. CDVI The Earl of Cromer to G. S. 36, WiMPOLE Steeet, W., July 5, 1909. Dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, I am much obliged to you for sending me the account of the meeting in Canada. I am very glad to hear from you that there are no signs of a general and strong interest in the women's- suffrage question in Canada. The advocates of the CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 515 measure here continue to be very noisy, but I do not believe they are really making much headway. On the contrary, all the information I get rather points to the conclusion that they are retrograding. I hear from a good many quarters that there is much apathy on the subject. Amongst the women themselves in the country districts the feeling is generally one of opposition. On the other hand, the women of the working classes have got hold of the entirely erroneous notion that if they get the vote they will have their wages raised, and that makes them support the measure. The real danger is what you signalise, that is to say, that in the very degenerate state of the party system nothing would surprise any one who looks upon the matter calmly and philosophically. Very sincerely yours, Ceomer. CDvn G. S. to the Editor of the Kingston[Canada] " Standard." The Grange, July 1909. Dear Mr. Givens, I am glad to see the Standard taking a moderate course in the Drink question. We shall not lessen the evils of the trade by making it contraband, which will probably be the result of precipitate action. What I wish to see is a calm and authoritative manifesto of the medical profession going fully and fairly into the question. If by such a manifesto alcohol were condemned, we should conform. Yours faithfully, GoLDWiN Smith. The habits of the English gentry have undergone a great change within my memory ;] probably under 516 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLD WIN SMITH a mixed influence — social and moral. Had there been a violent onslaught the fight might have been going on now. CDVIII Lord Minto to G. S. [Private] GOVBBNMENT HOUSB, OTTAWA, July 14, 1909. Dear Mr. Goldwin Smith, As to the force of real soldiers, I quite agree with you. Socially, I believe that the withdrawal of British troops from the Dominion has been far from beneficial — to my mind they had a leavening effect in various ways. . . . Some letters in the Times called, I think, " Our strategical frontier," which appeared somewhere about a year ago, suggested the possibility of a force of some 10,000 men being quartered in the Dominion for Imperial strategical reasons — ^not in any way connected with the defence of Canada, or possible U.S. complications, but as rendering them more available for service possibly in China or the frontiers of India. If such a proposal could ever be seriously considered, I believe it would do good here — but I am afraid it is too new a departure for them to take up at home — at present at any rate. I have mentioned it several times in letters and despatches. The Boer War has been very misleading to the unthinking military critic. The Boer forces were a peculiar organisation, fighting in a country peculiarly suited to their method of warfare, and they were fighting on interior lines — they were not a Militia, but were an organisation directed by men who had had great personal experience in many campaigns of the sort of warfare they waged against us, and CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 517 the younger men amongst them easily adapted them- selves to the lines upon which their fathers and grand- fathers had fought. The irregular nature of the Boer organisation has unfortunately done much to encourage the idea that with the looser formations necessary for present-day fighting the necessity for discipline has largely disappeared. Personally I think entirely the contrary . . . more thinking is no doubt required from the individual soldier, but he must be prepared to follow as implicitly as ever the ideas of brains directing the force to which he belongs. In my opinion the more irregular the force, the more are the brains required at the top of the tree. In Canada, especially, what is wanted is a trained staff, and officers with practical experience. . . . My own wish has always been to give more chances than at present exist to Canadian Militia officers, in the direction of throwing open to them more Imperial employment. Honours and decorations have been most regrettably squandered. What is wanted is assistance to good Canadian officers in the way of Imperial employment, when they could come back here to give the benefit of the practical experience which is so much wanted. But I am letting my pen run away with me, and believe me. Yours very truly, (Signed) Minto. CDIX G. S. to Briton Riviere, R.A. The Granob, Toeonto, August 1, 1909. My dear Briton Riviere, It was very pleasant to hear from you, and be carried back to old times in the spirit. In the body we shall not meet again, unless some kind 518 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH chance brings you here. It is not Ukely that I shall leave this house again, for the infirmities of old age have been coming very rapidly upon me. I am now at the close of my eighty -sixth year, at the end of a rather changeful life. Of my old con- temporaries and friends very few are left. Great changes I have seen in all departments of life. Still greater changes will seem to be at hand. In England you are rather in a critical state. Political parties have lost their meaning, their unity, their justification for existence. The consequence is that you are at the mercy of sectional influences which work their will by playing on the balance of party. How far it will go one cannot tell. You also lack a strong man. Rosebery is able, talented, sen- sible, honourable, but he seems to want the force. I am glad to see that he has apparently now cut loose from party. Let him bring out a good plan for the reform of the House of Lords, such as would make it a trustworthy council of legislative revision, and I think the moderate part of the nation would adhere to him. Oxford I suppose is greatly changed since the days of our friendship there. