3001. EBB to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 1–6.
138 Avenue des Ch. Elysées.
Feb– 2– [1852] [1]
My dearest George,
I was delighted to have your letter & grateful to you for writing to me without regard to old debts– Thank you, dearest George– Of course Miss Mitford’s affair quite upset me at the time, & threw me out of the habitual ruts of letter-writing– I felt inclined to go off to Ægypt & burrow in the sand somewhere– She might as well have cut off my fingers as a proof of friendship– [2] Also, that you & Arabel should have taken just our view of it, confirms me in the belief that it is’nt all disease on my part, as I might fancy, to listen to aunt Jane, who “sees nothing offensive or wrong any way” in what has been said. On the other hand Robert says that it strikes many people as a glaring indelicacy & want of feeling. Well– I was in a fever of anxiety to read the whole passage—but when the Athenæum came within reach, I could’nt take courage to glance at it .. I could’nt make up my mind to that, .. & Robert took the thing away & shut it up, & cut it out of another newspaper [3] which was sent here by an accident. At the same time, he insisted on reading the part which was not painful .. he said, .. “out of justice I ought to hear it”—so I heard it–. Very kind & foolish, certainly .. only people must cry out as to how dreadfully I must be altered since I had those “large eyes.”!—!!! [4] To tell you the truth, Robert was rather pleased however, upon the whole, at the account of me. For my part, I never was in greater difficulty how to act, how to speak to a person, who undeniably intended by these coarse means to give me pleasure, & as assuredly gave me more pain than I have felt for a long time. “If an enemy had done it” [5] one would know how to deal with it: as it was, I was in great difficulty. At last I wrote to her .. a very affectionate letter, [6] .. recognizing her affectionate & generous intentions everywhere, but not attempting to conceal that she had occasioned me extreme pain– There is no answer yet—and I shall be most sorry if I have offended her, in return for intended kindness. What can one do? The truth is, that one ought to be let alone while one’s alive. The vultures should wait a little till the carrion is ready, & not pluck out the living eyes– There’s a time for all things, [7] says Solomon—and so do I, who am not Solomon by any means. Apart from painful subjects, .. to be dragged into the light & examined as to the colour of your hair & the number of your teeth, is a hideous ceremony, & you have a right to protest against it while you live & feel & blush.
George Sand is in Paris again. Whether we shall get at her this time remains uncertain—for it appears that she has a wholesome horror of lion-hunters & book-makers. Oh, I dont wonder indeed. And then from the notoriety of her personal as well as literary distinctions .. from the fact of her manner of life .. (her loves as well as her books, ..) enemies come to stare, & go away to write fierce accounts of a “shameless woman”– The Germans especially have done this. [8] Still, I hope we shall succeed this time– My heart is set on it. She has only just arrived—her “arrest” in the country being one of the innumerable lies which (reversing the idea of the Biblical lion) run to and fro, seeking who shall devour them. [9]
No, George– I am not an apostate. It is on the pure democratical ground that I set my foot, when I cry aloud for respect to the opinion of a great people .. let it be a mistaken opinion or not. Respect for the people—and two other virtues .. justice, & patience, are considerably in arrear, it seems to me, with the mass of thinkers (especially in England) upon this particular subject. Certainly the people may be mistaken—but they wait to see, and we all must wait. So far, it is only a provisional government. The persons sent to Cayenne & Algiers were all subjected to precisely the kind of judicial commissions, used by the republic under Cavaignac. The severities employed are not comparable to what were called into use then: the number of persons affected is insignificant in comparison. [10] No revolution ever took place in France without six or seven times more bloodshed than we have had this time. The expulsion from France of distinguished men implicated in various parties, was probably the mildest way found possible, of maintaining the peace of the country. They will be recalled in a short time, I do not at all doubt– At the best, however, I am no Buonapartist .. I dont accept his constitution as a model one—& it will be modified by degrees—that’s the intention. Also, there can be no “despotism”, [11] while the people hold the taxes in their hands, & we must not call names without reason. What I consider the worst thing yet done, is the decree against the Orleans property, [12] which admits of no apology, though it is popular I understand among the poorer classes. My hope is that the protestation by the lawyers will be efficient in causing it to be revoked. Most of the lawyers in Paris have protested—& M. Dupin’s letter appeared to me very dignified– [13] Observe, people have the power & will to protest, when they discern a wrong—do, observe that.
Robert & I have fought considerably upon all these points– I always think that England influences him just in proportion to his removal from England. Patriotism gets the upper hand of judgement, & he drops into a vortex of national sympathy. As for me, I’m a bad patriot, I believe. I care more for the world & humanity every year, & less for local & national interests. The English journals seem to me just as mad & bad with regard to French affairs, as they seemed to me last winter about the ecclesiastical titles. [14] Much good, all that fury did them, & much good, will this!—— For the invasion .. the “pope” was coming before .. & now come the “wooden shoes” [15] & Louis Napoleon. The danger & likelihood are about equal perhaps. Well– Arm, arm! See to your rifles!—sharpen your swords! They will distract your thoughts from the “combined workmen” [16] at least, & keep you from the worse kind of melancholy.
