Chapter I: Front Matter

MEMOIR AND LETTERS OF FRANCIS W. NEWMAN

MEMOIR AND LETTERS OF FRANCIS W. NEWMAN

BY I. GIBERNE SIEVEKING

_outos ge axios estin epainesthai ostis an tois hetairois os teleion ti on protithae to eu neoterizein taen ton pollon katastasin_

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY MOTHER

CONTENTS

TO THE READER WHO UNDERSTANDS.

I. FRANCIS NEWMAN'S ANCESTORS.

II. THE TWO BROTHERS--SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS.

III. FRANCIS NEWMAN'S MISSIONARY JOURNEY TO THE EAST.

IV. HIS MARRIAGE: HIS MOTHER'S DEATH: HIS CLASSICAL TUTORSHIP AT
BRISTOL IN 1834.

V. FRIENDSHIP WITH DR. MARTINEAU.

VI. FRANCIS NEWMAN AS A TEACHER.

VII. LETTERS TO ONE OF HIS GREATEST FRIENDS, DR. NICHOLSON.

VIII. LETTERS TO DR. NICHOLSON FROM NEWMAN DURING THE FOLLOWING YEARS:
1850 TO 1859.

IX. LETTERS TO DR. NICHOLSON: CONTINUED.

X. LETTERS WRITTEN TO MISS ANNA SWANWICK BETWEEN 1871 AND 1887.

XI. THE STORY OF TWO PATRIOTS.

XII. FOUR BARBARISMS OF CIVILIZATION.

XIII. SOME LEGISLATIVE REFORMS SUGGESTED BY LECTURE AND ARTICLE

XIV. DECENTRALIZATION AND LAND REFORM

XV. VEGETARIANISM

XVI. NATIVE REPRESENTATION IN INDIAN GOVERNMENT

XVII. VOTES FOR WOMEN

XVIII. FRANCIS NEWMAN AND HIS RELIGION

XIX. LAST YEARS, CHARACTERISTICS, AND SOME LETTERS RELATING TO THE
"EARLY LIFE OF THE CARDINAL"

XX. TOULMIN SMITH: AUTHOR, ANTIQUARIAN STUDENT, AND POLITICAL REFORMER

XXI. LANDOWNERS AND WAGE RECEIVERS

XXII. THE RIGHT AND DUTY OF EVERY STATE TO ENFORCE SOBRIETY ON ITS
CITIZENS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PHOTO OF FRANCIS NEWMAN From a Daguerreotype of 1851. Photo by Mr. John Davies, Weston-super-Mare.

JOHN NEWMAN Father of Cardinal Newman and Francis Newman. From an old portrait. By kind permission of Mr. J. R. Mozley.

SEALE'S COFFEE HOUSE, OXFORD Now demolished. Done from an old drawing in the year when Francis Newman and John Henry Newman stayed there with Blanco White.

WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD Specially photographed for this Memoir.

WORTON CHURCH, OXFORDSHIRE From an old print. By kind permission of Rev. W. H. Langhorne.

HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, WEST END, OVER WORTON By kind permission of Rev. W. H. Langhorne, present Rector of Worton.

OVER WORTON RECTORY, OXFORDSHIRE By kind permission of Rev. W. H. Langhorne, present Rector of Worton.

PHOTO FROM SKETCH OF THE NEWMAN FAMILY By Maria Rosina Giberne. By kind permission of Mr. J. R. Mozley.

MARIA ROSINA GIBERNE From a painting by herself.

PHOTO OF LORD CONGLETON Leader of Syrian Missionary Journey. From his _Life_ by Groves.

DR. CRONIN One of those who went to Syria with Francis Newman in 1830. From a photo by Messrs. Webster, Clapham Common. By kind permission of Mrs. Cronin.

PERSIAN LADY AND PERSIAN SMOKING, DATE 1827 From _Persia_ in "Modern Traveller" series, 1830.

MARIA KENNAWAY Francis Newman's first wife. From a miniature. Photo by Messrs. Webster, Clapham Common. By kind permission of Sir John Kennaway.

DR. MARTINEAU From the painting by A. E. Elmslie.

FRANCIS NEWMAN In middle age. From photo by John Davies, Weston-super-Mare.

PHOTO OF BRONZE BUST OF FRANCIS NEWMAN Emeritus Professor of London University. By Mrs. Georgina Bainsmith, sculptor, of St. Ives, Cornwall. The bust is now in University College, London.

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE BUST IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE (OF FRANCIS NEWMAN), ON ITS PLINTH By Mrs. Georgina Bainsmith, sculptor, of St. Ives, Cornwall. This reproduction is by Mr. J. C. Douglas, of St. Ives, Cornwall, and was photographed from the clay before it was cast.

DR. NICHOLSON From a photo taken at Göttingen between 1855 and 1860. By kind permission of Miss Nicholson, Penrith.

FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM FRANCIS NEWMAN, DECEMBER, 1855 20 WHITE ROCK PLACE, AND 1A CARLISLE PARADE, HASTINGS From photos taken in 1909 by Valentine Edgar Sieveking.

ANNA SWANWICK From a portrait painted by Miss V. Bruce.

LOUIS KOSSUTH

CERTIFICATE OF HUNGARIAN FUND

FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM KOSSUTH TO MESSRS. SIEVEKING, JANUARY, 1854

TOULMIN SMITH Enlargement from a photo. By kind permission of Miss Toulmin Smith.

CARDINAL NEWMAN From an oil painting by Miss Deane, of Bath. Photo by Messrs. Webster, Clapham Common.

