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The Cambridge Lectureship of 1866: A False Start in American Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

Ged Martin
Ged Martin
Affiliation:
Australian National University
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Extract

In October 1865 Cambridge University was offered an endowment for a lectureship in the History and Institutions of the United States. In February 1866, after full and open discussion, the Senate of the University, which was composed of all Masters of Arts, voted to reject the offer. This false start to American Studies in Cambridge was no mere donnish eccentricity, but an indication of the attitudes of conservative Englishmen to the United States at the close of the Civil War.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , April 1973 , pp. 17 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

1 For an earlier account, see Learned, H. B., ‘The Thompson Readership: A Forgotten Episode of Academic History’, American Historical Review, 23 (1918), 603–608CrossRefGoogle Scholar. It is referred to also in Gohdes, Clarence, American Literature in Nineteenth Century England (New York, 1944), p. 4.Google Scholar

2 Bristed, C. A., Five Years in an English University (2 vols., New York, 1852), vol. 1, p. 38.Google Scholar

3 Bury, J. P. T., ed., Romilly's Cambridge Diary 1832–4 (Cambridge, 1967), p. 14Google Scholar, entry for 28 May 1832.

4 Bristed, , Five Years, vol. 1, p. 38.Google Scholar

5 Cambridge Union Society, Minute Books, xi, 16 February 1841, when the question ‘Is the present generation likely to witness the dismemberment of the United States of America?’ was answered in the affirmative by 30 votes to 27; xv, 9 November 1852, motion carried by 30 to 16, and 26 October 1852, motion carried by 37 to 4. Quoted by permission of the Standing Committee.

6 Trinity College, Cambridge, Whewell Papers, O.18.E1/63, Everett to Whewell, 29 June 1858. Quoted by permission of the Master and Fellows.

7 Cambridge University Library, Diary of Romilly, Add. MS 6840, 18 November 1860, pp. 543–54; Add. MS 6841, 16 December 1862, pp. 395–6.

8 Trinity College, Cambridge, Whewell Papers, O.18.E1/68, Everett to Whewell, 1 October 1861.

9 Everett, William, On the Cam: Lectures on the University of Cambridge in England (London, 1866), pp. xv–xvi.Google Scholar

10 (Stephen, Leslie), Sketches from Cambridge. By a Don (London, 1865), pp. 140–1.Google Scholar

11 Maitland, F. W., The Life and Letters of Leslie Stephen (London, 1906), p. 66.Google Scholar

12 Cambridge Union Society, Minute Book, xvii, private business meeting, 11 February 1861; debate, 12 February 1861; debate, 26 November 1861; debate, 10 December 1861.

13 Cambridge University Library, Diary of Romilly, Add. MS 6840/2, 15 December 1861, p. 461.

14 Cambridge Union Society, Minute Book, xvii, 28 and 29 October 1862. For an account of an incident in this debate, see Gwynn, S. and Tuckwell, G. M., The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Bart., M.P. (2 vols.), vol. 1, pp. 30–1Google Scholar. For a more general picture of Cambridge Union debates on the Civil War, see Stephen, Leslie, Sketches from Cambridge, pp. 63–5.Google Scholar

15 Cambridge Union Society, Minute Book, xviii, 27 October 1863 (‘ That too much favour has been shown by the public opinion of this Country to the Cause, and Conduct, of the Confederate States’); 14 and 21 February 1865 (‘That this House would view with regret the Success of the Confederates in the present American War as a fatal blow to the Cause of Freedom and to the Stability of all Government’). The proportion of votes was the same in 1862 and 1863: 78% for the South, 22% for the North. This may be an indication of the exteņt to which the upper classes supported the Confederacy.

16 Ibid., 10 November 1863 (‘That the Seizure of the Steam Rams El Toussin, and El Monassin, by the Government is an Act to be deprecated’, defeated 66–31); 11 February 1862 (‘That the tone adopted by the Times Newspaper, with reference to the American Crisis has been hasty and impolitic’, defeated 46–22); 24 February 1863; Minute Book, xviii, 14 November 1865 (‘That this House views with satisfaction the present course of affairs in America, and the reconstruction policy of President Lincoln [sic]’ – only one member spoke and no vote was taken).

17 Thompson, Henry Yates (1838–1928)Google Scholar, of Trinity College. Sanders Reader in Bibliography at Cambridge, 1901 and 1904. Bibliophile and benefactor of Newnham College, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and many other institutions.