Lady Elgin spent last saturday evening (no, the evening before) with us, and told us all sorts of supernaturalisms which charmed me. Just think of my ill-luck, George! That Mr George Thompson who sate by my side three quarters of an hour once, & conscientiously bored me with his American experiences of martyrdom for the slaves, knew all about the “Rappists,” had heard the spirits “rap,” knew how a spirit gave a kiss to one lady, and an autograph to another, .. was ready to swear to all these facts from personal knowledge,—& I might have heard him swear, & did’nt.!! I call this the extremity of ill luck. Dont you?
The weather is almost too warm, and I am much better, & have recovered my voice within the last few days——just in time to speak to George Sand perhaps! It’s rather hoarse still, but to speak at all is a decided gain. Also, Robert declares that I am looking very well—though I dont altogether agree with him—being thin & pale,—with the cold & the shutting up together. After all, if the winter ends so, .. Wilson says “it’s nothing of a winter” .. but it has been something to me, though brief, if counted by the number of cold days. Little Wiedeman grows more & more a darling. He never ceases talking the most extraordinary mess of a language you can imagine,—& is most amusing to us all. Tell Arabel that he has managed her name after a fashion at last, & calls her “la zia Gatella.” [17] We dont teach him yet to say grace or even regular prayers, I am so afraid of tying up the pure free spirit in formalisms, before he can understand significances. But he understands perfectly that God is good & makes him good, & gives him gifts– And quite of his own accord, the other day, after breakfast,—he said, turning his bright face up to the ceiling & lifting up his right hand, .. “Thé buono. Grazie a Dio.” [18] And now he does it constantly, quite out of his own head, I assure you.
We had a very satisfactory letter from Florence about our apartment there, and I am triumphant, because as our not giving it up was my fault, I should not have liked to have been proved very much in the wrong. It is let till the third of May, & was let from September. They dont pay enough for it,—but our expenses will be covered, with some five & twenty pounds, perhaps, as matter of profit. Not so bad. As to booksellers they dont condescend to send us an account, & they must have money in hand for us .. that’s certain. Robert has written, but no answer– [19] We must wait in patience– Probably there is a reason, and we dont like the idea of dunning them unnecessarily–
The review in the Athenæum was not by Mr Chorley. The book was dedicated to him, & could not therefore be reviewed by him, unhappily. [20]
Do get the Revue des deux mondes for the 15 of January .. or get to see it somehow. I should like you to read the paper on me, because it pleased me (with some drawbacks) & because I have really a regard for the writer. [21] You will observe how he has cut out the ‘sting’ of Miss M’s remarks——improving the likeness, by the way, by putting in “cheveux noire”–! [22] But he was obliged to do something, poor man, on account of the wish of the proprietors.
When shall I hear from Arabel? I know it is my fault—I knew it– Tell her how I love her dearly. God bless all of you. I love you all. Is dear Trippy quite well, except that horrible gout, of which I heard something? And was she frightened at the fire in Welbeck Street. [23] Let somebody tell me. Dearest George, write to me as often as you can, & love me as much!
I am your ever attached Ba
I want to know how Papa is– You did not mention him.
Address: Angleterre / George G Barrett Esqre / 50. Wimpole Street / London.
Publication: B-GB, pp. 162–168.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. Year provided by postmark of 4 February 1852. Presumably, this letter was enclosed with letter 3002.
2. A reference to Mary Russell Mitford’s Recollections of a Literary Life (1852) and its account of the death by drowning of EBB’s brother Edward (“Bro”). See letter 2993, note 4.
3. The newspaper was probably The Daily News. A review of Miss Mitford’s Recollections of a Literary Life (1852) in the issue of 20 January 1852 (p. 2) contained extracts from the section on EBB.
4. Miss Mitford wrote that EBB had “large tender eyes” (Recollections of a Literary Life, 1852, I, 268).
5. Cf. Matthew 13:28.
7. Cf. Ecclesiastes 3:1.
8. For a while George Sand had been taken up by the Young Germany movement as a model of a liberal feminine intellectual; however, by this time they had ceased to idolize her. As early as 1840, Heinrich Heine criticised Sand for her “sacrilegious and immoral precepts” (Gisela Schlientz, “Freedom Smuggler: George Sand and the German Vormärz,” The World of George Sand, ed. Natalie Datlof et al., New York, 1991, p. 153).
