THOMAS CARLYLE 159 cursions to the Continent, which, with a yachting trip to Ostena, two tours in Ireland (on which he intended to write a book based on a diary that was pub- lished after his death), and regular visits to his kindred and friends in Scotland, formed the chief distractions from his literary labors. Among the few public movements with which Carlyle identified himself was that which resulted in the establishment of the London Library, in 1839. I n August, 1866, he also al- lowed himself to be elected chairman of the committee for the defence of Mr. Eyre, who had been recalled from his post of Governor of Jamaica on the ground of his having shown unnecessary severity in suppressing a negro insurrec- tion which had broken out in October of the previous year, or, as Carlyle put it, for having "saved the West Indies and hanged one incendiary mulatto, well worth the gallows." On November 11, 1865, Carlyle was elected lord rector of Edinburgh Uni- versity, by a majority of 657 votes over 310 recorded for Mr. Disraeli. On April 2, 1866, the ceremony of his installation took place amid extraordinary demon- stations of enthusiasm, when he delivered an address in which he embodied his moral experiences in the form of advice to the younger members of his audience. The success attending this visit to Edinburgh was quite obliterated by the news, which reached him in Dumfries, of the death, on April 21st, of Mrs. Carlyle, as she was driving in her carriage in Hyde Park. Carlyle's grief developed into re- morse when he discovered, from certain of her letters, and from a journal which she kept, that during a period of her married life his irritability of temper and un- conscious want of consideration for her wishes, had caused her much misery and even ill-health, which she studiously concealed from him. It has also been de- monstrated, by the letters and memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle, that in the years 1855 and 1856 they were somewhat estranged, owing to Carlyle's liking for the society of Harriet, Lady Ashburton. After the death of Lady Ashburton, there were no differences between them, except such as might be expected in the case of two persons of irritable and high-strung natures, and of uncompromising ve- racity. These memorials are also of note as proving Mrs. Carlyle to have been one of the keenest critics, most brilliant letter-writers, and most accomplished of women of her time. Carlyle wrote no important work after his wife's death, although after a visit to Mentone in 1867, where he partially composed his "Personal Reminiscences," he settled down to his old life in London. In August, 1867, there appeared in Macmillari s Magazine his view of British democracy, under the title of " Shooting Niagara." He prepared a special edition of his collected works, and added to them, in 1875, a ^ res h volume containing "The Early Kings of Norway" and an essay on the " Portraits of John Knox." On November 18, 1870, he wrote a let- ter to the Times on the " Franco-German Question," defending the attitude of Germany. He expressed privately strong opposition to the Irish policy of Mr. Gladstone. In February, 1874, he was offered and accepted the Prussian Order of Merit in recognition of his having written the " Life of Frederick the Great," who founded the Order. Toward the end of the same year Mr. Disraeli offered
