4309. EBB & RB to Editor of The Evening Post
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 11.
Rome,
January 5, 1859.
Having seen a statement in the American newspapers [1] that Madame Mario, late Miss Jessie Meriton White, has arrived in the United States “recommended by the Brownings,” &c., &c., to lecture on “Orsini” and “Italian Politics,” we feel ourselves forced to explain distinctly that, with a strong personal affection and esteem for Madame Mario, and a love for liberty and the democracy still better known to all who know us, we yet entirely dissent both from her views of Orsini and her opinions upon Piedmont, considering that every attack on the Piedmontese government is levelled also against the general Italian cause. This is the first time we have noticed a printed observation on ourselves, and only a painful sense of duty constrains us to do so now.
Robert Browning.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Text: The Evening Post (New York), 2 February 1859, p. 2. Reprinted in The Athenæum of 30 April 1859 (no. 1644, p. 584).
1. As indicated in letter 4398, this “statement” appeared as part of an article in the National Anti-Slavery Standard (4 December 1858), the official weekly newspaper of the American Anti-Slavery Society, published concurrently in New York and Philadelphia. The article reads, in part: “Jessie Meriton White … is about to repeat in this city [New York] and other places a course of lectures which have met with great success in England and Scotland, on the Religious, Social and Political Aspect of the Italian Question. Having been lately married, she is now known as Madame Mario. She comes highly recommended by many of her countrymen and countrywomen, well known and respected here; among others by Mrs. Mary Howitt, the Brownings, and Prof. and Mrs. Nichol of Glasgow” (p. 2). There was no mention of Orsini in the article.
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