Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/315

This page has been validated.
Hayward
309
Hayward

he had been called to the bar, and chose the western circuit. Lord Lyndhurst acknowledged his obligation to an article by Hayward (see Law Magazine, ix. 392–413) in successfully opposing Brougham's local courts bill in the House of Lords in 1833 (Sir T. Martin, Life of Lyndhurst, 1884, p. 313). In the autumn of the same year he revisited Germany, and obtained suggestions for a second and enlarged edition of ‘Faust,’ published in January 1834. The book was reviewed in Germany by F. C. Horn, and was the subject of a pamphlet by D. Boileau (1834). Hallam, Southey, Rogers, Allan Cunningham, and many others wrote to congratulate the author, and the work has retained its reputation as a straightforward rendering in prose of the original. Carlyle considered it the best English version.

The success of ‘Faust’ gave Hayward an assured position in society, and he became a frequent contributor to the leading reviews. In August 1834 he made a journey across the Alps into Italy, described in a long and interesting letter addressed to one of his sisters (privately printed at the time, and reproduced in ‘Correspondence,’ i. 22–50). The letter ends with the characteristic remark, ‘I had my usual luck in getting acquainted with interesting people on my way back.’ On 17 Feb. 1835 he was specially elected by the committee a member of the Athenæum. An article in the ‘Quarterly Review’ on Walker's ‘Original’ (February 1836) attracted attention; with another on gastronomy and gastronomers the two were afterwards published under the title of ‘The Art of Dining.’ These essays made Hayward's reputation as an authority on the subject, although he remarked of the first article, ‘I got it up just as I would get up a speech from a brief’ (ib. i. 54). His dinners in his chambers in the Temple were famous for choiceness of fare and distinction of company. Lockhart, Macaulay, Sydney Smith, Lord Lansdowne, Henry Bulwer, George Smythe, Lyndhurst, Hooke, Mrs. Norton, were constant guests.

Between 1838 and 1840 Hayward saw much of Prince Louis Bonaparte, and gave him literary assistance. In 1844 he began to contribute to the ‘Edinburgh Review’ under Macvey Napier. A visit to Paris brought him the acquaintance of Thiers, afterwards a frequent correspondent. Although Hayward had only a moderate professional practice, he was made Q.C. by Lyndhurst early in 1845, but was not elected a bencher of his inn owing to the opposition vote of Roebuck. Hayward bitterly resented the exclusion, and attacked the benchers with his usual energy. He brought the question before the judges, and wrote several pamphlets (1845–1848), which produced others by Neate and T. Falconer. In 1847 he circulated a few copies of extremely commonplace ‘Verses of other Days.’

Hayward began life as a tory, but on the split in the party in 1846 developed into a Peelite and free trader. He first gave expression to his dislike of Disraeli in an article in the ‘Edinburgh Review’ in April 1853. Thinking his political services to the party gave him some claim, he applied for a commissionership under the new Charitable Trusts Act, stating to Sir G. C. Lewis that he had lost a considerable part of his small income on the death of his brother (ib. i. 186). He did not obtain the office, but he was nominated in 1854 by Lord Aberdeen to the post of secretary to the poor law board; the appointment fell through, however, owing to the refusal of Lord Courtenay, who already held the office, to exchange it for a commissionership of woods and forests. He supported the government in the ‘Morning Chronicle’ against the ‘Times’ charges of neglect in the Crimea, and wrote an article on De Bazancourt's ‘Expédition de Crimée,’ which was translated into French, and was circulated on the continent at the special request of Lord Palmerston, to counteract the bad impression raised by De Bazancourt's semi-official publication.

Hayward wrote constantly in the quarterlies, ‘Fraser,’ and other periodicals; one of his best essays being ‘Pearls and Mock Pearls of History,’ in the ‘Quarterly Review’ of April 1861. He endeavoured in a series of trenchant articles in ‘Fraser's Magazine’ to avert the split in Lord Russell's government on the reform question in 1866, and at the commencement of 1868 was engaged on his ‘More about Junius,’ a subject which, like whist, dining, and political memoirs, he considered peculiarly his own. The claims of Francis were stoutly denied, and he told Sir W. Stirling Maxwell ‘that five out of six of the best intellects of my acquaintance think the Franciscan theory rudely shaken if not demolished’ (ib. ii. 176). In 1869 he became a regular contributor to the ‘Quarterly Review,’ after a long retirement, and down to October 1883 wrote an article in each number. ‘The Second Armada, a chapter in future History,’ suggested by the ‘Battle of Dorking,’ was written for the ‘Times’ in 1871. In the same journal, 10 May 1873, appeared a biographical sketch by him of J. S. Mill, including some passages which gave deep offence to Mill's friends. The Rev. Stopford Brooke protested against the statements in a sermon,