4551. RB to Reuben Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 90–92.
Rome, Via del Tritone 28.
Dec. 18. ’59.
My dear Reuben,
I take particular shame to myself for having kept silence so long, while I have had so many proofs of your kind remembrance of me in the shape of newspapers & the pamphlets [1] forwarded by your friend. I mean to distribute these last among the financiers of my acquaintance, or, as these are not numerous, among those at least interested in such subjects as you treat of so cleverly: I have read your work with attention and cannot see how your positions are to be controverted: pray go on & complete your design: I dare say somebody else will reap the main benefit of your labours, but it will certainly be for the benefit of us all if taxation is eventually established on the rational basis you point out. The political letters, too, are capitally written and likely to do good. [2] I am really glad that you don’t allow your talents to rust—and you evidently gain facility & confidence as you get on. It would be useless to address any papers to me here—they are stopped at the post: I get a literary journal thro’ Mr Russell, our diplomatic agent, also a Tuscan journal, not otherwise allowed entry. [3]
I believe you know my wife was dangerously ill in the summer—that we went to Siena for change of air, & that she recovered—but it was judged advisable that she should return to Rome for the winter—as she always derives benefit from that place of sojourn: we accordingly made the effort & accomplished the six days journey (by Perugia—we both of us hate the sea) and arrived prosperously: nobody is here (last season being a very full one)—lodgings are at half price, and we have a particularly comfortable & sunny one,—she is therefore doing very well. We were both of us talking over your long & un[in]terrupted kindness to us, this morning, as I was mentioning the necessity of writing about that letter of Boddingtons: [4] but she can be no judge of the gratitude I owe you for so much done for me in those old days. I do not talk much about it but I remember it all, & shall not easily forget it. I enclose the authorization of my wife to receive the ship-money: you have already that of Mr Chorley, on which you acted last year—and I have added a word begging Messrs Boddington will put us to no fresh trouble in the matter, by waiting till we receive an answer from Sir Joseph Arnould, who has just lost his wife [5] and is described to me in a letter which arrived with yours, as “quite crushed by his loss”—I am just going to write to him—but should be sorry to have to mix up my own money matters with his grief. The legal scruples seem the more extraordinary that for the last thirteen years the money has been regularly paid to my wife without the intervention of either of the trustees, merely on the personal authority of Mr Kenyon who happened to be known to Messrs Boddington—he having no more right to supersede theirs than you, I suppose—not even my wife’s warrant, if it comes to that: and during those thirteen years reference to the two trustees would have been easy enough. Should they require it, Mr Chorley will give a fresh warrant—but I hoped he had done it once for all. When they pay the money, have the goodness to take the Jan. Bank Div. to send Sarianna £25, and to apprise me of what remains to my credit after that deduction & I will then draw for the amount.
Sarianna tells me you have invested the money accruing to her thro’ dear, kind Pritchard’s generosity [6] in a very satisfactoury [sic] way—& it appears so, by what she tells me. Our Tuscans pay their half yearly divs—six weeks in advance—four weeks, on payment of ⅛% discount,—the last two, gratis! They are at 52. and rising.
Pen is very well—has got a pretty poney, quite safe, which I bought in Siena, for some £6.5s We brought him with us, accompanying the carriage at the rate of 30 or 40 miles a day for six days. Pen rides capitally—I wish you could see him. How are your own fine flock, whose great chubby faces I have not forgotten? How is Mrs Browning? [7] Kind regards from my wife to her & you—with which please associate my own. Best remembrances also to William & his family. [8] How did they find my father & sister? I heard of their visit to Paris the other day.
Ever yours affectionately
R Browning.
They paid Mr Kenyon for us ten years running—the year before his death they paid it on our simple receipt—(why not do the same now?) Pray try & induce them to listen to common sense. You can put a seal on my wife’s note, if you like.
Address: Angleterre. / Reuben Browning Esq / Messrs N. M. Rothschild & Sons / New Court, St Swithin’s Lane, / London.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Copies of The Finances of Great Britain Considered. Comprising an Examination of the Property and Income Tax, and Succession Duty Act of 1853 (1859) by Reuben Browning. Published by Richardson Brothers, this pamphlet was the first of two parts, the second being issued the following year.
2. Signed “Brutus Britannicus,” Reuben’s letters appeared in The Daily Telegraph on 13 September, 6 October, 2 November, and 26 November 1859. In the last, he upbraided The Times for its condemnation of a speech by John Bright, M.P., regarding the inequities of the British tax system. These and further contributions to the Telegraph were collected in Letters on Financial Subjects (1866), also published under Reuben’s pseudonym.
3. The Athenæum and Monitore Toscano.
4. Messrs. Boddington & Co., St. Helen’s Place, London, were West Indies merchants and longtime business associates of the Barretts and Moulton-Barretts.
7. Margaret Browning (née Lewis, 1820–81); see letter 3880, note 2.
8. William Shergold Browning (1797–1874), Reuben’s elder brother.
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