4150. EBB to Julia Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 73–77.
Florence.
March 27 [1858] [1]
This moment I take up my pen to write to you my dearest Mrs Martin. Did you not receive a long letter I wrote to you in Paris? [2] No?– Answer me categorically. In fact, I have been expecting to hear again,—having written that letter, & imagining that you would answer it, .. which (observe!) your last envelope did not. I directed to the Paris hotel.—— As to the lithograph, [3] I grieve to say, as you & Miss Bayley had the goodness to send it, that it must certainly have been taken to a wrong house & so lost. Still I ought to thank you, thank you, thank you—which I do most gratefully. It is a comfort to know that I dont often lose your kind thoughts in the same way, &, I hope, never your kind love. And you are not very strong, even now? That grieves me. But here is the sun to make us all strong. For my part, my chest has not been particularly wrong this winter, nor my cough too troublesome– But the weight of the whole year, heavy with various kinds of trouble, added to a trying winter, seems to have stamped out of me the vital fluid, and I am physically low, .. to a degree which makes me glad of renewed opportunities of getting the air: & I mean to do little but drive out, for some time– It does not answer to be mastered so– For months I have done nothing but dream & read French & German romances,—& the result (of learning a good deal of German) is’nt the most useful thing in the world one can attain to. Then of course, I teach Peni for an hour or so– He reads German, French, &, of course, Italian,—and plays on the piano remarkably well, .. for which Robert deserves the chief credit. A very gentle sweet child he is,—sweet to look at & listen to,—affectionate & good to live with: a real “treasure,” so far. His passion is music, & as we are afraid of wearing his brain, we let him give most of his study-time to the piano.
So you want me, you expect me, I suppose, to approve of the miserable, undignified, unconscientious doings in England on the conspiracy question? [4] No, indeed. I would rather we had lost ten battles, than stultified ourselves in the H of Commons with Brummagem brag [5] & Derby intrigues [6] before the eyes of Europe & America. It seems to me utterly pitiful. I hold that the most susceptible of nations should not reasonably have been irritated by the Wale[w]ski despatch—which was absolutely true in its statement of facts. Ah dearest friend, how true I know better than you do, .. for I know of knowledge how this doctrine of assassination is held by chief refugees & communicated to their disciples in England—yes, to noble hearts, & to English hands still innocent– My very soul has bled over these things. With my own ears I have heard them justified– For nights I have been disturbed in my sleep with the thoughts of them. In the name of liberty which I love, & of the Democracy which I honour, I protest against them. And if such things can be put down, I hold they should be put down,—& that the Conspiracy Bill is the smallest & lightest step that can be taken towards the putting down. For the rest, the great Derby intrigue, as shown in its acts & as resulting in its state papers, nothing in history, it seems to me, was ever so small & mean.
What I think of him?. Why I think he is the only great man of this age—speaking of public men. I think ‘Napoleon III devant le peuple anglais’ a magnificent state paper. [7] I confess to you it drew the tears to my eyes as I read it. So grand, so calm, so simply true.
And now with regard to Switzerland. You must remember that there is such a thing as an international law: and that, only last year, the Swiss appealed, in virtue of it, to France, about the Neufchatêl refugees, & that France received & acted on that appeal. [8] The very translation of the French despatch adds to the injustice done to it in England,—because “insister” does not mean to “insist upon a thing being done,” but to “urge it upon one’s attention.” [9]
The Times, the Times. Why, the Times has intellect, but no conscience. The Times is the most immoral of journals, as well as the most able. The Times, on this very question of the conspiracy bill, has swerved & veered & dodged, till its readers may well be dizzy if they read every paragraph, every day.
See how I fall into a fury. “Oh Liberty,” I would cry like the woman who did not love liberty more than I do—“oh Liberty, what deeds are done in thy name!” [10] & (looking round Italy) what sorrows are suffered.!
For I do fear that Mazzini is at the root of the evil—that man of unscrupulous theory!
