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Honourable Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe P.C.,
D.C.L., F.R.S.
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Title: The Right Honourable Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe P.C.,
D.C.L., F.R.S.
Author: T. E. Thorpe
Release date: February 14, 2018 [eBook #56569]
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIGHT
HONOURABLE SIR HENRY ENFIELD ROSCOE P.C., D.C.L., F.R.S. ***
The Right Honourable
SIR HENRY ENFIELD ROSCOE
P.C., D.C.L., F.R.S.
Henry E. Roscoe
Photo. E.H. Mills.
Walter L. Colls. Sc.
The Right Honourable
Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe
P.C., D.C.L., F.R.S.
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
BY
SIR EDWARD THORPE, C.B., F.R.S.
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
FOURTH AVENUE & 30th STREET, NEW YORK
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS
1916
[All rights reserved]
ADVERTISEMENT
This sketch of the life and activities of Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe is
based, to a large extent, upon an obituary notice prepared at the
request of the Councils of the Royal and Chemical Societies, of which
its subject was a distinguished member, with a view to publication in
their respective Proceedings and Transactions. In its present more
extended form it is offered to a wider public as the record of “a life
in civic action worn,” and as a slight tribute from a grateful pupil, an
attached co-worker, and a lifelong friend to the memory of a
strenuous high-minded man, of large aims and generous impulses,
who spent his abilities and energies unstintingly in promoting the
welfare of science and the good of his kind.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
WILLIAM ROSCOE—HENRY ROSCOE 1
CHAPTER II
HENRY ENFIELD ROSCOE—BIRTH AND EDUCATION 16
CHAPTER III
OWENS COLLEGE, MANCHESTER 28
CHAPTER IV
THE YORKSHIRE COLLEGE 53
CHAPTER V
THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY 77
CHAPTER VI
ROSCOE AS A TEACHER 97
CHAPTER VII
ROSCOE AS AN INVESTIGATOR 110
CHAPTER VIII
ROSCOE AND CHEMICAL LITERATURE 138
CHAPTER IX
ROSCOE AND THE ORGANIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC
SOCIETIES 146
CHAPTER X
PUBLIC SERVICES—POLITICAL AND PROFESSIONAL
WORK 152
CHAPTER XI
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON—ETON COLLEGE—
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF DUNDEE—SCOTTISH
UNIVERSITIES COMMISSION—ROYAL
COMMISSION OF THE 1851 EXHIBITION—
CARNEGIE TRUST: SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES—
SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT: SCIENCE
MUSEUMS—LISTER INSTITUTE OF PREVENTIVE
MEDICINE 161
CHAPTER XII
DIGNITIES AND HONOURS—THE DEUTSCHE REVUE—
GERMANY AND ENGLAND—WORLD SUPREMACY
OR WAR 175
CHAPTER XIII
HOME LIFE—LADY ROSCOE—WOODCOTE LODGE—
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS—DEATH 190
INDEX 204
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR
HENRY ENFIELD ROSCOE
CHAPTER I
WILLIAM ROSCOE—HENRY ROSCOE
The subject of this memoir had no particular pride of ancestry.
Stemmata quid faciunt? Although with no convictions on the subject,
he was willing to believe that his line stretched at least as far back
as Adam and Eve, and he doubted whether any man could with
certainty claim—pace Darwin—a more ancient lineage.[1]
As he has told us in his Autobiography, his family was one of the
many that could not trace its origin for more than three or four
generations back. All he knew was that he came of a North-country
stock, members of which—village Hampdens and mute inglorious
Miltons—had been settled in the County Palatine and in the vicinity
of Liverpool for many years. He had a distinguished grandfather, a
man of mark and public weight in his native town, and who bears an
honoured name in our literature. Of him it is related that when a
certain Garter Principal King-at-Arms desired to trace his pedigree
(which had hitherto baffled his researches), he replied that he was a
good patriarch, and the proper person to begin a family, as he had a
quiverful of sons. “Accordingly the whole descent is registered, and
the Roscoes may now go on in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.”
Mr. William Roscoe—Grandfather Roscoe as he was called in the
family circle—was justly claimed by his grandson to be the first man
of distinction that Liverpool had produced. Although more than one
hundred and fifty years have passed since his birth his name still
remains one of the most prominent in its history. His story is one of
the Romances of Literature.
