New-York tribune., 1903-04-12

3
filled with trivialities. We refuse TO believe
that he acted in bad faith. for all that Sir
James Crichton- Browne and Mr.. Alexander
Carlyle have difficulty in discovering. among
the letters they publish. cases which would
seem to give color to the charge Froude
though they seem to forget it, was a gentle
man. Only last Sunday We had occasion TO cite
Bret Harte's tribute to HIM But Froude-
dear old noble fellows splendid He Is
great broad manly-demOcratc in the best
sense of the word. scorning all sycoDhancy and
neanness" Yet this is the whom are
asked to regard as capable of deliberately mis-
representing of his dearest friends and that
friends wife. all for the sake Of his vanity. all
because he had adopted a certain line IN regard
/ to them, and 700 cowardly TO take back
anything he had written In the Introduction
and notes to these volumes he Is again and
again exposed" with triumph. but In no case
does the exposure hurt him in the least On tho
contrary. through excess Of bitterness or OK
eagerness to exploit the1 material, tho
editors end by inspiring feeling OF irnpatience,
] if not of resentment 1t IS difficult 70 Asten 70
| such iI-tempered disputaLts- Even when one
has constrained himself to forget the heat OK
| their argument. and has settled down 70 study
| the logic it assumes TO possess, one IS only tAs
| more amazed the claims they put Forward
We cannot follow them through all the phases
linen of the Carlyles. There is nothing TO gam
bv the process which would be. besides, petty
and nauseating One or two salient points IN
| the discussion, however. must be briefly tra'-
ersed.
| Roughly speaking, the basis indicated in these
volumes for a reversal of the Judgment invited
bv Froude lies in the fact that they contain let
ters contradictory in tone. and IN speclnc oe-
tails. of the sombre impression left by the
he Aar
and again Mrs Carlyle writes in very happy
vein and if one had no other sources 70 go Oy
one might not unnaturally think that she and
her husband were perpetuaily on as sood terms
as could be desired But Froude puDllSHeu
happy letters and what is more 10 the POiDt' n7
knew better than to take one such or d seO'er %
inyaIidating the essential drIIt OF MIS- "a
IyIes correspondence when II Is ldAeA d
whole and the testimony of his own study OF
the problen at large 1t must not De 1orsOIIeh
that he put his volumes together while the IN
nressions of his long friendship with Carlyle
,yera fresh and vivid and he had every riSnt 10
profit by those Impressions. which must nave
Illuminated every manuscript that paSse"
through his hands, enabling MN 10 uISceiH '-0
solid truth lying beneath them lie must nave
realized too what the editors OF the EO4uI-eS
before us do not seem to have even begun ~
guass-tbat a woman OF character like MIS-
does not necessarily HeelA ACA Ai0e--N
bar sleeve and write to all and sundry exActS
uhat she thinks about her domestic aLlNeI4eS-
That she suffered, and that Carlyle after heT
death WINGED over her sufferings. IL is Useless -
danv Ii IS as absurd to wave away the hrSe VI
those facts on the strength of nuInOeE U
cheerful letters as il is to attempt 10 dlspUSe
+ba second as Sir James Crichton-Bro"ne doeS'
bv bIandIv explaining that when Carlyle IS-iASu
"rernorse" he didn't mean what the reS1 VI -
mean by the word, and by arguing around anu
around with fatuities like this: Even hau Ne -
the pIainest terms, professed remorse anu SCI
forth his gro Inds of it, Froude should h~+'s
bean charv in accepting the statement @A's
we To believe that a man like Carlyle, even IL
his old age. does not know what ne IeelS anu
tbinksq And are we to believe that a woman
like Mrs Carlyle is going to I'LL every letter She
writes with complaints of her husband N0L-sn
of dignity do not do that sort OF thlnS-
Let us glance for apt iLustralloh' 1' HIS
C,or1v1a,s relations with her mother. There "ere
manifold little collisions" between theih a.
cordine, to her husband In a letter written
from Ayr. where the two were staying toSeIAeI'
Mrs CARLYLE says: My mother continues the
worst natured of women; but let her De uolls'
and keep never minding-' once q day seh-
erally after breakfast she tries a faIl with me-
This was in August 1859. Only few months
earlier in April of the same year. when MES