the year after (1861). It was reprinted with considerable additions in 1871, and again in 1903. But the alterations in the Lives are chiefly in the way of expansion, the most notable instance of this being in the Life of O'Connell, which, in the last edition, fills a whole octavo volume. It is very interesting to compare the various editions and observe how little the opinions have undergone modification, and how much of the original writing has been preserved unaltered. One change, however, deserves to be mentioned: the omission in the later editions of the original preface and the last chapter on "Clerical Influences." It was to these that the Home Rulers of later times were so fond of appealing as proof that Lecky was on their side. To some extent, indeed, this was the case, and, if Home Rule had come. forward under different auspices as the desire of a united Ireland and not merely of a predatory section, it is not unlikely that Lecky might have been found among its advocates. The object of the Leaders was to show how political opinion had arisen under guidance of the eminent men whose lives he narrates, and how, after O'Connell, it had degenerated simply into religious faction. At the time he wrote, a national party had ceased to exist, the entire energies of the people were expended upon sectarian controversy the ceaseless conflict between Catholic and Protestant-which had become "the master curse" of Ireland. Indeed, he observes that "if the whole people were converted to Mohammedanism nine-tenths of the present obstacles to the prosperity of the country would be removed." He saw that the bitterness was kept alive partly by the false position of the Protestant Church, which "seems doomed to a hopeless unpopularity," and which was, in fact, soon after disestablished, partly by the conduct of the Catholic clergy, who labour industriously to prevent the "Roman Catholic from mingling with the Protestant." There must be, he says, "either a complete fusion of the people of Ireland with the people of England or else the creation of a healthy national feeling in Ireland, uniting its various classes and giving a definite character to its policy." The policy of a United Ireland would gravitate, he thinks, to "the recognition of their country as a distinct and independent nationality connected with England by the Crown." The revival of a National Legislature would restore a healthy political life, which would gradually absorb and dissipate sectarian divisions. He anticipated that the measure would be followed by the internal prosperity of the country and by the growth of loyalty to the Crown, which would remove the greatest of the difficulties and dangers of England. So far we seem to be pretty much in the position of the Home Ruler, who, it must be recollected, had not yet come into existence.

But, Lecky had an entirely different idea of the Home Rule which was to produce these happy effects. It was to come as the demand of a united and loyal Ireland, of Protestant as well as Catholic, of the landed gentry as well as the masses of the people. Without this union "her powers would be, at once, an evil to herself and to England; her independence would be the dismemberment of the Empire." These words of a "Young Irelander" forty years ago should not be forgotten in the days to come. We are here met, however, with an obvious difficulty: on the one hand a general reconciliation of sects and parties is required to precede the concession of a national Legislature; on the other the existence of a national Legislature is regarded as an essential preliminary to the reconciliation. Lecky appears to have found the solution in the confident expectation of "the advent of a great political leader," who would subdue "the waves of sectarian strife" and accomplish the reconciliation which could then be left to the Legislative Assembly to consolidate and perpetuate. As a matter of fact, "a great political leader" did, soon after, arise, but he bore little resemblance to the predicted Messiah. He partially succeeded, it is true, in secularising the interests of Irish politics—the old conflict between Protestants and Catholics was, for a time, partly veiled, if not essentially changed, by assuming the form of a conflict between landlords and tenants; and the result, so far, appears to be that one element in the strife is now on the point of extinction, by the elimination of the landlord; and perhaps the elimination of the Protestant may follow the introduction of the new schemes of education. But, we fear, the last essential condition for the realisation of the patriotic vision will be farther removed than ever, if it has still to wait for a spontaneous outburst of loyalty to England.

Probably no career would have so thoroughly realised Lecky's own ambition as to have become, himself, the great political leader of his youthful dreams. If he had gone

How far he might
Recent experience

straight into Parliament from the University, or, even after he had finished the History of Morals (1869), when he was still a young man of thirty, it is likely that the whole current of his later life would have been entirely different. have gone it is impossible now to estimate. has shown that a strenuous and fearless nature may be concealed beneath an outer semblance of a gentle and even feminine manner; and that a great party can be led and controlled by charm of character quite as much as by any more visible manifestations of its force. The weakness of Lecky's voice would, no doubt, have always prevented him from becoming a platform speaker, but there is no reason to suppose that it would

have been beyond his power in early life to learn to speak sufficiently slowly to suit the intelligence of the House of Commons. He had many of the qualifications that were calculated to fascinate the Irish people: the same poetical and emotional temperament, the same tendency to run off into superlatives, a ready flow of humour, and, in youth, at least, a buoyant disposition kindled and sustained by strong enthusiasm. If it had ever been possible to fuse the two contending factions into a single patriotic party, few men, it might be thought, were better qualified to succeed in the task. His sympathies were enlisted about equally on both sides; his Nationalist aspirations were quite on a level with any that were then before the public, if, indeed, they did not outrun them. In 1864 he could say that he and Lady Wilde were "the only living specimens of that almost extinct species 'the Young Irelander." It is true he was a Protestant, but he had given. an early proof that his Protestantism was deprived of its sting; and the political leader who was so soon to fill the vacant place was also a Protestant and a landlord like himself. If Lecky, instead of Parnell, had managed to gain the ear of the Irish people the whole course of recent history would have been changed. Ireland would have been drawn perceptibly nearer the reconciliation of that internal strife which is the chief obstacle to the realisation of her patriotic dreams, and a great English party would have escaped the impotence of disruption. But if he was unable to assume "the mantle of Grattan," there is a passage at the end of the Leaders which sufficiently indicates the course he then intended to pursue. "The task of Irish writers," he said, "is a simple if not a very hopeful one. It is to defend the character of the nation-to endeavour to lead back public opinion to those liberal and progressive principles from which, under priestly guidance, it has so lamentably aberrated." Unfortunately other matters of more pressing temporary importance unexpectedly intervened that absorbed his energies for the first few years of his life.