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CDX G. S, to Lord Mount Stephen. The Gbangb, Toronto, Canada, August 4, 1909. Dear Lord Mount Stephen, You see we have been having a great strike of coal-miners in Nova Scotia. I fear there is more trouble of that kind impending. There is to be a meeting of Labour interests here in the early fall, of which I may take advantage as a neutral to say or write a word. I should be very much obliged by CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 519 any points you could kindly give me. My object, of course, is to soften feeling. I saw a good deal of the Labour movement when it was started in England by Maurice, Kingsley, and others. Co-operative stores then succeeded ; co- operative works totally failed. Yet the ultimate solution, it has always seemed to me, must be some form of co-operative works, giving Labour an interest. In a few days I shall complete my eighty-sixth year. So this will be about the last question with which I shall meddle. It is a very, and, it seems to me, increasingly grave question. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CDXI G. S. to the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario {Sir John Gibson). The Gbanoe, Toronto, September 1, 1909. Dear Mr. Lieutenant-Governor, I had a long talk with Admiral [Lord Charles] Beresford. He was very pleasant, though we see things in very different lights. What he and the other high Imperialists do not see is that when they claim in bellicose language the empire of the seas, they are throwing out a challenge to the whole world. Yours very truly, Goldwin Smith. CDXII G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Gbanoe, Toronto, September 6, 1909. My dear Merriman, I do not pretend to be a politician, or highly qualified to advise politicians, but I hope you will 520 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH think of what I said about giving the blacks a formal and constitutional head of their own, as a way of preserving their allegiance to the State without investing them with what I think experience shows would be in their case imsuitable and dangerous powers. You see how they have done in San Domingo, where they have now been on trial for a hundred years, and in Liberia. I think I would let them choose their racial representative, and I would give him a constitutional position and full power of access to Government for the presentation of needs and wishes, but no share of the supreme power. I cannot help thinking that you might find something of this sort a sedative and a safety- valve. Staying at a watering-place in the United States, I made the acquaintance of the black keeper of the lighthouse. I thought I gained from him some little insight into the political character of the Negro. At any rate, I am sure the British model must not be superstitiously followed. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CDXIII G. S. to the Right Hon. J. X. Merriman. The Grange, Toeonto, September 8, 1909. My dear Merriman, Do not misunderstand my hint about the Negro headship. I do not mean to give away any part of the supreme power, legislative or executive, but only a representation, perhaps of inter-Negro arbitration, and a status, with which, I think, the Negro might be pleased. Ever yours most truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. This is the saddest day of my life. My wife is dying. CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLD WIN SMITH 521 CDXIV G. S. to the Right Hon. John Burns, M.P. October 7, 1909. Dear Me. John Burns, A letter from you on the dedication of The Grange ' to a public use could not fail to give me the greatest pleasure. This you may be sure it has done. Of the pair whom you found in the house, one has been suddenly taken away, leaving the other probably soon to follow. The last looks of the sur- vivor are turned towards his native coxuitry and the political struggle there. The party system seems to have failed as a basis for government. It must, when the parties break, as they are doing, into sections, and each section fights for its own hand. It is unfortunate that the fiscal and the social ques- tion should come together. It is to be hoped that something rational will be found as a court of legis- lative revision in place of the hereditary House of Lords. There would be no harm in leaving the titles, so long as the power is in good hands. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldytin Smith. Pray study Canada before you deal with her. Do not forget the French, Irish, and American elements. CDXV G. S. to Frederic Harrison, The Gbajstoe, Tobonto, November 23, 1909. My dear Harrison, I was very glad to see that you had taken Mr. Joseph Chamberlain in hand. I happened to have rather a near view of the early part of his 1 His house, which at Mr. Goldwin Smith's death waa to be devoted to an art achool. 522 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH career, when he was trying to get the representation of the Liberal boroughs into his own hands, to the exclusion of the Liberal leaders of the day. If you will glance at pp. 35 seq. of the tract on the Boer War which I send you herewith,^ you will see what his action was in that case. The party system of government is surely every- where breaking down. Here its downfall is complete, and the consequences are what they were sure to be. Our people, good enough in themselves, are all deploring the reign of corruption — " graft " as they call it ; but their lamentations are in vain, and will be so till the system is changed. You remember what Labouchere published in Truth about Chamberlain's character as viewed by Gladstone, who was not personally censorious. Yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. Note by F. H. Letter of November 1909 refers to article by F. H. in Positivist Beview, November 1909, No. 203, "The Calomie of the British Aristocracy." CDXVI G. S. to the Editor of the Kingston [Canada] " Standard." The Gbanqe, November 30, 1909. Dear Mr. Givens, Though old age and bereavement have almost put an end to my connexion with Canada and her affairs, I cannot help heartily thanking you for your truly patriotic resistance to this attempt to turn Canada into a petty war Power, as she wUl become if she allows Sir Wilfrid Laurier, with his usual flexibility, to trim her sails to what he supposes to be the prevailing wind.