Goldwin Smith
Encyclopedia
Goldwin Smith was a British
-Canadian historian
and journalist
.
. He was educated at Eton College
and Magdalen College, Oxford
, and after a brilliant undergraduate career he was elected to a fellowship at University College, Oxford
. He threw his keen intellect and trenchant style into the cause of university reform, the leading champion of which was another fellow of University College, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
. On the Royal Commission of 1850 to inquire into the reform of the university, of which Stanley was secretary, he served as assistant-secretary; and he was secretary to the commissioners appointed by the act of 1854. His position as an authority on educational reform was further recognized by a seat on the Popular Education Commission of 1858. In 1868, when the question of reform at Oxford
was again growing acute, he published a brilliant pamphlet
, entitled The Reorganization of the University of Oxford.
Besides the abolition of tests, effected by the act of 1871, many of the reforms suggested, such as the revival of the faculties, the reorganization of the professoriate, the abolition of celibacy
as a condition of the tenure of fellowships, and the combination of the colleges for lecturing purposes, were incorporated in the act of 1877, or subsequently adopted by the university. He gave the counsel of perfection that "pass" examinations ought to cease; but he recognized that this change “must wait on the reorganization of the educational institutions immediately below the university, at which a passman ought to finish his career.” His aspiration that colonists and Americans should be attracted to Oxford was later realized by the will of Cecil Rhodes. On what is perhaps the vital problem of modern education, the question of ancient versus modern languages, he pronounced that the latter “are indispensable accomplishments, but they do not form a high mental training“ – an opinion entitled to peculiar respect as coming from a president of the Modern Language Association.
The outbreak of the American Civil War
proved a turning point in his life. Unlike most of the ruling classes in England, he championed the cause of the North, and his pamphlets, especially one entitled Does the Bible sanction American Slavery? (1863), played a prominent part in converting English opinion. Visiting America on a lecture tour in 1864, he received an enthusiastic welcome, and was entertained at a public banquet in New York. In 1868 he threw up his career in England and settled in the United States, where he held the professorship of English and Constitutional History in the Department of History
at Cornell University
for a number of years. Goldwin Smith Hall, which is located in Cornell's Arts Quad, is named in his honour. In 1871 he moved to Toronto
, where he edited the Canadian Monthly, and subsequently founded the Week and the Bystander, and where he lived the rest of his life living in The Grange
manor.
in accepting Home Rule. He expressly stated that “if he ever had a political leader, his leader was John Bright
, not Mr Gladstone.” Speaking in 1886, he referred to his "standing by the side of John Bright against the dismemberment of the great Anglo-Saxon
community of the West, as I now stand against the dismemberment of the great Anglo-Saxon community of the East.” These words form the key to his views of the future of the British Empire. He always maintained that Canada
, separated by great barriers, running north and south, into four zones, each having unimpeded communication with the adjoining portions of the United States
, was a profoundly artificial and badly-governed nation, that was destined by its natural configuration to enter into a commercial union with the US. This would in turn result in her breaking away from the British empire, and in the union of the Anglo-Saxons of the American continent into one great nation. These views are most fully stated in his Canada and the Canadian Question
(1891).
Though describing himself as “anti-Imperialistic to the core,” he was yet deeply penetrated with a sense of the greatness of the British race. Of the British empire in India
he said that “it is the noblest the world has seen ... Never had there been such an attempt to make conquest the servant of civilization. About keeping India there is no question. England
has a real duty there.” His fear was that England would become a nation of factory-workers, thinking more of their trade-union than of their country. He was also opposed to Britain granting more representative government to India, expressing fear that this would lead to a "murderous anarchy." His opinion of British activity in the Transvaal was well voiced in the Canadian press and in his book In The Court of History: An Apology of Canadians Opposed to the Boer War (1902). This work is a fascinating articulation of pacifist opposition to the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. It is important because it is amongst the few expressions of opposition toward from the perspective of an Anglo-colonial settler.
He proposed elsewhere that Jews
and Arabs were of the same race. He viewed Jews as "parasites" and "enemies of civilization," and spread his hatred of Jews in dozens of books, articles, and letters. He had a strong influence on Mackenzie King
and Henri Bourassa
. He also believed that Islamic oppression of non-Muslims was due to economic factors.
