THE CHAMPION OF EVIL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 79, 31 October 1874, Page 6

THE CHAMPION OF EVIL.

Fob weeks past a paragraph has been floating about, wafted from one journal to another, that "Mr J. A. Fbottde, the eminent historian," was about to pay a visit to the colonies ; and great has been the interest'awakened by the intended advent of so illustrious and truthful a chronicler ! We have before now dwelt at some length on the arguments and statements of that gentleman, disclosing his capacity for coining malignant falsehoods, and perverting historical facts ; but, uncontrovertible and unanswerable as our statements were, we naturally expected that much of the weight attached thereto would be lost by their being uttered by ourselves. If, however, there still remains •any one unconvinced of the truth and justice of our assertions and the-ainount of credence to be placed in the writings of t.us reliable historian, we commend to his consideration the following paragraph, clipped from the 'Saturday Jienew — one of the most influential and widely circulated ol the home weeklies. In reviewing his last work, " The Jingush m Ireland," that journal winds up with the following scathing denunciation :— " Mr Feoude's case is different, from that of the most violent and most unfair party writer. We make some excuse for Irish Papists and Irish Protestants speaking to one another. But here is a writer, who, with no temptation, no interest in the matter, without the poor ot national or religious rancor, puts himself forward m cold blood, to defend the evil deeds of one side ■and to blacken those of the other. What may be Mr .bEoTJDE s motives we cannot guess ; the only practical result ot his labors can be to make old memories and present djspates bitterer than they need be. If Mr inouDE waned to stir up another rebellion, to find new victims for new torturers, he could not take a better means to compass the end. He stands alone in modern English historical literature as having habitually applied no small natural powers to a purpose which we can only pronounce immoral. Ihedownwardcourse is easy; the panegyrist of Henrt \ 111 ., has sunk into the panegyrist of ' Flogging Fitzgerald. If writings so -flimsy and inaccurate aa those of Mr .bflouDE live to be remembered in another age, it is something to think they will carry their own moral condemnation with them. If the man who can jeer over the gibbet of WniTxrjTG in one age, and the gibbet of Crosbie in another is to find a lasting place in men's memories, it is something to think that the character in which he will he remembered will not be as the defender of this or that doubtful theory but in the character which he has chosen lor himself, as the champion of evil, the apologist ofwronq " Mr Iboude has never been so hardly dealt with at our hands and considering that the above is the unprejudiced verdict of an English literary tribunal on the man who •vindicated the memory of the Eighth Henry," it must be conceded that he has received but little consideration after thelabonou^ work of white-washing that model monarch. Although Mr Fkoude has been proved to have been "uilty ot gross partisanship, and even deliberate falsification the possession of considerable literary abilities was universally accorded him, his inaccuracies being attributed rather to his heart than his head, and it was a matter for re^et that such talents should have been thus prostituted! so that as a sophisticator his very abilities became the more dangerous. It has, however, remained for an English Protestant journal in addition to the charge of inaccuracy and unreliability, by characterising his writings as weak ana flimsy, to rob them of the claim to ability whicb was their only merit. It is such an .unusual thing to find an aiiiglwh. journal whose judgment and views have not been so warped and biased that they either cannot or will .not accord the smallest meed of justice to the Sister Isle •

and rarer still, to find one with the moral courage to brave the the prevailing opinion— even when convinced of its injustice—that the conduct of the ' Saturday Eeview ' stands out in bold relief, and bespeaks the gratitude of all lovers of fair play. No doubt Mr Fboude's visit to the colony will be followed by a work from his pen, and if he be wise he will take counsel from the past, and seek in it to repair his damaged literary reputation by a greater regard for facts, and a wholesome curb on his far too vivid powers of imagination. Men of ability, though their talents may be far above the common order, are none the more reliable as historians unless they are totally devoid of that prejudice and bigotry which runs, as a vein, from beginning to end through all Mr Froude's writings, occasionally hidden beneath the surface, but cropping up when least expected lhe experience of the colony with regard to another great author who paid us a flying visit, will perhaps make the necessity and justice of our remarks somewhat apparent Mr Anthony Txollopk's work on the colonies, bristling as it is with mistatements and inaccurracies, will no doubt in a few years be looked upon as a standard authority of the state of civilisation in these colonies at the time it was written, just as Dicker's " American Notes" was in bye^one days and no doubt with an equal amount of correctness. Men like Iroude aud Teollope are too prone to make the dry facts of history or statistics subservient to a desire to indulge lusonie specious word-paintings, which although no doubt pleasing during perusal, are far from what they°purport to be— authorities on the subjects of which they treat It is almost beyond comprehension, the amount of ignorauce at preseat existing at home in reference to Australasia even amongst classes which might fairly be supposed to be wellinformed, and it is most desirable that when men of genius j t ?? llifcy P a - y us a visifc the Public in the old country should learn their ideas and impressions with regard to us On the contrary, however, it is as strongly to be deprecated that the writings of such men as Mr Tkollopk should be taken as works of authority on colonial matters of which he must be a mere sciolist ; and, notwithstanding his ability it is matter of impossibility that a book of such magnitude and importance, and embodying so many facts and data such as he has given to the British public, could have been accurate with the very limited amount of time and means at his command. It is to be hoped, then, that should Mr iROUDE carry his intention into effect and visit the antipodes, his experience of our customs and resources will be somewhat more extended that those of Mr Thollope whose knowledge of the colonies wag garnered up during a stay of but a few months ; and that we shall not be treated by him as Ireland has been.