whom the vast majority probably never heard of his existence. Instead of being rewarded or honoured, he had to undergo much obloquy and ridicule. Here he certainly received no crown; if the world is under moral government, he may have received a crown elsewhere. The Corn Law question, the American question, and the Jamaica question threw me a good deal among the Liberal manufacturers of the North, and enlarged my political experience. In Bradford, especially, as the guest of the two Kells, I learned much that no books. could have taught me. But moderate Liberalism with perhaps an occasional turn or jerk one way or the other remained my creed. I was in no danger of becoming a demagogue, for I never could speak. In that I had neither genius nor tongue. Will oratory ever lose its power? Shall we ever get back in this respect to the days of Burley and the Council-board? Popular oratory almost inevitably involves exaggeration, which must surely affect the soundness of the mind. I saw also a good deal of the mechanic on his political side. He is very sharp-witted, but very open to novel opinions, especially of course to such as exalt his class. It has been said of him that he is a Socialist at home and a Jingo abroad. A Jingo abroad unhappily he is apt to be. He was for the Crimean War, burning Bright in effigy for opposing it. He was for the Lorcha War, unseating Bright and Cobden for voting against it. He was for the infamous Boer War, than which there never was a more flagrant breach of humanity or a fouler stain on the character of any nation. Extreme excitability is his danger, and the danger of the State in which he has so large a vote. Among my dear friends and instructive companions in those regions were Mr. and Mrs. Winkworth of Bolton. Mrs. Winkworth was the daughter of Mr. Thomasson,1 a great manufacturer and I should think about the last of those who lived close to his works and among his men. Now, the master, if he is a man and not a company, lives in a suburban villa, on which the working-man, going out for his Sunday walk, looks perhaps with a sinister eye, thinking, as his Socialist prophet tells him, it is all the product of his labour. This complete separation, local and social, is a bad element in the case. The great problem, however, is that of giving employer and employed if possible a common interest in the gains. He who brings this about would be one of the greatest benefactors of his kind. [Thomas Thomasson, chief promoter of the anti-corn law agitation. 1808-1876.] CHAPTER XXI CORNELL 1868-1871 Resignation of Oxford Professorship Invitation to Cornell - Ezra Cornell - The University - Cornell's Ideas - Arrival at Ithaca -Fellow-Lecturers - Life at Ithaca -The Oneida Community - Friends at Cornell. IN 1866 I had to resign my Oxford Professorship and take up my abode in my father's house at Mortimer. In 1868,1 after a long and most painful illness, my father came to a tragical end, in consequence of a malady which had its source in an injury received in a railway accident. I was greatly broken by this, and was some time in recovering mental health and tone. Having then no very definite object in life, and having an independent income, I thought of returning to America and further studying American history and institutions. [1 So the MS., but the date was certainly 1867.-See The Gentleman's Magazine for November, 1867, New Series, Volume IV, page 689: "At Mortimer House, Reading, aged 72, Richard Pritchard Smith, esq., M.D. . . ." See also "A History of the Reading Pathological Society." By J. B. Hurry. London: Bale, Sons, and Danielsson. 1909. Page 55. Besides, in a letter in Mr. Goldwin Smith's own hand (since received), dated "Mortimer House, Reading, Oct. 13, 1867," and addressed to "Sir Chas. Russell, Bart., M.P., Swallowfield, Reading," occurs the sentence, "My father was buried on Friday." (The letter was kindly lent me by Lady Russell, of Swallowfield, widow of Sir George Russell, Baronet, brother of its recipient.)] |