4404. EBB to Anna Brownell Jameson
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 147–152.
43 Bocca di Leone–
Tuesday– [10 May 1859] [1]
My dearest Moña Nina, did I not write last? In spite of which I should have written later, if it were not that I despaired a little of your full sympathy, generous as you are,—because what the Italian papers call bitterly the “Anglo-austrian press,” which has consumed the last prestige of England in this country, must have much contracted by its misrepresentations your circle of light & observation– In which I did you gross injustice—for here you are, generous, sympathetic, true to all your noble instincts—& here we kiss one another over the Alps, & say together ‘May God save Italy–’
Yes, it has come at last– At last we are to emerge here, I think, among the nations of the world– Never was so much union known,—never certainly so much power of self-controul obtainable in this peninsula– All parties broken up & resolved into the national party, all lower aims wiped out with a sponge as if they were indeed but chalk-marks on the wall– In Tuscany the moral triumph is complete– “The boldest held his breath, for a time,[”] [2] and was silent through all that fearful anxiety of Congress or no Congress, death or life, .. not to complicate the difficulties of the French Government,—and then at the last day of the ultimatum [3] the population rose as one man– We have constant letters—placards & pamphlets are sent to us, & nothing can be finer, more moderate, more resolute, more calm. What I am impatient about is to get back to Florence—I hate being away just now– There’s comfort in having nearly all one’s money in the Tuscan funds, so as to have the honor of risking something where so many noble human beings risk all. That’s my feeling– Perhaps only you wont call it absurd–
What I have endured in the last three or four months you might fancy I exaggerated if I told you—really physical palpitations in reading the newspapers, & reading any thing– Congress or no congress—congress meaning failure—for not a statesman in Europe out of France & Piedmont would admit of the real question being touched– During the days when Napoleon had accepted “the principle of disarmament” [4] I was in anguish– I felt the sobs of rage in my throat– Robert kept saying, “I fear he has receded a step,” and I could not say a word– A Congress seemed to me so fatal to an entire settlement– Afterwards, that very acceptance on the part of France proved the cause of the onus of the war being thrown on Austria–
I could tell you so much which would interest you– We were present on the piazza on Easter Sunday when the demonstration took place about the carriage of the French ambassador [5] .. Viva la Francia, viva l’Italia, Viva l’Imperatore dei Francesi– He stood up in his carriage, took off his hat, & answered diplomatically, ‘Pace ed allegria’– [6] Yet the Austrian minister had the insolence to apply to Antonelli for the arrest & imprisonment of the leaders of this emeute!—yes, & they were imprisoned– Since then, there has been another demonstration– A crowd of Romans in full dress .. white cravats .. meet the carriage of the French embassy, & in silence take off their hats—! That was worthy of “questo popolo mite e civile”, [7] .. was it not?
But night after night there are silent driftings away of the youth to Piedmont, & the enthusiasm is profound, if necessarily rentrè. [8]
Robert sees a good deal of the Russells .. Odo, the quasi-minister, & Lady William Russell his mother, a clever, liberal woman,—‘pas trop anglaise’ [9] .. for people in general, if a little too English for me .. in the sense of clinging somewhat tenderly to the traditional policy of the world. She has taken a decided liking to Robert, & tells him a good deal—lent him a pamphlet called “La foi des traitès,” [10] written by the hand, she says, of the emperor, full of great ideas, but calculated to set the hair on end of the old school of statesmen .. such as Lord Stratford de Redcliffe for instance .. who told Robert the other day that he felt inclined to lie on the ground & weep for this war—! I should like you to read that pamphlet– Everybody is treated very civilly in it—even Austria .. even the Holy Alliance .. with the slightest possible touch of sarcasm—but the writer is civil & passes on. He repeats, in the course of the work, that certain measures of repression in France were only temporary, to meet special circumstances .. (which has been said from the beginning) & that now the Empire begins to enter on its second phase. For the rest, L’Empire, c’est la paix [11] —moral conquests only .. with the use of the sword at intervals, when public opinion has opened questions insoluble otherwise, & whose settlement is necessary for the nationalities– In fact, the view goes far .. into the millennium of the peoples–
I had a message from dear Madame de Colegno yesterday: “she was sure of my sympathy in her joy”– Mdme Arconati’s only son [12] had joined the army & they were all looking forward with satisfaction to the pillage of their estate by the Austrians, as a condition of the war–
Let me tell you what Scarlett did––the British quasi-minister in Florence,—went on the last day to the Grand Duke, and advised him to “hold fast,” for that “England wd side with Austria & bring him back.” [13]
I rejoice to say that, in Odo Russell, we have another sort of man–
Dearest Monna Nina, dearest friend, you dream on a low pillow in fancying that you can travel through the north of Italy in these times– It is impossible, not because of the danger, but because of the want of means– Railroads absorbed, horses siezed—unless you ride behind a dragoon, you cant pass–
Oh—I wanted to tell you so much & cant– This letter (in which I have been interrupted,) must go—must go.
