View source for Frederic Harrison

{{Short description|British jurist and historian (1831–1923)}}
{{other people|Fred Harrison}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| name          = Frederic Harrison
| image         = Photo of Frederic Harrison.jpg
| imagesize     =  
| caption       = Portrait of Frederic Harrison, by [[Alexander Bassano|Bassano]], 1901.
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    = {{birth date|df=yes|1831|10|18}}
| birth_place   = [[London]], [[England]]
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1923|1|14|1831|10|18|df=y}}
| death_place   = 
| occupation    = [[Historian]], [[jurist]]
| nationality   = [[English people|English]]
| period        =
| genre         =
| subject       = 
| movement      =
| notableworks  = 
| spouse        = {{marriage|[[Ethel Bertha Harrison]]|1870|1916|end=died}}
| children      = 4
| relatives     = [[Austin Harrison]] (son)
| influences    = [[Auguste Comte]], [[Richard Congreve]], [[John Stuart Mill]], [[Giuseppe Mazzini]], [[Aurelio Saffi]]
| influenced    =
| signature     =
}}

'''Frederic Harrison''' (18 October 1831 &ndash; 14 January 1923) was a British [[jurist]] and [[historian]].<ref name="odnb">{{cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33732|title=Harrison, Frederic (1831–1923)|last=Vogeler|first=Martha S|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/33732|access-date=8 July 2011}}</ref> A leading figure in the [[Positivism|English Positivist movement]] and a disciple of [[Auguste Comte]], he was known for his wide-ranging contributions to political philosophy, legal theory, and public discourse. Harrison was a prolific writer and lecturer whose works spanned history, law, religion, literature, and international affairs. He played a prominent role in Victorian intellectual life, contributing regularly to influential periodicals such as ''[[The Fortnightly Review]]'', and was noted for his radical political stance in support of trade union rights, universal education, and democratic reform.

==Biography==

Born at 17 Euston Square, [[London]], he was the son of Frederick Harrison (1799–1881),<ref>For date of death of Harrison Snr., see: Harrison, Frederic, Annals of an Old Manor House: Sutton Place, Guildford, London, 1899, p. 149, note 1.</ref> a [[stockbroker]] and his wife Jane, daughter of Alexander Brice, a [[Belfast]] granite merchant. He was baptised at St. Pancras Church, Euston, and spent his early childhood at the northern London suburb of [[Muswell Hill]], to which the family moved soon after his birth.<ref name="odnb" /> His father later acquired a lease on the grand Tudor manor house [[Sutton Place, Surrey|Sutton Place]] near Guildford, Surrey, in 1874,<ref>Harrison, F, Annals of an Old Manor House, London, 1899</ref> which descended to his elder son Sidney, and about which Frederic jnr. wrote the definitive history ''Annals of an Old Manor House: Sutton Place, Guildford'', first published in 1893. His paternal grandfather was a [[Leicestershire]] builder.<ref name="obit">{{cite news|title=Frederic Harrison. The Writer As Man of Action., An Unabashed Victorian|date=15 January 1923|work=[[The Times]]|page=12}}</ref> In 1840, the family moved again to 22 Oxford Square, [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]], London, a house designed by Harrison's father.<ref name="odnb" /> Along with his siblings Sidney and Lawrence,<ref>Harrison, F. Annals of an Old Manor House, London 1899, p.149, note 1</ref> Harrison received his initial education at home before attending a day school in [[St John's Wood]]. In 1843, he entered [[King's College School]], graduating as second in the school in 1849.<ref name=odnb/><ref name=obit/>

==Oxford and Positivism==

He received a scholarship to [[Wadham College, Oxford]] in 1849. It was at Oxford that he was to embrace [[Positivism|positive philosophy]], under the influence of his tutor [[Richard Congreve]] and the works of [[John Stuart Mill]] and [[George Henry Lewes]].<ref name=obit/> Harrison found himself in conflict with Congreve as to details, and eventually led the Positivists who split off and founded Newton Hall in 1881, and he was president of the English Positivist Committee from 1880 to 1905;<ref>{{cite magazine|title=HARRISON, Frederic|magazine=Who's Who|year=1907|volume= 59|pages=789–790|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA789}}</ref> he was also editor and part author of the ''Positivist New Calendar of great Men'' (1892), and wrote much on [[Auguste Comte]] and [[Positivism]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} For more than three decades, he was a regular contributor to ''[[The Fortnightly Review]]'', often in defence of Positivism, especially Comte's version of it.