9. Cf. I Peter 5:8.
10. In early January Louis Napoleon had appointed commissions to determine the fate of the thousands of political prisoners who had been arrested during and after the coup d’état of 2 December 1851. The commissions “worked quickly, and by the end of February had sent 886 of the detainees for trial by military or civil courts, where a few were sentenced to death and duly executed. They condemned 239 to be deported without trial to the penal settlements of Cayenne in French Guiana, and 9530 to Algeria … 2804 were to be detained somewhere in France, and 1545 were to be banished from France” (Jasper Ridley, Napoleon III and Eugénie, 1979, pp. 305–306). The Times of 9 January 1852 had reported on the work of one of the commissions: “The proceedings are conducted nearly after the same forms as those ordered by General Cavaignac … against the parties implicated in the sanguinary insurrection of the month of June 1848,” the judicial commissions of that time resulting in the “transportation, without trial, of more than 11,000 persons” (p. 5).
11. EBB may be quoting The Times, which throughout the month of January, in both editorials and news articles, frequently pointed out that France had become a “despotism.” The lead editorial in the 27 January 1852 issue began: “To an Englishman, English born and English bred, there is nothing more inexplicable than the fact of a great nation, that has long enjoyed a considerable degree of freedom, and with it a very high degree of honour and prosperity, suddenly resigning itself to a vulgar Eastern despotism” (p. 4).
12. On 22 January Louis Napoleon had issued a decree expropriating the property owned by members of the late King Louis Philippe’s family. They were of the house of Orleans.
13. André Marie Jean Jacques Dupin (1783–1865), had served as procurer general since the provisional government of 1848, but, together with other government ministers, he resigned over the decree confiscating the property of the house of Orleans. His letter of resignation appeared in The Times of 28 January 1852, p. 5.
14. EBB alludes to the storm of controversy following the Papal Bull of 29 September 1850 that re-established Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales (see the fourth to last paragraph in letter 2896). The Quarterly Review of December 1850, in blaming “her Majesty’s Ministers” for this instance of papal aggression, remarked: “Were they so ignorant of the spirit of Popery, and so little acquainted with the character of the existing Pope, as to expect improvement from the one or forebearance from the other? … he presumes to violate more audaciously than ever the majesty of the British sovereign, and throw a firebrand among the English people themselves” (p. 248). On 3 February 1851 The Times ran an editorial that concluded: “In addition to all its other mischiefs, the Bull has inflicted on a million of our fellow-subjects an absentee Government, ignorant, irresponsible, and ill-directed” (p. 4). A few days later, the Ecclesiastical Titles Assumption bill was introduced in the House of Commons by Lord John Russell. The bill called for prohibiting any person outside the Church of England, though particularly a member of the Roman Catholic clergy, from assuming the title of either archbishop, bishop, or dean (the bill was later amended to exempt the Church of Scotland). Violation was punishable by a fine of £100. After a debate of five months, the bill became law on 1 August 1851. Ignored by the Roman Catholic clergy and never enforced by the government, the law was repealed in 1871.
15. EBB has in mind sabots, the ubiquitous wooden shoe of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France, particularly among the lower classes. Carlyle refers to the sabots of the peasants several times in The French Revolution (1837). She may also be thinking of Louis Napoleon’s escape from the fortress of Ham in 1846 when he disguised himself in the sabots and frock of a workman.
16. A reference to the dispute between operative engineers and their employers which had led to a lock-out beginning on 10 January 1852. The engineers, represented by the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, Machinists, etc., had demanded in November 1851 that piecework and systematic overtime be abolished by the end of the year. On January 1st, they left work after their normal working hours, and on 10 January, the employers in and around London and Manchester, who had formed their own association, closed their factories. Some 10,000 men were immediately out of work, over 3,000 of which were members of the union. The lock-out lasted until April, at which time the union returned to work without having achieved any of its demands (see Thomas Hughes, Account of the Lock-Out of Engineers &c. 1851–2, Cambridge, 1860). During the month of January The Times ran numerous reports, opinions, and letters to the editor on the lock-out, which the newspaper invariably referred to as a strike. The “rifles,” EBB mentions, alludes to the call for the formation of volunteer rifle clubs that had been the subject of several letters to the editor of The Times in response to the perceived threat of a French invasion. A letter from Coventry Patmore which offered practical suggestions for such a club appeared in the issue of 22 January 1852 (p. 3). On the same page, near Patmore’s letter, were two news items on the current lock-outs in Manchester and Liverpool.
17. “Aunt Arabella.”
18. “Good tea. Thanks to God.”
19. RB wrote to Edward Chapman on 16 January; see letter 2995.
20. The reviewer was Daniel Owen Maddyn; see letter 2993, note 6.
21. i.e., Joseph Milsand. For the full text of his review, see vol. 17, pp. 358–363.
22. “Black hair.”
23. The Times of 30 January 1852 reported that “a very destructive fire, resulting in the loss of one life and the narrow escape of several other persons, broke out about 3 o’clock yesterday morning, at No. 47, Welbeck-street, in the occupation of Mr. John Werndley, housepainter and decorator” (p. 3). At this time, Miss Trepsack lived at 26 Welbeck Street.
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