^ 1 In the Court of History. By Goldwin Smith. ^ The question of o, Canadian Navy, or a Canadian contribution to the Imperial Navy, was at this time being discussed, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 523 If the Imperial Government is encouraged to drag her with it into European wars, it will be a manifest case of the Dwarf in the fable going to battle as the comrade of the Giant. The good sense of the country must surely recoil from such a policy. The mother- country could gain nothing by it but a fatally weak point in her armour. It is to be feared, however, that other influences than that of a wise policy prevail. Yours truly. Gold WIN Smith. CDXVII G. S. to the Rev. W. Harris Wallace. 1909. I am very grateful to the Pastor and congre- gation of the Beverley St. Baptist Church for allowing me, though I am not a regular member of the Church, to join the congregation. I am thus enabled to keep my hold, as far as the infirmities of old age permit, on religious life. Were it a question of strict dogma and uniformity of creed, I should not be entitled to take part in your worship. But before dogma or formal creeds, Nicene or Athanasian, before the division of sects, with their conflicting confessions and tests, did we not all stand together on a hillside in Galilee over the Lake of Tiberias and see the Founder of Christendom lay its foundations, not in dogma or ecclesiastical formularies, but in a new moral and spiritual life ? Two things drew me to your Church. You have kept the saying of the Founder that His Kingdom was not of this world. If all had kept that saying as the Baptists have, the bridal robe of the Church would not have been drenched with innocent blood, 9.nd many a dark page would have been torn from 524 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH the book of fate. Again, compared with other Churches, you have been for peace. When the cry was raised to slay the farmers of the Transvaal, bum their homes, turn their wives and children adrift, the voices of some Christian Churches were very plainly heard ; that of the Baptist Church I did not hear. 1910 CDXVIII G. S. to Frederic Harrison. The GRiNGtE, Toronto, January 5, 1909 [1910 ?]. My dear Harrison, I had accidentally missed a part of your article on Chamberlain ^ at the time of its appearance. I have now got another copy of it and read the whole. It is perfectly true. It certainly does not err upon the side of severity. I had a close view of the early part of his career, when he was trying to transfer the Liberal boroughs from the hands of the leaders of the old Radical party to his own. I have a letter from him explaining his conduct on that occasion. He was defeated in the attempt ; then went into the Radical wing of the Gladstone Govern- ment ; and you know the rest. Balfour, a man of honour, was evidently put into the leadership as a stop-gap, to be superseded upon Chamberlain's recovery. What a scene this election is ! Let us hope that it will lead to reflection upon the merits of party government. Yours most truly, GoLDwiN Smith. • See F. H.'s Note to G. S.'s letter to him dated NovMuber 23, 1909, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 525 CDXIX G. S. to the (fifth) Earl of Rosebery The Gbangb, Toronto, February 10, 1910. My dear Lord Rosebery, I answered your cable briefly. For the last sentence there was no time to be lost. The unity of the nation is at stake, and people will not rally round a tariff invented to serve a political purpose, or a hasty as well as radical measure for a change to the Upper House. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. P.S. — I write from a very sick bed.' CDXX G. S. to the [fifth) Earl of Rosebery. February 13, 1910. Dear Lord Rosebery, Truly this crisis,^ which has led to my inter- change of letters with Lord Grey, is one which calls upon all true English statesmen themselves to put, and try to get all their brethren to put, country and the general good above the claims and ties of faction. To give England a Government which can help her over immediate dangers and preserve the integrity of the kingdom and nation is surely the first duty of every public man. This of course will require a great effort ; but to save the country a great effort must be made. The impression made by the King's kind message ' to an old attendant and teacher shows * He had broken his thigh by a fall a few weeks before this. " The question of the reform of the Hovise of Lords, the decision of which was accelerated by the rejection by that House of the Finance Bill. ' His Majesty King Edward VII., who had been Goldwin Smith's pupil at Oxford, cabled to the Governor-General of Canada to inquire after his old preceptor's health. S26 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH what the feeUng about the King is still ; shows that royalty has still not lost its influence or its position as the centre and bond of the nation. Rally the nation round it — I do not say under it, but round it. The names of those who unite in doing this may be great hereafter. Ever yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. (T. A. H.) CDXXI The Dean of Wells to Arnold Haultain. The Athen^um, Pah, Mail, S.W., March 8, 1910. My deae Sir, I am delighted to see in to-day's Times a better account of Professor Goldwin Smith : my tutor at Oxford, 1851-55, and the best teacher of style — Greek, Latin, or English — under whom I ever read and worked. Please give him my love, if it will not weary him ; and tell