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Lecky’s Leaders of public opinion in Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Donal McCartney
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Extract

The great Anglo-Irish historian, W.E.H. Lecky, was born in Dublin in 1838. He is best remembered for his volumes on Ireland and England in the eighteenth century (begun in the 1870s and completed in the 1890s). His European reputation had already been made with his History of the rise and inpuence of the spirit of rationalism in Europe (1865), and his History of European morals from Augustus to Charlemagne (1869).

Type
Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 54 , September 1964 , pp. 119 - 141
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1964

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References

1 A college friend [i.e. Arthur Booth], ‘Early recollections of Mr Lecky’, in National Review, xliii. no (Mar. 1904).

2 T.C.D., MS R. 7–67. By permission of the Board of Trinity College, Dublin, I was able to consult the Lecky correspondence and manuscripts. I wish to thank the Board for granting me this permission and also Mr William O’Sullivan, keeper of the manuscripts, who was most helpful.

3 In a letter, 16 June 1859, Lecky wrote: ‘Yesterday we had the closing night at the Historical …; not having the fear of conservatism and the clergy before my eyes, I had the audacity to review (in its relation to political and sectarian public opinion) the struggles for nationality in Ireland and to launch a diatribe at the political clergy’ ( Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir of the right hon. William Edward Hartpole Lecky, pp. 15–16).Google Scholar

4 Lecky, , The leaders of public opinion in Ireland (1861), pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., p. 2.

6 Leaders (1861), p. 3.

7 Ibid., p. 276.

8 Ibid., p. 293.

9 Ibid., p. 285.

10 Ibid., p. 289.

11 Ibid., p. 303.

12 Ibid., p. 302.

13 Ibid., pp. 299–300.

14 Ibid., p. 306.

15 Acton to Gladstone, Mary, 25 Mar. 1881 (Letters of Lord Acton to Mary, daughter of the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 2nd ed., 1913, 1913 pp. 63).Google Scholar

16 Leaders (1861), p. 74; Leaders (1871), pp. 80–1, Leaders (new edition, 1903), i. 57.

17 Leaders (1861), pp. 305–6.

18 Hibernicus [i.e. W. Ε. H. Lecky], Friendship and other poems (1859), p. 2. Lecky’s manuscript of these poems is T.C.D., MS R. 7.69. His own copy of the published volume with manuscript alterations is T.G.D., MS R. 7. 70.

19 ‘Early recollections of Mr Lecky’, in National Review, xliii. 111 (Mar. 1904).

20 Hyde, H.M. (ed.), A Victorian historian private letters of W. E. H. Lecky, 1859–78, p. 51.Google Scholar

21 Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir, p. 30.Google Scholar

22 Ibid., pp. 52–3.

23 Ibid., p. 52.

24 Lecky to Bowen, 12 June 1868 ( Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir, p. 57).Google Scholar

25 ‘Early recollections of Mr Lecky’, in National Review, xliii. 116 (Mar. 1904).

26 Many of these were written into a commonplace book, T.C.D., MS R. 7–30. The epigrams which he included in Leaders were marked 6 ‘L.P.O’ ; those which he used during debates at the Historical are marked ‘H’.

27 Leaders (1861), pp. 306–7.

28 Cork examiner, 7 Feb. 1862.

29 O’Neill Daunt Journal, N.L.I. MS 3041, under the date 17 Mar. 1862. See also Daunt, O’Neill, A Life spent for Ireland, pp. 189–90.Google Scholar

30 Leaders (1861), pp. 291–4.

31 ‘Early recollections of Mr Lecky’, in National Review, xliii. 117 (Mar. 1904).

