Produced by Michael Madden
The Life of Froude
By Herbert Paul
London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1905.
Although eleven years have elapsed since Mr. Froude's death, nobiography of him has, so far as I know, appeared. This book is anattempt to tell the public something about a man whose writings havea permanent place in the literature of England.
It is a pleasure to acknowledge my obligation to Miss MargaretFroude for having allowed me the use of such written material asexisted. A large number of Mr. Froude's letters were destroyed afterhis death, and it was not intended by the family that any biographyof him should be written. Finding that I was engaged upon the task,Miss Froude supplied those facts, dates, and papers which wereessential to the accuracy of the narrative. Mr. Froude's niece, Mrs.St. Leger Harrison, known to the world as Lucas Malet, has allowedme to use some of her uncle's letters to her mother.
Lady Margaret Cecil has, with great kindness, permitted me to makecopious extracts from Mr. Froude's letters to her mother, the lateCountess of Derby. I must also express my gratitude to Sir ThomasSanderson, Lord Derby's executor, to Cardinal Newman's literaryrepresentative Mr. Edward Bellasis, and to Mr. Arthur Clough, son ofFroude's early friend the poet.
Mr. James Rye, of Balliol College, Oxford, placed at my disposal,with singular generosity, the results of his careful examinationinto the charges made against Mr. Froude by Mr. Freeman.
The Rector of Exeter was good enough to show me the entries in thecollege books bearing upon Mr. Froude's resignation of hisFellowship, and to tell me everything he knew on the subject.
My indebtedness to the late Sir John Skelton's delightful book,
The Table Talk of Shirley, will be obvious to my readers.
I have, in conclusion, to thank my old friend Mr. Birrell, forlending me his very rare copy of the funeral sermon preached byMr. Froude at Torquay.
October 30, 1905.
IN reading biographies I always skip the genealogical details. Tobe born obscure and to die famous has been described as the acme ofhuman felicity. However that may be, whether fame has anything to dowith happiness or no, it is a man himself, and not his ancestors,whose life deserves, if it does deserve, to be written. Such wasFroude's own opinion, and it is the opinion of most sensible people.Few, indeed, are the families which contain more than one remarkablefigure, and this is the rock upon which the hereditary principlealways in practice breaks. For human lineage is not subject to thescientific tests which alone could give it solid value as positiveor negative evidence. There is nothing to show from what source,other than the ultimate source of every good and perfect gift,Froude derived his brilliant and splendid powers. He was a gentleman,and he did not care to find or make for himself a pedigree. He knewthat the Froudes had been settled in Devonshire time out of mind asyeomen with small estates, and that one of them, to whom his ownfather always referred with contempt, had bought from the Heralds'College what Gibbon calls the most useless of all coats, a coatof arms. Froude's grandfather did a more sensible thing by marryingan heiress, a Devonshire heiress, Miss Hurrell, and thereby doublinghis possessions. Although he died before he was five-and-twenty, heleft four children behind him, and his only son was thehistorian's father.
Jam