4808. EBB to Julia Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 269–272.
Rome. 126 Via Felice.
Friday– [11–15 January 1861] [1]
I have not had courage to write, my dearest friend, but you will not have been severe on me. I have suffered very much—from suspence as well as from certainty– If I could open my heart to you, it would please me that your sympathy should see all—but I cant write, and I could’nt speak of that– It is well for those who in their griefs can speak & write—I never could.
But to you after all it is not needful– You understand & have understood.
My husband has been very good to me & saved me all he could, so that I have had solitude & quiet, & time to get into the ruts of the world again where one has to wheel on till the road ends– In this respect it has been an advantage being at Rome rather than Florence– Now I can read—& have seen a few faces. One must live—& the only way is to look away from oneself into the larger & higher circle of life in which the merely personal grief or joy dwarfs itself–
For the rest even I ought to have comfort, I know– I believe that love in its most human relations is an eternal thing– I do believe it—only through inconsistency & much weakness I falter–
Also there are other beliefs with me with regard to the spiritual world & the meaning of death, which ought, if I had ordinary logic, to rescue me from what people in general suffer in circumstances like these–
Only I am weak & foolish—& when the tender past came back to me day by day, I have dropped down before it as one inconsoleable–
Dearest Mr Martin– Give him my grateful love for every kind thought—& to yourself–
Now that page is turned.
I wish I knew that you were stronger, & at Pau– It is unfortunate that just on this bitter winter, you have been unable to get away from England.
Here, though there was snow once, we have fared mildly as to climate– And our rooms are very warm. Penini has his poney & rides, & studies with his Abbé—& looks very rosy & well. I help him to prepare his lessons—but that is all .. except hearing him read a little German now & then—and Robert sees to the music, & the getting up of the arithmetic. For the first time I have had pain in looking into his face lately—which you will understand–
I saw a man from Naples two days since, [2] an Englishman of intelligence & impartiality who has resided there for months in the heart of the politics– He told me that the exaggeration of evils was great– Evils there were certainly—& no government succeeding Garibaldi’s could have satisfied a public trained to expect the impossible– Our poor Garibaldi, hero as he is, & an honest hero, is in truth the weakest & most malleable of men—&, had become at last the mere mouth-piece of the Mazzinians. If the Bourbon’s fall had not been a little delayed, north & south Italy would have broken in two– So I was assured by my friend—who gave reasons & showed facts.
That the Neapolitans are not equal to the other Italians is too plain; & if corrupt governments did not corrupt the government they would be less hateful to all of us, of course. But a little time will give smoothness to the affairs of Italy, & none of my old hopes are in the meanwhile disturbed–
The design as to Rome seems to be to starve out the pope by the financial question,—to let the rotten fruit fall at last as much by its own fault as possible, & by the gentlest shake of the tree. I hear of those who doubted most in the Emperor’s designs beginning to confess that he cant mean ill by Italy.
Possibly you & dear Mr Martin think more just now of America than of this country—which I can understand. The crisis has come earlier than anyone expected. It is a crisis—and if the north accepts such a compromise as has been proposed, [3] the nation perishes morally, which would be sadder than the mere dissolution of States, however sad– It is the difference between the death of the soul & of the body.
There might & ought to be a pecuniary compromise—but a compromise of principle would be fatal.
I am anxious that before we go too far with the Minghetti [4] project here (separate administration of provinces) we should learn from America that a certain degree of centralization (not carried out too far) is necessary to a strong & vital government. And Italy will want a strong government for some years to come. There is much talk of war in the spring, & if Austria will not cede Venetia war must be—even if she should satisfy her other provinces which she will probably fail to do–
I hear often from my dear Arabel who would have been at work long ago she says, except for the severe weather which shuts her up– It is bad news that Storm should lean to returning to Jamaica, on account, I fear, of certain domestic vexations & discomforts which he ought not to have to suffer– But my pretty sister in law is difficult: too much an Undine before the transformation. [5]
This is a dull letter, but you will pardon it & me–
I know all your goodness & sympathy– Do not think that I think that any bond is broken, or that anything is lost– We have been fed on the hillside—& now there are twelve baskets full of fragments remaining– [6]
May God bless you & love you both–
Your ever affectionate & grateful
Ba.
I shall direct this to Colwall lest you should have left Bournemouth.
Publication: LEBB, II, 415–417 (in part, as [ca. December 1860]).
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Inclusive dating based on EBB’s reference to seeing “a man from Naples [i.e., Edward Dicey] two days since.” As indicated in letter 4809, Dicey visited EBB on 13 January.
2. Edward Dicey, as identified in letter 4809.
3. EBB refers to what became known as the Crittenden Compromise, proposed to the Senate on 18 December 1860 by John J. Crittenden (1787–1863), U.S. Senator from Kentucky, in order to preserve the Union (and with it, slavery). The proposal contained six resolutions, among which were: “1) The Missouri Compromise line of 36°30′ would be reestablished and extended to the Pacific. Slavery would be permitted south of this line in all states and territories thereafter acquired, but citizens of future states would decide whether they were to be free or slave states when they were admitted to the Union. 2) Slavery on public lands in the South was not to be prohibited by Congress. … 4) Congress could not interfere with interstate transportation of slaves. … 6) No future statutes would render these provisions null and void” (The Kentucky Encyclopedia, ed. John E. Kleber, Lexington, Kentucky, 1992, p. 241). The proposal was voted down in committee, but Crittenden “introduced his compromise to the Senate as a whole. In a very close vote, 25–23, Crittenden was again defeated on January 16, ending any hope of settlement short of war” (p. 241).
4. Marco Minghetti (1818–86), Italian statesman and scholar, was twice prime minister of Italy, 1863–64 and 1873–74. At this time he was minister of the interior. Minghetti, a political moderate, opposed centralization and advocated regional autonomy. The Daily News of 8 December 1860 carried a report from its Turin correspondent that discussed Minghetti’s “project,” which consisted of “a new and general system of laws for regulating the communes and country districts, also the regions which the state is to be divided into” (p. 5). The correspondent argued against autonomy in light of the major differences “between the civilization of Southern Italy and of the rest of Italy. If the government keeps in its own hands all the administrative reins, these differences may be got over, but if it hands over those reins to populations badly governed … it can only prolong disorder” (p. 5). Minghetti’s plan was rejected in favor of strong centralization.
5. i.e., before she acquires a soul; see letter 4100, note 9.
6. Cf. Matthew 14:20.
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