These anti-imperialist prolegomena were intensified and made manifest in his Commonwealth or Empire? (1902)--a warning to the United States against the assumption of imperial responsibilities. Other causes that he powerfully attacked were liquor prohibition
, female suffrage and State Socialism
. All these are discussed in his Essays on Questions of the Day (revised edition, 1894). He also published sympathetic monographs on William Cowper
and Jane Austen
, and attempted verse in Bay Leaves and Specimens of Greek Tragedy. In his Guesses at the Riddle of Existence (1897), he abandons the faith in Christianity
expressed in his lecture of 1861 on Historical Progress (where he forecast the speedy reunion of Christendom on the ”basis of free conviction“), and writes in a spirit “not of Agnosticism
, if Agnosticism imports despair of spiritual truth, but of free and hopeful inquiry, the way for which it is necessary to clear by removing the wreck of that upon which we can found our faith no more.”
, The Grange.
Goldwin Smith is credited with the quote "Above all nations is humanity," an inscription that was engraved in a stone bench he offered to Cornell
in May 1871. The bench sits in front of Goldwin Smith Hall, named in his honor. This quote is the motto of the University of Hawaii
and other institutions around the world (for example, the Cosmopolitan Club at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
).
After his death, a plaque in his memory was erected outside his birthplace in the town centre of Reading
. This still exists, outside the entrance to the Harris Arcade.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-Canadian historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
.
Early years
He was born at Reading, BerkshireReading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
. He was educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
, and after a brilliant undergraduate career he was elected to a fellowship at University College, Oxford
University College, Oxford
.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...
. He threw his keen intellect and trenchant style into the cause of university reform, the leading champion of which was another fellow of University College, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley was an English churchman, Dean of Westminster, known as Dean Stanley. His position was that of a Broad Churchman and he was the author of works on Church History.-Life and times:...
. On the Royal Commission of 1850 to inquire into the reform of the university, of which Stanley was secretary, he served as assistant-secretary; and he was secretary to the commissioners appointed by the act of 1854. His position as an authority on educational reform was further recognized by a seat on the Popular Education Commission of 1858. In 1868, when the question of reform at Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
was again growing acute, he published a brilliant pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
, entitled The Reorganization of the University of Oxford.
Besides the abolition of tests, effected by the act of 1871, many of the reforms suggested, such as the revival of the faculties, the reorganization of the professoriate, the abolition of celibacy
Celibacy
Celibacy is a personal commitment to avoiding sexual relations, in particular a vow from marriage. Typically celibacy involves avoiding all romantic relationships of any kind. An individual may choose celibacy for religious reasons, such as is the case for priests in some religions, for reasons of...
as a condition of the tenure of fellowships, and the combination of the colleges for lecturing purposes, were incorporated in the act of 1877, or subsequently adopted by the university. He gave the counsel of perfection that "pass" examinations ought to cease; but he recognized that this change “must wait on the reorganization of the educational institutions immediately below the university, at which a passman ought to finish his career.” His aspiration that colonists and Americans should be attracted to Oxford was later realized by the will of Cecil Rhodes. On what is perhaps the vital problem of modern education, the question of ancient versus modern languages, he pronounced that the latter “are indispensable accomplishments, but they do not form a high mental training“ – an opinion entitled to peculiar respect as coming from a president of the Modern Language Association.
Regius Professor
He held the regius professorship of Modern History at Oxford from 1858 to 1866, that “ancient history, besides the still unequalled excellence of the writers, is the ‘best instrument for cultivating the historical sense.” As a historian, indeed, he left no abiding work; the multiplicity of his interests prevented him from concentrating on any one subject. His chief historical writings—The United Kingdom: a Political History (1899), and The United States: an Outline of Political History (1893)—though based on thorough familiarity with their subject, make no claim to original research, but are remarkable examples of terse and brilliant narrative.The outbreak of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
proved a turning point in his life. Unlike most of the ruling classes in England, he championed the cause of the North, and his pamphlets, especially one entitled Does the Bible sanction American Slavery? (1863), played a prominent part in converting English opinion. Visiting America on a lecture tour in 1864, he received an enthusiastic welcome, and was entertained at a public banquet in New York. In 1868 he threw up his career in England and settled in the United States, where he held the professorship of English and Constitutional History in the Department of History
Cornell University Department of History
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at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
for a number of years. Goldwin Smith Hall, which is located in Cornell's Arts Quad, is named in his honour. In 1871 he moved to Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, where he edited the Canadian Monthly, and subsequently founded the Week and the Bystander, and where he lived the rest of his life living in The Grange
The Grange (Toronto)
The Grange is a historic Georgian manor in downtown Toronto, Canada and was the first home of the Art Museum of Toronto. Today, it is part of the Art Gallery of Ontario. The structure was built in 1817, making it the 12th oldest surviving building in Toronto and the oldest remaining brick house...
manor.