32 Lecky to Knightley Chetwode, 21 Mar. 1866 ( Hyde, (ed.), A Victorian historian, p. 67).Google Scholar

33 Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir, p. 47.Google Scholar

34 Lecky, , Leaders (1903), 2. 279.Google Scholar Lecky gives as his source Froude, , Carlyle, 1. 399.Google Scholar

35 Leaders (1871), p. xviii.

36 Leaders (1871), pp. xiv, xviii-xix, 191, 195–6.

37 Ibid., p. xxiv.

38 Hyde, (ed.), A Victorian historian, p. 81 Google Scholar

39 Longman to Lecky, 30 Apr. 1878 (Lecky correspondence, T.G.D., no. 142).

40 Lecky to Booth, 16 Mar. 1872 ( Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir, p. 84).Google Scholar

41 Hyde, (ed.), A Victorian historian, p. 83.Google Scholar One of the three was M. F Cusack, the famous Poor Clare, the ‘Nun of Kenmare’, who explained that on account of expenses connected with new convent buildings she could not afford to buy a copy. Lecky sent her one, which she later quoted in the preface to her book The liberator : his life and times (1872), in order to illustrate a typical Englishman’s prejudice. When Lecky corrected her about his nationality she apologised and offered to do so by a letter to the newspapers (Lecky correspondence, T.C.D., nos 66, 83).

42 Lecky to O’Neill Daunt, 22 Jan. 1886, 14 Dec. 1879 (Lecky correspondence, T.G.D., nos 179, 180 [copy], 358). See also Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir, pp. 138–40,Google Scholar and O’Neill Daunt Journal, N.L.L, MS 3042, Appendix, for the letter dated 14 Dec. 1879.

43 O’Neill Daunt Journal, N.L.I., MS 3042, 30 Sept. 1881.

44 Lecky to O’Neill Daunt, 14 Dec. 1879, 22 Dec. 1879 (Lecky correspondence, T.G.D., nos 179, 183).

45 Lecky to O’Neill Daunt, 16 Jan. 1886 ( Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir, pp. 185–6).Google Scholar

46 Lecky to O’Neill Daunt, 14 Dec. 1879, 11 Dec. 1880 (Lecky correspondence, T.C.D., nos 179, 214).

47 O’Neill Daunt Journal, N.L.I., MS 3042, 11 Sept. 1880; Lecky to O’Neill Daunt, 1 Oct. 1880 (Lecky correspondence, T.G.D., no. 204. See also Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir, pp. 144–6Google Scholar).

48 Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir, pp. 146–7.Google Scholar The words excluded by Mrs Lecky are given inside the square brackets ‘Political agitation, assisted by three or four bad harvests and in the last few months by the [criminal] laxity and [the criminal] encouragement of [in my opinion] the [worst] chief secretary [of the present century], has fatally overclouded the prospects of the country … (Lecky to O’Neill Daunt, 15 Oct. 1880, Lecky correspondence, T.G.D., no. 206). The chief secretary referred to by Lecky was W. E. Forster.

49 The Times, 13 Jan. 1886.

50 The Times, 4 Feb. 1886.

51 Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir, p. 190.Google Scholar

52 Lecky, , ‘nationalist parliament’, in Nineteenth century, xix. pp. 636–44 (Apr. 1886).Google Scholar Lady Blennerhassett to Lecky, 5 Apr. 1886 (Lecky correspondence, T.G.D., no. 371).

53 J. P. Prendergast to Lecky, 17 Jan. 1886 (Lecky correspondence, T.G.D., no. 354).

54 O’Brien, R. Barry, The life of Charles Stewart Parnell (London, 1898), 2. 101–3Google Scholar ‘Irish wrongs and English remedies’, in Nineteenth Century, xviii. pp. 707–21 (Nov. 1885).

