Life
1838-1903 [William Edward Hartpole Lecky]; historian and essayist; b.
nr. Dublin, ed. Armagh, Cheltenham and TCD; m. Elizabeth van Dedem in
1871 and settle in Hounslow Gdns, Kensington; endowed TCD with History
Library and Chair; volume of poems (1859); The religious Tendency of
the Age (1860); Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland (1861,
enl. 1871, rep. 1903), essays on Swift, Flood, Grattan, Daniel O’Connell
[in the latter edition he felt obliged to substitute ‘Irish Protestants’
for ‘the Irish people’]; essay, ‘The Declining Sense of
the Miraculous’ (1863) embodied as 2 chps of The History of Rationalism
(1865); History of European Morals (1869); History of England
in the Eighteenth Century (vols. 1 & 2 in 1878; 3 &
4 in 1882; 5 & 6 in 1887; 7 & 8 in 1890; cabinet edition, 12 vols,
1892, of which the last five are devoted to History of Ireland
(1892-96), aimed at refuting Froude’s calumnies on the Irish people,
though less from nationalism than the fear that Froude’s the unmitigated
savagery of Froude’s racist attack would make the position of the
liberal unionists’ harder to maintain in Ireland; declined chair
at Oxford; consulted and gave assistance in the changing of the law that
restricted plays in Dublin to licensed theatres in favour of the Irish
literary theatre, fnd. 1899; supported Catholic University and Horace
Plunkett’s co-op. movement; Democracy and Liberty (1896);
The Map of Life (1899), and Historical and Political Essays
(1908); established the Lecky Chair of History at TCD; contrib. introduction
to Bohn Edn. of Works of Swift (1897-1910), adding to his account
of Swift in Leaders of Public Opinion (1861); elected a Fellow
of the British Academy and awarded the Order of Merit in 1902; d. 27 Oct.,
London; there is a marble bust of Lecky at St. Patrick’s Cathedral
and by G. F. Watts and Sir John Lavery, the latter purchased from the
artist by the National Gallery in in 1905. CAB PI JMC DBIV DIB DIW
DIH DIL OCEL FDA DUB OCIL WJM
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Works
Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland (Saunders 1861; rev. ed. Longmans,
Green & Co. 1871; new [rev.] edn. 1903; another edn., 2 vols., 1912);
History of the Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe (Longmans
1865); History of European Morals and Augustus to Charlemagne (Longmans
1869), Do. [2 vols. in 1] (London: Longmans 1911); A History of England
in the Eighteenth Century, 8 vols. (London: Longmans 1878-90); A
History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, 4 vols. (London: Longmans
1892-96; abridged with intro. by LP Curtis Jnr., Chicago UP 1972); The
Political Value of History (London: E. Arnold 1892); Democracy
and Liberty (Longmans 1896); The Map of Life: Conduct and Character
(London: Longmans 1899); E. Lecky, ed., Historical and Political Essays
(London: Longmans 1908) [incl. his anti-Home Rule essay ‘Ireland
in the Light of History’].
Facs. reprint, Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, 2 vols. [rep. of 1903 edn.; 1st edn. 1861] (London: Thoemmes Press [2000]), Vol. 1 [332pp] & 2 [346pp.]. The first volume is devoted to Grattan and Flood by turn; the second entirely to Daniel O’Connell [€242.00].
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Criticism
J. J. Auchmuty, Lecky: A Biographical and Critical Essay (Dublin:
Hodges Figgis 1946).
H. Montgomery Hyde, ed., A Victorian Historian: Private Letters of W. E. H. Lecky 1859-1878 (London 1947).
Donal McCartney, ‘Lecky’s Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland’ in Irish Historical Studies, XIV, No. 54 (Sept 1964), pp.119-94.
Donal McCartney, W. E. H. Lecky, Historian and Politician 1838-1903 (Dublin: Lilliput 1993), 352pp., ill., and with appendix by W. J. McCormack.
Donal McCartney, ‘W. E. H. Lecky: Lost Leader of Public Opinion in Ireland’ (PhD thesis, NUI 1970).
Sean O’Faolain (The Irish, 1947), p.116.
Daniel Corkery, The Hidden Ireland, p.6.
Maureen Wall, Catholic Ireland in the 18th c., ed. Gerard O’Brien (1989), pp. 60, 126.
Conor Cruise O’Brien, Edmund Burke: The Great Melody - A Commented Biography (Sinclair-Stevenson 1992), p. 54n.
