Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Lecky, William Edward Hartpole
LECKY, WILLIAM EDWARD HARTPOLE (1838–1903), historian and essayist, was born at Newtown Park, co. Dublin, on 26 March 1838. He was only son of John Hartpole Lecky and of his first wife. Mary Anne Tallents; she was married in 1837, and died in 1839. The Leckys wore of Scottish origin, connected by tradition with Stirlingshire, and had apparently migrated to Ireland early in the seventeenth century. Lecky's grand-father was of the Carlow branch of the family, and married Maria Hartpole, who, with her sister, was the last representative of the Hartpoles of Shrule Castle, near Carlow. The historian's mother was descended from a family long connected with Newark; her father, W. E. Tallents, was a solicitor of high reputation in that town. Lecky thus had English, Scotch, and Irish blood in his veins. Lecky's father had been called to the bar, bat, having private means, did not practise. He lived near Dublin, owned property in Queen's County, and was a magistrate there. In 1841 he married again. His second wife was Isabella Eliza, daughter of Colonel Eardley Wilmot, who acted as a mother to the boy, and throughout her life remained on the best of terms with him. A son, George Eardley, and a daughter, were the issue of this marriage. In 1847 Lecky's parents spent some months in England, and he went to school with a Dr. Stanley, first at Walmer, then at Lewes. In 1848 he returned to his parents in Ireland, and went to a day-school at Kingstown, then to Armagh school, and in the autumn of 1852 to Cheltenham. A few weeks after this event his father died; but his stepmother continued to live in Ireland, at Monkstown near Dublin, till she became second wife, on 2 May 1855, of Thomas Henry Dalzell, eighth earl of Carnwath (she died on 16 Oct. 1902).
[Lecky remained for three years at Cheltenham, but did not find school life at all congenial. In 1855 he left school, and, after a short time with a private tutor, entered Trinity College, Dublin, as a fellow commoner, in February 1856. There he was free to study as he pleased, and made good use of his opportunities, if in a somewhat desultory way. He has himself traced, in an interesting essay, the 'formative influences' he underwent at college. Probably the companionship of chosen friends, such as David Plunket (now Lord Rathmore), Edward Gibson (now Lord Ashbourne), Gerald FitzGibbon [q. v. Suppl. II], Edward, son of Smith O'Brien, and his cousin Aubrey, and Thomas (afterwards Canon) Teignmouth Shore, was the most stimulating of these influences; but he himself attributes much to his reading Bishop Butler, Whately, Bossuet, Hobbes, and particularly Buckle. With his friends he discussed history and philosophy, took part in debates in the College Historical Society, and won the gold medal for oratory in 1859. In the same year he graduated B.A.
His first publication was a small volume entitled 'Friendship, and other Poems,' issued under the name 'Hibernicus' (1859), which attracted little attention. This he followed up by a volume of essays called 'The Religious Tendencies of the Age,' published anonymously in 1860. He had long had a leaning towards theological studies, and even contemplated taking orders. But the book was remarkable for its wide outlook and spirit of tolerance, and foreshadowed no adhesion to any particular church. Meanwhile his family had gone abroad; and his holidays were chiefly spent on the Continent, in Belgium, Switzerland, and elsewhere. He thus imbibed that love of travelling which distinguished him through life. Spain and Italy were afterwards his predilection, and few Englishmen can have known those countries better than he. He was in Rome early in 1861, and was enthusiastic for the cause of Italism unity. In July 1861 he published, also anonymously, his 'Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland.' The volume fell still-born from the press; and the later issues (1871 and 1903) were so radically altered as to form practically a new book. His first literary ventures had not been successful, and he passed through a period of uncertainty and discouragement. He gave up the idea of entering the church, but could not fix on any other profession. He hesitated between standing for parliament and adopting a literary career; but, though he believed he had failed as an author, literature eventually carried the day over politics. His next publication was to show the justice of this decision. He read widely in the history of the early Middle Ages, studied the lives of the saints and the development of the early church, and carried cargoes of books with him during his travels in Spain, the Pyrenees and Italy. In 1863 he proceeded M.A., and published an essay on 'The Declining Sense of the Miraculous,' which subsequently formed the first two chapters of his 'History of Rationalism,' published in two volumes in January 1865.
