Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman Part 20

"Friends are always greedy of details concerning sudden illness. This is my excuse for sending a printed circular.

"In short, my general health continues as excellent as usual; but I have received a sharp warning, which I would gladly be able to call a mere fright. After many days of close and continuous writing, I found myself suddenly disabled in my right hand. I could not interpret it as merely muscular. There was no inability of motion or grasping, but want of delicacy in feeling, which made my pen slip round in my fingers. I was forced to conclude the _brain_ involved.

"Therefore it seemed possible that I was only at the beginning of real paralysis. Prudence absolutely required me to back out of two engagements.

This illness, such as it is, has not come on in a day, and demands time for cure. Some ten days of cessation have somewhat (but very imperfectly) restored my power of writing; but I must not undertake any tasks at present. My sole remedy has been to keep the arm warm. It is still somewhat weak. I wished, if this affection were temporary, to say nothing about it; but that has proved impossible.

"I am, yours as ever,

"Francis W. Newman."

There are many allusions to this trouble of the arm in later letters.

Indeed, it is impossible not to see how very much it has crippled his handwriting; he mentions once or twice that he finds it very difficult to keep his hand steady.

In May, 1882, he writes to Dr. Nicholson concerning the news of the moment--the murder of Lord Henry Cavendish and Mr. Burke, at Phoenix Park.

It will be remembered that it happened at the end of all the obstructive tactics used by Parnell and his Home Rule Party, which was organized to prevent coercion being used, and also to force on England the compulsion of legislating promptly for Ireland the measures demanded by the Nationalists. It was not until 1886 Gladstone brought before Parliament a measure which would give a Statutory Parliament to Ireland. Later, after the rejection of the bill on its second reading, Gladstone appealed to the country, and when the General Election brought back a Conservative majority, he was defeated.

Lord Frederick Cavendish became in 1882 Chief Secretary for Ireland, in succession to Mr. Forster. On 6th May he and Mr. Burke (his unpopular subordinate) were stabbed in Phoenix Park.

The allusion to Newman's study of the Libyan language occurs in the letter following, as it has done in more than one of the others about this time.

The Numidians were descended from the race from which the modern Berbers are drawn. Their name was drawn from the Greek word Nomades--Land of Nomads; and was given to tribes in Northern Africa by the Romans.

"_8th May_, 1882.

"To-day we have heard with horror of the murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish, and with grief, if with once or twice that he finds it very difficult to keep his hand steady.

In May, 1882, he writes to Dr. Nicholson concerning the news of the moment--the murder of Lord Henry Cavendish and Mr. Burke, at Phoenix Park.

It will be remembered that it happened at the end of all the obstructive tactics used by Parnell and his Home Rule Party, which was organized to prevent coercion being used, and also to force on England the compulsion of legislating promptly for Ireland the measures demanded by the Nationalists. It was not until 1886 Gladstone brought before Parliament a measure which would give a Statutory Parliament to Ireland. Later, after the rejection of the bill on its second reading, Gladstone appealed to the country, and when the General Election brought back a Conservative majority, he was defeated.

Lord Frederick Cavendish became in 1882 Chief Secretary for Ireland, in succession to Mr. Forster. On 6th May he and Mr. Burke (his unpopular subordinate) were stabbed in Phoenix Park.

The allusion to Newman's study of the Libyan language occurs in the letter following, as it has done in more than one of the others about this time.

The Numidians were descended from the race from which the modern Berbers are drawn. Their name was drawn from the Greek word _Nomades_--Land of Nomads; and was given to tribes in Northern Africa by the Romans.

"_8th May_, 1882.

"To-day we have heard with horror of the murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish, and with grief, if with less horror, of Mr. Burke's. I felt persuaded from the first that the a.s.sa.s.sins would aim only at Mr. Burke, who has long been regarded as the perverter of every Viceroy and Secretary; but in mere self-defence they also killed his companion, perhaps not even knowing who he was. Lord Frederick Cavendish was almost unknown to the Irish, and cannot have been hated by them as Mr. Forster was.

"My second thought on this grievous affair is, that it is likely to call out so sincere a disavowal from collective Ireland, and from the most extreme of Irish politicians, that it may help to reconcile Irish patriots and the Liberal Ministry. To have a common grief is a moral cement. Also it seems to compel Mr. Gladstone to send as Irish Secretary an _Irishman_, and one publicly esteemed as Irish patriot, as well as a sincere friend to the English connection; and from what I have heard before this event, Mr.

Shaw seems to be a very likely man.

"Meanwhile, sad to say, Mr. Gladstone entrenches himself, and _blocks up_ business by the Rules of Procedure.

"Well, Ireland is taking a leaf out of Nihilism. It is bad enough, yet not so bad as with the poor Czar....

"Yours cordially in old esteem,

"F. W. Newman."

"On Sat.u.r.day I corrected the last proofs of my essay towards a Numidian dictionary. Yesterday a friend sent me a sc.r.a.p from Paris, in which Renan avows that until a Numidian dictionary is compiled they cannot begin to decipher inscriptions in the _Canaries!_ I fancy the Canary language is a wide step off."

