d by the particular instance. Between 1881 and 1884 he
was occupied as Carlyle's literary executor in issuing his biographical
remains. Later _Oceana_ and _The English in the West Indies_ contained
at once sketches of travel and political reflections; and in 1889 he
published an Irish historical romance, _The Two Chiefs of Dunboy_. He
was made Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford in succession to
Mr. Freeman, and his two latest works, _Erasmus_, published just before,
and _English Seamen_ some months after his death, contain in part the
results of the appointment.

It is a vulgar observation that the natural element of some men appears
to be hot water. No English author of the century justifies this better
than Mr. Froude. His early change of faith attracted to him a very
considerable share of the obloquy which usually (and perhaps not so
unreasonably as is sometimes thought) attaches to violent revolutions of
opinion on important points. His _History_ was no sooner published than
most acrimonious attacks were made upon it, and continued for many
years, by a school of historical students with the late Mr. Freeman at
their head. His Irish book, coinciding with the rise of "Home Rule"
sentiment in Ireland, brought upon him furious enmity from the Irish
Nationalist party and from those who, at first or by and by, sympathised
with them in England. His colonial visits and criticisms not merely
attracted to him the animosity of all those Englishmen who espoused the
politics of non-intervention and non-aggrandisement, but aroused lively
irritation in the Colonies themselves. About his discharge of his duties
as Carlyle's executor, a perfect tempest of indignation arose; it being
alleged that he had either carelessly, or through bad taste, or with
deliberate treachery, revealed his dead friend's and master's weaknesses
and domestic troubles to the public view.

With some of the causes of this odium we are fortunately here dispensed
from dealing. Theological and political matters, in so far as they are
controversial, are altogether outside of our scope. The question of the
dealing with Carlyle's "Remains" is one rather of ethics than of
literature proper, and it is perhaps sufficient to make, in reference to
it, the warning observation that Lockhart, who is now considered by
almost all competent critics as a very pattern of the union of fidelity
and good taste towards both his subject and his readers, was accused, at
th