The book achieved great and immediate success, and at once raised Lecky, then only twenty-seven years old, into the front rank of contemporary authors. It is a striking combination of history and philosophy, of the essay and the narrative. It displays wide and often abstruse reading, with a great power of thought and generalisation; and it derives unity from the dominance of a central idea—the development of reason, and the decay of superstition as a power in human society. It traces this evolution from the days of the early church, through the 'Dark Ages,' down to the Reformation. After discussing the belief in magic and witchcraft and in miracles, the author examines the aesthetic, scientific, and moral developments of rationalism, pointing out the connection between artistic changes and the progress of physical science on the one hand, and the evolution of moral ideas on the other. This prepares the way for a long chapter on the history of religious persecution, which is traced to the doctrine of exclusive salvation, and on its gradual elimination by the spirit of tolerance, arising from the growth of reason and the decay of dogmatic religion. Finally, a similar evolution is traced in politics and industry, and illustrated by the coincidence between the growth of protestantism and that of political liberty, the abolition of slavery, and the like. The survey is very wide; the facts and illustrations cited are occasionally somewhat overwhelming; and there is some tendency to discursiveness. The book would probably have been the better for a more rigid compression and a clearer and more logical sequence of its parts. Nevertheless, it remains a remarkable contribution to the history of the human mind and of human society. It is written throughout in a polished and dignified style, which, though seldom brilliant, is always lucid, and occasionally rises into impassioned eloquence.
The defects and virtues of this work are characteristic of Lecky throughout, and are clearly to be seen in his next book. With one stride Lecky had become famous; his society was sought in the highest literary and political circles; he was elected to the Athenæum in 1867, and became intimate with Lord Russell, Sir Charles Lyell, Dean Milman, Carlyle, Henry Reeve, and other distinguished men. He now established himself in London (6 Albemarle St.), lectured at the Royal Institution on 'The Influence of the Imagination on History,' and paid much attention to politics. His letters show him a strong liberal, though not a radical (as he said himself) 'like Mr. Bright or Mr. Disraeli.' He condemned the tories for bringing in the reform bill of 1867, and supported the disestablishment of the Irish church, and (with some reservations) the Irish Land Act of 1870. Meanwhile he was working hard at his 'History of European Morals,' which appeared, in two volumes, in the spring of 1869. The book was attacked by both the utilitarians and the orthodox, but achieved a success no less great than its predecessor, with which it was so closely connected as to be in some sense a sequel or an expansion in a particular direction. Lecky himself, in a letter, indicates this connection by saying that both books 'are an attempt to examine the merits of certain theological opinions according to the historical method.... The "Morals" is a history of the imposition of those opinions upon the world, and attempts to show how far their success may be accounted for by natural causes.... The "Rationalism" is a history of the decay of those opinions.' The author was always an 'intuitional' moralist, but held strongly to the belief that moral intuitions are susceptible of development, and that history shows a continuous advance in moral concepts. This is the main thesis of the book. 'The path of truth (he says) is over the corpses of the enthusiasms of our past.' The treatment, however, is not entirely historical. The author begins with a long discussion, not altogether in place, of the dispute between the intuitionists and the utilitarians, and decides in favour of the former. He then proceeds to show the progressive character of moral intuitions, and the gradual changes in the standard and mode of action of human morality. These he traces through the later periods of the Pagan empire and the Völkerwanderung, down to the reestablishment of the empire of the west. He covers no little of the same ground which he covered in his previous book; and there is some repetition, notably in the treatment of religious persecution. He concludes with an examination of the position of women under the Roman empire and in the later Middle Ages.