55 O’Brien, R. Barry, ‘Three attempts to rule Ireland justly’ in Nineteenth Century, 19. p. 625 (Apr. 1886).Google Scholar

56 Longman to Lecky, 30 Apr. 1886 (Lecky correspondence, T.G.D., no. 380).

57 Lecky to Longman, 2 May 1886 ( Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir, pp. 195–6).Google Scholar

58 Longman to Lecky, 15 July 1886 (Lecky correspondence, T.C.D., no. 397).

59 Lawrence to Lecky, 12 Mar. 1887 (Lecky correspondence, T.G.D., no. 424).

60 The Times, 1 May 1886.

61 The Times, 3, 4, 8 June 1886. Lecky’s reply to Harcourt is in The Times, 3, 7, 9 June 1886.

62 Gladstone, W.E., ‘Further notes and queries on the Irish demand’ in Contemporary Review, 53. p. 335 (Mar. 1888)Google Scholar; ‘Ingram’s History of the Irish union’, in Nineteenth Century, xxii. pp. 456, 467 (Oct. 1887); ‘Plain speaking on the Irish union’ in Nineteenth Century, xxvi. p. 7 (July 1889); ‘Lessons of Irish history in the eighteenth century’, in Bryce, (ed.), Handbook of home rule, p. 262 (1887).Google Scholar These articles have been collected in Gladstone, W.E., Special aspects of the Irish question (1892). See pp. 157, 180, 225, 314Google Scholar for references to Leaders.

62a O’Brien, R. Barry, ‘The “ unionist ” case for home rule’ in Bryce, (ed.), Handbook of home rule, p. 154.Google Scholar In this article O’Brien quoted long extracts from Leaders which he claimed presented an unanswerable case for home rule. Leaders was referred to and quoted by Redmond, John in The truth about’ 98 (1886), pp. 6, 7, 12, 13,Google Scholar and in Irish protestants and home rule (1887), pp. 10, 11.

63 Gladstone, W.E., Special aspects of the Irish question, p. 225.Google Scholar Also Gladstone, W.E., ‘Further notes and queries on the Irish demand’ in Contemporary Review, 53. p. 335.Google Scholar

64 Freeman’s Journal, 2 Dec. 1887.

65 Leaders (1871), p. xix.

66 The Times, 8 Oct. 1889.

67 Leaders (1871), p. 194.

68 The Times, 5 May 1886.

69 Lecky to Gavan Duffy, 8 July 1892 (Gavan Duffy papers, N.L.I., MS 8005). Lecky’s draft of this letter is in Lecky correspondence, T.G.D., no. 754a. There is a synopsis in Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir, p. 239.Google Scholar

70 The Times, 3 June 1886.

71 The Times, 9 June 1886.

72 Leaders (1903), i. xv-xvii,

73 T.C.D., MS R. 8. 1, p. 194.

74 Ibid., p. 97.

75 Ibid., p. 102.

76 Ibid., p. 92.

77 Ibid., p. 92.

78 Ibid., pp. 75, 102.

79 Ibid., p. 70.

80 Ibid., p. 71 Compare also ‘[Flood] inoculated the people with the spirit of liberty’ [Leaders (1871), p. 75); ‘[Flood] inoculated the protest-ant constituents’ [Leaders (1903), i. 48–9).

81 Ibid., p. 81.

82 Leaders (1861), p. 73; (1871), p. 80; (1903), i. 56. Lecky’s source for the figure 80,000 appears to have been Barrington, Rise and fall of the Irish nation (1843), p. 160. His source for the figure 40,000 may have been Grattan, , Memoirs of the life and times of Henry Grattan (1839), 1. 399.Google Scholar Lecky used Barrington’s figures for the first edition of Leaders, and Grattan’s figures in the last edition. Meantime he had written the history of the eighteenth century and had referred to the volunteers as ‘… an armed body which already counted more than 40,000 men …’ [England (1882), iv 500, 494; Ireland (1892), ii. 242, 234). Further on he wrote : ‘… and it was alleged, though probably with some exaggeration, that the volunteers throughout Ireland towards the close of 1781 amounted to not less than 80,000 men’ [England (1882), iv. 521; Ireland (1892), ii. 268).