18 He was an eye-witness of the Federal assault on Missionary Ridge. His impressions have recently been published: SirChancellor, Christopher, ed., An Englishman in the American Civil War: The Diaries of Henry Yates Thompson 1863 (London, 1971).Google Scholar

19 For Thompson's campaign, see Manchester Guardian, 20, 30 June, 5, 7, 10 July 1865Google Scholar. The result was: Egerton (Conservative) 9,171, elected; Turner (Conservative) 8,806, elected; Gladstone (Liberal) 8,786, elected; Legh (Conservative) 8,476; Thompson (Liberal) 7,703; Heywood (Liberal) 7,653. (Dod's Parliamentary Companion: New Parliament (London, 1865), p. 116.)Google Scholar

20 Speech at Rochdale, , 23 November 1864Google Scholar, in Bright, John and Rogers, J. E. Thorold, eds., Speeches on Questions of Public Policy by Richard Cobden, M.P. (London, 1870), vol. 2, pp. 339–74Google Scholar; The Times, 24 November 1864.Google Scholar

21 Thompson to Vice-Chancellor, 27 October 1865, which quoted extensively from Thompson to Everett, 24 December 1864, privately printed as Thompson, H. Y., Copy of a Letter addressed to the Rev. the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University (Liverpool, 1865)Google Scholar. For his doubts about the outcome, see Thompson, to Everett, William, September 1865Google Scholar, quoted by Chancellor, , ed., Englishman in the American Civil War, p. 20.Google Scholar

22 See Thompson to Vice-Chancellor, 29 December 1865, printed copy in Cambridge University Library, Cambridge Papers EM 23.

23 Kingsley, Charles (1819–1875)Google Scholar, of Magdalene College. Professor of Modern History, 1860–1869. Perowne, Edward (1826–1906)Google Scholar, of Corpus Christi College, Fellow 1850–1879, Master 1879–1906. A rigid Conservative.

24 The printed papers and flysheets are collected in Cambridge University Library, Cambridge Papers EM 23, and in a bound volume of the J. W. Clark collection, classmark Cam. b. 865. 1. The only flysheet not found in both collections was a set of Greek verses in the Clark volume, attributed to Shilleto, the great Greek scholar. The discussion of 10 February was reported in the Cambridge Chronicle, 17 February 1866Google Scholar. References below are given simply to flysheets or speeches.

25 Kingsley's first flysheet, 9 February; Kingsley, F. E., Charles Kingsley: His letters and memories of his life (2 vols., London, 1894), vol. 2, p. 134Google Scholar; Morning Herald, quoted by Cambridge Chronicle, 24 February 1866Google Scholar; Perowne's first flysheet, 14 February.

26 Flysheet by Sedley Taylor; Cambridge Chronicle, University Journal, 10 February 1866Google Scholar. ‘ Few persons will have formed so low an estimate of Professor Kingsley's powers, as he appears himself to entertain’. Perowne's first flysheet.

27 Speech by Bateson; Kingsley's first flysheet. (The Greece-Rome analogy in Anglo-American relations was frequently used a century later by Harold Macmillan. Sampson, Anthony, Macmillan: a study in ambiguity, Harmondsworth, 1968, p. 250.)Google Scholar Perowne's first flysheet; Kingsley's second flysheet, undated.

28 Cambridge Chronicle, University Journal, 10 February 1866.Google Scholar

29 Speech by T. H. Candy.

30 Speech by Edward Dodd, a local vicar and fierce opponent; Cambridge Chronicle, University Journal, 10 February 1866.Google Scholar

31 Speech by Dodd.

32 Cambridge Chronicle, University Journal, 10 February 1866.Google Scholar

33 Flysheet by Long; Perowne's first flysheet. J. R. Lowell denied that his countrymen used the term ‘Britishers’. Lowell to Stephen, , 10 April 1866Google Scholar, in Norton, C. E., ed., Letters of James Russell Lowell (2 vols., New York, 1894), vol. 1, pp. 358–64Google Scholar. Long made liberal use of what he thought were ‘Americanism’, but revealed his own ignorance by including ‘clear grit’, which came from Canadian, not American, politics.

34 Flysheet by Bailey.

35 Cambridge Union Society, Minute Book, xviii, 27 and 28 February 1866. The debate was not held until after the Senate vote.

