The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-02

e6acinx and too ironic, not TO say cynical.
In his capacity Of editor Of the Dictionary
Of National Biography, he probably would
have reduced a reasonably full article on
Stephen. Leslie, Man of Letters until
IL wos q brief string Of curt phrases--third
son Of Sir James Stephen; educated at Eton
and Trinity Hall, Cambridge; owing to
some religious scruples he resigned a tutor
ship; became editor Of the CornhW Mega
st~s, and afterward of this dictionary,
and climbed the Shreokhorn." though it
b by no means certain that the Shreckhorn
CLAUSE would not have been suppressed.
|, Not having the fear OF Stephens revision
before his eyes, Mr.. Maitland has made
a book of nearly Ave hundred pages.
james Stephen, the great-grandfather
o. the subject Of this biography came from
Aberdsenshire to England about the middle
Of the eighteenth century. The Benohers
Of tho Middle Temple refused to call him
70 the bar, owing to his want OF birth,
want OF fortune, want of education and
want OF temper" How many OF the de-
~scsndants OF this man who could not get
called TO the bar have done Judgment
% mankind from benches more or less
excited In England. Australia and India
4 would be long TO tell. Seven at least
Of them have been knighted; two Of them
were Privy Councillors. Leslie's grand
father became a member OF Parliament
and a Master in Chanoery. He married
W~iTberforoe's sister and became one OF
W~ifberforce's closest allies in the crusade
against negro slavery. Leslie's father,
80 R9.AA H. O. Iroaa G@o.L.- T. ~ N
was for many momentous years in British
history Permanent Under Secretary for the
Colonies, and in hat capacity, according
to his colleague, Sir Henry Taylor. -virtu-
ally ruled the colonial empire Score
taries of State for the Colonies might come
and 60, but the Under Secretary remained
forever. To say just what he did and what
he did not do would probably be impossi-
bic, sven for one who should ransack the
archives OF the Colonial Ofice. This,
doubtless, was the reason why tho sons
felt constrained to say less than they might
have wished OF a father whom they greatly
admired. IL is well known that In 1870,
having been compelled by i'll health TO
resign bis place in the Colonial Onloe, be
was, at Macaulay's suggestion. invited
60 accept the post Of regius professor Of
modern history at Cambridge. The special
ground for the appointment was his author
ship OF the Essays in Eccleeisstical Biog-
rsphy,' which, during the previous eleven
years, he had contributed to the Edin-
buroh Rspiev, and which had earned for
him . deserved celebrity in the literary
world. His published lectures on tn
history OF France used to be a text book
in Harvard University, and are still doubt
less read.
Leslie Stephen was horn on November
y. 1882. II We may speak of Q Victorian
An, he may we'll be said to nave flour
ished' in it, for at both ends his life over
tapped the Queens reign by a few years.
The earliest public event that he could re-
member was her scoession, and he was
knighted on the coronation Of Edward VII.
As a boy he was no prodigy intellectually.
Authentic came easy 10 him, but be was
backward in reading. After he IL 0 years
old we find him -at last reading by himself
and having got through twenty pages OF
Jack tho Giant Killer" Later, when he
vent TO q private school in Brighton, his
teacher said that he had never taught SO
quick o hoy. At the end OF Is<l b was sent
to Eton, but he had no fair chanoe of making
friends at school, since he lived with his
parents at the town OF Windsor and was
but a day scholar. As TO his lessons, when
his delicate health would permit him to
work ut all he was diligent. As his biogra-
pher says, he was the east Etonian of Eton
men, though he came to be one Of the most
Cantabngian OF Cambridge men. When
be was taOsn away from Eton at the end OF
Is46 one OF his teachers, in writing TO his
father, spoke strongly OF his want OF sue
oess in making Latin verses, OF his not
having the power OF p~eroeiving beauty.
and OF the necessity OF cultivating his taste
His father seems not to have been impressed
by the information, for in the same year,
making q note about his three sons, he said
that Leslie was tho cleverest.
After Spending some time at a private
school Leslie was snter ed as a student at
Kings College, London, but in 1850, his
father having become meanwhile regius
professor OF modern history, he became an
undergraduate OF Trinity Hall, Cambridge,
a college OF which his father was a member.
Trinity Hall, by the way. was, with one ex-
ception, the smallest college in Cambridge.
and IL had been rare for one of its graduates
to present himself for a mathematical
tripos OF 70 take an honor degree in arts.
Leslie Stephen, on the other hand, obtained
q scholarship n a first class in the tripos
0he was twentieth ~wrangler), delivered
speeches at the Union Debating Society,
rowsd spsrgetically. read ~miscellaneously,
made frisnds. and in fine got the best that
Cambridge had to give. It appears, too,
that In spite Of his working hard at his stud
lee be soon became popular with his fellow
students, though as the member OF a very
small college he had no great choice of
friends. OF the famous little society COM
monty called the Apostles Leslie never
became . member, though his elder brother.
FitxjAmes, had been one. This he regretted,
both then and afterward. A close friend
ship with Henry Fawcett, ultimately Post
master General, began in 1853, when Faw-
cett migrated" TO Trinity Hall. After
gra~duation-that Is TO say, in December,
1s54-Lesie Stephen was appointed to the
0oodbehsre~ Fellowship, the holder OF which
had no voice In the government OF the
college and received no share In the cor
porate revenue, but in return for an income
OF floo a year, provided by a special endow-
ment, was 10 assist the tutors In chapel and