4481. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 278–281.
[Siena]
[1 September 1859] [1]
Ever dearest kindest Isa, your letter is three times welcome as usual. Write, write, write. Dear, lest I forget it, Lytton’s joke about the peace is as great a plagiarism as ever were his verses. [2] Lord Brougham said it, [3] & we have heard it repeated again & again, .. and so has Lytton, be certain. When I heard it first, I was sorry that Lord Brougham was cynical enough (considering the part he took about the war) to make such a witticism upon the peace. It is not necessary that people who could not for their lives understand the war, should expect to understand the peace any better [4] —only we who understood the one, understand perfectly how Lord Brougham, & such as Lord Brougham, provided the cause for the other. We understand also that a man who begins by blaspheming against the rights of humanity in serious speech, should end by carrying up the irreverence a little higher for the sake of a jest.
Isa, there’s an extraordinary article in the Times, for which I would fain know the grounds. (Not that there are necessarily any grounds for an article in the Times.) It is stated that a letter was read (by grace of prince Poniatowsky) before the national assembly, from the so-called Grand Duke, to the effect that if he should be accepted by Tuscany, free consti[tu]tion & all, Venetia should be separated from Austria politically, & Italianized absolutely &c &c,—& that the assembly with unanimity rejected this proposition– [5] That some such proposal is afloat I can believe, because it is referred to in an admirable article of the Siecle which of course you saw, [6] but that it should have been submitted to the Tuscan Assembly I cant believe. It seems to me that Poniatowsky’s mission took place after the prorogation of the Assembly. [7] Try to ascertain for me. If there was a rejection, the rejectors were probably entirely & heroically right—but I should have felt it very hard, had I been one of them, to have to reject such a proposal for poor unhappy Venetia, even if the Devil himself were to be my Grand Duke as a condition. Still, they were right & strong if they did it. Did they do it? Find out for me–
But it’s remarkable that such propositions should be in the air. And, from the Siecle’s statement, they must be in the air. Austria must hold Venetia with a hand broken at the wrist, I conclude– What do you think?
My expectation is that either Russia or Prussia, and not improbably Prussia, will propose a Congress very soon. Perhaps Prussia—to avoid the appearance of Russia’s being always the Congress-caller.
The more I think of Napoleon the larger the man grows to me. I may be thoroughly wrong, of course– And really Isa, I do make such gross mistakes in society, & a little humbug goes such a frightful way with me, that I get to be humble & to learn that my proper use in life is to be “taken in & done for.” [8]
Only Napoleon is rather a subject than an object– He does not come before me in flesh & blood to humbug me. I see & feel him intellectually–
His reasons for the peace he knew better than any of us. Some of them I think I discern plainly, & for others I can trust him. That he wishes well to Austria as long as Austria can be induced to mean well to the world, I believe,—& that he was in earnest when he said that he strove only against principles– He will never help Austria in defiance of a right principle– Of that I have the conviction.
It has been lied of him that he wears a cuirass– [9] Certainly he wears one mentally. So much heroic indifference & calm under the attacks & calumnies of friends & foes, remain unequalled among public men.
Pray observe the address of Count de Morney—at the Council General. Read it, .. in respect to England. [10]
Napoleon’s object in respect to Italy has always been, from the time the war began, as we knew in Rome, to call a Congress– He desires the work to be ostensibly done by a Congress,—which proves his freedom from all small jealousies, national or personal. He has made it ready for the dirty hands of the different nations (shall I say “the Devil take them”? I feel inclined to respond to Theodosia’s affecting cry .. “England, God bless her”) [11] —and they’ll make their cross + at the end of Paradise Regained, and consider they are great poets & John Milton is nobody.
Give my love to “Kate” & thank her for the kind note, & for her excellent phrase, “Comprehensive Democrat”. Where did she get it?
How glad we shall be, to have you both here. And I’m told to call ‘Miss Field’ Kate, Isa. I’ve grown to be more intimate with her than you are! Which makes me proud,—I say to you privately.
Robert has had the most grateful letters from Landor’s family in England, promising to supply the “means,” & leaving everything to him … Robert, I mean. The old lion is very tame & mild at present, and Wilson is collecting courage to undertake him. It will be an advantage to her of course, in a pecuniary point of view—and a gentle attentive person will not excite the “terrors of the law” [12] .. of his nature. He dined here for the first time yesterday. I thought it seemed unkind not to ask him—though I was not at table. I am weak still, my Isa—but stronger– Yes, stronger; & meaning to get out of it all soon, in order to rush into your arms– And we are delighted that “Kate” is coming– Mind you tell her .. with our united love– Robert has just had a letter from Odo Russell—from Florence—in despair, he says, at finding nobody at Casa Guidi,—and proposing to come here for a few hours on his way to Rome “to take care of the pope”– Robert replied by offering him a bed in this house—could scarcely do otherwise—but Mr Story, on hearing of it, wrote to propose a visit to himself rather, on the ground of my not being quite well, .. so I dare say he will go to the Storys. Then shall we hear news “in the English sense.” I am getting ready my temper, Isa—& I dare say that no degree of preparation, or amount of “expense for the national defences,” [13] will be superfluous in the end.
The Storys are really very kind to us all– Let me say that.
Oh—if you can fall on Mr Kirkup, fall on him, & get him to tell you his late proofs, pure proofs, of the spiritual manifestations– He has written two letters to us—and the evidence seems perfect. Robert has nothing to object; only of course he believes no more than he would do if he had everything.
