Abraham Hayward
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Abraham Hayward
Q.C. QC may refer to: * Queen's Counsel, the title of a King's Counsel, a type of lawyer in Commonwealth countries, during the reign of a queen * Quality control, the process of meeting products and services to consumer expectations Places * Quebec, ...
(22 November 1801 – 2 February 1884) was an English man of letters.


Life

He was son of Joseph Hayward, and was born in Wilton, near
Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...
, Wiltshire. After education at
Blundell's School Blundell's School is a co-educational day and boarding independent school in the English public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon. It was founded in 1604 under the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the tim ...
, Tiverton, he entered the
Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...
in 1824, and was called to the bar in June 1832. He took part as a conservative in the discussions of the London Debating Society, where his opponents were J A Roebuck and
John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...
. The editorship of the ''Law Magazine'', or, ''Quarterly Review of Jurisprudence'', which he held from 1828 to 1844, brought him into connection with
John Austin John Austin may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John P. Austin (1906–1997), American set decorator * Johnny Austin (1910–1983), American musician * John Austin (author) (fl. 1940s), British novelist Military * John Austin (soldier) (180 ...
, G Cornewall Lewis, and such foreign jurists as Savigny, whose tractate on contemporary legislation and jurisprudence he rendered into English. In 1833 he travelled abroad, and on his return began contributing to the ''New Monthly'', the ''Foreign Quarterly'', the ''
Quarterly Review The ''Quarterly Review'' was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River ...
'' and the ''
Edinburgh Review The ''Edinburgh Review'' is the title of four distinct intellectual and cultural magazines. The best known, longest-lasting, and most influential of the four was the third, which was published regularly from 1802 to 1929. ''Edinburgh Review'', ...
''. In February 1835 he was elected to the Athenaeum Club under Rule II, and he remained for nearly fifty years one of its most conspicuous and most influential members. He was also a subscriber to the Carlton, but ceased to frequent it when he became a
Peelite The Peelites were a breakaway dissident political faction of the British Conservative Party from 1846 to 1859. Initially led by Robert Peel, the former Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader in 1846, the Peelites supported free trade whilst ...
. At the Temple, Hayward, whose reputation was rapidly growing as a connoisseur not only of a bill of fare but also as company, gave ''recherché'' dinners, at which ladies of rank and fashion appreciated the wit of
Sydney Smith Sydney Smith (3 June 1771 – 22 February 1845) was an English wit, writer, and Anglican cleric. Early life and education Born in Woodford, Essex, England, Smith was the son of merchant Robert Smith (1739–1827) and Maria Olier (1750–1801), ...
and
Theodore Hook Theodore Edward Hook (22 September 1788 – 24 August 1841) was an English man of letters and composer and briefly a civil servant in Mauritius. He is best known for his practical jokes, particularly the Berners Street hoax in 1809. The wo ...
, the dignity of
Lockhart Lockhart may refer to: *Lockhart (surname) Places Australia *Lockhart, New South Wales *Lockhart River, Queensland *Lockhart River, Western Australia United States *Lockhart, Alabama *Lockhart, Florida *Lockhart, Minnesota *Lockhart, Sout ...
and Lyndhurst and the oratory of Macaulay. At the Athenaeum and in political society he to some extent succeeded to the position of Croker. He and Macaulay were commonly said to be the two best-read men in town. Political ladies first, and statesmen afterwards, came to recognise the advantage of obtaining Hayward's good opinion. The "old reviewing hand" became an acknowledged link between society, letters and politics. In one notable and lengthy land rights case, 'The Queen v. Ames', Hayward acted on behalf of the town of
Lyme Regis Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the Herita ...
in securing the permanent right of way for its citizens, across the cliffs to
Axminster Axminster is a market town and civil parish on the eastern border of the county of Devon in England. It is from the county town of Exeter. The town is built on a hill overlooking the River Axe which heads towards the English Channel at Axmou ...
. There were other successes, but his promotion to be Q.C. in 1845 excited a storm of opposition, and, disgusted at being 'black-balled' by J. A. Roebuck and therefore not elected a Bencher of his Inn in the usual course, Hayward virtually withdrew from legal practice. His enemies prevented him from enjoying a well-selected quasisinecure, which both
Palmerston Palmerston may refer to: People * Christie Palmerston (c. 1851–1897), Australian explorer * Several prominent people have borne the title of Viscount Palmerston ** Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston (c. 1673–1757), Irish nobleman and ...
and
Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
admitted to be his due. Samuel Warren attacked him as Venom Tuft in ''Ten Thousand a Year''; and
Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a centr ...
aimed at him partially in Ste Barbe (in ''Endymion''), though the satire here was directed primarily against
Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel '' Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and t ...
. As a counsellor of great ladies and of politicians, to whom he held forth with a sense of all-round responsibility surpassing that of a cabinet minister, Hayward retained his influence to the last years of his life. But he had little sympathy with modern ideas. He used to say that he had outlived everyone that he could really look up to. He died, a bachelor, in his rooms at 8
St James's Street St James's Street is the principal street in the district of St James's, central London. It runs from Piccadilly downhill to St James's Palace and Pall Mall. The main gatehouse of the Palace is at the southern end of the road; in the 17th centur ...
(a small museum of autograph portraits and reviewing trophies) and was buried in
Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
(east side).