Now you will be enough disgusted with me. Tell me that you & dear Mr Martin forgive me. I never saw Orsini but have heard & known much of him. [11] Unfortunate man. He died better than he lived—it is all one can say. Surely you admit that the permission to read that letter on the trial was large-hearted– [12] And it has vexed Austria to the last degree, I am happy to say– It was not allowed to be read here—by the Italian public, I mean.
Our plans are perfectly undefined—but we do hope to escape England. It seems to me .. well, I wont enter on that– Perhaps some of them may care to meet me somewhere this year,—but dont mention it from between me & you. Though I seem alive enough in this letter, it’s all a flash in the pan (of the Odic force) [13] & a damp straw quenches me at once. So weak & low in spirits I am, & incapable of effort– Robert talks of Ægypt for the winter—I dont know what may happen—& in the meantime would rather not be pulled & pulled by kind people in England who want me or fancy they do. You know everybody is as free as I am now—& freer [14] .. and if they do want me & it is’nt fancy ..— Never mind! We may see you perhaps in Paris after all this summer.
I have pleasant letters from England in some respects, thank God,—from my sisters. They seem both pretty well– Henrietta’s five thousand pounds is so excellently invested that her income is increased to the point of comfort. [15] She has taken another servant to help with the children, & talks of ultimately (not now) removing to another house– Arabel likes her house as much as ever, and has with her a little cousin, nine years old, (Emma Barrett) who is likely to remain on the ground of adoption. She likes the house, & likes the child,—& it may be a happy arrangement altogether. Storm, has sailed in the David Lyon to Jamaica, & with him two other of my brothers, Sette & Occy namely,—intending all three of them to return in June. I wish we had heard of their arrival,—& I wish they had never gone .. vain wishes, one as another. Henry is to be married towards the end of April.
Now let me tell you. Hume, my protegé prophet, is in Italy. Think of that. He was in Pisa & in Florence for a day, saw friends of his & acquaintance of ours with whom he stayed four months on the last occasion, [16] & who implicitly believe in him. An Englishwoman, who from infidel opinions was converted by his instrumentality to a belief in the life after death, has died in Paris & left him an annuity of £240 English. [17] On coming here, he paid all his wandering debts, I am glad to hear, & is even said to have returned certain gifts which had been rendered unacceptable to him from the bad opinion of the givers. I hear too that his manners as well as morals are wonderfully improved. He is gone to Rome, & will return here to pay a visit to his friends in Florence after a time. The object of his coming was health– While he passed through Tuscany the power seemed to be leaving him—but he has recovered it ‘ten-fold,’ says my informant, so I hope we shall hear of more wonders. Did you read the article in the Westminster? [18] The subject se prête au ridicule [19] —but ridicule is not disproof. The Empress Eugenie protects his little sister [20] & has her educated in Paris.
You will be sorry to hear that Mrs Trollope [21] is much altered—has lost her memory,—not her mind, observe, which is as shrewd as ever.
Surely I have made up for silence. Dearest friends both of you, may God bless you.
Your affecte
Ba.
Robert’s love & Peni’s.
Publication: LEBB, II, 277–280 (in part).
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to the Conspiracy to Murder Bill, which was debated and defeated in the House of Commons in February 1858.
3. Apparently, of Hope End (see letter 4176).
4. EBB alludes to the Conspiracy to Murder Bill (see letter 4130, note 8).
5. The Morning Post used a similar phrase to describe a speech that contributed to the defeat of the Conspiracy to Murder Bill (see letter 4130, note 11).
6. Considering EBB’s mention of the Walewski dispatch below, she may have in mind recent correspondence between the foreign secretaries of Great Britain (Lord Malmesbury) and France (Count Walewski), in which the former kept asking for further clarification of the latter’s dispatch of 20 January (see letter 4130, note 8). Malmesbury had replaced the outgoing Lord Clarendon in the cabinet formed by the new prime minister, Lord Derby. The Morning Post of 16 March 1858 sarcastically questioned the government’s determined misinterpretation of the dispatch: “Having attained office, Lord Derby has the éclat of having procured a second edition of explanations given to his predecessors; yet, having stated in Parliament that his proceeding with the Conspiracy Bill would depend upon his obtaining those explanations, he nevertheless shelves the difficulty, drops the Bill, and flatters himself that he has rendered good service to the alliance, and is the fitting representative of ‘the loyalty of the English people’” (p. 4).
