Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman Part 22

"Deeply interested as I was in the study of Greek, and intense as was the pleasure of its acquisition, I yet hesitate to recommend it as a part of the curriculum of boys and girls, unless it can be taken later, and with more concentrated determination to master the extremely difficult grammar, than is usually given to school lessons.... It is to be remembered, moreover, that in the literature of Greece and Rome there are no words adapted expressly for the young. The ancient cla.s.sics, written by adults for adults, are beyond the intelligence of immature minds, whilst in regard to the moral lessons to be drawn from them, the superiority, in my opinion, is vastly in favour of more modern writers."

Anna Swanwick's original desire to learn Greek was (Miss Bruce tells us in the former's own words) "to be able to read the New Testament in the original."

I quote now from Newman's article:--

"Children can learn two languages, or even three at once; and this, if these are spoken to them by different individuals, without confusion and without being less able to learn other things. Memory is aided because imagination connects the words with a person, a scene, or events; and, little by little, the utility of speech calls forth active efforts in the learner.... In general the old method was one of repet.i.tion: _it dealt immensely in committing Latin to memory_.... Nothing is easier to boys than such learning, even when the thing learned is uninteresting... yet...

means should be taken of making it interesting and instructive and rhythmical.... It seems to me that we want what I may call a Latin novel or romance; that is, a pleasing tale of fiction, which shall convey numerous Latin words, which do not easily find a place in poetry, history, or philosophy.... If anyone had genius to produce, in Terentian style, Latin comedies worthy of engaging the minds and hearts of youth (for I can never read a play of Terence to a young cla.s.s without the heartache), I should regard this as a valuable contribution." [Footnote: Mr. Darbis.h.i.+re says in a letter to which I have had access: "One of his" (Newman's) "special endeavours was to accustom his students to deal with Greek as a spoken language, as he and we did in reading Greek plays."]

To return to the letter.

"Weston-super-Mare, "_16th Feb._, 1884.

"My dear Friend,

"The late Professor George Long (my predecessor in University College), editor of the _Penny Cyclopaedia_ was originally professor of Greek and a student of Sanskrit. He maintained that German, studied as it ought to be, prepared the mind for other work as effectively as could Greek, and, as Dr. W. B. Hodgson (and I too) independently alleged, that the study of _modern_ languages and learning to _talk_ them ought to _precede_ the study of Greek. To make Greek the basis of an entire school and force it on all is with me cruelty as well as folly. Five out of six women and men would not learn it enough to _retain_ or _use_ it. If you place ancient languages and all that cannot be learned by _talking_ at the END, only those will study who have a special object, and these will duly _use_ them. I think that is the only wise and _just_ way. Further, I think it a grave mistake to teach the scientific _side_ of any language first, and try to proceed through science to practice. The popular side should go first. Greeks talked rightly before Protagoras, but Protagoras first taught that Greek had three genders.... _After_ a full acquaintance with the substance of a language, its laws and relations.h.i.+ps come naturally and profitably. In a dead language we are _forced_ to bring on the science earlier: that is the reason for deferring such study till a riper age; and best if delayed until _after_ learning several _modern_ languages (by talking, if possible), the more different from one another the _better_.

English, German or Russian or Latin, and Arabic would be three very different in kind.

"Our English Professor Latham used to talk much error, in my judgment, of the supreme value to the intellect of studying FORM. This word was to include the 'accidence' of language with the fewest possible words; algebra with the least possible arithmetic ... Logic without real proposition.... Now, in my belief, and that of _De Morgan_ and the late Professor Boole, nothing so ruins the mind as to accustom it to think that it knows something when it can attach no definite ideas to the symbols over which it chatters."

To-day, what educational strides should we not make if we could but bring our present systems of teaching into line with these of Newman's!

It will be remembered that in March, 1886, Gladstone caused great dissension in his own party by bringing in his measure for giving Ireland a statutory parliament. The bill was rejected at its second reading, and when Gladstone made his appeal to the country, the general election showed he had lost its confidence. He had based his belief that Ireland was ripe for some measure of Home Rule, on account of the fact that the election under the new Reform Bill had proved that out of 103 Irish members 87 were Nationalists.

"_5th May_, 1885

"My dear Anna,

"The Irish question, as now presented, is in a very sad imbroglio. After our monstrous errors of policy and the infliction on Ireland of miseries and degradation unparalleled in Europe, to expect to bring things right without humiliation and without risks of what cannot be foreseen, seems to me conceit and ignorance. Evildoers _must_ have humiliation, _must_ have risks, when they try to go right. Opponents will always be able to argue, as did Alcibiades to the Athenians: 'We hold our supremacy as a despotism; therefore it is no longer _safe_ for us to play the part of virtue.' In so far, I may seem to favour Mr. Gladstone's move; and I think I do rejoice _that it has been made_. Probably those are right who say, 'Henceforth it becomes impossible to go back into the old groove.' I do not believe that a Parliament elected on new lines will endure it.

"But neither would the Democratic Parliament in any case have endured it.