Works

He printed privately a translation of
Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
's ''
Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...
'' into English prose (pronounced by Carlyle to be the best version extant in his time). A second and revised edition was published after another visit to Germany in January 1834, in the course of which Hayward met
Tieck Tieck may refer to: *Christian Friedrich Tieck (1776–1851), German sculptor * Dorothea Tieck (1799–1841), German translator *Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853), German poet ** 8056 Tieck, asteroid named after Ludwig Tieck ** Schlegel-Tieck Prize, litera ...
,
Chamisso Adelbert von Chamisso (; 30 January 178121 August 1838) was a German poet and botanist, author of ''Peter Schlemihl'', a famous story about a man who sold his shadow. He was commonly known in French as Adelbert de Chamisso (or Chamissot) de Bonc ...
, De La Motte Fouqué, Varnhagen von Ense and Madame Goethe. In 1878 he contributed the volume on Goethe to Blackwood's Foreign Classics for English Readers. The late nineteenth century English author
George Gissing George Robert Gissing (; 22 November 1857 – 28 December 1903) was an English novelist, who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. His best-known works have reappeared in modern editions. They include ''The Nether World'' (1889), ''New Grub ...
who read a lot of German literature in German during his lifetime, thought the volume 'poor stuff'.Coustillas, Pierre ed. London and the Life of Literature in Late Victorian England: the Diary of George Gissing, Novelist. Brighton: Harvester Press, 1978, p.273. His first successes as reviewer were in 1835–1836 by articles on "Walker's Original" and on "Gastronomy." The essays were reprinted to form ''The Art of Dining'', in 1852. Hayward got up every important subject of discussion immediately it came into prominence, and concentrated his information in such a way that he habitually had the last word to say on a topic. When
Rogers Rogers may refer to: Places Canada *Rogers Pass (British Columbia) * Rogers Island (Nunavut) United States * Rogers, Arkansas, a city * Rogers, alternate name of Muroc, California, a former settlement * Rogers, Indiana, an unincorporated communit ...
died, when '' Vanity Fair'' was published, when the ''Greville Memoirs'' was issued or a revolution occurred on the continent, Hayward, whose memory was as retentive as his power of accumulating documentary evidence was exhaustive, wrote an elaborate essay on the subject for the ''Quarterly'' or the ''Edinburgh''. He followed up his paper by giving his acquaintances no rest until they either assimilated or undertook to combat his views. In February 1848 he became one of the chief leader-writers for the Peelite organ, the ''
Morning Chronicle ''The Morning Chronicle'' was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London. It was notable for having been the first steady employer of essayist William Hazlitt as a political reporter and the first steady employer of Charles Dickens as a journalist. It ...
''. The morbid activity of his memory, however, continued to make him many enemies. He alienated Disraeli by tracing a
purple patch In literary criticism, purple prose is overly ornate prose text that may disrupt a narrative flow by drawing undesirable attention to its own extravagant style of writing, thereby diminishing the appreciation of the prose overall. Purple prose ...
in his official eulogy of the
Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister of ...
to a newspaper translation from Thiers's funeral
panegyric A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of grc, ...
on General St Cyr. His sharp tongue had already made him an enemy of Roebuck, and he disgusted the friends of Mill by the stories he raked up for an obituary notice of the great economist (''The Times'', 10 May 1873). He broke with Henry Reeve in 1874 by a venomous review of the ''Greville Memoirs'', in which Reeve was compared to the beggarly Scot deputed to let off the blunderbuss which Bolingbroke ( Greville) had charged. After his break with Reeve, Hayward devoted himself more exclusively to the ''Quarterly''. His essays on
Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...
and Selwyn were reprinted in 1854. Collective editions of his articles appeared in volume form in 1858, 1873 and 1874, and ''Selected Essays'' in two volumes, 1878. In his useful but far from flawless edition of the ''Autobiography, Letters and Literary Remains of Mrs (Thrale) Piozzi'' (1861), he again appears as a supplementer and
continuator A continuator, in literature, is a writer who creates a new work based on someone else's prior text, such as a novel or novel fragment. The new work may complete the older work (as with the numerous continuations of Jane Austen's unfinished novel ...
of J. W. Croker. His ''Eminent Statesmen and Writers'' (1880) commemorates to a large extent personal friendships with such men as Dumas, Cavour and Thiers, whom he knew intimately. Two volumes of Hayward's ''Correspondence'' (edited by HE Carlisle) were published in 1886. In ''Vanity Fair'' (27 November 1875) he may be seen as he appeared in later life.


References

* * * Philip Harling
‘Hayward, Abraham (1801–1884)’
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 6 February 2007 * Antony Chessell
'The Life and Times of Abraham Hayward, Q.C., Victorian Essayist'
Lulu Publishing, 2009
'Abraham Hayward Collection'
at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.


External links

* * * Abraham Hayward Collection. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hayward, Abraham English non-fiction writers 1801 births 1884 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery English barristers People from Wilton, Wiltshire People educated at Blundell's School Members of the Inner Temple English male non-fiction writers 19th-century English lawyers