New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-05-06
MATTHEW ARNOLD.
PASSAGES RELATING CHIEFLY TO HIS VISITS
TO AMERICA.

~ AhEtAiSA
trxou THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE rKrBrTNEJ
LoSDoS, April IL.
wish To have done with the one point In my
memories OF Arnold which is painful one and
/ will begin with it, though it belongs at the very
end I resented perhaps more keenly than you
did at home his late-his last-article on America.
II is the fashion now in New-York-or 1t tries to
DE the fashion-to take foreign criticisms lightly,
and it is a good fashion when not carried TO eX-
rremes. But to an American living abroad,
living where this attack on his own country ap-
peared it is less easy to take it lightly. America
is at best, none too well understood in England
You may say you don't care whether you are under
stood or not but that is not quite serious answer
You do care, and must care In no conceivable
event can the relations between the United States
and England be a matter Of indifference to the
people Of either country They depend on the
opinions the people of each nation form about
the other. Arnold's paper on Civilization in the
United States had direct tendency to diminish the
respect of the English for the Americans and there
fore to lessen their goodwill and so to make the
feeling between the two countries less corolal
than before That is why l thought it so de-
plorable. The influence Of it is more quickly
perceptible here than with you 1t was already
to DO seen in the rush OF lesser and, IN ordinary
circumstances, quite unimportant persons INTO
print. each with his little sheaf of antiAmerican
prejudices which he was impatient to air. Arnolds
death has enhanced the effect His last artlcle
is sought for and read beau it is his last II
is reproduced in fact in the papers. The leading
paper of Liverpool to mention only one discussed
IL editorially through q column and hail. The
dead hand Of the great writer lies heavily on US;
more heavily than when it held the pen. True,
the more cultivated and intelligent classes are
incredulous. They don't think we can be quite
what he painted us. But who does not know
that the Masses and not the Glasses now rule IN
Engandp
Arnold himself thought I was unfair TO him, as
] thought he was unfair to U.s. Perhaps, to some
little extent, my dispatch seemed the more un-
fair because of the office headlines. But with or
without the headline, it would no doubt have
seemed TO him unfair. He saw for the first time
the points he had made against us collected to-
gether and the friction Of each against the other
sharpened them all 1 sent him my dispatch as
was bound to do and amid all the regrets which
darktn these last few days. it is delight TO
know that his friendship for me remained the
same. He wrote me as follows:
Buckingham Gate, S. W., April 49,
My dear Smalley: I don't think the nice
Americans ought to take to themselves YES
Th' ,ssy ss SSS ang moTs than
nice" English what say about shortcomings
in the life OF ours. but WAS determined TO say
at solae time what thought OF the newspapers
over there and of the prevalent greatest Nation
upon earth' strain, and / ain not without hope
that 1t may do good.
L think you win end BY judging this article Of
mine less unfayorably. Ever truly G9nnrSn
MATTHEW ARNOLD.
The sentencs or two which have omitted are
even more kindly in their tone to me than the
rest and cannot print them. The rest of it
print for the pleasure it gives me to share with
my friends at home this last message from him. ana
In justice TO him. From the general Judgment
I formed and expressed upon his Civilization in
the United States cannot depart, but II there
were a word in it which panied him as coming
from q friend, would give anything to recall 1t.
There are many words which pain me as look
through all have said-rcsentful words which
add nothing to the force of the protest / wanted
to make but weaken it. do not explain to my
self how came TO use them, nor forgive myself
for using them. II be had lived it might have
been no great matter; blow given or taken is
soon forgotten But never does the frrevocablle
verbum seem SO hopelessly beyond recall as when
The shadow Of death has fallen upon him OF whom
1t was said.
As look over Arnold's letters to me- find
many relating to his two American journeys We
had talked the first together some time before
he finally resolved TO CO. Undoubtedly Arnold
went to America with hopes doomed in advance TO
disappointment He wanted TO make; large
sum Of money, and he referred again and again to
the sum which Thackeray brought back with
him, as if that were kind Of precedent. Thack-
erays gains amounted to $50, 000 II Arnold really
expected that his lectures would return him that
sum- or anything like it. his visit must have seemed
10 him a failure from the financial point of view.
lie soon became aware that lecturing is business
which requires experience and natural aptltudes.
lie had no experience and no special fitness for
the platform Nor was he man to care for
money for its own sake, or for his own sake 1t
happened to him at this time to desire the use
of considerable sum, not for himself but for an
other This need was what drove him to lecturing.
Yet his mood was surely not in all respects On over
sanguIne one. He wrote in April, 1888: / want
TO talk to you about America next January
though probably shall be horrid fasco there.
The Critic gives me an unhopeful notion OF the
line intellect is taking over there
AS we'll it might. The discussions and his
negotiations with various agents went on for
some months. 1t was not till August that his
mind was made up. Here is the note announcing
bis decision:
Fox How, Ambleside, August 6.
My dear Smalley: You have been SO kind abou1
my going to the States that l am bound to tell
you the uncertainty about it is ut last removed
I have got all the leave want, and shall go In
October. I think D'Oyly Carte will undertake
me, but his engagements on this side make it a
est sle a Very likely shall fail to draw but
/ should not have been more likely to draw two
years hence when falling into dotage Most truly
yours MATTHEW AfNOLD'
A few weeks later came another letter.
Gotham, Surrey, Sept Is, 1888.
Ny dear Smslley: DOyly Carte has under
taken me- and / am very glad of IL. Fred Mac
milan is TO settle the arrangement with him:
He will have charge. of the lecturing business and
expenses only as Se Mrs arsOi ta hI for
poor author to travel with, but Mrs. Arnold was
averse TO my going quite alone. and u she went
IL WIS better again that daughter should 60 TO