4170. Robert Bulwer Lytton to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 108–112.
1 Park Lane
April 29/56 [sic, for 1858] [1]
My dear Browning–
These fine days of “blossom & shoot in the warm Spring weather” [2] remind me of Italy & make me long for news of the friends I have left there. Nothing indeed is ever needed to remind me of you; but I am glad of any excuse for reminding you of myself; & this will do as well as another, if it serves that purpose– If not, here is a better one in the shape of a message wh. I have undertaken to send you.
I met the other night at the “Cosmopolitan Club” [3] a Sir Somebody Something whose name has unfortunately slipped my memory. He is a neighbour & friend of Alfred Tennyson’s—and a warm admirer of your books. We happened to have some conversation about Dr Donn[e]’s poems, wh he has been collecting & editing; in the course of wh I mentioned t[o] him that you were the first person that ever drew my attention to the many beauties of Donn. And he has begged me to enquire whether you will allow him to send you a copy of his work [4] in token of his admiration for you & his admiration for Donn. If so, I have undertaken to forward you the book when he sends it to me.
I suppose that I shd tell you my news before I ask for yours but I have little to say, saving what the papers will have told you—but that my health has been improving with every day that I have passed in England, & that I am now feeling better & stronger than it has been my lot to feel for years.
I have been for a short time to Lincolnshire where my father was lecturing, [5] and also at Knebworth, & am now back in London, as I hope, for some months.
Nothing can be more miserable than the daily proceedings of the Govt And indeed the whole state of parties is most disheartening– The Liberales divided into sections– John Russel[l] & Ld Palm squab[b]ling without any chance that I can see of ever reuniting[.] [6]
The Divisions of the liberals, & the Universal abhorrence & contempt for Ld Palmerston & Clarendon—thro’out the country wd certainly keep in the Govt till Feby, did they not deliberately throw away every card that they hold–
Dizzy’s ludicrous speach [sic] on Indian Legislation has not only disgusted all thinking men in the House, but also a large section of his own party. [7] To my thinking it was like a fraudulent attempt to get 20 shillings’ change out of a bad Sovereign—& has destroyed the good effect produced by his popular Budget. [8] Both Bills were bad enough, [9] God knows, and appear to me to shew great ignorance of the very rudiments of legislative science—the whole notion of a council I object to most strongly & an elective council is simply impossible– But enough of a bad subject. I have seen Mrs Sartoris who is here in a pretty house in Eaton Place, [10] & asks most affectionately after you both– Chorley I am going to see next Sunday Evg– Dickens is “carroling” about the country; and having discovered this species of performance to be remunerative, is going to adopt it as a permanent source of income– [11] Forster & his wife both well, & full of enquiries after you– I hear that Tennyson has added much to his work on the legends of King Arthur—a whole new Poem, about the Death of Queen Guenevere [12] —& I hope we shall see it soon–
People are talking a good deal of this new book of Buckle’s abt Civilization; [13] tho’ I dont think that the best opinions are very favourable– I have not read the Book myself—or indeed any book since my return to England—except books about International Law wh I have to get up for an Examination. [14]
I heard at Paris, (not, I confess, witht a certain sort of malignant pleasure) that Hume the Medium was in the Prisons of Mazas [15] for an unnatural offence! But young Phipps [16] whom I met at Mr Norton’s [17] yesterday, contradicts & disposes of the story by telling me that he met Hume at Rome, & that H. was about to be married to a Russian lady with 1200£ a year. [18]
Do tell me, whenever you have a spare moment, what you are doing, & how is your household– The weather here [has] been with the exception of a few days—delicious–
Aurora Leigh is not yet out of people’s mouths and I hear it often & variously mentioned with enthusiastic admiration.
Pray give my most affectionate love to your wife.
Never never shall I forget all that you were to me at Lucca—all that you have been ever dear friend– Your books were among my earliest & largest possessions in the world of wonder & delight—your friendship & encouragement my earliest footground in the world of Hope—& now in that long land of Memory there are no spots so cherished as those where the sunlight of your kindness seems to rest for ever.
What are you about? Do you ride, draw, write, or read? a line from you will be thrice welcome
to your ever affectionate
R Lytton
Much true love to Penini–
Address, on integral page: Robert Browning Esq / aux soins de / H P Fenton Esq / Legation d’Angleterre / Florence / Italie. [19]
Publication: BBIS-10, pp. 144–147.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. Cf. John Hanmer, “Written after Reading Horace Walpole’s Account of Castle Henningham” (Fra Cipolla, and Other Poems, 1839), line 8. RB used lines 7–9 from this poem as an epigraph to Colombe’s Birthday in Poems (1849) and all subsequent editions. Hanmer presented a copy of Fra Cipolla to RB in 1842 (see letter 1014, note 1).
3. A London club, founded in 1852 by a group of young artists, writers, and politicians. It first met in Bond Street but relocated in 1854 to a spacious room at 30 Charles Street, Berkeley Square, Mayfair—former studio of the painter George Frederic Watts, who was a member, along with Thackeray, Milnes, Tennyson, and many other leading lights. RB became a member in 1863 (see letter to Isa Blagden, 19 July 1863, ms at Yale). The club catered to the after-dinner crowd, it being “open only twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.” (ODNB).
4. Unpublished Poems of Donne, ed. J. Simeon, (privately printed, [?1856]). A copy inscribed by RB on the title-page, “Robert Browning from Sir John Simeon,” sold as lot 637 in Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A817, now with Meredith). Unpublished Poems also appeared as part of Miscellanies of the Philobiblon Society, Vol. III (1856–57).