8. Neuchâtel (sometimes formerly spelled Neufchâtel), a canton and city of northwestern Switzerland, was a principality of Prussia throughout the eighteenth century. The Congress of Vienna assigned Neuchâtel to Switzerland in 1815, though it remained nominally Prussian. A republican revolution in 1848 united the canton more formally to Switzerland, but there was still a sizeable minority of royalists, faithful to Prussia. In 1856, these royalists revolted. The uprising was put down and the royalists, imprisoned. Prussia threatened war unless the prisoners were freed. Through the mediation of France and England, they were released in January 1857 and temporarily banished to towns on the French side of the frontier. Fearing that these refugees planned further revolt, the Swiss government in March of that year asked the French government to move them to the interior. According to The Morning Chronicle, the French replied “to the effect that all the necessary measures have been taken for preventing any hostile manifestation, and that numerous patrols have been made by the Chasseurs de Vincennes stationed in those localities. The French Government adds its belief that there is a good deal of exaggeration in the rumours that have been in circulation as to the designs of the refugees. The Federal Council [the Swiss government] has declared itself satisfied with this reply” (12 March 1857, p. 5).
9. On 20 January 1858, the same day Count Walewski sent a controversial dispatch to the French ambassador in London (see letter 4130, note 8), he sent a similar, though more strongly worded, dispatch to the French ambassador in Bern. EBB refers to the following passage, as it was translated in The Times of 13 March 1858: “I pray you, then, M. le Comte, to insist upon it, with the President of the Confederation, that measures be taken without delay, in order that refugees notoriously known as disposed to take part in criminal enterprises, especially those organized into societies in the Canton of Geneva, be deposited far from our frontiers” (p. 9). The Times ran an editorial on the same page condemning the aggression of this dispatch.
11. By way of Jessie White Mario, who translated and edited Felice Orsini’s The Austrian Dungeons in Italy (1856); see the fourth paragraph in letter 3840.
12. EBB refers to a letter written by Orsini in his prison cell on 11 February 1858 to Napoleon III. The emperor permitted Orsini’s defense attorney, Jules Favre, to read the letter into the record on the last day of the assassination trial. Orsini asked that France atone for interfering with the Italian revolution in 1849 by helping Italy rid itself of Austria: “In order to maintain the balance of power in Europe, it is necessary to render Italy independent, or to loosen the chains by which Austria holds her in bondage. … May your Majesty not reject the last prayer of a patriot on the steps of the scaffold! May you deliver my country, and the blessings of 25 millions of citizens will follow you to posterity” (The Morning Chronicle, 1 March 1858, p. 5).
13. A unique natural force called the “od,” as postulated by Austrian scientist and industrialist Karl Ludwig von Reichenbach (1788–1869). His theories regarding such a force were eventually refuted.
14. EBB’s brothers and sisters could now visit her without risking the displeasure of their father, who died on 17 April 1857.
15. Charles John had given Henrietta £5,000 from his inheritance. The money was formally transferred to her by way of settlement on 2 February 1858 (see SD2136).
18. “Spirits and Spirit-Rapping,” in the January 1858 issue of The Westminster Review (pp. 29–66). The article discusses (with pronounced scepticism) numerous spiritualist works and commentaries, including Spiritualism by John Worth Edmonds and George T. Dexter (New York, 1853), which EBB had read (see letter 3466). It presents, as an example of proper enquiry, Michael Faraday’s letter to The Times of 30 June 1853, which debunked table-turning as a spiritual phenomenon (see letter 3224, note 5). The article concludes by calling spiritualism a “strange disease … which, to the grievous detriment of progress, continues to perpetuate the division of society into the two main classes so pithily described by Montaigne:—‘Those who impose upon the world that they believe that which they do not; others, more in number, who make themselves believe what they believe, not knowing what it is to believe’” (p. 66).
19. “Lends itself to ridicule.”
20. Christine Mackenzie Home (see letter 3978, note 5).
21. Frances Trollope.
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