him that the walks and talks we had together, as well as the light he kindled in the many lectures he gave to a small class of three — Arthur Butler, James Winstanley, T. W. Jex-Blake— will never perish, while memory remains. Yours sincerely, (Signed) T. W. Jex-Blake, Dean of Wells, Late Headmaster of Rugby. O knowing, glorious spirit ! when Thou shalt restore trees, beasts, and men. When Thou shalt make all new again, Destroying only death and pain. Give lira amongst Thy works a place Who in them loved and sought Thy face. Hbnby Vaughan, 1622-95, CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 527 CDXXII G. S. to the {fifth) Earl of Rosebery. The Gkange, Toeonto, March 15, 1910. My dear Lord Rosebery, Though struck down by an almost fatal and still incurable accident, I have political spirit enough still left in me heartily to rejoice at your return to the front. For you the hour, and a most perilous and critical hour, clearly called. Your health, I fear, is weak. Do not waste it by routine work. I have never been able to keep doubting whether an Assembly, half hereditary, half elective, whoever were the electors, would work. I would, however, include in " elective " everything. But I do not pit my opinion on a practical point of statesmanship against yours. The King is evidently maintaining the right attitude. Why is the party leader for the time being allowed to inject his opinions into the King's Speech ? ' Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith. CDXXIII G. S. to the (fifth) Earl of Rosebery. April 15, 1910. My dear Lord Rosebery, I am far away, but it seems to me that the turn of events is gradually towards you. It seems impossible that the whole nation can have gone mad, and, what is perhaps worse even than madness, reckless of its own honour. You must avoid drudgery. 1 A new Parliament waa opened on February 21, King Edward reading the Speech from the Throne. Mr. Asquith, Prime Minister. 528 CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH There is talk, it seems, of putting pressure on the King. The King, it is to be hoped, will be firm, as it is certain that he will be courteous and temperate. It is to be hoped that he will repel the demand of a barter of Ireland, a section of the realm, for the votes of Mr. Redmond and his following on the Budget. I trust and believe that his people would stand by him. He ought not, especially under such circumstances as these, to allow himself to be made the instrument and mouthpiece of any party — of a destructive party, and one at least hostile to England, least of all. Yours very truly, (Signed) Goldwin Smith, CDXXIV G. S. to J. St. Loe Strachey. The Gbanqe, Tobonto, Canada, May 14, 1910. Dear Me. Strachey, I am past writing for the public, but writing to you privately, let me say that, as it seems to me, England needs something stable. Her Government has to deal not only with her own limited area and population, but with a world-wide area, including India. Suppose you had a Council, limited, but liberal in number, elected, as vacancies fell, by the House of Commons, perhaps with some security for the representation of different interests and pro- fessions. Might not this give you an Upper House capable of controlling the House of Commons in a reasonable and national sense, such as the House of Lords has certainly not proved itself to be ? Aristocracy is dead at the root, and cannot give life to anything emanating from it. If half of the House of Lords were to be elected by the House of Commons, the result would be a perpetual pitting CORRESPONDENCE OF GOLDWIN SMITH 529 of the aristocratic element against the non-aristo- cratic, with the wrangle which would ensue. At all events you wUl have to get rid of government by faction, which has produced what you see, not only in our country, but in other countries, and is beginning to produce in the United States. The late King deserves the eulogies passed upon him, at all events as a good influence in diplomatic difficulties. His temper certainly was good. Very truly yours, GoLDWiN Smith. CDXXV G, S. to the Right Hon. Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett.^ The Grange, Tobonto, May 31, 1910. Dear Sir Horace Plunkett, I see from the newspapers that you continue to visit this continent. Ireland, moreover, is a subject on which we did, and I hope do still, sympathise. You must catch me soon or not at all. I am very near my end. Ever yours most truly, GoLDWiN Smith. * This waa the last letter to which Goldwin Smith attached hii signature. He died a week after dictating this letter, \ii. on June 7, 1910. 84 INDEX Abbott, Mr. Evelyn, letter from G. S. to, 268-70 Aokland, Dr., 388 Adam, Mr. G. M., 100 Afghanistan, G. S. on English aggression in, 67, 68 Albany, H.R.H. Duchess of, 104 Albany, H.R.H. Duke of, 104 Altruism, G. S. on, 272 Amana Society, the, 470 Anglo-American Association, 321 Anti-Semitism, G. S. on, 441, 462, 483 Aristocracy, the English, frivoli- ties of, 66 ; future of, 82 ; influence of, 151 ; Q. S. on, 169, 528 Arnold, Matthew, letters to G. S. from. 10, 155-6, 170-1 ; let- ters from G. S. to, 175-6, 182 -4 Arnold, Mrs. Matthew, letter fromG. S. to, 218 Ascent of Man, The, G. S. on, 271-2 Ashbourne, Lord, letters to G. S. from, 122-3, 134, 148-9, 153- 4, 156-8, 164-5,286-7 Ashburton, Lady, 161 Ashton, Thomas, letter to Jacob Bright from, 42-4 Asquith, Rt. Hon. H. H., Q. S. on, 402, 453 Astor, Waldorf, 353, 362 Atkinson, J. E., G. S. to, 409-10, 425-6, 501 Atlantic Monthly, Q. S.'s article in, 366 Australia, 103, 279 ; Federation of, 308-9, 310-3; le^slation against coloured immigrants. 