A Vindication of Froude's Action—Light on a Mystery.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 187, 15 January 1887, Page 4

A Vindication of Froude's Action— Light on a Mystery.

SIX Jvmin Sirmr.x, executor with Fronde umU r (Airl\ le » will, lias piep.ired in iKctoiiu oi.i letter 'o Funido a complete statement ot the latter\ lO'iduet in regard to the Carhle papers. lXluuN from t!ie Idler me m\cn m tlio "'I mnineV London cabl-* this nio.njntr. Tn a will made m 187.'* Cjiil.ilo saul he would vather there should be no biography ot Inm. Later he chanty d his mind and sent Fioudc a great nia^s ot papeis, nituni., script imd book-;, without widen du'ootums 01 an\ Verb illy he told V\ undo to do ;!S he jileased. ard tidded tlnit ho w.is to buvn fiet'ly. In sumnumoip. bn* James s;n ■-: " Voii nppoi>i% to m<^ to )ui\e acted quite sti.iiuthtiorwardly throughout. You gave ]\Lri Carhle aliov' £l,(iOd, Inch she could not have compe'led you to ltivo her. Thu whole ol tho ditlidilty m tins matter aroso from the leeblone^s and indecision, nat\iral enough ia exi.cme old ai<e,-\\h,Lh ]i:\ vented C'arl\ le Lioin nuikint? up his mmd fonehi>i\ely as to what ho "wished to he done about the papers, and hmiinrhis deeiMon put into writinu;. The paralysis •which k'tteily disabled his hands- lrom willing no doubt a partial explanation of this. It i^ to me wholly mcivdiblo thai anything but a sv. verc regard for truth. learned to a p:reat extent liom his teaching, could ever ha\ c lid jou to embody in jour portrait o! Hun a delineation of the faultb and weaknesses wliieh weio mixed with his (pialities. lie did not u-e ;,ou well. He threw upon yon the responsibility ot a decision wliicli he ought to li«i\ taken uiion himself." "Tlie staienuMit ot Sir James Stephen," says the 'TnbuneV London correspondent, "many AVill ribald as iinal ieiati\o to all the charges brought u'-Min^t Fioude bv "Mi's .\le\ander (,'ailyle. tarn enabled, however, to say tluit <it, no diMani dft\ a ve\elation ol deep interest, ph.-vsio-lotcu iill\ nia> be expected whkh will throw }>Uun though painful lncht upon tlie mjstery of ('arlylc married life. Tt is, indeed, almost an open Secret in literary and medical circles that he should ha\e never married, and that the remorseful conviction of this gnawed at his heart tor M-ais and explains much that in dark and sad in his fetrange and domcbtic existence."