333.3. Edmund Henry Barker to EBB
Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 2.
Thetford
Febr. 4, 1829
My dear Madam,
Many days ago I did myself the honour & gave to myself the pleasure of sending to you through our friend, Mr Boyd, a little book, which I thought might be acceptable to you on some accounts, though it is a mere schoolbook. If you never read the Dialogue on Oratory, you would be well pleased with it. It is quite worthy of the juvenile Tacitius, & of republican Rome. You would perhaps remark that the passages, which I have extracted from English Authors, are all remarkable for the harmonious flow of the sentences. The one from Hannah More has extraordinary merit; but by commenting on them myself I may prevent you from making your remarks, which I shall be very glad to hear at the leisure.
I desired Mr Boyd to say to you that I would write to you as soon as I could command sufficient leisure to write at length. I have been oppressed with some awkward business, & much of it unfortunately required dispatch. The weather during the past month has not been favourable to study, & one’s mind may be benumbed as well as one’s hands.
I sympathised with you in the domestic loss, which you sustained, but did not like to invade the sanctuary of your grief. Have you any brothers or sisters to share with you in your joys and sorrows? I delight to observe that you have good health & spirits to pursue your literary labours.
I have recently visited Yarmouth, where I spent part of two days with my friend, Dawson Turner Esqr, a man who overflows with literature, & is zealous in the promotion of it, the owner of a most splendid Library, which has cost him 13,000£, celebrated as a collector of autographs, of which he has 200 folis volumes handsomely bound. He shewed to me seven unpublished Letters by Locke; several unpublished Letters by Sir Isaac Newton, one of them, of considerable length. His Lady is celebrated for her etchings: if you happen to have access to Otter’s Life of Dr E. D. Clarke, you will see a specimen of her abilities. He shewed to me a volume of etchings, of which he had a few copies printed for private distribution: I wanted courage to solicit a copy, & felt certain that, if I asked, I should not succeed. It was a sad struggle between modesty & pride; but the former obtained the victory. He is a great botanist, published a splendid work on the science, of which the price is 37£. Mrs Turner has considerable knowledge of the science, is an admirable singer, & is most elegant in her manners & sensible & acute in her conversation. One of her daughters plays the harp & sings with equal skill. Another daughter has very bad health, but is a good proficient in Greek & Latin. A third daughter is married to Dr Hooker, the celebrated botanist; a fourth to Francis Palgrave Esqr, whom the late Wm Gifford thought the best writer of English prose next to Southey, but I think Robt Hall & Sir Uvedale Price the best writers of our day. Dr Parr assigned the first place to Sir Uvedale, & nobody, who has read his Essay on the Picturesque, will find fault with the opinion. Let me know—are you acquainted with Robt Hall’s writings? Mark well the first extract, which I have given in the Cicero. If you have not read Hall, I must make haste to draw your particular attention to ‘the sublime & hallowed eloquence’ of Mr Hall. Dr Parr entertained <a> just sense of his merits, when in the Spita Sermons he applied to him certain words originally applied to Bp. Taylor by his successor in the See of Dromore.
But I am filling my sheet of paper before I have said one word of reply to your Letter, though it is full of matter interesting to me.
Mr J. Taylor has not yet discharged any blunderbuss at my head, & with the exception of the London Weekly Review & the Gentleman’s Magazine, the Sheffield Iris & the Huntingdon Gazette, our periodicals have taken no notice of my book. But I have heard from many intellectual men, to whom I presented it, & they were very well pleased with it. I have recently heard from Dr Jebb, the Bp. of Limerick, & the relation of the celebrated Unitarian, Dr John Jebb: he is a very superior man, & occasionally displays his abilities in Parliamt. He sent to me 3 vols of Discourser. In a note he defends Mr Boyd, & avows his admiration of St. Chrysostom’s eloquence. I have lent to him a French translation of Chrysostom, & a French & English work on eloquence, where all the examples are taken from Chrysostom: of the Engl. book I gave a copy to Mr Boyd.
I have considered what you urge on the subject of verdicts being governed by a majority of votes among the jury, & I am ready to admit the force of your argument, but I would ask whether in a case, where the jury system as worked in England, is from natural prejudices considered to be perfect, you ought to argue from an accidental good arising out of its defective construction? and I would also ask whether, when jurymen are on their oath required to decide every case by the evidence alone without regard to their personal feelings, you ought in fairness to assume that they will have any prejudices whatever against the accused? Theoretically speaking, no principle can be fairer than that of deciding by a majority of votes, & why should our courts of law in this respect be governed by a principle different from that which prevails in Parliament, & at all public meetings, & in the H. of Lords, when it acts as a Court of Law? That system must be vicious, which imposes an oath on a juryman, & can starve him into a violation of it. The majority of votes decides verdicts in France, (& this was the case in Greece,) & it does not appear that passion or prejudice governs the verdict. You are now on my side, I see, as I have fairly met your arguments; you are candid.
I will send the remainder of my Letter through Sir Uvedale Price.
Address, on integral page: Miss Barrett / Hope-End / Ledbury / Herefordshire.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
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