R. F. Foster, Paddy and Mr Punch (London: Allen Lane/Penguin 1993), p.9); with bibl.
A. Wyatt, ‘Froude, Lecky, and the Humblest Irishman’, Irish Historical Studies, vo. 14, no. 75 (1975), pp.267-85.
R. F. Foster, review of Donal McCartney, W. E. H. Lecky, Historian and Politician 1838-1903 (Lilliput 1993), in Times Literary Supplement, 29 Aug. 1994.
Brian Girvin, ‘Making Nations, O’Connell, Religion and The Creation of Political Identity’, in Daniel O’Connell, Political Pioneer, ed. Maurice R O’Connell (Inst. Publ. Relations 1991), pp.13-34.
Luke Gibbons, ‘“Some Hysterical Hatred”: History, Hysteria and the Literary Revival’, in Irish University Review (Spring/Summer 1997), pp.7-23.
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Notes
Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (Washington: Catholic
Univ. of America 1904) gives extract, ‘Dublin in the 18th century’,
from History of England; also two extracts from Morals.
R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland (London: Allen Lane 1988), p.85, his History of Ireland was aimed at refuting the calumnies of J. A. Froude upon his countrymen. And NOTE, ex Abbey NTRY, he was an original donor to the Irish Literary Theatre (1898).
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 2, selects from Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland the essay, ‘Clerical Influences, An Essay on Irish Sectarianism and English government’ [215-23], not reprinted in later eds.; the title given by W. E. G. Lloyd and F. Cruise O’Brien who published it for Irish Self-government Alliance in 1911, aiming to destroy ‘sectarian ill-feeling’; and note, the last five vols. of History of England devoted to [...] a description of the culture that might have emerged from the 18th c. experience [Deane, ed.]. Other references & remarks, the great unionist historian epitomises an imperial and cosmopolitan view [Terence Brown, ed.], 517; anonymous Public Opinion, highly suggestive revision of Anglo-Irish view of 18th c. [WJ McCormack, ed.], 883; ascendancy interpretations of the past [Luke Gibbon, ed.], 954; according to de Blacam, Corkery ‘shewed as little sympathy for the Anglo-Irish as Lecky shewed for the Gael’ [quoted by Gibbon, ed.] 955; [MacDonagh, 990]; Corkery’s Hidden ireland ‘challenges that version of late Irish history which was set forth by lecky, and followed by almost all later writers, at home and abroad; In effect, it said, Lecky described only the shell of Ireland; he ignored the real national life and culture; from him the real Ireland was hidden; he saw only the Ascendancy’ (Aodh de Blacam, from Studies 1934), 1013,and ftn., [Lecky’s] 5-vol. History of Ireland &c (1892) looked at Irish history mainly from Anglo-Irish viewpoint [Gibbon, ed.]; de Blacam [op. cit.] quotes Lecky as saying that for nearly three quarters of a century emigration drained the most energetic of the Ulster Protestants, 1015; 366, BIOG, b. Newtown Park, Co. Dublin; ed. Cheltenham and TCD; Dublin Univ. MP, 1895-1903; opposed Home Rule and supported Horace Plunkett; declined Oxford chair in 1892; his liberal history of Ireland a rebuttal of Froude; WORKS & COMM [as supra]. [?FDA3], Lecky was Corkery’s bete noire [566}; Yeats quotes Lecky, ‘No people, says Lecky at the opening of his Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, have undergone greater persuction’ [666]; quoted by Fr. Michael O’Riordan in the ‘Catholicity of Progress’, contra Horace Plunkett, 698.