389 ; against British work- men immigrants, 396 ; Home Rule for Ireland favoiu-ed in, 447 ; woman suffrage in, 465 B Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J., G. S. on, 251, 402 Barton, G. B., G. S. to, 308-9 Bay Leaves, by G. S., 231 Bayard, T. F., letter to G. S. from, 212-3 Beaconsfield, Lord, G. S. on, 85-6; Earl Grey on, 240; Daily News on, 296 ; Sir W. Gregory on, 322-3 ; his attack upon G. S., 323, 470 ; incidents in career of, 323 ; Jingoism of, 430 Beesly, E. S., G. S. to, 335-6, 337-9, 346-7, 374-5 BeU, Moberly, G. S. to, 375-7, 394-5, 413-5, 447 Bentinck, Lord George, pro- tectionist views of, 177 Beresf ord, Admiral Lord Charles, G. S. on, 519 Bettany, J., G. S. to, 507-8 Betting, G. S. on evils of, 438 Bi-metallism, G. S. on, 304-5 Bismarck, Prince, G. S. on, 36, 38, 183 Blaine, Senator, 160 Blake, Edward, Sir John A. Macdonald on, 135 ; G. S. on, 172, 195 Boer War, the, condemned by G. S., 259, 330 et seq., 403-4, 498 ; Continental feeling re- garding, 352 ; effect on Irish Nationalism, of, 375; G. S. on consequences of, 396 ; the 631 532 INDEX War Office and, 406 ; Lord Minto on, 516-7 Bonney, Professor, on historical character of the Bible, 373-4 Boulton, Mrs. See Smith, Mrs. Goldwin Bourassa,H6nri, 335,403; G. S. to, 436-7, 445-6 Bridge, G. S. on gambling at, 438 Bridges, Dr. J. H., 55 ; the Canadian question and, 364 ; translates Comte's works, 489 Bright, Jacob, letter to, from Thomas Ashton, 42-4 ; letter from, to G. S., 44 Bright, Rt. Hon. John, letters to G. S. from, 59-60, 80-1, 140-3; G. S. on, 47, 90; on tariff in U.S., 143 ; U.S. Senate refuses to pay tribute to memory of, 229 British Association, the, 136, 137, 419 British Columbia, threatens se- cession from Canada, 74, 79 British North America Act, passing of, 74 ; G. S. on, 432- 3, 437 Brodrick, George, G. S. on, 411 Buddhism, G. S. on, 69 Bunting, Sir Percy, letters from G. S. to, 94, 95, 118, 124, 145, 169, 201, 208 Burke, Edmund, on House of Commons, 111 ; his Thoughts upon Scarcity, 119 Burns, Rt. Hon. John, G. S. on election of, 409 ; manifesto of, 454 ; letter from G. S. to, 521 Burnside, General, 38 Burwash, Rev. N., G. S. to, 427-8 Bystander, The, 92,153, 225 Caine, Mr. Hall, 319 Cameron, Mr. John, G. S. to, 98-101, 147, 282, 315, 322-3 CampbeU, Professor P. S., G. S. to, 478 Campbell-Bannerman, Sir H., G. S. on, 383 ; motley Govern- ment of, 453, 460 Canada, annexation to United States of, 22, 68, 71, 86, 92, 153, 160, 171, 197, 203, 281, 421-2 ; climate of, 19, 277 ; corruption in, 75-6, 280, 450, 506 ; defensibility of, 384 ; emigration to, 143—4, 148 ; federation of, 308-9 et seq. ; feeling in, towards mother- country, 201-2, 221, 334-5, 369, 383-4 ; flimkeyism in, 67, 68, 71, 83, 122 ; Free Trade, the question of, in, 173, 176, 209, 219; governor-general- ship of, 504 ; French element in, 73, 445, 509 ; harvests in North-Westof, 403, 415; Im- perial defence, share in, of, 222, 291, 522 ; Irish influence in, 144, 185, 197 ; journalistic ethics in, 419 ; National Debt of, 88 ; political condition of, 443-4, 446 ; public-school system of, 385 ; real state of, 280-1 ; Senate of, 312 ; So- cialism in, 479 et seq, ; tariff question in, 83, 137, 203 et seq. ; United States irritated by British possession of, 300 Carlyle, Mrs., 161 Carlyle, Thomas, G. S. on char- acter and works of, 161-2 Carnegie, Andrew, G. S. on, 381, 388-9 Case against Socialism, letter to author of, by G. S., 500 Cayley, Mr., M.P., 304 CeoU, Hugh, 486 Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. J., letter to G. S. from, 204-5 ; G. S. on, 164, 178, 180, 293, 341, 402, 406 ; Irish policy of, 276 ; invokes Colonial aid in Boer War, 334 ; Canada's " man- date " to, 405 ; Gladstone's opinion of, 399; object of fiscal crusade of, 417, 434-5 ; his charge against Sir W. Lawson, 426 Charitable Foundations, Q. S. on, 378-9 China, G. S. on, 69, 380 Chishobn, Hugh, 395 INDEX 588 Christianity, G. S. on historical evidences of, 201 Church of England, G. S. on, 3,6, 176, 184, 196,363,402 Churches, the, G. S. on, 359, 363, 378, 512, 524 ; Moncure Con- way on, 459-60 ChurchiU, Lord R., G. S. on, 164, 178, 458 Clarke, Sir Edward, letter to G. S. from, 473-4 ; G. S. to, 463 Cleveland, President, G. S. on, 160, 164, 178-9 Cobden Club, the, sends pam- phlet to G. S., 173 ; G. S. on, 83 ; letter of G. S. to secre- tary of, 386-7 Cockran, Bourke, 359 Cody, Archdeacon, G. S. to, 433- 4, 437-8 Coleridge, Lord, 149 ; letter to G. S. from, 210 Collins, Sir Robert, G. S. to, 132-3, 189-90, 342-4, 396-7, 423-5, 429-30, 431-2, 457-8, 467, 481-3, 488-9 Colonial preference, 102, 241, 403, 423-4, 478 Commons, House of, in English political system, 104-7, 121, 301 ; payment of members of, 192, 444, 460 ; Irish influence in, 412-3, 416; labour in, 409; G. S. on, 128, 133, 185 et aeq., 290 ; Earl Grey on, 131, 158-9, 189, 193, 194 Communistic Societies, G. S. on, 470-1 Competitive examinations, G. S. on, 15 Comte, founder of Positivism, 34, 84, 91, 103, 162, 355, 357, 489, 490 Comtism. See Positivism Congreve, R., 68 ; career of, 84 ; Positivism of, 162, 268, 357 Contemporary Review, The, 52, 145, 366 ; G. S. attacked in, 222-3 Conway, Moncure D., letters to G. S. from, 455-6, 459-62 Cooper, Peter, founder of Cooper Institute, 12 Co-operation, G. S. on, 471, 519 Copyright question, G. S. on, 287, 316, 319-21, 324-5, 342 Corelli, Marie, strange novel by, 248-9 Corn Law, passed by English landlords, 67, 71 Cornell, Ezra, 226 ; career of, 12 ; G. S. on, 381 Cornell University, G. S. on founder's scheme, character- istics of students of, 66 ; com- pared with Oxford, 222 ; growth of, 424 ; G. S.'s con- nexion with, 18, 226, 431 ; prejudice against co-educa- tion in, 248 Corson, Professor Hiram, letter to G. S. from, 205-7 Cowen, Joseph, G. S. on, 98-9 Cromer, Earl of, letter to G. S. from, 514-5 ; G. S. to, 510-1 Crooks, Miss Louisa, 246 Crooks, Mr. Adam, Sir John A. Macdonald on, 135, 246 Cumin, Patrick, 10 D Dana, Charles, his feeling for the honour of journalism, 418 Davidson, Archbishop Randall, in Canada, 415 Debs, Eugene V., manifesto of — socialism of, 461 Democracy, G. S. on, 159, 174, 278, 399; Lord Farrer on, 245 Denison, Colonel George, 56-7 Denominational schools, attitude of G. S. towards, 283, 433, 436-7 Derby, Lord, G. S. on, 100 Dicey, Professor A. V., G. S. to, 513 Dike, Rev. Samuel, on marriage and divorce in America, 224 Dilke, Sir C, 156 ; G. S. on, 90 Dillon, Dr. E. J., on the Buin of Spain, 318 