1133. Richard Hengist Horne to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 301–302.
[London]
[Postmark: 20 January 1843]
Kind Miss Barrett,
No—I sent the Epitome of the Tadpoles as a peace-offering [1] —not in dudgeon, but feeling how much you had been right in your defense of the death-bed from physical agents. [2] Our world is not ripe for such principles. I was thinking of some rare exceptions, no doubt. You are right—we shd be careful—not knowing what is in the soul while pain is in the body.
As for the present from Han-lin-yuen (See the account of case III.) it should have been accompanied with a diploma if I may judge by your opening display. Yes—a few more wd make a Mandarin. It really is so, you know. Only a few more—say 500. [3]
Have you seen the new “Foreign and Colonial Quarty Rev” (publishd by Whittaker) there are Chinese articles in it– The practical one is by Sir John Barrow, the useless one by R.H.H. [4]
Address: Miss E.B. Barrett / 50 Wimpole St / Cavendish Sq.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. Assumed to be a light-hearted composition; no trace of its publication has been found.
2. See letters 1098, 1116 and 1117 for EBB’s comments on euthanasia.
3. We are unable to clarify the references in this paragraph.
4. Sir John Barrow (1764–1848) was a member of Lord Macartney’s embassy to China in 1793. He subsequently published his observations of the country and its people and advised the government on its dealings with China. The article attributed to him by Horne, “Peace and Treaty with China,” is unsigned (The Foreign and Colonial Quarterly Review, January 1843, pp. 301–333). Horne’s article, “Chinese Characteristics” (pp. 194–221), is also unsigned.
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