Froudacity | Page 8

than questionable

fashion as that in which he had treated those of the Southern
Hemisphere, had what was in the main a formal rejoinder to its
misrepresentations published only three months ago in this city. I
venture to believe that no serious work in defence of an [22] important
cause or community can lose much, if anything, of its intrinsic value
through some delay in its issue; especially when written in the
vindication of Truth, whose eternal principles are beyond and above the
influence of time and its changes.
At any rate, this attempt to answer some of Mr. Froude's main
allegations against the people of the West Indies cannot fail to be of
grave importance and lively interest to the inhabitants of those Colonies.
In this opinion I am happy in being able to record the full concurrence
of a numerous and influential body of my fellow-West Indians, men of
various races, but united in detestation of falsehood and injustice.
J.J.T.
LONDON, June, 1889.

BOOK I: INTRODUCTION
[27] Like the ancient hero, one of whose warlike equipments furnishes
the complementary title of his book, the author of "The English in the
West Indies; or, The Bow of Ulysses," sallied forth from his home to
study, if not cities, at least men (especially black men), and their
manners in the British Antilles.
James Anthony Froude is, beyond any doubt whatever, a very
considerable figure in modern English literature. It has, however, for
some time ceased to be a question whether his acceptability, to the
extent which it reaches, has not been due rather to the verbal
attractiveness than to the intrinsic value and trustworthiness of his
opinions and teachings. In fact, so far as a judgment can be formed
from examined specimens of his writings, it appears that our [28]
author is the bond-slave of his own phrases. To secure an artistic
perfection of style, he disregards all obstacles, not only those presented
by the requirements of verity, but such as spring from any other kind of
consideration whatsoever. The doubt may safely be entertained whether,
among modern British men of letters, there be one of equal capability
who, in the interest of the happiness of his sentences, so cynically
sacrifices what is due not only to himself as a public instructor, but also

to that public whom he professes to instruct. Yet, as the too evident
plaything of an over-permeable moral constitution, he might set up
some plea in explanation of his ethical vagaries. He might urge, for
instance, that the high culture of which his books are all so redolent has
utterly failed to imbue him with the nil admirari sentiment, which
Horace commends as the sole specific for making men happy and
keeping them so. For, as a matter of fact, and with special reference to
the work we have undertaken to discuss, Mr. Froude, though cynical in
his general utterances regarding Negroes-of the male sex, be it noted-is,
in the main, all extravagance and self-abandonment whenever he [29]
brings an object of his arbitrary likes or dislikes under discussion. At
such times he is no observer, much less worshipper, of proportion in his
delineations. Thorough-paced, scarcely controllable, his enthusiasm for
or against admits no degree in its expression, save and except the
superlative. Hence Mr. Froude's statement of facts or description of
phenomena, whenever his feelings are enlisted either way, must be
taken with the proverbial "grain of salt" by all when enjoying the
luxury of perusing his books. So complete is his self-identification with
the sect or individual for the time being engrossing his sympathy, that
even their personal antipathies are made his own; and the hostile
language, often exaggerated and unjust, in which those antipathies find
vent, secures in his more chastened mode of utterance an exact
reproduction none the less injurious because divested of grossness.
Of this special phase of self-manifestation a typical instance is afforded
at page 164, under the heading of "Dominica," in a passage which at
once embraces and accentuates the whole spirit and method of the work.
To a eulogium of the professional skill and successful [30] agricultural
enterprise of Dr. Nichol, a medical officer of that Colony, with whom
he became acquainted for the first time during his short stay there, our
author travels out of his way to tack on a gratuitous and pointless sneer
at the educational competency of all the elected members of the island
legislature, among whom, he tells us, the worthy doctor had often tried
in vain to obtain a place. His want of success, our author informs his
readers, was brought about through Dr. Nichol "being the only man in
the Colony of superior attainments." Persons acquainted with the
stormy politics of that lovely little island do not require to be informed
that