In the following year (1870) Lecky first met, at Dean Stanley's, Queen Sophia of the Netherlands and her maid-of-honour, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of General Baron van Dedem and his first wife. Baroness Sloet van Hagensdorp. He subsequently visited Queen Sophia at the House in the Wood, and became engaged to her lady-in-waiting, Elizabeth van Dedem. Meanwhile the Franco-German war had broken out. Lecky inclined at the outset to favour Germany, believing that the conflict had arisen from unprovoked aggression on the part of France; but as the war proceeded his opinion changed, and he strongly condemned the terms of peace. In June 1871 he married, and shortly afterwards settled down at 38 Onslow Gardens, which was thenceforward his home. The Leckys had a wide circle of distinguished friends, among whom may be mentioned, in addition to those named above. Sir Henry and Lady Taylor, Froude, Sir Henry Holland, Sir Leslie Stephen, Browning, Tennyson, Lord and Lady Derby, Lady Stanley of Alderley, Kinglake, Huxley, Tyndall, and Herbert Spencer—in fact all that was best in the literary and scientific society of the day. In 1873 he was elected a member of the 'Literary Society,' and in 1874 of 'The Club,' which Dr. Johnson had founded—an event which gave him much gratification.
But social claims did not abate his ardour for work. In December 1871 he brought out a revised edition of his 'Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland,' but was disappointed at its reception. Meanwhile he was collecting materials for his magnum opus, the 'History of England in the Eighteenth Century.' For this purpose he paid several visits to Ireland, and made extensive researches in Dublin. These visits resulted in many discoveries and rectifications, which give his chapters on Ireland a special value. The first two volumes of the book appeared in January 1878, and achieved immediate success. His aim, as he himself explains in his preface, was not to write a detailed or personal history, but 'to disengage from the great mass of facts those which relate to the permanent forces of the nation, or which indicate some of the more enduring features of national life.' But an immediate object, very near his heart, was (as he also says in a letter) to refute what he held to be the calumnies of Froude against the Irish people. This explains the otherwise disproportionate amount of space allotted to Ireland in the book. In the subsequent (cabinet) edition Irish history occupies five volumes, as compared with seven devoted to that of England. The work occupied Lecky for nineteen years. The third and fourth volumes were published in 1882, the fifth and sixth in 1887, the seventh and eighth in 1890. Each successive instalment heightened and confirmed the author's fame. Lord Acton, writing of vols. iii. and iv., said that they were 'fuller of political instruction than anything that had appeared for a long time.' American critics recognised the impartiality of the author in dealing with the American revolution, and the thoroughness of his investigations. By this great work Lecky's name will chiefly live. The style is sound, lucid, and elevated throughout, never rhetorical or declamatory, and never sinking below itself. The narrative moves steadily forward, with due regard to chronological sequence ; but the events and episodes are so grouped and connected as to make the whole intelligible. The limitations of the subject and the necessities of historical narrative help to correct that tendency to diffuseness, recurrence, and defective arrangement which are noticeable in the earlier works. Attention is mainly concentrated on political movements and ideas, but society, commerce, industry, art, and literature, and especially ecclesiastical affairs and religious thought, receive their share. But perhaps the most valuable qualities in Lecky's historical work are the philosophical character of his summaries and deductions, the soundness of his judgments of men and of events, and the scrupulous impartiality with which he treats all parties and all creeds. There is doubtless some want of colour; but as a truthful picture of eighteenth-century Britain in its most important aspects the book excelled all previous efforts, and will be hard to supersede.