You have heard me speak of my friend Jane Sandford. It was her father whose sudden death at Meurice’s Hotel, was mentioned by Galignani– [14] I had a mournful letter from her today.
Pilade is much better again.
Now I shall write no more. I wont call you “kind” my very dearest Isa, because so many can be kind—but I love you for your dear & true love– Thank you for all, dearest Isa– And now write the Chronique Scandaleuse to Robert, because he loves you too, he says. And Peni’s love—through this of
your loving
Ba–
Publication: B-IB, pp. 237–241.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Date provided by EBB’s remark that Landor “dined here for the first time yesterday.” See the last paragraph of letter 4480.
2. See EBB’s comment near the end of letter 4358 regarding Lytton’s “too acute remembrances (besides certain English influences) of Heine & Musset” in The Wanderer (1859).
3. We have been unable to trace Lord Brougham’s “joke about the peace” of Villafranca.
4. Lord Brougham’s speeches in the House of Lords reflect a distrust of Piedmont’s motives in going to war. On 7 June 1859 he referred to the war as “those hostilities which had been so wickedly undertaken without a shadow of pretence, or … under a false pretence, which made the crime still more odious—the false pretence of favouring the cause of Italian liberty and national independence. … To this, the greatest of all crimes, that of raising a useless war, involving pillage, fraud, arson, and murder, he (Lord Brougham) would apply the question of Cassius—Who was to profit by it? One party there must be who would gain by it. Who was that Party? Sardinia [Piedmont].” (The Daily News, 8 June 1859, p. 3). Brougham went on to say that the Italian states would be trading one master, Austria, for another, Piedmont. On 15 July, Brougham reiterated his condemnation of the war and added: “As we happily had had no hand in the war, so happily we had had no hand in the peace, and he [Lord Brougham] congratulated the government on being wholly irresponsible for the terms of the extraordinary arrangement which was now in progress” (The Daily News, 16 July 1859, p. 2).
5. On 23 August 1859, The Times announced that Prince Poniatowski arrived in Florence on the 17th, bearing two letters, one from the Grand Duke abdicating “in favour of his son, and another from the same son, Ferdinand,” which was reported as follows: “If the Tuscans be willing to bend their stiff necks to the yoke, Austria, the would-be Grand Duke assures them, will appoint one of her myriad of Archdukes to govern the ancient state of the Doge on a completely independent footing. She will sever Venetia from all political and even military connexion with her empire, so that, with the exception of the Prince, Venice shall be as national and Italian as Piedmont herself, and shall unite her interests wholly and exclusively with those of the Italian Confederacy, of which she will become a bonâfide member” (p. 8).
6. A reference to the article by Louis Jourdan in Le Siècle for 22 August 1859, entitled “Un Bon Conseil,” which reported an offer made to Parma, Modena, and Florence that in exchange for allowing the return of “their former masters”—that is, scions of the House of Hapsburg-Lorraine—Venetia would be granted a semi-autonomy, and Mantua and Peschiera would be restored to Lombardy (p. 1).
7. On 20 August.
8. Perhaps a veiled reference to EBB’s growing estrangement from Mrs. Eckley.
9. In 1839, Louis Napoleon competed in the famous mock medieval tournament held at Eglinton Castle. His costume consisted of “a highly polished steel cuirass, over a leather jacket, trimmed with crimson satin; a steel-vizored helmet, with a high plume of white feathers; white silk hose and russet boots” (Blanchard Jerrold, The Life of Napoleon III, 4 vols., 1875, 2, 115). “This game of heroes and heroines was precious to the wicked tongues of the boulevards, and it was food to anti-Bonapartist writers long after the frolic was ended … even when Prince Louis had become emperor his biographers thought it necessary to explain and defend, or at any rate to excuse, his participation” (p. 116).
10. The Comte de Morny (see letter 4022, note 2) was at this time president of the council general of the Puy-de-Dôme department. An account of his speech in Galignani’s Messenger for 27 August 1859 included the following: “Time and the determination of the Emperor to lead France into the occupations and labours of peace will, I doubt not, triumph over chimerical fears! That, gentlemen, is the sort of war which we must wage with England … let us reduce the cost price of all raw materials and of all our manufactured articles; let us imitate the English in what we are deficient in; let us gain strength from the spirit of association without continually requiring the support of the Government. … Yes, let us make on England a manufacturing and commercial war” (p. 3)
12. Jeremy Taylor, Unum Necessarium: or, the Doctrine and Practice of Repentance (1705), Sect. 4, paragraphs 4 and 6.
13. Cf. EBB, “A Tale of Villafranca” (Poems Before Congress, 1860), lines 49–50.
14. William Robert Wills-Sandford died at Paris on 14 August 1859 at the age of 80. His death was reported in Galignani’s Messenger on 17 August 1859: “An English gentleman of advanced age, named Sandford, was suddenly seized on Friday last whilst at the table d’hôte at Meurice’s with an attack of paralysis and apoplexy. He was previously in good health, and was engaged in a cheerful conversation with an American gentleman, when he dropped his knife and fork and fell on the table in a state of insensibility. Dr. Shute, of the Rue Castiglione, was immediately sent for, and afterwards Dr. Forbes Winslow, of London, a physician of well known reputation for the treatment of diseases of the brain, who happened to be in Paris, was summoned to a consultation. Dr. Winslow considered the case to be a hopeless one, and Mr. Sandford died early on Sunday morning, never having rallied. Unfortunately, he had no relatives or friends with him at the hotel, and he was travelling alone with a courier. Several telegrams were immediately sent to England; but his family did not arrive in Paris until some hours after his death” (p. 3).
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