The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-05-05
Oh Es TON.
WEDNESDAY, MORNING. MAY s, 1869.
mr. Frouae,s Great Speech.

WEDNESDAI mOhNlN0s mh4 U, Aoo0'
MIR. Froude's Great Speech.
III the republic Of f,letters, 'sslin other
ill regulated governments, subj cot may
become 60 powerful as to set justice at de-
Aance and to brave the literary tribunals
through which it is administered. For
such recalcitrants there Is unfortunately no
critical "vehm Court'' which can, by coil
and dsgger, frighten into submission. the
intellectual outlaws, who cannot be reached
BY, the ordinary executioner. But il lite
rary justice lacks these extraordinary meth
DDS, it's judgments, on the other hand, pos:
ssss.' the peculiar quality OF executing
themselves. Like the ban Of pope or the
ukases Of society, they ask no help from,
hslberd or lsnee, sraall sword or tipstsve.
TAIp-ae, tAAi.-.iask uith- unsrrinx- Certainty
in the minds Of men, and when just some
times when unjust, vindicate sooner or
later their authority. They may encounter.
bold eontumacy, but need not fear success;
full resistance - '.''.-.-. - s'r '5
Mi. Froude is unquestionably one Of
these. literary satraps whose influence
In letters may well give pause to the
most august critical tribunal that fssls
imprelled to render an unfayorable decree
upon his performances. His essays and
his history have placed beyond the reach
of question the facts Of his great learning,
this logicsf power, and, quality more valu-
able, because rsrsr than the others, his.
judicial character Of mind. The knowledge
o. these qualities furnishes ground for
ample expectations as to the value Of his
uttsranoes, and at once explains and justi-
fies the amount Of consideration bestowed
upon his late speech ct st. Andrews. But
even upon the provincial critic the reputa-
ton Of an author cannot impose silence,
though il may create hesitation, and, there
fore, our purpose to show that Mr.. Froude's
pledges have not been redeemed BY his late
speech must be performed, but is perform
ed with misgiying. n.e--. "a.
In oritieising the proposition intend
ed to be established by Mr.. Froude's
speech, the difficulty meets one at the
outset which encounters him, who, in the
sdsge, purposes to cook the hare he has
not caught. The task Of catching Mr..
Froude's exact idea is not inconsidersble,
and the attentive reader IS compelled to
hunt it down through much Of rhetorical
'underbrush; II is an open question whether
the pursuit leads to the result which would
justify resort to the famous literary device
Of Captain Cutie, namely, Of ''making q
j"nots." /. It is not in any ones powssto
assert dogmsticaily that he has succeeded
IN eliminating from Mr.. Froudes speech
the precise thesis meant to be propoundsd.
As nearly as We can guess at it, Mr. Froude
means to say that the providing food and
other material human want is, viewed as
object Of human exertion, paramount to the
pursuit Of mental culture. If this guess
bs correct, then Mr.. Froude has spent much
labor and logic upon proposition that
completely fulals the .defaition of q truism.
There is q certain sententious manner Of
announcing commonplace thought, which
imparts to the latter the semblanoe Of
apothegm, and Of this happy gift the au-
thor Of Proverbial Philosophy is the unri-
vailed master. This idea of Mr.. Froude,
if indeed it is his, furnishes just the raw
material adapted to be elaborated into
Tupperian hendeossyllsbic. If not self
evident in it's terms, at least we may say
that the logic Of nature furnishes its pal
pable demonstration. The mouth may speak,
not only from the fullness Of the heart, but
from the emptiness Of the stomach. The
stomach Of the scholar has rights, and luck
lily for its owner, has the power Of assert
ing them. 1t is true, the provision made
for scholarly stomaohs in most countries
indicates general conviction that those
rights are not extensive; but in justice to
mankind, it must be said, that the general
effort to reduce them to minimum has
never degenerated into the problem of
making them zero. If, however, Mr..
Froude's meaning is that much bread with
little scholarship is better thing than
enough bread with much scholarship, he
expresses sentiment which sounds strange
ly in the mouth Of one who can so well sp.
.preoiste the rewards Of the scholar, and
knows 50 well how to weigh the loaves and
fishes in q balance, that does not obey q