We leave Rome on the 24th or 5th & take the short way to Sienna– Do write & tell me of your precious self– Then tell me of Mdme Braun. I will write again– Last night I was at a reception at the Eckleys & met Gerardine—looking well, it pleased me to see, after her sorrow– [14] Yet she must feel the taking away of the poor little dear babe, as a sad blessing,—so hopeless was its condition–
We are well– May God bless you, dear dear friend, & bring us together in joy before long–
Read how we have been vexed, in the Athenæum!– [15] But I forgive poor Jessie, knowing what a Fiamma [16] she is!——
Your ever attached Ba—
Have I written that Isa Blagden is in Florence, in full generous ignition on this Italian question, & threatening to put up a tricolored awning to her villa–?
“An excellent mark,” says Robert, “for the cannon of invading Austrians!” His love with mine & Pen’s—— Sophie Eckley comes in & prays to be remembered to you–
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Saturday [17]
My letter was too late after all & had to wait on for saturday– Yesterday we dined at the Storys [18] to bid farewell to Mr Sumner who goes today to Turin– Odo Russell was there in the evening– He told us that the English government had just communicated to Germany that in the case of any movement on the part of the confederated states against France, (while the operations of France were confined to Italy) England would protest– This is the same attitude taken by Russia & will do much to confine the war– It is the only good thing done by the English government, & I am glad to record it. Russell says that France was not prepared for the war, and that certain English officers, who investigated the facts, came to that conclusion– The infamy of the Times should sink the paper– Mr Reeve [19] (here is the root of the evil) has married an Austrian wife,—and he admitted when he was here some months ago, .. (admitted, observe, to friends of ours), that his sympathies were Austrian– For this it is that the whole tone of that paper has gone against France, by lies by exaggerations, by all manner of distortion, ever since three years ago, when the Conference of Paris brought to light the Italian tendencies of the emperor Napoleon– Russell says that the French policy is to drive out the last Austrian from Italy, & then to propose a congress. Really my Emperor is doing me credit, I must be allowed to think–
The feeling of the Italians is profound—they look to him as to an angel of the resurrection, with a sort of exultant gratitude. If I were an Englishwoman like another, I should envy some of this prestige—but as it is, as long as the good comes, I am contented that it should come by anyone, though not of my race–
Massimo d’Azeglio came to see us,—which penetrated me with a deeper sense of honor than when the prince of Wales invited my husband to dinner .. (though even that did, let me own, rather touch my baseness!) & sate, with his noble chivalrous head, talking of the hopes of Italy in a voice habitually melancholy by her long afflictions. He said some bitter things of England & of her policy, founded on extinct traditions– Of France he had no sort of apprehension,—& observed of Napoleon that he had made himself great by acting in all his foreign policy on principles of justice & in a comprehension of the laws of progress & civilization. Then he spoke with some exultation, though calmly of the ripening of the Italian mind during these last ten years for new institutions– “It was forty eight over again,” said he, “but with matured actors”– Wherever he went, the union & resolution struck him– In fact, dearest friend, this time we shall do it– Little Pen is joyful with the rest,—and when he was getting into bed last night, gravely announced to Annunciata & me, that “if he was a great boy, and had’nt a wife, he would certainly go & fight for dear Italy.”
We are going to dine at a trat[t]oria today, or rather breakfast, at two, at Geddie’s invitation,––& to meet, I understand, Eckleys, Storys & others– The occasion is the celebration of the birthdays of her children– [20]
Now once more, goodbye—— I wish you were safe in Tuscany where we shall be, I trust, in another twelve days! Write there.
Dont pay—you are never right in your stamps—& it is best so–
Address: Angleterre / Mrs Jameson / 16– Chatham Place / Brighton.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. This letter is postmarked 14 May 1859, a Saturday.