[[File:Frederic Harrison Vanity Fair 23 January 1886.jpg|thumb|upright|A caricature of Frederic Harrison by [[Carlo Pellegrini (caricaturist)|Carlo Pellegrini]] (known as "Ape"; died 1889), published in ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', 23 January 1886, with the caption "An apostle of [[Positivism]]"]]

Among his contemporaries at Wadham were [[Edward Spencer Beesly]], [[John Henry Bridges]], and [[George Earlam Thorley]] who were to become the leaders of the secular [[Religion of Humanity]] or "Comtism" in England. He received a second class in Moderations in 1852 and a first class in Literae Humaniores in 1853.<ref name="odnb" /> In the following year, he was elected a fellow of the college and became a tutor, taking over from Congreve.<ref name="odnb" /><ref name=obit/> He became part of a liberal group of academics at Oxford that also included [[Arthur Penrhyn Stanley]], [[Goldwin Smith]], [[Mark Pattison (academic)|Mark Pattison]] and [[Benjamin Jowett]].<ref name="odnb" />

As a religious teacher, literary critic, historian and jurist, Harrison took a prominent part in the life of his time, and his writings, though often violently controversial on political, religious and social subjects, and in their judgment and historical perspective characterized by a modern Radical point of view, are those of an accomplished scholar, and of one whose wide knowledge of literature was combined with independence of thought and admirable vigour of style. In 1907 he published ''The Creed of a Layman'', which included his ''Apologia pro fide mea'', in explanation of his Positivist religious position.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Legal and publishing career==

He was [[call to the bar|called to the bar]] in 1858, and, in addition to his practice in [[Equity (law)|equity]] cases, soon began to distinguish himself as an effective contributor to the higher-class reviews. Two articles in the ''Westminster Review'', one on the Italian question,{{clarify|date=February 2021}} which procured him the special thanks of [[Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour|Cavour]], the other on ''Essays and Reviews'', which had the probably undesigned effect of stimulating the attack on the book, attracted especial notice. A few years later Harrison worked at the codification of the law with Lord Westbury, of whom he contributed an interesting notice to Nash's biography of the chancellor. His special interest in legislation for the working classes led him to be placed upon the Trades Union Commission of 1867–1869; he was secretary to the commission for the digest of the law, 1869–1870; and was from 1877 to 1889 professor of [[jurisprudence]] and international law under the Council of Legal Education.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He was also professor of jurisprudence to the [[Inns of Court]], and an [[Honorary fellow]] of Wadham College.<ref name=TT21021900>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=University intelligence|date=21 February 1900 |page=12 |issue=36071}}</ref>

Of his separate publications, the most important are his lives of [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell]] (1888), [[William the Silent]], (1897), [[John Ruskin|Ruskin]] (1902), and Chatham (1905); his ''Meaning of History'' (1862; enlarged 1894) and ''Byzantine History in the Early Middle Ages'' (1900); and his essays on ''Early Victorian Literature'' (1896) and ''The Choice of Books'' (1886) are remarkable alike for generous admiration and good sense. In 1904 he published a "romantic monograph" of the 10th century Byzantine resurgence, ''Theophano'', based on the [[Theophano (born Anastaso)|empress of that name]], and in 1906 a verse tragedy, ''Nicephorus'',{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} based on Emperor [[Nikephoros II Phokas|Nikephoros II]]. His ''Annals of an Old Manor House: Sutton Place, Guildford'', first published in London in 1893 as a quarto work, re-issued in a small abridged form in 1899, is a valuable and detailed study of the Weston family and the architecturally important manor house [[Sutton Place, Surrey|Sutton Place]] built by Sir [[Richard Weston (1465–1541)|Richard Weston]] c. 1525. Harrison's father had been the lessee since 1874 and the author had many years of access in which to perform his detailed investigations and researches.

He gave the [[Rede Lecture|Sir Robert Rede Lecture]] at the [[University of Cambridge]] in 1900.<ref name=TT21021900 />

==Politics==
[[File:Ethel Bertha Harrison (1851-1916), by William Blake Richmond.jpg|thumb|[[Ethel Bertha Harrison]] (1851–1916) ([[William Blake Richmond]])]]

