Memoir and Letters of Francis W. NewmanSieveking, I. Giberne (Isabel Giberne)
Religion
Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman
Sieveking, I. Giberne (Isabel Giberne)
Newman, Francis William, 1805-1897
"I have had a letter from Pulszky (to whom I had not written on this
subject) telling me he is convinced that Bismarck put on a mask of
fanatical reactionarism in order to win the confidence of the _King of
Prussia!_ ... It seemed to me certain, that when new States had to be
incorporated with Prussia, despotic reaction would be _impossible_, much
more if a German Parliament were summoned. And now the King himself
proposes Universal Suffrage for all men above twenty-five and of
unblemished character! This seems to make any English Reform Bill
impossible, which is not far more democratic than any practical statesman
here has yet imagined. Nevertheless, I am increasingly gloomy as to the
near future of the English Empire. The Radicals seem perfectly blind as to
its centres of danger, and the amount of foreign sympathy which
insurrection in India or Ireland will now have. Andrew Johnson seems
destined to involve the U.S. in new civil war. I grieve deeply for it."
The next letter shows Newman settled in at "1 Dover Place, Clifton." His
Anglo-Arabic dictionary is finished, though revisions are to be added
later. At the end of the letter he gives the names of those who, he hopes,
may some day form a Ministry under Gladstone.
"_12th March_, 1867.
"My dear Nicholson,
"Our correspondence is so slack that I cannot tell what or on what I last
wrote, nor where to lay hands on your last.... We have had severe weather
all this month, and the snow continues all day since last night; but I am
happy to say my dear wife is not the worse.... I remember vividly the
spring of 1836, the first year of our marriage: the season from December
to May was the severest that I take note of since the great historical
winter of 1813 (1812?). This begins to remind me of 1836.... I had hoped
that continued work at Arabic would explain to me certain fixed
difficulties in the documents which I have studied; but a number of them,
even where the printed text is quite clear, remain unsolved. I venture to
trouble you with the only words which embarrass me in a rather long and
complete narrative of the burial of Abd el Mejied and the ceremonial of
installing his brother as his successor. If you can translate the line or
half-line I shall be benefited.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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