5. On 3 April 1858 in Lincoln, Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton delivered a lecture “‘On the early history of the Eastern nations, especially those mentioned in the Old Testament.’ There was a crowded audience, and the Mayor presided” (Nottingham Guardian, 8 April 1858, p. 8). The lecture was presented “in connection with the Mechanics’ Institution (in the establishment of which the hon. baronet took a great interest” (p. 8). Bulwer-Lytton had formerly represented Lincoln in Parliament.
6. Although both Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston were members of the Liberal party, they had been at political odds for some time. More recent antagonisms included Russell’s alliance with Richard Cobden and the Peelites to oppose Palmerston’s conduct of the Arrow War (Second Opium War), which brought about a dissolution of Parliament (see letter 3986, note 13); Russell’s siding with the majority in the defeat of the Conspiracy to Murder Bill, which forced Palmerston’s resignation (see letter 4130, note 10); and Russell’s encouragement of Lord Derby (the new prime minister) in late February 1858 “to allow the bill for the government of India to be shaped by resolution of the house,” thereby preventing the defeat of the new government and “the immediate restoration of Palmerston” as prime minister (ODNB).
7. Benjamin Disraeli (“Dizzy”), (1804–81), Chancellor of the Exchequer in Derby’s cabinet, introduced a Government of India Bill (formally, India Bill No. II) in the House of Commons on 26 March 1858. The bill proposed the transfer of the government of India from the East India Company to the Crown and the establishment of a special office of secretary of state with an advisory council of eighteen members, half to be elected and the other half to be nominated by the Queen (see The Times, 27 March 1858, p. 7). The second reading of the bill was postponed and ultimately abandoned in the face of considerable opposition and a proposal made by Lord John Russell on 12 April that someone should “move a series of resolutions … on which a Bill for the government of India should be framed” (George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, 6 vols., New York, 1916, 4, 130). The speech that Lytton mentions was delivered in the House of Commons on 26 April. Disraeli began by referring to the resolutions but soon launched into a defense of India Bill No. II. Lord Palmerston rose for the opposition and proceeded to attack the speech with sarcasm and ridicule, which provoked “great laughter” (see The Times, 27 April 1858, p. 6). Commenting on Disraeli’s speech, an editorial in The Morning Post declared it would be “memorable in the annals of Parliament, not for its premeditated eloquence, but for its utter and hopeless folly” (27 April 1858, p. 4). Even the conservative Times thought that Disraeli had lost “his finesse” and acted out of “despair” in advocating “the measure which he had solemnly surrendered” (27 April 1858, p. 9).
8. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, Disraeli presented the government’s budget to the House of Commons on 19 April 1858. He wrote to Queen Victoria that evening: “The Budget has had a complete success … indeed, he may say it has met with universal approbation” (The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, 4, 135).
9. Lytton refers to Disraeli’s bill (India Bill No. II) and the one introduced by Palmerston on 12 February 1858 (later called India Bill No. I), the main difference between them being that Palmerston’s proposed an eight-member council, all to be nominated by the Queen. This bill passed on its second reading on 18 February, but it was left hanging when Palmerston resigned two days later. Eventually, India Bill No. III was signed into law on 2 August 1858. It retained the provision for a new secretary of state and a council but reduced the number of that body’s members to fifteen, none of whom was to be elected.
10. 99 Eaton Place, Belgravia.
11. Dickens had previously given public readings to raise money for charitable causes, but on 29 April 1858 at St. Martin’s Hall, he began the first of four reading tours for profit. On the first tour (April 1858–February 1859), he gave over 100 readings in 49 towns in England, Scotland, and Ireland. The readings in London, which ran until 22 July, were well advertised. The Daily News of 21 April 1858, for example, carried the following notice: “Mr. Charles Dickens will read, at St. Martin’s Hall, on Thursday Evening, April 29th, his ‘Cricket on the Hearth.’ On Thursday Evening, May 6th, his ‘Chimes.’ On Thursday Evening, May 13th, his ‘Christmas Carol.’ Each Reading will commence at eight exactly, and will last two hours. Places for each reading:—Stalls (numbered and reserved), five shillings; area and galleries, half-a-crown; unreserved seats, one shilling” (p. 1).
12. “Guinevere,” one of the four Arthurian poems that appeared in Alfred Tennyson’s Idylls of the King (1859); see letter 3104, note 4.
13. History of Civilization in England by Henry Thomas Buckle (1821–62). Volume 1 was published in June 1857, volume 2 in May 1861. Buckle’s premature death prevented the completion in future volumes of what was planned as a much larger, more comprehensive work.
14. The foreign service examination, the passing of which was required, since 1856, by the Diplomatic Service for paid positions. It consisted of the following: “Oral and written examination in language of country of residence of attaché; Report on General Commercial and political relations of country of residence; international law” (Raymond A. Jones, The British Diplomatic Service, 1815–1914, Waterloo, Ontario, 1983, p. 103). Lytton passed the examination in June.
15. Known variously as Prison de Mazas, Prison Modèle, and Nouvelle Force, it was located on the southeast side of Paris, opposite the Gare de Lyon, on Boulevard Mazas (now Boulevard Diderot). It opened in 1850 and “was intended to serve as a model for other prisons, and as a decisive experiment on the solitary system” (Galignani’s New Paris Guide for 1858, p. 78). The prison was torn down in 1898.
16. Edmund Constantine Henry Phipps (1840–1911), only child of Edmund Phipps and his wife, Maria Louisa (see letter 4157, note 3).
17. Probably, either Fletcher Cavendish Norton (1829–59) or Thomas Brinsley Norton (1831–77).
19. This letter is postmarked 4 May 1858. Lytton had first directed it to “Casa Guidi / Via Maggio” but on second thought sent it to the British Legation in Florence, where Henry Philip Fenton was attaché (see letter 3243, note 2).
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