Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/407

 his principles from a chair of English literature at Oxford, he was disappointed by the failure of his candidature for the newly established Merton professorship of English in 1885, when Professor A. S. Napier, an eminent philologist, was elected. Thereby literature in Collins's view was left unprovided for. In an article in the ‘Quarterly’ (October 1886) on ‘English Literature at the Universities’ Collins showed a certain sense of neglect while denouncing with pugnacity some English teaching lately given at Cambridge. The article roused a personal controversy which incidentally suspended his intimacy with Swinburne. He had already in an anonymous ‘Quarterly’ article on ‘The Predecessors of Shakespeare’ (Oct. 1885) attacked Swinburne's prose essays, and when defending himself from a charge of exceeding the limits of fair criticism in his new article he incautiously cited his friend Swinburne as tacitly approving his critical frankness. But Collins's censure had hitherto escaped Swinburne's notice, and the critic's confession drew on his head the poet's wrath (Athenæum, Oct.–Nov. 1886). The breach with Swinburne was partially healed later. Swinburne agreed to meet Collins on 18 Feb. 1900, and although the poet then greeted his critic ‘with a stiff courtesy,’ something of the old cordiality was subsequently renewed.

Collins pursued undaunted his crusade for the recognition of English literature at Oxford. He collected the views of leading public men, and published them in the ‘Pall Mall Gazette’ (Dec. 1886). He re-stated his case in a ‘Quarterly’ article, ‘A School of English Literature’ (January 1887), in an essay in the ‘Nineteenth Century’ (Nov. 1887) on ‘Can English Literature be taught?’ and in a volume ‘The Study of English Literature’ (1891). While his strenuous temper excited much hostility, Collins won his point. In 1893 a final honours school in English was established at Oxford largely owing to his agitation. In 1901 the philanthropist, John Passmore Edwards [q. v. Suppl. II], gave, at Collins's personal persuasion, the sum of 1675l. to found at Oxford a scholarship for the encouragement of the study of English literature in connection with the classical literatures of Greece and Rome. The scholarship was first awarded at Michaelmas 1902. A chair in English literature was established in 1903. Collins's victory brought him no personal reward. He applied for the new chair at Oxford without result.

Collins was always extending his journalistic and teaching work at the risk of his health. From 24 Nov. 1894 to 17 Feb. 1906 he was a constant writer in the ‘Saturday Review,’ and was allowed a free hand in censure of what he deemed incompetence. The titles of his first and last articles—‘A Specimen of Oxford Editing’ and ‘Twaddle from a Great Scholar’—suggest his attitude to established reputations. In the spring of 1898, when threatened with a nervous breakdown, he made his only foreign tour, visiting Rome by way of Paris. In 1901, during which year he suffered an exceptionally severe attack of melancholia, he illustrated his critical severity in ‘Ephemera Critica; or Plain Truths about Current Literature’ (1901), while in an edition of the early poems of Tennyson (1899, 1900 and 1901), he continued the minute examination of what he deemed to be the sources of Tennyson's inspiration which he had inaugurated in the ‘Cornhill’ in 1880.

At length in 1904 Collins received some practical recognition of his energies. He was then appointed to the chair of English literature at the new University of Birmingham. Though he did not abandon all his lecturing engagements in London, he devoted himself with customary ardour to the duties of his new post, which he retained till his death. In 1905 he received the hon. degree of Litt.D. at Durham. In June 1907 he planned a school of journalism at Birmingham University, drawing up a scheme which was approved by the governing body but was abandoned on his death.

Collins's interests were not wholly confined to literature. His intellectual curiosity was always active and versatile. Spiritualism long attracted him, and he was a close student of criminology. In later life he investigated for himself many crimes which were reported in the press, visiting the scenes, interviewing witnesses, and describing his views and experiences in magazines or newspapers (cf. National Review, Dec. 1905, Jan. 1906). In 1906 he joined Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in establishing the innocence of a young solicitor, Mr. George Edalji, who had been wrongfully convicted of cattle maiming outrages at Wyrley, in Staffordshire, and had suffered a long imprisonment.

Collins died in somewhat mysterious circumstances. He left Birmingham in July 1908, and subsequently made his habitual autumn sojourn in Oxford. Suffering from severe depression, he arrived on 21 August at Oulton Broad, near