Thomas Humphry Ward

“ In days when there is no universal agreement upon first principles, and when it is regarded as an open question whether an artist should follow the ideals of Botticelli or the ideals of Velasquez, it is certain that the work of a painter so individual as Burne-Jones will provoke as much antagonism as admiration. To those who dislike ‘literary’ painting—that is, the painting which greatly depends for its effect upon the associations of poetry and other forms of literature—his pictures will never give unmixed pleasure. ”

“ The Irish party instantly proceeded to identify the lords who had rejected the Compensation for Disturbance Bill with the government which had brought it in, and to stir up popular feeling throughout Ireland against the whole English connection. The autumn and winter were marked by one continuous struggle between Forster and the Land League on the one hand, and Forster and the more 'advanced' section of his colleagues in the government on the other. ”

“ Here, overlooking the beautiful river, he built a house, Wharfeside, which he always regarded as his home till the end of his life. In the ten following years Forster frequently appeared on platforms at Leeds and Bradford, discussing the interests of the working classes, parliamentary reform, or American slavery. After the dissolution in 1859 he was invited by the liberals of Leeds to come forward with Mr. Baines. Forster, though afterwards regarded as par excellence the conservative type of liberal, was chosen as the candidate of the advanced party. ”

“ Thomas’s, he seems to have felt no real vocation for the clerical career; for, on the one hand, on the outbreak of the Crimean war he was extremely anxious to enter the army, and, on the other, his friendship with another Exeter undergraduate, also of Welsh nationality, William Morris [q. v. Suppl.] , who was independently experiencing a like change of feeling, very soon led him away from the paths of divinity to those of literature and art. ”

“ Disraeli's Reform Bill, and he rejoiced as much as any one when that measure passed into law as an act for conferring household suffrage in the boroughs.
In 1867 he made his first visit to the East; he saw Constantinople, Smyrna, Athens, and Corfu, and formed opinions to which he gave utterance when the Eastern question once more became acute. After the general election of November 1868 Mr. Gladstone became prime minister, and Forster was appointed a privy councillor and vice-president of the council. ”

“ Although we hear very little of any preliminary attempts or of any lessons from drawing-masters, it is certain that Burne-Jones already showed many of the developed gifts of an artist. For in February 1857, not much more than a year after their acquaintance began, Rossetti writes to William Bell Scott, ‘Two young men, projectors of the “Oxford and Cambridge Magazine,” have recently come up to town from Oxford, and are now very intimate friends of mine. Their names are Morris and Jones. ”

“ With them were imprisoned a certain number of men of a superior class, who were believed, on evidence sufficient to convince the government, to be guilty of incitement to murder and of organising intimidation. In Ireland Forster had to face the performance of what he believed to be a duty, but of the most distressing kind. He had to hurry backwards and forwards between London and Dublin, and within a few hours of giving his instructions in Dublin Castle to face the fire of hostile 'questions' in the House of Commons. ”

“ A strong liberal, he was for meeting the chartists halfway, and his efforts in Bradford are believed to have had no little effect in preventing the extreme men among the chartists of that town from resorting to violence. He even attended a great meeting of chartists at Bradford, and, in his own words, 'roared from the top of a wagon to six or eight thousand people for nearly three quarters of an hour, and pushed a strong moral force resolution down their throats, at the cost of much physical force exertion' on his own part. ”

“ From these early years there survive a certain number of works in various media; the earliest is a pen drawing of ‘The Waxen Image’ (1856) , and in the next year come four designs for stained glass executed for the chapel at Bradfield. That autumn was given to Oxford, and to the heroic but ‘piecemeal and unorganised’ attempt to adorn the Union debating-room with frescoes, of which Burne-Jones contributed ‘Nimue and Merlin.’ In 1858 we find him painting some decorations in oil for a cabinet, and characteristically choosing an illustration from Chaucer ”

“ Far away from politics as he was, he was deeply stirred by the Parnell movement, and was an enthusiastic admirer of the Irish leader. As to other interests he had a scholarly and exact knowledge of all kinds of mediæval tales, Eastern and Western, was familiar with D’Herbelot and Silvestre de Sacy, was also interested in mediæval Jewish lore, and devoted to Marco Polo and the travellers of the middle ages. ”

“ At this time the extreme liberals were beginning to organise the so-called Caucus. The old dispute between Forster and Birmingham broke out again. He declined to submit his political destiny to the judgment of a committee of the party in Bradford, and declared that he should offer himself to the constituency at the next election whether the association chose him or not. ”

“ He therefore proposed to create an entirely new local authority called the School Board. The board was to have the power of providing necessary school accommodation, and of directing its own schools, subject to the ultimate control of the education department. At first Forster proposed that school boards should be chosen by popular election in London, and elsewhere by town councils and vestries, but he soon adopted direct popular election in all cases. ”

“ His death was greatly mourned, and even at a time of bitter political antagonism, when old ties were being broken in all directions, and when many of those who had once worked with him regarded him as their most formidable political opponent, it was admitted on all sides that a man of lofty character had passed away. ”

“ They have turned artists instead of taking up any other career to which the university generally leads, and both are men of real genius. Jones’s designs are marvels of finish and imaginative detail, unequalled by anything unless perhaps Albert Durer’s finest works’ (W. B. Scott, Memoirs, ii. 37) . During the year which preceded this letter, Burne-Jones, although not actually a pupil of Rossetti, had been constantly present in his studio in Blackfriars ”