SD1723. Elizabeth Clementine Kinney to Sarah Dodge
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 365 (in part).
Casa Del Bello, Florence
March 15 /54
My dearly beloved Mother:
Your letter of Feby 3d complains of hearing nothing from me, & yet, it seems as if I had done most of the letter-writing between us, since I have been in Florence. …
When I tell you that there are three Protestant churches in Florence, & that one has all possible religious liberty here, except that of meddling with the established faith & worship of the natives, you will believe that the accounts are shamefully exaggerated. Such as have been imprisoned, have transgressed the laws by circulating Bibles etc. among the people, or trying to draw them from their own to Protestant worship. I could not but smile at your fear for us. I assure you we do not mean to get into prison—we have been long enough in diplomatic imprisonment, & are here, on the contrary, free as birds let out of a cage. If you will read a letter which I sent to the Daily last week, you will see how little, even, of political intolerance exists here in reality, by my reference to Mrs Browning—who would be in danger, if any foreigner was, from the license she has given her pen against the Grand Duke & the government. That the people of the country are slaves, and tyrant-bound, is true enough; but the English & Americans here, are treated with obsequious reverence & have the largest liberty. …
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Columbia University.
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