In Irish affairs Lecky always took a keen interest. He saw the dangers of Gladstone's land legislation. Although he never became a tory, he was, from the date of Gladstone's adoption of the policy of home rale in 1886, a liberal unionist. 'He intervened actively in the struggle over Gladstone's policy by writing several weighty letters to 'The Times' (1886) and by an article in the 'Nineteenth Century' (April 1886). When, in 1892, the home rule project was revived, he again denounced it in letters to the Irish Unionist Convention and to the 'Scotsman,' and in articles published in the 'National Observer,' the 'Pall Mall Gazette,' and the 'Contemporary Review ' (May 1893). Meanwhile he was occupied in rearranging his 'History' for the cabinet edition, which appeared in 1892, and in working up the materials for 'Democracy and Liberty.' In 1891 he published a volume of poems, which, though not reaching the higher flights of poetic imagination or expression, were marked by elevated feeling, a tender melancholy, and a sincerity and self-restraint, truly representing the author's temperament. In 1892, on the death of Professor Freeman, Lecky was offered the regius professorship of modern history at Oxford, but declined it. He had been made hon. D.C.L. of Oxford in 1888 and hon. Litt.D. of Cambridge in 1891. In 1895 he was elected hon. secretary for foreign correspondence to the Royal Academy, and received the honorary degree of LL.D. at Glasgow. In October of the same year he accepted an invitation to stand for the seat in parliament, as representative of Dublin University, vacated by the elevation of Mr. Plunket to the peerage ; some of the clerical electors demurred to his religious opinions, but after a contest he was elected by a considerable majority. It is noteworthy that his first speech (February 1896) was made on behalf of the Irish prisoners condemned under the Treason Felony Act thirteen years before. He speedily made a mark in parliament, and was listened to with attention when he rose to speak. He discharged his parliamentary duties with exemplary regularity ; and his tall, thin, somewhat stooping, but impressive figure was well known in the house. But he never acquired the parliamentary manner ; his speaking was so fluent, even, and rapid as to become monotonous ; and he excelled rather in set speeches than in debate. Although he had a distinct turn for politics, and his sincerity, ability, and wide knowledge always carried weight, he must be ranked among those whom training and character fitted better for other fields, and whom distinction won elsewhere carried too late into the rough-and-tumble of parliamentary life.
In 1896 he published his 'Democracy and Liberty' in two volumes. This book, though full, like all his works, of learning, and marked by profound thought, impartiality, and sobriety of judgment, hardly met with the success which, in many respects, it deserved. liike his 'Rationalism ' and his 'Morals,' it to some extent falls between the two stools of essay and narrative, of history and philosophical discussion. The book is very discursive. The great question — the effect of democracy upon liberty — is obscured by the importation of many matters, such as marriage and divorce, whose connection with the main subject is not obvious, or of others, like nationality, the bearing of which upon it is insufficiently brought out. The weight of the illustrative matter and the very fairness of the tone have also hindered its popularity. In these respects it may profitably be compared with Sir James Stephen's 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,' and Sir Henry Maine's essay on 'Popular Government' — far shorter books, and, from this and their very onc-sidedncss, far more effective. 'Democracy and Liberty' is largely a treatise on contemporary politics. It provides a storehouso of atlmirablo, if somewhat disjointed, reflections, made, on the whole, from a distinctly conservative point of view, and without much hope for the future of democracy. It is largely a doubt, a protest, and a regret.
h regard to Irish university education, Lecky recognised the necessity of doing something for the Roman catholics, and favoured the establishment of a Roman catholic university, in which candidates for the priesthood should be educated along with laymen. On the financial question he held that Ireland was entitled to separate treatment ; but found a remedy not in abated taxation, but an equivalent grant. He had doubts about the Irish local government bill, and sought to amend it in several details. He opposed the grant of compulsory powers of purchase to the congested districts board, as well as the proposal to make that body more representative, but warmly supported the agricultural policy of Sir Horace Plunkett. He also opposed the introduction of old age pensions, preferring a reform of the poor law. He favoured international arbitration, but believed more in a great and gradual revolution in public sentiment. In these and many other questions he displayed his characteristic independence of thought and mental balance, and a genuine interest in the public welfare without a tinge of fanaticism.
In 1899 he issued a revised edition of 'Democracy and Liberty,' with a new introduction, containing what is probably the best summary and estimate of Glad stone's work and character which has yet appeared. In the autumn of the same year he brought out, under the title of 'The Map of Life,' a volume of reflections on life, character, and conduct, which achieved and still enjoys considerable popularity. It cannot be said that the reflections are very profound, nor are they eigrammatically expressed ; but there is a mellow wisdom, a good sense, a hopeful trust in the force of resolution, a mingled gentleness and firmness, which give the book a certain charm. It would be profitable reading for the young, but has probably found more readers among the old. In the spring of 1903 a finally revised edition (the third) of his 'Leaders' appeared. The life of Swift was now omitted, being included (in an enlarged form) in Bell's edition of Swift's works, with an introductory chapter on the parliament in the eighteenth oentury, the author narrates the lives of Flood, Grattan, and Daniel O'Connell, the last of which occupies the whole of the second volume, while that of Grattan occupies two-thirds of the first. The book had gradually won its way to public acceptance, and taken its place as a highly important con to Irish history. A volume of 'Historical and Political Essays' was posthumously published by his widow in 1908. In making this collection Mrs. Lecky was fulfilling an intention of the author which he had not lived to carry out. The essays are partly biographical sketches of Carlyle, Madame de Staël, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, Henry Reeve, Dean Milman, Queen Victoria, and his solitary chapter of autobiography 'Formative Influences' — partly discussions on historical and political topics. An address on 'The Empire, its Value and Growth,' displays his genuine warmth of patriotic feeling and a tempered imperialism. But perhaps the most interesting are two essays entitled 'Thoughts on History' and 'The Political Value of History.' The latter, while holding that history cannot predict, proves the value of historical study to the statesman, but concludes that 'its most precious lessons are moral ones.'