2. Thomas Campbell, “The Battle of the Baltic” (1809), lines 17–18.
4. The British government had “invited” Piedmont “to consent to the principle of general disarmament … previously to the meeting of the Congress and simultaneously with the disarming of Austria” (The Times, 21 April 1859, p. 9). But, apart from a few minor concessions, Turin declined the invitation: “If Sardinia [Piedmont] had been admitted to the Congress on the footing of the great Powers, she might have accepted, as France has done, the principle of general disarmament … Her exclusion from the Congress does not permit her to take such an engagement, and still less that which England asks of her” (p. 9).
6. “Peace and merriment.”
7. “This gentle and civil people.”
8. “Suppressed.”
9. “Not too English.”
11. “The Empire is Peace.”
12. Giammartino Arconati Visconti (1839–76), only surviving son of Marchese Giuseppe Arconati Visconti (1797–1873) and his wife, Costanza (née Trotti Bentivoglio, 1800–71), daughter of Lorenzo Trotti Bentivoglio, Marchese di Milan. Mme. Arconati was an elder sister of Margherita Provana (1811–67), Contessa di Collegno.
13. The Daily News also questioned the actions of Peter Campbell Scarlett (1804–81), British Minister at Florence (1858–60), in light of England’s professed neutrality: “Does not Mr. Scarlett, in Florence, cling to that wretched puppet of a Grand Duke, advise him to take shelter at Elbe, promise there the protection of the English fleet, and the means, in one word, of stirring up a civil war amongst an unanimous people? Is that neutrality? Is that fair play?” (3 May 1859, p. 5). On the night of the day Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany was deposed, 27 April 1859, Scarlett sent a dispatch to the foreign secretary, the Earl of Malmesbury, explaining that he had been summoned in the morning by the Grand Duke to attend a meeting of his cabinet and the diplomatic corps at the Pitti Palace. There, the spokesman for the revolution, Marquis Laiatico, asked Leopold to abdicate in favor of his son. The Grand Duke refused and “stated that his determination was fixed on that point; that he had made up his mind to retire from Tuscany immediately with all his family; and that he should throw himself for his justification and protection upon all the Powers of Europe. Before the meeting terminated, I proposed that the whole Diplomatic Body should protest against the alleged necessity of the Grand Duke’s abdication, and endeavour to change or modify the resolution of the parties pressing His Imperial Highness to abdicate. No one seconded this attempt. … Several members of the Diplomatic Body went to see the Grand Duke depart. But, disapproving as I do, of this very sudden retreat, and being certain that in placing himself thus at once in Austrian hands, the Grand Duke compromises the principle of neutrality, and endangers the future interests of the dynasty he represents, I refrained from appearing to sanction this step by my presence” (The Earl of Malmesbury, Official Correspondence on the Italian Question, 1859, pp. 478–479).
15. See SD2259.
17. “Saturday” was interpolated above the line after EBB finished this letter.
18. The Storys’ dinner occurred on Thursday evening, the day before “yesterday” (see the last paragraph in letter 4405).
19. Henry Reeve (1813–95), editor of The Edinburgh Review (1855–95), had previously spent fifteen years on the staff of The Times as a leader writer and correspondent, but “he continued to contribute letters … under the pseudonym Senex” (ODNB). His most recent letter in the issue of 28 April 1859 (p. 7) criticized France’s Italian policy, while placing Austria’s in the best possible light. EBB was misinformed about Reeve’s “Austrian wife.” In 1851 he married secondly Christina Georgina Jane (1820–1906), daughter of George Tilly Gollop, of Strode House, Dorset, and his wife, Christina, daughter of Hubertus Vander Vliegen, of Hasselt, Belgium. Reeve visited Rome from 15 October to 6 November the year before. While there, he saw (among others) “the Motleys, Storeys, and Westons,” as well as Nathaniel Hawthorne (Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, ed. John Knox Laughton, 2nd ed., 1898, I, 396). Reeve is listed in the Brownings’ address book of this period (AB-4) at 62 Rutland Gate, Hyde Park.
20. The Macphersons had two children at this time. The eldest child, William (“Guglielmo”) Hamilton was born 6 May 1853. We have been unable to trace the birthday of the second child, Joseph (“Giuseppe”), born in 1855.
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