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MODERN LEADERS:

_BEING A SERIES OF_

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

BY JUSTIN McCARTHY,
_Author of "Lady Judith: A Tale of Two Continents," etc._

NEW YORK:
SHELDON & COMPANY,
677 BROADWAY and 214 and 216 MERCER STREET.
1872.




CONTENTS.


QUEEN VICTORIA AND HER SUBJECTS.                 7

THE REAL LOUIS NAPOLEON.                        18

EUGENIE, EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH.                 25

THE PRINCE OF WALES.                            35

THE KING OF PRUSSIA.                            45

VICTOR EMANUEL, KING OF ITALY.                  55

LOUIS ADOLPH THIERS.                            66

PRINCE NAPOLEON.                                77

THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE.                          85

BRIGHAM YOUNG.                                  96

THE LIBERAL TRIUMVIRATE OF ENGLAND.            106

ENGLISH POSITIVISTS.                           116

ENGLISH TORYISM AND ITS LEADERS.               126

"GEORGE ELIOT" AND GEORGE LEWES.               136

GEORGE SAND.                                   145

EDWARD BULWER AND LORD LYTTON.                 156

"PAR NOBILE FRATRUM--THE TWO NEWMANS."         167

ARCHBISHOP MANNING.                            175

JOHN RUSKIN.                                   183

CHARLES READE.                                 192

EXILE-WORLD OF LONDON.                         202

THE REVEREND CHARLES KINGSLEY.                 211

MR. JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE.                      223

SCIENCE AND ORTHODOXY IN ENGLAND.              234




INTRODUCTION.


The sketches which make up this volume are neither purely critical nor
merely biographical. They endeavor to give the American reader a clear
and just idea of each individual in his intellect, his character, his
place in politics, letters, and society. In some instances I have
written of friends whom I know personally and well; in others of men
with whom I have but slight acquaintance; in others still of persons
whom I have only seen. But in every instance those whom I describe are
persons whom I have been able to study on the spot, whose character and
doings I have heard commonly discussed by those who actually knew them.
In no case whatever are the opinions I have given drawn merely from
books and newspapers. This value, therefore, these essays may have to an
American, that they are not such descriptions as any of us might be
enabled to put into print by the mere help of study and reading;
descriptions for example such as one might make of Henry VIII. or
Voltaire. They are in every instance, even when intimate and direct
personal acquaintance least assist them, the result of close observation
and that appreciation of the originals which comes from habitual
intercourse with those who know them and submit them to constant
criticism.

I have not made any alteration in the essays which were written some
years ago. Let them stand as portraits bearing that date. If 1872 has in
any instance changed the features and the fortunes of 1869 and 1870, it
cannot make untrue what then was true. What I wrote in 1869 of the
Prince of Wales, for example, will probably not wholly apply to the
Prince of Wales to-day. We all believe that he has lately changed for
the better. But what I wrote then I still believe was true then; and it
is a fair contribution to history, which does not consent to rub out
yesterday because of to-day. I wrote of a "Liberal Triumvirate" of
England when the phrase was an accurate expression. It would hardly be
accurate now. To-day Mr. Mill does not appear in political life and Mr.
Bright has been an exile, owing to his health, for nearly two years from
the scenes of parliamentary debate and triumph. But the portraits of the
men do not on that account need any change. Even where some reason has
been shown me for a modification of my own judgment I have still
preferred to leave the written letter as it is. A distinguished Italian
friend has impressed on me that King Victor Emanuel is personally a much
more ambitious man than I have painted him. My friend has had far better
opportunities of judging than I ever could have had; but I gave the best
opinion I could, and still holding to it prefer to let it stand, to be
taken for what it is worth.

I think I may fairly claim to have anticipated in some of the political
sketches, that of Louis Napoleon, for instance, the judgment of events
and history, and the real strength of certain characters and
institutions.

These sketches had a gratifying welcome from the American public as they
appeared in the "Galaxy." I hope they may be thought worth reading over
again and keeping in their collected form.

JUSTIN MCCARTHY.
48 GOWER STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE, LONDON, July 31, 1872.




QUEEN VICTORIA AND HER SUBJECTS.


"And when you hear historians tell of thrones, and those who sat upon
them, let it be as men now gaze upon the mammoth's bones, and wonder
what old world such things could see."

So sang Byron half a century ago, and great critics condemned his verse,
and called him a "surly Democrat" because he ventured to put such
sentiments and hopes into rhyme. The thrones of Europe have not