We regret to chronicle the death of Professor Fronde, which
took place at Salcombe, South Devon, last Saturday. Mr. Froude, who was in his seventy-seventh year, never quite got over an illness which seized him in June last,— the result of the fatigue caused by the delivery of his lectures on Erasmus. He was a great man of letters rather than a great thinker or a great historian; but his keenness of mind, and his sensitiveness to all the intellectual forces of his age, made him a memorable figure. We have dealt with Mr. Froude's place in literature else- where, and will only note here that his disregard of the necessity for truth and accuracy in the details of history made his writings rather splendid drop-scenes to history than history itself. Mr. Fronde, it will be remembered, belonged to the Tractarian movement in its early stages, but soon parted from its leaders, and adopted a rather fierce tone of scepticism. The friendship and sympathy between Mr. Fronde and Carlyle must be regarded as an example of the irony of fate. Except it was their love of authority of the violent kind, they had little or nothing in common. The appointment of Mr. Froude's successor lies with Lord Rosebery. Unless Mr. Lecky would take the post, it is almost certain to fall to Mr. Gardiner, the historian of the Civil 'War.
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