Born in 1753, he was the son of a market gardener who kept a
bowling-green, attached to a tavern, in what was then a rural district
of Liverpool known as Mount Pleasant. He learned to read and write,
and that was practically all the schooling he received, for at the age
of twelve he was required to help his father in the cultivation of his
garden, and to carry cabbages and potatoes on his head to market.
But he had an insatiable appetite for knowledge, and such leisure as
he could secure he gave to reading and study. His love of literature
led him to take service in a bookseller’s shop, but finding that his
duties were those of a drudge, leaving him little opportunity for
gratifying his passion, he articled himself when fifteen years old to
an attorney. He worked hard at his profession, but still found time to
cultivate the Muses, and, with the assistance of a gifted friend of his
own age who taught languages in a school, he read the Classics and
began the study of the literature of Italy. He early tried his hand at
poetry—imitations of Goldsmith and Shenstone, or translations from
the Italian. When he was twenty-four he published a long poem
—“Mount Pleasant”—a characteristically stilted eighteenth-century
production of no great merit and now forgotten, but which on its
appearance was praised by Sir Joshua Reynolds, less, perhaps, for
its poetry than for its passionate protest against the iniquities of
“that execrable sum of all villainies commonly called the African
slave trade”—at that time one of the sources of the commercial
prosperity of Liverpool. The courage of the struggling young lawyer
in thus inveighing against this vicious traffic roused the anger of
some of the wealthiest and most influential of his fellow-citizens. He
followed up his attack by another poem on the “Wrongs of Africa,”
and he had a fierce controversy with an apostate Roman Catholic
priest who had published a sermon on the “Licitness of the Slave
Trade” as proved from the Bible, for which he had been formally
thanked by the Liverpool Corporation.
The coming of the French Revolution was received with
enthusiasm by all eager lovers of civil and political liberty in England.
Roscoe, who welcomed its advent with inspiriting songs and odes,
championed its cause in pamphlets, one of them directed against
Burke, who had bitterly attacked the Jacobins. The ardent young
Liberal was now identified with the Whig party in Liverpool, and was
in frequent communication with its Parliamentary chiefs.
But he was not at heart a politician, and had but little liking for the
turmoil and violence of party strife. “Party,” he had declared with
Pope, “is the madness of many for the gain of a few.” His strongest
inclinations were intellectual, and as his means increased and he
was able to procure books he became more and more drawn to the
study of Italian literature and history. The story of the rise of the
Medici family, and especially the character and achievements of one
of its ablest members, Lorenzo, surnamed the Magnificent, strongly
interested and eventually fascinated him. These studies bore fruit in
his well-known “Life of Lorenzo de’ Medici,” published in 1796. The
work was received with a chorus of approval. The critics declared
there had been nothing like it since Gibbon. Horace Walpole was
delighted with it. Men of taste like Lord Lansdowne and Lord Bristol
were equally charmed. It even became fashionable, and new
editions were speedily called for. The book has been frequently
reprinted, and was translated into French, German, and Italian. In
Italy it was received with especial favour as a noble tribute to the
national genius.
Its literary quality has gained for it an assured place in our
literature. As a permanent contribution to Italian history it has less
merit. It must be admitted it lacks features demanded by modern
and more scientific methods of historical treatment. Roscoe, we may
assume, made the best possible use of the material that was
available to him. His business prevented him from visiting Italy, but
his friend William Clarke, who had access to Florentine libraries,
supplied him with such information as he asked for or could obtain.
It is obvious from the work that what mainly interested him was the
literary and artistic side of Lorenzo’s career, and in particular his
influence on Italian art and learning. He had apparently less
sympathy with, because he had less knowledge of, his social and
political activities. He was imperfectly acquainted with the influences
which affected him, or which at times he sought to control. He was
sometimes uncritical in his use of authorities, and his judgment was
occasionally at fault. But whatever may be its value as a serious
contribution to history, there is no doubt of its merit as a piece of
literary craftsmanship. It was written under the influence of an
enthusiastic sympathy with and admiration for its subject, to which
no reader could be wholly insensible, and there is much in Roscoe’s
subsequent career, both in his pursuits and in his civic activities, to
show that he was largely inspired by the example of his hero.