Politics
He continued to take an active interest in English politics. A Liberal, he opposed Benjamin Disraeli. and was a strong supporter of Irish Disestablishment, but refused to follow GladstoneWilliam Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
in accepting Home Rule. He expressly stated that “if he ever had a political leader, his leader was John Bright
John Bright
John Bright , Quaker, was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with Richard Cobden in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League. He was one of the greatest orators of his generation, and a strong critic of British foreign policy...
, not Mr Gladstone.” Speaking in 1886, he referred to his "standing by the side of John Bright against the dismemberment of the great Anglo-Saxon
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
community of the West, as I now stand against the dismemberment of the great Anglo-Saxon community of the East.” These words form the key to his views of the future of the British Empire. He always maintained that Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, separated by great barriers, running north and south, into four zones, each having unimpeded communication with the adjoining portions of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, was a profoundly artificial and badly-governed nation, that was destined by its natural configuration to enter into a commercial union with the US. This would in turn result in her breaking away from the British empire, and in the union of the Anglo-Saxons of the American continent into one great nation. These views are most fully stated in his Canada and the Canadian Question
Canada and the Canadian Question
Canada and the Canadian Question was a 1891 book written by British-Canadian author Goldwin Smith.The book analyzes 19th Century Canada, with Smith arguing that the country was a profoundly unnatural one that had no real reason to exist...
(1891).
Though describing himself as “anti-Imperialistic to the core,” he was yet deeply penetrated with a sense of the greatness of the British race. Of the British empire in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
he said that “it is the noblest the world has seen ... Never had there been such an attempt to make conquest the servant of civilization. About keeping India there is no question. England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
has a real duty there.” His fear was that England would become a nation of factory-workers, thinking more of their trade-union than of their country. He was also opposed to Britain granting more representative government to India, expressing fear that this would lead to a "murderous anarchy." His opinion of British activity in the Transvaal was well voiced in the Canadian press and in his book In The Court of History: An Apology of Canadians Opposed to the Boer War (1902). This work is a fascinating articulation of pacifist opposition to the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. It is important because it is amongst the few expressions of opposition toward from the perspective of an Anglo-colonial settler.
He proposed elsewhere that Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and Arabs were of the same race. He viewed Jews as "parasites" and "enemies of civilization," and spread his hatred of Jews in dozens of books, articles, and letters. He had a strong influence on Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...
and Henri Bourassa
Henri Bourassa
Joseph-Napoléon-Henri Bourassa was a French Canadian political leader and publisher. He is seen by many as an ideological father of Canadian nationalism....
. He also believed that Islamic oppression of non-Muslims was due to economic factors.
These anti-imperialist prolegomena were intensified and made manifest in his Commonwealth or Empire? (1902)--a warning to the United States against the assumption of imperial responsibilities. Other causes that he powerfully attacked were liquor prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
, female suffrage and State Socialism
State socialism
State socialism is an economic system with limited socialist characteristics, such as public ownership of major industries, remedial measures to benefit the working class, and a gradual process of developing socialism through government policy...
. All these are discussed in his Essays on Questions of the Day (revised edition, 1894). He also published sympathetic monographs on William Cowper
William Cowper
William Cowper was an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry...
and Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
, and attempted verse in Bay Leaves and Specimens of Greek Tragedy. In his Guesses at the Riddle of Existence (1897), he abandons the faith in Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
expressed in his lecture of 1861 on Historical Progress (where he forecast the speedy reunion of Christendom on the ”basis of free conviction“), and writes in a spirit “not of Agnosticism
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
, if Agnosticism imports despair of spiritual truth, but of free and hopeful inquiry, the way for which it is necessary to clear by removing the wreck of that upon which we can found our faith no more.”
Later years
In his later years he expressed his views in a weekly journal, The Farmer’s Sun, and published in 1904 My Memory of Gladstone, while occasional letters to the Spectator showed that he had lost neither his interest in English politics and social questions nor his remarkable gifts of style. He died at his residence in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, The Grange.
Goldwin Smith is credited with the quote "Above all nations is humanity," an inscription that was engraved in a stone bench he offered to Cornell
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in May 1871. The bench sits in front of Goldwin Smith Hall, named in his honor. This quote is the motto of the University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
and other institutions around the world (for example, the Cosmopolitan Club at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
).
After his death, a plaque in his memory was erected outside his birthplace in the town centre of Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
. This still exists, outside the entrance to the Harris Arcade.
External links
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Works by or about Goldwin Smith at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
(scanned books original editions color illustrated) (plain text and HTML)