British Library holds [1] A biographical and critical essay [With a portrait.]. pp. 134. Hodges, Figgis & Co.: Dublin; Longmans, Green & Co.: London, 1945. 8o. [2] Problems of nineteenth century biography: Wyse-Acton-Lecky, etc.. Melbourne, 1964. pp. 33-43. 24 cm. [3] A Colloquy on the Utilitarian Theory of Morals presented in Mr. W. E. H. Lecky's 'History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne.'. pp. 159. Simpkin, Marshall & Co.: London, 1873. 8o. [4] ‘Infamous Publications’: who wrote them? An Answer to Mr. Leckie [sic] and Mr. Fitzgibbon. Reprinted from the Irish Ecclesiastical Record. [Another copy.] ‘Infamous Publications’: who wrote them?, etc.. pp. 42. W. B. Kelly: Dublin, 1872. 8o.. Dublin, 1872. 8o. [5] Christianity and Rationalism in their relations to Natural Science: being a protest against certain principles advocated in Mr. Lecky's History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe.. pp. 26. James Parker & Co.: Oxford & London, 1867. 8o. [6] A Life spent for Ireland. Being selections from the journals of the late W. J. O'Neill Daunt. Edited by his daughter [i.e. Alice I. O'N. Daunt]. [With a prefatory letter by William E. H. Lecky, and a portrait.] (Popular edition.). pp. xx. 420. T. Fisher Unwin: London, 1896. 8o.. pp. xx. 420. T. Fisher Unwin: London, 1896. 8o. [7] Friendship, and other poems. By Hibernicus [pseud. for WEH Lecky]. pp. iv. 86. Saunders, Otley & Co.: London, 1859. 12o. [8] A History of England in the eighteenth century. Second edition, revised. [Another copy.] Third edition, revised. New edition.. 8 vol. London, 1878-90. 8o.. London, 1879-87. 8o.. Longmans and Co.: London, 1883-87. 8o.. 7 vol. Longmans and Co.: London, 1892. 8o. [9] A History of England in the Eighteenth Century, etc.. 7 vol. Longmans, Green & Co.: London, 1918-25. 8o. [10] A History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century ... New edition. [Another copy.] A History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, etc.. 5 vol. Longmans & Co.: London, 1892. 8o.. London, 1892. 8o. [11] A history of Ireland in the eighteenth century. Abridged and with an introduction by L. P. Curtis, Jr.. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press, 1972. ISBN 0 226 46994 8 pp. lii, 513. 23 cm. [12] A Survey of English Ethics. Being the first chapter of Mr. Lecky's ‘History of European Morals’ edited with introduction and notes by W. A. Hirst. pp. li. 180. Longmans & Co.: London, 1903. 8o. [13] A Victorian Historian. Private letters of W. E. H. Lecky, 1859-1878, edited with an introduction and notes by H. Montgomery Hyde. [With plates, including a portrait.]. pp. 90. Home & Van Thal: London, 1947. 8o. [14] Clerical Influences. An essay on Irish sectarianism and English Government ... Edited with an introduction by W. E. G. Lloyd and F. Cruise O'Brien. pp. 53. Published for the Irish Self-Government Alliance by Maunsel & Co.: Dublin, 1911. 8o. [15] Democracy and Liberty. New edition.. 2 vol. Longmans & Co.: London, 1896. 8o. 2 vol. Longmans & Co.: London, 1899. 8o. [16] Geschichte des Geistes der Aufklärung in Europa ... Volks-Ausgabe nach der vierten Auflage ... übersetzt von Dr. Immanuel Heinrich Ritter.. pp. xvi. 456. Berlin, 1874. 8o. [17] Geschiedenis van de opkomst en den invloed van het Rationalisme in Europa ... vertaald door J. G. ten Bokkel.. pp. xxviii. 638. Amsterdam, 1894. 8o. [18] Historical and Political Essays.. pp. 324. Longmans & Co.: London, 1908. 8o. [19] Historical and Political Essays ... New edition. pp. 296. Longmans & Co.: London, 1910. 8o. [20] History of European Morals, etc.. 2 vol. Watts & Co.: London, 1911. 8o. [21] History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne ... Authorised copyright edition.. 2 vol. Longmans & Co.: London, 1911. 8o. [22] History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne. Third edition.. 2 vol. London, 1869. 8o.. 2 vol. London, 1877. 8o. [23] History of the rise and influence of the spirit of rationalism in Europe ... Authorised edition. (Reprinted.). London, etc.: Longmans, Green & Co., 1910. 2 pt. 19 cm. [24] History of the Rise and Influence of the spirit of Rationalism in Europe.. 2 vol. Watts & Co.: London, 1910. 8o. [25] History of the rise and influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe. Second edition. Fourth edition.. 2 vol. London, 1865. 8o.. 2 vol. London, 1865. 8o.. 2 vol. London [1869.] 8o. [26] Introduction to Democracy and Liberty ... Reprinted from the cabinet edition.. pp. lv. Longmans & Co.: London, 1899. 