A new civil war against Ireland seems morally impossible. Therefore Mr.

Gladstone is _ruining_ a measure which might have been good, by his preposterous dealing with it. Lord Hartington said (as indeed did John Bright) the very truth, that the Liberal Party cannot so disown its own traditions, and its wisest principles, as to allow an _individual_, however justly honoured, to concoct _secretly from his old and trusted comrades_, a vast, complicated, and far-reaching settlement and make himself sole initiator of it (as _I_ have kept saying, reduce Parliament to a _machine for saying only Yes and No_).... It is a vile degradation of Parliament. But that is only a small part of the infinite blunder. He pretends that everything has been tried and has failed, _except_ what he now proposes.... In 1880 no one forced him to bring in an Irish measure: he chose to do it, _and did it in the worst possible way,_ by treating the Irish members as ENEMIES, and refusing to consult them. [The Scotch members have _never_ been so treated on Scotch questions.]

"Down to last September Mr. Gladstone declared that the Irish members were men, who, by a conspiracy of _rapine_, were seeking to _dismember_ the empire. He carried '(?)' against Ireland during his unparalleled supremacy, acts of despotism unequalled in this country, and that, though they _had no tendency to lessen crime_; and he joined them with _imprisonment against Mr. Parnell_. Only his monstrous incompetency to see right and wrong, made his well-intentioned measure all but fruitless. Peel and Wellington did mischief, long since deplored, in teaching the Irish that England cared nothing for justice, but very much indeed for the danger of a new civil war; but now Mr. Gladstone has been teaching them still more effectually. In September last he denounced Parnell and his friends as bent on dismembering the empire, deplored the danger of consulting them, begged for votes to strengthen him _against_ them; but as soon as the country, from various and very just discontent with his WARLIKE POLICY, and his utter neglect of our moral needs, showed in many of the boroughs their deep dissatisfaction, and he found Mr. Parnell _twice as strong_ as in the Old Parliament ... he gave notice that he was ready to capitulate to Mr. Parnell. And he _did_ virtually capitulate; Mr.

Parnell _understood_ him, and defeated Lord Salisbury, and Mr. Gladstone in accepting the power _to which Mr. Parnell invited him,_ insulted all his trusting comrades by keeping them in total ignorance of his scheme, while he concocted it by consultation with the very men whom just before he had _maligned_ as conspiring to _break up_ the empire.

"Such conduct from a Tory minister sounds to me more extreme than anything I ever read of in English history; and from a pretended _Liberal_ leader would have seemed incredible, if predicted. I suppose he was _predestined (vir fatalis)_ to break up his Party.

"I shall indeed rejoice and praise G.o.d if Mr. Gladstone's wonderful folly do_ break down this ... _system of legislation._--There's a long yarn for you!!

"Ever your affectionate

"F. W. Newman."

In the next letter, in November of the same year, Newman complains of temporary paralysis in his left-hand fingers and stiffness in that arm "as though it had a muscular twist."

The actual putting on of an overcoat now becomes no slight undertaking, and he finds that reading now tires his eyes much more than does writing.

He touches on the Burmese war, "which seems likely to be even worse than the Egyptian and Sudanese iniquity in its results to us." And he adds, "We have now without any just cause of war, or even the pretence of any, invaded this province, which is subject and tributary to China, and lawlessly act the marauder upon it, claiming it as ours, and treating the patriots who oppose us as rebels and robbers. The Emperor of China now finds our frontier, if we succeed, pushed up to his own, and, whenever convenient to him, he can send in his armies against us, especially if India were to revolt."

In October, 1886, matters in Bulgaria were at their highest tide. At last, after all her efforts, since 1356, at independence from the hated power of Greece, when "Almost" she and Servia were "persuaded" to form a great Slavonic State together, she seemed near attainment of her constantly prolonged efforts.

In 1872 the Bulgarian Church was again able to break her fetters, which she abhorred, which bound her to Greece. Then, in 1876, the atrocities committed by the Turkish inhabitants of Bulgaria took place. The Porte, when besought by the Constantinople Conference to make concessions, refused point-blank. Then Russia stepped in and declared war, and proposed themselves to make a Bulgarian State. England and Austria promptly refused to lend themselves to this scheme, and a Berlin Congress was summoned. The Berlin Treaty in 1878 arranged the limits and administrative autonomy of this State, and the Bulgarians chose Prince Alexander of Battenberg, cousin of the Grand Duke of Hesse, and he became in 1879 Alexander I of Bulgaria. Eventually the recognition of him by the Porte as Governor- General of Eastern Roumelia followed. In 1886 Russia made herself felt unexpectedly. Alexander was kidnapped by order of the Czar and carried to Russia.

The upshot of it all was that, though he returned to Bulgaria, yet he felt it was in vain to struggle against Russian animosities, and so abdicated.

The letter following shows Newman to be in failing health and under doctor's treatment:--

"Weston-super-Mare, "_7th October,_ 1886.

