The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-12-30
Nj. Carlyle Fmpenci cd.

The worst is that Mr.. CARLYLE usually
produces his effects ut the expense OF
truth. | Go not mean to charge him
with misstatlng facts. He is no doubt
as careful about correctness, particularly
in costume. rs Il modern stage manager,
but in greater matters, particularly in
the greatest of all, in his estimates OF
great events and characters. NE seems to
me entirely astray / regard him rs the
principal representative of that false
tendency in history which Macaulay
made fashionable, the tendency to sub
stitute literary for political estimate
He makes no secret of this tencency, but
everywhere avows it as if he were intro
ducing reform and not new abuse.
And yet, as / have said, this literary
estimate positively turns history upside
down. 1t teaches us to admire III the
past whatever we most disapprove in
the pre- sent - bloody catastrophes,
desperate policies, revolutions.
Nothing can exceed the simplicity
with which Mr.. Carlyle avows that he
takes no interest III any wise, successful
statesman who has brought happiness to
his country, and that he feels 40 admi-
ration for such a character. In his
Essay on Mirabeau" lie ridicules the
English public for continuing to repeat
the names of Pitt and Fox when heroes
like the leaders of the French Revoin-
ton were soliciting their homage. OF
these leaders he selects three, Mira beau,
Danton and Napoleon, whom he is pre-
pared to maintaion to be characters of an
altogether higher order than Pitt and
Fox. Now, on what ground? Evidently
because of the terrible events in which
were mixed up. Mr.. Carlyle means to
say that stormy scenes III the Tennis
Court or in the Paris streets, September
massacres, battles of AusterlitZ, excite
his Imagination, while Regency of de-
bates and the like put him to sleep. So
feels, no doubt, the literary man in
search of a subject. 1t is little to say
that the historian judges differently. He
reverses the Judgment. To him the
enormous disquict of France is the
strongest presumptive evidence against
the revolutionary statesmen, and the
comparative tranquility OF England the
best proof of the merit of Pitt and Fox.
These general observations upon Mr..
Carlyle as historian have ueen in
tended to lead to some remarks on his
of Cromwell. We know what was the
Old constitutional view Of the great re-
bellion; on one side of politics there
was, OF course, total lisapproval, on the
other side vindication and admiration.
but most carefully qualified Hallam,
the Wing, qualities his appreciation OF
Ppm and Hampden so far rs to hint that
even at the beginning of the civil war
their case was already bad one. As for
the military party, which III the course
OF l6iS became predominant with Crom-
well ut its head, he condemns them alto
gether, and his estimate of Cromwell Is
singularly severe, though he does jus
tice to his ability. Hallam may be
taken to represent the purely political
view. In Macaulay the tone taken is a
degree more literary. He avoids, appar-
entity with intention, giving any dellber-
ate estimate of Cromwell, but is always
warmer and more eloquent than Hallam
in speaking of his achievements Now
comes Mr.. Carlyle with the purely
literary view. Tie tells us that
he has sincerely tried to admire
the Pyms and the Hampdens, but at the
bottom "he has found that II would not
do" OF course not: we are quite pre-
pared to hear that Cromwell seems to
him as much superior to Pym and
HampGen - Milubeau, Danton. and
NAPOLEON to Pitt AMI Fox. For he is
thinking OF the subject purely as 4 liter
AIRY man. and lee sees that from literary
point of view there can he no comparison
between the hero OF Naseby and Dunbar
and two civilians. even though those two
civilians did set on foot Il civil war. Ac-
cordingly he throws aside entirely the
received opinion, and sets up the mill
tary party, rejected before by Wings and
Tories alike, for our admiration. In the
midst of this military party, like Charlie
magne among his peers or Napoleon
among his Marshals. stands Cromwell,
set high above all the statesmen of the
rebellion, and indeed high above all En-
giish statesmen, as a genius of the same
order IN politics rs Shakespeare in liter
ature.- Prof. Seeley, in Macmillan 5
Magazine.