8o. [27] Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland ... Authorised edition.. 2 vol. Longmans & Co.: London, 1912. 8o. [28] Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland ... New edition.. 2 vol. Longmans & Co.: London, 1903. 8o. [29] Moral Aspects of the South African War.. pp. 8. [1900.] 8o. [30] Moralische Ansichten über den Krieg in Südafrika.. Edinburg: Druck von R. & R. Clark, [1900?]. pp. 15. 22 cm. [31] Moralische Gesichtspunkte des südafrikanischen Krieges.. London: gedruckt bei Aug. Siegle, 1900. pp. 16. 19 cm. [32] Old-Age Pensions ... Reprinted from 'The Forum.'. pp. 24. Longmans & Co.: London, 1908. 8o. [33] Poems. L.P [WEH Lecky]. pp. ix. 108. Longmans & Co.: London, 1891. 8o. [34] The Empire, its value and its growth. An inaugural address, delivered at the Imperial Institute, etc.. pp. 48. Longmans & Co.: London, 1893. 8o. [35] The Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland. [By W. E. H. Lecky] New edition, revised and enlarged.. London, 1871. 8o. [36] The Map of Life ... New impression.. pp. xiv. 353. Longmans & Co.: London, 1901. 8o. [37] The Map of Life: conduct and character.. pp. xv. 328. Longmans & Co.: London, 1899. 8o. [38] The Political Value of History. (A presidential address ... Reprinted with additions.) [Another copy.] The Political Value of History.. pp. 57. E. Arnold: London, 1892. 8o.. pp. 57. E. Arnold: London, 1892. 8o. [39] The Political Value of History, etc.. pp. 20. Birmingham, [1892.] 8o. [40] W. E. H. Lecky's vier historische Essays. Swift-Flood-Grattan-O'Connel ... Übersetzt von Dr H. Jolowicz.. Posen, 1873. 8o. [41] A Memoir of the Right Hon. William Edward Hartpole Lecky.. pp. xiii. 379. Longmans & Co.: London, 1909. 8o. [42] Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. A sketch by A. L. Lee. Abridged ... from ‘The Life of Stratford Canning’ by S. Lane-Poole. With an introduction by W. E. H. Lecky [and a portrait by G. Richmond].. pp. xiii. 88. Nisbet & Co.: London, 1897. 8o. [43] Speeches and Addresses ... Selected and edited by Sir T. H. Sanderson and E. S. Roscoe. With a prefatory memoir by W. E. H. Lecky, etc. [Another copy.]. 2 vol. Longmans & Co.: London, 1894. 8o. [44] The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. [edited by Temple Scott, etc.] with a biographical introduction by W. E. H. Lecky. (Vol. XII. Essays on the Portraits of Swift by Sir Frederick Falkiner and on Swift and Stella by ... the Dean of St. Patrick's (J. H. Bernard). Bibliography of Swift's Works by W. Spencer Jackson, and a general index.). 12 vol. 1897-1908. [45] The Religious Tendencies of the age. [By W. E. H. Lecky.]. pp. 320. London, 1860. 8o. History of European morals from Augustus to Charlemagne by William Edward Hartpole Lecky 12th edn., London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1897.
Belfast Public Library holds Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland 2 vols. (1912); Introduction to Democracy and Liberty (1899); Hist. of Irel. in the 18th century (1892); The Empire (1893) - but not Rationalism, Morals etc. Also, A Memoir of the Rt. Hon. William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1908), by E. Lecky.
Linenhall Library (Belfast) & University of Ulster Library (Morris Collection) hold History of Ireland in the 18th century, 5 vols. (1892).
Borrowed clothes: In Public Opinion (1861 & edns.),
Lecky took a title that had already been employed in a work of Mary Leadbeater.
Edward Martyn attributed his conversion to nationalism to his reading of Lecky’s History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, which he called ‘that terribly sober indictment of England’s policy in Ireland’. (Cited in J. C. M. Nolan, ‘The First President of Sinn Féin: Edward Martyn’, Irish Studies Review, No. 15, Summer 1996, pp.27-33; p.27.)
J. J. Abraham recalls TCD students ‘ragging’ Lecky by pushing him in a wheelbarrow up Grafton St., ‘his long legs sticking over the front of the barrow, with the élite of Dublin looking slightly puzzled but rather amused. He was nearly sixty at the time, must have hated it, and probably was in some danger of being injured; but looking back on it now I remember he showed no sign of discompusure whatever.’ (Surgeon’s Journey, 1957, p.64.)
Calumnies: Lecky’s phrase ‘calumnies on the Irish people’, which he employed in A History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, 4 vols. (London: Longmans 1892-96), is part of a discourse that goes back to Keating and forward to W. B. Yeats.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)