Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/203

 ii s. i. MAR. 5, 1910.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

195

determined to retouch it " (Kennedy, ii. 16) But long before, in a letter dated 24 Aug 1816, Wirt had declared that he was " much disposed to let the work go, in its presen general form," and that " my disposition therefore, is to let the form of the work remain, connecting the composition, state ments, &c., where it shall be suggested anc thought proper " (Kennedy, i. 408).

It is impossible to reconcile the dis crepancies in Wirt's letters. My view i: that Wirt had collected his material by th< summer of 1814 ; that he had virtually finished his biography by October, 1816 and that all he did after that date was in th Tvay of revision and polishing. This view may be incorrect, but there is abundanl evidence to support it, and it was apparently held by Wirt's biographer ; for between letters written by Wirt 7 April and 24 Aug. 1816, Kennedy says that "the biography was now approaching its completion ?3 <(i. 407) ; and before a letter written by Wirt 26 Jan., 1817, Kennedy remarks on " the expected publication of the biography which was now ready for the press " (ii. 9).

M. asks why I omitted certain passages which, in his opinion, " tell against " the above view. My reasons were : first, because I could not see that they did militate against my view ; secondly, because they did not seem to me to be particularly rele- vant. And I purposely omitted to mention Wirt's letter in which he said that he had submitted his work to Roane, feeling sure that it would cause misapprehension, This notion is now confirmed, for it has led M. astray. M. says that the biography " was not submitted to Mr. Roane (whose letter cited by Wirt contains the quotation in point) until at least four, and possibly more, months after " 1 Nov., 1816, and in proof quotes Wirt's letter of 9 Aug., 1817. But that letter is very far from proving M.'s statement ; for all that Wirt said was, " I submitted the work to several old '_:! itlemen, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Roane, Mr. Tucker, and two or three others in Hanover." It will be observed that Wirt does not say exactly when he submitted the work to Roane ; and M.'s assumption that it was ai'i-r 1 Nov., 1816, is unsupported by a particle of evidence. We know that the work was submitted to Jefferson in August and October, 1816, and there is no reason why it may not have been submitted to Roane at the same time. Again, M.'s assumption that Roane's letter was written after Wirt's work was submitted to him is also unsupported by evidence. The ques-

tion when Roane read Wirt's work is not necessarily material, the important matter being when he wrote the letter in which he speaks of " Lynches law.'* The work was not submitted to Jefferson until 1816 ; but as early as 18 Jan., 1810, Wirt had written to Jefferson asking him " to throw together, for my use, such incidents touching Mr. Henry as may occur to you '' (Kennedy!, i. 279) and Jefferson complied with the request in letters dated 12 April, 1812, 14 Aug., 1814, and 5 Aug., 1815. (See Ford's edition of Jefferson's ' Writings,' ix. 339-45, 465-76.) As regards Judge Tucker, Wirt nowhere states exactly when the work was submitted to him ; but in- asmuch as Wirt wrote to Tucker certainly as early as 31 Jan., 1805 (Kennedy, i. 129), it is reasonable to suppose that Tucker sent the information asked for (as Jefferson did) long before 1 Nov., 1816.

As there is nothing either in Wirt's letters or in Roane's letter to show precisely when the latter was written, we are thrown back on what Wirt says in the Preface to his ' Life of Henry l :

" It was in the summer of 1805 that the design of writing this biography was first conceived... ....The

author knew nothing of Mr. Henry, personally

As soon, therefore, as the design was formed of

writing his life the author despatched letters to

every quarterof the State in which it occurred to him as probable that interesting matter might be found ; and he was gratified by the prompt attention which

was paid to his enquiries From judge Roane the

author has received one of the fairest and most satisfactory communications that has been made to

him Although it has been so long since the

collection of these materials was begun, it was not until the summer ot 1814 that the last communica- tion was received." Pp. v, ix, xii.

ALBEBT MATTHEWS. Boston, U.S.

CHAKLES KINGSLEY (11 S. i. 68). * Alton Locke l was published in 1850. ' Yeast ' Srst appeared in volume form in 1851. It lad previously come out in Fraser's Maga- zine in 1848. The ' Yeast J and ' Alton Locke ? epoch may roughly be said to cover the time between 1848 and 1855. It repre- sented the period of gravest strain in Kings - ey's strenuous life. The reviews and lotices which then poured upon him from ihe press read now very much like a dis- ,orted and malignant caricature of one f the bravest, tenderest, manliest spirits
 * hat the Church of England ever produced.

Socially, in many influential quarters, he was ostracized ; politically, he was deemed firebrand by " old women of both

< % 1 " T I 1

exes

religiously, his teaching was