"THE APOSTLES."*
Mits. BROOKFIELD has written an interesting book, with William Henry Brookfield as a central figure. We may quarrel with her title, for Brookfield himself was never an "Apostle." He was, in his own phrase, "an acting Apostle, though never rated as one on the ship's books." We may complain that her proofs have not been read, and that her pages bristle with inexcusable misprints. We may object that many of her statements are inaccurate. For instance, it is not "a secret de Polichinelle" that Buller wrote Lord Durham's celebrated Report. But, when 'all deductions are made, we cannot deny the merit of Mrs. Brookfield's book, and we have read it from beginning to end with a pleasure which its faults have done no more than temper.
Fortunate in her subject, she has treated it with a becoming enthusiasm. As she says, you most go back to the age of Elizabeth to find so brilliant a band of poets and scholars gathered together at a single University as met in 1824 at the "Cambridge Conversazione Society," a clumsy title speedily shortened to the "Apostles." First among them all was Alfred Tennyson, whose greatness, since universally acclaimed, was already recognised by his friends. Then there were Hallam, whose promise was hindered of fulfilment by an early death, and who lives in the deathless tributes of his fellows, and Sterling, and Buller, and Monckton Milnes, and Spedding, and the Lushingtons, and Venables, and Merivale, and Thirlwall. These were "Apostles" all, and on the outskirts of the set were men worthy their friendship, though not admitted to their debates,—Thackeray, FitzGerald, and Brookfield. Though they appear serious enough to us now, we are content to believe in the gaiety and high spirits of their youth. They had strong opinions, and they liked to express them. They were possessed by the dogmatism and arrogance befitting their age and state, and they were loyal through life to their early companionship. Brookfield, though he was not, as we have said, one of their number, remained a centre of attraction to them all as long as he lived, and his position in the band gives this present book a sort of coherence. Kinglake sums up the truth accurately enough. "Those Cambridge Apostles," be says, "were all of them men highly gifted, and Brookfield was still closely associated with several of their number when at length, after a few years of conflict, they forced their opinions, their tastes and their crotchets upon a puzzled and reluctant world. Thenceforth it happened, from time to time, that some modest 'Apostle' woke up to find himself famous, and great was then Brook field's delight ; but be always repudiated the notion that any of 'the initiated' should allow the least feeling of surprise to mingle with their joy, saying proudly and exultingly; As if we did not know that this would come."
• The Cambridge ApostLes." By Frances X. Brookfield. London, Sir Immo Pitman and Sons. [21s. net.]
This, then, was the first bond of sympathy,—a confident belief in themselves and each other ; and secondly, though they did not all follow Brookfield's practice of spelling Oxford with a small "o," they were one and all certain that they were members of the greatest University in the world. So they made speeches, and talked and debated, and praised one another's verse and prose in reviews and in conversation. Their con- vinced loyalty to each other contributed enormously to their success. No member of the society would endure a slight put upon a brother-Apostle, and, as Mrs. Brookfield plainly shows, the friendships made at Cambridge endured unto the end. And though time has revised some of the early judgments, though some, foremost at the start, fell behind in the race, the enthusiasms of these gifted youths were, for the most part, justified by the event. Tennyson, the pride of them all, was in their eyes assured of the laurels from the moment that he had won the prize for his poem on the unemotional subject of Timbnctoo. Spedding, in devoting his life to Bacon, gave the world but a small measure of his talent. Sterling lives in Carlyle's masterpiece ; and Venables squandered upon anonymous journalism what might have contributed to his own glory. Blakesley and Kemble followed the path of learning, and were forgotten by the great world in which their more famous friends were distinguished. They, indeed, from the point of view of fame, were the greatest dis- appointments of them all. Kemble was designed by his friends to dominate and reform the Church. "Thou from a throne," wrote Tennyson,—
" Mounted in heaven will shoot into the dark Arrows of lightnings. I will stand and mark."
But Kemble did not go into the Church. He was content to become the best Anglo-Saxon scholar of his time, and in his later years to perform the duty of Reader of Plays. Blakesley did himself even less justice than Kemble. There was none of the Apostles of whom more was expected. Tennyson said in prose that "he onght to be Lord Chancellor, for he is a subtle and powerful reasoner and an honest man." In verse he addressed him as :—
"Clear-headed friend, whose joyful scorn,
Edged with sharp laughter, cuts atwain The knots that tangle human creeds, The wounding cords that bind and strain The heart until it bleeds."
And he left us nothing but a learned edition of Herodotus. Outside their own circle, they cherished a common admira- tion of Carlyle. Carlyle touched them at many points. He was the friend of Sterling, and he was the tutor of Charles Buller. All the Apostles read his works, and not a
few of them—Lnshington, for instance—knew The French _Revolution by heart. And it may have been from Carlyle
that they got their love of action, for it must not be supposed that they were mere dreamers. Once upon a time many of them were involved in an active conspiracy, and had stick an opportunity as falls to the lot of few young men of putting their enthusiastic opinions into practice. In 1823 a band of Spanish refugees, beaded by Torrijos, settled in London. They inspired Sterling, Kemble, Hallam, and Spedding to espouse their cause, which was to put the Spanish King off the throne. Hallam and Tennyson approached Spain by the Pyrenees, and carried the comfort of sympathy and money to the rebel chiefs in the North. Trench and Kemble encouraged the South with all the ardour of youth. The ambition of Torrijos is easy to understand. "Considering Somers Town," as Carlyle said, "where most of the exiles lived, and considering Spain, the terrible chance was worth trying." It is not so easy to understand what the generous young Englishmen were doing in so futile a con- spiracy. The worst was that Sterling's cousin, Boyd by name, was taken prisoner at Malaga with Torrijos, and shot without a trial. It was a heavy price to pay for an abstract
love of freedom, and it is not surprising that Sterling never got over the shock of this tragedy, in which he had played a part, and for which he was largely responsible. But though the plot failed, and though the plotters of Somers Town were doubtless unworthy, we cannot help admiring the generosity of the young scholars, who were ready to spend their money, and shed their blood, in an alien cause. The early Apostles, indeed, flourished at one of the most brilliant epochs in the history of our Universities; and we can wish no better for the Oxford and Cambridge of to-day than that the same
enthusiasms, the same learning, the same love of poetry, the same noble ideals of life and politics, should be cherished in their midst as they were cherished in Cambridge eighty years ago.
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