Harriet Martineau
high principles, and just, consistent, sound (not mere "Liberal
Party") political action. As to the subjects of the _Daily News_
articles, they range over the whole field of public interests,
excepting only those "hot and hot" topics which had to be treated
immediately that fresh news about them reached London. Those who were
with Mrs. Martineau tell me that the only difficulty with her was to
choose what subject she would treat each day, out of the many that
offered. She kept up an extensive correspondence, and read
continually; and her fertile mind, highly cultivated as it was by her
life-long studies, had some original and valuable contribution to make
upon the vast variety of the topics of which each day brought
suggestions.
The marvel that a sick lady, shut up in her house in a remote village,
could thus keep touch with and take an active part in all the
interests and movements of the great world, increases the more it is
considered. The very correspondence by which she was aided in knowing
and feeling what the public mind was stirred about, was in itself a
heavy labor, and a great tax upon such feeble strength as she
possessed. The letters with which Mr. Reeve has favored me give
glimpses of how ideas and calls came to her sometimes. Here is a
graphic account, for instance, of a man riding up with a telegram from
Miss Nightingale--"Agitate! agitate! for Lord de Grey in place of Sir
G. Cornewall Lewis"--which gives the first intimation in Ambleside
that the post of War Minister is vacant. The newspaper arrives later,
and Lewis' death is learned; so a "leader" is written early next
morning, to catch the coach, and appears in the following morning's
_Daily News_. Presently Lord de Grey is appointed, and then the
two women friends rejoice together in the chance of getting army
reforms made by a minister who, they hope, will not be a slave to
royal influences. Another time she tells Mr. Reeve how she is treating
the _Reversion of Mysore_ in the _Daily News_, on the suggestion of a
man learned in Indian affairs; and again, that she is reviewing a book
of Eastern travel at the request of a friend. In fine, there were
constant letters seeking to engage her interest and aid in every
description of reforms, and for all kinds of movements in public
affairs.
But with all the wide circle of suggesting correspondents, the wonder
of the prolific mind working so actively from the Ambleside hermitage
remains untouched. Perhaps I cannot better show how much she did, and
how wide a range she covered, in _Daily News_ "leaders," than by
giving a list of the articles of a single year. I take 1861, really at
random. It was simply the page at which the office ledger happened to
be open before me.
Here are the subjects of her _Daily News_ "leaders" in 1861:
The American Union; The King of Prussia; Arterial Drainage; Sidney
Herbert; The Secession of South Carolina; Cotton Supply; Laborers'
Dwellings; The American Difficulty (two days); Destitution and its
Remedy; The American Revolution; Cotton Culture; The American
Union; Indian Affairs; America; North and South; American Politics;
Agricultural Labor; The London Bakers; President Buchanan; The
Southern Confederacy; United States Population; The Duchess of
Kent; Indian Famines; Agricultural Statistics; President Lincoln's
Address; Indian Currency; American Census; The Southern
Confederacy; The Action of the South; The Census; America and
Cotton; The American Envoy; Lord Canning's Address; The American
Crisis; Spain and San Domingo; East Indian Irrigation; Water-mills;
Hayti and San Domingo; The Conflict in America; American Movements;
The Secession Party; The American Contest; The Literary Fund;
Working-men's Visit to Paris; Mr. Clay's Letter; The American
Contest; Money's "Java" (four articles); Mr. Douglas; Our American
Relations; Lord Campbell; Results of American Strife; Our Cotton
Supply; American Union; Soldiers' Homes; Indian Irrigation; San
Domingo; American Movements; Slavery in America; The Morrill
Tariff; Drainage in Agriculture; Neutrality with America; The
Builders' Strike; Lord Herbert; Lord Elgin's Government; The
Builders' Dispute; The Strike; The American Contest; Indian
Famines; Syrian Improvement; Affairs of Hayti; Cotton Supply; The
American War and Slavery; Mr. Cameron and General Butler;
Post-office Robberies; The American Press; Mrs. Stowe; The Morrill
Tariff; American Affairs; Domestic Servants; The Education Minutes;
The Georgian Circular; French Free Trade; The Fremont Resolution;
Laborers' Improvidence; American Humiliation; The Education Code; A
Real Social Evil; Captain Jervis in America; The American Contest;
Indian Cotton; Slaves in America; The Prince of Wales; American
Movements; Lancashire Cotton Trade; India and Cotton; Cotton
Growing; The Herbert Testimonial; Captain Wilkes' Antecedents;
Arterial Drainage; The American Controversy; Land in India; Slaves
in America; Death of Prince Albert; Slavery; Loyalty in Canada;
Review of the Year, five columns long.
