SD1554. Mary Russell Mitford to Jane Ouvry
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 359–360 (in part).
[Swallowfield]
[early March 1852]
Your letter is one of those that will be answered dearest Mrs Ouvry– Ah how I wish we were sitting together over the fire here or at Wing Vicarage so as not to need the slower process of writing our talk!—but as we cannot have one sort of chat we must be content with the other.– First let me ask you not to tell Mr Kenyon if you see him that I sent you Mrs Browning’s letter. She might hear it—& she is so sensitive sometimes that it might stop the spring which I would regret much– Yes I’ll send you more of her letters & now you shall have a bit of her last– She is a most charming person very like those letters in a general way but with fits of morbid sentiment between whiles—still a most dear & most charming creature– She told me in her last letter but one that Louis Napoleon was told by a black woman at Ham that he should rule over France—should make her great & happy—should pacify Europe—& then die of a pistol shot in a ball room– This the person (a friend of the Prince-President) who told Mrs Browning said he firmly believed—being like most imaginative persons a thorough fatalist– In her last she said that the confiscation of the Orleans property was advised by M. de Cormenin—Timon you know, by far the most brilliant of French political writers– Of course you have read his “Orateurs”– She also says “a very philosophically minded man (French) was talking of these things the other day—one of the most thoughtful liberal men I ever knew & much more anglomane than I am—also let me add high & pure in his moral views– He was talking of the English press. He said he did it justice for good & noble intentions (more than I do) but marvelled at its extraordinary ignorance. Those writers do not know the ABC of France. Then as to Louis Napoleon whether he was right or wrong they erred in supposing him not to be in earnest in his constitution & other remedies for France—he not only is sincere he is fanatical”– So far Mrs Browning. I agree with you & not with her about the people in whom I have no faith– …
Publication: Chorley , II, 157–160 (in part).
Manuscript: Reading Central Library.
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