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
University, 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 demonstrations 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 remorse 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 unconscious 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
demonstrated, 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 veracity.
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 _Macmillan'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
fresh volume containing "The Early Kings of Norway" and an essay on
the "Portraits of John Knox." On November 18, 1870, he wrote a letter
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 Orde