This gives a total of one hundred and nine leading articles, in that
one year, on political and social affairs. In the same year she wrote
to the Boston _Anti-Slavery Standard_ as much matter as would have
made about forty-five "leaders;" and during the same period she
regularly contributed to _Once a Week_[23] a fortnightly article on
some current topic, and also a series of biographical sketches
entitled "Representative Men." These _Once a Week_ articles were all
much longer than "leaders;" the year's aggregate of space filled, in
1861, is two hundred and eighty-one of the closely printed columns of
_Once a Week_; and this would be equivalent to at least one hundred
and forty leading articles in the usual "leaded" type. I need not give
a complete list of titles of the year's _Once a Week_ articles; but a
few may be cited to show what class of subjects she selected: "Our
Peasantry in Progress," "Ireland and her Queen," "The Harvest," "The
Domestic Service Question," "What Women are Educated for," "American
Soldiering," "Deaths by Fire," "The Sheffield Outrages," "Education
and the Racing Season."
[23] Most of these papers are signed "From the Mountain."
Such was Harriet Martineau's work for the year 1861; and thus could
she, confined to her house, comprehend and care for the condition of
mankind.
It will be noticed that she had written on Domestic Servants both in
the _Daily News_ and _Once a Week_; but still she had not said all
that she wished to say about the subject, and early in the next year
she wrote a long article on it, which appeared in the _Edinburgh_
for April, 1862. It is a capital article, distinguished alike by
common-sense, and by wide-reaching sympathy; _womanly_ in the best
sense--in its domestic knowledge, and its feeling for women in their
perplexities and troubles, whether as servants or mistresses,--and yet
philosophical in its calmness, its power of tracing from causes to
effects, and its practical wisdom in forestalling future difficulties.
In this year she began to write historical stories, "Historiettes," as
she called them, for _Once a Week_. As fictions, they are not equal to
her best productions of that class; but their special value was less
in this direction, or even in the detailed historical knowledge that
they displayed, than in the insight into the philosophy of political
history which the reader gained. They were illustrated by Millais, and
proved so attractive that they were continued during the next two
years. One, dealing with the constitutional struggle in the reign of
Charles I., and called "The Hampdens," has been re-published so
recently as 1880.
A large portion of her time and thought was absorbed, in these years,
by the American struggle and its consequences. Loving the United States
and their people as she did, the interest and anxiety with which she
watched their progress were extreme. She was no coward--as it is, no
doubt, hardly necessary to remark on this page--and though she grieved
deeply for the sufferings both of personal friends and of the whole
country, yet her soul rose up in noble exultation over the courage, the
resolution, and the high-mindedness of the bulk of the American nation.
Over here, she threw herself with warm eagerness into the effort to
support those Lancashire workers upon whom fell so heavy a tax of
deprivation in the cotton famine. The patience, the quietness, the
heroism with which our North-Country workers bore all that they had to
suffer, supported as they were by the sympathy of the mass of their
fellow-countrymen, and by their own intelligent convictions that they
were aiding a good cause by remaining peaceful and quiet--this was just
the sort of thing to arouse all Harriet Martineau's loving sympathies.
"Her face would all light up and the tears would rush to her eyes
whenever she was told of a noble deed," says Miss Arnold; "no matter
how humble the doer, or how small the matter might seem, you could see
the delight it gave her to know that a fine, brave, or unselfish act
had been done." Animated by such respectful joy in the attitude of the
Lancashire workers, she threw herself into their service; and her
correspondence on this topic during 1861, when she used all her public
and private influence on their behalf, and employed her best energies
in aiding and advising the relief committees, would fill a large
volume.
In the midst of her labors for America, she could not but be gratified
by the testimonies which constantly reached her from that country to
the appreciation of the work which she had done and was doing.
_The History of the Peace_ was reprinted in Boston in the very midst
of the civil war, "at the instance of men of business throughout the
country, who believe it will do great good from its political and yet
more economical lessons, which are so much wanted." The publishers of
the _Atlantic Monthly_ appealed to her to write them a series of
articles on "Military Hygiene;" and, over-pressed as she was, she
could not refuse a request which enabled her to do much good service
for the soldiers of the North, for whom she felt so deeply. Nor were
more private tributes to the value of her efforts lacking. A set of
the _Rebellion Record_, published by Putnam, was sent to her with the
cover stamped under the title with these words: "Presented by citizens
of New York to Harriet Martineau;" and innumerable books came with
testimonies inscribed by the writers, such as that in Henry Wilson's
_Slave Power in America_, which was as follows: "Mrs. Harriet
Martineau; with the gratitude of the author for her friendship for his
country, and her devotion to freedom."[24]
[24] The highest honor yet done to her memory is the work of
our sisters and brothers across the Atlantic. A public
subscription has raised funds for a statue of Harriet
Martineau, which has been executed by Anne Whitney, in white
marble. The statue represents Mrs. Martineau seated, with her
hands folded over a manuscript on her knees. The head is
raised, and has a light veil thrown over the back of it and
falling down upon the shoulders, while a shawl is draped
partially over the figure. The eyes are looking forth, as
though in that thoughtful questioning of the future to which
she often gave herself. The statue was unveiled in the Old
South Hall, Boston, December 26th, 1883, in the presence of
many notable personages. Mrs. Mary Livermore presided, and
speeches were made by William Lloyd Garrison, Jun., and