83 Leaders (1903), i. 194–5.

84 Leaders (1871), pp. 178–81; (1903), i. 224–5.

85 Leaders (1871), p. 182; (1903) i. 243.

86 At least as early as 1882 Lecky no longer regarded Pitt as the villain he had portrayed in 1871. ‘… you seem to me to exaggerate greatly — not the stupidity, which would be difficult, but the malevolence of the English government in its later stages …’ ( Lecky, to Daunt, O’Neill, II June 1882, in Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir, p. 166).Google Scholar

87 Leaders (1903), i. 18, 15, 10.

88 Lecky, , Ireland (1892), 1. 116–135.Google Scholar

89 ‘Mr Lecky, in the book published to-day, endeavours to reconcile his “ boyish rhetoric ” with his later convictions. The attempt is not particularly successful; and the “ boyish rhetoric ” has the truer ring’. Freeman’s Journal, 17 Mar. 1903.

90 Fisher, H.A.L., James Bryce, 1. 338.Google Scholar

91 Lowe to Lecky, 16 June 1886 (Lecky correspondence, T.C.D., no. 392).

92 O’Neill Daunt to Lecky, 16 Mar. 1862 (Lecky correspondence, T.G.D., no. 22); Daunt, O’Neill, A life spent for Ireland, pp. 189–90.Google Scholar

93 Lecky, , Leaders (1903), 1. xvGoogle Scholar Lecky was probably referring to the comments in McCarthy, J.H., The case for home rule, pp. 58–61.Google Scholar

94 Gavan Duffy to Lecky, 7 Sept. 1873 (Lecky correspondence, T.C.D., no. 88); Pope Hennessy to Lecky, 15 Sept. 1878 (Lecky correspondence, T.C.D., no. 154).

95 ‘The Irish parliament and the union’, in Quarterly Review, vol. 165. no. 330. p. 502 (Oct. 1887).

96 J. L. Whittle to Lecky, 7 Jan. 1888 (Lecky correspondence, T.C.D., no. 497).

97 Morley, John, ‘Irish policy in the eighteenth century’, in Fortnightly Review, new series, 11. 196–203 (Feb. 1872).Google Scholar

98 See especially the final paragraphs of the speech delivered in the house of commons, 8 Apr. 1886.

99 Lecky to Booth, 11 Sept. 1861 Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir, p. 27).Google Scholar

100 Acton, Essays on church and state, ed. Woodruff, , p. 35.Google Scholar

101 Gladstone, , Special aspects of the Irish question, p. 303,Google Scholar

102 The Times, 8 Oct. 1889.

103 Leaders (1871), pp. 183, 203. See also Democracy and liberty (1898), i. xlix.

104 See footnote 30 above.

105 Prendergast to Lecky, 27 Jan. 1878 (Lecky correspondence, T.C.D., no. 134).

106 Gladstone, W.E., ‘Lecky’s History of England in the eighteenth century’ in Nineteenth Century, 21. 928 (June 1887).Google Scholar

107 The Nation, 1 Nov. 1890.

108 The Times, 4 June 1886.

109 This is the title of a poem in Friendship and other poems (1859) and it is also included in Poems (1891).

110 Historical and political essays (1908), p. 26.

111 Poems (1891), p. 22.

112 Fox to Lecky, 4 Feb. 1890 (Lecky correspondence, T.G.D., no. 574). See also Gavan Duffy to Lecky, 14 May [1892] (Lecky correspondence, T.G.D., no. 2423); and the tributes by Gwynn, Stephen and O’Brien, R. Barry in Lecky, Elisabeth, A memoir, p. 368.Google Scholar

113 Argyll to Lecky, 26 July 1890; 9 Feb. 1893 (Lecky correspondence, T.G.D., nos 606, 743).

114 Historical and political essays (1908), p. 5.

115 The Hibernian, 2 Oct. 1915.

116 T.C.D., MS R.7.33, p. 45.