Each succeeding year after 1882 Newman complains from time to time, in his letters to his friends, of increasing infirmities and physical disabilities, which made travelling often exceedingly trying for his head, and rendered him more and more dependent on his wife. He had for a long time suffered a great deal from his eyes, and consequently during the last few years of his life writing letters became a physical weariness. He was also subject to a sudden loss of brain power, when he found himself completely unable at times to speak consecutively.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANNA SWANWICK FROM A PORTRAIT PAINTED BY MISS V. BRUCE]

CHAPTER X

LETTERS WRITTEN TO MISS ANNA SWANWICK (BETWEEN 1871 AND 1887)

Anna Swanwick was one of the most remarkable women of her age--one of the most intellectual, one of the most thoughtful as regards the social educational movements of her time, which was the early part of the last century. Yet there is a pa.s.sage in a lecture delivered by her at Bedford College which reveals only too clearly the straitened and limited means at the disposal of girls in those days who wished to climb the stairs of that Higher Education so easy to men, but then so very difficult of access for women. She says:--

"In my young days, though I attended what was considered the best girls'

school in Liverpool, the education there given was so meagre that I felt like the Peri excluded from Paradise, and I often longed to a.s.sume the costume of a boy in order to learn Latin, Greek, and mathematics, which were then regarded as essential to a liberal education for boys, but were not thought of for girls. To give some idea of the educational meagreness alluded to above, I may mention the fact that during my schooldays I never remember to have seen a map, while all my knowledge of geography was derived from pa.s.sages learnt by rote." I quote this from one of the most delightful memoirs I have come across for a long time: _Anna Swanwick; a Memoir and Recollections_, by Miss Mary Brace. [Footnote: Published by Fisher Unwin.]

But no "educational meagreness" can keep the feet of some climbers off the educational ladder. It may be with slow, "sad steps" they "climb the sky"

of the higher education. Nevertheless the effort is doggedly made. For in all great men, as in all great women, there is something-call it genius, call it what you like--which _forces_ its way through, be the impediments what they may.

Anna Swanwick, to whom the following letters were written at various intervals, was well known for her philanthropic and educational work among the poorer cla.s.ses, and also for her earnest endeavours for the larger development of women's work and education. A large part of her own education in Greek and Hebrew was carried forward at Berlin. In 1830 Bedford College was opened. Miss Bruce tells us that Francis Newman and Augustus de Morgan, Dr. Carpenter, and other famous lecturers were among the first to lecture there. I imagine it was here that the friendship of forty years between Anna Swanwick and Francis Newman began. The former was specially impressed with Newman's method of teaching mathematics. I quote her words from Miss Bruce's _Memoir_:--

"I remember being particularly impressed by F. W. Newman's teaching of mathematics, including geometry and algebra; he saw at a glance if one of his pupils in algebra was not able to follow his calculations, which were often very elaborate; on such occasions, instead of endeavouring to explain the difficulty to a single pupil, thus keeping the entire cla.s.s waiting, he would interest them all by placing the subject in an entirely new light, which was possible only to one who had a complete mastery of his subject--one who, looking down from a mental height, could see the various paths by which the higher eminence could be reached."

I cannot but mention here the supreme service Anna Swanwick was able to render Newman at the end of his life. It was in the last letter which he wrote to her, when he was ninety-two, that these words occur. After stating that he wished "once again definitely to take the name of Christian," he adds: "I close by my now sufficient definition of a Christian, c one who in heart and steadily is a disciple of Jesus in upholding the prayer called the Lord's Prayer as the highest and purest in any known national religion.' I think J. M. will approve this. [Footnote: James Martineau.] ... My new idea is perhaps with you very old.... Asked what is a Christian, I reply, one who earnestly uses in word and substance the traditional Prayer of Jesus, older than any Gospel--this supplants all creeds." This letter was written shortly before his death.

Since I have been writing this memoir I had a letter from Mr. William Tallack, who quoted these words of Mr. Garrett Horder with respect to Francis Newman's final return to the Christian Faith. This fact had been published in a paper in 1903.

"Not more than three or four years before Dr. Martineau's death I was sitting in an omnibus at Oxford Circus, when Dr. Martineau, accompanied by his daughter, got in, and took seats by my side. After I had expressed my pleasure at seeing them, he said, c I think you ought to know that the other day I had a letter from Frank Newman, saying that when he died he wished it to be known, that he died in the Christian Faith.'"

To my mind no memoir would be complete with that knowledge left out-- Newman's return to his former Faith.

The first letter in the collection before me concerns one of Newman's brothers. Perhaps most of us can count a "Charles Robert" in our environment. Someone whose "worm i' the bud" of their character has so completely spoilt its early flower on account of the "one ruinous vice" of "censoriousness," of perpetual nagging, and fault-finding developed to such a pitch that it has eaten out at last the fair heart of human forbearance and kindness which is the birthright of everyone. Such a person makes the true, free development of others in his proximity a harder task than G.o.d intended it to be, for this reason: that the best character cannot do itself justice if it is aware that all its sayings and doings are capped promptly by wrong constructions placed there by "the chiel amang" them "takin'" unfavourable "notes."

Such a one was Charles Robert Newman. At the date at which this letter was written his own family had found him so "impossible" that for thirty or forty years no intercourse had taken place between them.

_To Miss Anna Swanwick from Frank Newman._