Dingman, Russell G., G. S. to, 404 Divorce, G. S. on remarriage and, 317-8 Dixon, Captain Fraser Homer, G, S. to, 497 584 INDEX Drmnmond, Dr. Henry, G. S. on, 171, 175, 271-2 DuHerin, Marquess of, adminis- tration of, in Canada, 70-1, 86 Dunkinfield, Lady, 155 E Eby, Rev. Charles, letter from G. S. to, 259-60 Edward VII., King, visit to Ireland, 1 69 ; baseless story concerning, 249 ; call for moderating influence of, 481 ; pupil of G. S. at Oxford, 525 ; G. S. on political position of, 527-8 Egan, Patrick, Earl Grey on ap- pointment as U. S. Minister to Chile of, 240 Egypt, a disturbing factor in the political world, 134 ; John Bright on the war in, 141-2 Eldondom, 1 Elective government. Earl Grey and G. S. on, 104-7 Electricity, George Martin on, 490 Emigration, G. S. on the general effect of, 393 Essays on Questions of the Day, by G. S., 464, 465 Eton, G. S. on training at, 343 ; on hare-hunting at, 511 Ewart, Mr., 80 Factory hands, as material for a nation, 229 Farrar, Dean, 363 Farrer, Lord, G. S. to, 173-4, 203-4, 241-2, 248-9, 287-8, 292-3, 304-7 ; letters from, to G. S., 177-8, 243-5, 294; radicalism of, 177 Fawoett, Mrs. Henry, G. S. to, 464 ; letter to G. S. from, 465 Fenianism, in Canada, 307 ; in the U.S., 136, 139, 149,414,485 Fisher, Hon. Sydney, G. S. to, 316, 319-21 Forater, Mr., G. S. on, 68,121 France, G. S. on opposing cur- rents of thought in, 1 1 8 ; feel- ing regarding the Boer War, 352 ; Positivism in, 357 ; G. S. on society in, 4 ; Tory feeling regarding, 36 Franchise, the, Earl Grey on, 114-7; G. S. on, 17, 191, 193- 4, 215, 409 Franco-German War, 27 e< seq. Free Trade, 140, 152, 160, 161, 173-4, 178; between Canada and U.S., 205 ; G. S. on im- portance of, to Canada, 209, 219, 225; gaining ground in U.S., 245; S. Low on, 294; in Canada, 304, 326, 386 Freeman, Mr. George, G. S. to, 441, 462 Froude, J. A., the historian, G. S. on, 161 Future hfe, G. S. on connexion between morality and belief in, 69 G Gabrieldi, Signer, G. S. to, 278-9 Gambetta, G. S. on, 118 Garfield, President, 97, 140 Gaskell, Major, 143, 144 Gay, WilUam, G. S. to, 279-80 Germany, Matthew Arnold's mission to, 183 ; feeling re- garding Boer War in, 352 ; G. S.'s life in, 3-4; British interest in success of, 24 ; Tory feeling towards, 36 Gibson, E. See Ashbourne, Lord Gibson, Sir J., G. S. to, 519 Gladstone, Herbert, 182 Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., G. S. to, 7-9, 39, 52, 70-2 ; letter from, to G. S., 61-3; at- tacks Lord Torrington, 216; his opinion of Chamberlain, 400 ; Home Rule BiU of, 187, 251-4; G. S. on, 100, 178 et seq., 190-1, 214, 230, 250, 393, 416; Matthew Arnold on, 170, 183 ; Earl Grey on, 193-4 ; Max Miiller on, 51 Gordon, William, G. S. on case of, 380-1 Gosohen, Lord, G. S. to, 326-8 ; G. S. on, 181 Government, by party, G. S, INDEX 685 on, 23, 163, 178, 184-5, 278-9, 401, 428, 609, 511, 515, 521 ; Earl Grey on, 168-9, 215 ; Sir John Maodonald on, 102 ; in Canada, 448, 457-8 Grant, President, G. S. on re- election of, 92 Granville, Lord, Matthew Arnold on, 170 Greece, G. S. on connexion be- tween political morality and religion in ancient, 69 ; evils of party government in, 278 Greenbackism, defeat of, 67, 71 Greenwood, Frederick, G. S. to, 234-6 ; letters to G. S. from, 231-3, 237-9, 439-40 Gregory, Sir WiUiam, on dis- paragement of the Colonies by Disraeli, 430 Grey, (3rd) Earl, letters to G. S. from, 104-17, 118-20, 129-32, 158-9, 184-6, 188-9, 192-4, 214-6, 239-41, 260-8 ; G. S. to, 125-7, 191-2, 213-4, 217-8 Grey, (4th) Earl, G. S. to, 221, 278, 406-9, 451-2, 495-6 Griffin, Martin, G. S. to, 458-9 H Hamerton, Philip Gilbert, 192 Hampden, Bishop, at Oxford, 269 Harcourt, Rt. Hon. Lewis, M.P., G. S. to, 441-3 Harris, W. T., G. S. to, 234 Harrison, Frederic, G. S. to, 13- 4, 18, 345-6, 355, 365-6, 380- 1, 387-8, 413, 486-7, 494-5, 509-10, 521-2, 524; letters to G. S. from, 340, 357-8, 489-90, 498-9 ; criticises G. S., 222-3 ; Positivism of, 162 Hartington, Lord, letter to G. S. from, 202 ; G. S. on, 181 Haultain, Arnold, G. S. to, 342 ; Dean of Wells to, 526 Hayes, Mrs., 80 Hayes, President, 80 Heim, Moritz, G. S. to, 314-5 Herodotus, G. S. on historical character of, 297-8 Herschell, Lord, G. S. to, 324-5 Hertz, Mr., G. S. to, 48-50 Hertz, Mrs., G. S. to, 14-7, 54-5, 57, 58, 61, 63, 67-8, 82-5, 90- 3, 97, 98, 103-4, 139-40, 151-3, 154-5, 160-2, 163-4, 330-1, 363-4, 377-80 High schools, G. S. on effect of, 270-1 Hincks, Sir Francis, on Canada, 88 ; career of, 101 History, G. S. on study of, 285 ; on teaching of, in American schools, 300 ; on Alison's, 302 Hosmer, Professor, G. S. to, 228-9 Houghton, Lord, 176 Howland, O. A., G. S. to, 274 Howman, Rev. Mr., 155 Hudson's Bay Company, charter of, 137 Hungarians, the. Freeman's let- ter attacking, 66 Hutchins, Mr., G. S. to, 187-8, 301-2 Hutton, Professor, 127 ; G. S. to, 297-8 Huxley, Professor T. H., 182 Imboden, General, 21 Imperial Federation, G. S. on, 195 ; feeling in Canada re- garding, 377 In Quest of Light, by G. S., 461, 466 In the Court of History, by G. S., 522 India, taxation in, 142 International law, G. S. on, 36-6 Ireland, Canada, Irish influence in, 144, 185, 197 ; conciliation, G. S. on failure of, in, 160 ; Crimes Acts in, 99, 122, 123 ; emigration from, 130, 131, 148, 150, 158; English foreign poUcy affected by, 102 ; Glad- stone's policy for, criticised by G. S., 179-80, 187; govern- ment of, G. S. on, 185, 213- 7 ; government of, Viscount Monck on, 1 98 ; grievances of. Lord Selborne on, 200 ; Home Rule for, G. S. on, 251-4, 284, 389, 398, 447, 459; Home Rule for. Lord Ashbourne on. 536 INDEX 166; Irish Question, the, G. S. on, 150-1, 392, 412, 482-3; land legislation for, 125-7, 156-7,232; NationaUsts, sup- ported by Catholic bishops of, 165; Nationalists, acute dif- ferences amongst leaders of, 286 ; Parliamentary repre- sentation of, 284 ; peasant pro- prietorship in, 119; political feeling in, 98-9, 148-50, 282 ; Ulster Convention, the, 238, 239 ; United States, Irish in- fluence in, 148, 164, 208; vote, G. S. on the use made of the Irish, 144-5, 