New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-09-04
A GLIMPSE OF FREEMAN.
SOME CHARACTERISTIC CORRESPONDENCE
WITH MR.. THEODORE STANTON.

WITH Mr. THEODORE STANTON.
To the Editor Of The Tribune
| Sir During the past five years had occasional
! letters from Edward A.. Freeman. whose sudden
| death In Spain last spring gave shock to the
| literary world. Portions Of these letters afford
SUCH Characteristic glimpscs of this typical Eng
lishman that it may be interesting to Law them
before your readers.
| Nv correspondence with Professor Freeman was
opened in this way. The Revue DIES Deux-
| Mondes7 of November /, 1887, contained an arti-
Gle by NJ. valbert, in which occurred this aston
| ishing passage:
A celebrated English historian, Mr.. Freeman; who
son who is planter has declared that It Is absolutely
Impossible for him to Lock upon M T"grS If like rTs sn
Irshman settled in the United states TO kill negro
and then to be hanged for having done So dh SooS
not hesitate to Jest In this savage fashion PROPOSES 10
settle at one and the same time two embarrassing gncs
tions-thc slavery problem and that Of the rishman
whom he also refuses o accept man and brother
Why does Mr. Freeman despiss the negro the Only NY
cause his uglneSs is rcpulsive TO him one NAV be
historian Of merit without being philosopher. The
likes and disllkes OF Mr. Freeman are not reasons
sent this extract. Declaring that it could not
possibly be true to Paris paper and aiterward
wrote Professor Freeman for the first time. Here
Ms his reply, dated "IG St Giles, Oxford,
November II, 1857:
been forwarded to me home hove not sec, seer
Witch 1' the extract is made 50 do not know what
the French may he or the context As II stands the
passage seems TO he an absurd misquo'aion OF one o
II | were somerleazc (Mr. Frceinan'S home IN
somerseo. would send you the eNnc, page III, r.,
have taken a sporve saying quite seriously
This second letter followed
10 81. Giles. oxford November %. 1851
Mo SssT had t"a ALREADY 'o5 sot rps of it IN
Taylor Library here. II docs not disturb mo. There
ose 'a and WITH With whom is useless 10 argue
think they rather thick on the ground In France
,s dms sH R TS Sr reaon Si bet I
and Hungary as conras,ed Win the false ah10gy so
would care about this.
On December he wrote again as follows con-
corning the subject mentioned in the last para
graph of the preceding letter:
My Dear Sir: When proposed to write something
that The Tines had settled not 10 put In letter
which sent 1t on that subject more than week ago
have been little uninteigiblo as tho article on which
1t was founded must have been quite forgotten
don't whether this makes any difference In your
wishing or not wishing for something OF the same KIND
II it does not. will write and send you something
In few days came an essay entitled Cont
mental Examples Of Home Rule" which Tory
paper on the continent criticised editorially. Pro-
| lessor Freeman replied as follows:
He that wrote the editorial note cannot reason.
say thar Home Rule is nothing new or strange, as al
ready existing in several countries The critic
than ireland; so OF them but some are much
larger The question OF SIC Is qnIe 21 ,s 81 place at
at the end OF nv letter. II / said that Home Rule
must succeed In ireland because 1t succeeds IN Man
e e wssn% q But Ss f Emmy a Ea1d
Britain the mother country OF Man or the Channel
@na to say mat f s owe sSen s s mort
the fnct that Man lies between Britain and Ireland
America Sa Just now may possibly get there this year
or before long. This plan was never carried out how
ever)
Tie following letter is dated Beauvas, France,
April 90. 1885,:
Dear Mr.. stanton: Your letter has found me here
/ could not undertake to say anything about Matthew
see no. wit or wisdom in taking about Psines
light and sweetness" numbers, and all that;
think that would dsplcsse anybody 'fr. Arnold had
On the other subject the German and European.
may be able to ma something to say ana | VIII
A subsequent letter contains this passage:
think may write yoa snch an article as yon pro
versIues great puzzle to Americans Irish. Scotch
and mnt d tint h can sSrsSr "f
relations between the Union aud the states analogy
practically very near though historically false
In an article on Professor Freeman THE Lon
don Atbenacum' said
His style injured by the fact That most Of what
he wrote was dictated as he paced mp and down the
room and he took little tronbe in the way Of subse
quent correction
What little ] saw of Professor Frecman's
literary ways would seem TO contradict this
structure, at least as regards the statement
tanned In the last phrase OF the foregoing para
graph.
During my relations with Professor Freeman,
must have received from him, besides score OF
Others, at least ten pretty long manuscripts.
Both letters and manuscripts were all In his own
handwriting. They were. Furthermore, carefully
paragrsphcd and punctuatcd and bore evidence Of
many corrections. In addition, Professor Free
man always asked for n proof OF his articles, and
these proofs were never returned without con-
tanning several changes. This same carefulncss
YVES shown In his private correspondence. Thus,
to cite but one example in this batch Of CORE
spondcncc one N the letters from which QUOTA
ton was given above contained originally the
phrase "anaogy Of" which is changed TO
analogy to-
Another letter contains notable instance Of
Professor Freernans precision and illustrates at
the time one of his many crotchets. a
certain manuscript contained word that neither
cOmpositors, foreman nor proofreaders could de-
cipher Professor Freeman wrote with quill
and had peculiar and vexing way OF clipping
short long lettrrs. Thus and n were generally
formed with n single stroke. and an h looked
about the same, while a. c, S, C, and several other
letters scarcely differed one from the other.
Professor Frccman's chirography unquestion-
ably defective, whatever may be thought of his
literary style. In the case inst mentioned | was
called upon in dernier resort to decide what the
indecipherahle phrase was and | very innOcently
pronounced in favor of "AnQlo-SaXon," never
imagining that it was this very expression which
Professor Freeman particularly abhored. But |
was not left very long in ignorance of the fact.