go TlMEHRI. 
a man of books rather than of a man of the world. His 
own words are : — " In Trinidad, as everywhere else, 
" my own chief desire was to see the human inhabitants, 
" to learn what they were doing, how they were living, 
" and what they were thinking about, and this could 
" best be done by drives about the town and neighbour- 
" hood " ! (p. 73) Carlyle, whom Mr. Froude has 
served as worshipper and iconoclast in turn, killed with 
ridicule the idea of respectability being founded upon a 
gig. It does not, however, require a CARLYLE to detect, 
in Mr. Froude'S idea of learning by " drives about", 
what men were thinking about, the mode of ( doing' 
places, of a Cook's Tourist, rather than the method of 
enquiry of a man of affairs. 
So far from seeking, or making, opportunities for 
obtaining a knowledge of the true state of things in 
Trinidad, he devoted himself to admiration of the Flora 
of the Island, which he found quite as beautiful as his 
friend Charles Kingsley had depicted it, and man 
alone was vile. An exceptionally good opportunity oc- 
curred, during Mr. Froude's short stay in the Colony, 
for learning something of the people of the place, the 
manner of men they were, and what their aspirations 
were. But, when formally requested to attend the Public 
Meeting held in Port-of-Spain in favour of the introduc- 
tion of popular representation ; a solid part of the 
Islanders desiring that some portion of the Legislative 
Council of the colony should be elected by votes of the 
Taxpayers, instead of, as at present, all the members 
being nominated by the Crown ; he declined the invita- 
tion, on the ground that he knew too little of their 
affairs to make his presence of any value to the 