TO THE READER WHO UNDERSTANDS

MY DEAR READER,

Rightly understood, the two points of view, as regards Religion, of the brothers, Cardinal Newman and Francis Newman, which most separated them, would, together, have approached the realization of a great conception.

For the Cardinal, Authority was the _sine quâ non_ without which there could be no real faith. Authority was the pilot, without whose steering he could not feel secure in his personal ship. But with Authority at the helm, his fears dispersed, his doubts removed.

"I was not ever thus.....
I loved to choose and see my path, but now
Lead Thou me on!"

Over Francis Newman, dogma and the authority of the Church had no sway. He dimly discerned a religion which should move forward with men's advance in knowledge. He imagined an unformalized inward revelation which should reveal new truths to those who passionately desired Truth above all things. And when all is said, the union of Authority given in the past, with the very real mental development which makes for spiritual progress in the present, is not antagonistic to a wise, strong breadth of view in the conception of a perfect Church.

But in both points of view, carried to extremes, there are grave perils to the man who thinks. And I find it impossible to avoid saying here that Francis Newman did not realize this risk when he refused to "ask for the old paths," and determined to "see and choose his path" alone and unaided. We know what the endeavour to found a new church in Syria ended in. We know how, later, he wrote, held back by no reverence for revealed religion, no reverence for other men's belief in it. Many of his writings therefore are painful reading. Though from very early boyhood he had been really a keen seeker after true religion, an earnest student of the Holy Scriptures, and a deep thinker, yet, very soon after he had reached young manhood, it began to be realized by all who knew him that he was very evidently breaking away from all definite dogmatic faith. He was bent, so to speak, on inventing a new religion for himself.

Gradually every year made the spiritual breach wider between him and those who held the Christian Faith. Soon he did not hesitate to say out, in very unguarded language, what he really thought of doctrines which he knew were precious to them. Sometimes to-day, indeed, in reading his books, one comes across some statement in letter, article, or lecture flung out almost venomously; and one steps back mentally as if a spiritual hiss had whipped the air from some inimical sentence which had suddenly lifted its heretical head from amongst an otherwise quiet group of words.

At the end of life it is said that he showed signs of some return to the early faith of his boyhood. That he said, just before his death, to Rev. Temperley Grey, who was visiting him in his last illness, "I feel Paul is less and less to me; and Christ is more and more."

And those who knew that side of him which was splendid in its untiring effort for the betterment of mankind--for the righting of wrongs to women, and others unable to achieve it for themselves--cannot but hope that the faith of earlier days was his once more, before he passed into the silence that lies--as far as we are concerned in this world--at the back of Death.

I remember being told once, that of Stanley it was said by someone who knew him well, that she had always felt that "he believed more than he knew he did."

And when one thinks how Francis Newman looked up in faith--even though it was an absolutely undogmatic, formless faith--to a God who watched over mankind, one may hope that he too "believed more than he knew he did."

This life is only a short chapter in our existence. Personality is in its essence immortal, though not unchanging in its presentment. Some of us have many "phases of faith" even in this short existence. Some of us, like St. Paul, only two. The first, fiery in its denunciations, and persecutions and uncompromising attitude towards all who differed from him as regards the Faith which afterwards, "when the scales had fallen from his eyes," he was to champion. The second, just as splendid in its enthusiasm for the doctrine he had formerly abused. Just as passionate in righting the wrongs of the people, as once in his first phase of faith he had been in enforcing persecution and injustice upon them. By now, Newman may have gained _his_ second sight. Whatever was the shortsightedness of Francis Newman's spiritual focus, there can be no manner of doubt that _he_ was an earnest seeker after Truth, though his methods of search were sorely to be regretted, in so far as doctrinal theory was concerned, as in his judgments on his brother's career.

According to his lights he lived his life. It was a life spent always in untiring, unselfish effort for the good of his fellows. He was always in the forefront of Social Reform, of social high principle and justice. He was, at any rate, one with St. Paul--that champion of Christian Socialism --in his attitude towards that larger half of mankind whose wrongs need righting. He, too, practically said by his life, "Who is weak, and _I_ am not weak? Who is afflicted, and I _burn_ not?" to avenge the injustice.

To-day, if more of Francis Newman's social views were voiced again, England might take a glad step forward. For, undoubtedly, he _had_ a message to deliver. And, equally undoubtedly, he delivered it to his generation.

This message of Social Reform sounded in men's ears fifty years ago.

In his memoir it sounds again to-day.

My very hearty thanks are due to the following persons who have most kindly helped me in this "Memoir," by lending me letters and photographs; by writing reminiscences, and giving information, etc.: Sir John Kennaway, Bart., Sir Alfred Wills, Sir Edward Fry, Mr. William de Morgan, Father Bacchus, Mr. Talfourd Ely, Mr. Winterbotham, the present Rector of Worton, Mr. Norris Mathews, Mr. George Hare Leonard, Mr. George Pearson, Miss Humphreys, Miss Nicholson, Mrs. Heather (_née_ Wilson), Miss Bruce, Miss Toulmin Smith, Miss Gertrude Martineau, Miss Elizabeth Pearson, Mrs. Georgina Bainsmith, sculptor, Rev. Thomas Smith, Mrs. Kingsley Tarpey, Dr. Makalua, and many others.

I. GIBERNE SIEVEKING. 1 EXMOUTH PLACE, HASTINGS.

MEMOIR AND LETTERS OF FRANCIS W. NEWMAN