147 Irish History and the Irish Question, by G. S., 448 Italy, Professor ViUari on situa- tion in, 360-1 ; feeling in, regarding Franco - German War, 30 Jameson, Sir Starr, 296 Jesuits, the, G. S. on, 52, 91, 436- 7, 445 Jewish Question, The, by G. S., 102 Jews, the, G. S. on, 441, 462, 483, 505 Jex-Blake, Dean, letter to Ar- nold Haultain from, 526 Jingoism, G. S. on, 68, 71, 72, 296, 336, 339, 352, 356, 377 and passim ; in Canada, 299, 301, 307, 377, 430; in New Zealand, 430 ; in United States, 319, 366 Jones, Rev. Septimus, G. S. to, 317-8 Journalism, G. S. on code of honour which should govern, 418-21 ; on control of, by Jews, 462 ; F. Greenwood on, 439-40 Jury, A. F., G. S. to, 344-5 K Keble, Carlyle's opinion of, 161 Kipling, Rudyard, G. S. on, 351, 354 Knight, Profeaaor, Tyndall on, 68-9 Kruger, President, G. S. on, 341, 352-3 Labouchere, denunciation of Chamberlain by, 400 Labour and Capital, by G. S., 483 Labour, G. S. on representation in Parliament of, 409-10, 460 ; Comte on coming strug- gle between capital and, 490 Labour laws, G. S. on, 178, 242 Labour movement, started by Maurice Kingsley, 519 Lafitte, Chauvinism of, 1 62 Lansdowne, Lord, G. S. on, 152-3 Laurier, Sir W., G. S. on, 303, 335, 406, 433, 446, 504, 507. 521 Lawley, Hon. Francis, 30 Lawrence, Mr., G. S. to, 391 Le Sueur, Mr. W. D., G. S. to, 128 Lea, Mr. Henry C, G. S. to, 254 Lecky, Professor, on situation in South Africa, 349-50 ; G. S. on, 351 Lee, General FitzHugh, 319 Liddell, Henry George, Dean, Liberalism of, 269 Lindsey, Charles, G. S. to, 47-8 Local option, in Canada, 409-10 London University, G. S. on, 14-5, 17 Longfellow, the poet, G. S. on, 138 Longley, Mr. Justice, G. S. to, 171-3, 195-6 Lords, House of, G. S. on the in- evitable conflict with, 90 ; G. S. on functions of, 185 ; on reform of, 263, 265, 275-6, 284, 301, 481 ; G. S.'s sugges- ted Bill regarding, 290-1 ; Earl Grey on faults of, 193, 262 Lome, Marquess of, Canadian flunkeyism towards, 67 ; Glad- stone's exhortation to, 70 ; letters to G. S. from, 95-7, 101 INDEX 58T Lothair, alleged personal allu- sions to G. S. in, 438-9 Louise, Princess, in Canada, 83 Lowe, Robert, caustic wit of, 410 M McCabe, Cardinal, 165 McCarthy, Dennis, 476 McCarthy, Justin, G. S. to, 397-8 Maodonald, Sir John A., letters to G. S. from, 64-6, 89, 93- 4, 101-2, 135-6 ; connexion with Canadian Pacific Rail- way of, 204 ; G. S. on, 128, 195, 197 Maodonnell, Mr., 151-2 McDonnell, Sir A., on Irish Question, 412 McKinley, President, 333 ; G. S. on, 347 Madden, Edward, letter to G. S. from, 487-8 Maine, U.S. warship, the blow- ing up of, 318 Manchester Examiner, Free- man's letter in, 66 Manchester, proposal that G. S. should stand for, 42-4 Martin, George, letter to G. S. from, 490-1 Marx, Karl, influence of, 479 Melgund, Lord. See Miuto, Earl of Merriman, Rt. Hon. J. X., G. S. to, 72-7, 78-80, 87-9, 289- 90, 295-6, 328-30, 332-5, 339- 42, 351-2, 355-6, 358-9, 367- 8, 399-401, 452-4, 497-8, 503 -5, 508-9, 513, 519-20 Mexico, last auto-da-fe in, 254 Mill, J. S., on the franchise in England, 113 ; opinion of, on wonaan suffrage, 464 MUner, Lord, responsibility of, for trouble in South Africa, 249, 367 ; G. S. on, 504 Minto, Earl of, letters from to G. S., 166-9,516-7 Mommsen, Theodor, condemns Boer War, 352, 353 Monck, Viscount, letter to G. S. from, 198-9 Monroe doctrine, effect of, in time of war, on Canada, 288 MoraUty, G. S. on connexion between beUef in a future Uf e and, 69 ; on connexion be- tween religion and, 385-6 Morang, Mr. G. N., 319, 321 Morgan, Rev. J. T., G. S. to, 270-1 Morganatic marriages, G. S. on, 249 Morley, Visooimt, G. S. on, 91, 150, 180, 405, 415; influence of, on Gladstone, 394 ; on Roman Catholic claims, 433-4 Mortimer, C. White, G. S. to, 285 Mount Stephen, Lord, G. S. to, 248-9, 348-50, 352-5, 372-3, 381-2, 385-6, 388-9, 392-3, 395-6, 415-6, 443-4, 460-1, 480-1, 518-9 Mowat, Sir OUver, 376, 447; Sir J. Macdonald on, 135 Mowbray, Sir John, G. S. to, 290-1 Miiller, Professor Max, letter from, to G. S., 50-1 ; G. S. to, 24-38, 40-2 N Napoleon III., Emperor, G. S. on, 25, 31, 33 Natural Law in the Spiritual World, Matthew Arnold on, 171,175 New England Magazine, The, G. S. to Editor of, repelling calumnious statements, 225—6 New Zealand, woman suffrage in, 465 Newman, Cardinal, G. S. on influence of, at Oxford, 268- 70 ; Carlyle's opinion of, 161 Newman, F., at Oxford, 6 Newspaper, joint stock, G. S-'s proposal to set up a, 8-9 Nineteenth Century, The, articles by Earl Grey, 125, 262, 264 ; G. S., 102, 104, 260 ; Tyndall, 68-9 North American Beviewj The, G. S. reviews Morley's Olad- stone ia, 405, 415 538 INDEX Northoote, Sir S., G. S. on, 99 Norton, C. E., on Franco-Oer- man War, 29 O O'Brien, William, Home Kule crusade of, in Canada, 447 O'Connor, T. P., G. S. on, 86 Ogilvy, John, G. S. to, 382-4, 389-90. 411-3, 426-7 O'Hagan, Lord, on Irish Ques- tion, 412 Old Age Pensions, G. S. on, 479, 492 O'Began, P. J., G. S. to, 430 Oxford University, G. S. on, 16-7, 268-70 ; Bhodes soholar- ehips at, 410-11 ; address presented to G. S. by, 422-3 ; scholarships won by G. S. at, 451 Pall Mall Oazette, The, on Egypt, 142 Panizzi, Carlyle's opinion of, 161 Parker, Charles, 11, 220 Parliamentary government. Earl Grey on, 189, 262, 264, 267; G. S. on, 309 Parnell, Charles S., emigration from Ireland discouraged by party of, 148 ; efiect of death of, on Gladstonian party, 235 ; G. S. on, 180, 230, 231 ; Earl Grey on, 129 Party Government. See Govern- ment by Party. Pattisou, Mark, G. S. on, 91, 270 Paul, Herbert, G. S. to, 438-9 Pearson, Rev. Mr., 155 Peel, Viscount, letters to G. S. from, 220-1, 370-2 ; on re- form of the licensing laws, 370-1 PeU, Mr. J. E., 81 Pensions . /See 1 d Age Pensions Peyton, Mr., 366-7 Pierce, Mr., 80 Pitt, William, 113, 305-6 Plunkett, Sir Horace, G. S. to, 470-2, 529 Pope, Charles, 273 Positivism, G. S. on, 34, 84, 91, 103, 162 ; Frederic Harrison on, 357-8, 489-90 Press, the, G. S. on, 7-9, 276-7 Prime Minister, duties of, in English political system, 107- 8 Protection, 83, 137, 140, 152, 