In 1798 appeared his translation of Tansillo’s “Nurse,” with a
dedication to his wife; and in 1805 his “Life and Pontificate of Leo
the Tenth”—the son of Lorenzo, and the Pope who saw the rise of
the Reformation. Although this latter book brought its author more
money, it was less favourably received than his “Life of Lorenzo,”
mainly on account of his treatment of the Reformation. But apart
from this it is less satisfactory as a historical work. His knowledge of
the contemporary state of intellectual Europe was too limited to
enable him to deal adequately with a subject of so wide a scope.
Nevertheless the book had a large sale, in spite of, or possibly in
consequence of, the fact that the Italian translation was placed in
the “Index.”
Shortly after the publication of his first great work Roscoe
renounced his practice as an attorney. Having a competent fortune,
he purchased Allerton Hall, a fine old Jacobean house in a beautiful
situation on the banks of the Mersey. He now turned his attention to
agriculture, set up a model farm near his estate, cultivated the
friendship of Coke of Holkham, read papers on agricultural subjects
to local societies, and worked at the reclamation of Chat Moss. He
also set in order the affairs of a banking house in which his friend
Clarke, who lived in Italy, was a partner, and he thereby became
involved in its direction and management. But he had still leisure for
literary pursuits. He had one of the largest and most valuable private
libraries in the district, especially rich in Italian history and literature.
He interested himself in typography and induced John M’Creery—a
well-known printer of his day—to settle in Liverpool, where his works
were printed. He was a generous lover of the fine arts, and has the
credit of discovering the genius of John Gibson, the sculptor,
originally an apprentice to a marble mason in Liverpool, whom he
sent to Rome. Gibson executed for Roscoe a basso-rilievo in terra-
cotta, now in the Walker Gallery in Liverpool, the patron in his turn
making his protégé free of the treasures of his library at Allerton
Hall. It was in this way that Gibson first became acquainted with the
designs of the great Italian masters. The acquaintance thus formed
with the Roscoe family was continued in the case of Mrs. Sandbach,
a granddaughter of the Italian historian, who possessed many of
Gibson’s works, and was in frequent correspondence with him.
Indeed most of the details of Gibson’s life were only to be gleaned
from his letters to Mrs. Sandbach, who was a very accomplished
woman of considerable literary ability.
Mr. William Roscoe was fond of horticulture, and interested in
botanical pursuits generally. In the words of the late Professor Asa
Gray, he was one of the Patres conscripti of the botany of his time,
as the author of a monograph on the monandrian plants, and of
other contributions on botanical subjects to the Transactions of the
Linnean Society. Roscoe’s influence on the intellectual life of his
native town may be seen in the various educational and artistic
institutions which he created or with which he was concerned in
founding. In 1773, when only twenty years of age, he was one of
the projectors of a Society for the Encouragement of the Arts of
Painting and Design, the first public artistic society in Liverpool. It
had only a short existence, but was revived ten years later, and
ultimately developed into the Liverpool Academy, of which Roscoe
became President. He designed and etched the admission card to its
exhibitions, contributed drawings and read papers to its members. It
was the first organization of its kind in the provinces. It not only
encouraged local talent, but served to familiarize Liverpool with the
work of Reynolds, Gainsborough, and other notable painters of the
period. He was a founder and President of the Liverpool Literary and
Philosophical Society; an active member of the Liverpool Library,
afterwards known as the Lyceum, and the first public collection of
books in the town. He was the means of establishing the Liverpool
Atheneum, an institution more especially concerned with the
interests of learning and scholarship. His love of horticulture led him
to take an active part in the creation of a public Botanic Garden; he
drew up the plan of its administration, and at its opening in 1802
gave a thoughtful address on the obligation which rests upon a
commercial community to encourage the study of abstract science.
