Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-03
TWO BROTHERS EsrRANGED.

TWO BROTHERS EsTRANGED.
How Cardinal Newman and His Bro
Their Francis Became Separated.
From the New York Times.
The estrangement which for many years
divided the brothers Newman has been well
known in this country but the recent death
Of Francis w. Newman has led to an article
on the subject in the London Times, which
will be read with interest.
The death of Professor Francis Newman.
the younger brother of Cardinal Newman,
evokes many memories of the movement
that SO deeply stirred the mind and heart of
all that was best In England in the second
quarter of this century. 1t Is no reflection
on the gifts of intellect and character which
Mr. Newman shared with his illustrious
brother to say that from very early
period in his career he was overshadowed
by the personality of his more famous reia-
tive.
Yet these gifts were of q high order. as
Mr. Newman's published writings prove,
and had he possessed the power or the will
to apply them differently, they might easily
have won for him position and reputation
in the world. In academic honors he COM
pletely outstripped the future cardinal. A
double first and a fellow of Balliol in
1896 when he was but twenty-one, there
was no distinction which his university had
to offer to which he might not have legiti-
mately aspired.
But like John Henry Newman, Francis
Newman was a profoundly religious man.
From the mother they both SO deeply loved
the two brothers, as little children, had i'm
bibed d conviction of the overwhelming i'm
pCrtance of religious truth and views of
that truth handed down to them by her
from her Huguenot ancestors. With this
conviction and with this stock of opinions,
they found themselves. as young men,
brought face to face with the problems
which we're then beginning to ag1tate
ligious thinkers at Oxford
When the time came for Francis Newman
to take his degree Of master of arts, he
could not conscientiously sign the Thirty
nine Articles, a step which then and long
afterward was, Of course, Indispensable. 1t
is characteristic of him that he does not
seem to have hesitated about his course.
He threw up his fellowship and all his bril-
liant prospects rather than make any COM
promise with his conscience, and left Ok
ford forever.
Before he left Oxford his views ON some
Of the cardinal doctrines of the church
were completely heterodox. But the old be-
lief of the supreme Importance of religion
seems to have burned within him none the
less strongly on that account. He went to
Bagdad as "millenarian' missionary, ami
tfere laid the foundation of the vast store
OF oriental knowledge which he subsequent
ly accumulated 1t was on his return from
this journey that he appears first to have
learned that the breach between him and
his brother must be complete.
The character and the mental history Of
the two men made this inevitable, but the
blow must have been of no ordinary Sc
verify to both, for both were keenly sensi-
tive, and both had in them. at this time, at
least strain of almost womanly tender
ness. Il wished for woman's SOUL"
wrote Francis of this period, that might
weep in floods. My heart was ready to
break" While Francis was lying in quar-
antine Off the coast Of England. a letter
came to him from fe
forming MIN that he was spiritually "sus-
pect. His brother, who by this time had
neen completely converted to priestly doc
times, cut him off from all private friend
ship and acquaintance, thereby seyerine
MIN from other members of his family who
were living with him. One by one ali those
WIN Wnom ne had previously held converse
turned against him, and ceased to ackuowl-
ecge him as a friend.
Clearness of intellectual insight and
dogged resolve to follow out principles to
; tesi u.m,ost iosicai conclusion were quail
ities common to the minds of both the
NeWmans perhaps as part of their inher-
lance from their Huguenot ancestry. By
tEis time both of them had adopted prin-
| cipies. ana those principles were irrecon-
ctlable. The future history of their lives
was the history of growing divergences of
belief until the elder brother joined the
onurc a OF Rome and the younger had
ceased to call himself Christian.
The lives of the two brothers are in a
measure typical of the growth of the two
great streams which English thought has
tended to follow since the days when they
were up at Oxford together. 1t Is at frs.
sight strange to find two members of the
same family, of nearly the same age.
brought up under the same Influences, and
tende-iy attached to, each other, rapidly
driven by the same eAusss into opposite
camps. and tending through long years
to move further and further from each
other until sympathetic comprehension of
the others standpoint was certainly not
possible to one of Them or perhaps to
either: But this phenomenon, which Is
not altogether unusual either in the do
main OF religious thought or in other
spheres, Is really natural enough. It
springs from the resemblance Of the mind
and character of men of the same stock
and training which leads them to face
great subjects in the same sort of way.
Yet the story Is often q sad one. and this
story of the Newmans:' as'lau students of
English literature know, has inspired
great English novelist who differed pro-
foundly with both ofothem, with one Of
the most touching and -bT1iliant passages
In all our language as to the torrents of
the search for truth and The doubts and
the uncertainties OF tie quest.
The last work written by< Francis New
man was memoir Of the early years Of
his brother, Cardinal Newman, but 1t was
conceived In q spirit which gave pain to
the friends Of both these distinguished
men