An advanced and vehement Radical in politics and Progressive in municipal affairs, Harrison in 1886 stood unsuccessfully as the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] candidate against [[John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury|Sir John Lubbock]] for the [[University of London (UK Parliament constituency)|University of London]] parliamentary constituency. In 1889, he was elected an alderman of the [[London County Council]], but resigned in 1893.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Harrison was a regular contributor to [[George Potter (trade unionist)|George Potter's]] trade unionist journal ''The Beehive'', and to [[W. H. Riley|W. H. Riley's]] ''Commonwealth'', which promoted the [[International Working Men's Association]]. He was a supporter of Polish and Italian independence, the Union in the [[American Civil War]], the reformers in the [[Jamaica Committee]] of 1866, the [[Paris Commune]] and was a vice president of the [[Reform League]]. In an article defending the [[Paris Commune]] which appeared in the ''Fortnightly Review'' Harrison proclaimed: 'The status quo is impossible. The alternative is Communism or Positivism.'<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bowie|first1=Duncan|title=Our History: Roots of the British socialism movement|date=2014|publisher=Socialist History Society|location=London|isbn=9780955513893|pages=29–30}}</ref>

Later works include ''Autobiographic Memoirs'' (1911); ''The Positive Evolution of Religion'' (1912); ''The German Peril'' (1915); ''On Society'' (1918); ''Jurisprudence and Conflict of Nations'' (1919); ''Obiter Dicta'' (1919); ''Novissima Verba'' (1920). The last two of these were collections of vigorous comments on politics and literature contributed by him to the ''Fortnightly Review'' towards the end of [[World War I]] and immediately afterwards.<ref>{{EB1922|inline=y|title=Harrison, Frederic|volume=31|page=339|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabri31chisrich/page/339/mode/1up?view=theater}}</ref>

== Influence on Literature ==
Frederic Harrison’s political and social ideas—particularly his belief in moral and intellectual education as a prerequisite for democratic reform—bear thematic similarities to [[George Eliot]]’s novel ''[[Felix Holt, the Radical]]'' (1866). Eliot and Harrison were personally acquainted, and she regarded him as part of her intellectual circle. Harrison, a proponent of applied Comtism, argued that lasting political progress depended on the ethical and intellectual development of the working class. While Eliot did not fully embrace his optimistic view of social science, her portrayal of Felix Holt reflects a cautious alignment with aspects of Harrison’s paternalistic ideal of social reform. In the novel, Felix advocates for education before enfranchisement, emphasizing the need to prepare the working class for political responsibility in order to resist manipulation by elites. His opposition to riots and preference for gradual, local reform over revolutionary action further echoes Harrison’s emphasis on rational progress through education.<ref name=":4">{{citation|author=Fleishman A. |date=2010 |pages=140–160 |periodical=George Eliot's Intellectual Life. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |title=The "Radical": taking an anti-political stance in Felix Holt.}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>

==Family==

In 1870, Harrison married his first cousin [[Ethel Bertha Harrison]], daughter of William Harrison. They had four sons, including the journalist and literary critic [[Austin Harrison]].<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=33732|first=Martha S.|last=Vogeler|title=Harrison, Frederic (1831–1923)}}</ref> [[George Gissing]], the novelist, was at one time their tutor; and in 1905, Harrison wrote a preface to Gissing's ''[[Veranilda]]''.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} One of the sons, Christopher René Harrison, was killed in [[World War I]].

==Works==
* {{cite book |title=[[s:The Herbert Spencer lecture|The Herbert Spencer lecture]] |date=1905 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |edition=1 |language=en}}
* {{cite book|author=Frederic Harrison|url=https://archive.org/details/newcalendargrea03harrgoog/page/n118/mode/2up|title=The new calendar of great men: biographies of the 558 worthies of all ages|year=1982|via=[[Internet Archive]]|location=London and New York|publisher=Mac Millan & Co|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210611170127/http://archive.org/stream/newcalendargrea03harrgoog/newcalendargrea03harrgoog_djvu.txt|archive-date=11 June 2021|url-status=live|access-date=11 June 2021}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Harrison, Frederic |volume=13 |page=23}}
* {{NIE}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Frederic Harrison}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Harrison,+Frederic | name=Frederic Harrison}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Frederic Harrison}}
* {{Librivox author |id=3286}}
* [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?lookfor=%22Harrison,%20Frederic,%201831-1923.%22&type=author&inst= Works by Frederic Harrison], at [[Hathi Trust]]
* [http://archives.lse.ac.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=HARRISON Catalogue of the Harrison papers held at LSE Archives]
* {{NPG name}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Frederic}}
[[Category:1831 births]]
[[Category:1923 deaths]]
[[Category:English barristers]]
[[Category:19th-century English historians]]
[[Category:People educated at King's College School, London]]
[[Category:Comtism]]
[[Category:Progressive Party (London) politicians]]
[[Category:Members of London County Council]]
[[Category:Fellows of Wadham College, Oxford]]
[[Category:English Christian socialists]]
[[Category:20th-century English historians]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates]]