"The History of Our Own Times."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1, 5 January 1905, Page 3

" The History of Our Own Times."

The years since he left politics have beem kind to Mr. Justin M'Garthy (says the ' Book Montlily ') ; they have touched him lightly and graciously, as became them. His outlook is the bright outlook of youth, and his health i's admirable, as his bronzed face tells. His single burden is a weakened eyesight w*hiqh does not permit him to read, because he has to tfusband it for actual literary work. Our talk fell tfpon the • History of Our Own Times,' and how tihat book came to be written. It is a story which has been told before in qne form or another, but Mr. M'Carthy was good eno,ug(h to give me the fiull and trjue particulars of a little chapter in E,ngli'S}h literature. l ITI had/h e saM, ' a general idea of wriiting a histdcy of c*ir own day, and my friend the late Sir John Robinson knew this. He happened to hear that Cassells were thinking of publishing what they meant to be a history of the life and reign of Quieem Victoria. Well, he brought Cassells and myself togetjher, as it ware.l and it was arranged that I should go on with my baqk, which they would publish. They were to buy it outright from me, and I was to receive In payment £5(00. How long it would be it was difficult to say, Hut it was understood that it was certaiin to r#n to more than oine volume. I was very little know© in those days, bjelng simply a wiarker in the worltf of London journalism, and I was glad of the opportunity which this task implied. 4 Everything had been settled, ajid I was making pijogxess wit/h my MS., when one day there appeared in the papers the a'nnomncement that some Irish cdnstitluency was likely to asik me to be its Home Rule candidate, and that, if I accepted, I was sure tb be elected. Home Rule at that date was a sort of hraftd, a#iM I receivett a communication from Casselte saying they were alraitt my going into Irish politics might prejudice the. history, and ttiat they would prefer to abandon it. Eventually) we had a sort of literary coprt to arbitrate on how mjuch I should be paid for what I had written, and the arbi<tarators named £IQO, which quite Satisfied me. Being free to do with my MS. wihat I Ukeki, I took it tto Mr. Chatto, whose firm haid somewhat earlier publfeihed a novel tor me. He lao)ked over it, heard wfhat I had to siay, amd then turned to me witih the worlds, "' J think this is going to be a tig thun^ Mr M'Cartihy. We'll do it." They did, a«d I (Hope neither Mr. Chat/flo nor myself has had cause to regret a bargain whic»h was aompleted almo6t within half an hour. ' Tw»o voliumes came tfut pretty soon, and I was a trifle disappointed, perhaps, that they were scarcely reviewed at .all. Meanwhile, however, tiie public had gom^how taken to them, and before a single review, •wortjh s,pefe,ki<ng about, had appeared, Chatto's were advertising the third large edition. I have Sometimes tihougjht Hhiat ciroumstarice a reflection upon all of us wh 0 tihink we guijde the world by writing rqviews. Be that as it may, the history went surprisingly well, a<nd my electi-Qn fe>r an Irialh constituency in no way hiurt it When I topk my seat and went to shake hands with Speaker Bflai|d, he said to me, leaning elver the side of Kf^ hi l toric ? h&iT > "I am glajd to see jfop here, Mr. M Oarthy, anVl I congratulate jiau upon tihe success of your history." These worlds of the Speaker of the Hquse of Commons almost healed the little sore ifti my heart caused by the absence of reviews, only now they were coming thidk and fast.' .