Many honours were conferred on Lecky. He was lion. LL.D. of Dublin (1879) and of St. Andrews ( 1885). In 1897, at Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee, he was made a privy councillor. When the British Academy was founded in 1902, he became one of its original members. In the same year he received the high distinction of the Order of Merit, being one of the first twelve recipients of that honour. He also now became a full member of the French Institute, of which he had been a corresponding member since 1893. Meanwhile his health, which during the greater part of his life had been good, began to fail. In the spring of 1901 an attack of influenza led to dUatation of the heart, from which he never entirely recovered. Hi-health compelled him in December 1902 to resign his seat in parliament. He gradually grew weaker, and on 22 Oct. 1903 he died quietly and suddenly in his own study, among his books. His body was cremated, and the remains, after a service at St. Patrick's, were buried in Mount Jerome cemetery, Dublin. His wife Elizabeth, eldest daughter of General Baron van Dedem, by whom he had no issue, survived till 23 May 1912; she was buried beside her husband in Mount Jerome cemetery. The Lecky chair of history at Trinity College, Dublin, was endowed by Mrs. Lecky from the proceeds of her husband's landed property in Queen's County and co. Carlow. All Lecky's MSS., published and unpublished, were left by his widow to Trinity College, as well as a bronze bust of him by Boehm (The Times, 23 June 1912).
In person Lecky was very tall and slim. His head was dome-shaped, the hair (which he wore rather long) was fair, the brow lofty, the eyes thoughtful and with a gentle expression, the nose long and nearly straight, the mouth somewhat large, the lips full and drawn down at the corners, the chin rounded. The front of the face was shaved, but he wore side-whiskers, the hair being allowed to meet under the chin. Lecky indulged in no sport, and played no games, but he was a good walker, and in his younger days habitually made long excursions on foot, preferably in beautiful scenery. Pictures of him by Watts and Henry Tanworth Wells are in the National Portrait Gallery, and several good photographs are given in the 'Memoir,' A drawing, by H. T. Wells, is in the Royal Library at Windsor. A cartoon portrait by 'Spy' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1882.
Lecky's most important works, all of which were published in London, are:
- 'Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland,' 1861; revised edits, in 1871 and (2 vols.) 1903.
- 'History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe,' 2 vols. 1865; cabinet edit. 1869.
- 'History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne,' 2 vols. 1869; cabinet edit. 1877.
- 'History of England in the Eighteenth Century,' 8 vols. 1878-1890; cabinet edit, separating the English and Irish histories, 1892.
- 'Democracy and Liberty,' 2 vols. 1896; cabinet edit. 1899.
- 'The Map of Life: Conduct and Character,' 1899; cabinet edit. 1901.
- 'Historical and Political Essays,' 1908; cabinet edit. 1908.
[Memoir of W. E. H. Lecky, by Mrs. Lecky, 1909; Notice sur la vie et les travaux du très-honorable W. E. H. Lecky, par le Comte de Franqueville, Paris, 1910; J. F. Rhodes, Historical Essays, 1909; The Times, 23 Oct. 1903; Acton's Letters to Mary Gladstone, 1904, pp. 131-2; Letters to William Alimgham, 1911, p. 197; Tollemache, Old and Odd Memories; and note m Spectator, 13 Nov.; Proc. Brit. Acad. 1903-4, p. 307; private information.]