They had been, without his knowledge, left in the will to John Carlyle, who was then dead.

Carlyle's mind was not clear about the fate of his manuscripts.

Froude, however, acquiesced, and did not even ask that Carlyle should put his intentions on paper.

At this time, while he was writing the first volume of the Life, Froude made up his mind to keep back Mrs.
Carlyle's letters, with her husband's sketch of her, to suppress the fact that there had been any disagreement between them, but to publish in a single volume Carlyle's reminiscences of his father, of Edward Irving, of Francis Jeffrey, and of Robert Southey.

To this separate publication Carlyle at once assented.