36 It was made in the speech of Sedley Taylor.

37 Flysheet by Bailey.

38 Speech by Dodd.

39 Ibid.

40 Speech by Professor Lightfoot (later Bishop of Durham); speech by Sir George Young; speech by Professor Thompson.

41 Flysheets by Taylor and Bailey; speech by Professor Thompson.

42 Lowell to Stephen, , 10 April 1866Google Scholar, in Norton, , ed., Letters of Lowell, vol. 1, pp. 358–64.Google Scholar

43 Speeches by Bateson and Dodd.

44 e.g. Perowne's first flysheet; flysheet by Bailey; Kingsley's first flysheet.

45 Speech of Lightfoot, and much stressed in speech by W. G. Clark, Public Orator, to whom fell the task of opening the discussion.

46 Morning Herald, quoted by Cambridge Chronicle, 24 February 1866.Google Scholar

47 Flysheet by Dodd.

48 The point was strongly made in flysheets by Perowne and Bailey. For Perowne's defence of the Anglican monopoly, see Winstanley, D. A., Later Victorian Cambridge (Cambridge, 1947). Pp. 44–5.Google Scholar

49 Stephen, to Lowell, , 23 February 1866Google Scholar, in Maitland, , Leslie Stephen, pp. 176–8.Google Scholar

50 Perowne's first flysheet. For the ‘principle of the wedge’, see Cornford, F. M., Microcosmographia Academica: being a guide for the young academic politician (Cambridge, 1908), ch. vii.Google Scholar

51 Speech by Young; Learned, , ‘Thompson Readership’; Cambridge Independent Press, 24 02 1866.Google Scholar

52 For the ‘principle of washing linen’, see Cornford, , Microcosmographia, ch. viii.Google Scholar

53 Cambridge Chronicle, University Journal, 10 February 1866.Google Scholar

54 Flysheet by Long.

55 Morning Herald, quoted by Cambridge Chronicle, 24 February 1866.Google Scholar

56 Speech by W. G. Clark.

57 Speech by Professor Thompson. This caused offence in opposition circles: see flysheet by Dodd.

58 Cambridge Chronicle, University Journal, 10 February 1866Google Scholar, likened him to Goldwin Smith – ‘a steady friend to Britain's enemies’. Perowne described Thompson as ‘a gentle man of whose political principles we know but little, and that little not calculated to inspire us with confidence’. (First flysheet.)

59 Perowne's first flysheet, and Cambridge Chronicle, University Journal, 24 February 1866.Google Scholar

60 Learned, , ‘Thompson Readership’ and Cambridge Chronicle, University Journal, 24 February 1866Google Scholar, both give the vote as 107 to 81. The higher figures are given in the J. W. Clark collection volume, classmark Cam. b. 865. 1, in Cambridge University Library. In the University Archives, the former figure has been written on papers in University Papers, 1864–1866 (Council of the Senate copy) and the latter in University Papers, 1866. The handwriting in this volume was identified for me by Dr Leedham-Green of the Archives as that of Luard, then University Registrary. Clark, his successor, seems to have regarded this as authoritative.

61 Letter from Dodd, , Cambridge Chronicle, 3 March 1866Google Scholar; ibid., University Journal, 24 March 1866. The Vice-Chancellor had sent a circular to heads of Colleges on 21 February asking their support for a grace banning undergraduates from driving certain types of fast carriages, but the American lectureship was not mentioned. University Archives, Cartmell Letter Book, 1865–7, Cartmell to Heads of Colleges (copy), 21 February 1866.

62 Stephen, to Lowell, , 23 February 1866Google Scholar, in Maitland, op. cit., pp. 176–8.

63 The Times, 27 February 1866Google Scholar; Spectator, No. 1966, 3 March 1866, pp. 234–5Google Scholar. See also Howe, M. A. DeWolfe, The Life and Letters of George Bancroft (2 vols., London, 1908), vol. 2, pp. 158–63.Google Scholar

64 Thompson, to Vice-Chancellor, , 16 May 1907Google Scholar, in Chancellor, ed., op. cit., p. 16.

65 Kingsley, F. E., Charles Kingsley, vol. 2, pp. 118–19.Google Scholar

66 Maitland, to Clark, J. W., 15 December 1905Google Scholar, bound in Cambridge University Library, Cam. b. 865. 1; Maitland, op. cit., p. 176n.

67 Dr J. R. Pole, Mr J. C. T. Oates and Mr B. W. Collins were kind enough to read this article in draft and make useful comments.