But perhaps Roscoe’s greatest service to Liverpool was his share in
the foundation of its Royal Institution. He was chairman of the
Committee which drew up the scheme of its establishment, and
wrote the Report for publication concerning its objects; and at its
opening in 1817 gave an address on the part it was calculated to
play in fostering the connection which ought to exist between the
intellectual and the business life of a city devoted to trade. “It is to
the union,” he declared, “of the pursuits of literature with the affairs
of the world that we are to look for the improvement of both; for the
stability and foundation of the one, and the grace and ornament of
the other.” He was no less mindful of the claims of science:
“imperfect indeed would be the civilization of that people who,
devoted to the accumulation of wealth by industry, should, from an
apprehension of expending their means on useless objects, refuse to
encourage scientific inquiries.” He pointed out that all improvements
in the mechanical arts and in manufactures were to be attributed to
the labours and discoveries of those who had applied themselves to
the enlargement of the boundaries of science. Even at that time he
was able to show that many occupations hitherto pursued
empirically were being practised under a growing recognition that
they were based on scientific principles, and that it was only by a
wider appreciation of that fact, combined with increased facilities for
the acquisition and diffusion of scientific knowledge, that the
improvement and expansion of such industries could be secured.
More than sixty years afterwards it fell to his grandson’s lot to
dilate upon the same theme in the same place, and to indicate how
the intervening time of scientific and industrial progress had served
to confirm the wisdom and accuracy of his grandfather’s insight.
Mr. William Roscoe, however eminent he might be in civic virtue,
was precluded from taking any part in the municipal affairs of the
town, as he was not a freeman of the borough. Nor, for the same
reason, was he able to exercise the Parliamentary franchise. But
whilst he himself had no vote, there was nothing to prevent the
voters from sending him to the House of Commons as their
representative if he and they were so minded. In 1806 a swing of
the political pendulum brought the Whigs into general favour, and
the burgesses of Liverpool returned him at the head of the poll. By
speech and vote he threw all his influence on the side of Clarkson
and Wilberforce in their successful efforts to abolish England’s
participation in the slave trade. Although those who sent him to the
Legislature must have known his views on this subject, his
constituents were highly incensed at his action in thus seeking to
destroy, as they imagined, one of the chief sources of the prosperity
of the town. Moreover, he had added to the enormity of his offence
by speaking and voting in favour of Catholic Emancipation.
Accordingly, a mixed and muddled mob of ardent Protestants and
drunken sailors, crews of slave-ships, were gathered together in
order to assail him on his return from Westminster at the close of
the session. A riot broke out, but his friends had taken timely
precautions, and he escaped without injury. But the House of
Commons had few attractions for him. He resigned his seat, and
nothing would induce him to seek re-election. He still maintained his
interest in the political movements of the time, and became a busy
pamphleteer, wrote in favour of the abolition of slavery as a logical
consequence of the abolition of the slave trade; on Parliamentary
reform; penal jurisprudence and the treatment of criminals; and on
national education.
In 1816 Roscoe, whose prosperity had been hitherto unbroken,
was overtaken by sudden disaster. The downfall of Napoleon and the
termination of the Continental wars were followed by much financial
unrest, and a sudden panic seized the bank in which he was
interested. Although perfectly solvent—its assets exceeded its
liabilities by more than £60,000—it was impossible to realize these
assets without grievous loss; the bank’s credit had been severely
shaken, and it was compelled to stop payment. Roscoe called the
bank’s creditors together, explained its condition, and convinced the
majority that with time its position might be restored. After four
years of anxious efforts to rehabilitate the bank he was forced to
give up the struggle owing to the persistent action of a small
number, who insisted on preferential treatment, and he allowed
himself to be made bankrupt. Allerton, with its beautiful gardens and
ample woods, with all its refinements and delights as a home—the
home which had welcomed guests like Aikin and his daughter Mrs.
Barbauld, Dr. Parr the scholar, Fuseli the painter, Coke of Holkham,
Henry Brougham, and many others eminent in politics, learning, and
scholarship—had to be given up, together with all its artistic and
literary treasures. Thanks to the care he spent in cataloguing these
works for sale they realized good prices. Friends vied with each
other in preventing the dispersal of the more valuable books and
pictures. Many of the former were secured for the Atheneum, on
condition that he should be allowed their use, and they still remain
on its shelves. His collection of early Italian paintings was presented
to the Royal Institution, and is now in the Walker Art Gallery.
