She then said that in 1875, six years before his death, her uncle had orally given her all his papers, and handed her the keys of the receptacles which contained them.
-- * The provision for Mary Carlyle in the will of 1873 was, however, materially increase by the codicil of 1878, under which she received the house in Cheyne Row after the death of her uncle John, who died before her uncle Thomas.
-- Her recollection, however, must have been erroneous.

For the bulk of the papers had been in Froude's possession since the end of 1873, or at latest the beginning of 1874, and were not in the drawers or boxes which the keys would have opened.

On the strength of her own statement, which was never tested in a court of law and was inconsistent with the clause in Carlyle's will leaving his manuscripts to his brother John, Mrs.Carlyle demanded that Froude should surrender the materials for his biography, and not complete it.

He put himself into the hands of his co-executor, who successfully resisted the demand, and Froude, in accordance with Carlyle's clearly expressed desire, kept the papers until he had done with them.

In a long and able letter to Froude himself, printed for private circulation in 1886, Mr.Justice Stephen says, with natural pride, "It was my whole object throughout to prevent a law- suit for the determination of what I felt was a merely speculative question, and to defeat the attempt made to prevent you from writing Mr.Carlyle's life, and I am happy to say I succeeded." The public will always be grateful to the Judge, for there was no one living except Froude who had both the knowledge and the eloquence that could have produced such a book as his.