160-1, 413 and passim ; in Canada, 293, 304, 326, 401, 405, 416-7, 423, 434, 460 ; in U.S., 227, 229, 295, 301, 303, 386; G. S. on, 172-3, 173-4, 177, 243, 245; Lord Farrer on, 244 Prothero, G. W., G. S. to, 405 Pruyn, Mrs., G. S. to, 260 Pulsford, Senator, G. S. to, 477-80 Q Quinet, Edgar, G. S. on, 162 B Rathbone, WiUiam, G. S. to, 62-4 Reciprocity, gaining gremnd in U.S., 405 Redmond, John, in U.S., 414; G. S. on, 451 Beed, C, 81 Beid, Sir George H., G. S. to, 310-3 Religion, G. S.'s views on, 289, 302, 313-4, 366-7, 379, 437, 443, 478, 523-4 Retaliation, G. S. on, 173-4, 402 ; Lord Farrer on, 177-8 ; T. F. Bayard on talk of, in Canada, 212-3 Rhodes, Cecil, his connexion with the Raid, 296 ; his bribery of the Irish, 348 Bidout, Mr., 319 Biel, Louis, 195, 383 Ritchie, Mr., 235 Riviere, Briton, G. S. to, 221-4, 250-1, 275, 283-6, 331-2, 368-70, 391-2, 410-1, 517-8 Riviere, WilUam, G. S. to, 11-3 Roberts, C. D. G., 163 Bobertson, John, G. S. to, 469- 70 INDEX 589 Robinson, Hon. John Beverley, G. S. to, 257-8 Robinson, Sir Hercules. See Rosmead, Lord Rolleston, Mrs., G. S. to, 146-7 RoUeston, Professor, 97 ; scien- tific activity of, 146 ; G. S. to, 44-5 Roman Catholicism, G. S.'s attitude towards, 6, 434, 436- 7 ; the separate school system in Canada and, 433-4, 507 Roosevelt, President, G. S. on election of, 413, 415 Rose, Mr., 451 Rosebery, Lord, the lonely fur- row, 481 ; G. S. to, 321-2, 325-6, 403-4, 406-6, 421-2, 448-51, 491-2, 496-7, 512, 525-8 ; G. S. on, 276, 518 Rosenfield, Jonas A., G. S. to, 503 Rosmead, Lord, policy of, in South Africa, 249, 370 Roundell, Charles S., G. S. to, 398-9, 401-2 Royal Marriage Act, 297 Ruskin, G. S. on, 1 76 Russia, G. S. on British policy towards, 425 ; the Jewish problem in, 103 ; G. S. on the revolution in, 431-2, 435, 496 ; G. S. on the situation in, 467, 483, 489; Socialism in, 450, 457 St. George's Society, Toronto, G. S. to Secretary of, 255-6 St. James's Gazette, The, on peasant proprietorship, 119 Salisbury, Lord, G. S. to, 19-21, 55-7; G. S. on, 99, 126, 181- 2, 191, 196, 230 ; Earl Grey on, 119, 193 Salt, Henry S., G. S. to, 417-8, 511 Salvation Army, the, G. S. on, 495 Sand with, Humphry, 18 Saturday Review, The, G. S. on, 424 ; his connexion with, 425-6 ; the staff of, 442 Science, G. S. on exalting effects upon character of, 69-70 ; on connexion between reUgion and, 121 ; on acceptance of results of, 302 Selborne, Earl of, G. S. to, 1-6, 186-7, 199-201, 229-31 Shaftesbury, Lord, Matthew Arnold on, 10 Shorter, Clement, 280-1, 298-9 Sikh War, G. S. on first, 2 Simpson, James, G. S. to, 503 SmaUey, G. W., G. S. to, 275-7 Smith, Henry, 45 Smith, Mrs. Goldwin, 54, 83, 520 Smith, Professor G. A., on historical character of Bible, 373-4 Socialism, G. S. on, 450, 451, 459, 480, 494, 496, 501 South Africa, G. S. on oiir policy towards, 249 ; on future of, 341 ; on native question in, 520 Spain, G. S. on the outbreak of war between U.S. and, 318-9 Speaker, The, opposes Boer War, 341 Spectator, The, 127, 145 Spencer, Herbert, theory of morals of, 128 ; his charges against G. S., 145 Spencer, Lord, G. S. on conduct of the Tories towards, 180 Sprague, Professor Homer B., letters to G. S. from, 466, 492-3 Stanley, Arthur, 182 Steven, Alexander, G. S. to, 297 Strachey, J. St. Loe, G. S. to, 479-80, 528-9 T Tariff Reform, G. S. on, 164, 400 Temperance legislation, in Can- ada, 407-9, 452, 515-6; in U.S„ 406-7 Temple, Archbishop, G. S. on, 363 Thompson, Phillips, G. S. to, 461 Thompson, Sir John, 321 540 INDEX Tilley, Sir L., protectionism of, 177 Times, The, 26, 87, 125, 138 ; G. S. on power of, 11 ; Frederic Harrison's charges against, 358 Toronto Mail, The, 137 Torrington, Lord, Gladstone's attack upon, 216 Trade Unions, G. S. on, 273 ; Lord Farrer on, 294, 460 Trent, s.s., confederate Com- missioners forcibly taken from the, 77 Truth, Labouohere's denuncia- tion of Chamberlain in, 400, 522 Tuke, Mr., 148 Tupper, Sir Charles, 242-3 TyndaU, Professor, G. S. to, 68-70, 120-2, 136-8, 149-50, 159-60, 179-82, 190-1 U United States, anti-British feel- ing in, 19, 138, 468; British Empire compared with, 81-2 ; Canada, future iinion of, with, 68, 71, 171-2 ; characteristics of people of, 80-1 ; Constitu- tion of, 194, 254, 312 ; corrup- tion in, 314-5, 450, 472, 479 ; Democrats and Republicans in, 475-6 ; Federal structure of, 310-1 ; Free Trade and Protection in, 140, 152, 160-1, 227-8 ; German element in, 41 ; Irish influence in, 148, 160, 229; journalism, ethics of, in, 419 ; labour in, 272-3, 385 ; Negro problem in, 247, 477 ; public-schools system in, 385; Tammany in, 160; woman suffrage in, 465 Universal sufirage, G. S. on, 492 Villari, Professor P., letter to G. S. from, 360-2 Vincent, Sir Howard, 241-2, 417 Virohow, Professor, TyndaU on, 68-9 Vivisection, G. S. on, 417-8 W Wade, F. C, G. S. to, 224-5 Walker, Sir E. B., G. S. to, 502 Wallace, Rev. W. H., G. S. to. 499-500, 512, 523-4 Walter, Mr., election to Parlia- ment of, 87 War, G. S. on, 500, 502 Warnicker, Rev. Mr., G. S. to, 373-4 Washington, Booker, letter to G. S. from, 477 Washington, Treaty of, good effect of, 39 Week, The, 153, 171, 175, 196 Whatham, Rev. Arthur C, G. S. to, 313-4 White, Hon. Andrew, letter to G. S. from, 475-6 Whitridge, Mrs., 170, 171, 184 Wilder, Professor Burt G., G. S. to, 236-7 Wilkinson, W. R., G. S. to, 432- 3 Williams, Frederic, G. S. to, 446 Willison, Sir J. S., G. S. to, 281 Wills, W. J., G. S. to, 251-4 Wilson, A. J., G. S. to, 291, 493- 4, 505-6 Wiman, Erastus, 243 Winkworth, Mr., 93; G. S. to 85-7 Winkworth, Mrs., G. S. to, 46-7, 60, 63-4, 66-7, 102-3, 178-9, 208-9, 227-8, 271-3, 299-301, 305-6, 468-9, 472, 483-5 Winkworth, Miss Susannah, 51 Wolfe, General, 274 Woman suffrage, G. S. on, 17, 221, 251, 260, 460, 464, 492. 506, 510 ; Mrs. Fawcett on. 465 ; Earl of Cromer on, 514-5 Women, G. S. on education of, 14-6 Workman, Dr., 313-4 Yoimg, Hon. James, G. S. to, 233-4 Young, Sir George, Bart., G. S. to, 84-5, 150-1 Printed by HtMeli, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. J ^ (l ! Ilff (I'jrr f ' ('I,! •!.