Roscoe received an honourable discharge. He was now sixty-seven
years of age. With such relics from the wreck of his fortune as could
be saved he set himself heroically to retrieve the disaster which had
befallen him. Literature, which had been the delight of his leisure,
now became his sole remaining prop. Eleven years were still left to
him. He rearranged the fine library of his friend Coke, edited an
issue of Pope’s works, completed the folio monograph on the
monandrian plants, and executed a number of other compilations.
His old age was spent in a serene dignity which secured for him the
friendship of a devoted circle and the universal respect of his
townsmen. He had a paralytic attack a year or so before his death
which partially incapacitated him. The end came peacefully on June
30, 1831.
A sitting statue of him by Chantrey, as one of Liverpool’s most
distinguished citizens, is in the St. George’s Hall, and his name is
associated with the chair of Modern History in the University of
Liverpool.
Washington Irving, in the “Sketch-book,” thus spoke of him:
Those who live only for the world and in the world
may be cast down by the frowns of adversity; but a
man like Roscoe is not to be overcome by the reverses
of fortune. They do but drive him in upon the
resources of his own mind.… He lives with antiquity
and posterity; with antiquity in the sweet communion
of studious retirement, and with posterity in the
generous aspirings after future renown.… The man of
letters who speaks of Liverpool, speaks of it as the
residence of Roscoe. The intelligent traveller who visits
it inquires where Roscoe is to be seen. He is the
literary landmark of the place, indicating its existence
to the distant scholar. He is like Pompey’s column at
Alexandria, towering alone in classic dignity.
Henry Roscoe, the father of the subject of this biography, was the
seventh and youngest son of Mr. William Roscoe. He was born at
Allerton Hall on April 17, 1799. In physical and mental characteristics
he more nearly resembled his father than did any other member of
the family. He was educated almost entirely at home, and in
constant companionship with his father, from whom he acquired a
love for rare and curious books and a taste for literature and art.
At the time of the panic of 1816, in which his father was so deeply
involved, Henry Roscoe was serving as a clerk in the bank. After its
collapse he entered a lawyer’s office, became a member of the Inner
Temple, and in 1826 was called to the Bar. He had already turned his
attention to literature, and was supporting himself by his pen. In
1825 he gained a considerable success in legal circles by the
publication of an elaborate treatise on “The Law of Actions relating
to Real Property,” and by three small volumes entitled “Westminster
Hall,” by his “Law and Lawyers,” and other works.
In 1828 appeared the first edition of his “Digest of the Law of
Evidence in the Trials of Actions at the Nisi Prius Law,” which in the
next ten years ran through five editions. During 1829 and 1830 he
produced a “Digest of the Law of Bills of Exchange,” which also
passed through many editions, and he contributed to Lardner’s
Encyclopædia a volume of “Lives of Eminent British Lawyers.” For
some years he was engaged in the preparation of Parliamentary
Bills, and under the direction of Mr. Gregson drew up the original
draft of the Reform Bills of 1831-1832.
Two years after the death of his father, he produced the “Life of
William Roscoe.” This work, undertaken at the request of the family,
was no light task, on account of the mass of correspondence,
pamphlets, etc., which had to be dealt with. It was completed during
three or four months of the legal vacation, when rest and change
were much needed. He was already suffering from overwork,
confinement, and lack of exercise, and this additional tax upon his
strength and nervous energy seriously affected his health.
Between 1830 and 1835 he produced other legal works, among
them, “The Digest of the Law of Evidence in Criminal Cases,” and a
“General Digest of Law from 1835-6,” and he contributed to many
magazines and journals. In January 1836 he published his last work,
a pamphlet “On Pleading the General Issue.” During the previous
summer the serious state of his health compelled him to abandon
the idea of continuing to live in town. He therefore gave up his
house in London and went to reside at Gateacre, near Liverpool, in
the hope that country air and rural life might improve his condition.
He had been appointed in 1834 Judge of the Court of Passage,
Liverpool, by Lord Brougham, then Lord Chancellor, and from that
year until 1836 he omitted no weekly sitting.
Unfortunately persistent ill-health, aggravated by years of
overwork and constant strain, had taxed to the uttermost a delicate
constitution, and in March 1837, after a few weeks of suffering, he
died at the age of thirty-six.
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