"My dear Anna,

"... My brief London visit which ought to have come off is forbidden positively, and I doubt not wisely, by medical command, _not_ because I am ill, _but_ because I had formidable threatening of illness, like a black cloud which after all does not come down. The threat consisted in my left hand losing all sense and power. This is now the sixth day. On the third I regained power to b.u.t.ton, though clumsily, and to use my fork. Of course I am ordered to use my _brain_ as little as possible, and in future to change my habits. I must leave off all letters and other writing much earlier in the evening. But frequent short walks I hold salutary to my brain; and my feet have not failed me.

"... You ask what I think of the Bulgarian outrage.... In the present instance the one thing primarily to be desired, and eminently difficult to attain, was cohesion of the little Powers. As of old, Sparta and Athens could not coalesce, and therefore after weakening one another they ill- resisted Philip, and were overpowered by Alexander armed from Macedonia and Thrace, and under-propt by gold from Asia; so now the little States-- Servia, Bulgaria, Roumania, Greece--each envied the other, perhaps was ready for hostility, but all looked up to Russia with more than fear.

"But this atrocious kidnapping of a reigning Prince has given just _the external compression which was wanted_ to make the little States desire union, and the greater Powers to think that such union is for European benefit. Not only has it reconciled Servia and Bulgaria, late in actual war, but it has elicited public outcry in Roumania for federation with these two States. Whether Greece can lay aside her jealous enmity against Bulgaria is not yet clear. Her ambition is to acquire Macedonia and Constantinople ... perhaps ... Albania.

"... To me it seems a wonder that the Greek statesmen do not see that Constantinople is too critical a spot for the European Powers to yield up to any secondary State. If it is to be under European protection, Greece would find her power in Constantinople merely nominal....

"The brutality of the Czar not only drives the little Powers to desire union, but makes the great Powers ashamed of it, and it seems, though reluctantly, they will oppose him.

"_This is the first time that a Hungarian statesman has initiated European movement._ If in Europe they are forced to displease Russia, so much the more will they wish to keep Russia in better humour by not thwarting her projects in Armenia, which projects I believe to be just, philanthropic, and necessary under the circ.u.mstances; since the inability of the Sultan to rescue the Armenians from marauders has been proved, and _no_ Power but Russia can do the needful work....

"It is to be feared that Germany cannot add any real strength to control Russia, while Russia knows that the insane vanity of French politicians is preparing a war of vengeance against Germany. Until the ma.s.ses of the people have a practical const.i.tutional plebiscite to _veto_ war _beforehand,_ it seems as though horrors which seem dead and obsolete must rise anew. _Perhaps_ this is the lesson which the populations all have to learn. The earliest great triumph which the old plebeians of Rome won was the const.i.tutional principle that wars could not be made without previous sanction of the popular a.s.sembly. England, alas! has not yet even demanded this obvious and just veto. The men whose trade is war, whose honours and wealth can only be won by war, will make it by hook or by crook, while their fatal and immoral trade is honoured.

"Affectionately yours,

"F. W. Newman."

In April, 1887, the Irish question was again to the fore, and part of the letter from which I quote shows clearly that Newman was in favour of some form of Local Government for Ireland, though not of the same kind as was being pressed forward by Mr. Parnell, who had urged on his countrymen agrarian agitation and boycotting as the screw which was to force the hand of the Home Government.

"My opinion is unchanged (1) that Grattan's Parliament was foolishly, mischievously, and immorally subverted by English double-dealing; (2) that in one hundred years things are so changed in Ireland and _in Rome_ that we cannot go back to that crisis and heal old wounds by reinstating Grattan's work without making new wounds; (3) I deeply blame Orangemen in Belfast as (apparently) bent on promoting animosity, and on convincing us that they will rather rush into civil war than endure a Parliament in Dublin supreme over all Ireland: but however much this may be suspected as the bl.u.s.ter and cunning of a minority in Ulster, to ignore it totally may be unjust as well as unwise. And besides, I think that Ireland needs the practice of Local Government, varying locally, before that of a Central Irish Parliament. This forbids my desiring a complete triumph to Mr.

Parnell.

"You are aware that I have long desired Provincial Chambers for all three kingdoms, and can see nothing to forbid them now for Ireland if Mr.

Gladstone were to take that side. If he did it would be carried against Mr. Parnell by a vast majority of votes. No mere political measure can cure famine and rackrent or insecure tenure; but if the agrarian evil be appeased, no hatred of England on the part of Irish leaders will suffice to make Ireland discontented. If Mr. Gladstone fixedly opposes, if he says 'Honour compels me'--his Midlothian defence of the Egyptian war!--I should not the less say he had made a wrongful treaty. But 'a fac is a fac': _someone_ hitherto makes this settlement impossible. If now the Tories miscarry, apparently Gladstone will come in again, and not Oedipus can tell us whether he will dissolve Parliament.

"It is supposed that he will; and Mr. W. S. Caine, whose prediction in this matter I cannot underrate, warns Mr. Gladstone that to dissolve _again_ will bring on him redoubled failure,--an immense lessening of supporters.