FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY. 



295 



been established in Nebraska. The Oregon Yearly 

 Meeting was established in last Sixth Month, and the 

 initiatory steps have been taken to establish the Cali- 

 fornia Yearly Meeting of Friends. The Young Peo- 

 ple's Society of Christian Endeavor has experienced 

 great growth the past year. They have increased their 

 gilts to foreign missions, and have sustained an evan- 

 gelist and organizer in the home work. We recog- 

 nize withal the hand of God turning "the heart of 

 the fathers to the children and the heart of the chil- 

 dren to their fathers," as old and young Endeavorers 

 unite in the work. 



The more conservative Friends oppose these 

 innovations, and regard them as departures from 

 the standards of the society. Some of the yearly 

 meetings have been divided in consequence of 

 them, and as both divisions retain the old name 

 of the meeting and claim to be the real and law- 

 ful body, confusion is liable to arise in charac- 

 terizing them. 



FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY, an English 

 historian, born in Dartington, near Totnes, 

 Devonshire, April 23, 1818: died in Salcombe, 

 Devonshire, Oct. 20, 1894. He was the youngest 

 son of the Ven. R. H. Froude, rector of Darting- 

 ton and archdeacon of Totnes, and received his 

 education at Westminster and Oriel College, 

 Oxford, taking his degree at Oriel in 1840. In 

 1842 he became a fellow of Exeter College, 

 and was ordained deacon. It is not probable 

 that he was much under the sway of his brother, 

 Hurrell Froude,'one of the leaders in the Oxford 

 Movement, as his brother was fifteen years his 

 senior, and the two were very little together, 

 Hurrell Froude dying in 1836, while Anthony 

 was at the university. Nevertheless he too came 

 under the same powerful influence, though to 

 a less extent, and, like his brother, was the 

 friend of Newman. His next older brother, 

 William, one of the foremost mathematicians of 

 his time, does not appear to have been affected 

 by the Tractarian movement to any marked de- 

 gree. The earliest work of the youngest of the 

 Froudes was a contribution to "The Lives of 

 the English Saints," edited by Newman, in 1844- 

 '45. His "Shadows of the "Clouds," a volume 

 containing two stories "The Spirit's Trials" 

 and " The Lieutenant's Daughter "which ap- 

 peared in 1847, showed him emerging from the 

 influence of the Oxford leaders : and " The Nem- 

 esis of Faith," published in 1848. declared in 

 no uncertain tones his radical dissent from the 

 views of the Establishment. These books were 

 both condemned by the university, and Froude 

 accordingly resigned his fellowship at Exeter. 

 His departure from the Tractarian ranks has 

 been called by a " Saturday Reviewer '' an " inex- 

 plicable revolt " : but to one who has thought- 

 fully followed the accounts of his early career 

 after he took his degree his revolt can hardly 

 seem inexplicable. It was rather the natural 

 result that a mind like his would ultimately ar- 

 rive at after its researches in English hagiology. 

 He never regained any portion of his early faith, 

 but remained for the rest of his life indifferent 

 rather than hostile to the Church in which he 

 had been trained. In 1856 appeared the first 

 two volumes of his " History of England from 

 the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Eliza- 

 beth," the twelfth and last volume of which was 

 published in 1870. The work at once attracted 

 great attention, favorable and otherwise, not 



only by reason of its thorough treatment of the 

 subject and the brilliance of its style, but from 

 the boldness and originality of the writer's views. 

 It contains no unhesitating acceptance of other 

 men's opinions, no shrinking from conclusions. 

 Instead of this, it reverses historical judgments, 

 refuses to accept verdicts hitherto considered 

 final, and reinterprets motives in a fashion start- 

 ling enough to the readers of a generation ago, 

 though common enough now. His attempt to 



JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE. 



vindicate the character of Henry VIII, reso- 

 lute as it is, must be reckoned unsuccessful ; and 

 though the historian has given us a brilliant 

 historical portrait of the second Tudor king, 

 and has unquestionably added to our knowledge 

 of that personage, the correctness of the likeness 

 is not its strongest point, and to know the real 

 Henry we must turn to such an historian as 

 Prof, (lairdner, for example. Of his estimate 

 of Mary of Scotland much more may be said in 

 commendation, for, while there is at least a sus- 

 picion of personal prejudice in his treatment of 

 her, he has done good service in dispelling the 

 mist of sentimentalism that has gathered about 

 her name. He shows us Mary as the most fas- 

 cinating woman of her time, but as false and 

 untrustworthy as she was fair, and his judgment 

 is in the main supported by reference to public 

 documents and other material neglected by or 

 unknown to former historians. His estimate of 

 Elizabeth has occasioned less controversy than 

 other judgments of his, and while it may not 

 be accepted without question in all its details, 

 may still be classed as a fairly faithful portrait 

 on the whole. At all events, it is the one that 

 is the most indelibly stamped upon the mind of 

 the present generation. With Cranmer, on the 

 other hand, Froude has been as little successful 

 in reversing former judgments as in the case of 

 Henry VIII. 



Although his " History of England " is volu- 

 minous to a fault, it is never dull, and his dra- 

 matic instinct led him to place both incidents 

 and personages in a most effective grouping. 

 Such a method of treatment makes a very read- 

 able history, but it does not necessarily insure 

 two important factors in historical study : accu- 