As soon as the Leaders was published (July 1861) he went abroad again and passed the autumn travelling in the Pyrenees with a volume of Spinoza in his pocket. When at Pau he obtained his first glimpse of Buckle's History of Civilisation, a book that filled his thoughts for many months to come. It was then more than a year since the Religious Tendencies had been published, and Lecky was now beginning to feel that it could not remain the final expression of his opinions on the subject. The whole current of modern thought was perpetually streaming through his active brain, and he could not remain unaffected by it. He had vindicated the absolute right

of private judgment, and it might be reasonably expected that some, at least, of his early opinions would not permanently withstand its dissolving power. In the beginning of 1861 he had postponed, but not abandoned, the idea of going into the Church; by the end of the year he had finally decided not to take that step. It does not appear, indeed, that he had ever looked forward to the clerical life except as a vague possibility arising more from the accidental circumstance that he could. obtain presentation to a family living, than from any deliberate choice on his own part. He was always distinguished by the most transparent excellence of character, by a kindness of disposition, and a zeal for doing good, that seemed to mark him out as specially qualified for the Christian ministry. He had declared that the position of a clergyman was, "in theory at least, one of the most beautiful that can be conceived," though his sympathy with many of the occupants of that office was much less emphatic. He did not, however, impress his friends with the conviction that he felt any special "call" in that direction. The turn of his mind was, as has been said, more towards politics and literature. He never attempted to conceal that he was animated by strong ambition, and it is possible he recognised that a country living scarcely afforded the scope he required for its exercise. He was fortunately independent of professional gain, and the question was simply where he could find the most congenial sphere of usefulness. He never had any inclination for the life and pursuits of a country gentleman; but he was early struck with " Carlyle saying that literature is the one modern Church "; and although he could not now address a few graziers and peasants from the pulpit of a country church, he was not without the assurance of his friends that the time would surely come when he would speak to the world from a loftier tribune. In the spring of 1862, after a passing moment of discouragement, he had already sketched out the lines his next book was to follow. It was necessary, he said, to approach theology through history, to study the circumstances under which its opinions take their rise, flourish, and decline; and we find that in March he had already entered upon the study of one branch of this subject, that of witchcraft. When at Kingstown in the following summer, he had written a good deal of the first chapter of the History of Rationalism. But it was not till a year later (June 1863), when he had just reached twenty-five years of age, that he printed, but did not publish, a slim volume on the Declining Sense of the Miraculous, a title which indicated an important relaxation in the rigidity of his original position. This essay was reprinted, with a few unimportant omissions, in 1865,

where it forms the first two chapters of the History of Rationalism. Four years later (1869) the publication of the History of European Morals completed his survey of religious and ethical subjects. No sooner had he recovered from the exhaustion that followed the publication of his History of Morals (1869) than he returned to the subjects that were always nearest his heart. In 1870-71 he devoted seven months or more to a complete revision of the Leaders, which he considered he had made an entirely new book; and he had already begun to collect materials for the great work of his life-the History of the Eighteenth Century. There is little doubt that he took up this subject principally on account of the opportunity it would afford him of dealing at length with the affairs of Ireland. He knew that a history of Ireland alone might fall as flat as the Leaders had done, for the sympathies of Englishmen are not easily directed to that subject; but he felt that if he could first enlist their interest in their own affairs he might be able to lead them on, imperceptibly, to the study of the affairs of Ireland. It was his aim to give a detailed account of Irish history during its most eventful years; to present an absolutely impartial account of transactions that were hitherto imperfectly known; and which, so far as they were known, he considered had been greatly and even wilfully misrepresented; above all, to defend the character of the Irish people against the ignorant and almost scornful depreciation to which they had been so long exposed, and which had contributed, as much as any other cause, to alienate the two nations. No portion of his subject stimulated him in an equal degree; he spent months in the uncongenial atmosphere of the Dublin Record Office, toiling through the manuscript correspondence. He even sacrificed the artistic effect of his history by the disproportionate length of his Irish chapters. His charity and toleration were never put to so severe a strain as when speaking of another great historian whose views upon this subject were profoundly and irreconcilably opposed to his own. Indeed, the extreme inflammability of Irish politics is nowhere more apparent than in the fierce fire it kindled even in so gentle a nature. His chapter on Clerical Influences, in the original edition of the Leaders, is characterised by a violence of expression entirely foreign to his usual manner. The comparison of this early performance with the Introduction to the edition of 1871, which partly replaces it, will afford an interesting study, showing the immense strides made in the interval of ten years in sobriety of thought and diction.

It was, perhaps, a misfortune that he did not obtain a seat in Parliament when he had finished his History of Morals. At